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DICTIONARY  OF 
AMERICAN  BIOGRAPHY 


PUBLISHED  UNDER  THE  AUSPICES  OF 


AMERICAN  COUNCIL  OF  LEARNED  SOCIETIES 


AMERICAN   PHILOSOPHICAL  SOCIETY,  Philadelphia,  Pennsylvania 

AMERICAN  ACADEMY  OF  ARTS  AND  SCIENCES,  Cambridge,  Massachusetts 

AMERICAN  ANTIQUARIAN  SOCIETY,  Worcester,  Massachusetts 

AMERICAN   ORIENTAL  SOCIETY,   New  Haven,  Connecticut 

AMERICAN   NUMISMATIC  SOCIETY,   New  York,  New  York 

AMERICAN  PHILOLOGICAL  ASSOCIATION,  Swarthmore,  Pennsylvania 

ARCHAEOLOGICAL  INSTITUTE  OF  AMERICA,  New  York,  New  York 

SOCIETY  OF  BIBLICAL  LITERATURE  AND  EXEGESIS,  Haverford,  Pennsylvania 

MODERN  LANGUAGE  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA,  New  York,  New  York 

AMERICAN   HISTORICAL  ASSOCIATION,  Washington,  District  of  Columbia 

AMERICAN  ECONOMIC  ASSOCIATION,  Evanston,  Illinois 

AMERICAN  PHILOSOPHICAL  ASSOCIATION,  Middletown,  Connecticut 

AMERICAN  ANTHROPOLOGICAL  ASSOCIATION,  Chicago,  Illinois 

AMERICAN  POLITICAL  SCIENCE  ASSOCIATION,  Evanston,  Illinois 

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  SOCIETY  OF  AMERICA,  Albany,  New  York 

ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICAN  GEOGRAPHERS,  Minneapolis,  Minnesota 

AMERICAN  SOCIOLOGICAL  SOCIETY,  Washington,   District  of  Columbia 

AMERICAN   SOCIETY  OF  INTERNATIONAL  LAW,  Washington,   District  of  Columbia 

COLLEGE  ART  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA,  New  York,  New  York 

HISTORY  OF  SCIENCE  SOCIETY,  South   Hadley,  Massachusetts 

LINGUISTIC  SOCIETY  OF  AMERICA,  Washington,   District  of   Columbia 

MEDIAEVAL  ACADEMY  OF  AMERICA,  Cambridge,  Massachusetts 

POPULATION  ASSOCIATION  OF  AMERICA,  Washington,   District  of  Columbia 


v-~'  ''""  - „.„_,-- 


DICTIONARY   OF 


American  Biography 


Edited  by  Dumas  Malone 


Werden  -  Zunser 


Charles  Scribner's  Sons 

NEW  YORK 


Prompted  solely  by  a  desire  for  public  service  the  New  York  Times  Company  and  its 
President,  Mr.  Adolph  S.  Ochs,  made  possible  the  preparation  of  the  manuscript 
of  the  Dictionary  of  American  Biography  through  a  subvention  of  more  than  $500,000 
and  with  the  understanding  that  the  entire  responsibility  for  the  contents  of  the  vol- 
umes rests  with  the  American  Council  of  Learned  Societies. 


Copyright,  1936,  by 
AMERICAN   COUNCIL   OF    LEARNED   SOCIETIES 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


The  Dictionary  of  American  Biography  is  published  under  the  auspices  of  the  American 
Council  of  Learned  Societies  and  under  the  direction  of  a  Committee  of  Management 
which  consists  of  J.  Franklin  Jameson,  Chairman,  John  H.  Finley,  Dumas  Malone, 
Frederic  L.  Paxson,  Iphigene  Ochs  Sulzberger,  Carl  Van  Doren,  Charles  Warren. 

The  editorial  staff  consists  of  Dumas  Malone,  Editor;  Harris  E.  Starr,  Associate  Editor; 

George  H.  Genzmer,  Eleanor  R.  Dobson,  Mildred  B.  Palmer, 

Assistant  Editors. 

The  American  Council  of  Learned  Societies  consists  of  the  following  societies: 


American  Philosophical  Society 
American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences 
American  Antiquarian  Society 
American  Oriental  Society 
American  Philological  Association 
Archaeological  Institute  of  America 
Society  of  Biblical  Literature  and  Exegesis 
Modern  Language  Association  of  America 
American  Historical  Association 


American  Economic  Association 
American  Philosophical  Association 
American  Anthropological  Association 
American  Political  Science  Association 
Bibliographical  Society  of  America 
American  Sociological  Society 
History  of  Science  Society 
Linguistic  Society  of  America 
Mediaeval  Academy  of  America 


BRIEF    ACCOUNT    OF    THE    ENTERPRISE 


The  appearance  of  this  volume  marks  the  completion  of  the  original  edition  of  the 
Dictionary  of  American  Biography.  Those  who  have  been  closely  identified  with  it, 
wearied  by  their  long  and  arduous  task  and  still  incapable  of  viewing  it  in  proper  per- 
spective, are  content  to  let  the  work  speak  for  itself.  Full  statistics  have  not  yet  been 
compiled  and  many  of  the  questions  that  may  be  asked  cannot  yet  be  answered.  It  has 
seemed  appropriate,  however,  to  publish  at  this  time  a  brief  history  of  the  enterprise 
from  the  first  formulation  of  plans,  with  some  account  of  the  activities  that  have  been 
carried  on  and  mention  of  some  of  the  many  persons  who  have  been  engaged  in  them.  In 
preparing  this,  the  chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Management  and  the  editor  have 
collaborated. 

I 

The  publication  of  the  British  Dictionary  of  National  Biography  (i  885-1 900)  aroused 
in  the  minds  of  many  Americans  a  desire  that  their  own  country  should  have  a  bio- 
graphical dictionary  of  similar  fullness  and  if  possible  of  similar  quality,  prepared  with 
an  amount  of  scholarly  labor  not  to  be  expected  in  the  case  of  any  book  of  reference  whose 
total  costs  must  not  exceed  the  expected  revenue  from  sales.  No  one  of  the  existing 
scholarly  organizations,  however,  felt  that  the  task  of  compiling  such  a  work  was  pe- 
culiarly incumbent  upon  it,  and  no  one  of  them  could  command  the  necessary  resources. 
In  1 91 9,  fortunately,  plans  were  formed  for  a  federation  of  such  societies,  and  soon  there- 
after the  American  Council  of  Learned  Societies  Devoted  to  Humanistic  Studies  came  into 
existence.  At  its  first  meeting,  on  Feb.  14,  1920,  Professor  Frederick  J.  Turner  pro- 
posed that  the  Council  should  consider  the  possibility  of  undertaking  the  preparation 
of  a  cyclopedia  of  American  biography.  At  the  next  annual  meeting,  in  February  1921, 
he  repeated  the  proposal,  and  it  was  resolved  that  a  committee  should  be  appointed  to 
prepare  a  report  on  the  subject.  The  Council  had  not  then  the  means  for  rapid  action, 
but  in  January  1922  the  committee  was  appointed.  Its  members  were  Dr.  J.  Franklin 
Jameson,  chairman,  then  connected  with  the  Carnegie  Institution  of  Washington,  Pro- 
fessor Turner  of  Harvard  University,  Professors  John  Erskine  of  Columbia  University, 
Thomas  Walker  Page  of  the  University  of  Virginia,  chairman  of  the  United  States  Tariff 
Commission,  Frederic  L.  Paxson  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin,  and  Dr.  Robert  S. 
Woodward,  who  had  lately  retired  from  the  presidency  of  the  Carnegie  Institution; 
before  the  committee  was  able  to  begin  action,  however,  Dr.  Woodward  fell  into  an  ill- 
ness from  which  he  never  recovered,  and  the  committee  did  not  have  the  benefit  of  his 
wide  knowledge  of  the  history  of  American  science  and  scientists. 

It  is  now  somewhat  amusing  to  recall  that  the  committee  at  first  found  a  solid  ob- 
stacle to  its  deliberations  in  the  fact  that  the  treasury  of  the  Council  did  not  contain  the 
$500  necessary  to  defray  the  traveling  expenses  of  the  members  of  the  committee  in 
attending  the  meetings  which  were  necessary  before  their  report  could  be  completed.  It 
is  proper  to  record  here,  with  gratitude,  the  names  of  the  ten  gentlemen  who,  by  equal 
contributions  to  a  fund  raised  for  the  purpose,  made  possible  the  meetings  of  this  plan- 
ning committee:  Messrs.  Edward  E.  Ayer,  Albert  J.  Beveridge,  Hiram  Bingham,  Clar- 
ence M.  Burton,  Fairfax  Harrison,  William  V.  Kellen,  Dwight  W.  Morrow,  Conyers 
Read,  John  D.  Rockefeller,  Jr.,  and  Henry  D.  Sharpe. 

vii 


Brief  Account  of  the  Enterprise 

After  various  deliberations,  calculations,  and  studies,  including  studies  of  the  great 
repertories  of  national  biography  published  or  in  progress  in  other  lands,  the  committee 
made  its  report  to  the  Council  at  its  annual  meeting  in  January  1924.  It  is  not  inap- 
propriate to  quote  from  the  report  some  passages  that  show  upon  what  principles  it  was 
intended  that  the  work  should  be  conducted.    The  conclusions  were: 

"(1)  That  arrangements  with  any  publishers  should  be  deferred  until  money  for 
the  work  of  compilation  was  assured. 

"  (2)  That  the  title  should  be  Dictionary  of  American  Biography. 

"  (3)  That  the  character  of  the  compilation  should  be  kept  up  as  nearly  as  possible 
to  the  level  maintained  in  the  Dictionary  of  National  Biography;  that  the  articles  should 
be  based  as  largely  as  possible  on  original  sources;  should  be  the  product  of  fresh  work; 
should  eschew  rhetoric,  sentiment,  and  coloring  matter  generally,  yet  include  careful 
characterization;  should  be  free  from  the  influence  of  partisan,  local,  or  family  prepos- 
sessions, striving  to  the  utmost  for  impartial  and  objective  treatment;  should  study 
compression  and  terseness;  and  should  be  written  as  largely  as  possible  by  the  persons 
most  specifically  qualified,  though  the  minor  notices  should  be  prepared  'in  the  office.' 
It  was  agreed  that  references  to  sources  of  information  should  be  appended  to  the  articles. 

"  (4)  That  living  persons  should  be  excluded;  that  in  the  main  the  compilation  should 
be  confined  to  American  citizens,  or,  in  the  colonial  period,  to  those  having  a  correspond- 
ing position." 

The  plan  as  it  finally  emanated  from  the  committee  contemplated  that  about  15,000 
persons  should  be  treated,  in  twenty  volumes  of  about  15,000  pages;  that  three  volumes 
should  be  published  each  year,  so  that,  allowing  three  years  for  preliminary  prepara- 
tions, the  enterprise  should  be  completed  in  ten  years  from  the  beginning  of  actual  work; 
and  that  the  editorial  headquarters  should  be  in  Washington,  where  the  work  could 
draw  upon  the  resources  and  liberality  of  the  Library  of  Congress.  It  was  calculated 
that  the  cost  of  preparing  and  editing  the  total  manuscript,  in  the  manner  desired,  would 
be  $500,000.  At  the  completion  of  the  work  in  1936,  it  may  be  noted  that  sketches  of 
13,633  persons  have  been  published,  in  twenty  volumes  of  more  than  11,000,000  words, 
and  that  the  last  copy  was  in  the  hands  of  the  printers  ten  years  and  seven  months  from 
the  beginning  of  the  enterprise,  the  last  volume  being  published  about  two  months  later. 
The  cost  was  a  little  more  than  $650,000. 

The  labors  of  the  planning  committee  thus  concluded  in  1924,  it  fell  to  its  chair- 
man, who  happened  also  to  be  a  member  of  the  Council's  committee  on  ways  and 
means,  to  find  the  half-million.  The  assignment  seemed  formidable,  but,  by  one  man's 
generosity  and  public  spirit,  was  made  unexpectedly  easy.  On  the  suggestion  of  Pro- 
fessor Turner,  recourse  was  had  to  the  publisher  of  The  New  York  Times,  Adolph  S. 
Ochs,  a  man  always  ready  to  take  a  foremost  part  in  all  good  works.  The  chairman  in- 
voked the  good  offices  of  his  friend  Dr.  John  H.  Finley  of  The  Times,  who  declared  his 
belief  that  his  chief's  mind  was  ripe  for  the  undertaking  of  another  great  public  service, 
even  one  of  the  magnitude  contemplated.  One  not  very  long  letter  and  one  brief  inter- 
view sufficed.  Mr.  Ochs's  rapid  imagination  saw  at  once  the  importance  and  public  value 
of  the  service  proposed,  and  his  generosity  rose  at  once  to  meet  the  opportunity.  He 
immediately  agreed  that  The  New  York  Times  Company  should,  in  each  year  for  ten 
years,  advance  fifty  thousand  dollars  for  the  preparation  and  editing  of  the  Dictionary, 
exclusive  of  any  costs  of  printing  and  publication,  which  were  to  be  arranged  for  by  the 
Council  with  any  publisher  approved  by  The  Times.  Mr.  Ochs,  it  would  be  needless  to 
say  to  those  who  knew  him,  never  sought  any  control,  in  the  slightest  particular,  over 
anything  that  might  appear  in  the  Dictionary,  and  pointedly  avoided  responsibility  for 
its  contents.  It  is  impossible  not  to  lament  that  he  should  not  have  lived  to  see  the 
completion  of  an  enterprise  so  important,  we  hope,  in  the  history  of  American  letters, 
and  so  generously  supported  by  his  beneficence. 

viii 


Brief  Account  of  the  Enterprise 

On  Dec.  6,  1924,  at  a  special  meeting  of  the  American  Council  of  Learned  Societies 
held  in  the  council  room  of  The  New  York  Times,  an  agreement  under  which  the  Dic- 
tionary has  ever  since  been  conducted  was  concluded  between  the  Council  and  The  Times. 
The  agreement  provided  for  a  Committee  of  Management,  consisting  of  seven  persons, 
four  of  whom,  including  the  chairman,  should  be  appointed  by  the  Council,  and  two,  in- 
cluding the  treasurer,  by  The  Times,  while  the  seventh  should  be  the  editor,  to  be  chosen 
by  the  first  six.  It  was  provided  also  that  the  first  volume  should  be  published  within 
three  and  a  half  years  from  the  beginning  of  work,  and  that  the  royalties  received  by  the 
Council  from  the  publisher  should  be  paid  over  to  The  Times  Company  till  its  advances 
had  been  repaid.  The  Council  appointed  to  the  Committee  of  Management  Dr.  J. 
Franklin  Jameson,  chairman,  Professor  Frederic  L.  Paxson,  Carl  Van  Doren  of  the 
Century  Magazine,  and  Charles  Warren,  formerly  assistant  attorney-general  of  the  United 
States.  The  Times  appointed  Dr.  John  H.  Finley  and  Mrs.  Arthur  H.  Sulzberger  (Iphi- 
gene  Ochs  Sulzberger).  At  a  meeting  held  on  Mar.  21,  1925,  the  Committee  so  consti- 
tuted voted  that  the  editorship  of  the  Dictionary  should  be  offered  to  Professor  Allen 
Johnson  of  Yale  University,  commended  to  them  and  to  all  by  his  high  reputation  for 
scholarship  in  American  history,  his  ability  as  a  writer,  and  his  distinguished  success  in 
the  editing  of  the  Chronicles  of  America.  At  the  time  of  his  election  he  was  returning 
westward  from  the  Orient,  and  the  effort  to  correspond  with  him  and,  after  his  accept- 
ance, to  secure  his  release  from  Yale  University,  was  attended  with  so  much  delay  that 
it  was  not  until  Feb.  1,  1926,  that  his  period  of  editorship  formally  began. 

Meanwhile,  Dr.  Johnson  had  begun  those  fruitful  and  widespread  consultations,  as 
to  subjects  and  as  to  writers,  to  which  the  Dictionary  owes  so  much.  Active  interest  in 
the  new  undertaking  was  manifested  in  many  quarters,  and  much  helpfulness  encoun- 
tered. Headquarters  were  established  in  the  Hill  Building  in  Washington,  and  Dr. 
Johnson  began  work,  with  the  immediate  editorial  assistance  of  Dr.  Harris  E.  Starr. 
In  July  1927  a  contract  for  printing  and  publishing  was  signed  by  the  Committee  of 
Management  with  the  firm  of  Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  whose  helpfulness  has  run  far 
beyond  any  contractual  relations,  and  the  first  volume  of  the  long-awaited  Dictionary 
was  published  on  Nov.  8,  1928.  The  occasion  was  celebrated  by  a  dinner  on  Nov.  13 
at  the  Hotel  Roosevelt  in  New  York,  at  which  the  generosity  of  Mr.  Charles  Scribner 
enabled  the  Council  to  act  as  host  to  nearly  two  hundred  distinguished  representatives 
of  literature,  learning,  art,  and  science,  and  at  which  appropriate  honor  was  paid  to  Mr. 
Ochs.  Messages  of  congratulation  were  received  from  President  Coolidge  and  other 
eminent  Americans,  and  from  the  British  Academy,  the  Institut  de  France,  the  six 
leading  German  and  Austrian  academies,  and  the  Italian  National  Academic  Union. 
It  is  believed  that  all  who  that  evening  heard  Dr.  Johnson's  exposition  of  his  ideals  and 
policy  in  the  conduct  of  the  Dictionary  were  convinced  that  its  direction  had  fallen  into 
the  right  hands. 

Another  exposition  of  the  principles  on  which  Dr.  Johnson  conducted  his  work  is 
to  be  found  in  his  introduction  to  that  first  volume.  It  is  not  superfluous  to  quote  here 
a  paragraph  from  that  introduction  which  sets  forth  a  trait  which  any  steady  reader  of 
the  Dictionary  will  hardly  have  failed  to  observe,  the  catholicity  with  which  its  range 
has  been  extended,  beyond  the  limits  observable  in  most  European  repertories  of  the 
sort,  to  the  inclusion  of  all  the  varied  human  elements  that  have  made  this  composite 
America. 

"Earlier  collections  of  biographies  stressed,  naturally  enough,  the  lives  of  soldiers, 
statesmen,  and  clergymen  whose  conspicuousness,  aside  from  their  services,  made  them 
objects  of  interest.  Physical  science,  however,  has  increased  immeasurably  the  im- 
portance of  the  engineer,  the  technician,  and  the  chemist  in  modern  warfare;  the  new 
social  sciences  have  bred  ministering  and  administrative  agents  who  now  share  the  cure 
of  souls;  and  even  politicians  now  recognize  the  important  role  of  the  statistician  and 

ix 


Brief  Account  of  the  Enterprise 

the  economist  in  law-making.  The  modern  age  with  its  greater  complexity  and  depend- 
ence upon  new  arts  and  sciences  has  brought  into  view  less  spectacular,  and  possibly 
less  heroic,  but  certainly  not  less  significant,  figures.  Within  a  half-century,  industry, 
science,  the  fine  arts,  and  literature  have  produced  men  and  women  whose  special  sig- 
nificance is  not  indicated  by  such  traditional  designations  as  merchant,  naturalist,  art- 
ist, and  author.  The  currents  of  American  life  and  expression  have  both  widened  and 
deepened." 

Dr.  Johnson  conducted  the  enterprise  for  almost  exactly  five  years.  The  Dictionary 
is  indebted  in  the  highest  degree  to  his  devoted  labors,  his  ripe  judgment,  his  literary 
taste,  and  his  fixed  determination  that  the  highest  practicable  standards  of  accuracy, 
truthfulness,  and  just  portraiture  should  be  maintained.  His  sense  of  the  pressure  of  the 
work  upon  a  constitution  never  robust  had  caused  the  Committee  of  Management  to  as- 
sociate with  him  as  editor  on  July  15,  1929,  Professor  Dumas  Malone,  then  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Virginia.  Therefore  when,  on  the  evening  of  Jan.  18,  1931,  an  accident  in 
the  streets  of  Washington  suddenly  ended  Dr.  Johnson's  life,  it  was  possible  for  the 
work  of  the  Dictionary  to  go  on  without  interruption,  under  the  direction  of  his  junior 
colleague.  On  Feb.  2,  1931,  Dr.  Malone  was  formally  elected  sole  editor,  becoming  a 
member  of  the  Committee  of  Management,  and  the  title  of  associate  editor  was  con- 
ferred on  Dr.  Starr.  Both  have  continued  with  the  enterprise  until  its  end.  Volumes 
I — 1 1 1  were  published  under  the  editorship  of  Dr.  Johnson,  Volumes  IV-VII  under  the 
editorship  of  Dr.  Johnson  and  Dr.  Malone,  Volumes  VIII-XX  under  that  of  Dr.  Malone. 

II 

From  the  time  that  the  plans  of  the  Dictionary  were  first  outlined,  there  has  been 
continuity  in  its  policy.  The  work  of  the  editors  has  overlapped  at  so  many  points  and 
in  so  many  volumes  that  it  is  practically  indistinguishable.  However,  as  a  rough  ap- 
proximation of  the  division  of  labors,  it  may  be  pointed  out  that  up  to  July  15,  1929, 
when  the  present  editor  became  connected  with  the  enterprise,  Dr.  Johnson,  besides 
creating  a  staff  and  directing  the  fundamentally  important  task  of  compiling  the  orig- 
inal list  of  names,  had  assigned  almost  half  the  articles,  approximately  the  equivalent  of 
nine  volumes.  During  the  next  year  and  a  half  the  work  of  making  assignments  to  con- 
tributors proceeded  with  increased  momentum,  under  two  editors,  provision  being  made 
for  approximately  six  more  volumes.  Approximately  five  volumes  were  assigned  after 
Dr.  Johnson's  death. 

The  securing  of  articles  from  contributors,  which  was  properly  regarded  as  the  major 
editorial  task  during  the  first  years  of  the  enterprise,  was  accompanied  with  innumer- 
able problems  and  complexities  but  proceeded  rather  more  rapidly  than  had  been  antici- 
pated. On  the  other  hand,  the  preparation  of  these  articles  for  press  proved  consider- 
ably more  difficult  than  had  been  expected,  partly  because  of  their  diversity  and  uneven- 
ness,  and  greatly  delayed  publication.  The  system  of  checking  and  literary  editing 
that  was  instituted  by  Dr.  Johnson  was  greatly  extended  by  the  present  editor,  who  has 
borne  the  chief  responsibility  in  the  matter  of  publication. 

The  staff  of  the  Dictionary  from  the  beginning  has  been  close-knit,  with  the  great- 
est possible  centralization  of  supervision  and  responsibility,  and,  in  proportion  to  the 
size  of  the  undertaking,  has  always  been  small.  During  ten  and  a  half  years  approximately 
fifty  persons  have  been  members  of  the  organization  in  one  capacity  or  another,  but  the 
number  at  any  given  time  has  never  exceeded  fourteen  or  fifteen  all  told.  Of  the  editorial 
group,  Dr.  Harris  E.  Starr,  the  present  associate  editor,  has  served  longest.  Joining  the 
staff  on  Apr.  1,  1926,  he  shared  with  Dr.  Johnson  the  task  of  compiling  the  original  lists 
of  subjects  and  contributors,  and  rendered  invaluable  aid  in  the  work  of  assigning  ar- 
ticles and,  later,  of  preparing  manuscripts  for  press.  Furthermore,  he  has  written  more 
sketches    (342),  chiefly  of  educators  and  clergymen,  than  any  other  contributor.     A 


Brief  Account  of  the  Enterprise 

generous  share  of  credit  for  the  establishment  of  the  forms  and  usage  of  the  work  belongs 
to  Dr.  Ernest  Sutherland  Bates  (Jan.  i,  1927-July  I,  1929),  the  first  literary  editor  and 
also  the  author  of  74  articles,  chiefly  on  philosophic  and  literary  figures.  Second  only 
to  Dr.  Starr  in  the  number  of  sketches  contributed  is  George  H.  Genzmer  (335),  more 
than  seven  years  an  assistant  editor  (Aug.  I,  1927-Sept.  1,  1934),  whose  articles  on  liter- 
ary and  miscellaneous  figures  have  attracted  the  attention  of  many  reviewers.  Other 
assistant  editors  of  fairly  long  service  who  were  chiefly  writers  were  Dr.  John  D.  Wade 
(Oct.  1,  1927-July  31,  1928)  and  Frank  Monaghan  (Sept.  1,  1928-Sept.  30,  1929).  Sim- 
ilar service  was  performed  by  W.  J.  Ghent  (Feb.  1,  1927-Jan.  31,  1928)  before  the  title 
of  assistant  editor  was  formally  created. 

It  was  originally  estimated  that  approximately  one-sixth  of  the  articles  in  the 
Dictionary  would  be  written  by  members  of  the  staff,  but  the  latter  have  actually  con- 
tributed less  than  one-tenth.  Within  a  few  years  it  became  apparent  that  greater  re- 
liance than  had  been  expected  would  have  to  be  placed  on  outside  and  often  occasional 
contributors.  The  managerial  tasks  of  the  chief  editors  proved  so  exacting  that,  to  their 
great  disappointment,  their  personal  contributions,  while  not  unimportant,  have  been 
numerically  slight.  Also,  it  soon  appeared  that  the  funds  available  for  staff  purposes 
would  have  to  be  concentrated  to  a  greater  degree  on  the  preparation  of  materials  for 
press.  Accordingly,  the  number  of  writing  editors  steadily  declined  and  all  later  acces- 
sions to  the  staff  consisted  of  library  assistants  and  literary  editors.  During  most  of 
its  life  as  an  organization  the  Dictionary  has  trained  its  own  workers. 

Miss  Eleanor  R.  Dobson  (July  1,  1926  to  the  end)  has  had  more  to  do  with  the 
preparation  of  materials  for  press  than  any  other  person.  She  was  the  first  library 
assistant,  and  after  the  retirement  of  Dr.  Bates  was  placed  in  charge  of  the  literary 
editing,  bearing  the  title  of  assistant  editor  from  June  1929.  Associated  with  her  in  this 
work  were  Miss  Mildred  B.  Palmer  (July  I,  1929-N0V.30,  1934),  who  became  an  assistant 
editor  on  May  17,  1931,  and  Miss  Dorothy  Greenwald  (June  18,  1934,  to  the  end).  Dr. 
Katharine  E.  Crane  (Aug.  1,  1931,  to  the  end),  who  has  combined  checking  and  editing 
and  contributed  a  number  of  articles,  became  an  assistant  editor  on  Feb.  15,  1934.  The 
proof  for  Volumes  I,  II,  and  part  of  III,  IV,  was  read  by  H.  W.  Howard  Knott  (June 
1,  1928-Apr.  30,  1930),  who  also  contributed  a  large  number  of  articles,  chiefly  on  legal 
subjects.  Mr.  Knott,  who  was  an  assistant  editor,  died  in  September  1930  after  a  long 
illness.  The  rest  of  the  proof  for  Volumes  III,  IV,  was  read  by  several  persons,  chiefly 
Mrs.  Ethel  B.  Simonson  (Jan.  1,  1929,  to  the  end).  The  proof  of  the  sixteen  remain- 
ing volumes  was  read  by  Mrs.  Simonson,  with  practically  no  assistance. 

More  than  a  score  have  served  at  one  time  or  another  as  library  assistants,  working 
in  the  Library  of  Congress,  the  generosity  and  kindness  of  whose  officials  has  been  un- 
bounded. Those  of  longest  service  were:  Frank  E.  Ross  (July  1,  1927-June  30,  1933), 
Miss  Helen  C.  Boatfield  (July  7,  1930,  to  end),  Miss  Katherine  E.  Greenwood  (Feb.  1, 
1931,  to  end),  Miss  Louise  P.  Blodget  (Aug.  1,  1931-Feb.  29,  1936),  Mrs.  Margaret  S. 
Ermarth  (June  1,  1933,  to  end),  who  served  during  most  of  this  period  also  as  an  edi- 
torial assistant,  Miss  Eleanor  Poland  (summer  of  1932,  and  Mar.  1,  1934,  to  end),  and 
Mrs.  Catherine  P.  Mitchell  (Mar.  1,  1930-July  15,  1932).  Of  the  members  of  the  cler- 
ical staff  the  services  of  Miss  Ellen  D.  Fawcett  (Feb.  8,  1926,  to  end),  who  from  Sept. 
1,  1927,  was  executive  secretary,  have  been  most  memorable.  Many  of  these  persons 
have  written  articles,  but  their  invaluable  services  have  been  chiefly  anonymous  and 
abundantly  deserve  mention  here. 

The  cooperative  nature  of  the  Dictionary  is  nowhere  more  strikingly  revealed  than 
in  the  lists  of  contributors.  To  the  original  edition  of  the  Dictionary  of  National  Biog- 
raphy, which  contains  29,120  notices  and  27,195  substantive  articles,  653  persons  con- 
tributed. The  Dictionary  of  American  Biography  contains  13,633  articles,  less  than  half 
as  many  as  its  famous  British   predecessor,  but   its  contributors  number  2243,  more 

xi 


Brief  Account  of  the  Enterprise 

than  three  times  as  many.  So,  in  proportion  to  its  size,  the  Dictionary  of  American 
Biography  has  six  or  seven  times  as  many  contributors.  Coming  from  every  one  of  the 
states  of  the  Union  and  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  from  several  foreign  countries, 
these  include,  besides  members  of  college  and  university  faculties  and  other  technical 
scholars,  journalists,  free-lance  writers,  antiquarians,  lawyers,  physicians,  soldiers — 
representatives  or  students  of  all  the  diverse  groups  that  are  included  in  the  Dictionary 
itself.  Many  of  these  contributors  have  died  during  the  course  of  the  work  and  them- 
selves appear  as  the  subjects  of  articles.  Any  distinction  between  them  would  appear 
invidious,  but  mention  should  be  made  of  Dr.  George  P.  Merrill,  who  aided  in  the  prep- 
aration of  the  original  list  of  geologists  and  before  his  death  wrote  more  than  70 
sketches. 

Next  to  Dr.  Starr  and  Mr.  Genzmer,  Carl  W.  Mitman  of  the  Smithsonian  Institu- 
tion, United  States  National  Museum,  Washington,  has  written  the  largest  number  of 
articles  (328),  chiefly  on  inventors.  Others  who  have  contributed  more  than  100  arti- 
cles, besides  Mr.  Knott,  Mr.  Ghent,  and  Dr.  Wade,  all  members  of  the  staff  at  one  time 
or  another,  are:  Professor  Richard  J.  Purcell,  of  the  Catholic  University  of  America; 
Professor  Allan  Westcott,  of  the  United  States  Naval  Academy,  Annapolis;  William  B. 
Shaw,  formerly  of  the  Review  of  Reviews ;  William  H.  Downes,  formerly  art  critic  of 
the  Boston  Evening  Transcript ;  James  Truslow  Adams;  Lieutenant-Colonel  Thomas  M. 
Spaulding  and  Colonel  James  M.  Phalen  of  the  United  States  Army.  Approximately 
thirty  other  persons  contributed  upwards  of  fifty  articles  each.  The  number  who  have 
contributed  twenty-five  or  more  is  naturally  much  greater,  but  a  surprisingly  large  part 
of  the  work  has  been  done  by  occasional  contributors.  Some  of  these  are  mentioned 
below,  in  the  paragraphs  that  deal  with  the  longer  articles. 

Early  in  the  history  of  the  enterprise  the  original  plan  was  modified  so  that  eacn 
volume  of  the  Dictionary  should  consist  of  approximately  675  articles,  ranging  in  length 
from  500  to  10,000  words,  and  totaling  500,000  words.  The  average  of  675  articles  has 
been  maintained,  but  the  average  number  of  words  in  each  volume  has  been  more  than 
550,000,  making  a  total  of  over  11,000,000  words.  The  work  was  planned  as  a  collection 
of  biographies,  not  as  a  register  of  names,  and  it  was  thought  that  persons  about  whom 
500  words  could  not  appropriately  be  written  should  be  omitted  altogether.  While  brief 
notices  have  been  avoided,  in  practice  some  sketches,  like  many  of  those  of  Indians,  have 
fallen  below  the  minimum.  In  five  cases,  also,  the  maximum  of  10,000  has  been  consider- 
ably exceeded.  The  names  are  given  below  in  alphabetical  order,  though  the  longest  of 
the  articles  is  that  on  George  Washington  (16,500  words). 

Benjamin  Franklin,  by  Prof.  Carl  L.  Becker 
Thomas  Jefferson,  by  Dr.  Dumas  Malone 
Abraham  Lincoln,  by  Prof.  J.  G.  Randall 
George  Washington,  by  Dr.  John  C.  Fitzpatrick 
Woodrow  Wilson,  by  Prof.  Charles  Seymour 

These  have  seemed  the  Americans  requiring  most  extensive  treatment.  The  editors, 
however,  have  had  no  thought  of  estimating  greatness  on  any  strict  arithmetical  scale, 
or  of  attempting  to  establish  any  exact  order  of  eminence.  The  space  given  to  any  par- 
ticular person  reflects  in  general  the  editorial  judgment  of  his  importance,  but  many 
other  factors  have  had  to  be  reckoned  with.  Among  the  more  obvious  of  these  are  the 
length  of  any  particular  career,  the  controversies  that  have  accompanied  it,  the  amount 
of  historical  background  that  must  be  painted  in,  the  new  materials  that  have  appeared, 
and  the  conciseness  or  prolixity  of  the  author,  the  latter  of  which  the  editors  have  some- 
times been  unable  to  overcome.  Obviously  it  is  impossible  to  equate  or  compare  in  any 
arithmetical  sense  an  artist  and  a  statesman,  a  soldier  and  a  philosopher.  Even  the 
sense  of  scale,  which  has  come  to  be  second  nature  with  the  editors,  was  itself  the  result 

xii 


Brief  Account  of  the  Enterprise 

of  trial  and  error.  It  now  appears  that  the  earlier  volumes,  especially  the  first,  are 
somewhat  out  of  scale  with  the  others,  and  many  of  the  articles  in  them,  if  reconsidered, 
would  be  curtailed. 

For  these  and  other  reasons  a  list  of  major  articles  in  all  the  volumes  in  the  exact 
order  of  length  would  have  little  value.  Besides  the  five  already  mentioned,  it  seems 
sufficient  to  list  below  in  alphabetical  order  the  articles  which  run  from  approximately 
5,000  to  10,000  words. 

Charles  Francis  Adams  (i  807-1 886),  by  Worthington  C.  Ford 

Henry  Brooks  Adams,  by  Dr.  Allen  Johnson 

John  Adams,  by  Worthington  C.  Ford 

John  Quincy  Adams,  by  Worthington  C.  Ford 

Samuel  Adams,  by  Prof.  Carl  L.  Becker 

Jean  Louis  Rodolphe  Agassiz,  by  President  David  Starr  Jordan  and  Jessie 

Knight  Jordan 
Nelson  Wilmarth  Aldrich,  by  Prof.  Nathaniel  W.  Stephenson 
Benedict  Arnold,  by  Dr.  Randolph  G.  Adams 
George  Bancroft,  by  M.  A.  De Wolfe  Howe 
Henry  Ward  Beecher,  by  Dr.  Harris  E.  Starr 
James  Gillespie  Blaine,  by  Prof.  Carl  Russell  Fish 
William  Jennings  Bryan,  by  Prof.  John  Spencer  Bassett  and   Dr.  Allen 

Johnson 
William  Cullen  Bryant,  by  Prof.  Allan  Nevins 
James  Buchanan,  by  Prof.  Caii  Russell  Fish 
Aaron  Burr,  by  Prof.  Isaac  J.  Cox 
John  Caldwell  Calhoun,  by  Prof.  Ulrich  B.  Phillips 
Andrew  Carnegie,  by  Burton  J.  Hendrick 
Salmon  Portland  Chase,  by  Prof.  J.  G.  Randall 
Henry  Clay,  by  Prof.  E.  Merton  Coulter 
Samuel  Langhorne  Clemens,  by  Dr.  Carl  Van  Doren 
Stephen  Grover  Cleveland,  by  Prof.  Frederic  L.  Paxson 
James  Fenimore  Cooper,  by  Dr.  Carl  Van  Doren 
John  Singleton  Copley,  by  Frederick  W.  Coburn 
Caleb  Cushing,  by  Dr.  Claude  M.  Fuess 
Jefferson  Davis,  by  Prof.  Nathaniel  W.  Stephenson 
Stephen  Arnold  Douglas,  by  Dr.  Allen  Johnson 
Mary  Morse  Baker  Eddy,  by  Dr.  Allen  Johnson 
Jonathan  Edwards,  by  Prof.  Francis  A.  Christie 
Charles  William  Eliot,  by  Prof.  Ralph  Barton  Perry 
Ralph  Waldo  Emerson,  by  Dr.  Mark  Van  Doren 
Abraham  Alfonse  Albert  Gallatin,  by  Prof.  David  S.  Muzzey 
Elbridge  Gerry,  by  Prof.  Samuel  Eliot  Morison 
Ulysses  Simpson  Grant,  by  Lieut.-Col.  Christian  A.  Bach  and  Prof.  Frederic 

L.  Paxson 
Horace  Greeley,  by  Prof.  Allan  Nevins 
Alexander  Hamilton,  by  Prof.  Allan  Nevins 
Warren  Gamaliel  Harding,  by  Prof.  Allan  Nevins 
William  Rainey  Harper,  by  Prof.  Paul  Shorey 
Nathaniel  Hawthorne,  by  Dr.  Carl  Van  Doren 
John  Milton  Hay,  by  Prof.  A.  L.  P.  Dennis 
Patrick  Henry,  by  Prof.  William  E.  Dodd 
Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  by  M.  A.  DeWolfe  Howe 

xiii 


Brief  Account  of  the  Enterprise 

Washington  Irving,  by  Prof.  Stanley  T.  Williams 

Andrew  Jackson,  by  Prof.  Thomas  P.  Abernethy 

Henry  James  (i 843-1 91 6),  by  Dr.  Carl  Van  Doren 

William  James,  by  Prof.  Ralph  Barton  Perry 

Andrew  Johnson,  by  Prof.  St.  George  L.  Sioussat 

John  La  Faroe,  by  Royal  Cortissoz 

Robert  Marion  La  Follette,  by  Prof.  Frederic  L.  Paxson 

Benjamin  Henry  Latrobe,  by  Fiske  Kimball 

Robert  Edward  Lee,  by  Dr.  Douglas  S.  Freeman 

James  Russell  Lowell,  by  M.  A.  DeWolfe  Howe 

James  Madison  (1750/51-1836),  by  Prof.  Julius  W.  Pratt 

John  Marshall,  by  Prof.  Edward  S.  Corwin 

James  Monroe,  by  Prof.  Dexter  Perkins 

John  Pierpont  Morgan,  by  Albert  W.  Atwood 

Thomas  Paine,  by  Prof.  Crane  Brinton 

Edgar  Allan  Poe,  by  Hervey  Allen 

Theodore  Roosevelt,  by  Prof.  Frederic  L.  Paxson 

Josiah  Royce,  by  Prof.  Ralph  Barton  Perry 

Augustus  Saint-Gaudens,  by  Royal  Cortissoz 

Winfield  Scott,  by  Lieut.-Col.  William  A.  Ganoe 

William  Henry  Seward,  by  Prof.  Dexter  Perkins 

Alexander  Hamilton  Stephens,  by  Prof.  Ulrich  R.  Phillips 

Joseph  Story,  by  Prof.  George  E.  Woodbine 

Charles  Sumner,  by  Prof.  George  H.  Haynes 

William  Howard  Taft,  by  Henry  F.  Pringle 

Henry  David  Thoreau,  by  Prof.  Raymond  William  Adams  and  Dr.  Henry 

Seidel  Canby 
Daniel  Webster,  by  Prof.  Arthur  C.  Cole 
James  Abbott  McNeill  Whistler,  by  Royal  Cortissoz 
George  Whitefield,  by  Dr.  Harris  E.  Starr 
Walt  Whitman,  by  Dr.  Mark  Van  Doren 

It  may  be  argued  that  the  greatest  service  of  the  Dictionary  has  been  rendered  in 
connection  with  shorter  articles,  which  because  of  their  number  cannot  be  specifically 
mentioned  here.  Many  of  these  add  to  the  roster  of  memorable  Americans  names  that 
have  been  overlooked  hitherto,  or  little  noted.  A  few  minor  but  well-known  names 
have  been  admitted  because  it  was  thought  that  a  considerable  number  of  persons  would 
look  for  them,  but  in  general  there  has  been  insistence  on  some  significant  contribution, 
achievement,  or  activity,  whether  or  not  this  may  have  been  long  obscured.  The  dis- 
covery of  these  forgotten  men  and  women,  who  upon  inquiry  have  seemed  significant, 
has  been  made  possible  only  by  a  cooperation  on  the  part  of  contributors  and  advisers 
that  has  surpassed  even  the  most  sanguine  anticipation.  It  cannot  be  expected  that 
the  choice  of  names  will  meet  with  unanimous  approval.  No  two  men  or  groups  of  men 
would  ever  make  exactly  the  same  decisions.  Furthermore,  since  the  number  of  arti- 
cles was  determined  almost  in  the  beginning,  the  question  of  including  certain  names 
unavoidably  involved  that  of  omitting  others.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  few  really  important 
persons  have  been  left  out  and  that  the  selection  that  was  made  is  a  truly  representative 
one. 

Until  Jan.  1,  1935,  when  the  lists  for  all  the  remaining  volumes  were  closed,  no 
definite  deadline  was  ever  established  for  admission  to  the  Dictionary.  The  only  re- 
quirement was  that  there  must  be  time  enough,  after  a  person  became  eligible  through 
death,  for  an  article  on  him  to  be  prepared  and  inserted  in  its  proper  place.    Accordingly, 

xiv 


Brief  Account  of  the  Enterprise 


until  the  last  year  and  a  half,  part  of  the  editor's  task  was  the  reading  of  current  obitu- 
aries, from  which  hundreds  of  names  were  added.  As  a  rule  it  may  be  assumed  that, 
because  of  practical  necessities,  the  list  for  any  particular  volume  had  to  be  closed  ap- 
proximately a  year  before  the  date  of  publication  of  that  volume,  though  in  the  begin- 
ning, and  in  some  cases  later,  the  interval  was  shorter.  The  following  table,  showing 
among  other  things  the  dates  of  publication  of  all  the  volumes,  will  be  useful  in  figuring 
the  terminal  date  for  admission  to  any  one  of  them. 


Vol. 

I  Abbe — Barrymore 

II  Barsotti — Brazer 

II  Brearly — Chandler 

IV  Chanfrau — Cushing 

V  Cushman — Eberle 

VI  Echols — Fraser 

VII  Fraunces — Grimk6 

/III  Grinnell— Hibbard 

IX  Hibben — Jarvis 

X  Jasper — Larkin 

XI  Larned — MacCracken 

XII  McCrady— Millington 

£111  Mills— Oglesby 

XIV  Oglethorpe— Platner 

XV  Piatt— Roberdeau 

XVI  Robert— Seward 

XVII  Sewell — Stevenson 

XVIII  Steward — Trowbridge 

XIX  Troye— Wentworth 

XX  Werden — Zunser 


Date  of 

Contributors 

A  r  tides 

Pages 

Publication 

296 

678 

660 

Nov.  8,  1928 

291 

683 

613 

May  2,  1929 

313 

676 

618 

Nov.  15,  1929 

289 

721 

637 

Feb.  26,  1930 

261 

691 

616 

June  20,  193c 

262 

660 

604 

Feb.  20,  1931 

287 

677 

636 

Sept.  21,  193: 

324 

663 

612 

Jan.  29, 1932 

362 

673 

626 

June  20,  1932: 

3i8 

677 

617 

Jan.  20,  1933 

354 

665 

620 

June  16,  1933 

368 

698 

647 

Nov.  24,  1933 

415 

706 

649 

Apr.  12,  1934 

364 

674 

648 

Sept.  14,  1934 

363 

687 

647 

Jan.  25,  1935 

353 

675 

621 

June  12,  1935 

363 

682 

636 

Nov.  20,  1935 

376 

690 

657 

Jan.  31,  1936 

363 

680 

659 

Sept.  11,  1936 

360 

677 

662 

Dec.  10,  1936 

2243 


13,633       12,685 


Unavoidably  the  policy  of  adding  the  names  of  persons  recently  deceased  has 
worked  to  the  disadvantage  of  those  falling  in  the  early  part  of  the  alphabet,  and  to  the 
advantage  of  those  in  the  latter.  It  has  always  been  hoped  that  a  supplementary  vol- 
ume, bringing  the  entire  list  to  a  definite  terminal  date,  would  redress  the  balance. 
For  the  sake  of  statistical  completeness,  figures  from  such  a  volume  should  be  added  to 
those  given  below,  showing  the  distribution  of  the  articles  among  the  different  letters  of 
the  alphabet.  Interesting  comparisons  can  be  made  between  this  table  and  the  para- 
graph in  "A  Statistical  Account,"  first  published  as  a  preface  to  the  last  volume  of  the 
original  issue  of  the  Dictionary  of  National  Biography,  showing  the  alphabetical  distri- 
bution of  notable  names  in  Great  Britain. 


A 

464 

J 

347 

S 

1432 

B 

1 301 

K 

325 

T 

434 

C 

1014 

L 

662 

U 

34 

D 

632 

M 

1187 

V 

171 

E 

283 

N 

256 

w 

366 

F 

501 

O 

185 

X 

1 

G 

667 

P 

847 

Y 

55 

H 

1097 

Q 

25 

Z 

28 

I 

74 

R 

652 

XV 


Brief  Account  of  the  Enterprise 

It  has  already  been  stated  that  the  total  expenses  of  the  Dictionary  of  American 
Biography  were  a  little  more  than  $650,000,  whereas  the  original  estimate  was  $500,000. 
The  additional  cost  has  been  chiefly  due  to  the  unexpected  amount  of  time  and  money 
that  it  has  been  necessary  to  expend  on  the  checking  and  editing  of  articles  prior  to  pub- 
lication. In  so  far  as  comparisons  can  be  made  with  similar  undertakings,  the  average 
cost  of  $32,500  per  volume  seems  moderate,  and  an  error  of  only  a  little  more  than  five  per 
cent  in  the  calculation  of  the  requisite  time  for  the  completion  of  the  work  seems  slight. 
The  additional  financial  needs  were  met  by  a  further  subvention  of  $32,500  from  The 
New  York  Times,  by  a  corresponding  contribution  from  the  publishers,  and  by  appro- 
priations made  by  the  American  Council  of  Learned  Societies  from  its  general  funds  and 
from  special  grants  of  the  Rockefeller  Foundation  and  the  Carnegie  Corporation. 

From  the  beginning,  those  who  have  been  charged  with  the  management  of  the 
enterprise  have  tried  to  make  the  Dictionary  in  the  broadest  sense  a  national  institu- 
tion, identified  with  no  one  locality  and  no  single  group,  except  the  associated  scholars 
who  have  sponsored  it,  but  comprehending  all  sects  and  sections,  races,  classes,  and 
parties.  It  is  hoped  not  only  that  this  large  collection  of  biographies  will  contribute  to 
a  better  understanding  of  the  chief  actors  on  the  stage  of  American  history,  but  also 
that  this  vast  common  undertaking  has  furthered,  and  will  continue  to  further,  the  spirit 
of  scholarly  cooperation  throughout  the  land. 


*V* 


MEMOIR     OF    ADOLPH    SIMON    OCHS 

March  12,  1858-April  8,  1935 


Editorial  Note:  Of  the  major  figures  in  the  history  of  the  Dictionary,  three  have 
died  in  the  course  of  the  undertaking:  Charles  Scribner,  the  sagacious  and  sympathetic 
publisher,  on  Apr.  19,  1930;  Dr.  Allen  Johnson,  the  original  editor,  architect,  and  builder, 
on  Jan.  18,  1931 ;  and  Adolph  S.  Ochs,  the  generous  patron,  on  Apr.  8,  1935.  An  article 
on  Dr.  Johnson,  by  Dr.  J.  Franklin  Jameson,  appears  in  its  proper  alphabetical  place  in 
Volume  X;  and  one  on  Mr.  Scribner,  by  Royal  Cortissoz,  is  in  Volume  XVI.  In  order 
that  Mr.  Ochs  may  receive  appropriate  recognition,  a  sketch  of  his  notable  career  as  a 
newspaper  publisher,  by  one  of  his  associates,  is  published  in  this,  the  final  volume  of 
the  work  which  his  generosity  made  possible. 

Of  his  relations  with  the  Dictionary,  already  referred  to  in  the  "Brief  Account  of  the 
Enterprise,"  it  may  be  added  that  while  he  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  contents  of  the 
work  or  with  editorial  policies,  and  wanted  nothing,  he  took  great  pride  in  the  part  of 
the  accomplished  task  that  he  lived  to  see,  and  in  his  relations  with  those  who  were 
engaged  in  it  manifested  in  a  hundred  ways  his  characteristic  kindliness.  The  catholicity 
of  spirit  and  the  desire  to  be  fair  to  every  man,  which  have  been  the  ideals  of  the  Dic- 
tionary, were  exemplified  to  a  marked  degree  by  Mr.  Ochs  in  person. 


Adolph  Simon  Ochs  was  born  in  Cincinnati, 
Ohio,  the  second  and  eldest  surviving  child  of 
Julius  [g.t'.]  and  Bertha  (Levy)  Ochs.  Both  his 
parents  were  German,  coming  from  well-connect- 
ed Jewish  families.  The  father,  from  Fiirth  near 
Niirnberg,  had  come  to  America  in  1845 ;  he  en- 
gaged in  teaching  and  business  at  various  places, 
mostly  in  the  South,  and  on  Feb.  28,  1855,  was 
married  at  Nashville,  Tenn.,  to  Miss  Levy,  who 
had  been  a  refugee  from  Rhenish  Bavaria  after 
the  revolution  of  1848.  This  brilliant  and  force- 
ful woman  was  to  have  a  predominant  influence 
in  shaping  the  character  of  her  son.  Despite  his 
long  Southern  residence  and  his  wife's  Southern 
sympathies,  Julius  Ochs  served  in  the  Civil  War 
as  a  captain  in  the  Union  army;  but  after  the 
war  he  removed  his  family  to  Knoxville,  Tenn. 
The  town,  as  he  had  foreseen,  had  a  future,  but 
Julius  Ochs,  cultured  and  impractical,  failed  to 
prosper  with  it,  though  he  enjoyed  the  general 
esteem  of  his  fellow  citizens.  His  son  Adolph 
had  to  go  to  work  at  the  age  of  eleven  as  an  office 
boy  on  the  Knoxville  Chronicle.  Thereafter  he 
worked  pretty  steadily ;  he  got  some  local  school- 
ing, but  as  he  afterward  put  it,  "the  printing  of- 
fice was  my  high  school  and  university."  It  might 
be  added  that  his  parents  were  no  bad  substitutes 
for  a  more  formal  education. 


In  his  teens  Adolph  Ochs  tried  various  jobs 
in  various  places,  but  always  came  back  to  Knox- 
ville and  the  newspaper  business.  Yet,  he  used 
to  say  in  later  years,  he  might  never  have  made 
it  his  life  work  if,  as  printer's  devil  on  the  Chron- 
icle, he  had  not  had  to  work  at  night,  and  if  his 
way  home  had  not  taken  him  past  a  graveyard. 
A  young  boy  in  a  region  not  free  from  supersti- 
tion, he  preferred  to  stay  in  the  office  after  his 
work  was  done  till  the  foreman  of  the  composing 
room  could  walk  home  with  him ;  and,  staying, 
he  learned  the  newspaper  business  from  the 
ground  up.  He  had  practised  all  its  branches — 
news,  business,  and  mechanical — when  at  the  age 
of  nineteen  he  moved  to  Chattanooga  to  take 
a  job  on  a  new  paper  there.  This  paper  soon 
failed  and  its  older  rival,  the  Chattanooga  Times, 
was  on  the  verge  of  failure  too.  But  Adolph  Ochs 
foresaw  the  possibilities  of  Chattanooga,  and  of 
a  paper  which  would  print  the  news  instead  of 
catering  to  private  interests.  With  $250  of  bor- 
rowed money  he  bought  the  controlling  interest 
in  the  Times,  assuming  its  debts,  and  began  his 
career  as  a  newspaper  publisher  (1878)  before 
he  was  old  enough  to  vote. 

The  Chattanooga  Times  that  he  published  from 
then  until  his  death  was  the  same  kind  of  paper  as 
The  New  York  Times  that  he  subsequently  pro- 


XVII 


Memoir  of  Adolph  Simon  Ochs 


duced — "clean,  dignified,  and  trustworthy,"  he 
descrihed  it  in  his  New  York  salutatory  in  1896; 
and  to  prove  that  such  a  paper  could  be  made  to 
earn  its  way,  in  the  ragged-edge  conditions  of 
small-town  journalism  at  the  end  of  the  seventies, 
was  perhaps  a  greater  feat  than  what  he  subse- 
quently accomplished  in  New  York.  But  it  did 
earn  its  way;  Chattanooga  grew,  and  the  pub- 
lisher of  the  Times  not  only  grew  with  it,  but  had 
more  to  do  than  anybody  else  with  promoting  its 
growth.  Through  nearly  forty  years  of  subse- 
quent residence  in  New  York,  he  remained  a 
loyal  Chattanoogan ;  and  none  of  his  public  or 
academic  honors  pleased  him  so  much  as  the  title 
of  Citizen  Emeritus  conferred  on  him  in  1928  by 
the  city  where  he  had  commenced  his  career  half 
a  century  before. 

He  was  married  on  Feb.  28,  1883,  to  Effie 
Miriam,  daughter  of  Rabbi  Isaac  M.  Wise  [g.t'.] 
of  Cincinnati,  the  great  leader  of  Reformed  Ju- 
daism. To  them  some  years  later  was  born  a 
daughter,  Iphigene  Bertha,  who  was  married  in 
1917  to  Arthur  Hays  Sulzberger.  The  Ochs 
household  became  increasingly  a  center  of  hos- 
pitality, for  as  Chattanooga  grew  the  town  at- 
tracted eminent  visitors  from  all  over  the  coun- 
try, and  by  general  consent  the  publisher  of  the 
Times  was  deputed  to  entertain  them.  He  thus 
made  friendships  among  men  of  national  promi- 
nence which  were  to  be  valuable  in  his  subsequent 
venture  in  New  York ;  and  further  made  himself 
known  through  his  chairmanship  (1891-94)  of 
the  Southern  Associated  Press,  and  later  affilia- 
tion with  the  old  (Western)  Associated  Press, 
from  which  developed  the  present  nation-wide 
institution  of  that  name. 

Early  in  1896,  after  an  offer  of  the  business 
managership  of  the  New  York  Mercury  had  come 
to  nothing,  he  was  advised  by  a  reporter  on  The 
New  York  Times,  who  had  met  him  on  a  trip  to 
Chattanooga  some  years  before,  of  an  opportun- 
ity to  buy  that  paper.  The  Times,  once  prosper- 
ous and  powerful,  had  been  running  down  for 
years;  by  1896  it  had  a  circulation  of  only  9,000 
and  was  losing  $1,000  a  day.  A  company  organ- 
ized by  its  editor,  Charles  R.  Miller  [q.v.1,  and 
some  of  his  associates,  which  had  bought  it  in 
1893,  was  facing  bankruptcy ;  and  no  New  York 
newspaper  executive  believed  that  The  Times 
could  be  salvaged.  Ochs,  upon  investigation, 
thought  otherwise ;  and  after  refusing  an  invita- 
tion to  manage  the  paper  for  other  men  worked 
out  a  reorganization  through  which  he  became 
publisher,  with  full  control,  on  Aug.  18,  1896 
(History,  post,  pp.  178-86). 

The  plan  was  an  ingenious  harmonization  of 
the  interests  of  old  and  new  investors,  but  for 


the  new  publisher  it  represented  a  tremendous 
gamble.  If  he  succeeded  in  making  the  paper  pay 
for  three  consecutive  years  he  was  to  become  its 
majority  stockholder ;  but  meanwhile  he  was  sac- 
rificing an  assured  position  for  a  venture  gen- 
erally regarded  as  hopeless ;  he  was  leaving  Chat- 
tanooga where  he  had  been  a  great  man  to  be- 
come a  freshman  in  New  York,  and  assume  com- 
mand over  famous  men  who  to  the  eyes  of  Chat- 
tanooga had  seemed  beings  of  a  higher  order 
(Ibid.,  p.  206)  ;  and  the  $75,000  he  had  invested 
was  mostly  borrowed,  for  the  bulk  of  his  Chat- 
tanooga profits  had  been  sunk  in  a  premature 
real-estate  boom.  With  a  moribund  property,  a 
discouraged  staff,  and  little  working  capital,  he 
had  to  compete  with  papers  either  prosperous  or 
backed  by  large  fortunes ;  his  prospects  seemed 
so  dark  that  it  was  widely  believed  that  he 
was  only  a  "front"  for  somebody  else — perhaps 
friends  of  President  Cleveland,  with  whose  poli- 
cies both  he  and  the  editors  of  The  Times  were 
in  accord.  Twenty  years  passed  before  he  had 
completely  dispelled  the  myth  of  outside  influ- 
ence on  the  paper  which  had  been  under  his  un- 
restricted control  from  the  beginning. 

To  The  New  York  Times  he  applied  rigor- 
ously, in  a  situation  which  would  have  tempted 
a  less  scrupulous  man  to  compromise,  the  princi- 
ples he  had  practised  in  Chattanooga.  He  knew 
how  to  get  out  only  one  kind  of  paper,  the  reflec- 
tion of  his  own  personality ;  a  strictly  "news" 
paper,  as  he  called  it,  in  which  editorial  opinion 
was  subordinate  and  the  news  was  treated  with 
a  freedom  from  personal  and  partisan  bias  by  no 
means  general  in  those  days.  Nor  was  his  exclu- 
sion of  advertising  which  seemed  to  him  fraudu- 
lent or  improper,  at  a  time  when  he  needed  all 
the  advertising  he  could  get,  a  common  practice 
of  the  nineties.  The  eventual  success  of  The 
Times  invited  imitation,  and  had  a  powerful  in- 
fluence in  raising  the  standards  both  of  news 
and  of  advertising;  what  he  began  to  do  in  1896, 
when  it  was  unusual  and  hazardous,  is  what  all 
respectable  newspapers  do  today.  But  it  was  what 
he  could  not  help  doing,  whether  it  succeeded  or 
not;  it  seemed  to  him  so  obvious  that  he  never 
fully  appreciated  the  genius  which  enabled  him 
to  prove  that  decency  and  integrity  could  be 
profitable. 

The  profit  was  slow  in  coming,  at  first ;  The 
Times  made  headway,  but  was  still  "in  the  red" ; 
there  was  a  time  when  each  week's  payroll  was 
a  problem.  Years  later,  when  one  of  his  execu- 
tives left  to  become  the  proprietor  of  another 
paper,  Ochs  advised  him  against  it — wisely,  as 
the  event  proved.  "You'll  owe  millions,"  he  said, 
"and  you're  not  used  to  it;  you  won't  sleep  of 


XV111 


Memoir  of  Adolph  Simon  Ochs 


nights.  I  could  never  have  got  through  my  first 
years  on  The  Times  if  I  hadn't  been  used  to  being 
in  debt,  and  to  getting  out  of  it."  Equally  seri- 
ous problems,  in  the  early  years,  were  the  belief 
of  one  or  two  advertisers  that  in  a  struggling 
paper  they  were  buying  more  than  advertising 
space ;  and  one  or  two  offers  of  large  advertising 
or  circulation  revenue  from  political  interests, 
which  had  to  be  refused  for  fear  it  might  seem, 
to  the  offerers  or  to  others,  that  they  were  getting 
a  mortgage  on  The  Times.  Again  and  again  he 
seemed  to  face  a  choice  between  compromise  and 
disaster ;  but  he  never  compromised. 

New  York  morning  journalism  was  then  domi- 
nated by  the  fiercely  competing  "yellows,"  the 
World  and  the  morning  Journal  (now  the  New 
York  American),  with  enormous  circulations 
built  up  at  a  sales  price  of  one  cent  when  the  other 
papers  sold  for  three.  The  much  misinterpreted 
slogan,  "All  the  News  That's  Fit  to  Print,"  which 
The  Times  has  carried  since  Oct.  25,  1896,  was 
really  no  more  than  a  notice  that  The  Times  un- 
der its  new  management  would  continue  to 
eschew  the  sensationalism  of  the  "yellows."  That 
meant  no  typographical  pyrotechnics,  no  comic 
strips,  no  emphasis  on  crime  and  salacity.  Ochs's 
definition  of  fitness  was  gradually  somewhat 
modified  as  that  old  rivalry  faded  into  history, 
but  it  remained  a  pervasive  influence ;  twenty 
years  later,  the  night  city  editor  would  tell  a  re- 
write man,  "Here's  an  incest  story.  Keep  it 
clean." 

Before  The  Times,  slowly  advancing,  had 
found  sufficient  favor  with  readers  whom  the 
World  and  the  Journal  repelled,  it  was  almost 
wrecked  by  the  war  with  Spain.  The  tremendous 
expense  of  special  correspondence  entailed  by  a 
war  conducted  largely  as  a  field  for  newspaper 
enterprise  was  beyond  The  Times,  which  was  not 
yet  breaking  even ;  and  the  concomitant  decline 
in  advertising  had  brought  the  paper  almost  on 
the  rocks  by  October  1898.  Some  of  its  execu- 
tives, in  the  hope  of  emphasizing  the  appeal  to  a 
"quality  public,"  proposed  raising  the  price  from 
three  cents  to  five ;  whereupon  Ochs  had  his  most 
brilliant  inspiration,  and  took  his  greatest  gam- 
ble, by  deciding  instead  to  reduce  it  to  one  cent. 
At  that  time  the  price  of  a  newspaper  had  a  doc- 
trinal implication ;  one  cent  was  the  badge  of 
shame,  the  symbol  of  the  "yellows,"  and  he  knew 
that  if  he  went  to  that  price  people  would  be 
afraid  that  The  Times  was  turning  "yellow" 
too.  But  he  was  convinced,  in  the  teeth  of  unani- 
mous expert  opinion,  that  many  people  bought 
the  World  and  the  Journal  only  because  they  were 
cheap,  and  would  buy  The  Times  instead  if  they 
could  get  it  at  the  same  price.    He  was  right ; 


within  a  year  the  circulation  had  trebled  and  the 
paper  was  making  money;  and  the  rest  of  his 
career  is  only  a  record  of  steadily  increasing  in- 
fluence and  prosperity. 

The  increase  might  not  have  been  steady,  how- 
ever, if  he  had  not  treated  The  Times  as  a  trust 
rather  than  a  property,  not  only  giving  it  his 
unremitting  attention  but  putting  most  of  his 
profits  back  into  expansion.  To  the  end  of  his 
life,  unless  out  of  town  or  ill,  he  was  at  the  office 
every  day,  actively  directing  the  paper.  He  re- 
tained ownership  of  the  Chattanooga  Times,  di- 
rected by  his  brother  Milton  and  his  brother-in- 
law  Harry  C.  Adler,  and  subsequently  by  his 
nephew  Adolph  Shelby  Ochs  ;  from  1902  to  1913 
he  owned  the  Philadelphia  Public  Ledger,  edited 
by  his  brother  George  (see  sketch  of  George  W. 
Ochs  Oakes)  ;  once  or  twice  he  contemplated 
buying  other  papers  in  New  York,  but  even- 
tually came  to  the  conclusion  that  The  Times 
was  job  enough  for  any  man.  His  one  serious 
outside  professional  interest  was  the  Associated 
Press,  which  he  served  as  director  and  member 
of  the  executive  committee  from  its  reorganiza- 
tion in  1900  till  his  death ;  in  its  councils  no  man 
had  greater  influence.  He  never  held  nor  sought 
public  office,  except  for  a  brief  service  on  the 
Chattanooga  school  board  in  the  eighties ;  and 
though,  especially  in  his  later  years,  he  gave 
much  time  to  various  philanthropies  and  public 
causes,  The  Times  remained  his  primary  and 
predominant  occupation. 

The  Ochs  doctrine  of  news  was  implemented 
after  1904  by  the  genius  of  C.  V.  Van  Anda, 
who  as  managing  editor  "seemed  to  get  out  The 
Times  as  if  he  were  its  only  reader"  (  Alva  John- 
ston, The  New  Yorker,  Sept.  7,  1935,  p.  28). 
Whatever  interested  Van  Anda,  which  was 
everything  from  prize-fighting  to  Egyptology 
and  the  tensor  calculus,  became  news  as  he  played 
it  up,  and  other  papers  had  to  keep  pace  with  The 
Times.  Yet  for  all  Van  Anda's  immense  con- 
tribution, and  the  contributions  of  other  able 
men,  The  Times  remained  Ochs's  personality  re- 
flected in  print ;  and  the  men  who  had  served 
it  both  before  and  after  1896  never  doubted  that 
he  had  been  the  single  difference  between  failure 
and  success.  For  years  he  was  the  least  conspicu- 
ous, in  the  public  eye,  of  New  York  newspaper 
owners;  he  sought  no  social  or  political  career, 
and  never  used  his  paper  for  personal  advance- 
ment. But  that  it  was  universally  known  to  be 
his  paper  was  proved  by  the  fact  that  people  who 
found  fault  with  it  always  blamed  him  person- 
ally, and  never  anybody  else. 

A  notable  instance  was  an  editorial  (Sept.  16, 
1918)  favoring  a  cautious  hospitality  to  the  first 


XIX 


Memoir  of  Adolph  Simon  Ochs 


Austrian  peace  proposal.  In  retrospect  it  is  un- 
exceptionable, but  in  a  hysterical  time  it  pro- 
voked a  hurricane  of  fury ;  thousands  of  people, 
by  mail  or  telegraph,  abused  Ochs  personally  as 
a  traitor.  In  fact  he  had  been  in  the  country, 
and  because  of  a  faulty  telephone  connection  did 
not  know  the  content  of  the  editorial  till  he  saw 
it  in  the  paper.  Asked  later  why  he  had  not  in- 
stantly disavowed  it,  he  said  that  as  he  had  got 
the  credit  for  some  of  the  achievements  of  his 
editors  it  was  only  fair  to  take  the  blame  for 
their  mistakes ;  adding  that  nobody  would  have 
accepted  a  second-day  disavowal  as  genuine, 
after  all  that  uproar.  The  blend  of  generosity 
and  shrewd  insight  is  characteristic,  but  most 
■.Tien  who  had  to  endure  what  he  was  enduring 
then  would  have  tried  to  disavow  it  (Elmer 
Davis,  The  New  Yorker,  Nov.  21,  1925,  p.  11). 

As  the  excellence  of  The  Times's  war  news 
raised  the  paper  to  preeminence,  and  post-war 
issues  emphasized  its  conservatism,  he  became 
the  target  of  further  attacks  from  liberals  and 
radicals.  The  good  that  he  had  done  was  by  that 
time  an  old  story,  it  had  become  the  common- 
place of  newspaper  practice ;  it  was  perhaps  only 
natural  that  the  advocatus  diaboli  should  have  his 
turn.  But  it  was  the  primacy  of  The  Times  that 
made  Ochs  the  target,  rather  than  other  news- 
paper owners  who  were  more  conservative  but 
less  successful ;  indeed  at  that  time  he  was  much 
less  conservative  than  his  principal  editors  (as 
some  of  his  critics  must  have  known),  and  had 
had  the  experience  of  being  angrily  denounced 
as  a  Socialist — on  somewhat  inadequate  grounds, 
to  be  sure — at  his  own  council  table,  by  one  of 
his  employees  working  for  a  modest  weekly  wage. 

All  these  criticisms,  from  the  temperate  and 
informed  comments  of  Silas  Bent  (Strange  Bed- 
fellozvs,  1928,  ch.  xv )  and  Benjamin  Stolberg 
(Atlantic  Monthly,'  December  1926)  to  the  gro- 
tesque embroiderings  of  Upton  Sinclair  (The 
Brass  Check,  1919;  The  Crimes  of  the  Times, 
1921)  are  essentially  complaints  that  he  had  not 
made  The  Times  the  sort  of  paper  the  complain- 
ants would  have  made  it  in  his  place.  Whatever 
their  merit  as  polemic  against  conservative  doc- 
trines or  the  principle  of  private  newspaper  own- 
ership, as  criticism  of  him  and  his  paper  they 
amount  only  to  the  contention  that  Adolph  S. 
Ochs  should  not  have  been  Adolph  S.  Ochs,  but 
somebody  else.  His  personality  was  reflected  not 
only  in  the  excellences  of  The  Times,  but  in  its 
respect  for  things  as  they  are.  Faith  in  the  exist- 
ing order  was  natural  to  a  man  whom  that  order 
had  permitted  to  struggle  up,  by  industry  and 
ability  unaided  by  any  special  luck,  from  impe- 
cunious obscurity  to  wealth  and  fame ;  and  if  he 


afterward  emphasized  the  industry  rather  than 
the  ability,  ascribing  his  success  to  such  virtues 
as  any  boy  might  learn  at  his  mother's  knee,  that 
was  the  natural  working  of  a  mind  which  was  in- 
tuitive rather  than  reflective,  and  of  a  genuine 
under-assessment  of  his  own  exceptional  talent. 

He  was  temperamentally  convinced  that  there 
was  much  to  be  said  on  both  sides  of  most  ques- 
tions, and  that  the  taking  of  a  firm  editorial  stand 
was  often  unwise.  Perhaps,  as  Bent  suggests 
(Strange  Bedfellows,  p.  233),  early  experience 
in  a  small  town  where  his  readers  were  also  his 
friends  had  taught  him  to  get  out  "a  paper  that 
hurt  nobody's  feelings" ;  but  his  peculiar  polit- 
ical position  was  a  factor  too.  He  had  been  a 
Southern  Democrat  but  he  was  also  a  Cleveland 
Democrat  by  conviction,  as  were  his  principal 
editorial  writers.  From  1896  on  the  disciples  of 
Cleveland  seldom  dominated  the  party,  so  Ochs 
gradually  came  to  feel  that  the  Democrats  were 
most  useful  in  opposition,  and  that  the  support 
of  a  conservative  paper  (except  when  Bryan  was 
their  candidate)  might  tend  to  stabilize  them. 
But  he  also  believed  in  holding  up  the  hands  of 
the  existing  administration,  whenever  possible ; 
so  The  Times  usually  found  itself  supporting  in 
office  Republicans  whom  it  had  opposed  in  the 
campaign.  There  was  logic  in  that,  once  you 
could  manage  to  follow  it ;  those  who  knew  him 
could  not  agree  with  the  view  that  his  Democ- 
racy was  the  mere  rationalization  of  a  Southern 
habit. 

He  never  wrote  editorials,  in  New  York ; 
though  he  presided  over  the  daily  editorial  coun- 
cil and  gave  editorial  policy  its  general  direction 
he  left  his  editorial  writers  about  as  much  free- 
dom as  any  newspaper  owner  ever  could  who 
concerned  himself  with  editorial  policy  at  all — 
this  despite  the  fact  that  The  Times  was  a  plat- 
form for  editorial  opinion  which  he  himself  had 
built.  His  editorial  writers  often  disagreed  with 
him,  and  not  infrequently  were  permitted  to  set 
forth  their  views  in  his  paper,  to  the  exclusion  of 
his  own.  This  to  be  sure  did  not  occur  on  major 
issues,  but  there  his  successive  editors-in-chief, 
Charles  R.  Miller  [q.v.~\  and  Rollo  Ogden,  were 
in  harmony  with  him ;  and  it  is  hard  to  see  that 
a  newspaper  owner  is  under  moral  obligation  to 
hire  men  who  disagree  with  him,  and  to  encour- 
age them  to  use  his  paper  for  the  dissemination  of 
doctrines  which  he  hates. 

His  mind  worked  by  flashes  of  insight  rather 
than  slow  reasoning ;  no  doubt  the  inspira- 
tions that  went  right  (as  not  all  of  them  did) 
were  usually  based,  subconsciously,  on  thorough 
knowledge ;  but  his  greatest  inspiration,  the  dis- 
cernment of  a  one-cent  public  for  The  Times  of 


AJ5. 


Memoir  of  Adolph  Simon  Ochs 


1898,  seems  even  yet  to  have  been  pure  clairvoy- 
ance. Slower-vvitted  men  could  not  understand 
him  any  more  than  he  understood  himself,  but 
affection  did  not  have  to  wait  for  understanding ; 
he  was  always  most  approachable  on  a  personal 
basis,  and  the  essence  of  his  immense  personal 
charm  was  a  profound  kindliness.  That  he  pen- 
sioned superannuated  employees,  after  he  was 
able  to  afford  it,  may  have  been  mere  justice,  but 
most  newspapers  turn  them  out  into  the  street ; 
and  in  a  business  whose  attitude  toward  white- 
collar  labor  retains  the  Bohemian  traditions  of 
an  art,  The  Times  became  exemplary  in  security 
of  tenure  and  decent  conditions  of  employment. 
Some  of  his  coreligionists  never  forgave  him 
his  opposition  to  Zionism ;  he  believed  in  Judaism 
as  a  religion,  not  as  a  separatist  racial  culture. 


But  it  was  no  perfunctory  faith  expressed  merely 
in  benefactions ;  it  colored  his  whole  life.  In  later 
years  he  was  happiest  at  his  summer  home  on 
Lake  George,  surrounded  by  his  family  and  a 
circle  of  old  friends ;  but  he  died,  as  perhaps  he 
would  have  wished,  on  a  visit  to  Chattanooga. 

[He  left  no  writings  except  occasional  speeches,  re- 
printed from  the  newspapers  in  pamphlet  form  ;  and  a  vo- 
luminous correspondence,  as  yet  unedited,  which  has  not 
been  used  in  this  memoir.  His  own  view  of  his  achieve- 
ment was  published  in  The  New  York  Times  on  his 
twenty-fifth  anniversary  as  publisher,  Aug.  18,  1921, 
and  in  Elmer  Davis,  History  of  The  New  York  Times 
(1921),  pp.  viii-xxii.  Part  II  of  the  History,  where  it 
treats  of  issues  and  policies  of  his  critical  years  in  New 
York,  embodies  his  own  recollection,  often  in  his  own 
words.  The  obituary  in  The  Times,  Apr.  9,  1935,  incor- 
porates the  reminiscences  of  many  associates  of  both  his 
earlier  and  his  later  life.  Virtually  everything  else  so 
far  published  about  him  is  commentary  and  appraisal, 
not  source  material.]  Elmer  Davis. 


CONTRIBUTORS    TO    VOLUME    XX 


Thomas  P.  Abernethy  .  .  .  .  T.  P.  A. 
Carl  William  Ackerman  .    .    .  C.  W.  A. 

Adeline  Adams A — e.  A. 

Arthur  Adams     A — r.  A. 

James  Truslow  Adams  .    .    .    .  J.  T.  A. 

Nelson  F.  Adkins N.  F.  A. 

Robert  Greenhalgh  Albion  .  R.  G.  A. 
Gustave  G.  Amsterdam.  .  .  .  G.  G.  A. 
George  Pomeroy  Anderson  .  .  G.  P.  A. 
Russell  H.  Anderson    .    .    .    .  R.  H.  A. 

Gertrude  L.  Annan G.  L.  A. 

Katharine  Anthony K.  A. 

Marguerite  Appleton  .    .    .    .  M.  A. 

John  Clark  Archer J.  C.  Ar — r. 

Raymond  Clare  Archibald  .    .  R.  C.  A. 

Joseph  Cullen  Ayer J.  C.  Ay — r, 

Josephine  Daskam  Bacon.    .    .  J — e.  D.  B. 
Hayes  Baker-Crothers    .    .    .  H.  B-C. 

Marston  Balch M.  B. 

Leland  D.  Baldwin L.  D.  B. 

Shepard  Barclay S.  B. 

Gilbert  H.  Barnes G.  H.  B. 

Viola  F.  Barnes V.  F.  B. 

Claribel  R.  Barnett  .  .  .  .  C.  R.  B. 
John  Donald  Barnhart    .    .    .  J — n.  D.  B. 

Harold  K.  Barrows H.  K.  B. 

Ernest  Sutherland  Bates  .    .  E.  S.  B. 

Harold  H.  Bender H.  H.  B. 

Jeannette  L.  Berger  .  .  .  .  J.  L.  B. 
Thomas  Jeffries  Betts     .    .    .  T.  J.  B. 

Percy  W.  Bidwell P.  W.  B. 

Theodore  C.  Blegen     .    .    .    .  T.  C.  B. 

Louis  H.  Bolander L.  H.  B. 

Charles  K.  Bolton C.  K.  B. 

Witt  Bowden W.  B — n. 

Sarah  G.  Bowerman S.  G.  B. 

Julian  P.  Boyd J.  P.  B. 

Frederick  Edward  Brasch  .  .  F.  E.  B. 
Jessica  Hill  Bridenbaugh   .    .  J.  H.  B. 

Robert  Bridges R.  B — s. 

William  Bridgwater     .    .    .    .  W.  B — r. 

John  E.  Briggs J.  E.  B. 

Samuel  H.  Brockunier     .    .    .  S.  H.  B. 

E.  Francis  Brown E.  F.  B. 

James  Douglas  Brown  ....  J — s.  D.  B. 

L.  Parmly  Brown L.  P.  B. 

Margaret  Louise  Brown     .    .  M.  L.  B. 

Sterling  A.  Brown S.  A.  B. 

C.  A.  Browne C.  A.  B— e. 


Robert  Bruce     R.  B — e. 

G.  MacLaren  Brydon    .    .    .    .  G.  M.  B. 
Oscar  McMillan  Buck     .    .    .  O.  M.  B. 

Solon  J/Buck S.  J.  B. 

Arthur  H.  Buffinton    .    .    .    .  A.  H.  B. 

C.  C.  Burlingame C.  C.  B. 

George  Lincoln  Burr  .    .    .    .  G.  L.  B. 

Claude  A.  Burrett C.  A.  B — t. 

Huntington  Cairns H.  Ca — s. 

Isabel  M.  Calder I.  M.  C. 

Orestes  Hampton  Caldwell   .  O.  H.  C. 

Avery  L.  Carlson A.  L.  C. 

Patrick  J.  Carroll P.  J.  C. 

Ermine  Cowles  Case E.  C.  C. 

Charles  Lyon  Chandler  .    .    .  C.  L.  C. 

Charles  E.  Clark C.  E.  C. 

Eliot  Clark E.  C — k. 

Hubert  Lyman  Clark    .    .    .    .  H.  L.  C. 

Robert  C.  Clark R.  C.  C. 

Harry  Clemons H.  CI — s. 

Katherine  W.  Clendinning    .  K.  W.  C. 

Oral  Sumner  Coad O.  S.  C. 

Frederick  W.  Coburn  .    .    .    .  F.  W.  C. 

Hobart  Coffey H.  C — y. 

Elbridge  Colby E.  C — y. 

Fannie  L.  Gwinner  Cole      .    .  F.  L.  G.  C. 

Rossetter  G.  Cole R.  G.  C. 

Christopher  B.  Coleman     .    .  C.  B.  C. 
Charles  Jay  Connick    .   .    .    .  C.  J.  C. 

Royal  Cortissoz R.  C. 

Robert  Spencer  Cotterill  .   .  R.  S.  C. 

E.  Merton  Coulter E.  M.  C. 

Isaac  J.  Cox I.  J.  C. 

John  Cox,  Jr J.  C,  Jr. 

Theodore  S.  Cox T.  S.  C. 

Katharine  Elizabeth  Crane  .  K.  E.  C. 

Verner  W.  Crane V.  W.  C. 

Wesley  Frank  Craven.    .    .    .  W.  F.  C. 

Carey  Croneis C.  C. 

Grace  Wickham  Curran  .    .    .  G.  W.  C. 

Edward  E.  Curtis E.  E.  C. 

Edward  E.  Dale      E.  E.  D. 

Reginald  Aldworth  Daly    .    .  R.  A.  D. 

Marjorie  Daniel M.  D. 

Kenneth  L.  Daughrity     .    .    .  K.  L.  D. 
William  H.  S.  Demarest  .    .    .  W.  H.  S.  D. 

Joseph  V.  De  Porte J.  V.  D-P. 

Bernard  DeVoto B.  D-V. 

Edward  H.  Dewey     E.  H.  D. 

xxiii 


Contributors  to  Volume  XX 


Everett  N.  Dick E.  N.  D. 

Irving  Dilliard I.  D. 

Frank  Haigh  Dixon F.  H.  D. 

Edith  Dobie E.  D — e. 

John  J.  Dolan      J.  J.  D. 

Randolph  C.  Downes    .    .    .    .  R.  C.  D. 

William  Howe  Downes    .    .    .  W.  H.  D. 

Henry  Grattan  Doyle     .    .    .  H.  G.  D — e. 

Carl  S.  Driver C.  S.  D. 

Raymond  S.  Dugan R.  S.  D. 

Dwight  L.  Dumond D.  L.  D. 

Harrison  G.  Dwight      .    .    .    .  H.  G.  D — t. 
Arthur  Wentworth  Hamilton 

Eaton A.  W.  H.  E. 

Edward  Dwight  Eaton.    .    .    .  E.  D.  E. 

Walter  Prichard  Eaton  .    .    .  W.  P.  E. 

Edwin  Francis  Edgett  .   .    .    .  E.  F.  E. 

Milton  Ellis M.  E. 

Kendall  Emerson K.  E. 

William  M.  Emery W.  M.  E. 

Hallie  Farmer H.  F. 

Charles  Feleky C.  F. 

Felix  Fellner F.  F. 

Mantle  Fielding M.  F. 

James  Kip  Finch      J.  K.  F. 

Charles  J.  Finger C.  J.  F. 

Joseph  Fulford  Folsom    .    .    .  J.  F.  F. 

George  W.  Fuller G.  W.  F. 

Kemper  Fullerton K.  F. 

Caroline  E.  Furness C.  E.  F. 

Herbert  P.  Gambrell   .    .    .    .  H.  P.  G. 

William  A.  Ganoe W.  A.  G. 

Paul  N.  Garber P.  N.  G. 

Curtis  W.  Garrison C.  W.  G. 

Samuel  W.  Geiser S.  W.  G. 

George  Harvey  Genzmer     .    .  G.  H.  G. 

W.  J.  Ghent      W.  J.  G. 

George  W.  Goble G.  W.  G. 

Harry  Gehman  Good H.  G.  G. 

Dorothy  Grafly D.  G. 

Charles  Graves C.  G. 

Fletcher  M.  Green F.  M.  G. 

Anne  King  Gregorie A.  K.  G. 

Martha  Gruening M.  G. 

Charles  Burton  Gulick  .    .    .  C.  B.  G. 

Sidney  Gunn S.  G. 

J.  G.  deR.  Hamilton J.  G.  deR.  H. 

Talbot  Faulkner  Hamlin    .    .  T.  F.  H. 

Miles  L.  Hanley M.  L.  H. 

Elizabeth  Deering  Hanscom  .  E.  D.  H. 

Joseph  Mills  Hanson    .    .    .    .  J.  M.  H. 

George  L.  Harding G.  L.  H. 

Edward  Rochie  Hardy,  Jr.  .    .  E.  R.  H.,  Jr. 

Alvin  F.  Harlow A.  F.  H. 

Brice  Harris B.  H. 

Gilbert  Dennison  Harris    .    .  G.  D.  H. 

Freeman  H.  Hart F.  H.  H. 


Margaret  Harwood M.  H. 

George  H.  Haynes G.  H.  H. 

Grace  Raymond  Hebard  .  .  .  G.  R.  H. 
Elizabeth  Wiltbank  Heilman   E.  W.  H. 

Frederick  C.  Hicks F.  C.  H. 

Granville  Hicks G.  H. 

Raymond  L.  Hightower    .    .    .  R.  L.  H. 

Jim  Dan  Hill J.  D.  H. 

Edgar  L.  Hinman E.  L.  H. 

Mary  Frances  Holter  .    .    .    .  M.  F.  H. 
A.  Van  Doren  Honeyman.    .    .  A.  V-D.  H. 
Roland  Mather  Hooker  .    .    .  R.  M.  H. 
John  Tasker  Howard    .    .    .    .  J.  T.  H. 

John  G.  Jack J.  G.  J. 

Joseph  Jackson J.  J. 

Edna  L.  Jacobsen E.  L.  J. 

William  L.  Jenks W.  L.  J — s. 

Willis  L.  Jepson W.  L.  J — n. 

Rufus  M.  Jones R.  M.  J. 

Philip  D.  Jordan P.  D.  J. 

Charles  H.  Judd C.  H.  J. 

Lawrence  Kammet L.  K. 

Herbert  Anthony  Kellar  .    .  H.  A.  K — r. 
Katherine  Amend  Kellock.    .  K.  A.  K. 
Louise  Phelps  Kellogg    .    .    .  L.  P.  K. 
Howard  At  wood  Kelly    .    .    .  H.  A.  K — y. 
Albert  Joseph  Kennedy  .    .    .  A.  J.  K. 

John  D.  Kern J.  D.  K. 

John  Kieran J.  K. 

David  Kinley D.  K. 

Richard  S.  Kirby R.  S.  K — y. 

Edward  Chase  Kirkland     .    .  E.  C.  K — d. 

Alexander  Klemin A.  K. 

Edgar  Wallace  Knight    .    .    .  E.  W.  K. 

Grant  C.  Knight G.  C.  K. 

Rhea  Mansfield  Knittle     .    .  R.  M.  K. 

Ernst  C.  Krohn E.  C.  K — n. 

Ralph  S.  Kuykendall    .    .    .    .  R.  S.  K — 1. 
Ernest  Preston  Lane    .    .    .    .  E.  P.  L. 
William  Chauncy  Langdon     .  W.  C.  L. 

Conrad  H.  Lanza C.  H.  L. 

Fred  V.  Larkin F.  V.  L. 

Kenneth  S.  Latourette    .    .    .  K.  S.  L. 

Max  Lerner M.  L — r. 

Charles  Lee  Lewis C.  L.  L. 

Frank  Rattray  Lillie  .  .  .  .  F.  R.  L. 
Ivan  Mortimer  Linforth  .  .  I.  M.  L. 
Anna  Lane  Lingelbach  .  .  .  A.  L.  L. 
Mildred  E.  Lombard     ....  M.E.L — b — d. 

Ella  Lonn E.  L. 

C.  W.  Lord C.  W.  L. 

Milton  Edward  Lord    .    .    .    .  M.  E.  L — d. 

Alma  Lutz A.  L. 

Harry  M.  Lydenberg    .    .    .    .  H.  M.  L. 

Margaret  Lynn M.  L — n. 

Howard  Lee  McBain  .  .  .  .  H.  L.  M. 
James  Dow  McCallum  .    .    .    .  J.  D.  M. 


XXIV 


Contributors  to  Volume  XX 


Nelson  Glenn  McCrea    .    .    .  N.  G.  M. 

Philip  B.  McDonald      .    .    .    .  P.  B.  M. 

Joseph  McFarland J.  M. 

Walter  M.  McFarland    .    .    .  W.  M.  M. 

Reginald  C.  McGrane  .    .    .    .  R.  C.  M. 

Oliver  McKee,  Jr O.  M.,  Jr. 

Blake  McKelvey B.  M — y. 

George  Marshall G.  M. 

Asa  Earl  Martin A.  E.  M. 

Julian  R.  Meade J.  R.  M. 

Robert  Douthat  Meade  .    .    .  R.  D.  M. 

Leila  Mechlin L.  M. 

Newton  D.  Mereness    .    .    .    .  N.  D.  M. 

George  P.  Merrill G.  P.  M. 

Frank  J.  Metcalf F.  J.  M. 

Harvey  C.  Minnich H.  C.  M. 

Broadus  Mitchell B.  M — 1. 

CarlW.  Mitman C.  W.  M. 

Frank  Monaghan F.  M. 

Robert  E.  Moody R.  E.  M. 

Charles  Moore CM. 

Albert  Mordell A.  M. 

Richard  B.  Morris R.  B.  M. 

Frank  Luther  Mott F.  L.  M. 

Kenneth  B.  Murdock    .    .    .    .  K.  B.  M. 

Allan  Nevins A.  N. 

Robert  Hastings  Nichols    .    .  R.  H.  N. 

Roy  F.  Nichols R.  F.  N. 

Herman  C.  Nixon H.  C.  N. 

Frederic  Perry  Noble      .    .    .  F.  P.  N. 

Grace  Lee  Nute G.  L.  N. 

Frank  Lawrence  Owsley     .    .  F.  L.  O. 

Francis  R.  Packard F.  R.  P. 

Stanley  M.  Pargellis   .    .    .    .  S.  M.  P. 

Edd  Winfield  Parks E.  W.  P. 

Howard  M.  Parshley    .    .    .    .  H.  M.  P. 

William  Patten W.  P. 

James  W.  Patton J.  W.  P. 

Charles  O.  Paullin C.  O.  P. 

Frederic  Logan  Paxson    .    .    .  F.  L.  P. 

Norman  Holmes  Pearson  .    .    .  N.  H.  P. 

James  H.  Peeling J.  H.  P — g. 

Ernest  Ralph  Perkins      .    .    .  E.  R.  P. 

Edward  Delavan  Perry   .    .    .  E.  D.  P. 

Hobart  S.  Perry H.  S.  P. 

Frederick  T.  Persons   .    .    .    .  F.  T.  P. 

James  M.  Phalen J.  M.  P. 

David  Philipson D.  P. 

J.  Hall  Pleasants J.  H.  P — s. 

John  E.  Pomfret J.  E.  P. 

David  deSola  Pool D.  deS.  P. 

Jennie  Barnes  Pope J.  B.  P. 

Charles  Shirley  Potts.    .    .    .  C.  S.  P. 

Richard  J.  Purcell R.  J.  P. 

J.  G.  Randall J.  G.  R. 

Albert  G.  Rau A.  G.  R. 

P.  0.  Ray P.  O.  R. 


Thomas  T.  Read T.  T.  R. 

Wyllys  Rede W.  R. 

Amy  Louise  Reed A.  L.  R. 

Chester  A.  Reeds C.  A.  R. 

Leon  B.  Richardson L.  B.  R. 

Donald  A.  Roberts D.  A.  R. 

H.  E.  Robertson H.  E.  R. 

Burr  Arthur  Robinson    .    .    .  B.  A.  R. 

Herbert  Spencer  Robinson     .  H.  S.  R. 

William  A.  Robinson     .    .    .    .  W.  A.  R. 

William  M.  Robinson,  Jr.    .    .  W.  M.  R.,  Jr. 

Daniel  M.  Robison D.  M.  R. 

Anna  Rochester A.  R. 

Eugene  H.  Roseboom     .    .    .    .  E.  H.  R. 

Marvin  B.  Rosenberry     .    .    .  M.  B.  R. 

Earle  Dudley  Ross E.  D.  R. 

George  H.  Ryden G.  H.  R. 

Verne  Lockwood  Samson     .    .  V.  L.  S. 

Carl  Sandburg C.  S — g. 

Joseph  Schafer J.  S. 

Israel  Schapiro I.  S. 

Herbert  S.  Schell      H.  S.  S. 

Louis  Bernard  Schmidt    .    .    .  L.  B.  S — t. 

M.  G.  Seelig M.  G.  S. 

Joseph  J.  Senturia J.  J.  S. 

Robert  Francis  Seybolt  .    .    .  R.  F.  S. 

Charles  Seymour C.  S — r. 

William  Bristol  Shaw  .    .    .    .  W.  B.  S. 

William  E.  Shea W.  E.  S — a. 

Marion  Sheldon M.  S. 

Lester  B.  Shippee L.  B.  S— e. 

Clifford  K.  Shipton C.  K.  S. 

Eleanor  M.  Sickels E.  M.  S. 

Kenneth  C.  M.  Sills     .    .    .    .  K.  C.  M.  S. 

Francis  Butler  Simkins    .    .    .  F.  B.  S. 

Edgar  Fahs  Smith E.  F.  S. 

Edward  Conrad(Smith  .    .    .    .  E.  C.  S. 

William  E.  Smith W.  E.  S— h. 

Herbert  Solow H.  S. 

James  P.  C.  Southall     .    .    .    .  J.  P.  C.  S. 

E.  Wilder  Spaulding E.  W.  S. 

Oliver  L.  Spaulding,  Jr.  .    .    .  O.  L.  S.,  Jr. 

Thomas  M.  Spaulding    .    .    .    .  T.  M.  S. 

J.  E.  Spingarn J.  E.  S. 

Timothy  William  Stanton   .    .  T.  W.  S. 

Harris  Elwood  Starr    .    .    .    .  H.  E.  S. 

J.  M.  Steadman,  Jr J.  M.  S.,  Jr. 

Bertha  Monica  Stearns  .    .    .  B.  M.  S. 

Raymond  P.  Stearns R.  P.  S. 

Wayne  E.  Stevens W.  E.  S — s. 

Witmer  Stone W.  S. 

Oliver  Strunk 0.  S. 

Charles  S.  Sydnor      C.  S.  S. 

Thomas  E.  Tallmadge   .    .    .    .  T.  E.  T. 

Frank  William  Taussig    .    .    .  F.  W.  T. 

David  Y.  Thomas D.  Y.  T. 

William  B.  Tower,  Jr W.  B.  T.,  Jr. 


XXV 


Contributors  to  Volume  XX 


Charles  Joseph  Turck     .    .    .  C.  J.  T. 

Alonzo  H.  Tuttle A.  H.  T. 

Lent  Dayton  Upson L.  D.  U. 

Roland  Greene  Usher      .    .    .  R.  G.  U. 
George  B.  Utley G.  B.  U. 


William  T.  Utter W.  T.  U. 

William  Reynolds  Vance     .    .  W.  R.  V. 
Lewis  G.  Vander  Velde    .    .    .  L.  G.  V-V. 

Carl  Van  Doren C.  V-D. 

Mark  Van  Doren M.  V-D. 

Henry  R.  Viets H.  R.  V. 

Harold  G.  Villard H.  G.  V. 

Oswald  Garrison  Villard    .    .  O.  G.  V. 

D.  D.  Wallace D.  D.  W. 

Raymond  Walters R.  W. 

Rufus  W.  Weaver R.  W.  W— 

W.  P.  Webb W.  P.  W. 

Harry  B.  Weiss H.  B.  W. 


F.  Estelle  Wells   . 
Allan  Westcott 
James  O.  Wettereau 
Jessie  F.  Wheeler 
George  F.  Whicher 
Charles  E.  Wilder 
James  F.  Willard    . 
Samuel  C.  Williams 
Samuel  Williston  . 
James  Southall  Wilson 
Robert  W.  Winston  . 
Maude  H.  Woodfin 
Robert  H.  Woody  .    . 
Frederick  E.  Wright 
Walter  L.  Wright,  Jr. 
James  Ingersoll  Wyer 
Kimball  Young   .    .   . 


F.  E.  W— s. 
A.  W. 

J.  O.  W. 
J.  F.  W— r. 

G.  F.  W. 
C.  E.  W. 

J.  F.  W— d. 
S.  C.  W. 
S.  W. 
J.  S.  W. 
R.  W.  W— n. 
M.  H.  W. 
R.  H.  W. 
F.  E.  W— t. 
W.  L.  W..  fr. 
J.  I.  W. 
K.  Y. 


xxvs 


DICTIONARY  OF 


AMERICAN  BIOGRAPHY 


Werden — Zunser 


WERDEN,  REED  (Feb.  28,  1818-July  n, 
1886),  naval  officer,  was  born  in  Delaware  Coun- 
ty, Pa.,  the  son  of  Col.  William  Werden,  who 
served  in  the  Seminole  War.  He  is  described  as 
a  tall,  slim  man,  with  large  nose,  dark  hair  and 
complexion  (Some  Records,  post,  p.  21).  He 
was  appointed  a  midshipman  in  the  navy  on  Jan. 
9,  1834,  and  served  subsequently  in  the  Brazil 
and  the  Mediterranean  squadrons  and  in  the 
Boston,  1840-43,  on  a  cruise  around  the  world. 
Made  a  lieutenant  on  Feb.  27,  1847,  he  was  in 
the  sloop  Germantown  during  the  Mexican  War 
and  commanded  landing  forces  at  Tuxpan  and 
Tampico.  During  the  next  decade  his  sea  as- 
signments included  a  cruise  on  the  Vandalia  in 
the  Pacific  Squadron,  1849-52,  in  the  Albany  in 
home  waters  and  the  West  Indies,  1853-55,  and 
in  the  Cumberland  operating  on  the  African 
coast  against  the  slave  trade,  1857-59.  In  the 
Civil  War  he  served  in  the  Minnesota  at  the  cap- 
ture of  Hatteras  Inlet  on  Aug.  28,  1861,  and  in 
September  following  took  command  of  the  gun- 
boat Stars  and  Stripes,  which  on  Feb.  7,  1862, 
led  the  first  column  of  the  flotilla  in  the  attack 
on  Roanoke  Island.  During  the  next  spring  he 
commanded  several  small  vessels  in  Albemarle 
Sound  and  participated  in  the  action  of  Mar. 
13-14  at  New  Bern.  After  detachment  from  this 
command,  Apr.  17,  1862,  because  of  illness,  and 
promotion  to  commander,  July  16,  1862,  he  was 
ordered  to  command  the  Conemaugh,  which  in 
July  joined  the  South  Atlantic  blockading  squad- 
ron under  Admiral  Du  Pont  and  operated  in  the 
blockade  of  the  Savannah  and  Stono  rivers  and 
other  points  on  the  southeast  coast.  In  June 
1863  he  was  again  ordered  north  because  of  ill- 
ness and  served  chiefly  at  the  Philadelphia  Navy 


Yard  until  Nov.  28,  1864,  when  he  was  selected 
as  fleet  captain  of  the  East  Gulf  Squadron.  He 
was  in  this  duty  until  the  close  of  the  war  and 
had  command  of  the  Potvhatan,  which  in  May 
1865  blockaded  the  Confederate  Stonewall  at 
Havana  until  her  surrender  to  the  Spanish  au- 
thorities. Made  captain  July  25,  1866,  commo- 
dore Apr.  2j,  187 1,  and  rear  admiral  Feb.  4, 
1875,  he  was  stationed  at  the  Mare  Island  Navy 
Yard,  1868-71,  was  head  of  the  New  London 
Naval  Station,  1872-74,  and  commanded  the 
South  Pacific  Squadron,  1875-76.  In  1877  he 
retired  because  of  failing  health.  He  was  mar- 
ried but  had  no  children.  He  died  at  Newport, 
RI. 

[L.  H.  Hamersly,  The  Records  of  Living  Officers 
of  the  U.  S.  Navy  and  Marine  Corps  (4th  ed.,  1890)  ; 
War  of  the  Rebellion:  Official  Records  (Navy)  ;  Prov- 
idence Daily  Jour.,  July  15,  1886;  The  U.  S.  Army 
and  Navy  Jour.,  July  17,  1886;  G.  N.  Worden,  Some 
Records  of  Persons  by  the  Name  of  Warden,  Werden, 
Worden  (1868)  ;  a  few  letters  and  papers  in  Personnel 
Files,  Navy  Dept.  Lib.,  esp.  letter  from  T.  F.  McGrew 
concerning  father.]  ^  ^V_ 

WERGELAND,    AGNES    MATHILDE 

(May  8,  1857-Mar.  6,  1914),  historian,  educator, 
was  born  in  Christiania  (Oslo),  Norway,  the 
daughter  of  Sverre  Nicolai  and  Anne  Margrete 
(Larsen)  Wergeland.  The  Wergeland  family 
has  produced  many  statesmen,  writers,  and  ar- 
tists, and  the  name  is  one  of  the  greatest  in  Nor- 
way. From  childhood  Agnes  Wergeland  nur- 
tured an  intense  love  for  the  studious  life — for 
science,  art,  literature,  history,  and  philosophy. 
She  was  richly  endowed  with  musical  and  ar- 
tistic talent ;  she  studied  music  with  Grieg  and 
won  high  praise  from  him ;  her  most  casual 
note-book  sketches  reveal  great  natural  abili- 
ties.  She  attended  a  school  for  young  ladies  in 


Wergeland 


Wernwag 


Christiania  in  1879,  and  then,  four  years  later, 
she  took  up  the  study  of  old  Norse  and  Icelandic 
law  under  the  illustrious  Germanist  and  jurist 
Konrad  Mauer,  in  Munich,  Germany.  After  two 
years  she  went  to  the  University  of  Zurich  where 
she  completed  her  studies  in  1890,  with  the  dis- 
tinction of  having  been  the  first  woman  Nor- 
wegian to  receive  a  Ph.D.  from  that  university. 

The  offer  of  a  fellowship  in  history  at  Bryn 
Mawr  College,  Bryn  Mawr,  Pa.,  brought  her  to 
the  United  States  in  1890.  She  remained  at  the 
college  for  two  more  years  giving  lectures  in 
the  history  of  art,  and  then  lectured  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Illinois  in  1893.  From  1896  to  1902 
she  was  a  docent  in  history  at  the  University  of 
Chicago,  and  acted  as  a  non-resident  instructor 
from  1902  to  1908.  The  greatest  professional 
opportunity  of  her  life  came,  however,  when  she 
was  offered  the  chairmanship  of  the  department 
of  history  in  the  University  of  Wyoming  in 
1902.  Here,  in  the  first  state  to  adopt  woman's 
suffrage,  she  exercised  freely  her  genuine  teach- 
ing abilities  and  pursued  her  scholarly  interests 
unhampered  by  the  prevalent  prejudices  against 
women  in  institutions  of  higher  learning.  Here, 
finally,  the  bitter  memory  of  her  "starvation  pe- 
riod" as  a  student  on  the  Continent  and  of  the 
years  when  her  divergent  intellectual  interests 
stamped  her  as  a  "queer  foreigner"  in  the  earlier 
conventional  American  women's  college  faded 
into  the  background,  and  her  industrious  and 
highly  trained  mind  turned  to  scholarly  pro- 
duction. In  1912  she  published  Amerika'  og  An- 
dre Digte,  and  in  1914  Efterladte  Digte.  In 
1916,  the  History  of  the  Working  Classes  in 
France,  Leaders  in  Norway  and  Other  Essays, 
Slavery  in  Germanic  Society  during  the  Middle 
Ages,  and  Early  Christian  Romanesque  and 
Gothic  Architecture  were  published  posthumous- 
ly. She  also  contributed  to  the  periodicals : 
North  American  Review,  Dial,  American  Archi- 
tect, and  Journal  of  Political  Economy.  Her 
literary  accomplishments  in  English  and  Ger- 
man as  well  as  in  her  native  language  were  re- 
markable. 

In  1904  she  became  a  citizen  of  the  United 
States.  She  remained  in  Wyoming  until  her 
death  at  Laramie,  where  she  is  buried.  She  was 
never  married.  As  a  memorial  to  her,  a  $5,000 
endowment  fund  was  presented  to  the  Royal 
Frederik's  University  at  Christiania,  to  enable 
Norwegian  women  students  to  study  history  and 
economics  in  the  United  States.  A  scholarship 
in  history  was  also  given  to  the  University  of 
Wyoming  in  her  honor. 

[Personal  acquaintance ;  Woman's  Who's  Who  of 
America,  1914-15;  Maren  Michelet,  Glimpses  from 
Agnes  Mathilde   Wergeland's  Life   (privately  printed, 


1 9 16)  ;  J.  A.  Hof stead,  Am.  Educators  of  Norwegian 
Origin  (1931);  Laramie  Daily  Boomerang  (Laramie, 
Wyo.),  Mar.  7,  1914I  G.R.  H. 

WERNWAG,  LEWIS  (Dec.  4,  1769-Aug. 
12,  1843),  pioneer  bridge  builder,  was  born  in 
Riedlingen,  Wurttemberg,  Germany.  It  is  be- 
lieved that  he  came  to  America  in  1786  to  evade 
military  service,  taking  up  his  residence  in  Phil- 
adelphia. He  was  connected  with  various  ven- 
tures, including  the  building  of  machines  to 
make  whetstones,  the  construction  of  power- 
mills,  experimentation  in  the  use  of  anthracite 
coal  for  fuel,  and  the  invention  and  improvement 
of  nail-making  machinery  at  the  Phoenix  Nail 
Works,  Phoenixville,  Pa.,  in  which  he  pur- 
chased an  interest  in  18 13;  but  it  is  as  the  de- 
signer and  builder  of  wooden  bridges  that  his 
name  will  be  chiefly  remembered. 

His  first  bridge  was  erected  in  1810  across 
Neshaminy  Creek,  on  the  road  between  Phila- 
delphia and  New  York.  The  following  year  he 
built  a  drawbridge  across  Frankford  Creek  at 
Bridgeburg,  and  named  it  "Economy."  It  was 
of  the  cantilever  type,  so  designed  that  the  cen- 
ter panel  could  be  tipped  up  in  order  to  permit 
masted  vessels  to  pass  through.  The  spans  were 
short,  but  Wernwag  claimed  that  spans  of  from 
120  to  150  feet  could  be  constructed  on  the  same 
principle.  In  the  later  controversy  as  to  the 
priority  of  the  use  of  the  cantilever  system  in 
the  United  States,  his  claims  and  his  work  seem 
to  have  been  totally  ignored.  His  third  bridge 
was  built  in  1812  across  the  Schuylkill  River 
at  Upper  Ferry,  later  the  Fairmount  section  of 
Philadelphia.  This  structure,  known  as  the  "Co- 
lossus of  Fairmount,"  consisted  of  a  single  arch, 
the  span  of  which  was  340  feet,  exceeding  by 
nearly  100  feet  the  greatest  existing  span  in 
America.  This  bold  design,  scientific  and  ar- 
chitecturally beautiful,  probably  was  never  sur- 
passed in  America.  One  Swiss  bridge  had  a 
span  that  was  fifty  feet  longer  but  was  compara- 
tively a  monstrosity.  The  Fairmount  bridge  was 
completely  destroyed  by  fire  on  Sept.  1,  1838. 
In  1813  Wernwag  built  a  bridge  across  the  Del- 
aware River  near  New  Hope.,  Pa.,  thirty-two 
feet  in  width,  divided  into  two  wagon  ways  and 
two  footways,  and  consisting  of  six  arch  spans 
of  175  feet.  It  had  trusses  with  parallel  chords, 
and  vertical  timber  posts  and  iron  rods  for  di- 
agonals, anticipating  in  some  respects  what  was 
later  known  as  the  Pratt  type.  The  canal  of  the 
Schuylkill  Navigation  Company,  one  of  the  first 
in  the  United  States,  was  partially  constructed 
by  him  in  18 17,  and  the  Fairmount  water  works 
and  dam  at  Philadelphia  were  erected  in  ac- 
cordance with  his  plans. 


Wesbrook 


Wesbrook 


Wernwag  removed  to  Conowingo,  Md.,  in 
1819,  where  he  built  a  bridge  over  the  Susque- 
hanna, and  also  a  sawmill  in  which  he  prepared 
his  timber.  Moving  to  Harpers  Ferry,  Va.  (now 
W.  Va.),  in  1824,  he  purchased  the  Isle  of  Vir- 
ginius,  and  there  continued  the  preparation  of 
his  timber.  It  was  his  practice  to  saw  all  his 
timbers  through  the  heart  to  detect  unsound 
wood,  and  to  permit  good  seasoning.  He  used 
no  timbers  of  greater  thickness  than  six  inches 
and  separated  all  the  sticks  of  arches  by  cast 
washers,  to  allow  free  circulation  of  the  air.  If 
greater  strength  was  needed,  he  increased  the 
number  but  not  the  dimensions  of  the  sticks.  In 
1830  he  constructed  a  railroad  bridge  at  Mano- 
guay  for  the  Baltimore  &  Ohio  Railroad  and 
contracted  for  a  bridge  across  the  Kentucky 
River,  several  smaller  ones  on  the  Marysville 
turnpike,  and  one  in  Indiana,  which  he  gave  to 
his  sons,  Lewis  and  William.  A  letter  from  his 
son  John  to  Samuel  L.  Smedley,  dated  Harpers 
Ferry,  Aug.  27,  1874  (Engineering  News,  Aug. 
15,  1885,  p.  99),  includes  a  list  of  twenty-nine 
bridges  built  by  the  father  during  his  active  ca- 
reer of  twenty-seven  years.  He  died  at  Harpers 
Ferry. 

[Theodore  Cooper,  "American  R.  R.  Bridges,"  Trans. 
Am.  Soc.  Civil  Engineers,  July  1889;  Robt.  Fletcher 
and  J.  P.  Snow,  "A  History  of  the  Development  of 
Wooden  Bridges,"  Proc.  Am.  Soc.  Civil  Engineers, 
vol.  LVIII  (1932)  ;  J.  L.  Bishop,  A  Hist,  of  Am.  Man- 
ufactures, I  (1861),  562  and  II  (1864),  131;  Lewis 
Wernwag,  in  Engineering  News,  Aug.  15,  1885.] 

B.A.R. 

WESBROOK,  FRANK  FAIRCHILD  (July 

12,  1868-Oct.  20,  1918),  pathologist,  educator, 
was  born  in  Brant  County,  Ontario,  the  eldest 
son  of  Henry  Shaver  Wesbrook,  formerly  mayor 
of  Winnipeg,  and  Helen  Marr  (Fairchild)  Wes- 
brook. Both  parents  were  of  Loyalist  lineage. 
Most  of  his  youth  was  spent  in  the  virile  at- 
mosphere of  a  pioneer  community,  the  rapidly 
growing  city  of  Winnipeg.  He  received  the  de- 
grees of  B.A.,  M.A.,  and  M.D.C.M.  from  the 
University  of  Manitoba  in  1887,  1888,  and  1890, 
respectively.  In  1889  he  studied  at  the  McGill 
University  Medical  School,  Montreal.  During 
1890  he  served  as  intern  in  the  Winnipeg  Gen- 
eral Hospital  and  taught  pathology  to  students 
of  the  University  of  Manitoba.  His  desire  for 
wider  training,  however,  took  him  abroad,  where 
he  spent  a  year  in  the  laboratories  of  King's  Col- 
lege, in  the  wards  of  St.  Bartholomew's  Hospital 
in  London,  and  in  the  Rotunda  Hospital  in  Dub- 
lin. He  was  then  appointed  a  John  Lucas  Walker 
scholar  under  Roy,  professor  of  pathology  at 
Cambridge,  with  whom  he  spent  the  greater  part 
of  three  years.    Here  his  work  was  under  in- 


spired leadership  and  he  was  surrounded  by 
brilliant  companions  who  made  an  indelible  im- 
pression on  him.  In  1895,  the  last  year  of  his 
residence  abroad,  he  spent  part  of  his  time  at  the 
University  of  Marburg,  Germany,  studying 
pathology  under  Prof.  Karl  Fraenkel.  He  helped 
investigate  an  epidemic  of  cholera  at  Hamburg 
and  came  in  contact  with  the  great  personalities 
Virchow  and  Koch. 

In  1895  he  accepted  an  appointment  as  profes- 
sor of  bacteriology  at  the  University  of  Minne- 
sota Medical  School,  and  director  of  the  labora- 
tories of  the  State  Board  of  Health.  He  also 
became  a  member  of  this  board.  In  1896  he  be- 
came professor  of  pathology  and  bacteriology, 
and  in  1906  he  was  appointed  dean  of  the  Medical 
School.  Under  his  vigorous  leadership  scientific 
medicine  in  the  University  and  throughout  the 
State  of  Minnesota  made  rapid  progress.  In 
1907  a  new  building  was  dedicated  to  the  work 
in  pathology  and  bacteriology  in  the  Medical 
School  and  to  the  laboratory  activities  of  the 
State  Board  of  Health.  In  recognition  of  his  re- 
nown as  an  expert  in  public  health  problems,  he 
was  appointed  in  1904  a  member  of  the  Advisory 
Board  of  the  governmental  Hygienic  Laboratory, 
and  in  1905  he  became  president  of  the  Ameri- 
can Public  Health  Association.  He  became  wide- 
ly known  as  a  leading  organizer  in  medical  edu- 
cation and  as  an  authority  in  problems  of  public 
health  and  sanitation.  He  was  a  member  of  most 
of  the  scientific  societies  in  America  and  of 
many  abroad.  In  1912  he  was  appointed  presi- 
dent of  the  Section  on  State  and  Municipal 
Hygiene  at  the  International  Congress  of  Hy- 
giene and  Demography  held  in  Buffalo,  N.  Y. 

In  1913  he  was  chosen  president  of  the  new- 
ly established  University  of  British  Columbia, 
where  it  was  apparent  that  his  powers  of  or- 
ganization and  ability  in  administration  would 
prove  particularly  useful.  The  war  soon  in- 
terrupted his  plans  for  expanding  the  new  uni- 
versity and  he  threw  himself  into  war  work,  as 
chairman  of  the  Provincial  Committee  on  Food 
Resources,  with  the  same  earnestness  that  marked 
all  of  his  activities.  Scientifically,  his  world  rep- 
utation began  in  1900  with  the  publication  of 
a  paper,  conjointly  with  L.  B.  Wilson  and  O. 
McDaniel,  on  the  "Varieties  of  Bacillus  diph- 
therias" in  the  Transactions  of  the  Association 
of  American  Physicians.  A  bibliography  of  his 
writings  comprises  more  than  fifty  titles.  On 
Apr.  8,  1896,  he  was  married  to  Annie  Taylor, 
the  daughter  of  Sir  Thomas  W.  Taylor,  chief 
justice  of  Manitoba.  She,  with  their  daughter, 
survived  him  at  the  time  of  his  death  in  Van- 
couver. 


3 


Wesselhoeft 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1918-19;  Forty  Years  of 
the  Univ.  of  Minn.  (1910);  H.  W.  Hill,  obituary 
article  in  Jour,  of  Bacteriology,  Mar.  1919;  P.  H. 
Bryce,  "In  Memoriam,"  Am.  Jour,  of  Pub.  Health, 
1918;  Vancouver  (B.  C.)  Daily  Sun,  Oct.  21,  1918.] 

H.  E.  R. 

WESSELHOEFT,  CONRAD  (Mar.  23, 
1834-Dec.  17,  1904),  physician,  educator,  was 
born  in  Weimar,  Germany,  the  son  of  Robert 
and  Ferdinanda  Emilia  (Hecker)  Wesselhoeft. 
His  father  was  a  medical  practitioner  who  emi- 
grated to  the  United  States  with  his  family  in 
1840,  and  established  a  medical  practice  in  Cam- 
bridge, Mass.  He  later  removed  to  Brattleboro, 
Vt.  At  the  age  of  fifteen,  Conrad  was  sent  to 
Germany  to  attend  the  Nicolai  Gymnasium  at 
Leipzig,  from  which  he  was  graduated  in  1853 
at  the  head  of  his  class.  The  death  of  his  father 
caused  his  return  to  America,  and  he  completed 
his  studies  at  the  Harvard  Medical  School  in 
1856.  Through  an  uncle,  Dr.  William  Wessel- 
hoeft, he  became  interested  in  the  work  of  Sam- 
uel Hahnemann,  and  after  careful  studies  of  the 
theories  and  practice  of  homeopathy,  he  became 
an  enthusiastic  advocate.  After  his  graduation 
he  settled  in  Dorchester,  Mass.,  where,  on  Nov. 
18,  1863,  he  was  married  to  Elizabeth  Foster 
Pope,  but  several  years  later  he  removed  to  Bos- 
ton, where  he  took  an  active  interest  in  the  ad- 
vancement of  homeopathy  and  became  one  of  the 
founders  of  the  Boston  University  School  of 
Medicine.  He  was  associated  with  that  institu- 
tion from  its  organization  in  1873  until  the  time 
of  his  death,  holding  the  position  of  professor  of 
materia  medica  and  later  that  of  professor  of 
pathology  and  therapeutics.  He  was  also  a  mem- 
ber of  the  medical  staff  of  the  Massachusetts 
Homeopathic  Hospital  from  the  time  of  its  or- 
ganization in  1855. 

In  1876  he  published  his  translation  of  Hahne- 
mann's Organon.  Aside  from  this,  most  of  his 
work  was  done  for  the  American  Institute  of 
Homeopathy,  of  which  he  was  elected  president 
in  1879,  and  to  which  he  contributed  a  long  list 
of  brilliant  scientific  papers.  He  was  a  member 
of  the  Massachusetts  Homeopathic  Medical  So- 
ciety and  the  Boston  Homeopathic  Medical  So- 
ciety. Among  his  most  notable  papers  may  be 
mentioned  "The  Demands  of  Modern  Science  in 
the  Work  of  Drug  Proving,"  in  Transactions  of 
the  American  Institute  of  Homeopathy,  1891,  in 
which  Wesselhoeft  reported  the  results  obtained 
from  provers  after  the  administration  of  sac- 
charum  lactis,  and  thus  demonstrated  the  neces- 
sity of  control  tests  in  drug  proving.  Other  pa- 
pers were  published  in  the  Transactions  for  1878, 
1880,  and  1882.  Wesselhoeft  was  coeditor  of  the 
Homoeopathic   Pharmacopoeia    of   the    United 


Wesselhoeft  —  Wesson 

States  (1914).  It  was  his  constant  effort  to  for- 
mulate the  principles  of  homeopathy  in  accord- 
ance with  the  established  principles  of  modern 
science. 

At  his  death  in  Boston  he  was  survived  by  his 
wife  and  a  daughter.  His  brother,  Walter  Wes- 
selhoeft, also  a  homeopathic  physician,  was  born 
in  Weimar,  Aug.  29,  1838,  and  died  in  1920.  He 
studied  in  the  Universities  of  Halle  and  Jena, 
Germany,  and  at  the  Harvard  Medical  School, 
from  which  he  was  graduated  in  1859.  He  prac- 
tised for  ten  years  at  Halifax,  Nova  Scotia,  after 
which  he  had  two  years  of  post-graduate  study 
in  Germany.  He  returned  to  America  in  1873 
and  settled  in  Cambridge,  Mass.,  where  he  en- 
gaged in  general  practice.  At  the  Massachusetts 
Homoeopathic  Hospital  he  held  the  positions  of 
visiting  physician  and  senior  physician  to  the 
maternity  department.  He  was  professor  of 
obstetrics  and  clinical  medicine  at  the  Boston 
University  School  of  Medicine.  Like  his  broth- 
er, he  was  a  member  of  city,  state  and  national 
homeopathic  medical  societies.  He  was  married 
twice ;  first,  in  December  1868,  to  Mary  S.  Fraser, 
of  Halifax,  Nova  Scotia,  and  second,  on  June 
7,  1894,  to  Mary  A.  Leavitt,  of  Cambridge.  He 
was  the  father  of  seven  children. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1903-05;  C.  H.  Pope,  A 
Hist,  of  the  Dorchester  Pope  Family  (1888)  ;  W.  H. 
King,  Hist,  of  Homoeopathy  (1905),  vol.  IV;  J.  T. 
Sutherland,  biographical  article  in  Trans.  Am.  Inst,  of 
Homoeopathy,  1905  ;  New  Eng.  Medic.  Gazette,  Jan. 
1905;  Hahnemannian  Monthly,  Feb.  1905;  Boston 
Daily  Globe,  Dec.  18,  1904.]  C.A.  B— t. 

WESSELHOEFT,  WALTER  (1838-1920). 
[See  Wesselhoeft,  Conrad,  1834-1904]. 

WESSON,  DANIEL  BAIRD(May  18,  1825- 
Aug.  4,  1906),  inventor,  manufacturer,  was  born 
in  Worcester,  Mass.,  the  fourth  of  ten  children 
of  Rufus  and  Betsey  (Baird)  Wesson.  His  fa- 
ther, a  descendant  of  John  Wesson  who  emi- 
grated from  England  and  settled  in  Salem  in 
1644,  was  engaged  in  farming  and  in  the  manu- 
facture of  plows.  Wesson  grew  up  at  home, 
worked  on  the  farm,  and  attended  school  until 
he  was  eighteen  years  old.  He  apprenticed  him- 
self at  that  time  to  his  eldest  brother,  a  manu- 
facturer of  firearms  in  Northboro,  Mass.  Upon 
completing  his  apprenticeship  in  1846  he  worked 
as  a  journeyman  gunsmith  for  his  brother  and 
for  a  manufacturer  in  Hartford,  Conn.,  but  on 
the  death  of  his  brother  in  1850  he  took  over  the 
latter's  business  in  partnership  with  Thomas 
Warner,  an  armorer  of  Worcester.  Two  years 
later,  however,  Warner  retired.  For  a  few 
months  Wesson  worked  to  develop  the  Leonard 
pistol  in  Charlestown,  Mass.,  and  then  entered 
the  employ  of  Allen,  Brown  &  Luther,  gunsmiths 


Wesson 

in  Worcester,  Mass.,  where  he  met  his  subse- 
quent partner,  Horace  Smith  [q.v.].  Although  his 
regular  work  had  to  do  with  rifle  barrels,  in  his 
spare  time  Wesson  tried  to  perfect  a  practical 
cartridge,  working  particularly  on  the  improve- 
ment of  a  rim-fire  metallic  cartridge  brought  to 
his  attention  by  Cortland  Palmer  of  New  York. 
He  was  so  successful  in  this  that  in  1853  he  in- 
duced Smith  to  go  into  partnership  with  him  to 
manufacture  it  in  Norwich,  Conn.  In  February 
1854  the  two  patented  a  pistol  which  was  not 
only  a  cartridge  weapon  but  had  an  entirely  new 
and  distinct  repeating  action.  Although  this  re- 
peating action  was  not  entirely  successful  in 
pistols,  adapted  to  rifles  it  became  the  basic  in- 
vention incorporated  in  the  world-famous  Win- 
chester repeating  rifle.  When  in  1855  tne  part- 
ners sold  their  rifle  patent  rights  to  the  Volcanic 
Arms  Company,  Smith  retired,  and  Wesson  ac- 
cepted the  position  of  superintendent  of  the  com- 
pany. 

After  further  experiment  on  improving  the 
metallic  cartridge  and  on  making  his  repeating 
action  applicable  to  the  revolver,  Wesson  pur- 
chased an  open-cylinder  revolver  invented  by 
Rollin  White  and  induced  Smith  to  reenter  a 
partnership  with  him  in  1857  to  manufacture 
revolvers.  The  Smith  and  Wesson  revolver  was 
a  phenomenal  success  from  the  start,  for  it  was 
the  only  one  made  with  an  open  cylinder  and 
using  a  metallic  cartridge.  Though  it  was  manu- 
factured at  first  chiefly  for  the  American  market, 
large  contracts  were  later  obtained  from  most  of 
the  countries  of  Europe,  among  them  one  from 
the  Russian  government  for  200,000  revolvers. 
Wesson,  who  looked  after  the  mechanical  end  of 
the  business,  and  was  always  interested  in  im- 
proving the  quality  of  his  revolvers  and  cart- 
ridges, in  1869  purchased  the  shell-extracting 
device  invented  by  W.  C.  Dodge  (patented  Jan. 
17,  1865),  and  about  1887  introduced  the  "ham- 
merless  safety  revolver"  (patented  Apr.  12, 
1887),  which  prevented  accidental  firing.  In 
1873  Smith  again  retired.  After  carrying  on  the 
business  for  ten  years  alone,  Wesson  took  his 
two  sons  into  partnership  with  him. 

Outside  of  his  firm's  activities,  Wesson  was 
president  of  the  Cheney  Bigelow  Wire  Works, 
and  was  a  founder  and  active  director  of  the  First 
National  Bank  of  Springfield.  He  was  of  strik- 
ing and  attractive  personality,  and  his  philan- 
thropies in  Springfield  were  many.  On  May  26, 
1847,  he  married  Cynthia  M.  Hawes  of  North- 
boro,  Mass.  At  the  time  of  his  death,  which  fol- 
lowed close  upon  that  of  his  wife,  he  was  survived 
by  two  sons  and  a  daughter. 


West 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1906-07  ;  C.  B.  Norton, 
Am.  Inventions  in  Breech- Loading  Small  Arms  (1882)  ; 
J.  S.  Hatcher,  Pistols  and  Revolvers  (1927);  S.  A. 
Eliot,  Biog.  Hist,  of  Mass.  (1909),  vol.  I ;  W.  R.  Cutter 
and  W.  F.  Adams,  Geneal.  and  Personal  Memoirs  .  .  . 
State  of  Mass.  (1910),  vol.  IV  ;  obituary  in  Springfield 
Sunday  Republican,  Aug.  5,  1906.]  C.  W.  M. 

WEST,  BENJAMIN  (March  1730-Aug.  26, 
1813),  almanac-maker  and  astronomer,  was  born 
at  Rehoboth,  Mass.,  where  his  father,  John  West, 
was  a  farmer,  and  where  his  grandfather  settled 
on  coming  from  England.  He  was  entirely  self- 
educated,  after  his  father  had  settled  on  a  farm 
in  Bristol,  R.  I.,  through  books  lent  to  him  by 
friends.  He  moved  to  Providence,  R.  I.,  in  1753, 
just  after  his  marriage  on  June  7  to  Elizabeth, 
daughter  of  Benjamin  Smith  of  Bristol,  and 
opened  a  private  school.  He  next  started  a  dry- 
goods  store  which  later  included  a  bookstore, 
but  this  venture  ended  also  in  the  unsettling  days 
preceding  the  Revolution.  Ardently  embracing 
the  principles  of  the  Revolution,  he  was  engaged 
at  Providence  throughout  the  war  in  manufac- 
turing clothes  for  the  use  of  troops.  On  the  re- 
turn of  peace  he  again  opened  a  school.  In  1786 
he  was  appointed  to  the  professorship  of  mathe- 
matics and  astronomy  in  Rhode  Island  College 
(later  known  as  Brown  University),  a  position 
which  in  those  days  was  merely  a  lectureship. 
But  he  did  not  enter  upon  his  duties  until  the 
year  1788,  after  spending  a  little  more  than  a  year 
of  1787-88  teaching  in  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Academy,  Philadelphia. 

At  this  time  West  had  achieved  considerable 
reputation  in  New  England  as  an  almanac-mak- 
er and  astronomer.  His  first  scientific  publication 
was  An  Almanack,  for  the  year  of  our  Lord 
Christ,  1763  .  .  .,  published  by  William  Goddard 
[q.v.']  on  Providence's  first  printing  press,  set 
up  in  1762.  The  first  part  of  the  title,  after  two 
expansions,  became  The  New-England  Al- 
manack, or  Lady's  and  Gentleman's  Diary,  and 
it  was  issued  at  Providence  annually  for  1765 
through  1781  (except  for  the  year  1769,  pub- 
lished in  Boston)  ;  with  John  Carter,  1745-1814 
[q.v.],  the  publisher  of  the  last  twelve,  West  had 
no  further  connection.  By  1767  the  almanacs  had 
obtained  such  an  excellent  reputation  for  ac- 
curacy that  editions  were  published  simultane- 
ously at  Boston,  Salem,  Norwich,  and  Provi- 
dence. There  was  a  Boston  edition  of  the  New 
England  Almanack  .  .  .  for  1767 ,  and  a  Newport 
edition  (possibly  pirated)  of  the  one  for  1772. 
In  Boston  West  revived  the  name  Isaac  Bicker- 
staff,  originated  in  1707  by  Dean  Swift,  and  is- 
sued Bickcrstaff's  Boston  Almanac  for  the  Year 
of  our  Lord  1768.  This  was  annually  continued 
by  West  through  the  issue  for  1779  and  for  1783- 


5 


West 


West 


93  (as  published  by  Benjamin  Russell).  It  was 
the  first  illustrated  almanac  in  Massachusetts. 
There  is  evidence  that  West  had  nothing  to  do 
with  most  other  almanacs  bearing  the  name 
Bickerstaff.  He  prepared  The  N orth- American 
Calendar:  or  Rhode  Island  Almanac  (published 
at  Providence  by  B.  Wheeler)  for  the  years 
1781-87,  and  The  Rhode  Island  Almanac  (pub- 
lished at  Newport)  for  the  years  1804-06.  All 
these  almanacs  were  for  the  meridians  of  Provi- 
dence and  Boston ;  others  were  calculated  for  the 
meridian  of  Halifax,  Nova  Scotia. 

West  collaborated  with  some  prominent  resi- 
dents of  Providence,  especially  Joseph  and  Moses 
Brown  [qq.v.~\,  in  making  elaborate  preparations 
for  the  observation  of  the  transit  of  Venus  in 
1769.  His  22-page  pamphlet,  An  Account  of  the 
Observation  of  Venus  upon  the  Sun  the  Third 
Day  of  June  1769,  appeared  in  Providence  the 
same  year  and  was  reprinted  (though  dated  only 
1769)  between  1800  and  Aug.  14,  1814.  The 
greater  part  of  it  appeared  also  in  the  Transac- 
tions of  the  American  Philosophical  Society  (vol. 
I,  1771).  In  Memoirs  of  the  American  Academy 
of  Arts  and  Sciences  (vol.  I,  1785)  West  pub- 
lished an  account  of  an  eclipse  of  the  sun  ob- 
served in  Providence,  Apr.  23,  1781,  and  a  paper 
"On  the  Extraction  of  Roots."  His  recommen- 
dation of  the  first  edition  of  Nicolas  Pike's  A 
New  and  Complete  System  of  Arithmetic  ( 1788) 
was  printed  in  this  work.  The  honorary  degrees 
of  M.A.  were  conferred  on  West  by  Brown  (also 
LL.D.,  1792)  and  Harvard  colleges  in  1770,  and 
by  Dartmouth  in  1782.  He  was  elected  a  fellow 
of  the  American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences 
in  1 78 1.  Confusion  with  Benjamin  West,  the 
artist,  has  led  standard  authorities  (e.g.,  Harvard 
Quinquennial  Catalogue,  post)  to  state  that  he 
was  a  member  of  the  American  Philosophical 
Society.  For  his  last  year  at  Brown  (1798-99) 
he  was  named  professor  of  mathematics  and  nat- 
ural philosophy.  From  1802  until  his  death  he 
was  postmaster  of  Providence,  and  he  was  suc- 
ceeded as  postmaster  by  his  son-in-law,  Gabriel 
Allen.  Four  of  his  eight  children  were  living  at 
the  time  of  his  death.  A  small  gouache-drawing, 
a  bust  portrait  apparently  made  from  life,  is  pre- 
served at  Brown  University. 

[The  date  of  West's  death  is  often  given  incorrectly 
as  Aug.  13.  See  R.  I.  Lit.  Repository,  Oct.  1814; 
Columbian  Phenix :  or  Providence  Patriot,  Aug.  28  and 
Sept.  4,  1813  ;  The  Biog.  Cyc.  of  Representatives  of  R. 
I.  (1881)  ;  Leonard  Bliss,  The  Hist,  of  Rehoboth,  Bris- 
tol County,  Mass.  (1836)  ;  J.  C.  Pease  and  J.  M.  Niles, 
A  Gazetteer  of  the  States  of  Conn,  and  R.  I.  (1819), 
PP-  331-33;  Providence  Evening  Bull.,  Aug.  26,  1913, 
p.  8,  with  portrait ;  S.  S.  Rider,  "Centenary  of  Isaac 
Bickerstaff,  Esq.,"  Providence  Daily  Jour.,  Jan.  22, 
1 88 1  ;  Amos  Perry,  in  Narragansett  Hist.  Reg.,  July 
188=;,  pp.  32-34  ;  C.  L.  Nichols,  "Notes  on  the  Almanacs 
ci  Mass.,"  Proc.  Am.  Antiq.  Soc,  n.s.,  vol  XXII,  pt. 


1  (1912);  H.  M.  Chapin,  "Check  List  of  R.  I.  Al- 
manacs," Ibid.,  n.s.,  vol.  XXV,  pt.  1  (1915)  ;  Harvard 
Univ.  Quinquennial  Cat.  (1925);  Hist.  Cat.  Brown 
Univ.  (1914)  ;  Charles  Evans,  Am.  Bibliog.,  vols.  Ill— 
XII  (1905-34)  ;  W.  O.  Waters,  "Am.  Imprints  .  .  . 
Supplementing  Evans'  Am.  Bibliog.,"  Huntington  Lib. 
Bull.,  Feb.  1933.  In  Evans,  under  West's  name,  there 
are  more  than  190  entries  (all  but  one  in  connection 
with  almanacs)  ;  with  many  of  these  pubs.  West  had  no 
connection  whatever,  and  the  title  of  the  first  entry  of 
an  almanac  prepared  by  West,  no.  9303,  is  quite  in- 
correct.] R.  C.A. 

WEST,  BENJAMIN  (Oct.  10,  1738-Mar.  11, 
1820),  historical  painter,  was  born  near  Spring- 
field, Pa.,  in  a  house  now  on  the  campus  of 
Swarthmore  College.  He  was  the  youngest  of  ten 
children  of  John  West,  member  of  an  English 
Quaker  family,  and  his  second  wife,  Sarah 
(Pearson)  West,  whose  father  had  been  a  com- 
panion of  William  Penn  on  his  voyage  to  Amer- 
ica. John  West,  who  had  been  left  in  England  to 
complete  his  education  when  his  family  emigrated 
to  the  new  country  in  1699  and  did  not  join  the 
others  until  1714,  was  an  innkeeper  at  various 
times  and  places  (Jordan,  post,  I,  424),  and  is 
said  also  to  have  been  a  cooper  and  a  hosier. 
Though  he  is  often  called  a  Quaker,  Benjamin 
West  was  not  actually  a  member  of  the  Society 
of  Friends  (Hart,  post).  His  two  sons  were 
brought  up  in  the  Anglican  communion,  and  he 
himself,  according  to  his  friend  and  pupil,  Wil- 
liam Dunlap  (post,  I,  79),  followed  no  Quaker 
practices.  He  was  a  man  of  sober  cast,  however, 
and  undoubtedly  his  strong  Quaker  background 
influenced  his  behavior. 

Many  legends  surround  the  early  years  of  his 
life.  Some  of  these  evidently  had  the  sanction  of 
West  himself  in  his  interviews  with  his  first 
biographer,  John  Gait ;  but  Gait  belongs  with 
the  romantic  biographers,  and  West,  notoriously 
vain,  probably  was  not  averse  to  his  romanticiz- 
ing. One  story  tells  of  his  receiving  his  first 
colors  from  the  Indians ;  another,  of  a  creditable 
sketch  he  made  at  the  age  of  six  of  his  little 
niece.  Certain  it  is  that  very  early  his  elders 
recognized  his  aptitude  for  art,  and  began  to 
give  him  help  and  encouragement.  When  he  was 
about  eight,  a  gentleman  of  Philadelphia  named 
Pennington  (or  Penington)  presented  him  with 
his  first  artist's  supplies,  to  which  he  added  six 
engravings,  the  first  the  boy  had  ever  seen.  In 
Philadelphia,  where  he  went  for  a  short  visit 
about  this  time,  he  met  William  Williams,  a 
painter,  who  was  so  struck  with  his  enthusiasm 
that  he  supplied  him  with  several  books  on  art. 
His  first  commission  was  one  he  received  at  the 
age  of  fifteen  for  a  portrait  of  Mrs.  Ross  of 
Lancaster  (perhaps  the  wife  of  George  Ross, 
q.v.).  The  first  public  patrons  of  his  immature 
work  were  a  Mr.  Wayne,  Dr.  Jonathan  Morris, 


West 


West 


and  William  Henry  [q.v.],  the  last  of  whom  ad- 
vised him  to  devote  himself  to  historical  painting 
rather  than  to  portraiture  and  suggested  "The 
Death  of  Socrates,"  which  West  later  painted. 
He  also  attracted  the  attention  of  Dr.  William 
Smith  [# .£'.],  provost  of  the  College  of  Philadel- 
phia, who  urged  him  to  come  to  the  city  to  study. 
For  a  time  (1756)  he  was  a  student  at  the  col- 
lege with  the  class  of  1757,  but  he  never  became 
a  graduate.  About  this  time,  by  chance,  and 
quite  independently,  he  discovered  the  principle 
of  the  camera  obscura.  He  lived  for  a  while  in 
Strawberry  Alley  and  is  said  to  have  painted 
signs  for  inns  (Watson,  post,  I,  575),  as  well  as 
portraits,  which  he  supplied  for  a  small  fee. 
Eager  to  study  abroad,  he  lived  frugally  and 
painted  assiduously,  copying  a  "St.  Ignatius" 
owned  by  one  of  his  friends  and  achieving  an 
ambitious  "Trial  of  Susannah"  with  about  forty 
figures.  About  1759  he  went  to  New  York.  Of- 
fered an  opportunity  to  go  to  Italy  on  a  ship 
loaded  with  wheat  and  flour,  he  embarked  for 
Leghorn  in  1760,  his  savings  augmented  by  a 
generous  gift  of  fifty  guineas  from  a  Mr.  Kelly 
whose  portrait  he  had  painted. 

In  Italy,  apparently  the  first  American  to  study 
art  there,  he  won  wide  attention.  His  letters  of 
introduction  from  friends  in  America  admitted 
him  to  the  best  society,  and  his  charm  of  manner, 
good  looks,  and  eager  interest  brought  him  pop- 
ularity. He  studied  the  antique,  painted  indus- 
triously, and  followed  the  fashions  of  the  day  in 
artistic  circles.  When  a  serious  inflammation  of 
the  ankle  confined  him  to  bed  for  a  number  of 
months,  he  devoted  himself  to  making  anatomical 
studies  of  his  own  body.  In  Rome,  as  in  Penn- 
sylvania, his  friendships  were  advantageous.  A 
picture  of  his,  mistaken  for  one  by  Anton  Rafael 
Mengs,  the  celebrated  Bohemian  artist,  was  de- 
clared to  be  far  superior  in  mastery  of  color  to 
those  of  Mengs,  and  Mengs  himself  treated  West 
with  kindness  and  generosity.  Fascinated  by  the 
paintings  of  Titian,  he  sought  not  only  for 
Titianesque  colors,  but  for  delicacy  of  stroke  and 
subtlety  of  blended  tone.  After  journeys  to  Flor- 
ence, Venice,  and  Bologna,  he  returned  to  Rome 
to  make  a  study  of  the  work  of  Raphael,  and  to 
paint  his  "Cimon  and  Iphigenia"  and  his  "An- 
gelica and  Medoro."  En  route  to  England,  he 
visited  Genoa  and  Turin,  and  at  Parma  was  made 
a  member  of  the  Academy,  as  he  had  been  in 
Florence  and  Bologna. 

West  arrived  in  England  in  August  1763,  in- 
tending to  make  only  a  brief  visit.  He  remained 
for  fifty-seven  years.  At  the  time,  English  paint- 
ing, apart  from  portraiture,  was  generally 
scorned,  and  artists  were  somewhat  looked  down 


upon,  even  the  great  Reynolds  being  unable  to 
effect  any  change  in  the  public  attitude.  Thanks 
to  his  important  friends  in  America  and  Italy, 
however,  West  soon  gained  entrance  to  the  high- 
est circles,  where  his  agreeable  manners  and  his 
rather  romantic  history  once  more  ingratiated 
him.  He  paid  innumerable  visits  to  private  and 
public  galleries,  and  made  a  lifelong  friend  of 
Sir  Joshua  Reynolds.  He  first  had  lodgings  in 
Bedford  Street,  Covent  Garden.  About  a  year 
after  his  arrival  in  England,  on  Sept.  2,  1764,  he 
was  married  at  St.  Martin's-in-the-Fields  (Hart, 
post,  p.  8)  to  Elizabeth  Shewell,  the  daughter  of 
a  Philadelphia  merchant,  Stephen  Shewell.  A 
story  is  often  told  of  family  opposition  to  the 
marriage  and  of  Elizabeth  Shewell's  midnight 
flight  from  her  home  in  order  that  she  might  sail 
to  England  with  West's  father  and  Matthew 
Pratt  [9.T'.].  West  and  his  wife  had  two  sons, 
one  of  whom  followed  his  father  in  painting,  but 
without  very  greai  success. 

One  of  the  first  pictures  West  exhibited  in 
England  was  his  "Angelica  and  Medoro,"  shown 
at  Spring  Gardens  in  1764.  About  this  time  he 
met  Samuel  Johnson,  Burke,  Dr.  Thomas  New- 
ton, bishop  of  Bristol,  Dr.  James  Johnson,  bishop 
of  Worcester,  and  Dr.  Robert  Hay  Drummond, 
archbishop  of  York.  For  Newton,  West  painted 
"The  Parting  of  Hector  and  Andromache"  and 
a  portrait;  for  the  bishop  of  Worcester,  "The 
Return  of  the  Prodigal  Son" ;  and  for  Dr.  Drum- 
mond, in  whom  he  found  his  most  powerful 
patron,  "Agrippina  Landing  with  the  Ashes  of 
Germanicus."  West's  paintings,  novel  in  their 
departure  from  the  robustness  of  the  English 
school,  took  the  public  fancy,  and  his  studio  was 
thronged  with  visitors.  By  1766  he  was  im- 
mensely popular ;  in  certain  newspaper  notices 
of  the  exhibitions  he  was  given  more  attention 
than  even  Reynolds  or  Gainsborough.  Through 
Drummond,  West  was  presented  to  George  III, 
who  viewed,  and  approved,  his  pictures.  Thus 
began  a  patronage  that  resulted  not  only  in  years 
of  friendship  with  George  III — West  came  and 
went  freely  in  the  palace — but  also  in  the  execu- 
tion of  a  great  many  paintings,  among  them  most 
of  West's  finest  work.  He  became  a  member  of 
the  Incorporated  Society  of  Artists,  forerunner 
of  the  Royal  Academy  of  Arts,  in  1765,  and  by 
the  king's  appointment  was  made  a  charter  mem- 
ber of  the  Royal  Academy,  founded  in  1768.  He 
received  his  first  royal  commission,  for  "The 
Departure  of  Regulus  from  Rome,"  in  1769 ;  soon 
after  (1772),  he  was  appointed  historical  paint- 
er to  the  king. 

His  time  thereafter  was  almost  completely 
filled  in  executing  the  king's  orders.   In  addition 


/ 


West 

to  many  portraits  of  members  of  the  royal  family, 
he  painted  numerous  pictures  for  Buckingham 
Palace  and  Windsor  Castle.  For  Windsor  a 
series  of  pictures  was  chosen  dealing  with  the 
victories  of  Cressy  and  Poictiers,  and  for  the 
king's  chapel  there  an  ambitious  scheme  was 
worked  out  for  a  series  of  thirty-six  pictures  on 
the  progress  of  revealed  religion.  None  of  these 
was  in  any  way  unconventional,  but  when  West 
undertook  the  "Death  of  Wolfe"  (exhibited  in 
the  Royal  Academy  in  1771),  he  broke  away 
from  the  custom  of  depicting  heroes  in  classic 
togas  and  represented  them  in  the  military  cos- 
tume of  the  day.  The  public  and  the  king  took 
exception,  and  the  king  refused  to  buy  the  pic- 
ture, which  was  secured  by  Lord  Grosvenor  and 
in  1918  was  presented  by  its  owner  to  the  Do- 
minion of  Canada.  Reynolds,  at  first  a  hostile 
critic,  finally  accepted  this  degree  of  realism, 
and  the  picture  at  length  brought  about  a  kind 
of  revolution  in  English  historical  painting, 
though  West  had  been  anticipated  in  his  inno- 
vation in  other  countries  and  at  other  times. 

During  his  years  as  the  king's  historical  paint- 
er, at  £1,000  a  year,  West's  position  was  secure. 
He  was  accepted  everywhere,  succeeded  Rey- 
nolds as  president  of  the  Royal  Academy  (hold- 
ing the  position,  with  the  exception  of  one  year, 
from  1792  to  1820),  and  served  both  English 
and  American  art  well  by  his  teaching  of  young 
artists.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  he  lacked  true 
genius,  borrowed  indiscriminately  from  other 
artists,  and  was  complacently  blind  to  his  own 
faults,  he  had  learned  much  about  painting,  and 
to  his  pupils  he  never  failed  to  impart  lessons  in 
the  formation  of  a  good  palette,  truthfulness  of 
design,  and  a  sound  technique.  Among  his 
American  pupils  were  Matthew  Pratt,  Charles 
Willson  Peale,  Gilbert  Stuart,  John  Trumbull, 
Robert  Fulton,  Rembrandt  Peale,  Mather  Brown, 
William  Dunlap,  Washington  Allston,  Thomas 
Sully,  S.  F.  B.  Morse,  Charles  Robert  Leslie, 
and  Henry  Sargent  [qq.v.~].  West's  interest  in 
young  artists  was  unflagging,  his  generosity  un- 
failing. Apparently  quite  free  from  professional 
jealousy,  he  aided  such  a  potential  rival  as  Cop- 
ley in  the  most  friendly  way  when  the  latter  went 
to  England,  and  he  had  a  quick  eye  for  the  true 
virtues  of  the  work  of  beginners.  His  critical 
acumen  was  displayed  also  in  his  frequent  pur- 
chases in  the  auction  rooms,  from  which  he 
rescued  an  unrecognized  Titian,  "The  Death  of 
Actaeon,"  and  in  such  unlikely  places  as  old-iron 
shops,  where  he  bought  Claude's  "The  Mill"  for, 
it  is  said,  half  a  guinea.  Leigh  Hunt,  who  was 
connected  with  West  by  marriage,  has  left  a 
charming  picture  in  his  Autobiography  of  the 


West 

pleasant  house  at  14  Newman  Street,  with  its 
gallery  hung  with  West's  pictures  and  enclosing 
a  square  of  fresh  green  lawn,  of  the  artist  in  his 
white  wool  gown,  working  quietly  away  in  his 
painting-room,  and  of  Mrs.  West  in  her  sitting- 
room,  its  walls,  too,  adorned  with  West's  pictures. 

For  more  than  twenty  years  West  had  received 
all  orders  from  the  king  in  person,  but  in  1801 
he  had  word,  indirectly,  that  all  work  in  the 
chapel  at  Windsor  Castle  was  to  be  suspended. 
By  this  time  George  III  had  begun  to  show  symp- 
toms of  the  disease  of  the  mind  from  which  he 
suffered,  and  though  West  came  back  into  favor 
for  a  short  period,  he  never  was  restored  to  the 
security  of  his  former  position.  The  old  painter 
wrote  a  dignified  remonstrance  to  the  king,  set 
himself  to  work  upon  a  new  series  of  religious 
pictures  for  public  sale,  and  when  in  the  end 
(1811)  his  £1,000  was  taken  away,  made  no 
complaint.  One  of  his  religious  pictures,  "Christ 
Healing  the  Sick"  (1801),  was  among  his  most 
successful,  bringing  as  much  as  three  thousand 
guineas.'  Others  were  his  "Christ  Rejected"  (c. 
1815)  and  "Death  on  the  Pale  Horse"  (1817). 
The  final  break  with  the  king,  West's  open  sym- 
pathy with  and  admiration  for  Napoleon  (which 
won  him  public  censure,  as  his  sympathies  with 
the  colonies  in  revolution  never  had),  and  the 
death  of  his  wife  on  Dec.  6,  1814  (Analectic 
Magazine,  June  181 5,  p.  524),  marked  the  begin- 
ning of  a  decline.  His  last  illness,  which  was 
slow  and  languishing,  was  rather  a  general  nat- 
ural decay  than  a  specific  malady.  He  enjoyed 
perfect  mental  health  until  his  death  early  in  the 
morning  of  Mar.  11,  1820.  His  body  lay  in  state 
at  the  Royal  Academy,  and  he  was  buried  with 
great  honor  in  St.  Paul's  Cathedral. 

As  Samuel  Isham  [q.v.~\  has  pointed  out  in  a 
sympathetic  analysis  of  West's  career,  his  life 
was  marked  by  unusual  good  fortune,  not  the 
least  of  which  was  the  fact  that  he  was  "by  char- 
acter, by  training,  by  countless  little  personal 
traits,  absolutely  fitted  to  the  ideals  of  the  time" 
(post,  p.  57).  Though  he  spoke  with  a  curious 
uncouth  accent  and  wrote  illiterately,  he  was  a 
man  of  handsome  and  dignified  bearing.  He  was 
somewhat  slow  and  mild,  even-tempered,  and 
thoroughly  benevolent.  His  personal  life  was 
above  reproach.  There  are  numerous  portraits 
of  West,  including  one  by  Gilbert  Stuart  that 
shows  him  as  a  handsome  but  sober  young  man  ; 
the  most  pleasing  one,  perhaps,  is  that  painted  in 
his  youth  by  Matthew  Pratt,  now  in  the  Penn- 
sylvania Academy  of  the  Fine  Arts,  where  there 
is  also  one  of  Mrs.  West.  West  painted  several 
self-portraits,  and  a  charming  group  of  himself, 
his  wife,  and  their  child.   His  only  serious  fault 


West 

was  his  complacency,  which,  as  Isham  suggests, 
was  almost  essential  to  his  success.  His  dis- 
courses to  the  students  of  the  Royal  Academy 
(in  part  reprinted  in  Gait,  post)  had  a  sincerity 
and  an  honest  conviction  that  give  weight  to  his 
excessively  moralistic  views  on  art,  whose  pur- 
pose he  believed  was  to  "assist  the  reason  to 
reveal  virtue  through  beauty."  His  paintings, 
so  numerous,  so  large — "ten-acre  canvases,"  Stu- 
art called  them — so  well-known,  and  in  his  own 
time  so  much  admired,  have  now  little  but  an 
historical  interest.  Few  of  them  are  to  be  seen 
in  England,  except  in  the  provincial  museums, 
but  a  replica  of  his  "Christ  Healing  the  Sick"  is 
in  the  Pennsylvania  Hospital  in  Philadelphia; 
his  "Death  on  the  Pale  Horse"  and  "Christ  Re- 
jected" are  in  the  Pennsylvania  Academy  of  the 
Fine  Arts ;  "Penn's  Treaty  with  the  Indians," 
one  of  the  best,  is  in  Independence  Hall,  Phila- 
delphia, and  others,  among  them  a  self-portrait, 
are  in  the  Metropolitan  Museum,  New  York, 
and  in  the  possession  of  the  Historical  Society 
of  Pennsylvania.  Apart  from  the  fact  that  West's 
pictures  are  thoroughly  out  of  fashion,  they  ex- 
hibit little  genuine  power ;  they  are  formal  and 
uninspired,  poor  in  color,  harsh  in  outline.  Yet 
his  position  in  the  history  of  English  and  Ameri- 
can painting  is  an  important  one,  and  American 
art  in  particular  owes  him  a  debt  of  gratitude 
for  his  help  and  encouragement,  given  so  freely, 
to  young  American  artists. 

[There  is  no  adequate  biog.  of  West.  The  earliest 
is  that  written  in  West's  lifetime  by  John  Gait,  The 
Life  and  Studies  of  Benjamin  West  (1816),  amplified 
and  reprinted  as  The  Life,  Studies,  and  Works  of  Ben- 
jamin West  (2  vols.,  1820).  See  also  William  Dunlap, 
The  Hist,  of  the  Rise  and  Progress  of  the  Arts  of  De- 
sign in  the  U.  S.  (3  vols.,  1918),  ed.  by  F.  W.  Bayley 
and  C.  E.  Goodspeed  ;  C.  H.  Hart,  "Benjamin  West's 
Family,"  Pa.  Mag.  of  Hist,  and  Biog.,  Jan.  1908  ;  W. 
T.  Whitley,  Artists  and  Their  Friends  in  England, 
1700-1799  (2  vols.,  1928),  which  contains  much  in- 
teresting material  from  contemporary  sources ;  The 
Farington  Diary  (8  vols.,  1922-28),  ed.  by  James  Greig, 
also  contemporary  ;  Algernon  Graves,  The  Royal  Acad. 
of  Arts  .  .  .  Contributors,  vol.  VIII  (1906)  ;  William 
Sandby,  The  Hist,  of  the  Royal  Acad,  of  Arts  (2  vols., 
1862)  ;  J.  W.  Jordan,  Colonial  Families  of  Phila. 
(1911)  ;  J.  F.  Watson,  Annals  of  Phila.  (3  vols.,  1879— 
81),  ed.  by  W.  P.  Hazard;  Samuel  Isham,  The  Hist, 
of  Am.  Painting  (1905)  ;  obituary  and  memoir  in  An- 
nual Register,  1820,  pts.  1,  2;  death  notice  in  Times 
(London),  Mar.  13,  1820.  An  interesting  and  well- 
documented  short  biog.  is  to  be  found  in  Lewis  Ein- 
stein's Divided  Loyalties  (1933).]  M.F. 

WEST,  FRANCIS  (Oct.  28,  1586-1634?), 
governor  of  Virginia,  was  born  in  England, 
probably  Hampshire,  the  son  of  Thomas  West, 
second  or  eleventh  Baron  De  La  Warr,  and  his 
wife  Anne,  the  daughter  of  Sir  Francis  Knollys. 
Three  of  his  brothers  participated  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  Virginia  colony,  Thomas,  the 
third  Baron  De  La  Warr  [q.v.],  and  his  two 


West 

younger  brothers,  Nathaniel  and  John,  who  be- 
came planters,  the  latter  serving  as  governor, 
from  1635  to  1637.  Francis  arrived  in  Virginia 
with  Newport  in  1608  and  was  a  grantee  of  the 
second  charter  in  1609.  He  was  of  the  group 
that  quarrelled  with  Captain  Smith  and  in  Sep- 
tember deposed  him  in  favor  of  George  Percy 
[q.v.~\  and  a  council,  of  which  West  became  a 
member.  His  attempt  to  establish  a  settlement  at 
the  falls  of  the  James  River  was  abandoned  with 
the  winter,  and  his  attention  was  turned  to  the 
all-important  problem  of  obtaining  supplies.  In 
a  small  ship  he  sought  trade  with  the  natives, 
and,  failing,  sailed  for  England  before  the  be- 
lated arrival  of  Gates  and  Somers  in  May  16 10. 
He  evidently  returned  within  the  year,  succeed- 
ed Percy  as  commander  at  Jamestown  in  1612, 
was  commissioned  master  of  the  ordnance  in 
1617,  and  became  in  time  one  of  the  most  influ- 
ential of  the  "ancient  planters,"  with  a  seat  at 
Westover,  near  Berkeley  Hundred.  He  quar- 
relled with  Yeardley  over  the  location  of  the  lat- 
ter plantation,  which  he  claimed  infringed  upon 
the  lands  of  the  late  Lord  De  La  Warr,  and  when 
in  England  the  following  year  joined  with  other 
old  planters  in  petitioning  for  the  appointment 
of  a  governor  of  higher  birth.  He  seems  to  have 
become  infected  with  the  factionalism  that  rent 
the  company  and  to  have  joined  with  the  ene- 
mies of  Sir  Edwin  Sandys.  He  was  commis- 
sioned in  November  1622  admiral  of  New  Eng- 
land, but  upon  his  arrival  there  the  following 
summer  he  found  "the  fisher  men  to  be  stuberne 
fellows"  (Bradford,  post,  I,  312)  and  returned  to 
Virginia.  During  these  last  years  of  the  com- 
pany he  joined  other  older  planters  in  complaints 
regarding  the  conditions  of  the  colony,  thereby 
contributing,  though  probably  not  intentionally, 
to  the  overthrow  of  the  company.  With  its  dis- 
solution, however,  he  became  alarmed  lest  this 
step  might  involve  the  withdrawal  of  the  political 
privileges  granted  in  1618,  and  signed  several 
protests  against  any  such  action. 

He  continued  to  hold  the  confidence  of  leaders 
both  in  England  and  Virginia,  and,  succeeding 
Yeardley  as  governor  in  1627,  he  held  this  post 
until  his  departure  for  England  in  March  1629. 
He  returned  by  1631,  and  is  recorded  as  present 
at  a  meeting  of  the  council  in  February  1633. 
His  will,  made  while  in  England  in  December 
1629,  was  proved  on  Apr.  28,  1634.  It  is  prob- 
able that  he  died  in  Virginia  early  in  1634.  His 
first  wife  was  Margaret,  the  widow  of  Edward 
Blayney.  His  second  wife  was  Temperance 
(Flowerdieu) ,  the  widow  of  Gov.  George  Yeard- 
ley [q.v.].  Her  death  occurred  shortly  after  the 
marriage,  and  it  must  have  been  on  his  last  trip 


West 

home  that  he  married  Jane,  the  daughter  to  Sir 
Henry  Davye.  A  son,  Francis,  mentioned  in  the 
will  seems  to  have  been  the  only  surviving  child. 
[A  F.  Pollard  in  D.  N.  B.  ;  Alexander  Brown,  The 
Genesis  of  the  U.  S.  (1890),  vol.  II;  The  Records  of 
the  Va.  Co.  (4  vols.,  1906-35),  ed.  by  S.  M.  Kingsbury  ; 
Minutes  of  the  Council  and  General  Court  of  Colonial 
Virginia,  1622-1632  and  1 670-1 679  (1924),  ed,  by  H. 
R.  Mclhvaine  ;  Great  Brit.,  Public  Record  Office,  Cal- 
endar of  State  Papers,  Col.  Series,  1574-1660  (i860)  ; 
Great  Brit.,  Privy  Council,  Acts  of  the  Privy  Council, 
Cot.  Series  .  .  .  161 3-1680  (1908);  Wm.  Bradford, 
Hist,  of  Plymouth  Plantation  (1912),  vol.  I,  pub.  by 
Mass.  Hist.  Soc. ;  Va.  Mag.  of  Hist,  and  Biog.,  Apr. 
1904-]  W.F.  C. 

WEST,  GEORGE  (Feb.  17,  1823-Sept.  20, 
1901),  paper  manufacturer,  congressman,  son  of 
George  and  Jane  West,  was  born  near  Brad- 
ninch,  Devonshire,  England.  At  an  early  age  he 
went  to  work  in  a  Bradninch  paper  factory. 
After  serving  a  full  apprenticeship,  in  the  course 
of  which  he  was  rapidly  advanced,  he  married 
Louisa  Rose,  in  April  1844,  and  five  years  later 
brought  his  family  to  America.  In  later  years, 
when  he  had  become  a  millionaire,  he  made  many 
trips  back  to  Bradninch  and  gave  generously  to 
the  support  of  the  village  school  that  others 
might  have  educational  advantages  which  his 
parents  had  been  unable  to  furnish  him.  He  also 
bought  and  operated  an  idle  paper  mill  there  to 
give  employment  to  the  population. 

In  Massachusetts,  where  he  established  him- 
self after  arriving  in  the  United  States,  he  was 
"burned  out,"  and  in  1861  removed  to  Saratoga 
County,  N.  Y.,  where  the  waterpower  on  Kaya- 
derosseras  Creek  had  already  attracted  numer- 
ous investors  in  the  paper-making  industry. 
Here  West  began  in  a  humble  way  what  was  to 
prove  a  spectacularly  successful  career  in  a  simi- 
lar field.  He  had  at  his  command  a  thorough 
practical  knowledge  of  every  phase  of  the  indus- 
try, executive  talent,  a  genius  for  organization, 
and  tremendous  energy.  By  1878  he  was  sole 
proprietor  of  nine  busy  mills,  the  total  output 
of  which  was  estimated  to  exceed  that  of  any 
other  paper  manufacturer  in  the  United  States 
and  Europe.  He  made  only  one  kind  of  paper — 
manila  wrapping — importing  the  raw  materials 
until  the  1880's,  when  he  established  a  chemical- 
process  (replaced  in  1895  by  a  soda-process) 
wood-pulp  factory,  supplied  from  his  own  eight- 
thousand-acre  spruce  forest  near  by.  In  1875, 
at  Ballston  Spa,  where  he  made  his  home,  he 
began  to  utilize  some  of  the  paper  in  the  making 
of  grocers'  bags,  and  the  immediate  and  increas- 
ing demand  for  this  product  was  the  chief  basis 
of  his  fortune.  He  maintained  in  New  York 
City  a  large  store  where  the  bags  were  sold  and 
where  he  kept  four  presses  constantly  engaged  in 
printing  them  for  his  customers.  In  1899  he. sold 


West 

his  entire  mill  interests  to  the  Union  Bag  &  Pa- 
per Company  for  $1,500,000. 

From  the  inception  of  the  Republican  party  he 
was  one  of  its  stanch  members.  After  represent- 
ing his  district  for  five  terms  (1872-76)  in  the 
New  York  Assembly,  he  entered  Congress  in 
1 88 1,  where  he  remained  until  1889,  except  for 
the  term  1883-84.  As  a  legislator  his  qualities 
were  described  as  sterling  and  solid  rather  than 
brilliant.  Outspoken  and  firm  in  his  principles, 
however,  he  labored  to  convince  his  colleagues 
by  personal  contact  and  in  committee.  He  ad- 
vocated government  ownership  of  telegraph  lines 
and  government  control  of  railroads.  Entering 
Congress  just  when  the  Democrats  were  con- 
centrating their  efforts  on  a  downward  revision 
of  the  tariff,  he  remained  a  thoroughgoing  pro- 
tectionist, basing  his  convictions  on  his  actual 
experience  as  a  manufacturer  and  an  employer 
of  labor  both  in  the  United  States  and  in  free- 
trade  England.  He  was  willing,  however,  to  af- 
ford the  producer  of  raw  materials  as  much  pro- 
tection as  the  manufacturer.  He  tried  not  to 
merit  his  own  criticism  that  too  much  of  the  per- 
sonal element  entered  into  legislation,  rather 
than  the  good  of  the  country  as  a  whole.  "I  rep- 
resent my  constituents,"  he  said,  "not  George 
West."  He  was  survived  by  his  wife,  a  son  and 
a  daughter. 

[Files  of  Ballston  Jour.,  1 860-1 901  ;  N.  B.  Sylvester, 
Hist,  of  Saratoga  County,  N.  Y.  (1878)  ;  G.  B.  Ander- 
son, A  Descriptive  and  Biog.  Record  of  Saratoga 
County,  N.  Y.  (1899)  ;  Biog.  Dir.  Am.  Cong.  (1928)  ; 
Who's  Who  in  America,  1899-1901  ;  N.  Y.  Times  and 
N.  Y.  Herald,  Sept.  21,  1901  ;  information  from  a 
grandson.]  E.L.J. 

WEST,  HENRY  SERGEANT  (Jan.  21, 
1827-Apr.  1,  1876),  missionary  physician,  the 
son  of  Dr.  Silas  and  Lucy  C.  (Sergeant)  West, 
was  born  in  Binghamton,  N.  Y.,  in  the  schools 
of  which  community  he  received  his  early  edu- 
cation. In  1844  he  entered  Yale  College  but 
withdrew  in  his  sophomore  year  because  of  ill 
health.  Later  he  studied  medicine  in  the  Col- 
lege of  Physicians  and  Surgeons  of  New  York 
City,  where  he  received  the  degree  of  M.D.  in 
1850.  For  several  years  thereafter  he  practised 
medicine  in  Binghamton.  On  Sept.  20,  1858,  he 
was  married  in  Watertown,  Wis.,  to  Charlotte, 
daughter  of  Henry  and  Mary  Youts. 

The  following  January,  under  the  auspices  of 
the  American  Board  of  Commissioners  for  For- 
eign Missions,  the  Wests  sailed  from  Boston  for 
Turkey  to  undertake  service  in  the  Northern 
Armenian  (later  the  West  Turkey)  Mission. 
Arriving  in  Smyrna  Feb.  22,  they  proceeded  to 
Sivas,  which  was  their  home  for  the  next  seven- 
teen years.    Once  only,  in  1868-69,  were  they 


IO 


West 


West 


again  in  America.  During  this  furlough  West 
sat  as  a  member  of  the  annual  meeting  of  the 
American  Board,  held  at  Norwich,  Conn.,  in 
October  1868.  He  also  read  a  paper  before  the 
Medical  Society  of  the  State  of  New  York,  en- 
titled "Medical  and  Surgical  Experience  in  Asia 
Minor,"  which  was  published  in  the  Society's 
Transactions  (1869).  His  first  letter  to  the 
board  refers  to  the  extent  of  his  medical  service 
in  i860.  It  included  "thousands  of  professional 
calls,"  one  hundred  surgical  operations,  and  as 
many  as  one  hundred  "prescriptions"  in  a  single 
day.  During  the  years  that  followed  he  con- 
tinued to  carry  this  heavy  burden  of  practice. 
His  surgical  work  involved  lithotomy,  and  oph- 
thalmic and  hernia  operations.  In  over  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  lithotomic  operations  there  were 
but  six  fatalities.  In  rendering  his  medical  serv- 
ice he  traveled  widely,  often  being  called  to 
Tokat,  Caesarea,  Marsovan,  Harput,  and  Erze- 
rum,  the  last-named  town  being  230  miles  from 
Sivas.  He  also  visited  Nicomedia  and  Adrian- 
ople,  and  was  everywhere  acclaimed  for  his  skill. 
He  gave  training  in  medicine  to  a  number  of 
young  Armenian  students  and  doctors,  some  of 
whom  entered  the  employ  of  the  Mission  or 
began  practice  in  distant  stations.  He  also  con- 
ducted Bible  classes  in  Sivas  in  the  language  of 
the  region,  Armeno-Turkish.  Many  of  his  med- 
ical fees  were  devoted  to  the  building  of  chapels 
in  various  stations. 

He  contracted  typhoid  pneumonia  and  died  in 
Sivas,  survived  by  his  widow ;  their  children 
had  all  died  in  infancy.  According  to  a  minute 
of  the  West  Turkey  Mission,  dated  April  1877 
(Missionary  Herald,  July  1877,  P-  227),  West 
was  "unassuming,  gentle  and  courteous  in  man- 
ner, firm  and  resolute  in  spirit,  of  integrity  never 
suspected."  He  had  the  high  respect  of  officials 
and  natives,  and  was  beloved  by  his  missionary 
associates  in  no  ordinary  degree. 

[.Statistics  of  the  Class  of  Yale,  1848  (1869)  ;  Ibid. 
(1898)  ;  Missionary  Herald,  July  1876,  July  1877  ;  Brit- 
ish Quarterly  Rev.,  Jan.  1878;  H.  A.  Kelly  and  W.  L. 
Burrage,  Am.  Medic.  Biogs.  (1920)  ;  John  Shrady,  The 
Coll.  of  Phys.  and  Surgeons  (n.d.),  vol.  II  ;  Trans. 
Medic.  Soc.  of  the  State  of  N.  Y.  (1877)  ;  records  of  the 
Am.  Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Missions.] 

J.  C.  Ar— r. 

WEST,  JOSEPH  (d.  1692?),  colonial  gov- 
ernor of  South  Carolina,  was  born  in  England 
and  left  his  wife  there,  when  he  sailed  for  Amer- 
ica. In  1669  he  was  made  agent  and  storekeeper 
for  the  proprietors,  deputy  for  the  Duke  of  Al- 
bemarle, and  placed  in  command  of  three  ves- 
sels sent  to  settle  Carolina,  after  the  first  attempt 
by  John  Yeamans  \_q.v.~]  failed.  His  selection  by 
the  proprietors  for  the  mission  shows  he  was  a 


man  of  some  importance  in  England.  The  ves- 
sels were  ordered  to  sail  by  way  of  Barbados  to 
Port  Royal,  where  the  new  plantation  was  to  be 
established.  When  they  arrived  at  Barbados, 
Sir  John  Yeamans,  leader  of  the  first  expedi- 
tion and  governor  in  name,  joined  the  fleet  and 
went  as  far  as  Bermuda,  where  he  withdrew 
after  appointing  William  Sayle  governor  by  au- 
thority of  the  proprietors.  Sayle,  assisted  by 
West,  led  the  settlers  to  the  Ashley  River,  and 
a  settlement  was  made  at  Albemarle  Point. 
When  Sayle  died  in  1671,  West  was  elected  gov- 
ernor by  the  Council  and  directed  the  colony 
through  a  trying  year,  in  which  there  was  a  great 
scarcity  of  provisions.  Under  his  wise  guidance, 
the  people  conserved  their  supplies.  Each  man 
was  required  to  plant  crops,  and  planting  and 
harvesting  were  emphasized  to  the  exclusion  of 
all  other  occupations.  He  pleased  the  settlers  in 
this  way  and  also  gained  favor  with  the  proprie- 
tors by  obtaining  the  passage  of  a  measure  to 
authorize  the  payments  of  debts  incurred  in  the 
settlement  of  Carolina.  His  authority  as  gov- 
ernor was  contested  in  1671  by  Sir  John  Yea- 
mans, who  had  come  to  the  colony  the  preceding 
year.  Yeamans  claimed  that  the  constitution  pro- 
vided that  only  a  proprietor  or  a  landgrave  could 
be  governor,  and  as  a  landgrave  he  was  the  only 
individual  in  the  colony  having  the  necessary 
qualifications.  West  was  supported  by  the  Coun- 
cil, who  unanimously  refused  to  remove  him 
without  an  express  order  from  the  proprietors. 
In  1672  such  an  order  was  received,  and  Yea- 
mans became  governor.  He  was  not  popular  and 
displeased  both  settlers  and  proprietors  by  his 
reckless  exportation  of  foodstuffs  to  Barbados 
for  his  own  advantage,  his  extravagance,  and 
his  apparent  subordination  of  the  interests  of 
Carolina  to  those  of  Barbados.  His  acts  con- 
trasted unfavorably  with  those  of  West,  who 
shone  by  comparison  and  was  credited  with  sav- 
ing the  colony  in  the  economic  crisis  of  1671. 
When  Yeamans  died  in  1674,  West  was  made  a 
landgrave  and  returned  to  the  governorship  by 
the  proprietors,  a  position  he  held  until  1682. 
During  his  administration  laws  regulating  the 
status  of  slaves,  servants,  and  the  militia  were 
passed,  and  the  center  of  settlement  was  moved 
in  1679  or  1680  from  Albemarle  Point  to  Oys- 
ter Point  at  the  junction  of  the  Ashley  and 
Cooper  rivers  and  was  known  as  New  Charles 
Town.  In  1682  the  name  became  Charles  Town 
and  so  continued  for  one  hundred  years  until  in 
1783  it  was  abbreviated  to  Charleston.  West 
was  removed  from  office  in  1682,  accused  of 
selling  and  sending  slaves  out  of  Carolina,  but 
was  reinstated  in  1684.  Some  time  between  June 


II 


West 


West 


15  and  July  12,  1685,  he  left  the  province,  and 
there  is  evidence  that  he  went  to  New  York  and 
died  there  before  1692. 

[Edward  McCrady,  The  Hist,  of  S.  C.  under  the 
Proprietary  Government,  1670-1719  (1897);  Alexan- 
der Hevvat,  An  Hist.  Account  of  .  .  .  S.  C.  (1779),  vol. 
I ;  W.  J.  Rivers,  A  Sketch  of  the  Hist,  of  S.  C.  (1856)  ; 
Great  Brit.  Calendar  of  State  Papers,  Colonial  Series, 
America  and  West  Indies,  1669-1674  (1889);  S.  C. 
Hist,  and  Geneal.  Mag.,  July  191 8,  Apr.  1919  ;  D.  N.  B. ; 
Correspondence  in  Public  Record  Office,  London.] 

H.B-C. 

WEST,  SAMUEL  (Mar.  3,  1730  o.s.-Sept.  24, 
1807),  clergyman,  author,  was  born  in  Yar- 
mouth, Mass.,  the  son  of  Dr.  Sackfield  and  Ruth 
(Jenkins)  West.  He  was  a  descendant  of  Fran- 
cis West  who  settled  in  Duxbury,  Mass.,  some 
time  before  1639.  Soon  after  Samuel's  birth  his 
family  moved  to  Barnstable,  and  here  he  received 
a  scanty  schooling.  He  worked  on  a  neighbor's 
farm  to  earn  enough  for  a  college  education  and 
was  graduated  at  Harvard  in  1754  after  a  bril- 
liant academic  career.  In  1756  he  went  to  Fal- 
mouth as  schoolmaster,  but  his  interest  in  the- 
ology led  him  to  enter  the  ministry  and  on  July 
3,  1761,  he  was  ordained  pastor  of  the  church  in 
what  was  then  a  part  of  Dartmouth,  Mass.,  but 
in  1787  was  incorporated  as  New  Bedford.  Here 
he  preached  without  interim  until  poor  health 
forced  his  retirement  in  1803.  In  1790  a  new 
church  was  erected  in  the  neighboring  town 
of  Fair  Haven,  and  West  preached  to  both 
churches  at  the  request  of  the  parishioners.  He 
became  familiar  early  with  the  writings  of  Cal- 
vin, Grotius,  Hobbes,  and  Dupin,  and  almost 
from  the  inception  of  his  ministerial  career 
preached  the  Arminian  doctrine  which  opened 
the  way  for  Unitarianism. 

During  the  Revolutionary  War  he  served  for 
a  period  as  chaplain.  The  service  that  gained 
him  most  renown  was  that  of  deciphering  for 
Washington  a  treasonable  code  letter  sent  by  Dr. 
Benjamin  Church  [q.r.]  and  intended  for  a  Brit- 
ish admiral  at  Newport.  After  working  all  night 
over  the  code,  West  found  the  key,  which  revealed 
that  the  letter  contained  valuable  information 
concerning  the  Continental  Army's  supplies, 
number  of  dead  and  wounded,  shipments  of  gun- 
powder to  Philadelphia,  and  other  matters  of 
importance  (Jared  Sparks,  The  Writings  of 
George  Washington,  vol.  Ill,  1834,  p.  502). 
Among  his  published  discourses  were  A  Sermon 
Preached  before  the  Honorable  Council  (1776), 
reprinted  in  J.  W.  Thornton,  The  Pulpit  of  the 
American  Revolution  (i860),  in  which  he  dealt 
summarily  with  the  tyrannical  attitude  of  Eng- 
land, declaring  that  "Tyranny  and  arbitrary 
power  are  utterly  inconsistent  with  and  subver- 
sive of  the  very  end  and  design  of  civil  govern- 


ment" (Thornton,  p.  274).  Another  of  his  dis- 
courses was  An  Anniversary  Sermon  Preached 
at  Plymouth,  Dec.  22d,  1777  ( 1778). 

After  the  war  West  engaged  in  the  Calvin- 
istic-Arminian  controversy,  both  in  the  pulpit 
and  through  publications.  He  preached  without 
notes,  and,  according  to  Alden  Bradford  (post, 
p.  426),  he  "had  a  good  measure  of  independence 
in  his  inquiries."  In  1793  he  published  Essays 
on  Liberty  and  Necessity,  an  enlarged  edition  of 
which  appeared  in  1795.  These  essays  were  a 
reply  to  the  views  of  Jonathan  Edwards  [g.v.], 
and  according  to  West  were  "penned  about 
twenty  years  ago."  His  chief  arguments  against 
Edwards  were  that  divine  prescience  does  not 
imply  the  necessity  of  future  events ;  that  self- 
determination  is  consistent  with  moral  agency ; 
that  the  Deity's  permission  of  sin  is  proof  for 
the  self-governing  power  of  men ;  and  that  voli- 
tion is  an  effect  which  has  a  cause.  Of  all  the 
replies  to  Edwards'  Freedom  of  the  Will,  West's 
was  most  thorough  and  most  persuasive.  He 
helped  to  widen  the  rift  that  had  already  ap- 
peared between  Calvinist  and  Arminian.  He 
was  much  interested  in  the  prophetic  portions  of 
the  Bible  and  was  convinced  that  they  contained 
predictions  of  the  course  of  events  in  the  Revo- 
lution (Sprague,  post,  pp.  39,  43).  He  was  also 
interested  in  alchemy  and  was  imposed  upon  by 
a  man  who  claimed  he  could  turn  salt  water  into 
fresh  (Ibid.,  44,  46). 

His  activities  in  civil  life  were  extensive.  He 
was  one  of  the  committee  appointed  to  frame  the 
Massachusetts  constitution,  and  was  a  delegate- 
at-large  to  the  convention  that  drew  up  the  fed- 
eral Constitution.  He  is  credited  with  having 
persuaded  Hancock  to  vote  for  the  latter  instru- 
ment (Ibid.,  pp.  40-41).  After  his  retirement 
in  1803  he  went  to  live  with  a  son  in  Tiverton, 
R.  I.,  where  he  died.  Throughout  his  life  he 
was  noted  for  his  absent-mindedness,  and  many 
stories  regarding  his  unconventional  appear- 
ances have  survived.  In  his  later  years  his  mem- 
ory failed  entirely.  He  was  married  first,  Mar. 
7,  1768,  to  Experience  Howland,  by  whom  he 
had  six  children;  she  died  in  1789,  and  in  Janu- 
ary 1790,  he  married  Lovisa  (Hathaway)  Jenne. 

[Alden  Bradford,  Biog.  Sketches  of  Distinguished 
Men  in  New  England  (1842)  ;  W.  B.  Sprague,  Annals 
of  the  Am.  Unitarian  Pulpit  (1865)  ;  S.  A.  Eliot,  Her- 
alds of  a  Liberal  Faith  (1910),  vol.  I  ;  Franklyn  How- 
land,  A  Hist,  of  the  Town  of  Acushnct  (1907)  ;  Letta 
B.  Stone,  The  West  Family  Register  (1928).] 

E.H.D. 

WEST,  WILLIAM  EDWARD  (Dec.  10, 
1788-Nov.  2,  1857),  portrait  painter,  was  born 
in  Lexington,  Ky.,  the  son  of  Edward  West,  a 
watchmaker  and  inventor,  a  man  of  uncommon 


12 


Westcott 


Westcott 


mechanical  talents.  According  to  James  Reid 
Lambdin  [q.v.],  young  West  began  by  painting 
miniatures.  Several  years  later  he  went  to  Phil- 
adelphia to  study  under  Thomas  Sully  [q.v.]. 
He  spent  a  number  of  years  after  that  at  Natchez, 
Tenn.,  where  he  painted  many  of  the  best  of  his 
early  pictures.  In  1822,  under  the  patronage  of 
a  resident  of  Nashville,  he  went  to  Europe,  and 
soon  won  widespread  celebrity  through  his  por- 
trait of  Lord  Byron,  painted  at  Leghorn.  (For 
West's  account  of  the  sittings,  see  Thomas 
Moore,  Letters  and  Journals  of  Lord  Byron, 
1885,  vol.  II,  pp.  414-15).  During  the  sittings 
for  a  portrait  of  the  Countess  Guiccioli,  which 
followed  that  of  Byron,  West  is  said  to  have  met 
Shelley  and  Leigh  Hunt.  In  England,  where  he 
went  next,  he  painted  a  number  of  portraits,  in- 
cluding that  of  Mrs.  Hemans.  According  to  the 
letters  of  Washington  Irving,  who  visited  him 
there,  West  was  in  Paris  in  the  winter  of  1824- 
25.  He  exhibited  at  the  Royal  Academy,  chiefly 
portraits,  from  1826  to  1833,  and  in  other  Lon- 
don exhibitions  until  1837,  but  by  1840  had  re- 
turned to  America.  He  appears  in  New  York 
City  directories  from  1840  to  1850  and  again  in 
1852.  In  his  later  years  he  went  once  more  to 
Nashville,  where  he  died. 

Almost  until  the  day  of  his  death  he  was  en- 
gaged in  painting.  His  first  successful  pieces 
were  illustrations  for  Washington  Irving's  "The 
Pride  of  the  Village"  and  "Annette  Delarbre," 
but  according  to  Henry  Theodore  Tuckerman 
[q.v.~\  he  excelled  in  "fancy  cabinet  portraits." 
Among  his  more  ambitious  works  were  portraits 
of  G.  H.  Calvert  and  Thomas  Swann.  "The  Con- 
fessional," said  to  be  a  favorite  of  Irving's,  is  in 
the  collection  of  the  New  York  Historical  So- 
ciety. West  was  an  intimate  friend  of  Charles 
Robert  Leslie,  Washington  Irving  [qq.z\~\,  and 
Sir  David  Wilkie. 

[William  Dunlop,  A  Hist,  of  the  Rise  and  Progress 
of  the  Arts  of  Design  in  the  U.S.  (3  vols.,  1918),  ed.  by 
F.  W.  Bayley  and  C.  E.  Goodspeed  ;  H.  T.  Tuckerman, 
Book  of  the  Artists  (1867)  ;  The  Life  and  Letters  of 
Washington  Irving,  vol.  II  (1862),  p.  228;  Algernon 
Graves,  The  Royal  Acad.  .  .  .  Diet,  of  Contributors,  vol. 
VIII  (1906)  and  A  Diet,  of  Artists  .  .  .  London  Exhibi- 
tions from  1760  to  1893  (1901)  ;  Nashville  Union  and 
American,  Nov.  3,  1857.]  W.  H.  D. 

WESTCOTT,  EDWARD  NOYES  (Sept.  27, 

1846-Mar.  31,  1898),  author  and  banker,  was 
born  in  Syracuse,  N.  Y.,  the  third  child  of  Amos 
and  Clara  (Babcock)  Westcott  (Stephen  Bab- 
cock,  Babcock  Genealogy,  1903,  p.  259).  His 
father  was  a  dentist  and  the  first  president  of  the 
New  York  State  Dental  Society.  Edward  at- 
tended the  Syracuse  schools  until  he  was  six- 
teen, and  then  became  a  junior  clerk  in  the  Me- 
chanics' Bank  of  Syracuse.  From  1866  to  1868 


he  worked  in  the  New  York  office  of  the  Mutual 
Life  Insurance  Company,  returning  to  Syracuse 
to  become  discount  clerk  in  the  Second  National 
Bank.  After  its  dissolution  he  was  a  teller  in 
the  First  National  Bank,  and  later  cashier  of 
Wilkinson  &  Company,  bankers.  In  1880  he  or- 
ganized the  firm  of  Westcott  &  Abbott,  bankers 
and  brokers,  which  flourished  until  it  was  in- 
volved in  the  failure  of  Wilkinson  &  Company. 
Westcott  then  became  secretary  to  the  Syracuse 
Water  Commission,  serving  until  June  1895, 
when  failing  health  compelled  him  to  retire.  In 
1874  he  married  Jane  Dows  of  Buffalo,  who  at 
her  death  in  1890  left  two  sons  and  a  daughter. 

The  summer  of  1895  Westcott  spent  at  Lake 
Meacham  in  the  Adirondacks,  where,  suffering 
from  tuberculosis,  he  began  the  work  by  which 
he  is  chiefly  known — David  Harum,  A  Story  of 
American  Life.  The  nucleus  of  the  story — 
David's  cancellation  of  the  Widow  Cullom's 
mortgage  (chapters  xix-xxiv) — was  complet- 
ed there.  The  latter  part  of  the  winter  of  1895- 
96  he  spent  near  Naples  at  Alexander  Henry 
Davis'  home  overlooking  the  Bay,  the  Villa 
Violante  of  Dazid  Harum.  Through  the  follow- 
ing fifteen  months  of  illness  and  increasing 
weakness,  Westcott  continued  with  genuine  de- 
light to  recount  David's  adventures  and  remarks, 
and  towards  the  end  of  1896  completed  them. 
After  thorough  revision  the  manuscript  began 
its  now  proverbial  rounds  to  New  York,  Boston, 
and  Chicago,  being  refused  by  six  well-known 
publishers.  "It's  vulgar  and  smells  of  the  sta- 
bles," commented  one  publisher's  reader.  On 
Dec.  2^,  1897,  the  manuscript  was  received  by 
D.  Appleton  &  Company,  and  was  accepted  by 
Ripley  Hitchcock  on  Jan.  17,  1898,  in  a  cordial 
letter  to  the  author.  To  abridgment  and  slight 
rearrangement  the  author  consented,  conscious 
that  publication  would  probably  be  posthumous. 
He  died  on  Mar.  31,  not  suspecting  that  appreci- 
ation and  fame  were  near. 

Six  months  later,  Sept.  23,  1898,  David  Harum 
was  published.  Its  popularity  was  immediate  and 
prolonged.  By  Jan.  1,  1899,  the  book  was  in  its 
sixth  large  printing,  and  by  Feb.  1,  1901,  after 
two  years  at  or  near  the  top  of  the  lists  of  best 
sellers,  over  400,000  copies  had  been  sold,  a  rec- 
ord then  surpassed  only  by  In  His  Steps  and 
Trilby.  Thirty-five  years  after  its  appearance 
more  than  a  million  copies  had  been  sold,  and, 
for  the  most  of  this  period,  of  books  published 
in  America  it  stood  second  in  popularity  only 
to  Quo  Vadis.  In  1900  David  Harum  was  dram- 
atized, William  H.  Crane  \q.v.]  playing  David 
for  more  than  two  years.  Crane  also  played  the 
leading  role  in  a  motion-picture  version.   West- 


l3 


Westcott 


Western 


cott's  short  story,  The  Teller,  in  which  mas- 
querades the  John  Lenox  of  David  Harum,  was 
published,  along  with  a  selection  from  his  let- 
ters, in  1901.  Two  poems,  "Sonnet"  and  "Cha- 
cun  a  son  bon  Gout,"  appeared  in  Harper's  Mag- 
azine, January  1900.  He  wrote  occasionally  on 
matters  of  current  political  and  financial  inter- 
est, and  prepared  wholly  or  in  part  some  of  the 
pamphlets  issued  by  the  Reform  Club  of  New 
York,  of  which  he  was  a  member.  Westcott's 
avocation  was  music.  An  excellent  singer,  he 
also  composed  the  words  and  music  for  several 
songs. 

[The  Syracuse  Pub.  Lib.  published  in  19 18  a  pam- 
phlet listing  the  contents  of  its  unique  Westcott  col- 
lection. The  following  items  in  this  collection  are  espe- 
cially notable  :  Violet  Westcott  Morawetz's  scrapbook 
of  clippings  ;  Forbes  Heermans'  scrapbook  ;  typewrit- 
ten copies  of  the  original  MS.  of  David  Harum  ;  and 
The  Teller  .  .  .  with  the  Letters  of  Edward  Noyes 
Westcott  .  .  .  and  an  Account  of  His  Life  (1901)  ;  also 
letters,  genealogy,  portraits,  etc.  A  heated  correspond- 
ence concerning  Westcott  ran  in  the  N.  Y.  Times:  Sat- 
urday Rev.  of  Books  and  Art,  Oct.  22,  1898-Dec.  23, 
1899.  Articles  about  Westcott  appeared  in  Book  News, 
May  1899;  Critic,  July  1899,  and  Academy,  Sept.  16, 
1899.  P.  M.  Paine  of  Syracuse  and  others  have  fur- 
nished information.]  B.  H. 

WESTCOTT,  THOMPSON  (June  5,  1820- 
May  8,  1888),  historian  of  Philadelphia,  lawyer, 
journalist,  the  son  of  Charles  and  Hannah 
(Davis)  Westcott,  was  born  in  Philadelphia, 
where  his  father  was  a  hatter.  He  received  his 
early  education  in  the  English  school  conducted 
by  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  and  when 
about  twelve  entered  the  office  of  a  Philadelphia 
conveyancer,  Charles  M.  Page.  He  advanced 
so  rapidly  in  his  employer's  service  that  when 
he  was  but  seventeen  he  became  a  partner.  Two 
years  later  he  began  to  study  law  under  Henry 
M.  Phillips,  and  on  Nov.  10,  1841,  was  admitted 
to  the  Philadelphia  bar.  He  continued  in  the 
conveyancing  business  for  a  short  period,  and 
then  devoted  himself  to  his  law  practice. 

Becoming  interested  in  literary  pursuits,  he 
began  to  write  humorous  stories  for  the  St.  Louis 
Reveille,  the  Evening  Mirror  of  New  York,  and 
the  Knickerbocker,  or  New-York  Monthly  Mag- 
azine. His  stories  were  signed  with  the  nom  de 
plume  "Joe  Miller,  Jr.,"  and  the  only  remunera- 
tion he  received  for  writing  them  was  the  joy 
of  seeing  them  in  print.  In  1846  he  became  law 
reporter  for  the  Philadelphia  Public  Ledger  and 
continued  to  serve  as  such  until  1851.  In  May 
1848,  although  he  had  seen  several  disastrous  at- 
tempts at  Sunday  journalism  in  his  native  city, 
he  undertook  to  edit  the  Sunday  Dispatch.  Its 
first  number,  which  appeared  May  14,  1848,  con- 
tained only  two  advertisements,  and  the  entire 
proceeds  from  its  sales  were  twenty-eight  cents. 
Westcott  was  the  entire  staff,  and  continued  to 


do  all  of  the  editorial  labor  for  several  years. 
The  Dispatch  provoked  earnest  and  influential 
opposition  from  those  who  objected  to  a  news- 
paper being  published  on  Sunday,  but  it  was 
continued  with  increasing  patronage,  even 
though  newsboys  were  arrested  for  selling  it, 
and  at  the  end  of  the  first  year  it  carried  ten 
columns  of  advertisements,  and  was  gaining  in 
influence.  While  its  strong,  independent  policy 
contributed  to  its  success,  Westcott  made  it  of 
local  interest,  also,  by  a  feature  then  new  to  jour- 
nalism :  he  wrote  for  it  several  historical  series 
that  made  it  extremely  valuable,  and  engaged 
other  writers  to  contribute  series  of  a  similar 
nature.  Foremost  of  Westcott's  series  was  his 
"History  of  Philadelphia;  from  the  Time  of  the 
First  Settlements  on  the  Delaware  to  the  Con- 
solidation of  the  City  and  Districts  in  1854." 
This  series  was  begun  Jan.  6,  1867,  and  when 
the  editor  left  the  paper,  Apr.  26,  1884,  he  had 
brought  the  narrative  down  only  to  the  year 
1829.  In  addition  to  editing  the  Dispatch,  he 
became,  in  1863,  an  editorial  writer  for  the 
Philadelphia  Inquirer,  continuing  as  such  until 
May  1869,  during  part  of  which  period  he  also 
wrote  for  the  Philadelphia  Commercial  List. 
He  edited  the  Old  Franklin  Almanac  from  i860 
to  1872,  and  the  Public  Ledger  Almanac  from 
1870  until  within  a  year  or  two  of  his  death. 

For  a  short  time  after  leaving  the  Dispatch 
he  was  on  the  editorial  staff  of  the  Philadelphia 
Record.  He  was  the  author  of  several  books,  but 
is  principally  remembered  as  one  of  the  authors 
of  J.  T.  Scharf  and  Thompson  Westcott's  His- 
tory of  Philadelphia  (3  vols.,  1884),  the  most 
comprehensive  account  of  that  city  that  had  ap- 
peared. Other  books  published  by  Westcott 
were:  Life  of  John  Fitch,  Inventor  of  the  Steam- 
boat (1857)  !  Chronicles  of  the  Great  Rebellion 
(1867);  Official  Guide  Book  of  Philadelphia 
(1875,  1876)  ;  Historic  Mansions  and  Buildings 
of  Philadelphia  (1877).  As  a  student  of  history 
Westcott  did  an  enormous  amount  of  independ- 
ent research  work,  the  bulk  of  which  was  reflect- 
ed in  his  numerous  articles  in  the  Dispatch.  In 
the  field  to  which  he  confined  himself  he  was 
regarded  as  authority.   He  died  in  Philadelphia. 

[Public  Ledger  (Phila.),  May  9,  1888;  E.  H.  Mun- 
day,  "The  Press  of  Phila.  in  1870:  Sunday  Dispatch," 
in  The  Proof -Sheet,  Nov.  1870  ;  Joseph  Jackson,  Encyc. 
of  Phila.,  vol.  IV  (1933)-]  J.  J. 

WESTERN,  LUCILLE  (Jan.  8,  1843- Jan.  11, 
1877),  actress,  was  one  of  two  sisters  who  rose 
from  the  most  inferior  ranks  of  the  stage  to  as- 
tonishing popularity  and  celebrity.  In  their  ear- 
lier days  they  were  billed  as  "the  Star  Sisters," 
the  younger,  Helen,  dying  in  Washington,  D.  C, 


H 


Western 

Dec.  II,  1868  (New  York  Clipper,  post).  Lucille 
Western  (whose  name  was  originally  Pauline 
Lucille)  continued  during  eight  years  thereafter 
to  be  a  conspicuous  and  in  many  ways  a  tem- 
pestuous figure  on  the  American  stage.  She  and 
her  sister  were  born  in  New  Orleans,  the  daugh- 
ters of  George  Western,  a  comedian,  and  of  an 
actress  who  became  known  after  her  second  mar- 
riage to  William  B.  English,  an  actor  and  play- 
wright, as  Mrs.  Jane  English.  Both  Lucille  and 
Helen  were  on  the  stage  almost  from  their  in- 
fancy, being  exploited  throughout  their  child- 
hood by  their  mother  and  stepfather.  As  early 
as  1849,  Lucille  was  dancing  at  the  National 
Theatre  in  Boston,  and  for  some  seasons  both 
the  sisters  were  acting  and  dancing  in  the  thea- 
tres of  the  New  England  circuit,  in  New  York, 
and  elsewhere,  in  a  curious  hodgepodge  sort  of 
entertainment  known  as  The  Three  Fast  Men, 
or,  the  Female  Robinson  Crusoes,  its  only  merit 
being  the  opportunity  it  gave  them  to  show 
their  skill  at  rapid  changes  of  costume  and  at  the 
clever  and  farcical  impersonation  of  mode  char- 
acters. One  of  its  features  was  a  female  minstrel 
scene. 

When  Lucille  grew  to  maturity,  her  forte  be- 
came the  acting  of  emotional  roles.  From  season 
to  season  she  reached  New  York  again  and  again 
on  her  tours  throughout  the  country,  and  she 
thus  acquired  a  wide  repute  at  an  early  age.  She 
was  not  long  past  her  twentieth  year  when  she 
made  herself  famous  in  a  great  variety  of  char- 
acters designed  especially  to  reveal  a  range  of 
feminine  emotions  and  passions,  some  of  the 
more  important  being  the  dual  roles  of  Lady  Isa- 
bel and  Madame  Vine  in  East  Lynne,  Camille, 
Lucretia  Borgia,  Leah  the  Forsaken,  Cynthia 
in  Flowers  of  the  Forest,  Peg  Woffington  in 
Masks  and  Faces,  and  Mrs.  Haller  in  The 
Stranger.  One  of  her  most  popular  and  famous 
impersonations  was  of  Nancy  in  Oliver  Twist, 
and  during  two  or  three  seasons  she  was  a  lead- 
ing figure  in  a  triple-star  cast  that  included  Ed- 
ward L.  Davenport  [^.^.]  as  Bill  Sikes,  and  the 
younger  James  W.  Wallack  [q.v.~\  as  Fagin. 
With  Davenport,  she  also  played  the  Queen  in 
Hamlet,  and  the  dual  roles  in  East  Lynne.  She 
had  been  in  ill  health  for  some  time,  but  per- 
sisted in  a  continuance  of  her  tours  until  early 
in  1877  she  reached  Brooklyn,  where  after  act- 
ing Nancy  in  Oliver  Twist  through  a  Wednes- 
day matinee,  she  was  compelled  to  abandon  her 
engagement  at  the  Park  Theatre  in  that  city, 
dying  at  her  hotel  the  following  evening  of 
pneumonia.  She  had  married  James  Harrison 
Meade  of  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  in  1859,  and  was  later 
separated  from  him. 


Westervelt 

Lucille  Western  was  one  of  the  many  way- 
ward geniuses  of  the  stage,  striking  and  appeal- 
ing in  everything  she  did,  but  impulsive  rather 
than  artistic.  In  her  interpretation  of  character 
she  was  emotional  on  the  stage  for  the  simple 
reason  that  she  was  always  herself  temperamen- 
tally emotional.  She  has  been  described  by  one  of 
her  fellow  actors  as  having  features  somewhat 
of  a  Jewish  cast,  with  eyes  a  peculiar  gray  that 
seemed  at  times  a  bright  black  and  lustrous 
(Rogers,  post,  p.  537).  Had  it  not  been  for  her 
spendthrift  habits  she  might  have  amassed  a 
large  fortune  as  a  result  of  her  great  popular 
success  on  the  stage. 

[See  G.  C.  D.  Odell,  Annals  of  the  New  York  Stage, 
vol.  VII  (1931)  ;  H.  P.  Phelps,  Players  of  a  Century. 
a  Record  of  the  Albany  Stage  (1880)  ;  T.  A.  Brown, 
A-Hist.  of  the  N.  Y.  Stage  (3  vols.,  1903)  ;  J.  B.  Clapp 
and  E.  F.  Edgett,  Players  of  the  Present  (3  vols.,  1899- 
1901),  N.  Y.  Clipper,  Jan.  20,  1877,  a  valuable  source 
from  which  the  date  of  birth  is  taken  ;  N.  Y.  Times,  Feb. 
27,  1876,  Jan.  12,  1877  (obituary)  ;  TV.  Y.  Dramatic 
Mirror,  Apr.  23,  1898;  B.  G.  Rogers,  in  Theatre,  Dec. 
22,  1888.]  E.F.E. 

WESTERVELT,  JACOB  AARON  (Jan.  20, 
1800-Feb.  21,  1879),  shipbuilder,  mayor  of  New 
York  City,  was  born  in  Tenafly,  N.  J.,  the  son 
of  Aaron  Westervelt  who  had  married  his  cousin, 
Vroutie  Westervelt.  He  was  descended  from 
Lubbert  Lubbertson  van  Westervelt  who  had 
come  from  Meppel  on  the  Zuider  Zee  with  his 
brother  Willem  to  New  Amsterdam  in  the  Hoop 
in  1662.  They  had  settled  in  Bergen  County, 
N.  J.,  around  Hackensack.  Aaron,  a  farmer  in 
comfortable  circumstances,  removed  to  New 
York  City  in  1805,  where  Jacob  attended  the  pri- 
vate school  of  James  P.  Forrester  until  his  fa- 
ther's death.  Attracted  to  the  sea,  he  took  a  spe- 
cial course  in  surveying  and  navigation,  but 
voyages  to  Charleston,  S.  C,  and  France  quickly 
disillusioned  him  about  the  glamor  of  a  sailor's 
life.  He  began  his  long  shipbuilding  career  in 
1817  when  he  became  apprenticed  to  Christian 
Bergh  [q.v.~\,  who  ranked  with  Henry  Eckford 
[q.z>.]  at  the  head  of  New  York's  East  River 
shipbuilders.  In  1820,  Bergh  released  him  to  go 
to  Charleston  where,  with  slave  labor,  he  built 
two  schooners.  Returning  to  New  York  in  1822, 
Westervelt,  together  with  Robert  Carnley,  be- 
came a  silent  partner  of  Bergh  until  1835, 
when  Bergh  retired.  During  that  time,  the 
yard  on  Corlear's  Hook  turned  out  seventy-one 
vessels,  including  several  of  the  transatlantic 
packets  which  were  the  crack  ships  of  the  day. 
Their  packets  included  the  Montana  (1822)  ; 
Paris  (1823)  ;  Edward  Bonaffc  (1824)  ;  France 
(1827)  ;  Rhone,  Nashville  and  President  ( 1831")  : 
Philadelphia  ( 1832)  ;  Montreal  and  Utica  ( 1833)  ; 
and  Toronto  (1835). 


is 


Westervelt 

A  year  with  Carnley  in  Europe  enabled  Wes- 
tervelt to  study  the  most  advanced  methods  of 
shipbuilding,  and  when  he  returned  he  entered 
a  short-lived  partnership  with  Nathan  Roberts, 
and  built  two  ships  across  the  East  River  at  Wil- 
liamsburg. In  1841,  he  entered  his  third  part- 
nership, this  time  with  William  Mackey.  This 
lasted  about  ten  years.  Westervelt  built  on  his 
own  account  for  a  while  and  then,  in  1859,  his 
son  Daniel  became  the  active  managing  part- 
ner for  his  father  until  the  latter's  retirement 
in  1868.  Much  of  Westervelt's  building  was 
done  around  the  old  Bergh  site  on  Corlear's 
Hook.  From  1821  to  1868,  he  is  said  to  have 
built  247  vessels  of  all  descriptions,  including 
174  seagoing  vessels  with  a  total  tonnage  of 
1 39>369.  These  included  at  least  ninety-one 
ships  and  thirty-six  steamers.  Among  the  East 
River  shipbuilders  of  the  second  quarter  of  the 
century,  he  might  be  ranked  second  to  William 
H.  Webb  and  just  ahead  of  Jacob  Bell  [qq.v.~\. 

Continuing  at  first  with  packets,  Westervelt 
built  the  Baltimore  (1836),  Oneida  (1841),  and 
Devonshire  (1847).  His  first  important  steam- 
ships were  the  1700-ton  Washington  and  West 
Point  in  1847.  The  golden  years  of  clipper  con- 
struction found  Westervelt,  like  Webb  and  Bell, 
working  overtime.  He  produced  the  N.  B. 
Palmer,  Eureka,  Hornet,  and  Golden  Gate  in 
1851 ;  Golden  City  and  Contest  in  1852;  and 
Golden  State,  Resolute,  and  Kathay  in  1853.  In 
1856,  he  made  a  ninety-five-day  trip  to  San  Fran- 
cisco in  the  Sweepstakes,  built  by  his  sons  in 

1853.  His  son  Aaron  also  built  the  Aramingo  in 
1851.  Except  for  the  Eureka,  sharp  and  unpopu- 
lar, the  Westervelt  clippers  were  highly  satis- 
factory, though  none  attained  the  perfection  of 
certain  McKay  and  Webb  productions.    About 

1854,  he  contracted  to  build  the  United  States 
steam  frigate  Brooklyn  and  during  the  Civil 
War  he  built  the  hulls  for  several  gunboats. 

In  1852,  during  the  height  of  his  clipper  con- 
struction, he  was  elected  mayor  of  New  York 
City  on  the  Democratic  ticket,  serving  through 
1854.  In  1870,  after  his  retirement,  he  became 
superintendent  of  docks  and  from  1873  to  his 
death,  he  was  president  of  the  dock  commission- 
ers. He  also  served  many  years  as  president  of 
the  Society  of  Mechanics  and  Tradesmen.  He 
was  a  member  of  the  South  Reformed  Church  in 
New  York.  On  Apr.  25,  1825,  he  was  married  to 
Eliza  M.  Thompson,  who  bore  him  five  sons 
and  three  daughters. 

[W.  T.  Westervelt,  Geneal.  of  the  Westervelt  Fam- 
ily (1905)  ;  J.  H.  Morrison,  Hist,  of  N.  Y.  Shipyards 
(1909)  ;  "The  Old  Shipbuilders  of  New  York,"  Har- 
per's Mag.,  July  1882;  O.  T.  Howe,  F.  C.  Matthews, 
Am.  Clipper  Ships   (2  vols.,   1926-27)  ;  C.  C.  Cutler, 


Westinghouse 

Greyhounds  of  the  Sea  (1930)  ;  A.  H.  Clark,  The  Clip- 
per Ship  Era  (1910);  H.  I.  Chappelle,  Hist,  of  Am. 
Sailing  Ships   (1935);  N.   Y.  Herald,  Feb.  22,   1879.] 

R.G.A. 

WESTINGHOUSE,  GEORGE  (Oct.  6, 
1846-Mar.  12,  1914),  inventor,  manufacturer, 
was  born  at  Central  Bridge,  N.  Y.,  the  eighth  of 
ten  children  of  George  and  Emeline  (Vedder) 
Westinghouse.  His  father,  a  manufacturer  of 
agricultural  implements  at  Schenectady,  N.  Y., 
came  of  Westphalian  stock,  settled  for  three  gen- 
erations in  New  England;  his  mother  was  of 
Dutch-English  ancestry.  At  the  age  of  fifteen 
young  George  ran  away  to  the  Civil  War,  but 
was  brought  home  by  parental  authority ;  at  six- 
teen and  a  half,  however,  he  was  permitted  to 
enlist  in  the  Union  army;  late  in  1864  he  was 
honorably  discharged  and  joined  the  navy,  being 
mustered  out  in  1865  with  the  grade  of  acting 
third-assistant  engineer.  For  three  months  that 
fall  he  attended  Union  College,  Schenectady,  as 
a  sophomore,  but  soon  returned  to  his  father's 
shop  to  resume  his  contacts  with  machinery  and 
inventions.  On  Oct.  31,  1865,  he  had  obtained 
his  first  patent,  for  a  rotary  steam  engine ;  later, 
finding  it  impractical,  he  made  use  of  the  same 
principle  in  a  water  meter.  In  1865  he  also  se- 
cured patents  on  a  car-replacer  for  putting  de- 
railed freight  cars  onto  the  track,  and  in  1868 
and  1869  he  developed  a  railroad  frog.  Mean- 
while, on  Aug.  8,  1867,  he  married  Marguerite 
Erskine  Walker.  Their  only  child  was  a  son, 
George  Westinghouse,  third. 

It  was  in  the  railroad  field  that  Westinghouse 
made  his  first  major  contribution.  On  Apr.  13, 
1869,  when  he  was  still  under  twenty-three,  the 
first  air-brake  patent  was  issued  to  him,  and  on 
Sept.  28,  1869,  the  Westinghouse  Air  Brake 
Company  was  incorporated  under  the  laws  of 
Pennsylvania.  Twenty  or  more  air-brake  pat- 
ents were  subsequently  awarded  as  the  automatic 
features  were  developed.  This  invention  was  of 
revolutionary  importance ;  it  made  high-speed 
railroad  travel  safe  by  replacing  the  tedious  proc- 
ess of  tightening  down  brakes  on  each  car,  as 
had  previously  been  necessary,  and  enabling  the 
engine  driver,  from  his  cab,  to  slow  down  and 
stop  the  train  at  will.  As  the  air  brake's  signifi- 
cance developed,  Westinghouse  saw  the  advis- 
ability of  making  all  air-brake  apparatus  stand- 
ardized and  interchangeable,  so  that  apparatus 
on  cars  of  different  roads  would  work  together, 
and  improved  brake  systems  could  be  used  with 
earlier  models.  Thus  Westinghouse  was  one 
of  the  first  industrialists  to  apply  modern  stand- 
ardization of  equipment. 

As  the  air-brake  system  took  form,  Westing- 


[ 


Westinghouse 


house  saw  the  need  for  adequate  railroad  signals. 
In  1880  he  began  to  purchase  signal  and  inter- 
locking switch  patents  which  he  combined  with 
his  own  inventions  until  a  complete  signal  sys- 
tem had  been  developed.  In  1882  the  Union 
Switch  &  Signal  Company  was  organized,  with 
headquarters  in  Pittsburgh.  Early  in  this  work, 
the  importance  of  electrical  control  of  signals 
came  to  be  recognized,  and  it  was  undoubtedly 
this  association  with  electrical  circuits  that  led 
Westinghouse  to  his  interest  in  electrical  proc- 
esses and  inventions.  During  the  decade  1880- 
90  he  took  out  more  than  125  patents,  in  such 
diverse  fields  as  air-brakes,  signals,  natural-gas 
production  and  control,  and  electrical  power 
transmission  and  utilization,  and  organized,  in 
addition  to  the  two  companies  already  men- 
tioned, the  Westinghouse  Brake  Company,  Ltd., 
in  Great  Britain,  the  Philadelphia  Company 
(natural  gas),  the  Westinghouse  Machine  Com- 
pany, and  the  Westinghouse  Electric  Company, 
as  well  as  several  companies  in  Europe. 

In  1883,  when  the  attention  of  Westinghouse 
was  attracted  to  natural  gas,  this  fuel  was  al- 
ready being  brought  into  Pittsburgh  in  a  crude 
manner  which  led  to  many  dangerous  accidents. 
Applying  his  special  knowledge  of  compressed- 
air  problems,  Westinghouse  in  two  years  had 
applied  for  some  thirty-eight  patents  on  appara- 
tus for  the  transmission  of  natural  gas.  He  de- 
veloped a  pressure  system  of  transmission  by 
which  the  gas  was  first  conducted  through  eight- 
inch  lines,  then  the  diameter  was  stepped  up  to 
ten  inches  as  the  pressure  fell,  and  so  on  through 
twelve,  twenty,  twenty-four,  and  thirty  inches, 
with  successively  lower  pressure  stages.  This 
natural-gas  experiment,  in  which  Westinghouse 
continued  during  its  period  of  technical  develop- 
ment, prepared  his  active  mind  for  the  rapid 
comprehension  of  the  principles  of  "high  volt- 
age," "step-up"  and  "step-down"  transformers 
and  "low-tension  distribution"  of  electricity 
which  inventors  like  Gaulard,  Gibbs,  and  Tesla 
were  later  to  expound  to  him. 

In  1885  Westinghouse  heard  of  the  inven- 
tions of  Gaulard  and  Gibbs,  in  France,  by  which 
single-phase  alternating  currents  could  be  trans- 
mitted at  high  voltage  over  very  small  wires, 
and  then,  by  "secondary  generators"  or  trans- 
formers, stepped  down  to  lower  voltages  for  lo- 
cal distribution.  He  immediately  secured  a  set 
of  transformers  and  a  Siemens  alternating-cur- 
rent generator  from  Europe,  and  set  up  a  system 
in  Pittsburgh.  At  the  same  time  he  enlisted  the 
services  of  three  young  electrical  engineers, 
William  Stanley  [q.v.~\,  Albert  Schmid,  and  O. 
B.  Shallenberger,  and  asked  them  to  build  trans- 


Westinghouse 

formers  suitable  for  American  conditions.  Un- 
der his  driving  energy,  the  task  was  completed 
during  the  first  three  weeks  of  December  1885, 
and  the  Stanley  "shell-type"  transformer  was 
ready  for  manufacture — in  contradistinction  to 
the  Gaulard  and  Gibbs  "core-type"  transformer. 
Stanley  also  introduced  the  improvement  of  ar- 
ranging his  transformers  in  parallel,  with  con- 
stant voltage  across  the  supply  circuit,  whereas 
the  Gaulard  and  Gibbs  system,  as  purchased  by 
Westinghouse,  contemplated  operating  the  trans- 
formers in  series.  On  Jan.  8,  1886,  the  Westing- 
house Electric  Company  was  incorporated,  but 
when  the  new  high-voltage  alternating-current 
single-phase  system  was  ready  for  the  market, 
it  was  immediately  attacked  by  many  experi- 
enced electrical  men  as  being  both  dangerous  and 
deadly.  Ordinances  were  passed  forbidding  the 
high-tension  currents  to  be  carried  along  the 
streets  of  cities  and  towns,  and  then,  as  a  final 
brilliant  stroke,  the  opposition  succeeded  in  hav- 
ing a  standard  Westinghouse  alternator  pur- 
chased as  the  official  means  of  state  execution 
at  Albany,  N.  Y.,  thus  adding  electrocution  to 
the  known  methods  of  capital  punishment  as  the 
outgrowth  of  a  commercial  war  against  the  new 
alternating  current.  Some  fifty  years  later,  how- 
ever, probably  ninety-seven  per  cent,  of  all  the 
electricity  produced  was  transmitted  as  alter- 
nating current,  fulfilling  the  Westinghouse  vi- 
sion engendered  by  the  crude  iron  spools  and 
copper  coils  imported  from  the  Gaulard  and 
Gibbs  laboratories. 

In  1886,  however,  although  the  new  alter- 
nating-current system  was  adapted  to  light  lamps, 
it  was  not  adapted  to  run  motors,  and  there 
were  no  meters  to  measure  the  electricity  sup- 
plied to  customers.  Again  Westinghouse  en- 
listed his  lieutenants,  and  the  meter  problem  was 
solved  by  Shallenberger,  who  developed  an  in- 
duction meter  to  operate  on  alternating  current, 
and  even  had  the  nucleus  of  a  motor  to  exhibit 
to  Westinghouse  when  the  latter  called  to  his  aid 
a  young  man  from  Budapest,  Nikola  Tesla,  who 
had  already  patented  a  form  of  alternating-cur- 
rent motor  of  the  polyphase  type.  Westinghouse 
purchased  the  Tesla  patents,  and  then  hired  the 
inventor  to  improve  his  system,  and  after  a  long 
period  of  study,  engineering  adaptation,  and 
compromise,  a  two-phase  system  was  developed 
satisfactory  for  both  lamps  and  motors.  Mean- 
while actual  experiments  in  high-tension  trans- 
mission were  carried  on.  The  first,  conducted 
by  Stanley  at  Great  Barrington,  Mass.,  in  1886, 
lighted  a  number  of  dwellings  and  shops.  Later, 
at  Lawrenceville,  a  suburb  of  Pittsburgh,  400 
lamps  were  supplied  with  power  over  a  2,000- 


17 


Westinghouse 

volt  transmission  line  from  the  center  of  Pitts- 
burgh. 

Shortly  afterwards,  in  1889,  came  the  removal 
of  the  Westinghouse  air-brake  works  from  Al- 
legheny to  the  Turtle  Creek  Valley  at  Wilmer- 
ding,  east  of  Pittsburgh.  Here  Westinghouse 
undertook  to  build  a  model  factory  and  model 
town,  patterned  after  industrial  towns  abroad. 
Some  time  later,  the  Electric  Company  was 
moved  from  Garrison  Alley,  Pittsburgh,  to  the 
Turtle  Creek  Valley  at  East  Pittsburgh,  where 
the  Machine  Company  works  were  also  estab- 
lished. Meanwhile  other  Westinghouse  enter- 
prises were  being  inaugurated  all  over  the  world, 
until  the  associated  companies  employed  more 
than  50,000  people. 

From  1893,  in  which  year  the  Westinghouse 
Electric  Company  contracted  to  light  the  World's 
Columbian  Exposition  at  Chicago  and  to  develop 
the  power  of  Niagara  Falls,  using  alternating 
current,  down  through  1907,  the  business  of 
Westinghouse  interests  flourished,  but  in  1907, 
overtaken  by  the  panic  of  that  year,  the  Electric 
and  Machine  companies  were  thrown  into  re- 
ceivership and  the  founder  lost  control.  In  1908, 
through  a  financial  plan  proposed  by  him,  the 
former  company  was  restored  to  its  stockholders, 
Westinghouse  continuing  as  president,  but  with 
powers  greatly  limited.  In  191 1  he  gave  up  his 
efforts  to  resume  control,  and  shortly  afterward 
ceased  active  connection.  It  was  during  this 
period  (1905  to  1910)  that  Westinghouse  ren- 
dered great  public  service  as  one  of  the  three 
trustees  engaged  in  the  reorganization  of  the 
Equitable  Life  Assurance  Society,  the  other  two 
being  Grover  Cleveland,  former  president  of  the 
United  States,  and  Morgan  J.  O'Brien,  presid- 
ing judge  of  the  New  York  supreme  court.  These 
three,  selected  for  their  unquestioned  honesty, 
disinterestedness,  and  intelligence,  were  able  to 
bring  about  the  mutualization  of  the  company, 
preserving  the  interests  of  some  six  million  small 
investors  in  the  $400,000,000  stock  of  the  Equi- 
table. 

After  relinquishing  his  connection  with  the 
companies  he  had  founded  Westinghouse  con- 
tinued his  experiments  with  the  steam  turbine 
and  reduction  gear,  and  with  an  air-spring  for 
automobiles,  but  late  in  1913  his  health  broke 
and  heart  disease  developed  and  early  in  1914, 
while  in  New  York  City,  he  died.  In  his  active 
and  many-sided  career  two  accomplishments 
stand  out  sharply  in  their  revolutionary  influ- 
ence on  civilization :  the  invention  of  the  air 
brake  and  its  application  to  railroading,  and  the 
introduction  of  alternating  current  for  electric 
power  transmission  and   rotating-field  motors. 

I 


Weston 

In  the  course  of  forty-eight  years  he  took  out 
some  400  patents.  His  great  imagination  con- 
tinually sought  new  fields  to  develop;  his  char- 
acteristic determination  and  courage  invariably 
carried  him  through  to  the  final  technical 
triumph.  His  gifted  associate,  Nikola  Tesla, 
wrote  of  him  (Electrical  World,  Mar.  21,  1914)  : 
"I  like  to  think  of  George  Westinghouse  as  he 
appeared  to  me  in  1888,  when  I  saw  him  for  the 
first  time.  The  tremendous  potential  energy  of 
the  man  had  only  in  part  taken  kinetic  form,  but 
even  to  a  superficial  observer  the  latent  force 
was  manifest.  A  powerful  frame,  well  propor- 
tioned, with  every  joint  in  working  order,  an  eye 
as  clear  as  crystal,  a  quick  and  springy  step — he 
presented  a  rare  example  of  health  and  strength. 
Like  a  lion  in  a  forest,  he  breathed  deep  and  with 
delight  the  smoky  air  of  his  factories.  Though 
past  forty  then,  he  still  had  the  enthusiasm  of 
youth.  Always  smiling,  affable  and  polite,  he 
stood  in  marked  contrast  to  the  rough  and  ready 
men  I  met. . . .  And  yet  no  fiercer  adversary  than 
Westinghouse  could  have  been  found  when  he 
was  aroused.  An  athlete  in  ordinary  life,  he  was 
transformed  into  a  giant  when  confronted  with 
difficulties  which  seemed  unsurmountable.  He 
enjoyed  the  struggle  and  never  lost  confidence. 
When  others  would  give  up  in  despair  he  tri- 
umphed. Had  he  been  transferred  to  another 
planet  with  everything  against  him  he  would 
have  worked  out  his  salvation." 

[H.  G.  Prout,  A  Life  of  George  Westinghouse 
(1921);  F.  E.  Leupp,  George  Westinghouse  (1918); 
S.  T.  Wellman,  George  Westinghouse  (1914)  ;  Arthur 
Warren,  George  Westinghouse  1846-1914,  A  Tribute 
(Westinghouse  Electric  and  Manufacturing  Company, 
n.d.)  ;  Frank  Crane,  George  Westinghouse  (booklet, 
1925)  ;  J.  T.  Faris,  Men  Who  Conquered  (1922)  ;  F.  C. 
Harper,  Pittsburgh  of  Today  (1931),  vol.  II;  Who's 
Who  in  America,  1912-13  ;  The  Alternating  System 
(1888)  and  The  Incandescent  Lamp  as  an  Article  of 
Manufacture  (1889),  both  issued  by  the  Westinghouse 
Electric  Company ;  The  Westinghouse  Companies  in 
the  Railway  and  Industrial  Fields  (1905)  ;  N.  Y .  Times, 
Mar.  13,  1914;  Electrical  World,  Mar.  21,  1914.] 

O.H.C. 
WESTON,  EDWARD  PAYSON  (Mar.  15, 
1839-May  12,  1929),  long-distance  walker,  was 
born  in  Providence,  R.  I.,  the  son  of  Silas  and 
Maria  (Gaines)  Weston.  His  father  was  a  mer- 
chant, not  too  successful,  and  his  mother  was  a 
novelist  and  magazine  writer,  author  of  Kate 
Felt  on  (1859)  and  several  other  books  fairly 
popular  in  New  England  at  that  time.  The  family 
removed  to  Boston  where  Edward  attended  the 
Adams  School  and  obtained  employment  in  1853 
selling  candy,  magazines  and  newspapers  on 
the  Boston,  Providence  &  Stonington  Railroad. 
The  following  year  he  plied  that  same  trade  on 
the  New  York-Fall  River  steamers  and  in  1855 
he  was  an  apprentice  to  a  jeweler  for  six  months. 


8 


Weston 

From  that  he  turned  to  join  a  circus  as  a  drum- 
mer in  the  band  but  was  struck  by  lightning  and 
took  it  as  a  warning  to  quit  that  mode  of  life.  As 
a  child  and  youth  he  was  sickly  and  underweight 
and  took  to  rambling  about  Boston  and  vicinity, 
doing  odd  jobs  and  selling  his  mother's  novels. 
It  was  through  walking  from  house  to  house, 
and  from  town  to  town,  that  he  improved  his 
health  and  developed  himself  as  a  pedestrian. 

His  first  effort  at  long-distance  walking  came 
as  a  result  of  a  wager  with  a  friend  that  he  could 
walk  from  Boston  to  Washington,  D.  C,  478 
miles  by  road,  in  ten  consecutive  days.  He  start- 
ed on  Feb.  22,  1861,  and  planned  to  be  in  Wash- 
ington in  time  to  witness  the  first  inauguration 
of  President  Lincoln.  He  reached  the  capital  on 
Mar.  4,  too  late  to  witness  the  inaugural  cere- 
mony, but  the  newspapers  made  much  of  his  per- 
formance, especially  in  view  of  his  youth  and 
rather  frail  build.  He  published  privately  an 
account  of  this  trip  under  the  title  The  Pedestrian 
(1862).  Newspaper  accounts  state  that  he  was 
a  Union  spy  during  the  Civil  War  but  there  ap- 
pears to  be  no  official  evidence  to  substantiate 
the  report.  After  the  war  he  became  a  messenger 
boy  and  later  a  police  reporter  for  the  New  York 
Herald  and,  in  lieu  of  telephones,  his  endurance 
and  speed  as  a  walker  gave  him  the  edge  on  his 
competitors. 

In  1867  he  set  out  definitely  to  capitalize  his 
ability ;  he  walked  from  Portland,  Me.,  to  Chi- 
cago, 111.  (1,326  miles),  in  twenty-six  days.  This 
was  his  first  real  professional  venture.  Forty 
years  later  he  duplicated  this  trip  and  bettered 
his  own  record  by  twenty-nine  hours.  He  walked 
in  races  of  all  kinds,  including  the  six-day  go- 
as-you-please  races  in  the  old  Madison  Square 
Garden  in  New  York  City  and  the  Astley  Belt 
walking  race  in  Agricultural  Hall,  London,  a 
contest  that  he  won  in  1879.  In  1883  he  toured 
England  on  foot,  walking  fifty  miles  a  day  for 
one  hundred  days,  and  in  addition  delivered  tem- 
perance lectures  at  each  stopping-place  for  a 
church  society.  He  once  walked  one  hundred 
measured  miles  in  Westchester  County,  N.  Y., 
in  twenty-two  hours,  nineteen  minutes,  and  ten 
seconds.  In  1909,  when  he  was  seventy  years  of 
age,  he  walked  from  New  York  to  San  Francisco 
(3,895  miles),  in  104  days  and  seven  hours.  The 
following  year  he  made  the  return  journey  over 
a  shorter  route  (3,600  miles)  in  about  seventy 
days.  He  was  a  picturesque  figure  with  his  white 
hair,  white  mustache,  velvet  tunic,  high  gaiters, 
and  small  cane  or  "swagger  stick."  In  1927  he 
was  struck  by  a  taxicab,  became  partially  crip- 
pled, and  lived  for  two  more  years.  He  was 
rescued  from  poverty  in  his  old  age  by  Anne 


Weston 

Nichols,  the  author  of  "Abie's  Irish  Rose."  He 
was  buried  in  St.  John's  Cemetery,  Middle  Vil- 
lage, New  York  City,  and  was  survived  by  his 
wife,  Maria  Weston,  from  whom  he  had  been 
separated  for  many  years,  and  two  daughters. 

[Who's  W ho  in  America,  1920-21  ;  Weston  and  His 
Walks  (1910)  ;  N.  Y.  Herald  Tribune,  N.  Y.  Times, 
May  14,  1929;  Brooklyn  Daily  Eagle,  May  19,  1929; 
Associated  Press  Sketch  No.  823,  in  the  files  of  the 
New  York  Times,  N.  Y.  City.]  j  j£ 

WESTON,  NATHAN  AUSTIN  (Apr.  5, 
1868-Nov.  29,  1933),  economist,  was  born  at 
Champaign,  111.,  the  son  of  Nathan  and  Jane 
(Cloyd)  Weston.  He  prepared  for  college  in  the 
local  high  school  and  in  1889  received  the  degree 
of  B.L.  from  the  University  of  Illinois.  The  next 
four  years  were  spent  in  teaching  in  the  public 
schools,  and  he  became  an  instructor  in  the  acad- 
emy of  the  University  in  1893.  On  Sept.  4,  1894, 
he  was  married  to  Angelina  Gayman  of  Cham- 
paign. They  had  two  children.  While  teaching 
he  carried  on  graduate  study  in  economics  and 
history,  was  awarded  a  fellowship  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Wisconsin,  and  received  the  degree  of 
M.L.  from  the  University  of  Illinois  in  1898.  He 
was  a  fellow  at  Cornell  University  and  in  1899- 
1900  an  assistant  in  political  economy  there.  He 
received  the  Ph.D.  degree  from  Cornell  in  1901. 
In  1910-11  he  studied  at  the  University  of  Berlin. 
He  was  called  to  the  University  of  Illinois  in 
1900,  where  he  became  professor  in  1919.  In 
1908  he  was  made  assistant  director  of  the  courses 
in  business  administration  and  in  1915  acting 
dean  of  the  College  of  Commerce.  At  his  own 
request  he  was  relieved  of  these  administrative 
duties  in  1919  and  devoted  himself  entirely  to 
his  teaching,  after  1920  to  the  teaching  of  grad- 
uate students  only.  He  continued,  however,  to 
serve  on  numerous  important  committees,  and 
his  sound  judgment  and  tolerance  were  highly 
valued  by  his  colleagues. 

His  great  work  was  teaching.  His  students 
found  him  a  wise  counselor  and  inspiring  teach- 
er, who  insisted  on  a  broad  and  rigorous  train- 
ing and  stimulated  them  not  only  to  acquire  a 
wide  knowledge  of  their  fields  but  also  to  sharp- 
en their  ability  to  analyze  data  critically  and  to 
think  logically.  His  influence  on  the  study  of 
economics  was  widespread  and  important,  car- 
ried by  the  large  number  of  those  who  studied 
under  him.  He  was  himself  a  man  of  wide  read- 
ing, professional  and  cultural,  and  unusually 
well  acquainted  with  the  literature  of  economics. 
His  own  library  was  notable  for  its  size  and  the 
range  of  its  economic  subjects.  One  of  his  spe- 
cial interests  was  the  development  of  the  quantity 
theory  of  money.  His  knowledge  of  the  history 
of  economic  thought  was  profound,  and  he  is  to 


19 


Weston 


Weston 


be  regarded  as  one  of  the  foremost  American 
students  of  orthodox  classical  economic  doctrine. 
He  steadfastly  refused  to  write  in  his  field,  hold- 
ing that  its  existing  literature  was  already  un- 
necessarily voluminous  and  much  of  it  super- 
ficial and  repetitious.  A  follower  of  the  ideas  of 
Alfred  Marshall,  he  thought  that  little  that  was 
new  had  been  added  to  the  field  of  economic 
theory  in  the  past  forty  years,  and  that  much  of 
that  was  unimportant.  His  published  papers  in 
the  field  of  economics  were  only  three  in  num- 
ber :  a  statistical  inquiry  into  The  Cost  of  Pro- 
duction of  Com  in  Illinois  in  1896  (1898)  ;  "The 
Study  of  the  National  Monetary  Commission" 
in  the  Annals  of  the  American  Academy  of  Po- 
litical and  Social  Science  of  January  1922;  and 
"The  Ricardian  Epoch  in  American  Economics," 
a  masterly  analysis  in  the  American  Economic 
Review  of  March  1933. 

[Notes  and  papers  in  possession  of  daughter,  Janet 
Weston,  Champaign,  111.  ;  Amer.  Econ.  Rev.,  Mar. 
l934  I  The  Semi-Centennial  Alumni  Record  of  the  Univ. 
of  III.  (1918),  ed.  by  F.  W.  Scott;  Who's  Who  in 
America,  1932-33  ;  N.  Y.  Times,  Nov.  30,  1933.] 

D.K. 

WESTON,  THOMAS  (c.  1575-c.  1644),  mer- 
chant adventurer  and  colonist,  was  largely  re- 
sponsible for  financing  the  first  voyage  of  the 
Mayflower.  A  successful  ironmonger  at  Aldgate 
in  London,  he  had  joined,  by  1617,  a  group  of 
merchants  whose  unlicensed  shipments  of  cloth 
to  the  Netherlands  brought  them  into  conflict 
with  the  Merchant  Adventurers  of  London.  In 
1618  he  and  his  associates  were  ordered  by  the 
Privy  Council  to  give  up  this  trade,  and  began  to 
seek  another  market.  Having  become  acquainted 
with  members  of  the  Separatist  congregation 
living  in  Leyden,  Weston  learned  of  their  plans 
for  emigration,  of  their  overtures  to  the  Vir- 
ginia Company,  and  of  the  offer  made  them  by 
Dutch  capitalists  during  the  years  1617-20.  Se- 
curing a  patent,  Feb.  20,  1620,  from  the  Virginia 
Company,  under  the  name  of  John  Peirce  and 
his  Associates,  he  went  to  Leyden  and  offered  to 
underwrite  the  Pilgrims'  adventure  on  such  gen- 
erous terms  and  with  such  strong,  convincing 
personal  assurances  of  continued  and  loyal  sup- 
port, that  his  offer  was  at  once  accepted.  In  the 
next  few  months,  however,  hope  that  the  charter 
for  the  Council  for  New  England — with  perhaps 
a  monopoly  of  fishing  rights  in  the  northern  wa- 
ters— would  soon  be  issued  caused  some  hesi- 
tation on  the  part  of  Weston  and  some  of  the 
other  merchants  as  well  as  those  of  the  Sepa- 
ratists who  were  especially  averse  to  going  to  an 
Anglican  colony.  Weston's  London  associates 
refused  assent  to  the  offers  he  had  made  at  Ley- 
den and  the  Pilgrim  leaders  rejected  the  revised 


agreement  drawn  by  Weston  and  Robert  Cush- 
man  [q.v.],  but  when  summer  came,  and  the 
Council  for  New  England  was  still  unchartered, 
the  Pilgrims  decided  to  go  ahead  under  the 
Peirce  patent.  Weston  himself  hired  the  May- 
flower and  organized  a  group  of  sixty-seven,  in- 
cluding Standish,  Alden,  and  Hopkins,  to  ac- 
company the  thirty-five  coming  from  Leyden, 
but  when  the  united  band  met  at  Southampton 
and  still  declined  to  sign  the  revised  articles, 
Weston  refused  to  contribute  any  more  money 
and  "deserted"  them.  They  took  matters  into 
their  own  hands,  sold  part  of  their  goods,  and 
sailed  despite  him.  Some  writers  (e.g.,  Azel 
Ames,  The  Mayflower  and  Her  Log,  1901)  have 
declared  that  it  was  Weston's  purpose  to  "steal" 
the  colony,  and  that  he  bribed  the  captain  to  land 
in  New  England  instead  of  in  the  territory  of 
the  Virginia  Company,  but  this  view  has  not 
been  ordinarily  accepted  and  Weston's  honesty 
in  the  matter  has  been  commonly  believed. 

After  news  came  of  the  colonists'  safe  arrival, 
Weston  relented  toward  them,  fitted  out  the  For- 
tune, and  sent  thirty-five  new  colonists  but  no 
supplies  (July  1621).  Meanwhile  a  patent  had 
been  secured  from  the  Council  for  New  Eng- 
land. Cushman  sailed  on  the  Fortune,  and  dur- 
ing a  three-week  stay  in  New  England  ob- 
tained the  requisite  signatures  to  the  agreement 
Weston  had  desired.  In  1622,  however,  Weston, 
fired  with  new  ideas,  sold  his  interest  to  his  as- 
sociates and  equipped  an  expedition  of  his  own, 
which  arrived  at  Plymouth  in  June  of  that  year, 
asking  assistance.  This  they  received,  although 
they  were  distinctly  unwelcome,  and  they  pres- 
ently settled  at  the  site  of  the  later  Weymouth. 
These  men  were  laborers  rather  than  colonists, 
come  to  make  quick  fortunes.  They  did  no  steady 
work,  quarreled  with  the  Indians,  and  in  1623 
were  rescued  by  Standish  from  one  of  the  few 
dangerous  Indian  conspiracies  of  the  early  years. 
The  remnant,  brought  back  to  Plymouth,  were 
soon  joined  by  Weston  himself,  who  had  come 
over  alone  and  without  funds  on  the  fishing  fleet. 
He  now  borrowed  from  the  Pilgrims  and  began 
a  series  of  trading  voyages  along  the  New  Eng- 
land coast.  In  September  1623,  when  Robert 
Gorges  came  out  with  a  commission  from  the 
Council  for  New  England  as  governor,  he  car- 
ried orders  to  arrest  Weston  on  the  charges  that 
his  men  had  disturbed  the  peace  and  that  he  him- 
self, licensed  by  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges  to  ex- 
port ordnance  to  New  England,  had  sold  the 
pieces  abroad  for  his  own  profit.  The  Pilgrims 
charitably  argued  his  case  with  Gorges,  under- 
took to  oversee  his  activities,  and  helped  him  to 
sail  with  his  men  for  Virginia  in  1624.  Bradford 


20 


Weston 


Weston 


certainly  felt  that  they  had  borne  much  from  him 
and  had  truly  returned  good  for  evil. 

Weston  was  a  member  of  the  Virginia  House 
of  Burgesses  in  1628  but  subsequently  moved  to 
Maryland,  where  in  1642  he  received  a  grant  of 
1,200  acres  known  as  "Westbury  Manor,"  was 
made  a  freeman  of  the  colony,  and  became  a 
member  of  the  Assembly.  In  the  next  year,  prob- 
ably, he  returned  to  England,  and  died  at  Bristol 
between  1644  and  1647.  "His  was  a  strange  ca- 
reer of  alternate  success  and  failure,  touching 
the  history  of  the  colonies  at  many  points  yet  of 
significance  only  in  connection  with  the  Pilgrims, 
whose  history  would  probably  have  taken  a  very 
different  turn  had  he  not  come  to  their  aid  at  a 
critical  time.  He  was  typical  of  one  class  of  men 
of  his  age,  a  roving,  resourceful  trader,  unstable 
and  hot  tempered,  and  in  more  or  less  trouble 
wherever  his  lot  was  cast"  (Andrews,  post,  p. 
331  note).  He  was  survived  by  one  daughter, 
Elizabeth,  who  married  Roger  Conant  of  Marble- 
head. 

[William  Bradford,  Hist,  of  Plymouth  Plantation  (2 
vols.,  1912),  ed.  by  W.  C.  Ford;  J.  A.  Goodwin,  The 
Pilgrim  Republic  (1888);  C.  E.  Banks,  The  English 
Ancestry  and  Homes  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  (1929)  ; 
R.  G.  Usher,  The  Pilgrims  and  Their  History  (1918)  ; 
New  Eng.  Hist,  and  Geneal.  Reg.,  Apr.  1896;  H.  R. 
Mcllwaine,  Jours.  House  of  Burgesses  of  Va.,  1619- 
1658/59  (1915)  ;  W.  H.  Browne,  Archives  of  Md.,  vol. 
I  (1883)  ;  C.  M.  Andrews,  The  Colonial  Period  of  Am. 
Hist.:  The  Settlements,  vol.  I  (1934);  C.  F.  Adams, 
Three  Episodes  of  Mass.  Hist.  (1892),  I,  45-83] 

R.  G.  U. 

WESTON,  WILLIAM  (c.  1752-Aug.  29, 
1833),  civil  engineer,  was  born  probably  in  or 
near  Oxford,  England,  and  may  have  been  a 
youthful  pupil  of  James  Brindley  (1716-1772), 
pioneer  English  canal  engineer.  Little  is  known 
of  his  professional  engagements  in  his  native 
land  except  that  in  1790  he  was  engineer  of  the 
monumental  stone  bridge  which  spans  the  Trent 
at  Gainsborough,  and  of  a  turnpike  road  there. 
In  1792  he  contracted  with  the  Schuylkill  &  Sus- 
quehanna Navigation  Company,  of  Pennsylvania, 
to  serve  for  five  years  as  engineer  of  its  canal, 
already  begun,  which  extended  from  Philadel- 
phia up  the  valley  of  the  Schuylkill  to  Reading 
and  thence  to  the  Susquehanna  (years  later 
known  as  the  Union  Canal).  Arriving  in  the 
United  States  early  in  1793,  he  served  this  com- 
pany for  about  two  years,  until  it  became  in- 
solvent. 

During  this  period  he  absented  himself,  with 
the  company's  permission,  to  engage  in  surveys 
and  examinations  of  three  other  canal  projects : 
in  the  summer  of  1794  the  elder  Loammi  Bald- 
win [g.z'.]  secured  him  to  plan  the  Middlesex 
Canal,  connecting  Charlestown,  Mass.,  with  the 
Merrimack ;  George  Washington,  then  president 


of  the  "Patowmack"  Company,  induced  him  in 
J795  t°  examine  and  report  on  the  locks  under 
construction  at  the  Great  Falls  of  the  Potomac ; 
and  he  spent  parts  of  1796  and  1797  as  engineer 
for  the  Western  Inland  Lock  Navigation  Com- 
pany in  New  York  State.  The  last-named  project, 
the  precursor  of  the  Erie  Canal,  involved  the 
creation  of  a  water  connection  between  the  Hud- 
son, central  New  York,  and  Lake  Ontario,  via 
the  Mohawk  River  and  Oneida  Lake.  After 
Weston  had,  apparently,  severed  his  connection 
with  the  Schuylkill  &  Susquehanna  Company  he 
devoted  himself  for  parts  of  two  years  to  this 
New  York  State  enterprise. 

In  1799  he  made  for  the  City  of  New  York  an 
examination  of  possible  sources  of  future  water 
supply.  He  recommended  damming  the  Bronx 
River  north  of  West  Farms,  and  regulating  its 
flow  by  raising  the  level  of  the  Rye  Ponds  (now 
part  of  the  Kensico  Reservoir).  He  also  pro- 
posed an  interesting  dual  distribution  system,  to 
be  put  into  effect  after  the  water  was  brought  to 
a  reservoir  at  or  near  the  City  Hall  Park.  Among 
Weston's  last  American  activities  were  those  in 
connection  with  the  "Permanent  Bridge"  cross- 
ing the  Schuylkill  at  Market  Street,  Philadel- 
phia. As  designer  of  the  pier  foundations,  one  of 
which  extended  to  a  then  unprecedented  depth, 
practically  forty-two  feet  below  the  water  surface, 
he  remained  in  active  communication  with  the 
construction  company  for  two  years  or  more  af- 
ter his  return  to  England  about  1800.  Little  in- 
formation is  available  regarding  Weston's  sub- 
sequent activities.  He  seems  to  have  settled  in 
Gainsborough,  the  home  of  his  wife.  In  1813  or 
1814  he  was  offered  the  position  of  chief  engi- 
neer of  the  projected  Erie  Canal,  but  declined  it 
on  account  of  his  age  and  family  responsibilities. 
He  died  in  London. 

Weston's  standing  as  an  engineer  in  the  United 
States  may  be  judged  by  the  obvious  respect  paid 
to  his  professional  opinions  by  leading  Ameri- 
can public  men,  including  George  Washington, 
Robert  Morris,  Elkanah  Watson,  Philip  Schuy- 
ler, Richard  Peters  [qq.zi.]  ;  also,  by  the  salary 
and  fees  he  commanded — certainly  large  for  his 
day.  From  the  Schuylkill  &  Susquehanna  Com- 
pany, for  example,  he  received  £800  for  seven 
months'  service  a  year,  £370  for  his  examination 
and  report  on  the  Potomac  locks ;  nearly  $800 
for  the  New  York  water  supply  report ;  and  later 
an  offer  of  $7,000  to  become  chief  engineer  of 
the  Erie  Canal.  His  contributions  to  American 
engineering  have  not  been  sufficiently  appreci- 
ated. He  showed  embryo  engineers  how  to  de- 
sign and  build  lock  canals.  He  gave  advice  in 
connection  with  the   first   important   American 


21 


Wetherill 

turnpike.  In  his  report  on  a  water  supply  for 
New  York  City  he  suggested  practice  far  in  ad- 
vance of  his  day  with  respect  to  artificial  filters 
for  drinking  water  and  advocated  twenty-four 
inch  cast-iron  water  pipe  some  years  before  any 
cast-iron  pipe  had  been  used  in  the  United  States. 
He  proposed  the  first  river  regulation  in  the 
country.  His  deep  coffer  dam  for  the  Permanent 
Bridge  was  the  first  in  America  and  probably 
was  not  equaled  in  boldness  anywhere  for  years. 
His  printed  reports  include,  Schuylkill  and  Sus- 
quehanna Navigation  (1794),  and  a  second  re- 
port the  same  year — both  are  included  in  An 
Historical  Account  of  the  Rise,  Progress  and 
Present  State  of  the  Canal  Navigation  in  Penn- 
sylvania ( i/95)  ;  Report . . .  on  the  Practicability 
of  Introducing  the  Water  of  the  River  Bronx 
into  the  City  of  New  York  (1799)  ;  Western  and 
Northern  Inland  Lock  Navigation  Company,  Re- 
port of  Engineer  (1795).  The  Baldwin  collection 
at  the  Baker  Library,  Harvard  University,  con- 
tains manuscript  letters  and  drawings  of  Wes- 
ton relating  to  the  Middlesex  Canal. 

[Richard  Peters,  A  Statistical  Account  of  the  Schuyl- 
kill Permanent  Bridge  (1807)  ;  W.  J.  Duane,  Letters, 
Addressed  to  the  People  of  Pa.  Respecting  the  Internal 
Improvement  of  the  Commonwealth  (1811);  Elkanah 
Watson,  Hist,  of  the  Rise,  Progress  and  Existing  Con- 
dition of  the  Western  Canals  (1820)  ;  Caleb  Eddy,  Hist. 
Sketch  of  the  Middlesex  Canal  (1843)  ;  J.  V.  H.  Clark, 
Onondaga  (1849)  ;  N.  E.  Whitford,  Hist,  of  the  Canal 
System  of  the  Slate  of  N.  Y.  (1906)  ;  Buffalo  Hist.  Soc. 
Pubs.,  vols.  II  (1880),  XII  (1908)  ;  The  Times  (Lon- 
don), Sept.  3,  1833  ;  paper  by  R.  S.  Kirby,  read  before 
the  Newcomen  Society,  Apr.  22,  1936.]      r  5.  K y. 

WETHERILL,  CHARLES  MAYER  (Nov. 
4,  1825-Mar.  5,  1871),  chemist,  was  born  at 
Philadelphia,  the  son  of  Charles  and  Margaretta 
Mayer  Wetherill,  and  a  first  cousin  of  Samuel 
Wetherill,  1821-1890  [q.v.~\.  On  his  mother's 
side  his  ancestors  were  early  Pennsylvania  set- 
tlers of  German  origin.  After  instruction  in 
private  schools  young  Wetherill  entered  the  Uni- 
versity of  Pennsylvania,  where  he  studied  chem- 
istry under  A.  D.  Bache  and  J.  F.  Frazer  [qq.v.~], 
and  was  graduated  in  1845.  He  spent  a  year 
studying  analytical  chemistry  in  the  laboratory 
of  James  C.  Booth  and  Martin  H.  Boye  [qq.v.~\ 
in  Philadelphia,  and  then  continued  his  chemical 
work  abroad  under  Pelouze,  Fremy,  Gay-Lussac, 
and  Dumas  in  Paris  and  under  Liebig  in  the 
University  of  Giessen,  from  which  he  received 
the  degrees  of  M.A.  and  Ph.D.  in  1848. 

On  his  return  to  Philadelphia  he  opened  a 
chemical  laboratory  for  private  instruction  and 
analysis,  which  he  conducted  until  1853.  Dur- 
ing this  period  he  made  investigations  upon  min- 
erals, illuminating  gas,  adipocere,  foods,  and  oth- 
er products.  In  1851  he  was  elected  to  the 
American  Philosophical  Society  and  in  1853  was 


Wetherill 

awarded  the  honorary  degree  of  M.D.  by  the 
New  York  Medical  College.  In  that  year  he  pre- 
pared for  the  New  York  Crystal  Palace  Expo- 
sition of  the  Industry  of  All  Nations  an  exhibit 
of  Pennsylvania  minerals  and  chemical  products, 
for  which  he  published  a  description.  At  the  con- 
clusion of  this  exposition  Wetherill  made  a  jour- 
ney through  Michigan  and  other  North  Central 
states  for  the  purpose  of  exploring  their  mineral 
resources.  On  Aug.  12,  1856,  he  married  Mary 
Benbridge  of  Lafayette,  Ind.,  to  which  place  he 
transferred  his  residence.  The  next  five  years  he 
devoted  to  private  research  and  literary  work. 
He  made  a  chemical  analysis  of  the  white  sulfur 
water  of  Lafayette  and  published  in  i860  his  well- 
known  treatise,  The  Manufacture  of  Vinegar. 

In  July  1862  he  accepted  appointment  as  chem- 
ist of  the  newly  created  federal  Department  of 
Agriculture  under  Commissioner  Isaac  Newton 
[q.v.~\.  He  was  the  first  scientist  of  this  depart- 
ment and  established  a  laboratory  in  the  base- 
ment of  the  old  Patent  Office,  where  he  conducted 
investigations  upon  the  chemical  composition  of 
sugars,  sirups,  wines,  and  other  agricultural 
products.  His  Report  on  the  Chemical  Analysis 
of  Grapes,  which  appeared  as  a  separate  publi- 
cation in  1862,  was  the  first  scientific  bulletin  to 
be  issued  by  the  Department  of  Agriculture.  As 
government  chemist  Wetherill  was  detailed  by 
President  Lincoln  in  1862  and  again  in  1863  to 
conduct  temporary  investigations  upon  munitions 
for  the  War  Department.  These  interruptions 
in  the  agricultural  work  of  his  new  department 
excited  the  displeasure  of  Commissioner  New- 
ton, who  refused  to  retain  Wetherill  longer  in 
his  position  of  department  chemist.  This  event 
led  to  a  celebrated  congressional  investigation 
in  which  Wetherill  was  completely  exonerated 
from  blame  (Congressional  Globe,  Jan.  18,  19, 
20,  Mar.  21,  1864).  From  1863  to  1866  he  was 
chemist  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution  in  Wash- 
ington, during  which  period  he  conducted  an  im- 
portant investigation  upon  the  ventilation  of  the 
new  House  and  Senate  chambers  in  the  United 
States  Capitol  extensions.  The  ninety-page  re- 
port of  his  chemical  investigation,  "Warming 
and  Ventilating  the  Capitol,"  was  published  as 
House  Executive  Document  100  (39  Cong.,  1 
Sess.). 

In  1866  Wetherill  accepted  the  professorship 
of  chemistry  in  the  newly  founded  Lehigh  Uni- 
versity of  Bethlehem,  Pa.,  a  position  which  he 
held  at  the  time  of  his  death.  During  these  years 
he  published  his  Syllabus  of  Lectures  on  Chemi- 
cal Physics  (1867)  and  his  Lecture-Notes  on 
Chemistry  (1868).  As  a  professor  and  organizer 
he  established  a  brilliant  reputation.    He  fur- 


22 


Wetherill 

nished  plans  for  the  reorganization  of  the  chemi- 
cal department  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania 
and  was  offered  the  directorship  of  this  depart- 
ment. He  accepted  this  position  but  died  at 
Bethlehem,  from  heart  disease,  before  he  could 
enter  upon  his  new  duties.  In  the  applications 
of  his  science  to  exposition  work,  ventilation, 
and  agriculture,  and  in  the  improvement  of  col- 
lege courses  in  the  subject,  Wetherill  made  last- 
ing contributions  to  American  chemistry  during 
the  important  transition  period  between  1840 
and  1870. 

[Sources  include:  Charles  Wetherill,  Tables  Which 
Show  in  Part  the  Descendants  of  Christopher  Wetherill 
(1882)  ;  original  letters,  papers  and  documents  supplied 
by  Wetherill's  son,  Richard  B.  Wetherill,  Esq.,  of 
Lafayette,  Ind. ;  E.  F.  Smith,  Charles  Mayer  Wetherill, 
1825-1871  (1929),  reprinted  from  the  Jour,  of  Chemi- 
cal Education  ;  obituary  in  Pub.  Ledger  (Phila.),  Mar. 
7,  1871.  Wetherill's  chemical  papers  and  memorabilia 
are  preserved  in  the  Edgar  Fahs  Smith  Memorial  Col- 
lection of  the  Univ.  of  Pa.]  Q  A.  B e. 

WETHERILL,  SAMUEL  (Apr.  12,  1736- 
Sept.  24,  1816),  pioneer  manufacturer,  founder 
of  the  religious  society  known  as  the  Free  Quak- 
ers, was  born  near  Burlington,  N.  J.,  the  son 
of  Christopher  and  Mary  (Stockton)  Wetherill. 
His  great-grandfather,  Christopher  Wetherill,  a 
native  of  England,  emigrated  in  1683  to  Burling- 
ton, where,  when  on  a  visit  two  years  before,  he 
had  applied  for  a  grant.  At  the  age  of  fifteen 
Samuel  went  to  Philadelphia  and  was  appren- 
ticed to  a  carpenter.  On  Apr.  5,  1762,  he  mar- 
ried Sarah  Yarnall,  his  former  master's  daugh- 
ter. He  carried  on  business  as  a  master  carpenter 
until  the  events  occurred  which  led  to  the  Revo- 
lution, when  he  became  a  manufacturer  and  a 
leader  in  the  movement  to  make  the  colonies  in- 
dependent of  the  mother  country  with  respect  to 
manufactured  goods.  Of  the  United  Company 
of  Pennsylvania  for  the  Establishment  of  Amer- 
ican Manufactures,  formed  in  1775,  he  was  a 
prominent  promoter.  That  same  year,  he  estab- 
lished in  his  own  dwelling,  and  in  a  building  ad- 
joining, a  factory  for  the  weaving  of  "jeans, 
fustians,  everlastings,  and  coatings."  In  need 
of  dyestuff s,  he  became,  also,  a  dyer  and  chemist. 
It  is  said  that  his  timely  shipment  of  supplies  to 
Washington's  army  at  Valley  Forge  saved  it 
from  disbandment  (S.  P.  Wetherill,  post,  p.  6). 
Wetherill  was  one  of  the  little  band  of  Quak- 
ers who  took  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  colo- 
nies, and  expressed  his  approval  of  bearing  arms 
for  their  defense.  In  consequence  of  his  Whig- 
like attitude  and  his  militancy  he  was  cut  off 
from  fellowship  with  the  Quakers  in  1777.  With 
other  former  members  of  the  Society  of  Friends 
he  then  formed  the  body  called  Free,  or  Fighting, 
Quakers.    He  preached  regularly  for  this  sect 


Wetherill 

until  his  death,  and  since  he  was  regarded  as  a 
remarkable  speaker,  many  who  were  not  Quak- 
ers came  to  hear  him.  S.  Weir  Mitchell  [q.v.] 
gave  him  a  prominent  place  among  the  charac- 
ters in  the  novel  Hugh  Wynne,  Free  Quaker. 
Wetherill  sought  to  make  clear  the  position  of 
his  coreligionists  in  several  publications,  among 
which  were  A  Confutation  of  the  Doctrines  of 
Antinomianism  (1790)  ;  The  Grounds  and  Rea- 
son of  the  Incarnation  and  Process  of  Christ  Ex- 
plained (1791);  The  Divinity  of  Jesus  Christ 
Proved  (1792);  and  An  Apology  for  the  Re- 
ligious Society,  Called  Free  Quakers  (n.d.). 

Wetherill's  adventure  in  weaving  and  in  the 
manufacture  of  dyestuffs  decided  him  to  devote 
himself  to  the  production  of  chemicals,  and  in 
1785,  in  company  with  his  son,  Samuel  Wetherill, 
Jr.,  he  established  a  firm  for  this  purpose.  About 
the  year  1790  they  began  the  production  of  white 
lead — the  first  to  be  manufactured  in  the  United 
States — and  in  1804  erected  a  white  lead  factory ; 
but  it  was  destroyed  by  fire,  said  to  have  been 
caused  by  British  business  rivals.  In  1808,  they 
erected  a  still  larger  plant,  where  they  produced 
white  and  red  lead,  litharge,  and  other  products. 
This  factory,  also,  was  consumed  by  a  fire  of 
suspicious  origin,  but  was  immediately  rebuilt. 
Wetherill  took  an  active  part  in  civic  affairs  in 
Philadelphia,  acting  as  vice-president  of  the  yel- 
low fever  committee  in  1793,  and  as  a  member 
of  the  city  council  1802-03.  In  the  latter  capacity 
he  was  one  of  the  watering  committee,  at  that 
time  a  position  of  some  importance,  since  Phila- 
delphia was  then  installing  the  first  modern 
water-supply  system  in  the  United  States. 

[Thomas  Porter,  Picture  of  Phila.  (1831);  Henry 
Simpson,  The  Lives  of  Eminent  Philadclphians  (1859)  ; 
S.  N.  Winslow,  Biogs.  of  Successful  Phila.  Merchants 
(1864);  J.  W.  Jordan,  Encyc.  of  Pa.  Biog.,  vol.  Ill 
(1914)  ;  Charles  Wetherill,  Tables  Which  Show  in  Part 
the  Descendants  of  Christopher  Wetherill  (1882); 
Mrs.  S.  P.  Wetherill,  Samuel  Wetherill  and  the  Early 
Paint  Industry  of  Phila.  (1916).]  y  T 

WETHERILL,  SAMUEL  (May  27,  1821- 
June  24,  1890),  inventor,  soldier,  industrialist, 
was  born  in  Philadelphia,  the  son  of  John  Price 
and  Maria  Kane  (Lawrence)  Wetherill,  and  a 
great-grandson  of  Samuel  Wetherill  [q.z'.].  He 
received  his  early  education  in  the  schools  of 
Philadelphia  and  was  graduated  from  the  Uni- 
versity of  Pennsylvania  in  the  class  of  1845.  He 
then  entered  the  white  lead  and  chemical  works 
of  Wetherill  &  Brother,  an  organization  which 
claims  to  be  the  oldest  business  in  Philadelphia 
to  continue  under  one  family  ownership  and 
name.  Here  he  became  a  skilful  chemist.  At  the 
age  of  twenty-nine  he  was  employed  by  the  New 
Jersey  Zinc  Company,  and  by  persistent  research 


■3 


Wetzel 


Wetzel 


invented  in  1852  a  process  for  deriving  the  white 
oxide  of  zinc  direct  from  the  ore. 

To  exploit  this  invention  the  Lehigh  Zinc 
Company  was  organized  and  a  manufacturing 
plant  erected  in  1853  in  what  is  now  a  part  of 
Bethlehem  but  was  then  named  Wetherill  in 
honor  of  the  founder.  The  production  of  zinc 
oxide  flourished,  and  further  development  by 
Wetherill  resulted  in  the  production,  also,  of 
metallic  zinc  and  of  rolled  zinc  sheets  (1857). 
The  process  employed  was  later  perfected  by  the 
importation  of  Belgian  labor — three  men  in  1859, 
fifteen  in  i860,  nine  in  1861,  six  in  1863,  and 
twenty-seven  in  1864 — and  paved  the  way  for 
the  erection  of  the  great  pumping  engine  at 
Friedensville,  Pa.  (1872) — the  largest  in  the 
world  (Scientific  American  Supplement,  Aug. 
5,  1876,  pp.  502-04)- 

In  the  meantime  the  Civil  War  broke  out. 
Wetherill  recruited  two  companies  of  cavalry  in 
Bethlehem,  was  commissioned  captain  of  the 
nth  Pennsylvania  Cavalry,  Aug.  19,  1861,  was 
promoted  to  the  rank  of  major,  Oct.  1,  served 
throughout  a  period  of  three  years,  and  on  Oct. 
1,  1864,  was  honorably  discharged.  The  next 
year,  Mar.  13,  he  was  brevetted  lieutenant-colo- 
nel, United  States  Volunteers,  "for  gallant  and 
meritorious  services  throughout  the  campaign 
of  1864,  against  Richmond,  Virginia."  Follow- 
ing his  military  service,  Wetherill  returned  to 
his  manufacturing  and  commercial  interests.  On 
Jan.  1,  1844,  he  had  married  Sarah  Maria  Chat- 
tin ;  she  died  in  1869,  and  on  Oct.  19,  1870,  he 
married  Thyrza  A.  James.  He  was  the  father  of 
ten  children,  seven  by  the  first  marriage,  three 
by  the  second.  He  lived  to  see,  in  1881,  two  of 
his  sons  joint  purchasers  with  Richard  and  Au- 
gust Heckscher  of  the  Lehigh  Zinc  Works  which 
he  had  founded  in  1853.  After  the  consolidation 
of  this  concern  with  the  New  Jersey  Zinc  Com- 
pany in  1897,  the  eldest  son,  John  Price  Wetherill 
(  1 844-1906),  invented  the  Wetherill  furnace  and 
the  Wetherill  magnetic  concentrating  process  for 
the  treatment  of  refractory  ores — developments 
as  notable  in  metallurgical  science  as  the  achieve- 
ments of  his  distinguished  father.  Samuel 
Wetherill  died  in  Oxford,  Md.,  where  he  went 
to  reside  after  retiring  from  business. 

[Charles  Wetherill,  Tables  Which  Show  in  Part  the 
Descendants  of  Christopher  Wetherill  (1882);  J.  W. 
Jordan,  Encyc.  of  Pa.  Biog.,  vol.  Ill  (1914);  W.  C. 
Reiehel,  The  Crown  Inn,  Near  Bethlehem,  Pa.  (1872)  ; 
J.  M.  Levering,  A  Hist,  of  Bethlehem,  Pa.  (1903); 
Pub.  Ledger  (Phila.),  June  25,  1890.]  F.  V.  L. 

WETZEL,  LEWIS  (1764-1808?),  Indian 
fighter,  was  born  probably  in  Lancaster  County, 
Pa.,  the  son  of  John  and  Mary  (Bonnett)  Wetzel. 
John  Wetzel,  originally  spelling  his  name  Watzal, 


was  born  probably  in  the  Netherlands  and  was 
brought  from  Switzerland  to  Pennsylvania  in 
1747.  Of  his  five  .sons,  Martin,  Lewis,  Jacob, 
John,  and  George,  the  first  four  became  promi- 
nent Indian  fighters,  and  the  fifth  was  killed 
while  scarcely  more  than  a  lad.  In  1772,  with  ten 
other  families,  the  Wetzels  removed  to  Virginia, 
near  Wheeling,  now  in  West  Virginia.  Four  or 
five  years  later  Lewis  and  Jacob  were  captured 
by  Indians  but  escaped  and  made  their  way  home 
with  great  difficulty.  This  event  was  said  to  have 
made  Lewis  a  confirmed  Indian  hater,  and 
thenceforth  in  conscious  preparation  for  border 
warfare  he  devoted  himself  to  woodcraft  and 
athletic  pursuits,  became  an  expert  marksman, 
and  trained  himself  to  load  his  rifle  while  run- 
ning. He  was  tall  and  swarthy,  with  high  cheek 
bones,  scowling,  pitted  face,  piercing  black  eyes, 
long  black  hair,  and  ears  slit  and  decorated  with 
silk  tassels.  Though  uncouth  and  silent  he  was  a 
favorite  fiddler  at  dances.  He  never  learned  to 
read  or  write.  While  still  a  boy  he  was  in  the 
first  siege  of  Wheeling  in  1777  and  served  on 
several  war  expeditions,  notably  the  one  in  1781 
against  the  Indian  village  on  the  site  of  the  pres- 
ent town  of  Coshocton,  Ohio,  and  he  found  al- 
most continuous  employment  as  a  scout.  Though 
it  is  probable  that  he  never  enlisted  in  a  regular- 
ly constituted  military  force  and  certainly  never 
held  a  command,  he  was  one  of  the  best  known 
and  most  trusted  fighters  and  scouts  on  the  Ohio 
border  by  the  time  he  was  of  age,  and,  such  was 
his  prowess,  that  his  presence  in  an  endangered 
community  was  sufficient  to  revive  the  most 
drooping  spirits.  An  implacable  enemy  of  the 
Indians,  he  was  never  known  to  give  quarter. 
Once,  indeed,  his  conduct  was  so  merciless  that 
he  briefly  lost  caste  even  among  the  frontiers- 
men, because  he  murdered  an  old  Indian  who  had 
secretly  released  him  after  his  capture  by  a  war 
party  and  sentence  to  the  stake.  Wetzel's  only 
comment  was :  "He  made  me  walk,  and  he  was 
nothing  but  an  Indian"  (Allman,  post,  p.  81). 
In  1789  during  the  negotiations  with  the  Ohio 
tribes  at  Fort  Harmar,  he  waylaid  and  killed  a 
prominent  Indian.  The  circumstances  of  his  cap- 
ture by  the  white  soldiers  and  subsequent  escape 
from  trial  and  punishment  for  this  murder  are 
not  certain.  One  account  is  that  he  was  sen- 
tenced to  be  hanged,  but  that  outraged  border 
sentiment  forced  his  release. 

Soon  afterward  he  went  to  New  Orleans  and 
there  was  imprisoned  for  several  years,  perhaps 
as  a  result  of  innocently  having  become  involved 
with  a  counterfeiter.  After  his  release  he  spent 
some  time  on  the  Missouri  but  lived  mostly  near 
Natchez.  According  to  the  account  of  one  branch 


24 


Whalley 

of  the  family  he  married  a  French  woman  and 
lived  in  Arkansas  to  old  age,  but  the  more  prob- 
able account  is  that  he  died  unmarried  near 
Natchez  in  1808.  Wetzel  County,  now  in  West 
Virginia,  was  named  for  him. 

[C.  B.  Allman,  The  Life  and  Times  of  Lewis  Wetzel 
(1932)  ;  C.  B.  Hartley,  Life  and  Adventures  of  Lewis 
Wetzel  (i860)  ;  R.  C.  V.  Meyers,  Life  and  Adventures 
of  Lewis  Wetzel  (copr.  1883)  ;  Draper  Coll.  in  pos- 
session of  State  Hist.  Soc.  of  Wis.,  Madison,  Wis.] 

L.  D.B. 

WHALLEY,  EDWARD  (d.  1674  or  1675), 
regicide,  was  the  son  of  Richard  and  Frances 
(Cromwell)  Whalley  of  Kirkton  and  Screveton, 
Nottinghamshire,  England,  and  the  cousin  of 
Oliver  Cromwell.  A  London  business  man,  prob- 
ably a  woolen-draper  by  trade,  he  married,  first, 
Judith,  the  daughter  of  John  Duffell  of  Roches- 
ter. Their  daughter  married  William  Goffe 
\_q.v.'].  His  second  wife  was  Mary  Middleton. 
On  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War,  Whalley  en- 
tered the  army  and  was  in  turn  major,  1643, 
lieutenant-colonel,  1644,  and  colonel,  1645.  He 
took  part  in  the  siege  of  Gainsborough  and  the 
battles  of  Marston  Moor  and  Naseby.  Charles 
I  was  entrusted  to  his  care  in  1647,  an(i  Whalley 
answered  before  Parliament  for  the  escape  of  the 
King  from  Hampton  Court.  He  was  a  member 
of  the  High  Court  of  Justice  appointed  to  try  the 
King  and  signed  the  death  warrant.  When  Crom- 
well invaded  Scotland  in  1650,  he  appointed 
Whalley  his  commissary-general.  Whalley  took 
part  in  the  battles  of  Dunbar  and  Worcester,  and 
the  House  of  Commons  settled  on  him  lands  in 
Scotland  to  the  value  of  £500  a  year.  He  was 
one  of  the  officers  who  presented  the  petition  of 
the  army  to  Parliament  in  1652.  He  represented 
Nottinghamshire  in  the  parliaments  of  the 
Protector  of  1654  and  1656.  In  1655  he  was 
appointed  major-general  over  the  counties  of 
Nottingham,  Lincoln,  Derby,  Warwick,  and 
Leicester.  Although  not  whole-heartedly  in  favor 
of  the  proposal  to  revive  the  title  of  King  in  1657, 
he  was,  nevertheless,  appointed  to  Cromwell's 
House  of  Lords.  He  was  present  when  the  dying 
Cromwell  named  his  son  Richard  as  his  succes- 
sor and  became  a  stanch  supporter  of  Richard 
Cromwell.  For  this  reason  the  restored  Long 
Parliament  negatived  his  appointment  as  colonel 
of  a  regiment  of  horse  in  1659.  He  was  one  of 
those  sent  by  the  army  to  Monck,  but  Monck  re- 
fused to  negotiate  with  him.  On  Apr.  16,  1660, 
the  Council  of  State  issued  a  warrant  for  his 
arrest,  and  on  May  4,  with  his  son-in-law,  Wil- 
liam Goffe,  he  fled  from  Westminster  and  took 
passage  for  New  England  in  the  vessel  of  Cap- 
tain Pierce. 

Whalley  and  Goffe  arrived  at  Boston  on  July 


Wharton 

27,  1660,  and  took  up  their  residence  with  Daniel 
Gookin  of  Cambridge.  On  receipt  of  news  that 
they  had  been  excepted  from  the  act  of  indemnity, 
they  decided  to  leave  Massachusetts.  On  Feb. 
26,  1660/1661,  they  set  out  from  Boston  and  on 
Mar.  7  were  at  the  home  of  the  Rev.  John  Daven- 
port in  New  Haven.  Pursuants  were  sent  after 
them  from  Massachusetts,  but  they  were  secreted 
by  friends  and  managed  to  elude  arrest.  They 
lived  in  and  near  New  Haven  until  Aug.  19,  1661, 
when  they  removed  to  the  home  of  Micah  Tom- 
kins  in  Milford.  In  the  fall  of  1664,  because  of 
the  arrival  of  royal  commissioners  to  investigate 
and  report  on  the  state  of  New  England,  they 
removed  to  the  home  of  the  Rev.  John  Russell, 
in  Hadley,  Mass.,  where  in  February  1664/1665, 
they  were  visited  by  their  fellow  regicide,  John 
Dixwell  [q.v.].  Letters  of  Goffe  to  his  wife  in 
England  in  1674  indicate  that  at  that  time  Whal- 
ley was  rapidly  failing  in  health,  and  it  seems 
probable  that  he  died  at  Hadley  late  in  1674  or 
early  in  1675. 

[See  bibliog.  in  sketch  of  Wm.  Goffe  ;  The  Diet,  of 
Nat.  Biog.  contains  a  more  detailed  account  of  Whal- 
ley's  career  in  England  ;  for  evidence  of  sojourn  and 
death  in  Maryland  see  Pa.  Mag.  of  Hist,  and  Biog.,  vol. 
I  (1877)  and  contradiction  Ibid.,  vol.  IV  (1880).] 

I.M.C. 

WHARTON,  ANNE  HOLLINGSWORTH 

(Dec.  15,  1845-July  29,  1928),  writer,  was  born 
at  Southampton  Furnace,  Cumberland  County, 
Pa.,  the  daughter  of  Charles  and  Mary  Mc- 
Lanahan  (Boggs)  Wharton.  She  was  descend- 
ed from  an  old  and  distinguished  family,  the 
founder  of  which,  Thomas  Wharton,  an  English- 
man, emigrated  to  Pennsylvania  before  1689  and 
was  an  early  settler  of  Philadelphia.  He  had  be- 
longed to  the  Church  of  England  but  became  a 
Friend.  One  of  his  sons,  Joseph  Wharton,  from 
whom  also  Anne  was  descended,  built  at  "Wal- 
nut Grove"  a  handsome  country  house  with 
grounds  sloping  to  the  Delaware.  There,  soon 
after  his  death,  was  held  the  Mischianza,  the 
famous  ball  given  by  the  British  officers  during 
the  occupation  of  Philadelphia  in  1778.  For  five 
generations,  from  the  time  of  their  coming  to 
America,  the  Whartons  were  successful  mer- 
chants, importing  extensively,  and  Anne  Whar- 
ton's father,  like  his  cousin  Joseph  [#.?'.],  became 
well  known  in  the  iron  trade. 

She  graduated  from  a  private  school  in  Phila- 
delphia and  as  a  young  girl  began  the  writing 
that  was  to  occupy  so  much  of  her  life.  Her  work 
took  the  form  of  children's  stories,  articles  for 
newspapers  and  magazines,  and  books.  Her  field 
of  especial  interest  was  America  in  colonial  and 
Revolutionary  days.  Through  travel  and  re- 
search, both  in  Europe  and  America,  she  obtained 


25 


Wharton 

material  for  her  publications  and  ultimately  be- 
came an  authority  on  genealogy  as  well  as  on 
colonial  life.  In  1880  she  published  the  Genealogy 
of  the  Wharton  Family  of  Philadelphia,  1664  to 
18S0.  Several  of  her  later  volumes  were  based 
on  observations  abroad,  with  more  or  less  of  his- 
toric interest ;  these  were  Italian  Days  and  Ways 
(1906),  An  English  Honeymoon  (1908),  In 
Chateau  Land  (  191 1 ) ,  and  A  Rose  of  Old  Quebec 
(1913).  The  field  in  which  she  is  best  known, 
however,  and  which  she  made  particularly  her 
own,  is  that  of  the  manners,  customs,  and  society 
of  America  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth 
centuries.  The  result  of  her  long-continued  work 
in  this  direction  was  embodied  in  several  inter- 
esting volumes :  Through  Colonial  Doorways 
(1893)  ;  Colonial  Days  and  Dames  (1895)  >  A 
Last  Century  Maid  (1896);  Martha  Washing- 
ton (1897);  Heirlooms  in  Miniatures  (1898); 
Salons  Colonial  and  Republican  ( 1900)  ;  and  So- 
cial Life  in  the  Early  Republic  (  1902).  One  of 
the  most  interesting  of  her  books,  particularly 
for  the  account  of  Sulgrave  Manor  and  the 
Washington  background,  is  English  Ancestral 
Homes  of  Noted  Americans  (1915).  She  was 
associate  editor  of  Furnaces  and  Forges  in  the 
Province  of  Pennsylvania  ( 1914)  and  also  wrote 
In  Old  Pennsylvania  Towns  (1920). 

Her  varied  interest  in  life  led  her  from  history 
to  its  kindred  subjects,  and  showed  itself  not  only 
in  the  attractive  volume  on  miniatures  noted 
above,  but  also  in  articles  for  periodicals  on  lit- 
erary and  artistic  subjects.  In  addition  to  studi- 
ous habits  and  a  zest  for  her  subject,  she  brought 
to  her  writings  clarity  of  thought,  practical  com- 
mon sense,  and  much  personal  distinction.  She 
was  one  of  the  eminent  group  of  Philadelphia 
writers  of  her  time,  all  of  distinguished  family, 
that  included  Dr.  S.  Weir  Mitchell,  Horace 
Howard  Furness,  Talcott  Williams,  and  Sara 
Yorke  Stevenson  [qq.v.~\.  In  1893,  she  was  a 
judge  of  the  American  colonial  exhibit  at  the 
World's  Columbian  Exposition  at  Chicago.  She 
was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Pennsylvania 
Society  of  the  Colonial  Dames  of  America  and 
was  the  first  historian  of  the  National  Society 
of  the  Colonial  Dames.  A  member  of  Old  Christ 
Church,  she  was  fittingly  buried  from  that  his- 
toric edifice. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1928-29  ;  J.  W.  Jordan, 
Colonial  Families  of  Phila.  (19 n),  vol.  I;  Anne  H. 
Wharton,  Gcncal.  of  the  Wharton  Family  of  Phila. 
(1880);  obituary  in  Pub.  Ledger  (Phila.),  July  30, 
'928.]  A.L.L. 

WHARTON,  CHARLES  HENRY  (May  25, 
1748  o.s.-July  23,  1833),  Protestant  Episcopal 
clergyman,  was  born  in  St.  Mary's  County,  Md., 
the  son  of  Jesse  and  Anne  (Bradford)  Wharton. 


Wharton 

His  parents  were  Roman  Catholics,  and  his  early 
days  were  spent  on  the  family  plantation,  "Not- 
ley  Hall,"  which  Lord  Baltimore  had  presented 
to  Charles's  grandfather.  A  school  mistress,  and 
later  a  master  whom  he  describes  as  "very  com- 
petent," gave  him  his  first  instruction.  In  1760 
he  was  sent  to  Saint-Omer,  France,  where  he 
entered  the  Jesuit  college  established  there  in  the 
latter  part  of  the  sixteenth  century  after  Catholic 
education  in  England  was  prohibited.  It  was 
noted  for  its  excellent  teaching  of  the  classics 
and  literature,  and  for  its  strict  religious  disci- 
pline. Although  Wharton  afterwards  renounced 
the  doctrines  of  the  Jesuits,  he  never  regretted 
that  at  an  early  period  of  his  life  they  had  planted 
in  his  mind  many  of  the  great  principles  of 
morality  and  Christian  piety.  When  the  Parlia- 
ment of  Paris,  in  1762,  banished  the  Jesuits  from 
France,  the  boys  of  Saint-Omer's  accompanied 
their  masters  to  Bruges,  where  Wharton  con- 
tinued his  studies.  In  1770  he  was  a  student  in 
the  English  college  of  the  Jesuits  at  Liege,  and 
by  1773,  professor  of  mathematics  there.  In  the 
meantime,  Sept.  19,  1772,  he  had  been  ordained 
priest. 

Sometime  between  1773  and  1777  he  became 
chaplain  to  the  Roman  Catholics  at  Worcester, 
England.  He  had  not  lost  interest  in  his  native 
land  and  doubtless  would  have  returned  before 
he  did,  had  it  not  been  for  the  outbreak  of  the 
Revolution.  One  of  his  incidental  occupations 
while  at  Worcester  was  the  writing  of  A  Poetical 
Epistle  to  His  Excellency  George  Washington, 
Esq. . . .  from  an  Inhabitant  of  the  State  of  Mary- 
land, to  Which  is  Annexed,  A  Short  Sketch  of 
General  Washington's  Life  and  Character.  It 
was  printed  in  Annapolis  in  1779,  and  reprinted 
in  London  the  following  year  "for  the  charitable 
purpose  of  raising  a  few  guineas  to  relieve  in  a 
small  measure  the  distresses  of  some  hundreds 
of  American  prisoners,  now  suffering  confine- 
ment in  the  gaols  of  England."  The  "Short 
Sketch"  annexed  was  by  John  Bell  and  was  the 
first  attempt  at  a  life  of  Washington  (Charles 
Evans,  American  Bibliography,  vol.  VI,  1910,  p. 
62).  The  most  significant  event  of  Wharton's 
residence  in  Worcester,  however,  was  a  change 
in  his  religious  feelings  and  views,  an  experience 
so  painful  that  it  nearly  wrecked  him  physically. 
A  natural  disposition  to  put  doctrines  to  the  test 
of  logic  and  history,  and  contact  with  Protestants 
who  displayed  the  finest  fruits  of  the  spirit,  led 
him  to  make  a  painstaking  study  of  the  Scrip- 
tures and  the  writings  of  the  Fathers.  This 
forced  him  to  the  conclusion  that  the  assumed 
infallibility  and  authority  of  the  Church  and 
many  of  its  practices  were  without  divine  sane- 


26 


Wharton 


Wharton 


tion,  and  that  he  could  not  consistently  remain 
in  its  communion.  In  the  spring  of  1783,  appar- 
ently, he  returned  to  Maryland,  for  on  June  10 
of  that  year  he  took  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the 
government  of  that  state.  The  following  year 
he  published  A  Letter  to  the  Roman  Catholics  of 
the  City  of  Worcester  from  the  Late  Chaplain 
of  that  Society  .  .  .  Stating  the  Motives  Which 
Induced  Him  to  Relinquish  Their  Communion, 
and  Become  a  Member  of  the  Protestant  Church. 
A  tolerant  and  able  statement,  it  called  forth 
from  Rev.  John  Carroll  [q.v.~\,  later  archbishop, 
a  distant  relative  of  Wharton,  an  equally  able  if 
somewhat  less  kindly  reply — An  Address  to  the 
Roman  Catholics  of  the  United  States  (1784). 
This  Wharton  answered  in  a  vigorous  and  well- 
documented  pamphlet,  A  Reply  to  an  Address 

•  •  •  (178S). 

After  remaining  for  a  time  at  his  ancestral 
home,  Wharton  became  rector  of  Immanuel 
Church,  New  Castle,  Del.  From  this  time  on  he 
was  one  of  the  leading  Episcopal  clergymen  of 
the  country.  A  deputy  to  the  first  General  Con- 
vention in  1785,  he  was  appointed  one  of  the  com- 
mittee to  prepare  a  constitution  for  the  Church, 
and  to  make  the  changes  in  the  liturgy  needful 
to  bring  it  into  harmony  with  the  American 
Revolution  and  the  constitutions  of  the  respective 
states.  In  1791-92  he  officiated  at  the  Swedish 
Church,  near  Wilmington,  Del.  His  health  was 
never  the  best  and  for  some  years  he  lived  on 
his  estate  at  "Prospect  Hill"  in  the  same  vicinity. 
In  1798  he  became  rector  of  St.  Mary's  Church, 
Burlington,  N.  J.,  where  he  remained  for  the 
rest  of  his  life.  During  this  period  he  was  a 
member  of  almost  all  the  General  Conventions. 
In  1 80 1  he  was  elected  president  of  Columbia 
College,  New  York,  and  accepted  the  office,  but 
for  some  reason  almost  immediately  resigned. 
He  was  one  of  the  founders  and  principal  editors 
of  the  Quarterly  Theological  Magazine  and  Re- 
ligious Repository  (1813-17).  On  July  21,  1786, 
the  American  Philosophical  Society  elected  him 
a  member. 

Wharton  was  one  of  the  best-trained  and  most 
learned  Episcopal  clergymen  of  his  day.  He 
made  no  parade  of  his  attainments,  however, 
either  privately  or  in  his  preaching,  which  em- 
phasized sound  doctrine,  moral  integrity,  and 
Christian  charity.  Poor  health  and  absence  of 
personal  ambition  probably  account  for  his  not 
occupying  a  prominent  ecclesiastical  or  educa- 
tional position.  His  mental  equipment  appears 
most  conspicuously  in  his  controversial  writings, 
which,  in  addition  to  those  mentioned,  included 
A  Short  and  Candid  Inquiry  into  the  Proofs  of 
Christ's  Divinity;  in  Which  Dr.  Priestly's  [sic] 


History  of  Opinions  Concerning  Christ,  is  Oc- 
casionally Considered  (1791)  ;  A  Short  Answer 
to  "A  True  Exposition  of  the  Doctrine  of  the 
Catholic  Church  Touching  the  Sacrament  of 
Penance  ..."  (1814)  ;  Some  Remarks  on  Dr. 
O'Gallagher's  "Brief  Reply"  to  Dr.  Wharton's 
"Short  Answer  ..."  (1817).  The  last  two  and 
all  the  letters  in  the  Carroll  controversy  were 
reprinted  in  1817  under  the  title  A  Concise  View 
of  the  Principal  Points  of  Controversy  between 
the  Protestant  and  Roman  Churches.  They  also 
appear,  together  with  sermons  and  other  writ- 
ings, in  The  Remains  of  the  Rev.  Charles  Henry 
Wharton,  D.D.,  edited  by  George  W.  Doane.  For 
his  spiritual  no  less  than  for  his  intellectual  quali- 
ties, Wharton  was  held  in  high  esteem.  "I  do 
not  recollect,"  wrote  Horace  Binney  [#.f.],  "a 
more  gentlemanly  figure,  or  a  more  benevolent 
or  trust-worthy  countenance"  (Sprague,  post, 
pp.  340-41).  He  was  twice  married:  first,  to 
Mary  Weems  of  Maryland,  who  died  June  2, 
1798,  and  in  memory  of  whom  he  wrote  An 
Elegy  {Remains,  pp.  lxxix-lxxxi)  ;  second  to 
Ann,  daughter  of  Chief  Justice  James  Kinsey  of 
New  Jersey;  he  had  no  children. 

[Memoir  and  funeral  sermon  by  G.  W.  Doane  in  Re- 
mains ;  W.  B.  Sprague,  Annals  of  the  Am.  Pulpit,  vol. 
V  (1859)  ;  W.  S.  Perry,  The  Hist,  of  the  Am.  Episcopal 
Church  (1885)  and  Jours,  of  General  Conventions  of 
the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the  U.  S.,  vols.  I 
and  II  (1874)  ;  H.  W.  Smith,  Life  and  Correspondence 
of  the  Rev.  William  Smith,  D.D.  (1880);  Poulson's 
Am.  Daily  Advertiser  (Phila.),  July  24,   1833.] 

H.E.S. 

WHARTON,  FRANCIS  (Mar.  7,  1820-Feb. 
21,  1889),  lawyer,  clergyman,  teacher,  govern- 
ment official,  author  and  editor,  was  the  son  of 
Thomas  Isaac  [q.v.]  and  Arabella  (Griffith) 
Wharton  of  Philadelphia.  He  was  fourth  in  de- 
scent from  Thomas  Wharton,  baptized  at  Orton, 
England,  1664,  married  in  Philadelphia,  1689,  a 
successful  Quaker  merchant  whose  descendants 
formed  one  of  the  leading  families  of  the  city. 
An  uncle  of  Francis  Wharton,  Judge  William 
Griffith  [q.v.]  of  the  United  States  circuit  court, 
was  the  author  of  several  law  treatises.  Francis' 
father,  a  prominent  lawyer  and  editor  of  law  re- 
ports, is  said  to  have  left  the  Society  of  Friends 
to  serve  as  an  officer  in  the  War  of  1812.  He 
married  a  member  of  the  Episcopal  Church  and 
joined  that  denomination.  Francis'  mother  was 
very  devout  and  exercised  a  profound  religious 
influence  over  her  son. 

Wharton  graduated  from  Yale  in  1839  and  af- 
ter studying  law  in  his  father's  office  was  admit- 
ted to  the  Pennsylvania  bar  in  1843.  He  soon 
won  success  as  a  lawyer  and  for  a  time  served  as 
assistant  to  the  attorney  general  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, but  he  became  better  known  as  an  author- 


27 


Wharton 


Wharton 


ity  on  criminal  law.  Among  his  early  works 
were  A  Treatise  on  the  Criminal  Law  of  the 
United  States  (1846),  Precedents  of  Indictments 
and  Pleas  (1849),  State  Trials  of  the  United 
States  during  the  Administrations  of  Washing- 
ton and  Adams  (1849),  A  Treatise  on  the  Law 
of  Homicide  in  the  United  States  (1855),  and  in 
collaboration  with  Moreton  Stille,  Treatise  on 
Medical  Jurisprudence  (1855). 

On  Nov.  4,  1852,  Wharton  married  Sidney 
Paul,  daughter  of  Comegys  and  Sarah  (Rod- 
man) Paul  of  Philadelphia.  She  died  in  Sep- 
tember 1854.  From  boyhood  he  had  been  inter- 
ested in  church  work  and  after  the  death  of  his 
wife  he  turned  to  religious  activity,  becoming  a 
lay  preacher  and  serving  as  editor  of  the  Epis- 
copal Recorder.  In  1856  he  made  a  tour  of  the 
upper  Missouri  Valley  in  a  wagon  distributing 
Bibles  and  tracts  and  in  the  fall  he  accepted  ap- 
pointment as  professor  of  history  and  literature 
in  Kenyon  College,  Gambier,  Ohio.  On  Dec.  27, 
i860,  he  married  Helen  Elizabeth  Ashhurst, 
daughter  of  Lewis  R.  and  Mary  H.  Ashhurst  of 
Philadelphia.  During  his  years  at  Kenyon, 
Wharton  continued  his  activity  as  a  religious 
writer,  editor,  and  lay  preacher,  and  on  Apr.  11, 
1862,  was  ordained  deacon ;  a  month  later  he 
was  raised  to  the  priesthood.  The  following  year 
he  became  rector  of  St.  Paul's  Episcopal  Church, 
Brookline,  Mass.  Resigning  his  pastorate  in 
1871,  he  accepted  a  professorship  in  the  recently 
established  Episcopal  Theological  Seminary  at 
Cambridge,  where  he  continued  for  ten  years. 
In  denominational  affairs  he  was  a  leader  of  the 
Evangelical  or  Low  Church  school.  He  was  the 
author  of  two  books  on  religious  themes,  A 
Treatise  on  Theism  and  on  the  Modern  Skeptical 
Theories  (1859)  and  The  Silence  of  Scripture 
(1867). 

The  years  which  Francis  Wharton  spent  in 
religious  work  did  not  lure  him  permanently 
from  the  field  of  legal  writing.  His  Treatise 
on  the  Conflict  of  Laws  (1872),  largely  written 
during  a  six  months'  stay  at  Dresden  while 
abroad  for  his  health,  in  1870-71,  established  his 
reputation  as  an  authority  on  international  law. 
He  lectured  on  this  subject  at  the  law  school  of 
Boston  University.  Other  books  by  Wharton 
written  while  at  Cambridge  bear  evidence  of  his 
activity  during  those  years :  A  Treatise  on  the 
Lazv  of  Negligence  (1874),  A  Commentary  on 
the  Lazv  of  Evidence  in  Civil  Issues  (1877), 
Philosophy  of  Criminal  Lazv  (1880),  A  Com- 
mentary on  the  Law  of  Contracts  (1882).  He 
resigned  his  Cambridge  professorship  in  1881 
because  of  failing  health  and  spent  the  next  two 
years  in  Europe.    Upon  returning  to  Philadel- 


phia, ne  Dusied  himself  revising  his  books.  His 
early  Treatise  on  Criminal  Law  went  through 
nine  editions  during  his  lifetime  and  a  twelfth 
edition  was  published  in  1932.  Some  of  his 
other  works  ilso  appeared  in  several  editions. 

At  tfc-;  beginning  of  the  first  Cleveland  admin- 
istration Wharton  accepted  an  invitation  to  be- 
come examiner  of  claims,  chief  of  the  legal  divi- 
sion in  the  Department  of  State,  and  took  office 
Apr.  15,  1885.  In  addition  to  his  regular  duties 
he  was  entrusted  by  Congress  with  the  compila- 
tion of  A  Digest  of  the  International  Law  of  the 
United  States  (3  vols.,  1886;  2nd  ed.,  1887). 
Much  of  this  work  was  incorporated  by  John 
Bassett  Moore  in  A  Digest  of  International  Law 
published  by  the  government  in  1906.  To  Whar- 
ton was  also  assigned  the  task  of  editing  The 
Revolutionary  Diplomatic  Correspondence  of  the 
United  States  (6  vols.,  1889),  the  manuscript 
for  which  he  completed  shortly  before  his  death. 
The  task  was  done  in  a  spirit  of  honesty,  dis- 
carding the  practice  by  which  earlier  compilers 
of  American  records  had  deleted  passages  re- 
flecting on  the  judgment  or  motives  of  the 
"Founding  Fathers."  His  work  as  legal  adviser 
to  the  Department  and  as  a  writer  on  the  foreign 
policy  of  the  United  States  was  notable  for  the 
emphasis  which  he  placed  on  the  rights  of  neu- 
trals. As  an  officer  of  the  government  he  insist- 
ed upon  the  neutral  rights  of  American  vessels 
during  the  insurrection  in  Colombia  (1885). 
He  severely  criticized  the  decision  of  the  Su- 
preme Court  in  the  Springbok  case  (5  Wallace, 
1),  arising  from  the  seizure  of  a  British  vessel 
bound  for  Nassau  during  the  Civil  War,  and 
pointed  out  the  danger  of  similar  infringements 
of  the  rights  of  American  commerce  by  Great 
Britain  when  she  should  become  engaged  in  war 
with  a  European  power.  Wharton  died  at  his 
home  in  Washington,  and  was  buried  in  Rock 
Creek  Cemetery  in  that  city.  By  his  second  mar- 
riage he  had  two  daughters. 

[J.  B.  Moore,  "A  Brief  Sketch  of  the  Life  of  Francis 
Wharton,"  in  The  Revolutionary  Diplomatic  Corre- 
spondence (1889),  vol.  I;  H.  E.  Wharton  and  others, 
Francis  Wharton:  A  Memoir  (1891)  ;  A.  H.  Wharton, 
Geneal.  of  the  Wharton  Family  (1880)  ;  Obit.  Record 
Grads.  Yale  Univ.  (1890)  ;  Am.  Law  Rev.,  May-June, 
1889;  Evening  Star  (Washington),  Feb.  22,  1889.] 

E.  R.  P. 

WHARTON,  GREENE  LAWRENCE 

(July  17,  1847-Nov.  4,  1906),  missionary,  born 
on  a  farm  near  Bloomington,  Ind.,  was  the  son 
of  Stanfiel  and  Ann  Esther  (Berry)  Wharton, 
and  a  descendant  of  Joseph  Wharton  who  emi- 
grated from  England  and  settled  in  Virginia 
early  in  the  nineteenth  century.  Up  to  the  time 
he  was  seventeen,  young  Wharton  had  received 


•8 


Wharton 

only  the  most  rudimentary  education,  for  his  fa- 
ther was  constantly  on  the  move.  In  1867,  for 
the  most  part  self-prepared,  he  entered  the  high 
school  in  Terre  Haute,  Ind.,  where  he  remained 
but  a  year.  Later,  he  continued  his  studies  in 
Southern  Illinois  College,  Carbondale,  111.  Af- 
ter teaching  for  several  years,  he  became  pastor 
of  the  Church  of  the  Disciples  of  Christ  in  Car- 
bondale. Two  years  thereafter  he  was  ordained 
and  entered  Bethany  College,  where  he  was 
graduated  in  1876.  From  1876  to  1882  he  was 
pastor  of  the  Richmond  Avenue  Church  of  the 
Disciples  in  Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  marrying  in  the 
meantime,  Aug.  1,  1878,  Emma  Virginia,  daugh- 
ter of  Robert  Richardson  [<j.i'.j. 

On  Sept.  16,  1882,  he  and  his  wife  sailed  from 
New  York  for  India  under  appointment  as  mis- 
sionaries of  the  newly  organized  Foreign  Chris- 
tian Missionary  Society  of  Cincinnati,  Ohio. 
Arriving  in  Bombay,  Nov.  7,  they  proceeded  im- 
mediately to  Ellichpur,  Berar,  from  which  they 
prospected  for  a  suitable  location  for  missionary 
service.  Harda,  in  the  Central  Provinces,  was 
finally  selected,  and  became  in  January  1883  the 
headquarters  of  the  first  India  work  of  the  Dis- 
ciples of  Christ.  Very  early  in  the  history  of  the 
enterprise  a  school  for  boys  was  opened.  Sev- 
eral native  evangelists  were  engaged  from  other 
missions  to  aid  in  the  Hindi  work  at  Harda  and 
in  the  surrounding  area.  During  the  winter  of 
1888-89  Wharton  undertook  additional  work 
among  the  Gond  and  Kurku  tribesmen  of  the 
Satpura  mountains.  In  1889,  accompanied  by 
his  family,  he  made  a  trip  to  Australia,  partly 
for  the  benefit  of  his  wife's  health  and  partly  to 
arouse  further  interest  in  the  India  mission.  Af- 
ter spending  the  following  winter  in  India,  they 
proceeded  on  furlough  to  America,  where  Whar- 
ton gave  many  addresses  and  enlisted  aid  for  his 
enterprise.  On  Oct.  17,  1891,  leaving  his  family 
behind,  he  sailed  with  new  recruits  again  for 
Harda,  journeying  by  way  of  England,  where  he 
gave  missionary  addresses  among  the  churches 
of  his  denomination.  In  February  1893,  he  was 
commissioned  to  found  a  training  school  for  mis- 
sion workers,  which  he  established  at  Harda  and 
from  which  the  first  class  was  graduated  in  1897. 
During  the  great  famine  of  1897  he  temporarily 
closed  the  school  and  rendered  conspicuous  re- 
lief service. 

In  the  spring  of  1899,  with  his  family,  which 
had  rejoined  him,  he  returned  to  America.  They 
made  their  home  in  the  college  hamlet  of  Hiram, 
Ohio,  where  Wharton  served  for  several  years  as 
pastor  of  the  church.  During  1903-04,  having 
resigned  this  pastorate,  he  made  a  tour  of  the 
churches  of  his  order  in  behalf  of  the  India  train- 


Wharton 

ing  school.  On  Sept.  30,  1904,  he  sailed  for 
India,  arriving  in  Bombay,  Nov.  5.  He  proceed- 
ed to  Jabalpur,  where,  during  his  furlough,  the 
Bible  College,  transferred  from  Harda,  had  been 
formally  opened  under  the  administration  of 
George  William  Brown.  Until  shortly  before 
his  death  he  assisted  in  the  work  of  education, 
evangelism,  and  publication.  He  was  the  author 
of  several  tracts  in  Hindi,  and  of  one  on  the 
Christian  use  of  the  tithe  system.  He  died  in  a 
Calcutta  hospital  and  was  buried  in  that  city. 

[E.  R.  Wharton,  Life  of  G.  L.  Wharton  (1913); 
Christian-Evangelist,  Nov.  15,  1906;  Missionary  In- 
telligencer, Dec.  1906,  Jan.  1907.]  T.  C.  Ar r. 

WHARTON,  JOSEPH  (Mar.  3,  1826-Jan. 
11,  1909),  manufacturer,  philanthropist,  was 
born  in  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  fifth  of  the  ten  chil- 
dren of  William  and  Deborah  (Fisher)  Whar- 
ton. His  father  was  a  cousin  of  Thomas  I. 
Wharton,  a  nephew  of  Samuel  Wharton  [qq.v.~], 
and  a  descendant  of  Thomas  Wharton,  a  native 
of  England,  who  was  in  Philadelphia  before 
1689.  Joseph's  early  education  was  received  in 
private  schools  and  from  a  tutor.  At  the  age  of 
sixteen  he  was  sent  to  the  Chester  County  farm 
of  Joseph  S.  Walton,  where  he  remained  until 
the  age  of  nineteen,  working  as  an  ordinary  farm 
hand  in  order  to  regain  his  health.  During  the 
winter  months,  however,  he  continued  his  studies 
in  chemistry  at  the  laboratory  of  Martin  H. 
Boye  [q.v.]  in  Philadelphia,  and  also  added  to 
his  knowledge  of  French  and  German. 

His  first  business  experience  was  secured  as 
clerk  in  a  drygoods  establishment  during  the 
years  1845-47.  In  1847  he  cooperated  with  his 
brother  in  establishing  a  white  lead  manufactory, 
which  they  sold.  In  185 1  he  became  a  stock- 
holder in  the  Lehigh  Zinc  Company,  and  from 
1853  to  1863  was  its  manager.  In  this  connec- 
tion he  was  responsible  for  the  first  commercially 
successful  production  of  spelter — a  crude  me- 
tallic zinc — in  America,  and  built  the  first  spelter 
works  on  the  Belgian  model  to  be  operated  prof- 
itably in  the  United  States.  In  the  meantime, 
1857,  he  had  been  one  of  the  founders  and  be- 
come a  director  of  the  Saucon  Iron  Company, 
the  name  of  which  was  changed  in  1861  to  Beth- 
lehem Iron  Corporation;  ultimately  it  became  a 
part  of  the  Bethlehem  Steel  Company.  About 
1864  Wharton  purchased  the  abandoned  Gap 
Nickel  mine  in  Lancaster  County,  Pa.,  and  es- 
tablished a  plant  in  Camden,  N.  J.,  for  the  manu- 
facture of  metallic  nickel  and  metal  copper  al- 
loys. For  many  years  he  was  the  only  producer 
of  refined  nickel  in  the  United  States,  and  in 
1875  he  succeeded  in  turning  out  a  pure  malle- 
able nickel,  which  was  utilized  in  the  making  of 


29 


Wharton 

many  useful  articles.  In  addition  to  his  other 
interests,  he  was  connected  with  several  rail- 
roads, was  proprietor  of  the  Andover  Iron  Com- 
pany, of  Phillipsburg,  N.  J.,  and  was  the  owner 
of  large  coal  tracts  and  coke  works. 

Wharton  also  exerted  a  strong  political  in- 
fluence, particularly  with  respect  to  the  tariff. 
He  believed  in  a  high  protective  tariff  for  all 
manufacturers  as  well  as  for  the  iron  and  steel 
trade,  of  which  he  was  the  leading  tariff  spokes- 
man for  over  a  quarter  of  a  century.  In  1868  he 
helped  organize  the  Industrial  League  of  Penn- 
sylvania, a  protectionist  organization.  When  its 
work  was  taken  over  by  the  American  Iron 
and  Steel  Association  in  1875,  he  was  elected 
first  vice-president  of  the  Association,  and  in 
1904,  its  president.  Among  his  published  con- 
tributions to  the  discussion  of  tariff  legislation 
were  International  Industrial  Competition  (1870, 
1872),  and  National  Self-Protection  (1875),  the 
title  of  which  became  one  of  the  chief  slogans 
of  the  protectionist  group. 

He  took  an  active  interest  in  educational  mat- 
ters, and  was  a  founder  of  Swarthmore  College, 
one  of  the  earlier  co-educational  institutions,  es- 
tablished by  the  Philadelphia  and  New  York 
Hicksite  Friends.  He  was  a  member  of  its 
board  of  managers  (1870-1909)  and  was  presi- 
dent of  the  board  for  nearly  twenty-five  years 
(1883-1907).  To  the  support  of  the  institution 
he  gave  liberally.  He  is  remembered  also  for 
his  gift  to  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  in 
1881  of  $100,000,  subsequently  increased  to  about 
$500,000,  for  the  establishment  of  a  school  offer- 
ing young  men  an  adequate  education  in  the 
principles  underlying  successful  civil  govern- 
ment, and  a  training  suitable  for  those  intending 
to  engage  in  business  or  to  undertake  the  man- 
agement of  property.  The  Wharton  School  of 
Finance  and  Commerce  created  under  the  terms 
of  his  gift  was  the  first  of  its  kind  in  the  United 
States  and  has  achieved  an  international  repu- 
tation in  its  field. 

Wharton  was  a  man  of  varied  interests.  Al- 
though he  achieved  his  greatest  success  as  a 
manufacturer,  he  was  a  chemist,  geologist,  min- 
eralogist, and  metallurgist.  He  was  an  effective 
speaker  on  educational  and  other  questions  of 
public  importance.  He  was  interested  in  art  and 
had  some  skill  in  drawing.  Among  his  writings 
not  previously  mentioned  were :  Is  a  College 
Education  Advantageous  to  a  Business  Man? 
(n.d.);  Suggestions  Concerning  the  Small 
Money  of  the  United  States  (1868);  Speeches 
and  Poems  ("1926),  collected  by  J.  W.  Lippin- 
cott.  On  June  15,  1854,  he  married  Anna  Cor- 
bit  Lovering,  by  whom  he  had  three  children. 


Wharton 

[A.  H.  Wharton,  Gencal.  of  the  Wharton  Family 
(1880J  ;  J.  VV.  Lippincott,  Bioy.  Memoranda  Concern- 
ing Joseph  Wharton  (1909);  E.  R.  Johnson,  The 
Wharton  School — Its  First  Fifty  Years  (1931)  ;  Bull. 
of  the  Am.  Iron  and  Steel  Asso.,  Feb.  1,  1909;  Iron 
Age,  Jan.  28,  1909  ;  Jour,  of  the  Iron  and  Steel  Insti- 
tute (London),  LXXIX  (1909),  482;  L.  M.  William- 
son and  others,  Prominent  and  Progressive  Pennsyl- 
vanians  of  the  Nineteenth  Century  (1898),  vol.  II; 
Proc.  Am.  Philosophical  Soc,  vol.  XLVIII  (1909); 
Wilfred  Jordan,  Colonial  and  Revolutionary  Families 
of  Pa.,  vol.  IV  (1932)  ;  Who's  Who  in  America,  1908- 
09;  N.  Y.  Times,  Jan.  12,  1909.]  H  S  P. 

WHARTON,  RICHARD  (d.  May  14,  1689), 
merchant,  proprietor,  and  promoter,  was  born 
in  England.  He  was  not  interested  in  the  re- 
ligious experiment  of  the  Puritans  but  emigrated 
to  America  early  in  the  Restoration  Period  to 
make  his  fortune.  He  soon  found  himself  in  the 
center  of  a  rapidly  increasing  imperialistically 
inclined  group,  both  transplanted  Englishmen 
and  New  England  Puritans  of  the  second  and 
third  generation,  who  wished  to  expand  com- 
merce, invest  capital,  and  develop  the  natural 
resources  of  the  country  on  a  large  and  monopo- 
listic basis.  As  an  eligible  bachelor  he  had  no 
difficulty  in  marrying  Bethia  Tyng  from  one  of 
the  most  prosperous  New  England  families. 
They  had  three  sons.  When  he  lost  his  first  wife 
he  took  for  his  second,  Sarah  Higginson,  the 
daughter  of  John  and  sister  of  Nathaniel  Hig- 
ginson [qq.v.].  They  had  four  daughters.  For 
his  third  wife  he  married  Martha  Winthrop,  the 
spinster  grand-daughter  of  John  Winthrop,  1588- 
1649,  the  daughter  of  John  Winthrop,  1606- 
1676,  and  the  sister  of  Fitz  John  Winthrop 
[qq.v.].  These  marriages  were  all  factors  in  his 
success. 

Wharton  disapproved  of  New  England's  com- 
mercial relations  with  the  Dutch  and  favored  the 
navigation  laws  as  a  means  to  shut  them  out 
from  the  colonial  trade  as  well  as  the  carrying 
trade  in  general.  During  the  second  Dutch  War 
he  seized,  under  letters  of  marque  and  reprisal, 
a  Dutch  vessel  concerned  in  trade  with  New 
England.  This  act  involved  New  England 
against  its  wishes  in  commercial  warfare  with 
the  Dutch.  Long  delay  of  the  trial  of  the  dis- 
puted case  caused  him  and  his  associates  to  pub- 
lish a  protest,  for  which  affront  to  the  Massa- 
chusetts government  he  lost  his  privilege  as  an 
attorney.  After  the  Dutch  recapture  of  New 
Netherland  he  urged  attempting  to  repossess  it, 
not  only  for  the  negative  reasons  of  eliminating 
Dutch  commercial  competition  but  more  partic- 
ularly because  he  saw  the  tremendous  possibili- 
ties for  developing  American  commerce  on  a 
unified  plan  with  the  port  of  New  York  as  cen- 
ter. The  New  England  theocracy  stood  as  a 
barrier  against  development  along  imperial  lines, 


3° 


Wharton 


Wharton 


and  it  was  therefore  natural  that  he  should  be 
one  of  those  urging  that  the  government  there  be 
remodelled  and  the  power  of  the  church  over 
the  state  broken.  His  legal  experience  showed 
him  the  need  of  an  intercolonial  court  for  hear- 
ing appeals  and  sitting  on  admiralty  cases,  while 
his  position  as  a  heavily  taxed  non-freeman 
made  him  feel  the  injustice  of  a  government  that 
taxed  wealth  but  denied  its  possessor  the  right 
to  vote,  if  he  happened  not  to  be  a  Congrega- 
tionalist.  Largely  through  the  influence  of  men 
like  himself  the  Dominion  of  New  England  was 
established  in  1686,  although  none  of  its  sup- 
porters had  desired  or  expected  that  the  new 
government  would  lack  a  representative  legisla- 
tive assembly. 

He  was  a  merchant  importer,  owning  his  own 
wharves  and  vessels.  He  sought  and  received  a 
monopoly  of  salt  production  from  the  General 
Court  of  Massachusetts  and  later  applied  for  a 
royal  monopoly  grant.  In  1670  he  asked  of  the 
colonies  in  the  New  England  Confederation,  for 
himself  and  associates,  exclusive  privileges  of 
producing  naval  stores.  Massachusetts  and 
Plymouth  granted  the  petition  for  a  ten  year  pe- 
riod. His  largest  scheme  was  the  organization 
of  a  company  for  developing  mines  in  New  Eng- 
land, but  including  the  production  of  salt  and 
naval  stores.  This  plan  came  to  a  head  during 
the  administration  of  Sir  Edmund  Andros 
[<7."'.]  and  included  English  as  well  as  colonial 
investors.  The  company,  through  Wharton,  pe- 
titioned for  a  royal  grant  in  February  1688,  but 
the  overthrow  of  James  prevented  the  passing  of 
the  patent  through  the  seals.  Wharton  aspired 
also  to  be  a  landed  proprietor  and  was  associated 
with  prominent  New  England  men  in  the  Ather- 
ton  Company  and  the  Million  Purchase.  His 
largest  venture  of  this  sort  was  undertaken  alone, 
his  Pejebscot  Purchase  in  Maine,  a  tract  of 
about  500,000  acres.  In  all  these  ventures  he 
and  his  associates  had  difficulty  in  acquiring  ti- 
tles to  the  lands,  for  such  large  projects  were 
disapproved  of  by  the  Puritan  governments  of 
New  England,  which  preferred  a  more  demo- 
cratic distribution  of  the  land.  This  objection 
on  the  part  of  the  New  England  authorities  fur- 
nished one  of  the  main  reasons  for  the  impetus 
given  to  the  Dominion  movement.  To  the  sur- 
prise and  consternation  of  the  various  specu- 
lators, Andros,  governor  of  the  Dominion,  was 
as  opposed  to  the  engrossing  of  large  tracts  as 
were  the  Puritan  rulers.  This  opposition  doomed 
Andros'  chances  for  success,  for  his  chief  sup- 
port had  been  from  the  merchants  and  landed 
proprietors.  Wharton  and  his  associates  as  well 
as  the  Puritans  of  the  old  theocracy  worked  for 


a  change,  although  their  suggested  reforms  were 
along  different  lines.  While  in  England  trying 
to  further  his  own  projects  at  court  and  at  the 
same  time  help  the  movement  against  Andros, 
Wharton  died  suddenly,  leaving  his  vast  estate 
in  a  bankrupt  condition.  By  his  death  the  Do- 
minion lost  one  of  its  strongest  imperialist  lead- 
ers and  the  opposition  became  dominant  under 
the    brilliant    generalship    of    Increase    Mather 

[V.  F.  Barnes,  "Richard  Wharton,"  Mass.  Colonial 
Soc.  Pubs.,  vol.  XXVI  (1926),  with  references;  Ful- 
mer  Mood  in  Miss.  Valley  Hist.  Rev.,  Sept.  1934.] 

V.F.  B. 

WHARTON,  ROBERT  (Jan.  12,  1757-Mar. 
7,  1834),  mayor  of  Philadelphia,  merchant, 
sportsman,  the  second  child  of  Joseph  Wharton, 
by  his  second  wife,  Hannah  (Owen)  Ogden 
Wharton,  was  born  at  his  father's  country  seat, 
"Walnut  Grove,"  in  Southwark,  Philadelphia, 
later  the  scene  of  the  historic  fete,  "The  Mis- 
chianza,"  given  in  honor  of  the  British  com- 
mander, General  Howe.  A  first  cousin  of  Thom- 
as and  half-brother  of  Samuel  Wharton  [qq.z\~\, 
he  was  a  grandson  of  Thomas  Wharton,  of  West- 
morland, England,  who  emigrated  to  Philadel- 
phia some  time  before  1689.  As  a  boy  Robert 
displayed  a  "decided  distaste  for  learning,"  and 
at  the  age  of  fourteen  was  allowed  to  relinquish 
his  studies  and  become  apprentice  to  a  hatter. 
After  having  learned  the  trade,  he  did  not  fol- 
low it,  but  entered  the  counting  house  of  his  half- 
brother  Charles.  Subsequently,  he  engaged  in 
business  for  himself  as  a  wholesale  grocer  and 
as  a  flour  merchant. 

In  1792  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  com- 
mon council  of  Philadelphia,  and  in  1796  was 
appointed  alderman.  While  he  was  serving  in 
that  capacity  the  sailors  on  merchantmen  then 
in  the  harbor  went  on  a  strike  for  higher  wages, 
and  being  denied,  proceeded  to  terrorize  the 
water  front.  Armed  with  clubs  and  knives,  they 
marched  up  and  down  the  streets  near  the  river 
until  influential  citizens  appealed  to  Wharton  to 
take  charge  and  suppress  the  rioters,  since  the 
mayor  of  the  city  was  in  feeble  health  and  in- 
capacitated. Wharton  gathered  a  force  of  some 
sixty  police  and  twenty  volunteers,  and  led  them 
armed  with  sticks  of  cordwood  against  the 
rioters,  who  numbered  about  three  hundred. 
Wharton  himself  was  unarmed,  but  after  being 
knocked  down  four  times  he  succeeded  in  seizing 
the  standard  bearer.  A  hundred  men  were  ar- 
rested and  the  riot  was  suppressed. 

In  1798  Wharton  was  elected  mayor  of  Phila- 
delphia for  the  first  of  fifteen  times.  Before 
the  election,  and  while  an  alderman,  he  volun- 


31 


Wharton 


Wharton 


teered  to  take  charge  of  the  Walnut  Street  Jail, 
since  the  jailer  and  several  of  his  deputies  had 
resigned  in  the  face  of  the  yellow-fever  epidemic 
which  had  broken  out  in  the  city.  Wharton  took 
up  his  residence  in  the  prison,  and  when  a  mutiny 
among  the  convicts  broke  out  he  armed  himself 
with  a  fowling  piece,  and  together  with  several 
keepers  met  the  insurgents,  whom  he  called  upon 
to  surrender.  Since  they  continued  to  advance  he 
gave  the  order  to  fire,  and  himself  fired  immedi- 
ately. Several  of  the  prisoners  fell,  two  of  them 
mortally  wounded.  Wharton  asked  the  grand 
jury  to  investigate  the  incident,  and  they  re- 
turned a  report  that  he  had  only  performed  his 
duty  in  upholding  the  law.  His  fellow  townsmen 
never  forgot  these  two  instances  of  his  courage 
and  devotion.  He  was  reelected  mayor  in  1799, 
and  served  subsequently  in  1806-07,  in  1810, 
from  1814  to  1818,  and  from  1820  to  1824.  In 
the  latter  year  he  resigned,  having  served  as 
chief  executive  of  Philadelphia  more  years  than 
any  other  mayor  of  that  city. 

Greatly  interested  in  sports  and  social  activi- 
ties, Wharton  early  became  a  member  of  the 
Gloucester  (N.  J.)  Fox  Hunting  Club,  of  which 
he  was  president  from  1812  until  it  was  disband- 
ed in  1 8 18.  He  was  also  a  member  of  the 
Schuylkill  Fishing  Company  from  1790  until 
1828,  when  he  resigned,  having  in  the  meantime 
been  elected  governor  sixteen  times.  His  social 
interests  naturally  caused  him  to  join,  in  1798, 
the  First  Troop,  Philadelphia  City  Cavalry,  of 
which  body  he  was  elected  captain  in  1803  with- 
out having  passed  through  the  intermediate 
ranks.  In  1810,  he  was  elected  colonel  of  the 
Regiment  of  Cavalry  of  Philadelphia,  and  in 
181 1  he  became  brigadier-general  of  the  First 
Brigade,  Pennsylvania  Militia.  When  the  First 
Troop  went  into  active  service  in  1814,  he  served 
as  a  private  under  his  former  lieutenant,  resign- 
ing to  become  once  more  the  mayor  of  Philadel- 
phia. On  Dec.  17,  1789,  he  was  married  to  Sa- 
lome, daughter  of  William  Chancellor.  He  had 
two  children,  both  of  whom  predeceased  him. 

[A.  H.  Wharton,  Gencal.  of  the  Wharton  Family 
(1880);  A  Hist,  of  the  Schuylkill  Fishing  Company 
(1889)  ;  Henry  Simpson,  The  Lives  of  Eminent  Phila- 
dclphians  Now  Deceased  (1859)  ;  F.  W.  Leach,  in 
North  American  (Phila.),  Apr.  14,  1907  ;  Hist,  of  the 
First  Troop  Phila.  City  Cavalry  (n.d.)  ;  Poulson's  Am. 
Daily  Advertiser  (Phila.),  Mar.  8,  1834.]  J.J. 

WHARTON,  SAMUEL  (May  3,  1732-1800), 

merchant  and  land  speculator,  was  born  in  Phil- 
adelphia, the  grandson  of  Thomas  Wharton,  a 
Quaker  who  emigrated  to  Philadelphia  from 
Westmorland,  England,  before  1689,  and  the  son 
of  Hannah  (Carpenter)  and  Joseph  Wharton, 
a  prosperous  merchant.  He  was  a  half-brother  of 


Robert  Wharton  [q.z'.~\.  He  married,  before 
1755,  Sarah  Lewis.  They  had  six  children.  He 
became  a  prominent  merchant  and  was  associ- 
ated with  John  Baynton  in  the  Philadelphia  firm 
of  Baynton  &  Wharton  and  after  1763  also  with 
George  Morgan  [q.i'.~\  as  Baynton,  Wharton  & 
Morgan.  This  concern  was  engaged  in  the  trade 
of  the  newly  opened  country  across  the  Alle- 
ghanies,  especially  with  the  Indians.  About  1764 
the  firm  launched  an  ambitious  project  for  ex- 
ploiting the  trade  of  the  Illinois  country,  later 
known  as  the  "Grand  Illinois  Venture" ;  but  a 
series  of  reverses  obliged  the  company  to  go  into 
a  voluntary  receivership  and  withdraw  com- 
pletely from  the  Illinois  venture  in  1772. 

In  the  meantime,  Wharton  was  becoming 
deeply  interested  in  land  speculation.  For  sev- 
eral years  he  seems  to  have  devoted  his  principal 
energies  to  obtaining  a  large  land  grant  from 
the  Indians  by  way  of  restitution  for  the  firm's 
heavy  losses  during  Pontiac's  uprising  of  1763. 
In  1768,  at  Fort  Stanwix,  the  Six  Nations  ceded 
to  the  "suffering  traders"  a  large  tract  of  land 
now  in  West  Virginia,  which  came  to  be  known 
as  the  "Indiana  grant."  Deeming  it  desirable  to 
have  this  grant  validated  by  the  Crown  in  1769, 
the  associates  in  the  project  sent  Wharton  and 
William  Trent  [q.v.~\  to  England.  It  is  doubtful 
whether  Wharton  and  Trent  ever  attempted  to 
obtain  the  King's  sanction  for  the  original  In- 
diana grant.  Wharton  soon  established  valuable 
contacts  with  prominent  English  politicians  and 
men  of  affairs,  and  with  them  organized  a  group 
styled  the  Grand  Ohio  Company,  though  it  was 
usually  referred  to  as  the  Walpole  Company, 
from  Thomas  Walpole,  a  prominent  member. 
In  January  1770  the  group  petitioned  for  a  grant 
of  some  20,000,000  acres  lying  between  the  Alle- 
ghanies  and  the  upper  Ohio.  A  scheme  had  been 
devised  for  a  new  colony,  to  be  called  "Van- 
dalia,"  and  a  tentative  frame  of  government  had 
even  been  decided  upon.  It  was  rumored  in  Phil- 
adelphia that  Wharton  was  to  be  the  first  gov- 
ernor. For  years  he  devoted  his  very  consid- 
erable abilities  to  these  plans.  He  brought  in- 
fluence to  bear  upon  British  officialdom,  corre- 
sponded with  his  associates  in  America,  and 
wrote  a  series  of  pamphlets  in  support  of  the 
petition  of  the  Walpole  group  (for  list  of  these 
pamphlets  see  Mississippi  Valley,  post,  II,  316). 
Official  procrastination  and  obstruction,  how- 
ever, climaxed  by  the  outbreak  of  hostilities  in 
America  in  1775,  caused  the  complete  collapse 
of  the  enterprise.  Wharton  remained  in  Eng- 
land and  in  1779  joined  Franklin  in  France, 
where  the  two  discussed  the  possibility  of  ob- 


32 


Wharton 

taining  recognition  of  the  Vandalia  claim  by 
Congress. 

In  1779  or  1780  Wharton  returned  to  Amer- 
ica. He  served  as  a  delegate  to  Congress  from 
Delaware  in  1782  and  1783.  From  1784  to  1786 
he  was  justice  of  the  peace  for  the  district  of 
Southwark,  Pa.,  and  was  judge  of  the  court  of 
common  pleas  in  1790  and  1791.  He  died  at  his 
country  home  near  Philadelphia.  His  will  was 
probated  on  Mar.  26,  1800. 

[Correspondence  and  papers  of  Baynton,  Wharton, 
&  Morgan,  the  Ohio  Company  manuscripts,  and  the 
Wharton  manuscripts  including  the  Thomas  Wharton 
Letter  Book,  1 773-1 784,  in  possession  of  Hist.  Soc. 
of  Pa.  ;  some  letters  in  Pa.  Mag.  of  Hist,  and  Biog., 
July  1909  to  Jan.  1910  ;  A.  H.  Wharton,  Gcncal.  of  the 
Wharton  Family  (1880)  and  in  Ibid.,  vol.  I  (1877), 
nos.  3  and  4;  Biog.  Directory  Am.  Cong.  (1928)  ;  ///. 
State  Hist.  Lib.  Colls.,  esp.  C.  W.  Alvord  and  C.  E. 
Carter,  "The  Critical  Period"  (1915),  "The  New  Re- 
gime" (191 6),  and  "Trade  and  Politics"  ( 1921)  ;  C.  W. 
Alvord,  The  Mississippi  Valley  in  British  Politics  (2 
vols.,  1917)  ;  C.  E.  Carter,  Great  Britain  and  the  Illi- 
nois Country  (1910)  ;  A.  T.  Volwiler,  George  Croghan 
and  the  Westward  Movement  (1926);  Max  Savelle, 
George  Morgan  (1932).]  W.  E.  S — s. 

WHARTON,  THOMAS  (1735-May  22, 
1778),  merchant,  president  of  Pennsylvania,  son 
of  John  and  Mary  (Dobbins)  Wharton,  was 
born  in  Chester  County,  Pa.,  the  second  of  five 
children.  First  cousin  of  Robert  and  Samuel 
Wharton  [qq.v.~\,  he  was  a  grandson  of  Thomas 
Wharton  of  Kellorth,  Orton  Parish,  Westmor- 
land, England,  who  emigrated  to  America  before 
1689.  John  Wharton  was  a  saddler  by  trade  and 
coroner  of  Cbester  County,  1730-37.  His  son, 
Thomas,  who  was  called  "Junior"  to  distinguish 
him  from  a  cousin  by  the  same  name  and  five 
years  his  senior,  seems  to  have  had  the  advan- 
tages of  a  good  education.  At  the  age  of  twenty 
he  was  apprenticed  to  Reese  Meredith,  a  Phila- 
delphia merchant.  Later,  he  established  himself 
in  business  and  for  a  time,  in  association  with 
Anthony  Stocker  under  the  name  of  Stocker  & 
Wharton,  was  one  of  the  principal  exporters  of 
Philadelphia.  His  resolute  stand  against  the 
Stamp  Act  (1765),  his  advocacy  of  non-im- 
portation agreements  among  American  mer- 
chants, together  with  his  membership  on  .the 
committee  of  correspondence  and  his  avowed 
sympathy  for  Boston  in  1774,  definitely  identi- 
fied him  with  the  Whigs. 

Thereafter  his  energies  were  devoted  less  to 
the  business  of  a  merchant  and  more  to  Penn- 
sylvania politics.  In  the  summer  of  1774  he 
was  on  the  committee  which  attempted  unsuc- 
cessfully to  have  the  Assembly  summoned  into 
session  and  was  a  delegate  to  the  provincial 
convention  (July  15).  In  the  summer  of  1775 
the  Assembly  placed  him  on  the  provincial  Com- 
mittee of  Safety.    In  the  work  of  this  body  he 


Wharton 

played  an  active  part  until  it  was  superseded  by 
the  Council  of  Safety,  which  the  state  conven- 
tion in  July  1776  vested  with  executive  author- 
ity until  the  new  constitution  was  put  into  opera- 
tion. Of  this  body,  on  Aug.  6,  Wharton  was 
chosen  president.  The  failure  of  Philadelphia 
to  elect  members  to  the  Assembly  and  the  Coun- 
cil brought  unexpected  delay  in  organizing  the 
state  government,  the  resulting  confusion  being 
increased  by  the  British  invasion  of  New  Jer- 
sey. In  this  emergency  Wharton  was  in  con- 
stant touch  with  Washington,  and  was  the  prin- 
cipal figure  in  ordering  the  Pennsylvania  mili- 
tia to  the  commander  in  chief's  assistance,  and 
in  encouraging  enlistments.  The  danger  from 
without  seems  to  have  turned  the  tide  of  opinion 
toward  the  constitution,  and  in  February  1777, 
after  months  of  delay,  Philadelphia  elected  a 
councilor  in  the  person  of  Wharton.  The  gov- 
ernment was  now  organized,  the  Council  and  the 
Assembly  united  in  electing  Wharton  president 
of  the  Supreme  Executive  Council,  and  on  Mar. 
5»  J777,  the  new  president  was  inaugurated  with 
imposing  ceremonies. 

Commanding  the  respect  of  the  conservatives, 
by  his  energy  and  patriotism,  together  with  his 
moderation  and  tact,  he  gave  dignity  to  the  gov- 
ernment and  was  at  the  same  time  acceptable  to 
the  back  country.  Not  an  ardent  constitutional- 
ist, he  was  desirous  of  maintaining  some  sem- 
blance of  harmony  in  the  state,  as  his  own  words 
show :  "if  the  Government  should  at  this  time 
be  overset,  it  would  be  attended  with  the  worst 
consequences  not  only  to  this  state,  but  to  the 
whole  continent  in  the  opposition  we  are  making 
to  the  tyranny  of  Great  Britain.  If  a  better 
frame  of  government  should  be  adopted — such  a 
one  as  would  please  a  much  greater  majority 
than  the  present  one,  I  should  be  very  happy  in 
seeing  it  brought  about"  (Armor,  post,  p.  208). 
The  critical  times  made  the  task  of  president  a 
difficult  one,  especially  in  a  state  so  hopelessly 
divided  into  factions  as  was  Pennsylvania.  Dur 
ing  his  administration  bills  of  credit  were  is- 
sued to  carry  on  the  war,  laws  passed  to  punish 
the  disloyal,  courts  organized,  and  other  meas- 
ures taken  to  fit  the  government  to  the  needs  of 
the  time.  A  unique  test  of  Wharton's  own  loy- 
alty to  the  cause  was  afforded  in  September  1777, 
when,  backed  up  by  the  Assembly,  he  ordered 
the  removal  of  twenty  Quakers  from  Philadel- 
phia to  Virginia,  one  of  them  his  own  cousin, 
for  their  suspected  British  sympathies,  going 
so  far  as  to  disregard  writs  of  habeas  corpus 
from  Chief  Justice  McKean  [qs'.~\  of  the  state 
supreme  court.  IK-  had  much  to  do  in  building 
up  Philadelphia's  defenses  during  the  summer 


33 


Wharton 


Wharton 


of  1777  and  early  in  1778,  and,  at  his  sugges- 
tion, Washington  sent  army  officers  into  Penn- 
sylvania to  replenish  the  dwindling  regiments. 
In  the  fall  of  1777,  when  the  British  seized  Phil- 
adelphia, the  state  government  moved  to  Lan- 
caster. There  Wharton  succumbed  unexpected- 
ly the  following  spring  to  an  attack  of  quinsy. 

Wharton  was  married  twice.  His  first  mar- 
riage, Nov.  4,  1762,  to  Susannah,  daughter  of 
Thomas  Lloyd  and  Susannah  Kearney,  allied 
him  with  a  family  long  prominent  in  Pennsyl- 
vania politics.  After  her  death  he  married,  Dec. 
7,  1774,  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  William  and 
Mary  Tallman  Fishbourne.  By  his  first  wife 
he  had  five  children,  and  by  his  second,  three. 
Wharton's  grandfather  was  a  Quaker,  but  he, 
although  not  a  member,  was  outwardly  sympa- 
thetic toward  the  Anglican  Church.  He  was 
prominent  in  the  social  and  civic  life  of  Phila- 
delphia and  maintained  a  beautiful  country  home, 
"Twickenham,"  in  Cheltenham  Township,  now 
Montgomery  County. 

[A.  H.  Wharton,  Geneal.  of  the  Wharton  Family 
(1880)  ;  Pa.  Mag.  of  Hist,  and  Biog.,  Oct.  1881,  Jan. 
1882;  W.  C.  Armor,  Lives  of  the  Governors  of  Pa. 
(1872)  ;  A.  S.  Bolles.  Pa.  Province  and  State  (1899)  ; 
Pa.  Archives,  1  ser.  V-VIII  (1853),  2  ser.  Ill  (1890), 
4  ser.  Ill  (1900),  651-72;  Pa.  Colonial  Records,  vols. 
X,  XI  (1852)  ;  J.  H.  Peeling,  The  Pub.  Life  of  Thos. 
McKean,  1734-1817  (1929).]  J.H.  P g. 

WHARTON,  THOMAS  ISAAC  (May  17, 
1791-Apr.  7,  1856),  lawyer,  author,  was  born  in 
Philadelphia,  the  third  child  of  Isaac  and  Mar- 
garet (Rawle)  Wharton.  He  was  a  descendant 
of  Thomas  Wharton  who  was  in  Philadelphia 
before  1689,  and  a  nephew  of  Samuel  Wharton 
[<jw.].  Isaac's  cousin,  Thomas  Wharton  [q.z:~\, 
was  the  first  president  of  Pennsylvania.  After 
graduating  from  the  University  of  Pennsylvania 
in  1807,  Thomas  Isaac  began  the  study  of  law  in 
the  office  of  his  uncle,  William  Rawle  \_q.z'.'],  a 
leader  of  the  Philadelphia  bar.  During  the  War 
of  1812,  he  served  as  a  lieutenant  in  the  famous 
volunteer  Washington  Guards  of  Philadelphia. 
Here  his  youth  and  high  spirits  caused  him  to 
quarrel  with  Capt.  John  Swift  while  their  re- 
spective companies  were  deploying  near  Camp 
Dupont.  After  some  hot  words,  there  was  an  in- 
terchange of  sword  thrusts  in  which  Wharton 
was  wounded  slightly.  This  incident  resulted  in 
his  temporary  dismissal  from  the  Guards,  to 
which,  however,  he  was  soon  reelected.  The  mat- 
er having  been  referred  to  a  court  of  honor, 
Wharton,  pursuant  to  the  court's  decision,  apolo- 
gized and  the  matter  ended. 

At  the  close  of  the  war  he  began  the  active 
practice  of  the  law  and  became  one  of  the  most 
learned  members  of  the  bar,  acquiring,  in  par- 


ticular, a  mastery  over  the  difficult  branches 
dealing  with  real  property.  He  found  time  in  his 
earlier  years,  however,  for  diversions  of  a  lit- 
erary nature.  He  was  one  of  the  brilliant  young 
men  who  gathered  around  Joseph  Dennie  [q.v.], 
was  a  member  of  his  Tuesday  Club,  and  a  con- 
tributor to  the  Port  Folio.  Wharton  also  wrote 
for  the  Analcctic  Magazine  and  in  1815  succeed- 
ed Washington  Irving  [q.v.']  as  editor.  So  ab- 
sorbed in  the  law  did  he  ultimately  become,  how- 
ever, that  the  fine  literary  career  promised  by 
his  early  writing  was  never  realized.  Though  he 
was  especially  learned  in  real  property  law,  his 
knowledge  in  other  legal  fields  was  hardly  less 
profound.  Among  his  early  labors  was  that  of 
compiling  A  Digest  of  Cases  Adjudged  in  the 
Circuit  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the  Third 
Circuit,  and  in  the  Courts  of  Pennsylvania 
(1822).  In  1830  he  was  appointed  with  William 
Rawle  and  Joel  Jones  [q.z'.]  to  codify  the  civil 
statute  law  of  Pennsylvania,  a  task  which  con- 
sumed four  years.  Legal  publications  of  his  in- 
clude Reports  of  Cases  .  .  .  in  the  Supreme  Court 
of  Pennsylvania  (1836),  and  A  Letter  to  Robert 
Toland  and  Isaac  Elliot,  Esqrs.,  on  the  Subject 
of  the  Right  and  Pozvcr  of  the  City  of  Philadel- 
phia to  Subscribe  for  Stock  in  the  Pennsylvania 
Railroad  (1846),  a  masterful  legal  thesis  which 
was  instrumental  in  assuring  the  formation  of 
the  Pennsylvania  Railroad.  Wharton's  success 
as  a  lawyer  was  in  no  small  part  due  to  his  scru- 
pulous honesty  and  exacting  ethical  standards. 

He  took  a  lively  interest  in  various  scholarly 
societies.  In  1830  he  was  elected  a  member  of 
the  American  Philosophical  Society.  He  was 
among  the  first  active  members  of  the  Library 
and  Athenaeum  companies,  and  the  Historical 
Society  of  Pennsylvania  was  started  in  Whar- 
ton's home  by  himself  and  a  number  of  friends 
with  similar  interests.  He  was  also  a  trustee  of 
the  University  of  Pennsylvania  from  1837  to  his 
death.  Among  his  non-legal  writings  are  "Notes 
on  the  Provincial  Literature  of  Pennsylvania" 
{Memoirs  of  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, vol.  I,  1826)  and  A  Memoir  of  William 
Rawle  (1840).  On  Sept.  11,  1817,  he  married 
Arabella  Griffith,  who  with  four  children  sur- 
vived him. 

[A.  H.  Wharton,  Geneal.  of  the  Wharton  Family 
(1880)  ;  H.  E.  Wharton  and  others,  Francis  Wharton: 
A  Memoir  (1891)  ;  Henry  Simpson,  The  Lives  of  Emi- 
nent Philadelphians  Now  Deceased  (1859);  J-  T. 
Scharf  and  Thompson  Westcott,  Hist,  of  Phila.  ( 1884)  ; 
T.  A.  Glenn,  Some  Colonial  Mansions  and  Those  Who 
Lived  in  Them  (1900)  ;  Univ.  of  Pa.,  Biog.  Cat.  of  the 
Matriculates  of  the  Coll.  (1894);  "Extracts  from  the 
Diary  of  Thomas  Franklin  Pleasants,  1814,"  Pa.  Mag 
of  Hist,  and  Biog.,  Oct.  1915;  North  Am.  and  U.  S. 
Gazette  (Phila.),  Apr.  9,  1856;  Legal  Intelligencer, 
Apr.  18,  1856.]  G.G.  A. 


34 


Wharton 


Wharton 


WHARTON,  WILLIAM  H.  (1802-Mar.  14, 
1839),  leader  in  the  Texas  revolution,  was  born 
in  Albemarle  County,  Va.,  the  descendant  of  John 
Wharton  who  emigrated  from  Westmorland, 
England,  to  Culpeper  County,  Va.,  about  1730 
and  the  son  of  John  Austin  and  Judith  (Harris) 
Wharton.  Both  his  parents  died  in  1816,  leaving 
five  children  to  the  guardianship  of  an  uncle, 
Jesse  Wharton,  a  lawyer  and  a  representative 
and  senator  in  Congress  from  Tennessee.  While 
engaged  in  the  practice  of  law  at  Nashville, 
Tenn.,  young  Wharton  met  Sarah  Ann  Groce, 
who  was  attending  school  there.  The  courtship 
that  followed  brought  him  to  Texas  and  to  the 
home  of  Jared  Ellison  Groce,  the  largest  planter 
and  slave  owner  in  all  that  country.  The  couple 
was  married  at  "Bernardo,"  the  home  of  the 
bride's  father,  on  Dec.  5,  1827.  Jared  Groce  of- 
fered the  young  people  one-third  of  his  vast  es- 
tate— all  the  lands  he  possessed  in  Brazoria  Coun- 
ty— and  numerous  slaves,  if  they  would  remain 
in  Texas.  With  keen  intuition,  Groce  felt  that 
Wharton  would  be  a  valuable  asset  to  the  new 
country.  The  Wrharton  plantation  was  situated 
twelve  miles  from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  on  fertile 
land,  with  the  Brazos  River  on  one  side  and 
Oyster  Creek  on  the  other.  Here  a  splendid  home 
was  built  with  lumber  from  Mobile  and  furniture 
and  interior  decoration  from  Nashville.  Here  at 
"Eagle  Island" — for  such  was  the  plantation 
called — many  important  meetings  were  held  that 
had  much  to  do  with  shaping  the  future  of  Texas. 
Here  John  A.  Wharton,  the  first  child,  who  suc- 
ceeded to  the  command  of  the  Confederate  regi- 
ment, "Terry's  Texas  Rangers,"  after  Terry  was 
killed,  grew  to  manhood. 

By  the  time  the  Texas  Revolution  appeared 
probable,  Wharton  had  become  prominent  in  pub- 
lic affairs.  A  convention  was  called  at  San 
Felipe  for  Oct.  1,  1832,  with  the  ostensible  pur- 
pose of  proclaiming  loyalty  to  Santa  Anna,  but 
perhaps  with  the  real  purpose  of  petitioning  for 
the  repeal  of  the  law  of  Apr.  6,  1830,  which  pro- 
hibited further  colonization  in  Texas  by  citizens 
of  foreign  countries,  including  the  United  States. 
Wharton  was  nominated  as  president,  but  Ste- 
phen F.  Austin  [q.v.],  recognized  as  the  most 
influential  man  in  Texas,  was  elected.  Wharton 
wrote  the  report  of  the  committee  asking  repeal 
of  the  objectionable  law  of  Apr.  6.  When  a  sec- 
ond convention  was  called,  Apr.  1,  1833,  Wharton 
was  chosen  president.  This  convention  set  itself 
the  task  of  writing  a  new  constitution  for  Texas, 
when  Texas  should  be  separated  from  Coahuila. 
Early  in  1835  a  large  group  of  Texans,  one  of 
whom  was  Wharton,  had  given  up  hope  of  re- 
form and  come  to  favor  complete  separation  from 


Mexico.  By  July  of  that  year  Lorenzo  de  Zavala 
and  Wharton  were  openly  agitating  against  Santa 
Anna.  When  the  Texans  organized  at  Gonzales 
on  Oct.  n,  1835,  Austin  was  elected  commander- 
in-chief,  and  Wharton  was  made  judge-advocate 
of  the  army.  He  resigned  this  office  on  Nov.  8, 
and  four  days  later  was  selected  by  the  Consulta- 
tion to  accompany  Austin  and  Branch  T.  Archer 
[q.v.]  to  the  United  States  to  solicit  aid  and  sup- 
port for  the  Texas  revolution.  On  Apr.  26,  1836, 
five  days  after  the  battle  of  San  Jacinto,  he  made 
a  stirring  Address  (1836)  in  the  Masonic  Hall, 
New  York  City,  asking  for  sympathy  and  pecuni- 
ary aid.  He  did  not  know  that  at  the  time  Santa 
Anna  had  been  captured  and  the  revolution 
brought  near  to  a  close.  On  May  31,  he  had  a 
conference  lasting  several  hours  with  President 
Jackson,  who  advised  him  what  Texas  should  do 
to  prove  that  the  revolution  had  achieved  a  de  facto 
government.  The  three  commissioners  were  back 
in  Texas  by  mid-summer,  and  on  July  20,  1836, 
they  met  at  Velasco  to  submit  their  report.  Whar- 
ton was  chosen  a  senator  from  the  Brazoria  dis- 
trict but  resigned  in  November  to  accept  the  ap- 
pointment from  President  Sam  Houston  [q.v.'] 
as  minister  to  the  United  States.  His  mission 
was  to  negotiate  for  the  recognition  of  Texas 
and  for  its  eventual  annexation  to  the  United 
States.  While  Wharton  was  in  Washington, 
Jackson  urged  him  to  have  Texas  extend  its 
claims  to  include  California.  Wharton  wrote : 
"He  is  very  earnest  and  anxious  on  this  point  of 
claiming  the  Californias  and  says  we  must  not 
consent  to  less"  (Garrison,  post,  I,  194).  Jackson 
seemed  to  think  that  if  Texas  could  be  extended 
to  include  California,  the  North  would  consent 
to  annexation  in  order  to  gain  a  port  on  the 
Pacific. 

Though  Wharton  lived  to  see  Texas  recognized 
as  an  independent  republic,  he  was  not  permitted 
to  see  annexation  consummated.  In  October  1838 
he  removed  his  residence  from  "Eagle  Island" 
to  Houston  and  took  a  place  in  the  Texas  Senate. 
He  died  at  the  home  of  his  wife's  brother,  Leon- 
ard Waller  Groce.  While  preparing  to  go  to 
"Eagle  Island,"  he  drew  his  pistol  to  examine  it 
and  discharged  it  accidentally,  inflicting  a  mortal 
wound.  He  was  buried  at  "Eagle  Island."  Whar- 
ton County,  Tex.,  was  named  in  his  honor. 

[E.  C.  Barker.  The  Life  of  Stephen  F.  Austin  (1925)  ; 
J.  H.  Brown,  Hist,  of  Texas  (2  vols.,  1892-93)  ;  "Dip- 
lomatic Correspondence  of  .  .  .  Texas,"  Ann.  Report 
Amer.  Hist.  Assoc,  for  igo7  and  1908  (3  pt.  in  2  vols., 
1908-11),  ed.  by  G.  P.  Garrison;  W.  W.  Groce,  "Ma- 
jor-Gen. John  A.  Wharton,"  Southwestern  Hist.  Quail., 
Jan.  1916;  Ibid.,  Jan.  1914,  Oct.  1928,  July  1932,  Jan. 
1955  ;  names  of  parents  from  C.  R.  Wharton,  Houston, 
Tex-1  W.P.W. 


35 


Whatcoat 

WHATCOAT,  RICHARD  (Feb.  23,  1736- 
July  5,  1806),  Methodist  bishop,  son  of  Charles 
and  Mary  Whatcoat,  was  born  in  the  parish  of 
Quinton,  Gloucestershire,  England.  When  he 
was  still  young  his  father  died  and  his  mother 
apprenticed  him  at  the  age  of  thirteen  to  Joseph 
Jones  of  Birmingham.  At  the  conclusion  of  his 
apprenticeship  of  eight  years,  the  greater  part  of 
which  was  spent  at  Darlaston,  Whatcoat  located 
at  Wednesbury,  where  he  engaged  in  business. 
From  youth  he  was  very  religious  :  "I  was  never 
heard,"  he  wrote  concerning  the  period  of  his 
apprenticeship,  "to  swear  a  vain  oath,  nor  was 
ever  given  to  lying,  gaming,  drunkenness,  or  any 
other  presumptuous  sin,  but  was  commended  for 
my  honesty  and  sobriety,  and  from  my  childhood 
I  had,  at  times,  serious  thoughts  on  death  and 
eternity"  (Flood  and  Hamilton,  post,  p.  107). 
Although  he  was  reared  as  an  Anglican,  in  1758 
he  became  a  regular  attendant  at  Methodist  meet- 
ings and  after  1761  began  to  hold  such  official 
positions  as  class  leader,  steward,  and  exhorter. 
In  1769  he  entered  the  Methodist  itinerancy  and 
until  1784  was  a  preacher  under  the  supervision 
of  John  Wesley  in  England,  Ireland,  and  Wales. 

In  1784  Wesley  selected  him  as  one  of  three 
preachers  to  go  to  America  to  organize  the  scat- 
tered Methodists.  He  was  ordained  deacon  by 
Wesley  on  Sept.  1,  1784,  and  was  made  an  elder 
the  following  day.  In  company  with  Thomas 
Coke  [?.■?'.]  and  Thomas  Vasey  he  arrived  at 
New  York  on  Nov.  3.  He  aided  in  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  at  the 
Christmas  Conference  that  same  year,  after  which 
he  gave  much  of  his  time  to  the  administration 
of  the  sacraments  to  the  American  Methodists, 
who  until  then  had  had  no  ordained  ministers. 
From  1785  to  1800  he  served  as  an  itinerant 
preacher  and  presiding  elder,  his  appointments 
being  to  large  circuits  and  districts  in  the  terri- 
tory between  New  York  and  North  Carolina. 
Bishop  Asbury  [g.7'.J  also  employed  him  as  a 
traveling  companion  on  his  long  episcopal  tours. 

In  1786  Wesley  asked  that  Whatcoat  be  or- 
dained bishop,  but  the  preachers  that  met  in  con- 
ference in  1787,  fearful  that  Wesley  might  recall 
Asbury  if  Whatcoat  was  made  bishop,  refused. 
Thirteen  years  later,  however,  at  the  General 
Conference  of  1800,  he  was  elected  bishop  by  a 
close  vote  over  Jesse  Lee  [q.v.].  Whatcoat  was 
sixty-four  years  old  at  the  time,  and  during  the 
first  year  of  his  episcopacy  his  travels,  made 
mainly  on  horseback,  took  him  from  New  Eng- 
land to  Georgia  and  across  the  Alleghany  Moun- 
tains to  Kentucky  and  Tennessee,  a  distance  of 
4,184  miles.  The  hardships  of  his  office  proved 
too  much  for  him  and  after  six  years  he  died 


Wheatley 

at  the  home  of  Richard  Bassett  at  Dover,  Del. 
Whatcoat  wielded  a  great  influence  on  early 
American  Methodism.  Although  Asbury  sur- 
passed him  in  administrative  ability  Whatcoat 
excelled  the  senior  bishop  in  patience  and  hu- 
mility, and  won  the  respect  of  the  preachers  and 
laymen  by  his  kindness,  his  devotion,  and  his 
unique  ability  in  settling  ecclesiastical  quarrels. 
He  was  a  strong  believer  in  the  Methodist  doc- 
trine of  sanctification  and  made  holiness  the  topic 
for  many  sermons.  Because  of  his  exceptional 
knowledge  of  the  Bible  he  was  often  called  a 
"living  concordance."  So  little  thought  to  secular 
matters  did  he  give  that  at  his  death  he  did  not 
leave  sufficient  funds  to  cover  the  expenses  of  his 
funeral.  "A  man  so  uniformly  good  I  have  not 
known  in  Europe  or  America"  was  Bishop  As- 
bury's  final  tribute  to  him  (Journal,  post,  III, 
202). 

[Brief  autobiog.  in  P.  P.  Sandford,  Memoirs  of  Mr. 
Wesley's  Missionaries  to  America  (1843)  ;  T.  L.  Flood 
and  J.  W.  Hamilton,  Lives  of  Methodist  Bishops 
(1882)  ;  W.  B.  Sprague,  Annals  Am.  Pulpit,  vol.  VII 
( 1 861)  ;  P.  D.  Gorrie,  The  Lives  of  Eminent  Methodist 
Ministers  (1852)  ;  Henry  Boehm,  Reminiscences,  Hist, 
and  Biog.  of  Sixty-Four  Years  in  the  Ministry  (1865), 
ed.  by  J.  B.  Wakeley  ;  Jesse  Lee,  A  Short  Hist,  of  the 
Methodists  in  the  U.  S.  A.  (1810)  ;  Nathan  Bangs,  A 
Hist,  of  the  M.  E.  Church  (4  vols.,  1838-41)  ;  Abel 
Stevens,  Hist,  of  the  M.  E.  Church  in  the  U.  S.  A.  (4 
vols.,  1864-67)  ;  John  Atkinson,  Centennial  Hist,  of 
Am.  Methodism  (1884)  ;  Jour,  of  Rev.  Francis  Asbury 
(3  vols.,  1821)  ;  Minutes  of  the  Methodist  Conferences 
.  .  .  1773  to  1813  (1813)  ;  Federal  Gazette  and  Balti- 
more Daily  Advertiser,  July  10,  1806.]  P.  N.  G. 

WHEATLEY,  PHILLIS  (c.  1753-Dec.  5, 
1784),  poet,  was  born  in  Africa.  When  she  was 
about  eight  years  old  she  was  kidnapped  and 
brought  in  a  slave  ship  to  Boston,  where  she  was 
purchased  by  John  Wheatley,  a  prosperous  tailor 
of  Boston,  to  be  trained  as  a  personal  servant  for 
his  wife.  Phillis,  who  had  been  chosen  for  her 
appealing  charm  and  sensitive  face  in  spite  of 
physical  delicacy,  responded  at  once  to  her  new 
surroundings.  Encouraged  by  her  owners,  she 
made  rapid  progress.  "Without  any  assistance 
from  School  Education,"  wrote  Wheatley,  "and 
by  only  what  she  was  taught  in  the  Family,  she, 
in  sixteen  Months  Time  from  her  Arrival,  at- 
tained the  English  Language,  ...  to  such  a  De- 
gree as  to  read  any,  the  most  difficult  Parts  of 
the  Sacred  Writings,  to  the  great  Astonishment 
of  all  who  heard  her"  (Poems  on  Various  Sub- 
jects, post).  She  also  read  extensively  in  Greek 
mythology,  in  Greek  and  Roman  history,  and  in 
the  contemporary  English  poets.  She  early  be- 
came something  of  a  sensation  among  the  Boston 
intellectuals,  and  when  she  translated  a  tale  from 
Ovid,  it  was  published  by  her  friends. 

Her  first  verses,  written  when  she  was  about 
thirteen  years  old,  were  entitled  "To  the  Uni- 


36 


Wheatley 

versity  of  Cambridge  in  New  England."  They 
were  followed  by  "To  the  King's  Most  Excellent 
Majesty,"  written  in  1768,  "On  the  Death  of 
Rev.  Dr.  Sewell,"  1769,  and  other  occasional 
poems.  In  1770  An  Elegiac  Poem  on  the  Death 
of  the  Celebrated  Divine  .  .  .  George  Whitefield, 
was  published.  These  are  not  only  remarkable 
as  examples  of  precocity  but,  though  without 
originality  and  revealing  the  influence  of  Pope 
and  Gray,  are  excellent  work  of  their  kind.  In 
1773  her  health  was  failing  rapidly  and  Nathaniel 
Wheatley,  the  son  of  John,  took  her  to  England. 
She  had  already  corresponded  with  Lady  Hunt- 
ingdon, Lord  Dartmouth,  and  others,  who  now 
received  her  cordially.  In  addition  to  her  gift 
for  writing  she  appears  to  have  been  an  unusual 
conversationalist  and  to  have  had  no  little  per- 
sonal charm.  Her  popularity  in  London  was  im- 
mediate and  great.  The  first  bound  volume  of  her 
poems,  published  while  she  was  abroad,  entitled 
Poems  on  Various  Subjects,  Religious  and  Moral 
(1773),  was  dedicated  to  Lady  Huntingdon. 

Her  visit  was  cut  short  by  the  serious  illness 
of  Mrs.  Wheatley,  who  died  soon  after  Phillis' 
return.  Wheatley  survived  his  wife  only  a  short 
time  and  their  daughter  died  a  little  later.  By 
this  time  Phillis  had  been  freed.  In  1778  she  was 
married  to  John  Peters,  a  free  negro.  He  is  said 
to  have  been  "not  only  a  very  remarkable  looking 
man,  but  a  man  of  talents  and  information."  Ac- 
cording to  tradition,  "he  wrote  with  fluency  and 
propriety,  and  at  one  period  read  law."  He  was 
disagreeable  in  manner,  however,  and  "on  ac- 
count of  his  improper  conduct,  Phillis  became 
entirely  estranged  from  the  immediate  family  of 
her  mistress"  (Memoir  and  Poems,  post,  p.  29). 
He  was  not  able  to  give  her  the  care  her  delicate 
health  required,  and  of  her  three  children,  two 
died  in  early  infancy.  Phillis  herself,  after  un- 
dergoing hardships,  died  in  Boston,  alone  and  in 
poverty,  when  little  more  than  thirty  years  old ; 
her  last  child  was  buried  with  her  in  an  un- 
marked grave.  In  1834  Memoir  and  Poems  of 
Phillis  Wheatley  was  issued,  the  memoir  being 
written  by  Margaretta  M.  Odell.  The  Letters  of 
Phillis  Wheatley,  the  Negro-Slave  Poet  of  Bos- 
ton appeared  in  1864. 

[B.  H.  Gregoire,  An  Enquiry  Concerning  the  Intellec- 
tual and  Moral  Faculties  and  Literature  of  Negroes 
(1810),  translated  by  D.  B.  Warden;  Jared  Sparks, 
The  Writings  of  George  Washington,  vol.  Ill  (1834)  ; 
R.  W.  Griswold,  The  Female  Poets  of  America  (1849)  '< 
C.  F.  Heartman,  Phillis  Wheatley:  A  Critical  Attempt 
and  a  Bibliog.  of  Her  Writings  (191 5)  ;  Phillis  Wheat- 
ley  (Phillis  Peters):  Poems  and  Letters  (1915V  ed. 
by  C.  F.  Heartman,  with  appreciation  by  Arthur  Schom- 
burg  ;  B.  G.  Brawley,  Earh  Negro  American  Writers 
(1935).] 

WHEATLEY,  WILLIAM  (Dec.  5,  1816- 
Nov.  3,  1876),  actor,  theatrical  manager,  was 


Wheatley 


born  in  New  York  City.  His  father,  Frederick 
Wheatley  (d.  1836),  was  an  Irish  entertainer 
who  had  strayed  from  Dublin  to  America,  join- 
ing first  the  famous  company  of  Warren  and 
Wood  at  Baltimore  and  Philadelphia  (c.  1803), 
then  going  to  the  Park  Theatre  in  New  York, 
where  he  remained  a  favorite  until  his  retire- 
ment in  1829.  Wheatley's  mother  was  the  actress, 
Sarah  (Ross)  Wheatley  (1790- 1872),  born  at 
St.  John,  New  Brunswick,  the  daughter  of  a 
Scottish  officer.  She  made  her  American  debut 
at  the  Park  on  Nov.  12,  1805.  The  following  year 
she  married  Frederick  Wheatley  and  left  the 
stage,  only  to  return  to  it  in  181 1  upon  her  hus- 
band's failure  in  a  business  venture.  From  this 
time  until  her  retirement  in  1843,  she  acted  with 
skill,  understanding,  and  conspicuous  success  in 
various  American  theatres,  but  regularly  at  the 
Park  Theatre.  In  the  roles  of  comic  middle-aged 
and  old  women  (Mrs.  Malaprop,  Juliet's  nurse, 
etc.),  and  in  the  revival  of  old  plays  she  was,  by 
universal  admission,  without  a  rival  on  the 
American  stage.  Of  Wheatley's  sisters,  Julia  had 
some  success  on  the  operatic  stage  as  a  contralto, 
married  a  wealthy  New  York  man,  and  retired 
in  1840 ;  Emma  married  a  New  York  banker's 
son  and  retired  from  the  stage,  but  returned  in 
1847,  acting  with  great  distinction  until  her  death 
at  thirty-two  on  July  16,  1854,  a  highly  accom- 
plished and  beautiful  woman. 

"Young  Wheatley"  began  his  career  as  Albert 
in  J.  S.  Knowles's  William  Tell  with  the  visiting 
actor  W.  C.  Macready,  at  the  Park  Theatre, 
Oct.  13,  1826.  The  boy's  performance  won  signal 
public  favor  and  so  delighted  the  English  trage- 
dian that  he  took  him  on  his  starring  tour  through 
the  United  States.  Returning  home  to  the  Park, 
Wheatley  bettered  his  first  success  in  a  mag- 
nificent production  of  Tom  Thumb,  and  after  its 
long  run  found  himself  established  as  the  chief 
"juvenile"  in  the  nation's  foremost  theatre.  He 
underwent  a  careful  and  thorough  training  by 
his  parents  before  beginning  his  apprenticeship, 
in  1833,  at  the  Bowery  Theatre  as  a  "walking 
gentleman."  In  the  summer  of  1834  he  became 
the  "chief  walking  gentleman"  at  the  Park, 
where  he  continued  his  rapid  advance,  winning 
special  recognition  as  Michael  in  Victorine, 
Henry  Morland  in  The  Heir-at-Laiv,  Nicholas 
Nickleby,  Henry  in  Speed  the  Plough,  and 
Charles  in  the  first  American  performance  of 
London  Assurance.  He  perfected  his  naturally 
vivacious  and  energetic  grace,  and  by  painstak- 
ing study  mastered  his  dramatic  material  as  few 
American  actors  had  been  known  to  do.  On  July 
8,  1836,  at  a  benefit  for  himself  at  the  Park  in 
which  he  and  his  sister  Emma  took  the  leading 


37 


Wheatley 

parts,  he  brought  out  the  tragedy,  Sassacits,  ur 
the  Indian  Wife,  generally  believed  to  be  his 
own.  He  was  also  for  a  time  manager  of  the  Na- 
tional Theatre,  New  York. 

The  Park  Theatre  declining,  Wheatley  went 
to  Philadelphia  in  1842,  where  he  played  with 
E.  A.  Marshall's  great  stock  company  for  one 
season,  ending  with  a  brilliant  but  premature 
farewell  benefit  at  the  Chestnut  Street  Theatre 
on  Mar.  24,  1843,  in  which  he  acted  two  of  his 
most  characteristic  roles,  Doricourt  in  The 
Belle's  Stratagem  and  Captain  Murphy  Maguire 
in  The  Serious  Family.  Then  an  unwise  venture 
in  Wall  Street  and  an  expedition  to  Nicaragua 
interrupted  his  professional  career.  A  year  or 
two  later  he  was  back  again  in  the  Philadelphia 
theatres,  where,  save  for  another  starring  en- 
gagement at  the  Park  in  1847  with  his  sister 
Emma  (Mrs.  James  Mason),  he  continued  to 
perform  until  1852. 

In  that  year  he  took  over  for  a  few  months  the 
direction  of  the  Washington  (D.  C.)  Theatre, 
and  thenceforth  he  divided  his  efforts  between 
acting  and  managing.  From  1853  to  1856  he 
shared  with  John  Drew,  the  elder  \_q.v.~\,  the 
management  of  the  Arch  Street  Theatre,  Phila- 
delphia, then  became  sole  manager  for  two  years, 
then  co-partner  with  John  Sleeper  Clarke  \_q.v.~\ 
until  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War,  when  both 
men  withdrew,  and  Wheatley,  in  spite  of  a  dis- 
astrous fire,  revived  in  a  few  months  the  glories 
of  the  Continental  Theatre  in  the  same  city. 
Early  in  1862  Wheatley  reappeared  in  New  York 
at  Niblo's  Garden  and  by  July  had  leased  that 
former  circus.  The  following  January  he  also 
opened  the  new  Chestnut  Street  in  Philadelphia, 
running  the  two  in  conjunction;  but  after  a 
year's  trial  he  confined  himself  to  the  sole  man- 
agement of  the  better  situated  theatre  in  New 
York.  His  earliest  successes  there — The  Duke's 
Motto,  Bel  Demonio,  The  Connie  Soogah,  Arrah- 
na-Pogue,  in  which  he  shared  the  important  roles 
with  the  foremost  actors  of  the  time — raised 
Niblo's  Garden  to  a  theatre  of  the  first  class, 
celebrated  for  its  star  actors  and  for  its  sumptu- 
ous productions  of  romantic  dramas.  In  1866  the 
unprecedented  triumph  of  The  Black  Crook,  in 
which  Wheatley  introduced  to  America  for  the 
first  time  the  extravagant  ballet  spectacle,  and 
committed  that  playhouse  and  its  metropolitan 
successors  to  the  new  genre,  made  the  fortune  of 
every  one  concerned  in  its  production  and  en- 
abled him  to  retire  from  the  profession,  on  Aug. 
31,  1868,  with  a  handsome  competency.  The  ill- 
ness and  death,  however,  of  his  second  wife, 
Elizabeth  A.  Beckett,  on  Apr.  1,  1869,  soon  trans- 
formed this  elegant  old  stager  into  an  extremely 


Wheaton 

devout  ascetic  who  dressed  like  a  clergyman  and 
resided,  once  more  remarrying,  in  quiet  seclusion 
in  New  York  until  his  death  on  Nov.  3,  1876. 
His  third  wife  and  one  son  by  his  second  wife 
survived  him. 

Though  never  permanently  identifying  his 
name  with  any  of  his  roles,  Wheatley  stood  in 
the  first  rank  as  a  general  actor,  enjoying  great 
popularity  as  Jaffier,  Claude  Melnotte,  Ranger, 
Young  Rapid,  Captain  Absolute,  and  other 
showy,  pictorial  characters  congenial  to  him.  Ac- 
cording to  William  Winter  (post,  p.  140), 
Wheatley's  bearing  was  "pompous,  yet  urbane" ; 
his  elocution  "stately  and  sometimes  stilted."  As 
manager  he  succeeded  remarkably  well  in  a  time 
when  the  star  system  had  ruined  many  of  the 
country's  best  theatres;  but  had  he  cared  more 
for  dramatic  art  than  for  long  runs  he  would 
have  had  a  deeper  and  more  lasting  influence  on 
the  American  stage. 

[T.  A.  Brown,  A  Hist,  of  the  N.  Y.  Stage  (3  vols., 
1903),  and  Hist,  of  the  Am.  Stage  (1871);  Arthur 
Hornblow,  A  Hist,  of  the  Theatre  in  America  (1919), 
II,  99  ;  Laurence  Hutton,  Curiosities  of  the  Am.  Stage 
(1891),  p.  17  ;  J.  N.  Ireland,  Records  of  the  N.  Y.  Stage 
(2  vols.,  1866-67)  ;  L.  E.  Shipman,  A  Group  of  Theatri- 
cal Caricatures  ...  by  IV.  J.  Gladding  (.1897)  ;  Wil- 
liam Winter,  Shadows  of  the  Stage  (1893),  2  ser. ; 
death  notice  in  TV.  Y.  Herald,  Nov.  5,  1876  ;  obituaries 
in  N.  Y.  Tribune,  Nov.  4,  1876,  N.  Y.  Mail,  Evening 
Mirror,  and  TV.  Y.  Clipper,  Nov.  1  ij  1876;  manuscript 
letters  of  Wheatley  and  of  Brown  in  the  Theatre  Col- 
lection, Harvard  Coll.  Lib.]  jyr_  g_ 

WHEATON,  FRANK  (May  8,  1833-June 
18,  1903),  soldier,  was  born  at  Providence,  R.  I., 
the  son  of  Dr.  Francis  Levison  Wheaton  and 
Amelia  S.  (Burrill)  Wheaton.  On  his  father's 
side  he  was  a  descendant  of  Robert  Wheaton, 
who  emigrated  from  Wales  to  Massachusetts  be- 
tween 1630  and  1636.  Young  Wheaton  attended 
the  public  schools,  and  studied  engineering  for 
one  year  at  Brown  University,  leaving  college 
in  1850  to  accept  a  position  with  the  United 
States  and  Mexico  Boundary  Commission,  with 
which  he  passed  five  years  in  border  surveying. 
In  1855  he  accepted  an  appointment  as  a  first 
lieutenant,  1st  United  States  Cavalry.  He  was 
engaged  in  Sumner's  campaign  against  Indians 
in  1857,  in  the  Mormon  expedition  in  1858,  and 
in  fighting  in  the  Indian  Territory  in  1859. 

On  Mar.  1,  1861,  preceding  the  outbreak  of 
the  Civil  War,  he  became  a  captain  in  the  4th 
Cavalry,  and  in  July  the  lieutenant-colonel  of  the 
2nd  Rhode  Island  Infantry.  This  regiment  suf- 
fered heavily  in  the  battle  of  Bull  Run ;  its  colo- 
nel was  among  the  killed  and  Wheaton  was  pro- 
moted to  succeed  him.  For  "admirable  conduct" 
in  the  battle  Wheaton  was  commended  by  Gen- 
eral Burnside.  In  1862  the  2nd  Rhode  Island 
joined  McClellan's  army  in  the  Peninsula  cam- 


38 


Wheaton 


Wheaton 


paign,  and  was  reported  for  efficiency  in  the  bat- 
tle of  Williamsburg  (May  5).  Late  that  year,  as 
of  Nov.  29,  Wheaton  was  appointed  a  brigadier- 
general,  United  States  Volunteers,  and  assigned 
to  command  a  brigade  in  the  VI  Corps,  which  he 
led  in  December  in  the  attack  on  Fredericksburg. 
In  May  following  he  again  assisted  in  an  attack 
on  that  town,  incidental  to  the  campaign  of 
Chancellorsville.  Wheaton's  brigade  arrived  late 
at  Gettysburg,  but  participated  in  the  final  action 
on  July  3,  1863.  Commanding  the  same  brigade 
of  the  VI  (Sedgwick's)  Corps,  he  had  a  promi- 
nent part  in  the  Wilderness  Campaign  in  the 
spring  of  1864.  He  had  important  missions  at 
Spotsylvania  and  at  Cold  Harbor,  and  was  one 
of  the  first  to  cross  the  James  River  and  arrive 
in  front  of  Petersburg  on  June  18.  He  assaulted 
the  outer  works  of  that  city,  but  was  unable  to 
seize  the  main  position.  Shortly  afterward, 
Wheaton,  now  commanding  a  division,  was 
rushed  by  water  to  Washington,  D.  C,  to  repel 
a  threatened  attack  by  the  Confederate  Gen. 
Jubal  A.  Early.  Debarking  at  noon,  July  11,  he 
marched  to  Fort  Stevens,  D.  C,  where  an  ex- 
temporized force  of  clerks  and  veterans  had  been 
skirmishing  with  the  enemy.  By  evening  Wash- 
ington was  safe,  and  on  the  day  following,  Whea- 
ton definitely  repulsed  the  attackers.  He  was 
rewarded  by  being  appointed  a  brevet  major-gen- 
eral. Returning  to  Petersburg,  he  had  great  suc- 
cess in  the  assault  on  Apr.  2,  1865,  which  did 
much  to  win  the  final  campaign. 

On  Apr.  30,  1866,  he  was  mustered  out  of  the 
volunteer  service,  and  on  July  28,  1866,  was  ap- 
pointed a  lieutenant-colonel  of  infantry  in  the 
Regular  Army.  He  received  the  honorary  degree 
of  A.M.  from  Brown  University  in  1865,  and 
was  presented  with  a  sword  of  honor  by  the  state 
of  Rhode  Island.  In  1872  he  successfully  com- 
manded the  expedition  against  the  Modoc  In- 
dians. Appointed  a  brigadier-general  in  1892, 
he  was  assigned  to  command  the  Department  of 
Texas.  In  1897  he  was  promoted  to  major-gen- 
eral, and  in  the  same  year,  May  8,  was  retired 
for  age.  Thereafter,  he  made  his  home  in  Wash- 
ington. At  his  death  he  was  survived  by  his  wife 
and  two  daughters. 

[War  of  the  Rebellion:  Official  Records  (Army)  ;  F. 
B.  Heitman,  Hist.  Reg.  and  Diet.  U.  S.  Army  (1903)  ; 
J.  R.  Bartlett,  Memoirs  of  R.  I.  Officers  (1867)  ;  The 
Biog.  Cyc.  of  Representative  Men  of  R.  I.  (1881); 
Who's  Who  in  America,  1901-02;  Army  and  Navy 
Jour.,  June  20,  1903  ;  Washington  Post,  June  19,  1903.] 

C.H.L. 

WHEATON,  HENRY  (Nov.  27,  1785-Mar. 
11,  1848),  jurist,  diplomat,  expounder  and  his- 
torian of  international  law,  was  born  in  Provi- 
dence, R.  I.,  the  son  of  Seth  and  Abigail  (Whea- 


ton) Wheaton.  He  was  descended  through  both 
his  parents,  who  were  first  cousins,  from  Robert 
Wheaton,  who  emigrated  from  Wales  to  Massa- 
chusetts between  1630  and  1636,  settling  first  in 
Salem  and  later  in  Rehoboth.  Through  his  moth- 
er, Henry  was  said  to  be  descended  also  from 
William  Goffe  [q.v.~\,  the  regicide.  Seth  Whea- 
ton was  a  successful  merchant  and  at  his  death 
was  president  of  the  Rhode  Island  branch  of  the 
Bank  of  the  United  States ;  his  wife  was  a  woman 
of  fine  intellect  and  culture,  whose  influence  on 
her  son  was  exceeded  only  by  that  of  his  maternal 
uncle,  Dr.  Levi  Wheaton.  To  him  Henry  Whea- 
ton wrote  in  1843:  "I  am  your  debtor  in  all 
things,  owing  you  more  of  what  I  am  than  to  all 
others"  (Kellen,  post,  p.  5). 

Wheaton  was  fitted  for  college  at  the  Univer- 
sity Grammar  School,  Providence,  and  entered 
Rhode  Island  College  (now  Brown  University) 
at  the  age  of  thirteen.  When  he  graduated,  in 
September  1802,  he  delivered  a  commencement 
oration  on  "Progress  of  the  Mathematical  and 
Physical  Sciences  during  the  Eighteenth  Cen- 
tury." After  reading  law  in  a  Providence  law 
office,  he  went  to  Europe  in  the  spring  of  1805, 
studied  Civil  Law  at  Poitiers,  translated  into 
English  the  new  Code  Napoleon,  and  visited 
Paris.  In  1806,  after  his  return  from  Europe,  he 
began  the  practice  of  law  in  Providence,  where 
in  181 1  he  married  his  cousin,  Catharine  Whea- 
ton, daughter  of  Dr.  Levi  Wheaton. 

During  his  college  days,  Wheaton  showed 
such  interest  in  the  public  affairs  of  the  French 
nation  that  he  was  known  as  "'Citizen  Wheaton" 
by  his  fellow  students.  This  interest  in  govern- 
ment showed  itself  after  his  graduation  in  arti- 
cles contributed  to  the  Rhode  Island  Patriot  and 
to  the  National  Intelligencer ;  and  in  a  patriotic 
oration,  delivered  on  July  4,  1810,  which  was 
favorably  commented  upon  by  Jefferson,  to  whose 
school  of  political  thinking  all  of  Wheaton's  near 
relatives  belonged.  Recognition  of  his  talents 
came  in  18 12  when  he  moved  to  New  York  City 
to  become  editor  of  the  National  Advocate,  the 
local  organ  of  the  administration  party.  During 
the  nearly  three  years  of  his  editorship  he  wrote 
intelligently  and  with  learning  on  the  questions 
of  international  law  and  policy  growing  out  of 
the  War  of  181 2,  and  was  often  the  mouthpiece 
of  the  administration.  He  served  also,  from  Oct. 
26,  1814,  as  division  judge-advocate  of  the  army. 
In  May  181 5  he  was  appointed  a  justice  of  the 
marine  court  of  New  York  City,  an  office  which 
he  held  until  July  1819;  and  for  part  of  this 
period,  beginning  in  1816,  he  held  also  the  office 
of  United  States  Supreme  Court  reporter,  of 
which  he  was  the  incumbent  until  1827.   He  was 


39 


Wheaton 

a  member  of  the  New  York  State  constitutional 
convention  of  1821,  in  which  he  stood  out  for 
three  propositions  :  incorporation  of  private  cor- 
porations only  by  authority  of  a  general  act,  local 
taxation  for  common  schools,  and  an  independent 
and  irremovable  judiciary.  In  November  1823 
he  was  elected  to  the  New  York  Assembly ;  and 
after  serving  one  term  was  an  unsuccessful  can- 
didate for  a  seat  in  the  United  States  Senate. 
From  April  1825  to  March  1827,  when  he  was 
succeeded  by  J.  C.  Spencer  [q.v.~\,  he  served 
with  Benjamin  F.  Butler  and  John  Duer  [qq.v.] 
as  a  commissioner  to  revise  the  laws  of  New 
York.  While  there  is  no  detailed  record  of  his 
part  in  this  revision  (of  1829),  there  is  evidence 
that  he  drew  up  the  general  plan  which  was  fol- 
lowed by  his  colleagues.  With  his  pen,  he  was 
continuously  active.  In  181 5  he  framed  a  na- 
tional bankruptcy  law  and  urged  its  passage  by 
Congress  ;  in  the  same  year  he  published  A  Digest 
of  the  Law  of  Maritime  Captures  and  Prices ;  in 
1821  he  published  A  Digest  of  the  Decisions  of 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States;  in  1823 
he  edited  William  Selwyn's  Abridgment  of  the 
Law  of  Nisi  Prius;  and  in  1826  he  published  a 
meritorious  work  entitled  Some  Account  of  the 
Life,  Writings  and  Speeches  of  William  Pinkney, 
a  second  edition  of  which  was  included  in  Jared 
Sparks's  Library  of  American  Biography  (vol. 
VI,  1836). 

Meanwhile,  during  twelve  of  these  years, 
Wheaton  published  annually  a  volume  of  the  de- 
cisions of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court.  At 
first  he  served  without  salary,  depending  upon 
the  sale  of  the  Reports  for  his  compensation,  but 
beginning  in  1817  he  received  also  payment  of 
$1,000  a  year.  He  took  his  duties  seriously  and 
greatly  added  to  the  value  of  the  volumes  by  the 
extent  and  excellence  of  his  notes.  "No  reporter 
in  modern  times,"  said  Daniel  Webster,  "has  in- 
serted so  much  and  so  valuable  matter  of  his  own" 
(Lawrence,  post,  p.  xliv).  During  this  time 
Wheaton  was  occasionally  associated  with  Web- 
ster and  others  as  counsel  in  cases  heard  by  the 
Supreme  Court.  After  his  retirement  from  the 
reportership,  his  Reports  were  the  subject  of  a 
suit  (Wheaton  vs.  Peters,  8  Peters,  591)  in 
which  it  was  decided  that  "no  reporter  has  or 
can  have  any  copyright  in  the  written  opinions 
delivered  by  this  court." 

The  year  1827  marked  the  beginning  of  the 
second  phase  of  Wheaton's  career.  In  that  year, 
President  John  Quincy  Adams  appointed  him 
charge  d'affaires  to  Denmark,  and  although  ac- 
ceptance of  this  post  meant  the  renunciation  of 
the  benefits  to  be  derived  from  the  professional 
position  that  he  had  reached  at  home — except 


Wheaton 

for  the  profits  from  the  sale  of  his  Reports — he 
sailed  for  Copenhagen  in  July,  and  reached  his 
post  in  September.  His  only  predecessor  here 
was  George  W.  Erving,  who  in  181 1  had  been 
sent  on  a  special  mission  in  reference  to  seizures 
of  American  vessels.  Wheaton's  particular  duty 
was  to  bring  these  negotiations  to  a  conclusion. 
He  found  it  a  difficult  task,  for  Denmark  never 
admitted  violating  American  neutral  rights ;  nev- 
ertheless, Wheaton  brought  about  agreement  on 
a  treaty  of  indemnity,  signed  Mar.  28,  1830,  by 
the  terms  of  which  the  sum  of  $650,000  was  paid 
to  the  United  States  for  the  benefit  of  American 
merchants  and  all  Danish  claims  were  renounced. 
The  payment  amounted  to  one-fifth  more  than 
the  figure  Wheaton  had  been  instructed  to  insist 
upon.  The  treaty  has  a  special  importance  be- 
cause it  was  the  prototype  of  treaties  of  similar 
purpose  later  negotiated  with  France  and  Naples. 

A  large  part  of  Wheaton's  success  in  Denmark 
was  due  to  his  interest  in  the  history  of  Scandi- 
navia and  the  facility  with  which  he  acquired 
the  Danish  language.  Little  more  than  a  year 
after  his  arrival  in  Copenhagen,  he  published  in 
the  North  American  Review  (October  1828)  an 
article  on  Schlegel's  study,  in  Danish,  of  the  pub- 
lic law  of  Denmark,  and  he  was  the  familiar  as- 
sociate of  the  philologist  R.  C.  Rask  and  the  poet 
A.  G.  Ohlenschliiger.  In  addition  to  articles  on 
Scandinavian  literature  and  legal  systems,  he 
published  History  of  the  Northmen  (1831).  In  a 
revised  second  edition,  which  was  translated  into 
French  in  1844  by  Paul  Guillot,  he  definitely 
committed  himself  to  the  view  of  the  pre-Co- 
lumbian discovery  of  America  by  the  Northmen. 
During  a  visit  to  England  in  1827  he  made  the 
acquaintance  of  Jeremy  Bentham  and  in  1830, 
while  visiting  Paris,  he  was  presented  to  Louis 
Philippe  by  Lafayette.  In  1833  he  returned  to 
the  United  States  on  leave  of  absence,  for  the 
purpose  of  prosecuting  his  suit  against  Peters. 
The  outcome  of  this  suit  was  a  considerable 
financial  loss  to  Wheaton,  but  his  return  to  Eu- 
rope was  a  personal  triumph,  for,  at  the  request 
of  Prussia,  he  was  appointed  charge  d'affaires  at 
Berlin,  Mar.  7,  1835. 

In  June  of  that  year  he  arrived  at  his  new  post, 
where  the  United  States  had  not  been  represent- 
ed since  1797.  The  occasion  for  his  appointment 
was  the  desire  to  establish  commercial  relations 
with  the  states  of  the  German  Zollverein  or  cus- 
toms union,  which  by  1834  had  superseded  the 
Confederation  set  up  by  the  Congress  at  Vienna. 
The  publication  of  Wheaton's  Elements  of  Inter- 
national Law  in  1836  was  indirectly  the  cause  of 
his  promotion,  Mar.  7,  1837,  to  be  envoy  extraor- 
dinary and  minister  plenipotentiary  to  Prussia, 


40 


Wheaton 


Wheaton 


a  change  which  materially  aided  him  in  his  dip- 
lomatic tasks.  At  the  end  of  six  years,  on  Mar. 
24,  1844,  he  secured  signatures  to  a  treaty  with 
Prussia  which  provided  for  a  reduction  of  the 
duty  on  tobacco  and  rice  and  the  admission  of 
unmanufactured  cotton,  duty  free.  In  return, 
the  United  States  was  to  reduce  the  duties  on 
silks,  looking-glass  plates,  toys,  linens,  and  other 
articles  not  coming  into  competition  with  Amer- 
ican products  and  manufactures.  The  United 
States  Senate  rejected  the  treaty,  however,  on 
the  ground  that  the  Constitution  gave  to  Con- 
gress the  sole  power  to  regulate  commerce  and 
pass  revenue  laws.  The  Senate  disapproved  also 
a  treaty  providing  for  the  extradition  of  crimi- 
nals, which  was  subsequently  revived  by  Presi- 
dent Fillmore  and  accepted  by  the  Senate.  An 
important  series  of  treaties  negotiated  by  Whea- 
ton and  put  into  effect  provided  for  the  abroga- 
tion of  the  droit  d'anbaine  and  the  droit  de 
detraction  in  Hanover,  Wiirttemberg,  Hesse- 
Cassel,  Saxony,  Nassau,  and  Bavaria.  The  first 
had  imposed  a  tax  of  ten  per  centum  on  all  prop- 
erty accruing  to  emigrants  in  the  United  States 
on  the  death  of  relatives  at  home ;  and  the  second 
had  taxed,  at  the  same  rate,  sales  of  property  by 
persons  about  to  leave  their  native  country. 

It  has  been  the  custom  to  commiserate  Whea- 
ton because  President  Polk,  instead  of  trans- 
ferring him  to  Paris  or  London,  saw  fit  to  request 
his  resignation.  Having  adopted  diplomacy  as  a 
career,  Wheaton  took  it  as  a  reproof  and  a  dis- 
grace to  be  involuntarily  retired,  and  many  Eu- 
ropean officials  failed  to  understand  the  Ameri- 
can political  exigencies  which  brought  about  his 
recall.  According  to  standards  of  a  later  day, 
however,  Wheaton  had  an  extraordinarily  long 
and  successful  diplomatic  career.  He  served 
continuously  under  six  successive  presidents,  J. 
Q.  Adams,  Jackson,  Van  Buren,  Harrison,  Tyler, 
and  Polk,  and  he  retired  at  the  age  of  sixty.  He 
presented  his  letter  of  recall  to  the  King  of  Prus- 
sia on  July  18,  1846,  but  did  not  return  to  the 
United  States  until  the  spring  of  1847.  Public 
dinners  were  given  him  in  New  York  and  Phila- 
delphia, and  Harvard  College  offered  him  a  lec- 
tureship in  civil  and  international  law.  He  began 
the  preparation  of  lectures,  but  his  failing  health 
prevented  their  completion.  He  died  at  Dorches- 
ter, Mass.,  in  March  1848,  and  was  buried  at 
Providence,  R.  I.  He  was  survived  by  his  wife, 
two  daughters,  and  a  son. 

Notable  as  were  Wheaton's  accomplishments 
in  other  fields,  his  most  distinguished  achieve- 
ment was  his  work  as  an  expounder  and  historian 
of  international  law.  All  of  his  training  and  ex- 
perience combined  to  fit  him  for  the  writing  of 


his  Elements  of  International  Law,  first  published 
in  1836  while  he  was  accredited  to  Berlin.  The 
London  edition  was  in  two  volumes  and  the 
Philadelphia  edition  in  one.  Prefixed  to  this  trea- 
tise was  a  sketch  of  the  history  of  international 
law.  The  immediate  success  of  the  Elements  en- 
couraged Wheaton  to  further  efforts,  by  which 
the  prefatory  historical  sketch  was  expanded 
into  a  separate  work  of  462  pages  entitled  His- 
toire  des  progrcs  du  droit  des  gens  en  Europe 
depnis  la  Paix  de  Westphalie  jusqu'au  Congres 
de  Vienne,  avee  un  precis  historique  du  droit  des 
gens  europecn  avant  la  Paix  de  Westphalie.  Writ- 
ten in  French  for  a  competition  conducted  by  the 
French  Institute,  it  won  honorable  mention.  It 
was  published  in  Leipzig  in  1841,  and  in  New 
York  in  1845,  with  the  title,  History  of  the  Law 
of  Nations  in  Europe  and  America,  from  the 
Earliest  Times  to  the  Treaty  of  Washington, 
1842.  He  published  in  Philadelphia  in  1842  a 
study  entitled,  Enquiry  into  the  Validity  of  the 
British  Claim  to  a  Right  of  Visitation  and  Search 
of  American  Vessels  Suspected  to  be  Engaged  in 
the  African  Slave  Trade  (2nd  ed.,  London,  1858). 

From  a  third  edition  of  the  Elements  published 
in  Philadelphia  in  1846,  Wheaton  eliminated  the 
historical  sketch  and  substituted  therefor  numer- 
ous references  to  the  separate  History.  The  two 
are  in  fact  companion  volumes,  which  ought  to 
be  read  together.  One  other  edition  of  the  Ele- 
ments was  prepared  by  Wheaton — the  fourth 
edition,  written  in  French  and  published  in  Leip- 
zig in  1848,  and  after  his  death — but  it  was  issued 
repeatedly  in  English  and  in  French,  and  was 
translated  into  Italian,  Spanish,  and  Chinese 
(see  Hicks,  post,  pp.  222-23).  A  two-volume 
edition,  in  English,  appeared  as  late  as  1929. 

According  to  Professor  A.  C.  McLaughlin, 
Wheaton's  name  should  be  linked  with  those  of 
the  greatest  of  American  legal  writers.  "In 
jurisprudence,"  he  says,  "Marshall  and  Kent  and 
Story  and  Wheaton,  by  judicial  opinion  or  by 
written  text,  laid  the  foundations  of  American 
public  and  private  law,  and  ably  performed  a 
creative  task  such  as  rarely,  if  ever,  before  fell  to 
the  lot  of  the  jurist"  {The  Cambridge  History 
of  American  Literature,  vol.  II,  1918,  p.  71). 
Not  only  on  account  of  his  writings  and  his  dip- 
lomatic career,  but  also  because  of  two  fortuitous 
circumstances,  will  he  be  remembered.  Mention 
has  already  been  made  of  the  case  of  Wheaton 
vs.  Peters;  his  name  is  also  connected  with  an 
even  more  famous  case  tried  long  after  his  death, 
William  B.  Lawrence  vs.  Richard  Henry  Dana 
(4  Clifford,  1).  This  suit  was  over  the  alleged 
unfair  use  by  Dana,  in  the  eighth  edition  of  the 
Elements,  of  Lawrence's  notes  to  the  sixth  and 


41 


Wheaton 


Wheaton 


seventh  editions  (see  Charles  Francis  Adams, 
Richard  Henry  Dana,  1890,  II,  282-327;  Hicks, 
post,  pp.  223-34).  Judged  by  the  honors  that  he 
received,  Wheaton's  place  is  not  insignificant. 
The  doctorate  in  law  was  conferred  upon  him 
by  Brown,  Hamilton  and  Harvard;  in  1830,  he 
was  elected  to  membership  in  both  the  Scandi- 
navian and  Icelandic  literary  societies ;  he  was 
a  foreign  member  of  the  Prussian  Royal  Academy 
of  Sciences ;  and  in  1842,  he  was  elected  to  the 
Academy  of  Moral  and  Political  Sciences  in  the 
French  Institute.  Some  years  after  his  death,  a 
British  critic  (Saturday  Review,  London,  re- 
print in  Littcll's  Living  Age,  Dec.  5,  1857)  com- 
mented that  "no  American  ever  had  about  him 
less  of  the  peculiar  stamp  which  marks  the  citi- 
zen of  a  new  State  [than  Henry  Wheaton].  He 
was  a  man  of  refinement  and  of  great  cultivation, 
and  enjoyed  public  life  in  the  calm  and  dignified 
way  which  is  usual  with  the  higher  officials  of 
the  European  nations." 

[Sources  include:  W.  G.  Hill,  Family  Record  of  .  .  . 
James  W .  Converse  .  .  .  Including  Some  of  the  De- 
scendants of  .  .  .  Robert  Wheaton  (1887)  ;  letters  of 
Henry  Wheaton  to  his  father,  1805—06,  in  Proc.  Mass. 
Hist.  Soc,  1  ser.  XIX  (1882)  ;  W.  B.  Lawrence,  "Intro- 
ductory Remarks,"  in  Wheaton's  Elements  of  Interna- 
tional Law  (6th  ed.,  1855)  ;  Edward  Everett,  "Life, 
Services,  and  Works  of  Henry  Wheaton,"  No.  Am. 
Rev.,  Jan.  1856;  Charles  Sumner,  "The  Late  Henry 
Wheaton,"  Boston  Daily  Advertiser,  Mar.  16,  1848; 
George  Shea,  "Henry  Wheaton  and  the  Epoch  to  Which 
He  Belonged,"  N.  Y.  State  Bar  Asso.  Reports,  vol.  II 
(1879)  ;  W.  V.  Kellen,  Henry  Wheaton — An  Appreci- 
ation (1902);  F.  R.  Jones,  "Henry  Wheaton,"  Green 
Bag,  Dec.  1904;  J.  B.  Scott,  "Henry  Wheaton,"  in  W. 
D.  Lewis,  Great  Am.  Lawyers,  vol.  Ill  (1907)  ;  F.  C. 
Hicks,  "Henry  Wheaton,"  in  Men  and  Books  Famous 
in  the  Law  (1921)  ;  A.  B.  Benson,  "Henry  Wheaton's 
Writings  on  Scandinavia,"  Jour,  of  English  and  Ger- 
manic Philology,  Oct.  1930  ;  New  Eng.  Hist,  and 
Gcneal.  Reg.,  July  1848  ;  Boston  Daily  Advertiser,  Mar. 
15,  1848.  A  doctoral  dissertation  on  Wheaton,  by  Eliza- 
beth F.  Baker,  was  accepted  at  the  Univ.  of  Pa.  in 
I933-]  F.C.H, 

WHEATON,  NATHANIEL  SHELDON 

(Aug.  20,  1792-Mar.  18,  1862),  Protestant  Epis- 
copal clergyman,  educator,  was  the  eldest  son  of 
Sylvester  and  Mercy  (Sperry)  Wheaton,  of 
Marbledale,  town  of  Washington,  Conn.  His 
grandfather,  Joseph  Wheaton,  born  in  Seekonk, 
R.  I.,  was  one  of  the  first  Episcopalians  to  settle 
in  that  part  of  Connecticut.  Nathaniel  was  pre- 
pared for  college  at  the  Episcopal  Academy, 
Cheshire,  Conn.,  and  was  graduated  from  Yale 
College  in  1814.  After  graduation,  he  taught  in 
Maryland,  and  studied  theology.  He  was  or- 
dained deacon  in  the  Episcopal  Church  by  Bishop 
James  Kemp  of  Maryland,  June  7,  18 17,  and  on 
May  24,  1818,  was  advanced  to  the  priesthood. 
He  was  rector  of  Queen  Caroline  Parish  in  Anne 
Arundel  County,  Md.,  for  some  time,  but  in 
March  1820  became  assistant  minister  of  Christ 


Church,  Hartford,  Conn.  He  was  made  rector 
Apr.  23,  1821,  and  served  for  over  ten  years 

On  the  incorporation  of  Washington  Coiiege 
(now  Trinity)  in  Hartford  in  1823,  he  was  a 
member  of  the  original  board  of  trustees.  Plan- 
ning to  visit  England  for  his  health,  which  was 
always  precarious,  he  was  requested  by  the  trus- 
tees to  solicit  there  books  and  philosophical  ap- 
paratus. He  remained  abroad  about  a  year,  and 
secured  useful  gifts  for  the  infant  college.  Some 
of  the  diaries  he  kept  while  in  England  are  pre- 
served in  the  college  library.  During  his  sojourn 
there  he  studied  architecture,  and  when  a  new 
church  for  his  parish  was  projected  in  1827,  he 
planned  it,  with  the  assistance  of  the  architect 
Ithiel  Town  [q.v.~],  and  supervised  its  construc- 
tion. It  is  said  to  be  the  first  truly  Gothic  church 
to  be  built  in  America.  On  Oct.  14,  1831,  he  was 
elected  president  of  Washington  College,  in  suc- 
cession to  Thomas  Church  Brownell  [g.r.],  the 
founder.  Wheaton  served  till  Feb.  28,  1837,  with 
conspicuous  success,  adding  materially  to  the  en- 
dowment and  the  property  of  the  institution. 

He  resigned  the  presidency  to  accept  a  call  to 
the  rectorship  of  Christ  Church,  New  Orleans. 
An  epidemic  of  yellow  fever  devastated  the  city 
during  his  pastorate,  and  he  devoted  himself  un- 
sparingly to  ministering  to  the  stricken  people. 
At  one  time  he  was  the  only  Protestant  clergy- 
man able  to  perform  his  duties.  He  himself  con- 
tracted the  disease,  which  permanently  impaired 
his  health.  In  the  hope  of  improving  it,  he  re- 
signed his  parish  in  1844  and  went  to  Europe. 
Unhappily  his  hope  was  only  partially  realized, 
and  he  was  not  able  to  resume  the  active  work 
of  his  ministry.  He  lived  in  Hartford  for  a  time, 
but  soon  removed  to  Marbledale,  where  he  spent 
the  remainder  of  his  days,  living  quietly  and  per- 
forming such  clerical  duties  as  opportunity  and 
his  health  permitted.  Unmarried,  with  ample 
means,  he  gave  a  rectory  and  a  tract  of  ground 
to  St.  Andrew's  Church,  Marbledale,  and  be- 
queathed $10,000  to  Trinity  College,  to  be  the 
nucleus  of  a  fund  for  the  building  of  a  chapel.  As 
his  residuary  legatee,  the  college  also  received 
some  $10,000  additional. 

Among  his  published  writings  were  an  anony- 
mous pamphlet,  Remarks  on  Washington  College, 
and  on  the  "Considerations"  Suggested  by  Its 
Establishment,  in  reply  to  a  pamphlet  published 
in  1824  and  attributed  to  Roger  S.  Baldwin 
[q-vJ].  On  May  7,  1828,  Wheaton  preached  the 
Election  Sermon  in  New  Haven  which  was  pub- 
lished in  1828  under  the  title  The  Providence  of 
God  Displayed  in  the  Rise  and  Fall  of  Nations. 
His  "Address  at  the  Laying  of  the  Corner-Stone 
of  Christ  Church,  Hartford,"  and  a  "Description 


42 


Whedon 

of  Christ  Church,  Hartford,"  were  printed  in  the 
Episcopal  Watchman,  in  May  1828  and  January 
1830,  respectively.  He  contributed  to  the  same 
periodical  (June  1827-August  1829)  a  number 
of  papers  entitled  "Notes  of  a  Traveller,"  which 
were  reprinted  with  additions  under  the  title  A 
Journal  of  a  Residence  of  Several  Months  in  Lon- 
don ( 1830) .  Other  publications  of  his  include  An 
Address  Delivered  Before  the  Hartford  County 
Peace  Society  (1834);  "Happiness  or  Misery 
the  Result  of  Choice"  (Protestant  Episcopal  Pul- 
pit, December  1834)  ;  and  A  Discourse  on  St. 
Paul's  Epistle  to  Philemon;  Exhibiting  the  Duty 
of  Citizens  of  the  Northern  States  in  Regard  to 
the  Institution  of  Slavery  (1851). 

[Records  of  Trinity  College,  Hartford  ;  The  Calendar 
(Hartford),  Mar.  29,  Apr.  5,  1862;  American  Quart. 
Church  Rev.,  July  1862  ;  E.  E.  Beardsley,  The  Hist,  of 
the  Episcopal  Church  in  Conn.,  vol.  II  (1868)  ;  G.  W. 
Russell,  Contributions  to  the  Hist,  of  Christ  Church, 
Hartford  (1895)  and  Additional  Contributions  .  .  . 
(1908)  ;  Samuel  Orcutt,  Hist,  of  the  Towns  of  New 
Milford  and  Bridgeivatcr,  Conn.  (1882)  ;  F.  B.  Dexter, 
Biog.  Sketches  Grads.  Yale  Coll.,  vol.  VI  (1912)  ;  Hart- 
ford Daily  Ctmrant,  Mar.  22,  1862.]  a r  A. 

WHEDON,  DANIEL  DENISON  (Mar.  20, 
1808-June  8,  1885),  Methodist  Episcopal  cler- 
gyman, editor,  and  teacher,  was  born  in  Onon- 
daga, N.  Y.,  the  son  of  Daniel  and  Clarissa 
(Root)  Whedon,  and  a  descendant  of  Thomas 
Whedon  who  came  to  New  Haven,  Conn.,  from 
England  in  1657  and  later  moved  to  Branford. 
The  younger  Daniel  was  a  dreamy,  absent-mind- 
ed boy,  more  interested  in  books  than  in  anything 
else.  Hoping  that  he  would  become  a  lawyer,  his 
father  had  him  prepared  for  college  by  Oliver 
C.  Grosvenor  of  Rome,  N.  Y.,  and  at  the  age  of 
eighteen  he  entered  the  junior  class  of  Hamilton 
College,  where  he  was  graduated  in  1828.  He 
then  studied  law  with  Judge  Chapin  of  Rochester 
and  with  Alanson  Bennett  of  Rome. 

In  the  latter  place  he  was  converted  under  the 
preaching  of  Charles  G.  Finney  \_q.vJ],  and 
joined  the  Methodist  Church.  In  1830  he  was 
appointed  teacher  of  Greek  and  mental  philosophy 
in  the  Oneida  Conference  Seminary  at  Caze- 
novia,  N.  Y.  The  following  year  he  returned  to 
Hamilton  College  as  a  tutor  and  in  1833  became 
professor  of  ancient  languages  and  literature  at 
Wesleyan  College,  Middletown,  Conn.,  in  which 
capacity  he  served  for  ten  years.  In  1834  he  was 
admitted  on  trial  to  the  New  York  Conference 
and  in  due  course  was  ordained  deacon  and  elder. 
While  at  Wesleyan,  his  taste  for  controversy, 
manifested  throughout  his  whole  career,  began 
to  find  expression.  In  articles  published  in  Zion's 
Herald  in  1835,  in  answer  to  those  of  Orange 
Scott  \_q.vJ],  Whedon  opposed  the  radical  abo- 
litionist movement  in  the  Methodist  Church,  and 


Whedon 

in  reply  to  "An  Appeal  to  the  Members  of  the 
New  England  and  New  Hampshire  Conferences" 
issued  by  the  abolitionists,  he  wrote  "A  Counter 
Appeal  .  .  ."  (Zion's  Herald,  Apr.  8,  1835), 
signed  by  Wilbur  Fisk  [q.v.]  and  other  conserva- 
tives. On  July  15,  1840,  he  married  Eliza  Ann 
Searles  of  White  Plains,  N.  Y. 

Becoming  weary  of  teaching,  he  relinquished 
his  professorship  in  1843  and  became  pastor  of 
the  Methodist  Church  in  Pittsfield,  Mass.,  and 
in  1845  OI  the  church  in  Rensselaerville,  N.  Y. 
He  was  not  well  fitted  for  the  pastorate,  however, 
for  he  was  not  a  great  preacher  nor  a  man  of  the 
people ;  he  lacked  voice,  training,  and  emotional 
quality  (Christian  Advocate,  June  18,  1885,  p. 
392).  Accordingly,  when,  in  1845,  ne  received  a 
call  to  the  chair  of  logic,  rhetoric,  and  philosophy 
of  history  at  the  University  of  Michigan,  he  re- 
turned to  teaching.  He  took  a  prominent  part  in 
the  affairs  of  the  institution ;  in  the  classroom, 
according  to  a  former  pupil,  "his  commanding 
presence,  imperative  logic  and  sesquipedalia 
verba,  always  used  with  mathematical  precision, 
hammered  truth  into  us  and  clinched  it."  He  was 
"lank  and  angular  in  form  and  feature  with  a 
considerable  sprinkling  of  vinegar  at  times  in  his 
ways  of  expressing  himself"  ( Shaw,  post,  pp.  95— 
96) .  Though  willing  to  apologize  for  the  presence 
of  slavery,  he  strenuously  opposed  the  extension 
of  it,  and  because  of  his  utterances  and  internal 
dissensions  in  the  college,  he  was  virtually  dis- 
missed in  December  185 1  (University  of  Mich- 
igan: Regents'  Proceedings  .  . .  1S37-1S64,  1915, 
p.  502). 

The  following  year  he  opened  a  school  in  Ra- 
venswood,  Long  Island,  but  increasing  deafness 
soon  caused  him  to  abandon  the  enterprise.  Af- 
ter serving  churches  in  New  York  City  and  Ja- 
maica, N.  Y.,  in  1856  he  was  elected  editor  of  the 
Methodist  Quarterly  Review,  which  position  he 
held  for  the  next  twenty-eight  years.  In  1852  he 
had  published  Public  Addresses  Collegiate  and 
Popular.  A  vigorous  defender  of  Wesleyan  Ar- 
minianism,  he  completed  in  1864  a  work  enti- 
tled The  Freedom  of  the  Will  as  a  Basis  of  Hu- 
man Responsibility  and  a  Divine  Government 
Elucidated  and  Maintained  in  Its  Issue  with  the 
Necessitarian  Theories  of  Hobbes,  Edwards,  the 
Princeton  Essayists,  and  Other  Leading  Advo- 
cates. While  this  work  had  extensive  recogni- 
tion in  scholastic  circles,  Whedon  became  most 
widely  known  through  the  popular  commentaries 
on  the  Bible  which  bear  his  name.  The  five  vol- 
umes on  the  New  Testament  appeared  between 
i860  and  1880.  The  greater  part  of  them  he 
wrote  himself,  but  his  nephew,  D.  A.  Whedon, 
collaborated  in  the  later  ones.    Four  volumes  of 


43 


Wheeler 


Wheeler 


those  on  the  Old  Testament  were  issued  under 
Whedon's  editorial  supervision  before  his  death. 
Selections  from  his  contributions  to  the  Metho- 
dist Quarterly  Review,  and  some  from  other  pe- 
riodicals, appear  in  Essays,  Reviews,  and  Dis- 
courses (1887)  and  Statements:  Theological  and 
Critical  (1887)  edited  by  his  son  and  his 
nephew,  J.  S.  and  D.  A.  Whedon.  He  died  at  the 
summer  home  of  a  son  in  Atlantic  City,  N.  J., 
survived  by  three  of  his  five  children. 

[Biog.  sketch  in  Essays,  Reviews,  and  Discourses 
(1887);  Minutes  of  the  Annual  Conferences  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  (1886)  ;  Wilfred  Shaw, 
The  Univ.  of  Mich.  (1920)  ;  L.  C.  Matlack,  The  Anti- 
slavery  Struggle  and  Triumph  in  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church  ( 1 88 1 )  ;  Christian  Advocate  (N.  Y.),  June 
11,  18,  1885  ;  N.  Y.  Herald,  June  9,  1885.]      h.  E.  S. 

WHEELER,  ANDREW  CARPENTER 

(June  4,  1835-Mar.  10,  1903),  journalist,  au- 
thor, and  critic,  who  wrote  under  the  pseu- 
donyms "Trinculo,"  "Nym  Crinkle,"  "J-  P-  M.," 
and  "J-  P.  Mowbray,"  was  born  in  New  York 
City,  the  son  of  Andrew  C.  Wheeler,  member 
of  the  New  York  state  legislature  (1835-36). 
The  date  of  the  son's  birth  is  given  also  as  July 
4,  1835  (Wheeler,  post)  and  as  July  4,  1832 
(Sun,  post).  He  was  educated  in  the  New  York 
City  schools,  and  in  1857  entered  journalism  as 
a  member  of  the  staff  of  the  New  York  Times. 
The  following  year,  however,  in  the  midst  of  the 
Kansas  troubles,  he  was  smitten  with  the  West- 
ern fever,  and  for  the  next  year  or  two  lived  the 
life  of  a  pioneer  in  Kansas  and  Iowa.  During 
this  period  he  received  $100  for  a  play  which 
toured  various  western  towns.  Arriving  in  Mil- 
waukee in  1859,  he  became  local  editor  of  the 
Milwaukee  Sentinel,  a  position  which  he  retained 
for  three  years.  There  he  was  in  the  habit  of 
enlivening  things  by  playing  reckless  practical 
jokes,  as  when  on  one  occasion  he  so  ridiculed  a 
prize  poem  that  the  author  challenged  him,  and 
then  he  avoided  the  duel  by  suggesting  absurd 
weapons  ranging  from  ice-cream  freezers  to  roll- 
ing pins.  During  the  Civil  War  he  served  as 
war  correspondent,  then  engaged  in  newspaper 
work  in  Chicago  for  two  years  before  returning 
to  New  York  City. 

His  first  engagement  after  returning  to  New 
York  was  on  the  New  York  Leader,  for  which 
he  wrote  dramatic  criticism  under  the  name 
"Trinculo."  From  the  Leader  he  went  as  dra- 
matic and  musical  critic  to  the  World,  where  his 
weekly  essays  signed  with  his  most  famous 
pseudonym,  "Nym  Crinkle,"  attracted  wide  at- 
tention for  their  caustic  humor  and  wide  infor- 
mation. When  Wheeler  passed  from  the  World 
to  the  Sun  he  continued  to  use  this  signature. 
While  still  on  the  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  he  had 


written  a  history  of  the  city,  The  Chronicles  of 
Milwaukee  (1861),  and  in  1876  he  published 
The  Iron  Trail,  a  western  travel  sketch.  He 
contributed  to  periodicals,  and  wrote  or  collabo- 
rated upon  several  plays  and  melodramas,  from 
which  he  derived  considerable  income.  His  play, 
The  Twins,  produced  by  Lester  Wallack,  is  an 
adaptation  of  A  Tale  of  Two  Cities.  Other  titles 
belonging  to  this  period  are  The  Toltec  Cup 
(1890)  and  The  Primrose  Path  of  Dalliance 
(1892). 

Six  or  eight  years  before  his  death  Wheeler 
withdrew  from  active  journalism  and  retired  to 
his  farm,  "Monsey,"  in  Rockland  County,  N.  Y. 
The  break  with  the  urban  past  was  complete. 
Hiding  his  identity  under  the  new  pseudonym 
of  "J.  P.  M." — later  expanded  to  "J.  P.  Mow- 
bray"— he  sent  to  the  Evening  Post  a  series  of 
vaguely  autobiographical  letters  descriptive  of 
a  search  for  peace  and  new  inspiration  in  nature, 
which  were  later  collected  and  published  as  A 
Journey  to  Nature  (1901).  Other  books  by  "J. 
P.  Mowbray"  followed :  The  Making  of  a  Coun- 
try Home  (1901),  Tangled  Up  in  Bculah  Land 
(1902),  and  The  Conquering  of  Kate  (1903). 
Besides  his  critical  interest  in  music  and  the 
drama,  Wheeler  was  himself  an  amateur  song- 
writer, painter,  and  musician,  and  had  made 
some  study  of  law,  medicine,  and  theology.  In 
his  later  years  he  was  increasingly  prone  to  re- 
flection on  religious  themes.  He  once  took  to  the 
lecture  platform  to  combat  the  ideas  of  Robert 
Ingersoll,  and  at  the  time  of  his  death  was  work- 
ing with  his  friend  Edgar  M.  Bacon  on  a 
study  of  "saddle-bag"  Methodist  preachers  of 
the  Southwest,  later  published  as  Nation  Build- 
ers (1905).  Wheeler  left  a  widow  (his  second 
wife)  and  three  children. 

[A.  G.  Wheeler,  The  Geneal.  and  Encyc.  Hist,  of  the 
Wheeler  Family  (1914)  ;  Who's  Who  in  America,  1901- 
02,  from  which  the  date  of  birth  is  taken  ;  E.  M.  Bacon, 
"  'J.  P.  M.,'  "  World's  Work,  May  1903  ;  obituaries  in 
N.  Y.  Herald  and  Sun,  Mar.  11,  1903,  N.  Y.  Times, 
Mar.  11,  14,  Evening  Post,  Mar.  10,  14,  1903.] 

E.M.S. 

WHEELER,  BENJAMIN  IDE  (July  15, 
1854-May  2,  1927),  university  president,  was 
born  in  Randolph,  Mass.,  the  son  of  Benjamin 
and  Mary  Eliza  (Ide)  Wheeler.  He  was  a  de- 
scendant of  John  Wheeler,  who  is  said  to  have 
emigrated  from  England  in  1634  and  was  one 
of  the  original  proprietors  of  what  is  now  Salis- 
bury, N.  H.  The  elder  Benjamin  was  a  Baptist 
minister  and  an  austere  man.  The  religious  dis- 
cipline to  which  the  boy  was  subjected  by  his 
father  did  not,  however,  breed  in  him  a  distaste 
for  religion,  and  he  remained  throughout  life,  at 
least  nominally,  a  Baptist.    To  his  father,  also, 


44 


Wheeler 


Wheeler 


he  probably  owed  the  beginnings  of  his  intimate 
knowledge  of  the  Bible,  the  book  which  he  knew 
best  and  which  strikingly  colored  his  thought 
and  literary  style.  From  his  mother,  on  the 
other  hand,  he  obtained  the  sense  of  humor  and 
the  friendly  outlook  on  life  which  were  no  less 
determining  qualities  in  his  character.  After 
attending  the  Thornton  Academy  in  Saco,  Me., 
Franklin  Academy  in  Franklin,  N.  H.,  and  Colby 
Academy  in  New  London,  N.  H.,  he  entered 
Brown  University,  where  he  was  graduated  in 

1875- 

For  four  years  after  his  graduation  he  taught 
in  the  Providence  high  school.  He  then  served 
for  two  years  as  instructor  in  Greek  and  Latin 
in  Brown  University.  During  these  years  he 
left  a  strong  impression  on  his  students  by  the 
zest  and  vigor  of  his  teaching.  He  also  began 
to  display  an  active  interest  in  politics  which 
continued  throughout  his  life.  In  1880-81  he 
was  a  member  of  the  school  committee  of  Provi- 
dence, and  he  joined  a  group  of  young  men  who 
formed  a  Democratic  club  with  the  purpose  of 
attempting  to  overthrow  the  machine  which 
dominated  the  government  of  Rhode  Island. 
Many  years  later,  when  he  was  living  in  Ithaca, 
he  took  an  active  part  in  Grover  Cleveland's  sec- 
ond campaign.  Membership  in  the  Democratic 
party  did  not  prevent  him,  however,  from  be- 
coming an  ardent  friend  and  supporter  of  Theo- 
dore Roosevelt.  In  July  1881  he  was  married  to 
Amey  Webb,  of  Providence.  The  four  years 
after  his  marriage  he  spent  in  German  univer- 
sities, studying  comparative  philology  and  gen- 
eral linguistics,  and  in  1885  he  received  the  de- 
gree of  Ph.D.,  summa  cum  laude,  at  the  Univer- 
sity of  Heidelberg. 

Returning  to  America,  he  served  for  one  year 
as  instructor  in  German  at  Harvard,  and  was 
then  called  to  Cornell  as  professor  of  compara- 
tive philology  and  instructor  in  Latin  and  Greek, 
his  title  being  changed  in  1888  to  that  of  pro- 
fessor of  Greek  and  comparative  philology.  He 
remained  at  Cornell  for  thirteen  years,  during 
one  of  which  (1895-96)  he  was  absent  on  leave, 
serving  as  professor  of  Greek  literature  in  the 
American  School  of  Classical  Studies  in  Athens. 
He  was  not  only  a  brilliant  and  admired  teacher, 
but  he  took  an  active  interest  in  his  students  out- 
side the  classroom,  guiding  them  and  advising 
them  in  their  sports  and  activities.  Most  of  his 
scholarly  work  was  done  while  at  Cornell. 
Among  his  most  notable  publications  were  The 
Greek  Noun-Accent  (1885),  his  doctoral  disser- 
tation ;  Analogy  and  the  Scope  of  Its  Application 
in  Language  (1887)  ;  Introduction  to  tne  Study 
of  the  History  of  Language  (1891),  with  H.  A. 


Strong  and  W.  S.  Logeman ;  Dionysos  and  Im- 
mortality (1899),  an  Ingersoll  Lecture  at  Har- 
vard; and  Alexander  the  Great:  The  Merging 
of  East  and  West  in  Unwcrsal  History  (1900). 

Wheeler's  career  at  Cornell  was  brought  to  a 
close  in  1899  by  his  acceptance  of  an  invitation 
to  become  president  of  the  University  of  Cali- 
fornia. When  he  came  to  it,  the  university  was 
not  more  than  forty  years  old,  and  under  favor- 
able conditions  was  certain  to  grow  in  size  and 
importance  with  the  rapid  growth  of  the  state. 
He  had  not  been  in  office  more  than  a  year  when 
he  presented  to  the  regents  a  list  of  some  fifteen 
pressing  requirements  of  the  university,  includ- 
ing new  professorships,  departments,  schools, 
buildings,  and  laboratories ;  and  when  he  came 
to  retire,  all  these  demands  either  had  been  ful- 
filled or  were  in  process  of  fulfilment.  During 
these  twenty  years  the  students  and  the  faculty 
increased  four-fold ;  twenty  new  departments 
were  added;  new  divisions  for  special  scientific 
research  were  jestablished  in  various  parts  of  the 
state ;  the  summer  session  and  the  extension  di- 
vision were  expanded ;  and  the  material  equip- 
ment was  greatly  enlarged.  The  course  of  this 
growth  was  unquestionably  determined  princi- 
pally by  President  Wheeler.  In  carrying  out  his 
plans  his  methods  were  somewhat  dictatorial. 
Indeed,  before  he  accepted  the  position,  he  had 
stipulated  with  the  regents  that  he  should  have 
the  sole  initiative  in  the  appointment  and  re- 
moval of  professors  and  in  matters  of  salary. 
Though  he  held  the  reins  of  the  institution  tight- 
ly in  his  own  hand,  it  cannot  be  said  that  he  ever 
restricted  the  liberty  of  the  faculty  in  teaching 
and  research.  The  welfare  of  the  students,  fur- 
thermore, was  always  a  matter  of  special  concern 
to  him,  and  he  took  a  direct  personal  interest  in 
their  activities.  The  system  of  self-government 
which  he  instituted  functioned  under  his  guid- 
ance with  notable  success,  not  only  as  a  means 
of  maintaining  public  order,  but  as  an  effective 
educational  influence.  With  all  his  obligations 
inside  the  university,  Wheeler  kept  in  close  touch 
with  the  alumni  and  the  people  of  the  state,  and 
the  institution  was  made  the  object  of  many  ben- 
efactions, without  which  its  expansion  could  not 
have  advanced  so  rapidly  or  so  successfully. 

In  1909-10  Wheeler  held  the  position  of  Theo- 
dore Roosevelt  Professor  in  the  University  of 
Berlin,  delivering  a  course  of  lectures  which 
were  later  published  under  the  title  Vntcrricht 
tmd  Demokratie  in  Amerika  (  1910).  Hi>  resi- 
dence in  Germany  under  these  favorable  condi- 
tions renewed  and  increased  his  liking  for  tin- 
country,  which  had  begun  in  his  student-days 
many  years  before,  and  when  the  World  War 


45 


Wheeler 

broke  out,  his  sympathies  were  with  the  Ger- 
mans. Consequently,  when  the  United  States 
entered  the  war  his  previous  well-known  friend- 
liness to  Germany  subjected  him  to  suspicion 
and  embarrassment.  It  was  deemed  wise,  there- 
fore, in  1918,  to  appoint  three  distinguished  mem- 
bers of  the  faculty,  who  had  from  the  beginning 
been  devoted  supporters  of  the  cause  of  the  al- 
lies, to  act  as  an  unofficial  advisory  administra- 
tive board.  To  this  board  he  resigned  the  active 
conduct  of  the  University,  and  to  all  practical 
purposes  it  performed  the  functions  of  a  regent. 
The  existence  of  such  a  board  was  not  only  de- 
sirable on  public  grounds,  but  also  served  to  re- 
lieve Wheeler  of  certain  duties  which,  owing  to 
a  slight  decline  in  physical  vigor,  he  was  already 
beginning  to  find  unduly  heavy.  It  remained  in 
existence  until  his  retirement — and  indeed  for 
six  months  thereafter,  with  fuller  powers,  until 
his  successor  assumed  office. 

He  retired  in  1919  at  the  age  of  sixty-five, 
after  twenty  years  of  service,  with  the  title  "Pro- 
fessor of  Comparative  Philology  and  President 
Emeritus."  He  continued  to  serve  the  university 
in  an  advisory  capacity  and  for  one  or  two  years 
offered  courses  in  general  linguistics.  In  1920 
he  went  to  Japan  as  a  member  of  an  unofficial 
commission  which  was  organized  and  financed 
by  William  Alexander  of  San  Francisco,  with 
a  view  to  encouraging  friendly  relations  between 
Japan  and  the  United  States.  During  the  last 
few  years. of  his  life  gradually  failing  health 
forced  him  to  withdraw  from  all  public  activity. 
In  1926  he  went  once  more  to  Europe  and  the 
following  year  died  in  Vienna,  survived  by  his 
wife  and  a  son. 

[A.  G.  Wheeler,  The  Gcncal,  and  Encyc.  Hist,  of  the 
Wheeler  Family  in  America  (1914);  Hist.  Cat.  of 
Brown  Univ.  (1914)  ;  biog.  records,  Univ.  of  Cal.  ; 
W.  W.  Ferrier,  Origin  and  Development  of  the  Univ. 
of  Cal.  (1930);  Who's  Who  in  America,  1926-27; 
N.  Y.  Times,  May  4,  1927;  personal  acquaintance.] 

I.M.L. 

WHEELER,  EVERETT  PEPPERRELL 

(Mar.  10,  1840-Feb.  8,  1925),  lawyer,  civil  serv- 
ice reformer,  a  first  cousin  of  James  Rignall 
Wheeler  [q.z>.~\,  was  a  lifelong  New  Yorker. 
The  son  of  David  Everett  and  Elizabeth  (Jar- 
vis)  Wheeler,  he  was  born  and  bred  in  Green- 
wich Village,  then  a  leading  suburb  of  the  city. 
His  education  was  received  in  Public  School  35, 
the  College  of  the  City  of  New  York  (then  the 
Free  Academy),  where  he  received  three  de- 
grees, (A.B.,  1856;  B.S.,  1857;  M.A.,  1859), 
and  Harvard  (LL.B.,  1859).  The  story  of  his 
early  years  he  himself  has  told  with  charming 
detail  (City  College  Quarterly,  post).  After  his 


Wheeler 

admission  to  the  bar  in  1861  Wheeler  practised 
steadily  until  his  death.  Eminently  fair  to  op- 
ponents and  deferential  to  the  bench,  he  never 
failed  to  make  the  most  of  his  vast  legal  learning, 
nor  could  he  be  intimidated  or  imposed  on.  In 
admiralty  law,  a  field  in  which  he  specialized, 
some  of  his  cases  have  become  classic  (see  his 
Reminiscences  of  a  Lazvycr,  1927).  Not  satis- 
fied with  mere  attainment  in  the  practice  of  his 
profession,  Wheeler  consistently  adhered  to  his 
belief  that  a  lawyer  owes  disinterested  service 
to  the  profession  itself.  He  was  one  of  the 
founders  of  the  Association  of  the  Bar  of  the 
City  of  New  York  in  1869,  a  member  of  the  ex- 
ecutive committee  (1876-78)  and  of  many  im- 
portant standing  committees,  and  vice-president 
(1890).  He  also  served  on  many  of  the  impor- 
tant committees  of  the  New  York  state  and  the 
American  bar  associations.  In  1914-15  he  lec- 
tured on  the  preparation  and  argument  of  cases 
before  the  students  of  the  Yale  Law  School. 

Although  he  never  held  elective  office  Wheeler 
was  a  member  of  the  elevated  railroad  commis- 
sion of  New  York  (1875)  and  of  the  board  of 
education  (1877-79),  and  the  candidate  of  re- 
form Democrats  for  the  governorship  of  New 
York  in  1894.  These  official  services  were  less 
important,  however,  than  his  devotion  to  civil 
service  reform  and  to  societies  seeking  better 
government.  He  assisted  in  drafting  the  revised 
Pendleton  Bill  which  in  1881  established  true 
civil  service.  Two  years  later  he  joined  with 
Edward  Morse  Shepard  \_q.v.'\  in  writing  the 
bill  that  applied  civil  service  reform  to  the  state 
of  New  York,  and  in  1884  he  drafted  the  rules 
for  the  city  of  New  York.  He  was  a  pioneer  in 
the  activities  of  the  Civil  Service  Reform  Asso- 
ciation, serving  as  chairman  of  the  executive 
committee  (1880-97),  vice-president  (1903-13, 
1918-25),  and  president  (1913-18).  He  gave 
wise  and  courageous  service  as  chairman  of  the 
New  York  civil  service  commission  (1883-89, 
1895-97).  In  1894  he  worked  zealously  as  one 
of  the  "Committee  of  Seventy"  for  the  election 
of  Mayor  William  Lafayette  Strong  \_q.v.~\.  His 
deep  passion  for  good  government  caused  him  to 
sign  the  "Address  to  the  Citizens"  which  re- 
sulted in  the  formation  of  the  Citizen's  Union  in 
1899,  and  he  took  part  in  all  the  activities  of  the 
Union,  particularly  in  the  campaign  of  1901  to 
elect  Seth  Low  \_q.v.~\.  From  1912  to  1918  he 
worked  actively  against  woman  suffrage,  serv- 
ing as  president  of  the  Association  Opposed  to 
Woman  Suffrage  and  expressing  his  views  with 
frequency  in  the  letter  columns  of  the  New  York 
Times.  A  list  of  the  important  committees  he 
headed  and  of  the  offices  he  held  is  staggering, 


46 


Wheeler 

but  to  each  he  gave  tireless  and  intelligent  serv- 
ice. 

His  devotion  to  honest  public  service  was  not 
without  motive  in  his  deeply  religious  nature. 
Though  forceful  in  opposition  to  corruption  and 
unyielding  in  moral  and  ethical  questions,  he 
was  a  man  of  genuine  humility  and  marked 
sweetness  of  nature.  His  deep  piety  found  ex- 
pression in  service  to  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  as  a  vestryman,  as  deputy  to  general 
conventions  (1907,  1910,  1913)  and  as  president 
of  the  Church  Club  (1887-90),  in  work  for  the 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  and  in  his 
unflagging  labors  for  the  East  Side  House,  a 
settlement  he  founded  in  1891  and  served  as  pres- 
ident or  head  worker  until  his  death. 

On  Nov.  22,  1866,  he  married  Lydia  Lorraine 
Hodges  of  Rutland,  Vt.  She  died  in  1902.  His 
second  wife  was  Alice  Gilman,  daughter  of  Dan- 
iel Coit  Gilman  [q.v.~],  whom  he  married  in  Bal- 
timore, Apr.  26,  1904.  She  and  two  daughters 
survived  him.  His  only  son,  David  Everett 
Wheeler,  was  killed  in  the  World  War. 

Wheeler  wrote  extensively  for  periodicals  in 
the  fields  of  law,  history,  and  economics.  His 
most  important  books  are  The  Modern  Law  of 
Carriers  (1890),  Real  Bi-Metallism  (1895), 
Daniel  Webster,  the  Expounder  of  the  Constitu- 
tion (1905),  Sixty  Years  of  American  Life 
(1916),  A  Lawyer's  Study  of  the  Bible  (1919). 
His  writing  is  not  distinguished  in  style,  but 
each  of  his  books  and  many  of  his  pamphlets 
made  important  contributions  in  their  fields. 

[Wheeler's  Sixty  Years  of  Am.  Life  (1916)  deals 
frankly  with  his  public  career  and  politics  of  the  day  ; 
chapters  omitted  from  the  book  appeared  in  City  Coll. 
Quart.,  Mar.,  Dec.  1917,  Oct.  1920.  See  also  Who's 
Who  in  America,  1924-25  ;  City  Coll.  Quart.,  Apr. 
1925  ;  N.  Y.  County  Lawyers'  Asso.  Year  Book,  1925 
(n.d.)  ;  A.  G.  Wheeler,  The  Geneal.  and  Encyc.  Hist. 
of  the  Wheeler  Family  in  America  (1914)  ;  obituary 
in  N.  Y.  Times,  Feb.  10,  1925.]  D.A.  R. 

WHEELER,  GEORGE  MONTAGUE  (Oct. 

9,  1842-May  3,  1905),  topographical  engineer, 
was  born  at  Hopkinton,  Mass.,  a  descendant  of 
George  Wheeler  who  was  in  Concord,  Mass.,  as 
early  as  1638,  and  the  son  of  John  and  Miriam 
P.  (Daniels)  Wheeler.  On  July  1,  1862,  he  was 
appointed  a  cadet  at  the  United  States  Military 
Academy,  nominally  from  the  territory  of  Colo- 
rado, although  his  family  was  then  residing  at 
Hopkinton.  Graduating  on  June  18,  1866,  he 
was  commissioned  second  lieutenant  in  the  Corps 
of  Engineers,  and  was  employed  on  surveying 
duty  in  California  and  on  the  staff  of  the  com- 
manding general,  Department  of  California,  un- 
til 187 1,  meanwhile  being  promoted  first  lieu- 
tenant, Mar.  7,  1867.  In  1871  he  was  selected  to 


Wheeler 

take  charge  of  the  survey  of  the  territory  of  the 
United  States  west  of  the  100th  meridian,  which 
was  to  prove  the  great  work  of  his  life,  absorb- 
ing nearly  all  his  energies  until  his  retirement. 
The  primary  object  of  the  survey  was  the  topo- 
graphic mapping  of  the  country,  which  was  still 
largely  unexplored,  but  the  scope  of  the  work 
was  eventually  extended  to  include  exhaustive 
investigation  of  geological,  zoological,  and  eth- 
nological matters.  The  field  work  continued 
from  1871  to  1879,  involving  fourteen  trips  of 
from  three  to  eight  and  one  half  months  each. 
Writing  in  1883,  Wheeler  said :  "The  field  trips 
were  often  attended  by  the  greatest  hardship, 
deprivation,  exposure  and  fatigue,  in  varying 
and  often  unhealthy  climates  at  latitudes  from 
31  °  N  to  470  N  and  Altitudes  from  200  ft.  below 
sea  level  ( in  the  deserts  of  Eastern  Cala.  Death 
Valley,  Amargosa  &c)  to  nearly  15,000  ft.  among 
the  mountain  peaks  of  the  Sierra  Madre  (Cala) 
Sierra  Nevada  and  Cascade  Ranges"  (manu- 
script in  War  Department  files).  As  the  work 
proceeded,  partial  accounts  of  one  sort  or  an- 
other appeared  in  some  forty  volumes.  The  de- 
finitive Report  upon  United  States  Geographical 
Surveys  West  of  the  One  Hundredth  Meridian 
was  published  between  1875  and  1889  in  seven 
volumes,  one  supplementary  volume,  one  topo- 
graphical atlas,  and  one  geological  atlas. 

Wheeler  was  promoted  to  the  rank  of  captain 
in  1879.  The  organization  of  which  he  was  chief 
lost  its  identity  in  that  year,  being  merged  in 
the  newly  created  Geological  Survey,  but  he  was 
occupied  most  of  the  time  for  the  next  nine  years 
in  completing  reports  and  supervising  publica- 
tion. In  1881  he  was  commissioner  of  the  United 
States  at  the  third  International  Geographical 
Congress  and  Exhibition  at  Venice,  upon  which 
he  published  a  report  in  1885,  and  then  spent 
some  time  in  investigating  governmental  survey 
systems  in  Europe.  Exposure  and  fatigue  during 
his  explorations  had  broken  his  health,  and  a  re- 
tiring board  which  examined  him  in  1883,  at  his 
own  request,  found  him  permanently  incapaci- 
tated for  active  service.  No  action  was  taken  on 
its  report  at  the  time,  however,  and  he  was  al- 
lowed to  continue  his  work  at  his  own  discre- 
tion, working  as  much  or  as  little  as  he  felt  able, 
until  1888.  Then  the  five-year-old  report  of  the 
board  was  at  last  approved,  and  he  was  placed 
on  the  retired  list,  June  15,  1888.  By  an  act  of 
Congress  approved  Sept.  2j,  1890,  he  was  given 
the  rank  and  pay  of  major  from  July  23,  1888, 
the  date  on  which  he  would  have  been  promoted 
if  he  had  remained  on  the  active  list.  He  died  in 
New  York,  where  he  had  spent  the  last  years  of 
his  life.   His  wife  was  Lucy,  daughter  of  James 


47 


Wheeler 

Blair  and  grand-daughter  of  Francis  P.  Blair, 

1791-1876  [q.v.]. 

[G.  W.  Cullum,  Biog.  Reg.  Officers  and  Grads.  U.  S. 
Mil.  Acad.  (3rd  ed.,  1891);  F.  C.  Pierce,  Hist,  of 
Grafton,  Worcester  County,  Mass.  (1879)  ;  Who's  Who 
in  America,  1903-05;  Vital  Records  of  Hopkinton, 
Mass.  (1911)  ;  A.  G.  Wheeler,  The  Geneal.  and  Encyc. 
Hist,  of  the  Wheeler  Family  in  America  (1914)  ;  Army 
and  Navy  Jour.,  May  6,  1905  ;  N.  Y .  Times,  May  5, 
1905  ;  unpublished  papers  in  the  War  Dept.] 

T.M.S. 

WHEELER,  GEORGE  WAKEMAN  (Dec. 
1,  1860-July  27,  1932),  jurist,  was  born  in 
Woodville,  Miss.,  from  which  place  his  parents 
moved  to  New  Jersey  not  long  after  the  close 
of  the  Civil  War.  His  father,  for  whom  he  was 
named,  became  a  judge  of  the  court  of  common 
pleas  of  Bergen  County,  N.  J. ;  his  great-grand- 
father, Stephen  Wheeler,  had  been  a  judge  of 
the  Fairfield  County  court  in  Connecticut.  On 
his  maternal  side  he  was  of  Scotch  descent,  his 
mother,  Lucy  (Dowie),  having  been  born  in 
Edinburgh,  though  she  lived  most  of  her  life  in 
Andes,  N.  Y.  After  preparation  at  the  Hacken- 
sack  Military  Academy  and  at  Williston  Sem- 
inary, Easthampton,  Mass.,  Wheeler  entered 
Yale,  where  he  received  the  degree  of  A.B.  in 
1881,  and  that  of  LL.B.,  cum  laude,  in  1883. 

After  his  graduation  from  the  Yale  Law 
School,  he  and  his  college  classmate,  Howard  J. 
Curtis,  formed  a  partnership  for  the  practice  of 
law  in  Bridgeport,  Conn.  He  at  once  became 
active  politically,  and  at  the  age  of  twenty-eight 
was  city  chairman  and  a  state  leader  of  the  Dem- 
ocratic party.  From  1890  to  1892  he  served  as 
corporation  counsel  of  Bridgeport,  and  in  1893 
was  appointed  a  judge  of  the  superior  court,  the 
youngest  appointee  in  the  state's  history.  Here 
he  served  as  trial  judge  until  1910,  when  he  was 
appointed  associate  justice  of  the  supreme  court 
of  errors.  In  1920  he  became  chief  justice  and 
served  as  such  until  his  retirement  under  the 
constitutional  age  limitation  in  1930.  Twice  he 
declined  appointment  upon  the  circuit  court  of 
appeals  of  the  United  States  for  the  second  cir- 
cuit. In  July  1894  he  was  married  to  Agnes 
Leonard  Macy,  and  a  son  and  a  daughter  sur- 
vived him. 

Active,  energetic,  generous,  and  courageous, 
Wheeler  did  not  limit  his  activities  to  the  bench 
but  held  many  positions  of  trust  and  honor. 
He  was  largely  influential  in  procuring  the  adop- 
tion by  the  superior  court  of  uniform  standards 
of  admission  to  the  bar  of  the  state,  and  in  es- 
tablishing the  state  bar  examining  committee, 
upon  which  he  served  as  one  of  the  original 
members  in  1890-92,  and  again  from  1897  to 
1919,  acting  as  chairman  from  1913  to  1919.  He 
was  also  a  member  (1924-32)  of  the  council  of 


Wheeler 

the  American  Law  Institute,  engaged  in  re- 
stating the  common  law  of  the  United  States. 
From  its  inception  in  1927  until  1930  he  was 
chairman  of  the  judicial  council  of  Connecticut. 
In  this  capacity  he  was  mainly  responsible  for 
the  rules  of  summary  judgment — an  innovation 
— and  the  revised  rules  of  discovery  of  facts  be- 
fore trial ;  a  bill  which  he  prepared  and  support- 
ed to  establish  a  system  of  district  courts  to 
supplant  the  political  justice  of  the  peace  and 
town  court  system  failed  of  enactment.  During 
the  World  War  he  was  active  as  a  member  of 
the  state  council  of  defense  and  as  chairman  of 
the  executive  committee  of  the  Bridgeport  war 
bureau.  One  of  his  fiery  war  addresses  at  a  great 
public  meeting  is  said  to  have  swayed  sentiment 
so  that  a  threatened  strike  of  5000  operatives  in 
the  local  munitions  factories  was  called  off.  For 
his  Americanization  work  with  the  Italians  in 
Bridgeport  he  was  decorated  by  the  Italian  gov- 
ernment as  Chevalier  of  the  Order  of  the  Crown 
of  Italy  in  1920  and  as  Grand  Officer  of  the  Or- 
der in  1928. 

Wheeler  possessed  a  gracious  and  simple  per- 
sonality, which  endeared  him  to  many;  yet  he 
never  hesitated  to  make  enemies,  for  he  support- 
ed wholeheartedly  whatever  he  believed  was 
right.  In  1925,  almost  alone,  and  against  oppo- 
sition which  approached  abuse,  he  vigorously 
but  unsuccessfully  advocated  the  enactment  of 
a  statute  making  the  buyer  of  liquor  equally 
amenable  to  the  criminal  law  with  the  seller.  An 
example  of  his  power  in  battle  was  his  im- 
promptu speech  which  led  to  the  defeat  of  a  res- 
olution for  a  referendum  of  the  state  bar  on  pro- 
hibition {Connecticut  Bar  Journal,  July  1929, 
pp.  188-94).  These  characteristics  of  vigor  and 
courage  distinguished  his  judicial  career.  Al- 
though the  youngest  justice,  he  was  the  only 
one  to  dissent  during  his  first  term,  and  until  he 
became  chief  justice  his  dissents  were  many  and 
forcefully  expressed.  As  head  of  the  court,  he 
usually  carried  his  associates  with  him,  yet  his 
independence  of  thought  frequently  led  him 
where  they  were  unwilling  to  go.  Thus  in  his 
last  year  of  service  his  associates  denied  recov- 
ery for  a  brutal  automobile  killing  by  a  hit-and- 
run  driver  where  there  was  no  one  to  sustain 
the  plaintiff's  burden  of  proving  negligence,  and 
Wheeler  reiterated  his  own  stirring  dissent  of 
sixteen  years  earlier,  setting  forth  the  view  that 
the  common  law  must  grow  and  expand  to 
prevent  injustice.  Among  the  many  opinions 
wherein  he  spoke  for  the  court,  those  giving  a 
liberal  interpretation  to  the  Connecticut  Work- 
men's Compensation  Act  passed  in  1913  well  il- 
lustrate his  progressive  attitude  towards  the  law. 


48 


Wheeler 


Wheeler 


His  writings  were  mainly  confined  to  his  ju- 
dicial opinions  (83-172  Connecticut  Reports). 
Worthy  of  mention,  however,  are  the  published 
reports  of  the  Judicial  Council  of  Connecticut 
for  1928  and  1930,  which  were  prepared  by  him ; 
his  obituary  sketch  of  his  associate,  Justice  Cur- 
tis (114  Conn.,  739)  ;  his  address  on  Daniel  Dav- 
enport (114  Conn.,  743)  ;  an  article,  "Deeds — 
Inuring  of  after  Acquired  Title"  (Central  Law 
Journal,  Dec.  11,  1885),  prepared  in  collabora- 
tion with  Joseph  A.  Joyce,  and  his  address  to  the 
Judicial  Council  of  Connecticut  (Connecticut 
Bar  Journal,  October  1927).  He  died  in  Bridge- 
port. 

[James  Byrne,  in  Conn.  Bar  Jour.,  Jan.-Apr.  1933; 
J.  W.  Banks,  in  115  Conn.  Reports,  731  ;  A  Hist,  of  the 
Class  of  'Eighty-One  Yale  Coll.  (1909)  ;  Ibid.,  vol.  II 
(1930);  Obit.  Record  Grads.  Yale  Univ.,  1932-33; 
Who's  Who  in  America,  1932-33  ;  N.  Y.  Times,  July 
28>  !932.]  C.E.C. 

WHEELER,  JAMES  RIGNALL  (Feb.  15, 
1859-Feb.  9,  1918),  classicist,  archaeologist,  a 
first  cousin  of  Everett  P.  Wheeler  [q.v.],  was 
born  in  Burlington,  Vt,  the  son  of  the  Rev.  John 
Wheeler,  president  of  the  University  of  Ver- 
mont from  1833  to  1849,  and  his  second  wife, 
Mary  Constance  Rignall.  He  was  a  descendant 
of  Sergeant  Thomas  Wheeler  who  was  in  Con- 
cord, Mass.,  as  early  as  1642  and  died  there  in 
1704.  After  he  was  graduated  from  the  Univer- 
sity of  Vermont  in  1880,  James  Wheeler  went 
to  Harvard  University  for  further  study  in  clas- 
sical philology.  In  1882,  when  the  American 
School  of  Classical  Studies  at  Athens  was 
opened  under  the  directorship  of  William  W. 
Goodwin  \_q.v.~\,  he  was  one  of  eight  young 
Americans  who  formed  the  student  body.  In 
1883  he  resumed  his  studies  at  Harvard,  and  re- 
ceived the  Ph.D.  degree  in  1885.  Two  years  of 
travel  and  study  in  Europe  and  a  thorough  train- 
ing in  both  the  literary  and  the  archaeological 
branches  of  classical  philology  formed  the  best 
possible  basis  for  the  studies  which  he  thereafter 
made  his  life-work. 

In  1886  he  lectured  at  Johns  Hopkins  Univer- 
sity, in  Baltimore,  Md.,  in  1888-89,  at  Harvard 
University,  Cambridge,  Mass.,  as  instructor  in 
Latin  and  Greek ;  from  1889-95  he  was  professor 
of  Greek  at  the  University  of  Vermont.  He  was 
called  to  Columbia  University  in  1895  and  he 
remained  there,  teaching  both  Greek  literature 
and  Greek  archaeology,  until  his  death.  When 
the  faculty  of  fine  arts  was  constituted  in  1906 
he  was  made  at  first  acting  dean,  and  later  dean, 
filling  this  responsible  post  with  distinction  until 
the  faculty  was  dissolved  in  191 1.  His  services 
in  non-academic  fields  were  many;  he  was  a 
member  of  the  Municipal  Art  Commission  of  the 


City  of  New  York  from  1916  until  his  death,  and 
an  alumni  trustee  of  the  University  of  Vermont. 
In  1907  he  received,  but  declined,  an  urgent  call 
to  the  directorship  of  the  Boston  Museum  of 
Fine  Arts. 

For  the  last  thirty-six  years  of  his  life  he  was 
identified  more  closely  with  the  Athens  School 
than  probably  any  other  individual.  He  was 
"annual  professor"  there  in  1892-93,  taking  an 
active  part  in  the  excavations  at  the  Argive 
Heraeum.  In  1894  he  was  made  secretary,  and 
seven  years  later  chairman,  of  the  Managing 
Committee.  For  the  remainder  of  his  life  he 
carried  this  heavy  burden,  with  its  many  and 
often  puzzling  problems,  without  any  relief  from 
his  academic  duties.  His  grasp  of  the  details  of 
administration  was  sure,  his  tactfulness  and  firm- 
ness and  patience  were  endless ;  and  frequent 
visits  to  Athens  kept  him  in  close  touch  with  the 
steadily  increasing  needs  of  the  school.  His  an- 
nual reports  as  chairman  of  the  Managing  Com- 
mittee from  1901  to  1918  are  models  of  their 
kind. 

His  publications,  not  very  extensive,  were 
chiefly  of  archaeological  character,  but  they 
included  various  more  strictly  literary  and  phil- 
ological articles,  reviews,  and  occasional  ad- 
dresses. In  joint  authorship  with  Prof.  Harold 
North  Fowler,  and  with  the  collaboration  of 
Gorham  P.  Stevens,  he  published  a  Handbook 
of  Greek  Archaeology  ( 1909) .  A  lecture,  "Greek 
Tragedy,"  published  in  Greek  Literature:  A 
Series  of  Lectures  Delivered  at  Columbia  Uni- 
versity (1912)  is  notable  for  its  exact  knowl- 
edge, its  sanity  and  justness  of  view,  and  its 
beauty  of  form.  Among  his  more  technical  ar- 
ticles may  be  mentioned  two  published  in  Har- 
vard Studies  in  Classical  Philology:  "Coronelli's 
Maps  of  Athens"  (vol.  VII,  1896)  and  "Notes 
on  the  So-Called  Capuchin  Plans  of  Athens" 
(vol.  XII,  1901),  and  his  important  contribu- 
tion, in  conjunction  with  Rufus  B.  Richardson 
[q.v.1  to  the  elaborate  work  The  Argive  He- 
raeum (vol.  I,  1902),  dealing  with  the  inscrip- 
tions. From  1906  to  191 1,  Wheeler  was  an  as- 
sociate editor  of  the  American  Journal  of  Ar- 
chaeology. 

On  July  12,  1882,  he  was  married  to  Jane 
Hunt  Pease,  of  Burlington ;  she  survived  him. 
There  were  no  children. 

[Minute  Presented  to  the  Faculty  of  Philosophy  and 
the  Dept.  of  Classical  Philology,  Columbia  Univ., 
March  1918  (n.d.,  privately  printed)  ;  Who's  Who  in 
America,  1916-17;  A.  G.  Wheeler,  The  Gencal.  and 
Encyc.  Hist,  of  the  Wheeler  Family  in  America  (1914)  ; 
Bull.  Archaeological  Institute  of  America,  Dec.  1918; 
H.  N.  Fowler,  biog.  art.  in  Am.  lour,  of  Archaeology, 
Jan.-Mar.  1918  ;  N.  G.  McCrea,  biog.  art.  in  Am.  Jour. 
of  Philology,  Jan.-Mar.  1918;  Burlington  Daily  Free 
Press,  Feb.  11,  191 8.]  E.  D.  P. 


49 


Wheeler 


Wheeler 


WHEELER,  JOHN  HILL  (Aug.  2,  1806- 
Dec.  7,  1882),  lawyer,  diplomat,  historical  writ- 
er, was  born  in  Murfreesboro,  N.  C,  the  son  of 
John  and  Elizabeth  (Jordan)  Wheeler.  His  fa- 
ther was  a  merchant  of  Murfreesboro  and  also 
conducted  a  profitable  shipping  business.  The 
younger  John  prepared  for  college  at  Hertford 
Academy  and  in  1826  was  graduated  from  Co- 
lumbian College  (now  George  Washington  Uni- 
versity). In  1828  he  received  the  degree  of  A.M. 
from  the  University  of  North  Carolina.  He 
studied  law  under  Chief  Justice  John  L.  Taylor 
[q.v.1,  and  was  licensed  to  practice  in  1827. 
That  same  year  he  began  a  service  of  four  terms 
( 1827-30)  in  the  House  of  Commons  from  Hert- 
ford County.  He  was  defeated  for  Congress  in 
1830  and  in  1832  was  appointed  clerk  of  the 
commission  to  adjudicate  upon  claims  of  Amer- 
icans against  France  for  spoliations.  He  became 
superintendent  of  the  Charlotte  branch  of  the 
United  States  mint  in  January  1837,  and  after 
four  years  of  service  was  removed  to  give  place 
to  a  Whig.  In  1842  he  changed  his  residence  to 
Lincoln  County,  and  was  elected  state  treasurer. 
Defeated  for  reelection  in  1844,  he  spent  sev- 
eral years  in  the  preparation  of  his  Historical 
Sketches  of  North  Carolina  (1851).  He  was  a 
member  of  the  House  of  Commons  in  1852.  Ap- 
pointed minister  to  Nicaragua  through  the  influ- 
ence of  James  C.  Dobbin  \_q.v.~],  he  assumed  of- 
fice Aug.  2,  1854. 

During  his  incumbency  occurred  the  revolu- 
tion and  the  arrival  of  William  Walker's  fili- 
bustering expedition.  Walker  \_q.v.~\  captured 
Granada  on  Oct.  13,  1855.  On  Oct.  15,  Wheeler 
visited  Corral,  the  Legitimist  president,  with 
peace  proposals  from  Walker,  and  was  impris- 
oned for  two  days.  Later  in  the  month,  the  Rivas 
government  was  set  up  with  Walker's  assist- 
ance, and  was  recognized  by  Wheeler  on  Nov. 
10.  Secretary  Marcy  refused  to  receive  the  Nic- 
araguan  envoy  and  censured  Wheeler  for  his  ac- 
tion. In  May  1856,  however,  the  envoy  was  re- 
ceived, and  instructions  were  sent  to  Wheeler 
to  recognize  the  existing  government.  Before 
he  received  them,  conditions  in  Nicaragua  had 
changed  and  in  July  Walker  was  inaugurated 
president.  Although  Wheeler  knew  that  such 
was  not  the  intent  of  his  instructions  he  recog- 
nized the  Walker  government.  His  activities 
had  passed  all  diplomatic  bounds  of  propriety, 
and  Marcy 's  patience,  already  sadly  tried,  now 
gave  out.  Wheeler  would  doubtless  have  been 
recalled  and  dismissed  but  for  the  friendly  in- 
fluence of  Dobbin.  In  September  Marcy  sum- 
moned Wheeler  to  Washington,  and,  after  de- 
manding his  resignation  several  times,   finally 


secured  it  two  days  before  the  close  of  the  Pierce 
administration.  Thereafter,  Wheeler  lived  in 
Washington  until  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War, 
when  he  returned  to  North  Carolina.  In  1863 
he  went  to  Europe  to  collect  historical  material 
and  remained  there  until  the  close  of  the  war. 
Returning  to  Washington,  he  spent  the  remain- 
der of  his  life  there,  for  most  of  the  time  en- 
gaged in  journalistic  work.  His  death  came 
after  a  long  illness. 

Wheeler  began  his  historical  work  in  1843  by 
compiling  for  the  state  Indexes  to  Documents 
Relating  to  North  Carolina.  His  Historical 
Sketches  of  North  Carolina,  mentioned  above,  is 
a  badly  prepared  and  ill-assorted  collection  of 
documents,  state  and  local  history,  biographical 
sketches,  and  statistics.  Like  all  of  his  work  it 
abounds  in  error.  Its  biographical  portions  are 
so  partial  to  members  of  Wheeler's  own  party, 
that  it  was  nicknamed  "The  Democratic  Stud- 
Book."  In  1874  he  published  The  Legislative 
Manual  and  Political  Register  of  the  State  of 
North  Carolina.  His  Reminiscences  and  Mem- 
oirs of  North  Carolina,  containing  material  from 
his  earlier  volumes,  was  published  posthumously 
in  1884.  He  edited,  also,  The  Narrative  of  Colo- 
nel David  Fanning  (1861).  In  spite  of  their 
defects,  his  books  performed  a  valuable  service 
in  arousing  historical  interest  both  in  North 
Carolina  and  in  other  Southern  states, 

Wheeler  was  twice  married:  first,  Apr.  19, 
1830,  to  Mary  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Rev.  O.  B. 
Brown  of  Washington;  she  died  in  1836,  and  on 
Nov.  8,  1838,  he  married  Ellen  Oldmixon  Sully, 
daughter  of  Thomas  Sully  [q.v.~]  of  Philadel- 
phia, the  famous  artist.  By  his  first  wife  he  had 
two  sons  and  a  daughter ;  by  the  second,  two 
sons. 

[S.  A.  Ashe,  Biog.  Hist,  of  N.  C,  vol.  VII  (1908)  ; 
W.  O.  Scroggs,  Filibusters  and  Financiers  (1916)  ;  a 
MS.  by  Wheeler,  "Nicaragua,"  and  his  scrapbook  and 
papers  in  Lib.  of  Cong. ;  William  Walker,  The  War  in 
Nicaragua  (i860)  ;  J.  B.  Moore,  A  Digest  of  Interna- 
tional Law  (1906)  ;  House  Ex.  Doc.  70.?,  34  Cong.,  1 
Sess.  ;  manuscript  material  in  Department  of  State ; 
Washington  Post,  Dec.  9,  1882.]  T.  G.  deR.  H. 

WHEELER,  JOSEPH  (Sept.  10,  1836-Jan. 
25,  1906),  soldier  and  congressman,  was  born 
near  Augusta,  Ga.,  the  son  of  Joseph  and  Julia 
Knox  (Hull)  Wheeler.  Both  parents  were  of 
New  England  colonial  stock;  the  father,  who 
moved  to  Augusta  in  young  manhood,  was  de- 
scended from  Moses  Wheeler,  an  early  settler 
of  New  Haven,  Conn.  After  a  diffused  and  un- 
systematic primary  education,  the  boy  was  ap- 
pointed to  the  United  States  Military  Academy 
in  1854.  Graduating  in  1859  with  a  fine  mili- 
tary and  a  mediocre  academic  record,  he  was 
brevetted  a  second  lieutenant  of  dragoons  and 


50 


Wheeler 


Wheeler 


saw  two  years'  service  in  the  Regular  Army, 
some  of  which  was  against  Indians  in  New  Mex- 
ico. Upon  secession  becoming  an  accomplished 
fact,  he  at  once  cast  his  lot  with  the  South  and 
resigned  from  the  army,  Apr.  22,  1861. 

He  was  commissioned  initially  a  first  lieuten- 
ant in  the  Confederate  States  Army,  but  soon 
was  offered  the  colonelcy  of  the  19th  Alabama 
Infantry.  He  fought  through  the  Shiloh  cam- 
paign with  this  regiment,  gained  recognition  as 
a  disciplinarian  and  a  leader,  succeeded  to  the 
command  of  an  infantry  brigade,  and  on  July  18, 
1862,  was  placed  in  command  of  the  cavalry  of 
the  Army  of  Mississippi.  He  had  now  definitely 
assumed  the  military  role  which  was  to  bring 
him  his  greatest  distinction.  In  the  next  two 
and  a  half  years  he  rose  successively  to  briga- 
dier-general, major-general,  and  lieutenant-gen- 
eral in  the  Confederate  service,  but  in  all  this 
time  he  held  one  assignment,  the  leadership  of 
the  cavalry  in  the  western  theatre  of  operations. 
He  covered  Bragg's  advance  into  and  retreat 
from  Kentucky  and  took  a  prominent  part  in 
the  Murfreesboro  and  Chickamauga  campaigns. 
After  Rosecrans'  retirement  to  Chattanooga, 
Wheeler  executed  a  masterly  raid  on  the  Union 
communications,  which,  unlike  most  Civil  War 
raids,  had  a  material  effect  on  the  course  of 
events.  His  cavalry  participated  in  the  siege  of 
Knoxville  and  then  opposed  Sherman  through- 
out his  long  progress  through  Atlanta  to  Sa- 
vannah and  finally  to  Raleigh.  In  this  campaign 
Wheeler  repulsed  the  attempt  of  Garrard,  Stone- 
man,  and  McCook  to  outflank  the  Atlanta  posi- 
tion, and  his  were  practically  the  only  troops  op- 
posed to  Sherman  in  the  march  to  the  sea.  His 
forces  disintegrated  at  Joseph  E.  Johnston's  sur- 
render, and  Wheeler  himself  was  captured  near 
Atlanta.  He  was  then  only  twenty-eight  years 
of  age.  Wheeler  was  the  hero  of  a  spectacular 
personal  encounter  with  Union  cavalry  at  Duck 
River,  Tenn.,  June  27,  1863,  was  three  times 
wounded  in  the  course  of  the  war,  and  is  said  to 
have  participated  in  two  hundred  engagements 
and  eight  hundred  skirmishes  in  that  period. 
His  sobriquet  of  "Fighting  Joe"  was  unques- 
tionably well  earned. 

Gen.  Robert  E.  Lee  bracketed  Wheeler  with  J. 
E.  B.  Stuart  [q.z>.]  as  one  of  the  two  outstanding 
Confederate  cavalry  leaders.  In  breadth  of  mili- 
tary vision  and  in  delicacy  of  touch,  Stuart  was 
undoubtedly  the  superior.  Nathan  Bedford  For- 
rest [q.z>.~]  had  a  lethal  simplicity  of  action  that 
perhaps  surpassed  Wheeler  at  his  best,  but  the 
latter  yielded  to  none  in  dogged  aggressiveness, 
in  hard  hitting,  and  in  reliability.  Loyal  to  the 
persons   and   to   the   conceptions   of   his   many 


chiefs,  he  was  an  ideal  and  almost  invariably 
appreciated  subordinate.  Capable  opponents,  with 
superior  forces  of  fine  cavalry,  never  succeeded 
in  mastering  him.  He  was  beloved  and  trusted 
by  his  men,  and  despite  the  fact  that  excesses 
were  ascribed  to  his  troops  in  the  last  days  of  the 
Confederacy,  he  enjoyed  general  popularity 
throughout  the  South. 

After  the  war  Wheeler  established  himself  as 
a  commission  merchant  in  New  Orleans.  On 
Feb.  8,  1866,  he  married  Daniella  (Jones)  Sher- 
rod,  daughter  of  Col.  Richard  Jones  of  Alabama. 
Their  children  were  two  sons  and  five  daughters. 
In  1868  Wheeler  moved  to  Wheeler,  Ala.,  named 
in  his  honor,  and  engaged  in  cotton  planting  and 
the  practice  of  law.  As  the  tide  of  Reconstruction 
ebbed,  he  entered  politics.  In  1881  he  was  elected 
to  the  Forty-seventh  Congress,  but  as  the  result 
of  a  contest  was  unseated,  June  3,  1882,  in  favor 
of  W.  M.  Lowe.  Upon  the  death  of  Lowe  soon 
afterward,  however,  he  was  elected  to  fill  the 
vacancy  and  served  from  Jan.  15  to  Mar.  3,  1883. 
He  was  reelected  to  the  Forty-ninth  Congress 
and  thereafter  served  continuously  from  1885  to 
1900. 

As  a  representative  he  was  chiefly  active  in 
military  and  fiscal  matters.  By  virtue  of  long 
service  he  became  eventually  the  ranking  Demo- 
crat on  the  Ways  and  Means  Committee,  and 
fought  strenuously  for  the  low  tariff  principle. 
He  pushed  various  pension  bills  and  was  instru- 
mental in  the  congressional  rehabilitation  of 
Fitz-John  Porter  [q.v.~\.  On  the  whole,  however, 
his  interests  were  predominantly  local,  and  he 
devoted  the  greater  part  of  his  energies  to  the 
direct  service  of  his  constituency.  His  chief  pub- 
lic contribution  was  his  untiring  advocacy  of 
reconciliation  between  North  and  South.  To  a 
host  of  people  he  embodied  the  reintegration  of 
the  Confederacy  into  the  Union.  In  Alabama 
there  was  attached  to  the  glamor  of  his  Civil  War 
record  a  high  degree  of  personal  popularity  ;  and 
it  was  in  this  period  that  he  built  up  the  local 
esteem  which  resulted  eventually  in  his  choice 
by  that  state  as  one  of  its  two  representatives  in 
Statuary  Hall  in  the  Capitol  at  Washington. 

Upon  the  outbreak  of  the  Spanish-American 
War,  Wheeler  offered  his  services  to  President 
McKinley  and  was  appointed  a  major-general  of 
volunteers.  The  presidential  action  was  recog- 
nized and  applauded  as  a  significant  effort  to 
make  the  war  an  instrument  to  fuse  the  sections. 
Wheeler  commanded  the  cavalry  division  of 
Shatter's  Santiago  expedition,  landed  at  Daiquiri, 
Cuba,  precipitated  the  engagement  at  Las  Guasi- 
mas  (June  24,  1898),  and  despite  illness  was 
present  at  the  battle  of  San  Juan  Hill  (July  1). 


51 


U.  OF  ILL  LIB. 


Wheeler 

During  the  subsequent  siege  of  Santiago,  he  con- 
tributed a  disproportionate  share  of  aggressive- 
ness to  the  American  high  command.  After  the 
surrender  of  the  city  and  the  repatriation  of  the 
bulk  of  the  expeditionary  force,  he  commanded 
the  convalescent  and  demobilization  camp  at 
Montauk  Point,  Long  Island.  Shortly  thereafter 
he  was  sent  to  the  Philippines  in  command  of  a 
brigade,  but  soon  returned  to  the  United  States. 
On  June  16,  1900,  he  was  commissioned  a  briga- 
dier-general in  the  Regular  Army;  he  retired  on 
his  sixty-fourth  birthday,  Sept.  10,  1900.  There- 
after he  lived  uneventfully,  dying  in  his  seven- 
tieth year,  at  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.  He  was  buried  in 
Arlington  National  Cemetery. 

During  the  Civil  War  Wheeler  wrote  Cavalry 
Tactics  (1863),  a  textbook.  He  was  subsequent- 
ly the  author  of  "Bragg's  Invasion  of  Kentucky" 
(Battles  and  Leaders  of  the  Civil  War,  1887-88, 
vol.  Ill)  and  The  Santiago  Campaign  (1898), 
a  sketch;  and  with  his  wife  prepared  American 
Ancestors  of  the  Children  of  Joseph  and  Daniella 
Wheeler  (n.d.). 

\A.  G.  Wheeler,  The  Geneal.  and  Encyc.  Hist,  of  the 
Wheeler  Family  in  America  (1914);  T.  C.  DeLeon, 
Joseph  Wheeler  (1899)  and  W.  C.  Dodson,  ed.,  Cam- 
paigns of  Wheeler  and  His  Cavalry  (1899),  fairly  com- 
plete but  undiscriminating  records  ;  J.  W.  DuBose,  Gen- 
eral Joseph  Wheeler  and  the  Army  of  Tennessee  (1912), 
confined  to  the  Civil  War  ;  War  of  the  Rebellion  :  Of- 
ficial Records  (Army)  ;  J.  P.  Dyer,  "The  Civil  War 
Career  of  General  Joseph  Wheeler,"  Ga.  Hist.  Quart., 
Mar.  1935  ;  Who's  Who  in  America,  1906-07  ;  Biog. 
Dir.  Am.  Cong.  (1928)  ;  G.  W.  Cullum,  Biog.  Reg.  Of- 
ficers and  Grads.  U.  S.  Mil.  Acad.,  vols.  II  (3rd  ed., 
1891),  IV  (1901),  V  (1910)  ;  Thirty-seventh  Ann.  Re- 
union Asso.  Grads.  U.  S.  Mil.  Acad.  (1906)  ;  Army  and 
Navy  Jour.,  Jan.  27,  Feb.  3,  1906;  Brooklyn  Daily 
Eagle,  Jan.  26,  1906.]  T.  J.B. 

WHEELER,  NATHANIEL  (Sept.  7,  1820- 
Dec.  31,  1893),  manufacturer,  inventor,  the  son 
of  David  and  Sarah  (De  Forest)  Wheeler,  was 
born  at  Watertown,  Litchfield  County,  Conn.,  of 
English  and  Huguenot  descent.  Moses  Wheeler, 
the  first  of  the  family  in  America,  emigrated  from 
England  in  1638  and  settled  in  New  Haven, 
Conn.,  in  1641.  After  receiving  a  common-school 
education  Nathaniel  learned  the  trade  of  car- 
riage-building in  his  father's  shop  and  specialized 
in  the  ornamenting  of  carriages.  In  1841,  upon 
his  father's  retirement,  he  took  over  the  business 
and  for  five  years  conducted  it  successfully.  In 
the  meantime  he  had  become  interested  in  man- 
ufacturing by  hand  such  metal  articles  as  buckles, 
buttons,  and  eyelets,  and  for  a  time  carried  on 
the  two  businesses  in  the  same  establishment, 
gradually  equipping  his  metal-ware  factory  with 
machinery.  In  1848  he  formed  the  partnership  of 
Warren,  Wheeler  and  Woodruff  with  two  men 
already  engaged  in  the  manufacturing  of  metal- 
ware  in  Watertown,  and  erected  a  new  factory, 


Wheeler 

of  which  he  took  charge.  In  New  York  late  in 
1850  he  saw  the  newly  invented  sewing  machine 
of  Allen  B.  Wilson  [q.v.].  Contracting  to  supply 
five  hundred  machines  to  the  firm  controlling 
Wilson's  patent,  he  engaged  Wilson  to  superin- 
tend their  manufacture  in  Watertown.  Mean- 
while the  latter  had  conceived  the  idea  of  a  rotary 
hook  as  a  substitute  for  his  double-pointed  shut- 
tle, and  was  given  carte  blanche  by  Wheeler  to 
proceed  with  the  perfection  of  a  new  rotary-hook 
machine.  Obtaining  a  patent  for  this  (Aug.  12, 
1851),  Wheeler  and  his  partners  reorganized 
their  company  as  Wheeler,  Wilson  and  Com- 
pany, and  began  to  manufacture  the  machine, 
Wheeler  supervising  sales  and  distribution,  and 
Wilson  manufacturing.  In  less  than  two  years 
several  hundred  machines  had  been  sold  to  the 
public,  and  introduced  into  factories  in  Troy,  N. 
Y.,  Boston,  Mass.,  and  Philadelphia,  Pa.  For  the 
better  prosecution  of  the  growing  business 
Wheeler  reorganized  the  company  in  October 
1853,  under  the  name  of  the  Wheeler  and  Wilson 
Manufacturing  Company.  Three  years  later  he 
removed  the  factory  to  Bridgeport,  Conn.,  where 
as  president  he  directed  the  company's  affairs 
until  his  death.  A  four-motion  feed  which  Wil- 
son perfected  in  1854  Wheeler  immediately  in- 
corporated in  the  company's  machine.  With  these 
several  improvements  the  Wheeler  and  Wilson 
Manufacturing  Company  quickly  became  one  of 
the  four  principal  sewing-machine  manufacturers 
of  the  United  States  and  was  one  of  the  four 
composing  the  great  combination  established  in 
1856  to  pool  sewing-machine  patents.  In  this 
Wheeler  took  an  active  part. 

Besides  attending  to  his  growing  business  he 
invented  and  patented  a  wood-filling  compound 
in  1876  and  1878,  a  ventilating  system  for  houses 
and  railroad  cars  in  1883,  and  a  number  of  minor 
improvements  in  the  sewing  machine.  He  was  a 
director  of  the  New  York,  New  Haven  &  Hart- 
ford Railroad,  and  of  numerous  other  organiza- 
tions, and  served  in  the  Connecticut  legislature 
in  1866,  1868,  1870,  and  from  1872  to  1874.  He 
was  twice  married:  first,  on  Nov.  7,  1842,  to 
Huldah  Bradley  of  Watertown  (d.  1857),  and 
second,  on  Aug.  3,  1858,  to  Mary  E.  Crissey  of 
New  Canaan,  Conn.  He  died  in  Bridgeport,  sur- 
vived by  his  wife  and  by  two  children  of  each 
marriage. 

[A.  G.  Wheeler,  The  Geneal.  .  .  .  Hist,  of  the  Wheeler 
Family  (1914);  Richard  Herndon,  Men  of  Progress 
.  .  .  Conn.  (1898)  ;  W.  F.  Moore,  Representative  Men 
of  Conn.  (1894)  ;  F.  L.  Lewton,  "The  Servant  in  the 
House,"  Ann.  Report  .  .  .  Smithsonian  Institution,  1929 
(1930);  Patent  Office  records;  obituaries  in  N.  Y. 
Times  and  New  Haven  Evening  Reg.,  Jan.  1,  1894.] 

C.  W.  M 


52 


Wheeler 


Wheeler 


WHEELER,  ROYALL  TYLER  (1810-ApriI 
1864),  jurist,  was  born  in  Vermont,  the  son  of 
John  and  Hannah  (Thurston)  Wheeler.  His 
father,  a  native  of  New  Hampshire,  moved  to 
Vermont  in  1800  and  later  to  Ohio.  Royall 
studied  law  in  Delaware,  Ohio,  and  was  admitted 
to  the  bar.  About  1837  he  removed  to  Fayette- 
ville,  Ark.,  where  he  became  a  law  partner  of 
Williamson  S.  Oldham  \_q.v.~],  afterward  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Arkansas  supreme  court.  In  1839  he 
married  Emily  Walker  of  Fayetteville,  a  native 
of  Lexington,  Ky.,  by  whom  he  had  three  sons 
and  a  daughter. 

Removing  to  Texas  in  1839,  he  settled  at 
Nacogdoches,  where  he  formed  a  partnership 
with  K.  L.  Anderson,  vice-president  of  the  Re- 
public of  Texas.  Wheeler  rose  rapidly  in  his 
profession  and  acquired  an  extensive  practice. 
He  served  one  term  as  district  attorney,  and  in 
1844  was  appointed  judge  of  the  court  in  the  old 
Fifth  District,  embracing  much  of  the  eastern 
part  of  the  Republic.  As  district  judge  he  be- 
came a  member  of  the  supreme  court,  which  was 
composed  of  the  several  district  judges  sitting  in 
banc,  and  presided  over  by  the  chief  justice.  He 
was  a  strong  advocate  of  the  annexation  of  Texas 
to  the  Union,  and  when  such  union  was  accom- 
plished, in  1845,  ne  was  appointed  a  member  of 
the  supreme  court  of  the  state,  along  with  Chief 
Justice  John  Hemphill  and  Associate  Justice 
Abner  Smith  Lipscomb  [qq.z>.~\.  After  the  po- 
sitions on  the  court  were  made  elective,  in  1851, 
he  was  chosen  without  opposition,  and  was  re- 
elected in  1856.  When  Hemphill  was  sent  to  the 
United  States  Senate  in  1858,  Wheeler  succeed- 
ed him  as  chief  justice.  The  conditions  under 
which  he  worked  during  this  early  period  in 
Texas  are  shown  by  the  following  entry  in  the 
diary  of  Rutherford  B.  Hayes,  who  visited  Aus- 
tin in  February  1849:  "Called  at  the  room  of  an 
old  law  student  of  Delaware  [Ohio],  Royal  T. 
Wheeler,  now  a  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court. 
His  office  as  judge,  'den'  as  he  called  it,  being  a 
log  cabin  about  fourteen  feet  square,  with  a  bed, 
table,  five  chairs,  a  washstand,  and  a  'whole  raft' 
of  books  and  papers"  (Diary  and  Letters,  vol.  I, 
1922,  p.  260). 

Although  reared  a  Whig,  Wheeler  advocated 
secession  with  voice  and  pen.  As  chief  justice, 
sitting  in  chambers  at  Austin,  he  upheld  and  en- 
forced the  Confederate  conscription  law,  a  po- 
sition in  which  he  was  sustained  by  a  majority 
of  the  court  (26  Texas,  387).  The  turmoil  and 
bloodshed  resulting  from  the  great  civil  strife  de- 
ranged his  mind.  One  of  his  biographers,  George 
W.  Paschal,  a  strong  Union  sympathizer,  who 
later  became  reporter   for  the  Texas  supreme 


court,  states  that  Wheeler  "fell  into  the  morbid 
belief  that,  more  than  anyone  else,  he  was  re- 
sponsible for  the  terrible  baptism  of  blood  through 
which  our  country  was  passing.  Zealous,  ardent, 
and  sensitively  conscientious,  the  ordeal  was  too 
severe  for  a  man  whose  temperament  always 
tended  to  melancholy.  His  salary  became  worth- 
less ;  he  was  without  income ;  he  had  saved  little 
of  his  fortune ;  there  was  no  probable,  and  hard- 
ly any  possible,  employment  for  his  children, 
whom  he  so  much  loved.  His  reason  could  not 
stand  the  severe  strain;  he  perished  by  his  own 
hands.  .  .  .  The  distempered  and  lamented  chief 
justice  was  as  little  responsible  for  the  act  by 
which  he  threw  away  his  life,  as  he  was  for  the 
terrible  drama  in  which  so  many  good  men 
perished"  (28  Texas,  viii).  His  death  occurred 
in  Washington  County  in  April  1864. 

He  was  a  man  of  blameless  character.  While 
he  was  not  so  brilliant  of  mind  as  his  two  great 
associates  on  the  first  supreme  court  of  the  state 
of  Texas,  his  was  the  genius  of  hard  labor  and 
patient  research.  His  early  experience  in  the 
criminal  practice  resulted  in  his  writing  the  opin- 
ion in  a  large  percentage  of  the  criminal  cases 
coming  before  the  court  during  his  twenty  years 
on  the  bench.  His  opinions  are  to  be  found  in  the 
first  twenty-six  volumes  of  the  Texas  Reports. 

[See  27  Texas,  v  ;  28  Texas,  vi  ;  J.  D.  Lynch,  The- 
Bench  and  Bar  of  Texas  (1885)  ;  J.  H.  Davenport,  The 
Hist,  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State  of  Texas  (copr. 
1917)  ;  Biog.  Encyc.  of  Texas  ( 1880)  ;  Brown  Thurston, 
Thurston  Geneal.  (1892).  All  the  foregoing  give  year 
of  birth  as  1810,  but  A.  G.  Wheeler,  The  Geneal.  and 
Encyc.  Hist,  of  the  Wheeler  Family  in  America,  gives 
the  date  as  Feb.  2,  1804.]  q  g_  p_ 

WHEELER,  SCHUYLER  SKAATS  (May 
17,  1860-Apr.  20,  1923),  inventor,  engineer,  and 
manufacturer,  was  born  in  New  York  City,  the 
son  of  James  Edwin  and  Annie  (Skaats)  Wrheel- 
er.  He  entered  Columbia  College,  but  left  in 
1881  to  become  assistant  electrician  in  the  Amer- 
ican branch  of  the  Jablochkoff  Electric  Light 
Company.  He  soon  obtained  a  place  on  Thomas 
A.  Edison's  engineering  staff,  and  was  present 
upon  the  historic  occasion  of  the  opening  of  the 
Pearl  Street  Central  Station  in  New  York  in 
1883,  when  the  incandescent  light  was  introduced. 
A  number  of  distribution  systems  were  subse- 
quently established  under  Wheeler's  supervision. 
Among  the  more  notable  of  these  were  the  un- 
derground systems  at  Fall  River,  Mass.,  and 
Newburgh,  N.  Y.,  the  latter  of  which  he  operated. 
Installing  and  operating  plants  soon  lost  their 
interest  for  him,  while  invention  and  manufac- 
turing claimed  his  attention.  In  1886,  after  a 
short  period  with  the  Herzog  Teleseme  Com- 
pany, he  became  associated  with  the  C.   &  C. 


53 


Wheeler 


Wheeler 


Electric  Motor  Company  organized  by  Charles 
G.  Curtis  and  Francis  B.  Crocker  \_q.v.~\  for  the 
manufacture  of  small  electric  motors.  Under 
Wheeler's  direction  as  designer,  electrician,  and 
manager,  the  business  of  the  concern  expanded 
rapidly.  In  1888,  however,  Crocker  and  Wheeler 
severed  their  connection  with  the  enterprise  and 
founded  the  Crocker-Wheeler  Company,  which 
soon  attained  a  prominent  position  in  the  manu- 
facture of  motors.  Of  this  concern  Wheeler  was 
president  from  1889.  In  addition  to  his  private 
business  he  also  acted  from  1888  to  1895  as  elec- 
trical expert  of  the  board  of  electrical  control  of 
New  York,  and  upon  him  devolved  the  responsi- 
bility of  seeing  that  all  overhead  lines  were  placed 
underground.  So  energetically  did  he  carry  out 
has  duty  that  poles  were  removed  by  force  when 
other  means  failed.  In  1895  he  resigned  this  po- 
sition in  order  to  devote  his  time  exclusively  to 
his  manufacturing  interests.  In  that  same  year 
the  works  of  the  Crocker- Wheeler  Company  in 
Ampere,  N.  J.,  were  completely  destroyed  by 
fire.  The  construction  of  a  modern  plant  was 
started  immediately,  however,  and  the  work  of 
the  concern  continued  meanwhile  in  tents  and 
sheds. 

In  1 90 1  Wheeler  presented  to  the  American 
Institute  of  Electrical  Engineers  a  remarkable 
collection  of  electrical  books,  the  Latimer  Clark 
library,  which  he  purchased  in  London,  includ- 
ing practically  every  known  publication  in  the 
English  language  on  the  subject  of  electricity 
printed  prior  to  1886.  In  1905-06  he  served  as 
president  of  the  Institute  and  at  the  time  of  his 
death  was  chairman  of  the  committee  on  a  code 
of  principles  of  professional  conduct.  He  was 
also  a  member  of  the  American  Society  of  Me- 
chanical Engineers,  and  was  one  of  the  founders 
of  the  United  Engineering  Society.  In  1922  he 
served  as  one  of  the  American  representatives  at 
the  meeting  of  the  International  Electrotechnical 
Commission  held  at  Geneva,  Switzerland.  He 
was  a  contributor  to  technical  journals,  and  with 
his  partner,  Crocker,  published  Practical  Man- 
agement of  Dynamos  and  Motors  (copr.  1894), 
which  had  many  printings  and  was  widely  circu- 
lated. 

Among  his  more  famous  inventions  were  the 
electric  fire-engine  system,  patented  Feb.  24, 
1885,  the  electric  elevator,  for  which  he  received 
patents  Apr.  21  and  Aug.  18,  1885,  the  series 
multiple  motor  control,  and  parelleling  of  dyna- 
mos, for  which  he  was  granted  patents  over  a 
period  of  years  beginning  in  1886.  In  1904  he 
received  the  John  Scott  Legacy  Premium  and 
Medal  of  the  Franklin  Institute  for  his  invention 
of  the  electric  buzz  fan.   His  death,  from  angina 


pectoris,  occurred  at  his  home  in  New  York  City. 
He  was  twice  married:  first,  in  April  1891,  to 
Ella  Peterson,  by  whom  he  had  one  son  who 
died  in  infancy;  second,  in  October  1898,  to  Amy 
Sutton  of  Rye,  N.  Y.,  who  survived  him. 

[Electrical  World,  Apr.  28,  1923  ;  Jour.  Am.  Inst. 
Electrical  Engineers,  May  1923  ;  Trans.  Am.  Soc.  Me- 
chanical Engineers,  1923  (1924)  ;  Pozvcr,  May  1,  1923  ; 
Who's  Who  in  America,  1922-23  ;  N.  Y .  Times,  Apr. 
21,  1923;  material  supplied  by  A.  L.  Doremus,  vice- 
president  of  the  Crocker- Wheeler  Electric  Manufac- 
turing Company,  Inc.,  30  Church  St.,  N.  Y.  City.] 

K.  W.  C. 

WHEELER,  WAYNE  BIDWELL  (Nov. 
10,  1869-Sept.  5,  1927),  lawyer,  prohibitionist, 
was  born  on  a  farm  near  Brookfield,  Trumbull 
County,  Ohio,  the  son  of  Joseph  and  Ursula 
(Hutchinson)  Wheeler.  The  family  was  of  New 
England  stock,  and  a  great-grandfather  of 
Wayne,  Phineas  Wheeler  of  Vermont,  was  a 
soldier  in  the  Revolution.  The  day-time  absence 
from  home  of  Wayne's  father,  who  conducted 
a  stock-buying  business  in  the  neighboring  vil- 
lage of  Brookfield,  made  it  necessary  for  the  boy 
at  an  early  age  to  undertake  much  of  the  work 
on  the  farm.  At  sixteen,  on  graduating  from  the 
Sharon,  Pa.,  high  school,  he  had  his  heart  set 
on  going  to  college  but  met  opposition  from  his 
parents.  Eventually  his  perseverance  won  his 
parents'  consent,  and  to  earn  his  tuition  fees  he 
taught  school  for  two  years.  He  then  entered  the 
preparatory  department  of  Oberlin  College,  and 
received  the  degree  of  A.B.  from  that  institution 
in  1894.  In  the  meantime  he  worked  as  janitor, 
waiter,  and  financial  manager  of  the  Oberlin  Re- 
view, and  sold  drugs  and  blackboard  desks.  He 
took  almost  no  part  in  athletics,  but  was  active 
in  other  extra-curricular  activities,  especially 
public  speaking.  In  his  junior  year  he  was  the 
unanimous  choice  of  the  faculty  for  student 
speaker  on  prohibition  at  a  Neal  Dow  celebra- 
tion. That  he  spoke  eloquently  is  attested  by  his 
own  comment,  written  years  later,  to  the  effect 
that  he  had  poured  out  his  "soul  in  youthful  ar- 
dour, anathematizing  the  saloon  and  predicting 
its  final  overthrow"  (Steuart,  post,  p.  39). 

In  after  years  Wheeler  dated  the  beginning  of 
his  antagonism  towards  liquor  from  several  ter- 
rifying encounters  he  had  had  as  a  child  with 
drunken  men.  In  the  atmosphere  of  Oberlin, 
which  Wheeler  later  pictured  as  a  "hotbed  of 
temperance  people,"  this  early  predisposition  be- 
came hardened  into  permanent  form.  In  1893,  he 
met  the  Rev.  Howard  Hyde  Russell,  who  had 
just  organized  the  Anti-Saloon  League  of  Ohio, 
and  on  his  graduation  accepted  a  place  offered 
him  by  Russell  as  manager  of  the  League  for 
the  Dayton  district.  Seeing  that  the  organization 
had  need  of  some  one  with  legal  training,  Wheel- 


54 


Wheeler 


Wheeler 


er  resolved  to  become  a  lawyer,  and  for  the  next 
year  spent  all  his  spare  hours  studying  under  the 
tutelage  of  a  friendly  Cleveland  attorney.  He 
then  enrolled  in  the  law  school  of  Western  Re- 
serve University,  where  for  three  years,  until 
graduation  in  1898,  he  attended  classes  and  also 
carried  on  his  work  with  the  League.  On  re- 
ceiving the  degree  of  LL.B.  he  was  at  once  elect- 
ed attorney  for  the  League's  Ohio  branch  and 
named  "legislative  secretary."  In  1904,  he  be- 
came superintendent  for  Ohio,  continuing  in  this 
post  until  1915,  when  he  went  to  Washington  as 
general  counsel  (and  later  legislative  superin- 
tendent) of  the  Anti-Saloon  League  of  America. 
On  Mar.  7,  1901,  he  was  married  to  Ella  Belle 
Candy,  daughter  of  a  merchant  of  Columbus, 
Ohio.   Three  sons  were  born  of  the  union. 

From  his  start  as  a  professional  prohibitionist, 
Wheeler  displayed  unusual  talent  for  political 
strategy  and  campaigning.  His  first  task  of  im- 
portance was  to  defeat  a  "wet"  candidate  for  the 
Ohio  State  Senate.  This  he  accomplished  by 
getting  a  prominent  Methodist  business  man  to 
run  in  opposition,  and  then  by  organizing  sec- 
tarian support  for  the  latter  (Steuart,  p.  45). 
During  his  busy  career  he  prosecuted  over  2,000 
saloon  cases,  collaborated  in  writing  state  and 
national  prohibition  legislation,  and  defended  the 
constitutionality  of  prohibition  laws  before  state 
and  federal  courts  and  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States.  With  others  he  inspired  the  pro- 
mulgation in  1914  of  Secretary  of  the  Navy 
Daniels'  order  prohibiting  beverage  liquors  on 
any  naval  vessel  or  in  any  navy  yard  or  station, 
and  he  was  active  also  in  lobbying  the  war-time 
prohibition  acts  through  Congress.  After  the 
prohibition  Amendment  passed  Congress,  his 
work  with  state  legislatures  helped  to  bring  about 
ratification  in  the  short  period  of  thirteen  months. 
According  to  his  biographer  (Ibid.,  ch.  vm), 
Wheeler  claimed  authorship  of  the  prohibition 
enforcement  measure,  the  Volstead  Act.  This 
claim,  however,  is  disputed. 

Measured  by  any  gauge  Wheeler  was  a  strong 
man,  though  he  lacked  the  qualities  of  imagina- 
tion and  perspective  essential  to  greatness.  He 
was  audacious,  tireless,  persistent,  and  imbued 
with  a  "passionate  sincerity  that  bordered  un- 
scrupulousness"  (Steuart,  p.  14).  Nothing  could 
shake  his  confidence  in  the  soundness  and  wisdom 
of  his  convictions.  He  saw  little  virtue  in  the 
policy  favored  by  other  prohibitionists  of  foster- 
ing temperance  through  education.  Always  he 
desired  "the  most  severe  penalties,  the  most  ag- 
gressive policies  even  to  calling  out  the  Army 
and  Navy,  the  most  relentless  prosecution.  A 
favorite  phrase  of  his  was  :  'We'll  make  them  be- 


lieve in  punishment  after  death'  "  (Ibid.,  p.  14). 
Wheeler's  qualities  (including  his  limitations) 
might  at  any  other  period  have  carried  their  pos- 
sessor no  farther  than  a  modest  success  in  busi- 
ness or  in  the  ministry  or  in  politics.  In  his 
career  he  was  greatly  helped  by  the  circumstances 
that  his  work  coincided  in  time  with  a  spontane- 
ous impulse  to  reform  which  made  its  appearance 
in  America  shortly  after  the  turn  of  the  century. 
By  1933,  six  years  after  Wheeler's  death,  the 
mighty  edifice  of  Prohibition,  to  the  building  and 
shaping  of  which  he  had  given  his  life,  had  been 
swept  out  of  existence.  By  some  it  was  believed 
that  had  Wheeler  lived  this  result  could  never 
have  come  about.  Others  held  that  it  was  Wheel- 
erism  in  prohibition  which  made  its  ultimate 
collapse  not  only  possible  but  inevitable.  His 
death,  resulting  from  a  kidney  ailment,  followed 
only  a  few  weeks  the  tragic  fate  of  his  wife, 
burned  to  death  in  their  country  home. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1826-27  '•  World  (N.  Y.)  ; 
N.  Y.  Times,  June  18,  24,  27,  1926,  Sept.  6,  1927  ;  Jus- 
tin Steuart,  Wayne  Wheeler,  Dry  Boss  (copr.  1928)  ; 
"Prohibition's  Field  Marshal,"  Christian  Century,  Sept. 
15,  1927;  Nation,  Sept.  14,  1927;  Proc.  Anti-Saloon 
League  of  America,  1927;  P.  H.  Odegard,  Pressure 
Politics :  The  Story  of  the  Anti-Saloon  League  (1928)  ; 
information  from  Wheeler's  associates.] 

W.  E.  S— a. 

WHEELER,  WILLIAM  (Dec.  6,  1851-July 
1,  1932),  engineer,  educator,  was  born  at  Con- 
cord, Mass.,  the  son  of  Edwin  and  Mary  (Rice) 
Wheeler,  and  a  descendant  of  George  Wheeler 
who  came  from  England  to  America  about  1638. 
He  received  his  early  education  in  the  public 
schools  at  Concord,  and  then  entered  the  Massa- 
chusetts Agricultural  College  at  Amherst,  where 
he  was  a  member  of  the  first  class  (1871)  to 
graduate  from  that  institution.  While  at  college 
he  carried  on  considerable  engineering  work  be- 
sides making  an  excellent  scholastic  record.  He 
was  first  engaged  upon  railroad  work  in  New 
York  and  Massachusetts,  becoming  resident  en- 
gineer in  charge  of  the  Hardwick  division  of  the 
Central  Massachusetts  Railroad  in  1872.  The 
following  year  he  opened  an  office  at  Boston  as 
a  civil  engineer  and  made  surveys  and  plans  for 
the  Concord  water  works,  which  project  was 
completed  under  his  direction  in  1874.  During 
1874-76,  in  partnership  with  his  cousin  Horace 
W.  Blaisdell,  he  constructed  several  stone  arch 
bridges  over  the  Charles  River,  and  reported 
upon  railroad  and  water-supply  projects  in  Mas- 
sachusetts. 

In  1876  he  entered  into  a  contract  with  the 
Japanese  government  to  serve  for  two  years  as 
professor  of  mathematics  and  civil  engineering 
at  the  Imperial  Agricultural  College  of  Sapporo, 
Japan,  started  with  the  aid  of  President  William 


55 


Wheeler 

S.  Clark  [q.2>.],  of  the  Massachusetts  Agricul- 
tural College  and  modeled  upon  that  institution. 
After  Clark's  return  to  America  in  1877,  Wheel- 
er became  president  of  the  college.  His  work  in 
Japan  was  fundamentally  important.  In  addition 
to  his  teaching  duties,  he  planned  and  constructed 
harbor  improvements,  bridges,  highways,  and 
railroads,  and  founded  a  weather  bureau  and  an 
astronomical  observatory ;  he  also  aided  in  guid- 
ing proper  building  construction.  During  his  last 
two  years  in  Japan  he  was  civil  engineer  of  the 
Imperial  Colonial  Department.  In  recognition 
of  his  services  the  Emperor  decorated  him  in 
1924  with  the  Fifth  Order  of  the  Rising  Sun. 

In  1880  he  returned  to  the  United  States,  es- 
tablished an  office  in  Boston,  and  engaged  in  en- 
gineering. His  earlier  achievements  included 
water-works  projects  at  Concord,  Watertown, 
and  Braintree,  Mass.,  and  sewerage  and  other 
works  at  the  Massachusetts  state  prison,  Con- 
cord. Later,  under  his  supervision  water  com- 
panies were  organized  and  water  systems  built 
and  operated  in  municipalities  in  the  other  New 
England  states,  Florida,  Kentucky,  Tennessee, 
and  Wisconsin.  He  developed  a  wide  consulting 
practice,  and  became  a  national  authority  with 
respect  to  water  works.  He  had  considerable 
mechanical  ingenuity,  and  from  188 1  to  1883  was 
granted  some  fifteen  patents,  the  most  of  them 
electric-light  reflectors  or  appliances. 

In  Concord,  Wheeler  gave  much  time  to  pub- 
lic service,  serving  on  the  water  and  sewer  boards, 
the  school  committee,  the  board  of  health,  and  the 
municipal  light  board.  He  was  a  member  of  the 
library  corporation  for  thirty-nine  years,  during 
twenty-eight  of  which  he  was  president;  for 
twenty-six  years  he  was  trustee  of  town  dona- 
tions. In  1917-19  he  served  in  the  state  consti- 
tutional convention.  For  thirty-six  years  he  was 
a  director  of  the  Middlesex  Mutual  Fire  In- 
surance Company  of  Concord ;  he  was  also  a 
trustee  of  the  Middlesex  Institution  for  Savings 
— and  for  a  period,  its  president — and  a  director 
of  the  Concord  National  Bank.  As  a  trustee  of 
the  Massachusetts  Agricultural  College  for  many 
years,  he  rendered  valuable  service  to  that  in- 
stitution. In  1879  he  came  home  from  Japan  to 
marry  Fannie  Eleanor  Hubbard  of  Concord,  who 
returned  to  Japan  with  him ;  they  had  no  children. 

[A.  G.  Wheeler,  The  Geneal.  and  Encyc.  Hist,  of  the 
Wheeler  Family  in  America  (1914)  ;  Gen.  Cat.  Mass. 
Agric.  Coll.  (1886)  ;  Inazo  Nitove,  The  Imperial  Agric. 
Coll.  of  Sapporo,  Japan  (1893)  ;  Boston  Transcript, 
July  2,  1932;  information  on  file  with  Am.  Soc.  of  Civil 
Engineers ;  memoir  by  Woodward  Hudson,  prepared 
for  the  Social  Circle  of  Concord.]  H.  K.  B. 

WHEELER,   WILLIAM    ADOLPHUS 

(Nov.  14,  1833-Oct.  28,  1874),  lexicographer, 


Wheeler 

bibliographer,  was  born  in  Leicester,  Mass.,  the 
son  of  Amos  Dean  and  Louisa  (Warren)  Wheel-* 
er,  and  a  descendant  of  George  Wheeler  who 
emigrated  from  England  to  Concord,  Mass., 
about  1638.  His  father,  a  graduate  of  Williams 
College,  was  a  Unitarian  minister.  After  spend- 
ing most  of  his  youth  at  Topsham,  Me.,  Wheeler 
entered  Bowdoin  College,  from  which  he  re- 
ceived the  degrees  of  A.B.  (1853)  and  A.M. 
(1856).  After  teaching  in  Marlborough  and 
Northfield,  he  went  to  Partridge  Academy,  Dux- 
bury,  in  1854.  In  1856  he  resigned  the  preceptor- 
ship  of  this  school  and  moved  to  Cambridge  to 
become  the  assistant  of  Joseph  Emerson  Worces- 
ter [q.v.~]  in  preparing  his  quarto  Dictionary  of 
the  English  Language  (i860).  On  July  13,  1856, 
he  married  Olive  Winsor  Frazar  at  Duxbury.  In 
addition  to  editorial  work  on  the  dictionary,  he 
contributed  to  its  appendix  a  table  entitled,  "Pro- 
nunciation of  the  Names  of  Distinguished  Men 
of  Modern  Times."  On  the  completion  of  Worces- 
ter's dictionary,  he  accepted  from  the  Merriam 
Company  an  editorial  position  on  the  Webster 
dictionary.  He  supervised  the  new  unabridged 
quarto  edition  of  Webster  and  new  editions  of 
the  National,  University,  Academic,  and  smaller 
editions.  To  the  quarto  edition  of  Webster  ( 1864) 
he  contributed  an  "Explanatory  and  Pronouncing 
Vocabulary  of  the  Names  of  Noted  Fictitious 
Persons  and  Places,"  including  also  familiar 
pseudonyms,  surnames  bestowed  upon  eminent 
men,  etc.  This  was  enlarged  and  published  sepa- 
rately under  the  title,  An  Explanatory  and  Pro- 
nouncing Dictionary  of  the  Noted  Names  of  Fic- 
tion (Boston  and  London,  1865).  While  working 
on  the  dictionaries  he  also  prepared,  in  collabora- 
tion with  Richard  Soule,  A  Manual  of  English 
Pronunciation  and  Spelling  (1861).  In  1866  he 
published  a  revised  edition  of  the  Rev.  Charles 
Hole's  Brief  Biographical  Dictionary. 

In  April  1868  he  entered  the  service  of  the 
Boston  Public  Library,  and  on  the  death  of  Wil- 
liam E.  Jillson  in  December  of  the  same  year  he 
was  appointed  assistant  superintendent.  He  re- 
mained with  the  library  until  his  early  death  in 
1874.  During  these  years  he  continued  work  on 
the  revision  of  Webster,  published  an  edition  of 
Mother  Goose's  Melodies  (1869),  with  anti- 
quarian and  philological  notes,  and  edited  a 
Dickens  dictionary.  The  latter,  though  almost 
entirely  his  own  work,  was  published  in  1872  as 
"By  Gilbert  A.  Pierce,  with  additions  by  William 
A.  Wheeler."  At  the  library  he  undertook  to 
prepare  a  catalogue  for  the  Ticknor  Collection, 
which  the  Boston  Public  Library  had  taken  over 
in  1871.  This  catalogue,  though  a  good  deal  of 
the  work  was  Wheeler's,  was  published  after  his 


56 


Wheeler 


Wheeler 


death  as  by  his  successor  in  office,  James  L. 
Whitney.  He  began  an  encyclopedia  of  Shake- 
spearian literature,  which  was  never  published, 
and  two  other  reference  books,  Who  Wrote  It? 

(1881)  and  Familiar  Allusions  (1882),  both  fin- 
ished by  his  nephew,  Charles  G.  Wheeler.  His 
critical  work  at  the  Boston  Public  Library  ap- 
pears in  the  Prince  and  Ticknor  catalogues,  in 
the  list  of  engravings,  the  bulletins  issued  from 
time  to  time,  and  in  the  general  card  catalogue. 
Wheeler  died  at  an  early  age  and  was  never  con- 
spicuous, but  he  found  time  to  do  a  great  deal  of 
useful  and  practical  work.  He  was  always  dis- 
tinguished for  accuracy  and  thoroughness.  A 
characteristic  estimate  is  that  of  W.  D.  Whitney 
in  a  review  of  Wheeler  and  Soule's  Manual  of 
English  Pronunciation  and  Spelling:  "The  con- 
scientious and  laborious  care  evidently  expended 
upon  the  compilation  of  the  work,  the  general 
good  judgment  which  it  displays  .  .  .  are  .  .  . 
worthy  of  the  fullest  recognition"  (post,  pp. 
913-14).  Wheeler  died  in  Boston,  in  his  forty- 
first  year,  leaving  a  widow  and  six  children. 

[Nehemiah     Cleaveland,     Hist,     of    Bowdoin     Coll. 

(1882)  ;  H.  G.  Wadlin,  The  Pub.  Lib.  of  the  City  of 
Boston  ( 1 9 1 1 )  ;  A.  G.  Wheeler,  The  Geneal.  and  Encyc. 
Hist,  of  the  Wheeler  Family  in  America  (1914)  ;  J.  L. 
Whitney,  in  Ann.  Report  .  .  .  Trustees  of  the  Boston 
Pub.  Lib.,  1875  (n.d.)  ;  S.  A.  Allibone,  A  Critical  Diet, 
of  Eng.  Lit.,  vol.  Ill  (1871)  ;  W.  D.  Whitney,  in  New 
Englandcr,  Oct.  1861  (review)  ;  Atlantic  Monthly,  Aug. 
1882  (review)  ;  obituary  in  Boston  Eve.  Jour.,  Oct.  29, 
J874.]  M.L.H. 

WHEELER,  WILLIAM  ALMON  (June  30, 
1819-June  4,  1887),  vice-president  of  the  United 
States,  was  born  at  Malone,  N.  Y.,  the  only  son 
and  the  second  child  of  Almon  and  Eliza  (Wood- 
worth)  Wheeler.  He  came  from  early  Puritan 
stock,  an  ancestor,  Thomas  Wheeler,  having  been 
a  resident  of  Concord,  Mass.,  in  1637  ar*d  later 
a  founder  of  Fairfield,  Conn.  Both  his  grand- 
fathers were  Vermont  pioneers  and  soldiers  of 
the  Revolution.  In  1827  his  father,  a  promising 
young  lawyer,  died  leaving  no  estate,  and  his 
mother  supported  herself  and  her  children  by 
boarding  students  at  Franklin  Academy.  Young 
Wheeler  worked  his  way  through  the  academy 
and  in  1838  entered  the  University  of  Vermont. 
During  the  next  two  years  he  led  a  studious  and 
undernourished  existence,  once  living  on  bread 
and  water  for  six  weeks. 

Leaving  college  because  of  financial  difficulties 
and  an  affection  of  the  eyes,  he  returned  to  Ma- 
lone and  studied  law  under  the  direction  of  Asa 
Hascell.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1845, 
and  on  Sept.  17  of  that  year  married  Mary  King. 
After  six  years,  during  which  he  seems  to  have 
been  unusually  successful,  he  retired  from  active 
practice  to  manage  a  local  bank.  In  1853  he  was 


appointed  trustee  for  the  mortgage  holders  of 
the  Northern  Railway  and  in  that  capacity  con- 
ducted the  business  of  the  company  until  1866. 

Meanwhile  he  was  active  in  politics,  at  first  as 
a  Whig,  and  after  1855  as  a  Republican.  He  was 
district  attorney  of  Franklin  County,  1846-49; 
assemblyman,  1850-51,  serving  during  his  sec- 
ond term  as  chairman  of  the  ways  and  means 
committee ;  state  senator  and  president  pro  tem- 
pore of  the  Senate,  1858-60  ;  member  of  Congress, 
1861-63  ;  and  president  of  the  state  constitutional 
convention,  1867-68.  His  honors  in  state  politics 
came  to  him  probably  because  he  was  capable 
and  independent,  yet  never  openly  attacked  the 
Republican  state  machine.  In  1869  he  again  en- 
tered Congress  and  was  at  once  made  chairman 
of  the  committee  on  Pacific  railroads.  Four  years 
later  Senator  Roscoe  Conkling  [q.v.],  with 
Grant's  tacit  approval,  intrigued  to  make  him 
speaker  instead  of  James  G.  Blaine  [q.z:].  Wheel- 
er refused  to  become  a  party  to  the  plan,  partly 
because  Blaine  promised  to  make  him  chairman 
of  the  committee  on  appropriations — a  promise 
that  was  never  kept — and  partly  perhaps  because 
of  a  morbid  obsession  that  his  health  was  precari- 
ous which  afflicted  him  in  his  later  years.  But 
for  the  influence  of  his  wife  and  his  friends  he 
would  have  resigned  his  seat  and  retired  to  Ma- 
lone to  die.  In  1874  he  was  appointed  on  a  spe- 
cial committee  to  investigate  a  disputed  election 
in  Louisiana,  which  had  threatened  to  result  in 
the  collapse  of  civil  government  in  the  state.  The 
so-called  "Wheeler  adjustment"  which  he  pro- 
posed proved  satisfactory  to  both  parties.  With 
these  exceptions  his  Congressional  career  was 
uneventful.  He  rarely  spoke  except  when  he  had 
immediate  charge  of  a  bill  on  the  floor.  Then  he 
was  forceful,  persuasive,  and  adept  in  parlia- 
mentary tactics.  In  a  period  when  public  morals 
were  low  he  maintained  a  reputation  for  scrupu- 
lous honesty.  Once  he  indignantly  rejected  a  gift 
of  railroad  stock.  When  the  "salary  grab"  Act 
of  1873  became  law  he  converted  his  excess  salary 
into  government  bonds  and  had  them  canceled 
so  that  neither  he  nor  his  estate  could  benefit 
from  the  measure.  He  refused  to  approve  a  com- 
plimentary appropriation  for  a  post-office  build- 
ing at  Malone. 

When  Wheeler  was  first  suggested  for  the 
vice-presidency  he  was  practically  unknown. 
Hayes  wrote  to  his  wife  in  January  1876,  "I  am 
ashamed  to  say,  Who  is  I  J' heeler?"  (Diary,  post, 
III,  301).  His  nomination  that  year  was  the 
result  of  an  attempt  to  secure  a  harmonious 
balance  of  sectional  elements  in  the  party.  Dur- 
ing the  campaign  he  spoke  logically,  though  not 
eloquently,  in  favor  of  civil  service  reform,  hon- 


57 


Wheelock 

esty  in  administration,  and  federal  assistance  in 
raising  educational  standards  in  the  South.  As 
vice-president,  he  was  a  good  presiding  officer 
of  the  Senate.  He  cared  little  for  the  office,  how- 
ever. His  wife  had  died  Mar.  3,  1876,  and  he 
found  his  chief  diversion  in  frequent  calls  on  the 
Hayes  family.  Hayes  thought  him  "a  noble,  hon- 
est, patriotic  man"  (Ibid.,  IV,  50).  If  he  had 
succeeded  to  the  presidency,  Wheeler  would  prob- 
ably have  made  few  changes  in  policy.  In  1881 
he  became  an  inactive  candidate  for  one  of  the 
senatorial  seats  made  vacant  by  the  resignations 
of  Conkling  and  Thomas  C.  Piatt  [q.v.'],  and  the 
next  year  declined  an  appointment  to  the  newly 
created  tariff  commission.  He  had  no  children. 
At  his  death  nearly  all  his  estate  was  bequeathed 
to  missions. 

[A.  G.  Wheeler,  The  Gcneal.  and  Encyc.  Hist,  of  the 
Wheeler  Family  in  America  (1914)  ;  F.  J.  Seaver,  Hist. 
Sketches  of  Franklin  County  (1918)  ;  C.  R.  Williams, 
Diary  and  Letters  of  Rutherford  Birchard  Hayes,  vols. 
Ill  (1924),  IV  (1925)  ;  W.  D.  Howells,  Sketch  of  the 
Life  and  Character  of  Rutherford  B.  Hayes  (1876); 
Biog  Dir.  Am.  Cong.  (1928)  ;  D.  S.  Alexander,  A  Pol. 
Hist,  of  the  State  of  N.  Y '.,  vol.  Ill  (1909)  ;  G.  F.  Hoar, 
Autobiog.  of  Seventy  Years  (1903);  N.  Y.  Tribune, 
June  s,  1887.]  E.C.S. 

WHEELOCK,  ELEAZAR  (Apr.  22,  171 1- 
Apr.  24,  1779),  Congregational  minister,  found- 
er and  first  president  of  Dartmouth  College,  was 
born  in  Windham,  Conn.,  the  only  male  child  of 
Ralph  and  Ruth  (Huntington)  Wheelock.  He 
was  a  descendant  of  Ralph  Wheelock  who  settled 
in  Dedham,  Mass.,  in  1637.  In  1729  he  entered 
Yale  College,  and  was  graduated  in  1733,  shar- 
ing with  his  future  brother-in-law,  Benjamin 
Pomeroy,  the  first  award  of  the  Dean  Berkeley 
Donation  for  distinction  in  classics.  During  the 
year  following  his  graduation  he  continued  his 
studies  at  Yale,  was  licensed  to  preach  in  1734, 
and  a  year  later  was  installed  as  pastor  of  the 
Second  (or  North)  Society  in  Lebanon,  Conn. 
Throughout  the  Great  Awakening  he  was  a  pop- 
ular preacher.  Participating  as  fully  as  he  did  in 
the  revival,  Wheelock  was  accused  by  certain 
of  his  contemporaries  (especially  by  Charles 
Chauncy  in  his  Seasonable  Thoughts  on  the 
State  of  Religion  in  New  England,  1743)  of 
stimulating  an  excess  of  fervor  and  of  encourag- 
ing the  Separatists.  To  the  extent  that  he  was 
an  emotional  preacher  the  charge  is  substanti- 
ated ;  on  the  other  hand,  he  was  a  supporter  of 
the  Saybrook  Platform  and,  consequently,  a  con- 
sistent opponent  of  the  church  polity  of  the 
Separatists. 

In  addition  to  his  many  duties  as  pastor  and 
itinerant  revivalist,  and  as  farmer — by  deed  of 
church  settlement,  by  marriage,  and  by  inherit- 
ance from  his  father  he  was  plentifully  possessed 


Wheelock 

of  farmland — Wheelock  prepared  white  scholars 
for  college,  and  in  1743  began  to  instruct  private- 
ly the  Mohegan,  Samson  Occom  [q.v.].  En- 
couraged by  Occom's  progress,  he  envisaged  a 
plan  for  educating  and  converting  the  Indians. 
In  brief,  the  young  Indians  were  to  be  removed 
from  their  native  haunts  to  Lebanon.  The  boys 
were  to  be  drilled  in  the  elements  of  a  secular 
and  religious  education,  and  in  "husbandry" ;  the 
girls  were  to  substitute  "housewifery"  for  "hus- 
bandry" and  to  be  instructed  in  writing  at  the 
school  on  one  day  a  week.  When  properly  trained 
the  boys  were  to  return  as  missionaries  and 
teachers  to  their  respective  tribes,  and  the  girls 
were  "to  go  and  be  with  these  Youth"  (Narra- 
tive, post,  I,  15).  To  carry  out  this  program 
Wheelock  accepted  two  Delawares  from  New 
Jersey,  who  arrived  at  Lebanon,  Dec.  18,  1754. 
Col.  Joshua  More  of  Mansfield,  Conn.,  con- 
tributed a  house  and  a  schoolhouse  at  Lebanon 
(hence  the  name  More's  or  Moor's  Charity 
School).  Other  pupils  were  gathered  from  the 
New  England  tribes  and  from  the  Six  Nations; 
by  the  year  1765  Wheelock  had  received  twenty- 
nine  Indian  boys,  ten  Indian  girls,  and  seven 
white  boys,  all  supported  by  charity.  In  that  year 
Wheelock  had  the  pleasure  of  sending  ten  "grad- 
uates" of  the  school,  including  two  whites,  as 
missionaries  and  schoolmasters  to  the  Six  Na- 
tions ;  in  the  same  year  they  reported  that  one 
hundred  and  twenty-seven  Indians  were  attend- 
ing the  various  schools  in  their  charge.  In  1765, 
also,  Wheelock  sent  Nathaniel  Whitaker  [g.7\] 
and  Samson  Occom  to  England  and  Scotland  to 
raise  funds  ;  they  collected  £12,000. 

Unfortunately,  mission  work  and  recruiting 
were  not  progressing  to  Wheelock's  satisfaction. 
Too  many  of  the  Indians  sickened  and  died, 
turned  profligate,  and  were  in  various  ways  inept. 
Sir  William  Johnson  [q.v.']  frowned  on  what 
seemed  to  him  efforts  by  Wheelock  to  acquire 
territory  among  the  Six  Nations ;  after  the  Fort 
Stanwix  Congress  in  1768,  and  mainly  because 
of  the  indiscreet  behavior  of  Wheelock's  emis- 
saries to  it,  Sir  William  withdrew  his  favor  from 
the  school,  and  the  Indians  their  children. 
Wheelock  therefore  could  no  longer  hope  to  re- 
cruit from  the  Province  of  New  York.  With  his 
parishioners,  too,  he  was  having  difficulties, 
mainly  concerning  his  salary,  of  which  he  be- 
lieved he  had  in  no  small  part  been  cheated. 
Furthermore,  he  desired  to  enlarge  his  educa- 
tional program  to  include  a  college  as  well  as  a 
preparatory  school.  Accordingly  he  obtained  from 
Gov.  John  Wentworth  of  New  Hampshire  a 
charter,  dated  Dec.  13,  1769,  for  Dartmouth  Col- 
lege, to  be  located  in  New  Hampshire.    (The 


58 


Wheelock 

charter  was  obtained  without  the  consent  of  the 
English  trustees  who  supervised  the  fund  col- 
lected by  Whitaker  and  Occom  in  England ;  the 
Earl  of  Dartmouth  after  whom,  but  without 
whose  knowledge,  the  college  had  been  named, 
was  their  president.)  Against  the  wishes  of  Gov- 
ernor Wentworth  and  of  others  interested  in 
granting  a  site  in  New  Hampshire,  Wheelock 
selected  Hanover;  no  adequate  reason  can  be 
discovered  for  his  choice  of  this  town.  Thither, 
having  obtained  a  dismission  from  his  parish,  he 
removed  his  family  and  scholars  in  the  year  1770. 

Up  to  this  time  his  health  had  been  poor ;  he 
suffered  from  "cuticular  eruptions,"  "hypo- 
chondriac wind,"  and  asthma.  In  the  new  en- 
vironment his  health  improved  considerably,  and 
he  was  able  to  carry  an  astonishing  burden  of 
duties.  For  the  remaining  nine  years  of  his  life 
he  was  president  of  Dartmouth  College  and  of 
Moor's  Charity  School  (without  salary),  super- 
vised building  and  farming  operations  and  the 
purchasing  of  supplies,  preached  and  taught,  act- 
ed as  justice  of  the  peace,  arranged  for  recruit- 
ing parties  to  Canada  (for  Indian  pupils),  and 
begged  persistently  for  money.  In  1774  the  fund 
raised  in  England  was  exhausted,  and  for  the 
last  five  years  he  was  harassed  by  debt. 

He  is  celebrated  in  song  as  a  teacher  and  hos- 
pitable entertainer  of  the  Indians,  but  in  the  his- 
tory of  education  his  reputation  rests  more  solid- 
ly on  his  founding  of  Dartmouth  College,  and  on 
his  maintaining  the  institution  during  the  turmoil 
of  the  Revolution.  He  was  an  administrator 
rather  than  a  scholar  or  writer ;  aside  from  the 
nine  Narratives  (post),  in  which  he  recounted 
the  progress  of  his  school,  he  wrote  nothing  of 
any  importance.  He  was  married  twice :  first,  on 
Apr.  29,  1735,  to  Mrs.  Sarah  (Davenport)  Malt- 
by  fd.  1746),  by  whom  he  had  six  children;  sec- 
ond, on  Nov.  21,  1747,  to  Mary  Brinsmead  (d. 
1783),  by  whom  he  had  five  children.  Of  the  lat- 
ter group  of  children,  the  eldest  son,  John  [q.v.~], 
succeeded  his  father  as  second  president  of  Dart- 
mouth College. 

[Sources  include  Wheelock's  correspondence,  in  the 
possession  of  Dartmouth  Coll.  ;  Eleazar  Wheelock,  A 
Plain  and  Faithful  Narrative  of  the  Original  Design, 
Rise,  Progress  and  Present  State  of  the  Indian  Charity- 
School  at  Lebanon  in  Conn.  (1763),  and  the  eight  con- 
tinuing narratives  (1765-75);  David  McClure  and 
Elijah  Parish,  Memoirs  of  the  Rev.  Eleazar  Wheelock 
(181 1)  ;  F.  B.  Dexter,  Biog.  Sketches  .  .  .  Grads.  Yale 
Coll.,  vol.  I  (1885),  pp.  493-99  ;  Frederick  Chase,  A 
Hist,  of  Dartmouth  Coll.  (1891);  L.  B.  Richardson, 
Hist,  of  Dartmouth  Coll.  (2  vols.,  1932),  and  An  Indian 
Preacher  in  England  (1933)  ;  J.  D.  McCallum,  The  Let- 
ters of  Eleazar  Wheelock's  Indians  (1932)  ;  The  Pa- 
pers of  Sir  William  Johnson,  vols.  IV-VI  (1925-28), 
VIII  (1933}  ;  E.  B.  O'Callaghan,  ed.,  Doc.  Hist,  of  the 
State  of  N.  Y.,  vol.  IV  (1851).]  J.D.M. 


Wheelock 

WHEELOCK,  JOHN  (Jan.  28,  1754-Apr.  4, 
1817),  second  president  of  Dartmouth  College, 
was  born  in  Lebanon,  Conn.,  the  eldest  son  of 
Eleazar  [g.f.]  and  Mary  (Brinsmead)  Whee- 
lock. Having  attended  Yale  for  three  years,  he 
transferred  to  the  newly  founded  Dartmouth 
College,  was  graduated  in  the  first  class  (1771), 
and  appointed  tutor.  During  the  Revolution  he 
commanded  with  some  distinction  various  New 
Hampshire  companies,  attaining  the  rank  of  lieu- 
tenant-colonel. In  1779,  on  the  death  of  his  fa- 
ther, he  became  president  of  Dartmouth  College, 
having  been  nominated  in  his  father's  will  in  lieu 
of  his  eldest  half-brother,  Ralph,  an  epileptic. 
His  most  important  problems  as  president  were 
the  financing  of  Dartmouth  College  and  of  Moor's 
Charity  School,  the  construction  of  new  build- 
ings, the  instruction  of  Indians,  and  the  control 
of  the  board  of  trustees.  In  1783  he  visited  France 
and  Holland  to  raise  funds  for  the  college,  but 
was  unsuccessful ;  fortunately  he  obtained  after 
persistent  efforts  certain  donations  (about  £1,300 
in  all)  from  a  fund  raised  in  Scotland  by  Na- 
thaniel Whitaker  and  Samson  Occom  [qq.v.'], 
and  controlled  by  the  Society  in  Scotland  for 
Propagating  Christian  Knowledge.  Other  sums 
were  obtained  from  individuals,  from  the  sale  of 
college  lands,  from  the  New  Hampshire  legisla- 
ture, and  by  lottery.  Although  the  income  from 
these  various  sources  was  far  from  adequate,  it 
is  to  the  credit  of  John  Wheelock  that  he  estab- 
lished salaried  professorships,  built  Dartmouth 
Hall  and  a  chapel,  and  revived  (1800)  his  fa- 
ther's educational  program  for  the  Indians.  Dur- 
ing his  presidency,  thanks  to  the  efforts  of  Na- 
than Smith,  1762-1829  [q.v.~\,  the  Dartmouth 
Medical  School  was  founded  (1798). 

The  first  twenty-five  years  of  his  presidency 
were  relatively  calm,  and  during  them  Dart- 
mouth College  expanded  considerably;  the  last 
twelve  were  embittered  by  his  struggles  with  the 
trustees,  and  the  very  existence  of  the  college 
was  endangered.  The  immediate  cause  of  the 
hostility  was  the  appointment  (1804)  of  Roswell 
Shurtleff  as  professor  of  theology  and  pastor  of 
the  local  church,  an  appointment  not  approved 
by  the  president  and  symptomatic  of  a  decreas- 
ing lack  of  cooperation  between  him  and  the 
board.  Five  years  later  the  trustees  elected  two 
candidates  to  fill  vacancies  on  the  board,  thus 
aligning  the  majority  of  the  trustees  against 
the  president.  It  was  voted  to  deprive  Wheelock 
of  his  professorship,  but.  because  the  college  was 
considerably  in  his  debt  for  his  salary  as  presi- 
dent, the  trustees  were  unable  to  carry  out  the 
vote.  In  May  181 5,  wishing  to  inform  the  pub- 
lic of  the  treatment  he  had  received,  Wheelock 


59 


Wheelock 


Wheelock 


wrote  his  Sketches  of  the  History  of  Dartmouth 
College  and  Moor's  Charity  School,  With  a  Par- 
ticular Account  of  Some  Late  Remarkable  Pro- 
ceedings of  the  Board  of  Trustees  from  the  Year 
1779  to  the  Year  1815,  in  which  (among  other 
matters  and  writing  anonymously)  he  praised 
his  own  work  as  president  and  criticized  the  op- 
position of  the  trustees.  During  the  following 
August  the  trustees  removed  Wheelock  as  pres- 
ident, trustee,  and  professor,  and  elected  Francis 
Brown,  1784-1820  [g.?'.],  president. 

The  problem  was  now  thrown  before  the  pub- 
lic and  was  taken  up  by  the  newspapers  of  the 
state,  the  Democratic  siding  in  general  with 
Wheelock,  the  Federalist  opposing  him.  In  1816 
a  Democratic  legislature  passed  a  bill  changing 
the  name  of  Dartmouth  College  to  Dartmouth 
University,  and  increasing  the  number  of  trus- 
tees from  twelve  to  twenty-one,  the  additional 
nine  members  to  be  appointed  by  the  governor 
(William  Plumer)  and  the  members  of  his  coun- 
cil. After  some  difficulty  in  securing  a  quorum 
the  university  trustees  elected  Wheelock  presi- 
dent of  Dartmouth  University ;  the  college  trus- 
tees refused  to  accept  the  bill  as  passed  by  the 
legislature,  with  the  result  that  both  university 
and  college  attempted  to  function  at  the  same 
time  and  in  the  same  town.  Wheelock  was  too 
ill  to  fulfill  the  duties  of  president,  and  William 
Allen,  his  son-in-law,  accordingly  became  acting 
president.  At  this  stage  of  the  controversy 
Wheelock  died.  The  case  was  tried  in  the  New 
Hampshire  courts  and  ultimately  (Mar.  10, 
1818)  was  brought  before  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States  (Trustees  of  Dartmouth  Col- 
lege vs.  Woodward,  4  Wheat  on,  518)  and  won 
for  the  college  by  Daniel  Webster. 

Wheelock  was  survived  by  his  wife,  Maria 
Suhm,  whom  he  had  married  in  1786,  and  by  his 
only  child,  Maria.  He  was  dictatorial,  diffuse 
in  speech  and  writing,  and  pedantic.  The  con- 
flict of  his  later  years,  however,  has  distracted 
attention  from  the  real  services  which  he  per- 
formed for  Dartmouth  College  during  the  period 
immediately  following  the  Revolution. 

[Frederick  Chase,  A  Hist,  of  Dartmouth  Colt,  and 
the  Town  of  Hanover,  N.  H.,  to  18 15  (1891),  cont.  by 
J.  K.  Lord  (1913)  ;  L.  B.  Richardson,  Hist,  of  Dart- 
mouth Coll.  (2  vols.,  1932)  ;  C.  M.  Fuess,  Daniel  Web- 
ster (2  vols.,  1930)  ;  J.  M.  Shirley,  The  Dartmouth 
Coll.  Causes  and  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  U.  S. 
(1879)  ;  obituary  in  N.  H.  Gazette  (Portsmouth),  Apr. 
15,  1817;  Wheelock's  correspondence,  in  the  posses- 
sion of  Dartmouth  Coll.]  J.  D.  M. 

WHEELOCK,  JOSEPH  ALBERT  (Feb.  8, 
1831-May  9,  1906),  editor,  was  the  son  of  Joseph 
and  Mercy  (Whitman)  Wheelock.  He  was  born 
in  Bridgetown,  Nova  Scotia,  and  received  his 
formal  schooling  at  Sackville  Academy.  At  an 


early  age  he  went  to  Boston  and  thence  to  the 
newly  organized  Territory  of  Minnesota,  follow- 
ing the  advice  of  Caleb  Cushing,  who  started 
Boston  investments  there.  Wheelock  reached  St. 
Paul  in  1850.  After  being  employed  as  sutler's 
clerk  at  Fort  Snelling  by  Franklin  Steele,  he  be- 
gan his  life  work  in  November  1854  by  publish- 
ing with  Charles  H.  Parker  the  Financial  and 
Real  Estate  Advertiser,  which  was  absorbed  by 
the  St.  Paul  Pioneer  and  Democrat  in  1858.  For 
a  time  he  was  associate  editor  of  the  Pioneer,  but 
on  Jan.  1,  1861,  William  Rainey  Marshall  [q.v.~] 
made  him  associate  editor  of  the  St.  Paul  Daily 
Press  when  it  was  launched  as  a  Republican  or- 
gan to  oppose  the  Pioneer,  a  Democratic  paper. 
Marshall's  joining  the  Union  army  left  Wheelock 
in  charge  of  the  new  paper.  A  series  of  consoli- 
dations, ending  with  the  absorption  of  the  Pio- 
neer in  1875,  made  the  St.  Paul  Daily  Pioneer- 
Press  the  most  influential  newspaper  of  the 
northwest.  For  nearly  thirty  years  the  Pioneer- 
Press  was  Wheelock,  and  Wheelock  was  the 
Pioneer-Press. 

Wheelock  was  known  almost  exclusively 
through  his  editorial  columns,  for  he  was  not  a 
man  of  easy  friendships  and  "was  little  known 
for  a  man  who  wielded  such  a  paramount  influ- 
ence over  the  early  destinies  of  the  state.  .  .  . 
He  was  polished,  reserved,  retiring.  He  culti- 
vated neither  the  manners  of  the  frontier  nor 
the  popular  language  of  the  new  country"  (Min- 
neapolis Journal,  post).  He  rarely  appeared  in 
print  outside  his  paper,  although  as  commis- 
sioner of  statistics  he  brought  out  in  i860  Min- 
nesota: Its  Place  among  the  States  and  in  1862, 
Minnesota:  Its  Progress  and  Capabilities,  re- 
ports which  were  praised  as  models  of  statistical 
presentation.  No  office-seeker,  his  only  other 
public  appointment  was  as  postmaster  of  St. 
Paul  (1871-75),  until,  in  1893,  he  was  made  a 
member  of  the  city  park  board.  Here  he  found 
congenial  work,  for  the  activities  of  this  body 
carried  into  practice  some  of  the  things  he  had 
long  advocated  in  the  Pioneer-Press,  and  the 
system  of  parks  and  boulevards  developed  in  St. 
Paul  bears  witness  to  the  success  of  his  endeav- 
ors. 

A  Republican  and  editor  of  the  leading  Re- 
publican paper  of  the  state,  Wheelock  was  no 
slavish  partisan.  He  disagreed  with  his  party's 
Reconstruction  program  and  did  not  hesitate  to 
state  his  views.  For  twenty  years  he  fought  the 
faction  led  by  Ignatius  Donnelly  \_q.v.~\,  and 
through  his  "energy,  impetuosity  and  indomi- 
table will"  saved  the  faction  of  Alexander  Ram- 
sey [q.v.~]  from  "utter  and  ignominious  defeat" 
(Pioneer-Press,  post).    When,  in  the  eighties, 


Wheelwright 


the  Republicans  began  to  formulate  a  tariff  pol- 
icy Wheelock  was  indefatigable  in  opposing  "the 
general  proposition  which  the  practical  protec- 
tionist of  today  always  tacitly  asserts ;  that  if  an 
American  citizen  chooses  to  engage  in  any  busi- 
ness under  the  sun,  from  the  making  of  ice  in 
Louisiana  to  the  raising  of  bananas  in  Maine, 
he  has  a  right  to  have  a  profit  secured  to  him 
.  .  .  through  the  medium  of  a  tax  on  the  whole 
people"  {Ibid.,  May  9,  1883).  He  would  work 
for  freedom  of  trade  "which  knows  only  such 
duties  as  may  be  necessary  to  equalize  the  cost 
of  production  here  and  abroad"  {Ibid.,  June  3, 
1883).  In  the  eighties  he  saw  the  significance  of 
the  silver  question,  and  studied  and  expounded 
it  frequently;  in  the  nineties  his  editorials  were 
generally  acknowledged  to  have  been  a  most 
significant  factor  in  keeping  Minnesota  in  the 
gold  ranks,  as  well  as  exercising  a  potent  influ- 
ence over  a  much  wider  area.  So  often  did  he 
differ  with  his  party  that  its  leaders  more  fre- 
quently than  not  looked  upon  him  as  a  bull  in  a 
china  shop. 

With  all  his  preoccupation  with  national  prob- 
lems he  used  his  editorials  incessantly  for  what 
he  conceived  to  be  the  welfare  of  St.  Paul  and 
Minnesota.  When  he  died,  tributes  to  his  influ- 
ence appeared  in  papers  all  over  the  country. 
"Joe"  Wheelock's  demise  was  a  national  event. 
Wheelock  married  Kate  French  of  Concord, 
N.  H.,  in  May  1861,  and  at  his  death  was  sur- 
vived by  her  and  three  children. 

[More  is  to  be  learned  about  Wheelock  through  his 
papers  than  anywhere  else.  See  also  C.  E.  Flandrau, 
Encyc.  of  Biog.  of  Minn.,  vol.  I  (1900)  ;  H.  S.  Fair- 
child,  "Sketches  of  the  Early  Hist,  of  Real  Estate  in 
St.  Paul,"  Minn.  Hist.  Soc.  Colls.,  vol.  X,  pt.  I  (1905)  ; 
D.  S.  B.  Johnston,  "Minn.  Journalism  in  the  Terri- 
torial Period,"  Ibid.  ;  "Memorial,"  Ibid.,  vol.  XII 
(1908)  ;  obituaries  and  editorials  in  Minneapolis  Joiir., 
May  9,  and  Pionccr-Press,  May  10,  1906.] 

L.  B.  S— e. 

WHEELWRIGHT,  EDMUND  MARCH 

(Sept.  14,  1854-Aug.  14,  1912),  architect,  was 
born  in  Roxbury,  Mass.,  the  son  of  George  Wil- 
liam and  Hannah  Giddings  (Tyler)  Wheel- 
wright, and  a  direct  descendant  of  John  Wheel- 
wright [q.v.].  He  was  educated  at  the  Roxbury 
Latin  School,  received  the  degree  of  B.A.  from 
Harvard  in  1876,  and  then  studied  architecture, 
first  at  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technol- 
ogy, later  in  Paris  ;  on  his  return  he  worked  suc- 
cessively in  the  offices  of  Peabody  and  Stearns 
(Boston),  McKim,  Mead  and  Bigelow  (later 
McKim,  Mead  and  White,  New  York),  and  E. 
P.  Treadwell  (Albany).  In  1883  he  opened  his 
own  office  in  Boston ;  in  1888  he  formed  a  part- 
nership with  Parkman  B.  Haven  which  in  iqto 
became  Wheelwright,  Haven  and  Hoyt.  He  held 


Wheelwright 

the  position  of  city  architect  from  1891  to  1895, 
when,  partly  at  his  own  suggestion,  the  office  was 
abolished.  He  was  appointed  consulting  archi- 
tect, however,  and  during  much  of  his  remain- 
ing life  he  was  intimately  associated  with  a  great 
deal  of  city  building.  As  city  architect  his  work 
consisted  chiefly  of  hospitals,  schools,  and  fire 
engine  and  police  stations.  In  them  all  he  set  a 
new  high  level  for  municipal  architecture  in  the 
United  States.  Charles  Eliot  Norton  [q.vJi 
praised  him  because  he  "made  the  beauty  of  his 
buildings  to  reside  in  their  proportions,  and  in 
the  lines  and  arrangement  of  their  doors  and 
windows ;  and  he  had  the  strength  to  discard  the 
superfluous  ornament  .  .  .  which  another  man 
might  have  been  tempted  to  add"  {Municipal 
Architecture  in  Boston,  1898,  preface).  Impor- 
tant examples  of  his  work  as  city  architect  are 
Agassiz  School,  Cudworth  School,  Bowdoin 
School,  Mechanic  Arts  High  School,  Andrews 
School,  the  half-timber  Long  Island  Hospital 
(Boston  Harbor),  and  the  charming  Georgian 
Boston  City  Hospital  (South  Department).  Per- 
haps his  most  widely  known  buildings  are  the 
chaste  and  dignified  subway  entrances  of  gran- 
ite and  bronze  at  the  Park  Street  corner  of  Bos- 
ton Common. 

In  1900  he  was  made  chief  designer  of  the 
Cambridge  bridge,,  and  undertook  a  careful  study 
of  European  bridges  as  a  preliminary  to  his 
work.  The  actual  bridge,  magnificent  when  first 
built,  has  had  its  architectural  effect  spoiled  by 
the  later  raising  of  the  level  of  the  Charles  River 
by  several  feet.  In  1900  Horticultural  Hall  was 
finished,  from  the  designs  of  Wheelwright  and 
Haven.  They  were  also  the  architects  of  the 
Boston  Opera  House,  completed  in  1908.  Wheel- 
wright's last  work  was  the  $2,000,000  bridge  at 
Hartford,  Conn.  It  was  possibly  overwork  in 
connection  with  this  that  led  to  his  breakdown, 
and  to  his  death  two  years  later  from  melan- 
cholia in  a  sanitarium  in  Thompsonville,  Conn. 
His  most  important  consulting  work  was  on  the 
new  building  of  the  Boston  Museum  of  Fine  Arts 
(with  R.  Clipston  Sturgis),  of  which  Guy  Low- 
ell [q.v.~\  was  architect,  and  on  the  Cleveland 
Museum  of  Art  (with  Henry  W.  Kent),  designed 
by  Hubbel  and  Benes. 

Wheelwright's  architectural  imagination  was 
wide ;  he  sought  the  monumental,  classic  solu- 
tion. Stylistically  he  was  catholic,  even  erratic. 
Some  of  his  schools  are  Italianate,  some  Geor- 
gian, some  rather  nondescript ;  the  half-timber 
of  the  hospitals  and  the  Marine  Park  Bath  House 
is  blatant,  and  the  Boston  Opera  House  and  Hor- 
ticultural Hall  have  quasi-Georgian  red  brick 
and  white  marble,  and  terra-cotta  detail  over- 


Wheelwright 


Wheelwright 


heavy  and  spectacular.  Yet  in  all  the  work  there 
is  a  counter-trend  apparent,  based  on  strict  prac- 
ticality and  basic  simplicity;  and  some  of  the 
municipal  work,  like  the  Hook  and  Ladder 
House  No.  i  and  the  Eustis  School,  has  a  co- 
lonial style  remarkably  pure  and  charming  for 
its  date.  In  much  of  the  later  work,  as  in  his 
bridges  and  subway  entrances,  this  trend  towards 
a  rational  simplicity  has  led  to  such  delightful 
results  as  the  brick  house  for  W.  S.  Patten,  South 
Natick,  Mass.  (1907),  and  the  rationalized  mon- 
umental ity  of  the  Farragut  School  in  Boston 
(1904). 

Wheelwright  married  Elizabeth  Boott  Brooks 
of  Boston  on  June  18,  1887;  his  wife,  two  sons, 
and  a  daughter  survived  him.  He  was  elected  a 
fellow  of  the  American  Institute  of  Architects  in 
1891,  and  served  two  terms  as  director.  He  was 
the  author  of  School  Architecture  (1901)  and 
of  many  scholarly  articles  in  the  architectural 
press.  His  work  served  as  the  basis  for  Munic- 
ipal Architecture  in  Boston,  from  Designs  by 
Edmund  M.  Wheelwright  (1898),  edited  by 
Francis  W.  Chandler. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1912-13  ;  C.  A.  Hoppin, 
Some  Descendants  of  Col.  John  Washington  .  .  .  and 
Records  of  the  Allied  Family  of  Wheelwright  (1932)  ; 
E.  M.  Wheelwright,  "A  Frontier  Family,"  in  Colonial 
Soc.  of  Mass.  Pubs.,  vol  I  (1895)  ;  Fifty  Years  of  Bos- 
ton (1932)  ;  I.  T.  Frary,  in  Arch.  Record,  Sept.  1916  ; 
Am.  Art  Ann.,  1912;  Boston  city  directories;  obitu- 
aries in  Am.  Architect,  Aug.  28,  1912,  and  Boston  Daily 
Globe,  Aug.  16,  1912.]  T.  F.  H. 

WHEELWRIGHT,  JOHN  (c.  1592-Nov.  15, 
1679),  clergyman,  was  born  probably  at  Saleby, 
Lincolnshire,  England.  His  father,  Robert,  and 
his  grandfather,  John,  were  landholders  in  the 
Fen  district  and  moderately  well  to  do.  Wheel- 
wright was  admitted  sizar  at  Sidney  College, 
Cambridge,  Apr.  28,  161 1,  and  received  the  de- 
grees of  B.A.  in  1614/15  and  M.A.  in  1618.  He 
was  ordered  deacon  at  Peterborough,  Dec.  19, 
1619,  and  priested  the  following  day.  Through 
the  death  of  his  father  and  other  relatives  he 
early  became  possessed  of  landed  property,  and 
on  Nov.  8,  1621,  he  married  Marie,  daughter  of 
Thomas  Storre,  vicar  of  Bilsby.  After  the  death 
of  his  father-in-law  Wheelwright  succeeded  to 
the  vicarage,  Apr.  9,  1623,  and  retained  the  po- 
sition for  ten  years.  In  1633,  although  appar- 
ently he  had  not  resigned,  a  successor  was  in- 
ducted. In  the  meantime  Wheelwright  had  be- 
come a  nonconformist,  and  had  probably  come 
into  conflict  with  his  superiors,  since  he  was 
silenced  soon  afterward.  For  three  years  he 
lived  privately  in  Lincolnshire.  His  wife  died 
some  time  after  the  birth  of  their  third  child, 
and  he  married  secondly  Mary,  daughter  of  Ed- 


ward Hutchinson  of  Alford  and  sister  of  Wil- 
liam, whose  wife  was  the  celebrated  Anne. 

It  is  possible  that  as  early  as  1629  Wheel- 
wright with  four  associates  had  purchased  land 
in  New  Hampshire  from  the  Indians,  though  the 
authenticity  of  the  so-called  "Wheelwright  deed" 
remains  in  question  (Bell,  post,  pp.  79-148).  At 
any  rate,  within  some  three  years  of  his  silenc- 
ing, Wheelwright  emigrated  to  New  England, 
with  his  wife  and  five  children,  landing  May  26, 
1636,  at  Boston,  where  on  June  12  he  and  his 
wife  were  admitted  to  church  membership.  It 
was  suggested  that  Wheelwright  become  second 
teacher  of  the  church  there,  where  John  Cotton 
[q.v.~\  was  teacher  and  John  Wilson  [q.vJ]  pas- 
tor, but  there  was  opposition  to  the  proposal, 
and  he  became  pastor  of  a  new  church  at  Mount 
Wollaston  (now  Quincy).  Meanwhile  the  An- 
tinomian  controversy,  of  which  his  sister-in-law, 
Anne  Hutchinson  [q.v.'],  was  the  storm  center, 
had  begun.  Wheelwright  and  Cotton  alone 
among  the  clergy  supported  her.  On  a  fast  day 
in  January  1637  Wheelwright  was  asked  to  speak 
at  the  church  in  Boston  and  took  occasion  to  de- 
nounce the  holders  of  the  opposing  view,  who 
formed  the  great  majority  of  clergy  and  magis- 
trates. Haled  before  the  General  Court  for  this 
utterance,  he  was  tried  and  condemned  as  guilty 
of  "sedition  and  contempt  of  the  civil  authority," 
but  further  action  was  postponed.  Much  ill  feel- 
ing had  been  aroused,  however,  and  in  Septem- 
ber a  synod  was  convened  to  review  the  whole 
controversy.  Wheelwright  attended;  feeling  was 
heightened ;  but  the  only  definite  result  was  the 
defection  of  John  Cotton  to  the  side  of  the  ma- 
jority. By  the  General  Court  meeting  in  No- 
vember, however,  Wheelwright,  still  refusing 
to_retract  the  objectionable  passages  in  his  fast- 
day  address,  was  disfranchised  and  banished 
from  the  colony.  He  demanded  an  appeal  to  the 
king,  but  the  magistrates  answered  that  the 
charter  gave  them  final  jurisdiction  in  the  mat- 
ter, and  Wheelwright  removed  from  Massachu- 
setts Bay  to  the  Piscataqua  region. 

After  passing  the  winter  probably  at  Squam- 
scot,  in  April  1638  he  bought  land  from  the  In- 
dians at  what  is  now  Exeter,  N.  H.  He  was 
joined  by  his  family  and  a  number  of  friends, 
and  despite  the  complaints  of  Massachusetts  a 
community  developed,  a  church  was  formed,  and 
Wheelwright  became  its  pastor.  Shortly,  how- 
ever, Massachusetts  extended  its  jurisdiction  to 
include  the  new  settlement,  and  some  of  the  in- 
habitants, with  Wheelwright,  moved  north  to 
what  is  now  Wells,  Me.  In  1643  he  was  allowed 
to  visit  Boston,  and  subsequently  9ent  two  let- 
ters  to  the   authorities — one   addressed   to   the 


Wheelwright 

General  Court,  the  other  to  Governor  Winthrop 
— in  which  he  repented  of  his  past  conduct  and 
asked  for  the  release  of  his  banishment ;  the  sen- 
tence was  reversed  in  May  1644.  Meanwhile 
two  pamphlets  had  been  issued  on  the  contro- 
versy :  the  first,  A  Short  Story  of  the  Rise,  Reign 
and  Ririne  of  the  Antinomians  (London,  1644), 
the  joint  work  of  Governor  Winthrop  and 
Thomas  Weld  [q.v.],  attacking  Wheelwright; 
the  second,  Mcrciirius  Amcricanus  (1645),  his 
reply.  For  about  two  years  after  his  reconcilia- 
tion with  the  Massachusetts  colony  he  remained 
at  Wells,  and  was  then  called  to  the  church  at 
Hampton,  N.  H.,  removing  to  that  place  in  the 
spring  of  1647.  Some  eight  or  nine  years  later 
he  went  to  England,  but  in  1662  returned  to  New 
Hampshire,  becoming  pastor  of  the  church  at 
Salisbury,  where  he  served  until  his  death. 

[Wintkrop's  Journal  (2  vols.,  1908),  ed.  by  J.  K. 
Hosmer;  Nathaniel  Bouton,  Provincial  Papers  .  .  . 
of  N.  H.,  vol.  I  (1867)  ;  C.  F.  Adams,  Three  Episodes 
of  Mass.  Hist.  (2  vols.,  1892)  and  Antinomianism  in 
the  Colony  of  Mass.  Bay  (1894)  ;  C.  H.  Bell,  memoir, 
in  John  Wheelwright :  His  Writings  .  .  .  (1876)  ;  John 
Heard,  Jr.,  John  Wheelwright  (1930)  ;  W.  B.  Sprague, 
Annals  Am.  Pulpit,  vol.  I  (1857)  ;  John  and  J.  A.  Venn, 
Alumni  Cantabrigienses,  pt.  1,  vol.  IV  (1927).] 

J.T.A. 

WHEELWRIGHT,  WILLIAM  (Mar.  16, 
1798-Sept.  26,  1873),  promoter  of  enterprises  in 
Latin  America,  the  son  of  Ebenezer  and  Anna 
Coombs  Wheelwright  and  a  descendant  of  the 
Rev.  John  Wheelwright  [q.v.]-,  was  born  in 
Newburyport,  Mass.  His  father  was  at  first  a 
sea-captain  and  then  engaged  in  the  West  In- 
dia trade.  William  attended  Phillips  Academy, 
Andover,  with  the  class  of  1814,  then  at  the  age 
of  sixteen  shipped  as  a  cabin  boy  to  the  West  In- 
dies, and  after  three  years  of  adventure  com- 
manded a  Newburyport  bark  to  Rio.  In  1823, 
the  Rising  Star,  bound  from  Newburyport  for 
Buenos  Aires  under  his  command,  ran  ashore 
in  the  Rio  de  la  Plata.  Depressed  by  the  acci- 
dent, he  refused  to  return  home  and  shipped  as 
a  supercargo  on  a  vessel  bound  for  Valparaiso. 
In  1824,  he  became  United  States  consul  at 
Guayaquil  for  five  years.  There  he  engaged  suc- 
cessfully in  trade  and  observed  the  many  neg- 
lected possibilities  of  the  continent  which  was 
just  emerging  from  the  wars  of  liberation.  In 
1829,  he  made  a  hurried  trip  to  Newburyport, 
where  he  married  Martha  Gerrish  Bartlet.  Re- 
turning to  Guayaquil  and  finding  that  his  $100,- 
000  business  had  been  wasted  by  bad  manage- 
ment in  his  absence,  he  moved  to  Valparaiso, 
which,  with  London,  was  to  be  his  chief  scene 
of  action  for  many  years.  He  did  much  to  de- 
velop the  city,  building  a  lighthouse  and  other 


Wheelwright 


port  facilities  and  providing  gas  and  water 
works. 

Becoming  impressed  with  the  potential  ad- 
vantages of  a  steamship  line  along  the  west  coast 
of  South  America,  where  baffling  winds  and 
calms  made  the  progress  of  sailing  vessels  un- 
certain and  the  mountainous  terrain  precluded 
a  coastal  railroad  of  any  length,  Wheelwright  in 
1835  started  to  seek  the  permission  of  the  west- 
coast  nations  for  such  a  line.  Even  the  British 
minister  at  Lima  called  him  a  "wild  visionary," 
while  the  conservatism,  inertia,  and  instability 
of  the  new  republics,  often  dominated  by  adven- 
turous despots,  led  to  vexatious  delays.  By  1838, 
however,  he  had  obtained  the  necessary  conces- 
sions. Finding  that  American  capital  was  not 
available,  he  went  to  England  to  raise  funds. 
The  propaganda  of  Junius  Smith  [q.v.]  for  ocean 
steamships  had  just  put  London  in  a  receptive 
mood,  and  with  the  backing  of  Sir  Clements 
Markham,  P.  C.  Scarlett,  and  others,  Wheel- 
wright finally  secured  on  Feb.  17,  1840,  a  Brit- 
ish charter  for  the  Pacific  Steam  Navigation 
Company  (not  to  be  confused  with  the  Ameri- 
can Pacific  Mail  Steam  Ship  Company  formed 
by  W.  H.  Aspinwall  [q.v.]  in  1848  to  operate 
from  Panama  to  California).  Wheelwright  be- 
came chief  superintendent  of  the  company,  capi- 
talized at  £250,000,  and  late  in  1840  took  the 
twin  700-ton  steamships  Chile  and  Peru  through 
the  Straits  of  Magellan  to  enthusiastic  recep- 
tions at  Valparaiso  and  Callao,  the  first  termini 
of  the  line.  The  lack  of  coal  was  a  handicap  in 
the  beginning,  but  Wheelwright  was  constantly 
prospecting  mineral  deposits  and  developed  a 
Chilean  supply.  The  company  lost  £72,000  in 
the  first  five  years  and  for  a  time  the  dissatisfied 
directors  suspended  Wheelwright  from  manage- 
ment, but  later  prosperity  came,  and  the  service 
was  extended  to  Panama.  Wheelwright  in  1844 
proclaimed  the  advantages  of  a  railroad  across 
the  Isthmus. 

Soon  afterward,  railroad  development  became 
his  absorbing  interest.  Between  1849  and  1852 
he  built  the  first  railroad  in  South  America, 
running  fifty-one  miles  from  Caldera,  the  Chilean 
port  which  he  developed,  into  the  rich  silver  and 
copper  mines  at  Copiapo.  He  soon  extended 
branches  to  Chanarcillo  and  to  Tres  Puntas, 
6,600  feet  above  sea  level.  In  a  few  years,  divi- 
dends amounted  to  double  the  initial  cost  of 
$3,375,000.  In  1850  he  gave  Chile  the  first  South 
American  telegraph  line.  Before  the  railroad 
from  Caldera  to  Copiapo  was  completed,  Wheel- 
wright had  conceived  his  dream  of  a  transandean 
railroad,  to  run  southeast  diagonally  across 
South  America  nearly  a  thousand  miles  from 


63 


Wheelwright 


Whelpley 


Caldera  in  Chile  to  Rosario  on  the  Parana  in 
Argentina,  crossing  the  Andes  at  San  Francisco 
pass,  16,000  feet  above  sea  level.  Finding  that 
Chile  regarded  the  stupendous  undertaking  as 
impracticable,  Wheelwright  decided  to  begin 
from  the  Argentine  end  and  in  1855  secured  a 
concession  running  from  Rosario,  189  miles 
above  Buenos  Aires,  northwest  246  miles 
across  the  pampas  to  Cordoba  in  central  Argen- 
tina. Constant  delays  resulted,  from  the  rival 
plans  of  the  American  railroad  builder  Henry 
Meiggs  [q.v.~\,  from  political  upheavals,  and 
from  the  Paraguayan  war,  but  Wheelwright  re- 
ceived the  political  backing  of  the  Argentine 
presidents  Mitre  and  Sarmiento,  and  the  finan- 
cial support  of  Thomas  Brassey,  the  British  rail- 
road magnate,  for  the  necessary  $8,000,000  cap- 
ital. The  Grand  Central  Argentine  Railway 
from  Rosario  to  Cordoba  was  finally  opened  on 
May  16,  1870.  For  the  remaining  portion  of  the 
transandean  railway,  Wheelwright  and  Brassey 
raised  $30,000,000  capital,  but  this  was  either 
diverted  to  naval  and  military  purposes  by  Pres- 
ident Sarmiento  of  the  Argentine  or  else  with- 
held by  Wheelwright  and  Brassey  because  they 
feared  such  action.  International  jealousy  and 
other  complications  delayed  the  final  completion 
of  the  transandean  railway  until  191 0. 

The  creation  of  the  port  of  La  Plata  was 
Wheelwright's  final  important  accomplishment. 
He  noticed  that  the  shallowness  of  the  Plata 
estuary  made  it  difficult  if  not  impossible  for 
large  ships  to  reach  Buenos  Aires,  and  pointed 
out  the  advantages  of  the  Bay  of  Ensenada  about 
thirty  miles  below,  near  the  spot  where  he  had 
been  wrecked  fifty  years  before.  On  Dec.  31, 
1872,  he  completed  a  railroad  linking  this  port 
of  La  Plata  with  Buenos  Aires. 

By  this  time  the  iron  constitution  of  the  old 
man  had  begun  to  give  way  and  in  1873  he  sailed 
for  England,  where  he  died.  His  death  was  sin- 
cerely mourned  by  all  Latin  America  and  a 
bronze  statue  was  erected  in  his  memory  at  Val- 
paraiso in  1876.  It  indicates  a  rather  stocky, 
amiable  man  of  the  "John  Bull"  type;  his  por- 
trait shows  flashing  eyes  and  strong  features. 
His  wife  and  a  daughter  survived  him ;  another 
daughter  and  his  only  son  died  earlier.  Though 
he  had  visited  his  birthplace  rarely — in  1829, 
1853,  and  1855 — he  was  very  generous  to  his  rela- 
tives there  and  left  a  portion  of  his  ample  for- 
tune for  the  technical  education  of  Protestant 
youths  of  Newburyport.  His  writings  included 
Statements  and  Documents  Relative  to  the  Es- 
tablishment of  Steam  Navigation  in  the  Pacific 
(1838)  ;  Report  on  Steam  Navigation  in  the  Pa- 
cific, with  an  Account  of  the  Coal  Mines  of  Chile 


and  Panama  (1843)  ;  Observations  on  the  Isth- 
mus of  Panama  (1844),  and  '"Proposed  Railway 
Route  across  the  Andes,"  Journal  of  the  Royal 
Geographical  Society,  vol.  XXXI   (1861). 

[J.  B.  Alberdi,  Life  and  Industrial  Labors  of  Wil- 
liam Wheelwright  in  South  America  (1877),  with  in- 
troduction by  Caleb  Cushing ;  F.  M.  Noa,  "William 
Wheelwright :  The  Yankee  Pioneer  of  Modern  Indus- 
try in  South  America,"  The  Arena,  Dec.  1906,  Jan. 
1907;  Leonard  Withington,  The  Substance  of  an  Ad- 
dress .  .  .  at  the  Funeral  of  William  Wheelwright 
(1873)  ;  Bull,  of  the  Pan-Am.  Union,  May  1913,  May 
191 5  ;  Frederick  Alcock,  Trade  and  Travel  in  South 
America  (1907);  F.  G.  Carpenter,  The  Tail  of  the 
Hemisphere  (1923)  ;  H.  C.  Evans,  Chile  and  Its  Rela- 
tions to  the  U.  S.  (1927)  ;  F.  N.  Otis,  Hist,  of  the 
Panama  Railroad  (1867);  J.  J.  Currier,  Ould  New- 
bury (1896)  ;  F.  W.  Goding,  A  Brief  Hist,  of  the  Am. 
Consulate  General  at  Guayaquil,  Ecuador  (1920);  C. 
M.  Fuess,  Men  of  Andover  (1928)  ;  The  Times  (Lon- 
don), Sept.  27,  1873.]  R.  G.  A. 

WHELPLEY,  HENRY  MILTON  (May  24, 
1861-June  26,  1926),  pharmacist,  editor,  teacher, 
was  born  in  Battle  Creek,  Mich.,  the  son  of 
Dr.  Jerome  Twining  Whelpley  and  Charlotte 
(Chase)  Whelpley.  Both  his  parents  were  of 
New  England  stock,  and  both  came  from  fami- 
lies of  literary  and  professional  activity.  His 
father,  paternal  grandfather,  and  brother  were 
physicians ;  his  mother  was  related  to  Chief  Jus- 
tice Salmon  P.  Chase.  His  maternal  grandfather, 
Warren  P.  Chase,  was  senator  of  Wisconsin  and 
California,  and  a  close  personal  friend  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln.  Young  Whelpley  received  his 
grammar  school  training  at  Cobden,  111.,  and  his 
later  education  in  Otsego,  Mich.,  where  he  was 
graduated  from  the  high  school  in  1880.  While 
attending  high  school  he  began  the  study  of 
pharmacy,  working  in  drug  stores  in  Otsego 
during  vacations  and  after  his  graduation  from 
high  school.  In  1881  he  entered  the  St.  Louis 
College  of  Pharmacy  in  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  gradu- 
ating with  highest  honors  in  1883.  He  managed 
a  drug  store  in  Mine  La  Motte,  Mo.,  for  a  year 
and  then  returned  to  St.  Louis  to  work  in  the 
editorial  department  of  the  St.  Louis  Druggist, 
which  in  1885  became  the  National  Druggist, 
with  Whelpley  as  its  editor-in-chief.  In  1888  he 
assumed  editorial  direction  of  the  Meyer  Broth- 
ers Druggist  and  continued  in  this  position  un- 
til his  death.  In  1884  he  began  an  association  of 
forty-two  years  with  the  St.  Louis  College  of 
Pharmacy,  filling  the  positions  of  instructor  in 
materia  medica  and  chemistry  (1884-86),  as- 
sistant in  microscopy  (1884-86),  professor  of 
microscopy  (1886-1922),  professor  of  pharma- 
cognosy, materia  medica,  and  physiology  (1915- 
26).  From  1904  until  his  death  in  1926  he  was 
dean  of  the  institution.  During  the  period  1890- 
1909  he  also  served  variously  as  professor  of 
physiology,  histology,  and  microscopy  at  Mis- 


64 


Wherry 

souri  Medical  College  and  the  St.  Louis  Post 
Graduate  School,  and  as  professor  of  materia 
medica  and  pharmacy  in  the  Missouri  Dental 
College  and  the  medical  department  of  Wash- 
ington University.  On  June  29,  1892,  he  married 
Laura  Eugenie  Spannagel.  He  died  suddenly 
during  an  attack  of  angina  pectoris  in  Argen- 
tine, Kan.,  where  he  was  on  a  vacation  of  a  few 
days.  He  was  buried  in  Bellefontaine  Cemetery 
in  St.  Louis. 

Soft-spoken,  Chesterfieldian  in  manner,  al- 
ways well-poised  and  self-contained,  Whelpley 
was  a  keen  reader  of  character  who  instinctively 
sifted  the  good  from  the  bad,  but  without  giving 
evidence  of  his  appraisal.  He  was  a  tireless,  in- 
tensive worker,  yet  he  did  all  things  with  such 
unhurried  ease  that  even  his  intimates  scarcely 
realized  the  variety  of  his  accomplishment.  In 
addition  to  his  school  duties  and  his  editorial  ob- 
ligations— either  constituting  a  full  task  for  any 
man — he  was  for  thirty  years  probably  the  most 
efficient  officer  in  the  roster  of  the  Missouri 
State  Pharmaceutical  Association.  In  the  Amer- 
ican Pharmaceutical  Association  he  held  nu- 
merous offices,  among  them  those  of  president 
(1901)  and  secretary  of  the  council  (1902-08). 
He  became  a  member  of  the  United  States  Phar- 
macopoeial  Convention  in  1890,  served  as  a 
member  of  the  board  of  trustees  in  1903,  and 
was  secretary  from  1910  until  his  death.  He  was 
a  collector  of  material  on  American  Indians, 
especially  those  of  Illinois  and  Missouri,  a  mem- 
ber of  the  American  Institute  of  Archaeology, 
and  a  thorough  student  of  the  subject.  In  addi- 
tion, he  was  instrumental  in  establishing  the  St. 
Louis  Zoological  Garden,  and  held  membership 
in  such  diverse  organizations  as  the  Interna- 
tional Conciliation  Association,  the  Missouri 
Historical  Association,  the  Mississippi  Valley 
Historical  Association,  and  the  St.  Louis  So- 
ciety of  Pedagogy. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1926—27  ;  J.  H.  Beal,  in 
Jour.  Am.  Pharmaceutical  Asso.,  Jan.  1927  ;  C.  E. 
Caspari,  Quart.  Bull.  St.  Louis  Coll.  of  Pharmacy, 
Sept.  1926  ;  Nat.  Druggist,  July  1926  ;  Jour.  Am.  Medic. 
Asso.,  July  3,  1926  ;  obituary  in  St.  Louis  Post-Dis- 
patch, June  26,  1926  ;  autobiog.  notes  in  MS.  in  the 
possession  of  Mrs.  Whelpley  ;  personal  knowledge. 1 

M.G.  S. 

WHERRY,  ELWOOD  MORRIS  (Mar.  26, 
1843-Oct.  5,  1927),  missionary,  the  son  of  James 
and  Sarah  (Nesbit)  Wherry,  was  born  in  South 
Bend,  Pa.  Having  received  his  preparation  at 
Eldersridge  Academy,  he  entered  Jefferson  (later 
Washington  and  Jefferson)  College,  and  was 
graduated  with  the  degree  of  A.B.  in  1862.  He 
then  organized  a  select  school  at  Waynesburg, 
Pa.,  and  taught  there  until  October  1864.  Mean- 
while, he  united  with  the  Presbyterian  church 


Wherry 


of  the  town.  Entering  Princeton  Theological 
Seminary  in  the  fall  of  1864,  he  was  graduated 
in  1867.  On  May  8  of  that  year  he  was  ordained 
by  the  Donegal  Presbytery,  and  on  July  17  he 
married  Clara  Maria  Buchanan.  The  following 
October  he  and  his  wife  sailed  for  India  as  mis- 
sionaries of  the  Presbyterian  Church.  There  he 
served  until  1889,  with  the  usual  interruptions  of 
furloughs,  and  again  from  1898  until  1922. 

Joining  the  Panjab  Mission,  he  was  first  sta- 
tioned at  Rawalpindi  and  was  soon  afterward 
transferred  to  Ludhiana  (Lodiana),  where  he 
served  until  1883  as  writer,  editor,  and  superin- 
tendent of  the  mission  press.  Thereafter  for  five 
years  he  was  professor  of  Old  Testament  litera- 
ture and  church  history  in  the  resuscitated  theo- 
logical seminary  at  Saharanpur,  U.  P.,  and  stat- 
ed clerk  of  the  Synod  of  India.  From  1889  until 
1898  he  was  stationed  in  Chicago,  111.,  as  district 
secretary  of  the  American  Tract  Society,  having 
resigned  from  his  mission  to  educate  his  two 
sons  and  five  daughters  in  America.  Reappoint- 
ed to  India  in  1898,  he  resumed  service  in  Lu- 
dhiana, where  until  1922  he  was  chiefly  occupied 
with  educational  and  literary  work.  He  was 
moderator  of  his  Synod  in  1900  and  labored  for 
the  union  of  the  Presbyterian  churches  in  India 
which  was  consummated  at  Allahabad  in  1904. 
He  was  elected  moderator  at  the  General  Assem- 
bly, Ludhiana,  in  December  1909.  Returning  to 
America  in  1922,  he  took  up  his  residence  in 
Cincinnati.  He  died  of  heart  failure  while  visit- 
ing in  Indiana,  Pa.,  and  was  buried  in  Cincin- 
nati. 

Wherry's  literary  work,  both  as  editor  and  au- 
thor, was  conspicuous  and  significant.  He  was 
the  founder  of  the  Urdu  periodical  Nur  Afshan, 
which  he  edited  at  Ludhiana,  1872-83  and  1899- 
1909.  He  composed  many  Urdu  tracts,  including 
an  outline  of  ancient  history  and  a  refutation  of 
Islam,  translated  into  that  tongue  an  adapta- 
tion of  J.  C.  Moffat's  Church  History  in  Brief, 
and  Edward  Sell's  Historical  Development  of 
the  Quran,  and  arranged  an  index  of  the  Roman 
Urdu  Koran.  In  1882-84  he  published  his  mon- 
umental Comprehensive  Commentary  of  the 
Quran,  in  four  volumes.  Among  his  other  works 
are  Zeinab  the  Panjabi  (copr.  1895),  Islam;  or 
the  Religion  of  the  Turk  (1896),  The  Muslim 
Controversy  (1905),  Islam  and  Christianity  in 
India  and  the  Far  East  (1907),  and  Our  Mis- 
sions in  India  (1926).  In  addition,  he  edited, 
either  independently  or  jointly.  Missions  at 
Home  and  Abroad  (1895),  Woman  in  Missions 
(1894),  The  Mohammedan  World  of  To-day 
(1906),  Methods  of  Missionary  Work  among 
Moslems     (1906),    and    Islam    and    Missions 


65 


Whipple 


Whipple 


(1911).  Besides  the  offices  already  mentioned, 
he  served  as  corresponding  secretary  of  the 
World's  Congress  of  Missions  in  1893,  as  chair- 
man of  his  mission's  publication  committee,  and 
as  editor  of  its  annual  reports.  He  was  an  asso- 
ciate member  of  the  Victoria  Institute,  London. 
A  building  of  the  Ewing  Christian  High  School 
at  Ludhiana  bears  the  name  of  Wherry  Hall  in 
his  honor. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1926-27;  E.  M.  Wherry, 
Our  Missions  in  India  (1926)  ;  Indian  Standard,  Nov. 
1927  ;  Missionary  Rev.  of  the  World,  Feb.  1928  ;  Prince- 
ton Theological  Scm.  Bull.,  Necrological  Report,  Aug. 
1928;  Cincinnati  Enquirer,  Oct.  6,  1927.] 

-    .  J.C.Ar— r. 

WHIPPLE,  ABRAHAM  (Sept.  26,  1733- 
May  27,  1819),  naval  officer,  was  born  at  Provi- 
dence, R.  I.,  a  descendant  of  John  Whipple,  one 
of  the  original  proprietors  of  the  Providence 
Plantations.  He  had  little  formal  education. 
Choosing  a  seafaring  life,  he  acquired  a  knowl- 
edge of  navigation  and  accounting  and  engaged 
in  the  West  India  trade  in  the  employ  of  Nicho- 
las Brown  \_q.vJ].  In  1759-60  he  commanded 
the  privateer  Game  Cock  and  in  a  six-month 
cruise  captured  twenty-three  French  vessels.  On 
Aug.  2,  1761,  he  was  married  to  Sarah  Hopkins, 
a  sister  of  Stephen  and  Esek  Hopkins  [qq.v.']. 
In  1772  with  a  party  of  fifty  men  he  burned 
his  majesty's  schooner  Gaspee,  which  had  run 
aground  near  Pawtucket,  a  daring  exploit,  some- 
times regarded  as  the  first  overt  act  of  the  Revo- 
lution. When  in  1775  the  Rhode  Island  General 
Assembly  ordered  two  vessels  to  be  fitted  out  for 
the  defense  of  trade,  it  turned  to  Whipple  as  the 
most  experienced  sea  captain  in  the  colony  and 
appointed  him  commodore  of  the  little  fleet.  On 
June  15,  the  day  that  he  received  his  commission, 
he  captured  the  tender  of  the  British  frigate 
Rose,  the  first  prize  of  the  patriots  taken  by  an 
official  vessel.  After  cruising  during  the  sum- 
mer in  Narragansett  Bay,  he  was  sent  to  Ber- 
muda for  gunpowder.  On  his  return  he  trans- 
ported some  naval  recruits  to  Philadelphia, 
where  his  ship,  the  Katy,  was  taken  into  the 
Continental  Navy,  and  he  was  made  a  captain 
in  the  service,  the  fourth  officer  in  that  rank. 
In  the  essay  that  resulted  in  the  capture  of  New 
Providence  and  the  inglorious  fight  with  the 
Glasgow,  he  commanded  the  Columbus,  20  guns. 
For  permitting  the  enemy  to  escape  he  and  his 
superior  officers  were  haled  before  the  Marine 
Committee  at  Philadelphia,  which,  after  inves- 
tigating the  charges  against  him,  reported  that 
they  amounted  to  nothing  more  than  a  "rough, 
indelicate"  treatment  of  his  marine  officers,  and 
ordered  him  to  repair  to  his  ship. 

In  1778  he  sailed  for  France  in  the  frigate 


Providence  to  procure  munitions  and  carry  dis- 
patches. After  visiting  Paris  and  being  present- 
ed to  the  king,  he  went  to  sea  with  a  small  fleet 
under  his  command,  and  reached  home  in  safety, 
having  taken  a  few  prizes.  In  1779  as  commo- 
dore of  several  vessels,  with  the  Providence  as 
his  flagship,  he  made  a  cruise  and  had  the  good 
fortune  to  fall  in  with  a  fleet  of  heavily  laden 
East-Indiamen.  He  cut  out  eleven  of  them,  eight 
of  which  reached  port.  The  spoils  were  worth 
more  than  a  million  dollars,  one  of  the  richest 
captures  of  the  war.  Later  in  the  year  with  four 
Continental  vessels  he  arrived  in  Charlestown, 
S.  C,  where  he  was  entrusted  with  the  naval  de- 
fense of  the  city.  With  one  exception,  the  Con- 
tinental vessels  were  dismantled  and  their  guns 
and  crews  taken  ashore  to  reinforce  the  land 
batteries.  On  the  fall  of  the  city  Whipple  was 
made  prisoner.  Paroled,  he  was  sent  to  Chester, 
Pa.,  where  he  remained  until  the  end  of  the  war. 
For  several  years  the  commodore  lived  on  his 
farm  near  Cranston,  R.  I.  Responding  to  a  call 
to  the  sea,  he  made  a  voyage  to  England  as  mas- 
ter of  the  General  Washington.  On  the  forma- 
tion of  the  Ohio  Company  he  emigrated,  with 
his  wife,  two  daughters,  and  a  son,  to  Marietta, 
Ohio,  where  for  six  years  he  cultivated  a  small 
plot  under  the  protection  of  the  fort.  When 
peace  with  the  Indians  was  assured,  he  moved  to 
a  farm  and  supported  himself  by  his  own  labor 
until  181 1  when  Congress  granted  him  a  pen- 
sion. In  1801  his  rural  pursuits  were  interrupt- 
ed while  he  made  a  commercial  voyage  to  New 
Orleans,  Havana,  and  Philadelphia.  His  ship, 
the  St.  Clair,  is  said  to  have  been  the  first  square- 
rigged  vessel  built  on  the  Ohio  River  to  make  a 
voyage  to  the  sea.  In  person  Whipple  was  short, 
thickset,  and  muscular,  with  dark-grey  eyes. 

[H.  E.  Whipple,  A  Brief  Geneal.  of  the  Whipple 
Family  (1873)  ;  S.  P.  Hildreth,  Biog.  and  Hist.  Mem- 
oirs of  the  Early  Pioneer  Settlers  of  Ohio  (1852)  ;  G. 
W.  Allen,  A  Naval  Hist,  of  the  Am.  Rev.  (2  vols., 
1913)  ;  C.  O.  Paullin,  Navy  of  the  Am.  Rev.  (1906)  ; 
Edward  Field,  ed.,  State  of  R.  I.  and  Providence  Plan- 
tations at  the  End  of  the  Century  (3  vols.,  1902)  ; 
S.  G.  Arnold,  Hist,  of  State  of  R.  I.  and  Providence 
Plantations  (i860)  ;  Vital  Records  of  R.  I.,  vol.  XIV 
(1905);  Congressional  Record,  11  Cong.,  2  Sess. 
(1810),  pt.  IL]  C.O.P. 

WHIPPLE,  AMIEL  WEEKS  (1816-May  7, 
1863),  soldier  and  topographical  engineer,  a  de- 
scendant of  Matthew  Whipple,  who  came  from 
England  to  Ipswich,  Mass.,  about  1638,  was 
born  in  Greenwich,  Hampshire  County,  Mass., 
the  son  of  David  and  Abigail  (Pepper)  Whip- 
ple. (The  year  of  his  birth  is  usually  given  as 
1818,  but  his  own  statements  fix  the  date  ap- 
proximately as  October  or  November  1816.) 
He  applied  for  appointment  to  the  United  States 


66 


Whipple 


Whipple 


Military  Academy  as  early  as  1834,  when  he  was 
teaching  in  a  district  school  in  Concord,  Mass. 
Unsuccessful  at  that  time,  he  entered  Amherst 
College,  but  finally  received  a  cadetship  in  1837, 
under  the  name,  through  a  curious  clerical  error, 
of  Aeriel  W.  Whipple.  He  graduated  in  1841 
and  was  commissioned  second  lieutenant  of  ar- 
tillery, but  was  shortly  afterward  transferred 
to  the  topographical  engineers,  then  a  separate 
corps  of  the  army. 

His  early  assignments  were  at  Baltimore, 
Md.,  New  Orleans,  La.,  and  Portsmouth,  N.  H. 
On  Sept.  12,  1843,  he  married  Eleanor,  daughter 
of  John  Nathaniel  Sherburne  of  Portsmouth. 
From  1844  to  J849  he  was  engaged  in  the  sur- 
vey of  the  northeastern  boundary  of  the  United 
States,  and  from  1849  to  1853  in  the  survey  of 
the  boundary  between  the  United  States  and 
Mexico.  In  commemoration  of  his  services  in 
that  part  of  the  country  the  military  post  main- 
tained from  1869  to  1884  at  Prescott,  Ariz.,  was 
called  Whipple  Barracks.  From  1853  to  1856 
he  was  employed  in  locating  the  route  for  a  rail- 
road to  the  Pacific,  and  from  then  until  the  be- 
ginning of  the  Civil  War,  besides  supervision 
of  lighthouses,  he  worked  at  the  channels  through 
the  St.  Clair  flats  and  the  St.  Mary's  River,  open- 
ing the  Great  Lakes  to  navigation  by  larger 
craft.  He  had  been  promoted  first  lieutenant  in 
1851  and  captain  in  1855. 

As  chief  topographical  engineer  he  served  at 
the  battle  of  Bull  Run,  and  continued  in  that  ca- 
pacity on  the  staff  of  Gen.  Irvin  McDowell  until 
the  spring  of  1862.  He  was  made  major  in  the 
regular  army  in  September  1861  and  brigadier- 
general  of  volunteers  in  April  1862.  From  April 
to  September  he  commanded  a  brigade,  and  for 
the  following  month  a  division,  in  the  defenses 
of  Washington.  His  headquarters  were  near 
Arlington,  and  a  fort  erected  in  1863  on  the 
heights  there,  within  the  present  Fort  Myer  res- 
ervation, was  named  Fort  Whipple.  An  excep- 
tionally fine  example  of  fortification  of  its  type, 
it  had  a  perimeter  of  659  yards,  and  provided  em- 
placements for  forty-three  guns,  behind  para- 
pets fifteen  feet  thick  on  the  exposed  fronts.  In 
October  1862  Whipple  was  assigned  to  com- 
mand the  third  division  of  the  III  (Stoneman's) 
Corps.  This  was  used  in  support  of  Sumner's 
"grand  division"  in  its  attack  on  the  Confederate 
left  at  the  battle  of  Fredericksburg  in  Decem- 
ber, but  was  not  heavily  engaged.  Both  Burn- 
side  and  Hooker  recommended  Whipple's  pro- 
motion to  major-general  in  January  1863.  The 
III  Corps,  now  under  Sickles,  was  on  the  right 
on  the  second  day  (May  3,  1863)  of  the  battle  of 
Chancellorsville,  after  Jackson  had  routed  the 


XI  Corps.  The  Confederates  attacked  that  flank 

repeatedly  in  an  effort  to  roll  up  the  Union  line, 

and  here  Whipple  was  mortally  wounded.    He 

was   removed   to   Washington,   where  he  died. 

His  appointment  as  major-general  of  volunteers 

was  hastily  made  out  just  before  his  death. 

[G.  W.  Cullum,  Biog.  Reg.  Officers  and  Grads.  U.  S. 
Mil.  Acad.  (3rd  ed.,  1891),  vol.  II ;  C.  J.  Couts,  From 
San  Diego  to  the  Colorado  in  1849  (1932),  ed.  by  Wm. 
McPherson  ;  Balduin  Mollhausen,  Diary  of  a  Journey 
from  the  Mississippi  to  the  Coasts  of  the  Pacific 
(1858),  tr.  by  Mrs.  Percy  Sinnett ;  War  of  the  Rebel- 
lion: Official  Records  (Army)  ;  T.  E.  Farish,  Hist,  of 
Aris.,  vol.  I  (1915)  ;  Battles  and  Leaders  of  the  Civil 
War  (4  vols.,  1887-88)  ;  Daily  National  Intelligencer 
(Washington),  May  9,  1863;  unpublished  records  in 
the  War  Dept]  T  M  S. 

WHIPPLE,  EDWIN  PERCY  (Mar.  8,  1819- 
June  16,  1886),  author,  lecturer,  was  born  in 
Gloucester,  Mass.,  the  son  of  Matthew  and  Lydia 
(Gardiner)  Whipple.  It  has  been  said  that 
Whipple  inherited  his  "chastening,  mild  bland- 
ness"  from  the  paternal  side,  his  wit  from  the 
maternal  line,  but  "divested  of  the  envenomed 
sarcasm  so  peculiar  to  the  Gardiner  family" 
(Loring,  post,  p.  665).  His  youth  was  spent  in 
Salem,  where  he  nourished  his  love  of  literature 
and  history.  On  leaving  the  high  school  in  1834 
he  entered  a  local  bank,  writing  for  the  news- 
papers from  the  age  of  fourteen.  He  passed  in 
1837  to  Dana,  Fenno  &  Henshaw,  brokers  in 
Boston.  On  June  21,  1847,  he  married  Charlotte 
B.  Hastings,  a  warm  friend  of  Dr.  Oliver  Wen- 
dell Holmes  and  the  circle  of  his  time.  They 
had  a  son  and  a  daughter. 

Whipple  became  a  leader  in  debate  while  a 
member  of  the  Attic  Nights  Club.  In  February 
1843  an  article  on  T.  B.  Macaulay  in  the  Boston 
Miscellany  opened  to  him  a  wider  circle  and 
brought  commendation  from  Macaulay  himself. 
In  the  winter  of  1848-49  he  issued  in  two  vol- 
umes his  Essays  and  Reviews,  which  at  once  went 
to  a  second  edition.  The  next  year  appeared  Lec- 
tures on  Subjects  Connected  with  Literature  and 
Life  (1850).  He  was  hailed  as  a  keen,  kindly 
searcher  for  hidden  connections  of  things.  Vis- 
itors to  Boston  were  urged  to  visit  the  news- 
room of  the  Merchants'  Exchange,  to  which  he 
had  gone  as  superintendent  on  abandoning  bro- 
kerage, to  see  the  bent  figure  of  Whipple,  with 
its  head  of  "massive  force  and  breadth  of  brow," 
a  "capacious  dome  over  a  capacious  heart"  {Ibid., 
pp.  667-68).  In  i860  he  resigned  his  post  in  the 
Merchants'  Exchange  to  devote  his  time  to  writ- 
ing and  lecturing.  During  1872  he  was  literary 
editor  of  the  Boston  Daily  Globe. 

On  the  lecture  platform,  in  the  heyday  of  the 
lyceum  movement,  he  appeared  before  a  thou- 
sand audiences.    His  lectures  and  essays  came 


67 


Whipple 


Whipple 


forth  rapidly  in  book  form :  Character  and  Char- 
acteristic Men  in  1866,  Literature  of  the  Age  of 
Elizabeth,  the  Lowell  Institute  lectures,  in  1869, 
Success  and  Its  Conditions  in  1871.  His  Recol- 
lections of  Eminent  Men  (1887),  issued  after 
his  death,  contained  appraisals  of  Rufus  Choate, 
Agassiz,  Emerson,  Motley,  Ticknor,  and  others, 
and  a  sketch  of  George  Eliot  that  delighted  her 
husband.  The  same  year  appeared  American 
Literature  and  Other  Papers,  with  an  introduc- 
tion by  Whittier,  his  intimate  friend.  A  year 
later  came  Outlooks  on  Society,  Literature,  and 
Politics. 

In  these  books,  and  in  his  papers  in  Every  Sat- 
urday, he  exhibited  logical  analysis,  a  playful 
imagination,  discriminating  criticism,  and  a  sen- 
sitive love  of  beauty.  His  heart  was  free  from 
envy  and  censure.  John  Lothrop  Motley  called 
him  in  1856  "one  of  the  most  brilliant  writers  in 
the  country,  as  well  as  one  of  the  most  experi- 
enced reviewers"  (letter  quoted  in  Perry,  post, 
pp.  86-87).  At  his  home  in  Pinckney  Street, 
where  "he  nestled  like  a  timid  bird"  (Ibid.,  p. 
123),  his  "Sunday  evenings"  attracted  those  who 
made  a  Golden  Age  in  Boston,  but  the  decay  of 
the  lyceum  system,  his  own  ill  health,  and  the 
increasing  popularity  of  new  authors  threw  him 
into  retirement.  His  decline  in  fame  is  a  case  for 
a  literary  autopsy.  The  impatience  of  audiences 
tormented  him  and  led  to  over-dependence  on 
antitheses  and  anecdotes ;  where  Emerson  could 
survive,  he  could  not.  Whipple  had  a  spare  fig- 
ure, rather  short,  an  expressive  face,  and  large 
lustrous  eyes.  He  was  a  good  talker.  His  best- 
remembered  saying  was  that  the  author  of  Leaves 
of  Grass  had  every  leaf  but  the  fig  leaf. 

[See  J.  S.  Loring,  The  Hundred  Boston  Orators 
(1852)  ;  Lilian  Whiting,  in  Springfield  Republican,  Feb. 
14,  1934  ;  T.  W.  Higginson,  Short  Studies  of  Am.  Au- 
thors (1888  ed.)  ;  Bliss  Perry,  in  The  Early  Years  of 
the  Saturday  Club  (1918),  ed.  by  E.  W.  Emerson  ;  R.  H. 
Stoddard,  ed.,  Works  of  Edgar  Allan  Poe  (1884),  vol. 
VI,  pp.  405-15;  obituary  in  Boston  Transcript,  June 
18,  1886.]  C.K.B. 

WHIPPLE,  FRANCES  HARRIET  [See 
Green,  Frances  Harriet  Whipple,  1805- 
1878]. 

WHIPPLE,  HENRY  BENJAMIN  (Feb.  15, 
1822-Sept.  16,  1901),  Protestant  Episcopal 
bishop,  reformer  of  the  United  States  Indian 
system,  was  born  in  Adams,  N.  Y.,  the  son  of 
John  Hall  Whipple,  a  merchant,  and  Elizabeth 
(Wager)  Whipple.  His  first  American  ancestor 
was  Capt.  John  Whipple,  one  of  the  early  settlers 
of  Providence,  R.  I.  After  preliminary  educa- 
tion at  local  Presbyterian  schools,  Henry  spent 
the  years  1838  and  1839  at  Oberlin  Collegiate 
Institute.   Thereafter  until  he  became  a  clergy- 


man he  was  in  business  with  his  father,  although 
in  1843  and  1844  he  visited  the  South  and  West 
for  the  sake  of  his  health.  He  served  one  year  as 
inspector  of  schools,  and  was  appointed  major 
and  later  division  inspector  with  the  rank  of  colo- 
nel on  the  staff  of  Major-General  Corse.  He  also 
served  as  secretary  of  the  Democratic  state  con- 
vention at  Syracuse  in  1847. 

Although  reared  a  Presbyterian,  he  was  in- 
clined towards  the  Protestant  Episcopal  faith,  to 
which  his  grandparents  adhered ;  this  tendency 
seems  to  have  been  strengthened  by  the  influence 
of  his  wife,  Cornelia  (Wright),  whom  he  mar- 
ried Oct.  5,  1842.  He  was  admitted  as  a  candidate 
for  holy  orders  on  Mar.  15,  1848,  was  ordained 
to  the  diaconate  Aug.  26,  1849,  and,  having  con- 
cluded the  necessary  studies  under  the  guidance 
of  the  Rev.  William  D.  Wilson  [q.v.]  of  Christ 
Church,  Sherburne,  N.  Y.,  was  raised  to  the 
priesthood  the  following  year.  His  first  parish 
was  that  of  Zion  Church,  Rome,  N.  Y.,  where  he 
remained  until  1857  with  the  exception  of  a  year, 
1853-54,  passed  in  Florida  for  the  improvement 
of  his  wife's  health.  By  special  arrangement  he 
served  during  this  period  as  rector  in  St.  Au- 
gustine and  missionary  to  the  adjacent  region. 
His  rectorship  at  Rome  was  so  successful  that  he 
was  called  to  many  other  parishes.  Accepting  the 
call  to  organize  a  new  church  among  the  waifs, 
railroad  employees,  machinists,  and  churchless  of 
the  south  side  of  Chicago,  he  spent  the  years  from 
1857  to  1859  building  up  and  administering  the 
parish  of  the  Holy  Communion. 

In  1859  he  was  elected  first  bishop  of  Minne- 
sota and  was  consecrated  on  Oct.  13.  The  fol- 
lowing year  he  established  his  family  at  Fari- 
bault, which  was  his  residence  for  the  remainder 
of  his  life.  His  new  field  of  activity  was  one  to 
try  the  mettle  of  any  man,  presenting  not  only 
the  usual  difficult  problems  of  a  frontier  diocese, 
but  also  the  problems  arising  from  the  United 
States  government's  management  of  the  Indians. 
With  respect  to  the  latter  he  first  examined  the 
situation  carefully,  making  extensive  tours  into 
the  wilderness  with  great  physical  inconvenience 
and  danger  to  himself.  His  Church  already  had 
a  mission  among  the  Chippewa ;  this  he  strength- 
ened. In  i860  he  established  a  mission  among 
the  Sioux.  Convinced  of  the  injustice  and  in- 
humanity of  the  government's  system,  he  began 
to  send  appeals  to  local  Indian  agents,  to  sena- 
tors and  congressmen,  to  heads  of  bureaus  and 
departments  in  Washington,  and,  finally,  in  des- 
peration to  the  President  of  the  United  States. 
He  pointed  out  in  a  letter  written  to  President 
Lincoln  on  Mar.  6,  1862  (manuscript  letter  book ; 
abridged  in  Lights  and  Shadows,  post,  pp.  510- 


68 


Whipple 


14),  the  fundamental  defects  of  the  administra- 
tion of  Indian  affairs.  His  letters  were  remem- 
bered when,  in  August  1862,  the  Minnesota  Sioux 
rose  and  massacred  hundreds  of  whites,  inaugu- 
rating just  what  Whipple  had  predicted — a  long 
series  of  Indian  wars.  He  went  at  once  to  the 
scene,  where  he  tended  the  wounded  and  con- 
soled the  bereaved.  He  then  published  an  appeal 
{Saint  Paul  Pioneer,  Dec.  3,  17. 1862 ;  Saint  Paul 
Press,  Dec.  4,  1862)  to  his  frenzied  fellow  Min- 
nesotans  to  be  reasonable,  pointing  out  that  the 
Indians  had  been  goaded  to  fury  by  fraud  and 
deceit  and  that  they  were  using  the  only  weapons 
left  to  them.  His  plea  only  infuriated  the  fron- 
tier folk,  but  he  stood  his  ground  despite  their 
recriminations  and  anger.  Late  in  1862  he  went 
to  Washington  to  make  a  personal  appeal  to  the 
President,  who  forbade  the  execution  of  most  of 
the  three  hundred  Sioux  condemned  to  death  by 
a  military  commission. 

Under  these  emotional  distractions,  together 
with  the  racking  experiences  of  visits  to  Civil 
War  battlefields,  the  fatigue  of  an  energetic  and 
successful  campaign  among  Eastern  financiers 
for  aid  to  Minnesota's  devastated  frontier,  and 
the  worry  of  securing  funds  for  maintaining  his 
diocese,  his  health  failed  once  more.  Suddenly, 
however,  as  a  result  of  his  heart-moving  appeals 
he  found  himself  the  idol  of  philanthropists  in 
the  East.  Money  came  henceforth  to  him  for  his 
work,  sometimes  in  great  amounts.  Robert  Min- 
turn  \_q.v."\  of  New  York  made  it  possible  for 
him  to  go  to  Europe  in  1864-65  to  regain  his 
health,  and  while  in  England  he  won  the  support 
of  the  Established  Church.  This  trip  was  the 
first  of  many  which  Whipple  made  to  Europe. 
His  simple,  moving  eloquence  appealed  to  Euro- 
peans ;  his  message  was  a  new  one ;  his  well-told 
stories  had  piquancy ;  his  modesty  was  disarming. 

Upon  his  return  from  Europe  in  1865  he 
plunged  once  more  into  the  campaign  for  reform 
of  the  Indian  service.  Winning  the  confidence 
of  the  secretary  of  the  interior  and  that  of  the 
commissioner  of  Indian  affairs,  he  was  deluged 
with  requests  by  government  officials  for  advice 
and  aid  and  made  a  member  of  Indian  commis- 
sions. In  an  appeal  to  Horace  Greeley  ( manu- 
script, Minnesota  Historical  Society),  Feb.  28, 
1867,  he  made  the  following  concrete  suggestions 
for  reform  :  (1)  the  perfection  of  the  reservation 
system;  (2)  grants  of  land  to  individual  Indians 
with  inalienable  title;  (3)  an  adequate  school 
system ;  (4)  a  system  of  inspection  of  agencies 
schools,  and  employees.  In  Grant's  administra- 
tion reform  came,  for  the  most  part  in  the  ways 
that  Whipple  had  suggested.  For  the  next  two 
decades  he  fought  valiantly  for  his  "red  children," 


Whipple 

exposing  fraud,  building  up  mission  work  in  the 
new  Chippewa  home  in  Minnesota — the  White 
Earth  Reservation — and  making  appeals  for 
them  by  addresses  in  America  and  abroad.  His 
work  took  him  on  special  missions  to  Puerto  Rico 
and  to  Cuba.  His  fame  mounted  as  he  grew  older, 
so  that  he  was  called  to  speak  or  preside  at  many 
meetings  in  America  and  Europe.  In  1871  the 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury  offered  him  the  bish- 
opric of  the  Sandwich  Islands,  but  he  declined. 
Queen  Victoria  commanded  an  audience  in  De- 
cember 1890.  In  1897  he  attended  the  fourth 
Lambeth  Conference  as  presiding  bishop  of  the 
American  Church. 

Whipple  was  an  orator  of  no  mean  ability, 
possessing  a  melodious  voice  of  sufficient  com- 
pass and  power  to  stir  his  audiences.  In  personal 
appearance  he  was  prepossessing,  being  six  feet 
two  inches  in  height  and  weighing  about  170 
pounds.  He  had  a  high  forehead,  grey  eyes,  a 
long  face,  brown  curly  hair  that  turned  to  snowy 
whiteness  in  his  later  years  and  was  worn  long 
in  patriarchal  fashion  about  his  shoulders.  His 
Indian  name  was  Straight  Tongue.  Fishing  was 
a  passion  with  him.  He  was  a  famous  raconteur. 
His  writings  were  many,  though  mostly  in  pam- 
phlet form  or  printed  in  church  periodicals.  In 
1899  appeared  his  autobiography,  Lights  and 
Shadozi's  of  a  Long  Episcopate,  which  was  re- 
printed in  1900  and  1902,  and  came  out  in  a  new 
edition  in  1912.  His  first  wife  died  in  1890;  six 
children  had  been  born  to  them,  two  of  whom 
predeceased  their  parents.  On  Oct.  22,  1896,  he 
married  Evangeline  (Marrs)  Simpson  of  Saxon- 
ville,  Mass. 

[Whipple's  diaries,  letter  books,  correspondence,  and 
other  papers  in  possession  of  the  Minn.  Hist.  Soc,  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Diocese  of  Minn.,  and  descend- 
ants ;  Warren  Upham  and  R.  B.  Dunlap,  "Minn. 
Biogs.,"  in  Minn.  Hist.  Soc.  Col's.,  vol.  XIV  (1912); 
C.  H.  Whipple,  A  Brief  Geneal.  of  the  Whipple-W  right 
.  .  .  Families  (1917)  ;  G.  C.  Tanner,  Fifty  Years  of 
Church  Work  in  the  Diocese  of  Minn.  (1909)  ;  Who's 
Who  in  America,  1901-02;  Minneapolis  Jour.,  Sept. 
'6,1901.]  G.L.N. 

WHIPPLE,  SHERMAN  LELAND  (Mar.  4, 
1862-Oct.  20,  1930),  lawyer,  was  born  in  New 
London,  N.  H.,  youngest  of  three  sons  of  Solo- 
mon Mason  Whipple  and  Henrietta  Kimball 
(Hersey)  Whipple.  The  father — a  descendant 
of  Matthew  Whipple,  who  settled  at  Ipswich 
Hamlet,  Mass.,  as  early  as  1638 — was  a  physician, 
practising  over  miles  of  thinly  settled  rugged 
country.  The  pecuniary  returns  of  his  practice 
were  small ;  nevertheless,  after  preparation  at 
the  New  London  Literary  and  Scientific  Insti- 
tution (later  Colby  Academy),  Sherman  was 
sent  to  Yale  College.  There,  by  supplementing 
what  he  received  from  home  with  his  earnings 


69 


Whipple 

as  a  tutor,  he  was  able  to  graduate  in  1881  with 
creditable  rank.  After  teaching  school  for  a  year, 
he  entered  the  Yale  Law  School  and  graduated 
with  honors  in  1884.  He  was  admitted  to  the 
Connecticut  and  New  Hampshire  bars  in  the 
same  year,  and  began  practice  in  Manchester,  N. 
H.,  but  soon  moved  to  Boston.  He  had  few  ac- 
quaintances and  little  influence,  but  through  the 
recommendation  of  an  older  brother,  already  set- 
tled there,  he  obtained  bills  to  collect.  His  prompt- 
ness and  energy  commended  him  to  others,  and 
he  was  soon  engaged  in  trying  personal  injury 
cases.  His  success  was  marked,  and  before  he 
was  thirty  years  old  he  had  acquired  the  early 
experience  derived  from  trial  of  many  cases  that 
is  almost  essential  for  considerable  success  as  an 
advocate.  Before  long  he  was  recognized  as  per- 
haps the  most  successful  plaintiff's  attorney  in 
Boston.  His  work  ceased  to  be  chiefly  devoted 
to  cases  of  personal  injury,  but  still  he  generally 
acted  for  plaintiff's.  He  was  especially  effective 
in  attacking  fraud  or  dishonesty,  and  in  discover- 
ing it,  however  carefully  concealed,  by  cross- 
examination.  He  was  also  frequently  engaged  in 
cases  of  contested  wills. 

Gifted  by  nature  with  extraordinary  fitness 
for  advocacy,  he  enhanced  by  industry  his  natu- 
ral ability.  He  was  a  hard  fighter,  and  even  in 
his  early  practice  never  afraid  to  cross  swords 
with  leaders  of  the  bar,  or  to  attack  for  his 
clients  those  entrenched  behind  wealth  and  high 
social  position.  Ready  to  lead  a  desperate  charge, 
he  could  base  his  case  on  a  forlorn  hope,  but  be- 
hind every  attack  was  thorough  preparation  and 
shrewd  calculation  of  possible  means  of  attain- 
ing success.  Although  well  able  to  care  for  his 
clients  under  restricted  rules  of  evidence  and 
complex  legal  procedure,  he  consistently  and 
vigorously  advocated  extending  the  admissibility 
of  evidence  and  simplifying  legal  procedure. 
Among  his  addresses  to  bar  associations  were 
"The  Power  of  the  Courts  to  Make  Law  and  to 
Annul  Legislation,"  in  which  he  advocated  re- 
lieving the  courts  of  "the  duty  of  making  de- 
cisions on  questions  involving  political,  economic 
and  class  controversies"  (Proceedings  of  the  .  .  . 
West  Virginia  Bar  Association,  1917,  p.  90)  ; 
"The  Legal  Privilege  of  Concealing  the  Truth" 
(Report  of  the  .  .  .  Maryland  State  Bar  Asso- 
ciation, 1922)  ;  and  "Law  and  Lawyers  in  the 
Twentieth  Century"  (Vermont  Bar  Association, 
Report  of  Proceedings,  1929).  During  a  large 
part  of  his  career  (1899-1919)  he  practised,  in 
association  with  others,  under  the  firm  name  of 
Whipple,  Sears  &  Ogden ;  later,  merely  under 
his  own  name.  In  politics  he  was  a  Democrat, 
but  his  legal  practice  precluded  devoting  much 


Whipple 

time  to  politics.  He  was,  however,  in  191 1  and 
again  in  1912  the  choice  of  his  party  for  United 
States  senator. 

Outside  of  the  court  room  Whipple  was  gen- 
erous and  friendly.  The  wit  and  humor  which  he 
used  effectively  for  the  benefit  of  his  clients  was 
not  absent  from  his  familiar  conversation.  Dur- 
ing the  early  years  of  his  success  he  took  many 
vacations  in  Europe,  but  in  middle  life  he  ac- 
quired a  large  estate  near  Plymouth,  and  spent 
there  what  time  he  could,  surrounded  by  his 
family  and  engaged  in  pursuits  appropriate  to 
the  country  life  that  he  loved,  riding  horseback 
and  superintending  not  only  the  raising  of  flowers 
and  vegetables  but  the  breeding  of  Guernsey  cat- 
tle. In  appearance,  he  was  somewhat  below  mid- 
dle height,  sturdily  built,  with  a  large  head  and 
firm  mouth  and  chin,  clear  indications  of  his 
courage  and  tenacity.  On  Dec.  27,  1893,  he  mar- 
ried Louise  Clough  of  Manchester,  N.  H.  They 
had  three  children,  a  son  and  two  daughters.  He 
died  on  Oct.  20,  1930,  at  his  home  in  Brookline, 
Mass.,  without  a  single  day's  illness. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1930-31  ;  A  Hist,  of  the 
Class  of  'Eighty-One,  Yale  Coll.  (2  vols.,  1909-30)  ; 
memoir  in  New  England  Hist,  and  Geneal.  Reg.,  Jan. 
193 1  ;  proceedings  in  the  Supreme  Judicial  Court,  Bos- 
ton, June  3,  1933,  on  presentation  of  a  memorial  to 
Whipple  by  the  Boston  Bar  Asso. ;  obituary  in  Boston 
Transcript,  Oct.  20,  1930;  information  from  Whipple's 
family.]  5  w-. 

WHIPPLE,  SQUIRE  (Sept.  16,  1804-Mar. 
15,  1888),  civil  engineer,  author,  inventor,  was 
the  son  of  James  and  Electa  (Johnson)  Whipple. 
His  father,  a  farmer  and  later  the  owner  of  a 
small  cotton  mill  at  Hardwick,  Mass.,  where 
Squire  was  born,  removed  with  his  family  to 
Otsego  County,  N.  Y.,  in  1817.  The  boy  assisted 
in  farming  operations,  attended  the  academy  at 
Fairfield,  Herkimer  County,  taught  school  for  a 
time,  and  in  1829  entered  the  senior  class  at 
Union  College,  Schenectady,  where  he  received 
the  degree  of  A.B.  in  1830.  He  probably  owed 
his  interest  in  engineering  to  the  construction  of 
the  Erie  Canal  in  the  region  near  his  home  dur- 
ing his  boyhood,  although  he  was  too  young  to 
be  a  member  of  the  group  of  engineers  who  were 
trained  in  that  great  school,  and  his  reputation 
was  achieved  not  in  canal  construction  but  in 
bridge  building.  After  graduating  from  college 
he  was  engaged  in  a  minor  capacity  in  surveys 
for  the  Baltimore  &  Ohio  Railroad  and  for  the 
Erie  Canal.  In  1836-37  he  was  resident  engi- 
neer of  a  division  of  the  New  York  &  Erie  Rail- 
road ;  and  he  was  subsequently  employed  on  oth- 
er surveys  for  projected  railways  and  canals.  In 
the  intervals  between  his  engineering  appoint- 
ments he  made  surveying  instruments,  including 


70 


Whipple 


transits  and  theodolites,  and  worked  on  various 
inventions.  His  first  original  device  of  note  was 
completed  in  1840 — a  lock  for  weighing  canal 
boats. 

On  Apr.  24,  1841,  he  received  his  first  bridge 
patent,  for  a  truss  of  arched  upper  chord  built  of 
cast  and  wrought  iron.  Some  five  years  later  he 
devised  a  truss  of  trapezoidal  form  which  was 
frequently  used  in  bridges  built  during  the  suc- 
ceeding generation.  This  design  places  him  with 
Ithiel  Town,  Stephen  H.  Long,  William  Howe, 
and  Thomas  W.  Pratt  [qq.z'.~\  among  the  Ameri- 
can pioneers  in  the  development  of  the  pure  truss 
bridge.  In  1852-53,  on  the  line  of  the  Rensselaer 
&  Saratoga  Railroad  near  West  Troy,  N.  Y., 
Whipple  employed  his  truss  in  the  first  iron  rail- 
road bridge  of  considerable  span  (146  feet). 
This  structure  contained  elements  which  became 
typical  of  American  truss-bridge  design — the  in- 
clined end  post  and  the  pin-connection.  Whipple 
described  the  bridge  in  detail  in  a  letter  published 
in  Engineering  News,  Apr.  7,  1883.  In  1872  he 
built  a  drawbridge,  with  a  lift  span,  over  the 
Erie  Canal  at  Utica,  and  subsequently  designed 
several  other  short  lift  spans.  Some  account  of 
his  work,  by  himself,  was  published  in  the  Rail- 
road Gazette,  Apr.  19,  1889. 

Whipple's  chief  contribution  to  bridge  engi- 
neering, however,  was  his  publication,  in  1847, 
of  A  Work  on  Bridge  Building,  the  first  notable 
attempt  to  reduce  the  problem  to  a  scientific 
basis.  Previously  engineers  had  built  bridges  so 
as  to  look  strong  enough  to  experienced  eyes ; 
modern  methods  of  computing  stresses  and  de- 
signing the  parts  of  such  structures  to  meet  them 
were  unknown  ;  Whipple's  book  was  the  first  ex- 
tensive and  thorough  treatment  of  the  subject. 
Later,  in  1869,  he  issued  a  continuation  of  this 
treatise,  making  the  woodcuts  himself  and  print- 
ing the  issue  on  a  hand  press  in  his  home.  Still 
later,  in  1872,  it  was  published  by  David  Van 
Nostrand  \q.v.],  under  the  title,  An  Elementary 
and  Practical  Treatise  on  Bridge  Building ;  a 
fourth  edition  came  out  in  1883.  Whipple  died 
in  his  home  in  Albany,  widely  recognized  as  a 
pioneer  in  his  field  of  engineering.  He  was  an 
honorary  member  of  the  American  Society  of 
Civil  Engineers  and  the  author  of  several  papers 
published  in  the  earlier  volumes  of  its  Transac- 
tions. In  1837  he  married  Anna  Case  of  Utica, 
N.  Y.,  who  survived  him ;  he  left  no  children. 

[Trans.  Am.  Soc.  Civil  Engineers,  vols.  XXI  (1889), 
XXV  ( 1 80 1 ),  XXXVI  (1896I  ;  J.  A.  L.  Waddell,  Bridge 
Engineering  (1016)  ;  J.  B.  Johnson,  C.  W.  Bryan,  and 
F.  E.  Turneaure,  The  Theory  and  Practice  of  Modern 
Framed  Structures  (1893)  ;  G.  R.  Howell  and  Jonathan 
Tenney,  Hist,  of  the  County  of  Albany,  N.  Y.  (1886)  ; 
Albany  Jour.,  Mar.  16,  1888.]  T.K  F 


Whipple 

WHIPPLE,  WILLIAM  (Jan.  14,  1730-Nov. 
10,  1785),  Revolutionary  patriot,  was  the  eldest 
of  the  five  children  of  William  and  Mary  (Cutt) 
Whipple,  and  a  descendant  of  Matthew  Whipple 
who  came  to  America  from  England  before  1638. 
He  was  born  in  Kittery,  Me.,  received  a  com- 
mon-school education,  and,  like  many  boys  of 
that  locality,  went  to  sea  at  an  early  age.  While 
still  in  his  early  twenties  he  became  master  of  a 
vessel,  making  many  deep-water  voyages  and  in- 
cidentally engaging  in  the  slave  trade,  then  a 
legal  if  not  wholly  respectable  activity,  but  one 
which  a  later  generation  of  New  Englanders  re- 
garded as  anomalous  in  a  signer  of  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence.  About  1760  he  gave  up  the 
sea  and  formed  a  mercantile  partnership  with 
his  brother  Joseph  at  Portsmouth. 

Revolutionary  activity  began  early  in  Ports- 
mouth and  Whipple  was  identified  with  the  pop- 
ular party  in  many  of  the  disputes  which  preced- 
ed the  final  break  with  Great  Britain  in  1775. 
In  this  year  he  gave  up  his  share  in  the  business 
and  entered  public  life.  He  was  prominent  in 
the  early  provincial  congresses,  a  member  of  the 
Council  in  1776,  of  the  state  committee  of  safety, 
and  closely  associated  with  John  Langdon  [qs:] 
and  other  patriots  in  local  developments  at  Ports- 
mouth. In  1776  he  was  sent  to  the  Continental 
Congress  and  shared  with  Josiah  Bartlett  and 
Matthew  Thornton  [qq.v.~\  the  honor  of  repre- 
senting New  Hampshire  on  the  Declaration  of 
Independence.  He  served  in  Congress  until  1779, 
with  the  exception  of  periods  of  interruption  oc- 
casioned by  short  tours  of  duty  in  command  of 
militia  contingents  in  the  Saratoga  and  Rhode 
Island  campaigns.  He  was  quite  active  in  com- 
mittee, and  his  correspondence  expresses  exas- 
peration at  the  inefficient  public  service,  the  lack 
of  national  spirit  and  the  greed  and  selfishness 
of  leaders  and  communities.  He  had  an  acute 
realization  of  the  defects  of  the  commissary  and 
recruiting  systems.  He  emphasized  the  impor- 
tance of  naval  operations,  urged  the  necessity 
for  striking  hard  blows,  taxing  heavily,  and 
spreading  the  burden  of  the  struggle  on  the  en- 
tire people.  Peace,  he  repeatedly  argued,  would 
be  secured  by  victory  in  the  field  and  not  by  dip- 
lomatic juggling  in  Europe.  He  demanded  "spir- 
ited measures"  against  speculators  and  Loyalists. 
As  to  the  latter,  he  wrote  Josiah  Bartlett  in  1779, 
"I  think  it  high  time  they  were  all  Hung  or  Ban- 
ished" (Letters  of  Members,  post,  p.  346).  He 
was  optimistic  as  to  the  outcome  of  the  war, 
however,  even  in  its  most  depressing  stages  and 
constantly  urged  his  own  state  to  increased  ef- 
forts in  the  common  cause. 

In  the  last  years  of  the  war  he  continued  to  be 


71 


Whistler 

active  in  New  Hampshire  affairs  and  represent- 
ed Portsmouth  in  the  legislature  for  several  ses- 
sions. From  1782  until  his  death  he  was  also  an 
associate  justice  of  the  superior  court.  In  his 
later  years  however,  he  was  badly  handicapped 
by  ill  health,  an  autopsy  confirming  his  own  be- 
lief that  for  some  years  he  had  been  performing 
his  duties  in  imminent  danger  of  the  sudden  death 
which  finally  overtook  him  while  on  circuit.  His 
wife  was  Catharine  Moffatt,  of  Portsmouth.  They 
had  no  children. 

[Arthur  Little,  "William  Whipple,  Signer  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,"  Proc.  N.  H.  Hist.  Soc, 
vol.  Ill  (1902)  ;  C.  B.  Jordan,  "Col.  Joseph  B.  Whip- 
ple," Ibid.,  vol.  II  (1895)  ;  C.  H.  Bell,  The  Bench  and 
Bar  of  N.H.  (1894)  ;  State  Papers  of  N.  H.,  vol.  VIII 
(1874);  "Records  of  New  Hampshire  Committee  of 
Safety,"  N.  H.  Hist.  Soc.  Cols.,  vol.  VIII  (1868)  ;  Na- 
thaniel Adams,  Annals  of  Portsmouth  (1825)  ;  Letters 
of  Members  of  the  Continental  Cong.,  vol.  IV  (1928), 
ed.  by  E.  C.  Burnett.]  \y  A.  R. 

WHISTLER,   GEORGE   WASHINGTON 

(May  19,  1800-Apr.  7,  1849),  soldier,  engineer, 
son  of  John  and  Ann  (Bishop)  Whistler,  was 
born  in  the  military  post  at  Fort  Wayne,  Ind. 
John  Whistler,  a  native  of  Ireland,  served  un- 
der General  Burgoyne  in  the  British  army  dur- 
ing the  American  Revolution  and  after  his  dis- 
charge returned  to  settle  in  America ;  he  became 
an  officer  in  the  United  States  Army  and  at  the 
time  of  his  son's  birth  was  commandant  at  Fort 
Wayne.  His  wife  was  a  woman  of  rare  charm 
and  force  of  character.  George  Whistler  was  ap- 
pointed in  1814  to  the  United  States  Military 
Academy,  where  he  distinguished  himself  as  a 
draftsman.  Graduating  in  1819,  he  was  commis- 
sioned second  lieutenant  of  artillery  and  assigned 
to  topographical  duty.  In  the  winter  of  1821-22 
he  was  assistant  teacher  of  drawing  at  West 
Point,  and  then  returned  to  topographical  work, 
surveying  the  international  boundary  between 
Lake  Superior  and  the  Lakes  of  the  Woods.  In 
1828  he  was  assigned  by  the  government  to  assist 
in  the  location  and  construction  of  the  Baltimore 
&  Ohio  Railroad  and  was  sent  by  the  railroad  to 
England,  in  company  with  another  West  Pointer, 
William  Gibbs  McNeill,  and  a  civilian  engineer, 
Jonathan  Knight  \_qq.v."],  to  examine  railroads 
and  railroad  equipment.  After  supervising  the 
construction  of  the  first  mile  of  track  for  the  Bal- 
timore &  Ohio,  he  was  assigned,  with  McNeill, 
to  locate  the  Baltimore  &  Susquehanna  Railf  oad, 
and  was  then  engaged  in  similar  work  for  the 
Paterson  &  Hudson  Railroad  (now  part  of  the 
Erie  system)  and  for  the  Providence  &  Stoning- 
ton  extension  of  the  Boston  &  Providence  Rail- 
road. 

In  1833  he  resigned  from  the  army,  with  the 
rank  of  first  lieutenant,  and  became  engineer  to 


Whistler 

the  Proprietors  of  Locks  and  Canals  at  Lowell, 
Mass.,  where  as  director  of  the  machine  shop  he 
built  a  number  of  railroad  locomotives  patterned 
after  that  of  George  Stephenson.  In  1837  he  re- 
sumed supervision  of  the  Providence  &  Stoning- 
ton  Railroad,  and  in  association  with  McNeill 
became  consulting  engineer  for  the  Western  Rail- 
road of  Massachusetts  (now  the  Boston  &  Al- 
bany). In  1840-42,  as  chief  engineer  of  this 
road,  he  did  some  of  his  most  noted  work,  locat- 
ing the  section  between  Springfield  and  Pitts- 
field,  through  the  Berkshires,  in  a  narrow  river 
valley,  under  especially  difficult  conditions.  His 
remarkable  capacity  exhibited  in  the  solution  of 
this  problem  attracted  the  attention  of  Russian 
officials  who  were  inspecting  American  rail- 
roads, and  upon  their  advice  the  Czar  invited 
him  to  become  consulting  engineer  for  the  pro- 
jected railroad  between  St.  Petersburg  and  Mos- 
cow. 

In  1842  he  began  his  work  in  Russia,  where 
he  displayed  great  ability  and  energy.  The  pro- 
jected railroad  was  420  miles  long,  with  double 
track,  and  was  to  be  built  in  seven  years  at  a  cost 
of  $40,000,000.  Construction  was  begun  in  1844 
and  the  road  was  opened  for  traffic  in  1850. 
Whistler  recommended  and  in  the  face  of  some 
opposition  secured  the  adoption  of  a  narrow 
gauge  track — five  feet — instead  of  the  wider 
gauge  later  abandoned  in  America.  The  rolling 
stock  and  other  machinery  were  furnished  by  an 
American  firm,  being  manufactured  in  Russia 
under  Whistler's  general  direction.  Whistler  also 
supervised  the  construction  of  fortifications  and 
docks  at  Cronstadt  and  the  iron  bridge  over  the 
Neva.  He  was  decorated  by  the  Emperor  with 
the  Order  of  St.  Anne  in  1847.  Before  the  com- 
pletion of  the  railroad  he  was  stricken  with 
Asiatic  cholera,  and  he  died  in  St.  Petersburg 
after  a  long  illness.  He  was  buried  at  Stonington, 
Conn.,  and  a  monument  was  erected  to  him  in 
Greenwood  Cemetery,  Brooklyn,  by  his  profes- 
sional associates. 

Whistler  was  twice  married.  By  his  first  wife, 
Mary  Roberdeau  Swift,  young  sister  of  his  friend 
Joseph  Gardner  Swift  [g.r.],  he  had  a  daughter, 
Deborah  Delano  ("Dasha"),  who  married  Fran- 
cis Seymour  Haden  [see  Dictionary  of  National 
Biography,  2nd  Supp.],  and  two  sons,  one  of 
whom,  George  William,  was  a  railroad  engineer 
and  continued  his  father's  work  in  Russia  until 
his  death  in  1869.  His  second  wife,  whom  he 
married  Nov.  3,  1831,  was  Anna  Mathilda, 
daughter  of  Dr.  Charles  Donald  McNeill  of  Wil- 
mington, N.  C,  and  sister  of  his  friend  William 
Gibbs  McNeill.  They  had  five  sons,  includina- 
James  Abbott  McNeill  Whistler  [q.v.]  and  Wil- 


72 


Whistler 


Whistler 


liam   Gibbs   McNeill    Whistler,   a  physician    of 
London. 

[G.  L.  Vose,  A  Sketch  of  the  Life  and  Works  of 
George  IV.  Whistler,  Civil  Engineer  (1887);  G.  W. 
Cullum,  Biog.  Reg.  Officers  and  Grads.  U .  S.  Mil.  Acad., 
vol.  I  (3rd  ed.,  1891);  The  Memoirs  of  Gen.  Joseph 
Gardner  Swift  (1890),  ed.  by  Harrison  Ellery  ;  infor- 
mation supplied  by  Wm.  Patten,  Rhinebeck,  N.  Y.] 

H.K.B. 

WHISTLER,  JAMES  ABBOTT  MCNEILL 

(July  10,  1834-July  17,  1903),  painter  and  etcher, 
was  once  approached  by  an  American  who  said : 
"You  know,  Mr.  Whistler,  we  were  both  born  at 
Lowell,  and  at  very  much  the  same  time  .  .  .  you 
are  67  and  I  am  68."  To  which  Whistler  prompt- 
ly replied:  "Very  charming.  And  so  you  are  68 
and  were  born  at  Lowell,  Massachusetts.  Most 
interesting,  no  doubt,  and  as  you  please !  But  I 
shall  be  born  when  and  where  I  want,  and  I  do 
not  choose  to  be  born  at  Lowell  and  I  refuse  to 
be  67"  (Pennell,  Life,  post,  I,  1-2).  He  chose  to 
be  born,  instead,  at  Baltimore  or  at  St.  Peters- 
burg, in  Russia.  As  a  matter  of  fact  he  first  saw 
the  light  in  the  house  on  Worthen  Street,  at 
Lowell,  which  after  his  death  was  dedicated  to 
his  memory.  The  family  was  of  old  British  ori- 
gin, with  an  Irish  branch  from  which  he  was 
descended.  A  John  Whistler,  his  grandfather, 
served  with  Burgoyne.  After  Saratoga  he  re- 
turned to  England,  got  his  discharge,  and  once 
more  came  to  America,  enlisting  in  the  Ameri- 
can army  toward  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury. Whistler  liked  to  remember  him  as  a  sol- 
dier of  constructive  achievement  in  the  West. 
One  of  his  exploits  was  the  erection  of  Fort  Dear- 
born in  1803.  His  son,  George  Washington 
Whistler  [q.v.],  born  at  Fort  Wayne  on  May  19, . 
1800,  following  in  his  footsteps  embraced  a  mili- 
tary career,  but  ultimately  left  the  army  with  the 
rank  of  first  lieutenant  and  was  thenceforth  iden- 
tified with  civil  engineering.  In  1831  he  mar- 
ried as  his  second  wife  Anna  Mathilda  McNeill, 
the  sister  of  a  colleague  and  friend,  William  G. 
McNeill  [q.v.].  He  went  to  Lowell  as  engineer 
of  locks  and  canals  and  there  the  artist  was  born. 
They  made  more  than  one  move  thereafter,  first 
to  Stonington,  Conn.,  and  then  to  Springfield, 
Mass.,  but  there  is  nothing  that  calls  for  com- 
ment in  this  period  beyond  the  fact  that  "Jimmie" 
had  begun  to  make  pencil  drawings  at  the  age 
of  four ! 

There  looms,  however,  a  matter  of  decisive  in- 
terest. The  Russian  commission  sent  to  the 
United  States  in  1842  to  look  into  the  problems 
of  railroad  building  and  discover  an  engineer  who 
could  preside  over  the  creation  of  a  line  from  St. 
Petersburg  to  Moscow — the  famous  inflexibly 
straight  line  dictated  by  Czar  Nicholas  I — of- 


fered the  post  to  Lieutenant  Whistler.  He  sailed 
almost  immediately  and  in  1843  the  family  fol- 
lowed him.  The  Pennells,  who  had  access  to  Mrs. 
Whistler's  journal  when  they  were  preparing 
their  official  life  of  the  master,  say  of  him  at  this 
time :  "Whistler  as  a  boy  was  exactly  what  those 
who  knew  him  as  a  man  would  expect ;  gay  and 
bright,  absorbed  in  his  work  when  that  work  was 
art,  brave  and  fearless,  selfish  if  selfishness  is 
another  name  for  ambition,  considerate  and  kind- 
ly, above  all  to  his  mother"  (Ibid.,  I,  12).  His 
health  was  delicate,  involving  a  heart  weakness 
which  was  in  after  years  to  cause  him  grave 
trouble,  but  he  had  unquenchable  energy  and 
spirit,  battened  upon  the  picturesqueness  of  his 
environment,  and  devoted  himself  with  some- 
thing like  passion  to  his  lessons  at  the  Academy 
of  Fine  Arts.  During  an  illness  in  1847  he  sol- 
aced himself  by  poring  over  a  volume  of  Ho- 
garth's engravings,  forming  then  an  admiration 
for  the  English  artist  which  he  never  lost.  It 
was  in  this  year  that  Mrs.  Whistler  took  the 
children  to  England  and  that  Deborah,  George 
Whistler's  daughter  by  his  first  wife,  was  mar- 
ried to  Seymour  Haden,  destined  to  win  distinc- 
tion as  a  surgeon  and  more  durable  fame  as  an 
etcher.  Returning  to  Russia,  the  family  was 
again  in  England  in  1848.  Sir  William  Boxall 
painted  at  this  time  the  charming  portrait  of 
Whistler  which  is  in  the  Freer  collection  at 
Washington.  Meanwhile  his  father  was  too  hard 
at  work  in  cholera-stricken  St.  Petersburg  and 
died  there  from  a  heart  attack  on  Apr.  7,  1849. 
The  Czar's  appreciation  of  his  engineer  was  so 
warm  that  he  proposed  Mrs.  Whistler's  settling 
in  Russia,  so  that  her  two  sons  might  be  entered 
in  the  imperial  school  for  pages.  She  elected  to 
take  them  back  to  Stonington  and  soon  afterward 
to  establish  herself  at  Pomfret,  Conn.,  with  a 
view  to  the  continuance  of  their  schooling.  Whis- 
tler had  by  this  time  given  evidence  of  his  artistic 
predilections,  but  without  being  unsympathetic 
to  these  his  mother  saw  another  career  for  him 
and  in  185 1,  like  his  father  before  him,  he  was  a 
cadet  at  West  Point. 

He  stayed  there  three  years,  when  he  earned 
his  dismissal  by  a  misstep  in  the  domain  of 
chemistry.  "Had  silicon  been  a  gas,"  he  is  re- 
ported to  have  said,  "I  would  have  been  a  major 
general"  (Ibid.,  I,  3,3,).  He  was  very  young — 
barely  seventeen  when  he  entered  the  Academy 
— and  West  Point  remains  but  an  interlude  in 
his  career.  He  was  never  meant  to  be  a  soldier. 
Yet  those  three  years  left  a  certain  mark  upon 
him.  All  his  life  he  was  inordinately  proud  of 
them  and  they  may  be  said  to  have  placed  a  kind 
of  cachet  upon  his  natural  fighting  proclivities, 


73 


Whistler 


Whistler 


his  insistence  upon  the  point  of  honor,  his  in- 
stinct for  ceremonial,  and,  not  least  of  all,  his 
erect  carriage.  And  if  he  was  deficient  in  the 
lore  of  chemistry,  he  was,  prophetically,  at  the 
head  of  the  drawing  class  at  the  very  moment  of 
his  collision  with  silicon.  It  was  with  light- 
hearted  courage  that  he  now  faced  the  world  in 
search  of  a  proper  niche  for  himself.  There  were 
ideas  in  the  family  of  his  finding  it  in  the  Winans 
locomotive  works  at  Baltimore.  An  opening  more 
attractive,  momentarily,  was  found  in  the  Coast 
Survey  at  Washington,  in  which  as  a  draftsman 
of  maps  he  learned  a  good  deal  about  the  me- 
chanics of  etching.  The  "Coast  Survey,  No.  I," 
and  the  "Coast  Survey,  No.  2,  Anacapa  Island," 
rigidly  but  ably  drawn  plates,  recall  in  the  body 
of  his  ocuvrc  this  early,  half-unconscious  launch- 
ing of  the  professional  technician. 

In  1854  he  was  in  the  Coast  Survey.  In  1855 
he  was  out  of  it.  He  was  resolved  to  give  himself 
to  art  and  by  this  time  his  mother  was  willing. 
With  an  annual  allowance  of  $350  he  sailed  for 
Paris.  He  was  never  to  come  back.  Why  not  ? 
The  answer  remains  a  mystery.  The  writer  once 
asked  him  to  solve  the  riddle  and  with  a  per- 
ceptible stiffening  of  his  upright  figure,  angrily 
tapping  the  London  pavement  with  his  stick,  he 
replied :  "I  shall  come  to  America  when  the  duty 
on  works  of  art  is  abolished  !"  But  no  difference 
in  opinion  between  himself  and  his  countrymen 
could  cover  the  case.  It  is  more  reasonably  to  be 
inferred  that  he  stayed  abroad  because  there  his 
genius  naturally  flowered,  there  he  found  the 
conditions  and  friends  with  whom  he  was  in- 
stinctively at  home.  In  Paris,  where  he  was  to 
form  his  art  and  win  recognition ;  in  London, 
where  his  discovery  of  a  beauty  ignored  by  other 
artists  was  to  lead  to  the  discovery  of  his  highest 
inspiration,  it  was  but  in  the  nature  of  things  that 
he  should  come  to  regard  America  as,  no  doubt, 
his  own  land,  but  somehow,  in  a  way,  itself 
"abroad."  In  any  case  it  is  from  1855,  when  he 
reached  France,  that  the  life  of  Whistler  begins 
to  cohere,  falls  "all  of  a  piece,"  and  becomes  the 
true  source  of  the  works  that  we  know. 

For  a  primary  clue  to  the  steady  integration 
of  that  life,  it  is  suggestive  to  revert  to  the  anec- 
dote relating  to  the  place  of  his  birth.  The  tale 
embodies  a  clue  in  that  it  points  to  one  dominant 
fact,  a  fact  that  throughout  his  career  it  is  al- 
ways Whistler's  peculiarly  deliberate  choice  that 
governs.  His  was  the  spirit  of  a  delicately  his- 
trionic type  that  dramatizes  its  own  every  move- 
ment. He  adopted  originality  as  a  career,  nqt 
with  the  meretricious  impulse  of  the  poseur  but 
because  he  could  not  help  himself,  because  he 
was  invincibly  individualized,  because  in  paint- 


ing, etching — and  in  his  ordinary  walk  and  de- 
meanor— he  was  imperiously  the  artist,  invent- 
ing and  exploiting  his  own  effects.  The  creative 
daemon  was  as  urgent  in  him  when  he  was  ad- 
dressing a  postcard,  making  the  ephemeral  thing 
a  thing  of  beauty,  as  when  he  was  painting  a  full- 
dress  portrait.  Whistler  was  an  exemplar  of 
"self  expression"  years  before  the  phrase  was 
formulated.  Susceptible  though  he  was  in  his 
formative  period  to  certain  external  influences, 
the  expression  of  his  own  ideas  and  not  those  of 
any  other  was  with  marked  rapidity  to  become 
as  the  breath  of  his  nostrils.  It  is  this  originality 
that  largely  gives  him  his  salience  in  modern  art. 
It  was  this  originality  that  made  him,  even  as  a 
young  man,  seeking  his  way  in  Paris,  a  figure 
to  reckon  with  and  remember. 

He  was,  in  some  respects,  a  curious  figure, 
proclaiming  himself  in  dress  and  manner  a  Bo- 
hemian of  the  Bohemians,  wearing  with  an  air 
the  wide-brimmed,  flat  hat  which  appears  in  the 
portrait  he  etched  of  himself  at  this  time,  tri- 
umphing merrily  over  all  the  vicissitudes  of  stu- 
dent life,  rejoicing  his  fellows  with  his  high- 
pitched  laugh,  and  altogether  pursuing  the 
fulfillment  of  his  destiny  in  a  spirit  of  debonair 
adventure.  He  had  troops  of  friends,  many  of 
them  later  to  become  famous.  George  Du  Maurier 
was  among  his  English  comrades,  Henri  Fan- 
tin-Latour  and  Alphonse  Legros  were  the  best 
beloved  of  those  Frenchmen  whom  he  came  to 
know.  For  training  he  entered  the  atelier  of 
Charles  Gleyre,  a  competent  but  undistinguished 
painter  in  the  tradition  of  Ingres.  His  attitude 
toward  the  latter  great  Raphaelesque  master  is 
a  little  difficult  to  define.  For  a  good  hour  one 
evening  he  declaimed  to  the  present  writer  upon 
the  Frenchman's  limitations,  stigmatizing  him 
as  a  bourgeois  Greek  and  asserting  that  he  ex- 
celled simply  in  painting  the  buttons  on  a  coat. 
Yet  his  interlocutor  had  already  seen  in  New 
York  a  copy  which  Whistler  had  made  of  the 
Frenchman's  "Roger  et  Angelique"  and  in  after 
years,  when  he  was  wont  to  deplore  the  incom- 
pleteness of  his  technical  education,  he  once 
wrote  to  Fantin  that  he  wished  he  had  been 
formed  as  a  draftsman  under  Ingres.  The  truth 
probably  is  that  he  was,  on  the  whole,  not  much 
in  sympathy  with  Ingres,  but  realized,  wistfully, 
that  the  master  might  have  taught  him  how  to 
draw  as  well  with  the  brush  as  with  the  etching 
needle.  Precise  information  as  to  just  what  hap- 
pened to  him  under  Gleyre  is  not  available  but 
there  is  no  doubt  of  his  readiness  to  hail  the  then 
rising  star  of  Gustave  Courbet.  All  other  influ. 
ences  in  the  melting  pot  of  French  art  he  re- 
sisted, not  only  that  of  Ingres  but  that  of  his 


74 


Whistler 

rival  Eugene  Delacroix.  The  men  of  Barbizon, 
the  new  portents  of  Impressionism,  alike  left  him 
cold.  Alone  the  realism  of  Courbet  found  him  in 
some  measure  responsive  and  the  results  may  be 
discerned  in  his  earlier  paintings,  "At  the  Piano," 
"The  Thames  in  Ice,"  "The  Coast  of  Brittany," 
and  "The  Blue  Wave."  But  even  amidst  these 
a  picture  like  "The  Music  Room,"  with  its  de- 
cisively decorative  motive,  arises  to  foreshadow 
the  essential  Whistler,  the  artist  seeking  beauty 
in  truth  but  subjecting  truth  to  his  very  personal 
conception  of  beauty.  He  was  to  feel  his  way  in 
Paris  toward  this  solution  of  his  artistic  problem 
and  he  was  to  have  some  significant  experiences 
there.  In  Paris  he  was  to  publish,  in  November 
1858,  his  first  group  of  etchings  and  in  Paris 
"The  White  Girl,"  rejected  at  the  Salon  in  1863 
as  it  had  been  rejected  at  the  Royal  Academy, 
was  to  make  a  sensation  in  the  Salon  des  Refuses 
which  the  Emperor  had  brought  into  being  to 
honor  men  like  Manet,  Fantin,  Bracquemond, 
Jongkind,  and  Vollon. 

From  the  fifties  onward  the  reader  must  visu- 
alize Whistler  as  constantly  oscillating  between 
Paris  and  London,  with  the  English  capital  be- 
coming more  and  more  the  field  of  his  labors. 
The  Hadens  were  there  and  while  there  was  no 
love  lost  between  the  painter  and  the  surgeon  it 
took  some  years  for  an  actual  break  to  be  de- 
veloped between  them.  The  figures  in  "At  the 
Piano"  are  those  of  Lady  Haden  and  her  daugh- 
ter. To  England  also  came  Whistler's  mother  to 
live  in  1863,  and  there  he  painted  the  great  por- 
trait of  her,  first  shown  in  1872  and  now  in  the 
Louvre.  It  was  in  London  that  he  thenceforth 
painted  (1872-77)  the  long  series  of  portraits 
which  were  to  do  so  much  to  give  him  his  re- 
nown, the  "Carlyle,"  the  "Miss  Alexander,"  the 
"Rosa  Corder,"  and  that  "Peacock  Room"  which 
may  be  seen  in  the  Freer  collection,  its  archi- 
tectural ugliness  redeemed  by  Whistler's  deco- 
rations. Indeed,  following  his  itinerary,  through 
the  sixties  and  seventies,  despite  his  frequent 
visits  to  France,  one  almost  forgets  Paris.  Be- 
sides the  portraits  to  recall  London  there  are  the 
"Nocturnes,"  there  is  the  Thames  set  of  etch- 
ings, there  is  the  building  of  his  home,  the  "White 
House,"  and  there  is  the  suit  against  Ruskin,  to 
be  succeeded  by  the  bankruptcy  of  the  artist. 

The  trial  requires  a  passage  by  itself.  Ruskin, 
at  the  height  of  his  fame,  in  the  fullest  pride  of 
his  critical  authority,  had  seen  eight  paintings  of 
Whistler's  in  the  Grosvenor  gallery  exhibition 
of  1877.  Upon  one  of  these,  "Black  and  Gold — 
The  Falling  Rocket,"  he  descended  with  enven- 
omed words :  "For  Mr.  Whistler's  own  sake,  no 
less  than  for  the  protection  of  the  purchaser,  Sir 


Whistler 

Coutts  Lindsay  ought  not  to  have  admitted  works 
into  the  gallery  in  which  the  ill-educated  conceit 
of  the  artist  so  nearly  approached  the  aspect  of 
wilful  imposture.  I  have  seen,  and  heard,  much 
of  Cockney  impudence  before  now ;  but  never 
expected  to  hear  a  coxcomb  ask  two  hundred 
guineas  for  flinging  a  pot  of  paint  in  the  public's 
face"  (E.  T.  Cook  and  Alexander  Wedderburn, 
The  Complete  IVorks  of  John  Ruskin,  1903-09, 
vol.  XXIX,  160).  Whistler  brought  suit  and  the 
case  came  to  trial  in  November  1878.  Details  of 
it  fill  the  first  pages  of  the  artist's  famous  book, 
The  Gentle  Art  of  Making  Enemies  (1890),  and 
the  fact  that  the  verdict  was  for  the  plaintiff,  in 
the  sum  of  one  farthing,  is  duly  recorded.  But 
even  without  the  aid  of  Whistler's  witty  mar- 
ginalia, or  the  pamphlet  on  the  subject  which  he 
printed  a  month  later,  the  episode  demonstrates 
one  transcendent  point — that  he  was  in  advance 
of  his  time,  that  he  had  brought  into  the  world 
something  new  and  strange  in  creative  art,  some- 
thing utterly  beyond  the  comprehension  of  the 
British  mind,  nurtured  as  it  was  on  the  senti- 
mental "subject"  picture,  the  "painted  anecdote." 
Whistler's  genius  was  for  a  work  of  art  which 
may  perhaps  be  best  exposed,  in  its  quiddity,  by 
some  words  of  his  own.  "Take  the  picture  of  my 
mother,"  he  said,  "exhibited  at  the  Royal  Acad- 
emy as  an  'Arrangement  in  Grey  and  Black.' 
Now  that  is  what  it  is.  To  me  it  is  interesting  as 
a  picture  of  my  mother;  but  what  can  or  ought 
the  public  to  care  about  the  identity  of  the  por- 
trait?" {Gentle  Art  of  Making  Enemies,  p. 
128).  Again,  in  regard  to  one  of  his  "Nocturnes," 
he  said :  "My  picture  of  a  'Harmony  in  Grey  and 
Gold'  is  an  illustration  of  my  meaning — a  snow 
scene  with  a  single  black  figure  and  a  lighted 
tavern.  I  care  nothing  for  the  past,  present,  or 
future  of  the  black  figure,  placed  there  because 
the  black  was  wanted  at  that  spot.  All  that  I 
know  is  that  my  combination  of  grey  and  gold  is 
the  basis  of  the  picture.  Now  that  is  precisely 
what  my  friends  cannot  grasp.  They  say,  'Why 
not  call  it  "Trotty  Veck,"  and  sell  it  for  a  round 
harmony  of  golden  guineas?'"  {Ibid.,  p.  126). 
Still  another  pronouncement  of  his  runs  as  fol- 
lows :  "As  music  is  the  poetry  of  sound,  so  is 
painting  the  poetry  of  sight,  and  the  subject-mat- 
ter has  nothing  to  do  with  harmony  of  sound  or 
of  color"  (Ibid.,  p.  127).  It  was  a  fresh,  abso- 
lutely new-minted  "poetry  of  sight"  that  he  was 
born  to  produce. 

It  is  necessary,  in  approaching  that  "poetry  of 
sight,"  to  take  note  of  certain  external  elements 
that  touched  him  in  the  course  of  its  evolution. 
Courbet  counted  for  much  in  confirming  Whis- 
tler's gravitation  toward  the  truthful  statement 


75 


Whistler 

of  fact,  and  as  "The  Blue  Wave"  particularly 
showed,  he  adopted  in  a  measure  Courbet's  habit 
of  a  robust,  almost  rude  force.  He  is,  like  the 
Frenchman,  a  naturalistic  painter  in  "The  Blue 
Wave."  Then  he  was  sensitive  to  the  appeal  of 
Japanese  art,  whether  in  the  blue  and  white  of 
the  Orient  or  in  the  color  print.  In  the  sixties 
his  pictures  now  and  then  present  figures  in 
Japanese  dress,  but  costume  was  not,  with  him, 
the  point.  More  sympathetically  and  more  dura- 
bly he  took  over  from  Japan  a  feeling  for  pattern 
as  pattern.  This,  indeed,  developed  into  a  mode 
of  his  own,  was  to  stay  with  him  until  he  died. 
There  remains  the  question  of  Velasquez,  whose 
name  has  so  often  arisen  in  discussion  of  his  art. 
He  knew  the  examples  of  the  Spaniard  in  Paris 
and  London.  As  a  young  man  he  saw  the  con- 
siderable group  of  them  in  the  Manchester  Ex- 
hibition of  1857.  He  cherished  always  a  pro- 
found admiration  for  the  painter  "whose  In- 
fantas, clad  in  inaesthetic  hoops,"  he  said,  "are, 
as  works  of  art,  of  the  same  quality  as  the  Elgin 
marbles"  (Mr.  Whistler's  10  o'clock,  p.  3). 
Though  he  never  fulfilled  his  wish  to  see  the  mas- 
ter in  his  splendor  at  the  Prado,  in  Madrid,  he 
was  somehow  enabled  to  draw  near  to  his  secret 
and  he  is  almost  to  be  counted  a  disciple.  Almost, 
but  not  quite.  Look  at  the  "Mrs.  Louis  Huth"  or 
at  one  or  two  other  low-toned  "Arrangements" 
and  in  a  superficial  view  of  the  matter  the  student 
might  surmise  deliberate  emulation.  But  here  it 
is  important  to  observe  a  distinction.  Velasquez, 
dipping  his  brush  in  light  and  air,  as  Whistler 
put  it,  and  causing  his  people  to  "live  within  their 
frames,  and  stand  upon  their  legs,"  was  first  and 
last  constrained  to  record  the  fact  before  him. 
Whistler,  duly  regardful  of  the  fact,  was  con- 
strained to  produce  a  Whistler.  Both  men  seem 
of  the  same  cult  in  their  painting  of  black  against 
gray  but  one  is  thinking  primarily  of  life  and  the 
other  of  art,  of  pattern.  The  distinction  is  im- 
mediately apparent  on  comparison  of  one  of  the 
Infantas  of  Velasquez  with,  say,  the  "Miss  Alex- 
ander :  Harmony  in  Gray  and  Green."  If  the 
Whistler,  like  the  Velasquez,  is  a  masterpiece,  it 
is  such  in  a  way  that  is  entirely  Whistler's.  The 
dress  was  of  his  designing.  The  flowers  and  the 
draperies  in  the  background,  nay  the  placing  of 
the  Butterfly,  his  signature,  all  testify  to  his  vi- 
sion of  his  subject  as  a  decorative  whole,  as  a 
Whistlerian  "Harmony."  Color  was  for  him  a 
veritable  language — a  language,  by  the  way,  ex- 
traordinarily simplified — and  he  employed  it  in 
his  "poetry  of  sight"  with  amazing  felicity  and 
inventiveness.  Was  something  lost  in  the  process  ? 
Perhaps.  In  the  "Sarasate,"  at  Pittsburgh,  a 
good  deal  less  than  justice  is  done  to  the  violinist's 


Whistler 

ebullient  vitality;  he  is  reduced,  instead,  very 
nearly  to  the  status  of  a  wraith.  But  how  beauti- 
ful the  picture  is  !  Moreover,  a  consideration  of 
Whistler's  big  portraits,  in  their  length  and 
breadth,  must  undoubtedly  take  account  of  the 
survival  of  personality  in  many  of  them.  The 
"Mother,"  the  "Carlyle,"  the  "Theodore  Duret," 
the  "F.  R.  Leyland,"  the  "Rosa  Corder,"  the 
"Lady  Meux,"  and  divers  others  are  too  subtly 
expressive  for  one  to  do  anything  else. 

They  are  original,  beautiful,  altogether  dis- 
tinguished achievements,  the  portraits.  If  Whis- 
tler had  done  nothing  else  his  fame  would  be  se- 
cure. But  he  did  something  else,  something  that 
no  one  had  ever  done  before  him.  He  created 
the  "Nocturne"  and  thereby  added  a  precious 
contribution  to  modern  art.  He  had  to  break 
with  the  Courbet  tradition,  in  obedience  to  that 
urge  of  individuality  always  active  in  his  bosom. 
If  he  had  continued  in  the  vein  of  "The  Blue 
Wave,"  or  "The  Thames  in  Ice"  he  would  have 
simply  ranged  himself  as  one  of  the  better  paint- 
ers of  nature  in  his  time.  Painting  the  "Noc- 
turnes" he  made  the  final,  most  exquisite  affirma- 
tion of  his  creative  faculty  and  took  a  place  apart. 
It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  London,  and  es- 
pecially the  Thames,  worked  the  decisive  move. 
He  adored  the  river  and  what  he  felt  about  it  is 
luminously  expressed  in  the  oft-quoted  passage 
in  the  lecture  that  he  first  delivered  in  London 
in  1885  :  "And  when  the  evening  mist  clothes  the 
riverside  with  poetry,  as  with  a  veil,  and  the  poor 
buildings  lose  themselves  in  the  dim  sky,  and  the 
tall  chimneys  become  campanili,  and  the  ware- 
houses are  palaces  in  the  night,  and  the  whole 
city  hangs  in  the  heavens,  and  fairyland  is  before 
us — then  the  wayfarer  hastens  home ;  the  work- 
ing man  and  the  cultured  one,  the  wise  man  and 
the  one  of  pleasure,  cease  to  understand,  as  they 
have  ceased  to  see,  and  Nature,  who,  for  once, 
has  sung  in  tune,  sings  her  exquisite  song  to  the 
artist  alone,  her  son  and  her  master — her  son  in 
that  he  loves  her,  her  master  in  that  he  knows 
her"   (Mr.  Whistler's  10  o'clock,  1904,  pp.  13- 

M). 

It  is  a  paean  of  faith  and  that  faith  energized 
him  to  the  production  of  an  endless  number  of 
"Nocturnes"  and  "Symphonies"  which  might  not 
have  impressed  Ruskin  but  which  have  indubi- 
tably enriched  the  art  treasure  of  the  world.  In 
color,  in  pattern,  in  esthetic  feeling,  they  do 
more  than  even  the  portraits  do  to  bring  out 
Whistler's  singularity  and  creative  power.  He 
was  not  a  great  designer  as  Raphael  was,  nor 
was  his  craftsmanship  equal  to  that  of  Velasquez. 
He  gave  us  no  high  imaginative  conceptions  and 
in  the  interpretation  of  life  the  human  emotion 


76 


Whistler 

that  is  in  a  Rembrandt,  for  example,  leaves  him, 
on  comparison,  looking  poor  indeed.  But  in  sheer 
beauty  he  is  very  rich,  partly  through  the  sim- 
plicity characterizing  his  design,  his  arrange- 
ment of  color,  and  partly  through  the  play  of  a 
feeling  far  more  recondite  and  mysterious.  When 
he  was  asked,  in  the  Ruskin  trial,  if  he  intended 
to  say  that  a  certain  nocturne  of  his  which  was 
produced  in  court  was  "a  correct  representation 
of  Battersea  Bridge,"  he  retorted :  "I  did  not  in- 
tend it  to  be  a  'correct'  portrait  of  the  bridge.  It 
is  only  a  moonlight  scene  and  the  pier  in  the  cen- 
ter of  the  picture  may  not  be  like  the  piers  at 
Battersea  Bridge  as  you  know  them  in  broad 
daylight.  As  to  what  the  picture  represents  it 
depends  upon  who  looks  at  it.  To  some  persons 
it  may  represent  all  that  is  intended ;  to  others  it 
may  represent  nothing.  .  .  .  My  whole  scheme 
was  only  to  bring  about  a  certain  harmony  in 
color"  (Gentle  Art  of  Making  Enemies,  p.  8). 
With  that  "certain  harmony  of  color"  he  was  not 
only  victorious  but  isolated.  It  is  significant  that 
he  has  had  no  followers  in  the  painting  of  "Noc- 
turnes," as  he  had  had  no  predecessors.  He 
founded  no  school  in  giving  to  art  what  was,  in 
fact,  an  inimitable  thing. 

His  influence  upon  etching,  on  the  other  hand, 
has  been  widespread.  Perhaps  it  has  been  be- 
cause, with  the  needle,  it  was  not  so  much  the 
"poetry  of  sight"  that  he  sought — though  he  did 
not  forget  it — as  just  the  ponderable  truth,  de- 
fined in  bewitching  webs  of  line  and  subtle 
nuances  of  tone.  It  is  one  of  the  paradoxes  of 
his  career  that  the  draftsmanship  which  worried 
him  so  much  when  he  was  using  the  brush  was 
ready  to  his  hand  when  he  used  the  etcher's 
needle.  Already  in  the  French  set,  which  dates 
from  1858,  when  he  was  still  in  his  twenties,  he 
is  a  master  of  line  and  of  style.  The  Thames  set, 
which  followed  shortly  ( i860) ,  discloses  the  same 
technical  authority,  the  same  grasp  upon  com- 
position, and,  by  the  same  token,  the  personal 
stroke  which  was  ever  after  to  be  his.  Upon  both 
these  earlier  emprises  he  launched  in  what  might 
be  called  the  traditional  spirit  of  the  art  and  was 
closely  realistic.  But  by  the  time  he  went  to 
Venice,  in  the  seventies,  and  in  later  years,  he 
more  and  more  practised  the  elimination  of  in- 
trusive detail  and  employed  a  lighter,  more  steno- 
graphic touch,  a  terser,  more  broken  line.  It  is 
this  later  mode  of  his  that  has  raised  up  a  horde 
of  clever  followers.  They  sometimes  approach 
his  skill  but  they  never  match  the  impalpable 
quality  which  places  so  many  of  the  etchings  and 
dry  points  beside  the  "Nocturnes"  in  paint  for 
beauty  and  distinction.  After  all,  the  Whistlerian- 
ism  of  Whistler  is  an  essence  which  only  "The 


Whistler 

Butterfly"  could  distil.  He  proved  this  in  many 
mediums,  in  oil,  in  water  color,  in  pastels,  and, 
as  regards  black  and  white,  not  only  in  the  etch- 
ings but  in  the  lithographs.  He  was  a  constant 
student  of  the  practical  problems  involved  in  the 
handling  of  those  mediums.  There  never  was  a 
more  conscientious  craftsman. 

Whistler  has  been  described  in  this  narrative 
as  an  histrionic  type,  dramatizing  his  own  life, 
but  there  are  hardly  any  dramatic  incidents,  in 
the  strict  sense,  to  be  noted.  As  is,  indeed,  the 
case  with  so  many  great  artists,  his  life  was  in 
his  work  a  matter  of  complete  absorption.  The 
only  episode  approaching  drama  is  the  rather  ob- 
scure one  of  his  sudden  sailing  for  Valparaiso  in 
1866.  Then,  being  at  the  still  impressionable  age 
of  thirty-two,  he  appears  to  have  gone  off  with 
others  to  South  America  in  a  warlike  frame  of 
mind,  on  an  impulse  surging  up  from  his  West 
Point  days.  He  seems  to  have  had  some  idea  of 
mixing  into  the  trouble  going  on  between  the 
Chileans  and  the  Spaniards  and  when  he  reached 
Valparaiso  he  at  least  witnessed  a  modest  bom- 
bardment. But  beyond  the  painting  of  a  few  har- 
bor pictures  his  activities  were  slight  and  he  re- 
turned to  London  before  the  year  was  out  with 
no  scars  to  show  for  his  martial  excursion.  The 
tale  of  his  having  kicked  a  Haytian  across  the 
ship's  deck  on  the  way  back  inspired  his  friend 
Dante  Rossetti  to  compose  this  eloquent  limerick 
(Pennell,  Life,  191 1  ed.,  p.  100)  : 

"There's  a  combative  Artist  named  Whistler 
Who  is,  like  his  own  hog-hairs,  a  bristler : 
A  tube  of  white  lead 
And  a  punch  on  the  head 
Offer  varied  attractions  to  Whistler." 

Du  Maurier  had  observed  his  friend's  pugna- 
cious traits  long  before,  when  they  were  young 
men  together  in  Paris.  He  recalled  them  in 
Trilby,  portraying  Whistler  as  one  Joe  Sib- 
ley, whose  "enmity  would  take  the  simple  and 
straight-forward  form  of  trying  to  punch  his  ex- 
friend's  head"  (Pennell,  Life,  II,  160).  When 
this  passage,  and  others  of  like  nature,  appeared 
in  Harper's  Magazine  in  1894,  Whistler  was  so 
infuriated  that  he  caused  them  to  be  suppressed. 
The  truth  is  that,  as  a  friend  who  knew  him  in- 
timately over  a  long  period  of  years  has  put  it 
in  a  private  letter:  "He  could  be  an  Enemy — 
there  is  no  question  of  that — but  only  when 
provocation  he  received  justified  it.  He  did  not 
mind  any  one  fighting  with  him  in  a  good  square 
fight,  a  clashing  of  honest  opinion  on  either  side." 
The  next  night  after  the  stormy  talk  about  In- 
gres, to  which  reference  has  been  made,  the 
artist  and  his  antagonist  were  dining  in  peace 
and  amity  together,  Whistler  the  pink  of  perfec- 


77 


Whistler 


Whistler 


tion  in  his  role  of  the  enchanting  host  and  talk- 
ing as  only  he  could  talk,  wittily  and  illuminat- 
ingly.  If  the  impression  exists  that  his  barbs 
were  envenomed  it  is  due  to  the  devastating  wit 
with  which  The  Gentle  Art  of  Making  Enemies 
(1890)  is  filled — to  say  nothing  of  the  challenge 
embodied  in  the  mere  title. 

That  memorable  book  came  into  being  some- 
what fortuitously.  Sheridan  Ford,  an  American 
journalist,  was  for  compiling  and  publishing  it 
in  the  late  eighties.  Then  Whistler  published  it 
himself,  after  wrangles  and  legal  contests  too 
complicated  to  be  summarized  here.  The  main 
thing  is  that  it  gathered  up  into  a  single  volume 
all  the  outstanding  evidences  of  Whistler's  skill 
in  attack  and  riposte,  his  inexhaustible  gaiety — 
and  his  philosophy  of  art.  It  opens  with  his  an- 
notated record  of  the  Ruskin  affair  and  the  pam- 
phlet on  "Whistler  v.  Ruskin :  Art  and  Art 
Critics,"  which  he  dedicated  to  the  friend  toward 
whom  he  never  changed,  Albert  Moore,  the 
painter  of  pictures  as  exquisite  in  their  way  as 
Whistler's  were  in  theirs.  It  preserved  the  mor- 
dant letters  which  he  used  to  send  to  the  press,  to 
confound  his  foes.  It  contains  the  deadly  notes 
which  he  loved  to  append  to  the  catalog  of  an  ex- 
hibition of  his,  notes  consisting  of  quotations 
from  the  critics  and  unerringly  calculated  to  ex- 
pose the  fatuity  of  those  personages.  "Mr.  Whis- 
tler's 'Ten  O'clock,'  "  is  reprinted  and  many  more 
gems  of  audacity  and  literary  art — for  this  ready 
scorner  of  the  writing  tribe  was  himself  a  mas- 
ter of  the  pen.  How  fully  he  knew  the  secret  of 
acknowledging  a  second-class  medal  with  his 
second-class  thanks !  "Pray  convey  my  senti- 
ments of  tempered  and  respectable  joy  to  the 
gentlemen  of  the  Committee  [one  in  Munich] 
and  my  complete  appreciation  of  the  second  hand 
compliment  paid  me"  (Gentle  Art  of  Making 
Enemies,  p.  229).  Thus  he  went  through  life, 
airily  stinging  whoever  incurred  his  displeasure 
— critic,  artist,  author,  functionary,  and,  most 
piercingly  of  all,  those  who  had  once  been  ad- 
mitted to  his  friendship  only  to  lapse  into  the 
ranks  of  "the  enemy." 

That  enemy,  to  tell  the  truth,  was  often  char- 
acterized by  a  most  exasperating  stupidity.  Whis- 
tler had  long  to  reckon  with  a  public  not  only 
unresponsive  but  crass  and  the  "cold  print"  is 
there  to  show  how  criticism  was  for  many  years 
unaware  of  his  merit  as  an  artist.  He  was  past 
fifty  before  the  honors  and  the  rewards  began  to 
roll  in.  For  decades  he  was  probably  as  misun- 
derstood an  artist  as  ever  lived.  His  dandiacal 
dress,  his  derisive  "Ha!  Ha!,"  his  irresistible 
impulse  to  say  the  witty  and  often  damaging 
thing,  could  not  but  "put  off"  many  a  person 


otherwise  ready  enough  to  meet  him  halfway  in 
the  social  swirl  to  which  he  was  addicted.  He 
was  a  drawing-room  idol  and  that  has  its  dan- 
gers. He  amused  people  perhaps  too  much,  so 
that  they  forgot  the  unplumbed  depths  of  seri- 
ousness in  his  fundamental  purpose.  There  is 
the  story  of  Edgar  Degas,  overhearing  some  of 
Whistler's  sallies  and  saying :  "My  friend,  you 
behave  as  though  you  had  no  talent."  And 
when  his  painting  of  Lady  Eden's  portrait  land- 
ed him  in  a  law  suit  (embalmed  in  Eden  Versus 
Whistler,  The  Baronet  and  the  Butterfly,  1899, 
an  opusculum  of  dubious  value),  it  led  also  to  a 
"row"  with  George  Moore  in  which  Whistler's 
challenging  of  the  novelist  eventuated  in  naught. 
Some  of  his  vendettas  might  well  have  been  fore- 
gone. On  the  other  hand  there  can  be  no  question 
of  his  sincerity  when  on  the  warpath  or  of  its 
close  relation  to  the  core  of  his  art.  He  fought 
not  for  the  pleasure  of  making  enemies  but  out 
of  loyalty  to  his  esthetic  principles.  There  is  a 
story  of  his  talking  with  a  friend  in  a  London 
hansom  on  the  way  to  dinner  which  admirably 
conveys  what  he  would  himself  have  called  "the 
fin  mot"  of  the  matter.  "Starr,"  he  said,  "I  have 
not  dined,  as  you  know,  so  you  need  not  think  I 
say  this  in  anything  but  a  cold  and  careful  spirit : 
it  is  better  to  live  on  bread  and  cheese  and  paint 
beautiful  things  than  to  live  like  Dives  and  paint 
potboilers"  (Seitz,  lUhistlcr  Stories,  p.  33). 

The  gravity  in  this  dictum  was  characteristic 
of  his  whole  approach  to  art.  He  was  a  pro- 
digious worker.  Those  who  knew  him  intimately 
enough  to  be  about  the  studio  when  he  was  occu- 
pied with  a  canvas  report  how  even  when  the 
light  failed  he  hated  to  put  down  the  brush,  and 
conscience  was  behind  every  stroke.  His  career 
was  one  long  immersion  in  the  task,  and  in  the 
joy  of  creating  beautiful  things.  He  had  his  re- 
ward. The  old  contumely  gave  way  to  applause. 
The  master  was  recognized  beneath  the  blithe 
flutterings  of  the  Butterfly,  and  with  heightened 
appreciation  there  came  a  new  prosperity.  Art- 
ists of  the  rising  generation  flocked  around  his 
banner  and  though  the  Royal  Academy  never 
made  him  a  member  of  the  Society  of  British  Art- 
ists, in  1884,  elected  him  to  membership  and,  in 
1886,  chose  him  to  be  president.  He  served  for 
two  years  before  the  reforms  he  instituted — all 
of  them  good,  and  one,  the  more  decorative  han- 
dling of  the  exhibitions,  especially  efficacious — 
proved  too  much  for  the  organization  and  his 
administration  came  to  an  end.  His  followers 
withdrew  and,  as  it  was  like  him  to  say,  "The 
Artists  have  come  out  and  the  British  remain" 
(Pennell,  Life,  II,  71).  The  experience  did  not 
daunt  him  from  again  undertaking  official  re- 


78 


Whistler 


Whitaker 


sponsibilities.  When  the  International  Society 
of  Sculptors,  Painters,  and  Gravers  was  founded 
in  1897  he  consented  to  act  as  president  and 
threw  himself  with  tremendous  zeal  upon  the  di- 
rection of  its  affairs.  Meanwhile,  on  Aug.  II, 
1888,  he  was  married  to  Beatrix  Godwin,  the 
widow  of  his  old  friend,  Edward  William  God- 
win, the  architect,  and  his  existence  had  in  every 
way  taken  on  a  more  stabilized  turn. 

It  was  in  the  early  nineties  that  he  went  back 
to  Paris  and  settled  in  Rue  de  Bac,  where  the 
writer  first  met  him,  an  engaging  apparition  in 
blue  jacket  and  duck  trousers,  a  straw  hat  in  one 
hand  and  a  little  birdcage  in  the  other,  every 
movement  graceful  and  every  sentence  entertain- 
ing. Crushing  sorrow  was  to  befall  him.  Mrs. 
Whistler  died  on  May  10,  1896,  and  his  world 
was  in  ruins.  But  Whistler  was  a  courageous 
man.  In  1898  he  had  the  energy  to  ally  himself 
with  a  school  in  Paris,  the  Academie  Carmen, 
established  by  one  of  his  models,  Carmen  Rossi. 
While  it  lasted,  which  was  not  very  long,  only 
until  1901,  he  would  visit  the  atelier  and  criti- 
cize the  work  of  the  students.  But  his  methods 
were  too  original,  too  exacting,  and,  besides,  he 
was  unable,  ultimately,  to  give  it  the  necessary 
attention.  His  guiding  principle  seems  to  have 
been  the  virtue  of  an  arduous  training,  such  as 
he  himself  had  missed  in  his  youth.  His  health 
was  beginning  to  go.  He  sought  its  betterment 
in  Africa  and  Corsica.  These  and  other  jour- 
neys did  him  no  good.  In  1902  he  was  in  London 
again,  ailing,  and  in  the  summer  of  the  following 
year  the  end  came.  He  was  buried  in  Chiswick 
Cemetery  on  July  22,  1903. 

He  died  a  man  of  many  honors,  an  officer  of 
the  French  Legion  of  Honor,  a  member  of  Ger- 
man, French,  and  Italian  bodies  of  artists.  The 
"Mother"  was  in  Luxembourg,  later  to  be  trans- 
ferred to  the  Louvre,  and  paintings  and  prints 
of  his  had  been  established  in  collections  every- 
where, public  and  private.  In  the  academy  at 
West  Point  a  stele  designed  by  Saint-Gaudens 
was  erected.  There  is  a  bust  of  him  by  Mac- 
Monnies  in  the  Hall  of  Fame  of  New  York  Uni- 
versity. The  Freer  Gallery  at  Washington  con- 
tains, besides  the  Peacock  Room,  an  extensive 
collection  of  his  works,  and  an  invaluable  body 
of  Whistleriana  has  been  given  to  the  Library  of 
Congress  by  the  Pennells.  A  movement  was 
started  in  London  for  a  monument  to  him  by 
Rodin  but  though  the  commission  was  in  the 
sculptor's  hands  for  ten  years  the  model  he  left 
behind  him  at  his  death  was  so  unsatisfactory 
that  the  scheme  was  abandoned.  Soon  after 
Whistler's  death  there  was  a  great  memorial 
exhibition  of  his  works  held  in  London,  similar 


enterprises  were  organized  in  New  York  and 
Boston,  and  in  museums  and  art  galleries  gen- 
erally Whistler's  art  continues  to  be  a  living 
quantity.  The  numerous  memorial  episodes  tes- 
tify to  what  the  world  has  come  to  think  of 
Whistler.  There  are  certain  words  of  his  own, 
spoken  to  his  friend,  the  late  Edward  G.  Ken- 
nedy, which  may  also  be  cited  here  as  pertinent : 
"When  I  see  the  things  by  these  other  fellows," 
he  said,  "and  look  at  my  own,  there  is  something 
about  them  that  is  much  better  and  more  digni- 
fied." It  is  a  proud  judgment  but  it  is  a  true 
one  and  the  world  must  listen  willingly  enough 
when  he  says,  as  it  is  easy  to  imagine  him  say- 
ing: "I  shall  be  born  when  and  where  I  choose, 
I  shall  select  what  I  choose  to  look  at,  and  I  shall 
paint  as  I  choose."  It  is,  indeed,  impossible  to 
deny  him.  His  art  speaks  with  the  accent  of 
originality  and  genius. 

[Catalogue  of  Paintings,  Drawings,  Etchings,  and 
Lithographs.  The  International  Society  of  Sculptors, 
Painters,  and  Gravers  Memorial  Exhibition  of  Works 
of  Late  James  McNeill  Whistler  .  .  .  from  Feb.  22  to 
April  15,  1905  (n.d.),  the  best  available  list  of  his 
works;  Frederick  Wedmore,  Whistler  Etchings;  A 
Study  and  a  Catalogue  (1886)  ;  E.  G.  Kennedy,  comp., 
The  Etched  Work  of  Whistler,  with  introduction  by 
Royal  Cortissoz  (6  vols,  of  plates  and  1  vol.  of  text, 
1910)  ;  D.  C.  Seitz,  Writings  by  and  about  James  Ab- 
bott McNeill  Whistler;  A  Bibliography  (19 10)  ;  Eliz- 
abeth R.  and  Joseph  Pennell,  The  Life  of  James  Mc- 
Neill Whistler  (2  vols.,  1908),  the  official  biography; 
and  The  Whistler  Journal  (1921),  very  valuable;  Eliz- 
abeth R.  Pennell,  The  Art  of  Whistler  (1928),  avail- 
able in  Modern  Library ;  and  Whistler  the  Friend 
(1930)  ;  Frederick  Wedmore,  Four  Masters  of  Etching 
(1883)  ;  Mortimer  Menpes,  Whistler  as  I  Knew  Him 
(1904);  O.  H.  Bacher,  With  Whistler  in  Venice 
(1908)  ;  Henry  James,  "Contemporary  Notes  on  Whis- 
tler and  Ruskin,"  in  Views  and  Reviews  (1908)  ;  T.  R. 
Way,  Memories  of  James  McNeill  Whistler  the  Artist 
(1912),  by  his  lithographer;  Royal  Cortissoz,  Art  and 
Common  Sense  (191 3)  ;  D.  C.  Seitz,  Whistler  Stories 
(1913);  Theodore  Duret,  Whistler  (1917),  trans,  by 
Frank  Rutter  ;  A.  E.  Gallatin,  Portraits  of  Whistler; 
A  Critical  Study  and  an  Iconography  (1918)  ;  James 
Laver,  Whistler  (1930)  ;  obituary  in  the  Times  (Lon- 
don), July  18,  1903  ;  "Whistler  Centenary  Number," 
The  Index  of  Twentieth  Century  Artists,  June   1934! 

R.C. 

WHITAKER,  ALEXANDER  (1585-March 
1616/17),  Anglican  clergyman,  was  born  at 
Cambridge,  England.  His  father  was  William 
Whitaker  (see  Dictionary  of  National  Biog- 
raphy), a  noted  Puritan  divine,  master  of  St. 
John's  College  and  Regius  Professor  of  Divinity 
at  the  University  of  Cambridge ;  his  mother  was 
a  daughter  of  Nicholas  Culverwell.  Alexander 
Whitaker  received  the  bachelor's  degree  at  Cam- 
bridge in  1604/05  and  the  master's  degree  in 
1608,  and  was  ordained  to  the  ministry  of  the 
Church  of  England.  Appointed  to  a  living  in  the 
North  of  England,  he  ministered  there  for  a  few 
years,  but  soon  volunteered  to  go  to  the  newly 
established  colony  of  Virginia.    He  arrived  at 


79 


Whitaker 

Jamestown  with  Sir  Thomas  Dale  \_q.v.~\  in  the 
spring  of  1611  and  within  a  short  while  became 
minister  of  two  new  settlements,  Henricopolis 
and  Bermuda  Hundreds,  some  fifty  miles  up  the 
James  River.  The  "Laws  Divine,  Moral  and 
Martial"  brought  over  by  Dale  required  the 
minister  to  preach  twice  on  Sunday  and  once  on 
Wednesday,  with  daily  morning  and  evening 
prayer.  His  influence  was  important  in  cheer- 
ing and  encouraging  the  scattered  little  groups 
of  colonists,  and  in  settling  their  differences.  In 
this  work  Whitaker  continued,  living  at  "Rock 
Hall,"  opposite  Henricopolis,  until  his  death  by 
drowning  in  March  1616/17.  He  was  never  mar- 
ried. 

In  the  early  formative  years  of  the  colony,  the 
leaders  of  the  London  Company,  the  ministers 
who  came,  and  the  colonists  generally  were  of  the 
Puritan  element  in  the  Church  of  England. 
Whitaker,  who  was  of  the  same  school  of  thought 
as  Sir  Edwin  Sandys  and  Rev.  Richard  Buck  of 
Jamestown,  in  a  letter  to  his  relative,  Rev.  Wil- 
liam Gouge,  June  18,  1614,  wrote:  "I  much 
more  muse  that  so  few  of  our  English  minis- 
ters that  were  so  hot  against  the  surplice  and 
subscription  come  hither  where  neither  are  spo- 
ken of"  (Goodwin,  post,  pp.  41-42).  His  words 
expressed  the  attitude  of  welcome  toward  Puri- 
tan ministers  and  lay  people  which  character- 
ized Virginia  until  the  later  part  of  the  reign  of 
King  Charles  I,  when  in  strong  loyalty  to  the 
King  laws  were  enacted  forbidding  Puritan  min- 
isters to  enter  or  remain  in  the  Colony.  Whit- 
aker undoubtedly  helped  to  form  and  strengthen 
this  early  attitude,  and  to  establish  Virginia's 
characteristic  tradition  of  low  churchmanship. 
In  1613  a  sermon  written  by  him,  entitled  Good 
News  from  Virginia,  was  published  by  the  Lon- 
don Company;  in  it  he  emphasized  the  impor- 
tance of  supporting  the  effort  to  establish  the 
Colony,  urged  the  conversion  of  the  Indians  to 
the  Christian  religion,  and  gave  a  description 
of  the  country.  This  sermon,  with  a  letter  to 
Rev.  William  Crashaw  dated  Aug.  9,  161 1,  a 
letter  to  Sir  Thomas  Smith,  treasurer  of  the 
Company  dated  Henrico,  July  28,  1612,  and  the 
letter  to  Rev.  William  Gouge,  mentioned  above, 
are  his  only  known  writings.  Although  his  min- 
istry in  Virginia  was  very  brief,  the  expressions 
of  commendation  by  his  associates  there  and  by 
the  officials  of  the  London  Company  reveal  the 
usefulness  of  his  devoted  and  unselfish  life.  Per- 
haps the  best-remembered  detail  of  his  pastoral 
work  is  that  he  instructed  Pocahontas  \_q.v.~]  in 
the  principles  of  the  Christian  faith  when  she 
was  held  as  a  hostage  at  Henricopolis,  and  bap- 
tized her  prior  to  her  marriage  to  John  Rolfe. 


Whitaker 

[Alexander  Brown,  The  First  Republic  in  America 
(1898)  and  The  Genesis  of  the  U.  S.  (1890)  ;  William 
Meade,  Old  Churches,  Ministers  and  Families  in  Va. 
(1857)  ;  F.  L.  Hawks,  Contributions  to  the  Ecclesias- 
tical Hist,  of  the  U.  S.  A.  (1836),  vol.  I ;  P.  A.  Bruce, 
Economic  Hist,  of  Va.  in  the  Seventeenth  Century 
(1895)  ;  Institutional  Hist,  of  Va.  in  the  Seventeenth 
Century  (1910);  John  Rolfe,  "True  Relation  of  the 
State  of  Virginia"  (1616),  in  Southern  Literary  Mes- 
senger, June  1839  ;  J.  S.  M.  Anderson,  The  Hist,  of  the 
Church  of  England  in  the  Colonies,  vol.  I  (1845)  ;  Wil- 
liam Stith,  The  Hist,  of  the  First  Discovery  and  Set- 
tlement of  Va.  (1747);  William  and  Mary  Quart., 
July  1936  ;  E.  L.  Goodwin,  The  Colonial  Church  in  Va. 
(copr.  1927).]  G.M.B. 

WHITAKER,  DANIEL  KIMBALL  (Apr. 
13,  1801-Mar.  24,  1881),  editor,  was  born  in 
Sharon,  Mass.,  the  son  of  the  Rev.  Jonathan  and 
Mary  (Kimball)  Whitaker.  Preparatory  to  en- 
tering Harvard  College,  he  was  educated  by  his 
father,  a  scholar  of  achievement,  and  at  various 
small  academies.  He  received  the  degree  of 
B.A.  from  Harvard  in  1820  and  the  degree  of 
M.A.  in  1823.  For  his  dissertation  on  "The  Lit- 
erary Character  of  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson"  he  won 
the  Boylston  Medal ;  he  also  won  the  Bowdoin 
Medal  for  oratory.  Upon  leaving  Harvard  he 
studied  privately  for  the  ministry  and  received 
a  license  to  preach.  When  ill  health  compelled 
him  to  try  a  warmer  climate  he  made  a  success- 
ful preaching  tour  through  several  Southern 
states  accompanied  by  his  father.  In  1823  his 
health  failed  to  improve  and  he  abandoned  the 
ministry  to  live  on  a  farm  in  South  Carolina, 
and  for  ten  years  he  devoted  himself  to  the  cul- 
ture of  rice  and  cotton. 

When  country  life  became  too  tranquil  for 
him  he  moved  to  Charleston  where  he  studied 
law  and  established  a  practice.  He  tried  sev- 
eral important  cases  successfully  and  was  known 
as  an  orator,  but  soon  he  wearied  of  law  and 
turned  to  literature.  He  organized  and  edited  a 
number  of  periodicals,  including  the  Southern 
Literary  Journal  and  Magazine  of  Arts,  in 
Charleston,  from  1835  to  1837,  the  Southern 
Quarterly  Review,  New  Orleans,  1842-47,  and 
the  New  Orleans  Monthly  Review,  New  Or- 
leans, 1874-76.  Of  these  the  Southern  Quarter- 
ly Review  was  most  successful.  It  was  published 
in  New  Orleans  instead  of  Charleston  in  or- 
der to  command  a  more  extensive  circulation 
throughout  the  South  and  Southwest.  Whitaker 
secured  a  subscription  list  of  $16,000  and  en- 
gaged some  of  the  best-known  writers  of  the 
South  as  contributors.  William  Gilmore  Simms 
[g.e'.]  wrote  for  the  magazine  frequently  al- 
though he  disliked  Whitaker  personally.  About 
January  1847  the  Review  was  bought  by  a 
Charleston  gentleman  who  preferred  Southern 
editorship  and  secured,  first,  J.  Milton  Clapp, 
and  then   William  Gilmore  Simms  as  editors. 


8( 


Whi  taker 


Whitaker 


Whitaker  returned  to  Charleston  where  he  re- 
mained until  1866  when  he  took  up  residence 
again  in  New  Orleans.  During  Buchanan's  ad- 
ministration he  held  a  government  position.  Af- 
ter the  secession  of  South  Carolina  he  was  em- 
ployed by  the  Post  Office  Department  of  the  Con- 
federate government.  His  scholarly  interests, 
especially  in  the  classics,  were  lifelong;  he  liked 
to  analyze  political  and  historical  problems.  As 
a  writer  he  was  diffuse  but  often  persuasive. 
"Whitaker  is  one  of  the  best  essayists  in  North 
America,"  Poe  is  said  to  have  written,  "and 
stands  in  the  foremost  rank  of  elegant  writers" 
(Jewell,  post,  n.  p.).  He  was  a  frequent  con- 
tributor to  the  National  Intelligencer  (Wash- 
ington, D.  C),  the  Charleston  Courier,  and  the 
New  Orleans  Times,  but  the  best  of  his  work  ap- 
peared in  the  Southern  Quarterly  Rez'icw.  As  a 
person  he  seems  to  have  inspired  respect  and 
affection.  To  the  surprise  of  his  friends,  famil- 
iar with  his  early  prejudice  against  Catholicism, 
he  was  united  with  St.  Patrick's  Church  of  New 
Orleans  in  1878.  He  died  in  Houston,  Tex.,  and 
was  buried  in  New  Orleans.  Two  daughters  sur- 
vived him.  Whitaker  was  twice  married :  his 
first  wife  bore  him  two  sons.  After  her  death 
he  was  married  to  Mrs.  Mary  Scrimzeour  Mil- 
ler, of  South  Carolina,  the  daughter  of  Samuel 
Furman. 

[Private  papers  of  the  family  ;  Harvard  Univ.  Alum- 
ni Records  ;  L.  A.  Morrison,  S.  P.  Sharpies,  Hist,  of 
the  Kimball  Family  in  America  (1897),  vol.  I;  E.  L. 
Jewell,  Jewell's  Crescent  City  Illustrated  (1873);  W. 
P.  Trent,  William  Gilmore  Simms  (1892);  New-Or- 
leans Times,  Mar.  26,  1881.]  J.  R.  M. 

WHITAKER,  NATHANIEL  (November 
1730— Jan.  26,  1795),  clergyman,  was  born  in 
Huntington,  Long  Island,  the  son  of  Jonathan 
and  Elizabeth  (Jervis)  Whitaker.  The  family 
soon  removed  to  New  Jersey,  and  Nathaniel  was 
graduated  from  the  College  of  New  Jersey 
(Princeton)  in  1752.  He  was  licensed  to  preach 
by  the  New  York  Presbytery,  and  became  min- 
ister of  the  Presbyterian  Church  at  Woodbridge, 
N.  J.,  in  1755.  In  Woodbridge  he  married  Sarah 
Smith,  by  whom  he  had  five  children.  In  1760 
he  transferred  his  activities  to  the  Sixth  (Chel- 
sea) Parish  of  Norwich,  Conn. 

Here  he  was  a  neighbor  of  the  Rev.  Eleazar 
Wheelock  [q.v.~],  who  in  1754  had  established  at 
Lebanon  a  successful  charity  school  for  the  edu- 
cation of  Indians.  At  the  suggestion  of  George 
Whitefield  [qr .?'.],  Wheelock  had  determined  to 
send  one  of  his  old  pupils,  the  Rev.  Samson 
Occom  \q.v.~\,  to  England  to  raise  funds  for  this 
undertaking,  and  Whitaker  was  chosen  to  ac- 
company him  as  manager  of  the  enterprise.  The 
two  envoys,  sailing  from  Boston  in  December 

8 


1765,  reached  England  the  following  February. 
Through  the  influence  of  Whitefield  they  were 
cordially  received  by  such  evangelical  leaders 
as  William,  second  Earl  of  Dartmouth,  the 
Countess  of  Huntingdon,  Sir  Charles  Hotham, 
and  John  Thornton.  Two  busy  years  of  solicita- 
tion, personal  interviews,  and  almost  daily 
preaching  were  spent  in  England  and  Scotland. 
The  gross  amount  obtained  was  £12,000,  a  larger 
sum  than  was  secured  by  direct  solicitation  in 
England  by  any  other  educational  institution  in 
America  in  pre-Revolutionary  days.  Probably 
the  appeal  of  Occom  was  most  effective  in  at- 
taining this  result,  but  the  business  acumen  and 
industry  of  Whitaker  contributed  in  no  small  de- 
gree to  the  success  of  the  mission.  Although  the 
fund  (placed  in  the  care  of  a  trust  headed  by 
the  Earl  of  Dartmouth)  for  the  most  part  was 
spent  for  the  purpose  for  which  it  was  designed, 
the  possession  of  the  endowment  was  largely  re- 
sponsible for  the  grant  of  the  charter  of  Dart- 
mouth College  to  Wheelock  by  Gov.  John  Went- 
worth  [q.v.~\  of  New  Hampshire  in  1769.  Dur- 
ing his  stay  Whitaker  received  the  degree  of 
D.D.  from  St.  Andrew's  University  in  1767. 
From  1769  to  1784  he  was  minister  of  the  Third 
Church  at  Salem,  Mass.,  and  from  1785  to  1790 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church  at  Skowhegan,  Me. 
He  died  in  Hampton,  Va. 

The  insistence  of  Whitaker  upon  the  Presby- 
terian form  of  church  government  in  the  hostile 
soil  of  New  England,  resulted  in  continual  fric- 
tion with  his  congregations,  and,  in  each  case, 
in  his  final  removal  from  his  position.  A  number 
of  sermons  relating  to  this  issue  were  published, 
as  well  as  two  upon  the  doctrine  of  the  regenera- 
tion. He  was  an  ardent  patriot,  and  published 
a  sermon  upon  the  Boston  massacre,  and  two  vin- 
dictive attacks  upon  the  Tories.  His  activities 
extended  to  practical  matters:  he  engaged  in 
trade  in  Norwich ;  he  attempted  to  combine  the 
practice  of  inoculation  with  the  main  purpose 
of  his  English  mission;  he  established  a  salt- 
peter factory  in  Salem  during  the  Revolution ; 
and  he  built  a  new  church  building  in  each  of 
his  three  New  England  parishes.  His  fondness 
for  controversy  brought  him  many  enemies.  The 
terms  "tricky"  and  "unreliable"  are  among  the 
mildest  which  they  applied  to  him.  On  the  other 
hand,  he  was  singularly  handsome,  with  a  good 
voice  and  eloquence  above  the  average,  he  was 
dignified  and  positive  in  manner,  and,  most  of 
all,  possessed  a  high  degree  of  initiative  and 
driving  force. 

TThe  Dartmouth  Coll.  Lib.  has  manuscript  accounts 
of  Whitaker  by  his  grandson,  D.  K.  Whitaker,  and  by 
O.  M.  Voorhees  (from  the  latter  of  which  t he  date  of 
birth  is  taken),  as  well  as  the  Whitaker  collection  of 

I 


Whitcher 

MSS.  relating  to  the  English  mission.  Much  of  the 
latter  appears  in  An  Indian  Preacher  in  England 
(l933)>  ed.  by  L.  B.  Richardson.  See  also  Frederick 
Chase,  A  Hist,  of  Dartmouth  Coll.  (1891)  ;  L.  B.  Rich- 
ardson, Hist,  of  Dartmouth  Coll.  (1932)  ;  Frances  M. 
Caulkins,  Hist,  of  Norwich  (1866  ed.)  ;  J.  B.  Felt, 
Annals  of  Salem,  2nd  ed.,  vol.  II  (1849).  Scathing  ref- 
erences occur  in  The  Diary  of  William  Bcntley,  D.D., 
vol.  I  (1905).  For  Whitaker's  theological  writings,  see 
Joseph  Haroutunian,  Piety  Versus  Moralism  (1932). 
A  portrait  of  Whitaker,  painted  during  his  stay  in  Eng- 
land by  Mason  Chamberlin,  is  in  the  possession  of  Dart- 
mouth Coll.]  L.  B.R. 

WHITCHER,  FRANCES  MIRIAM 
BERRY  (Nov.  1,  1814-Jan.  4,  1852),  author, 
was  born  in  Whitesboro,  N.  Y.,  one  of  the  thir- 
teen children  of  Lewis  and  Elizabeth  (Wells) 
Berry.  Her  father,  an  early  settler  in  Whites- 
boro, was  at  the  time  of  her  birth  owner  of 
"Berry's  Tavern,"  an  important  hostelry  in  the 
county.  During  her  childhood  she  attended  the 
village  school,  where  she  was  outstanding  be- 
cause of  her  unusual  memory  and  her  skill  in 
drawing  caricatures.  Further  study  at  the  local 
academy  and  French  lessons  in  nearby  Utica 
completed  her  formal  education.  She  read  wide- 
ly and  early  tried  her  hand  at  prose  and  verse. 
Her  first  work  to  attract  attention  was  a  series 
of  humorous  sketches  in  colloquial  dialect  called 
"The  Widow  Spriggins,"  which  she  read  to  her 
fellow-members  of  the  Maeonian  Circle,  a  social 
and  literary  society  in  Whitesboro.  The  admira- 
tion these  narratives  aroused  led  her  to  send 
them  to  a  weekly  paper  in  Rome,  N.  Y.  Encour- 
aged by  their  publication  she  began  another  se- 
ries in  the  same  vein  called  "The  Widow  Bedott's 
Table-Talk. "  The  first  installment  of  this  work, 
signed  with  her  pen-name  "Frank,"  appeared  in 
Joseph  C.  Neal's  Saturday  Gazette  and  Lady's 
Literary  Museum  in  the  autumn  of  1846.  The 
immediate  popularity  of  the  series  brought  her 
an  invitation  from  Louis  A.  Godey  to  become  a 
contributor  to  the  Lady's  Book.  On  Jan.  6,  1847, 
she  married  the  Rev.  B.  W.  Whitcher,  an  Epis- 
copal clergyman,  and  the  following  spring  ac- 
companied him  to  his  parish  in  Elmira,  N.  Y. 
There  she  continued  to  write,  supplying  Widow 
Bedott  papers  to  Neal's  Gazette  until  1850.  To 
Godey's  Lady's  Book  she  contributed  a  similar 
series  entitled  "Aunt  Magwire's  Experiences," 
and  another  in  a  different  style  called  "Letters 
from  Timberville,"  incomplete  at  her  death. 
Some  of  these  sketches  were  illustrated  with  her 
own  drawings.  Her  fame  as  a  humorist  did  not 
endear  her  to  her  husband's  parishioners.  Her 
always  strong  sense  of  the  ludicrous  and  the 
absurd  tempted  her  to  satirize  much  that  she 
found  in  small-town  society.  She  dealt  sharply 
with  the  sewing  circle,  the  donation  party,  and 
frith  the  pretentiousness  of  the  self-satisfied.   As 


Whitcomb 

she  was  good  at  portraiture,  some  of  her  sketches 
gave  offense  to  persons  who  fancied  that  they 
recognized  the  originals.  One  irate  husband 
threatened  legal  prosecution  for  damage  done 
to  his  wife's  character.  Besides  the  humorous 
works  for  which  she  was  well  known  she  also 
wrote  a  number  of  hymns  and  devotional  poems. 
In  these  her  deeply  religious  nature  and  her  love 
for  the  services  of  the  church  found  expression. 
Some  of  them  appeared  in  Neal's  Gazette,  others 
in  the  Gospel  Messenger  of  Utica.  The  last  two 
years  of  her  life  were  spent  at  her  home  in 
Whitesboro.  There  she  worked  on  a  book  called 
"Mary  Elmer,"  which  she  did  not  live  to  finish. 
After  the  birth  of  a  daughter  in  November  1849 
she  failed  rapidly  in  health.  She  joined  her  hus- 
band for  a  brief  time  in  a  new  parish  at  Oswego, 
but  illness  prevented  her  remaining.  She  died 
at  Whitesboro. 

After  her  death  her  prose  writings  were  col- 
lected in  two  volumes :  The  Widow  Bedott  Pa- 
pers (1856),  with  an  introduction  by  Alice  B. 
Neal,  and  Widow  Spriggins,  Mary  Elmer,  and 
Other  Sketches  (1867),  with  a  memoir  by  Mrs. 
M.  L.  Ward  Whitcher.  In  1879  the  Widow 
Bedott  was  reintroduced  to  the  public  in  a  four- 
act  comedy  by  Petroleum  V.  Nasby  (D.  R. 
Locke),  Widow  Bedott,  or  a  Hunt  for  a  Hus- 
band, which  followed  the  original  dialogue 
closely.  The  part  of  the  widow  was  successfully 
taken  by  Neil  Burgess  [q.v.],  an  actor  of  eccen- 
tric female  parts. 

["Passages  in  the  Life  of  an  Author,"  Godey's  Lady's 
Book,  July,  Aug.  1853  ;  introduction  by  Alice  Neal  and 
Mrs.  Ward  Whitcher,  ante ;  Some  Account  of  "The 
Widotv  Bedott  Papers"  and  the  Comedy  of  that  Name 
(n.d.)  ;  information  from  family;  death  date  from 
Gospel  Messenger,  Jan.  9,  1852.]  B.  M.  S. 

WHITCOMB  JAMES  (Dec.  1,  1795-Oct.  4, 
1852),  governor  of  Indiana,  United  States  sen- 
ator, son  of  John  and  Lydia  (Parmenter)  Whit- 
comb, was  born  in  Rochester,  Windsor  County, 
Vt.  His  father  served  as  a  private  in  the  Ameri- 
can Revolution ;  his  first  paternal  American  an- 
cestor, John,  emigrated  from  England  and  set- 
tled in  Dorchester,  Mass.,  by  1635.  In  1806  the 
family  moved  to  the  neighborhood  of  Cincinnati, 
Ohio.  James,  studious,  and  a  poor  farmer,  is 
said  to  have  worked  his  way  through  Transyl- 
vania University,  Lexington,  Ky.,  but  there  is 
no  record  of  his  attendance.  He  studied  law,  and 
in  1822  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  Fayette  Coun- 
ty, Ky.  From  1824  to  1836  he  practised  law  at 
Bloomington,  Ind.,  and  from  1826  to  1829  was 
prosecuting  attorney  for  that  judicial  district, 
the  fifth.  He  was  elected  to  the  state  Senate  for 
the  sessions  1830-31  and  from  1832  to  1836, 
standing  with  the  Democratic  party  as  party  lines 


82 


Whitcomb 


Whitcomb 


became  definitely  drawn.  In  1836  he  was  ap- 
pointed commissioner  of  the  general  land  office  by 
President  Jackson,  serving  until  the  end  of  Van 
Buren's  term,  and  mastering  both  French  and 
Spanish  for  use  in  his  work.  In  1841  he  estab- 
lished a  law  office  at  Terre  Haute,  Ind.,  where 
he  soon  developed  a  large  and  lucrative  practice. 
In  the  campaign  of  1843  he  wrote  a  popular  trea- 
tise, Facts  for  the  People,  one  of  the  most  ef- 
fective arguments  ever  written  against  a  protec- 
tive tariff.  Whitcomb  was  elected  governor  over 
the  incumbent,  Samuel  Bigger — the  first  Dem- 
ocrat to  defeat  a  Whig  for  that  office — and  took 
office  in  December  1843.  In  1846  he  was  reelect- 
ed over  Joseph  G.  Marshall. 

As  governor,  Whitcomb  contributed  decisively 
toward  the  adjustment  of  the  staggering  indebt- 
edness incurred  by  the  state  in  the  building  of 
roads,  railroads,  and  especially  canals,  under  the 
Mammoth  Improvement  acts,  and  in  the  failure 
of  most  of  the  canal  system.  Under  an  arrange- 
ment effected  by  Charles  Butler  [q.Z'.],  attorney 
for  the  largest  bondholding  interests,  the  bond- 
holders agreed  to  take  as  half  payment  the  Wa- 
bash and  Erie  Canal  and  to  accept  state  "regis- 
tered" and  "deferred"  stock  for  the  other  half 
of  the  bonds,  and  the  state  stopped  payment  of 
principal  and  interest  on  the  old  bonds.  Though 
there  had  been  default  in  payment  of  interest 
and  though  investors  lost  heavily,  the  state  tech- 
nically avoided  repudiation  of  its  debts.  Whit- 
comb vigorously  promoted  popular  education 
and  the  development  of  benevolent  institutions. 
The  office  of  superintendent  of  common  schools 
was  created  in  1843 ;  a  school  for  the  deaf  was 
developed  by  the  state  in  1844;  a  state  hospital 
for  the  insane  was  provided  for  in  1845  ar>d  re~ 
ceived  patients  in  1848 ;  and  in  1847  the  Indiana 
Institute  for  the  Education  of  the  Blind  was 
created.  He  was  an  ardent  supporter  of  the  na- 
tional administration  in  the  War  with  Mexico, 
financed  the  raising  of  troops  by  loans  from 
branches  of  the  State  Bank,  and  personally  su- 
perintended recruiting  in  Indianapolis. 

On  Mar.  24,  1846,  he  married  Martha  Ann 
(Renwick)  Hurst,  daughter  of  William  Ren- 
wick  of  Pickaway  County,  Ohio.  Mrs.  Whit- 
comb died  the  following  year,  shortly  after  the 
birth  of  a  daughter  who  was  to  become  the  wife 
of  another  governor  of  the  state,  Claude  Mat- 
thews [q.z\~\.  In  the  election  of  United  States 
senator  by  the  General  Assembly  for  the  term 
beginning  in  March  1849,  Whitcomb  defeated  the 
incumbent,  Edward  Allen  Hannegan  [q.Z'.~\.  In 
failing  health,  and  suffering  severely  from  gravel, 
he  took  little  part  in  the  Senate  proceedings  in 
the  critical  years  1849-52,  and  died  in  New  York 

8 


City,  after  a  surgical  operation.  He  is  buried  in 
Crown  Hill  Cemetery,  Indianapolis.  He  be- 
queathed his  extensive  library  to  Asbury  (De 
Pauw)  University.  He  was  an  active  member  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  and  at  the  time 
of  his  death  a  vice-president  of  the  American 
Bible  Society.  He  was  an  accomplished  violin- 
ist and  an  eloquent  speaker,  forceful  both  in  his 
ideas  and  in  his  expression.  His  personal  charm 
and  social  grace  were  strangely  crossed  with 
habits  of  penuriousness  in  small  matters,  which, 
with  his  elaborate  entertainments  in  the  old 
"Governor's  Mansion,"  were  long  a  tradition 
throughout  the  state.  He  was  an  inveterate 
smoker  and  user  of  snuff.  Somewhat  above  aver- 
age height,  he  was  of  a  compact  build,  of  dark 
complexion,  with  a  mass  of  black  hair,  usually 
falling  in  ringlets  nearly  to  his  shoulders. 

[Charlotte  Whitcomb,  The  Whitcomb  Family  in 
America  (1904)  ;  Ind.  Senate  Jour.,  1830-36,  1843-48; 
Ind.  House  Jour.,  1843-48;  Ind.  Documentary  Jour., 
1843-46;  J.  P.  Dunn,  Ind.  and  Indianans  (19 19),  vol. 
I ;  Logan  Esarey,  "Internal  Improvements  in  Early 
Ind.,"  Ind.  Hist.  Soc.  Pubs.,  vol.  V  (1915),  and  A  Hist. 
of  Ind.  (3rd  ed.,  2  vols.,  1924)  ;  Oran  Perry,  Ind.  in 
the  Mexican  War  (1908);  O.  H.  Smith,  Early  Ind. 
Trials;  and  Sketches  (1858)  ;  W.  W.  Woollen,  Biog. 
and  Hist.  Sketches  of  Early  Ind.  (1883)  ;  obituary  in 
N.  Y.  Daily  Times,  Oct.  5,  1852.]  q  g_  q 

WHITCOMB,  SELDEN  LINCOLN  (July 
19,  1866-Apr.  22,  1930),  teacher  and  writer,  was 
born  in  Grinnell,  Iowa,  the  son  of  Abraham 
Whitcomb  and  his  wife  Mary  (Fisher)  Whit- 
comb. He  was  a  descendant  of  John  Whitcomb 
who  had  settled  in  Dorchester,  Mass.,  by  1635. 
His  family  connection  and  the  pioneer  group  to 
which  it  belonged,  were  of  the  type  which  often 
came  from  New  England  in  the  period  before 
the  Civil  War  to  make  settlements  in  the  Middle 
West,  people  whose  thought  and  purposes  were 
marked  by  liberality  and  integrity.  The  sur- 
roundings of  his  earlier  years  contributed  to 
these  elements  in  himself  and  in  his  writings. 
His  elementary  education  was  obtained  in  Grin- 
nell, and  he  received  the  degree  of  A.B.  from 
Iowa  College  (afterwards  Grinnell)  in  1887. 
He  later  carried  on  graduate  work  in  Cornell 
University  (1889-91)  and  in  Harvard,  Chicago, 
and  Columbia.  He  received  the  degree  of  A.M. 
in  1893  from  Columbia,  where  in  1893-94  he 
was  a  fellow  in  literature.  He  also  was  briefly 
in  the  universities  of  Colorado  and  Washington. 
When  he  began  to  teach  he  gave  instruction  in 
German  and  the  classics  at  Stockton  Academy, 
Stockton,  Kan.  (1887-89),  and  in  civics  at  the 
Iowa  State  Teachers  College  (1891-92)  before 
he  settled  to  the  teaching  of  English  and  finally 
of  comparative  literature.  From  1895  to  1905 
he  was  professor  of  English  in  Grinnell  College. 

3 


White 

In  1905  he  removed  to  the  University  of  Kansas, 
at  Lawrence,  where  at  the  time  of  his  death  he 
was  professor  of  comparative  literature.  From 
1912  to  1930  he  was  editor  of  the  Humanistic 
Series  published  by  the  university. 

His  written  work  is  of  several  different  types. 
The  result  of  his  study  and  teaching  is  found  in 
his  Chronological  Outlines  of  American  Litera- 
ture (1894)  and  The  Study  of  a  Novel  (1905), 
and  in  various  articles  and  pamphlets.  All  this 
work  is  purposed  chiefly  to  be  useful  to  students 
of  literature.  He  published  also  Lyrical  Verse 
(1898),  Poems  (1912),  Random  Rhymes  and 
the  Three  Queens  (1913),  Via  Crucis  (1915). 
His  poem  "The  Path-makers,"  which  won  a  state 
poetry  prize  for  him,  was  published  in  Poetry  in 
August  1924.  Besides  these  he  issued  small  col- 
lections of  his  observations  of  outdoor  life:  Au- 
tumn Notes  in  Iowa  (1914),  Nature  Notes — 
Spring  (1907),  and  papers  in  different  peri- 
odicals. He  had  great  curiosity  regarding  the 
history  of  plants  and  animals,  and  in  his  youth 
and  early  manhood  he  made  long  excursions  or 
undertook  outdoor  work  of  some  kind.  Much 
later  than  that  he  spent  whole  seasons  at  some 
interesting  post  of  observation,  as  at  the  Puget 
Sound  marine  station,  where  he  several  times 
passed  a  summer.  The  records  he  published  have 
something  of  a  Gilbert  White  substance  and  en- 
thusiasm. Another  aspect  of  this  interest  is 
found  in  the  faithfulness  of  the  nature  element 
in  his  poems.  The  whole  body  of  his  poetry 
could  be  included  in  one  volume  of  medium  size, 
but  it  is  of  finished  quality,  fine  in  feeling  and 
phrase.  He  was  a  notable  teacher.  He  provided 
a  lasting  stimulus  for  his  students,  partly  be- 
cause of  an  unpredictable  personal  quality  and 
custom,  and  partly  because  of  the  impressive  body 
of  his  own  knowledge.  He  was  a  very  modest 
man,  retiring  and  rather  solitary  in  his  habits, 
not  forming  wide  personal  associations.  His 
general  social  interest  is  shown,  however,  in  his 
membership  in  many  organizations,  economic, 
sociological,  political,  besides  the  literary  and 
professional  societies  with  which  he  would  nat- 
urally be  affiliated.  He  was  married  twice — first, 
in  1899,  to  Dora  May  Wilbur,  who  died  in  1902 ; 
second,  in  1919,  to  Edna  Pearle  Osborne,  who 
outlived  him  by  a  little  more  than  a  year. 

[Charlotte  Whitcomb,  The  Whit  comb  Family  in 
America  (1904);  Who's  Who  in  America,  1930-31; 
Trans.  Kan.  Acad.  Sci.,  vol.  XXXVI  (1933),  p.  31; 
funeral  address  delivered  by  a  friend,  Rev.  E.  M.  Vit- 
tum  of  Grinnell  ;  obituary  in  Emporia  Gazette  (Em- 
poria, Kan.),  Apr.  23,  1930.]  M.  L — n. 

WHITE,  ALBERT  SMITH  (Oct.  24,  1803- 
Sept.  4,  1864),  lawyer,  representative  and  sena- 
tor, jurist,  was  a  descendant  of  Thomas  White, 


White 

in  early  settler  of  Weymouth,  Mass.  He  was 
born  at  the  family  homestead  at  Blooming  Grove 
in  Orange  County,  N.  Y.,  the  son  of  Nathan 
Herrick  and  Frances  (Howell)  White.  The 
father  was  the  presiding  judge  of  the  Orange 
County  court  for  twenty  years.  The  son  was 
graduated  from  Union  College  in  1822,  studied 
law  at  Newburgh,  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in 
1825,  removed  to  Indiana  the  same  year,  and, 
after  brief  periods  at  Rushville  and  Paoli,  in 
1829  settled  permanently  in  Tippecanoe  County, 
residing  either  at  Lafayette  or  on  his  farm  near 
Stockwell.  In  1830-31  he  was  assistant  clerk  of 
the  Indiana  House  of  Representatives,  and  for 
the  four  succeeding  years  was  clerk  of  that  body. 

In  1836  he  was  elected  to  a  seat  in  the  national 
House  of  Representatives  as  a  Whig,  and  in 
March  1839  was  elected  to  the  Senate.  In  the 
House  he  served  on  the  committee  on  roads  and 
canals,  and  introduced  a  few  resolutions,  but 
refrained  from  active  participation  in  debates. 
With  Oliver  Hampton  Smith  [5.2/.]  as  his  col- 
league, he  took  his  seat  in  the  Senate,  Dec.  2, 
1839,  at  the  opening  of  the  Twenty-sixth  Con- 
gress. A  few  days  later  he  was  appointed  a  mem- 
ber of  the  committee  on  Indian  affairs  and  from 
the  beginning  of  the  third  session  of  the  Twenty- 
seventh  Congress  until  the  close  of  his  term,  in 
March  1845,  he  was  chairman  of  that  committee. 
He  became  an  important  member  of  the  com- 
mittee on  roads  and  canals,  and  served  effectively 
(1841-45)  on  the  committee  to  audit  and  con- 
trol contingent  expenses.  When  in  1852  the  bill 
for  apportioning  the  membership  of  the  House  of 
Representatives  among  the  several  states  was 
before  the  Senate,  he  delivered  a  scholarly  and 
cogent  address  in  favor  of  "popular"  as  against 
"party"  representation  and  advocated  measures 
for  the  security  of  the  federal  government  rather 
than  the  rights  of  the  states  (Congressional 
Globe,  27  Cong.,  2  Sess.,  p.  583). 

Between  1845  and  i860  White  was  engaged 
in  the  practice  of  law  and  in  the  building  of  rail- 
roads in  the  valley  of  the  Wabash.  He  was  the 
first  president  of  the  Lafayette  and  Indianapolis 
Railroad,  and  for  three  years  was  manager  of 
the  Wabash  and  Western  Railroad.  He  served 
once  more  in  the  House  of  Representatives  as  a 
Republican  from  March  1861  to  March  1863. 
His  most  notable  activity  was  the  introduction 
of  a  resolution  for  the  appointment  of  a  select 
committee  to  propose  a  plan  for  the  gradual 
emancipation  of  slaves  in  the  border  states  (Con- 
gressional Globe,  37  Cong.,  2  Sess.,  p.  1563). 
As  chairman  of  such  a  committee  he  reported 
bills  for  indemnifying  the  loyal  owners  of  slaves 
in   Maryland,  Missouri,  and  other  states.    Al- 


84 


White 


White 


though  the  plan  had  the  warm  support  of  Presi- 
dent Lincoln,  it  was  not  popular  with  White's 
constituents  and  cost  him  his  renomination.  On 
his  leaving  the  House,  Lincoln  appointed  him 
(appointment  confirmed,  Mar.  7,  1863)  one  of 
three  commissioners  to  adjust  claims  of  citi- 
zens of  Minnesota  and  Dakota  on  account  of 
depredations  committed  during  the  Sioux  Indian 
massacre  on  the  Minnesota  frontier  in  August 
1862.  A  second  appointment  hy  Lincoln  (con- 
firmed Jan.  18,  1864)  made  him  judge  of  the 
United  States  District  Court  for  Indiana,  a  po- 
sition he  held  until  his  death  at  his  residence 
near  Stockwell.  White  was  a  man  of  small  phy- 
sique and  thin  visage,  with  a  large  aquiline  nose. 
He  was  well  versed  in  belles-lettres,  and  in  legal 
and  political  lore.  He  married  a  member  of  the 
Randolph  family  of  Virginia  and  was  survived 
by  his  widow,  two  sons,  and  two  daughters. 

[G.  W.  Chamberlain,  Hist,  of  Weymouth,  Mass. 
(1923),  vol.  IV;  B.  F.  Thompson,  Hist,  of  Long  Island 
(1018),  vol.  II;  E.  M.  Ruttenber  and  L.  H.  Clark, 
Hist,  of  Orange  County,  N.  Y.  ( 1881 )  ;  W.  W.  Woollen, 
Biog.  and  Hist.  Sketches  of  Early  Ind.  (1883)  ;  C.  W. 
Taylor,  Bench  and  Bar  of  Ind.  (1895)  ;  Reg.  of  Debates 
.  .  .  First  Sess.,  Twenty-fifth  Cong.  (1837)  ;  Indian- 
apolis Daily  Jour.,  Sept.  6,  9,  1864.]  N.D.  M. 

WHITE,  ALEXANDER  (c.  1738-Oct.  9, 
1804),  lawyer,  congressman,  commissioner  to 
lay  out  the  city  of  Washington,  D.  C,  was  born 
in  Frederick  County,  Va.,  the  son  of  Robert 
White,  a  surgeon  in  the  English  navy,  and  his 
wife,  Margaret,  a  daughter  of  a  Virginia  pio- 
neer, William  Hoge.  He  was  educated  at  his  fa- 
ther's alma  mater,  Edinburgh  University,  and 
afterward  studied  law  in  London  at  the  Inner 
Temple  in  1762  and  at  Gray's  Inn  in  1763.  On 
his  return  to  Virginia  in  1765  White  began  to 
practise  law  and  continued  with  marked  success 
for  nearly  forty  years.  He  served  almost  con- 
tinuously as  king's  or  state's  attorney  in  several 
north-valley  counties  and  interspersed  his  legal 
work  with  terms  in  legislative  bodies.  His  legis- 
lative career  began  with  a  term  in  the  Virginia 
House  of  Burgesses  where  he  represented  Hamp- 
shire County  in  1772.  As  a  burgess  he  was  espe- 
cially interested  in  questions  of  civil  and  reli- 
gious liberty.  He  was  not  particularly  active 
during  the  Revolution  and  was  later  vigorously 
attacked  because  of  it.  He  ably  championed  the 
cause  of  the  wealthy  Quakers  who  were  exiled 
to  Virginia  from  Philadelphia  because  of  their 
alleged  Loyalist  sympathies.  His  successful  plea 
for  them  merited  an  ample  reward  but  nearly 
brought  disastrous  results  to  his  standing  with 
the  patriots  of  the  Valley.  Following  the  Revo- 
lution White  served  in  the  state  assembly,  1782- 
86,  and  1788.    During  this  period  he  played  a 


dominant  part  in  advancing  measures  for  reli- 
gious liberty,  for  reform  in  the  state  court  sys- 
tem, for  the  payment  of  British  debts,  for  taxa- 
tion reform  and  for  strengthening  the  central 
government.  He  usually  voted  with  Madison 
and  was  one  of  his  ablest  lieutenants. 

When  the  Virginia  Federalists  marshalled 
their  forces  for  the  ratification  of  the  new  Con- 
stitution in  1788  White  proved  to  be  their  domi- 
nant leader  in  the  northwestern  part  of  the  state. 
He  wrote  continually  in  the  newspapers  of  that 
section  in  defense  of  the  new  Constitution  and 
his  constituency  voted  unanimously  for  ratifica- 
tion. He  was  chosen  as  a  member  of  the  First 
Congress  in  1789  and  was  reelected  to  the  Sec- 
ond Congress.  The  tide  of  Jeffersonianism  was, 
however,  too  strong  for  his  continued  conserva- 
tive federalism  and  he  returned  to  the  practice 
of  law.  The  two  terms  in  Congress  brought  his 
public  life  to  a  close  except  for  his  service  from 
1795  to  1802,  as  one  of  the  commissioners  to  lay 
out  the  new  capital  at  Washington.  However, 
he  returned  to  the  state  assembly  for  a  brief  term 
(1799-1801)  in  the  vain  hope  that  he  might  help 
defeat  the  famous  resolutions  aimed  at  the  Alien 
and  Sedition  Acts. 

As  a  member  of  Congress  White's  chief  inter- 
ests lay  in  the  new  capital  and  in  the  problems 
of  the  tariff.  Much  of  his  time  was  devoted  to 
his  rather  extensive  land  holdings  in  western 
Virginia  and  on  the  "Western  Waters."  Like- 
wise he  was  keenly  interested  in  the  establish- 
ment of  several  frontier  towns  and  in  the  devel- 
opment of  the  navigation  of  the  Potomac  River. 
He  was  a  close  personal  friend  and  legal  adviser 
for  the  three  Revolutionary  generals,  Charles 
Lee,  Horatio  Gates  [qq.v.~\,  and  Adam  Stephen. 
He  was  twice  married  but  had  no  children.  His 
first  wife  was  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Col.  James 
Wood,  the  founder  of  Winchester,  Va.,  and  his 
second,  Sarah  Hite,  the  widow  of  John  Hite,  a 
grandson  of  Jost  Hite  [g.r.].  He  is  buried  at 
"Woodville,"  his  country  estate  near  Winches- 
ter. He  was  regarded  by  his  contemporaries  as 
the  outstanding  leader  of  western  Virginia  and 
one  of  the  ablest  lawyers  in  the  United  States. 

[Glass  collection  of  Wood  Papers,  Winchester,  Va. ; 
Adam  Stephen  Papers,  Lib.  of  Cong.,  Washington, 
D.  C. ;  Biog.  Dir.  Am.  Cong.  (1928);  J.  H.  Tyler, 
J.  F.  Hoge,  The  Family  of  Hoge  (1927)  ;  E.  A.  Jones, 
Am.  Members  of  the  Inns  of  Court  (London,  1924)  ; 
W.  H.  Foote,  Sketches  of  Va.  (2nd  ser.,  1856)  ;  T.  K. 
Cartmell,  Shenandoah  Valley  Pioneers  (1909)  ;  K.  G. 
Greene.  Winchester,  Va.  and  its  Beginnings  (1926); 
Frederic  Morton,  The  Story  of  Winchester  in  Va. 
(1925);   Enquirer   (Richmond,   Va.),   Oct.    17,    1804.] 

F.H.H. 

WHITE,  ALEXANDER  (Mar.  30,  1814- 
Mar.  18,  1872)   pioneer  merchant  and  art  col- 


8< 


White 


White 


lector,  son  of  David  and  Margaret  (Gowe) 
White,  was  born  at  Elgin,  Morayshire,  Scotland. 
His  father  was  killed  in  the  battle  of  Waterloo 
when  Alexander  was  but  a  year  old.  In  1836 
White  emigrated  to  America.  He  unsuccessfully 
sought  a  foothold  in  the  South  and  after  various 
vicissitudes — including  shipwreck  on  the  Illinois 
River,  in  which  several  fellow-passengers  were 
drowned — reached  Chicago  in  the  spring  of  1837. 
After  painting  wagons  for  a  time  by  the  day,  he 
established  himself  independently,  building  a 
small  frame  structure  and  opening  a  store  with  a 
stock  of  paints  and  oils.  He  prospered,  extend- 
ed his  stock  to  include  glass  and  dyestuffs,  and 
enlarged  his  plant  until  it  included  two  retail 
houses  and  a  large  wholesale  establishment.  In 
the  meantime  he  steadily  invested  his  surplus  ac- 
cumulations in  Chicago  real  estate.  In  1857, 
after  twenty  years  of  prosperous  merchandising, 
he  sold  that  business  and  confined  himself  to 
real-estate  investments.  Continuing  to  prosper, 
he  found  time  to  gratify  his  taste  for  art.  In 
three  trips  to  Europe  (1857,  1866,  1870),  he 
bought  many  notable  paintings,  chiefly  by  Euro- 
pean contemporaries,  which  he  supplemented  by 
works  of  American  artists,  bought  in  America. 
This  collection,  installed  in  his  residence  and 
opened  to  the  public,  was  the  first  private  art 
gallery  in  Chicago.  After  his  return  from  Eu- 
rope in  1867,  White  and  his  family  resided  in 
New  York  but  returned  to  Chicago  in  1869.  Re- 
tiring then  from  active  business,  White  bought 
an  extensive  country  place  in  Lake  Forest,  about 
twenty-five  miles  north  of  Chicago,  and  opened 
in  his  new  residence  an  art  gallery  containing 
about  a  hundred  and  sixty  of  the  works  of  the 
leading  contemporary  American  and  foreign  art- 
ists. Shortly  after  he  returned  from  his  third 
European  art  trip,  the  Chicago  fire  of  October 
1871  occurred,  and  White,  holder  of  much  real 
estate,  lost  heavily.  To  provide  a  rebuilding 
fund,  he  sold  his  art  collection  at  auction  in  New 
York  (Dec.  12,  13,  1871),  critics  and  connois- 
seurs pronouncing  it  the  best  in  America  at  that 
time.  White  entered  energetically  into  ambi- 
tious plans  for  a  resuscitation  of  art  in  Chicago 
and  for  the  reestablishment  of  other  civic  enter- 
prises, but  his  death  within  six  months  after  the 
fire  transferred  that  work  to  other  shoulders. 

For  many  years  he  was  closely  associated  with 
Chicago  improvements  and  public  institutions. 
He  was  recognized  throughout  the  country  as 
an  art  patron  and  connoisseur,  and  perhaps  did 
as  much  to  promote  American  art  as  any  man 
of  his  generation.  Great  weight  was  attached 
to  his  judgment  in  art  matters,  and  his  approval 
of  projects  in  that  field  was  sought  by  those  pro- 


moting them.  He  was  an  enthusiastic  floricul- 
turist, delighting  in  the  culture  of  rare  plants, 
and  a  fine  conservatory  was  a  feature  of  his  Lake 
Forest  estate.  He  was  married  at  Chicago,  Dec. 
12,  1837,  to  Ann  Reid  (1818-1890),  daughter 
of  John  Keith  and  Anne  (Johnston)  Reid  of 
Grange,  Banff  Parish,  Scotland.  Eight  children 
were  born  to  them. 

[Much  information  has  been  furnished  by  White's 
daughter,  Elsie  Keith  White.  See  also  A.  T.  Andreas, 
Hist,  of  Chicago,  vol.  Ill  (1886),  pp.  758-60;  Art 
Journal  (London),  Feb.  1,  1872,  p.  47;  Chicago  Trib- 
une, Mar.  20,  1872   (obituary  and  editorial).] 

G.B.U. 
WHITE,  ALFRED  TKEDWAY  (May  28, 
1846-Jan.  29,  1921),  pioneer  iq  housing  reform, 
was  born  in  the  old  city  of  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  the 
son  of  Alexander  Moss  and  Elizabeth  Hart 
(  Tredway)  White.  His  father,  a  native  of  Dan- 
bury,  Conn.,  was  descended  from  Thomas  White, 
an  early  settler  of  Weymouth,  Mass. ;  his  moth- 
er's family  was  of  Connecticut  origin  and  had 
lived  in  Dutchess  County,  N.  Y.,  since  the  first 
decade  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Alfred's  par- 
ents were  well-to-do,  his  father  being  junior 
member  of  the  New  York  importing  firm  of  W. 
A.  &  A.  M.  White. 

The  boy's  secondary  schooling  was  obtained  at 
the  Brooklyn  Collegiate  and  Polytechnic  Insti- 
tute and  was  supplemented  by  two  years  at  the 
Rensselaer  Polytechnic  Institute,  Troy,  N.  Y., 
where  he  received  the  degree  of  C.E.  in  1865. 
Returning  to  Brooklyn,  he  served  an  apprentice- 
ship in  his  father's  business  and  was  eventually 
taken  into  partnership.  In  the  meantime,  how- 
ever, outside  interests  claimed  an  increasing 
share  of  his  attention.  As  early  as  1872  he  was 
giving  much  thought  to  the  possibility  of  im- 
proved housing  for  families  with  small  incomes 
in  large  cities.  Learning  that  in  London,  Eng- 
land, model  tenements  had  been  built  with  out- 
side staircases,  he  could  not  rest  until  he  had  as- 
sured himself  of  the  practicability  of  such  a  proj- 
ect. In  1876  he  built  in  Brooklyn  his  first  block 
of  small  apartments  with  light  rooms.  The  best 
features  of  the  London  experiment  were  includ- 
ed, with  others  applicable  to  American  condi- 
tions. Every  room  had  its  share  of  sunlight  and 
air.  The  old  taunt  of  "philanthropy  and  5  per 
cent"  had  no  sting  for  White.  From  the  start 
he  disclaimed  a  philanthropic  motive,  and  with 
the  whole  enterprise  on  a  business  basis,  he  was 
able  to  show  net  profits  of  five  per  cent  year  after 
year,  for  he  was  providing  his  tenants  with 
something  that  they  could  not  get  elsewhere. 
He  was  gratified  by  the  fact  that  the  proportion 
of  day  laborers  and  sewing-women  in  his  Brook- 
lyn houses  was  greater  than  in  the  model  tene- 


86 


White 

merits  of  London.  Well  pleased  with  the  out- 
come of  his  early  effort,  he  completed  in  1890  a 
large  project  known  as  the  Riverside  Tower  and 
Homes  Building.  He  also  erected  nearly  300 
one-  and  two-family  houses.  His  buildings  shel- 
tered more  than  2000  persons.  In  1879  he  pub- 
lished Improved  Dwellings  for  the  Laboring 
Classes;  in  1885,  Better  Homes  for  Working- 
men;  and  in  1912,  San-Lighted  Tenements: 
Thirty- five  Years  Experience  as  an  Owner.  It 
is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  outstanding  suc- 
cess of  White's  operations  contributed  as  much 
as  any  one  factor  to  the  enactment  of  New 
York's  tenement-reform  legislation  of  1895  and 
later  years. 

His  activities  brought  him  into  direct  personal 
relations  with  various  elements  in  the  commun- 
ity and  acquainted  him  with  their  common  needs. 
He  was  one  of  the  leading  spirits  in  the  Brook- 
lyn Bureau  of  Charities  from  its  inception  in 
1878.  He  was  also  active  in  the  Children's  Aid 
Society.  In  politics  he  was  an  independent. 
Mayor  Charles  A.  Schieren  [q.v.~\,  a  Republi- 
can, appointed  him  commissioner  of  city  works 
in  1893.  That  office,  next  to  the  mayorship  the 
most  important  in  Brooklyn,  White  administered 
in  such  a  way  as  to  set  new  standards  of  efficiency 
and  economy.  In  later  years  his  interests  broad- 
ened to  include  the  educational  work  for  the 
negro  at  Hampton  and  Tuskegee,  and  a  wide 
range  of  sociological  problems.  He  gave  $300,- 
000  to  the  department  of  social  ethics  at  Har- 
vard. On  May  29,  1878,  he  married  Annie  Jean 
Lyman,  who  died  in  1920.  Eight  months  later 
White  himself,  skating  alone  on  a  small  lake  in 
the  Harriman  State  Park,  Orange  County,  N.  Y., 
broke  through  and  was  drowned  under  the  ice. 
A  daughter  survived  him. 

[J.  M.  Bailey,  Hist,  of  Danbury,  Conn.  (1896)  ; 
W.  T.  Tredway,  Hist,  of  the  Tredway  Family  (1930)  ; 
H.  B.  Nason,  Biog.  Record  Officers  and  Grads.  Rens- 
selaer Polytechnic  Inst.  (1887)  ;  Survey  (N.  Y.),  Feb. 
5,  1921  ;  Who's  Who  in  America,  1920-21  ;  Brooklyn 
Daily  Eagle,  Jan.  31,  1921  ;  F.  G.  Peabody,  Reminis- 
censes  of  Present-Day  Saints  (1927)  ;  J.  A.  Riis,  How 
the  Other  Half  Lives  (1890)  and  Battle  with  the  Slum 
(1902)  ;  Harvard  Graduates  Mag.,  June  1921  ;  Report 
of  the  Tenement  House  Committee  of  1894  (1895).] 

W.B.S. 

WHITE,  ANDREW  (1579-Dec.  27,  1656), 
Jesuit  missionary  in  Maryland,  was  born  in  Lon- 
don of  gentle  parentage.  As  a  proscribed  rec- 
usant, he  was  educated  in  the  English  refugee 
colleges  on  the  Continent — at  St.  Alban's  Col- 
lege in  Valladolid  (1595-),  St.  Hermenegild's 
College  in  Seville,  and  Douai.  After  his  ordina- 
tion to  the  priesthood  at  Douai  (c.  1605),  he  vol- 
unteered for  the  Catholic  missions  in  England, 
where,  with  two  score  of  priests,  he  was  appre- 
hended by  the  authorities  and  banished  on  pen- 


White 

alty  of  death  if  he  returned.  An  exile  in  the  Low 
Countries,  he  entered  the  newly  founded  Jesuit 
novitiate  at  Louvain  in  1607  and  was  received 
into  the  Society  of  Jesus  in  1609.  Ten  years 
later  he  was  professed  with  his  final  vows  after 
having  served  as  a  lecturer  in  theology,  sacred 
scripture,  and  Hebrew  in  the  various  colleges  of 
his  society  in  Spain  and  Flanders.  As  a  Jesuit 
of  sound  learning  and  linguistic  attainments,  he 
continued  his  teaching  in  theology  at  Liege  and 
Louvain  until  about  1629.  Thereafter  he  took 
his  place  on  the  missions  in  Hampshire,  for  which 
he  had  experience  as  a  former  missionary  in 
Suffolk  and  Devon  (1625-28)  in  periods  of  re- 
lief from  teaching. 

As  a  secret  priest  living  in  guarded  seclusion, 
little  is  known  of  his  career,  but  he  is  said  to  have 
become  interested  in  Catholic  colonization  and 
in  the  ventures  of  George  Calvert  \_q.v.~\,  first 
Baron  of  Baltimore,  who  corresponded  with  him 
from  Avalon.  He  composed  the  Declaratio  Colo- 
niae  Domini  Baronis  de  Baltimore,  which  was 
revised  and  published  by  Cecil  Calvert  as  Con- 
ditions of  Plantation  with  the  thought  of  adver- 
tising his  projected  colony  and  attracting  set- 
tlers. While  the  Ark  and  the  Dove  sailed  from 
Gravesend,  White  and  John  Altham  [q.v.1  and 
Brother  Thomas  Gervase  did  not  take  ship  until 
its  departure  from  the  Isle  of  Wight  (Nov.  22, 
1633).  Baltimore's  selection  of  White  as  head  of 
the  mission  met  with  the  approval  of  the  general 
of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  Muzio  Vitelleschi,  and 
of  the  provincial,  Richard  Blount.  On  landing 
at  St.  Clement's  (Blackistone)  Isle  in  the  lower 
Chesapeake  (Mar.  25,  1634),  Father  White  said 
mass  and  commenced  his  new  labors,  which  in- 
cluded the  writing  of  the  Rclatio  Itincris  in  Mari- 
landiam  (a  Latin  version  for  his  superior;  an 
English  account  to  Sir  Thomas  Lechford,  in 
the  possession  of  the  Maryland  Historical  So- 
ciety), described  by  Leonard  Calvert,  in  May 
1634,  as  the  composition  of  a  "most  honest  and 
discreet  gentleman."  The  Latin  account  was 
discovered  in  manuscript  in  the  Jesuit  archives 
in  Rome  by  William  McSherry,  S.  J.,  in  1832 
and  has  appeared  in  various  editions,  probably 
most  authentically  in  Thomas  Hughes's  His- 
tory of  the  Society  of  Jesus  in  North  America 
(Documents,  vol.  I,  pt.  I,  1908,  pp.  94-107).  For 
ten  years  White  devoted  himself  to  religious 
work  among  the  white  colonists,  of  whom  a  num- 
ber entered  the  Catholic  communion,  and  to  mis- 
sionary labors  among  the  Patuxent,  Piscataway, 
Potomac,  and  Anacostan  tribesmen.  With  the 
Indians  he  and  his  associates  had  reasonable  suc- 
cess as  soon  as  he  had  compiled  a  grammar,  a 
dictionary,  and  a  catechism  in  the  native  tongue. 


87 


White 

Despite  his  religious  zeal  and  militant  character, 
he  got  along  well  enough  with  the  Calverts  and 
arranged  the  scheme  of  manors  for  Jesuits  as  a 
means  of  financing  the  Catholic  organization  in 
the  palatinate.  In  the  insurrection  incited  by 
William  Claiborne  [q.v.~]  in  1644,  White  and 
two  companions  were  shipped  in  irons  to  Lon- 
don by  the  Puritan  victors  (1645).  Tried  for 
treason,  under  a  statute  of  27  Elizabeth,  for 
being  a  priest  in  England,  White  was  sentenced 
merely  to  banishment  on  the  plea  that  he  was 
in  England  through  no  voluntary  action.  In 
vain  he  sought  permission  to  return  to  Mary- 
land, and  thereupon  went  in  exile  to  the  Low 
Countries.  Despite  the  imminent  danger  of 
death  if  the  law  was  rigorously  enforced,  he  re- 
turned within  a  few  months  to  England,  where 
under  an  assumed  name  he  served  on  the  missions 
and  as  a  chaplain  in  a  noble  family  of  Hamp- 
shire. Other  than  this  nothing  is  known  of  his 
career,  which  is  shrouded  in  doubt,  save  that  in 
London  the  "apostle  of  Maryland"  finally  passed 
on  to  his  reward. 

[For  biog.  sketches  see  Diet,  of  Nat.  Biog. ;  Cath. 
Encyc;  Woodstock  Letters,  Jan.  1872;  R.  H.  Clarke, 
in  Metropolitan  (Baltimore),  Mar.  1856.  See  also  C. 
C.  Hall,  Narratives  of  Early  Md.,  1633-1684  (1910)  ; 
B.  C.  Steiner,  Beginnings  of  Early  Md.  (1903)  ;  J.  C. 
Pilling,  Proof  Sheets  of  a  Bibliog.  of  the  Languages 
of  the  N.  Am.  Indians  (1885)  ;  Henry  Foley,  Records 
of  the  English  Province  of  the  Soc.  of  Jesus  (London, 
7  vols.,  1875—83)  ;  and  Coleman  Nevils,  Miniatures  of 
Georgetown  (1934).  Of  White's  effects,  Georgetown 
Coll.  has  a  pewter  chalice,  a  missal,  and  a  picture  of 
St.  Ignatius  which  he  brought  from  England.  The  date 
of  death  is  sometimes  given  wrongly  as  June  6.] 

RJ.P. 
WHITE,  ANDREW  DICKSON  (Nov.  7, 
1832-Nov.  4,  1918),  university  president,  his- 
torian, diplomat,  came  of  English  stock.  A  lit- 
tle before  1650  his  ancestor,  John  White,  hus- 
bandman, with  a  partner,  James  Phips,  bought 
a  tract  in  Maine  just  east  of  the  Kennebec ;  and 
after  Phips's  death  White  married  his  widow. 
Their  second  son,  Philip,  saved  with  the  rest  in 
1676  from  the  Indians  by  his  shipbuilding  half- 
brother  William  Phips  (the  later  Sir  William), 
who  sailed  with  them  to  Boston,  was  appren- 
ticed to  a  "housewright"  at  Beverly,  where  soon 
he  took  to  wife  a  daughter  of  Andrew  Mans- 
field of  Lynn.  Their  descendants  pushed  west- 
ward, and  at  Monson  their  great-grandson  Asa 
White  (b.  1750)  throve  as  a  builder  and  owner 
of  mills.  (For  the  whole  pedigree  see  New  Eng- 
land Historical  and  Genealogical  Register,  July 
1919,  p.  237.)  His  eldest  son,  Asa  (b.  1774), 
migrated  in  1798  to  the  rising  village  of  Homer 
in  central  New  York  and  prospered  as  its  miller 
till  in  1815  a  fire  was  his  ruin.  Horace  (1802- 
1860),  the  elder  of  his  two  sons,  thus  forced  to 


White 

self-reliance,  proved  an  able  man  of  business, 
and  was  already  well-to-do  when  in  183 1  he 
married  Clara  Dickson  (1811-1882),  only  child 
of  the  prosperous  Andrew  Dickson,  the  district's 
assemblyman,  who  had  come  from  Middlefield, 
Mass.,  and  of  his  wife,  Ruth  Hall,  from  Guilford, 
Conn. 

Andrew  Dickson  White,  Horace's  elder  son, 
born  at  Homer,  was  but  seven  when  in  1839  his 
father  moved  the  family  to  Syracuse,  where  he 
was  now  a  banker  and  soon  a  man  of  wealth. 
The  boy,  an  eager  learner,  after  training  in  the 
schools  of  Syracuse,  private  and  public,  coveted 
a  course  at  Yale.  But  his  mother  had  revolted 
from  the  New  England  Calvinism  of  her  village 
home  to  become  an  Episcopalian,  and  her  hus- 
band, won  by  her  to  religion,  was  now  a  zealous 
churchman.  First  to  a  parish  school  the  boy  must 
go,  then  to  the  young  Geneva  College  (now  Ho- 
bart)  nearby.  He  had  been  from  childhood  a 
champion  of  his  mother's  church,  and  always  re- 
mained so ;  but  the  church  college  he  could  stand 
for  only  a  year.  When  sent  back  he  went  into 
hiding  till  his  father  consented  to  his  entering 
Yale.  There  he  found  himself  in  "the  famous 
class  of  '53."  He  was  already  a  wide  and  thought- 
ful reader ;  and,  spurning  marks,  he  was  by  pref- 
erence a  reading  man.  He  was  on  the  "Lit,"  be- 
longed to  Phi  Beta  Kappa,  and  took  the  Clark, 
Yale  Literary,  and  De  Forest  prizes.  Of  his  teach- 
ers Theodore  Dwight  Woolsey  [q.v.]  meant  most 
to  him ;  of  his  friends  none  more  than  Daniel 
Coit  Gilman  [q.7'.~],  with  whom  he  now  set  out 
for  study  abroad.  A  semester  at  Paris  with  teach- 
ers like  Laboulaye,  a  year  as  an  attache  to  the 
American  legation  at  St.  Petersburg  (1854-55), 
a  semester  at  Berlin  under  Boeckh  and  Raumer, 
Ritter  and  Lepsius — Ranke  he  could  not  follow 
— then  a  ramble  through  Italy  with  Henry  Sim- 
mons Frieze  \_q.v.~]  as  a  companion,  and  he  was 
back  at  Yale  for  his  A.M.  There  he  chanced  to 
hear  Francis  Wayland  [q.v.~\  urge  college  men 
to  a  career  in  the  West;  and  after  a  graduate 
year  at  Yale,  he  became  professor  of  history  in 
the  University  of  Michigan,  taking  with  him  as 
his  wife  Mary  Outwater,  a  Syracuse  neighbor's 
daughter  whom  he  married  on  Sept.  24,  1857. 

He  was  only  twenty-five.  The  fraternity  boys 
thought  him  a  freshman  and  lugged  his  bags  to 
his  hotel.  But,  says  Charles  Kendall  Adams, 
then  his  pupil :  "His  instruction  in  history  was  a 
genuine  revelation  to  those  accustomed  to  per- 
functory text-book  work.  .  .  .  He  not  only  in- 
structed, ...  he  inspired"  (H.  B.  Adams,  The 
Study  of  History  in  American  Colleges  and  Uni- 
versities, 1887,  p.  98).  To  the  efforts  of  Presi- 
dent Henry  Philip  Tappan  [q.v.]  to  make  the 


88 


White 


White 


University  of  Michigan  more  like  the  universi- 
ties of  the  European  continent  he  gave  hearty 
support.  But  in  this  he  was  no  mere  disciple. 
From  his  freshman  days  at  Geneva  College  he 
had  been  dreaming  of  an  American  university 
more  stately,  more  scholarly,  more  free  than 
those  he  knew.  Yale,  with  its  single  course,  its 
chairs  filled  from  a  single  sect,  its  great  scholars 
wasted  in  recitation-hearing,  did  not  satisfy  him. 
Abroad  with  Gilman  he  had  been  an  eager  ob- 
server, and  European  universities  had  delighted 
him  by  their  scientific  spirit,  their  freedom  of 
teaching  and  of  study,  the  breadth  of  their  in- 
struction, the  learning  and  charm  of  their  lec- 
tures. He  had  been  at  Michigan  scarcely  a  year 
when  to  his  fellow  New  Yorker,  George  William 
Curtis  [q.z'.],  he  unfolded  his  dream  of  a  state 
university  for  New  York  ;  and  no  sooner  had  the 
death  of  his  father  brought  him  private  wealth 
than  he  took  steps  toward  the  fulfillment  of  this 
dream.  From  Syracuse,  where  he  was  settling 
his  father's  estate,  he  addressed  (Sept.  i,  1862) 
to  his  friend  and  fellow  liberal,  Gerrit  Smith 
[9.7'.],  an  appeal  to  join  him  in  founding  "a  new 
University,  worthy  of  our  land  and  time."  To 
this,  he  wrote,  his  own  earnest  thinking  and 
planning  had  been  given  for  years.  It  should  ex- 
clude no  sex  or  color ;  should  battle  mercantile 
morality  and  temper  military  passion;  should 
afford  "an  asylum  for  Science — where  truth  shall 
be  sought  for  truth's  sake,"  not  stretched  or  cut 
"exactly  to  fit  'Revealed  Religion' " ;  should  fos- 
ter "a  new  Literature — not  graceful  .  .  .  but 
earnest"  and  "a  Moral  Philosophy,  History,  and 
Political  Economy  unwarped  to  suit  present 
abuses  in  Politics  and  Religion";  should  give 
"the  rudiments,  at  least,  of  a  Legal  training  in 
which  Legality  shall  not  crush  Humanity" ;  and 
should  be  "a  nucleus  around  which  liberal-mind- 
ed men  of  learning  .  .  .  could  cluster"  (Cornell 
Alumni  News,  Aug.  1931,  p.  445).  His  plan  for 
it  shows  provision  not  only  for  languages  and 
mathematics,  philosophy  and  history,  law  and 
medicine,  but  also  for  agriculture  and  engineer- 
ing, and  generously  for  the  natural  sciences.  But 
Gerrit  Smith,  stricken  in  years  and  in  health, 
could  not  help ;  and  White  himself,  worn  by 
teaching  and  business  and  by  his  efforts  on  be- 
half of  the  North  in  the  Civil  War,  was  forced  to 
seek  rest  abroad. 

Returning  late  in  1863,  he  found  opportunity 
thrust  upon  him.  His  Syracuse  townfellows, 
split  between  two  rivals  for  a  place  in  the  state 
Senate,  named  him,  though  absent,  as  a  com- 
promise ;  and  1864  found  him  not  only  a  senator, 
but  chairman  of  the  Senate's  committee  on  edu- 
cation.   This  gave  him  large  part  in  codifying 


the  state's  school  laws  and  in  creating  its  new 
normal  schools ;  and  it  made  him  the  guardian 
of  that  vast  landed  endowment  which  by  the 
Morrill  Act  of  1862  the  federal  government  had 
given  the  states  for  education  in  "such  branches 
of  learning  as  are  related  to  agriculture  and  the 
mechanic  arts,"  but  "without  excluding  other  sci- 
entific and  classical  studies."  New  York's  share, 
the  largest,  was  nearly  a  million  acres  and  had 
not  been  parceled  out  to  her  existing  colleges. 
The  "People's  College,"  a  new  enterprise,  had 
indeed  a  lien  upon  it  all ;  but  its  friends  had  not 
yet  met  the  conditions  of  the  grant,  and  Senator 
Ezra  Cornell  [q.v.~\  of  Ithaca,  who  had  built  up 
a  fortune  through  the  electric  telegraph,  but  at 
heart  was  still  a  farmer,  was  asking  half  for  a 
new  agricultural  college,  offering  to  add  a  cash 
endowment.  Chairman  White  would  hear  of  no 
division  and  won  Cornell  to  his  own  plans  and 
to  a  larger  gift.  Together  they  drew  the  charter 
of  a  new  university,  whose  site  Cornell  made 
Ithaca,  whose  name  White  made  Cornell.  Its 
educational  clauses,  all  White's,  ensured  instruc- 
tion not  only  in  agriculture  and  the  mechanic 
arts,  but  also  in  "such  other  branches  of  science 
and  knowledge  as  the  Trustees  may  deem  use- 
ful and  proper."  "Persons  of  every  religious  de- 
nomination, or  of  no  religious  denomination," 
were  to  be  "equally  eligible  to  all  offices  and  ap- 
pointments" ;  and  at  no  time  should  "a  majority 
of  the  board  be  of  any  one  religious  sect,  or  of 
no  religious  sect."  The  whole  land  grant  was 
asked ;  but  Cornell  in  return  pledged  campus, 
farm,  and  a  half  million  dollars.  Nay,  more ;  he 
proposed  to  locate  the  lands,  as  the  state  could 
not  do,  turning  over  to  the  university  the  pro- 
ceeds of  their  eventual  sale.  A  sharp  struggle 
with  rivals  and  this  charter  was  granted — in 
April  1865.  Most  novel  in  the  new  institution 
were:  (1)  its  democracy  of  studies,  the  natural 
sciences  and  technical  arts  not  segregated,  as 
elsewhere,  but  taught  with  the  humanities  under 
one  faculty  and  in  common  classrooms;  (2)  its 
parallel  courses,  open  to  free  choice  and  leading 
to  varying  but  equal  degrees;  (3)  its  equal  rank 
for  the  modern  languages  and  literatures  and  for 
history  and  the  political  sciences;  (4)  its  large 
use  of  eminent  scholars  as  "non-resident  profes- 
sors"; (5)  its  treatment  of  university  students 
as  men,  not  boys,  their  teachers  as  their  friends 
and  companions. 

White  now  thought  his  task  done.  His  am- 
bitions were  a  scholar's  and  writer's.  The  Michi- 
gan chair  was  still  his,  and  Yale  was  urging  on 
him  the  headship  of  her  new  school  of  fine  arts. 
Political  office,  if  he  wished  it,  was  within  his 
grasp.   But  Ezra  Cornell  would  not  go  on  with 


89 


White 


White 


the  university  without  White  as  president.  White 
hesitated ;  but  he  accepted  and  set  about  gather- 
ing teachers  and  equipment.  For  his  non-resi- 
dent group  he  won  Agassiz  and  Lowell,  George 
William  Curtis,  Theodore  Dwight,  James  Hall, 
Bayard  Taylor  [qq.z'.].  Goldwin  Smith,  whom 
he  had  hoped  to  tempt  from  England  as  a  non- 
resident, came,  to  his  joy,  as  a  resident  instead ; 
but  in  the  main  his  resident  faculty  was  of  young 
men. 

Despite  its  heresies  the  young  institution  won 
friends  and  gifts ;  and  when  at  its  opening,  in 
1868,  six  hundred  students  enrolled,  success 
seemed  assured.  To  the  faculty  White  turned 
over  the  care  of  discipline  and  of  matters  auricu- 
lar. The  routine  of  administration  he  also  glad- 
ly devolved  on  others.  His  to  plan  and  to  create; 
his  to  be  spokesman  to  the  outer  world.  His  too 
to  teach  ;  and  teaching  was  still  his  joy.  For  him- 
self he  had  reserved  the  chair  of  history,  though 
he  dealt  only  with  that  of  Europe.  His  lectures 
were  always  written,  and  with  care;  and  never 
was  he  so  busy  that  some  new  lecture  was  not 
under  way.  But  to  his  written  words  he  was 
never  a  slave.  He  broke  away  from  them  for  an 
anecdote,  a  personal  experience,  a  direct  appeal. 
He  would  leave  his  desk,  come  to  the  edge  of  his 
platform,  and  "just  talk."  But,  whether  he  talked 
or  read,  his  students  were  to  him  live  men  and 
women — men  and  women  about  to  go  out  to  play 
a  part,  perhaps  a  leading  part,  in  the  live  world 
of  which  he  spoke.  That  they  might  follow  his 
thought,  and  without  waste  of  attention,  he  put 
always  into  their  hands  a  printed  outline ;  but  he 
had  it  interleaved  for  their  own  notes.  It  was  for 
them  he  built  up  his  great  library;  and  not  alone 
with  books  for  research — though  fresh  research 
went,  if  possible,  with  every  lecture — but  with 
books  that  had  themselves  made  history,  first  edi- 
tions, copies  that  great  men  themselves  had 
thumbed,  the  documents,  placards,  caricatures, 
left  over  from  the  times  themselves.  These  to 
make  his  lectures  live  he  showed  his  students ; 
or,  better  still,  welcomed  them  to  his  house  for 
their  closer  study.  His  house  was  a  museum  of 
such  treasures — the  house  which  from  his  own 
purse  he  built  to  be  Cornell's  presidential  man- 
sion. But  not  his  classes  alone  heard  White. 
Whatever  one  studied  at  Cornell,  one  found  time 
for  the  President's  lectures ;  and,  since  at  Cornell 
there  was  no  bar  to  auditors,  half  his  audience 
was  always  of  faculty  and  townsfolk. 

His  pen,  always  prolific,  was  busy  now  in 
championing  his  educational  theories  and  in  de- 
fending the  university  and  its  founder  against 
attacks.  Fiercest  of  the  critics  were  those  who 
called  the  new  school  "godless"  because  in  the 


care  of  no  religious  group.  White  showed  in 
answer  how  almost  every  step  in  the  advance  of 
education  and  science  had  had  to  meet  such 
charges  from  the  pious,  but  how  religion  as  well 
as  science  had  been  the  gainer  by  freedom  of 
teaching  and  research.  This  reply,  at  first  but  a 
lecture,  grew  to  a  magazine  article,  then  in  1876 
to  a  booklet,  The  Warfare  of  Science ;  and  in  the 
same  year  his  Paper-Money  Inflation  in  France, 
born  of  his  lectures  on  the  French  Revolution, 
took  book  form  for  use  against  the  currency  jug- 
gling then  urged  on  Congress. 

Meanwhile,  to  the  University  fortune  had  been 
harsh.  Its  working  capital  had  proved  inadequate, 
and  its  western  lands,  now  subject  to  state  tax, 
had  made  it  "land-poor."  Ezra  Cornell,  whose 
purse  for  a  time  met  every  deficit,  was  all  but 
ruined  by  the  panic  of  1873  '<  and  White,  whose 
salary  and  much  more  had  from  the  first  gone  to 
the  University  or  its  students,  had  now  to  dip 
more  deeply  into  his  own  purse  and  his  fellow 
trustees'  to  meet  debts  and  finish  buildings.  The 
University  escaped  ruin,  but  in  1874  Cornell  died 
and  White's  financial  cares  grew  ever  heavier. 
There  had  to  be  respites :  in  1871  President  Grant 
made  him  one  of  the  commission  to  visit  Santo 
Domingo  and  report  on  its  fitness  for  annexation 
{Dominican  Republic.  Report  of  the  Commis- 
sion of  Inquiry  to  Santo  Domingo,  1871),  and 
in  1872  a  trip  to  the  coeducational  institutions 
of  the  West  was  needed  as  a  text  for  his  report 
favoring  the  admission  of  women  to  Cornell.  But 
by  1876  his  health  was  breaking ;  and  the  next 
two  years  he  spent  abroad,  his  pen  soon  busy  on 
fresh  chapters  for  his  Warfare  of  Science  and  on 
a  series  he  called  "the  warfare  of  humanity,"  that 
is,  the  war  against  such  inhumanities  as  slavery, 
torture,  witch-persecution.  With  this  new  course 
he  came  back  in  1878  and  tried  to  resume  his 
duties.  But  his  health  was  still  precarious,  and 
in  the  spring  he  welcomed  the  call  of  President 
Hayes  to  the  post  of  minister  to  Germany.  At 
Berlin  his  routine  duties  were  heavy,  though  not 
uncongenial,  and  for  diplomacy  he  was  fitted,  not 
only  by  training,  but  also  by  his  social  tastes,  his 
affability,  his  liking  for  affairs.  But  it  was  as  a 
scholar  that  best  he  bore  the  mantle  of  Bancroft 
and  of  Bayard  Taylor.  With  German  men  of 
letters  and  science  his  ties  grew  close,  and  for 
Americans  studying  abroad  he  could  do  much. 
In  188 1,  when  he  returned,  the  University's  for- 
tunes seemed  of  better  hope  through  the  great 
bequest  of  Mrs.  Fiske,  but  soon  the  Fiske  will 
suit  cast  its  gloom  over  all,  and  White's  last  years 
as  president  were  crippled  still  by  Cornell's  pov- 
erty, though  near  their  close  the  first  great  sale 
of  western  lands  gladdened  the  outlook.    White 


90 


White 

found  time  to  be  a  leader  in  the  fight  for  civil- 
service  reform,  and  in  1884  helped  found  the 
American  Historical  Association,  becoming  its 
first  president.  Alas,  his  health  grew  frailer,  he 
had  served  Cornell  for  twenty  years,  and  other 
tasks  were  clamoring  to  be  done.  In  1885,  happy 
that  his  old  Michigan  pupil  Charles  Kendall 
Adams  [q.v.]  was  made  his  successor,  he  sailed 
abroad  to  rest  and  write. 

First  came  months  of  recuperation,  with  Mrs. 
White,  in  England  and  beyond  the  Channel.  They 
were  hardly  back,  in  1887,  when  her  sudden  death 
left  him  prostrate.  From  the  blow  he  rallied  but 
slowly,  seeking  comfort  in  penning  a  memorial. 
With  returning  vigor  he  sought  solace  in  travel, 
making  now  a  visit  to  Egypt  and  to  Greece ;  but 
first  he  transferred  to  Cornell's  shelves  his  rich 
historical  library,  while  in  his  honor  her  depart- 
ments of  history  and  politics  became  The  Presi- 
dent White  School  of  History  and  Political  Sci- 
ence. When  he  returned  late  in  1889,  his  health 
proved  so  restored  that  he  not  only  could  resume 
research,  but  again  become  a  lecturer ;  and  dur- 
ing the  next  years  he  gave  courses  at  many  uni- 
versity centers,  from  Philadelphia  to  New  Or- 
leans. Stanford  University,  whose  first  president 
he  could  have  been,  made  him  a  non-resident 
member  of  her  faculty ;  and  he  journeyed  thither 
as  the  guest  of  his  friend  Carnegie,  with  whom 
in  his  private  car  he  visited  Mexico  and  zig- 
zagged through  all  the  region  beyond  the  Rockies. 
It  was  now  too  that  he  found  (Sept.  10,  1890)  a 
second  wife  in  Helen  Magill,  a  daughter  of 
President  Magill  of  Swarthmore,  herself  a  schol- 
ar and  teacher. 

Late  in  1892  President  Harrison  called  him 
again  to  the  nation's  service  as  minister  to  Rus- 
sia. His  success  there  must  have  satisfied  the 
Washington  authorities,  for  despite  the  change 
in  1893  of  president  and  party  he  was  kept  there 
till,  in  1894,  he  insisted  on  resigning  (relieved 
Nov.  1 ) .  But  what  he  could  achieve  by  no  means 
satisfied  him.  The  imperial  court,  as  of  old,  he 
found  corrupt  and  fickle,  and  his  best  efforts 
were  thwarted  by  the  minor  rank  of  the  Ameri- 
can legation  and  its  relatively  scanty  means.  Dis- 
traction he  found  in  acquaintanceships  at  court 
and  in  society,  interested  notably  by  Tolstoi  and 
by  the  reactionary  Pobedonostzeff .  Then,  too,  he 
found  time  to  work  on,  and  on  his  return  to 
Ithaca  to  complete,  his  History  of  the  Warfare 
of  Science  with  Theology  in  Christendom  (2 
vols.,  1896).  But  before  this  was  out  of  press 
President  Cleveland  had  named  him  to  the  com- 
mission charged  to  find  "the  true  divisional  line 
between  Venezuela  and  British  Guiana,"  then 
in  controversy  with   Great   Britain.    His   con- 


White 

genial  associates  included  his  old  friend  Gilman, 
and  the  year  was  spent  pleasantly  in  research  at 
Washington;  but  ere  its  end  Great  Britain  had 
consented  to  a  judicial  arbitration,  and  the  com- 
mission published  only  the  reports  of  its  experts. 
White  was  still  in  Washington  when  the  new 
president,  McKinley,  made  him  ambassador  to 
Germany.  Since  his  former  service  there  he  had 
shown  himself  a  friendly  interpreter  of  the  "new 
Germany"  and  of  German  thought,  and  his  ap- 
pointment was  welcome  to  German-Americans 
and  in  Berlin.  But  commercial  rivalries  had 
chilled  German  friendship  and  the  Samoan 
squabble  was  at  its  height.  Then  came  the  Span- 
ish-American War  and  the  questions  as  to  the 
fate  of  the  Spanish  colonies.  In  Foreign  Min- 
ister Biilow,  White  had  found  a  temper  like  his 
own,  and  their  affable  good  sense  dispelled  the 
clouds.  To  him,  however,  the  great  event  of  these 
years  was  the  Hague  Conference  (1899).  He 
had  long  urged  the  folly  of  war,  but  did  not  at 
first  take  very  seriously  the  Czar's  call  "to  put  an 
end  to  the  constantly  increasing  development  of 
armaments."  Called  to  head  the  American  dele- 
gation, he  awoke  to  the  opportunity.  So,  too, 
had  President  McKinley  and  Secretary  Hay 
awakened,  and  their  delegates  were  charged  to 
work  not  only  for  the  exemption  from  seizure, 
during  war  at  sea,  of  all  private  property  not 
contraband  of  war — America's  old  claim — but 
also  for  an  international  court  of  arbitration.  For 
the  former  claim  they  could  gain  no  hearing ;  but 
White  submitted  for  record  a  memorial  and  up- 
held it  in  a  careful  speech  (F.  W.  Holls,  The 
Peace  Conference  of  ike  Hague,  1900,  pp.  307- 
20).  For  the  court  of  arbitration  the  day  was 
won,  and  for  the  international  commissions  of 
inquiry  urged  by  White.  But  not  without  a 
struggle.  Alfred  T.  Mahan  [q.v.~],  the  naval  mem- 
ber of  the  American  delegation,  whose  able  books 
on  the  history  of  sea-power  gave  his  opinions 
weight,  was  averse  to  aught  that  threatened  the 
efficiency  of  war ;  and  the  German  Emperor,  who 
had  studied  his  books,  proved  so  hostile  that  for 
long  the  conference  threatened  to  shatter  on  the 
opposition  of  Germany  and  her  allies.  To  allay 
this  White  did  his  utmost,  and  with  at  least  a 
measure  of  success.  Due  wholly  to  him  was  the 
most  dramatic  event  of  the  conference :  the  cele- 
bration by  the  Americans  of  their  July  4th  by 
laying  a  laurel  wreath  on  the  tomb  of  Grotius, 
the  father  of  international  law,  with  an  address 
in  his  honor  by  White. 

He  returned  to  Berlin  with  prestige  height- 
ened, and  the  next  years  brought  him  many  hon- 
ors. But  death  dealt  him  heavy  blows.  In  July 
1901,  there  died  at  Syracuse  his  only  son,  long 


01 


White 

a  sufferer.  September  saw  the  assassination  of 
President  McKinley,  grown  a  warm  personal 
friend.  But  Theodore  Roosevelt,  who  followed, 
was  to  White  no  stranger.  Together  at  the  Chi- 
cago convention  of  1884,  as  delegates  at  large 
from  New  York,  they  had  fought  for  the  naming 
of  George  F.  Edmunds,  but  together  had  stood 
by  Blaine,  the  Republican  presidential  candidate  ; 
and  their  friendship  had  not  lapsed.  But  the  old 
diplomat  had  long  resolved  to  leave  at  seventy 
the  public  service;  and  in  November  1902  his 
resignation  took  effect. 

Even  at  Berlin  he  had  found  time  for  much 
else  than  diplomacy.  Andrew  Carnegie  had  in- 
vited from  him  suggestions  for  the  use  of  his 
great  wealth ;  and  the  invitation  was  not  neglect- 
ed. In  1900  White  urged  on  him  the  building  of 
a  Palace  of  Justice  to  house  the  International 
Tribunal  at  The  Hague.  The  idea  had  come  from 
his  colleague  of  the  conference,  the  great  Russian 
jurist  De  Martens ;  but  White  made  it  his  own, 
and  it  was  he  who  eventually  won  from  the  gen- 
erous Scot  both  the  Palace  of  Peace  and  its  great 
library  of  international  law.  In  1901  he  tried  to 
interest  him  in  the  project  for  a  national  uni- 
versity at  Washington,  and  with  such  success 
that  in  May  he  could  disclose  the  plan  to  his 
friend  Gilman  and  in  September  spend  a  week 
with  Carnegie  ?t  Skibo.  What  came  of  it  was  the 
Carnegie  Institution  of  Washington,  started 
early  in  1902  with  Gilman  as  president  and  White 
as  a  trustee.  He  was  also  an  adviser  and  became 
a  trustee  of  Carnegie's  foundation  for  interna- 
tional peace. 

Nor  had  his  pen  been  idle  at  Berlin.  His  auto- 
biography, long  under  way,  and  a  biographical 
volume  based  on  his  university  lectures  were 
well  advanced  when  he  retired ;  and  now,  set  free 
from  cares  official,  he  took  quarters  with  his 
family  at  Alassio  on  the  lovely  Riviera,  west  of 
Genoa,  where  by  May  of  1904  the  first  task 
reached  completion.  Returning  then  to  Ithaca  he 
could  send  to  press  the  Autobiography  of  Andrew 
Dickson  White  (2  vols.,  1905)  and  rest  a  while 
among  his  friends.  The  lectures,  finished  at  more 
leisure,  appeared  in  1910  as  Seven  Great  States- 
men in  the  Warfare  of  Humanity  with  Unreason. 
The  seven — Sarpi,  Grotius,  Thomasius,  Turgot, 
Stein,  Cavour,  Bismarck — were  the  heroes  about 
whose  deeds,  by  the  biographical  method  he  loved 
best,  he  had  woven  much  of  his  course  on  the 
history  of  modern  states ;  but  into  their  story  he 
had  worked  also  a  part  of  his  older  lectures  on 
the  "warfare  of  humanity."  A  later  task  was  un- 
foreseen. In  Canada  came  danger  of  currency 
inflation  and  a  public-spirited  Toronto  business 
man  asked  leave  to  print  and  circulate  his  Fiat 


White 

Money  in  France  (1896),  a  revision  of  his  earlier 
work.  Once  more — in  1912,  at  eighty — he  re- 
vised it,  but  "for  private  circulation  only."  Not 
till  1933  was  this  edition  published  in  the  United 
States. 

At  last  he  welcomed  quiet,  his  routine  broken 
mainly  by  his  winter  trip  to  Washington,  for  his 
duties  as  regent  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution 
and  trustee  of  the  Carnegie  Institution.  In  1914 
the  great  war  seemed  the  defeat  of  all  his  efforts 
for  peace;  but  it  could  not  rob  him  of  his  hope- 
fulness or  of  his  fairness,  and  happily  he  lived 
to  see  it  all  but  ended.  In  late  October  of  1918 
he  gave  a  dinner  to  Lord  Charnwood,  then  lec- 
turing at  Cornell.  His  mind  was  clear,  and  he 
as  chatty  as  ever ;  but  he  seemed  weary  and  he 
did  not  come  downstairs  again.  On  Nov.  4  he 
died.  There  survived  him  his  second  wife  and 
two  daughters  (one  by  each  marriage),  with  a 
daughter  of  the  elder  of  these  and  the  two  sons 
of  his  oldest  daughter. 

In  person  White  was  of  barely  middle  stature, 
slender,  brown-haired,  bearded ;  in  dress  fastidi- 
ous ;  in  bearing  kindly,  though  not  without  re- 
serve ;  in  temper  active,  buoyant,  generous.  Nev- 
er robust,  he  gained  great  powers  of  work  from 
a  careful  regimen ;  but  he  was  subject  to  periods 
of  sick  headache,  and  for  years  his  life  was 
threatened  by  a  throat  ailment  due  to  exposure 
in  his  drives  to  Ithaca  during  Cornell's  early 
days.  Walking  was  his  exercise  and  books  his 
only  sport;  travel  and  music  were  his  recreation 
and  his  medicine.  All  the  fine  arts  he  loved ;  but 
architecture  gave  him  greatest  joy  the  world 
over.  The  school  for  it  at  Cornell  was  his  crea- 
tion and  his  pet.  An  inveterate  reader,  above  all 
of  biography,  he  was  also  a  charming  raconteur 
and  never  failed  to  note  down  a  good  story.  He 
was  deeply  reverent  and  with  a  profound  faith 
in  God,  but  never  other-worldly.  His  ambition 
it  was  to  serve  his  age  and  to  deserve  remem- 
brance. His  students  he  used  to  urge  to  give 
themselves  to  some  great  cause,  and  many  were 
the  great  causes  to  which  he  was  himself  de- 
voted. Foremost  in  his  youth  was  doubtless  anti- 
slavery  ;  in  his  prime  the  freeing  of  inquiry  and 
of  teaching ;  in  his  old  age  the  abandonment  of 
war  and  a  sterner  dealing  with  high  crime.  But 
he  was  even  more  a  man  of  action  than  of  speech, 
and  he  hoped  to  be  judged,  above  all,  by  his  work 
as  university  founder  and  moulder. 

[For  his  life  the  ample  source  is  his  Autobiography 
(1905),  into  which  are  absorbed  all  his  earlier  auto- 
biographic articles.  Appended  to  it  is  a  list  of  his  writ- 
ings. His  correspondence,  with  diaries  and  MSS.,  is 
still  in  the  keeping  of  the  Cornell  Univ.  library  ;  but 
letters  and  papers  subsequent  to  his  retirement,  in  1885, 
from  the  presidency  of  Cornell  are  to  be  deposited  in 
the  Lib.  of  Congress.    Of  value  for  his  life  are  the 


92 


White 

tributes  in  the  Cornell  Era  for  Nov.  19 12  at  his  eightieth 
birthday,  and  those  at  the  unveiling  of  his  statue  on  the 
Cornell  campus,  printed  in  the  Cornell  Alumni  News, 
June  24,  1915.  Best  informed  of  the  histories  of  Cor- 
nell are  E.  W.  Huffcut,  Cornell  University,  1868-1898 
(in  the  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Education's  "Circulars  of  In- 
formation" for  1900)  and  the  cooperative  work  bearing 
the  name  of  W.  T.  Hewett,  Cornell  University :  a  His- 
tory (1905).  On  these  and  on  the  writer's  own  memo- 
ries as  pupil,  librarian,  secretary,  friend,  this  sketch  is 
based.]  G.  L.  B. 

WHITE,  CANVASS  (Sept.  8,  1790-Dec.  18, 
1834),  was  a  notable  member  of  the  group  of 
pioneer  American  engineers  who  received  their 
training  on  the  Erie  Canal.  His  grandfather, 
Hugh  White,  a  descendant  of  John  White,  who 
came  to  Boston  in  1632,  left  his  home  at  Middle- 
town,  Conn.,  in  1784  with  his  wife,  five  sons,  and 
four  daughters,  and  joined  the  westward  migra- 
tion which  followed  the  Revolution.  He  settled 
in  Whitestown,  Oneida  County,  N.  Y.,  and  in 
this  township,  at  Whitesboro,  Canvass,  second 
son  of  Hugh  White,  Jr.,  and  Tryphena  (Law- 
rence) White,  was  born.  Of  slight  build  and  al- 
ways frail,  Canvass  White  throughout  his  life 
constantly  struggled  against  ill  health,  yet  when 
he  died,  at  the  early  age  of  forty-four,  he  held  a 
place  in  the  first  rank  of  American  civil  engi- 
neers of  his  day.  He  was  characterized  by  John 
B.  Jervis  [_q.v.~]  as  having  possessed  "the  most 
strict  engineering  mind  of  any  of  his  time"  and 
having  "delighted  in  plodding  over  plans  and 
methods  of  construction"  (post,  p.  42).  He  at- 
tended Fairfield  Academy  until  he  was  seventeen, 
then  worked  in  a  local  store  until  181 1,  when,  for 
the  sake  of  his  health,  he  shipped  as  supercargo 
on  a  merchant  vessel  bound  for  Russia.  After 
this  adventure  he  returned  to  work  in  the  store 
until  1814,  when  he  enlisted  for  service  in  the 
War  of  1812  and  was  wounded  at  the  capture  of 
Fort  Erie. 

White  became  associated  with  the  Erie  Canal 
in  1816  and  assisted  Benjamin  Wright  [q.7\]  in 
the  early  surveys.  Late  in  1817,  with  the  ap- 
proval of  Governor  Clinton,  he  made  an  extend- 
ed trip  through  Great  Britain  for  the  purpose  of 
examining  canal  constructions  and  bringing  back 
surveying  instruments.  The  acquaintance  with 
British  canal  practice  gained  through  this  trip 
made  him  particularly  valuable  as  Wright's  prin- 
cipal assistant  in  the  building  of  the  first  great 
American  canal,  and  he  became  in  time  its  chief 
expert  in  designing  the  locks  and  their  equip- 
ment. Up  to  this  time,  the  only  hydraulic  cement 
available  in  America  had  been  imported  at  great 
cost  from  England.  White,  while  abroad,  had 
investigated  cements  and  upon  his  return  made 
experiments  with  limestone  found  in  New  York 
state,  demonstrating  that  a  rock  found  near  the 


White 

line  of  the  canal  in  Madison  County  could  be 
converted  into  a  cement  equal  to  the  imported 
product.  He  obtained  a  patent  for  waterproof 
cement  on  Feb.  1,  1820. 

He  stayed  with  the  Erie  Canal  for  some  nine 
years,  holding  responsible  positions  on  the  East- 
ern work,  including  supervision  of  the  important 
Glens  Falls  feeder.  In  1825  he  succeeded  Lo- 
ammi  Baldwin,  1 780-1838  [q.vJ],  as  chief  engi- 
neer of  the  Union  Canal  of  Pennsylvania,  but 
was  forced  by  ill  health  to  relinquish  the  position 
after  about  a  year.  At  this  time  he  also  made  a 
report  on  the  water  supply  of  New  York  City. 
He  subsequently  became  consulting  engineer  for 
the  Schuylkill  Navigation  Company,  for  the 
locks  at  Windsor  on  the  Connecticut  River,  and 
for  the  Farmington  Canal,  and  was  chief  engi- 
neer of  both  the  Delaware  &  Raritan  Canal  in 
New  Jersey  and  the  Lehigh  Canal  in  Pennsyl- 
vania. As  the  Delaware  &  Raritan  construction 
was  nearing  completion,  White  suffered  one  of 
his  many  breakdowns  in  health  and  was  advised 
to  go  South  to  recover.  He  died  in  St.  Augus- 
tine, Fla.,  late  in  1834.  In  1821  he  had  married 
Louisa  Loomis,  daughter  of  Charles  and  Eliza- 
beth (Gay)  Loomis,  of  a  Connecticut  family.  A 
son  and  two  daughters  were  born  to  them. 

[Printed  accounts  appear  in  C.  B.  Stuart,  Lives  and 
Works  of  Civil  and  Military  Engineers  (1871)  ;  N.  E. 
Whitford,  Hist,  of  the  Canal  System  of  the  State  of  N. 
Y.  (1906)  ;  J.  B.  Jervis,  "A  Memoir  of  Am.  Engineer- 
ing," Trans.  Am.  Soc.  Civil  Engineers,  vol.  VI  (1877)  ; 
John  Lawrence,  The  Geneal.  of  the  Family  of  John 
Lawrence  (1869);  Elisha  Loomis,  Descendants  of 
Joseph  Loomis  (1908)  ;  H.  J.  Cookinham,  Hist,  of 
Oneida  County,  N.  Y.  (1912),  vol.  II;  Newark  Daily 
Advertiser,  Jan.  10,  1835  ;  Poulson's  Am.  Daily  Adver- 
tiser, Jan.  8,  1835.  The  newspapers  mentioned  give  day 
of  death  as  Dec.  12,  but  the  other  sources  give  Dec.  18.] 

J.  K.  F. 

WHITE,  CHARLES  ABIATHAR  (Jan.  26, 
1826-June  29,  1910),  geologist,  paleontologist, 
naturalist,  physician,  the  second  son  of  Abiathar 
and  Nancy  (Corey)  White,  was  born  in  North 
Dighton,  Bristol  County,  Mass.,  on  a  farm  which 
had  then  been  the  home  of  the  White  family  for 
more  than  a  century.  His  grandfather  and  his 
great-grandfather,  both  named  Cornelius  White, 
were  active  in  the  American  Revolution;  his 
earliest  American  ancestor,  William,  had  emi- 
grated from  England  to  Boston  about  1640.  In 
1838  the  family  left  Massachusetts  and  estab- 
lished a  new  home  on  the  frontier,  near  Burling- 
ton, in  the  recently  organized  Territory  of  Iowa. 
Physical  conditions  were  harsh,  and  opportuni- 
ties for  formal  education  were  almost  completely 
lacking,  but  the  rocks  and  hills,  the  forests  and 
streams  offered  a  virgin  field  for  observations  in 
botany,  zoology,  geology,  and  paleontology.  His 
love  for  nature  in  all  its  aspects  thus  stimulated, 


93 


White 


White 


White  became  a  naturalist  of  the  old  school.  He 
made  large  collections  of  fossils,  including  the 
beautiful  crinoids  which  have  made  Burlington 
famous  among  paleontologists  and  which  fur- 
nished the  subject  of  his  first  scientific  paper, 
"Observations  upon  the  Geology  and  Paleon- 
tology of  Burlington,  Iowa"  (Boston  Journal  of 
Natural  History,  Sept.  i860).  These  collections 
of  fossils  served  to  introduce  him  to  James  Hall, 
Fielding  Bradford  Meek,  Amos  Henry  Worthen 
\_qq.v.~\,  and  other  geologists  of  the  time,  and 
thus  strengthened  his  desire  to  become  a  geolo- 
gist. In  those  days,  however,  it  was  difficult  to 
earn  a  livelihood  in  strictly  scientific  pursuits, 
and  like  many  another  man  of  similar  tastes  he 
turned  to  medicine  as  a  profession.  In  accordance 
with  a  common  practice  of  the  times,  especially 
on  the  frontier,  he  began  his  studies  in  the  office 
of  a  physician ;  later  he  studied  medicine  at  the 
University  of  Michigan  (1863)  and  at  Rush 
Medical  College,  from  which  he  was  graduated 
in  1864. 

White's  work  as  a  physician,  begun  in  Iowa 
City  immediately  after  graduation,  lasted  only 
two  years.  His  self-acquired  attainments  as  a 
geologist  and  naturalist  were  locally  so  well 
recognized  that  when  a  geological  survey  was 
organized  in  1866  he  was  appointed  state  geolo- 
gist, and  a  year  later,  while  still  serving  in  that 
office  (which  he  held  until  1870),  he  was  made 
professor  of  geology  at  Iowa  State  University. 
He  remained  there  as  professor  of  natural  sci- 
ence until  called  to  the  Josiah  Little  professor- 
ship of  natural  history  at  Bowdoin  College, 
Brunswick,  Me.,  in  1874.  At  this  time  the  gov- 
ernment surveys  of  the  geology  of  the  western 
Territories  offered  opportunities  for  research  in 
paleontology  and  stratigraphy  and  for  general 
exploration  that  were  very  attractive  to  a  man 
of  White's  training  and  temperament.  He  gave 
up  his  position  at  Bowdoin  and  was  employed 
successively  (1875-79)  by  George  Montague 
Wheeler's  survey  west  of  the  100th  meridian,  by 
John  Wesley  Powell's  survey  of  the  Rocky 
Mountain  region,  and  by  Ferdinand  Vandiveer 
Hayden's  geological  survey  of  the  Territories. 
Through  each  of  these  organizations  he  made  im- 
portant contributions  by  published  reports  and 
descriptive  paleontologic  studies.  When  in  1879 
the  independent  government  surveys  were  merged 
in  the  newly  organized  United  States  Geologi- 
cal Survey,  White  became  curator  of  inverte- 
brate fossils  In  the  National  Museum  in  Wash- 
ington, D.  C,  where  until  1882  he  rendered 
invaluable  service  at  a  critical  time  in  the  or- 
ganization of  the  paleontologic  collections.  As 
honorary  curator  of  Mesozoic  invertebrates,  he 


continued  his  work  in  the  Museum  while  he 
served  as  a  geologist  in  the  Geological  Survey 
(1882-92)  ;  in  1892  his  resignation  from  the 
Survey  ended  his  more  active  professional  duties, 
though  he  continued  connection  with  the  Na- 
tional Museum  as  associate  in  paleontology. 

On  Sept.  28,  1848,  long  prior  to  the  beginning 
of  his  professional  career,  White  had  married 
Charlotte  R.  Pilkington  of  Dighton,  Mass.,  who 
shared  his  life  almost  fifty-four  years.  Of  their 
family  of  eight  children,  four  sons  and  two  daugh- 
ters survived  him.  He  died  in  Washington,  D. 
C.  He  was  a  member  of  the  National  Academy 
of  Science,  a  founder  of  the  Geological  Society 
of  America,  vice-president  for  the  section  of 
geology  of  the  American  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  Science  (1889),  president  of 
the  Biological  Society  of  Washington  (1883- 
84),  foreign  member  of  the  Geological  Society 
of  London,  and  corresponding  member  of  sev- 
eral other  European  scientific  societies.  He  held 
several  honorary  degrees.  While  White's  inter- 
ests were  so  broad  and  varied  that  he  must  be 
classified  primarily  as  a  naturalist,  his  principal 
scientific  contributions  were  in  the  field  of  in- 
vertebrate paleontology  and  stratigraphy,  par- 
ticularly of  the  Mesozoic.  His  writings  are 
characterized  by  a  clean  simple  style  which  never 
permits  any  doubt  of  his  meaning  or  of  his  hon- 
esty of  purpose. 

[Sources  include  autobiog.  sketch  in  MS.:  Who's 
Who  in  America,  1910—11  ;  J.  B.  Marcou,  "Bibliogs.  of 
Am.  Naturalists,"  Bull.  U.  S.  Museum,  no.  30  (1885)  ; 
T.  W.  Stanton,  in  U.  S.  Nat.  Museum,  Report  .  .  .  1910 
(1911),  p.  71,  and  bibliog.  in  Proc.  U.  S.  Nat.  Museum, 
vol.  XX  (1898),  supplementing  Marcou;  W.  H.  Dall, 
in  Nat.  Acad,  of  Sci.  Biog.  Memoirs,  vol.  VII  (1911)  ; 
Charles  Keyes,  in  Annals  of  Iowa,  Oct.  1914;  Science, 
July  29,  1910,  pp.  146-49  ;  G.  P.  Merrill,  The  First  One 
Hundred  Years  of  Am.  Gcol.  (1924)  ;  Biog.  Review  of 
Des  Moines  County,  Iowa  (1905)  ;  obituary  in  Evening 
Star  (Washington,  D.  C),  June  29,  1910.]   T.  W.  S. 

WHITE,  CHARLES  IGNATIUS  (Feb.  1, 
1807-Apr.  1,  1878),  Roman  Catholic  priest  and 
editor,  son  of  John  and  Nancy  (Coombs)  White, 
who  were  of  old  Maryland  families,  was  born  in 
Baltimore  and  educated  in  the  local  schools  and 
at  Mount  St.  Mary's  College,  Emmitsburg.  As 
a  seminarian,  he  studied  theology  at  St.  Sulpice 
in  Paris  and  spent  a  year  in  the  Sulpician  noviti- 
ate at  Issy  prior  to  his  ordination  to  the  secular 
priesthood  in  Notre  Dame  Cathedral  by  Arch- 
bishop Hyacinthe  de  Quelen  (June  5,  1830).  On 
his  return  to  Maryland,  Father  White  served  as 
a  curate  at  Fell's  Point  (1830-33),  as  an  as- 
sistant and  as  rector  of  the  cathedral  in  Balti- 
more (1833-43),  as  professor  of  moral  theology 
at  St.  Mary's  Seminary  (1843-45),  from  which 
he  later  received  the  degree  of  S.T.D.  (1848), 


94 


White 

as  pastor  of  St.  Vincent  de  Paul's  Church 
(1845),  as  pastor  at  Pikesville,  where  he  erected 
a  church  (1849),  and  finally  as  rector  of  St. 
Matthew's  Church  in  Washington,  D.  C.  ( 1857- 
78),  where  he  became  widely  known  in  ecclesias- 
tical and  secular  circles  as  a  scholarly  preacher 
and  as  an  influential  priest.  Although  a  preacher 
on  such  important  occasions  as  episcopal  conse- 
crations, a  second  choice  for  the  see  of  Charles- 
ton in  1843,  a  secretary  of  the  Third  Provincial 
Council  of  Baltimore  ( 1837)  and  a  theologian  at 
the  Fourth  Council  (1840),  and  the  only  priest 
who  had  known  intimately  the  nine  archbishops 
of  Baltimore,  he  was  never  elevated  beyond  the 
priesthood.  His  most  severe  critic,  James  Al- 
phonsus  McMaster  [q.v.~\  of  the  Freeman's  Jour- 
nal, admitted  that  he  was  exemplary  in  character, 
pious,  severe  in  temperament,  and  aristocratic  in 
bearing,  but  feared  that  he  had  not  been  pre- 
served from  the  Gallican  tendencies  of  Paris. 

While  in  Washington,  White  erected  a  paro- 
chial school,  St.  Matthew's  Institute,  and  St. 
Stephen's  Church ;  established  St.  Ann's  Infant 
Asylum,  a  chapel  for  colored  persons,  and  a 
home  for  aged  negroes ;  introduced  the  Society 
of  St.  Vincent  de  Paul  for  social  work  among 
the  poor;  and  compiled  St.  Vincent's  Manual 
(2nd  ed.,  1848).  As  a  musician  and  artist,  he 
was  intelligently  interested  in  hymnology  and 
architecture.  Yet  his  greatest  contribution  was 
as  an  editor  and  as  "one  of  the  outstanding  lit- 
erary figures  in  the  American  priesthood"  (Peter 
Guilday,  The  Life  and  Times  of  John  England, 
1927,  II,  551).  With  the  Rev.  James  Dolan,  an 
early  social  worker  in  Baltimore,  he  founded 
and  edited  the  Religious  Cabinet  (1842),  which 
was  continued  as  the  United  States  Catholic 
Magazine  (1843-48).  Later  he  founded  and  ed- 
ited the  Metropolitan  Magazine  (1853).  These 
magazines  compared  favorably  with  contempo- 
rary secular  publications.  Indeed,  it  was  their 
erudite  character  that  proved  their  undoing  be- 
cause of  a  lack  of  patronage  among  an  unedu- 
cated constituency.  In  1849  White  assisted  in 
founding  the  archdiocesan  weekly  paper,  the 
Catholic  Mirror,  which  he  edited  until  1855.  In 
addition,  he  compiled  under  varying  titles  the 
annual  Catholic  directory  (1834-57),  issued  a 
revised  edition  of  J.  L.  Balmes'  Protestantism 
and  Catholicity  Compared  in  Their  Effects  on 
the  Civilization  of  Europe  (1850)  and  a  Life  of 
Mrs.  Eliza  A.  Set  on  (1853)  which  passed 
through  several  editions,  published  a  revised  edi- 
tion of  Chateaubriand's  The  Genius  of  Chris- 
tianity (1856),  translated  from  the  French  of 
Charles  Sainte-Foi,  Mission  and  Duties  of  Young 
Women    (1858),  and  added  a  chapter  on   the 


White 

Church  in  the  United  States  to  the  English  trans- 
lation of  Joseph  E.  Darras'  General  History  of 
the  Catholic  Church  (1866). 

[M.  J.  Riordon,  Cathedral  Records  (1906);  Cath. 
Encyc. ;  F.  E.  Tourscher,  The  Kcnrick-Frenaye  Corre- 
spondence (1920)  ;  N.  Y.  Freeman's  Journal,  Apr.  13, 
1878;  Cath.  Mirror,  Apr.  6,  1878;  Sadlier's  Cath.  Di- 
rectory (1879),  P-  41  ;  address  of  Archbishop  James 
Gibbons  [q.v.]  in  In  Memoriam;  a  Record  of  the  Cere- 
monies in  St.  Matthew's  Church  .  .  .  on  the  Occasion  of 
the  Funeral  of  Its  Late  Pastor  Rev.  Charles  I.  White 
(1878)  ;  obituary  in  Evening  Star  (Washington,  D.  C.), 
Apr.  1,  1878.]  R.J.  P. 

WHITE,  EDWARD  DOUGLASS  (March 
1795-Apr.  18,  1847),  political  leader,  the  son  of 
James  and  Mary  (Willcox)  White,  was  born  in 
Maury  County,  middle  Tennessee.  His  father 
was  a  native  of  Pennsylvania ;  his  grandfather, 
of  Ireland.  In  1799  the  family  removed  to  Lou- 
isiana, settling  in  St.  Martin  Parish.  After  the 
transfer  of  Louisiana  to  the  United  States  and 
the  organization  of  the  new  territorial  govern- 
ment, James  White  was  appointed  a  district 
judge.  His  son  attended  common  schools  and  in 
181 5  was  graduated  from  the  University  of 
Nashville.  Returning  to  Louisiana,  he  studied 
law  in  the  office  of  Alexander  Porter  [q.i\]  and 
began  the  practice  of  law  at  Donaidsonville.  In 
1825  he  went  to  New  Orleans  to  accept  appoint- 
ment as  associate  judge  of  the  city  court,  but 
resigned  that  post  in  1828  and  removed  to  La- 
fourche Parish,  where  he  owned  a  sugar  plan- 
tation. He  entered  the  federal  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives in  1829,  serving  in  the  Twenty-first, 
Twenty-second,  and  Twenty-third  congresses. 
He  was  opposed  to  Jackson  in  politics  and  is 
said  to  have  become  a  personal  friend  of  Henry 
Clay.  In  November  1834  he  resigned  his  seat 
in  Congress  to  seek  election  as  governor  of  Lou- 
isiana ;  he  was  successful  and  served  four  years, 
1835-39.  Critical  of  Congress  for  seeming  to 
neglect  the  welfare  of  his  state,  especially  in  mat- 
ters of  tariff  protection  for  sugar  planters  and 
certain  land  claims,  he  advocated  state  legisla- 
tive measures  to  provoke  the  attention  of  Con- 
gress. He  approved  the  charter  (1835)  of  the 
Medical  College  of  Louisiana,  the  nucleus  from 
which  grew  the  Tulane  University  of  Louisiana. 
Several  bank  failures  occurred  in  New  Orleans 
during  his  administration,  and  he  effectively  ve- 
toed a  bill  to  charter  the  Farmers'  Bank  in  the 
panic  year  of  1837.  He  warned  against  the  ac- 
tivities of  the  abolitionists. 

Before  the  expiration  of  his  term  as  governor, 
he  was  again  elected  to  Congress,  holding  the 
seat  for  two  terms,  1839-43.  Giving  special  at- 
tention to  local  interests,  he  worked  to  secure 
construction  funds  for  the  New  Orleans  mint, 
the  refunding  to  Louisiana  of  "moneys  paid  by 


95 


White 


White 


her  for  her  militia  serving  in  the  Florida  war 
several  years  ago,"  relief  of  private  land  claim- 
ants, and  the  establishment  of  new  ports  of  entry 
and  the  adoption  of  regulations  to  facilitate  com- 
merce between  the  Southwest  and  Mexico.  Upon 
retiring  from  Congress,  he  resumed  the  career 
of  lawyer-planter,  spending  the  last  years  of  his 
life  at  Thibodaux,  La.  He  was  a  man  of  good 
humor,  kindly  disposition,  and  unusual  common 
sense,  with  eccentricities  which  were  the  source 
of  numerous  anecdotes.  He  married  Catherine 
S.  Ringgold  of  Washington,  D.  C,  and  they  had 
five  children,  the  youngest  being  Edward  Doug- 
lass White  [q.v.~\,  who  became  chief  justice  of 
the  United  States  Supreme  Court.  The  father 
died  in  New  Orleans  about  two  years  after  the 
birth  of  this  son,  and  was  buried  in  St.  Joseph's 
Catholic  Cemetery  at  Thibodaux,  La. 

[Alcee  Fortier,  Louisiana  (1909),  II,  639-42; 
Charles  Gayarre,  Hist,  of  La.  (1885),  IV,  656-58; 
Mcynicr's  La.  Biogs.  (1882),  pt.  1,  pp.  20-22;  W.  H. 
Sparks,  The  Memories  of  Fifty  Years  (1870),  pp.  459- 
61  ;  Biog.  Dir.  Am.  Cong.  (1928)  ;  Weekly  Delta  (New 
Orleans),  Apr.  26,  1847  ;  Daily  Picayune  (New  Or- 
leans), Apr.  20,  1847.]  H.C.N. 

WHITE,  EDWARD  DOUGLASS  (Nov.  3, 

1845-May  19,  1921),  chief  justice  of  the  United 
States,  was  born  in  Parish  Lafourche,  La.,  the 
son  of  Edward  Douglass  White  [q.v.~\  and  Cath- 
erine S.  (Ringgold).  His  paternal  great-grand- 
father emigrated  from  Ireland  to  Pennsylvania, 
where  his  grandfather,  James  White,  was  born. 
His  father  was  born  in  Tennessee,  but  was  taken 
at  an  early  age  to  Louisiana  and  there  at- 
tained considerable  prominence  in  public  life. 
The  younger  Edward  Douglass  White  received 
his  education  at  Mount  St.  Mary's  College,  Em- 
mitsburg,  Md.,  the  Jesuit  College  in  New  Or- 
leans, and  Georgetown  College  in  the  District 
of  Columbia.  At  the  age  of  sixteen  he  left  college 
and  enlisted  as  a  private  in  the  Confederate  army. 
On  the  fall  of  Port  Hudson  in  1863  he  was  taken 
prisoner  and  shortly  thereafter  was  paroled. 

After  the  war  he  read  law  in  the  office  of  Ed- 
ward Bermudez  [q.v.~],  was  admitted  to  the  Lou- 
isiana bar  in  1868,  and  almost  immediately  went 
into  politics.  He  was  elected  to  the  Louisiana 
Senate  in  1874  and  later  was  appointed  to  the 
state  supreme  court,  on  which  he  served  from 
January  1879  to  April  1880.  His  judicial  career 
in  the  state  was  cut  short  because,  under  a  new 
constitution,  the  court  was  reconstituted  and  his 
term  ended.  (For  his  opinions,  see  31,  32  Lou- 
isiana Reports.)  He  was  early  identified  with  the 
anti-lottery  movement,  largely  as  the  result  of 
which  he  was  elected  to  the  United  States  Sen- 
ate, where  he  took  his  seat  on  Mar.  4,  1891.  Him- 


self a  successful  sugar  planter,  he  fought  vigor- 
ously for  a  protective  tariff  on  sugar  in  the  Wil- 
son Bill,  continuing  his  activities  in  this  regard 
even  after  he  had  agreed  to  accept  appointment 
to  the  Supreme  Court  bench. 

Before  the  completion  of  his  term  in  the  Sen- 
ate, White  became  the  sudden  and  wholly  unex- 
pected beneficiary  of  the  political  bad  blood  that 
existed  between  President  Cleveland  and  the 
Democratic  senator  from  New  York,  David  B. 
Hill.  In  1893  Justice  Samuel  Blatchford  \_q.v.~\ 
of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court  died.  He 
was  a  resident  of  New  York  and  it  was  assumed 
that  his  successor  would  be  chosen  from  that 
state,  more  especially  since  Cleveland  himself 
came  from  New  York.  Without  consulting  Hill, 
Cleveland  nominated  first  William  B.  Hornblow- 
er  and  later  Wheeler  H.  Peckham  to  fill  the 
vacancy  on  the  bench.  Under  the  rule  of  so- 
called  senatorial  courtesy  Hill  succeeded  in  de- 
feating both  of  these  nominations,  whereupon 
Cleveland  sent  in  the  name  of  White.  Since 
White  was  himself  a  member  of  the  Senate, 
Hill  could  not  object  and  the  nomination 
was  promptly  confirmed.  White  took  the  oath 
of  office  on  Mar.  12,  1894,  and  remained 
upon  the  bench  twenty-seven  years,  being 
raised  to  the  chief  justiceship  by  President 
Taft  in  1910.  In  selecting  the  chief  justice  from 
among  the  associate  justices  Taft  broke  with 
tradition.  Furthermore,  a  more  natural  choice 
would  have  been  Charles  E.  Hughes,  who  was 
Taft's  own  appointee.  Taft  was  probably  influ- 
enced by  his  desire  to  break  the  "Solid  South" 
politically.  This  was  the  second  instance  of  a 
Southern  Democratic  Catholic  being  appointed 
to  preside  over  the  highest  court  of  the  land, 
Roger  B.  Taney  having  been  chief  justice  from 
1836  to  1864.  During  his  service  on  the  bench 
White  wrote  opinions  in  more  than  700  cases. 

In  1895  the  Supreme  Court  rendered  three  de- 
cisions that  gave  rise  to  widespread  criticism 
and  to  attacks  upon  the  power  of  the  courts.  One 
of  these,  in  the  case  of  the  E.  C.  Knight  Com- 
pany (156  United  States,  1),  appeared  to  draw 
the  teeth  of  the  Sherman  Anti-Trust  Act.  An- 
other, in  Pollock  vs.  Farmers'  Loan  and  Trust 
Company  (158  United  States,  601),  held  the 
federal  income  tax  of  1894  void  in  part.  The 
third,  in  the  case  of  Eugene  Debs  (158  United 
States,  564),  growing  out  of  the  Pullman  strike 
in  Chicago  in  1894,  upheld  the  power  of  the  fed- 
eral government  to  issue  injunctions  in  labor  dis- 
putes. White  concurred  in  the  first  and  third  of 
these  decisions  but  dissented  in  the  income-tax 
case.  Agitation  for  a  curb  upon  judicial  review 
went  steadily  on,  reaching  its  peak  perhaps  in 


96 


White 


White 


the  Progressive  campaign  of  1912  shortly  after 
White  became  chief  justice. 

It  is  difficult  to  characterize  his  decisions  as  a 
whole.  His  mind  was  a  middle-of-the-road  mind. 
He  was  sometimes  found  with  the  so-called  lib- 
erals, as,  for  example,  in  1905  when  he  dissented 
in  the  case  of  Lochner  vs.  New  York  ( 198  United 
States,  45),  which  was  made  so  much  of  in  the 
campaign  of  1912,  and  when  he  wrote  the  ma- 
jority opinion  in  Wilson  vs.  New  (243  United 
States,  332),  upholding  the  famous  Adamson  Act 
of  1916  by  which  a  scale  of  minimum  wages  for 
railway  employees  was  fixed.  He  likewise  wrote 
the  opinion  of  the  Court  in  Guinn  and  Beat  vs. 
United  States  (238  United  States,  347)  in  which 
the  grandfather  clause  of  Oklahoma  was  held 
void;  in  the  case  which  upheld  the  selective  draft 
act  (245  United  States,  366)  ;  and  in  the  case 
which  threatened  the  use  of  federal  power  to 
compel  the  state  of  West  Virginia  to  pay  her 
agreed  portion  of  the  debt  of  Virginia  (246 
United  States,  565).  On  the  other  hand,  while 
he  dissented  in  the  Lochner  case,  which  held 
void  the  New  York  law  limiting  bakery  hours  to 
ten  a  day,  he  also  dissented  in  Bunting  vs.  Oregon 
(243  United  States,  426),  which  upheld  an  Ore- 
gon ten-hour  law.  Again,  while  he  concurred  in 
the  New  York  Central  case  (243  United  States, 
188),  upholding  the  New  York  workmen's  com- 
pensation act,  he  dissented  in  the  Mountain  Tim- 
ber Company  case  (243  United  States,  219), 
which  upheld  the  Washington  compensation  law. 
He  dissented  in  the  Northern  Securities  case  in 
1904  (193  United  States,  197),  the  first  impor- 
tant decision  upholding  and  applying  the  Sher- 
man Anti-Trust  Act.  He  concurred  in  the  Adair 
and  Coppage  cases  (208  United  States,  161 ;  236 
United  States,  1),  both  famous  in  the  history  of 
labor,  and  in  the  Danbury  hatters'  case  (235 
United  States,  522),  holding  that  the  Sherman 
Act  applied  to  labor  unions  in  their  attempt  to 
force  unionization  by  boycott.  He  dissented  in 
the  rent  cases,  upholding  the  power  both  of  the 
states  and  the  national  government  to  prevent 
profiteering  in  rents  in  time  of  emergency 
(Block  vs.  Hirsch,  256  United  States,  135; 
Brown  Holding  Co.  vs.  Fcldman,  256  United 
States,  170). 

Wilson  vs.  New  was  probably  the  most  im- 
portant decision  he  ever  wrote,  even  though  the 
reasoning  he  employed  left  much  to  be  desired, 
but  he  is  doubtless  best  known  for  the  "rule  of 
reason"  laid  down  in  the  Standard  Oil  and  the 
American  Tobacco  cases  (221  United  States,  1, 
106),  interpreting  and  applying  the  anti-trust 
act.  He  had  first  announced  this  rule  in  1897  in 
a  dissenting  opinion  rendered  in  United  States 


vs.  Trans-Missouri  Freight  Association  (166 
United  States,  290).  It  must  be  said,  however, 
that  by  applying  this  rule  he  wrote  into  the  law 
something  which  Congress  had  not  put  there 
and  that  he  did  this  by  a  sophistical  course  of 
reasoning  in  which  he  employed  the  word  "rea- 
sonable" first  in  the  sense  of  moderate  or  limit- 
ed, and  secondly  in  the  sense  of  something 
reached  by  the  process  of  reasoning.  In  this  way 
he  sought  to  show  that  the  Court  was  not  over- 
ruling itself. 

Perhaps  without  realizing  it,  he  rather  accu- 
rately described  and  interpreted  his  own  judicial 
philosophy  in  a  brief  address  delivered  in  1916  in 
response  to  resolutions  of  the  bar  upon  the  death 
of  his  colleague,  Joseph  R.  Lamar  (New  Repub- 
lic, June  1,  1 92 1,  pp.  6-8).  He  said  of  his  late 
brother  on  the  bench  that  in  the  matter  of  "the 
relation  of  the  activities  of  individuals  and  their 
results  to  each  other"  he  keenly  appreciated  the 
"duty  to  adjust  between  conflicting  activities  so 
as  to  preserve  the  rights  of  all  by  protecting  the 
rights  of  each."  Intensely  local  as  were  his  af- 
fections and  his  ties,  he  had  a  broad  conception 
of  his  "duty  to  uphold  and  sustain  the  authority 
of  the  Union  as  to  the  subjects  coming  within 
the  legitimate  scope  of  its  power  as  conferred  by 
the  Constitution."  There  was  a  "fixed  opinion 
on  his  part  as  to  the  duty  to  uphold  and  perpetu- 
ate the  great  guarantees  of  individual  freedom 
as  declared  by  the  Constitution,  to  the  end  that 
the  freedom  of  all  might  not  pass  away  forever." 
In  his  work  on  the  bench  "no  thought  of  ex- 
pediency, no  mere  conviction  about  economic 
problems,  no  belief  that  the  guarantees  were 
becoming  obsolete  or  that  their  enforcement 
would  incur  popular  odium  ever  swayed  his  un- 
alterable conviction  and  irrevocable  purpose  to 
uphold  and  protect  the  great  guarantees  with 
every  faculty  which  he  possessed."  At  the  time 
of  his  death  in  1921  some  one  remarked  that 
White's  opinions  were  "models  of  what  judicial 
opinions  ought  not  to  be"  (Nation,  June  1,  1921, 
p.  781 ).  This  is  very  nearly  true.  There  was  no 
crystal  clarity  in  his  reasoning  processes  and  his 
sentences  were  long,  labored,  and  involved. 

White  was  an  untiring  worker,  gracious,  cour- 
teous, modest,  genial,  with  many  lovable  qualities 
and  a  steadfast  devotion  to  the  public  service. 
He  was  full  of  both  dignity  and  humility.  He 
was  especially  kind  to  young  and  inexperienced 
practitioners  who  appeared  before  the  Court.  He 
was  extraordinarily  popular.  A  man  of  enormous 
bulk,  he  was  nevertheless  an  inveterate  pedes- 
trian and  was  a  well-known  figure  in  Washing- 
ton because  of  his  striking  appearance  and  the 
curious  little  informal  hat  that  he  always  wore. 


97 


White 

He  had  a  remarkable  memory.  He  apparently 
knew  his  opinions  by  heart,  including  volume  and 
page  citations,  and  seldom  referred  to  the  printed 
page.  He  was  an  able  presiding  officer,  speeded 
up  the  work  of  the  Court  with  great  energy,  and 
by  his  engaging  manner  did  much  to  compromise 
differences  of  opinion  among  his  colleagues  on 
the  bench.  He  was  married  in  1894  to  Leita 
Montgomery  Kent. 

[Opinions  in  152-256,  U.  S.  Supreme  Court  Reports; 
New  Republic,  June  1,  1921,  pp.  6-8;  Nation,  May  3, 
1917,  PP.  528-29,  June  i,  1921,  p.  781  ;  Am.  Rev.  of 
Reviews,  Aug.  1921,  pp.  161-70  ;  J.  W.  Davis,  "Edward 
Douglass  White,"  in  Am.  Bar  Asso.  Jour.,  Aug.  1921  ; 
H.  L.  Carson,  in  Report  of  .  .  .  Am.  Bar  Asso.  .  .  .  1921 
(1921),  pp.  25-30  ;  Proc.  of  the  Bar  and  Officers  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  U.  S.  in  Memory  of  Edward 
Douglass  White  (1921);  Loyola  Law  Jour.,  "Edward 
Douglass  White  Memorial  Edition,"  April  1926;  Am. 
Law  Review,  July-Aug.  1926,  pp.  620-37  ;  Who's  Who 
in  America,  1920-21  ;  N.  Y.  Times,  May  19,  20,  1921.] 

H.L.M. 

WHITE,  ELLEN  GOULD  HARMON 

(Nov.  26,  1827-July  16,  1915),  leader  of  the 
Seventh-day  Adventist  Church,  was  born  at  Gor- 
ham,  Me.,  the  daughter  of  Robert  and  Eunice 
(Gould)  Harmon,  and  a  descendant  of  John 
Harmon  who  was  in  Kittery,  Me.,  in  1667. 
When  she  was  still  a  child  the  family  moved  to 
Portland.  She  was  not  more  than  nine  years  old 
when  a  girl  playmate  in  a  fit  of  anger  struck  her 
with  a  stone,  knocking  her  unconscious,  a  state 
in  which  she  remained  for  three  weeks.  Her 
face  was  disfigured  and  her  "nervous  system 
prostrated."  Her  health  was  so  poor  that  she 
had  to  give  up  school,  and  with  the  exception  of 
a  short  period  of  tutoring  at  home  she  received 
no  further  formal  education. 

During  tbe  stirring  evangelistic  campaign  of 
William  Miller  [q.v.]  in  the  forties,  she  em- 
braced the  Advent  faith  as  taught  by  Miller  and 
looked  for  the  personal  return  of  Christ  on  Oct. 
22,  1844.  When  this  expectation  proved  baseless, 
she  was  deeply  disappointed ;  her  health  failed 
rapidly  and  she  seemed  sinking  into  death.  In 
December,  however,  while  she  was  kneeling  in 
prayer  with  four  other  women,  a  vision  came  to 
her  in  which  she  seemed  to  be  transported  to 
heaven  and  shown  the  experiences  that  awaited 
the  faithful.  Subsequently,  she  had  other  visions, 
accompanied  by  strange  physical  phenomena. 
According  to  the  reports  of  physicians  and 
others,  her  eyes  remained  open  during  these  vi- 
sions, she  ceased  to  breathe,  and  she  performed 
miraculous  feats.  Messages  for  individuals, 
churches,  and  families  were  imparted  to  her, 
occasionally  of  what  would  take  place  in  the  fu- 
ture, but  more  often  of  reproof  or  encourage- 
ment. During  a  long  life  span,  she  exerted  the 
most  powerful  single  influence  on  Seventh-day 


White 

Adventist  believers.  The  larger  portion  of  them 
accepted  her  visions  without  question  and  acted 
in  accordance  with  her  messages. 

On  Aug.  30,  1846,  she  married  the  Rev.  James 
White,  born  in  Palmyra,  Me.,  Aug.  4,  182 1,  the 
son  of  John  White.  He  was  ordained  a  minister 
of  the  Christian  Connection  in  1843,  and  adhered 
to  the  Advent  faith.  The  young  couple  were 
penniless,  and  neither  was  in  good  health.  After 
various  activities,  in  1849  White  began  to  pub- 
lish a  little  paper,  which  soon  became  the  Ad- 
vent Review  and  Sabbath  Herald,  the  organ  of 
the  denomination.  It  was  first  issued  in  various 
places  in  New  England,  then  in  Rochester,  N.  Y., 
and  later  in  Battle  Creek,  Mich.  For  years 
White  was  in  charge  of  the  publishing  work  of 
the  Adventists.  He  labored  hard  for  the  union 
of  the  churches  and  in  1863  the  General  Confer- 
ence was  organized.  His  health  broke  down 
about  1864  and  his  wife  nursed  him  back  to 
health.  This  experience  turned  their  thoughts 
to  health  reform,  and  in  response  to  a  vision 
which  came  to  the  wife,  the  Western  Health 
Reform  Institute  was  founded  in  1866  at  Battle 
Creek.  Under  the  promotion  of  the  Whites,  Bat- 
tle Creek  College,  the  first  Seventh-day  Adven- 
tist school,  was  founded  in  1874.  This  same  year 
they  journeyed  to  California,  where,  at  Oakland, 
White  established  the  Signs  of  the  Times,  the 
printing  establishment  of  which  developed  into 
the  Pacific  Press  Publishing  Association.  He 
died  at  Battle  Creek  Aug.  6,  1881. 

After  his  death  his  wife  traveled  about  visit- 
ing churches  and  attending  conferences  and 
camp  meetings.  She  labored  in  Europe  from 
1885  until  1888,  and  in  1891  went  to  Australia, 
where  she  remained  nine  years.  In  1901  she 
turned  her  attention  to  Christian  work  in  the 
Southern  states.  Largely  as  a  result  of  her  in- 
terest the  Southern  Publishing  Association  was 
founded  at  Nashville,  Tenn.,  in  that  year.  In 
1903  she  played  an  important  part  in  moving 
the  denominational  headquarters  to  Washing- 
ton, D.  C,  and  she  also  had  a  very  definite  part 
in  founding,  in  1909,  the  College  of  Medical 
Evangelists  at  Loma  Linda,  Cal.,  which  has  sent 
its  graduates  to  many  quarters  of  the  world.  Her 
place  in  the  denomination  was  unique.  She  never 
claimed  to  be  a  leader,  but  simply  a  voice,  a  mes- 
senger bearing  communications  from  God  to 
his  people.  Her  life  was  marked  by  deep  per- 
sonal piety  and  spiritual  influence,  and  her  mes- 
sages were  an  important  factor  in  unifying  the 
churches.  She  was  a  constant  contributor  to  the 
denominational  papers  and  was  the  author  of 
about  twenty  volumes.  With  her  husband  she 
wrote  Life  Sketches  .  .  .  of  Elder  James  JJ'hite 


9s 


White 

and  His  Wife,  Mrs.  Ellen  G.  White  (1880)  and 
in  1915  published  Life  Sketches  of  Ellen  G. 
White.  In  1926  Scriptural  and  Subject  Index  to 
the  Writings  of  Mrs.  Ellen  G.  White  appeared. 
She  died  at  St.  Helena,  Cal. 

[Autobiog.  writings  mentioned  above;  A.  C.  Har- 
mon, The  Harmon  Gencal.  (1920)  ;  Signs  of  the  Times, 
Aug.  16,  23,  1 88 1  ;  Advent  Rev.  and  Sabbath  Herald, 
July  29,  1915;  J.  N.  Loughborough,  The  Great  Second 
Advent  Movement  (1905);  M.  E.  Olsen,  A  Hist,  of 
the  Origin  and  Progress  of  Seventh-day  Adventists 
(1925)  ;  D.  M.  Canright,  Life  of  Mrs.  E.  G.  White  .  .  . 
Her  False  Claims  Refuted  (1919)  ;  N.  Y.  Times,  July 
l7,  1915J  E.N.  D. 

WHITE,  EMERSON  ELBRIDGE  (Jan.  10, 
1829-Oct.  21,  1902),  educator,  author  of  school 
texts  and  books  on  education,  was  born  in  Man- 
tua, Portage  County,  Ohio,  the  son  of  Jonas  and 
Sarah  (McGregory)  White.  He  was  a  descend- 
ant of  Capt.  Thomas  White,  an  early  settler  of 
Weymouth,  Mass.  He  was  educated  in  the  rural 
schools  of  Portage  County,  in  Twinsburg  Acad- 
emy, and  in  Cleveland  University,  where  he  was 
a  student  instructor  in  mathematics.  In  1856, 
after  serving  as  principal  of  Mount  Union  Acad- 
emy, of  a  Cleveland  grammar  school,  and  of  the 
Cleveland  Central  High  School,  he  was  appoint- 
ed superintendent  of  the  public  schools  of  Ports- 
mouth, Ohio.  Failing  of  reappointment  in  i860, 
he  opened  in  the  city  a  classical  school.  He 
moved  to  Columbus  in  1861  to  assume  the  edi- 
torship and  proprietorship  of  the  Ohio  Educa- 
tional Monthly,  which  he  continued  until  1875. 
As  editor  of  this  journal,  the  official  organ  of 
the  State  Teachers'  Association,  he  soon  became 
the  leading  influence  in  Ohio  schools.  Becoming 
commissioner  of  common  schools  (1863-65),  he 
established  the  state  board  of  school  examiners, 
provided  by  law  financial  support  for  county 
teachers'  institutes,  and  codified  for  the  first  time 
the  school  laws  of  the  state.  From  1876  to  1883 
he  served  as  president  of  Purdue  University, 
founded  in  1874.  Under  his  administration  the 
work  of  the  university  was  organized  and  the 
institution  itself  permanently  established.  Upon 
his  resignation  in  1883,  he  moved  to  Cincinnati 
to  continue  his  authorship  of  school  texts,  and 
served  three  years  (1886-89)  as  superintendent 
of  the  public  schools  of  the  city.  He  returned  to 
his  olc.  ho  .ie  in  Columbus  in  1891.  Possibly  no 
man  during  these  years  was  more  widely  in  de- 
mand in  all  forms  of  public  school  activity  than 
White,  and  none  more  regular  in  his  attendance 
upon  the  annual  meetings  of  state  and  national 
conventions.  He  was  president  of  the  Ohio  State 
Teachers'  Association  (1863),  of  the  National 
Association  of  School  Superintendents  (1866), 
of  the  National  Education  Association  (1872), 
and  of  the  National  Council  of  Education  (1884), 


White 

which  he  had  helped  to  found.  He  is  said  to 
have  written  the  bill  establishing  a  national  de- 
partment of  education  (see  American  Journal 
of  Education,  Mar.  1866,  Sept.  1867).  He  was 
author  of  A  Classbook  on  Geography  (1863), 
A  New  Complete  Arithmetic  (1883),  Oral  Les- 
sons in  Number  (1884),  School  Reader  (1886), 
The  Elements  of  Pedagogy  ( 1886) ,  School  Man- 
agement (1893),  and  Art  of  Teaching  (1901)  ; 
White's  New  School  Register  Containing  Forms 
for  Daily,  Term,  and  Yearly  Records  (1891) 
was  used  by  teachers  in  the  Middle  West  almost 
universally  for  many  years. 

White  was  six  feet  tall,  commanding  in  figure, 
dignified  in  presence,  a  man  of  marked  fidelity 
who  pursued  his  work  with  great  earnestness  and 
singleness  of  purpose.  While  his  reserve  and 
superior  scholarship  cut  him  off  somewhat  from 
surface  popularity,  his  simplicity  and  sincerity 
of  mind  knit  to  him  in  ardent  friendship  the 
leading  school  men  of  America.  A  lifelong  Pres- 
byterian, he  served  many  years  as  president  of 
the  board  of  trustees  of  Lane  Seminary,  was  a 
frequent  delegate  to  the  Presbyterian  general  as- 
sembly, and  a  delegate  to  the  Pan-Presbyterian 
Council  in  Edinburgh  in  1877  and  in  Glasgow 
in  1896.  He  was  married  on  July  26,  1853,  to 
Mary  Ann  Sabin  of  Huron,  Ohio,  who  died  in 
1901.  There  were  five  children,  of  whom  three 
survived  their  father. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1901-02;  The  Officers  and 
Alumni  of  Purdue  Univ.,  1875-1896  (n.d.)  ;  W.  M. 
Hepburn  and  L.  M.  Sears,  Purdue  Univ.,  Fifty  Years 
of  Progress  (1925)  ;  Ohio  Educ.  Monthly,  Nov.  1902; 
W.  H.  Venable,  in  Education,  Jan.  1903,  and  in  Educ. 
Hist,  of  Ohio  (1905),  ed.  by  J.  J.  Burns;  Proc.  Nat. 
Educ.  Asso.  (1903)  ;  obituaries  in  Cincinnati  Enquirer 
and  Ohio  State  Jour.  (Columbus),  Oct.  22,  1902.] 

H.C.M. 

WHITE,  GEORGE  (Mar.  12,  1802-Apr.  30, 
1887),  historical  writer,  teacher,  Protestant 
Episcopal  clergyman,  was  born  in  Charleston, 
S.  C,  the  son  of  poor  but  industrious  parents. 
His  early  education  seems  to  have  been  acquired 
principally  through  his  own  efforts.  His  parents 
were  Methodists,  and  at  the  age  of  eighteen  he 
was  licensed  to  preach,  soon  becoming  known  as 
the  "beardless  preacher."  In  1823  he  moved  to 
Savannah,  Ga.,  where  he  continued  to  reside  for 
the  next  quarter  of  a  century.  Here  he  opened 
an  academy,  and  with  the  exception  of  1826-27, 
when  he  was  in  charge  of  the  publicly  controlled 
Chatham  Academy,  he  conducted  his  school,  un- 
der different  names,  for  some  years.  He  was 
rigid  in  his  discipline  and  held  his  scholars  to 
high  requirements;  yet  he  won  "the  affection  of 
his  pupils  and  the  permanent  esteem  of  their 
parents  and  guardians"  (Georgian,  May  12, 
1843).    He  long  refused  to  teach  girls,  because 


99 


White 

such  teaching  would  necessitate  adopting  a 
milder  discipline.  He  established  a  night  school, 
introduced  various  apparatus  into  the  class- 
room, and  was  in  general  progressive  in  his 
ideas  on  education.  Having  come  to  dislike  the 
Methodist  form  of  government,  he  joined  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church  and  in  1833  became 
a  clergyman  of  that  communion.  He  preached  to 
seamen  and  during  the  last  five  years  of  his  resi- 
dence in  Savannah  he  engaged  in  mission  work 
on  the  islands  along  the  Georgia  coast. 

White's  most  valid  claim  to  remembrance 
rests  on  his  historical  work.  In  1839  he  joined 
a  group  of  citizens  of  Savannah  in  organizing 
the  Georgia  Historical  Society.  His  interest  led 
him  through  long  and  tedious  investigations  in 
Georgia  and  as  far  north  as  New  York  City, 
which  resulted  in  the  publication  ten  years  later 
of  his  Statistics  of  the  State  of  Georgia,  a  work 
of  great  merit.  In  1852  he  brought  out  An  Ac- 
curate Account  of  the  Yazoo  Fraud  Compiled 
from  Official  Documents,  and  two  years  there- 
after, his  Historical  Collections  of  Georgia,  a 
classic  in  Georgia  bibliography.  These  last  two 
works  were  published  while  White  was  in  Mari- 
etta, Ga.,  whither  he  had  moved  in  1849.  He  re- 
mained there  until  1854,  when  he  definitely  gave 
up  further  historical  work  and  entered  fully  into 
the  service  of  the  Church,  first  as  a  missionary 
to  Lagrange  and  West  Point,  Ga.,  and  in  1856 
as  rector  of  Trinity  Church,  in  Florence,  Ala. 
In  1858  he  went  to  Memphis,  Tenn.,  as  assistant 
rector  of  Calvary  Church,  under  Bishop  James 
H.  Otey  [g.7'.],  and  the  following  year  became 
rector,  holding  this  position  until  two  years  be- 
fore his  death,  when  he  retired  as  rector  emeri- 
tus. During  the  epidemics  of  yellow  fever  and 
cholera  which  visited  Memphis  he  rendered 
heroic  service.  He  married  Elizabeth  Millen  of 
Savannah  and  to  this  union  were  born  eight 
children,  of  whom  one  son  and  three  daughters 
outlived  their  father. 

[W.  T.  Northen.  Men  of  Mark  in  Ga.,  vol.  II  (1910)  ; 
A.  D.  Candler  and  C.  A.  Evans,  Georgia  (1906)  ;  C.  C. 
Jones,  Hist,  of  Savannah  (1890)  ;  Ga.  Hist.  Soc.  Colls., 
vol.  II  (1842)  ;  A.  L.  Hull,  A  Hist.  Sketch  of  the  Univ. 
of  Ga.  (1894)  ;  H.  S.  Bowden,  Tzvo  Hundred  Years  of 
Educ.  .  .  .  Savannah,  Chatham  County,  Ga.  (1932)  ; 
Jour.  .  .  .  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the  Dio- 
cese of  Ga.,  1833-1854;  Hist,  of  the  Church  in  the 
Diocese  of  Tenn.  (1900);  Memphis  Appeal,  1887; 
Public  Ledger  (Memphis),  May  2,  1887;  Memphis 
Avalanche,  May  i,  1887.]  E.  M.  C. 

WHITE,  GEORGE  LEONARD  (Sept.  20, 
1838-Nov.  8,  1895),  conductor  of  the  Jubilee 
Singers  of  Fisk  University,  was  born  at  Cadiz, 
N.  Y.,  the  son  of  William  B.  and  Nancy  (Leon- 
ard) White.  From  his  father,  a  blacksmith  who 
in  his  spare  time  played  in  a  local  band,  he  de- 


White 

rived  a  love  of  music.  He  attended  public  school 
until  he  was  fourteen,  when  his  formal  education 
came  to  an  end.  At  twenty  he  was  teaching  in 
Ohio  and  had  acquired  considerable  reputation 
as  a  choir  leader.  With  one  or  two  associates  he 
gathered  the  colored  people  of  the  neighbor- 
hood and  taught  them  in  Sunday  schools,  the 
singing  in  which  he  led  his  pupils  forming  a  con- 
siderable part  of  the  curriculum.  In  the  early 
days  of  the  Civil  War  he  joined  the  "Squirrel 
Hunters"  to  defend  Cincinnati  from  the  Confed- 
erates under  Kirby-Smith.  Later,  as  an  enlist- 
ed man  in  the  73rd  Ohio  Regiment,  he  was  at 
the  battles  of  Chancellorsville  and  Gettysburg, 
and  served  until  discharged  for  illness  in  1864. 
After  the  war  he  went  to  Nashville,  Tenn.,  where 
he  was  briefly  employed  in  the  quartermaster's 
department,  and  then  entered  the  service  of  the 
Freedmen's  Bureau,  under  Clinton  B.  Fisk  [q.v.]. 
In  1867  he  was  appointed  instructor  of  vocal 
music  at  Fisk  University,  Nashville,  which  had 
just  been  founded  by  the  American  Missionary 
Association,  and  subsequently  became  a  trustee 
and  treasurer  of  the  institution. 

In  1870,  when  it  seemed  likely  that  Fisk  Uni- 
versity must  close  unless  money  could  be  raised, 
White  suggested  taking  a  group  of  students  on 
a  concert  tour.  He  finally  won  the  consent  of 
the  trustees  and  in  October  1871,  with -a  band 
of  nine  singers,  started  out.  Although  they  were 
penniless,  only  recently  emancipated,  untutored 
except  for  the  training  White  had  given  them, 
they  repeatedly  won  hostile  crowds  and  indiffer- 
ent audiences  to  enthusiastic  admiration,  and 
in  March  1872  returned  to  Nashville  with  twen- 
ty thousand  dollars  they  had  earned  over  and 
above  their  expenses.  After  resting  only  a  week, 
they  started  out  again  with  some  new  recruits, 
going  first  to  the  World  Peace  Jubilee  in  Boston. 
Here  their  presence  was  the  great  feature  of  the 
occasion  and  they  received  an  ovation.  In  April 
1873  they  sailed  for  England  and  in  a  tour  of 
Great  Britain  met  with  the  same  astonishing 
success  that  had  been  theirs  in  America.  Sub- 
sequently they  toured  England  again  and  visited 
the  Continent,  raising  in  all  more  than  $90,000 
for  Fisk  University  and  spreading  through  the 
civilized  world  a  new  understanding  and  respect 
for  the  character  and  the  capacities  of  the  freed- 
men.  They  finally  disbanded  in  Hamburg  in 
1878.  The  testimony  of  all  connected  with  the 
venture  is  that  without  White  it  could  never 
have  taken  place.  A  man  of  faith,  he  had  great 
courage  and  devotion  to  his  work  and  to  the  stu- 
dents he  had  trained.  He  was  extraordinary,  too, 
in  his  musicianship ;  although  almost  entirely 
self-taught,   he   maintained    standards   of  per- 


IOO 


White 

formance  so  high  that  only  his  personal  influ- 
ence over  the  singers  kept  them  from  wearying 
and  rehelling.  "His  ear  was  exquisite,"  wrote 
an  associate;  "in  passages  of  almost  incredible 
power  he  would  not  tolerate  anything  that  was 
not  pure  tone"  (Fisk  Herald,  October  1911,  pp. 
5,  6).  "He  would  keep  us  singing  all  day  until 
we  had  every  passage  ...  to  suit  his  fastidious 
taste,"  said  one  of  the  singers  (Ibid.,  p.  30). 

At  Saratoga,  Minn.,  Aug.  n,  1867,  White 
married  Laura  Amelia  Cravath,  a  missionary  of 
the  American  Missionary  Association  and  a  sis- 
ter of  Erastus  Milo  Cravath  \_q.v.~\,  first  presi- 
dent of  Fisk  University.  She  died  in  Glasgow, 
Scotland,  during  the  first  tour  of  the  singers.  On 
Apr.  12,  1876,  during  the  second  European  tour, 
he  married  Susan  Gilbert,  a  fellow  teacher  at 
Fisk,  chaperon  to  the  young  women  among  the 
singers.  Forced  by  an  accident  in  1885,  from 
which  he  never  fully  recovered,  to  give  up  his 
work  with  the  Jubilee  Singers,  he  taught  music 
at  the  state  normal  school,  Fredonia,  N.  Y. ;  in 
1886-87  he  was  at  Biddle  (later  Johnson  C. 
Smith)  University  in  North  Carolina;  and  in 
later  years,  with  his  wife,  was  connected  with 
Sage  College,  Cornell  University.  He  died  at 
Ithaca,  in  his  fifty-eighth  year,  after  being 
stricken  with  paralysis.  His  wife,  with  a  son 
and  a  daughter  of  his  first  marriage,  survived 
him;  his  eldest  son  had  died  in  1890. 

[G.  D.  Pike,  The  Jubilee  Singers  (1873)  and  The 
Singing  Campaign  (1875);  Fisk  Herald,  Oct.  191 1; 
annual  reports  of  the  Am.  Missionary  Asso.,  1867-76; 
information  as  to  certain  facts  from  White's  daughter, 
Miss  Georgia  L.  White.]  M.G. 

WHITE,  HENRY  (Mar.  28,  1732-Dec.  23, 
1786),  Loyalist,  was  born  in  Maryland,  the  son 
of  a  British  colonel  who  emigrated  to  America 
in  1712.  After  education  in  England,  he  became 
a  merchant  in  New  York  City.  His  position  was 
strengthened  by  his  marriage,  on  May  13,  1761, 
with  Eva  Van  Cortlandt,  member  of  one  of  the 
colony's  wealthy  and  influential  families.  By 
1769  he  removed  to  one  of  the  largest  mercan- 
tile establishments  in  the  city.  By  the  time  of 
the  Revolution  he  had  extensive  holdings  in  New 
York  City,  on  Lake  Champlain,  and  south  of 
the  Susquehanna.  He  was  appointed  to  the 
Council  in  1769  and  served  until  the  Revolu- 
tion. He  was  also  a  governor  of  King's  Col- 
lege (Columbia  University),  a  founder  of  the 
Marine  Society  of  New  York,  organized  mainly 
for  charitable  purposes,  and  one  of  the  incor- 
porators and  governors  of  the  New  York  Hos- 
pital. 

He  joined  with  the  other  New  York  merchants 
in  their  objection  to  the  Stamp  and  Townshend 
acts  and  was  a  member  of  a  committee  in  1766 


White 

to  recommend  the  erection  of  a  statue  to  Pitt. 
He  was  one  of  the  founders  and  president,  1772- 
7^,  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce,  organized  in 
1768  partially  to  combat  the  Townshend  acts. 
After  the  repeal  of  the  Townshend  acts,  how- 
ever, he  took  no  further  part  in  the  revolution- 
ary movement.  He  was  one  of  the  three  mer- 
chants in  New  York  City  to  whom  the  East 
India  Company  tea  was  consigned  in  1773,  but, 
except  to  appeal  to  Governor  Tryon  for  protec- 
tion for  the  cargoes,  he  took  no  action  to  make 
him  obnoxious  to  the  radicals  who  prevented 
landing  the  tea.  When  Tryon  went  to  England 
in  1774,  he  made  White  his  agent  and  attorney, 
but  this  fact  did  not  bring  White  under  any  di- 
rect suspicion  from  the  increasingly  powerful 
radicals.  However,  a  letter  of  June  1775  from 
Gov.  Josiah  Martin  of  North  Carolina,  ordering 
a  royal  standard  and  certain  other  supplies,  con- 
ceivably for  military  purposes,  was  intercepted, 
but  to  a  committee  of  the  Provincial  Congress 
White  explained  that  he  had  not  sent  the  stand- 
ard "lest  it  might  be  disagreeable  to  the  people 
of  this  place,"  and  that  he  knew  nothing  of  Mar- 
tin's actions  or  plans.  The  Congress  announced 
itself  satisfied  (Force,  post,  cols.  1346-47).  At 
the  end  of  1775  he  went  to  England  and  returned 
when  the  British  occupied  New  York  City  in 
1776.  He  was  one  of  the  signers  of  the  Loyal 
Address  to  the  Howes  and  was  active  in  the 
service  of  the  British,  first  as  a  member  of  a 
committee  to  receive  donations  for  equipping 
provincial  regiments  and  later  as  an  agent  for 
selling  prizes.  His  name  was  on  a  list  of  ten 
recommended  by  the  Commissioners  for  Re- 
storing Peace,  1778,  for  membership  on  an  inter- 
colonial council  to  govern  America. 

By  the  Act  of  Attainder  of  1779,  his  property 
was  to  be  confiscated,  and  he  himself  was  to  be 
executed  if  found  within  the  state.  When  the 
British  evacuated  New  York,  he  went  with  his 
family  to  live  in  London.  His  land  in  interior 
New  York  was  sold  in  small  holdings,  but  the 
bulk  of  his  city  property  was,  with  the  exception 
of  one  house  retained  by  the  state  as  a  residence 
for  the  governor,  bought  in  by  his  son,  Henry 
White,  Jr.  The  terms  of  his  will,  drawn  in  Lon- 
don, May  19,  1786,  seem  to  evidence  that  he  was 
still  a  very  wealthy  man  at«the  time  of  his  death. 
A  copy  of  a  portrait  by  Copley  hangs  in  the 
Chamber  of  Commerce  in  New  York  City. 

TLorenzo  Sabine,  Biog.  Sketches  of  Loyalists  of  the 
Am.  Revolution  (1864),  vol.  II;  A.  C.  Flick,  Loyalism 
in  New  York  (iqoi);  Peter  Force,  Am.  Archives-,  a 
set-.,  vol.  II  (1839)  ;  Colonial  Records  of  N.  Y.  Cham- 
ber of  Commerce,  1768-84  (1867),  with  hist,  and  biog. 
sketches  by  J.  A.  Stevens ;  Portrait  Gallery  of  the 
Chamber  of  Commerce  of  the  State  of  N.  Y.  (1890). 
comp.  by  George  Wilson  ;  J.  A.  Stevens,  Henry  White 


IOI 


White 


White 


and  his  Family  (1877),  reprinted  from  Mag.  of  Am. 
Hist.,  Dec.  1877  ;  N.  Y.  Gcneal.  and  Biog.  Record,  Oct. 
1905,  for  will.]  M.E.  L — b — d. 

WHITE,  HENRY  (Mar.  29,  1850-July  15, 
1927),  diplomatist,  was  born  in  Baltimore,  Md. 
His  father,  John  Campbell  White,  of  Scotch 
lineage,  was  heir  to  a  considerable  fortune  made 
in  a  distillery  established  in  Baltimore  by  his 
great-grandfather;  his  mother,  Eliza  (Ridgely) 
White,  sprang  from  one  of  the  oldest  Maryland 
families.  The  death  of  his  father  in  1853  result- 
ed in  Henry's  spending  most  of  his  boyhood  at 
"Hampton,"  a  dozen  miles  from  Baltimore,  an 
estate  of  the  border  plantation  type  where  slav- 
ery existed.  From  an  early  age  he  was  accus- 
tomed to  travel  and  to  an  animated,  spacious  so- 
cial life.  In  1857-58  he  spent  more  than  a  year 
with  his  mother  in  Europe.  The  Civil  War  made 
the  household  unhappy,  for  his  mother  and 
grandparents  sympathized  warmly  with  the 
South.  In  1865  Mrs.  White  married  Dr.  Thomas 
Hepburn  Buckler  \_q.v.~\,  an  eminent  Baltimore 
physician,  also  a  Southern  sympathizer,  and 
late  that  year  they  took  Henry  abroad  for  a  pro- 
tracted residence. 

The  first  five  years,  1865-70,  were  spent  chief- 
ly in  France,  Italy,  and  Germany.  White  mas- 
tered French  and  Italian,  became  familiar  with 
social  life  in  Paris  and  Rome,  and  learned  much 
regarding  European  politics.  His  mother,  while 
denying  him  no  wholesome  pleasures,  insisted 
on  strict  discipline  and  hard  study,  partly  under 
her,  partly  under  tutors,  and  partly  in  a  French 
school.  She  catechized  him  vigorously  upon  the 
Bible;  she  always  spoke  and  wrote  to  him  in 
Italian ;  and  she  developed  in  him  a  natural  un- 
selfishness which,  with  his  sunniness  of  temper, 
made  his  personality  singularly  attractive.  In 
1870  the  Franco-Prussian  War  drove  the  house- 
hold to  England.  White  had  hoped  to  attend 
Cambridge  University,  but  pulmonary  weakness 
led  Dr.  Buckler  to  insist  upon  an  outdoor  life 
for  him.  In  1871  he  took  a  hunting-box  at  Mar- 
ket Harborough,  and  for  several  years  hunted 
with  the  principal  packs  of  Leicestershire,  Rut- 
landshire, and  Northamptonshire.  Throughout 
life  he  insisted  that  the  sport  afforded  a  wonder- 
ful training  in  courage,  quickness,  good  temper, 
good  manners,  and  cool  judgment.  He  frequent- 
ly visited  the  Continent  and  made  several  visits 
to  the  United  States,  but  his  best  friends  were 
in  England,  where  his  social  graces  gave  him 
ready  entree  to  London  society  and  the  country 
houses. 

White's  marriage  on  Dec.  3,  1879,  to  Mar- 
garet Stuyvesant  Rutherfurd  of  New  York  was 
a  turning-point  in  his  life,  for  his  wife  insisted 


upon  his  taking  up  some  career.  A  daughter  of 
the  astronomer  Lewis  Morris  Rutherfurd  \_q.v^\, 
she  was  a  woman  of  exceptional  beauty,  intellec- 
tual tastes,  and  ambition.  Under  her  prompting 
White  asked  a  foreign  appointment  of  the  Ar- 
thur administration  ;  and  in  July  1883  found  him- 
self secretary  of  legation  under  Alphonso  Taft 
at  Vienna,  where  he  learned  diplomatic  routine 
and  added  German  to  his  languages.  A  fortunate 
transfer  to  the  second  secretaryship  in  London 
at  the  end  of  the  year  then  brought  him  into  a 
legation  where  his  social  connections  and  knowl- 
edge of  British  politics  made  him  particu- 
larly valuable.  Soon  rising  to  be  first  secretary, 
he  remained  here  without  interruption  until 
1893.  Successive  ministers — Lowell,  Edward  J. 
Phelps,  and  Robert  Lincoln — found  his  tact, 
skill,  and  ready  access  to  the  best  sources  of  in- 
formation invaluable.  He  worked  hard  over  the 
fishery  and  sealing  disputes,  and  several  times 
took  control  of  the  legation  as  charge.  Mrs. 
White  was  as  popular  socially  as  he.  In  1893 
President  Cleveland,  despite  strong  protests  from 
such  men  as  Edwin  L.  Godkin  and  Henry 
Adams,  brusquely  displaced  him  for  a  Demo- 
crat. 

Four  years  later,  after  unofficially  acting  as 
Richard  Olney's  diplomatic  agent  in  clearing  up 
the  Venezuelan  dispute,  White  was  offered  by 
McKinley  the  choice  between  his  old  London 
post  and  the  ministership  to  Spain.  His  unhesi- 
tating acceptance  of  the  former  opened  eight 
brilliant  years  as  a  subordinate  in  the  foreign 
service.  Ambassadors  John  Hay  and  Joseph 
Choate  found  him  loyal  and  hardworking.  He 
corresponded  with  President  Roosevelt,  Secre- 
tary John  Hay,  and  Senator  Henry  Cabot  Lodge 
on  highly  confidential  terms;  he  was  held  in 
warm  regard  by  Lord  Salisbury,  Lord  Lans- 
downe,  Arthur  Balfour,  and  St.  John  Brodrick. 
He  thus  filled  a  unique  role  as  go-between  in 
numerous  unofficial  exchanges,  an  interpreter  of 
both  countries,  a  source  of  expert  information, 
and  an  adviser.  His  letters  (Nevins,  post,  pp. 
123-242)  demonstrate  how  much  he  did  in  these 
years  to  smooth  the  way  for  the  Hay-Paunce- 
fote  abrogation  of  the  Clayton-Bulwer  treaty, 
the  settlement  of  the  Alaskan  boundary,  and  the 
termination  of  the  Venezuelan  dispute  of  1902- 
03 ;  to  advise  Hay  in  handling  the  Boxer  revolt 
and  the  Open  Door  problem ;  and  to  further  the 
Anglo-American  rapprochement  which  began  at 
the  time  of  the  Spanish-American  War.  It  was 
with  these  services  in  mind  that  Roosevelt  later 
said  that  he  was  "the  most  useful  man  in  the 
diplomatic  service,  during  my  presidency,  and 
for  many  years  before"  (Roosevelt,  post,  p.  388). 


102 


White 


White 


Appointed  ambassador  to  Italy  in  March  1905, 
and  ambassador  to  France  in  1907,  White  found 
fewer  opportunities  in  these  positions  than  in 
London.  His  most  important  labor  during  these 
years  was  as  American  representative  at  the 
Algeciras  Conference  (1906).  Roosevelt  chose 
White  as  his  agent  in  his  efforts  to  prevent  an 
immediate  conflict,  preserve  Moroccan  integrity, 
and  contribute  to  a  permanent  understanding  in 
Europe.  Roosevelt  cabled  asking  his  opinion  of 
a  fair  peace  plan,  and  White,  after  obtaining 
memoranda  from  the  French  and  German  dele- 
gates, submitted  a  memorandum  to  Washing- 
ton. It  was  on  this  that  Roosevelt  primarily 
based  the  scheme  which  he  urged  upon  the  Kaiser 
through  Speck  von  Sternburg.  In  other  ways 
White  aided  in  preventing  a  rupture,  which 
would  probably  have  meant  war.  But  he  knew 
that  France  and  Spain  had  a  secret  treaty  for 
spheres  of  influence  in  Morocco,  and  realized 
better  than  Roosevelt  that  the  latter's  interven- 
tion had  contributed  not  to  the  open  door  in 
Morocco  but  to  French  domination. 

President  Taft's  dismissal  of  White  from  the 
French  embassy  in  1909  was,  as  Roosevelt  wrote, 
for  personal  reasons  "unconnected  with  the  good 
of  the  service"  (Roosevelt,  p.  388)  ;  and  it 
aroused  indignation  on  the  part  of  Roosevelt, 
Lodge,  and  Knox.  But  White  with  character- 
istic generosity  cherished  no  resentment.  He 
lingered  in  Europe  to  accompany  Roosevelt  in 
1910  to  Berlin  and  London.  Later  that  year  he 
accepted  from  Taft  an  appointment  as  head  of 
the  American  delegation  to  the  fourth  Pan- 
American  Conference  in  Buenos  Aires.  In  191 1 
he  began  building  a  house  in  Washington.  He 
participated  in  social  life  there  with  great  enjoy- 
ment, and 'added  a  warm  friendship  with  Lord 
Bryce  to  his  preexisting  intimacy  with  Lodge, 
Henry  Adams,  and  Jusserand.  The  outbreak  of 
war  in  1914  found  him  in  Germany,  where  he 
had  a  notable  interview  with  Falkenhayn  ( Nev- 
ins,  pp.  323  ff.).  Returning  to  Washington,  he 
kept  out  of  public  life,  but  in  1917-18  acted  as 
regional  director  of  the  Red  Cross  and  president 
of  the  War  Camp  Community  Service.  It  was 
amid  such  activities  that  he  was  surprised  by 
Wilson's  appointment  of  him  (November  1918) 
to  the  Peace  Commission.  After  talks  with 
Roosevelt,  Root,  and  Lodge  on  peace  terms,  he 
sailed  for  Paris  with  Wilson  on  the  George 
Washington. 

In  Paris,  like  Lansing  and  Bliss,  White  quick- 
ly found  that  he  would  play  a  minor  role  in  the 
drafting  of  the  treaty.  Yet  if  minor  it  was  dis- 
tinctly enlightened  and  useful.  He  threw  his 
influence  against  the  excessive  demands  of  Italy, 


France,  and  Poland  for  territory;  a  frank  talk 
with  Wilson  had  much  to  do  with  the  latter's  in- 
sistence on  a  plebiscite  in  Upper  Silesia,  while 
White  blamed  Colonel  House  severely  for  im- 
proper concessions  to  Italy  at  Fiume.  He  like- 
wise threw  his  influence  against  the  continu- 
ance of  the  French  food-blockade  of  Germany. 
He  did  good  service  on  the  Commission  of  In- 
ternational Regime  of  Ports,  Waterways,  and 
Railways,  standing  out  against  French  demands 
for  the  neutralization  of  the  Kiel  Canal.  But 
his  most  important  labors  lay  in  his  efforts  to 
enlighten  American  friends,  and  particularly 
Chairman  Lodge  of  the  foreign  relations  com- 
mittee, about  the  League  of  Nations.  When  ap- 
pointed by  Wilson  he  had  been  distinctly  hostile 
to  any  league,  but  a  brief  scrutiny  of  post-war 
conditions  in  Europe  converted  him  into  an 
impassioned  advocate  of  the  idea.  In  his  eager- 
ness to  bring  America  into  the  League  he  ca- 
bled Lodge  on  Mar.  9,  1919,  while  Wilson  was 
on  the  high  seas,  asking  for  "exact  phraseology 
of  amendments  modifying  League  which  Senate 
considers  important"  (Nevins,  p.  399).  Lodge 
took  the  absurd  view  that  this  message  was  a 
trap,  possibly  instigated  by  Wilson,  and  sent  a 
curt  refusal  (H.  C.  Lodge,  The  Senate  and  the 
League  of  Nations,  1925,  pp.  123-28).  The  final 
defeat  of  the  League  by  the  Senate  was  a  heavy 
blow  to  White,  who  had  returned  to  Washing- 
ton in  December  1919  to  labor  for  it. 

In  the  remaining  years  of  his  life  White  de- 
voted much  attention  to  fostering  the  develop- 
ment of  diplomacy  as  a  profession.  He  himself 
might  be  called  the  first  professional  American 
diplomatist.  His  first  wife  having  died  in  1916, 
on  Nov.  3,  1920,  he  married  Mrs.  Emily  Van- 
derbilt  Sloane.  Thereafter  he  divided  his  time 
between  Washington,  New  York,  and  Lenox. 
His  death  on  July  15,  1927,  at  Pittsfield,  Mass., 
followed  a  brief  illness,  almost  the  first  of  his 
life.  One  daughter,  married  to  a  member  of  the 
German  nobility,  Count  Seherr-Thoss,  and  one 
son,  John  Campbell  White,  who  had  also  made 
diplomacy  a  career,  survived  him. 

[Allan  Nevins,  Henry  White:  Thirty  Years  of  Amer- 
ican Diplomacy  (1930);  R.  B.  Mowat,  Americans  in 
England  (1935);  Tyler  Dennett,  John  Hay:  From 
Poetry  to  Politics  (1933);  A.  L.  P.  Dennis,  Adven- 
tures in  American  Diplomacy  (1928);  Harold  Nicol- 
son,  Sir  Arthur  Nicolson,  Bart.,  First  Lord  Car- 
nock  (1930);  Theodore  Roosevelt  :  an  Autobiography 
(191 3)  ;  Royal  Cortissoz,  The  Life  of  Whitelaw  Reid 
(2  vols.,  1921)  ;  Charles  Seymour,  The  Intimate  Papers 
of  Colonel  House  (vols.  1 1 1— I V,  1928)  ;  Robert  Lansing, 
The  Peace  Negotiations :  A  Personal  Narrative  (1921)  ; 
obituary  in  N.  Y.  Times,  July  16,  1927.]  A.N. 

WHITE,  HENRY  CLAY  (Dec.  30,  1848- 
Dec.  1,  1927),  chemist,  teacher,  and  college  pros- 


IO3 


White 


White 


ident,  was  born  at  Baltimore,  Md.,  the  son  of 
Levi  S.,  and  Louisa  (Brown)  White.  After  at- 
tending the  schools  of  Baltimore,  he  entered  the 
University  of  Virginia,  where  he  obtained  his 
chemical  training  under  John  W.  Mallet  [q.v.], 
graduating  in  1870.  From  1870  to  1872  he  taught 
chemistry  successively  at  the  Maryland  Insti- 
tute, the  Peabody  Institute,  Baltimore,  and  St. 
John's  College,  Annapolis.  In  1872  he  was  ap- 
pointed professor  of  chemistry  at  the  University 
of  Georgia  (which  included  the  Georgia  State 
College  of  Agriculture  and  the  Mechanic  Arts)  ; 
his  connection  with  this  institution  continued 
during  the  remainder  of  his  life.  On  Dec.  17, 
1872,  he  married  Ella  F.  Roberts  of  Chester 
County,  Pa.  In  1874  he  delivered  a  "Report  on 
the  Complete  Analysis  of  the  Cotton  Plant,"  pub- 
lished in  the  Proceedings  of  the  Georgia  State 
Agricultural  Society  .  .  .  February  1874  (1874), 
which  was  a  notable  treatment  of  the  subject. 

In  addition  to  his  work  as  university  profes- 
sor he  served  as  state  chemist  of  Georgia  from 
1880  to  1890.  An  important  duty  of  this  position 
was  the  regulatory  control  of  the  purity  of  the 
fertilizers  sold  to  the  planters  of  Georgia ;  as  a 
result  of  this  activity  he  took  a  prominent  part 
in  helping  to  establish  a  society  of  agricultural 
chemists.  After  several  preliminary  meetings 
of  prominent  chemists  at  Washington  (1880), 
Boston  (1880),  Cincinnati  (1881),  and  Atlanta 
(1884),  the  Association  of  Official  Agricultural 
Chemists  was  formed  at  Philadelphia,  Sept.  9, 
1884 ;  in  the  early  work  of  this  organization 
White  was  a  leading  figure.  In  1890  he  was  ap- 
pointed president  of  the  Georgia  State  College 
of  Agriculture  and  the  Mechanic  Arts,  and  from 
this  time  on  his  chief  interests  were  in  the  field 
of  education.  He  organized  the  Farmers'  Insti- 
tutes of  Georgia  and  was  unremitting  in  his  ef- 
forts to  improve  conditions  in  the  agricultural 
population  of  the  state.  He  resisted  successfully, 
but  at  great  personal  sacrifice,  the  long  attempts 
to  separate  the  College  of  Agriculture  from  the 
University  of  Georgia.  His  strenuous  efforts  in 
this  cause  against  strong  political  influences  pre- 
vented the  disruption  of  the  University.  He  was 
president  of  the  Association  of  American  Agri- 
cultural Colleges  and  Experiment  Stations  in 
1897-98  and  was  chairman  of  its  executive  com- 
mittee from  1902  to  1907.  In  these  offices  he  was 
instrumental  in  bringing  about  a  greater  degree 
of  cooperation  between  the  state  experiment  sta- 
tions and  the  federal  Department  of  Agriculture. 
He  was  chemist  of  the  Georgia  Experiment  Sta- 
tion from  1888  to  1914  and  vice-director  from 
1890  to  1913.  He  collaborated  with  the  United 
States  Department  of  Agriculture  in  cotton  in- 


vestigations in  1895-96  and  in  dietary  studies 
in  1903-05.  In  1907  he  resigned  as  president  of 
the  Georgia  State  College  but  continued  in  serv- 
ice as  professor  of  chemistry  in  the  University 
until  his  death,  which  occurred  at  his  home  in 
Athens,  Ga. 

White  was  the  recipient  of  many  honors.  He 
was  a  member  of  the  American  Chemical  So- 
ciety, of  the  American  Association  for  the  Ad- 
vancement of  Science,  and  of  the  Georgia  Acad- 
emy of  Science ;  he  was  also  a  fellow  of  the  Lon- 
don Chemical  Society,  a  corresponding  mem- 
ber of  the  British  Association  for  the  Advance- 
ment of  Science,  and  an  honorary  member  of 
the  Belgian  Academy  of  Science.  He  was  pres- 
ident of  the  Georgia  Peace  Society  in  191 1.  In 
addition  to  his  "Analysis  of  the  Cotton  Plant"  he 
was  the  author  of  Elementary  Geology  of  Ten- 
nessee (1875),  with  W.  G.  McAdoo;  Lectures 
and  Addresses  (2  vols.,  1885-91);  "Manuring 
of  Cotton,"  in  The  Cotton  Plant  (1896)  ;  Abra- 
ham Baldwin  (1926);  and  numerous  bulletins, 
scientific  papers,  and  literary  articles. 

[Ga.  Alumni  Record,  June  1922  ;  Experiment  Sta- 
tion Record,  Apr.  1928;  H.  W.  Wiley,  in  Jour,  of  the 
Asso.  of  Official  Agric.  Chemists,  Nov.  15,  1928  ;  Who's 
Who  in  America,  1926-27;  J.  McK.  Cattell  and  D.  R. 
Brimhall,  Am.  Men  of  Sci.  (1921)  ;  Atlanta  Jour., 
Dec.  1,  1927.]  C.  A.  B — e. 

WHITE,  HORACE  (Aug.  10,  1834-Sept.  16, 
1916),  journalist,  economist,  was  born  at  Cole- 
brook,  N.  H.,  the  son  of  Horace  White,  "a  physi- 
cian, and  his  wife,  Eliza  Moore.  As  agent  of  the 
New  England  Emigration  Company,  Dr.  White 
founded  the  town  of  Beloit,  Wis.,  where  his 
wife  and  two  sons  joined  him  in  1838.  Entering 
Beloit  College  in  1849,  at  the  age  of  fifteen,  Hor- 
ace was  graduated  four  years  later.  tHe  at  once 
entered  journalism  and  in  1854  became  city  ed- 
itor of  the  Chicago  Evening  Journal.  The  fol- 
lowing year  he  was  made  Chicago  agent  of  the 
New  York  Associated  Press.  This  place,  also, 
he  held  but  a  short  time  for,  deeply  stirred  by 
the  events  in  "bleeding  Kansas,"  he  soon  became 
assistant  secretary  of  the  National  Kansas  Com- 
mission. As  such  it  was  his  duty  to  receive  and 
forward  money,  arms,  ammunition,  and  sup- 
plies of  all  kinds  to  the  Free  State  pioneers — 
among  them  John  Brown  and  two  of  his  sons — 
and  to  outfit  parties  of  new  settlers  who  passed 
through  Iowa  and  Nebraska  to  the  scene  of  the 
conflict.  In  1857  he  himself  went  to  Kansas  with 
the  expectation  of  becoming  a  settler  and  a 
leader  of  the  anti-slavery  forces. 

Returning  to  Chicago  to  make  final  arrange- 
ments, he  was  induced  by  Dr.  C.  H.  Ray,  editor 
of  the  Chicago  Tribune,  to  accept  a  position  on 
that  paper,  of  which  he  was  a  minority  stock- 


IO4 


White 


White 


holder  until  his  death.  In  1858  he  reported  for 
it  the  Lincoln-Douglas  debates,  thus  beginning 
a  warm  friendship  with  Abraham  Lincoln  and 
also  with  Henry  Villard  [?■?'■]  1  then  correspond- 
ent of  the  New  York  Staats-Zcitung.  At  the 
outbreak  of  the  Civil  War  the  Chicago  Tribune 
made  White  its  Washington  correspondent,  per- 
mitting him  also  to  hold  the  important  position 
of  clerk  of  the  Senate  committee  on  military  af- 
fairs, which  position  gave  to  him  a  remarkable 
insight  into  the  conduct  of  the  war.  In  1864  he 
formed,  with  Henry  Villard  and  Adams  Sher- 
man Hill,  in  later  life  the  distinguished  Boylston 
Professor  of  Rhetoric  in  Harvard  University, 
the  first  news  agency  to  compete  with  the  As- 
sociated Press,  serving  the  Chicago  Tribune, 
Springfield  Republican,  Boston  Advertiser,  Cin- 
cinnati Commercial,  Rochester  Democrat,  and 
the  Missouri  Democrat  of  St.  Louis.  Villard 
took  the  field  with  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  and 
White  and  Hill  covered  Washington.  With  the 
close  of  the  war  this  syndicate  was  dissolved  and 
White  became  editor-in-chief  of  the  Chicago 
Tribune,  remaining  as  such  until  his  resignation 
because  of  ill  health  in  1874. 

In  1877  he  joined  Villard,  then  receiver  of 
the  Kansas-Pacific  Railroad,  in  the  service  of 
that  enterprise,  subsequently  being  appointed 
treasurer  of  the  Oregon  Railway  &  Navigation 
Company  when  Villard  became  president.  In 
1 88 1  the  latter  purchased  the  New  York  Evening 
Post,  and  the  Nation,  and  placed  at  their  head 
the  distinguished  triumvirate,  Carl  Schurz  [g.r'.], 
Horace  White,  and  Edwin  L.  Godkin  [q.v.~\,  in 
order  to  continue  the  then  failing  Nation,  and  to 
establish  a  politically  independent  daily  news- 
paper devoted  to  the  highest  political  and  social 
ideals.  The  triumvirate  lasted,  however,  only  a 
little  more  than  two  years,  at  the  end  of  which 
time  Schurz  retired  and  Godkin  became  editor, 
with  White  in  charge  of  the  financial  and  eco- 
nomic policies  of  the  two  journals.  In  this  field 
White  at  once  took  a  position  of  high  authority. 
His  book  Money  and  Banking,  Illustrated  by 
American  History,  first  published  in  1895,  was 
in  1935  still  a  standard  textbook  in  schools  and 
colleges.  When  Godkin  retired  in  1899,  White 
became  editor-in-chief  of  the  Evening  Post, 
which  position  he  held  until  his  retirement  be- 
cause of  failing  health  in  1903.  A  profound 
Greek  scholar,  he  published  The  Roman  History 
of  Appian  of  Alexandria,  Translated  from  the 
Greek  (1899),  and,  in  his  retirement,  wrote  The 
Life  of  Lyman  Trumbull  (1913),  besides  editing 
various  financial  textbooks.  In  1908  Gov. 
Charles  E.  Hughes  of  New  York  appointed  him 
chairman  of  a  commission  on  speculation  in  se- 


curities and  commodities,  authorized  by  the  leg- 
islature of  the  state.  Its  report  recommended  no 
action  by  the  legislature  and  placed  upon  the 
stock  exchange  itself  "the  duty  of  restraint  and 
reform."  Eight  of  the  fourteen  recommenda- 
tions were  adopted  by  the  governors  of  the  ex- 
change. 

Of  exceptionally  strong  character,  White  en- 
joyed the  complete  respect  and  the  warm  regard 
of  friends  and  associates.  He  was  always  more 
the  scholar  and  the  philosopher  than  the  jour- 
nalist or  executive.  His  modesty  was  extreme; 
his  repugnance  to  public  appearances,  uncon- 
querable. He  had  an  extraordinarily  strong 
grasp  of  fundamental  economic  truths  which 
nothing  could  disturb.  A  convinced  free-trader 
and  an  old-fashioned  liberal  of  the  Manchester 
school,  he,  like  Godkin,  threw  himself  passion- 
ately into  the  Evening  Post's  opposition  to  the 
annexation  of  Hawaii,  to  the  American  gov- 
ernments' attitude  in  the  Venezuelan  imbroglio 
with  England  in  1895,  and  to  the  war  with  Spain 
and  the  conquest  of  the  Philippines,  in  all  of 
which  opposition  he  and  his  associates  were  ac- 
tuated by  complete  devotion  to  the  American 
ideal  as  they  understood  it.  Like  Godkin,  too, 
he  was  rigid  in  upholding  the  literary  and  schol- 
arly traditions  of  the  Ez:cning  Post,  the  editorial 
page  of  which  was  for  thirty-seven  years  one 
of  the  most  distinguished  in  American  journal- 
ism. White  was  married  first  to  Martha  Root  of 
New  Haven,  Conn.,  who  died  in  1873,  and  sec- 
ond, in  1875,  to  Amelia  Jane  McDougall  of 
Chicago,  111.,  who  died  in  1885.  He  was  sur- 
vived by  three  daughters. 

[Printed  sources  include  obituary,  autobiog.  sketch, 
and  editorial  in  Evening  Post  (N.  Y.),  Sept.  18,  1916, 
and  One  Hundredth  Anniversary  Ed.  of  the  Post,  Nov. 
16,  1901  ;  Allan  Nevins,  The  Evening  Post ;  A  Cen- 
tury of  Journalism  (1922)  ;  O.  G.  Villard,  Joint  Broken 
(1910);  Memoirs  of  Henry  Villard  (1904);  Who's 
Who  in  America,  1914-15.  Most  authorities  give  the 
year  of  White's  birth  as  1834,  but  his  daughter  states 
that  a  note  in  his  own  handwriting  gives  the  year  as 
l&33-]  O.G.V. 

WHITE,  HUGH  LAWSON  (Oct.  30,  1773- 
Apr.  10,  1840),  jurist,  United  States  senator, 
was  born  in  Iredell  County,  N.  C,  the  eldest  son 
of  James  White  [q.v.~\  and  his  wife,  Mary  (Law- 
son).  There  can  be  little  doubt  but  that  the  in- 
fluence of  his  father,  a  generous  and  kindly  as 
well  as  an  able  man,  was  the  guiding  force  in 
Hugh's  life.  No  adequate  schools  were  avail- 
able, but  he  became  acquainted  with  the  rudi- 
ments of  classical  learning  under  the  direction 
of  the  Rev.  Samuel  Carrick,  the  local  Presby- 
terian clergyman,  and  under  Judge  Archibald 
Roane  [q.v.~\.  When  White  arrived  at  his  twen- 
tieth year,   Gov.   William   Blount   [q.v.~]   made 


I05 


White 

him  his  private  secretary.  The  Indians  were  giv- 
ing trouble  at  this  time  and  Gen.  John  Sevier 
[q.t'.]  led  an  expedition  against  them.  White 
accompanied  him  and  acquired  some,  notoriety 
by  killing  the  chief  Kingfisher.  Shortly  after- 
ward he  went  to  Philadelphia  to  study  mathe- 
matics under  Professor  Patterson.  Later,  he 
went  to  Lancaster,  Pa.,  and  for  a  year  studied 
law  under  James  Hopkins. 

In  1796  he  returned  to  Knoxville  and  began 
the  practice  of  his  profession.  Two  years  later 
he  married  Elizabeth  Moore  Carrick,  daughter 
of  his  old  preceptor.  In  1801  he  was  made  a 
judge  of  the  superior  court  of  Tennessee,  at 
that  time  the  highest  tribunal  of  the  state  judi- 
ciary. He  resigned  this  office  in  1807  and  was 
elected  to  the  state  Senate.  The  next  year  he 
was  appointed  and  confirmed  United  States  at- 
torney for  the  Eastern  District  of  Tennessee, 
but  soon  resigned.  In  1809  he  was  reelected  to 
the  Senate,  but  the  state  judiciary  was  just  then 
reorganized  and  a  supreme  court  of  errors  and 
appeals  created,  and  White  was  chosen  the  pre- 
siding judge  of  this  tribunal.  In  181 1  the  Bank 
of  the  State  of  Tennessee  was  chartered  and  in 
1812  began  operation  in  Knoxville  with  White 
as  president.  He  continued  to  act  in  this  capac- 
ity until  1827,  but  accepted  no  compensation  for 
his  services  during  the  periods  when  he  held 
public  office,  nor  did  he  receive  from  the  insti- 
tution any  advantage  as  borrower  or  indorser. 
In  1813  Gen.  Andrew  Jackson  was  conducting 
his  campaign  against  the  Creek  Indians  on  the 
Coosa  River,  and  Gen.  James  White  was  acting 
under  him.  Word  reached  the  younger  White 
that  the  troops  were  in  great  danger  and  he, 
with  two  companions,  set  out  through  the  wil- 
derness to  lend  aid.  Finding  it  impossible  to 
accomplish  anything  material,  he  returned  to 
Knoxville  and  persuaded  his  brother-in-law,  Col. 
John  Williams,  1778-1837  [q.v.~\,  to  go  with 
his  regiment — the  39th  United  States  Infantry — 
to  Jackson's  aid,  and  at  the  battle  of  Horse- 
shoe Bend,  Williams'  assistance  was  invaluable 
(James  Parton,  Life  of  Andrew  Jackson,  i860, 
I,  pp.  431,  499-500). 

In  18 1 5  White  retired  from  the  supreme  court 
and  in  181 7  was  again  elected  to  the  state  Sen- 
ate. Here  he  signalized  his  return  by  securing 
the  passage  of  a  bill  prohibiting  duelling  in 
Tennessee.  In  1821  he  was  appointed  on  the 
commission  to  fix  claims  against  Spain  under 
the  Florida  treaty,  and  the  next  year  Kentucky 
made  him  one  of  her  commissioners  to  adjust 
military  land  claims  with  Virginia.  The  first 
of  these  appointments  occupied  much  of  his  time 
until  1824.    The  following  year  Andrew  Jack- 

I 


White 

son  resigned  from  the  United  States  Senate  and 
White  was  elected  to  complete  his  unexpired 
term.  By  repeated  subsequent  elections  he  held 
this  seat  until  his  resignation  in  1840.  As  a 
strict  constructionist  of  the  old  school,  a  Jef- 
fersonian  and  Jacksonian  Democrat,  he  opposed 
the  administration  of  John  Quincy  Adams.  Be- 
coming chairman  of  the  committee  on  Indian  af- 
fairs, he  took  keen  and  constructive  interest  in 
the  concerns  of  the  Indians,  and  had  a  large  part 
in  the  formulation  of  plans  for  their  removal 
westward.  In  1831  his  wife  died  at  Natural 
Bridge,  Va.,  and  he  personally  drove  the  convey- 
ance which  carried  her  body  back  to  Knoxville. 
On  Nov.  30  of  the  following  year  he  married 
Mrs.  Ann  E.  Peyton  of  Washington.  On  Dec. 
3,  1832,  he  was  elected  president  pro  tempore 
of  the  Senate. 

As  early  as  1830  White  stated  that  the  Wash- 
ington Telegraph  would  not  do  him  justice  be- 
cause he  refused  to  support  the  cause  of  either 
Calhoun  or  Van  Buren  for  the  succession.  Sena- 
tor Tazewell  also  thought  he  noticed  at  this  time 
that  White  was  losing  ground  with  the  adminis- 
tration. In  1831  President  Jackson  reorganized 
his  cabinet,  which  act  was  looked  upon  as  a 
move  by  the  administration  to  further  its  scheme 
for  promoting  the  cause  of  Van  Buren.  As  a 
part  of  this  reorganization,  John  H.  Eaton  [q.v.~] 
of  Tennessee  resigned  from  the  war  department 
and  Jackson  urged  White  to  accept  the  vacated 
post.  Had  he  done  so,  Eaton  was  expected  to 
fall  heir  to  his  seat  in  the  Senate,  but  White 
refused.  Jackson  had  offered  him  the  same  place 
upon  his  accession  to  office  in  1829,  and  on  that 
occasion,  also,  White  had  refused  it  (J.  S.  Bas- 
sett,  ed.,  Correspondence  of  Andrezv  Jackson, 
IV,  1929,  pp.  258-60).  Among  the  reasons  that 
he  now  gave  for  his  refusal,  was  that  he  could 
not  accept  office  from  a  friend.  He  was  doubt- 
less sincere  in  this  statement  but  it  is  also  true 
that  he  would  have  done  nothing  to  aid  Van 
Buren.  At  any  rate,  the  ways  of  Jackson  and 
White  began  to  diverge  from  this  point.  The 
candidacy  of  Van  Buren  for  the  succession  was 
unpopular  in  Tennessee  and  presently  sugges- 
tions emanated  from  this  quarter  that  the  Sen- 
ator himself  would  become  a  presidential  can- 
didate. In  1834  Jackson  threatened  that  he 
would  ruin  White  if  he  did  so.  White  accepted 
the  challenge,  and  was  put  in  nomination  by  the 
legislatures  of  Alabama  (Address  of  Gabriel 
Moore  to  the  Freemen  of  Alabayna,  1835)  anQl 
Tennessee,  and  in  the  campaign  of  1836,  with 
John  Tyler  as  his  running  mate,  received  the 
electoral  votes  of  Tennessee  and  Georgia.  De- 
spite   this   break   with    Jackson,    White   never 

06 


White 

changed  his  political  principles  (T.  P.  Aber- 
nethy,  "Origin  of  the  Whig  Party  in  Tennessee," 
in  Mississippi  Valley  Historical  Review,  March 
1926,  pp.  507-10).  He  favored  Clay  for  the 
presidency  in  1840  and  promised  his  support  af- 
ter Clay  had  given  pledges  not  to  push  his  na- 
tionalist program  and  to  oppose  the  annexation 
of  Texas  in  order  to  preserve  the  balance  be- 
tween North  and  South  (Henry  A.  Wise,  Seven 
Decades  of  the  Union,  1872,  pp.  161-70).  On 
Jan.  13,  1840,  White  resigned  from  the  Senate 
when  instructed  by  the  legislature  of  Tennessee 
to  vote  for  the  sub-treasury  bill  (Letter  of  the 
Hon.  Hugh  L.  White  to  the  Legislature  of  Ten- 
nessee, 1840).  He  died  at  his  home  near  Knox- 
ville  the  following  April.  By  his  first  wife  he 
had  twelve  children,  but  within  six  years  she 
and  eight  of  the  children  died  of  tuberculosis. 
Two  daughters  survived  him. 

Though  exposed  to  all  the  roughness  of  the 
frontier,  White  was  essentially  a  gentleman;  he 
was  mild  in  all  his  ways  and  upright  in  all  his 
dealings.  His  intellectual  interests  were  con- 
fined strictly  to  the  law,  and  he  was  endowed 
with  little  sense  of  humor  or  imagination.  His 
physical  make-up  was  not  unlike  that  of  Andrew 
Jackson,  except  that  the  cast  of  his  lean  coun- 
tenance was  contemplative  rather  than  aggres- 
sive. He  had  a  conscience  as  strict  as  that  of  any 
Puritan,  but  his  righteousness  took  the  form  of 
public  service  rather  than  mere  personal  piety ; 
the  Republic  never  had  a  more  disinterested 
servant. 

[N.  N.  Scott,  A  Memoir  of  Hugh  Lawson  White 
(1856);  S.  G.  Heiskell,  Andrew  Jackson  and  Early 
Tcnn.  Hist.  (3  vols.,  1920-21);  J.  W.  Caldwell, 
Sketches  of  the  Bench  and  Bar  of  Term.  (1898)  ;  H.  S. 
Foote,  The  Bench  and  Bar  of  the  South  and  South- 
west (1876)  ;  Address  of  the  Honorable  Abram  P. 
Maury,  on  the  Life  and  Character  of  Hugh  Lawson 
White  (1840);  T.  P.  Abernethy,  From  Frontier  to 
Plantation  in  Tennessee  (1932);  Daily  Republican 
Banner  (Nashville),  Apr.  15,  1840;  manuscript  letters 
of  White  in  the  Calvin  Morgan  McClung  hist.  coll.  of 
the  Lawson  McGhee  Lib.,  Knoxville,  Tenn.] 

T.  P.  A. 

WHITE,  ISRAEL  CHARLES  (Nov.  1, 1848- 
Nov.  25,  1927),  geologist,  son  of  Michael  and 
Mary  (Russell)  White,  was  born  in  Monongalia 
County,  Va.  (later  W.  Va.).  His  first  paternal 
American  ancestor  was  one  Stephen  White  who 
emigrated  from  England  about  1659  and  is  said 
to  have  settled  in  Baltimore  County,  Md.  White 
was  educated  in  the  public  schools  of  his  native 
town  and  at  West  Virginia  University,  from 
which  he  was  graduated  in  1872.  Soon  after,  he 
entered  upon  a  graduate  course  in  geology  at 
Columbia  University  but  abandoned  it  in  1877 
on  being  called  to  the  chair  of  geology  at  West 
Virginia  University.    He  held  this  position  un- 


White 

til  1892,  devoting  his  vacations  for  some  years  to 
field  work  for  the  state  survey  in  the  coal  and  oil 
fields  of  Pennsylvania.  In  1892  he  entered  pri- 
vate business,  and  in  1897  was  appointed  super- 
intendent of  the  newly  organized  geological  sur- 
vey of  West  Virginia,  for  the  establishment  of 
which  he  had  been  largely  responsible.  This  po- 
sition he  continued  to  hold  during  the  remaining 
thirty  years  of  his  life,  refusing  after  the  first  two 
years  to  accept  a  salary.  From  1884  to  1888  he 
served  also  as  assistant  geologist  on  the  United 
States  Geological  Survey  and  prepared  a  report 
on  the  "Stratigraphy  of  the  Bituminous  Coal 
Field  of  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  and  West  Vir- 
ginia," which  was  published  as  Bulletin  65 
(1891)  of  that  organization.  This  is  said  to  have 
been  the  foundation  for  nearly  all  subsequent 
work  in  the  bituminous  fields  of  Pennsylvania 
and  West  Virginia.  As  head  of  the  West  Vir- 
ginia survey,  White  supervised  the  preparation 
of  a  complete  set  of  topographic  maps,  covering 
the  entire  state,  as  well  as  thirty-four  geological 
reports,  of  which  he  himself  wrote  two  on  oil 
and  three  on  coal.  These  reports  were  largely  of 
an  economic  nature,  but  full  of  detailed  stratig- 
raphy. 

White's  early  work  in  Pennsylvania  was  ac- 
curate and  painstaking  in  the  extreme.  In  doing 
it  he  laid,  unconsciously  perhaps,  the  foundation 
for  his  future  discoveries.  His  most  important 
work,  upon  which  his  reputation  largely  de- 
pends and  which  put  him  foremost  among  the 
petroleum  geologists  of  the  world,  was  his  "anti- 
clinal theory"  of  oil  and  gas,  formulated  about 
1883.  Pointing  out  that  all  large  gas  wells  in 
Pennsylvania  and  West  Virginia  were  situated 
either  directly  on  or  near  the  crowns  of  anti- 
clinal axes,  he  drew  the  conclusion  that  a  direct 
relation  existed  between  gas  territory  and  the 
disturbance  in  the  rocks  caused  by  their  up- 
heaval into  arches  (Bulletin  of  the  Geological 
Society  of  America,  vol.  Ill,  1892,  pp.  204-14). 
Gifted  with  shrewd  business  sense,  White  made 
large  investments  in  "wildcat"  leases,  and  there- 
by not  merely  proved  his  theory  but  gained  a 
substantial  competence.  In  1904-06  he  served 
as  chief  geologist  of  the  Brazilian  Coal  Commis- 
sion, making  a  first-hand  official  report  on  the 
coal  fields  of  the  southern  part  of  the  republic, 
which  was  published  in  both  Portuguese  and 
English.  At  the  White  House  conference  in 
May  1908,  he  delivered  an  address  on  "The 
Waste  of  Our  Fuel  Resources,"  which  had  much 
to  do  with  the  subsequent  conservation  movement. 

He  was  a  genial,  kindly  man,  modest  and  un- 
assuming. His  standard  of  honor  was  high,  and, 
though  he  was  himself  a  commercial  man,  he 


107 


White 

would  never  throughout  his  long  career  as  su- 
perintendent of  the  survey  allow  himself  to  be 
drawn  into  expert  private  work  within  the  limits 
of  his  own  state  lest  it  bring  criticism  upon  his 
organization.  He  was  president  of  the  West  Vir- 
ginia and  Morgantown  Board  of  Trade,  director 
and  president  of  the  Farmers'  and  Merchants' 
Bank,  president  of  the  Morgantown  Brick  Com- 
pany, and  connected  with  other  business  organi- 
zations. Public-spirited  to  an  eminent  degree  and 
active  in  civic  affairs,  he  was  actively  concerned 
with  the  Monongalia  county  hospital  and  the 
tuberculosis  sanitarium,  giving  his  time  as  well 
as  funds.  One  of  his  largest  single  contributions 
was  the  gift  of  1,900  acres  of  coal  lands  to  the 
city  of  Morgantown  and  West  Virginia  Univer- 
sity. He  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Geologi- 
cal Society  of  America,  its  treasurer  (1892- 
1906),  and  its  president  in  1920.  He  was  mar- 
ried three  times :  first  on  July  27,  1872,  to  Emily 
McClane  Shane  of  Morgantown,  W-  Va.,  who 
died  in  1874,  leaving  one  child;  second  on  Dec. 
4,  1878,  to  Mary  Moorhead,  by  whom  he  had 
five  children;  third  on  Feb.  12,  1925,  to  Mrs. 
Julia  Posten  Wildman,  who  survived  him.  He 
died  at  the  Johns  Hopkins  hospital  in  Baltimore 
of  a  cerebral  hemorrhage  after  an  apparently 
successful  operation. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1926-2-  ;  D.  B.  Reger,  in 
Black  Diamond  (Chicago),  Dec.  10,  1927  ;  Charles 
Keyes.  in  Pan-Am.  Geologist,  Feb.  1928;  obituaries  in 
Wheeling  Reg.  and  Sun  (Baltimore),  Nov.  26,  1927; 
personal  acquaintance.]  G.  P.  M. 

WHITE,  JAMES  (1747-Aug.  14,  1821),  sol- 
dier, pioneer,  legislator,  was  born  in  Rowan 
(later  Iredell)  County,  N.  C,  the  son  of  Irish 
parents,  Moses  and  Mary  (McConnell)  White. 
On  Apr.  14,  1770,  he  married  Mary,  daughter  of 
Hugh  Lawson.  They  became  the  parents  of 
seven  children,  of  whom  the  most  noted  was 
Hugh  Lawson  White  Iq.v.'].  During  the  Revo- 
lution James  White  served  as  captain  of  militia, 
1779-81.  After  the  passage  in  1783  of  the  act  by 
which  the  State  of  North  Carolina  granted  lands 
to  Revolutionary  soldiers,  White,  with  Robert 
Love,  Francis  Ramsay,  and  others,  began  an  ex- 
ploration on  the  French  Broad  and  Holston  riv- 
ers, seeking  the  most  advantageous  region  in 
which  to  locate  their  claims.  Upon  his  return 
home,  he  made  preparations  to  remove  to  the 
country  which  he  had  visited.  He  first  moved  to 
Fort  Chiswell,  where  he  remained  for  a  year ;  in 
1785  he  went  on  to  the  north  bank  of  the  French 
Broad,  and  in  1786  settled  at  the  present  site  of 
Knoxville,  Tenn. 

White  served  in  the  convention  C1785)  which 
considered  the  ratification  of  the  constitution 
prepared  for  the  abortive  State  of  Franklin  and 

IO 


White 

in  1789  was  sent  by  the  voters  of  Hawkins  Coun- 
ty to  the  North  Carolina  House  of  Commons 
and  also  to  the  convention  which  ratified  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States.  In  1790  Wil- 
liam Blount  [q.r.],  governor  of  the  Territory 
Southwest  of  the  Ohio,  appointed  him  justice  of 
the  peace  and  major  of  the  militia.  The  follow- 
ing year  White's  Fort  was  made  the  seat  of  the 
territorial  government,  and  in  1792,  when  Knox 
County  was  established,  White  was  made  lieu- 
tenant-colonel of  the  county  militia.  In  the  same 
year  he  laid  out  at  White's  Fort  the  town  of 
Knoxville  and  sold  lots  for  residence.  He  direct- 
ed the  defense  of  the  town  during  the  Indian 
troubles  of  1793.  In  1796  he  served  in  the  con- 
vention which  drew  up  the  constitution  for  the 
State  of  Tennessee  and  was  elected  to  represent 
Knox  County  in  the  Senate  of  the  new  state.  The 
next  year  that  body  elevated  him  to  the  speaker- 
ship, but  he  resigned  to  permit  the  election  of 
William  Blount  after  the  latter  had  been  expelled 
from  the  United  States  Senate.  Blount  and  John 
Sevier  [g.7'.]  were  his  intimate  friends,  and  he 
supported  the  policies  of  each  of  these  men  in  the 
administration  of  the  affairs  of  the  territory  and 
of  the  state.  In  1798  Sevier  appointed  him  to 
represent  Tennessee  in  the  first  treaty  of  Tellico, 
with  the  Indians,  and  during  his  public  life  he 
played  an  important  part  in  Indian  affairs.  He 
presided  over  the  state  Senate  in  1801  and  again 
in  1803.  In  the  late  nineties  he  was  commis- 
sioned brigadier-general  of  the  state  militia  and 
participated  in  the  Creek  War  1813  with  that 
rank,  serving  under  the  command  of  Gen.  John 
H.  Cocke  [q.r.]. 

White  was  a  sturdy  pioneer,  a  substantial  citi- 
zen, and  a  powerful  influence  in  the  councils  of 
the  commonwealth,  to  which  he  gave  a  long  life 
of  service.  He  belonged  to  the  Presbyterian 
Church  and  donated  land  for  a  house  of  worship 
in  Knoxville.  He  was  also  the  donor  of  the  site 
for  Blount  College,  later  the  University  of  Ten- 
nessee, and  was  one  of  the  trustees  named  in  its 
charter  (1794).  He  died  at  Knoxville  and  was 
buried  in  the  yard  of  the  First  Presbyterian 
Church. 

[S.  C.  Williams,  Hist,  of  the  Lost  State  of  Franklin 
(1924)  ;  J.  T.  Moore  and  A.  P.  Foster,  Tennessee,  the 
Volunteer  State  (1923),  vols.  I,  II  ;  J.  M.  G.  Ramsey, 
The  Annals  of  Tenn.  (1853)  ;  John  Haywood,  The  Civil 
and  Political  Hist,  of  the  State  of  Tenn.  (1823);  F. 
Mellon,  "General  James  White,"  in  scrapbook  of  clip- 
pings, Tenn.  State  Lib.  ;  Nancy  N.  Scott,  A  Memoir  of 
Hugh  Lawson  White  (1856).]  Q  S.  D. 

WHITE,  JAMES  CLARKE  (July  7,  1833- 
Jan.  5,  1916),  dermatologist,  was  born  in  Bel- 
fast, Me.,  the  fifth  of  seven  children  of  James 
Patterson  and  Mary  Ann  (Clarke)  White.  The 
White  family  originally  emigrated  to  America 

8 


White 

from  the  north  of  Ireland ;  one  of  them,  William, 
with  other  Ulster  folk,  founded  Londonderry,  N. 
H.,  in  1725,  and  another,  Robert,  Belfast,  Me. 
White's  father,  a  ship-owner,  served  as  mayor 
of  Belfast.  White  was  graduated  from  Harvard 
College  in  1853  and  from  the  Medical  School  in 
1856.  At  the  suggestion  of  Calvin  Ellis  [g.z'.], 
he  chose  Vienna  instead  of  Paris  for  his  post- 
graduate work,  one  of  the  first  American  medi- 
cal students  to  do  so ;  he  was  most  influenced 
there  by  Ferdinand  von  Hebra,  the  dermatolo- 
gist. On  returning  to  Boston,  he  became  an  in- 
structor in  chemistry  in  the  Harvard  Medical 
School  (1858-63)  and  later  adjunct  professor  of 
chemistry  (1866-71).  By  i860,  however,  he  had 
established,  with  Benjamin  Joy  Jeffries  [q.v.'], 
the  first  dermatological  clinic  in  the  country.  In 
1865  he  began  a  long  association  with  the  Mas- 
sachusetts General  Hospital,  his  department  of 
dermatology  being  ultimately  recognized  in  1870. 
In  187 1  a  chair  of  dermatology  was  created  for 
him  in  the  Harvard  Medical  School,  the  first  of 
its  kind  to  be  established  in  the  United  States. 
This  he  held  until  1902.  As  a  pioneer  teacher  of 
dermatology,  White  was  without  equal.  His 
fame,  at  first  local,  in  the  end  became  interna- 
tional. He  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Amer- 
ican Dermatological  Association  in  1876,  and 
served  as  its  first  president  (1877-87).  Derma- 
tological societies  throughout  the  world  made 
him  an  honorary  or  a  corresponding  member.  In 
1907  he  was  chosen  president  of  the  Sixth  Inter- 
national Dermatological  Congress,  the  highest 
honor  that  could  come  to  a  man  in  his  special  field 
of  work.  He  wrote  many  valuable  scientific  pa- 
pers and  one  book,  Dermatitis  Venenata  (1887), 
a  sound  contribution  to  a  then  little-known  sub- 
ject. 

In  addition  to  his  interest  in  dermatology, 
White  was,  from  his  college  days,  a  student  of 
comparative  anatomy  and  natural  history.  He 
became  a  member  of  the  Boston  Society  of  Natu- 
ral History  in  1856  and  served  as  curator  of 
comparative  anatomy  for  a  period  of  ten  years 
(1859-69).  He  found  much  pleasure  in  mount- 
ing skeletons  of  animals  and  in  collecting  an 
herbarium  of  wild  flowers  of  New  England.  He 
was  a  member  of  the  American  Academy  of  Arts 
and  Sciences,  and  president  of  the  Massachu- 
setts Medical  Society  in  1892.  From  1866  on,  he 
was  an  ardent  leader  in  the  reform  of  medical 
education.  By  editorials  in  the  Boston  Medical 
and  Surgical  Journal  (of  which  he  was  editor, 
1867-71 )  and  by  public  addresses,  he  spoke  plain- 
ly in  behalf  of  reform  at  every  opportunity. 
Many  of  his  ideas,  then  considered  revolution- 
ary, were  adopted  by  the  Harvard  Medical  School 


White 

when  Charles  W.  Eliot  [q.i\~\  became  president 
in  1869. 

Tall  in  stature  and  gracious  in  appearance, 
White  was  an  effective  speaker  and  by  his  pres- 
ence in  various  official  positions  did  much  to  put 
the  subject  of  dermatology  on  a  sound  basis  in 
America.  On  Nov.  5,  1862,  he  was  married  to 
Martha  Anna  Ellis,  daughter  of  Jonathan  Ellis 
of  Boston.  Of  three  sons,  one  became  a  derma- 
tologist in  Boston.  Towards  the  close  of  his  life 
White  wrote  Sketches  from  My  Life  (1914),  a 
valuable  autobiography. 

[The  principal  source  is  J.  C.  White,  Sketches  from 
My  Life  (1914),  with  bibliog.  See  also  Who's  Who  in 
America,  19 16-17;  Report  of  the  Harvard  Class  of 
1853  (1913)  ;  T.  F.  Harrington,  The  Harvard  Medic. 
School  (1905),  vol.  Ill;  Boston  Medic,  and  Surgical 
Jour.,  Jan.  20,  1916;  Abner  Post,  Ibid.,  July  20,  1916; 
F.  C.  Shattuck,  Proc.  Am.  Acad.  Arts  and  Sciences, 
vol.  LII  (1917)  ;  Sir  Malcolm  Morris,  in  British 
lour.  Dermatology,  Jan.-Mar.  1916  ;  Dermatologische 
Wochcnschrift,  July  8,  1916;  Harvard  Grads.'  Mag., 
Mar.  1916;  obituary  in  Boston  Transcript,  Jan.  6, 
J9l6-J  H.R.V. 

WHITE,  JAMES  WILLIAM  (Nov.  2,  1850- 
Apr.  24,  1916),  surgeon,  was  born  in  Philadel- 
phia, Pa.,  the  son  of  Dr.  James  William  White 
and  Mary  Ann  (McClaranan)  White,  and  a 
nephew  of  Samuel  Stockton  White  [q.z'.~].  He 
was  descended  from  the  Rev.  Henry  White  who 
emigrated  from  England  about  1649  and  settled 
in  Virginia.  White  lived  and  died  in  Philadel- 
phia, attending  first  the  public  schools,  then  a 
Quaker  private  school,  from  which  he  entered 
the  medical  department  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania.  He  also  matriculated  in  the  de- 
partment auxiliary  to  medicine,  pursuing  both 
courses  simultaneously,  and  in  1871  was  grad- 
uated with  the  degrees  of  M.D.  and  Ph.D.  In  the 
summer  of  the  same  year  he  secured  an  appoint- 
ment as  analytical  chemist  with  a  scientific  ex- 
pedition under  the  leadership  of  J.  L.  R.  Agassiz 
[g.z'.j,  and  set  out  in  the  Hasslcr  for  a  year's 
cruise  to  the  West  Indies  and  the  east  coast  of 
South  America,  through  the  Straits  of  Magellan, 
and  up  the  west  coast  of  South  America  and 
Central  America  to  San  Francisco.  Years  later 
he  visited  China  and  adjacent  countries.  Upon 
his  return  from  the  South  American  trip  he  be- 
came a  resident  physician  at  the  Philadelphia 
Hospital  (1873)  and  then  resident  physician  at 
the  Eastern  State  Penitentiary  ( 1874-76),  where 
he  interested  himself  in  the  study  of  crime  and 
the  mentality  of  criminals.  Tn  1S76  he  became 
attached  to  the  surgical  staff  of  the  hospital  of 
the  University  of  Pennsylvania  and  soon  began 
to  lecture  on  genito-urinary  diseases  in  the  medi- 
cal department  of  the  university.  He  was  pro- 
fessor of  clinical  surgery   (1887-1900)   and  in 


IOQ 


White 


White 


1900  succeeded  John  Ashhurst  [q.v.~]  as  John 
Rhea  Barton  Professor  of  Surgery.  As  a  teacher 
lie  was  clear,  concise,  and  interesting,  though 
rarely  inspiring.  He  resigned  the  professorship 
of  surgery  in  191 1,  to  be  made  professor  emeritus, 
a  trustee  of  the  university,  and  a  manager  of  the 
university  hospital.  He  was  a  president  of  the 
University  Athletic  Association  and  for  a  long 
time  dominated  it.  He  was  also  a  commissioner 
of  Fairmount  Park,  a  member  of  numerous  pro- 
fessional associations,  and  for  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury an  editor  of  Annals  of  Surgery  ( 1892-1916) . 

Though  he  wrote  many  papers,  his  most  im- 
portant work  was  his  Genito-Urinary  Surgery 
and  Venereal  Diseases  (1897),  written  in  col- 
laboration with  Edward  Martin.  With  W.  W. 
Keen  he  edited  An  American  Text-Book  of  Sur- 
gery (1892),  and  with  J.  H.  C.  Simes  translated 
a  treatise  on  syphilis  (1882)  by  A.  V.  Cornil. 
He  believed  that  one  of  his  important  contribu- 
tions to  surgery  was  the  operation  of  castration 
for  treatment  of  hypertrophy  of  the  prostate,  but 
the  method  is  no  longei  practised.  During  the 
World  War  he  wrote  A  Primer  of  the  War  for 
Americans  (1914),  later  called  A  Text-Booh  of 
the  Urar  for  Americans,  and  America's  Arraign- 
ment of  Germany  (1915),  which  set  forth  argu- 
ments for  America's  entrance  into  the  war  on 
the  side  of  the  Allies.  In  Paris,  where  he  had 
gone  to  assist  in  the  organization  of  the  Ameri- 
can ambulance  unit,  he  began  to  notice  the  first 
signs  of  osteitis  deformans,  from  which  he  suf- 
fered until  he  died  of  pneumonia  in  April  1916. 

In  his  early  days  White  was  an  enthusiastic 
athlete,  a  great  swimmer,  a  skilled  boxer,  a  mem- 
ber of  Alpine  clubs,  and  a  rollicking  good  fellow 
known  to  all  his  friends  and  students  as  "Bill 
White."  He  was  a  gay  young  surgeon  to  the  1st 
City  Troop  (1878-88),  a  bon  vivenr,  and  spent 
much  of  his  time  at  social  clubs.  In  the  latter 
third  of  his  life,  however,  there  occurred  a  sud- 
den change  both  in  his  philosophy  and  in  his  be- 
havior, said  to  be  the  result  of  a  circumstance 
affecting  the  private  life  of  a  friend,  which  led 
him  to  give  up  many  of  his  pleasures  and  take  a 
more  responsible  attitude  toward  human  affairs. 
He  was  married  on  June  22,  1888,  to  Letitia 
(Brown)  Disston,  daughter  of  Benjamin  H. 
Brown  of  Philadelphia  {Philadelphia  Press,  June 
23,  1888).  There  were  no  children. 

[W.  F.  Cregar,  Ancestry  of  the  Children  of  James 
William  White,  M.D.  (1888)  ;  Who's  Who  in  America, 
1916-17;  Agnes  Repplier,  /.  William  White,  M.D. 
(1919)  ;  Alumni  Reg.  Univ.  of  Pa.,  June  1918,  p.  811  ; 
A.  C.  Wood,  in  Surgery,  Gynecology  and  Obstetrics, 
Nov.  \<)22  ;  Trans.  Am.  Surgical  Asso.,  vol.  XXXIV 
(1916)  ;  Annals  of  Surgery,  June  1916  ;  Alfred  Stengel, 
in  Am.  Medic.  Biogs.  (1920),  ed.  by  H.  A.  Kelly  and 


W.  L.  Burrage  ;  obituary  in  Pub.  Ledger  (Phila.),  Apr. 
25,  1916;  personal  acquaintance.]  t  y[ 

WHITE,  JOHN  (fl.  1585-1593),  artist,  car- 
tographer, and  governor  of  Sir  Walter  Raleigh's 
"second  colonie"  at  Roanoke,  was  probably 
born  in  England.  Though  the  written  records  of 
his  life  are  limited  to  fragmentary  and  frequently 
uncertain  accounts,  he  left  a  charming  and  im- 
portant series  of  paintings,  done  in  water  colors, 
which  prove  him  to  have  been  an  artist  of  no 
mean  ability  and  constitute  his  chief  claim  to 
fame.  In  the  collection  are  several  studies  of  na- 
tive life  in  Florida,  Greenland,  and  the  Caucasus, 
which,  if  they  are  his  original  work  rather  than 
copies  from  other  artists,  as  may  be  possible, 
prove  that  he  was  already  an  experienced  trav- 
eler by  1585.  He  was  commissioned  by  Raleigh 
to  go  with  the  expedition  of  that  year  to  Roa- 
noke Island,  now  in  North  Carolina,  to  provide 
pictures  of  life  in  the  new  world  that  might  stimu- 
late interest  in  further  ventures.  Scientific  paint- 
ings of  the  flora  and  fauna  of  America,  as  well  as 
of  the  customs  and  habits  of  the  native  Indians, 
comprise  the  major  portion  of  his  surviving 
paintings.  At  least  sixty-three  of  the  paintings 
were  probably  done  from  life  in  America.  They 
become,  therefore,  some  of  the  earliest  and  most 
valuable  of  the  material  for  the  study  of  the  natu- 
ral history  and  aboriginal  life  of  this  continent. 
Twenty-three  of  his  paintings,  including  two  not 
found  among  the  originals,  were  engraved  by 
Theodore  de  Bry  for  an  edition  in  1590  of  Thom- 
as Hariot's  A  Briefe  and  True  Report  of  .  .  . 
Virginia.  He  included  also  adaptations  of  two 
maps  by  White  of  the  Virginia  coast,  which  for 
half  a  century  thereafter  greatly  influenced  geog- 
raphers in  their  delineations  of  the  coastline 
south  of  the  Chesapeake  Bay.  White's  paintings 
of  natives  were  used,  copied,  redrawn,  mutilated, 
and  reinterpreted  so  that  for  some  three  cen- 
turies they  conditioned  all  pictorial  representa- 
tion of  the  American  Indians. 

In  1587  a  John  White  was  sent  by  Raleigh  to 
be  governor  of  his  second  colony  in  Virginia. 
That  John  White  reestablished  the  colony  of 
Roanoke.  It  has  been  customary  to  identify  the 
artist  as  one  and  the  same  with  this  governor, 
though  the  identification  has  lacked  satisfactory 
proof.  Strong  support  for  this  thesis  is  provided 
by  the  discovery,  in  the  manuscript  for  Thomas 
Moffett's  Inscctorum  (1634)  in  the  British  Mu- 
seum, that  an  illustration  of  White's  "Tiger 
Swallow  Tail  Butterfly"  bore  in  that  manuscript 
copy  the  illuminating  inscription  "Hanc  e  Vir- 
ginia Americana  Candidas  ad  me  Pictor  detulif 
1587."  Since  the  governor  was  the  only  known 
White  to  have  gone  out  on  that  expedition,  the 


I  10 


White 


White 


fact  that  "Candidus  Pictor"  returned  from  Vir- 
ginia in  that  year  with  this  picture  makes  pos- 
sible a  reasonably  positive  identification  of  the 
painter  and  governor  as  one  (for  full  discussion 
see  Adams,  post). 

He  probably  went  back  to  England  with  Gren- 
ville  in  1585,  to  return  to  Virginia  as  governor 
in  July  1587.  Among  the  settlers  of  this  expe- 
dition was  his  own  daughter,  Ellinor,  who  be- 
came the  mother  of  Virginia  Dare  \_q.v.~\,  the 
first  child  of  English  parentage  born  in  America. 
The  governor's  judgment  as  a  leader  was  ap- 
parently not  commensurate  with  his  skill  as  a 
painter,  for  he  was  persuaded  late  in  August  to 
return  to  England  for  provisions.  The  war  with 
Spain  interrupted  his  plans  for  the  colony's  re- 
lief, and  it  was  August  1590  before  he  arrived 
back  at  Roanoke.  The  colony  had  disappeared. 
Denied  time  to  make  a  really  effective  search, 
he  returned  home  leaving  its  fate  a  mystery  to 
this  day.  From  his  "house  at  Newtowne  in  Kyl- 
more,"  Ireland,  in  February  1593  he  sent  Hakluyt 
an  account  of  this  his  "fift  &  last  voiage  to  Vir- 
ginia" (Hakluyt,  post,  p.  288). 

[Original  paintings  in  British  Museum,  75  undoubted 
originals,  also  copies  in  Sloane  MSS. ;  63  modern  hand- 
tinted  photostats  of  originals  in  Win.  L.  Clements  Lib., 
Ann  Arbor,  Mich.  ;  excellent  reproductions  with  im- 
portant essays  by  Laurence  Binyon,  "The  Drawings  of 
John  White,"  Thirteenth  Vol.  of  the  Walpole  Soc. 
(1925)  ;  Laurence  Binyon,  Cat.  of  Drawings  by  Brit. 
Artists  .  .  .  in  the  British  Museum,  vol.  IV  ( 1907)  ;  P. 
L.  Phillips,  Va.  Cartography  (1896);  R.  G.  Adams, 
"An  Effort  to  Identify  John  White,"  Am.  Hist.  Rev., 
Oct.  1935  with  bibliography;  original  narratives  in 
Richard  Hakluyt,  The  Third  and  Last  Vol.  of  the  Voy- 
ages, Navigations  .  .  .  of  the  English  Nation  (1600)  ; 
D.  N.  B.]  W.F.C. 

WHITE,  JOHN  BLAKE  (Sept.  2,  1781-c. 
Aug.  24,  1859),  artist,  dramatist,  and  lawyer, 
was  born  near  Eutaw  Springs,  S.  C,  the  son  of 
Blake  Leay  and  Elizabeth  (Bourquin)  White. 
He  was  a  descendant  of  John  White  who  emi- 
grated from  Ireland  to  New  England,  probably 
about  1681.  White  began  the  study  of  law  in 
Columbia,  S.  C,  but  in  1800  went  to  London  to 
study  painting  under  Benjamin  West  [q."t'.~\.  On 
his  return  to  America  in  November  1803,  he 
made  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  establish  himself 
as  an  artist,  first  in  Charleston,  then  in  Boston 
(1804).  In  November  1804  he  returned  to 
Charleston,  where  he  resumed  his  legal  studies 
and  in  1808  was  admitted  to  the  bar.  With  the 
exception  of  a  short  period  about  1831,  when  he 
lived  at  Columbia,  he  remained  in  Charleston 
for  the  rest  of  his  life.  Continuing  his  painting 
in  addition  to  practising  law,  he  produced  be- 
tween 1804  and  1840  a  number  of  historical  pic- 
tures and  portraits.  Among  the  best  known  of 
the  former  are  four  in  the  Capitol  at  Washing- 


ton: "Battle  of  Fort  Moultrie,"  "Mrs.  Motte  Di- 
recting Marion  and  Lee  to  Burn  Her  Mansion 
to  Dislodge  the  British,"  "General  Marion  In- 
viting a  British  Officer  to  Dinner,"  and  "Sar- 
gents  Jasper  and  Newton  Rescuing  American 
Prisoners  from  the  British."  Large  steel  engrav- 
ings were  made  of  the  last  two,  which  were  also 
engraved  respectively  for  the  ten  and  five  dollar 
banknotes  issued  by  South  Carolina  in  1861. 
Other  paintings  by  White  of  which  record  is 
preserved  are  "Battle  of  Eutaw  Springs,"  "Bat- 
tle of  New  Orleans,"  "Minister  Poinsett  Unfurl- 
ing the  United  States  Flag  in  the  City  of  Mexico 
during  the  Mexican  Riots,"  "The  Arrival  of  the 
Mail,"  showing  the  old  post  office  building, 
Broad  Street,  Charleston  (now  in  the  City  Hall, 
Charleston).  His  "Grave  Robbers"  was  exhibit- 
ed in  the  Boston  Athenaeum  in  1833  and  de- 
scribed in  a  catalogue  issued  at  that  time.  In 
1840  he  received  from  the  South  Carolina  Insti- 
tute a  gold  medal  for  the  best  historical  painting. 
Among  his  most  important  portraits  are  those  of 
John  C.  Calhoun,  still  in  the  possession  of  the 
Calhoun  family,  Charles  C.  Pinckney,  Keating 
Simons,  and  Gov.  Henry  Middleton.  He  also 
painted  miniatures,  one  of  which  is  in  the  pos- 
session of  descendants  living  in  Charleston.  In 
addition,  he  wrote  a  number  of  plays  that  were 
acted  in  the  theatres  of  Charleston  and  other 
cities.  Among  these  were  Foscari,  or  the  Ve- 
netian Exile  ( 1806),  The  Mysteries  of  the  Castle 
(1807),  Modern  Honor  (1812),  The  Triumph 
of  Liberty,  or  Louisiana  Preserved  (1819),  which 
is  said  to  have  been  enacted  in  the  theatre  of 
Petersburg,  Va.,  Intemperance  (1839),  and  The 
Forgers;  A  Dramatic  Poem  ( 1899),  first  print- 
ed in  the  Southern  Literary  Journal,  March  1837. 
White  was  married  twice.  His  first  wife,  whom 
he  met  in  Boston,  was  Elizabeth  Allston,  a  rela- 
tive of  Washington  Allston  [q.vJ\.  They  were 
married  in  Georgetown,  S.  C,  on  Mar.  28,  1805, 
and  had  three  sons  and  a  daughter.  After  his 
first  wife's  death  (1817),  he  was  married  on 
Oct.  2,  1819,  to  Ann  Rachel,  daughter  of  Dr. 
Matthew  O'Driscoll  who  emigrated  from  Ireland 
to  South  Carolina  in  1794.  By  his  second  wife 
(d.  1849)  White  had  five  sons  and  two  daughters. 
One  of  his  sons,  Edward  Brickell  (1806-1882), 
was  a  graduate  of  the  United  States  Military 
Academy,  and  a  prominent  architect  and  engi- 
neer. A  portrait  bust  of  White  by  Clark  Mills 
\q.v.~\  is  in  the  City  Hall,  Charleston,  S.  C.  An 
engraved  portrait  is  in  the  possession  of  the 
White  family. 

[Mabel  L.  Webber.  "Records  from  Blake  and  White 
Bibles,"  S.  C.  Hist,  and  Geneal.  Mag.,  Jan..  Apr.,  July, 
Oct.  1935,  Jan.,  Apr.  1936;  William  Dunlap,  A  Hist. 
of  the  Rise  and  Progress  of  the  Arts  of  Design  in  the 


I  I  I 


White 

U.  S.  (3  vols.,  1918),  ed.  by  F.  W.  Bayley  and  C.  E. 
Goodspeed,  and  Hist,  of  the  Am.  Theatre  (2  vols., 
5833)  ;  A.  H.  Quinn,  A  Hist,  of  the  Am.  Drama  .  .  .  to 
the  Civil  War  (1923)  ;  C.  E.  Fairman,  Art  and  Artists 
of  the  Capitol  of  the  U.  S.  A.  (1927)  ;  Southern  Lit. 
Jour.,  June,  July  1837  ;  biog.  sketch  of  Charles  Fraser 
in  Fraser  Gallery,  Charleston  ;  obituary  in  Charleston 
Daily  Courier,  Aug.  25,  1859;  family  records;  infor- 
mation from  Anna  Wells  Rutledge,  Charleston,  S.  C] 

L.M. 

WHITE,  JOHN  DE  HAVEN  (Aug.  19, 
1815-Dec.  25,  1895),  dentist,  a  son  of  John  and 
Sarah  (De  Haven)  White,  was  born  on  a  farm 
near  New  Holland,  Lancaster  County,  Pa.,  and 
received  his  earliest  education  in  a  rural  school. 
When  he  was  seven  years  old,  both  of  his  parents 
died,  and  he  was  bound  out  to  a  farmer,  a  hard 
taskmaster,  from  whom  he  shortly  ran  away. 
He  served  next  as  a  carpenter's  apprentice  for 
several  years,  and  at  the  same  time  acquired  a 
good  preliminary  education.  In  1836  he  began 
the  study  of  both  medicine  and  dentistry  in  Phila- 
delphia, the  former  as  a  student  of  James  Bryan, 
M.D.,  and  the  latter  under  the  preceptorship  of 
Michael  A.  Blankman.  Shortly  thereafter  he  de- 
voted himself  exclusively  to  dentistry,  at  first  for 
a  few  months  in  Middletown  and  Bethlehem,  Pa. 
In  1837  he  returned  to  Philadelphia,  where  he 
practised  as  a  dentist  till  a  few  years  before  his 
death.  He  was  graduated  from  the  Jefferson 
Medical  College  in  1844. 

He  was  a  skilful  and  successful  practitioner, 
and  one  of  the  most  enthusiastic  leaders  of  his 
day  in  the  advancement  of  dental  education. 
Early  in  his  professional  career,  Samuel  Stock- 
ton White  and  Thomas  Wiltberger  Evans  [qq.v.~] 
were  among  his  private  students.  It  is  said  that 
Napoleon  III  invited  him  in  1865  to  join  Evans 
in  forming  a  national  dental  school  in  Paris,  and 
that  the  invitation  was  declined.  Beginning  short- 
ly after  he  entered  practice,  a  few  of  the  progres- 
sive dentists  of  Philadelphia,  under  his  leader- 
ship, met  on  fixed  dates  for  the  interchange  of 
professional  knowledge  and  experience.  These 
informal  meetings  led  to  the  organization,  in 
1845,  0I  the  Pennsylvania  Association  of  Dental 
Surgeons,  in  which  he  took  a  leading  part,  serv- 
ing as  its  president  in  1857.  In  1850  he  became 
a  member  of  the  American  Society  of  Dental 
Surgeons  and  was  one  of  the  organizers  of  the 
Philadelphia  College  of  Dental  Surgery  (first 
session,  1852),  in  which  he  was  professor  of 
anatomy  and  physiology  (1854-56),  and  of  op- 
erative dental  surgery  and  special  dental  physi- 
ology (1854-56).  From  1853  to  1859  he  was 
editor-in-chief  of  the  Dental  News  Letter,  and 
from  1859  to  1865  one  of  the  editors  of  the  Dental 
Cosmos.  To  these  and  to  other  dental  periodicals 
he  contributed  some  ninety  articles  on  a  wide 


White 

variety  of  dental  subjects,  mostly  of  a  practical 
character  (1845-75).  He  was  vice-president  of 
the  American  Dental  Convention  in  1861.  Among 
his  later  dental  students  were  Charles  and  El- 
wood  Hopkins  and  Robert  Huey.  Theodore  F. 
Chupein  was  his  assistant  in  practice  in  1865 
and  1866. 

He  was  a  large  man  of  extraordinary  physical 
and  mental  vigor,  constitutionally  convivial,  fond 
of  literature  and  music,  but  bluff  and  aggressive, 
with  strong  prejudices  on  professional  and  other 
subjects.  He  loved  horses  and  was  often  in  the 
saddle.  One  of  his  chief  pleasures  from  early 
youth  was  the  writing  of  verses.  Two  of  his 
favorite  horses  are  named  in  the  title  to  a  volume 
of  poems  which  he  published  in  1870,  Mary  Blain 
and  Hazel  Dell,  and  Miscellaneous  Poems.  He 
was  prominent  in  Masonry  and  spent  the  last 
few  years  of  his  life  in  the  Masonic  Home  in 
Philadelphia,  where  he  died  of  heart  disease  in 
his  eighty-first  year.  In  1836  he  married  Mary 
Elizabeth  Meredith  of  Philadelphia  (d.  July 
1895).  They  had  eleven  children,  of  whom  two 
sons,  both  practising  dentists,  and  a  daughter 
survived  them. 

[International  Dental  Jour., Teh.  1896,  p.  129  ;  Dental 
Cosmos,  Apr.  1896,  p.  363  ;  B.  L.  Thorpe,  in  Hist,  of 
Dental  Surgery,  vol.  Ill  (1910),  ed.  by  C.  R.  E.  Koch; 
obituary  in  Pub.  Ledger  (Phila.),  Dec.  26,  1895.] 

L.P.B. 

WHITE,  JOHN  WILLIAMS  (Mar.  5,  1849- 
May  9,  1917),  Hellenist,  was  born  at  Cincinnati, 
Ohio.  His  parents  were  the  Rev.  John  Whitney 
White,  a  descendant  of  John  White  who  settled 
in  Salem  in  1638  and  Anna  Catharine,  daughter 
of  Judge  Hosea  Williams.  From  New  England 
ancestors,  among  whom  were  Governor  Carver, 
Isaac  Allerton,  Thomas  Cushman,  and  John 
Webster,  he  inherited  marked  energy  and  inde- 
pendence, combined  with  a  pioneering  zeal  which 
inspired  him  throughout  his  life  to  take  the  initi- 
ative in  many  academic  enterprises.  He  gradu- 
ated from  Ohio  Wesleyan  University  in  1868. 
On  June  20, 1871,  he  married  Mary  Alice,  daugh- 
ter of  Picton  Drayton  Hillyer  of  Delaware,  Ohio. 
After  studying  in  Germany  and  visiting  Greece, 
he  published  (1873)  an  edition  of  Sophocles' 
Oedipus  Tyr  annus,  which  immediately  sprang 
into  favor,  and  led  to  his  appointment  as  tutor  in 
Greek  at  Harvard  (1874-77).  At  the  same  time 
he  continued  his  studies  in  the  Graduate  School, 
then  in  its  modest  beginnings,  and  received  the 
degree  of  Ph.D.  and  A.M.  in  classical  philology 
(1877)  and  appointment  to  an  assistant  profes- 
sorship, which  he  held  until  his  election  as  pro- 
fessor of  Greek  in  1884.  There  followed  twenty- 
five  years  of  vigorous  service,  in  which  he  rose 
to  prominence  as  an  aid  to  President  Charles  W. 


I  12 


White 

Eliot  [</.r.]  in  the  expansion  of  the  provincial 
college  into  a  national  university.  An  article  in 
the  New-England  Journal  of  Education  (Feb. 
14,  1878)  on  "Greek  and  Latin  at  Sight"  broke 
completely  from  older  methods  of  teaching  by  its 
insistence  on  wide  and  rapid  reading.  He  car- 
ried out  the  principles  he  had  laid  down  by  many 
courses  in  Greek  authors,  of  which  those  in 
Herodotus  and  Aristophanes  were  the  most  no- 
table. He  early  interested  himself  in  Greek 
metres,  and  in  1878  brought  out  a  translation  of 
J.  H.  H.  Schmidt's  Leitfadcn  in  dcr  Rhythmik 
und  Mctrik  der  classischen  Sprachen  (1869). 
This  book,  useful  at  a  time  when  Greek  metres 
were  little  studied  in  England  and  America,  was 
superseded  by  White's  later  researches.  In  1879 
he  founded,  with  Lewis  Packard  and  T.  D.  Sey- 
mour [q.z>.~]  of  Yale,  the  College  Series  of  Greek 
Authors,  with  commentary  suitable  for  Ameri- 
can students.  He  was  the  first  to  use  the  stere- 
opticon  for  the  illustration  of  Greek  civilization. 
He  seems  also  to  have  been  the  first  to  conceive 
the  project  of  reviving  in  America  Greek  plays 
in  Greek,  and  with  his  colleagues  produced 
Oedipus  Tyrannus  in  Cambridge  in  1881.  With 
C.  E.  Norton  and  W.  W.  Goodwin  [qq.v.~\  he 
organized  (1879)  the  Archaeological  Institute 
of  America,  and  was  its  president  for  five  years, 
and  later  its  honorary  president.  In  1881  he  be- 
came the  first  chairman  of  the  managing  com- 
mittee of  the  American  School  of  Classical  Stud- 
ies at  Athens,  and  served  as  its  professor  of 
Greek  literature  during  the  academic  year  1893- 
94.  He  published  many  textbooks  distinguished 
for  their  lucidity  and  an  uncommon  sense  of  the 
capacities  of  younger  students — among  them 
First  Lessons  in  Greek  (1876)  ;  Four  Books  of 
Xcnophon's  Anabasis  (1877), with  W.  W.  Good- 
win ;  Notes  on  the  Birds  of  Aristophanes 
(1888)  ;  and  The  Beginner's  Greek  Book  (1891). 

Meanwhile  his  activity  as  an  administrative 
officer  was  unceasing.  He  established  for  his  own 
department  a  bureau  for  teachers,  which  later 
became  the  appointment  office  for  the  entire  uni- 
versity. An  ardent  sportsman,  horseman,  and 
tennis  player,  he  became  in  1882  a  member  of  the 
first  committee  appointed  to  regulate  athletic 
sports  and  served  as  its  chairman  for  several 
years.  With  J.  B.  Greenough  [q.v.~\  he  founded, 
and  for  many  years  assisted  in  editing,  the  Har- 
vard Studies  in  Classical  Philology.  To  it  he 
contributed  articles,  as  also  to  Classical  Quarter- 
ly (London),  Classical  Philology  (Chicago), 
and  'Eiyiriixepts  'ApxaioXo-pxTj  (Athens). 

In  the  classroom  he  was  alert  and  inspiring,  ex- 
acting rigorous  accuracy,  but  kindly  and  sympa- 
thetic in  correction.   Many  students  in  financial 


White 

stress  were  helped  by  his  unostentatious  generos- 
ity. Affable  and  courtly  toward  all,  he  maintained 
close  friendships  with  scholars  of  other  univer- 
sities, both  in  America  and  abroad.  His  influ- 
ence on  at  least  one  distinguished  pupil,  James 
Loeb,  may  be  measured  in  the  Loeb  Classical 
Library,  in  the  establishment  of  which  he  took 
a  foremost  part.  Grieved  though  he  was  by  the 
decline  of  Greek  studies  in  American  schools 
and  colleges,  he  was  willing  to  recognize  the 
trend  of  the  times,  and  against  the  opposition 
even  of  his  friends  he  introduced  a  collegiate 
course  for  beginners  in  Greek,  and  another  on 
the  Greek  drama  in  English  translations.  Fre- 
quent visits  in  Europe  made  him  sensible  of  the 
value  of  older  civilizations,  while  at  the  same 
time  he  never  lost  contact  or  sympathy  with  the 
liberal  and  progressive  movements  in  America. 
At  the  age  of  sixty  he  resigned  his  professor- 
ship in  order  to  devote  himself  exclusively  to  his 
studies  in  Greek  comedy.  He  projected,  but  did 
not  live  to  make,  an  edition  of  Aristophanes  in 
ten  volumes.  As  a  preliminary,  he  published  The 
Verse  of  Greek  Comedy  (London,  1912)  and  The 
Scholia  on  the  Arcs  of  Aristophanes  (1914). 
The  latter  includes  a  masterly  history  of  Alex- 
andrian scholarship.  These  two  works  place  him 
in  the  front  rank  of  authorities  on  Aristophanes 
and,  through  Aristophanes,  Greek  life  in  general. 
He  died  at  Cambridge,  May  9,  1917. 

[A.  L.  White,  Gcncal.  of  the  Descendants  of  John 
White  of  Wenham  (4  vols.,  1900-09)  ;  Who's  Who  in 
America,  1916-17  ;  Nation,  May  17,  June  21,  1917; 
Harvard  Alumni  Bull.,  vol.  XIX  (1917),  pp.  628-29, 
with  early  portrait  ;  G.  H.  Chase,  in  Harvard  Grads. 
Mag.,  Sept.  1917,  with  later  portrait;  Harvard  Univ. 
Gazette,  June  9,  1917,  pp.  177-78;  S.  E.  Morison,  The 
Development  of  Harvard  Univ.  .  .  .  1869-1920  (19,30)  ; 
obituaries  in  N .  Y .  Times  and  Boston  Transcript,  May 
10,   1917;  personal  acquaintance.]  q  B.  G. 

WHITE,  RICHARD  GRANT  (May  23, 1821- 
Apr.  8,  1885),  man  of  letters,  was  born  in  New 
York,  eldest  of  the  five  children  of  Richard 
Mansfield  and  Ann  Eliza  (Tousey)  White,  and 
seventh  in  descent  from  John  White,  a  follower 
of  Thomas  Hooker  [q.v.]  and  one  of  the  found- 
ers of  Cambridge,  Mass.,  Hartford,  Conn.,  and 
Hadley,  Mass.  His  father  was  a  prosperous 
South  Street  merchant,  a  prominent  Episcopalian 
of  the  Low  Church  party,  and  an  official  of  the 
Allaire  Iron  Works.  The  boy  grew  up  in  Brook- 
lyn, attended  the  Grammar  School  of  Columbia 
College,  then  conducted  by  Charles  Anthon 
[q.7'.~],  and  was  admitted  to  the  junior  class  in 
the  University  of  the  City  of  New  York  when 
but  sixteen  years  old.  As  a  student  he  was  notori- 
ously averse  to  writing.  Music  was  a  passion 
with  him,  but  his  desire  to  become  a  professional 
musician  was  thwarted  by  his  parents.  Upon  his 


IJ3 


White 


White 


graduation  in  1839  he  began  the  study  of  medi- 
cine, turned  to  the  law,  and  was  called  to  the  bar 
in  1845.  The  next  year  he  helped  Cornelius 
Mathews  [q.vJ]  to  edit  a  short-lived  humorous 
paper.  Yankee  Doodle,  and  made  other  spare- 
time  ventures  into  journalism.  When  his  fa- 
ther's fortune  collapsed,  leaving  White  to  support 
two  unmarried  sisters,  he  turned  to  writing  for 
a  livelihood.  As  musical  critic  of  James  Watson 
Webb's  Morning  Courier  and  New-York  En- 
quirer, then  edited  by  Henry  Jarvis  Raymond 
[q.v.~\,  he  immediately  attained  distinction  in  his 
new  profession.  On  Oct.  16,  1850,  he  married 
Alexina  Black  Mease,  who  with  two  sons,  Rich- 
ard Mansfield  and  Stanford  [q.v.~\,  survived 
him. 

White  remained  on  the  Courier  staff  until  1859, 
writing  musical,  art,  and  literary  criticism,  and 
numerous  political  articles  and  editorials.  Dur- 
ing the  Civil  War  he  was  secretary  of  the  Met- 
ropolitan Sanitary  Fair  and,  after  a  brief  con- 
nection with  the  World,  was  appointed  chief 
clerk  of  the  marine  revenue  bureau  of  the  New 
York  Custom  House  (1861-78).  Throughout  his 
career  he  wrote  voluminously  for  periodicals,  es- 
pecially for  Putnam's  Magazine,  the  Galaxy,  and 
the  Atlantic  Monthly.  To  the  London  Spectator 
he  contributed  useful  articles  during  the  Civil 
War.  Among  his  separate  publications  were : 
Handbook  of  Christian  Art  (1853)  ;  Shake- 
speare's Scholar  (1854);  The  New  Gospel  of 
Peace  (4  vols.,  1863-66),  a  mordant,  widely  cir- 
culated satire  on  "Copperheads"  ;  The  Adventures 
of  Sir  Lyon  Bouse,  Bart.,  in  America  during  the 
Civil  IV ar  (1867);  Words  and  Their  Uses 
(1870),  witty,  influential,  and  often  unsound; 
Evcry-day  English  (1880),  a  sequel;  England 
Without  and  Within  ( 1881 )  ;  The  Fate  of  Mans- 
field Humphreys  (1884),  a  belated,  unsuccessful, 
but  amusing  attempt  at  a  novel ;  and  Studies  in 
Shakespeare  (1886).  He  was  an  acute,  learned, 
and  sometimes  brilliant  student  of  Shakespeare, 
one  of  the  first  to  detect  the  spuriousness  of  J.  P. 
Collier's  forgeries,  and  with  a  little  more  leisure 
and  a  happier  geographical  situation  might  have 
been  one  of  Shakespeare's  great  editors.  His 
edition,  in  twelve  volumes,  of  The  Works  of  Wil- 
liam Shakespeare  (1857-66)  was  published  just 
as  the  Cambridge  Edition  (1863-66)  of  W.  G. 
Clark,  John  Glover,  and  W.  A.  Wright  began  a 
new  epoch  in  the  history  of  the  text,  and  its 
merits  have  been  consequently  obscured.  White's 
text  was  republished  as  the  Riverside  Shake- 
speare (3  vols.,  1883)  and  was  the  basis  of  a  re- 
vised edition,  in  eighteen  volumes,  by  W.  P. 
Trent,  B.  W.  Wells,  and  J.  B.  Henneman,  that 
was  issued  in  1912. 


White  was  six  feet  two  inches  tall,  erect,  ath- 
letic, and  handsome,  and  until  the  last  years  of 
his  life  enjoyed  robust  health.  His  senses  were 
remarkably  acute  and  his  enjoyment  of  beauty 
intense.  He  revered  the  memory  of  his  fore- 
bears, especially  of  his  grandfather,  Calvin 
White,  a  gentleman  of  stout  Tory  principles,  on 
whom,  to  some  extent,  he  patterned  his  own  char- 
acter. Francis  James  Child,  James  Russell  Low- 
ell, and  Charles  Eliot  Norton  [qq.vJ]  were  his 
friends,  but  he  shunned  the  .commonplace  lit- 
erary and  journalistic  society  of  New  York.  The 
usual  representation  of  him  as  a  disagreeable, 
humorless  snob,  coxcomb,  and  Anglomaniac  was 
a  caricature  of  a  high-minded  gentleman  and  an 
accomplished  man  of  letters.  Uncomplainingly 
he  lived  his  entire  life  in  a  city  that  he  detested, 
earning  his  living  by  toilsome,  uncongenial  occu- 
pations. He  traveled  hardly  at  all  in  America, 
visited  England — the  land  of  his  admiration — 
only  once,  and  then  when  he  was  past  his  fifty- 
fifth  birthday,  and  never  saw  the  continent  of  Eu- 
rope. Music,  Shakespeare,  and  the  art  of  violin 
construction  were  his  three  great  solaces.  He 
died  at  his  home  in  New  York  after  a  long  ill- 
ness, in  his  sixty-fourth  year. 

[Sources  include  A.  S.  Kellogg,  Memorials  of  Elder 
John  White,  .  .  .  and  of  His  Descendants  (i860)  ;  A. 
A.  Freeman,  "Richard  Grant  White,"  New  York  Univ. 
Quart.,  May  1881  ;  E.  P.  Whipple,  "Richard  Grant 
White,"  Atlantic  Monthly,  Feb.  1882;  "A  Shake- 
spearean Scholar,"  Ibid.,  Mar.  1886;  F.  P.  Church, 
"Richard  Grant  White,"  Ibid.,  Mar.  1891  ;  N.  Y.  Times, 
Apr.  9,  1885  ;  H.  E.  Scudder,  James  Russell  Lowell 
(1901);  Laura  Stedman  and  G.  M.  Gould,  Life  and 
Letters  of  Edmund  Clarence  Stedman  (1910).  On  his 
edition  of  Shakespeare  see:  J.  R.  Lowell,  in  Atlantic 
Monthly,  Jan.,  Feb.  1859  ;  Jane  Sherzer,  "Am.  Editions 
of  Shakespeare,  1753-1866,"  Pubs.  Modern  Language 
Asso.  of  America,  Dec.  1907 ;  H.  R.  Steeves,  "Am. 
Editors  of  Shakspeare,"  Shaksperian  Studies  by  Mem- 
bers of  the  Dcpt.  of  Eng.  and  Comp.  Lit.  in  Columbia 
Univ.  (1916).]  G.  H.G. 

WHITE,  SAMUEL  (December  1770-Nov.  4, 
1809),  lawyer,  United  States  senator,  was  born 
on  a  farm  in  Mispillion  Hundred,  Kent  County, 
Del.,  the  son  of  Thomas  and  Margaret  (Nutter) 
White.  His  mother  was  a  daughter  of  David 
Nutter  of  Northwest  Fork  Hundred,  Sussex 
County,  Del.,  his  father  was  possessed  of  a  con- 
siderable estate,  and  from  1777  to  1792  served  as 
one  of  the  justices  of  the  court  of  common  pleas 
and  orphans'  court  of  Kent  County.  In  1777  he 
met  Francis  Asbury  [q.v.~\,  who  converted  him 
to  Methodism.  In  his  journal,  Asbury  referred 
to  Judge  White  as  his  "dearest  friend  in  Amer- 
ica." The  first  conference  of  Methodist  preach- 
ers, at  which  Asbury  was  appointed  first  general 
superintendent  of  Methodism  in  America,  was 
held  in  White's  house  on  Apr.  28,  1779. 

Samuel  White  was  sent  to  the  first  Methodist 


114 


White 


White 


institution  of  higher  learning  in  America,  the 
recently  established  Cokesbury  College  in  Har- 
ford County,  Md.,  but  was  not  graduated,  since 
the  school  had  no  power  to  confer  degrees.  About 
1790  he  began  to  read  law  in  the  office  of  Rich- 
ard Bassett  [q.v.']  at  Dover,  but  since  his  pre- 
ceptor was  absent  much  of  the  time  attending 
sessions  of  Congress,  he  transferred  to  the  of- 
fice of  Nicholas  Hammond  at  Easton,  Md.  He 
was  admitted  to  the  Delaware  bar  in  March  1793 
and  settled  in  Dover  to  practice.  Although  he 
gained  some  reputation  as  an  advocate,  he  early 
showed  an  aversion  to  routine  and  when  war 
threatened  between  France  and  the  United  States 
in  1799,  he  sought  a  commission  as  captain, 
raised  a  company,  and  as  a  part  of  Colonel  Og- 
den's  regiment,  was  posted  with  his  command  at 
Scotch  Plains,  N.  J.,  until  disbanded  in  1800. 

Upon  his  return  to  civilian  life,  White  resumed 
the  practice  of  law  at  Dover,  and  in  1800  was 
chosen  a  presidential  elector.  Upon  the  resigna- 
tion of  Henry  Latimer  as  United  States  senator, 
Gov.  Richard  Bassett  in  February  1801  appoint- 
ed White  to  the  vacancy ;  he  was  elected  by  the 
legislature  to  serve  until  the  end  of  the  term, 
and  through  reelections  retained  his  seat  in  the 
Senate  until  his  death.  A  Federalist  in  politics, 
he  often  opposed  the  policies  of  Jefferson  and  his 
party.  On  Jan.  II,  1802,  he  spoke  against  the 
Apportionment  Bill  which  allowed  the  state  of 
Delaware  only  one  member  in  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives. On  Feb.  22,  1803,  he  opposed  the 
appropriation  for  a  diplomatic  mission  to  nego- 
tiate for  the  cession  of  New  Orleans  and  the 
Floridas,  and  the  next  day  in  a  long  speech  ad- 
vocated the  seizure  of  New  Orleans  by  force.  In 
November  he  resisted  the  appropriation  for  the 
purchase  of  the  Louisiana  territory,  and  a  month 
later  strenuously  opposed  the  adoption  by  the 
Senate  of  the  Twelfth  Amendment  to  the  Con- 
stitution, relative  to  the  election  of  the  presi- 
dent and  vice-president.  Although  he  did  not 
speak  often  and  "in  desultory  debate  was  not  dis- 
tinguished" (Bayard,  post)  he  prepared  his 
speeches  for  extraordinary  occasions  with  great 
care  and  delivered  them  effectively.  Although 
"inclined  to  indolence,"  he  would  work  hard  to 
make  himself  master  of  a  subject  when  stimu- 
lated by  a  "sufficient  motive  to  industry."  He 
was  better  fitted,  however,  for  the  active  life  of 
a  military  man  in  time  of  war  than  for  the  civil 
pursuits  of  peace.  His  interest  in  military  affairs 
was  rewarded  by  appointment  on  Sept.  21,  1807, 
as  adjutant-general  of  the  state  militia.  He  died 
some  two  years  later  in  Wilmington,  and  was 
buried  in  "Old  Swedes"  churchyard.  He  never 
married. 


[Letter  from  J.  A.  Bayard  to  William  Turner,  June 
27,  181 1,  in  Del.  State  Archives,  Dover;  Governor's 
Register,  State  of  Delaware,  vol.  I  (1926)  ;  H.  C.  Con- 
rad, "Samuel  White  and  His  Father"  (1903),  in  Hist. 
and  Biog.  Papers,  Hist.  Soc.  of  Del.,  vol.  IV  ;  Biog.  Dir. 
Am.  Cong.  (1928)  ;  H.  C.  Conrad,  Hist,  of  the  State 
of  Del.  (1908),  vol.  Ill;  Poulson's  Am.  Daily  Adver- 
tiser (Phila.),  Nov.  8,  1809.]  G.  H.  R. 

WHITE,  SAMUEL  STOCKTON  (June  19, 
1822-Dec.  30,  1879),  manufacturer  of  dental 
supplies,  was  born  at  Hulmeville,  Bucks  County, 
Pa.,  the  eldest  child  of  William  Rose  and  Mary 
(Stockton)  White.  His  father  was  a  descendant 
of  Henry  White  who  settled  in  Virginia  about 
1649;  his  mother,  of  Richard  Stockton  who  emi- 
grated from  England  to  Flushing,  N.  Y.,  about 
1656.  His  father  died  when  he  was  eight  years 
old  (1830),  and  shortly  afterward  his  mother 
removed  with  her  children  to  her  native  town, 
Burlington,  N.  J.  At  the  age  of  fourteen  he  was 
indentured  to  his  maternal  uncle,  vSamuel  W. 
Stockton  of  Philadelphia,  to  learn  "the  art  and 
mystery  of  dentistry  and  the  manufacture  of  in- 
corruptible porcelain  teeth."  While  working  with 
his  uncle,  he  also  studied  dentistry  under  John 
De  Haven  White  [<?.#.],  not  a  relative.  Upon 
reaching  his  majority  ( 1843) ,  ne  began  the  prac- 
tice of  dentistry  with  his  uncle  Stockton,  and 
superintended  the  latter's  manufacturing  busi- 
ness, which  had  then  attained  considerable  com- 
mercial importance. 

In  1844  he  left  his  uncle,  continued  in  the 
practice  of  dentistry  for  about  a  year,  and  at  the 
same  time  began  the  manufacturing  of  artificial 
teeth,  with  a  younger  brother,  James  William 
White,  also  a  dentist,  as  an  assistant.  In  1846  he 
relinquished  practice  and  devoted  himself  to  the 
manufacture  of  porcelain  teeth,  for  some  years 
in  partnership  with  Asahel  Jones  and  John  R. 
McCurdy,  the  firm  being  successively  Jones, 
White  and  Company  (1847-52),  Jones,  White 
and  McCurdy  (1853-59),  Jones  and  White 
(1859-61).  James  W.  White  was  also  connected 
intermittently  with  the  firm.  Its  business  was 
shortly  expanded  to  include  a  general  line  of  in- 
struments and  supplies  for  dentists,  and  flour- 
ished from  the  start.  Branch  houses,  called 
"dental  depots,"  for  the  sale  of  its  products  were 
established  in  New  York  (1846),  Boston  (1850). 
and  Chicago  (1858).  After  the  withdrawal  of 
McCurdy  and  Jones,  White  continued  the  busi- 
ness in  his  own  name  until  his  death.  After  his 
death,  the  business  was  conducted  under  the  name 
of  Samuel  S.  White  until  1881,  when  it  was  in- 
corporated as  the  S.  S.  White  Dental  Manufac- 
turing Company,  of  which  James  W.  White  was 
president  until  his  death  in  1891.  For  three-quar- 
ters of  a  century  the  company  was  the  largest  in 
the  world  in  the  production  of  porcelain  teeth, 


"5 


White 


White 


instruments,  appliances,  and  supplies  for  dentists. 
The  Dental  News  Letter,  established  by  Jones, 
White  and  Company  in  1847,  was  succeeded  in 
1859  by  the  Dental  Cosmos ;  the  latter,  James  W. 
White  personally  supervised  from  its  beginning, 
and  served  as  editor  from  1872  until  his  death. 

Samuel  White  is  credited  with  various  impor- 
tant improvements  in  porcelain  teeth,  which  be- 
fore his  time  were  deficient  in  strength  and  ap- 
pearance and  in  other  respects.  He  introduced 
several  new  or  improved  dental  chairs  and  en- 
gines, and  numerous  appliances,  instruments, 
and  materials  for  the  dental  office  and  laboratory. 
He  encouraged  dental  inventors  and  was  always 
interested  in  the  advancement  of  the  profession. 
He  was  a  member  of  the  Pennsylvania  Asso- 
ciation of  Dental  Surgeons,  and  served  on  the 
executive  committee  of  the  American  Dental 
Convention  in  1868.  In  1872  he  accepted  the 
leadership  in  the  legal  struggle  of  the  profession 
against  the  excessive  license  fees  demanded  by 
the  Goodyear  Dental  Vulcanite  Company  for  the 
use  of  vulcanized  rubber  in  artificial  dentures, 
on  which  they  held  patents.  This  involved  him 
in  numerous  costly  personal  lawsuits,  through 
which,  after  seven  years  of  litigation,  the  Good- 
year Company's  patents  were  broken.  In  No- 
vember 1879  ne  was  stricken  with  congestion  of 
the  brain,  probably  as  a  result  of  mental  strain. 
His  physicians  ordered  rest  in  Europe,  where  he 
shortly  contracted  Russian  influenza.  He  died 
in  Paris  in  his  fifty-eighth  year,  leaving  an  es- 
tate valued  at  about  $1,500,000.  He  was  mar- 
ried on  Mar.  31,  1846,  to  Sarah  Jane  Carey,  by 
whom  he  had  seven  children. 

[W.  F.  Cregar,  Ancestry  of  Samuel  Stockton  White 
(1888)  ;  T.  C.  Stockton,  Stockton  Family  of  N.  J.  and 
Other  Stocktons  (1911);  Eighty-two  Years  of  Loyal 
Service  to  Dentistry  (1926),  pub.  by  the  S.  S.  White 
Dental  Manufacturing  Co.  ;  B.  L.  Thorpe,  in  Hist,  of 
Dental  Surgery,  vol.  Ill  (1910),  ed.  by  C.  R.  E.  Koch  ; 
Dental  Cosmos,  Feb.  1880,  pp.  57—63  ;  obituaries  in 
Press  (Phila.)  and  Phila.  Times,  Dec.  31,  1879,  the  lat- 
ter reprinted  Am.  Jour.  Dental  Sci.,  Jan.  1880,  p.  429.] 

L.  P.B. 

WHITE,  STANFORD  (Nov.  9,  1853-June 
25,  1906),  architect,  was  a  descendant  of  John 
White  who  came  to  Cambridge,  Mass.,  in  1632, 
was  one  of  the  early  settlers  of  Hartford,  Conn., 
and  later  moved  to  Hadley,  Mass.  Stanford  and 
his  elder  brother,  Richard  Mansfield  White,  Jr., 
were  born  into  a  New  York  family  in  which 
music  and  literature  were  dominant  and  money 
a  necessary  evil.  The  father,  Richard  Grant 
White  [g .?'.],  elegant  gentleman,  recognized 
Shakespeare  scholar,  keen  and  often  vituperative 
critic,  composer  of  music  and  accomplished 
'cellist,  made  his  home  the  gathering  place  for 
authors   and  musicians.    The   mother,   Alexina 

I 


Black  (Mease),  born  in  Charleston,  S.  C,  was 
a  sympathetic,  pervasive  influence  in  the  house- 
hold. Between  her  and  Stanford  the  companion- 
ship was  so  close  that  for  twenty  years  after  her 
husband's  death  (1885)  her  son's  home  was  also 
hers. 

The  White  family  spent  summers  at  Fort 
Hamilton  on  the  Hudson.  There  Stanford  de- 
veloped such  aptitude  for  drawing  and  water  col- 
ors that  he  seemed  destined  to  become  an  artist ; 
but  John  La  Farge  [q.v.]  dissuaded  him,  saying 
the  rewards  of  an  artist  were  meager  and  uncer- 
tain. So  it  came  about  that  when  nineteen  years 
old,  White  without  systematic  training  entered 
the  architectural  office  of  Gambrill  &  Richardson 
[see  H.  H.  Richardson].  Richardson's  slogan, 
that  architecture  is  one  of  the  fine  arts  and  must 
be  treated  as  such,  especially  appealed  to  White. 
Like  Richardson,  White  grew  into  bigness  of 
stature ;  the  two  were  exuberant,  jovial,  kindly, 
discriminately  fond  of  the  table,  and  eminently 
companionable.  For  twelve  years  White  served 
the  then  master  of  American  architecture,  domes- 
tic, commercial,  and  public ;  he  designed  details 
and  in  part  supervised  the  erection  of  Trinity 
Church,  Boston,  the  Albany  Capitol,  and  the 
Cheney  Building,  Hartford,  among  others.  He 
became  an  adept  in  Richardson  Romanesque. 

In  1878,  White  dropped  work  to  make  his  first 
trip  to  Europe,  where  he  was  joined  by  C.  F. 
McKim  [q.v.~\.  During  the  year  previous  White 
had  journeyed  to  New  England,  with  McKim 
and  his  partners,  W.  R.  Mead  \_q.v.~\  and  W.  B. 
Bigelow,  to  study  and  measure  colonial  and  Bul- 
finch  houses  along  the  Massachusetts  coast. 
Mead  regarded  this  expedition  as  the  turning 
point  of  the  firm  to  a  style  of  architecture  based 
on  classical  precedents  (  Moore,  post,  p.  41 ) .  Au- 
gustus Saint-Gaudens  was  then  at  work  in  Paris 
on  his  statue  of  Farragut,  for  which  White  was 
to  design  the  pedestal.  The  "three  red-heads" 
made  a  leisurely  trip  to  the  South  of  France.  To- 
gether they  saw  and  discussed  works  of  beauty 
and  taste  as  exemplified  at  Avignon,  Aries,  St. 
Gilles,  and  Nimes.  McKim  returned  to  America 
and  White  made  his  headquarters  with  the  Saint- 
Gaudens  family  in  Paris  during  thirteen  months 
spent  in  France,  Belgium,  Holland,  and  North- 
ern Italy.  White's  facile  pencil  recorded  not  pat- 
terns, but  rather  the  creative  spirit  of  the  artist 
as  impressed  upon  his  own  curious  and  youth- 
fully confident  mind.  Association  with  Saint- 
Gaudens  tended  to  stabilize  White's  judgments 
and  in  some  degree  to  moderate  his  natural 
exuberance. 

In  1879,  his  money  spent,  White  returned,  and, 
June  21,  1880,  took  Bigelow's  place.   So  the  firm 

16 


White 

of  McKim,  Mead  &  White  began.  When,  in 
1881,  the  Farragut  statue  was  unveiled  in  Madi- 
son Square  it  struck  a  new  note  in  American 
sculpture,  and  such  was  the  harmony  between 
statute  and  pedestal  that  White  shared  Saint- 
Gaudens'  triumph.  On  Feb.  7,  1884,  White  mar- 
ried Bessie  Springs  Smith,  youngest  of  thirteen 
children  of  Judge  J.  Lawrence  Smith,  of  Smith- 
town,  Long  Island.  At  St.  James,  on  a  portion 
of  the  ancestral  estate  of  the  "Bull  Smiths,"  the 
Whites  developed  a  summer  home  which  re- 
mains as  characteristic  of  White's  catholic  taste. 
The  made-over  farmhouse  was  furnished  with 
gilded  Spanish  columns,  Renaissance  fireplaces, 
Persian  rugs,  Roman  fragments,  Delft  tiles — all 
united  according  to  White's  theory  that  all  things 
intrinsically  good  can  be  brought  into  harmony. 
Gardens  of  box,  alleys  of  rhododendrons,  broad 
open  spaces  of  green  were  surrounded  by  native 
forests.  On  adjoining  acres  both  White  and  Mc- 
Kim built  for  members  of  the  Smith  family 
homes  of  elegance  and  comfort.  In  one  of  those 
homes  McKim  died;  in  the  St.  James  church- 
yard White  is  buried.  He  and  his  wife  made 
their  New  York  home  in  Gramercy  Park  the 
sumptuous  setting  for  a  hospitality  representa- 
tive of  the  luxurious  metropolis  of  its  day. 

The  transition  of  McKim,  Mead  &  White 
from  Richardson's  exotic  Romanesque  to  a  style 
based  on  classical  precedents  as  practised  in 
America  from  its  settlement  down  to  Civil  War 
days  was  by  no  means  abrupt.  Circumstances 
helped  them :  the  rapid  increase  in  wealth  and 
the  consequent  desire  of  the  traveled  wealthy  for 
a  share  in  old-world  art  and  culture  paved  the 
way.  All  three  men  had  training  in  France  and 
Italy.  Moreover,  they  were  imbued  with  an  in- 
nate appreciation  of  beauty,  and  so  were  able  to 
give  to  their  buildings  that  quality  of  charm 
which  makes  architecture  alive. 

Rapid  increase  in  the  work  of  the  office  at- 
tracted ambitious  young  men,  who,  under  gen- 
eral direction  and  supervision,  found  opportunity 
for  the  development  of  their  own  talents.  Among 
the  youngsters  the  inspirational  White  was  apt- 
ly called  Benvenuto  Cellini,  while  the  studious 
McKim  was  known  as  Bramante.  Saint-Gau- 
dens'  caricature  of  Mead  struggling  with  two 
kites  representing  his  soaring  partners  became 
proverbial.  Before  the  days  of  architectural 
schools  in  universities,  this  office  trained,  dur- 
ing the  lifetime  of  the  partners,  literally  hundreds 
of  youths  who  carried  the  spirit  of  their  teachers 
into  all  parts  of  the  land.  Among  the  draftsmen 
was  Joseph  Morrill  Wells,  who  had  been  in  the 
office  a  year  or  more  before  White  came  into  the 
firm,  and  was  some  months  older.    Massachu- 


White 

setts  born,  trained  in  the  Boston  office  of  Pea- 
body  &  Stearns,  Wells  had  a  flair  for  Renais- 
sance architecture,  although  he  never  saw  Italy 
until  shortly  before  his  early  death,  Feb.  2,  1890. 
He  designed  entirely  but  one  building  (the  Rus- 
sell &  Irwin  building  in  New  Britain,  Conn.). 
"His  work  was  entirely  confined  to  the  details  of 
buildings.  In  that  he  was  simply  supreme.  No- 
body before  or  since  has  equalled  him  in  the  ap- 
propriateness and  scale  of  his  ornamentation  and 
this,  of  course,  gave  great  character  to  buildings 
he  decorated.  The  ensemble  of  these  buildings, 
however,  and  by  implication,  the  kind  of  detail, 
was  decided  invariably  by  a  member  of  the  firm. 
...  In  addition  to  Wells'  genius  in  detail,  the 
important,  and  perhaps  the  most  important,  in- 
fluence he  had  upon  the  firm  was  his  stand  for 
the  Classic  and  particularly  the  Italian  style  of 
architecture.  Too  much  cannot  be  said  with  re- 
gard to  this  latter  point"  (W.  M.  Kendall,  letter 
to  Royal  Cortissoz,  June  2.2,  1928,  Architectural 
Record,  July  1929,  p.  18).  Wells  arranged  pro- 
grams for  Saint-Gaudens'  musical  Sundays ;  he 
was  an  intimate  associate  with  the  three  part- 
ners, who  were  drawn  to  him  not  more  by  his 
high  abilities  than  by  caustic  wit,  intense  hatred 
of  shams,  and  (his  shyness  overcome)  his  bril- 
liant conversation.  In  the  Villard  houses  Wells 
transformed  White's  ensemble  into  the  style  of 
the  Cancelleria ;  and  he  made  of  the  Century 
Club  exterior  a  thing  of  rare  charm  and  beauty. 
White  planned  luxurious  city  and  country 
homes  in  New  York,  Newport,  and  the  Berk- 
shires,  designed  furniture,  and  ransacked  Eu- 
rope for  rugs,  pictures,  sculptures,  and  hangings. 
He  fashioned  a  railroad  parlor-car  and  furnished 
James  Gordon  Bennett's  yacht.  He  designed 
pedestals  for  Saint-Gaudens  and  MacMonies, 
picture  frames  for  Dewing,  magazine  covers  for 
The  Century  and  Scribncr's,  gravestones,  book 
and  program  covers,  and  exquisite  jewelry. 
Whatever  his  prolific  hand  touched  it  adorned. 
He  planned  a  number  of  churches,  among  them 
that  Byzantine  jewel,  the  Madison  Square  Pres- 
byterian Church,  the  demolition  of  which  in  1919 
to  make  room  for  business  was  a  cause  of  regret 
to  those  fond  of  early  Christian  architecture,  as 
adapted  to  the  distinctly  Protestant  church  serv- 
ice of  today.  The  Judson  Memorial  in  Wash- 
ington Square  remains.  Among  his  clubs  are 
the  Century,  the  Players,  and  especially  the  Met- 
ropolitan, his  supreme  achievement  in  Renais- 
sance architecture.  His  son  has  discriminately 
written  of  the  calm,  deliberate,  sober  perfection 
of  McKim's  work  in  contrast  with  the  restless, 
sky-rocket  vitality  of  White's  creations,  "grace- 
ful and  charming  rather  than  imposing,  and  of- 


117 


White 


White 


ten  profusely  ornamented"  in  the  strife  for  new 
effects  (L.  G.  White,  post,  p.  15).  The  Wash- 
ington Arch,  commemorating  the  inauguration 
of  George  Washington  as  the  first  President  of 
the  United  States,  brought  to  White  troubles, 
expense,  and  fame.  First  built  of  wood  in  1889, 
six  years  later  it  was  carried  out  in  marble.  The 
Battle  Monument  at  West  Point  (1896)  and  the 
Prison  Ship  Martyrs  Monument  in  Brooklyn  (a 
modification  of  his  superb  but  never  executed  de- 
sign for  Belle  Isle  Park,  Detroit)  are  among  his 
enduring  works.  He  had  the  chief  part  in  the 
restoration  of  the  University  of  Virginia,  orig- 
inally laid  out  about  18 10  by  Thomas  Jefferson. 
In  1895  the  Rotunda  burned,  and  the  work  of 
rebuilding  it  and  designing  several  harmonious 
buildings  was  intrusted  to  White,  who  achieved 
notable  success  in  carrying  out  the  restoration 
reverently  in  the  spirit  of  the  original.  In  gen- 
eral estimation  no  more  charming  and  dignified 
group  of  college  buildings  exists  in  America. 

Familiar  association  with  the  pleasure  side  of 
metropolitan  life  gradually  withdrew  White  from 
those  congenial  companionships  that  marked  the 
first  forty  years  of  his  life.  In  1889,  he  designed 
for  a  group  of  wealthy  New  York  men  (among 
whom  he  was  a  leading  spirit)  the  Madison 
Square  Garden  as  the  center  of  the  city's  pleas- 
ures. The  feature  of  the  building  was  a  tower 
(an  improvement  on  the  Giralda  in  Seville, 
Spain)  300  feet  in  height,  surmounted  by  Saint- 
Gaudens'  statue  of  Diana.  White,  who  was  a 
stockholder  in  the  Garden  corporation  and  also  a 
leader  in  the  functions  it  housed,  built  for  him- 
self in  the  tower  an  apartment  wherein  he  en- 
tertained his  fellow  artists  and  visiting  celebri- 
ties of  the  opera  and  stage.  His  dinners  were  the 
talk  of  the  town.  On  the  evening  of  June  25, 
1906,  White,  after  dining  with  his  son  Law- 
rence and  another  Harvard  boy,  went  late  to  the 
summer  opening  of  the  Madison  Square  Garden 
Roof.  He  was  sitting  alone  watching  the  stage 
performance  when  Harry  Thaw,  coming  from 
behind,  fired  three  shots,  killing  him  instantly. 
The  case  was  tried  primarily  in  the  sensational 
newspapers  of  the  country.  The  prosecution  was 
persistently  conducted  by  District  Attorney  Wil- 
liam Travers  Jerome ;  the  defense,  supplied  with 
unlimited  money,  besmirched  White's  character. 
The  first  trial,  long  drawn  out,  ended  in  a  dis- 
agreement of  the  jury;  the  second,  in  the  com- 
mitment of  Thaw  to  the  hospital  for  criminal  in- 
sane, whence  he  escaped.  As  the  result  of  a 
sanity  trial,  Thaw  was  set  free.  The  New  York 
Times,  Sun,  and  Tribune  were  in  agreement  that 
whatever  were  the  relations  of  White  and  Evelyn 
Nesbit,  the  chorus  girl,  he  sustained  none  with 

I 


her  as  the  mistress  and  afterwards  the  wife  of 
Thaw. 

The  personality  of  an  artist  has  historical  sig- 
nificance in  so  far  as  it  affects  his  work.  It  is 
significant  that  the  last  two  years  of  White's  in- 
tense life  produced  two  notable  successes,  the 
Gorham  and  the  Tiffany  buildings  on  Fifth  Ave- 
nue. The  latter  represents  his  mastery  in  using 
the  forms  of  a  Venetian  palace  in  such  manner 
as  to  keep  the  spirit  of  the  original  architect, 
while  adapting  the  structure  to  business  uses. 
John  Jay  Chapman  summed  up  White's  career : 
"He  was  a  great  man  in  his  love  for  every  one ; 
friendship  was  to  him  a  form  of  religion.  .  .  . 
His  relation  to  the  merchant  class  and  to  the 
swell  mob  was  of  a  personal,  galvanic  kind.  He 
excited  them,  he  buffaloed  them,  he  met  them  on 
all  sides  at  once,  in  sport,  in  pleasure,  antiqui- 
ties, furniture,  decoration,  bibelots,  office  build- 
ings, country  houses,  and  exhibitions.  .  .  .  White 
was  the  protagonist  of  popular  art  in  New  York 
City.  His  was  the  prevailing  influence  not  only 
in  architecture  but  in  everything  connected  with 
decoration"  (quoted  by  L.  G.  White,  pp.  16  f.). 
No  American  architect  has  more  fully  expressed 
the  spirit  of  his  times.  More  than  this:  "Stan- 
ford White  grasped  the  spirit  of  the  masters  of 
the  Renaissance  and  brought  the  living  flame  of 
their  inspiration  across  the  Atlantic  to  kindle 
new  fires  on  these  shores"  (Ibid.,  p.  33). 

[The  Reminiscences  of  Augustus  Saint-Gaudens 
(1913),  edited  and  amplified  by  Homer  Saint-Gaudens, 
gives  the  best  idea  of  White's  artistic  life,  as  shown  in 
letters.  L.  G.  White,  Sketches  and  Designs  by  Stan- 
ford White  (1920),  with  a  sketch  of  his  life,  gives 
many  designs  in  fields  other  than  architecture,  also  a 
list  of  works  in  which  White  had  a  leading  part.  The 
three  volumes  of  plates,  A  Monograph  of  the  Work  of 
McKim,  Mead  and  White  (1915),  is  an  architectural 
standard  in  America  and  England.  C.  C.  Baldwin, 
Stanford  White  (1931),  relates  White  to  his  times; 
Charles  Moore,  The  Life  and  Times  of  Charles  Follen 
McKim  (1929),  contains  lists  of  the  work  of  the  of- 
fice and  of  the  men  employed  therein,  and  includes 
many  White  letters.  Janet  Scudder,  Modeling  My  Life 
(1925)  relates  White's  helpfulness  to  young  artists. 
See  also  Herbert  Croly  in  the  Architectural  Record, 
May  1902;  Collier's,  Aug.  4,  1906;  N.  Y.  Times,  June 
26.  1906 ;  A.  S.  Kellogg,  Memorials  of  Elder  John 
White  .  .  .  and  of  His  Descendants  (i860).]      Q  M. 

WHITE,  STEPHEN  MALLORY  (Jan.  19, 
1853-Feb.  21,  1901),  senator  from  California, 
lawyer,  was  born  in  San  Francisco,  the  son  of 
Fannie  J.  (Russell)  and  William  F.  White,  both 
natives  of  Ireland  who  had  come  to  America  in 
early  childhood.  The  latter's  father,  a  success- 
ful farmer  on  the  banks  of  the  Shannon,  became 
so  indignant  at  the  injustice  inflicted  upon  two 
of  his  farm  laborers  by  the  British  authorities 
that  early  in  the  nineteenth  century  he  emigrat- 
ed with  his  family  to  northern  Pennsylvania. 
White's  parents  arrived  in  California  in  Janu- 

l8 


White 


White 


ary  1849.  His  father  had  some  ability  as  a  writer, 
contributing  to  newspapers  and  under  the  name 
of  William  Grey  publishing  a  book,  A  Picture 
of  Pioneer  Times  in  California  (1881).  For 
twenty  years  a  member  of  the  Democratic  state 
central  committee,  he  left  his  party  to  become  a 
leader  of  the  country  wing  of  the  Workingmen's 
party  and  was  their  candidate  for  governor  in 
1879.  White's  mother  was  related  to  Stephen 
Russell  Mallory  [q.v.~\.  During  White's  boy- 
hood the  family  lived  on  a  farm  in  the  Pajaro 
valley,  Santa  Cruz  County,  Cal.  At  first  he  was 
taught  at  home  by  his  father's  sister,  and  then 
attended  a  private  school  in  the  vicinity  and  St. 
Ignatius  College  in  San  Francisco.  Later  he 
entered  Santa  Clara  College,  and  upon  his  grad- 
uation in  1871  began  to  read  law.  In  1874  he 
was  admitted  to  the  bar  and  began  practice  in 
Los  Angeles,  where  his  success  was  noteworthy. 
In  1889,  with  John  Franklin  Swift  [q.z>.~\,  he  as- 
sisted the  United  States  attorney-general  in  win- 
ning a  case  in  the  United  States  Supreme  Court 
sustaining  the  constitutionality  of  the  Chinese 
Exclusion  Act  (130  U.  S.,  581).  On  June  5, 
1883,  he  was  married  to  Hortense  Sacriste,  by 
whom  he  had  two  sons  and  two  daughters. 

White  first  joined  the  Independent  party,  an 
anti-monopoly  and  reform  group  of  the  seven- 
ties. Upon  its  disappearance  in  1877,  he  became 
a  Democrat.  He  was  elected  district  attorney  of 
Los  Angeles  County  (1883-84),  served  one 
term  (1887-91)  in  the  state  Senate,  and  in  1893 
attained  his  real  objective — a  seat  in  the  United 
States  Senate  (March  1893-March  1899).  In 
no  case  did  he  seek  reelection.  In  the  Senate  he 
early  declared  himself  in  favor  of  the  free  coin- 
age of  silver,  and  thus  eventually  he  became  as- 
sociated with  the  group  who  controlled  the 
Democratic  convention  of  1896.  A  consistent 
opponent  of  imperialism,  he  objected  strenuous- 
ly to  the  annexation  of  Hawaii,  and  to  any  hasty 
or  unnecessary  intervention  in  Cuba.  On  Apr. 
16,  1898,  he  made  a  lengthy  and  forceful  speech 
opposing  a  declaration  of  war  against  Spain. 

Throughout  his  political  life,  although  he  was 
at  times  influenced  by  political  exigencies,  he 
continued  the  warfare  begun  by  the  Independent 
party  against  "incorporated  greed"  and  "organ- 
ized corruption."  He  made  no  attack  upon 
wealth  as  such  but  vigorously  resisted  attempts 
to  make  government  the  agent  of  corporations. 
He  was  thus  the  champion  of  the  "country"  vot- 
ers who  attributed  most  of  their  economic  diffi- 
culties to  the  railroad  monopoly,  and  in  this  role 
he  joined  combat  with  many  powerful  adversa- 
ries. Within  his  own  party  he  was  opposed  by 
Stephen  Johnson  Field   [q.v.~\,  whose  decisions 


in  railroad  tax  cases  had  been  most  unpopular, 
and  Senator  George  Hearst  [q.v.~\,  reputedly  in 
alliance  with  Christopher  A.  Buckley,  Demo- 
cratic boss  and  political  agent  for  the  Southern 
Pacific  Railroad.  In  1890  Leland  Stanford  [q.f.'] 
was  the  Republican  candidate  for  the  seat  White 
was  seeking  in  the  United  States  Senate;  and 
during  the  years  1893-96,  in  the  hardest  fought 
battle  of  his  career — a  battle  waged  with  such 
incessant  energy  that  it  shortened  his  life — 
White  defeated  the  plans  of  Collis  P.  Hunting- 
ton [q.z:]  to  divert  federal  funds  from  San 
Pedro  to  a  harbor  site  desired  by  the  Southern 
Pacific.  Though  he  set  himself  against  corrupt 
practices  in  party  and  in  government,  he  insisted 
that  reform  to  be  permanent  must  come  from 
the  party  organization,  not  from  well  intentioned 
people  with  little  or  no  political  experience. 
When  he  had  secured  a  commanding  position  in 
the  party,  he  helped  to  eliminate  "Boss"  Buckley 
on  the  ground  that  he  was  "useless  timber"  and 
a  party  liability.  Both  by  example  and  by  pre- 
cept he  did  much  to  establish  a  tradition  for  hon- 
esty in  California  politics  that  prepared  the  way 
for  the  reformers  of  1910.  He  died  in  Los  An- 
geles, survived  by  his  wife  and  four  children. 
White  was  a  man  of  marked  personal  charm, 
with  unusual  oratorical  powers,  a  vigorous  in- 
tellect, and  a  genuine  kindliness  and  generosity 
of  nature  that  won  him  great  popularity. 

[See  Who's  Who  in  America,  1899-1900;  Edith 
Dobie,  The  Political  Career  of  Stephen  Mallory  White 
(1927)  ;  R.  W.  Gates,  Stephen  M.  White  .  .  .  His  Life 
and  Work  (2  vols.,  1903)  ;  Willoughby  Rodman,  Hist. 
of  the  Bench  and  Bar  of  Southern  Cal.  (1909),  pp. 
257-58;  O.  T.  Shuck,  Hist,  of  the  Bench  and  Bar  of 
Cal.  (1901);  obituary  in  Times  (Los  Angeles),  Feb. 
22,  1901.  In  the  lib.  of  Leland  Stanford  L'niv.  is  an 
extensive  coll.  of  the  Stephen  M.  White  papers,  chiefly 
letters,  with  five  vols,  of  newspaper  clippings.] 

E.  D— e. 

WHITE,  STEPHEN  VAN  CULEN  (Aug. 
1,  1831-Jan.  18,  1913),  banker,  congressman, 
was  born  in  Chatham  County,  N.  C,  the  son  of 
Hiram  and  Julia  (Brewer)  White.  His  mother 
belonged  to  a  Carolina  family  and  his  father  was 
descended  from  a  Pennsylvania  Quaker  who  mi- 
grated to  North  Carolina  after  the  close  of  the 
Revolutionary  War.  Hiram  White,  who  hated 
slavery  intensely,  refused  to  do  police  duty  dur- 
ing the  wave  of  dread  that  swept  over  the  South 
as  a  result  of  Nat  Turner's  insurrection  in  183 1, 
and  when  Stephen  was  only  six  weeks  old  the 
family  was  obliged  to  leave  the  state.  They  set- 
tled in  a  log  cabin  near  Otterville,  Jersey  Coun- 
ty, 111.,  not  far  from  the  junction  of  the  Illinois 
and  Mississippi  rivers.  White  attended  the  free 
school  founded  by  Dr.  Silas  Hamilton  in  Otter- 
ville, helped  about  his  father's  farm  and  grist 


I  I 


White 


White 


mill,  and  trapped  furbearing  animals.  With  the 
help  of  an  elder  brother  he  prepared  for  Knox 
College  at  Galesburg,  111.,  where  he  received  the 
degree  of  A.B.  in  1854.  On  leaving  college  he 
kept  books  for  a  mercantile  house  in  St.  Louis 
for  eight  months  and  then,  entered  the  law  office 
of  B.  Gratz  Brown  and  John  A.  Kasson  [qq.v.]. 
An  ardent  opponent  of  slavery,  White  wrote  arti- 
cles for  the  Republican  party  during  Fremont's 
presidential  campaign.  He  was  admitted  to  the 
bar  on  Nov.  4,  1856,  and  in  the  same  year  moved 
to  Des  Moines,  Iowa.  Here  he  practised  until 
the  end  of  1864,  during  which  year  he  was  acting 
United  States  district  attorney  for  Iowa. 

In  the  beginning  of  1865  he  moved  to  New 
York  state,  making  his  home  in  Brooklyn.  Al- 
though he  was  admitted  to  the  local  bar  he  did 
not  practise,  but  instead  joined  the  open  board 
of  brokers  and  became  a  member  of  the  banking 
and  brokerage  firm  of  Marvin  &  White,  with 
offices  in  Wall  Street.  After  the  failure  of  this 
house  in  1867,  White  went  into  business  by  him- 
self. In  1869  he  became  a  member  of  the  New 
York  Stock  Exchange.  He  soon  became  known 
as  a  daring,  though  not  always  successful,  stock 
manipulator,  especially  in  the  shares  of  the  Dela- 
ware, Lackawanna  &  Western  Railroad.  In 
1872  he  was  obliged  to  suspend  for  the  second 
time  in  consequence  of  losses  sustained  through 
the  great  fire  in  Boston.  In  1882  he  formed  the 
partnership  of  S.  V.  White  &  Company.  He  was 
elected  as  a  Republican  to  the  Fiftieth  Congress 
in  1886  and  served  one  term  (  1887-89),  declin- 
ing a  renomination.  In  1891  he  tried  to  corner 
the  corn  market,  but  miscalculated  the  available 
supply  and  failed  for  almost  a  million  dollars  in- 
stead of  making  the  huge  profit  he  had  counted 
upon.  His  creditors,  however,  having  faith  in 
his  honesty  and  ability,  cancelled  their  claims 
against  him  and  returned  to  him  his  $200,000  re- 
maining assets.  He  was  readmitted  to  the  stock 
exchange  on  Feb.  15,  1892,  and  by  the  end  of 
that  year  had  paid  off  the  last  of  his  obligations, 
with  interest. 

A  warm  friend  of  Henry  Ward  Beecher  [q.v.~\, 
whose  legal  expenses  in  the  famous  Beecher- 
Tilton  trial  he  is  said  to  have  defrayed,  White 
was  a  trustee  of  Plymouth  Church  from  1866 
till  1902  and  its  treasurer  from  1869  till  1902. 
In  that  year  he  retired  frcm  much  of  his  business 
activity  to  give  time  to  his  avocations.  Frequent- 
ly called  "Deacon,"  although  he  never  held  the 
office,  he  was  in  his  day  a  well-known  and  pic- 
turesque figure  in  Wall  Street.  He  was  a  short, 
stocky  man  with  a  full  beard,  quick  and  alert  in 
his  movements,  cordial  in  manner,  and  always 
attired  in  a  frock  coat  with  a  soft,  turned-down 


collar  and  a  black  string  tie.  An  astronomer 
with  one  of  the  finest  telescopes  in  America 
owned  by  a  private  individual,  he  was  one  of  the 
organizers  of  the  American  Astronomical  So- 
ciety, founded  in  1884,  which  subsequently  be- 
came the  department  of  astronomy  of  the  Brook- 
lyn Institute  of  Arts  and  Sciences.  In  February 
1857,  at  Stanton,  111.,  he  married  Eliza  M. 
Chandler,  by  whom  he  had  a  daughter. 

[Biog.  Dir.  Am.  Cong.  (1928)  ;  Fiftieth  Cong.:  Offi- 
cial Cong.  Dir.  (1888)  ;  Who's  Who  in  America,  1912- 
13  ;  Brooklyn  Daily  Eagle,  Jan.  18,  1913  ;  N.  Y.  Times, 
Jan.  19,  1913.]  H.G.V. 

WHITE,  THOMAS  WILLIS  (Mar.  28, 
1788-Jan.  19,  1843),  printer  and  founder  of  the 
Southern  Literary  Messenger,  was  born  in  Wil- 
liamsburg, Va.,  of  English  ancestry.  His  father, 
Thomas  White,  was  born  at  York  (later  York- 
town),  Va.  A  tailor  by  trade,  he  married  Sarah 
Davis,  the  sister  of  James  Davis  to  whom  he  was 
apprenticed.  The  parents  removed  to  Norfolk 
for  a  short  time  about  1790,  and  in  1791  to  Rich- 
mond, where  the  father  had  a  prosperous  tailor- 
ing trade  until  his  death  from  yellow  fever  in 
1796.  The  widow,  left  with  four  children,  soon 
married  again.  At  eleven,  Thomas  was  appren- 
ticed to  William  A.  Rind  and  John  Stuart,  print- 
ers of  the  Virginia  Federalist,  and  in  1800  re- 
moved with  them  to  Washington.  Returning  to 
Richmond  in  1807,  for  a  short  time  he  managed 
the  mechanical  department  of  the  paper  owned 
by  his  uncle,  Augustine  Davis,  and  later  that  of 
Samuel  Pleasants.  Before  he  had  arrived  at  his 
twentieth  birthday  he  secured  a  position  as  com- 
positor in  the  office  of  the  Norfolk  Gazette  and 
Publick  Ledger.  He  was  married  on  Dec.  12, 
1809,  to  a  girl  of  fifteen  in  Gates  County,  N.  C. 
Leaving  Norfolk  in  November  1810,  he  worked 
at  his  trade  in  Philadelphia  for  two  and  a  half 
years  and  in  Boston  for  four.  In  April  1817  he 
returned  to  Richmond,  to  live  there  the  remain- 
der of  his  life.  He  established  a  successful  print- 
ing business,  and  on  July  21,  1827,  entered  into 
contract  to  reprint  the  Journal  of  both  houses 
of  the  Virginia  Assembly  from  1777  to  1790  and 
of  the  convention  of  1778.  He  stimulated  au- 
thorship by  printing  several  books  by  local  writ- 
ers :  Edge-hill,  or  the  Family  of  the  Fitzroyals 
(2  vols.,  1828)  by  James  Ewell  Heath  [q.v.~\ 
and  the  same  author's  Whigs  and  Democrats 
(1839),  a  comedy  in  three  acts;  The  Potomac 
Muse,  by  a  Lady,  a  Native  of  Virginia  (1825)  ; 
The  Vocal  Standard,  or  Star  Spangled  Banner 
(1824);  and  The  Pocket  Farrier  (1828)  by 
James  Ware.  One  of  his  most  ambitious  publi- 
cations was  an  edition  in  two  volumes  of  Eaton 
Stannard  Barrett's  burlesque  novel,  The  Heroine, 


I  20 


White 


White 


from  which  White's  imprint  was  omitted  in  or- 
der that  the  book  might  be  praised  more  success- 
fully in  the  Messenger  (December  1836). 

The  first  issue  of  the  Southern  Literary  Mes- 
senger came  from  the  press  in  August  1834  un- 
der White's  own  direction.  For  the  earlier  is- 
sues he  trusted  the  editorial  work  to  James  E. 
Heath  and  Conway  Robinson  [<j.z\] — Heath 
wrote  the  reviews  and  the  articles  signed  H., 
and  Robinson  the  articles  signed  C. — and  in  No- 
vember 1834  began  a  correspondence  with  Judge 
Nathaniel  Beverley  Tucker  \_q.v.~\  of  the  College 
of  William  and  Mary,  whose  advice  thereafter 
influenced  him  greatly,  as  did  also  that  of  Lucian 
Minor  [q.v.~\.  Yet  he  felt  that  he  had  the  final 
editorial  decision,  and  wrote  proudly  to  Tucker 
that  he  had  secured  nearly  a  thousand  subscrib- 
ers. In  1835  Edgar  Allan  Poe  began  to  con- 
tribute to  the  Messenger.  He  moved  to  Rich- 
mond in  the  late  summer  and  by  the  end  of  the 
year  had  assumed  the  editorship.  White  was  not 
altogether  satisfied  with  this.  It  fretted  him  con- 
siderably when  Poe  "hampered"  him  in  admit- 
ting articles  to  his  Messenger's  pages,  and  more 
when  he  felt  that  he  was  making  a  host  of  ene- 
mies for  the  magazine.  By  the  beginning  of 
1837,  though  the  number  of  subscribers  had  more 
than  quadrupled,  if  we  may  believe  Poe's  state- 
ment, and  the  Messenger  had  certainly  become 
known  throughout  the  United  States,  White  was 
still  about  eighteen  hundred  dollars  in  debt  for 
the  magazine  and  had  become  "as  sick  of  Poe's 
writings  as  of  himself."  Poe's  work  on  the  Mes- 
senger ceased  with  the  January  issue  of  1837. 
Congratulating  himself  on  regaining  the  friend- 
ships that  he  thought  the  magazine  had  lost 
through  Poe,  White  trusted  once  more  to  un- 
paid editorial  advice,  and  sent  packages  of  man- 
uscripts to  Tucker  and  to  Minor  to  be  marked 
for  acceptance  or  rejection.  His  health,  which 
had  been  bad  as  early  as  1835,  continued  to  de- 
cline until  in  September  1842  he  suffered  a 
stroke  of  paralysis  #  at  the  supper-table  of  the 
Astor  House  in  New  York.  He  died  on  Jan.  19, 
1843,  ar>d  was  buried  from  the  First  Presby- 
terian Church  the  next  day.  Two  great  sorrows 
had  come  to  him  in  the  deaths  of  his  nineteen- 
year-old  son  on  Oct.  7,  1832,  and  of  his  wife, 
Margaret  Ann,  on  Dec.  II,  1837.  He  was  sur- 
vived by  several  daughters,  among  them  Mrs. 
Peter  D.  Bernard  and  Poe's  friend,  Eliza  White. 

"Little  Tom,"  as  Poe  once  called  him  in  a  let- 
ter to  a  friend,  was  a  short  stockily-built  man  of 
"indomitable  energy  and  perseverance  of  char- 
acter." He  was  somewhat  testy  at  times  and 
given  to  periods  of  melancholy,  but  on  the  whole 
was  of  an  open  and  generous  nature.    He  had 


only  the  education  that  he  had  picked  up  in  a 
printer's  shop,  but  he  had  a  shrewd  knowledge 
of  the  world,  wrote  a  good  letter,  and  was  able 
to  hold  the  respect  and  confidence  of  many  of 
the  leading  men  of  Virginia. 

[The  chief  source  consists  of  letters  in  MS.  from 
White  to  N.  B.  Tucker,  esp.  one  dated  Nov.  17,  1834, 
in  the  possession  of  G.  P.  Coleman  of  Williamsburg, 
Va.  See  also  B.  B.  Minor,  The  Southern  Lit.  Messen- 
ger, 1834-1864  (1905)  ;  obituary  notices  in  Southern 
Lit.  Messenger,  Feb.  1843,  ar>d  Richmond  Enquirer, 
Jan.  21,  1843.]  J.S.  \V. 

WHITE,  WILLIAM  (Apr.  4,  1748  N.s.-July 
17,  1836),  first  Protestant  Episcopal  bishop  of 
the  diocese  of  Pennsylvania,  was  born  in  Phila- 
delphia, and  died  in  the  same  city.  He  was  the 
son  of  Col.  Thomas  White,  born  in  London,  by 
his  second  wife,  Esther  (Hewlings),  widow  of 
John  Newman.  William's  sister,  Mary,  became 
the  wife  of  Robert  Morris  [q.z>.],  financier  of  the 
American  Revolution.  Young  White  was  edu- 
cated in  Philadelphia,  graduating  in  1765  at  the 
College  of  Philadelphia,  forerunner  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Pennsylvania.  He  was  ordained  dea- 
con in  London,  Dec.  23,  1770,  and  priest,  Apr. 
25,  1772.  On  his  return  to  America  he  was  made 
assistant  minister  at  Christ  Church,  Philadel- 
phia. In  the  course  of  the  Revolution  the  Loyal- 
ist rector  returned  to  England  and  White  be- 
came rector  of  the  parish,  an  office  which  he  re- 
tained the  rest  of  his  life.  In  February  1773  he 
married  Mary  Harrison,  who  died  in  1797,  by 
whom  he  had  eight  children. 

He  was  the  leader  in  the  organization  into  a 
diocese  of  the  parishes  of  the  Church  of  England 
remaining  in  Philadelphia  after  the  war.  He 
was  also  the  foremost  advocate  of  a  closer  union 
between  the  churches  of  his  communion  in  the 
various  states ;  and  the  plan  of  organization  of 
what  became  known  as  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  in  the  United  States  of  America  which 
was  adopted  in  1785  and  revised  in  1789,  was 
very  largely  of  his  devising.  He  introduced  into 
this  plan  the  fundamentally  important  principle 
that  the  laity  should  have  an  equal  part  with  the 
clergy  in  all  legislation.  This  principle  was  a 
complete  novelty  in  the  Anglican  communion, 
though  White  thought  it  was  to  be  found  in  the 
relation  of  Parliament  to  the  Church  of  England. 
The  original  constitution  of  the  Church  was 
drafted  by  him  and  adopted  largely  as  the  result 
of  his  efforts.  With  William  Smith  f^'-l  he 
was  chiefly  responsible  for  the  American  revi- 
sion of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  which, 
with  some  modern  alterations,  has  remained  in 
use  in  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  ever 
since. 

Because  of  his  sagacity,  his  gifts  of  leadership, 


I  21 


Whit( 


White 


and  his  character,  he  was  the  naturally  desig- 
nated bishop  of  the  new  diocese.  Having  been 
formally  elected,  Sept.  14,  1786,  and  provided 
with  suitable  credentials,  he  was  sent  to  Eng- 
land to  receive  episcopal  consecration.  This  was 
received,  Feb.  4,  1787,  at  the  hands  of  the  arch- 
bishops of  Canterbury  and  York,  and  the  bishops 
of  Bath  and  Wells  and  of  Peterborough,  thus 
obtaining  for  the  daughter  Church  in  America 
English  episcopal  orders.  His  consecration  had 
been  made  possible  by  an  Act  of  Parliament  dis- 
pensing, in  such  cases  as  White's,  with  the  cus- 
tomary oaths  of  allegiance.  On  his  return  to 
America  White  at  once  took  up  again  his  pas- 
toral work  and  at  the  same  time  carried  on  that 
of  a  diocesan.  He  was  not  an  aggressive  Church- 
man, though  he  did  a  surprising  amount  of  con- 
troversial writing.  He  was  tactful  enough  to 
recognize  the  grave  limitations  under  which  a 
bishop  of  the  Church,  once  so  closely  connected 
with  the  English  system,  must  work  in  order  not 
to  endanger  his  whole  position.  Ecclesiastically, 
he  was  conciliatory  and  inclusive  without  being 
"Latitudinarian,"  as  he  has  been  mistakenly 
styled.  These  characteristics  proved  invaluable 
after  White  became  presiding  bishop  of  the 
Church  on  the  death  of  Samuel  Seabury  [fj.f.] 
in  1796,  for  the  era  was  one  of  intense  party 
feeling.  His  policy  of  cooperation  with  men  of 
other  denominations,  in  which  he  differed  mark- 
edly from  some  of  the  bishops  of  his  time,  brought 
him  into  close  touch  with  much  of  the  benevolent 
and  religious  activity  of  Philadelphia.  In  the 
administration  of  his  diocese  he  was  hampered 
by  the  heavy  duties  of  his  pastoral  charge  and 
he  did  little  to  extend  the  work  towards  the  west- 
ern part  of  the  state.  In  this  he  was  markedly 
different  from  his  younger  contemporary  John 
Henry  Hobart  [q.vJ]  of  New  York.  In  Phila- 
delphia and  the  vicinity,  however,  White  laid 
the  foundations  for  a  strong  Church  life  which 
has  remained  characteristic  of  the  diocese. 

His  pastoral  work  was  noted  for  his  active 
promotion  of  the  Sunday  school,  then  a  new  in- 
stitution and  regarded  with  grave  suspicion  and 
even  hostility  by  the  more  conservative  of  the 
denominations.  His  support  of  it  was  perhaps 
his  most  important  contribution  to  general  re- 
ligious life.  Since  his  parish  had  become  united 
with  two  other  congregations,  St.  Peter's  and 
St.  James's,  he  had  under  him  in  Philadelphia  a 
staff  of  younger  clergy  whom  he  trained  for 
service  in  the  Church.  Among  such  were  Wil- 
liam A.  Muhlenberg,  John  Henry  Hobart,  Jack- 
son Kemper  [qq.v.~\.  White's  death  in  1836  was 
universally  regarded  as  a  public  loss  to  the  com- 
munity, and  not  merely  to  his  own  Church.   He 


had  become  the  patriarch  of  the  town.  He  was 
buried  at  Christ  Church,  Philadelphia,  and  his 
remains  were  later  placed  beneath  the  chancel  of 
that  church.  White  could  rarely  be  induced  to 
preside  at  public  meetings.  He  appeared  to  take 
little  interest  in  politics  and  was  loth  to  enter 
into  public  controversy.  He  at  once  recognized 
the  independence  of  the  United  States  on  the 
passage  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
however,  and  altered  the  liturgy  of  his  Church 
accordingly.  He  was  long  chaplain  of  Congress, 
was  intimate  with  the  early  statesmen  of  the 
young  nation — several  of  the  more  prominent 
being  in  his  congregation — and  contributed  to 
their  councils  in  his  quiet  way. 

White  was  a  scholarly  man  without  being  a 
scholar-bishop  of  the  eighteenth-century  type. 
His  Comparative  Vicivs  of  the  Controversy  be- 
tween the  Calvinists  and  the  Arminians  (2  vols., 
1817),  is  a  careful  and  judicious  statement,  em- 
bodying much  original  research  and  patristic 
learning.  It  is  probably  the  best  piece  of  work 
of  the  kind  produced  in  his  Church  in  its  first 
century.  His  Memoirs  of  the  Protestant  Epis- 
copal Church  in  the  United  States  of  America 
(1820)  is  of  primary  importance  to  the  histo- 
rian of  the  Church.  A  new  edition,  prepared  by 
B.  F.  DeCosta,  was  issued  in  1880.  He  also  pub- 
lished Christian  Baptism  (1808);  Lectures  on 
the  Cathcchism  (1813)  ;  and  Commentaries  Suit- 
ed to  the  Occasions  of  Ordinations  (1833),  as 
well  as  many  sermons,  charges,  pastoral  letters, 
pamphlets,  and  addresses.  A  work  against  the 
Friends  he  decided  finally  not  to  publish. 

[Bird  Wilson,  Memoir  of  the  Life  of  the  Right  Rev- 
erend William  White,  D.D.  (1839)  contains  a  list  of 
White's  minor  publications,  drawn  up  by  himself,  and 
a  list  of  unpublished  manuscripts.  See  also  W.  W. 
Bronson,  Account  .  .  .  of  the  Descendants  of  Col. 
Thomas  White  (1879);  J.  H.  Ward,  The  Life  and 
Times  of  Bishop  White  (1892)  ;  W.  W.  Manross,  Wil- 
liam White  (1934)  ;  W.  S.  Perry,  The  Hist,  of  the  Am. 
Episcopal  Church  (1885),  and  Jours,  of  Gen.  Conven- 
tions of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the  U.  S. 
(1874)  ;  Arthur  Lowndes,  Archives  of  the  Gen.  Con- 
vention: "The  Correspondence  of  John  Henry  Hobart" 
(6  vols.,  1911-12);  Poulson's'  Am.  Daily  Advertiser 
(Phila.),  July  18,  1836.  White's  library  and  many  of 
his  unpublished  writings  are  at  Christ  Church,  Phila., 
and  at  the  Divinity  School  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church,  Phila.]  J.  C.  Ay r. 

WHITE,  WILLIAM  NATHANIEL  (Nov. 
28,  1819-July  14,  1867),  horticulturist,  editor, 
was  born  in  Longridge,  Conn.,  a  descendant  of 
Thomas  White,  an  early  settler  of  Weymouth, 
Mass.  His  parents,  Anson  and  Anna  (Fitch) 
White,  soon  after  his  birth  moved  to  Walton, 
N.  Y.,  where  he  grew  up  on  a  farm.  He  early 
became  interested  in  pomology  and  horticulture, 
and  was  much  concerned  with  the  family  or- 
chards and  garden.    After  attending  the  local 


122 


White 

school,  the  Gilbertsville  Academy  and  Collegiate 
Institute,  and  the  Delaware  Literary  Institute, 
he  entered  Hamilton  College  as  a  junior  and 
was  graduated  in  1847.  For  the  sake  of  his  health, 
which  had  never  been  good,  he  set  out  for  the 
South,  expecting  to  find  a  position  as  a  teacher 
there.  After  numerous  unsuccessful  efforts  to 
find  employment  in  Georgia,  he  settled  at  Termi- 
nus (later  Atlanta),  where  he  secured  thirty  pu- 
pils. He  aided  in  organizing  the  city  govern- 
ment there  and  in  securing  a  charter.  In  Janu- 
ary 1848  he  was  induced  to  move  to  Athens,  Ga., 
to  manage  a  bookstore  owned  by  W.  C.  Richards, 
editor  of  the  Southern  Literary  Gazette.  He 
bought  the  establishment  a  year  later  and  con- 
tinued to  run  it  until  his  death. 

To  his  deep  interest  in  pomology,  horticulture, 
and  the  wider  field  of  rural  economy  he  now  gave 
full  rein,  and  soon  he  came  to  be  a  recognized 
authority  in  these  subjects.  He  early  began  to 
write  for  the  Atlanta  Luminary,  later  contrib- 
uting articles  to  the  Horticulturalist,  the  South- 
ern Cultivator,  the  Gardener's  Monthly,  and  the 
Southern  Field  and  Fireside.  He  made  various 
reports  on  agricultural  subjects  to  the  United 
States  Patent  Office  and  sent  weather  observa- 
tions to  the  United  States  Observatory  and  Hy- 
drographical  Office.  His  greatest  renown,  how- 
ever, grew  first  out  of  his  book,  Gardening  for 
the  South  (1856),  which  immediately  became 
the  standard  work  on  that  subject,  and  secondly 
from  his  connection  with  the  Southern  Cultiva- 
tor. He  became  assistant  editor  of  the  Cultivator 
in  1862,  and  in  June  1863  bought  a  half  interest 
in  the  enterprise  and  assumed  complete  editorial 
charge.  In  the  midst  of  the  Civil  War  he  an- 
nounced that,  although  every  other  farm  paper  in 
the  Confederacy  had  ceased,  this  publication 
should  continue  as  long  as  he  had  "a  country  to 
publish  it  in"  {Southern  Cultivator,  Sept.-Oct. 
1863,  p.  113).  As  if  to  defy  Sherman's  destruc- 
tions, in  November  1864  he  changed  the  Culti- 
vator from  a  monthly  to  a  weekly.  In  January 
1865  he  became  sole  owner  and  moved  it  from 
Augusta  to  Athens.  With  the  coming  of  peace, 
he  soon  began  to  reap  considerable  profits  from 
his  publishing  enterprise,  but  just  as  his  future 
seemed  assured  he  was  stricken  with  typhoid 
fever  and  died. 

White  married  on  Aug.  28,  1848,  at  Walton, 
N.  Y.,  Rebecca  Benedict,  his  boyhood  sweet- 
heart. Nine  children  were  born  to  them,  six  of 
whom  died  in  infancy.  He  completely  identified 
himself  with  the  South  in  all  his  interests  and 
sympathies.  In  the  Civil  War  he  joined  the  9th 
Regiment,  Georgia  State  Guards,  but  was  soon 
furloughed  on  account  of  ill-health,  and  on  Feb. 


White  Eyes 


11,  1864,  he  was  exempted  from  further  service. 

He  was  an  elder  in  the  Presbyterian  Church.  He 

was  of  a  swarthy  complexion,  with  black  hair 

and  dark  eyes.   He  was  an  extremely  industrious 

worker,  unassuming,  yet  sociable. 

[See  H.  K.  White,  The  White  Family  (1906); 
Southern  Cultivator,  Aug.  1867  ;  A.  L.  Hull,  Annals 
of  Athens,  Ga.,  1801-1901  (1906)  ;  L.  H.  Bailey,  Cyc. 
of  Am.  Agriculture,  vol.  IV  (1909)  ;  two  scrapbooks  in 
the  possession  of  E.  S.  White,  Walton,  N.  Y.  ;  obituary 
in  Southern  Watchman,  July  17,  1867.  The  date  of 
birth  is  from  White's  daughter.]  E.  M.C. 

WHITE  EYES  (d.  1778),  Indian  chief,  was 
born  into  the  Delaware  tribe  that  lived  at  what 
is  now  Coshocton,  Ohio.  He  became  chief  coun- 
selor and  upon  the  death  of  Netawatwees,  the 
chief  sachem  of  the  Delaware  nation,  in  1776, 
succeeded  to  the  station  of  chief  sachem.  His 
leadership  coincides  with  the  short  period  of  the 
attempt  of  the  Delawares  to  befriend  the  whites 
and,  by  accepting  certain  of  the  white  man's 
ways,  to  create  a  sound  basis  for  a  permanently 
friendly  relation  between  the  two  races  without 
the  sacrifice  of  the  integrity  of  either.  He  was 
cordial  to  the  efforts  of  the  Moravian  mission- 
aries to  Christianize  and  civilize  the  Delawares 
but  did  not  himself  accept  Christianity.  He  led 
his  people  to  neutrality  in  Dunmore's  War  of 
1774,  thus  incurring  the  hatred  of  his  victimized 
neighbors,  the  Shawnee.  In  1775,  at  the  treaty 
at  Fort  Pitt,  he  ostentatiously  declared  the  Dela- 
ware nation  free  of  their  subservience  to  the 
Iroquois  and  committed  the  future  of  his  people 
to  the  success  of  the  American  cause.  Assured 
by  the  American  Indian  agent,  George  Morgan 
\_q.v.~\,  of  trade  with  the  Americans  and  of 
teachers  of  agriculture,  he  kept  his  nation  neu- 
tral, while  practically  all  the  rest  of  the  tribes 
were  joining  the  British.  Morgan's  promises, 
however,  were  not  kept  by  the  Americans ;  and 
the  nation  gradually  chose  belligerency  under 
the  guidance  of  White  Eyes'  rivals,  Captain  Pipe 
and  Bochongahelos.  White  Eyes  was  deceived 
in  1778  into  signing  a  treaty  of  alliance  with  the 
American  Confederation.  He  offered,  however, 
to  guide  the  American  troops  through  the  forests 
in  Gen.  Lachlin  Mcintosh's  unsuccessful  attempt 
to  capture  Detroit  in  1778.  On  this  expedition, 
in  the  moment  of  his  greatest  usefulness  to  the 
United  States,  he  was  murdered  by  American 
soldiers,  although  the  authorities  were  success- 
ful in  making  his  tribesmen  believe  he  died  of 
smallpox  (George  Morgan  Letters,  1 775-1 787, 
Library  of  Congress,  May  12,  1784). 

[George  Morgan  l.etler  Book,  Carnegie  Lib.  of  Pitts- 
burgh ;  John  Heckewelder,  "Hist,  of  Manners  and  Cus- 
toms of  the  Indian  Nations,"  Pa.  Hist.  Soc.  Memoirs, 
vol.  XII  (1876)  :  G.  H.  I.oskiel,  Hist,  of  the  Mission  of 
the  United  Brethren  among  the  Indians  (1794)  ;  F.  W. 


123 


Whiteneld 


Whitefield 


Hodge,  "Handbook  of  Am.  Indians,"  Bureau  of  Am. 
Ethnology  Bulletin,  30,  pt.  II   (1910).]  R.  C.  D. 

WHITEFIELD,  GEORGE  (Dec.  16,  1714 
o.s.-Sept.  30,  1770),  evangelist,  was  born  in  the 
Bell  Inn,  Gloucester,  England,  of  which  his  fa- 
ther, Thomas,  was  the  proprietor.  Although  a 
tavern  keeper — and  none  too  successful  a  one — 
Thomas  was  descended  from  a  line  of  clergymen, 
the  earliest  of  whom  was  William  Whytfeild, 
who  was  vicar  of  Mayfield,  Sussex,  in  1605. 
William's  son  Thomas,  and  Thomas'  son  Sam- 
uel, grandfather  of  Thomas  who  kept  the  Bell 
Inn,  were  also  clergymen.  Of  Samuel's  sons, 
one,  his  namesake,  continued  the  clerical  tradi- 
tion ;  another,  Andrew,  was  the  father  of  Thom- 
as. While  living  in  Bristol  Thomas  married 
Elizabeth  Edwards,  and  George  was  the  young- 
est of  their  seven  children.  When  the  boy  was 
two  years  old  his  father  died.  The  mother  con- 
tinued to  run  the  inn,  deriving  therefrom  a  mea- 
ger existence.  Her  financial  condition  was  not 
bettered  when,  some  eight  years  after  her  first 
husband's  death,  she  married  Capel  Longden,  an 
ironmonger. 

In  the  not  altogether  wholesome  atmosphere 
of  the  Gloucester  tavern  George  Whitefield  grew 
up.  The  picture  of  his  youthful  depravity  which 
he  drew  during  the  long  days  of  his  first  voyage 
to  America  is  doubtless  much  over-colored  (A 
Short  Account  of  God's  Dealings  with  the  Rev- 
erend Mr.  George  Whitefield  .  .  .  from  His  In- 
fancy to  the  Time  of  His  Entering  into  Holy 
Orders.  1740).  An  impetuous,  emotional  lad,  he 
was  guilty  of  more  or  less  misconduct,  but  was 
probably  neither  better  nor  worse  than  most 
boys  in  his  circumstances.  His  mother,  a  well- 
meaning  but  ineffectual  woman,  seems  to  have 
tried  conscientiously  to  direct  him  aright.  Be- 
fore he  was  fifteen  he  persuaded  her  to  let  him 
leave  school — where  his  career  had  been  notable 
chiefly  for  the  oratorical  and  histrionic  abilities 
he  exhibited — and  for  over  a  year  he  washed 
mops,  cleaned  rooms,  and  served  as  drawer  at 
the  inn.  Later,  after  a  sojourn  with  relatives  in 
Bristol,  he  reentered  the  free  grammar  school 
of  St.  Mary  de  Crypt,  and  in  1732,  aided  by 
friends,  he  made  successful  application  for  ad- 
mission as  servitor  to  Pembroke  College,  Ox- 
ford. 

Already  he  had  given  evidence  of  being  by 
temperament  peculiarly  susceptible  to  religious 
influences.  While  at  Bristol  he  passed  through 
a  period  of  "unspeakable  raptures,"  during  which 
he  found  keen  delight  in  the  services  of  the 
church  and  in  reading  Thomas  a  Kempis.  After 
his  return  to  Gloucester  there  was  a  reaction, 
and  in  the  early  part  of  his  second  period  at 


school  he  became,  he  confessed,  something  of  a 
scoffer  and  a  rake ;  on  one  or  two  occasions  he 
got  drunk.  His  religious  proclivities  conquered 
in  the  end,  however ;  he  fasted,  read  pious  books, 
and  set  out  to  reform  his  schoolmates.  At  the 
university  he  faithfully  continued  his  religious 
practices.  After  about  a  year  he  formed  an  ac- 
quaintance with  Charles  Wesley,  then  a  tutor  at 
Christ  Church,  who  introduced  him  later  to  his 
brother  John  and  the  other  members  of  the  Holy 
Club.  Wesley  lent  Whitefield  books,  among  them 
Henry  Scougal's  The  Life  of  God  in  the  Soul 
of  Man,  from  which  he  got  his  first  idea  of  re- 
ligion as  a  vital  union  with  God.  He  now  began 
to  live  by  rule,  taking  the  sacrament  every  Sun- 
day, fasting  twice  a  week,  and  engaging  regu- 
larly in  charitable  ministrations.  Failing  to  find 
peace  through  such  good  works,  he  increased 
their  number  with  fanatical  zeal  until  at  last  he 
fell  ill.  During  this  illness,  late  in  the  spring  of 
1735,  he  experienced  a  "new  birth,"  and  was 
filled  with  a  sense  of  the  pardoning  love  of  God 
and  oneness  with  Him.  From  this  time  forth  the 
conviction  that  such  an  experience  is  indispen- 
sable to  individual  and  social  welfare  possessed 
and  governed  him  completely. 

His  dynamic  career  of  service  began  almost 
immediately.  Returning  to  Gloucester  to  recu- 
perate from  his  illness,  he  converted  some  of  his 
friends  and  formed  a  religious  society.  A  por- 
tion of  each  day  he  devoted  to  deeds  of  mercy, 
visiting  the  jail,  and  ministering  to  the  sick  and 
the  poor.  It  was  not  till  March  1736  that  he  re- 
turned to  Oxford.  His  Gloucester  friends  had 
urged  him  to  seek  ordination,  and  some  of  them 
had  brought  him  to  the  attention  of  Bishop  Mar- 
tin Benson.  An  interview  with  Whitefield  so 
impressed  the  Bishop  that  although  he  had  an- 
nounced he  would  ordain  no  candidate  under 
twenty-three  years  of  age  he  offered  to  make  an 
exception  in  Whitefield's  favor.  Accordingly, 
on  June  20,  1736,  in  the  Gloucester  Cathedral, 
he  was  admitted  to  deacon's  orders,  and  the  fol- 
lowing Sunday,  in  the  Church  of  St.  Mary  de 
Crypt,  he  preached  his  first  sermon.  The  effect 
it  had  upon  the  curious  throng  of  Whitefield's 
fellow  townsmen  was  prophetic  of  the  power 
over  audiences  he  was  to  exhibit  later.  In  a  few 
clays  he  went  back  to  Oxford  and  was  graduated 
with  the  degree  of  BA.  in  July. 

For  the  rest  of  the  year  Oxford  was  his  head- 
quarters. The  Wesleys  were  now  in  Georgia, 
and  Whitefield  became  the  leader  of  the  few 
"methodists"  left  at  the  University.  For  two 
months,  however,  he  substituted  for  his  friend, 
the  Rev.  Thomas  Broughton,  as  curate  of  the 
Tower  of  London,  and  for  six  weeks  he  offici- 


124 


Whitefield 


Whitelield 


ated  at  Dummer,  Hampshire.  Wherever  he 
spoke  he  captivated  his  hearers  and  a  most  de- 
sirable curacy  in  London  was  offered  him.  This 
he  declined,  for  by  the  end  of  the  year  he,  too, 
had  decided  to  enlist  in  the  Georgia  enterprise. 

It  was  to  be  another  twelve  months,  however, 
before  he  could  leave  for  America.  Meanwhile, 
for  a  youth  of  twenty-two  years,  he  achieved 
extraordinary  prominence,  his  name  becoming  a 
household  word  in  all  parts  of  England.  With 
fiery  zeal,  rare  dramatic  ability,  and  all  the  as- 
surance of  one  who  believes  himself  divinely  di- 
rected, he  set  out  to  preach  the  "new  birth" 
wherever  opportunity  offered.  In  Gloucester,  in 
Bristol,  in  Bath,  and  in  London  thousands  flocked 
to  hear  him.  Incidentally,  for  charity  schools 
and  for  the  Georgia  mission  he  collected  large 
sums  of  money.  In  August  1737  his  first  pub- 
lished sermon — The  Nature  and  Necessity  of 
Our  New  Birth  in  Christ  Jesus,  in  Order  to  Sal- 
vation— appeared,  and  though,  like  all  White- 
field's  printed  discourses,  it  had  little  of  the 
power  that  made  his  preaching  so  effective,  it 
went  through  three  editions  within  a  year.  In 
the  meantime  seven  other  sermons  of  his  came 
from  the  press.  His  popularity  was  not  uncloud- 
ed, however ;  for  the  first  shadows  of  the  storm 
of  opposition  that  was  to  beat  upon  him  all  the 
rest  of  his  life  thus  early  began  to  gather.  Cler- 
gymen in  whose  churches  he  spoke  complained 
that  their  regular  worshippers  were  crowded  out 
by  the  motley  throngs  that  gathered ;  they  also 
begrudged  the  money  that  he  took  away  and 
called  him  a  "spiritual  pickpocket."  His  habit 
of  mingling  freely  with  Dissenters  subjected  him 
to  further  criticism.  The  Weekly  Miscellany, 
the  principal  Church  of  England  newspaper, 
began  a  series  of  attacks  on  enthusiasts,  un- 
doubtedly directed  principally  against  White- 
field,  in  which  they  were  characterized  as  per- 
sons who  feel  the  truth  but  are  unable  to  defend 
it,  as  possessing  zeal  without  knowledge,  and 
as  uttering  sound  without  sense  (Tyerman,  post, 
vol.  I,  p.  91). 

On  Dec.  30,  1737,  accompanied  by  several 
friends,  one  of  whom  was  James  Habersham 
[q.v.~\,  he  embarked  for  Georgia  on  the  Whit- 
akcr,  a  transport  carrying  troops  to  the  colony. 
With  him  he  took  a  miscellaneous  assortment  of 
pamphlets,  books,  clothing,  tools,  hardware,  and 
other  supplies.  The  ship  did  not  leave  the  Eng- 
lish coast  until  Feb.  2,  1738,  and  while  it  was  at 
Deal,  John  Wesley — Charles  had  already  re- 
turned— disembarked,  disheartened  by  his  expe- 
riences in  America.  The  two  did  not  meet,  but 
Wesley  wrote  a  letter  to  Whitefield  advising  him 
to  turn  back.   Whitefield  continued  on  his  way, 


however,  and  on  May  7  landed  at  Savannah.  His 
first  stay  in  America  lasted  only  about  four 
months  but  was  full  of  activity  and  plans  for  the 
future.  He  instituted  services  in  Savannah, 
started  several  schools,  and  visited  the  neigh- 
boring settlements.  An  orphanage  conducted  by 
the  Salzburgers  at  Ebenezer  interested  him 
greatly,  and  he  determined  to  establish  a  similar 
institution.  The  idea,  he  confessed,  did  not  orig- 
inate with  him,  but  had  been  suggested  to  him 
by  Charles  Wesley,  who  had  discussed  the  mat- 
ter with  Oglethorpe  (Tyerman,  I,  347).  In  or- 
der to  raise  funds  for  the  project,  and  also  to 
obtain  ordination  as  priest,  he  set  sail  for  Eng- 
land by  way  of  Charleston  (then  Charlestown) 
on  Sept.  9,  1738.  He  had  made  a  most  favorable 
impression;  the  supplies  he  had  brought  had  won 
him  gratitude ;  he  had  mingled  freely  with  all 
classes,  including  Dissenters ;  and,  unlike  John 
Wesley,  had  not  been  zealous  for  church  disci- 
pline. Furthermore,  he  had  given  support  to 
the  numerous  freeholders  who  were  petitioning 
the  trustees  of  the  colony  to  remove  certain  re- 
strictions they  had  imposed  and  to  permit  the 
introduction  of  slave  labor. 

The  period  that  elapsed  before  Whitefield's 
return  to  America  was  one  of  the  stormiest  in 
his  whole  turbulent  career.  The  Georgia  trus- 
tees appointed  him  minister  of  Savannah  and 
on  Jan.  14,  1739,  Bishop  Benson  ordained  him 
priest,  but  from  many  sides  he  was  subjected  to 
bitter  opposition.  Practically  all  the  churches  of 
England  were  closed  to  him,  and  he  began  to 
preach  in  the  meeting  places  of  the  religious  so- 
cieties, in  halls,  and  in  the  open  air.  His  first 
out-door  sermon  was  delivered  Feb.  17,  1739,  to 
the  colliers  on  Kingswood  Hill,  near  Bristol. 
Soon  he  was  preaching  at  Moorfields,  Kensing- 
ton Green,  and  other  resorts  of  the  London  popu- 
lace. A  flood  of  pamphlets  of  which  he  was  the 
subject  began  to  come  from  the  press,  the  most 
of  them  hostile.  He  was  attacked  from  the  pulpit 
and  in  printed  sermons — notably  by  Dr.  Joseph 
Trapp — and  the  Weekly  Miscellany  continued 
its  vituperations.  Among  the  charges  that  were 
hurled  at  him  were  that  he  was  a  "raw  novice" 
who  assumed  the  office  of  an  apostle ;  that  he  set 
himself  up  as  a  teacher  not  only  of  the  laity  but 
of  the  learned  clergy,  "many  of  them  learned 
before  he  was  born"  ;  that  he  was  guilty  of  Phari- 
saical ostentation,  praying  on  the  corners  of  the 
street ;  and  that  his  open-air  preaching  was  a 
reproach  to  the  Church  of  which  he  was  a  min- 
ister. Even  leading  Dissenters  voiced  disap- 
proval of  him,  Dr.  Philip  Doddridge  declaring 
that  "supposing  him  sincere  and  in  good  earnest, 
I  still  fancy  that  he  is  but  a  zucak  man, — much 


125 


Whitefield 

too  positive,  says  rash  things,  and  is  bold  and 
enthusiastic.  ...  I  think  what  Air.  Whitfield 
[sic~\  says  and  does  comes  but  little  short  of  an 
assumption  of  inspiration  or  infallibility"  (J.  D. 
Humphries,  The  Diary  and  Correspondence  of 
Philip  Doddridge,  D.D.,  1829,  III,  381).  For 
all  these  criticisms  there  was  no  little  justifi- 
cation. Whitefield  was  not  a  man  of  intellectual 
strength  and  good  judgment,  but  of  impulse  and 
emotion.  The  journals  of  his  voyage  from  Lon- 
don to  Savannah,  published  by  friends  without 
his  knowledge  in  1738,  were  offensively  pious 
and  egotistical.  His  reply  to  Dr.  Trapp's  ser- 
mons, A  Preservative  against  Unsettled  Notions, 
and  Want  of  Principles,  hi  Regard  to  Righteous- 
ness and  Christian  Perfection  (1739),  the  con- 
tents of  which  he  bids  that  ecclesiastic  to  re- 
ceive as  "delivered  from  the  mouth  of  God  him- 
self," was  inexcusably  abusive.  He  did  not  con- 
ceal the  fact  that  he  deemed  the  clergy  in  gen- 
eral "earthly  minded."  Furthermore,  his  whole 
course  of  action  as  an  itinerant  preacher  was 
grossly  irregular.  Such  was  his  zeal,  however, 
and  such  his  ability  to  present  his  message  with 
vividness  and  power,  that  multitudes  which  no 
church  could  have  held  gathered  about  him  in 
the  open,  and  large  numbers  were  soundly  con- 
verted. While  his  hearers  were  chiefly  from  the 
common  people,  there  were  not  lacking  members 
of  the  aristocracy,  notable  among  them  being  the 
Countess  of  Huntingdon,  who  was  to  become 
one  of  his  stanchest  supporters. 

On  Aug.  14,  1739,  he  embarked  again  for 
America,  accompanied  by  some  seventeen  men 
and  women  who  were  to  assist  him  in  his  Geor- 
gia enterprise.  From  the  trustees  of  the  colony 
he  had  obtained  a  grant  of  500  acres  of  land  and 
he  had  collected  approximately  fiooo  for  the 
erection  of  the  orphanage.  He  reached  Philadel- 
phia on  Dec.  2,  and  although  he  remained  in 
America  more  than  a  year,  his  Savannah  parish 
saw  little  of  him.  The  major  portion  of  his 
time  was  spent  in  itinerant  preaching,  which 
awakened  religious  excitement  all  the  way  from 
Georgia  to  Massachusetts.  Most  of  his  dis- 
courses were  delivered  in  the  meeting  houses  of 
Presbyterians  and  Congregationalists  or  in  the 
open  air ;  the  clergy  of  the  Church  of  England 
were  in  general  unfriendly.  His  association  with 
:he  Presbyterians  of  the  Middle  Colonies,  espe- 
:ially  with  the  elder  William  Tennent  and  his 
son  Gilbert  \_qq.v.~\,  was  particularly  intimate. 
In  Philadelphia  he  made  a  profound  impression 
on  the  whole  city;  Benjamin  Franklin  marveled 
at  the  extraordinary  effect  of  his  oratory.  "It  is 
wonderful,"  he  wrote,  "to  see  the  change  soon 
made  in  the  manners  of  our  inhabitants"  (John 

I 


Whitefield 

Bigelow,  The  Complete  Works  of  Benjamin 
Franklin,  1887-88,  I,  206).  He  preached  with 
equal  effect  in  the  towns  of  New  Jersey  and  in 
New  York.  On  Nov.  29  he  left  Philadelphia  for 
Georgia,  traveling  on  horseback  through  Mary- 
land, Virginia,  and  the  Carolinas  and  preaching 
all  along  the  way. 

Not  until  January  1739  did  he  reach  Savannah 
and  rejoin  the  companions  who  had  left  England 
with  him.  He  immediately  hired  a  house  and 
gathered  therein  all  the  orphans  he  could  find. 
In  March  he  began  construction  of  an  orphanage 
on  land  selected  by  Habersham  some  ten  miles 
from  Savannah,  and  gave  to  the  establishment 
the  name  Bethesda.  His  censoriousness  and  bad 
judgment  soon  got  him  into  trouble  in  various 
quarters.  In  several  instances  his  action  in  tak- 
ing orphans  from  those  who  would  have  pro- 
vided for  them  was  inexcusable.  He  quarrelled 
with  the  Rev.  Mr.  Norris  who  had  been  serving 
as  minister  at  Savannah,  charging  him  with 
preaching  false  doctrine,  fiddling  and  card 
playing.  In  his  preaching  he  characterized  the 
clergy  as  "slothful  shepherds  and  dumb  dogs." 
To  the  inhabitants  of  Maryland,  Virginia,  and 
the  Carolinas  he  addressed  a  letter  officiously 
condemning  them  in  harsh  terms  for  their  treat- 
ment of  their  slaves.  This  was  published  in  1740, 
along  with  two  others  attacking  the  writings  of 
Archbishop  Tillotson,  in  a  pamphlet  entitled 
Three  Letters  from  the  Reverend  Mr.  G.  White- 
field.  While  Whitefield  was  on  a  visit  to  Charles- 
ton, the  Rev.  Alexander  Garden  delivered  a  ser- 
mon from  the  text  "Those  who  have  turned  the 
world  upside-down  have  come  hither  also,"  and 
Whitefield  retorted  with  one  on  the  text  "Alex- 
ander the  coppersmith  hath  done  me  much  evil : 
the  Lord  reward  him  according  to  his  works." 
Garden  also  published  a  reply  to  Whitefield's  let- 
ters under  the  title  Six  Letters  to  the  Rev.  Mr. 
George  Whitefield  (1740). 

On  Apr.  2,  1740,  he  set  sail  for  a  second  visit 
to  the  North.  While  on  shipboard,  feeling  the 
need  of  a  wife  to  help  him  run  the  orphanage,  he 
wrote  to  a  "Miss  E.,"  probably  Elizabeth  Dela- 
motte  (Tyerman,  I,  368-70),  one  of  the  most 
preposterous  proposals  of  marriage  ever  made. 
Eschewing  all  "passionate  expressions"  as  "to 
be  avoided  by  those  that  would  marry  in  the 
Lord,"  he  pictures  the  hardships  union  with  him 
would  entail,  and  asks  her  if  she  thinks  she  is 
equal  to  them.  Needless  to  say  his  suit  did  not 
meet  with  favor.  In  Philadelphia  he  preached 
to  thousands  from  a  platform  erected  for  him  on 
"Society  Hill."  His  appeals  for  the  orphanage 
emptied  the  pockets  of  Franklin,  who  had  re- 
solved to  give  him  nothing  {Works,  I,  208).  He 

26 


Whitefield 


Whitefield 


projected  a  school  for  negroes  and  a  refuge  for 
his  converts  in  England  who  might  he  persecuted 
for  righteousness'  sake.  Arrangements  were 
made  to  secure  land  at  the  falls  of  the  Delaware, 
but  the  project  came  to  naught.  He  also  visited 
the  Delaware  and  New  Jersey  churches  again 
and  in  New  York  addressed  crowds  from  an  im- 
provised "scaffold." 

By  June  5,  he  was  once  more  in  Savannah, 
but  late  in  the  month  went  to  Charleston.  Here 
he  was  summoned  by  Commissary  Garden  to 
appear  before  an  ecclesiastical  court — said  to 
have  been  the  first  to  be  convened  in  the  colonies 
— to  answer  questions  regarding  irregularities 
in  his  doctrine  and  practices.  His  objection  to 
the  court  as  a  prejudiced  body  was  overruled 
and  he  appealed  to  the  high  court  of  chancery. 
This  appeal  halted  proceedings  in  Charleston 
for  a  year  and  a  day.  Since  it  did  not  come  to  a 
hearing  in  England  within  that  time,  Whitefield 
was  again  summoned  before  Garden's  court.  He 
failed  to  appear  and  was  suspended  from  office. 
Garden's  opposition  had  no  effect  on  Whitefield's 
activities,  however. 

From  Charleston  he  set  out  for  New  England, 
where  his  coming  resulted  in  the  same  great  re- 
ligious awakening  that  it  had  produced  in  the 
Middle  Colonies.  Landing  in  Newport,  R.  I., 
he  proceeded  to  Boston.  Here  and  in  the  sur- 
rounding towns  he  preached  for  nearly  a  month, 
chiefly  in  Congregational  meeting  houses,  in- 
cidentally collecting  some  £400  for  his  orphan- 
age. On  his  leisurely  return  southward,  he 
stopped  in  many  places :  visited  Jonathan  Ed- 
wards at  Northampton,  Mass.,  preached  to  the 
Yale  students  in  New  Haven  on  the  ill  effect 
of  an  unconverted  ministry,  and  persuaded  Gil- 
bert Tennent  of  New  Brunswick,  N.  J.,  to  go  to 
Boston  and  further  the  revival  in  progress  there. 
On  Dec.  13,  he  reached  Savannah,  where  he 
found  his  orphans  installed  in  their  new  build- 
ing. On  Jan.  16,  1741,  he  sailed  from  Charles- 
ton for  England,  leaving  Habersham  in  charge 
of  the  home. 

An  interval  of  almost  four  years  elapsed  be- 
fore Whitefield  was  again  in  America.  He  had 
now  become  a  rigid  Calvinist  and  the  first  part 
of  this  period  was  marked  by  an  unpleasant  con- 
troversy with  John  Wesley,  who  was  preaching 
free  grace  and  Christian  perfection.  Whitefield's 
friends  erected  a  wooden  building  for  him — later 
replaced  by  a  brick  structure — known  as  the 
Tabernacle,  which  became  the  center  of  his  Lon- 
don activities ;  he  did  not,  however,  abandon  his 
wanderings  or  his  field  preaching.  In  Scotland, 
because  he  would  not  ally  himself  with  the  "As- 
sociate Presbytery"  but   insisted  on  preaching 


to  any  who  would  hear  him,  he  incurred  the  bit- 
ter enmity  of  its  leaders ;  in  Wales  he  was  made 
moderator  of  the  first  Calvinistic  Methodist  Con- 
ference, and  subsequently  was  elected  perpetual 
moderator.  On  Nov.  14,  1741,  he  was  married 
at  Caerphilly,  Glamorganshire,  Wales,  to  Eliza- 
beth (Burnell)  James  of  Abergavenny,  Mon- 
mouthshire, England.  She  was  a  strong-mind- 
ed widow  about  ten  years  his  senior,  "neither 
rich  in  fortune,"  he  wrote  Gilbert  Tennent,  "nor 
beautiful  as  to  her  person,  but,  I  believe,  a  true 
child  of  God,  and  one  who  would  not,  I  think, 
attempt  to  hinder  me  in  His  work  for  the  world" 
(Tyerman,  I,  531).  They  had  a  son,  John,  born 
Oct.  4,  1743,  who  died  in  February  of  the  fol- 
lowing year.  There  is  testimony  to  the  effect 
that  Whitefield  and  his  wife  were  not  happy  to- 
gether, but  it  is  unsupported  by  facts ;  it  would 
have  been  a  remarkable  woman,  however,  who 
could  have  adapted  herself  to  his  views  and  man- 
ner of  life. 

Accompanied  by  his  wife,  he  left  England  for 
America  in  August  1744  and  on  Aug.  26  landed 
at  York,  in  what  is  now  the  state  of  Maine.  For 
more  than  a  year  he  tarried  in  New  England, 
preaching  and  writing,  his  only  contact  with 
Georgia  being  through  Habersham,  who  came 
North  to  report  on  conditions  in  Bethesda. 
Since  Whitefield's  first  visit  to  New  England  the 
revival  he  had  furthered  had  awakened  distrust 
and  opposition  in  many  of  the  Congregational 
leaders.  Foremost  among  them  was  the  Rev. 
Charles  Chauncy,  1705-1787  [q.r.~],  of  Boston, 
who  had  published  Seasonable  Thoughts  on  the 
State  of  Religion  in  New  England  (1743),  in 
which  Whitefield  was  severely  criticized.  Other 
hostile  publications  followed.  To  Chauncy  and 
to  the  faculty  of  Harvard,  which  had  issued  a 
Testimony  against  him  that  had  received  an  in- 
dorsement from  Yale,  he  wrote  replies.  He  had 
strong  supporters  as  well  as  opponents,  however, 
and  his  preaching  continued  to  draw  large  audi- 
ences. By  Jan.  1,  1746,  he  was  in  Bethesda.  For 
more  than  two  years  he  spent  part  of  his  time 
here  and  the  rest  in  evangelistic  journeys,  dur- 
ing which  he  labored  in  Charleston,  S.  C,  in 
Virginia,  and  in  Maryland,  visited  Philadelphia 
and  New  York,  and  made  another  trip  to  New 
England.  The  people  of  Charleston  gave  him 
£300,  with  which  he  bought  a  plantation  and 
slaves  in  South  Carolina  as  a  source  of  income 
for  his  orphanage.  Slavery  he  defended  on  Bib- 
lical grounds,  though  he  was  most  solicitous  for 
the  welfare  of  the  slaves.  In  the  spring  of  174S 
he  went  to  the  Bermudas,  where  he  spent  a  num- 
ber of  weeks,  and  from  there  returned  to  Ens- 
land. 


I  27 


Whitefield 

The  remainder  of  his  career  proceeded  along 
much  the  same  lines.  In  August  1748  the  Coun- 
tess of  Huntingdon  made  him  her  domestic  chap- 
lain. He  continued  his  preaching  in  England 
and  made  journeys  to  Scotland,  Wales,  and  Ire- 
land. In  1756  he  opened  a  chapel,  for  the  build- 
ing of  which  he  had  raised  funds,  in  Tottenham 
Court  Road,  where  he  subsequently  ministered 
as  well  as  in  his  Tabernacle.  He  continued  to  be 
the  object  of  attack  from  various  quarters,  and 
in  1760  he  was  burlesqued  as  Dr.  Squintum,  by 
Samuel  Foote  in  a  notorious  play,  The  Minor; 
numerous  other  publications  ridiculing  him  fol- 
lowed. On  Aug.  9,  1768,  his  wife  died. 

His  activities  in  Great  Britain  were  broken  by 
four  more  visits  to  America.  The  first  of  these, 
beginning  in  October  1751,  was  of  about  seven 
months'  duration,  which  time  he  seems  to  have 
spent  in  Georgia  and  the  Carolinas.  The  second, 
which  extended  from  May  1754  to  March  1755, 
opened  and  closed  in  Bethesda,  the  intervening 
period  being  devoted  to  a  preaching  itinerary 
that  included  Philadelphia,  New  York,  parts  of 
New  England,  and  Virginia.  As  was  earlier  the 
case,  great  crowds  turned  out  to  hear  him.  In 
September  he  visited  Gov.  Jonathan  Belcher 
[q.v.]  at  Elizabethtown,  N.  J.,  and  while  there 
accepted  the  degree  of  A.M.  from  the  College  of 
New  Jersey.  The  Seven  Years'  War  prevented 
him  from  making  his  next  visit  until  September 

1763.  He  landed  in  Virginia  and  then  went  to 
Philadelphia.  Because  of  the  condition  of  his 
health,  he  did  not  visit  Georgia  until  December 

1764.  Meanwhile,  he  preached  in  Philadelphia 
and  New  York  and  visited  Boston.  While  in  the 
last-named  city  he  wrote  to  a  friend  in  England, 
asking  him  to  procure  books  for  the  Harvard 
library,  which  had  been  burned,  and  to  use  his 
influence  in  behalf  of  Wheelock's  Indian  school. 
In  December  1764  he  petitioned  the  governor  of 
Georgia  for  a  grant  of  2,000  acres  of  land  for  the 
establishment  of  a  college  at  Bethesda.  This 
petition  received  the  support  of  the  Assembly 
and  the  governor  submitted  it  to  the  home  gov- 
ernment with  promise  of  his  support.  Later, 
when  back  in  England,  Whitefield  sent  a  memo- 
rial to  the  King  asking  that  a  charter,  "upon  the 
plan  of  New  Jersey  College,"  be  granted.  The 
project  seemed  likely  to  succeed,  but  because  the 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury  and  the  president  of 
the  Privy  Council  insisted  that  the  charter  stipu- 
late that  the  head  of  the  proposed  institution 
be  a  member  of  the  Church  of  England,  White- 
field  finally  let  the  matter  drop. 

In  September  1769  he  left  England  for  the  last 
time.  Arriving  in  Charleston  on  Nov.  30,  he  soon 
proceeded  to  Bethesda,  but  on  Apr.  24,   1770, 

12, 


Whitefield 

sailed  for  Philadelphia.  In  this  city  and  in  places 
within  a  radius  of  150  miles  he  preached  almost 
every  day  for  several  weeks.  Late  in  June  he 
moved  on  to  New  York.  During  July  he  traveled 
in  a  hundred-mile  circuit  which  included  Albany 
and  towns  in  western  Massachusetts  and  Con- 
necticut. At  the  close  of  the  month  he  went  to 
Newport,  R.  I.,  and  from  there  to  Providence 
and  northward  to  Boston.  Continuing  his  travels 
in  this  section  of  New  England,  he  came  on  Sept. 
29  to  Newburyport,  Mass.,  and  lodged  with  the 
Rev.  Jonathan  Parsons,  minister  of  the  First 
(South)  Presbyterian  Church,  which  Whitefield 
had  been  instrumental  in  founding.  During  the 
night  he  had  an  attack  of  what  was  called  asthma, 
and  died  about  six  o'clock  the  following  morning. 
His  body  was  buried  beneath  the  church. 

In  personal  appearance  Whitefield  was  of  mid- 
dle stature,  well  proportioned  and  graceful, 
though  somewhat  fleshy  in  his  later  years.  He 
was  of  fair  complexion  and  his  countenance  was 
enlivened  by  small,  keen,  dark  blue  eyes,  in  one 
of  which  was  a  noticeable  squint  caused  by  an 
attack  of  measles  in  his  childhood.  He  moved 
with  agility  and  ease  and  when  speaking  used 
many  gestures.  His  manner  of  life  was  simple 
and  orderly.  He  was  up  at  four  o'clock  in  the 
morning  and  went  to  bed  at  ten,  summarily  send- 
ing any  callers  home  when  that  hour  arrived. 
With  those  who  consulted  him,  especially  the 
young,  he  was  inclined  to  be  severe ;  toward 
servants  he  was  exacting — no  meal  was  to  be  a 
moment  late ;  he  was  easily  irritated  but  as  easily 
quieted.  Both  his  physical  and  his  mental  energy 
were  seemingly  inexhaustible  ;  for  years  he  spoke 
on  an  average  of  forty  hours  a  week.  No  person, 
perhaps,  ever  preached  to  so  many  and  to  such 
varied  types  of  people  with  so  great  effect. 
Scholars,  statesmen,  actors,  members  of  the  no- 
bility, and  ordinary  laborers  all  bore  testimony 
to  the  spell  he  put  upon  them.  He  had  a  strong, 
musical  voice  that  could  be  heard  by  thousands 
in  the  open  air  and  his  mastery  of  it  was  perfect ; 
"I  would  give  a  hundred  guineas,"  said  David 
Garrick,  "if  I  could  only  say  'Oh !'  like  Mr. 
Whitefield"  (Tyerman,  II.  355).  His  histrionic 
gifts  would  doubtless  have  made  him  one  of  the 
immortals  of  the  stage.  He  was  a  master  of 
pathos  and  did  not  hesitate  to  introduce  the  ele- 
ment of  humor  into  his  sermons. 

His  influence  in  America,  entirely  apart  from 
that  which  he  exerted  in  Great  Britain,  was 
many-sided  and  far-reaching.  With  his  advent 
a  religious  awakening  already  begun  was  great- 
ly stimulated  and  a  burst  of  evangelical  activity 
occurred  that  had  a  marked  effect  not  only  on 
the  religious  and  social  life  but  on  the  political 

8 


Whitefield 

as  well.  Thousands  were  added  to  the  churches ; 
doctrinal  discussions  arose  that  resulted  in  a  defi- 
nite American  contribution  to  theology ;  impetus 
was  given  to  education,  and  schools  and  colleges 
were  established ;  a  social  consciousness  emerged 
and  philanthropic  and  missionary  work  was  initi- 
ated. The  political  effects  were  not  so  obvious 
but  were  equally  important.  For  the  first  time 
the  American  people  experienced  a  common  emo- 
tion. To  a  certain  extent  colonial  barriers  were 
broken  down  and  denominations  became  inter- 
colonial. Whitefield's  followers  were  notorious 
for  ignoring  parish  and  sectional  lines,  and  for 
disregarding  legislation  that  would  restrict  their 
activities.  They  also  sought  to  limit  ecclesiasti- 
cal and  political  authority  and  advocated  free- 
dom of  conscience  and  individual  liberty.  The 
number  of  Dissenters  in  the  South  was  increased 
and  the  Established  Church  correspondingly  im- 
poverished, thus  weakening  one  of  the  links  con- 
necting the  colonies  with  England.  In  these  and 
other  respects  the  Great  Awakening  prepared 
the  way  for  subsequent  events  in  American  his- 
tory. 

Although  others  contributed  greatly  to  this 
movement,  Whitefield  was  its  most  dynamic  rep- 
resentative, its  unifying  element,  and  the  per- 
sonification of  its  tendencies.  A  flaming  apostle, 
he  went  up  and  down  the  whole  Atlantic  sea- 
board, visiting  almost  all  its  principal  towns ;  he 
sent  a  man  of  the  Middle  Colonies  to  save  the 
sinners  of  Boston ;  he  cared  little  for  denomi- 
national or  local  distinctions  and  prejudices;  he 
made  his  orphans'  home  an  intercolonial  charity 
by  persuading  people  from  Georgia  to  Maine  to 
contribute  to  its  support ;  he  refused  to  be  bound 
by  ecclesiastical  rules  and  conventions  and 
claimed  for  himself  freedom  to  act  according  to 
the  dictates  of  his  own  conscience ;  his  first  com- 
ing to  America  was  as  a  philanthropist  and  mis- 
sionary, and  to  educational  institutions  he  gave 
hearty  and  practical  support.  Of  the  Great  Awak- 
ening, he  was  above  all  others  the  Awakener. 

During  his  lifetime  Whitefield  published  a 
large  number  of  sermons,  pamphlets,  and  letters  ; 
also  two  collections  of  hymns.  The  first  author- 
ized edition  of  his  journal — A  Journal  of  a  Voy- 
age from  London  to  Savannah  in  Georgia — 
appeared  in  1738.  Three  continuations  were  pub- 
lished that  same  year,  another  in  1740,  and  two 
more  in  1741.  In  1756  he  issued  The  Two  First 
Parts  of  His  Life,  with  His  Journals  Revised, 
Corrected,  and  Abridged  .  .  .  by  George  White- 
field.  His  Short  Account  of  God's  Dealings  With 
the  Reverend  Mr.  White field,  mentioned  above, 
was  followed  in  1746  by  A  Further  Account,  and 
by  A  Full  Account .  .  .  to  Which  is  Added  a  Brief 


Whitehead 

Account  of  the  Rise,  Progress,  and  Present  Sit- 
uation of  the  Orphans-House  in  Georgia 
(1747?)-  The  Rev.  John  Gillies  edited  The 
Works  of  the  Reverend  George  Whitefield  (6 
vols.,  1770-72),  which  does  not  include  all  his 
writings.  Gillies  also  published  Memoirs  of  the 
Life  of  the  Reverend  George  Whitefield,  which 
appeared  in  1772. 

[The  literature  on  Whitefield  is  voluminous  ;  a  bib- 
Hog,  of  his  publications  and  of  works  and  articles  re- 
lating to  him  appears  in  F.  A.  Hyett  and  Roland  Austin, 
Supplement  to  the  Bibliographer's  Manual  of  Glouces- 
tershire Lit.,  pt.  II  (1916)  ;  a  bibliog.  of  his  publica- 
tions, in  Proc.  of  the  Wesley  Hist.  Soc.,  Sept.,  Dec. 
1916.  The  fullest  account  of  his  life  and  work  is  Luke 
Tyerman,  The  Life  of  the  Rev.  George  Whitefield  (2 
vols.,  1876-77)  ;  other  lives,  in  addition  to  that  by 
Gillies  mentioned  above,  include  Robert  Philip,  The  Life 
and  Times  of  the  Rev.  George  Whitefield  (1837)  ;  Jo- 
seph Belcher,  George  W kite field:  A  Biog.  with  Special 
Reference  to  His  Labors  in  America  (copr.  1857)  ;  D. 
A.  Harsha,  Life  of  the  Rev.  George  Whitefield  (1866)  ; 
J.  P.  Gledstone,  The  Life  and  Travels  of  George  White- 
field,  M.A.  (187 1 ),  and  George  Whitefield,  M.A.,  Field- 
Preacher  (copr.  1901)  ;  A.  D.  Belden,  George  White- 
field — The  Awakener  (copr.  1930).  See  also  Edinburgh 
Rev.,  July  1838;  W.  B.  Sprague,  Annals  Am.  Pulpit. 
vol.  V  (1859)  ;  Joseph  Tracy,  The  Great  Awakening : 
A  Hist,  of  the  Revival  of  Religion  in  the  Time  of  Ed- 
wards and  Whitefield  (1842);  Christian  Hist.,  1743- 
45  ;  C.  H.  Maxson,  The  Great  Awakening  in  the  Middle 
Colonies  (1920)  ;  H.  L.  Osgood,  The  Am.  Colonies  in 
the  Eighteenth  Century,  vol.  Ill  (1924);  Alexander 
Gordon,  in  Diet.  Nat.  Biog.]  jj  E.  S. 

WHITEHEAD,    WILBUR    CHERRIER 

(May  22,  1866-June  2~,  1931),  bridge  expert, 
was  born  in  Cleveland,  Ohio,  the  son  of  a  Cleve- 
land newspaper  man.  His  general  education  was 
obtained  in  the  local  schools,  but  he  always  con- 
sidered that  the  training  given  by  his  father,  in 
methods  of  finding  information  and  then  pre- 
senting his  findings,  was  the  most  important  in 
equipping  him  to  teach  others  how  to  play  bridge 
successfully.  He  went  into  business,  was  at  one 
time  president  of  the  Simplex  Automobile  Com- 
pany and  was  a  director  in  other  corporations, 
went  to  Europe  to  represent  a  number  of  Ameri- 
can companies,  and  spent  the  most  of  a  dozen 
years  in  Paris.  Always  having  a  knack  for  games, 
he  became  a  splendid  amateur  billiardist  and 
golfer  while  abroad,  as  well  as  an  expert  player 
of  card  games.  One  of  the  easiest  men  to  know 
well,  he  was  affectionately  called  "Whitey"  by  a 
legion  of  friends.  Affable,  with  a  ringing  laugh, 
rare  sense  of  humor,  and  a  trustful  strain  that 
caused  him  frequently  to  sign  important  con- 
tracts without  even  reading  them,  he  was  an  in- 
tensely human  type.  He  liked  to  think  of  himself 
principally  as  an  investigator,  who  tried  to  find 
out  things  about  the  game  for  others,  and  as  one 
who  taught  people  how  to  make  their  own  lives 
happier. 

Rv  the  time  auction  bridge  had  become  a  lead- 


I  29 


Whitehead 

ing  game  he  was  one  of  its  ablest  players.  In 
1 914  he  brought  out  Whitehead's  Conventions 
of  Auction  Bridge,  while  engaging  in  his  first 
professional  bridge  activities  as  a  side-line  to 
other  business  interests.  In  1921  he  published 
his  Auction  Bridge  Standards,  which  practi- 
cally revolutionized  the  entire  conception  of 
the  game  among  careful  players.  It  gave  a 
precise  valuation  of  the  cards  and  began  the 
author's  contribution  to  the  standardization  of 
the  game.  His  name  soon  became  a  household 
word,  wherever  the  game  was  played.  He  was 
famous  for  his  reiterated  statement  that  "the 
law  of  averages  is  God's  Law,  and  you  can't  go 
very  far  wrong  on  that."  He  first  popularized 
the  term  of  "quick  tricks"  and  made  clear  the  rea- 
sons why  a  player  should  have  a  certain  mini- 
mum number  of  them  in  a  hand  before  deciding 
to  open  the  bidding.  A  complete  tabulation  of 
conventions  of  play  and  desirable  leads  came 
from  him  shortly  in  his  various  succeeding  writ- 
ings, and  he  developed  a  complete  bidding  sys- 
tem, each  declaration  conveying  to  a  partner  a 
message  very  specific,  within  certain  definite 
bounds.  Later  systems  of  others  have  simply 
carried  farther  forward  the  work  he  started.  He 
was  active  also  in  promoting  many  activities  con- 
nected with  the  game.  For  years  he  was  chair- 
man of  the  card  committee  of  the  Knickerbocker 
Whist  Club  in  New  York,  was  a  founder  of  the 
Cavendish  Club  and  its  first  president.  He  or- 
ganized a  "bridge  cruise,"  on  the  Republic,  tak- 
ing some  200  players  around  the  West  Indies 
for  a  series  of  tournaments  on  board.  Every 
autumn  in  his  later  years  he  conducted  a  national 
convention  of  bridge  teachers.  He  took  part  with 
Milton  C.  Work  [q.v.']  in  the  series  of  bridge 
games  over  the  radio  from  1925  to  1929  and, 
with  Work,  was  one  of  the  editors  of  the  Auc- 
tion Bridge  and  Mah  Jong  Magazine,  later  the 
Auction  Bridge  Magazine,  during  these  years. 
He  was  the  donor  in  1930  of  the  Whitehead 
trophy  for  the  women's  national  contract  pair 
championship,  still  played  for  annually.  At  the 
time  of  his  death,  he  was  chairman  of  the  Van- 
derbilt  Cup  committee.  His  last  activity,  when 
his  health  had  begun  to  fail,  was  to  gather  to- 
gether several  other  experts  in  an  effort  to  form 
a  universal  system  of  contract  bidding.  As  that 
movement  was  under  way,  he  departed  for  France 
on  his  forty-ninth  crossing  of  the  Atlantic  to 
rest  and  to  visit  his  wife,  Parthenia  Whitehead, 
who  had  continued  to  make  her  home  in  Paris 
for  years.  Violating  his  physician's  orders  not  to 
work  on  the  way  over,  he  died  suddenly  on  the 
evening  of  June  27,  1931,  while  engaged  in  a 
study  of  bridge  problems. 


Whitehead 

{Wilbur  C.  Whitehead — The  Man  and  his  Books 
(1930);  N.  Y.  Times,  esp.  Jan.  11,  June  27,  28,  July 
">  25,  1931  '.  a  letter  of  June  24,  1914,  from  Whitehead 
to  Lib.  of  Cong.;  personal  knowledge.]  g  g 

WHITEHEAD,  WILLIAM  ADEE  (Feb. 
19,  1810-Aug.  8,  1884),  historian,  was  born  at 
Newark,  N.  J.,  the  son  of  William  and  Abby 
(Coe)  Whitehead.  He  attended  private  schools 
and  the  Newark  Academy  until  he  was  twelve, 
when  his  parents  removed  to  Perth  Amboy,  N.  J. 
His  father  being  a  banker,  the  son  became  a 
bank  messenger  and  soon  made  weekly  trips  to 
New  York  City.  He  spent  his  leisure  hours  in 
reading  books,  chiefly  of  a  biographical  and  his- 
torical nature,  and  in  studying  French  and  land 
surveying.  In  1828  he  went  with  a  brother,  John 
Whitehead,  to  Key  West  (where  the  latter 
owned  a  fourth  part  of  the  island),  and  there 
made  a  new  survey  of  the  division  lines  of  the 
island.  After  a  year  at  home  (1829)  he  went  to 
Havana,  narrowly  escaping  shipwreck  on  the 
way,  visited  Key  West  again,  and  was  appointed 
collector  of  the  port,  entering  upon  his  duties, 
Jan.  2^,  1 83 1.  He  later  became  mayor,  helped  to 
organize  the  first  Christian  congregation  (St. 
Paul's  Episcopal  Church)  and  to  found  a  news- 
paper, and  began  his  meteorological  observa- 
tions, which  were  continued  unremittingly  for 
forty  years.  A  street  in  Key  West  perpetuates 
his  name.  Except  on  journeys  to  the  north  he 
remained  there  until  1838,  in  the  meantime  mar- 
rying, Aug.  11,  1834,  Margaret  Elizabeth  Park- 
er, sister  of  John  Cortlandt  Parker  [g.z\].  From 
1838  to  1848  he  was  engaged  in  business  in  New 
York  City,  chiefly  as  a  broker,  although  he  lived 
in  Newark  after  1843.  On  June  1,  1843,  he  be- 
gan to  make  monthly  weather  reports,  which  he 
continued  throughout  his  life.  These  were  made 
with  such  "regularity,  system,  accuracy,  and 
copiousness"  that  they  were  reproduced  in  many 
newspapers  (Proceedings  of  the  New  Jersey 
Historical  Society,  vol.  VIII,  post,  p.  188).  In 
1845  he  was  a  leading  organizer  of  the  New 
Jersey  Historical  Society  and  became  its  first 
corresponding  secretary,  holding  that  position 
continuously  until  his  death.  He  was  agent  of 
the  Astor  Insurance  Company  (1848),  secretary 
of  the  New  Jersey  Railroad  and  Transportation 
Company  ( 1848,  1859-71 ) ,  treasurer  of  the  Har- 
lem Railroad  (1855-58),  and  an  associate  of  the 
American  Trust  Company  of  New  Jersey  ( 1871- 
79)'.  After  1879  he  gave  all  his  attention  to  his- 
torical and  literary  pursuits. 

His  publications  were  numerous.  Most  im- 
portant among  them  were  East  Jersey  under  the 
Proprietary  Governments  (1846),  The  Papers  of 
Lewis  Morris,  Governor  of  New  Jersey  (1852), 
Contributions  to  the  Early  History  of  Perth  Am~ 


I30 


Whitehill 

boy  and  Adjoining  Country  ( 1856) ,  The  Records 
of  the  Town  of  Newark,  N.  J.  ( 1864),  and  Docu- 
ments Relating  to  the  Colonial  History  of  the 
State  of  New  Jersey  (8  vols.,  1880-85),  w'tn 
others  in  preparation.  A  large  number  of  his- 
torical addresses  appeared  in  the  Proceedings  of 
the  New  Jersey  Historical  Society  between  1848 
and  1878,  the  last  being  "The  Resting  Place  of 
the  Remains  of  Christopher  Columbus"  (2  ser., 
vol.  V,  1878,  no.  3,  pp.  128-37).  Between  1837 
and  1882  he  published  various  pamphlets  and 
over  six  hundred  newspaper  articles. 

He  was  a  member  of  the  Newark  board  of 
education  (1861-71)  and  a  trustee  of  the  state 
normal  school  (1862-84),  serving  as  president 
of  the  board  during  the  last  thirteen  years,  and 
was  long  active  in  Trinity  Episcopal  Church, 
Newark.  Because  of  ill  health,  from  which  he 
never  fully  recovered,  he  went  to  Europe  in 
1879.  He  was  a  man  of  unusually  fine  stature 
and  had  great  dignity  of  appearance.  He  was 
survived  by  a  daughter  and  a  son. 

[S.  I.  Prime,  in  Proc.  N.  J.  Hist.  Soc,  2  ser.,  vol. 
VIII  (1885;,  no.  4;  Ibid.,  2  ser.,  vol.  XIII  (1895),  no. 
4,  p.  237  ;  W.  C.  Maloney,  A  Sketch  of  the  Hist,  of  Key 
West,  Flo.  (1876)  ;  W.  H.  Shaw,  Hist,  of  Essex  and 
Hudson  Counties,  N.  J.  (1884),  vol.  I;  obituary  in  N. 
Y.  Tribune,  Aug.  9,  1884.]  A.  V-D.  H. 

WHITEHILL,    CLARENCE    EUGENE 

(Nov.  5,  1871-Dec.  18,  1932),  opera  singer,  was 
born  in  Marengo,  Iowa,  the  son  of  William 
Whitehill  and  Elizabeth  Dawson  (McLaughlin) 
Whitehill.  As  a  young  man  he  studied  singing 
in  Chicago  with  L.  A.  Phelps.  During  this  peri- 
od he  worked  as  an  express  clerk,  and  on  Sun- 
days appeared  in  churches  as  bass  soloist.  Urged 
by  Melba  and  Giuseppe  Campanari  to  prepare 
for  the  operatic  stage,  he  finally  won  financial 
assistance  and  went  to  Paris  in  1896  to  study  for 
several  years  with  Alfred-Auguste  Giraudet  and 
Giovanni  Sbriglia.  In  1899  he  made  his  operatic 
debut,  singing  the  part  of  Friar  Lawrence  in 
Gounod's  Romeo  and  Juliet  at  the  Theatre  de  la 
Monnaie,  Brussels.  Immediately  after  this  ap- 
pearance he  was  engaged  to  sing  at  the  Opera 
Comique,  Paris,  and  the  occasion  of  his  perform- 
ance in  Lakme  marked  the  first  appearance  of 
an  American  man  on  the  stage  of  that  theatre. 
In  the  following  season  Whitehill  returned  to 
America  and  became  the  leading  baritone  of  the 
Savage  English  Grand  Opera  Company.  Later 
he  went  abroad  again,  to  study  with  Julius  Stock- 
hausen  at  Frankfort  and  to  prepare  Wagnerian 
roles  under  the  guidance  of  Frau  Cosima  Wag- 
ner at  Bayreuth.  From  1903  to  1908  he  was  the 
leading  baritone  at  the  Cologne  Opera  House. 

In  1909  he  made  his  first  appearance  in  New 
York  in  the  part  of  Amfortas  in  Wagner's  Parsi- 


Whitehill 

fal,  and  from  this  time  his  name  became  closely 
associated  with  Wagnerian  roles.  From  1909  to 
191 1  he  sang  at  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House 
in  New  York,  and  from  191 1  to  1915  with  the 
Chicago  Opera  Company.  He  then  returned  to 
the  Metropolitan  and  remained  a  member  of  the 
company  until  his  resignation  in  May  1932.  His 
resignation  aroused  a  storm  of  criticism  against 
the  management  of  the  opera  house,  and  pre- 
cipitated a  wordy  struggle  between  defenders 
and  critics.  In  announcing  his  withdrawal, 
Whitehill  stated  that  Gatti-Casazza,  the  general 
director,  entertained  a  bias  against  American 
singers,  and  that  he  had  wasted  the  funds  of  the 
organization.  Gatti-Casazza  denied  the  charge 
of  discrimination  or  bias,  and  stated  that  White- 
hill had  received  the  offer  of  a  contract  for  a 
shorter  season  during  the  coming  year,  and  that 
the  singer  had  demanded  a  larger  number  of  per- 
formances, a  request  that  could  not  be  granted 
because  of  the  shorter  season  (see  New  York 
Times,  May  14,  17,  1932).  Seven  months  later 
Whitehill  died  in  New  York  City.  He  was  sur- 
vived by  his  widow  Isabelle  (Rush)  Simpson 
Whitehill  to  whom  he  had  been  married  on  July 
12,  1926. 

During  his  association  with  American  opera 
companies  Whitehill  appeared  frequently  abroad. 
For  five  seasons  he  sang  at  Covent  Garden,  Lon- 
don ;  for  three  seasons  at  the  Bayreuth  festivals ; 
and  for  two  seasons  at  Munich.  On  the  occasion 
of  the  bicentennial  celebration  of  the  birth  of 
George  Washington,  Whitehill  portrayed  the 
part  of  Washington  in  a  sound  film  which  was 
shown  throughout  the  country.  When  dressed 
in  the  colonial  costume,  his  resemblance  to 
Washington  was  amazing. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1930-31  ;  Grove's  Diet,  of 
Music  and  Musicians,  vol.  V  (3rd  ed.,  1928),  and  the 
Am.  Supp.  (1928)  to  the  same  work;  Baker's  Biog. 
Diet,  of  Musicians  (3rd  ed.,  1919)  ;  W.  A.  French,  "A 
Bostonian  at  Bayreuth,"  Musician,  Dec.  1909;  Musical 
Courier,  Mar.  16,  19 10  ;  obituary  article  in  N.  Y.  Times, 
Dec.  20,  1932  ;  tribute  by  Olin  Downes,  Ibid.,  Dec.  25.] 

J.  T.  H.  • 

WHITEHILL,  ROBERT  (July  21,  1738- 
Apr.  7,  1813),  Pennsylvania  official,  congress- 
man, son  of  James  and  Rachel  (Cresswell) 
Whitehill,  was  born  in  the  Pequea  settlement, 
Lancaster  County,  Pa.,  where  his  father,  a  na- 
tive of  the  north  of  Ireland,  had  settled  in  1723. 
Robert  had  the  advantages  of  a  good  elementary 
education ;  he  studied  for  a  time  under  the  Rev. 
Francis  Alison  [g.v.],  and  added  further  to  his 
knowledge  by  diligent  reading.  In  1770  he  pur- 
chased from  the  proprietaries  of  Pennsylvania 
two  tracts  of  land,  comprising  440  acres,  in 
Lauther  Manor  beyond  the  Susquehanna  (now 


111 


3 


Whitehill 


Whitehouse 


Cumberland  County).  The  following  spring  he 
erected  the  first  stone  house  in  the  manor  on  a 
site  about  two  miles  from  the  Susquehanna,  near 
Harrisburg.  Here  he  made  his  home  until  his 
death. 

In  the  pre-Revolutionary  period  he  manifested 
to  a  marked  degree  the  democratic  sentiments 
of  frontier  Pennsylvania.  He  was  a  member  of 
his  county  committee,  1774-75,  and  as  early  as 
the  spring  of  1776  was  outspoken  in  his  advo- 
cacy of  independence,  primarily  as  a  means  of 
overthrowing  the  control  of  the  eastern  counties 
in  provincial  politics.  In  the  Pennsylvania  con- 
vention of  1776  he  was  the  right  hand  man  of 
George  Bryan  [q.v.~\,  and  played  a  conspicuous 
part  in  drafting  the  new  constitution.  With  the 
organization  of  the  state  government  he  began  a 
service  which,  in  various  capacities,  continued 
almost  uninterrupted  until  1805.  He  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Assembly,  1776-78;  served  on  the 
council  of  safety,  October  to  December  1777,  and 
on  the  supreme  executive  council,  Dec.  28,  1779, 
to  Nov.  30,  1 78 1 ;  and  was  again  a  member  of  the 
Assembly,  1784-87,  1797-1801,  and  of  the  state 
Senate,  1801-05.  A  devout  Constitutionalist,  he 
was  one  of  the  small  group  which  in  this  period 
fanned  jealousies  and  suspicions  of  the  Penn- 
sylvania back  country  into  an  opposition  which 
was  probably  the  most  vehement  experienced  by 
any  state  and  nearly  resulted  in  armed  conflict 
(S.  B.  Harding,  "Party  Struggles  over  the  First 
Pennsylvania  Constitution,"  in  Annual  Report 
of  the  American  Historical  Association,  1894, 
1895,  P-  393)-  Robert  Morris  said  of  his  obsti- 
nacy in  debate,  "Even  were  an  angel  from  Heav- 
en sent  with  proper  arguments  to  convince  him 
of  his  error,  it  would  make  no  alteration  with 
him"  (Mathew  Carey,  Debates  .  .  .  on  . . .  Annul- 
ling the  Charter  of  the  Bank,  1786,  p.  Jj). 

At  no  period  of  his  official  career  did  White- 
hill  reflect  better  his  back-country  views  than  as 
a  member  of  the  Pennsylvania  convention  to 
ratify  the  federal  Constitution  (1787).  In  the 
Assembly  he  sought  a  delay  in  the  election  of 
delegates  in  order  to  allow  the  inhabitants  of  the 
remoter  regions  of  the  state  to  become  more 
familiar  with  the  frame  of  government.  In  the 
convention  he  resorted  to  every  device  to  delay 
or  defeat  ratification.  He  insisted  that  there 
were  inadequate  safeguards  against  a  tyranny 
and  on  the  day  of  ratification  attempted,  without 
avail,  to  have  fifteen  articles  incorporated  as  a 
bill  of  rights.  Three  years  later,  as  a  further 
mark  of  his  disapproval  of  governments  with  a 
strong  executive  and  an  independent  judiciary, 
he  refused  to  sign  Pennsylvania's  new  consti- 
tution on  the  ground  that  it  was  too  undemo- 


cratic. His  suspicions  of  the  judiciary  never  les- 
sened, and  in  January  1805,  as  speaker  of  the 
state  Senate,  he  had  the  satisfaction  of  presiding 
at  the  celebrated  impeachment  trial  of  three  Penn- 
sylvania supreme  court  justices. 

Whitehill  was  elected  to  Congress  to  fill  a 
vacancy  in  1805  and  served  in  that  body  until  his 
death.  A  stanch  Jeffersonian,  he  supported  the 
administration  regularly,  and  manifested  the 
same  hostility  toward  the  federal  judiciary  that 
he  had  previously  shown  toward  Pennsylvania 
judges.  A  proposed  amendment  introduced  by 
him  in  1808  would  have  limited  the  tenure  of 
judges  to  a  term  of  years  and  would  have  made 
them  removable  by  the  president  on  joint  ad- 
dress of  both  houses  of  Congress.  In  trials  of 
impeachment  he  proposed  a  simple  majority  only 
for  conviction  (Debates  and  Proceedings,  10 
Cong.,  1  Sess.,  p.  1680).  His  wife,  whom  he  mar- 
ried in  1765,  was  Eleanor,  daughter  of  Adam 
Reed,  western  Pennsylvania  pioneer.  Whitehill 
died  at  Lauther  Manor. 

[W.  H.  Egle,  Pa.  Gcneals.,  Chiefly  Scotch-Irish  and 
German  (1896)  ;  J.  B.  McMaster  and  F.  D.  Stone,  Pa. 
and  the  Federal  Constitution,  1787-1788  (1888)  ;  Al- 
fred Nevin,  Centennial  Biog.:  Men  of  Mark  of  the 
Cumberland  Valley  (1876)  ;  I.  D.  Rupp,  The  Hist,  and 
Topography  of  Dauphin,  Cumberland,  Franklin,  Bed- 
ford, Adams  and  Perry  Counties  (1846)  ;  House  and 
Senate  Jours,  of  Pa.,  1790-1805  ;  Minutes  of  the  Su- 
preme Executive  Council  of  Pa.,  vol.  XI  (1852)  ;  Biog. 
Dir.  Am.  Cong.  (1928)  ;  Paulson's  Am.  Daily  Adver- 
tiser (Phila.),  Apr.  14,  1813  ;  Pa.  Mag.  of  Hist,  and 
Biog.,  no.  3,  vol.  IV  (1880),  no.  3,  vol.  XI  (1887).] 

J.  H.  P-g. 

WHITEHOUSE,  FREDERIC  COPE  (Nov. 
9,  1842-Nov.  16,  191 1 ),  archeologist,  was  born 
in  Rochester,  N.  Y.,  the  son  of  the  Rev.  Henry 
John  Whitehouse  and  his  wife,  Evelina  Harriet 
Bruen.  His  grandfather  was  James  Whitehouse, 
who  came  to  New  York  City  from  England  in 
1801.  During  his  preparation  for  college  he  lived 
for  several  years  in  the  family  of  Dr.  Henry 
Drisler,  professor  of  Latin  in  Columbia  College, 
New  York  City.  In  1861,  at  the  age  of  eighteen, 
he  was  graduated  with  high  honors  from  Colum- 
bia and  in  1864  he  received  the  M.A.  degree.  In 
1865  he  was  graduated  from  the  General  Theo- 
logical Seminary  in  New  York,  but  he  was  never 
ordained  as  a  minister.  After  this  he  studied  in 
France,  Germany,  and  Italy,  and  returned  to  the 
United  States  to  be  admitted  to  the  bar  in  New 
York  in  1871.  For  a  great  part  of  his  life  he 
lived  in  Europe,  and  in  1879  he  made  his  first 
visit  to  Egypt,  a  country  which  became  the  scene 
of  his  chief  interest  and  activity.  His  first  activi- 
ties in  Egypt  concerned  the  verification  of  ancient 
descriptions  of  the  famous  "Lake  Moeris,"  de- 
scribed by  Herodotus  in  Book  II  of  his  History. 
He  made  extensive  studies  of  the  whole  subject, 


132 


Whitehouse 

for  which  his  wide  reading  of  ancient  and  mod- 
ern authors  and  a  considerable  training  in  sci- 
ence had  prepared  him,  and  personally  explored 
this  almost  forgotten  desert  region.  As  a  result, 
in  his  book,  Lake  Moeris:  Justification  of  Hero- 
dotus (1885),  he  showed  Herodotus'  account  to 
be  in  the  main  not  only  credible  but  accurate. 
The  most  important  fact  was  the  existence  of  a 
great  valley,  the  Wadi  Raiyan,  the  floor  of  which 
is  so  far  below  the  level  of  the  Mediterranean 
that  it  might  well  have  been  used  as  reservoir, 
connected  with  the  Nile  by  a  canal  represented 
by  the  still  existing  Bahr  Yusuf.  This  theory  is 
now  generally  regarded  as  proved. 

Whitehouse  followed  up  this  discovery  (1882) 
with  the  bold  plan  of  utilizing  the  Raiyan  Valley 
for  the  construction  of  a  reservoir  to  form  an 
important  part  of  an  ambitious  project  for  the 
better  irrigation  of  Lower  Egypt  by  impounding 
for  later  use  the  surplus  of  the  annual  Nile  flood. 
For  many  years  he  devoted  himself  with  charac- 
teristic energy  to  the  promotion  of  this  plan, 
producing  a  steady  stream  of  articles  and  lec- 
tures in  support  of  it.  It  was  received  with  some 
favor  in  official  circles  in  Egypt,  and  two  Turkish 
orders,  the  Medjidie  and  the  Osmanie,  were  con- 
ferred upon  him  in  recognition  of  his  labors  for 
the  welfare  of  Egypt.  But  the  plan  also  met  with 
much  opposition  on  political  as  well  as  on  eco- 
nomic grounds ;  and  doubtless  Whitehouse's  un- 
sparing and  at  times  vituperative  criticism  of  the 
objectors  did  much  to  prevent  its  adoption.  The 
discussion  went  on  for  many  years,  but  prac- 
tically nothing  was  accomplished  by  it.  The  noted 
engineer  Sir  William  Willcocks,  who  had  been 
the  object  of  some  of  Whitehouse's  severest 
criticism,  in  his  Egyptian  Irrigation  (1889) 
spoke,  nevertheless,  very  favorably  of  the  Moe- 
ris-plan,  and  still  more  so  in  The  Assuan  Reser- 
voir and  Lake  Moeris  (1904).  In  this  he  was 
joined  by  Sir  Colin  Scott-Moncrieff  and  Colonel 
Ross.  In  1891  Whitehouse  published  in  England 
an  elaborate  Memorandum  on  The  Raiyan 
Project  and  the  Action  of  Her  Majesty's  Gov- 
ernment, in  which  he  set  forth  with  great  bitter- 
ness his  side  of  the  question. 

In  connection  with  this  project  Whitehouse 
claimed  that  a  large  tract  of  land  in  the  desert 
had  been  promised  him  by  the  khedive  as  a  re- 
ward for  his  efforts.  This  claim  he  sought  to 
have  pressed  by  the  United  States  diplomatic  and 
consular  representatives  in  Egypt.  But  he  was 
unsuccessful  in  this  also.  Whitehouse  was  in 
every  way  a  striking  and  vivid  personality,  of 
fine  appearance,  with  distinctly  "the  grand  man- 
ner" ;  he  was  an  excellent  linguist,  with  a  re- 
markable flow  of  language,  and  a  well-founded 


Whitfield 

reputation  for  loquacity.  His  intense  conviction 
of  his  own  Tightness  and  his  vigorous  denunci- 
ation of  his  opponents  not  unnaturally  led  to  the 
belief  that  he  was  an  unpractical  visionary.  Nev- 
ertheless, he  had  a  sense  of  humor  that  some- 
times produced  a  most  unexpected  effect  when 
he  chose  to  exercise  it. 

Whitehouse  wrote  extensively ;  a  list  of  his 
publications  on  Egyptian  subjects  to  1884  is  to 
be  found  in  Senate  Document  No.  104,  59  Con- 
gress, 1  Session.  He  contributed  many  articles ' 
to  professional  periodicals  both  in  America  and 
abroad;  among  them  may  be  mentioned  particu- 
larly an  important  unsigned  article  in  Engineer- 
ing (London),  Sept.  11,  1885.  The  last  years  of 
his  life  were  spent  chiefly  at  Newport,  R.  I. ;  but 
he  died  at  the  Brevoort  House,  New  York  City, 
after  a  long  illness.  He  was  never  married. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1910-11;  "The  Bruen 
Family,"  manuscript  genealogy  by  Whitehouse  in  the 
Lib.  of  Cong.,  Washington,  D.  C.  ;  Alfred  Milner,  Eng- 
land in  Egypt  (nth  ed.,  1904)  ;  Bull.  Am.  Geographi- 
cal Soc,  Feb.  19 12;  N.  Y.  Herald,  Nov.  17,  191 1.] 

E.  D.  P. 

WHITFIELD,  HENRY  (1597-c.  1657),  cler- 
gyman, settler,  was  born  near  London,  the  son 
of  Thomas  Whitfield  of  Mortlake  in  Surrey,  a 
lawyer,  and  his  wife,  Mildred  ( Manning) .  Henry 
was  apparently  a  student  at  Oxford  for  a  time, 
was  ordained,  and  became  minister  of  Ockley,  in 
Surrey,  where  he  maintained  an  assistant  out  of 
his  earnings.  In  1630  he  published  Some  Hclpes 
to  Stirre  up  to  Christian  Ditties  and  in  1631/32 
he  received  the  degree  of  B.D.  from  the  Univer- 
sity of  Cambridge.  At  one  time  or  another  most 
of  the  nonconformists  who  later  came  to  Amer- 
ica lodged  with  him,  notably  John  Cotton,  Thom- 
as Hooker,  and  John  Davenport  [qq.z>.].  With 
these  men  he  joined  in  the  protest  against  the 
prosecution  for  refusing  to  read  the  "Book  of 
Sports,"  and  in  the  late  thirties  prepared  to  leave 
England.  Joining  with  a  group  of  younger  men 
who  were  contemplating  emigration,  he  arranged 
with  George  Fenwick  [g.7\]  to  settle  upon  the 
land  purchased  by  Fenwick.  In  the  spring  of 
1639  he  sold  his  estate,  and  in  July  arrived  in 
New  Haven.  With  five  associates,  one  of  whom 
was  William  Leete  [q.z>.~],  he  purchased  land 
from  the  Indians  and  founded  a  new  town  at 
Menunkatuck,  later  Guilford.  In  the  fall  of  the 
same  year  or  the  following  spring  he  built  a 
stone  house  to  serve  as  a  fort,  which  was  used  as 
a  place  of  worship  until  a  meeting  house  could 
be  erected.  In  the  town's  constitution,  which 
Whitfield  was  largely  responsible  for  framing, 
its  policy  was  declared  to  be  that  "wee  might 
settle  and  uphold  all  the  ordinances  of  God  in  an 
explicit   congregational   church   way   wth   most 


J33 


Whitfield 

purity,  peace,  and  liberty  for  the  benefit  both  of 
orselves  and  our  posterities  after  us"  (Steiner, 
post,  p.  35).  His  friendship  with  George  Fen- 
wick,  agent  for  the  Puritan  leaders,  greatly  as- 
sisted him  in  enlarging  the  township. 

After  the  incorporation  of  the  Society  for  the 
Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  New  England  in 
1649,  Whitfield  became  one  of  its  most  active 
members,  and  continued  in  this  post  until  his 
death.  As  soon  as  the  Guilford  settlement  was 
firmly  established,  he  gave  a  generous  portion  of 
his  time  to  the  Society's  work,  preached  fre- 
quently to  the  Indians,  and  materially  aided  John 
Eliot  Iq.vJ]  in  the  work  of  conversion.  Of  his 
preaching  Cotton  Mather  wrote :  "There  was  a 
marvelous  majesty  and  sanctity  observable  in  it" 

(post,  1,539)  ■ 

In  1618  Whitfield  had  married  Dorothy 
Sheaffe,  by  whom  he  had  ten  children.  One  of 
his  daughters,  Dorothy,  married  Samuel  Des- 
borough,  the  first  magistrate  of  Guilford.  In 
1650  Whitfield  returned  to  England  where  he 
was  pastor  of  a  church  in  Winchester  until  his 
death  in  1657.  Unable  to  sell  his  house  at  Guil- 
ford, he  left  his  wife  and  a  son,  Nathaniel,  in 
charge  of  the  property.  It  is  known  that  he  suf- 
fered reverses  in  health  and  fortune  in  the  later 
days  of  his  life.  His  death  occurred  between 
Sept.  17,  1657,  when  he  made  his  will,  and  Jan. 
29,  1657/58,  when  it  was  probated. 

In  165 1  Whitfield  published  The  Light  Ap- 
pearing More  and  More  towards  the  Perfect 
Day,  and  in  1652,  Strength  out  of  Weakness', 
the  latter  was  reprinted  in  1657  under  the  title, 
The  Banners  of  Grace  and  Love  Displayed  in 
the  Farther  Conversion  of  the  Indians  in  Nciv 
England.  Both  were  collections  of  "letters"  from 
Whitfield's  fellow  missionaries,  Eliot,  John  Wil- 
son, William  Leverich,  Thomas  Mayhew,  and 
Thomas  Allen.  They  were  reprinted  in  1865  in 
Sabin's  Reprints  (quarto  series,  no.  Ill  and  no. 
V)  and  are  important  for  the  student  of  early 
Colonial  missionary  work. 

[Cotton  Mather,  Magnolia  Christ!  Americana  (1702), 
ed.  of  1853,  I,  592-94  ;  R.  D.  Smith,  The  Hist,  of  Guil- 
ford (1877)  ;  B.  C.  Steiner,  A  Hist,  of  the  Plantation 
of  Menunkatuck  (1897)  ;  New  Eng.  Hist,  and  Gcneal. 
Reg.,  July  1897;  Joseph  Foster,  Alumni  Oxonienses 
.  .  .  1500-1714,  vol.  IV  (1892)  ;  John  and  J.  A.  Venn, 
Alumni  Cantab.,  pt.  1,  vol.  IV  (1927).]  E.  H.  D. 

WHITFIELD,  ROBERT  PARR   (May  27, 

1828-Apr.  6,  1910),  paleontologist,  was  the  son 
of  English  parents,  William  Fenton  and  Mar- 
garet (Parr)  Whitfield.  He  was  born  at  New 
Hartford,  Oneida  County,  N.  Y.,  but  spent  six 
years  (1835-41)  in  England.  He  was  for  the 
most  part  self-educated.  At  thirteen  he  learned 
his  father's  trade  of  spindle-making  in  Utica, 


Whitfield 

N.  Y. ;  at  twenty  he  became  an  assistant  in  Sam- 
uel Chubbuck's  instrument-manufacturing  shop 
there,  and  soon  rose  to  be  a  partner  and  manager 
(1849-56).  He  was  married  at  twenty  to  Mary 
Henry.  During  these  years  in  Utica  he  mas- 
tered the  art  of  mechanical  drafting,  was  an 
active  member  of  the  Utica  Society  of  Natural- 
ists, and  made  collections  of  mollusks  and  of  fos- 
sils from  Silurian  rocks.  In  1856  he  was  engaged 
by  James  Hall  [q.v.~],  state  geologist  at  Albany, 
as  an  assistant  in  paleontology  and  geology.  In 
Albany  he  developed  a  more  profound  interest  in 
paleontology.  His  associations  with  Hall  and 
such  brilliant  young  assistants  as  Charles  Abi- 
athar  White,  Fielding  Bradford  Meek,  and  Wil- 
liam More  Gabb  [qq.v.~\  added  zest  to  his  new 
work,  and  he  had  an  opportunity  to  meet  men 
like  Thomas  Sterry  Hunt,  Peter  Lesley,  James 
Merrill  Safford,  J.  L.  R.  Agassiz,  Ferdinand  V. 
Hayden  [qq.v.~\,  and  others  who  came  to  Albany 
to  confer  with  Hall.  His  work  during  the  first 
year  at  Albany  consisted  of  preparatory  analyses 
of  copious  fossil  material  offered  for  examina- 
tion, classification,  and  description.  Then  he  be- 
gan to  make  those  beautiful  illustrations  of  grap- 
tolites,  crinoids,  corals,  brachiopods,  trilobites, 
cephalopods,  and  other  fossils  which  gave  added 
distinction  to  the  volumes  issued  by  James  Hall 
on  the  paleontology  of  New  York,  Canada,  Ohio, 
and  Iowa.  During  the  twenty  years  that  he  re- 
mained with  the  New  York  state  geological  sur- 
vey as  its  chief  illustrator,  he  made  thousands 
of  highly  finished  drawings  of  fossils  and  de- 
veloped an  unusual  appreciation  of  their  morpho- 
logical structure.  Little  opportunity 'or  permis- 
sion was  granted  for  the  preparation  of  scientific 
papers  on  these  objects,  but  he  published  two 
papers  under  his  own  name,  one  with  C.  A. 
White,  and  nine  with  James  Hall. 

In  1872  Whitfield  was  on  the  staff  of  the 
United  States  geological  survey  of  the  Terri- 
tories. He  also  was  lecturer  in  geology  (1872- 
75)  and  later  professor  of  geology  (1875-77)  at 
Rensselaer  Polytechnic  Institute,  Troy,  N.  Y. 
In  1877  he  became  curator  of  geology  in  the 
American  Museum  of  Natural  History,  New 
York.  There  he  worked  on  the  James  Hall  col- 
lection of  fossils,  labeling,  arranging,  and  in- 
stalling the  specimens,  an  undertaking  covering 
many  years  of  effort.  During  the  thirty-two 
years  of  his  curatorship  he  identified  and  classi- 
fied vast  quantities  of  fossil  material  from  other 
sources  as  well.  His  entries  were  made  in  long- 
hand in  six  large  quarto  volumes,  four  of 
them  devoted  to  American  and  two  to  foreign 
species.  Through  his  efforts,  a  catalogue  of  the 
8,000  types  and  figured  specimens  in  the  museum 


T34 


Whiting 

collection  was  prepared  and  published  as  Vol- 
ume XI  (1898)  of  the  Bulletin  of  the  American 
Museum  of  Natural  History.  The  Bulletin  itself 
had  been  established  in  1881  largely  as  a  result 
of  Whitfield's  urgings,  and  he  was  a  frequent 
contributor  to  it.  His  carefully  prepared  scien- 
tific papers  number  more  than  a  hundred.  Some 
of  these  were  short,  others  monographic.  Apart 
from  his  work  on  the  New  York  collections,  he 
found  time  to  study  and  describe  the  fossils  col- 
lected by  Clarence  King's  survey  of  the  fortieth 
parallel,  by  Walter  B.  Jenney's  and  William  Lud- 
low's expeditions  to  the  Black  Hills  of  South 
Dakota,  and  the  collection  assembled  by  the  geo- 
logical surveys  of  New  Jersey,  Ohio,  Indiana, 
and  Wisconsin.  He  was  a  fellow  of  the  American 
Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science  and 
of  the  Geological  Society  of  America,  and  a  mem- 
ber of  many  other  scientific  societies. 

Although  Whitfield  was  not  of  robust  phy- 
sique, he  was  generally  in  good  health,  and,  be- 
ing systematic  in  his  habits  and  punctilious  in 
his  attentions  to  duty,  he  accomplished  an  im- 
mense amount  of  work  during  the  eighty-two 
years  of  his  life.  He  was  quiet,  reserved,  and  un- 
ostentatious, and  so  devoted  to  his  chosen  sci- 
ence that  he  usually  spent  his  short  vacations  in 
the  field,  collecting.  His  associations  with  the 
objects  that  he  loved,  and  which  he  conscien- 
tiously and  unremittingly  studied,  remained  un- 
broken to  the  end.  The  thousands  of  beautiful 
drawings  and  descriptions  which  he  made  are 
indelibly  impressed  upon  the  pages  of  science. 
In  December  1909,  after  more  than  thirty-two 
years  in  the  American  Museum,  he  was  made 
curator  emeritus.  He  died  after  a  lingering  ill- 
ness of  several  weeks  at  Troy,  N.  Y.,  and  was 
buried  in  Rural  Cemetery  at  Albany,  not  far 
from  the  graves  of  Ebenezer  Emmons  [q.v.]  and 
James  Hall.  He  was  survived  by  his  son,  James 
Edward  Whitfield,  a  chemist. 

[Sources  include  information  from  Adam  Bruckner, 
Whitfield's  assistant ;  catalogue  records  and  yearbooks 
of  the  Am.  Museum,  1875-1909  ;  Who's  Who  in  Amer- 
ica, 1910-11  ;  L.  P.  Gratacap,  in  Science,  May  20,  1910, 
and  in  Annals  N.  Y.  Acad,  of  Sciences,  vol.  XX,  pt.  Ill 
(1910),  with  portrait  and  bibliog.  by  L.  Hussakof  ;  Am. 
Jour.  Sci.,  June  1910  ;  E.  O.  Hovey,  in  Am.  Museum 
Jour.,  May  1910,  with  portrait;  J.  M.  Clarke,  in  Bull. 
Geological  Soc.  of  America,  Mar.  191 1,  with  portrait; 
obituary  in  Albany  Evening  Jour.,  Apr.  7,  1910.] 

C.  A.  R. 

WHITING,  CHARLES  GOODRICH  (Jan. 
30,  1842-June  20,  1922),  journalist,  son  of  Cal- 
vin and  Mary  R.  (Goodrich)  Whiting,  was  born 
in  St.  Albans,  Vt.,  but  spent  his  boyhood  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Holyoke,  Mass.,  where  his  fa- 
ther, an  expert  in  paper-making,  was  long  in 
business.   He  attended  the  high  school  in  Chico- 


Whiting 


pee  Falls,  and  for  a  few  years  in  his  later  teens 
and  early  twenties  was  miscellaneously  employed 
in  paper-making,  farming,  and  clerking  in  coun- 
try stores.  At  the  age  of  twenty-six  he  joined 
the  staff  of  the  Springfield  Republican,  which 
under  the  exacting  editorship  of  the  second  Sam- 
uel Bowles  [q.v.]  was  already  notable  as  a 
"school  for  journalists."  Unlike  many  of  his 
colleagues  Whiting  did  not  leave  the  paper  after 
a  period  of  training;  with  the  exception  of  an 
interval  of  about  eighteen  months,  he  remained 
in  Springfield  for  more  than  fifty  years.  As  a 
young  reporter  Whiting,  with  his  lifelong  friend 
Edward  Smith  King  \_q.v.~\,  was  first  assigned 
to  the  Evening  Nezvs,  a  subsidiary  of  the  Repub- 
lican which  Bowles  discontinued  after  a  short 
trial.  Whiting  then  left  Springfield  to  become 
assistant  editor  of  the  Albany  Evening  Times. 
In  November  1872  he  was  recalled  to  the  Repub- 
lican, first  as  head  of  the  local  department,  but 
from  1874  as  literary  editor.  He  also  served  as 
art  critic  and  general  editorial  writer.  In  1910 
he  resigned  the  literary  desk  to  become  associate 
editor  of  the  newspaper,  and  in  that  capacity  he 
continued  until  his  retirement  in  19 19. 

Whiting  was  fortunate  in  being  trained  for 
his  work  in  a  discriminating  school  where  his 
intelligence,  wide  culture,  and  gift  of  style  were 
early  recognized.  Nevertheless,  before  he  be- 
came literary  editor  he  underwent  a  thorough 
initiation  in  general  newspaper  work.  As  local 
editor,  with  three  other  members  of  the  over- 
worked staff,  he  personally  covered  the  Wil- 
liamsburg flood  in  May  1874,  and  secured  for 
his  paper  in  record  time  a  notably  complete  and 
vivid  story  of  the  disaster  (Griffin,  post,  116  ff.). 
At  the  literary  desk  he  brought  independent 
judgment  and  fine  insight  to  the  routine  work 
of  book-reviewing.  But  his  most  widely  appre- 
ciated contributions  to  the  Republican  were  his 
editorial  essays  on  general  topics,,  particularly 
on  country  life,  the  pageant  of  the  seasons,  and 
the  charms  of  the  local  landscape.  Two  collec- 
tions of  these  pieces  were  published  in  book 
form  as  The  Saunterer  (1886)  and  Walks  in 
New  England  (1903). 

In  the  literary  life  of  Springfield  and  in  the 
promotion  of  civic  aims  Whiting  took  a  promi- 
nent part.  He  was  a  kindly  adviser  of  younger 
writers  and  journalists,  a  chronicler  of  local 
history,  and  a  poet  on  numerous  public  occa- 
sions, notably  on  the  dedication  of  the  Soldiers' 
Monument  (1885),  the  celebration  of  the  found- 
ing of  Springfield  (1911),  the  opening  of  the 
Auditorium  (1913),  and  the  dedication  of  tin- 
Municipal  Buildings  (1913).  His  literary  dis- 
tinction was  recognized  by  his  election  to  the 


135 


Whiting 


Whiting 


National  Institute  of  Arts  and  Letters.  He  was 
married  on  June  12,  1869,  to  Eliza  Rose  Gray 
of  Adams,  Mass.  He  died  at  his  country  home 
in  Otis,  Mass.,  survived  by  his  wife  and  their 
two  children. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1922-23;  G.  S.  Merriam, 
The  Life  and  Times  of  Samuel  Bowles  (2  vols.,  1885)  ; 
S.  B.  Griffin,  People  and  Politics  (1923);  Richard 
Hooker,  The  Story  of  an  Independent  Neivspaper 
(1924)  ;  obituary  and  editorial  in  Springfield  Republi- 
can, June  21,  1922.]  G.  F.  W. 

WHITING,  GEORGE  ELBRIDGE  (Sept. 
14,  1840-Oct.  14,  1923),  organist,  composer, 
was  born  in  Holliston,  Mass.,  the  son  of  Nathan 
P.  and  Olive  (Chase)  Whiting.  He  early 
showed  his  talent  for  music  and  when  he  was 
five  years  of  age  he  commenced  musical  studies 
with  his  brother  Amos.  As  a  boy  he  played  the 
piano  in  a  concert  at  Worcester,  Mass.,  and  in 
1858  he  became  the  organist  of  the  North  Con- 
gregational Church  in  Hartford.  By  1862  he 
was  in  Boston  playing  the  organ  at  the  Mount 
Vernon  Church,  while  Edward  N.  Kirk  [q.v.] 
was  pastor,  and  occasionally  at  the  Tremont 
Temple.  During  this  period  he  studied  the  or- 
gan with  G.  W.  Morgan,  in  New  York.  In  1863 
he  went  to  England  for  study  with  W.  T.  Best. 
Upon  his  return  to  America,  he  was  in  Albany 
for  three  years  as  organist  of  St.  Joseph's  Church, 
but  thereafter  returned  to  Boston  and  for  five 
years  occupied  the  position  of  organist  and  choir 
director  at  King's  Chapel.  For  a  year  he  was  or- 
ganist at  the  Music  Hall.  In  1867  he  was  mar- 
ried to  Helen  Aldrich  of  Worcester,  Mass.,  and 
in  1874  went  abroad  once  more  for  further  study. 
He  worked  in  Berlin  with  Haupt  (harmony)  and 
Radecke  (orchestration).  From  1876  to  1878 
he  was  in  Boston  as  organist  of  the  Church  of 
the  Immaculate  Conception,  principal  instructor 
of  organ  at  the  New  England  Conservatory  of 
Music,  and  conductor  of  the  Foster  Club.  By 
this  time  his  reputation  was  well  established  na- 
tionally, and  in  1878  Theodore  Thomas  appoint- 
ed him  head  of  the  organ  and  composition  de- 
partment of  the  College  of  Music  in  Cincinnati, 
Ohio.  He  remained  in  Cincinnati  until  1882, 
when  he  returned  to  Boston  to  take  up  once 
more  his  duties  at  the  New  England  Conserva- 
tory and  to  become  organist  and  music  director 
of  the  Church  of  the  Immaculate  Conception. 
He  remained  at  the  Conservatory  until  1898,  and 
at  the  Immaculate  Conception  until  1910.  He 
died  at  Cambridge,  Mass. 

Whiting  was  a  prolific  composer  and  published 
many  works.  Among  them  were  a  choral  march, 
"Our  Country,"  composed  for  the  inauguration 
of  President  Taft  in  1909:  four  concert-etudes 
for  organ;  a  "Grand  Sonata"  for  organ;  Twcn- 

136 


ty  Preludes  and  Postludes  for  Organ  (two  vol- 
umes) ;  a  cantata,  The  Tale  of  the  Viking,  with 
words  taken  from  Longfellow ;  five  masses  on 
plain-chant  melodies,  and  many  smaller  works 
for  organ  as  well  as  anthems  and  part-songs  for 
chorus.  He  was  one  of  the  foremost  organists 
of  his  time,  ranking  with  Clarence  Eddy,  Har- 
rison M.  Wild,  Henry  M.  Dunham  [q.v.~\.  Al- 
though his  compositions  are  little  performed  to- 
day, he  had  an  important  part  in  developing  the 
art  of  organ-playing  in  the  United  States  and  in 
adding  his  contribution  to  the  American  litera- 
ture of  music  for  that  instrument. 

[In  Who's  Who  in  America,  1922-23,  Whiting  gives 
1842  as  the  year  of  his  birth  ;  however,  the  Vital  Rec- 
ords of  Holliston,  Mass.  (1908)  provide  1840  as  the 
official  date.  For  other  biographical  data  consult : 
Baker's  Biog.  Diet,  of  Musicians  (3rd  ed.,  1919)  ; 
Grove's  Diet,  of  Music  and  Musicians,  vol.  V  (3rd  ed., 
1928)  ;  J.  T.  Howard,  Our  Am.  Music  (1931)  ;  A  Hun- 
dred Years  of  Music  in  America  (1889),  ed.  by  W.  S. 
B.  Mathews  ;  E.  E.  Truette,  "Two  American  Organ- 
ists and  Composers,"  Musician,  May  1910;  Choir  and 
Choral  Mag.,  Jan.  1903  ;  Boston  Evening  Transcript, 
Oct.  15,  1923.]  J.  T.  H. 

WHITING,  WILLIAM  HENRY  CHASE 

(Mar.  22,  1824-Mar.  10,  1865),  Confederate  sol- 
dier, was  descended  from  the  Rev.  Samuel  Whit- 
ing who  arrived  in  Boston,  Mass.,  May  26,  1636, 
and  soon  settled  in  Lynn.  Although  William  was 
born  in  Biloxi,  Miss.,  his  parents,  Levi  and  Mary 
A.  Whiting,  were  of  Massachusetts  origin.  His 
father  was  lieutenant-colonel,  1st  Artillery,  Unit- 
ed States  Army.  William  was  prepared  for  col- 
lege in  Boston  and  graduated  first  in  his  class  at 
Georgetown  College,  D.  C,  in  1840.  At  West 
Point,  in  a  class  (1845)  which  included  Fitz- 
John  Porter,  E.  Kirby-Smith,  and  Gordon 
Granger  [qq.z>.~\,  he  established  the  highest  grad- 
uate standing  that  had  ever  been  attained  at  the 
Military  Academy.  Appointed  second  lieutenant, 
Corps  of  Engineers,  July  1,  1845,  he  supervised 
river  and  harbor  improvements  and  the  construc- 
tion of  fortifications  in  the  South  and  in  Cali- 
fornia until  1861,  working  for  two  years  (1856- 
57)  on  the  Cape  Fear  River,  North  Carolina. 
During  this  period  he  married  Kate  D.  Walker, 
daughter  of  Maj.  John  Walker,  of  Smith ville 
and  Wilmington.  He  was  promoted  first  lieu- 
tenant, Mar.  16,  1853,  and  captain,  Dec.  13,  1858, 
but  resigned  Feb.  20,  1861,  to  enter  the  Confed- 
erate service  as  a  major. 

After  planning  new  defenses  for  Charleston 
harbor  and  Morris  Island,  he  joined  Johnston's 
Army  of  the  Shenandoah  as  chief  engineer.  He 
arranged  the  transfer  of  this  army  to  Manassas, 
where  he  was  promoted  brigadier-general  on  the 
field  by  President  Davis  (Davis'  order,  quoted 
by  C.  B.  Denson,  post,  p.  15).  After  tempo- 
rarily commanding  Gen.  Gustavus  W.  Smith's 


Whitim 


Whitlock 


division  at  Seven  Pines,  May  31,  1862,  he  re- 
ceived a  division  permanently.  At  his  sugges- 
tion, adopted  by  General  Lee  (Ibid.,  p.  21 ),  early 
in  June  his  troops  reinforced  Gen.  Thomas  J. 
Jackson  [q.v.~\  in  the  Valley.  Returning  to 
Richmond  with  Jackson,  Whiting's  division  at 
Gaines's  Mill  pierced  the  center  of  Fitz-John 
Porter's  strong  position  in  a  charge  character- 
ized by  "Stonewall"  as  an  "almost  matchless 
display  of  daring  and  valor"  {Official  Records, 
post,  1  ser.,  vol.  XI,  pt.  2,  p.  556).  After  fight- 
ing at  Malvern  Hill,  he  took  command  in  No- 
vember 1862  of  the  military  district  of  Wilming- 
ton, N.  C.  Whiting  made  the  Cape  Fear  River 
the  besf  haven  in  the  South  for  blockade  run- 
ners, and  developed  Fort  Fisher,  at  the  river's 
mouth,  into  the  most  powerful  defensive  work  of 
the  Confederacy.  Appointed  a  major-general 
to  rank  from  Feb.  28,  1863,  he  was  suddenly 
called,  in  May  1864,  to  take  command  at  Peters- 
burg, Va.  Ill,  and  unfamiliar  with  the  situation, 
he  failed  to  execute  his  part  of  Beauregard's 
plan  for  accomplishing  the  capture  of  Butler's 
army  at  Drewry's  Bluff.  Beauregard  generous- 
ly overlooked  the  error  (Ibid.,  1  ser.,  vol. 
XXXVI,  pt.  2,  pp.  260-61),  and,  at  his  own  re- 
quest, Whiting  returned  to  Wilmington. 

Late  in  December  a  federal  fleet  of  fifty-five 
warships  bombarded  Fort  Fisher.  Little  dam- 
age resulted  and  the  fleet  departed,  only  to  re- 
turn on  Jan.  13,  1865,  and  disembark  a  force  of 
8,000  troops.  General  Bragg  was  ordered  to 
Wilmington,  depriving  Whiting  of  the  defense 
of  a  stronghold  which  he  had  safeguarded  for 
nearly  three  years.  Convinced  that  Fort  Fisher 
would  be  sacrificed,  Whiting  repaired  thither, 
refusing  command  but  heroically  aiding  Colonel 
Lamb  in  its  defense.  After  an  unprecedented 
naval  bombardment,  the  Union  forces  on  Jan.  15 
assaulted  the  shattered  earthworks.  Neither  re- 
inforced nor  assisted  by  exterior  diversions,  the 
garrison  of  1,900  men  was  overwhelmed  and 
captured.  General  Whiting,  badly  wounded,  was 
conveyed  to  Fort  Columbus,  Governor's  Island, 
N.  Y.,  where  on  Mar.  10  he  died  of  his  injuries. 

Below  average  height,  Whiting  was,  never- 
theless, of  martial  bearing,  handsome,  and  sin- 
ewy. He  was  idolized  by  his  troops,  who  affec- 
tionately called  him  "Little  Billy."  At  his  best 
a  skilful  and  dynamic  commander,  unfortunately, 
as  at  Drewry's  Bluff,  he  did  not  always  prove 
equal  to  that  best ;  but  his  contemporaries,  South- 
ern and  Northern  alike,  honored  him  as  a  bril- 
liant engineer,  a  dauntless  soldier,  and  a  cour- 
teous gentleman. 

[William  Whiting,  Memoir  of  Rev.  Samuel  Whit- 
ing (1873);  War  of  the  Rebellion:  Official  Records 
(Army)  ;  C.  B.  Denson,  An  Address  .  .  .  Containing  a 


Memoir  of  the  Late  Maj.-Gcn.  William  Henry  Chase 
Whiting  (1895)  ;  James  Sprunt,  Chronicles  of  the  Cape 
Fear  River,  1660-1916  (1916);  G.  F.  R.  Henderson, 
Stonewall  Jackson  and  the  Am.  Civil  War  (1898); 
C.  A.  Evans,  Confederate  Mil.  Hist.  (1899);  Battles 
and  Leaders  of  the  Civil  War  (4  vols.,  1887-88)  ;  N.  Y. 
Times,  Mar.  11,  1865.]  T.M.H. 

WHITLOCK,  BRAND  (Mar.  4,  1869-May 
24,  1934),  writer,  mayor,  diplomat,  was  born  at 
Urbana,  Ohio  (the  Macochee  of  his  stories),  the 
son  of  the  Rev.  Elias  D.  and  Mallie  (Brand) 
Whitlock.  From  his  maternal  grandfather  he 
perhaps  inherited  more  than  his  name.  Maj.  Jo- 
seph Carter  Brand,  a  Kentuckian  with  roots  in 
Virginia  and  Jacobite  Scotland,  had  freed  his 
slaves,  moved  to  Ohio,  entered  the  law,  played  a 
part  in  Abolitionist  politics  and  in  the  Civil  War, 
served  as  consul  at  Niirnberg  and  mayor  four 
times  of  Urbana.  The  grandson's  revolt  led  him 
at  eighteen  into  free  trade  and  Democracy.  He 
attended  high  school  in  Toledo,  whither  his  fam- 
ily had  moved,  but  did  not  proceed  to  college. 
Six  years  of  journalism  in  Toledo  (1887-90) 
and  Chicago  (1891-93)  were  his  higher  educa- 
tion of  experience.  He  married  at  twenty-three 
and  lost  his  wife  four  months  later.  He  made 
friendships  that  shaped  the  rest  of  his  life.  When 
John  Peter  Altgeld  \_q.v.]  became  governor  of 
Illinois,  he  invited  Whitlock  to  be  his  secretary. 
Whitlock  declined,  in  doubt  of  the  destiny  of  sec- 
retaries to  the  great,  preferring  a  humbler  clerk- 
ship in  the  Secretary  of  State's  office  at  Spring- 
field (1893-97).  Thus  it  befell  him  in  1893  to 
make  out  in  secret  for  Altgeld  the  pardons  of  the 
last  three  prisoners  of  the  Haymarket  riots  of 
1886,  and  to  share  in  the  ensuing  commotion. 
During  this  stormy  interlude  he  also  read  law 
with  Gen.  John  M.  Palmer  [q.v.],  was  admitted 
to  the  Illinois  bar  in  1894,  and  married  Ella 
Brainerd  of  Springfield  on  June  8,  1895.  In  1897, 
after  passing  examinations  for  the  Ohio  bar,  he 
opened  an  office  in  Toledo. 

An  ironic  experience  determined  him  never 
again  to  act  for  the  prosecution.  This  gave  him 
leisure  for  his  first  novel,  The  13th  District 
(1902),  portraying  the  moral  disintegration  of 
a  candidate.  Meanwhile  he  became  attorney  for 
a  humane  society,  a  relation  which  cemented  a 
friendship  with  Mayor  "Golden  Rule"  Jones  and 
drew  Whitlock  into  the  neo-democratic  move- 
ment of  the  town  and  the  day.  In  the  absence  of 
the  regular  incumbent,  Jones  often  deputed  him 
to  sit  as  city  magistrate,  thus  quickening  his  sym- 
pathy for  the  thoughtless  or  unwitting  victim 
of  the  law  and  arming  him  for  his  long  crusade 
in  favor  of  a  humanized  legal  procedure,  for 
prison  reform,  against  capital  punishment.  As 
Jones's  most  trusted  legal  adviser  he  acquired 


137 


Whit  lock 


Whitman 


renown  by  winning  a  suit,  in  reversal  of  a  for- 
mer state  supreme  court  decision,  that  restored 
the  Toledo  police  to  the  mayor's  control  (Forty 
Years  of  It,  pp.  135-36).  In  1904  Jones  died. 
Whitlock  was  thereupon,  in  1905,  elected  to  suc- 
ceed him,  on  a  home-rule,  non-partisan,  anti- 
monopoly  platform.  He  served  four  two-year 
terms,  announcing  after  his  last  election  (1911) 
that  he  would  not  run  again. 

On  Dec.  22,  1913,  he  became  American  minis- 
ter to  Belgium,  retiring  to  the  legation  at  Brus- 
sels for  a  well-earned  repose.  He  had  time  to 
publish  Forty  Years  of  It  (1914),  the  record  of 
his  adventures  in  liberalism.  The  outbreak  of 
the  World  War  then  drove  him  into  more  spec- 
tacular adventures.  He  was  fortunate  in  having 
for  a  colleague  an  old  friend  and  remarkable 
man,  the  Spanish  Marques  de  Villalobar.  The 
two  remained  in  Brussels  after  the  exodus  of  the 
government,  persuaded  the  burghers  into  non- 
resistance,  resisted  the  invaders  on  countless  oc- 
casions themselves,  but  performed  countless  serv- 
ices for  individuals.  Whitlock's  reports  on  Edith 
Cavell  excited  intense  irritation  in  Berlin,  as  did 
his  protests  against  the  deportations,  while  the 
troubles  of  the  Commission  for  Relief  in  Bel- 
igum  beset  his  pillow  with  thorns.  If  he  was 
not  handed  his  passports  long  before  he  asked 
for  them,  it  was  partly  because  his  had  been 
the  official  credit  of  repatriating  91,000  Germans 
in  four  August  nights  of  1914.  But  his  presence 
in  Brussels  facilitated,  alike  for  friend  and  foe, 
the  immense  task  of  organizing  the  distribution 
of  food  among  the  civil  population  of  Belgium 
and  the  occupied  zone  in  France.  Although  he 
was  offered  in  1916  the  embassy  to  Petrograd, 
he  chose  to  follow  the  Belgian  government  into 
exile  near  Le  Havre.  After  the  war  the  Bel- 
gians overwhelmed  him  with  honors.  Raised  on 
Sept.  30,  1919,  to  the  rank  of  ambassador,  he  re- 
signed in  1922.  His  last  twelve  years  of  broken 
health  were  spent  chiefly  in  Brussels  and  on  the 
Riviera.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  he  upon  whom 
the  clergy  had  once  looked  askance  ended  his  life 
as  a  devout  Episcopalian.  He  died  under  an 
operation  at  Cannes,  where  is  his  grave. 

It  would  be  unjust  to  say  that  Whitlock  was 
made  by  the  war.  In  Toledo  he  was  likewise  ob- 
served to  acquit  himself  with  humanity,  dignity, 
and  courage.  Not  only  did  he  insist  upon  a  fair 
deal  for  the  working  man,  liberalize  the  admin- 
istration of  justice,  keep  the  city  government  free 
of  graft,  and  break  an  ice  monopoly  that  weighed 
upon  the  poor,  he  fought  and  won  a  resounding 
battle  against  the  local  power  and  traction  in- 
terests. His  record  as  mayor,  which  attracted 
nation-wide  attention,  brought  him  in  1913  the 

■38 


gold  medal  of  the  National  Institute  of  Social 
Sciences.  By  that  time  he  had  published  eight 
books,  including  his  most  considered  novel,  The 
Turn  of  the  Balance  (1907),  and  an  essay,  On 
the  Enforcement  of  Law  in  Cities  ( 1910),  which 
grieved  the  conventional  reformer.  His  Bel- 
gium: A  Personal  Record  (2  vols.,  1919,  issued 
in  various  editions  and  translations),  being  of 
the  stuff  of  history,  is  doubtless  his  best-known 
work.  He  later  completed  the  novel  begun  in 
1914,  /.  Hardin  &  Son  (1923),  and  brought  out 
seven  more  books  before  his  death.  Of  these  the 
most  elaborate  is  La  Fayette  (2  vols.,  1929),  and 
the  last,  The  Stranger  on  the  Island  (1933). 
His  fiction,  preoccupied  as  much  of  it  is  with  the 
technique  of  justice,  illustrates  what  he  called 
his  vacillation  between  letters  and  politics  (For- 
ty Years  of  It,  p.  86).  He  does  not  belong  to  the 
strictest  sect  of  the  realists,  nor  is  his  style  in 
the  astringent  taste  of  the  years  after  the  war. 
Be  it  recorded  of  him  nevertheless  that  while 
practising  law,  governing  a  city,  coping  with 
invaders,  and  enduring  a  painful  disease,  he  had 
the  fortitude  to  produce  eighteen  books. 

[Whitlock  left  a  fairly  complete  record  of  his  own 
life  in  Forty  Years  of  It  and  Belgium.  For  the  Belgian 
period,  see  Correspondence  with  the  United  States  Am- 
bassador Respecting  the  Execution  of  Miss  Cavell  at 
Brussels,  Command  Paper  8013  (1015);  a  pamphlet. 
The  Deportations :  Statement  by  the  American  Minister 
to  Belgium  (19 17);  Papers  Relating  to  the  Foreign 
Relations  of  the  United  States,  1918,  supp.  2  (1933), 
and  1920,  vols.  I,  II  (1935-36),  containing  a  few  of 
his  dispatches.  See  also  Who's  Who  in  America,  1932- 
33  ;  obituaries  and  comments  in  Toledo  N civs-Bee,  May 
24,  25,  1934;  N.  Y.  Times,  May  25,  27,  1934;  Publish- 
ers' Weekly,  June  2,  1934;  Survey  (N.  Y.),  June  1934.] 

H.  G.  D— t. 

WHITMAN,  ALBERY  ALLSON  (May  30. 
1851-June  29,  1901),  poet  and  clergyman  of  the 
African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  was  born 
in  slavery  in  Hart  County,  Ky.,  near  Mumfords- 
ville.  His  mother  died  in  1862,  less  than  a  year 
before  he  was  set  free ;  his  father  died  just  after 
emancipation.  After  the  farm  drudgery  of  his 
slave  boyhood,  he  became  an  itinerant  manual 
laborer  in  shops  and  on  the  railroad  in  Kentucky 
and  southern  Ohio.  His  schooling  was  brief — 
probably  about  seven  scattered  months.  He 
taught  school  in  Ohio  and  Kentucky  for  short 
periods,  and  finally  entered  Wilberforce  Univer- 
sity, where  he  remained  for  six  months  under 
the  instruction  of  the  Rev.  Daniel  Alexander 
Payne  [g.?'.].  After  publishing  Essays  on  the 
Ten  Plagues  and  Miscellaneous  Poems,  he  re- 
turned to  Wilberforce  and  brought  out  in  1873 
his  second  work,  Leclah  Misled,  He  was  not  a 
graduate  of  Wilberforce  but  was  officially  con- 
nected with  the  school  for  a  number  of  years. 
In  1877,  when  an  elder  of  the  African  Methodist 


Whitman 


Whitman 


Episcopal  Church  and  financial  agent  of  Wil- 
berforce,  he  published,  in  the  interests  of  Wil- 
berforce,  Not  a  Man  and  Yet  a  Man,  with  a 
group  of  miscellaneous  poems.  In  1884  appeared 
The  Rape  of  Florida,  later  issued  under  the  name 
of  Tzuasinta's  Seminoles.  His  duties  as  pastor 
carried  him  from  Ohio  to  Kansas,  Texas,  and 
Georgia.  He  was  influential  in  establishing  many 
churches.  His  last  work  was  An  Idyl  of  the 
South  ( 1901 ) ,  comprising  two  fairly  long  poems, 
"The  Octoroon"  and  "The  Southland's  Charms 
and  Freedom's  Magnitude."  He  died  in  Atlanta, 
Ga. 

Whitman's  poetry  is  essentially  imitative.  His 
Lcclah  Misled  is  consciously  Byronic ;  Not  a 
Man  and  Yet  a  Man  is  a  medley  of  derivations ; 
Twasinta's  Seminoles  recalls  Byron  and  Tenny- 
son. The  shorter  poems,  humorous,  sentimental, 
and  topical  commentaries,  rely  frequently  on 
models  such  as  Bryant  and  Whittier,  and  strive 
for  "literary"  effect.  Although  he  chose  sub- 
jects of  scope  and  enduring  appeal,  and  was  con- 
cerned chiefly  with  tragedies  afflicting  either 
characters  of  mixed  blood  or  the  fast-vanishing 
Indian,  his  narratives  suffer  from  digressions 
and  incoherence.  The  incidents  are  melodra- 
matic, the  characters  sentimental  stereotypes  of 
"blood  and  tears"  romances.  "The  Freedman's 
Triumphant  Song"  and  "The  Southland's  Charm 
and  Freedom's  Magnitude"  are  intellectually  un- 
impressive, phrasing  the  conventional  insistences 
upon  the  negro's  patriotism,  optimism,  and  de- 
serts. But  in  spite  of  lapses  of  diction,  tech- 
nique, and  taste,  Whitman's  poetry  is  fluent,  and 
his  love  for  nature  seems  real  and  unforced. 
His  reading,  which  was  wide  for  a  man  of  such 
scanty  educational  opportunities,  bears  witness 
both  to  a  genuine  love  for  the  English  poets  and 
to  a  great  aspiration  for  self-improvement.  Any 
estimate  of  his  work  must  remain  historical. 
His  Twasinta's  Seminoles  was  the  first  poem  in 
Spenserian  stanza  and  his  Not  a  Man  and  Yet 
a  Man  one  of  the  longest  poems  attempted  by 
a  man  of  color.  He  was  the  .most  considerable 
poet  of  his  race  before  Paul  Lawrence  Dunbar 
[q.v.~\  in  bulk  and  in  familiarity  with  poetic 
models,  but  his  distinction  is  one  of  ambition 
rather  than  achievement. 

[The  best  biog.  sources  are  the  prefaces,  generally 
autobiog.,  of  Whitman's  publications,  especially  that  of 
Leclah  Misled.  See  also  D.  W.  Culp,  Twentieth  Cen- 
tury Negro  Lit.  (1902);  J.  T.  Jenifer,  Hist,  of  the 
African  M.  E.  Church  (1916)  ;  D.  A.  Payne,  Recollec- 
tions of  Sanity  Years  (1888)  ;  W.  J.  Simmons,  Men 
of  Mark  (1887)  ;  and  Vernon  Loggins,  The  Negro  Au- 
thor, His  Development  in  America  (1931),  which  con- 
tains the  best  critical  discussion  of  Whitman's  poetry. 
Other  information,  including  the  date  of  death,  has 
been  supplied  by  Arthur  Schomburg  and  Lawrence  Jor- 
dan of  the  N.  Y.  Pub.  Lib.]  S.  A.B. 


WHITMAN,  CHARLES  OTIS  (Dec.  14, 
1842-Dec.  6,  1910),  biologist,  was  born  in  North 
Woodstock,  Me.,  the  son  of  Joseph  and  Marcia 
(Leonard)  Whitman.  His  ancestry  was  strictly 
New  England  and  Puritan.  He  was  a  descendant 
of  John  Whitman  who  settled  in  Weymouth, 
Mass.,  about  1638.  There  is  evidence  all  along 
the  line  of  his  ancestors  of  great  persistence  and 
obstinacy  of  conviction  and  belief.  His  father, 
a  carriage-builder  by  trade,  was  a  Second  Ad- 
ventist  of  the  hardest  kind.  His  mother  was 
also  of  New  England  stock.  His  early  environ- 
ment was  the  New  England  small  town  and  coun- 
tryside, his  grandfather's  farm,  the  open  coun- 
try and  the  woods ;  his  early  education  was  in 
the  local  schools.  As  a  boy  he  was  not  interest- 
ed in  usual  sports,  but  was  studious,  quiet,  and 
rather  diffident.  His  avocations,  ornithology  and 
taxidermy,  indicated  at  an  early  age  that  zoology 
was  to  be  the  ruling  interest  of  his  life.  He  broke 
with  his  father's  religion  and  was  regarded  as 
an  unbeliever.  He  entered  Bowdoin  College  as  a 
sophomore  in  1865,  and  his  commencement  ad- 
dress delivered  in  1868,  "Free  Inquiry,"  was 
good  evidence  of  an  unfettered  mind. 

From  1868  to  1872  he  was  principal  of  West- 
ford  Academy,  and  then  taught  for  two  years  in 
the  Boston  English  High  School.  In  the  sum- 
mers of  1873  and  1874,  however,  he  attended 
Agassiz'  summer  school  of  natural  history  on 
the  Island  of  Penikese,  and  then  definitely  com- 
mitted himself  to  scientific  pursuits  by  going 
to  the  University  of  Leipzig  to  study  for  three 
years  under  the  great  teacher  of  zoology,  Leuck- 
art.  He  received  there  the  Ph.D.  degree.  Short- 
ly after  his  return  to  America  he  was  appointed 
to  succeed  Edward  S.  Morse  [q.v.~]  in  the  chair 
of  zoology  in  the  Imperial  University  of  Japan 
at  Tokyo,  and  remained  there  for  a  period  of  two 
years  only.  On  his  way  back  to  America  he  spent 
six  months  in  research  at  the  zoological  station 
of  Naples.  From  1883  to  1885  Whitman  was  as- 
sistant in  zoology  at  the  Museum  of  Compara- 
tive Zoology  at  Harvard  University.  From  1886 
to  1889  he  was  director  of  the  Allis  Lake  Labora- 
tory at  Milwaukee,  Wis.,  from  1889  to  1892  he 
taught  zoology  at  Clark  University,  Worcester, 
Mass.,  and  thereafter  until  the  time  of  his  death 
was  professor  and  head  of  the  department  of 
zoology  in  the  University  of  Chicago.  He  was 
director  of  the  Marine  Biological  Laboratory  at 
Woods  Hole,  Mass.,  from  its  foundation  in  1888 
to  1908. 

Whitman  never  indulged  in  popular  teaching; 
in  Japan  he  had  only  four  students.  They,  how- 
ever, became  the  leaders  of  zoology  in  their 
country.  In  America  he  would  accept  only  a  few 


*39 


Whitman 

research  students  (see  Lillie,  in  Journal  of 
Morphology,  post),  but  he  was,  nevertheless,  a 
great  believer  in  the  vocation  of  the  teacher.  As 
an  investigator  he  was  ceaselessly  active  from 
1875  to  the  time  of  his  death,  although  he  pub- 
lished relatively  few  technical  papers.  At  his 
death  he  left  a  large  accumulation  of  notes  and 
drawings  on  evolution  in  pigeons  which  were 
arranged  and  edited  by  Oscar  Riddle  and  pub- 
lished under  the  title  Posthumous  Il'orks  of  C.  0. 
Whitman  by  the  Carnegie  Institution  of  Wash- 
ington (No.  257,  3  vols.,  1919).  His  main  sci- 
entific contributions  were  in  embryology,  com- 
parative anatomy,  taxonomy,  evolution,  hered- 
ity and  animal  behavior.  His  list  of  more  than 
sixty  publications  (see  Lillie,  Ibid.)  contains  a 
series  of  delightful  essays  on  theoretical  and  his- 
torical biology,  written  in  a  fine,  characteristic, 
polished  style.  To  him  belongs  the  credit  for 
introducing  European  scientific  zoology  into 
America,  founding,  in  1887,  the  Journal  of  Mor- 
phology and  establishing  a  new  standard  for  sci- 
entific publication  in  America.  He  also  edited 
Biological  Lectures  from  1890  to  1899,  and,  with 
M.  M.  Wheeler,  the  Zoological  Bulletin,  1897- 
99.  In  1890  he  took  the  leading  part  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  American  Morphological  Soci- 
ety, which  became  in  1902  the  American  Society 
of  Zoologists.  The  planning  of  the  Marine  Bio- 
logical Laboratory  was  done  on  a  national  scale 
and  he  was  successful  in  securing  the  coopera- 
tion of  the  leading  biologists  of  the  United  States. 
The  Laboratory  became  an  ideal  station  repre- 
senting all  biological  interests,  available  to  and 
governed  by  all  the  biologists  of  the  country,  and 
Whitman  endowed  the  institution  with  original 
and  unique  features  of  organization  that  have 
stood  the  test  of  time.  He  was  a  member  of  the 
National  Academy  of  Sciences  and  a  fellow  of 
the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement 
of  Science. 

Whitman's  appearance  commanded  attention 
for  he  had  many  distinctive  characteristics.  Be- 
fore forty  his  hair  turned  completely  white  while 
his  beard  remained  dark.  He  had  blue  eyes  of 
startling  brilliance  and  depth,  and  large,  round 
nostrils.  He  was  quietly  courteous  in  manner 
and  very  hospitable  to  scientific  men  although 
he  avoided  all  other  society.  He  never  compro- 
mised a  principle  and  consequently  was  frequent- 
ly involved  in  controversy.  He  died  in  Chicago 
of  pneumonia  contracted  as  a  result  of  exposure, 
and  was  buried  with  simple  ceremony  at  Wood's 
Hole.  He  was  survived  by  his  wife,  Emily  Nunn, 
of  Boston,  to  whom  he  had  been  married  on 
Aug.  15,  1884.   They  had  two  sons. 


Whitman 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1910-11  ;  C.  H.  Farnam, 
Hist,  of  the  Descendants  of  John  Whitman  (1889); 
C.  B.  Davenport,  "The  Personality,  Heredity  and  Work 
of  Charles  Otis  Whitman,"  Am.  Naturalist,  Jan.  1917; 
F.  R.  Lillie,  biographical  articles  in  Science,  Jan.  13, 
191 1,  Univ.  of  Chicago  Mag.,  191 1,  Jour,  of  Morphol- 
ogy, Whitman  Memorial  Vol.,  vol.  XXII  (1911),  No. 
4  (containing  an  account  of  Whitman's  scientific  work 
by  E.  G.  Conklin,  A.  P.  Mathews,  T.  H.  Morgan,  J.  P. 
Moore,  and  Oscar  Riddle)  ;  A.  P.  Mathews,  biograph- 
ical article  in  Science,  Jan.  13,  191 1  ;  E.  S.  Morse,  "Bio- 
graphical Memoir  of  Charles  Otis  Whitman,"  Acad, 
of  Sci.  Biog.  Memoirs,  vol.  VII  (1913);  Tomotaro 
Iwakawa,  Chiyomatsu  Ishikawa,  Katashi  Takahashi, 
articles  in  Japanese  on  Whitman  in  Japan,  Mag.  of 
Zoology  (Tokyo),  vol.  XXIII  (1911);  Oscar  Riddle, 
"A  Note  on  Professor  Whitman's  Unpublished  Work," 
Univ.  of  Chicago  Mag.,  vol.  IV  ;  R.  M.  Strong,  "Some 
Reminiscences  of  the  Late  Professor  C.  O.  Whitman," 
Auk,  Jan.   1912;  Chicago  Daily  News,  Dec.  7,   1910.] 

F.R.L. 

WHITMAN,  EZEKIEL  (Mar.  9,  1776-Aug. 
1,  1866),  representative  in  Congress,  j'urist,  son 
of  Josiah  and  Sarah  (Sturtevant)  Whitman,  and 
descendant  of  John  Whitman  who  settled  in 
Weymouth,  Mass.,  about  1638,  was  born  in 
Bridgewater  (later  East  Bridgewater),  Mass. 
His  father  died  when  he  was  two  years  old.  In 
1783  his  mother  married  again,  and  young  Eze- 
kiel  went  to  live  with  his  uncle,  the  Rev.  Levi 
Whitman  of  Wellfleet,  who  gave  him  a  rudi- 
mentary education.  At  the  age  of  fourteen  he 
prepared  for  college  under  the  Rev.  Kilborn 
Whitman  of  Pembroke,  and  after  fifteen  months' 
study  he  entered  Rhode  Island  College  (later 
Brown  University)  in  1791.  Desperately  poor, 
he  was  compelled  to  leave  college  in  his  senior 
year  through  lack  of  funds.  He  returned  just 
before  commencement  and,  on  passing  his  ex- 
aminations, received  the  degree  of  A.B.  in  1795. 
He  disliked  Latin  and  Greek  but  excelled  in 
other  studies.  Slow  of  speech  and  of  motion,  he 
pursued  an  independent  way,  and,  though  he  was 
eccentric  and  obstinate  at  times,  his  honesty  and 
integrity  brought  him  respect.  When  graduated, 
Whitman  was  without  funds  and  considered 
joining  a  company  of  players  then  performing 
in  Providence,  but  his  friend  Peleg  Chandler 
dissuaded  him  from  this  as  well  as  from  going 
to  sea.  He  then  studied  law,  first  with  Benjamin 
Whitman  of  Hanover  and  then  with  Nahum 
Mitchell  in  his  native  town.  In  1796  he  spent  a 
year  in  Kentucky,  where  he  had  gone  to  settle 
the  estate  of  a  deceased  Bridgewater  citizen.  In 
the  spring  of  1799,  having  been  admitted  to  the 
bar  of  Plymouth  County,  he  decided  to  begin 
the  practice  of  law  in  Maine,  and  set  out  alone  on 
horseback  for  Turner.  In  September  he  removed 
to  New  Gloucester,  where  he  remained  until  Jan- 
uary 1807  with  steadily  increasing  success.  He 
then  removed  to  Portland.  He  was  an  able  jury 
lawyer,  using  simple  and  direct  methods,  elo- 
quent by  reason  of  clarity  and  force,  and  not 


140 


Whit 


man 


through  rhetorical  display.  He  was  a  success- 
ful advocate  for  merchants  presenting  claims 
under  the  treaty  with  Spain  in  1819  and  later 
in  similar  cases  under  the  convention  with 
France  of  July  183 1.  Many  students  studied  in 
his  office,  among  them  Simon  Greenleaf  and 
Albion  K.  Parris  [qq.v.]. 

Though  he  preferred  the  law  to  politics,  he 
served  as  representative  in  Congress  from  Cum- 
berland County,  March  1809  to  March  181 1.  In 
1815  and  1816  he  was  a  member  of  the  executive 
council  of  Massachusetts.  In  1816  he  was  a 
member  of  the  Brunswick  Convention,  which 
met  to  consider  the  separation  of  Maine  from 
Massachusetts.  When  members  tried  by  misin- 
terpreting the  law  to  make  it  seem  that  the  neces- 
sary five-ninths  of  the  voters  had  voted  for  sepa- 
ration, he  vigorously  repudiated  the  action. 
Again  elected  to  Congress  in  1816,  he  served 
three  continuous  terms  (March  1817-June  1822). 
He  defended  the  bill  authorizing  the  appre- 
hension of  foreign  seamen  deserting  from  mer- 
chant ships  in  the  ports  of  the  United  States 
(Annals  of  Congress,  15  Cong.,  2  Sess.,  p.  362). 
He  favored  restrictions  on  slavery  in  Missouri 
but  opposed  the  same  restrictions  in  Arkansas 
(Ibid.,  p.  1274).  He  opposed  Henry  Clay's  suc- 
cessful attempts  to  unite  the  admission  of  Mis^ 
souri  with  that  of  Maine  (Ibid.,  16  Cong.,  1  Sess., 
pp.  836,  1407)  and  voted  against  the  bill  admit- 
ting the  two  states  together  (for  his  defense  see 
M.  Kingsley  and  others,  Address  to  the  People 
of  Maine,  1820).  He  addressed  Congress  fre- 
quently on  the  Florida  question,  strongly  con- 
demning Jackson  for  his  action  there.  In  1819 
he  was  a  member  of  the  convention  which  formed 
a  constitution  for  Maine.  He  resigned  from  Con- 
gress, June  I,  1822,  in  order  to  take  up  his  du- 
ties as  judge  of  the  court  of  common  pleas,  a 
position  to  which  Governor  Parris  had  appoint- 
ed him  on  Feb.  4.  On  Dec.  10,  1841,  he  succeed- 
ed Judge  Nathan  Weston  as  chief  justice  of  the 
supreme  court  of  Maine,  an  office  which  he  filled 
until  Oct.  23,  1848,  when,  under  the  provisions 
of  the  state  constitution,  he  was  compelled  to 
resign.  The  honesty  and  integrity  for  which  he 
was  noted  in  his  youth,  and  later  in  Congress, 
enhanced  his  reputation  as  a  judge.  Though  or- 
dinarily he  was  quiet  and  deliberate,  he  could 
act  quickly  and  vigorously  in  an  emergency.  His 
judicial  opinions  are  to  be  found  in  Maine  Re- 
ports (vols.  XXI-XXIX).  In  1832  he  published 
Memoir  of  John  Whitman  and  His  Descendants. 
His  wife,  Hannah  Mitchell,  fhe  sister  of  his 
legal  instructor,  whom  he  married  Oct.  31,  1799, 
died  after  a  paralytic  shock,  Mar.  28,  1852.  They 
had  a  son  and  two  daughters,  one  of  whom  mar- 


Whitman 

ried  William  Willis,  1794-1870  [q.v.~\.  Left 
lonely  and  desolate  by  his  wife's  death,  in  Octo- 
ber 1852  he  returned  to  East  Bridgewater,  where 
like  many  of  his  family  he  died  at  an  advanced 
age.   He  was  buried  in  Portland. 

[See  Biog.  Dir.  Am.  Cong.  (1928)  ;  William  Willis, 
A  Hist,  of  the  Law,  the  Courts,  and  the  Lawyers  of 
Me.  (1863);  Biog.  Encyc.  of  Me.  of  the  Nineteenth 
Century  (1885)  ;  C.  H.  Farnam,  Hist,  of  the  Descend- 
ants of  John  Whitman  of  Weymouth,  Mass.  (1889)  ; 
Nahum  Mitchell,  Hist,  of  the  Early  Settlement  of 
Bridgewater  (1840);  Charles  Hamlin,  in  Green  Bag, 
Oct.  1895  ;  obituary  notices  in  New  England  Hist,  and 
Gcneal.  Reg.,  Oct.  1866,  Bangor  Daily  Whig  and  Cou- 
rier, Aug.  4,  1866,  and  Daily  Portland  Press,  Aug.  8, 
1866.  Comparison  should  be  made  between  the  biog. 
letter  of  Peleg  Chandler  to  William  Willis,  Aug.  23, 
1843,  and  the  letter  of  Ezekiel  Whitman  to  Willis,  Apr. 
5,  1863  (both  in  the  Willis  MSS.,  colls,  of  the  Me. 
Hist.  Soc.).]  R.E.M. 

WHITMAN,  MARCUS  (Sept.  4,  1802-Nov. 
29,  1847),  physician,  missionary,  pioneer,  was 
born  at  Rushville,  N.  Y.,  the  third  son  of  Beza 
and  Alice  (Green)  Whitman,  both  of  colonial 
New  England  stock.  On  his  father's  side  he  was 
descended  from  John  Whitman  who  settled  at 
Weymouth,  Mass.,  and  was  made  a  freeman  of 
the  colony  in  1638.  Marcus  was  educated  partly 
at  Plainfield,  Mass.,  where  he  lived  in  his  pater- 
nal grandfather's  family;  he  studied  medicine 
under  Dr.  Ira  Bryant  of  Rushville,  began  prac- 
tise, and  in  1832  was  awarded  the  degree  of 
M.D.  by  the  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons 
of  the  Western  District  of  New  York,  at  Fair- 
field, Herkimer  County.  After  eight  years  of 
practise,  four  in  Canada  and  four  at  Wheeler, 
N.  Y.,  Whitman  proffered  his  services  as  "phy- 
sician, teacher,  or  agriculturist"  to  the  American 
Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Missions. 
The  Board  sent  him  to  the  West  in  1835  with 
Rev.  Samuel  Parker  [g.Z'.]  to  make  a  missionary 
reconnaissance  in  Oregon.  From  Green  River, 
where  delegations  of  western  Indians  met  them 
sympathetically,  Whitman  returned  to  the  East 
and  prepared  to  begin  the  Oregon  mission  a  year 
earlier  than  had  been  contemplated. 

In  February  1836,  at  Angelica,  N.  Y.,  he  mar- 
ried Narcissa  Prentiss,  who,  like  himself,  had 
enlisted  under  the  Board.  He  secured  the  Rev. 
Henry  Harmon  Spalding  and  his  wife  and  W. 
H.  Gray,  a  layman,  to  assist  him.  Two  Indian 
boys  he  had  taken  East  helped  to  drive  the  cat- 
tle and  pack-animals.  As  far  as  Green  River  the 
mission  party  traveled  under  the  protection  of 
the  American  Fur  Company.  There  they  fell  in 
with  a  Hudson's  Bay  Company  caravan  which 
lightened  their  way  to  the  lower  Columbia. 
Wagons  had  never  passed  Fort  Hall,  but  Whit- 
man took  a  light  vehicle,  converted  into  a  cart, 
as  far  as  Fort  Boise,  thus  gaining  credit  for 
opening  that  portion  of  the  wagon  road  to  Ore- 


141 


Whitman 


Whitman 


gon.  Taking  white  women  across  the  continent 
to  Oregon  was  a  feat  that  caught  the  popular 
imagination  and  stimulated  emigration  thither. 
The  Whitman  party  reached  Fort  Walla  Walla, 
at  the  junction  of  Walla  Walla  River  with  the 
Columbia,  on  the  first  of  September.  Near  that 
point  Parker  had  selected  a  situation  for  a  mis- 
sion to  the  Cayuses  and  he  had  chosen  others  on 
the  Clearwater  among  the  Nez  Perces  and  on 
the  Spokane  among  the  Flatheads.  The  party 
first  passed  down  the  river  to  Fort  Vancouver 
to  procure  supplies,  then  founded  two  stations, 
Waiilatpu  in  Walla  Walla  Valley  and  Lapwai 
near  the  present  Lewiston,  Idaho.  The  Whit- 
mans and  W.  H.  Gray  remained  at  Waiilatpu, 
the  Spaldings  had  charge  at  Lapwai.  The  Spo- 
kane station  was  not  founded  until  two  years 
later,  after  the  arrival  in  1838  of  two  more  min- 
isters, Cushing  Eells  and  Elkanah  Walker,  with 
their  wives.  The  Methodists  had  begun  a  mis- 
sion on  the  Willamette  in  1834;  the  Catholic 
missions  in  Oregon  were  begun  in  1838. 

For  a  time  the  work  among  the  up-river  In- 
dians went  forward  promisingly.  Mrs.  Spalding 
was  notably  successful  as  a  teacher,  while  Whit- 
man and  Spalding  both  taught  the  Indians  to 
farm  by  means  of  irrigation,  and  to  appreciate 
tame  cattle,  better  housing,  and  some  of  the 
other  amenities  of  civilized  living.  Dissensions 
in  the  missionary  fraternity,  however,  engen- 
dered complaints  to  the  Board,  which,  in  1842, 
ordered  one  of  the  stations  discontinued  and  part 
of  the  force  sent  home.  Whitman  believed  this 
order  might  be  withdrawn  if  proper  representa- 
tions were  made  at  Boston,  and  it  was  for  that 
reason — not,  as  has  been  so  often  asserted,  to 
"save  Oregon"  politically — that  he,  with  the 
consent  of  his  co-workers,  made  the  famous  "win- 
ter ride"  east  in  1842-43.  He  left  Waiilatpu 
Oct.  3,  1842,  on  horseback,  with  a  single  com- 
panion, A.  L.  Lovejoy,  expecting  to  cross  the 
mountains  during  that  month  and  to  reach  St. 
Louis  by  Dec.  1.  This  he  could  readily  have 
done  under  usual  conditions,  but  at  Fort  Hall 
he  learned  that  some  of  the  intervening  tribes 
were  hostile,  and  therefore  turned  south  by 
way  of  Taos  and  Bent's  Fort.  On  that  long  de- 
tour winter  overtook  the  travelers,  who  barely 
escaped  destruction.  Nevertheless,  Whitman 
reached  Boston  early  in  April,  had  a  successful 
interview  with  his  Board,  and  also  visited  Wash- 
ington, where  he  conferred  with  the  secretary 
of  war  and  perhaps  others.  He  accompanied  the 
great  emigration  of  that  year  to  Oregon,  afford- 
ing the  emigrants  much  aid  as  physician  and, 
over  a  portion  of  the  route,  as  guide,  but  he  did 
not  raise  that  emigrating  company  as  has  been 


claimed :  the  "Oregon  fever,"  the  Linn  Land 
Donation  Bill,  and  other  agencies  were  respon- 
sible. 

Whitman's  missionary  outlook,  roseate  for  a 
time,  now  became  discouraging.  Contesting  the 
field  with  the  Catholics,  whose  ceremonialism 
and  pageantry  appealed  strongly  to  the  natives, 
was  no  light  task.  This  was  one  major  difficulty. 
The  presence  among  the  Indians  of  vicious  white 
men  and  half  breeds  was  another  disturbing  fac- 
tor. With  the  passing  of  the  years  Whitman, 
who  had  been  a  friend  of  all  the  Cayuses,  came 
to  be  regarded  by  some  with  coldness  and  even 
malice.  Their  estrangement  was  so  menacing 
that  he  partly  resolved  to  remove  his  family  to 
a  place  of  safety,  but  unfortunately  he  delayed 
too  long,  and  accidental  circumstances  precipi- 
tated a  tragedy.  The  emigrants  of  1847  brought 
the  measles  in  epidemic  form.  Among  the  In- 
dian children  the  disease  proved  virulent.  Whit- 
man's medicine  failed  to  help  them,  though  it 
kept  white  children  alive.  The  terrible  infer- 
ence that  he  was  poisoning  their  children  caused 
the  Cayuse  outbreak,  Nov.  29,  1847,  in  which 
Whitman,  his  wife,  and  twelve  other  persons 
were  atrociously  murdered.  The  Whitman  mas- 
sacre led  to  an  Indian  war,  waged  largely  by  the 
Oregon  settlers,  for  the  punishment  of  the  mur- 
derers. The  news  of  the  tragedy,  carried  to 
Washington  during  the  winter  by  Joseph  L. 
Meek  [q.v.~\,  may  have  hastened  the  passage  of 
the  Oregon  Territory  law,  and  it  certainly 
aroused  general  sympathy  for  the  isolated  com- 
munity on  the  Columbia. 

In  1843  Whitman  was  described  by  Horace 
Greeley  \_q.v.~\  as  "a  noble  pioneer  ...  a  man  fit- 
ted to  be  a  chief  in  rearing  a  moral  empire  among 
the  wild  men  of  the  wilderness"  (New  York 
Tribune,  Mar.  29,  1843).  His  outstanding  traits 
were  vigor,  resourcefulness,  stubborn  determina- 
tion, optimism.  Completely  dedicated  to  his 
cause,  he  discounted  the  multiplying  evidences 
of  failure ;  faith,  zeal,  hopefulness  occasionally 
submerged  judgment.  No  physical  portrait  of 
him  exists,  but  from  reports,  he  may  be  de- 
scribed as  an  ardent  soul  in  an  intensely  dynamic 
body. 

[C.  W.  Smith,  A  Contribution  toward  a  Bibliog.  of 
Marcus  Whitman  (1909),  repr.  from  Wash.  Hist. 
Quart.,  Oct.  1908,  lists  nearly  200  works  ;  E.  G.  Bourne, 
"The  Legend  of  Marcus  Whitman,"  Am.  Hist.  Rev., 
Jan.  1 90 1,  repr.  in  Essays  in  Hist.  Criticism  (1901), 
destroys  the  myth  that  "Whitman  saved  Oregon" ; 
Myron  Eells,  Marcus  Whitman  (1909),  sympathetic, 
but  not  wholly  sound  historically,  contains  the  impor- 
tant letters  and  journal  of  Narcissa  Whitman,  the  orig- 
inals of  which,  with  other  Whitman  sources,  are  owned 
by  the  Ore.  Hist.  Soc.  ;  an  utterly  contrasted  work,  also 
valuable  for  its  documentary  material,  reproduced  in 
part  from  papers  in  the  Congregational  Library,  Bos- 
ton, is  W.  I.  Marshall,  The  Acquisition  of  Oregon  (2 


142 


Whitman 

vols.,  191 1 )  ;  a  concise  general  history  of  the  Whitman 
Mission  is  in  Joseph  Schafer,  A  Hist,  of  the  Pacific 
Northwest  (2nd  ed.,  1918)  ;  see  also  list  of  graduates 
in  Circular  and  Catalogue  of  the  College  of  Physicians 
and  Surgeons  of  the  Western  District  of  the  State  of 
N.Y.  .  .  .  1839-40  (1839)  ;  C.  H.  Farnam,  Hist,  of  the 
Descendants  of  John  Whitman  of  Weymouth,  Mass. 
(1889)  ;  C.  J.  F.  Binney,  The  Hist,  and  Geneal.  of  the 
Prentice  or  Prentiss  Family  (1883)  ;  Trans.  .  .  .  Ore. 
Pioneer  Asso.,  1891  (1893)  and  1893  (1894)  ;  Mission- 
ary Herald,  1835-47.]  J.S. 

WHITMAN,   SARAH   HELEN   POWER 

( Jan.  19,  1803-June  27,  1878),  poet,  was  born  in 
Providence,  R.  I.,  second  of  three  children  of 
Nicholas  and  Anna  (Marsh)  Power.  Her  father 
became  a  sea-faring-  man  and  was  absent  once 
for  a  period  of  nineteen  years,  so  that  the  influ- 
ence of  her  mother  dominated  her  in  practical 
matters  most  of  her  life.  She  attended  private 
school  in  Providence  and  for  a  time,  when  she 
was  residing  with  an  aunt,  Mrs.  Cornelius 
Bogert,  in  Jamaica,  L.  I.  In  her  mature  years 
she  read  widely  in  French,  German,  Spanish, 
and  Italian.  After  her  marriage  to  John  Winslow 
Whitman,  attorney  and  inventor,  at  Jamaica,  on 
July  10,  1828,  she  lived  in  Boston,  but  after  his 
death  in  1833,  she  returned  to  Providence  to  live 
with  her  mother  and  sister.  The  house  on  the 
corner  of  Benefit  and  Church  Streets  was  her 
home  for  more  than  forty  years.  Her  first  poem, 
"Retrospection,"  was  published  in  Mrs.  Sarah  J. 
Hale's  Ladies'  Magazine  in  1829,  with  the  sig- 
nature "Helen."  For  the  remainder  of  her  life 
she  contributed  to  various  magazines  verses  and 
articles  on  religious  and  literary  topics.  She  was 
interested  especially  in  mystical  discussions  and 
in  185 1  published  in  the  New  York  Tribune  ar- 
ticles on  spiritualism,  which  were  widely  re- 
printed and  served  to  extend  her  growing  corre- 
spondence, especially  with  other  writers.  Though 
her  first  book  of  verse,  Hoars  of  Life  and  Other 
Poems,  did  not  appear  until  1853,  she  had  already 
been  generously  represented  in  R.  W.  Griswold's 
The  Female  Poets  of  America  (2nd  edition, 
1859)  and  other  anthologies,  and  had  frequently 
been  mentioned  with  praise  by  critics,  especially 
by  Edgar  A.  Poe  [qs'.~\. 

Helen  Whitman  ( as  she  preferred  to  be  named  ) 
is  remembered  chiefly  as  the  woman  to  whom 
Poe  became  engaged  after  the  death  of  his  wife, 
Virginia,  and  to  whom  he  wrote  the  second  of 
his  poems  entitled  "To  Helen."  He  first  met 
Mrs.  Whitman  in  September  1848.  The  engage- 
ment, which  followed  visits  to  Providence  and  a 
correspondence  in  a  style  of  heightened  romantic 
passion,  was  finally  broken  in  December  1848, 
partly  through  the  poet's  instability  and  partly 
through  the  influence  of  Mrs.  Whitman's  moth- 
er. For  Helen  Whitman,  Poe  supplied  the  chief 
romantic  experience  of  her  life.   She  always  held 


Whitman 

that  "Annabel  Lee"  was  his  message  to  her,  and 
she  cherished  his  memory  faithfully.  In  i860  she 
published  her  book,  Edgar  Poe  and  His  Critics, 
in  his  defense.  Of  her  Poems,  which  she  had  col- 
lected for  printing,  and  which  were  published  by 
her  literary  executor,  William  F.  Channing,  in 
1879,  sixteen  are  associated  with  Poe  and  many 
others  echo  his  cadences  and  even  his  words. 
She  generously  supplied  to  a  succession  of  writ- 
ers biographical  material  relating  to  Poe,  and  in 
the  case  of  John  H.  Ingram,  the  English  biog- 
rapher, she  may  fairly  be  considered  a  collabora- 
tor, so  copiously  did  she  supply  him  with  aid. 

After  her  mother's  death  in  i860,  the  care  of 
her  younger  sister,  Anna,  who  was  eccentric,  de- 
volved upon  her  and  conditioned  all  of  her  later 
life.  Her  verses  "In  Memoriam,"  dated  April 
1878,  show  that  within  three  months  of  her  own 
death  she  wrote  with  clearness  and  grace.  She 
thought  of  herself  as  frail  and  her  use  of  ether 
was  supposed  to  be  associated  with  a  weak  heart. 
She  died  at  the  home  of  her  friend,  Mrs.  Albert 
Dailey,  where  she  lived  during  the  short  interval 
between  her  sister's  death  and  her  own,  and  was 
buried  in  the  North  Burial  Ground  in  Provi- 
dence. In  1909,  The  Last  Letters  of  Edgar  Allan 
Poe  to  Sai-ah  Helen  Whitman  was  published. 
Two  portraits  of  Mrs.  Whitman  hang  in  Provi- 
dence. The  one  by  Giovanni  Thompson  in  the 
Athenaeum  was  painted  when  she  was  a  widow 
of  thirty-five ;  the  other,  in  the  Hay  Library,  by 
John  N.  Arnold  was  painted  in  1869.  She  was 
slight  and  graceful  in  figure,  quick  and  vivacious 
in  movement.  Her  brown  hair  framed  a  pale 
delicately  featured  face  with  deep-set  eyes.  In- 
tellectually she  combined  with  her  romantic  love 
of  the  poetic  and  the  unusual  a  very  sane  and 
realistic  sense  of  the  practical.  Her  letters  reveal 
an  honest,  generous  nature,  tolerant  and  many- 
sided  but  cautious  and  fearful  of  giving  offense. 
Her  poetry  compares  favorably  with  that  of  oth- 
er popular  American  women  poets  of  her  time ; 
it  has  grace  and  sincerity  but  little  originality  or 
vigor.   Wide  reading  is  reflected  in  her  lines. 

[Caroline  Ticknor,  Poc's  Helen  (1916);  The  Last 
Letters  of  Edgar  Allan  Poe  to  Sarah  Helen  Whitman 
(1909),  ed.  by  J.  A.  Harrison  and  Charlotte  F.  Dailey  ; 
letters  from  Mrs.  Whitman  to  J.  H.  Ingram,  Univ.  of 
Va. ;  Providence  Daily  Jour.,  July  1,  1878.]     j  g  \y_ 

WHITMAN,  WALT  (May  31,  1819-Mar.  26, 
1892),  poet,  was  born  at  West  Hills,  in  the  town 
of  Huntington,  Long  Island,  of  parents  in  whom 
Dutch  and  English  blood  predominated.  His  first 
known  ancestor,  Joseph  Whitman,  seems  to  have 
come  from  England  to  Stratford,  Conn.,  and 
thence  to  Huntington  about  1660.  The  family 
settled  as  farmers  in  the  hamlet  of  West  Hills, 
where    Nehemiah    Whitman,   the   poet's   great- 


43 


Whitman 


Whitman 


grandfather,  owned  several  hundred  acres, 
worked  by  slaves.  Nehemiah's  widow  is  said  by 
the  poet  to  have  been  a  great  swarthy  woman 
who  smoked  tobacco  and  swore  at  her  slaves 
from  the  back  of  a  vicious  horse  which  she  rode 
like  a  man.  Their  son  Jesse  married  Hannah 
Brush,  a  schoolmistress,  in  1775,  and  one  of  his 
children  was  Walter  Whitman  (1789-1855),  the 
father  of  the  poet.  Walter,  who  added  the  occu- 
pation of  carpenter  to  that  of  farmer,  was  a  large, 
silent  man ;  he  inherited  a  leaning  toward  the 
Quakers  and  toward  Elias  Hicks  [qs>.],  the  fa- 
mous preacher  whom  the  poet  himself  was  al- 
ways to  remember  and  revere.  The  son,  given 
his  father's  name,  signed  it  to  his  writings  until 
1855,  when  he  changed  it  to  Walt,  as  he  had  been 
known  at  home.  His  father  was  married  in  1816 
to  Louisa  Van  Velsor  (1795-1873),  of  Cold 
Spring,  Huntington.  Her  father,  Maj.  Cornelius 
Van  Velsor,  a  horse-breeder  whose  joviality  and 
stout  red  face  his  grandson  liked  to  celebrate, 
was  pure  Dutch,  but  he  had  married  a  woman 
(Amy  Williams)  of  Welsh  descent  and  Quaker 
leanings.  The  poet  has  had  more  to  say  about 
his  mother  than  about  his  father ;  she  was  not 
educated,  but  in  sympathy  and  understanding  she 
was  "perfect,"  and  his  relations  to  her  were  al- 
ways very  close.  He  was  the  second  of  nine  chil- 
dren, the  eldest  and  youngest  of  whom  were  men- 
tally defective. 

In  1823  or  shortly  thereafter  the  family  moved 
to  Brooklyn,  then  a  town  of  less  than  10,000  in- 
habitants. Here  the  poet  spent  a  few  years  in  the 
public  schools,  later  being  remembered  by  one  of 
his  teachers  as  "a  big,  good-natured  lad,  clumsy 
and  slovenly  in  appearance,  but  not  otherwise 
remarkable"  (Uncollected  Poetry  and  Prose,  I, 
xxvi).  In  the  summers  he  was  taken  on  visits 
back  to  Huntington  and  to  other  places  on  Long 
Island,  and  he  was  subsequently  to  believe  that 
the  early  knowledge  thus  gained  of  life  on  farm 
and  seashore,  among  haymakers,  eel-fishers,  bay- 
men,  and  pilots,  was  one  of  the  few  important 
influences  upon  his  work.  The  shore,  both  then 
and  during  his  young  manhood,  drew  him  to  it 
whenever  he  was  free;  "I  loved,  after  bathing, 
to  race  up  and  down  the  hard  sand,  and  declaim 
Homer  or  Shakespere  to  the  surf  and  sea-gulls 
by  the  hour"  (Autobiographic!,  pp.  23-24).  But 
he  was  to  be  a  poet  of  cities  as  well  as  of  the  sea, 
and  his  reminiscences  in  later  life  were  also  of 
the  Brooklyn  he  had  known  as  a  boy,  with  its 
old  houses  and  its  winding  streets,  and  with  its 
ferries  that  went  across  the  East  River  to  New 
York. 

His  schooling  ended  in  his  thirteenth  year,  or 
possibly  in  his  eleventh  (Uncollected  Poetry  and 


Prose,  I,  xxvii).  At  eleven  he  was  an  office  boy 
first  for  a  lawyer  and  then  for  a  doctor,  the  law- 
yer's son  subscribing  for  him  to  a  circulating 
library  which  introduced  him  to  the  Arabian 
Nights  and  to  Sir  Walter  Scott.  In  the  summer 
of  his  thirteenth  year  he  became  a  printer's  devil 
in  the  office  of  the  Long  Island  Patriot,  whence 
he  went  in  the  same  capacity  to  the  Long  Island 
Star.  This  was  the  beginning  of  his  long  ac- 
quaintance with  newspapers,  and  of  a  career 
which  during  three  decades  was  to  identify  him 
with  a  bewildering  number  of  editorial  offices. 
Between  1833,  when  his  family  moved  back  to 
Long  Island,  and  1836,  when  he  joined  them 
there  for  a  brief  while,  he  may  have  been  a  jour- 
neyman compositor  in  Brooklyn  and  New  York, 
making  occasional  contributions  to  the  papers 
he  worked  for  and  getting  his  first  taste  of  the 
theatre  and  the  opera,  those  mainstays  of  his 
education  a  little  later  on. 

Between  1836  and  1841  he  confined  his  wan- 
derings to  Long  Island,  teaching  seven  schools 
in  as  many  towns  and  editing  the  Long  Islander 
at  Huntington  in  1838-39.  His  contributions  to 
this  and  other  local  papers  were  conventional  in 
their  youthful  sentiment,  the  verses  dealing  gen- 
erally with  the  themes  of  loneliness,  unrequited 
affection,  and  the  grave.  In  1839-40,  when  he 
alternated  between  teaching  and  typesetting  at 
Jamaica,  he  impressed  the  wife  of  his  employer, 
the  publisher  of  the  Long  Island  Democrat,  as 
"a  dreamy,  impracticable  youth,"  "untidy,"  "in- 
ordinately indolent,"  "morose,"  "not  at  all  in 
tune  with  his  surroundings,"  and  insultingly  in- 
different to  children.  "He  was  a  genius  who 
lived,  apparently,  in  a  world  of  his  own"  (Un- 
collected Poetry  and  Prose,  I,  xxxiii-xxxiv). 
This  world  included  books  among  other  things, 
for  he  was  beginning  by  his  own  later  testimony 
to  read  the  Bible,  Shakespeare,  Ossian,  the 
Greek  tragic  poets,  the  ancient  Hindu  poets,  the 
Nibclitngcnlicd,  the  poems  of  Scott,  and  Dante. 
He  was  also  interested  in  politics ;  he  elec- 
tioneered as  a  Democrat  in  Queens  County  in 
1840,  and  in  1841  he  was  one  of  several  speakers 
at  a  Tammany  mass  meeting  in  City  Hall  Park, 
New  York.  Yet  even  this  early  it  would  appear 
that  his  thoughts  turned  frequently  in  upon  him- 
self. 

From  1841  to  1848  Whitman  was  associated 
with  at  least  ten  newspapers  or  magazines  in 
New  York  and  Brooklyn:  the  Aurora,  the  Sun, 
the  Tattler,  Brother  Jonathan,  the  Statesman, 
the  Democrat,  the  American  Review,  the  Colum- 
bian, the  Democratic  Reziezv,  and  the  Brooklyn 
Eagle.  The  two  last  were  the  most  important. 
The  Democratic  Review  was  the  best  literary 


144 


Whitman 


Whitman 


journal  of  the  day,  which  meant  that  Whitman's 
contributions  to  it  between  1841  and  1845  ad- 
mitted him  to  the  company  of  Hawthorne,  Poe, 
Bryant,  Longfellow,  Lowell,  Thoreau,  and  Whit- 
tier.  His  contributions  were  not  poems  but  sto- 
ries— now  in  the  manner  of  Hawthorne,  now  in 
the  manner  of  Poe  ;  sentimental,  melancholy,  and 
melodramatic.  The  few  poems  he  printed  else- 
where, while  they  were  competent  exercises  in 
conventional  verse  forms,  had  nothing  either  of 
the  method  or  of  the  quality  which  eventually 
were  to  distinguish  his  poetry  from  that  of  all 
others.  Their  subject  matter  also  was  routine,  as 
was  that  of  a  temperance  novel,  Franklin  Evans; 
or,  The  Inebriate,  a  Tale  of  the  Times,  which 
Whitman  wrote  for  an  extra  issue  of  the  New 
World  in  1842,  and  which  in  its  bombast  and 
bathos  failed  to  raise  itself  above  the  level  of  rhet- 
oric on  which  a  great  deal  of  reform  literature 
was  being  written  at  the  moment.  All  the  while 
Whitman  was  familiarizing  himself  with  the  va- 
ried life  of  the  metropolis  ;  he  sauntered  about  the 
streets,  haunted  the  omnibuses  and  ferries,  be- 
came intimate  with  drivers  and  pilots,  strolled  off 
to  the  beaches  and  the  bathing  crowds,  went  reg- 
ularly to  the  Bowery  Theatre  to  see  Fanny  Kem- 
ble,  the  younger  Kean,  the  elder  Booth,  Mac- 
ready,  Edwin  Forrest,  and  Charlotte  Cushman, 
listened  to  public  speeches,  and  intoxicated  him- 
self at  the  opera  with  the  "vocalism  of  sun-bright 
Italy."  When  in  January  1846  he  became  editor 
of  the  Brooklyn  Eagle,  a  Democratic  newspaper, 
he  was  equipped  both  by  his  personal  and  by  his 
professional  experience  to  conduct,  as  he  did  for 
two  years,  a  brisk  editorial  page  which  was  on 
the  whole  enlightened  and  well  written,  though 
naturally  it  never  gave  expression  to  a  soul  which 
even  in  these  busy  years  was  possessed  with  a 
sense  of  separateness  and  bewilderment.  Whit- 
man supported  most  of  the  contemporary  reforms, 
local  and  national ;  he  reviewed  as  many  as  200 
new  books;  he  celebrated  the  joys  of  living  in 
Brooklyn ;  and  on  the  question  of  slavery  he 
moved  rapidly  in  the  Free-Soil  direction — losing 
his  position,  indeed,  when  in  January  1848  he 
protested  too  vehemently  against  the  failure  of 
the  Democratic  party  to  face  the  issue  of  slavery 
in  the  new  states.  He  was  once  more  without  a 
job. 

Within  a  month,  however,  he  was  on  his  way 
south,  having  contracted  in  a  theatre  lobby  to 
write  for  the  New  Orleans  Crescent.  With  his 
brother  Jeff  he  spent  two  weeks  in  February 
crossing  Pennsylvania  and  Virginia  and  steam- 
ing down  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  rivers  toward 
a  different  sort  of  city  from  any  that  he  had 
known.  New  Orleans  undoubtedly  charmed  him. 


His  work  was  not  arduous,  so  that  he  had  ample 
leisure  for  exploring  the  markets,  the  levees,  the 
barrooms,  the  sidewalks,  and  the  cemeteries. 
Certain  of  his  sketches  for  the  Crescent  indicate 
a  susceptibility  to  the  women  of  New  Orleans. 
But  it  is  not  necessary  to  believe  the  legend  that 
he  fell  in  love  with  one  of  these  and  that  the 
attachment  colored  all  of  his  later  life  and  work. 
His  statement  to  John  Addington  Symonds  in 
1890  that  he  was  the  father  of  six  illegitimate 
children  was  not  accepted  by  some  of  his  best 
friends  as  true,  nor  is  it  more  generally  credited ; 
and  even  if  it  was  true  there  is  no  evidence  that 
the  mother  of  any  of  the  children  had  been  met 
in  New  Orleans.  Vague  assertions  by  Whitman 
in  his  old  age  concerning  later  trips  to  the  South 
have  transferred  the  scene  of  his  "romance"  else- 
where; but  it  remains  doubtful  whether  he  took 
any  such  trips.  The  poem,  "Once  I  Pass'd 
through  a  Populous  City,"  has  been  offered  as 
evidence ;  but  a  manuscript  version  of  this  poem 
(Uncollected  Poetry  and  Prose,  II,  102-03)  re- 
veals that  it  originally  referred  to  an  attachment 
with  a  man,  not  a  woman.  Nor  is  it  possible  to 
say  with  certainty  that  Whitman  began  now,  and 
only  now,  to  write  his  characteristic  poetry;  one 
of  his  notebooks  (Ibid.,  II,  63  ff.)  makes  it  rea- 
sonably clear  that  he  was  experimenting  intro- 
spectively  with  sexual  themes  before  1848.  The 
importance  of  the  residence  in  New  Orleans  can 
easily  be  exaggerated,  though  it  may  be  sig- 
nificant in  that  it  introduced  Whitman  to  a  por- 
tion of  the  country  he  would  never  have  seen 
otherwise.  As  for  a  romance,  it  is  just  as  con- 
ceivable that  he  failed  to  find  one  there,  and  that 
this  failure — in  a  scene  so  suitable  for  it — pre- 
cipitated the  lonely  Lcai'es  of  Grass.  At  any 
rate,  Whitman  left  New  Orleans  with  his  broth- 
er after  three  months,  coming  home  by  way  of 
St.  Louis,  Chicago,  the  Great  Lakes,  Niagara 
Falls,  Albany,  and  the  Hudson. 

In  Brooklyn  he  returned  ostensibly  to  jour- 
nalism, writing  for  the  Freeman,  a  Barnburner 
paper,  in  1848-49,  for  the  Daily  Advertiser  in 
1850,  and  for  various  unknown  papers  between 
1850  and  1854.  For  two  years,  1857-59,  he  edited 
the  Brooklyn  Times,  and  in  1861-62  he  pub- 
lished a  long  series  of  articles  on  the  early  his- 
tory of  Brooklyn  in  the  Standard.  But  he  had 
returned,  as  only  he  knew  for  the  time  being,  to 
something  of  much  greater  importance  to  himself 
than  journalism.  For  it  was  now  that  he  entered 
definitely  upon  the  seven-year  period  which 
came  to  its  end  and  climax  with  the  publication 
in  1855  of  Leai'es  of  Grass. 

It  lias  been  customary  to  suppose  that  Whit- 
man passed  through  some  mystical  experience 


"45 


Whitman 

shortly  before  he  wrote  the  twelve  poems  which 
composed  the  first  edition  of  Leaves  of  Grass, 
and  that  this  experience  consisted  in  his  having 
a  sudden,  full  apprehension  of  himself.  It  is 
likely  that  his  state  of  mind  throughout  the  early 
1850's  was  extraordinary,  since  the  book  which 
resulted  was  extraordinary ;  but  his  knowledge 
of  himself  was  a  much  older  thing.  The  illumi- 
nation, if  illumination  there  was,  would  appear 
to  have  been  a  discovery  not  of  his  own  nature, 
which  he  already  knew  too  well,  but  of  a  way  in 
which  that  nature  might  be  presented  to  the 
world  and  so  justified.  His  existence  up  to  this 
point  must  have  seemed  unsatisfactory  to  him, 
not  only  because  in  the  outward  matter  of  a  pro- 
fession he  had  managed  to  be  little  more  than  a 
knockabout  journalist,  but  also,  and  this  is  more 
important,  because  in  inward  matters  pertaining 
to  his  own  soul  he  had  been  forced  to  realize  how 
unlike  the  rest  of  the  world  he  was.  He  was  to 
celebrate  himself  as  an  "average  man,"  and  was 
always  to  insist  that  Leaves  of  Grass  had  no  oth- 
er value  than  that ;  yet  he  was  anything  but  an 
average  men,  and,  ignorant  though  he  may  have 
remained  concerning  his  fundamental  nature,  he 
must  have  admitted  his  uniqueness  long  before 
1850.  Early  and  late  his  writings  bear  testimony 
to  the  sense  of  isolation  which  pursued  him.  His 
passion  for  rubbing  through  crowds  on  ferries 
and  buses  was  not  the  passion  of  one  whose  need 
for  society  is  normally  satisfied.  The  theme  of 
separation  is  constant  in  his  work,  both  prose 
and  verse.  He  was  reserved  to  the  end,  so  that 
among  his  final  worshippers  there  was  not  one 
who  knew  whether  he  had  ever  enjoyed  his  com- 
plete confidence. 

He  was  tall  and  heavy,  but  he  was  not  the 
robust  individual  he  claimed  to  be.  Both  his  body 
and  his  mind  moved  slowly,  dreamily.  His  eyes, 
as  may  best  be  seen  in  the  portraits  of  1855,  1863, 
and  1869,  were  heavy-lidded  and  uncommunica- 
tive ;  Emerson  spoke  of  them  as  "terrible" ;  John 
Burroughs  called  them  "dumb,  yearning,  relent- 
less, immodest,  unhuman"  (  Barrus,  post,  p.  15). 
Burroughs  also  is  authority  for  the  statement 
that  Whitman's  body  was  "that  of  a  child,"  and 
that  there  was  always  "something  fine,  delicate, 
womanly  in  him"  (Ibid.,  p.  265).  He  was  more 
than  moderate  in  his  habits,  he  was  fastidious ; 
he  never  smoked.  He  was  fond  of  cooking,  bath- 
ing, and  nursing,  and  he  always  paid  the  strictest 
attention  to  the  dress  both  of  himself  and  of  his 
acquaintances.  As  a  very  young  man  he  was  a 
dandy ;  after  he  came  back  from  New  Orleans  he 
cultivated  the  rough  garments  which  in  the  early 
photographs  made  him  famous ;  later  on,  in 
Washington,  he  carefully  prescribed  the  fashion 

I46 


Whitman 

in  which  his  shirts  should  be  made,  and  in- 
variably wore  a  gray  suit ;  in  his  old  age  his 
open,  lace-edged  collar  revealed  a  smooth,  deli- 
cate neck,  he  wore  in  his  shirt-bosom  a  pearl 
stud  approximately  an  inch  in  diameter,  and  he 
regularly  bathed  his  face  and  hands  with  eau  de 
cologne. 

Earlier  than  1850  he  must  have  recognized 
that  his  impulses  were  extraordinary.  He  was 
inordinately  excitable  by  things  and  persons  that 
touched  him,  and  his  notebooks  of  1847  (Uncol- 
lected Poetry  and  Prose,  II,  63)  show  how  pain- 
fully conscious  of  the  fact  he  was.  He  has  been 
called  autoerotic,  erethistic,  and  homosexual ;  nor 
is  it  possible  to  doubt  that  some  such  extremes 
of  nomenclature  are  necessary  to  explain  certain 
passages  in  the  "Song  of  Myself."  For  in  those 
passages  he  does  not  seem  to  be  inventing  apti- 
tudes and  habits  for  himself ;  they  could  not  have 
been  invented,  and  furthermore,  whatever  de- 
liberate construction  he  may  have  seen  fit  then 
or  later  to  place  upon  them,  their  treatment  re- 
tains many  a  trace  of  the  uneasiness  and  the  ter- 
ror which  a  contemplation  of  them  had  inspired 
in  him.  That  he  loved  men  more  than  women 
was  a  fact  which  he  was  subsequently  to  erect 
into  a  reason  for  claiming  special  insight  into 
the  principle  upon  which  democracies  would  hold 
together.  The  fact  remains,  however,  that  love 
for  his  own  sex  is  the  only  kind  of  love  about 
which  he  is  ever  personal  or  convincing,  and  that 
in  his  correspondence  he  reserves  the  word  "dar- 
ling" for  his  mother  and  for  young  men  alone. 

All  this  has  nothing  to  do  with  his  being  a 
great  poet,  but  it  has  much  to  do  with  the  state 
of  mind  out  of  which  Leaves  of  Grass  grew  with 
such  slow  and  conscious  effort.  That  effort  was  put 
forth  both  by  the  artist  and  by  the  man — was  put 
forth  by  the  man,  indeed,  in  order  that  he  might 
become  an  artist  and  so  free  himself  from  the 
slavery  of  self-contemplation.  Leaves  of  Grass 
purports  to  be  a  poem  about  "Myself."  But  in 
one  very  important  sense  it  is  not  personal  at  all. 
Or  if  it  is  personal,  it  exploits  two  selves  in 
Whitman,  one  natural  and  one  created.  The 
created  self  is  the  one  which  the  world  has  en- 
joyed, and  it  is  one  of  the  most  magnificent  fab- 
rications of  modern  times.  Whitman  discovered 
the  way  to  it  through  a  number  of  channels,  the 
broadest  and  deepest  of  these  being  undoubtedly 
his  reading.  Mention  has  been  made  of  his  early 
acquaintance  with  Scott  and  Homer  and  Shake- 
speare, the  last  of  whom  he  knew  in  the  theatre 
as  well  as  from  the  printed  page  and  continued 
throughout  his  life  to  discuss  with  significant 
eloquence.  It  is  likely,  however,  that  his  imme- 
diate illumination  came  through  intellectual  con- 


Whitman 


Whitman 


tact  with  contemporaries.  His  review  for  the 
Eagle  in  1846  of  Goethe's  autobiography  shows 
how  excited  he  was  before  the  spectacle  of  a  man 
who  had  explored  the  universe  in  terms  of  him- 
self. Early  and  late  Carlvle  stood  huge  upon  his 
horizon,  helping  him  to  find  a  prose  style  and 
convincing  him  that  mystical  significances  could 
be  discovered  in  the  social  behavior  of  men.  Yet 
it  was  from  Emerson  that  he  caught  the  final, 
determining  fire.  Later  on  he  denied  this,  at- 
tempting, unsuccessfully,  to  establish  that  he  had 
never  read  Emerson  before  1855  {Uncollected 
Poetry  and  Prose,  I,  132).  It  is  impossible  to 
read  either  the  early  notebooks  or  the  first  edition 
of  Leaves  of  Grass  without  feeling  the  presence 
of  Emerson  everywhere — in  the  epigrammatic 
style  of  the  preface  and  the  twelve  poems,  in  the 
nature  of  the  things  said,  and  in  the  quality  of 
the  egoism.  From  Emerson  he  learned  his  fun- 
damental lesson,  that  a  man  could  accept  and 
celebrate  himself  in  cosmic  language.  He  could 
transfer  his  vision  from  the  eccentric,  the  unique 
self  to  the  general,  the  impersonal  one.  He  could 
move  at  once  from  doubt  of  Walt  Whitman  to 
faith  in  Man,  of  whom  he  might  take  what  he 
called  "Myself"  as  representative.  Bound  as  he 
was  to  brood  upon  his  own  nature,  he  found  in 
Emerson  a  way  to  do  so  which  would  legitimatize 
his  emotions,  liberate  himself,  and  fascinate  the 
world.  He  seems  to  have  been  assisted  and  sup- 
ported in  this  acceptance  of  himself  by  the  cir- 
cumstance that  in  1849  ne  nad  his  "bumps"  read 
at  the  phrenological  cabinet  of  Fowler  and  Wells 
in  New  York  and  was  told  that  he  possessed  an 
unusually  high  degree  of  every  human  quality. 
From  the  importance  he  attached  to  his  own 
"chart  of  bumps"  and  to  the  claims  of  phrenology 
generally  it  would  appear  that  the  experience  had 
convinced  him  of  his  signal  sanity  and  his  re- 
ma  kable  representativeness ;  it  was  thence,  per- 
haps, that  he  gained  the  confidence  to  assert  of 
himself  in  an  anonymous  review  he  wrote  of 
Leaves  of  Grass  in  1855  that  he  was  "of  pure 
American  breed,  large  and  lusty  ...  a  naive, 
masculine,  affectionate,  contemplative,  sensual, 
imperious  person"  (In  Re  Walt  Whitman,  p. 
22,). 

At  the  same  time  that  he  experimented  in  his 
notebooks  with  a  new  form  and  mood  of  poetry 
he  reflected  also  upon  a  possible  career  which  he 
might  have  as  an  orator.  He  never  surrendered, 
indeed,  his  vision  of  himself  as  one  who  might 
go  forth  among  the  American  people  and  astonish 
them  with  fresh  and  forceful  utterances.  His 
notebooks  show  that  he  practised  even  the  ges- 
tures of  the  platform,  and  there  is  abundant  evi- 
dence that  he  devoted  a  great  deal  of  his  time  to 


the  planning  and  writing  of  lectures.  The  style 
of  his  poetry  can  best  be  explained  in  terms  of 
his  apprenticeship  in  declamation.  His  temper, 
however,  was  not  the  positive  temper  of  the  hap- 
py orator,  and  he  seems  to  have  recognized  this, 
as  he  recognized  that  the  printed  broadsides 
which  he  also  conceived  as  a  medium  of  expres- 
sion might  not  be  the  most  satisfactory  medium. 
At  any  rate  it  was  to  poetry  that  he  applied  him- 
self with  the  greatest  zeal  in  the  years  after  his 
return  from  New  Orleans,  and  it  was  through 
his  poetry,  much  of  which  must  have  been  writ- 
ten while  he  helped  his  father  build  houses  in 
Brooklyn  (1851-54),  that  he  was  to  become  fa- 
mous around  the  world. 

Whatever  hopes  of  fame  he  had,  however,  were 
confounded  by  the  reception  of  his  first  per- 
formance. Leaves  of  Grass,  printed  in  1855,  was 
a  failure  with  the  public.  It  was  a  tall,  thin  vol- 
ume containing  a  long  preface  in  prose  and 
twelve  poems  without  titles.  The  preface  ren- 
dered an  Emersonian  account  of  the  relation  be- 
tween the  miraculous  universe  and  the  no  less 
miraculous  soul  of  man;  predicted  the  future 
greatness  of  the  American  people,  who  "of  all 
nations  at  any  time  upon  the  earth  have  probably 
the  fullest  poetical  nature" ;  and  prescribed  the 
duties  of  the  American  poet,  as  well  as  suggested 
the  broad  rules  of  his  art.  The  poems  included 
those  later  to  be  known  as  "Song  of  Myself," 
"The  Sleepers,"  "I  Sing  the  Body  Electric,"  and 
"There  was  a  Child  Went  Forth."  The  book  was 
incomprehensible  to  some  readers  and  shocking 
to  others,  and  it  still  is  one  of  the  most  difficult  of 
all  books  to  understand.  The  man  who  wrote  it 
never  fully  understood  himself — never,  perhaps, 
understood  how  excellent  he  was  merely  as  a 
poet,  occupied  as  he  was  both  then  and  later  with 
the  thought  that  he  must  be  first  of  all  a  prophet. 
The  complexity  of  his  temperament  explains  the 
baffling  way  he  took  of  gliding  back  and  forth  in 
these  poems  between  his  actual  and  his  assumed 
self;  the  subtlety  and  the  power  of  his  faculties 
are  evidenced  everywhere  by  images  and  ca- 
dences beyond  which  no  modern  poet  has  gone  in 
the  direction  either  of  explicitness  or  of  ellipsis. 

The  book  struck  home  here  and  there.  A  copy 
sent  to  Concord  elicited  the  famous  letter  in 
which  Emerson  said:  "I  am  not  blind  to  the 
worth  of  the  wonderful  gift  of  Leaves  of  Grass. 
I  find  it  the  most  extraordinary  piece  of  wit  and 
wisdom  that  America  has  yet  contributed.  I  am 
very  happy  in  reading  it,  as  great  power  makes 
us  happy.  ...  I  greet  you  at  the  beginning  of  a 
great  career,  which  yet  must  have  had  a  long 
foreground  somewhere,  for  such  a  start"  (Em- 
ory Holloway,  Whitman.   An  Interpretation  in 


H7 


Whitman 


Whitman 


Narrative,  1926,  p.  118).  Emerson  was  never  to 
publish  a  word  in  praise  of  Whitman,  and  he  is 
said  to  have  recanted  some  of  this  praise  in  con- 
versation ;  but  he  already  had  done  enough.  Whit- 
man says  he  visited  him  soon  in  Brooklyn ;  cer- 
tainly Thoreau  and  Bronson  Alcott  came  down 
to  see  him,  as  Bryant  came  over  from  Manhat- 
tan. There  were  a  few  favorable  reviews  among 
many  that  were  indignant  or  bewildered;  in  Put- 
nam's Monthly  Magazine  for  September  1855 
Charles  Eliot  Norton  in  an  unsigned  article 
mingled  disapprobation  with  astonished  praise, 
confining  to  the  secrecy  of  his  desk  a  poem  which 
he  wrote  at  the  same  time  in  imitation  of  a  book 
that  had  overwhelmed  him  against  his  will ;  and 
Edward  Everett  Hale  was  complimentary  in  the 
North  American  Review  for  January  1856  (un- 
signed, in  "Critical  Notices").  But  for  the  most 
part  the  book  fell  dead  from  the  printer's  hands, 
and  even  the  three  rhapsodic  reviews  of  it  which 
Whitman  himself  wrote  for  the  Brooklyn  Times, 
the  American  Phrenological  Journal,  and  the 
United  States  and  Democratic  Review  failed  of 
any  noticeable  effect.  He  could  not  have  known 
at  the  moment  that  a  few  copies  of  Leaves  of 
Grass  had  crossed  the  Atlantic  to  England,  where 
in  time  they  were  to  arouse  a  tempest  of  ad- 
miration. 

After  a  brief  retreat  to  eastern  Long  Island 
Whitman  returned  to  the  city  "with  the  con- 
firmed resolution,  from  which  I  never  afterward 
wavered,  to  go  on  with  my  poetic  enterprise  in 
my  own  way  and  finish  it  as  well  as  I  could" 
{Uncollected  Poetry  and  Prose,  I,  liii).  By  the 
next  year,  1856,  he  had  a  second  edition  ready. 
This  was  printed  by  Fowler  and  Wells,  and  it 
included  among  twenty-one  new  poems  "Salut 
au  Monde,"  "Song  of  the  Broad-Axe,"  "By  Blue 
Ontario's  Shore,"  "Crossing  Brooklyn  Ferry," 
and  "Song  of  the  Open  Road."  Stamped  on  the 
back  in  gold  letters  was  the  unauthorized  legend : 
"I  greet  you  at  the  beginning  of  a  great  career, 
R.  W.  Emerson."  An  appendix  inside  reprinted 
certain  press  notices  and  a  long  letter  from  the 
author  to  Emerson,  "dear  Friend  and  Master." 
This  edition  was  even  more  unfavorably  re- 
ceived, an  additional  reason  for  dislike  now  be- 
ing the  presence  of  such  exploitations  of  the 
sexual  theme  as  "Spontaneous  Me"  and  "A 
Woman  Waits  for  Me."  Fowler  and  Wells,  af- 
ter selling,  it  is  said,  a  thousand  copies,  refused 
to  handle  the  volume  any  longer,  and  so  it  too 
fell  into  an  apparent  oblivion,  though  certain 
infatuated  readers  of  it  were  to  be  heard  from 
later. 

The  four  years  which  elapsed  before  the  third 
edition  of  i860  were  spent  in  necessary  newspa- 


per work  and  in  writing  more  than  a  hundred 
new  poems.  It  was  during  this  time  also  that 
Whitman  began  to  frequent  the  "Bohemian"  so- 
ciety of  authors,  actors,  and  artists  at  Pfaff's 
restaurant  in  New  York,  where  he  made  valu- 
able literary  acquaintances.  In  1859  he  read  to 
some  friends  a  new  poem  which  he  called  "A 
Word  Out  of  the  Sea"  and  which  was  immedi- 
ately taken  for  publication  by  the  Saturday  Press, 
where  the  young  John  Burroughs  saw  it.  Now 
known  as  "Out  of  the  Cradle  Endlessly  Rock- 
ing," this  poem,  upon  which  Whitman  never  im- 
proved more  than  perhaps  once,  gave  full  and 
perfect  lyric  expression  to  the  emotions  about 
death  which  he  had  only  tentatively  touched  upon 
in  the  first  two  editions  of  his  book.  Henceforth 
love  and  death — love  as  longing  and  death  as 
the  satisfaction  of  longing — were  to  be  his  great 
themes,  though  the  fact  was  not  so  easily  ap- 
parent to  most  readers  of  the  edition  of  1860-61, 
which,  brought  out  in  Boston  by  the  firm  of 
Thayer  and  Eldridge,  contained  two  new  sec- 
tions, "Children  of  Adam"  and  "Calamus."  "Chil- 
dren of  Adam"  celebrated  "amativeness,"  or  the 
love  of  men  and  women ;  "Calamus"  celebrated 
"adhesiveness,"  or  the  love  of  men  for  men.  The 
first  of  these  is  treated  from  the  greater  dis- 
tance, remaining  "athletic"  and  abstract  in  Whit- 
man's hands,  and  in  a  sense  unreal ;  it  is  rather 
in  the  poems  of  comradeship  or  "manly  love" 
that  he  is  intimate  and  convincing.  Only  here 
does  he  employ  the  secondary  but  indispensable 
themes  of  bashfulness  and  jealousy ;  only  here  is 
he  tenderly  personal,  so  that  one  may  believe  him 
when  he  insists  over  and  again  that  this  is  his 
true  self  speaking.  And  it  is  in  association  with 
the  thought  of  an  unattainable  friendship  that 
he  utters  most  touchingly  his  philosophy  of  death. 

The  edition  of  1860-61  sold  better  than  either 
of  the  others,  and  Whitman's  visit  to  Boston  in 
connection  with  its  printing  brought  about  his 
meeting  with  William  Douglas  O'Connor  \_q.v.~\, 
who  was  to  be  his  fiercest  champion  in  future 
years.  It  also  gave  him  an  opportunity,  he  says, 
to  talk  at  length  with  Emerson,  who  advised  him 
in  vain  to  expurgate  his  poems.  But  this  edition 
too  was  ill-fated.  The  Civil  War  reduced  Thayer 
and  Eldridge  to  bankruptcy  and  the  book  fell  into 
the  hands  of  pirates ;  Whitman  once  more  was 
without  a  publisher.  But  the  war  itself  was  to 
engage  both  his  body  and  his  mind  during  the 
four  years  ahead. 

The  importance  of  the  Civil  War  in  Whitman's 
life  was  incalculable.  Not  only  did  it  determine 
Washington  as  his  place  of  residence  for  eleven 
years ;  it  influenced  and  modified  every  thought 
he  had,  and  was  the  occasion  of  his  last  great 


I4< 


Whitman 

burst  of  poetry.  But  he  was  not  drawn  into  close 
contact  with  it  until  the  end  of  1862.  During 
1861  and  1862  he  was  contributing  a  series  of 
twenty-five  articles  called  "Brooklyniana"  to  the 
Brooklyn  Standard,  and  in  1862  he  wrote  seven 
articles  for  the  New  York  Leader,  four  of  these 
dealing  with  the  Broadway  Hospital,  where  he 
spent  some  time  in  attendance  upon  the  sick  and 
wounded,  both  soldier  and  civilian.  He  lived  at 
home  with  his  mother,  one  of  whose  sons, 
George,  the  poet's  junior  by  ten  years,  had  en- 
listed in  the  51st  New  York  Volunteers,  a  Brook- 
lyn regiment.  He  also  was  writing  poems  about 
the  war,  some  of  which  were  to  be  included  in 
Drum  Taps  three  years  later.  In  December  1862 
word  came  that  George  was  wounded  in  Vir- 
ginia. Whitman  left  immediately  for  Washing- 
ton, where  he  happened  upon  his  friend  O'Con- 
nor and  received  assistance  of  a  sort  which 
enabled  him  to  find  his  brother  at  Falmouth,  Va., 
opposite  Fredericksburg.  George  was  recovered 
by  this  time,  but  Whitman  saw  enough  wounded 
men  and  heard  enough  about  battles  at  close 
range  to  realize  that  his  life  must  somehow  be 
involved  with  the  war  until  it  ended.  Back  in 
Washington  after  several  days,  he  accepted  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  O'Connor's  offer  of  a  room  in  their 
house ;  and  Major  Hapgood,  an  army  paymaster, 
gave  him  a  desk  in  his  office  where  he  could  earn 
a  little  money  copying  documents.  Soon  he  was 
devoting  himself  to  wounded  soldiers,  Northern 
and  Southern,  in  the  various  huge  hospitals 
about  the  city.  He  has  left  two  records  of  this 
experience,  his  letters  to  his  mother,  published 
in  1902,  and  Memoranda  During  the  War 
(1875).  He  may  not  have  tended  "from  eighty 
thousand  to  a  hundred  thousand"  soldiers,  as  he 
claimed,  but  there  is  ample  testimony  to  the  faith- 
fulness of  his  services.  He  seems  not  to  have 
been  connected,  unless  for  the  briefest  period, 
with  the  Christian  Commission ;  he  went  entirely 
on  his  own,  basket  on  arm,  entering  the  wards 
in  order  to  talk  with  the  soldiers  or  read  to  them, 
to  bring  them  gifts  of  oranges,  jelly,  and  hore- 
hound  candy,  to  furnish  them  with  paper  and 
envelopes  and  on  occasion  to  write  the  letters 
which  they  dictated  to  their  families,  and  even 
now  and  then  to  assist  at  dressings  and  opera- 
tions. His  subsequent  paralysis  he  attributed  to 
an  infection  which  he  received  during  these 
months  of  exposure  to  gangrene  and  fever. 
Whenever  possible  he  made  small  gifts  of  money 
to  the  soldiers,  out  of  a  fund  which  he  raised  in 
Boston,  Salem,  Providence,  Brooklyn,  and  New 
York.  He  made  money  for  himself  by  contribu- 
tions to  the  New  York  newspapers,  and  he  at- 
tempted to  secure  a  clerkship  in  some  govern- 


Whitman 

ment  office,  but  for  the  present  without  success. 

He  saw  much  of  the  O'Connors,  since  he  lived 
with  them,  and  of  their  friends,  among  whom 
was  Edmund  Clarence  Stedman  [q.v.],  a  frequent 
visitor  and  already  an  admirer  of  Whitman.  In 
1863  he  was  sought  out  by  John  Burroughs 
[q.v.],  then  living  in  Washington  with  his  wife, 
and  made  to  understand  how  much  he  had  in- 
fluenced the  mind  of  the  younger  man ;  the  at- 
tachment between  the  two  was  strong  until  the 
end  of  Whitman's  life.  There  seem  to  have  been 
no  meetings  between  Whitman  and  Lincoln,  and 
if  the  story  (H.  B.  Rankin,  Personal  Recollec- 
tions of  Abraham  Lincoln,  1916,  pp.  124-27) 
that  Lincoln  had  read  Leaves  of  Grass  before 
he  came  to  Washington  is  to  be  disbelieved  (W. 
E.  Barton,  Abraham  Lincoln  and  Walt  Whit- 
man, 1928,  pp.  90-94)  there  is  a  probability  that 
Lincoln  never  knew  of  the  poet's  existence.  But 
Whitman  saw  the  President  a  number  of  times 
as  he  rode  in  the  city,  and  he  liked  to  think  that 
Lincoln  was  nodding  to  him  from  his  horse.  The 
death  of  Lincoln,  occurring  only  a  few  weeks  af- 
ter Whitman  had  secured  his  first  clerkship,  in 
the  office  of  the  Department  of  the  Interior,  was 
at  any  rate  the  occasion  for  Whitman's  master- 
piece, "When  Lilacs  Last  in  the  Dooryard 
Bloom'd,"  which  was  printed  as  a  supplement  to 
Walt  Whitman's  Drum  Taps,  already  in  the 
press  (1865).  Whitman's  letters  at  the  time  re- 
veal that  he  thought  Drum  Taps  his  best  work 
(Perry,  post,  pp.  150-51),  partly  because  it 
lacked  the  "perturbations"  of  Leaves  of  Grass. 
The  remark  is  significant  of  a  change  which  was 
coming  over  all  his  work.  Henceforth  it  is  mel- 
lower, less  egocentric,  less  nervous,  less  raw. 
Henceforth  it  makes  much  of  religion  and  the 
spiritual  problems  facing  society.  Henceforth, 
too,  the  poems  reprinted  in  successive  editions  of 
Leaves  of  Grass,  are  tempered  and  shorn  of  cer- 
tain excesses.  The  war,  as  well  as  advancing 
age,  had  completed  the  process  in  Whitman 
whereby  his  private  nature  was  lost  sight  of  in 
the  great,  gray,  kindly  figure  of  the  legend. 

On  June  30,  1865,  Whitman  was  dismissed 
from  his  position  in  the  Department  of  the  In- 
terior. He  was  soon  given  another  in  the  attor- 
ney-general's office,  but  since  the  reason  for  his 
dismissal  had  been  Secretary  Harlan's  unwilling- 
ness to  employ  the  author  of  a  scandalous  book 
there  was  occasion  now  to  enlist  a  wider  sym- 
pathy for  Whitman  than  the  book  itself  had 
aroused.  O'Connor's  pamphlet  The  Good  Gray 
Poet,  written  in  a  blue  heat  of  indignation  and 
published  in  1866,  was  the  first  published  volume 
about  Whitman.  The  second  was  Notes  on  Walt 
Whitman  as  Poet  and  Person  (1867),  by  John 


149 


Whitman 


Whitman 


Burroughs.  At  least  half  of  this  was  written  by 
Whitman  himself,  who  desired  that  the  secret  be 
kept  until  Burroughs'  death,  as  it  was.  The  Notes 
are  passionate  in  their  praise  and  often  inaccu- 
rate in  their  information,  but  they  have  an  inter- 
est as  showing  Whitman's  prose  style  of  the 
period,  and  as  revealing  how  completely  he  had 
made  Burroughs  his  disciple.  Burroughs  never 
included  the  Notes  in  his  collected  writings,  but 
he  wrote  more  than  fifty  other  books  and  articles 
about  Whitman  before  he  died.  The  next  year, 
1868,  O'Connor  laid  another  stone  in  the  founda- 
tion of  the  Whitman  legend  by  contributing  his 
story  "The  Carpenter,"  presenting  the  poet  in  a 
disguised  and  idealized  form,  to  Putnam's  Maga- 
zine for  January.  Meanwhile  Whitman  was  find- 
ing friends  and  admirers,  as  well  as  a  number  of 
enemies,  abroad ;  and  the  next  few  years  saw  the 
beginning  of  his  European  vogue.  Articles  about 
him  appeared  in  Germany  in  1868  and  in  France, 
Denmark,  and  Hungary  in  1872.  Edward  Dow- 
den  in  Ireland  was  creating  a  group  of  enthusi- 
astic readers,  and  in  England  the  publication  of 
an  expurgated  edition  of  Leaves  of  Grass  by  W. 
M.  Rossetti  (1868)  put  men  like  Swinburne,  Ed- 
ward Carpenter,  and  John  Addington  Symonds 
under  the  spell — Swinburne,  however,  only  tem- 
porarily. Mrs.  Anne  Gilchrist,  the  widow  of 
Blake's  biographer,  read  Rossetti's  edition  and 
wrote  an  article  for  the  Boston  Radical  (May 
1870)  which  particularly  pleased  Whitman  as 
6eing  the  first  tribute  to  him  from  a  woman.  The 
correspondence  between  the  two  which  began  in 
1871  and  continued  until  Mrs.  Gilchrist's  death 
in  1885,  being  interrupted  only  by  her  residence 
in  Philadelphia  for  two  years  in  order  that  she 
might  be  near  the  poet,  is  evidence  that  Mrs. 
Gilchrist's  love  was  personal  as  well  as  literary, 
though  Whitman  could  only  give  her  friendship 
and  esteem  in  return.  His  fame  grew  steadily, 
bringing  him  the  first  of  his  English  visitors  and 
stimulating  a  greater  and  greater  amount  of  dis- 
cussion in  current  periodicals. 

Whitman's  Washington  period  came  to  its 
close  when  in  January  1873  he  suffered  a  stroke 
of  paralysis  and  was  forced  to  leave  for  Camden, 
N.  J.,  where  his  brother  George  took  him  into 
his  house  and  where  he  shortly  (May  23,  1873) 
was  to  witness  the  death  of  his  mother.  His  ill- 
ness and  his  bereavement  were  two  blows  from 
which  he  never  recovered,  and  henceforth  his 
life  ran  gradually  downhill.  Between  1865  and 
1873,  however,  he  had  published  two  new  edi- 
tions of  Leaves  of  Grass  (1867  and  1871),  Pas- 
sage to  India  ( 1871 ) ,  and  the  prose  work  Demo- 
cratic Vistas  (1871).  Both  of  these  latter  works 
reveal  again  how  he  had  tempered  his  message 


with  time.  "Passage  to  India,"  his  last  great 
poem,  is  among  other  things  a  recognition  of  the 
claims  of  the  past  upon  our  souls,  and  an  admis- 
sion that  America  needs  all  the  support  she  can 
find  in  old  ideas  and  religions.  Democratic  Vis- 
tas, written  more  or  less  in  answer  to  Carlyle's 
Shooting  Niagara,  is  remarkable  for  the  frank- 
ness with  which  it  discusses  the  shortcomings 
of  American  democracy  so  far ;  the  reference  of 
Whitman's  idealism  is  now  to  the  future,  in  which 
he  still  has  faith — as,  ultimately,  he  still  has  faith 
in  the  democratic  masses  of  "These  States." 

Of  the  nineteen  years  which  remained  to  him 
Whitman  spent  the  first  eleven  in  his  brother's 
house  in  Stevens  Street,  Camden,  and  the  last 
eight  in  a  smaller  house  he  had  bought  for  him- 
self at  328  Mickle  Street.  After  eighteen  months' 
absence  from  his  position  in  the  attorney-gen- 
eral's office  at  Washington  he  lost  it,  being  hence- 
forth dependent  for  his  living  upon  his  brother, 
upon  friends,  and  upon  the  sale  of  his  books, 
which  he  conducted  partly  from  his  own  quar- 
ters, receiving  orders  and  filling  them  with  his 
own  hand.  His  literary  income  was  from  time 
to  time  augmented  through  articles  for  the  press, 
through  the  sale  of  new  poems,  and  through  the 
lecture  he  gave  perhaps  a  dozen  times  on  "The 
Death  of  Abraham  Lincoln."  His  illness,  from 
which  he  never  recovered,  was  less  acute  during 
the  ten  years  following  1876,  when  he  formed 
the  habit  of  going  down  to  Timber  Creek,  a 
stream  which  flows  into  the  Delaware  about  ten 
miles  below  Camden,  and  enjoying  the  out-of- 
doors  as  a  guest  of  the  Stafford  family  at  Lau- 
rel Springs.  Here  he  was  repaired  and  refreshed, 
and  here  he  composed  for  Specimen  Days  some 
of  the  best  prose  he  ever  wrote,  besides  revising 
his  earlier  work  and  preparing  new  editions  for 
the  press. 

Before  the  end  came  he  had  issued  five  new 
editions  of  Leaves  of  Grass  (1876,  1881-82,  1882, 
1888-89,  1891-92)  ;  had  published  three  collec- 
tions containing  new  poems  {Two  Rivulets, 
1876;  November  Boughs,  1888;  and  Good-Bye, 
My  Fancy,  1891)  ;  and  had  published  most  of 
the  prose  which  now  belongs  to  his  canon.  Mem- 
oranda During  the  War  (1875)  was  included  in 
Specimen  Days  and  Collect  (1882-83),  which 
with  Democratic  Vistas  came  after  his  death  to 
represent  him  in  prose  until  the  process  began 
a  quarter-century  later  of  unearthing  his  earliest 
work. 

During  no  portion  of  this  period  was  he  lonely 
or  neglected.  His  old  friends  Burroughs  and 
O'Connor  were  usually  within  reach,  though  he 
was  estranged  from  O'Connor  for  ten  years  af- 
ter 1872.  He  continued  to  correspond  with  Peter 


!5° 


Whitman 


Whitman 


Doyle,  a  young  horse-car  conductor  whom  he 
had  met  in  Washington  in  1866  and  with  whom 
he  always  comported  himself  half  as  father  and 
half  as  lover.  More  and  more  visitors  arrived 
for  interviews,  many  of  them  from  England — 
Edward  Carpenter,  Oscar  Wilde,  Lord  Hough- 
ton, Sir  Edwin  Arnold,  Henry  Irving,  Bram 
Stoker,  Ernest  Rhys,  Edmund  Gosse.  As  time 
went  on  he  found  himself  surrounded  by  disci- 
ples. Richard  Maurice  Bucke,  a  Canadian  phy- 
sician, attached  himself  to  the  poet  in  1877  and 
produced  the  first  official  biography  in  1883,  fol- 
lowing this  pious  performance  with  a  number  of 
articles  emphasizing  the  prophetic  importance 
of  Whitman,  whom  he  considered  one  of  the  first 
men,  along  with  Bucke  himself,  to  have  come 
under  the  influence  of  "cosmic  consciousness." 
Bucke  was  one  of  Whitman's  three  literary  ex- 
ecutors, and  as  such  was  in  a  position  to  publish 
his  literary  remains.  The  other  two  executors 
were  Thomas  B.  Harned  and  Horace  Traubel 
[q.z'.~\ — the  latter  a  young  man  who  fell  com- 
pletely under  the  old  poet's  influence  and  took 
down  with  a  busy  pencil  almost  every  remark  he 
let  fall. 

Two  episodes  during  these  years  aroused  wide 
discussion  and  gave  new  impetus  to  Whitman's 
fame.  In  the  ll'cst  Jersey  Press  of  Jan.  26,  1876, 
appeared  an  article,  apparently  by  Whitman  him- 
self, describing  him  as  "old,  poor,  and  para- 
lyzed," and  neglected  by  his  countrymen.  A  copy 
of  this  was  sent  by  Whitman  to  W.  M.  Rossetti 
in  England,  who  had  a  portion  of  it  reprinted  in 
the  Athenaeum,  where  it  attracted  the  fiery  eye 
of  Robert  Buchanan,  the  Scotch  poet  (Blodgett, 
post,  pp.  36  n\).  His  blast  about  it  in  the  Daily 
News  was  the  signal  for  a  controversy  which 
ceased  neither  in  England  nor  in  America  until 
relief  began  pouring  in  on  Whitman  in  the  form 
of  orders  for  his  books.  Six  years  later  the  ac- 
tion of  Osgood  &  Company,  the  Boston  pub- 
lishers who  had  just  brought  out  a  new  edition 
of  Leaves  of  Grass,  in  withdrawing  the  book  be- 
cause of  official  protests  against  its  indecency, 
inspired  another  controversy,  O'Connor  this  time 
returning  to  the  front  rank  of  the  Whitman 
forces.  The  result  among  other  things  was  the 
sale  of  3,000  copies  of  the  Philadelphia  edition 
(1882)  in  a  single  day.  Meanwhile  the  fame  of 
Whitman  grew  steadily  in  a  more  normal  fash- 
ion. Certain  "enemies,"  as  he  called  those  who 
did  not  think  him  a  great  poet,  continued  to  ex- 
press their  doubts — notably  Thomas  Wentworth 
Higginson  and  William  Winter  [qq.7'.^  in  Amer- 
ica and  the  editors  of  the  Saturday  Review  in 
England.  Swinburne  recanted  his  praise  of  1868 
and  1872  in  a  savage  article  of  1887,  and  Robert 


Louis  Stevenson  tempered  the  admiration  he  had 
originally  felt.  But  there  was  at  the  same  time 
a  growing  chorus  of  appreciation.  Before  the 
poet  died  he  had  been  translated  into  Danish, 
Dutch,  French  (by  Jules  Laforgue  and  Francis 
Viele-Griffin),  German,  and  Italian,  and  had 
been  the  subject  of  numerous  critical  studies 
which  ranged  all  the  way  from  analysis  to 
panegyric. 

Whitman's  tendency  to  bask  in  so  much  adora- 
tion and  to  surround  himself  with  champions 
who  did  his  name  on  the  whole  more  harm  than 
good  is  pardonable,  considering  his  career,  and 
at  the  same  time  pitiable.  Of  necessity  he  lived 
quietly  in  Camden,  though  he  left  it  for  trips  to 
Colorado  in  1879,  to  Canada  in  1880  to  visit  Dr. 
Bucke,  to  Boston  (where  he  saw  Emerson  for 
the  last  time)  in  1881,  and  to  his  birthplace  on 
Long  Island  in  the  same  year.  In  his  own  mind 
he  mellowed  perceptibly,  embracing  Hegelianism 
and  asserting  once  more,  in  "A  Backward  Glance 
O'er  Travel'd  Roads"  which  prefaced  November 
Boughs  (1888),  the  importance  to  America  of 
religion  and  of  the  older  literatures.  His  former 
impatience  with  any  poetry  which  was  not  Amer- 
ican had  quite  disappeared  in  his  old  age,  as  had 
his  tendency  to  dismiss  other  American  poets 
than  himself  as  of  no  account.  His  mature  ap- 
praisals of  Longfellow,  Poe,  Whittier,  Bryant, 
and  of  course  Emerson  are  no  less  valuable  as 
contributions  to  criticism  than  are  his  medi- 
tations on  the  death  of  Carlyle. 

His  death  in  Camden  on  Mar.  26,  1892,  was 
the  occasion  for  many  attempts  to  sum  up  his 
excellence  and  his  importance.  For  the  most 
part  these  were  failures,  since  the  shadow  of  the 
disciples  and  the  executors  still  obscured  him. 
During  forty  years  this  shadow  has  gradually 
been  dissipated  under  the  influence  of  biographi- 
cal research,  a  saner  criticism,  and  the  passage 
of  time.  The  claims  originally  made  for  him  as 
man  and  moralist  are  made  less  often,  and  prom- 
ise to  disappear.  To  the  extent  that  his  "teach- 
ings" can  be  proved  to  have  been  built  upon  the 
unsteady  basis  of  his  own  unique  psychology, 
proof  has  been  forthcoming — in  America,  in 
England,  in  Germany,  and  in  France.  It  is  now 
difficult  if  not  impossible  to  believe  that  he  came 
into  the  world  to  save  it,  or  that  he  will  save  it. 
The  world  in  general  pays  little  attention  to  his 
name ;  he  has  never  been  a  popular  poet,  accept- 
ed of  democracies  as  he  hoped,  nor  has  he  been 
often  imitated  by  other  poets,  as  he  also  hoped. 
But  as  his  isolation  grows  more  apparent  it 
grows  more  impressive,  so  that  his  rank  among 
the  poets  of  his  country  and  his  century,  and  in- 
deed of  the  world,  is  higher  than  it  has  ever  been 


IS1 


Whitman 


Whitmer 


before.  His  work  manages  to  survive  the  attacks 
made  either  upon  its  author  as  a  man  or  upon 
what  George  Santayana  called  before  1900  the 
"barbarism"  of  his  mind.  It  survives  as  certain- 
ly the  most  original  work  yet  done  by  any  Amer- 
ican poet,  and  perhaps  as  the  most  passionate 
and  best.  It  is  easier  now  to  comprehend  Whit- 
man as  the  artist  that  he  was,  though  it  is  not 
easy  and  it  never  will  be.  As  a  maker  of  phrases, 
as  a  master  of  rhythms,  as  a  weaver  of  images, 
as  an  architect  of  poems  he  is  often  beyond  the 
last  reach  of  analysis.  His  diaries  of  the  war, 
his  prefaces  to  Leaves  of  Grass,  his  Democratic 
Vistas,  and  his  notes  on  the  landscape  at  Timber 
Creek  are  a  permanent  part  of  American  prose. 
He  himself,  looked  back  at  purely  as  a  writer, 
will  always  loom  a  gigantic  and  beautiful  figure 
in  nineteenth-century  letters. 

[The  Harned  Collection  of  Whitman  manuscripts  in 
the  Lib.  of  Cong,  includes  twenty-four  notebooks  of 
various  dates  as  well  as  annotated  newspaper  clippings, 
letters,  and  miscellaneous  items.  The  Complete  Works 
of  Walt  Whitman  were  published  by  the  literary  execu- 
tors, R.  M.  Bucke,  T.  B.  Harned,  and  Horace  Traubel, 
in  10  vols,  in  1902.  This  material  has  been  supplement- 
ed by  Walt  Whitman's  Diary  in  Canada  (1904),  ed.  by 
W.  S.  Kennedy;  An  American  Primer  (1904),  ed.  by 
Horace  Traubel ;  Criticism,  An  Essay,  by  Walt  Whit- 
man (1913)  ;  The  Letters  of  Anne  Gilchrist  and  Walt 
Whitman  (1918),  ed.  by  T.  B.  Harned;  The  Gathering 
of  the  Forces,  contributions  to  the  Brooklyn  Eagle  (2 
vols.,  1920),  ed.  by  Cleveland  Rodgers  and  John  Black  ; 
The  Uncollected  Poetry  and  Prose  of  Walt  Whitman 
(2  vols.,  1921),  ed.  by  Emory  Holloway  ;  Walt  Whit- 
man's Workshop,  A  Collection  of  Unpublished  Manu- 
scripts (1928),  ed.  by  C.  J.  Furness  ;  /  Sit  and  Look 
Out ;  Editorials  from  the  Brooklyn  Daily  Times  by 
Walt  Whitman  (1932),  ed.  by  Emory  Holloway  and 
Vernolian  Schwarz  ;  Walt  Whitman  and  the  Civil  War 
(1933),  manuscripts  and  contributions  to  the  New  York 
Leader,  ed.  by  C.  I.  Glicksberg.  For  bibliographies  see 
the  Complete  Works,  vol.  VII  ;  The  Cambridge  Hist,  of 
Am.  Literature,  vol.  II  (1918),  pp.  551-81  ;  A  Concise 
Bibliography  of  the  Works  of  Walt  Whitman  (1922) 
by  Carolyn  Wells  and  A.  F.  Goldsmith  ;  and  the  various 
annual  bibliographies  of  American  literature. 

The  chief  biographies  are:  R.  M.  Bucke,  Walt  Whit- 
man (1883);  H.  B.  Binns,  A  Life  of  Walt  Whitman 
(1905);  Bliss  Perry,  Walt  Whitman:  His  Life  and 
Work  (1906)  ;  Leon  Bazalgette,  Walt  Whitman  ; 
L'Homme  ct  son  (Euvre  (1908),  published  in  transla- 
tion by  Ellen  FitzGerald  (1920);  G.  R.  Carpenter, 
Walt  Whitman  (1909)  ;  Emory  Holloway,  biographical 
introduction  to  The  Uncollected  Poetry  and  Prose  of 
Walt  Whitman  (2  vols.,  1921)  ;  Emory  Holloway,  Whit- 
man. An  Interpretation  in  Narrative  (1926);  John 
Bailey,  Walt  Whitman  (1926)  ;  Jean  Catel,  Walt  Whit- 
man; La  Naissance  du  Poete  (1929).  Reminiscences 
and  miscellaneous  biographical  material  may  be  found 
in  :  John  Burroughs,  Notes  on  Walt  Whitman  as  Poet 
and  Person  (1867,  1871)  ;  H.  H.  Gilchrist,  ed.,  Anne 
Gilchrist:  Her  Life  and  Writings  (1887)  ;  In  Re  Walt 
Whitman  (1893),  ed.  by  his  literary  executors;  T.  B. 
Donaldson,  Walt  Whitman:  The  Man  (1896);  W.  S. 
Kennedy,  Reminiscences  of  Walt  Whitman  (1896)  ;  I. 
H.  Piatt,  Walt  Whitman  (1904I  ;  Edward  Carpenter, 
Days  with  Walt  Whitman  (1906);  Horace  Traubel, 
With  Walt  Whitman  in  Camden,  March  28,  1888-Jamt- 
ary  20,  1889,  conversations  (3  vols.,  1906-14)  ;  J. 
Johnston  and  J.  W.  Wallace,  Visits  to  Walt  Whitman 
in  1890-1801  (1917)  ;  Elizabeth  L.  Keller,  Walt  Whit- 
man in  Mickle  Street  (1921).  The  growth  of  Whitman's 
reputation   has   been   studied   in   W.    S.    Kennedy,    The 


Fight  of  a  Book  for  the  World  ( 1926)  ;  in  Clara  Barrus, 
Whitman  and  Burroughs  Comrades  (1931)  ;  and  in 
Harold  Blodgett,  Walt  Whitman  in  England  (1934). 
For  psychological  analyses  of  Whitman  see :  Eduard 
Bertz,  Der  Yankce-Hciland  (Dresden,  1906),  and  Whit- 
man-Mysterien.  Eini  Abrechnung  mit  Johannes  Schlaf 
(Berlin,  1907)  ;  W.  C.  Rivers,  Walt  Whitman's  Anom- 
aly (1913).  For  critical  studies  see:  J.  A.  Symonds, 
Walt  Whitman :  A  Study  (1893)  ;  Basil  de  Selincourt, 
Walt  Whitman:  A  Critical  Study  (1914)  ;  Cebria  Mon- 
toliu,  Walt  Whitman:  L'home  i  sa  tasca  (Barcelona, 
19 1 3)  ;  Leon  Bazalgette,  Le  ' Pocme-Evangile'  de  Walt 
Whitman  (Paris,  1921).  An  obituary  and  a  long  article 
were  published  in  N.  Y.  Times,  Mar.  27,  1892.] 

M.V-D. 

WHITMER,  DAVID  (Jan.  7,  1805-Jan.  25, 
1888),  early  Mormon  leader  and  one  of  "The 
Three  Witnesses"  to  the  Book  of  Mormon,  was 
born  near  Harrisburg,  Pa.,  the  son  of  Peter  and 
Mary  (Musselman)  Whitmer.  His  father,  a 
hard-working  farmer,  removed  a  few  years  after 
David's  birth  to  Seneca  County,  N.  Y.  The  boy 
received  a  rudimentary  education  and  grew  up 
to  follow  the  occupation  of  his  father.  His  family 
was  Presbyterian,  but  he  was  affected  by  the 
currents  of  religious  unrest  of  the  time  and  in 
1828,  while  on  a  trip  to  Palmyra,  N.  Y.,  heard 
from  the  village  schoolmaster,  Oliver  Cowdery, 
about  Joseph  Smith  [q.v.1  and  the  "Golden 
Plates,"  which  the  latter  had  been  commissioned 
by  divine  messengers  to  translate.  Whitmer's 
whole  family  was  impressed  by  the  story,  and 
the  next  year,  at  the  request  of  Cowdery,  David 
left  his  spring  plowing  in  order  to  fetch  Smith 
and  Cowdery  to  the  Whitmer  homestead.  Dur- 
ing the  month  of  June  the  translation  of  the 
Book  of  Mormon  was  completed  in  his  father's 
house ;  he  was  baptized  into  the  newly  revealed 
religion  by  Smith  himself;  and  shortly  thereaf- 
ter he  was  one  of  the  three  who  were  privileged 
by  divine  oracle  to  examine  the  "Golden  Plates" 
and  to  give  witness  to  their  supernatural  source 
yet  material  character.  During  the  next  few 
months  he  interlarded  proselytizing  with  farm- 
ing and  on  Apr.  6,  1830,  he  was  at  Fayette,  N. 
Y.,  at  the  formal  organization  of  Smith's  new- 
sect.  In  this  year  he  married  Julia  A.  Jolly. 

He  followed  his  leader  to  Kirtland,  Ohio,  and 
when  the  Mormon  Prophet  decided  to  move  his 
rapidly  growing  flock  to  the  "Promised  Land" 
of  Jackson  County,  Mo.,  he  was  among  the  first 
to  go.  He  suffered  with  his  fellow-members  the 
intense  persecutions  of  the  Missourians  and  in 
the  fall  of  1833  was  forced  to  remove  to  Clay 
County  to  escape  the  mobs  roused  against  the 
Mormons.  When  Smith  organized  on  July  3, 
1834,  the  "High  Council  of  Zion"  to  manage  the 
Mormon  interests  in  Missouri,  Whitmer  was 
made  president  of  the  council  and  for  the  next 
year  or  so  was  one  of  the  leading  men  of  his 
denomination  there.   However,  as  external  pres- 


152 


Whitmer 

sure  from  enemies  increased  and  as  dissension 
arose  within  the  ranks  of  the  Mormons  them- 
selves, he  found  himself  at  odds  with  the  Prophet. 
Following  an  attempt  in  1836  of  one  faction  to 
have  him  replace  Smith,  there  was,  at  Kirtland, 
a  temporary  reconciliation  with  Smith ;  but  the 
next  year  with  Martin  Harris,  Cowdery,  and 
others  he  was  again  in  conflict  with  the  Prophet. 
He  gave  up  active  participation  early  in  1838. 
One  of  the  major  charges  brought  against  him 
was  neglect  of  his  moral  and  religious  obligations 
to  his  church.  He  was  excommunicated  on  Apr. 
13,  1838.  Shortly  thereafter  he  settled  in  Rich- 
mond, Ray  County,  Mo.,  where  he  lived  until  his 
death.  He  became  a  thoroughly  respected  citizen 
and  for  a  number  of  years  sat  in  the  city  council 
and  was  at  one  time  elected  mayor. 

After  the  death  of  Joseph  Smith  and  the  rise 
of  the  two  chief  contending  branches  of  the 
Mormon  Church,  he  became  the  object  of  their 
special  attention.  Each  faction  tried  to  reconvert 
him  to  its  own  particular  creed  but  failed.  In 
1847  William  E.  McClellin,  who  had  been  as- 
sociated with  the  Whitmer  faction  in  Missouri, 
tried  to  reestablish  another  Mormon  sect  under 
the  original  name,  "Church  of  Christ,"  and 
Whitmer  was  chosen  president;  but  the  attempt 
was  abortive.  Nearly  twenty  years  later  Whit- 
mer and  his  own  family  revived  the  "Church  of 
Christ"  with  a  simple  organization  of  six  officers, 
two  priests,  and  four  elders.  A  periodical  was 
established  and  proselytizing,  especially  among 
the  other  Mormons,  began.  At  the  time  of  his 
death  he  had  about  150  followers. 

He  made  no  important  contribution  to  Mor- 
mon practices  or  creed.  He  found  early  Mormon- 
ism  to  his  liking,  because  it  was  marked,  he  im- 
agined, by  the  simplicity  of  primitive  Christian- 
ity. As  the  followers  of  Smith  increased,  as  in- 
stitutional forms  and  a  priestly  hierarchy  grew 
up,  he  fell  into  controversy  with  Smith  and  with 
Rigdon — whom  he  never  liked — and  before  Mor- 
monism  really  developed  many  of  its  most  dis- 
tinctive features,  he  apostatized.  His  pamphlet, 
An  Address  to  All  Believers  in  Christ  by  a  Wit- 
ness to  the  Divine  Authenticity  to  the  Book  of 
Mormon  (1887),  gives  a  rather  mundane  but 
apparently  straightforward  account  of  many 
events  at  the  beginning  of  Mormonism.  His  ac- 
count of  the  method  of  "translating"  the  "Golden 
Plates,"  of  the  difficulties  in  getting  the  Book  of 
Mormon  printed,  his  contention  that  the  revela- 
tions of  Joseph  Smith  almost  always  grew  out 
of  immediate  necessity  to  answer  some  practi- 
cal problem  and  that  they  were  not  to  be  taken 
too  seriously  and  certainly  that  they  should  never 
have  been  published  and  come  to  be  considered 


Whitmore 

"sacred"  documents,  his  information  that  in 
April  1830  when  the  Mormon  church  was  le- 
gally organized  there  were  already  seventy  bap- 
tized followers  in  the  movement  and  not  just  six 
as  the  official  history  implies,  and  his  story  of 
the  great  influence  that  Rigdon  had  on  Joseph 
Smith  are  of  great  importance  to  the  historian 
of  early  Mormonism.  Nevertheless  in  spite  of 
his  disaffection  he  never  denied  his  simple  but 
clearly  sincere  belief  that  he  saw  the  "Golden 
Plates"  and  that  Smith  was  divinely  appointed 
to  reestablish  the  true  church  of  Christ. 

[Hist.  Record,  May  1887  ;  Latter-Day  Saint  Bio- 
graphical Encyclopedia  (1901),  vol.  I,  ed.  by  Andrew 
Jensen  ;  Joseph  Smith  and  H.  C.  Smith,  History  of  the 
Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter  Day  Saints  (4  vols., 
1902)  ;  Edward  Stevenson,  "The  Three  Witnesses  to 
the  Book  of  Mormon,"  Latter  Day  Saints'  Millenial 
Star,  July  12,  1886.]  j£  y 

WHITMORE,  WILLIAM  HENRY  (Sept. 
6,  1836-June  14,  1900),  antiquarian,  was  born  at 
Dorchester,  Mass.,  the  son  of  Charles  Octavius 
and  Lovice  (Ayres)  Whitmore,  and  a  descend- 
ant of  Francis  Whitmore  who  settled  in  Cam- 
bridge before  1648.  After  studying  at  the  Bos- 
ton Latin  School  and  English' High  School  he 
entered  the  family  firm  of  commission  mer- 
chants, where  he  served  for  nearly  twenty-five 
years,  visiting  Mauritius,  Madagascar,  Calcutta, 
and  England.  Meanwhile  he  studied  law  and 
painting.  In  1874  he  was  elected  to  the  Boston 
Common  Council  as  a  Republican.  He  soon  be- 
came a  Democrat,  gave  up  society,  and  moved  to 
Worcester  Street,  where  he  found  numerous  po- 
litical friends.  With  one  brief  interval,  he  con- 
tinued in  the  Council  until  1886,  promoting  the 
preservation  and  printing  of  records,  and  the 
preservation  and  restoration  of  the  Old  State 
House.  His  political  influence  gave  him  power 
to  advance  successfully  his  antiquarian  aims.  In 
1875  he  became  a  record  commissioner,  and  in 
1892  city  registrar,  taking  over  the  work  of  the 
commissioners.  Under  his  supervision  twenty- 
eight  volumes  of  invaluable  local  records  were 
issued,  and  manuscript  copies  of  vital  records  of 
Boston  churches  were  collected.  All  this  time  he 
wrote  frequently  for  the  New  England  Historical 
and  Genealogical  Register,  the  Nation,  the  Prince 
Society,  and  the  Massachusetts  Historical  So- 
ciety. He  was  also  an  active  trustee  of  the  Bos- 
ton Public  Library   (1882-83,  1885-88). 

Whitmore's  work  in  its  day  represented  an 
advance  in  standards  of  accuracy,  but  unfortu- 
nately his  output  was  so  great  that  much  of  his 
printed  work  requires  careful  checking.  Much 
erudition  is  displayed  in  his  editorial  work  on 
The  Andros  Tracts  (1868-74),  tne  "Diary  of 
Samuel  Sewall"   {Collections  of  the  Massachn- 


1  53 


Whitmore 

setts  Historical  Society,  5  ser.,  vols.  V-VII, 
1878-82),  and  The  Colonial  Laws  of  Massachu- 
setts (3  vols.,  1887-90).  His  The  Heraldic  Jour- 
nal, Recording  the  Armorial  Bearings  and  Gen- 
ealogies of  American  Families  (4  vols.,  1865- 
68)  and  The  Elements  of  Heraldry  (1866) 
were  pioneer  efforts.  He  also  published  A  Hand- 
book of  American  Genealogy  (1862),  The  Mas- 
sachusetts Civil  List  .  .  .  1630-1774  (1870),  A 
Bibliographical  Sketch  of  the  Laws  of  the  Mas- 
sachusetts Colony  from  1630  to  1686  ( 1890) ,  and 
several  reports  and  pamphlets  of  a  political  na- 
ture. He  printed  pedigrees  of  the  families  of 
Whitmore  and  Hall,  Temple,  Lane,  Reyner, 
Whipple,  Quincy,  Norton,  Winthrop,  Payne, 
Gore,  Vickery,  Hutchinson,  Oliver,  Pelham, 
Usher,  Elliot,  Dalton,  Batcheller,  Wilcox,  and 
others.  He  was  uncompromising  in  his  hostility 
to  false  pedigrees.  In  The  Memorial  History  of 
Boston  (4  vols.,  1881),  edited  by  Justin  Winsor, 
he  wrote  on  old  Boston  families.  Other  inter- 
ests led  him  to  edit  The  Poetical  Works  of  Win- 
throp Mackzvorth  Pracd  (1859),  Abel  Bowen, 
Engraver  (1884),  and  The  Original  Mother 
Goose's  Melody,  as  First  Issued  by  John  New- 
berry (1889).  Among  his  fellow  workers — but 
not  always  harmonious  ones — were  John  W. 
Thornton,  Samuel  Gardner  and  Samuel  Adams 
Drake,  Charles  Deane  [qq.v.~\,  W.  S.  Appleton, 
J.  T.  Hassam,  A.  C.  Goodell,  and  M.  P.  Wilder. 
With  them  he  was  brilliant  in  conversation. 

He  was  short,  with  abundant  black  hair,  dark 
complexion,  keen  but  imperfect  eyes,  and  reso- 
lute expression.  One  of  his  friends  has  said  that 
it  was  "certainly  quite  as  easy  to  differ  from 
him  as  to  agree  with  him"  (Proceedings  of  the 
Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  post,  p.  99)  ; 
another  very  frank  comment  was  that  his  "ab- 
sorption in  his  chosen  interests  was  of  a  char- 
acter bordering  on  derangement"  (New  England 
Historical  and  Genealogical  Register,  post,  p. 
68).  While  kind  to  the  aged  and  those  in  mis- 
fortune, he  was  "destitute  of  clemency"  for  an- 
tiquarians whose  efforts  distressed  him.  Toward 
the  end  of  his  life  he  suffered  from  disease  and 
could  find  little  relief;  his  office  at  the  Old  Court 
House  was  much  of  the  time  deserted.  Whit- 
more was  married  on  June  11,  1884,  to  Fanny 
Theresa  Walling  Maynard,  daughter  of  Edward 

F.  Maynard  of  Boston.   He  was  survived  by  his 

wife  and  a  son. 

[Sources  include  Who's  Who  in  America,  1899-1900  ; 
Jessie  W.  P.  Purdy,  The  Whitmore  Geneal.  (1907); 
W.  S.  Appleton,  in  Proc.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc,  2  ser.,  vol. 
XV  (1902),  with  bibliog. ;  G.  A.  Gordon,  in  New-Eng- 
land Hist,  and  Geneal.  Reg.,  Jan.  1902;  obituary  in 
Boston  Transcript,  June    15,    1900;   information   from 

G.  K.  Clarke.  W.  P.  Greenlaw,  Albert  Matthews,  and 
W.  K.  Watkins.]  C.K.  B. 


Whitney 


WHITNEY,  ADELINE  DUTTON  TRAIN 

(Sept.  15,  1824-Mar.  20,  1906),  author,  was 
born  in  Boston,  Mass.,  the  daughter  of  Adeline 
(Dutton)  and  Enoch  Train  \_q.v.~\  and  the  de- 
scendant of  John  Traine  who  emigrated  from 
England  in  1635  and  settled  in  Watertown, 
Mass.  Until  her  marriage  in  1843  to  Seth  D. 
Whitney  of  Milton,  Mass.,  she  lived  in  her  na- 
tive city  and  received  her  education  there,  ex- 
cept for  a  year  at  a  boarding  school  in  North- 
ampton. At  the  age  of  thirteen  she  entered  the 
private  school  for  young  ladies  kept  by  George 
B.  Emerson  [q.v.~\  in  Boston.  For  the  thorough 
training  in  Latin  and  in  English  composition 
that  she  received  there,  she  was  always  grateful. 
In  a  work  written  after  she  was  seventy,  Friend- 
ly Letters  to  Girl  Friends  ( 1896) ,  appearing  first 
in  the  Ladies'  Home  Journal,  she  declared  that 
the  methods  and  ideals  of  Emerson  had  been  the 
moulding  influences  of  her  life.  She  was  a  wide 
reader  of  both  prose  and  poetry.  What  she  de- 
scribed as  "home  and  neighborhood  books"  espe- 
cially attracted  her  in  her  youth,  and  she  found 
in  the  works  of  Miss  Edgeworth,  Miss  Sedg- 
wick, Mrs.  Child,  and  other  women  writers  her 
first  incentive  to  authorship.  She  contributed  an 
occasional  article  to  local  papers  before  her 
marriage,  but  her  regular  book-making  did  not 
begin  until  the  youngest  of  her  four  children 
was  eight  years  old.  Milton  became  her  home 
after  1843,  and  there  most  of  her  books  were 
written.  She  won  her  first  success  with  a  little 
volume  called  Boys  at  Chequasset  (1862),  based 
upon  the  adventures  and  interests  of  her  own  son. 
The  following  year  she  published  Faith  Gart- 
ney's  Girlhood,  an  extremely  popular  book,  which 
ran  to  twenty  editions.  The  Gayworthys  (1865), 
published  both  in  London  and  Boston,  added  to 
her  reputation.  After  the  appearance  of  two 
serials  in  the  monthly  magazine,  Our  Young 
Folks,  later  published  in  book  form — A  Summer 
in  Leslie  Goldthwaite's  Life  (1866)  and  We 
Girls  (1870) — she  wrote  two  other  tales,  Real 
Folks  (1871)  and  The  Other  Girls  (1873),  at 
the  request  of  her  publishers.  The  four  were  is- 
sued as  the  Real  Folks  Series.  Over  ten  thou- 
sand copies  of  this  work  were  sold  during  the 
first  season. 

Her  later  stories  all  dealt  with  some  aspects 
of  domestic  life,  for  she  believed  that  the  home 
was  the  ideal  center  of  a  woman's  activity.  She 
disapproved  of  the  suffrage  movement  and  took 
no  part  in  public  affairs,  except  philanthropic 
enterprises.  "My  history,"  she  declared  in  an 
autobiographical  note,  "is  simply  that  of  my 
book-writing  and  the  management  of  my  house- 
hold" (Teele,  post,  p.  553).  Elm  Corner  in  Mil- 


iS4 


Whitney 


Whitney- 


ton  and  her  summer  home  in  Alstead,  N.  H., 
fofmed  the  background  of  her  life,  although 
travel  in  Europe  and  a  year's  sojourn  in  the 
West  supplied  diversity  of  scene.  She  continued 
to  write  books  and  articles  for  periodicals  all 
her  life,  her  last  volume,  Biddy's  Episodes 
(1904),  appearing  when  she  was  eighty.  Be- 
sides her  stories  for  girls  she  published  several 
collections  of  verse :  Mother  Goose  for  Grown 
Folks  (i860);  Pansics  (1872);  Holy-Tides 
(1886);  Daffodils  (1887);  and  White  Memo- 
ries (1893),  a  tribute  to  three  friends,  Phillips 
Brooks,  John  G.  Whittier,  and  Lucy  Larcom. 
Her  books  for  girls  dealt  largely  with  New  Eng- 
land scenes  and  characters.  They  contained 
many  reflective  passages,  which  gave  dignity  to 
the  narratives  and  often  lifted  the  material  to 
a  mature  level. 

[The  Hist,  of  Milton,  Mass.  (1887),  ed.  by  A.  K. 
Teele ;  R.  H.  Stoddard  and  others,  Poets'  Homes 
(1877);  Who's  Who  in  America,  1906-07;  Henry 
Bond,  Gcneals.  .  .  .  of  the  First  Settlers  of  Watertown 
(1855),  I,  607;  Boston  Evening  Transcript,  Mar.  21, 
1906;   manuscript   material   from  the   family.] 

B.M.S. 

WHITNEY,  ANNE  (Sept.  2,  1821-Jan.  23, 
1915),  sculptor,  poet,  youngest  of  the  seven  chil- 
dren of  Nathaniel  Ruggles  and  Sally  (Stone) 
Whitney,  was  born  in  Watertown,  Mass.,  the 
town  in  which  John  Whitney,  her  earliest  Araf- 
ican  ancestor,  was  a  leading  citizen  from  1635 
to  1673.  She  inherited  from  her  parents  good 
looks,  perfect  health,  and  liberal  ideas.  Her  fa- 
ther, clerk  of  the  Middlesex  Courts,  lived  nine- 
ty-one years,  her  mother  a  hundred  and  one,  and 
she  herself  ninety-three.  Reared  with  every  ad- 
vantage of  the  time  and  place,  and  educated  in 
private  schools,  she  soon  showed  a  creative  mind, 
eager  to  express  beauty.  Yet,  though  she  was 
nine  years  older  than  Harriet  Goodhue  Hosmer 
[9.7'.],  her  fellow  townswoman,  she  was  un- 
known as  a  sculptor  until  long  after  Harriet 
Hosmer  achieved  fame.  In  1859,  the  year  when 
Hawthorne  was  singing  praises  of  the  Hosmer 
sculptures,  her  Poems  were  published  in  New 
York  and  won  a  modest  success ;  a  long  and 
highly  favorable  notice  appeared  in  the  North 
American  Review,  April  i860. 

Anne  Whitney  was  in  her  middle  thirties  when 
she  began  modelling.  She  had  no  teacher,  but 
she  later  attended  the  anatomy  lectures  of  Dr. 
William  Rimmer  [q.v.~].  In  i860  she  opened  a 
studio  in  Watertown.  Her  first  attempts  were 
portrait  busts  of  relatives  and  friends ;  later  she 
turned  to  ideal  figures.  Her  life-size  marble 
statue  of  Lady  Godiva,  exhibited  in  Boston,  was 
placed  in  a  private  collection.  Her  "Africa,"  a 
colossal  reclining  figure  shown  in  Boston  and 


New  York,  her  "Toussaint  L'Ouverture" — both 
an  outgrowth  of  her  feeling  against  slavery — 
and  her  "Lotus  Eater,"  representing  young 
manhood  in  a  relaxed  attitude,  had  a  significance 
more  ethical  than  artistic.  Then  came  four  or 
five  studious  years  abroad,  mainly  in  Rome, 
Paris,  and  Munich.  After  her  return,  she  estab- 
lished in  1872  a  handsome  studio  on  Mount  Ver- 
non Street,  Boston,  and  there  her  important  later 
work  was  done.  She  was  well  past  the  middle  of 
her  long  life  before  her  sculpture  saw  "the  light 
of  the  public  square."  It  is  said  that  her  native 
state,  in  awarding  her  the  commission  for  a 
heroic  marble  statue  (c.  1873)  of  Samuel  Adams, 
to  be  placed  in  Statuary  Hall  in  the  Capitol  in 
Washington,  stipulated  that  the  carving  should 
be  done  in  Italy,  thus  necessitating  a  second  stay 
abroad.  The  figure  stands  in  a  sturdy  attitude, 
arms  folded.  Of  it  Lorado  Taft  wrote :  "Al- 
though no  woman  sculptor  has  succeeded  as  yet 
in  making  a  male  figure  look  convincingly  like 
a  man,  this  statue  has  a  certain  feminine  power, 
and  is  among  the  interesting  works  of  the  col- 
lection" (post,  p.  214).  In  1880  a  bronze  replica 
was  erected  in  Boston.  Among  her  other  works 
were  the  seated  figure  of  Charles  Sumner  in 
Harvard  Square,  Cambridge,  her  "Leif  Erics- 
son," on  Commonwealth  Avenue,  Boston,  and  the 
seated  marble  statue  of  Harriet  Martineau  at 
Wellesley  College,  which  was  destroyed  by  fire 
in  1914.  Her  many  portrait  busts  include  those 
of  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe,  Frances  Willard, 
Lucy  Stone,  George  Herbert  Palmer  and  his 
wife,  President  James  Walker  of  Harvard,  and 
President  William  Augustus  Stearns  of  Am- 
herst. Her  "Keats,"  at  Hampstead,  England, 
was  modelled  from  the  well-known  mask  by 
Hayden.  Other  works  were  a  statue  called 
"Roma,"  representing  the  city  as  having  fallen 
on  evil  days,  and  an  unfinished  study  of  Shake- 
speare in  the  Midsummer  Night's  Dream  mood. 
Though  a  reformer  and  an  advanced  thinker, 
Anne  Whitney  was  without  self-assertion.  A 
memorable  personage  in  the  cultivated  circles  of 
Boston,  she  kept  her  unaffected  dignity  and 
charm  until  her  death.   She  died  in  Boston. 

[F.  C.  Pierce,  Whitney:  The  Descendants  of  John 
Whitney  (1895);  Who's  Who  in  America,  1914-15; 
F.  E.  Willard  and  M.  E.  Livermore,  A  Woman  of  the 
Century  (1893)  ;  Lorado  Taft,  The  Hist,  of  Am.  Sculp- 
ture (1903)  ;  Drama,  May  1916,  p.  165,  pub.  by  Drama 
League  of  America  ;  Harriet  P.  Spofford,  A  Little 
Book  of  Friends  (1916)  ;  obituary  in  Boston  Transcript, 
Jan.  25,  1915.]  A— e.  A. 

WHITNEY,  ASA  (Dec.  i,  1791-June  4,  1874), 
inventor,  manufacturer,  was  the  son  of  Asa  and 
Mary  (Wallis)  Whitney,  and  a  descendant  of 
John  Whitney,  who  emigrated  from  London, 
England,  to  Watertown,  Mass.,  in  1635.  He  was 


*55 


Whitney 


Whitney 


born  in  Townsend,  Mass.,  where  his  father  was 
the  blacksmith,  and  at  an  early  age,  having  ob- 
tained a  meager  education,  he  went  to  work  in 
his  father's  shop.  When  he  became  of  age,  in 
order  to  secure  a  wider  mechanical  experience  he 
secured  employment  in  various  machine  shops, 
wheelwright  shops,  and  machinery  manufac- 
tories in  New  Hampshire  and  New  York.  About 
1820,  while  working  in  New  Hampshire  in  a 
cotton-machinery  manufactory,  he  was  delegat- 
ed by  his  employer  to  install  the  machinery  in  a 
new  cotton  mill  in  Brownsville,  N.  Y.  Upon 
completing  the  work  he  remained  in  that  town 
and  began  in  a  small  way  the  manufacture  of 
axles  for  horse-drawn  vehicles. 

Although  successful  in  this  enterprise,  about 
1827  he  gave  it  up  to  become  a  partner  in  a  local 
cotton-machinery  plant  and  in  three  years  lost 
what  little  capital  he  possessed.  He  then  accept- 
ed the  opportunity  offered  him  by  the  Mohawk 
&  Hudson  Railroad  to  take  charge  of  erecting 
the  machinery  on  the  inclined  planes  at  Albany 
and  Schenectady  and  of  the  building  of  railroad 
cars.  While  the  work  was  entirely  outside  the 
range  of  his  experience,  its  novelty  strongly  ap- 
pealed to  him  and  by  earnest  application  he  pro- 
gressed in  three  years  to  the  position  of  superin- 
tendent of  the  railroad.  He  continued  in  this 
capacity  until  1839,  by  which  time  his  reputa- 
tion had  become  such  that  Governor  Seward  lit- 
erally drafted  him  to  fill  the  office  of  canal  com- 
missioner of  New  York  State.  While  Whitney 
conducted  this  office  with  distinguished  ability, 
railroading  continued  to  interest  him  deeply  and 
on  June  27,  1840,  he  was  granted  a  patent  for  a 
locomotive  steam  engine.  After  serving  a  three- 
year  term  as  canal  commissioner  he  resigned 
to  enter  into  partnership  with  Matthias  W.  Bald- 
win \_q.v.'],  pioneer  locomotive  builder  of  Phil- 
adelphia, Pa.,  and  in  1842  removed  with  his  fam- 
ily to  that  city  from  Rotterdam,  N.  Y.  Whitney 
was  the  first  of  Baldwin's  partners  to  possess  a 
railroad  experience  and  this  combined  with  his 
keen  business  sense  enabled  him  in  the  succeed- 
ing four  years  to  develop  for  the  company  a 
sound  system  of  management — something  it  had 
lacked  up  to  that  time.  Whitney  also  applied  his 
talents  in  other  directions,  introducing,  for  ex- 
ample, a  locomotive  classification,  which  in  1934 
was  still  used  by  the  Baldwin  Locomotive  Works. 

In  his  leisure  moments  he  gave  serious  atten- 
tion to  the  improvement  of  cast-iron  car  wheels 
and  made  such  satisfactory  progress  that  in 
1846  he  decided  to  devote  his  whole  attention  to 
this  work  and  resigned  from  the  Baldwin  organi- 
zation. On  May  27,  1847,  he  obtained  two  pat- 
ents, one  for  a  cast-iron  car  wheel  having  a  cor- 


rugated center  web,  and  another  for  the  method 
of  manufacturing  the  same.  With  his  three  sons 
he  at  once  organized  in  Philadelphia  the  firm  of 
Asa  Whitney  &  Sons.  He  continued  with  his 
metal  experiments  and  on  Apr.  25,  1848,  obtained 
a  patent  for  an  improved  process  of  annealing 
and  cooling  cast  iron  wheels,  which  he  incor- 
porated in  his  manufactory.  These  three  patents 
formed  the  foundation  on  which  the  Whitney 
car-wheel  works  soon  developed  into  the  largest 
and  most  successful  establishment  of  its  kind  in 
the  United  States.  At  the  time  of  Whitney's 
death  the  daily  consumption  of  pig  iron  was  be- 
tween sixty  and  seventy  tons.  With  this  business 
well  established,  Whitney  in  i860  permitted  him- 
self to  be  elected  president  of  the  Philadelphia 
&  Reading  Railroad.  The  terminus  of  the  road 
at  that  time  was  at  Schuylkill  Haven,  Pa.,  but  it 
did  not  reach  any  of  the  anthracite  coal  mines  in 
that  vicinity.  One  of  Whitney's  first  acts  was  to 
devise  a  plan  for  acquiring  the  lateral  roads  by 
securing  a  lease  of  the  Schuylkill  Valley  Rail- 
road. He  thus  prepared  the  way  for  the  Phila- 
delphia &  Reading  to  secure  all  the  coal  trade 
of  the  Schuylkill  region.  While  intensely  inter- 
ested in  this  new  occupation,  Whitney  was  com- 
pelled to  relinquish  it  in  1861  because  of  his 
poor  health  and  thereafter  until  his  death  he 
lived  in  retirement  in  Philadelphia. 

He  was  much  interested  in  technical  education 
and  took  an  active  part  in  the  work  of  technical 
and  engineering  societies.  His  philanthropies 
were  many  during  his  lifetime,  and  in  his  will  he 
bequeathed  $50,000  to  the  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania to  establish  a  chair  of  dynamic  engi- 
neering, and  $12,500  to  the  Franklin  Institute. 
He  was  married  in  Watertown,  N.  Y.,  Aug.  22, 
1816,  to  Clarinda  Williams  of  Groton,  Conn., 
who  with  three  sons  and  two  daughters  sur- 
vived him. 

[F.  C.  Pierce,  Whitney:  The  Descendants  of  John 
Whitney  (1895);  Railroad  Gazette,  June  13,  1874; 
Manufactories  and  Manufacturers  of  Pa.  of  the  19th 
Century  (187s);  R.  H.  Sanford,  "A  Pioneer  Locomo- 
tive Builder,"  Railway  and  Locomotive  Hist.  Soc,  Bull. 
No.  8  (1924)  ;  Public  Ledger  (Phila.),  June  5,  1874; 
information  from  family  ;  Patent  Office  records.] 

C.W.M. 

WHITNEY,  ASA  (Mar.  14,  1797-Sept.  17, 
1872),  merchant,  pioneer  promoter  of  a  Pacific 
railroad,  was  born  at  North  Groton,  Conn.,  the 
son  of  Shubael  and  Sarah  (Mitchell)  Whitney, 
and  sixth  in  descent  from  John  Whitney  who 
came  from  London,  England,  and  settled  at 
Watertown,  Mass.,  in  1635.  His  father  was  a 
fairly  successful  farmer,  whose  land  was  in  a 
particularly  stony  region.  A  farmer's  life  did 
not  attract  Asa,  however,  and  sometime  before 
1817  he  went  to  New  York.  As  buyer  for  Fred- 


156 


Whitney 

erick  Sheldon,  a  New  York  dry-goods  merchant, 
he  traveled  extensively  abroad  (c.  1825-36), 
chiefly  in  France,  where  his  resemblance  to  Na- 
poleon Bonaparte  often  caused  comment.  There 
he  married  Herminie  Antoinette  Pillet,  who 
died  in  New  York,  Apr.  1,  1833.  On  Nov.  3, 
1835,  he  married  Sarah  Jay  Munro,  daughter  of 
Peter  Jay  Munro  and  grandniece  of  John  Jay. 

Between  1832  and  1836  he  purchased  a  tract 
of  land  on  Broadway  in  New  York  and  several 
parcels  in  New  Rochelle,  where  he  established 
his  father's  family  in  1832  and  provided  his 
younger  brothers  and  sisters  with  educational 
advantages  that  he  had  missed.  In  1836  he  be- 
came the  head  of  his  own  firm.  Although  he  was 
then  financially  able  to  meet  his  obligations,  the 
depression  following  the  panic  of  1837  ruined 
his  business  and  he  was  compelled  to  give  up  all 
his  land.  Discouraged  by  his  losses  and  by  the 
death  of  his  wife,  Nov.  12,  1840,  he  set  out  for 
China,  where  he  remained  about  fifteen  months, 
acting  as  an  agent  for  several  New  York  firms 
and  on  his  own  account,  with  such  profitable  re- 
sults that  he  never  again  engaged  in  business. 
He  was  able,  also,  to  gather  sufficient  statistical 
information  to  show  that  an  American  transcon- 
tinental railroad  would  be  of  great  importance 
in  commerce  with  China,  and  to  formulate  a  plan 
for  its  construction. 

Returning  to  New  York  in  September  1844, 
he  presented  his  plan  to  Congress  (House  Exec- 
utive Document,  No.  72,  28  Cong.,  2  Sess.). 
The  route  which  he  favored  was  from  Lake 
Michigan  via  the  South  Pass  of  the  Rockies  to 
the  Pacific,  since  it  included  so  much  unoccu- 
pied but  supposedly  fertile  land  which  could  be 
sold  by  government  commissioners  to  provide 
funds  for  the  railroad.  His  failure  to  make  de- 
mands leading  to  his  own  immediate  profit  was 
an  attitude  too  altruistic  generally  to  be  under- 
stood and  was  responsible  for  the  idea  that  he 
contemplated  a  vast  secret  speculation.  He  real- 
ized that  the  public  must  be  educated  to  the  point 
of  demanding  such  a  railroad  from  Congress. 
Beginning  with  his  personal  reconnaissance  of 
the  first  eight  hundred  miles  of  his  route  in  the 
summer  of  1845,  which  he  reported  in  a  long 
letter  to  the  press,  he  carried  on  for  seven  years 
an  amazing  newspaper  publicity  campaign ;  ad- 
dressed public  meetings  in  all  the  larger  cities 
and  the  legislatures  of  most  of  the  states ;  tire- 
lessly pursued  members  of  Congress ;  and  wrote 
articles  for  periodicals  and  several  pamphlets, 
chief  of  which  was  A  Project  for  a  Railroad 
to  the  Pacific  (1849).  Opposition  to  his  plan 
on  various  grounds  convinced  him  that  no  fur- 
ther headway  could  be  made  with  Congress,  and 


Whitney 


in  1 85 1  he  accepted  an  invitation  to  present  his 
plan  in  England  as  a  possibility  for  Canada.  Al- 
though he  was  favorably  received,  the  English 
were  not  yet  ready  to  undertake  the  railroad. 

Whitney  then  dropped  the  matter,  married 
Catherine  (Moore)  Campbell,  daughter  of  Mau- 
rice Moore  of  Wilmington,  N.  C,  on  Oct.  6, 
1852,  and  retired  to  an  estate  in  Washington 
known  as  "Locust  Hill."  One  who  knew  him 
during  his  later  life  described  him  as  "a  polished 
gentleman  of  the  old  school,"  whose  home  con- 
tained "many  rare  and  beautiful  things  he  had 
brought  from  all  over  the  world  and  things  pre- 
sented to  him  by  distinguished  people" ;  who 
"every  morning  at  a  stated  hour"  had  a  "saddle 
horse  brought  to  the  door  and  he  took  his  morn- 
ing ride  over  his  estate"  (Brown,  post,  p.  224). 
He  died  of  typhoid  fever,  shortly  after  one  trans- 
continental railroad  had  been  completed  and  three 
others  begun. 

[F.  C.  Pierce,  Whitney:  The  Descendants  of  John 
Whitney  (1895);  G.  M.  Wright,  "Corrections  in  the 
Pierce  Geneal."  (MS.)  ;  Atlantic  and  Pacific  Railroad: 
A.  Whitney's  Reply  to  the  Hon.  S.  A.  Douglass  (1845)  ; 
N.  H.  Loomis,  "Asa  Whitney  :  Father  of  Pacific  Rail- 
roads," Proc.  Miss.  Valley  Hist.  Asso.,  vol.  VI  (1913)  ; 
M.  L.  Brown,  "Asa  Whitney  and  His  Pacific  Railroad 
Publicity  Campaign,"  Miss.  Valley  Hist.  Rev.,  Sept. 
1933;  Evening  Star  (Washington),  Sept.  17,  1872; 
family  papers  and  contemporary  newspapers  and  peri- 
odicals.] M.L.B. 

WHITNEY,  ELI  (Dec.  8,  1765-Jan.  8,  1825), 
inventor,  was  born  at  Westboro,  Mass.,  the  son 
of  Eli  and  Elizabeth  (Fay)  Whitney  and  a  de- 
scendant of  John  Whitney  who  emigrated  from 
England  to  Watertown,  Mass.,  in  1635.  On  both 
sides  his  ancestors  were  substantial  farmers  of 
Worcester  County.  His  father  was  able  to  pro- 
vide well  for  his  growing  family  and  when  Eli 
was  twelve  years  old,  proposed  that  he  prepare 
for  college.  The  boy,  however,  had  shown  no 
particular  proficiency  in  any  of  the  subjects 
taught  in  the  local  school,  though  he  showed  a 
fondness  for  figures ;  he  helped  rather  indiffer- 
ently with  the  farm  work,  and  evinced  special 
interest  only  when  he  was  permitted  to  putter 
around  his  father's  shop,  which  was  fitted  up 
with  a  variety  of  tools  and  a  turning  lathe.  His 
mind  occupied  with  all  manner  of  manufactur- 
ing schemes,  he  persuaded  his  father  to  let  him 
continue  in  mechanical  work.  He  made  and  re- 
paired violins  in  the  neighborhood,  worked  in 
iron,  and  at  the  age  of  fifteen  began  the  manu- 
facture of  nails  in  his  father's  shop.  He  con- 
tinued this  enterprise  for  two  winters,  even  hir- 
ing a  helper  to  fill  his  orders.  When  the  demand 
for  nails  declined  at  the  close  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary War,  he  turned  to  making  hatpins  and 
almost  monopolized  that  business  in  his  section 


iS7 


Whitney 

of  the  state,  although  he  gave  time  to  the  shop 
only  when  the  farm  did  not  require  his  atten- 
tion. By  the  time  he  was  eighteen  his  ideas  re- 
garding a  college  education  had  changed,  but 
when  he  broached  the  subject  to  his  father  the 
latter  thought  him  too  old  to  begin  the  prepara- 
tory studies  and,  furthermore,  was  not  then  in 
a  position  to  provide  the  necessary  funds. 

Whitney's  mind  was  made  up,  however,  and 
to  obtain  the  funds  he  taught  school  in  Grafton, 
Xorthboro,  Westboro,  and  Paxton,  and  with  the 
money  thus  earned  attended  Leicester  Academy, 
Leicester,  Mass.,  during  the  summer.  He  en- 
tered Yale  College  in  May  1789,  at  the  age  of 
twenty-three.  During  his  three  years  there  he 
studied  diligently,  and  to  augment  the  funds  sent 
him  by  his  father  repaired  apparatus  and  equip- 
ment about  the  college.  The  story  is  told  that 
when  a  carpenter  who  had  reluctantly  lent  him 
some  tools  observed  the  skill  with  which  he 
used  them,  he  remarked,  "There  was  one  good 
mechanic  spoiled  when  you  went  to  college" 
( Olmsted,  post,  p.  11).  After  his  graduation  in 
the  autumn  of  1792,  having  decided  to  become  a 
lawyer,  Whitney  went  South  to  accept  a  posi- 
tion as  tutor  in  a  gentleman's  family,  with  the 
understanding  that  he  could  devote  a  portion  of 
his  time  to  reading  law.  On  the  boat  which  he 
took  to  Savannah  he  met  the  widow  of  Gen.  Na- 
thanael  Greene,  with  her  family  and  Phineas 
Miller,  the  manager  of  her  plantation.  On  his 
arrival  at  Savannah,  Whitney  learned  that  his 
prospective  employer  had  hired  another  tutor, 
and  Mrs.  Greene  invited  him  to  be  her  guest. 
He  gratefully  accepted  and  began  his  law  studies, 
grasping  every  opportunity  to  show  his  appre- 
ciation for  the  kindness  of  his  hostess  by  mak- 
ing and  repairing  things  about  the  house  and 
plantation. 

During  the  winter  a  group  of  gentlemen  who 
had  served  under  General  Greene  in  the  Revo- 
lution came  to  visit  Mrs.  Greene,  and  one  eve- 
ning were  discussing  the  deplorable  state  of  agri- 
culture in  the  South.  Large  areas  of  land  were 
unsuitable  for  the  growing  of  rice  or  long-staple 
cotton,  although  they  yielded  large  crops  of 
green  seed  cotton.  This  was  an  unprofitable  crop, 
however,  because  the  process  of  separating  the 
cotton  from  its  seed  by  hand  was  so  tedious  that 
it  took  a  woman  one  whole  day  to  obtain  a  pound 
of  staple.  One  of  the  gentlemen  remarked  that 
the  agricultural  troubles  of  the  inland  portions 
of  the  South  would  be  eliminated  if  some  ma- 
chine could  be  devised  to  facilitate  the  process 
of  cleaning  the  green  seed  cotton.  Mrs.  Greene, 
thereupon,  who  had  observed  Whitney's  inge- 
nuity with  tools,  suggested  that  he  was  the  per- 

.58 


Whitney- 
son  to  make  such  a  machine,  and  forthwith  he 
turned  his  attention  to  the  problem.  Within  ten 
days  he  had  designed  a  cotton  gin  and  completed 
an  imperfect  model  in  accordance  with  his  plan. 
He  experimented  with  this  model,  and  by  April 
1793  had  built  a  larger,  improved  machine  with 
which  one  negro  could  produce  fifty  pounds  of 
cleaned  cotton  in  a  day. 

Having  indicated  the  means  to  the  end  sought 
by  Mrs.  Greene's  friends,  thus  fulfilling  in  part 
his  many  obligations  to  her,  Whitney  intended  to 
resume  his  study  of  the  law,  but  he  was  per- 
suaded by  Phineas  Miller  to  continue  work  on 
the  cotton  gin  with  a  view  to  patenting  the  idea 
and  engaging  in  the  manufacture  of  the  new 
machine.  The  two  men  drew  up  a  partnership 
agreement  on  May  27,  1793,  to  engage  in  the 
patenting  and  manufacturing  of  cotton  gins  and 
to  conduct  a  cotton  ginning  business.  Meanwhile 
the  knowledge  that  Whitney  had  built  a  ma- 
chine to  clean  cotton  spread  like  wildfire ;  and 
multitudes  came  from  all  quarters  to  see  the  gin ; 
and  before  Whitney  could  secure  his  patent  a 
number  of  imitations  were  in  successful  opera- 
tion. Whitney  returned  to  New  Haven,  how- 
ever, to  perfect,  patent,  and  manufacture  his  gin 
as  soon  as  possible.  He  first  made  oath  to  the 
invention  on  Oct.  28,  1793,  obtained  his  patent 
Mar.  14,  1794,  and  immediately  began  making 
cotton  gins  and  shipping  them  to  Miller  in  Geor- 
gia. The  partners  planned  to  buy  the  cotton  seed 
themselves,  gin  it,  and  sell  the  product,  because 
they  felt  that,  protected  by  a  patent,  they  could 
maintain  a  monopoly.  This  policy  proved  to  be 
extremely  disadvantageous,  however,  for  they 
could  not  produce  enough  machines  to  gin  the 
rapidly  increasing  crops  nor  could  they  raise 
sufficient  capital  to  finance  the  entire  cotton 
crop.  Infringing  machines  were  put  into  opera- 
tion on  every  side,  and  perplexities  and  dis- 
couragements harassed  them  from  the  very  be- 
ginning of  the  undertaking. 

The  most  formidable  rival  machine  was  that 
of  Hodgin  Holmes,  in  which  circular  saws  were 
used  instead  of  the  drum  with  inserted  wires  of 
Whitney's  original  machine.  Whitney  later 
proved  that  the  idea  of  such  teeth  had  occurred 
to  him,  but  it  was  some  years  before  he  estab- 
lished his  right  over  the  Holmes  gin.  The  part- 
ners had  difficulty  in  raising  money  and  had  to 
pay  interest  rates  of  from  twelve  to  twenty-five 
per  cent.  Furthermore,  word  came  from  Eng- 
land that  manufacturers  were  condemning  the 
cotton  cleaned  by  Whitney's  gins  on  the  ground 
that  the  staple  was  injured.  This  news  brought 
their  business  and  the  thirty  gins  operating  in 
Georgia  to  a  standstill  until  they  could  prove 


Whitney 


the  fallacy  of  the  opinion,  which  required  nearly 
two  years.  In  1797  the  first  infringement  suit 
was  tried  unsuccessfully.  Many  others  followed, 
but  it  was  not  until  1807  that  Whitney  obtained 
a  favorable  decision.  This  was  rendered  in  the 
United  States  court,  held  in  Georgia  in  Decem- 
ber 1807  by  Justice  William  Johnson.  Whitney, 
as  survivor  of  Miller  &  Whitney,  had  brought 
suit  against  a  man  named  Arthur  Fort  for  viola- 
tion of  the  patent  right  and  for  a  perpetual  in- 
junction restraining  him  from  use  of  the  gin. 
After  hearing  the  case,  Justice  Johnson  made  a 
very  clear  statement  covering  each  of  the  three 
main  contentions  of  the  defense — that  the  inven- 
tion was  not  original ;  that  it  was  not  useful ;  and 
that  the  machine  which  the  defendant  used  was 
materially  different  from  the  invention  in  ques- 
tion. In  reference  to  this  last  point,  the  Justice 
said,  "A  Mr.  Holmes  has  cut  teeth  in  plates  of 
iron,  and  passed  them  over  the  cylinder.  This 
is  certainly  a  meritorious  improvement  in  the 
mechanical  process  of  constructing  this  machine. 
But  at  last,  what  does  it  amount  to,  except  a  more 
convenient  mode  of  making  the  same  thing? 
Every  characteristic  of  Mr.  Whitney's  machine 
is  preserved.  .  .  .  Mr.  Whitney  may  not  be  at 
liberty  to  use  Mr.  Holmes'  iron  plate,  but  cer- 
tainly Mr.  Holmes'  improvement  does  not  de- 
stroy Mr.  Whitney's  patent-right.  Let  the  de- 
cree for  a  perpetual  injunction  be  entered" 
(Olmsted,  post,  p.  4).  This  decision  was  con- 
firmed by  several  subsequent  decisions,  and 
thenceforth  Whitney's  patent  was  not  questioned. 
Meanwhile,  however,  in  1795  his  shops  in  New 
Haven  had  been  destroyed  by  fire ;  the  legisla- 
tures of  South  Carolina  and  Tennessee  which  in 
1801  and  1802  respectively  had  voted  to  purchase 
patent  rights  suddenly  annulled  the  contracts ; 
and  in  1803  Miller  died,  disappointed  and  broken 
by  the  struggle. 

Whitney  continued  alone  for  nine  years  more, 
and  in  1812  made  application  to  Congress  for 
the  renewal  of  his  patent.  In  spite  of  the  logical 
arguments  which  he  advanced  in  his  petition,  the 
request  was  refused.  There  is  probably  no  other 
instance  in  the  history  of  invention  of  the  letting 
loose  of  such  tremendous  industrial  forces  so 
suddenly  as  occurred  with  the  invention  of  the 
cotton  gin.  In  1792  the  United  States  exported 
138,328  pounds  of  cotton ;  in  1794,  the  year  Whit- 
ney patented  his  gin,  1,601,000  pounds  were  ex- 
ported ;  the  following  year,  6,276,000  pounds ; 
and  by  1800,  the  production  of  cotton  in  the 
United  States  had  risen  to  35,000,000  pounds  of 
which  17,790,000  were  exported.  Yet  Whitney 
received  practically  no  return  for  the  invention 
which  was  due  to  him  alone. 

159 


Whitney 

He  was  a  clear-sighted  business  man  as  well 
as  an  inventor,  however,  and  was  quick  to  real- 
ize the  mistake  he  and  Miller  had  made  in  at- 
tempting to  monopolize  the  ginning  business. 
He  was  so  thoroughly  convinced  that  he  would 
never  obtain  any  money  from  his  invention  of 
the  cotton  gin  that  as  early  as  1798  he  made  up 
his  mind  that  he  had  to  turn  to  something  else. 
He  chose  the  manufacture  of  firearms,  and  on 
Jan.  14,  1798,  obtained  from  the  federal  gov- 
ernment a  contract  for  "ten  thousand  stand  of 
arms"  to  be  delivered  in  two  years.  Whitney 
was  not  a  gunsmith,  but  he  proposed  to  manufac- 
ture guns  by  a  new  method,  his  aim  being  "to 
make  the  same  parts  of  different  guns,  as  the 
locks,  for  example,  as  much  like  each  other  as 
the  successive  impressions  of  a  copper-plate  en- 
graving." This  was  perhaps  the  first,  certainly 
one  of  the  first  suggestions  of  the  system  of  in- 
terchangeable parts  which  has  been  of  tremen- 
dous significance  in  industrial  development  [see 
sketch  of  Simeon  North]. 

Whitney's  mechanical  ingenuity  and  inven- 
tive capacity  had  been  so  thoroughly  demon- 
strated, and  his  reputation  for  character  was  so 
high,  that  he  had  no  difficulty  in  finding  ten  indi- 
viduals in  New  Haven  to  go  his  bond  and  fur- 
nish the  initial  capital  for  the  new  undertaking. 
Purchasing  a  mill  site  just  outside  of  New  Ha- 
ven, now  Whitneyville,  he  built  a  factory  and 
began  the  design  and  construction  of  the  neces- 
sary machinery  to  carry  out  his  schemes.  Be- 
cause of  the  extremely  low  state  of  the  mechanic 
arts,  his  difficulties  were  innumerable.  There 
were  no  similar  establishments  upon  which 
branches  of  his  own  business  might  lean ;  there 
were  no  experienced  workmen  to  give  him  any 
assistance ;  and  he  had  to  make  by  himself  prac- 
tically every  machine  and  tool  required.  The 
expense  incurred  and  time  expended  in  getting 
the  factory  into  operation  greatly  exceeded  his 
expectations,  but  the  confidence  of  his  financial 
backers  and  the  government  seems  never  to  have 
been  impaired.  At  the  end  of  the  first  year  after 
the  contract  was  made,  instead  of  4,000  muskets, 
only  500  were  delivered,  and  it  was  eight  years 
instead  of  two  before  the  contract  was  com- 
pleted. So  liberal  was  the  government  in  mak- 
ing advances  to  Whitney  that  the  final  balance 
due  him  amounted  to  little  more  than  $2,400  out 
of  an  original  sum  of  $134,000.  Whitney,  how- 
ever, had  accomplished  that  which  he  had  set 
out  to  do.  Workmen  with  little  or  no  experi- 
ence could  operate  his  machinery  and  with  it 
turn  out  by  the  hundreds  the  various  parts  of  a 
musket  with  so  much  precision  that  "the  several 
parts  .  .  .  were  as  readily  adapted  to  each  other, 


Whitney 

as  if  each  had  been  made  for  its  respective  fel- 
low" (Olmsted,  p.  53).  Whitney  had  succeeded 
in  reducing  an  extremely  complex  process  to 
what  amounted  to  a  succession  of  simple  opera- 
tions. Besides  overcoming  a  myriad  of  mechan- 
ical difficulties  during  this  eight-year  period,  he 
had  to  work  against  prejudice  and  withstand 
the  ridicule  which  he  encountered  at  every  hand ; 
yet  by  his  tenacity  he  so  perfected  the  manufac- 
ture of  arms  that  with  the  subsequent  adoption 
of  his  system  in  the  two  federal  armories,  the 
government  saved  $25,000  annually.  In  1812  he 
entered  into  a  second  contract  with  the  federal 
government  to  manufacture  15,000  firearms,  and 
contracted  to  make  a  similar  quantity  for  the 
state  of  New  York,  and  thereafter  his  unique 
manufactory  yielded  him  a  just  reward.  The 
business  which  he  started  employed  some  sixty 
men,  and  at  the  time  the  works  were  built  he 
erected  a  row  of  substantial  stone  houses  for  his 
workmen  which  are  said  to  have  been  the  first 
workmen's  houses  erected  by  an  employer  in  the 
United  States.  Of  the  various  machines  designed 
and  used  by  Whitney  only  one  is  known  to  exist. 
This  is  a  plain  milling  machine  which  was  built 
prior  to  1818,  and  is  believed  to  be  the  first  suc- 
cessful machine  of  its  kind  ever  made. 

Whitney  enjoyed  the  refined  and  cultivated 
society  of  his  day,  but  his  precarious  business 
life  prevented  his  having  a  normal  domestic  life 
until  middle  age.  On  Jan.  6,  1817,  in  New  Ha- 
ven, he  married  Henrietta  Frances  Edwards, 
who  with  three  children  survived  him.  In  per- 
son, he  "was  considerably  above  the  ordinary 
average,  of  a  dignified  carriage,  and  of  an  open, 
manly  and  agreeable  countenance.  .  .  .  His  sense 
of  honor  was  high  and  his  feelings  of  resentment 
and  indignation  occasionally  strong.  .  .  .  The 
most  remarkable  trait  of  his  character  was  his 
perseverance,  very  remarkable  because  it  is  so 
common  to  find  men  of  great  powers  of  mechan- 
ical invention  deficient  in  this  quality"  ( Olm- 
sted, post, pp.  61-62).  His  mind  was  "independent 
and  original"  and  he  had  "nicely  balanced  judg- 
ment" {Ibid.,  p.  60). 

[Denison  Olmsted,  Memoir  of  EH  Whitney,  Esq. 
^1846)  ;  Papers  of  the  New  Haven  Colony  Hist.  Soc., 
vol.  V  (1894)  ;  J.  W.  Roe,  English  and  Am.  Tool  Build- 
ers (1926)  ;  Henry  Howe,  Memoirs  of  the  Most  Emi- 
nent Am.  Mechanics  (1847)  ;  F.  C.  Pierce,  Whitney: 
The  Descendants  of  John  Whitney  (1895)  ;  F.  B.  Dex- 
ter, Biog.  Sketches  Grads.  Yale  Coll.,  vol.  V  (1911); 
D.  A.  Tompkins,  Cotton  and  Cotton  Oil  (1901)  ;  Conn. 
Jour.  (New  Haven),  Jan.  11,  1825.]  C.  W. M. 

WHITNEY,  HARRY  PAYNE  (Apr.  29, 
1872-Oct.  26,  1930),  financier,  sportsman,  was 
born  in  New  York  City,  the  son  of  William  Col- 
lins Whitney  [q.v.~\  and  Flora  (Payne),  a  neph- 
ew of  Oliver  Hazard  Payne   [q.v.],  and  a  de- 

I 


Whitney 

scendant  of  John  Whitney  who  emigrated  from 
England  to  Watertown,  Mass.,  in  1635.  He  was 
educated  privately  and  at  Yale,  graduating  from 
that  university  in  1894.  There  he  did  a  bit  of 
writing,  even  composing  poetry,  and  was  editor 
of  the  Yale  Daily  News.  He  next  studied  law 
at  Columbia  University,  and  read  for  a  time  as 
a  student  in  the  office  of  Elihu  Root. 

For  years  he  was  his  father's  closest  com- 
panion and  confidant,  and  was  trained  to  be  his 
business  successor.  The  son's  first  business  ven- 
ture of  consequence  took  place  in  1902,  when 
he  acted  as  guide  to  Daniel  Guggenheim  [q.v.'] 
through  the  silver,  lead,  and  copper  districts  of 
the  western  United  States  and  Mexico.  They 
returned  with  deeds  to  nearly  $10,000,000  worth 
of  such  properties,  in  which  young  Whitney  had 
a  share.  He  was  made  a  director  of  the  Gug- 
genheim Exploration  Company  and  other  large 
corporations,  such  as  the  Guaranty  Trust  Com- 
pany, the  Newport  Trust  Company,  the  New 
York  Loan  Improvement  Company,  and  other 
banking,  as  well  as  mining  and  railroad  concerns. 
When  the  elder  Whitney  died  in  1904,  half  of  his 
fortune,  amounting  to  about  $24,000,000,  de- 
scended to  Harry  Payne,  together  with  direc- 
torships in  many  corporations. 

Whitney  was  a  noted  traveler  and  sportsman ; 
he  was  keenly  interested  in  yachting  and  hunted 
tigers  in  India,  where  he  was  the  guest  of  the 
Viceroy.  He  organized  and  was  captain  and 
chief  strategist  of  the  "Big  Four,"  most  famous 
of  American  polo  teams,  which  in  1909  brought 
the  International  Cup  back  from  England,  where 
it  had  remained  for  many  years,  and  success- 
fully defended  it  in  191 1  and  1913.  His  polo 
tactics  were  later  adopted  to  a  considerable  de- 
gree by  the  British.  He  became  one  of  the  few 
"ten-goal"  players  in  the  history  of  the  sport, 
and  gave  much  time  to  the  direction  of  the  game 
after  he  retired  from  active  playing.  He  also 
devoted  much  energy  to  horse  racing  and  to  the 
government  of  the  American  turf,  being  for 
years  an  official  of  the  Saratoga  and  Westchester 
tracks.  His  thoroughbreds  at  one  time  and  an- 
other won  all  the  important  purses  offered  on 
American  courses.  In  1924,  when  his  racers 
numbered  more  than  200,  they  ran  first  in  272 
races,  second  in  201,  and  third  in  235.  Their 
winnings,  totaling  about  half  a  million  dollars, 
were  the  largest  among  American  stables  that 
year. 

Whitney  held  only  one  public  office,  that  of 
commissioner  of  municipal  statistics  of  New 
York  City,  which  place  he  resigned  after  little 
more  than  a  year's  incumbency.  In  1921-22  he 
provided  funds  for  the  Whitney  South  Sea  Ex- 

60 


Whitney 

pedition,  sent  by  the  American  Museum  of  Nat- 
ural History  to  collect  birds  of  Polynesia.  He 
was  a  member  of  more  than  twenty  prominent 
clubs.  On  Aug.  25,  1896,  he  married  Gertrude 
Vanderbilt,  whom  he  had  known  from  child- 
hood. She  became  a  noted  sculptor  and  sur- 
vived him  at  his  death,  together  with  a  son  and 
two  daughters. 

[F.  C.  Pierce,  Whitney:  The  Descendants  of  John 
Whitney  (1895);  Yale  Univ.  Obit.  Record,  1931  ; 
Who's  Who  in  America,  1930-31  ;  N.  Y.  Times,  N.  Y. 
Herald  Tribune,  World  (N.  Y.),  Oct.  27,  1930;  Newell 
Bent,  Am.  Polo  (1929);  F.  G.  Griswold,  The  Inter- 
national Polo  Cup  (1928);  R.  V.  Hoffman,  "Famous 
Families  in  Sport,"  Country  Life,  Apr.  1932  ;  records 
of  Saratoga  and  Westchester  Racing  Associations.] 

A.F.H. 

WHITNEY,  JAMES  LYMAN  (Nov.  28, 
1835-Sept.  25,  1910),  librarian,  was  born  in 
Northampton,  Mass.,  the  son  of  Josiah  Dwight 
and  Clarissa  (James)  Whitney.  He  had  for 
half-brothers  such  men  of  letters  and  science  as 
the  distinguished  philologist,  William  Dwight 
Whitney,  and  the  eminent  geologist,  Josiah 
Dwight  Whitney  \qq.v.~\.  After  early  training 
at  home  and  in  boarding  school,  and  preparation 
for  college  in  the  Northampton  Collegiate  Insti- 
tute, he  entered  Yale  College  in  1852.  He  was 
graduated  in  1856  with  the  degree  of  B.A. ;  in 
1865  he  received  the  degree  of  M.A.  The  year 
following  his  graduation  he  remained  at  Yale 
as  Berkeley  Scholar  of  the  House.  From  New 
Haven  he  went  in  1857  to  New  York.  There  he 
entered  the  employ  of  the  publishing  house  of 
Wiley  and  Halsted.  A  year  later  he  moved  to 
Springfield,  Mass.,  and  engaged  himself  to  the 
book-selling  firm  of  Bridgman  &  Company.  He 
shortly  became  a  partner,  the  firm  name  becom- 
ing Bridgman  and  Whitney.  He  remained  in 
the  book  trade  until  1868.  He  then  turned  to 
library  work,  but  for  many  years  continued  to 
retain  an  interest  in  the  Springfield  book-selling 
firm  of  Whitney  and  Adams.  He  had  had  his 
first  taste  of  library  work  at  Yale,  when  during 
undergraduate  years  he  served  as  assistant  li- 
brarian and  then  as  librarian  of  the  Society  of 
Brothers  in  Unity.  Upon  electing  in  1868  to 
enter  upon  an  active  career  in  the  field,  he  be- 
came assistant  librarian  in  the  Cincinnati  Pub- 
lic Library.  In  1869  he  was  appointed  to  the 
service  of  the  Boston  Public  Library,  a  con- 
nection that  continued  for  the  remaining  forty 
years  of  his  life.  In  1874  he  was  made  chief  of 
the  catalogue  department,  a  post  which  he  held 
for  the  next  twenty-five  years,  and  in  1899  he 
was  appointed  librarian.  Early  in  1903  ill  health 
compelled  him  to  resign,  but  during  the  next 
seven  years  he  continued  as  chief  of  the  depart- 
ment of  documents  and  statistics,  a  position  con- 

l6 


Whitney 


siderably  less  onerous  and  exacting.  He  died 
at  his  home  in  Cambridge,  Mass.,  in  September 
1910. 

To  his  chosen  field  he  devoted  himself  unre- 
mittingly. He  became  known  in  the  world  of 
letters  as  the  compiler  and  editor  of  the  monu- 
mental Catalogue  of  the  Spanish  Library  and  of 
the  Portuguese  Books  Bequeathed  by  George 
Ticknor  to  the  Boston  Public  Library,  published 
in  1879.  He  also  prepared  for  the  library  many 
special  catalogues  and  similar  publications. 
From  the  point  of  view  of  the  development  of  li- 
brary technique,  his  great  contribution  was  the 
building-up  of  the  card-catalogue  system  of  the 
library. 

At  the  same  time  he  was  not  forgetful  of  rela- 
tions with  the  outside  world.  From  1879  to 
1887  he  served  as  chairman  of  the  school  com- 
mittee of  Concord,  Mass.,  where  he  was  then 
living.  During  the  same  period  he  was  active 
also  in  the  work  of  the  committee  for  the  Con- 
cord Free  Library.  For  a  time  he  was  the  head 
of  the  finance  committee,  and  also  treasurer,  of 
the  American  Library  Association,  of  which  he 
was  both  a  charter  and  a  life  member.  He  was 
elected  to  membership  in  numerous  historical 
and  literary  societies.  By  nature  companionable 
and  tolerant,  he  fitted  easily  into  responsibilities 
and  associations  with  his  fellow  men.  He  never 
married. 

[F.  C.  Pierce,  Whitney:  The  Descendants  of  John 
Whitney  (1895);  Who's  Who  in  America,  1910-11; 
Obit.  Record  Grads.  Yale  Univ.  (1911)  ;  J.  L.  Whitney, 
"Reminiscences  of  an  Old  Librarian,"  Lib.  Jour.,  Nov. 
1909;  Ibid.,  Jan.  1900,  Oct.  1910,  Mar.  1911;  H.  G. 
Wadlin,  The  Pub.  Lib.  of  the  City  of  Boston  (1911)  ; 
Boston  Pub.  Lib.,  ann.  reports,  1897,  1910— 11  ;  scrap- 
book  on  Whitney  in  the  possession  of  the  Boston  Pub. 
Lib. ;  obituary  and  editorial  in  Boston  Transcript, 
Sept.  26,  1910.]  M.E.L — d. 

WHITNEY,  JOSIAH  DWIGHT  (Nov.  23, 
1819-Aug.  19,  1896),  geologist,  chemist,  was 
born  in  Northampton,  Mass.,  the  son  of  Josiah 
Dwight  and  Sarah  (Williston)  Whitney.  His 
father  was  a  thrifty  and  enterprising  banker,  de- 
scended from  John  Dwight,  who  settled  at  Ded- 
ham,  Mass.,  in  1635,  and  John  Whitney,  who  set- 
tled at  Watertown  the  same  year ;  his  mother, 
a  daughter  of  the  Rev.  Payson  Williston  of 
Easthampton,  was  a  teacher  at  Hopkins  Acad- 
emy, Hadley,  and  nineteen  years  old  when  she 
married.  A  few  weeks  after  the  birth  of  her 
eighth  child  she  died,  when  Josiah,  the  eldest, 
was  fourteen.  About  a  year  later  his  father  mar- 
ried again,  and  to  this  marriage  five  children 
were  born,  one  of  whom  was  James  Lyman 
Whitney  |^.<r.].  Josiah,  meanwhile,  had  been 
sent  to  a  series  of  private  schools,  including  the 
famous  Round  Hill  School  founded  by  (k-orge 

I 


Whitney- 


Whitney 


Bancroft  and  Joseph  Green  Cogswell  at  North- 
ampton, from  which  he  was  removed  by  his  con- 
servative father  because  of  its  cosmopolitanism. 
It  had  been  his  mother's  wish  that  he  enter  the 
ministry,  and  the  tradition  of  his  father's  family 
pointed  toward  a  business  career,  but  while  he 
was  attending  a  school  in  New  Haven,  Josiah's 
interest  in  science  had  been  excited  by  Benja- 
min Silliman's  lectures  on  chemistry.  At  this 
time,  however,  he  was  as  much  interested  in  mu- 
sic, art,  and  literature.  He  fitted  for  college  at 
Phillips  Academy,  Andover,  entered  Yale  as  a 
sophomore  in  1836,  and  graduated  three  years 
later,  having  acquired  an  acquaintance  with  sev- 
eral modern  languages  and  studied  chemistry  and 
mineralogy  under  Silliman  and  astronomy  un- 
der Denison  Olmsted  [g.z/.].  He  is  pictured  at 
this  period  as  a  shy  youth,  distinctly  unsocial, 
though  brilliant  and  fascinating  among  congenial 
friends  and  admired  and  loved  by  his  family. 

For  some  months  after  his  graduation  he  stud- 
ied chemistry  with  Robert  Hare  [q.z:~]  in  Phil- 
adelphia and  in  the  summer  of  1840  joined 
Charles  T.  Jackson  [q.z>.~\  as  an  unpaid  assistant 
in  the  geological  survey  of  New  Hampshire,  re- 
turning to  Jackson's  Boston  laboratory  in  the 
winter  as  assistant  geologist  to  help  with  the 
analyses.  He  began  to  read  law  at  Northampton 
in  the  summer  of  1841,  planning  to  enter  the  Har- 
vard Law  School  in  the  fall,  but  stopped  in  Bos- 
ton to  hear  Charles  Lyell  lecture  on  geology  and 
to  complete  some  work  in  Jackson's  laboratory. 
Realizing  at  last  that  science  was  his  field,  he 
now  prevailed  upon  his  father  to  allow  him  to 
study  in  Europe,  and  sailed  in  May  1842.  Be- 
tween summers  of  wandering  he  spent  a  winter 
at  the  Ecole  des  Mines  in  Paris  and  a  winter  in 
Rome,  for  a  short  time  attended  the  lectures  of 
the  geologist  Elie  de  Beaumont  in  Paris,  and  then 
went  to  Rammelsberg's  laboratory  in  Berlin  to 
study  methods  of  chemical  analysis.  Called  home 
by  his  father  for  financial  reasons,  he  was  able  to 
prolong  his  stay  for  a  few  months  by  translating 
from  the  German  of  J.  J.  Berzelius  The  Use  of 
the  Blowpipe  in  Chemistry  and  Mineralogy,  pub- 
lished in  1845  by  Ticknor  &  Fields.  He  re- 
turned to  Northampton  in  January  of  that  year, 
and  in  the  summer,  through  Jackson's  influence, 
obtained  employment  for  a  few  months  as  mining 
geologist  with  the  Isle  Royale  Copper  Company, 
but  in  December  went  abroad  again  to  study  in 
the  laboratory  of  Heinrich  Rose  at  Berlin  .and 
subsequently  with  Liebig  at  Giessen,  where  his 
friendship  with  Wolcott  Gibbs  [q.v.]  began. 

His  systematic  training  ended  here.  No 
sooner  had  he  returned  to  Northampton,  in  May 
1847,  than  he  was  engaged  by  Jackson  to  assist 

I 


in  a  survey  of  the  mineral  lands  of  the  northern 
peninsula  of  Michigan.  Matters  did  not  run 
smoothly  and  Jackson  was  compelled  to  resign 
at  the  end  of  the  first  year,  leaving  the  comple- 
tion of  the  work  to  the  two  assistants,  Whitney 
and  John  Wells  Foster.  It  was  a  difficult  task 
for  men  with  so  little  experience  behind  them, 
but  was  completed  after  a  manner  (1849),  and 
the  two  volumes  of  their  report,  comprising  up- 
wards of  600  pages  with  forty-five  plates  and  a 
colored  geological  map,  were  issued  as  Con- 
gressional documents  in  1850  and  185 1.  As 
usual  with  government  publications  at  that  day, 
they  were  cheap  in  style  and  typography,  much 
to  the  disgust  of  Whitney,  who  had  himself 
drawn  many  of  the  illustrations  and  had  made 
persistent  efforts  to  have  them  reproduced  in  a 
befitting  manner. 

Establishing  himself  as  a  consulting  expert  in 
mining  after  the  close  of  the  Lake  Superior  sur- 
vey, with  headquarters  first  in  Brookline,  then 
in  Cambridge,  Whitney  soon  built  up  a  client- 
age throughout  the  eastern  United  States  and 
Canada  that  gave  him  opportunity  second  to 
none  for  acquiring  information  concerning  ores, 
ore  deposits,  and  mining,  which  he  worked  up 
into  book  form  under  the  title  Metallic  Wealth  of 
the  United  States  (1854).  The  volume  marked 
an  important  epoch  in  the  literature  of  ore  de- 
posits and  remained  the  standard  work  of  ref- 
erence up  to  the  time  of  Prime's  translation 
( 1870)  of  Bernhard  von  Cotta's  Die  Lehre  von 
den  Erzlagcrst'dtten  (1859).  In  June  1854  he 
married  Louisa  (Goddard)  Howe,  daughter  of 
Samuel  Goddard  of  Brookline ;  they  had  one 
child,  a  daughter. 

During  the  years  1855-58,  with  the  title  of 
professor  in  the  state  university,  Whitney  served 
as  chemist  and  mineralogist  with  James  Hall 
\_q.v.~\  on  the  geological  survey  of  Iowa,  often 
acting  as  head  of  the  survey  in  Hall's  absence. 
He  was  also  member  for  a  time  of  the  Illinois 
survey  under  Amos  H.  Worthen  [q.v.~\,  dealing 
mainly  with  the  deposits  of  lead  and  zinc,  and 
for  a  time  was  associated  with  Hall  in  the  geo- 
logical survey  of  Wisconsin,  investigating  the 
lead  regions.  In  i860  he  was  appointed  state 
geologist  of  California  and  undertook  an  elab- 
orate survey.  His  subordinates  and  volunteer 
assistants  during  the  succeeding  years  included 
William  H.  Brewer,  James  Graham  Cooper, 
William  More  Gabb,  Clarence  King  [qq.f.],  and 
Baron  Friedrich  von  Richthofen,  the  geographer, 
who  became  his  devoted  friend.  During  his 
years  in  California  Whitney  was  chairman  of  a 
committee  to  make  preliminary  plans  for  a  state 
agricultural   and    mechanical    college,   was    ac- 

62 


Whitney 

tive  in  promoting  the  California  Academy  of 
Science,  and  served  as  a  commissioner  of 
Yosemite  Park.  At  first  the  survey  proceeded 
well ;  temporary  financial  stringencies  were 
tided  over  by  J.  D.  Whitney,  Senior,  who  was 
subsequently  reimbursed  by  the  state,  but  schol- 
arly ideals  of  the  geologist  and  the  scope  of 
the  enterprise  failed  to  win  sympathy  from 
the  legislature  and  in  1868  activities  were  sus- 
pended for  lack  of  appropriations.  Three  vol- 
umes only  of  the  final  reports  were  published  by 
the  state.  Whitney  continued  in  office  until  1874, 
and  later  at  his  own  expense  and  with  the  aid 
of  the  Harvard  Museum  of  Comparative  Zoology 
was  able  to  publish  some  of  the  accumulated  ma- 
terial. Thus  in  1880  the  Museum  issued  The 
Auriferous  Gravels  of  the  Sierra  Nci'ada  of 
California,  and  in  1882  Whitney  himself  brought 
out  the  second  of  the  volumes  on  general  geol- 
ogy. The  survey  was  significant  not  only  for  its 
findings  but  for  the  men  it  trained  and  the  meth- 
ods it  introduced — notably  topographical  map- 
ping by  triangulation  (Brewster,  post,  pp.  305- 
12). 

In  1865  Whitney  had  been  appointed  to  the 
Harvard  faculty  to  found  a  school  of  mines, 
though  he  had  been  given  indefinite  leave  of  ab- 
sence to  carry  on  the  work  in  California.  Upon 
the  suspension  of  the  survey  in  1868  he  had  re- 
turned to  Cambridge  and  opened  the  school  of 
mines,  and  in  1869  took  a  party  of  his  students 
to  do  field  work  in  the  mountains  of  Colorado. 
In  November  1874,  when  the  California  work 
was  definitely  dropped,  he  once  more  took  up  his 
residence  in  Cambridge  and  in  1875,  the  short- 
lived school  of  mines  having  been  merged  with 
the  Lawrence  Scientific  School,  he  settled  down 
to  teaching  at  Harvard,  being  reappointed  to 
the  Sturgis-Hooper  professorship  which  had 
been  established  for  him  ten  years  earlier.  This 
position  he  continued  to  hold  for  the  rest  of  his 
life.  In  1882  he  published  his  last  great  work, 
based  largely  on  his  western  experiences,  Cli- 
matic Changes  of  Later  Geological  Times.  This 
volume  was  a  most  important  contribution  to 
the  subject  at  the  time  of  issue,  though  the  con- 
clusions put  forward  were  not  in  agreement 
with  those  of  many  of  his  fellow  workers.  He 
also  wrote  the  articles  on  America  for  the  ninth 
edition  of  the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  after- 
ward revising  and  publishing  them  in  two  vol- 
umes under  the  title,  The  United  States:  Facts 
and  Figures  Illustrating  the  Physical  Geography 
of  the  Country  and  Its  Material  Resources 
(1889).  Another  important  work  of  his  later 
years  was  the  preparation  for  The  Century  Dic- 
tionary and  Cyclopedia,  edited  by  his  brother, 


Whitney 


William  Dwight  Whitney  [q.v.],  of  the  terms  in 
the  fields  of  mining,  metal  and  metallurgy,  geol- 
ogy, lithology,  physical  geography,  and  fossil 
botany.  An  interesting  little  volume,  Names  and 
Places  (1888),  was  a  by-product  of  this  activity. 
Whitney  was  independent  in  thought  and  ac- 
tion, strong  of  character  and  aggressive,  whole- 
somely outspoken  in  criticism  of  poor  work,  and 
equaled  among  geologists  only  by  John  Peter 
Lesley  [g.f.]  as  a  writer  of  vigorous  English. 
His  work  in  northern  Michigan  and  the  lead 
region  of  the  upper  Mississippi  Valley,  and  his 
Metallic  Wealth  of  the  United  States  gave  pow- 
erful stimulus  to  the  scientific  study  of  ore  de- 
posits and  raised  the  calling  of  the  mining  geolo- 
gist to  a  higher  plane.  As  a  teacher  of  college 
students  he  was  only  moderately  successful ;  it 
was  the  work  of  his  colleague  N.  S.  Shaler  \_q.vJ\ 
to  inspire  and  discipline  the  boys;  to  Whitney 
came  those  ready  for  advanced  study,  and  to 
these  he  was  an  example  rather  than  a  school- 
master. He  was  primarily  "an  accurate  and 
painstaking  scholar,  who  set  before  his  pupils  an 
ideal  of  scholarship  and  taught  them  not  to  make 
mistakes"  (Brewster,  post,  p.  322).  Through 
the  few  men  whom  he  influenced  profoundly  he 
helped  to  shape  the  teaching  of  geology  and 
geography  in  the  schools  of  America  for  the  suc- 
ceeding generation.  Honors  did  not  come  to  him 
as  abundantly  as  to  many  perhaps  less  worthy. 
He  was  made  a  member  of  the  American  Philo- 
sophical Society  in  1863  and  an  original  member 
of  the  National  Academy  of  Sciences  the  same 
year.  He  was  the  fourth  American  (preceded 
by  Dana,  Hall,  and  Newberry)  to  be  elected  a 
foreign  member  of  the  Geological  Society  of 
London.  In  1882,  after  years  of  invalidism,  his 
wife  died,  and  within  a  few  days,  in  Europe,  his 
daughter.  Fourteen  years  later,  two  years  after 
the  death  of  his  brother  William,  he  died,  from 
arteriosclerosis,  at  Lake  Sunapee,  N.  H. 

[F.  C.  Pierce,  Whitney:  The  Descendants  of  John 
Whitney  (1895)  ;  E.  T.  Brewster,  Life  and  Letters  of 
Josiah  Dwight  Whitney  (1909)  ;  G.  P.  Merrill,  "Con- 
tribution to  a  History  of  State  Surveys,"  U.  S.  Nat. 
Museum  Bull.  log  (1920)  and  The  First  One  Hundred 
Years  of  Am.  Geol.  (1924)  ;  The  Development  of  Har- 
vard Univ.  .  .  .  1869-1920  (1930),  ed.  by  S.  E.  Mori- 
son  ;  A  Hist,  of  the  First  Half-Century  of  the  Nat. 
Acad,  of  Sciences  (1913)  ;  Max  Meisel,  A  Bibliog.  of 
Am.  Nat.  Hist.,  vols.  II,  III  (1926,  1929)  ;  Obit.  Record 
Grads.  Yale  Univ.  (1900);  Boston  Transcript,  Aug. 
20,  1896  ;  Clarence  King,  Mountaineering  in  the  Sierra 
Nevada  (1872).]  G.P.M. 

WHITNEY,  MARY  WATSON  (Sept.  11, 
1847-Jan.  21,  1920),  astronomer  and  teacher, 
was  born  in  Waltham,  Mass.,  the  daughter  of 
Samuel  Buttrick  and  Mary  Watson  (Crehore) 
Whitney.  Her  family  was  of  old  New  England 
stock,  going  back  on  her  father's  side  directly  to 


'3 


Whitney 

John  Whitney  who  brought  his  family  to  the  New 
World  in  1635.  Her  parents,  who  had  intellec- 
tual tastes,  gave  their  children  a  happy  home 
and  provided  them  with  excellent  educational 
advantages.  Mary  attended  the  public  schools  of 
Waltham  and  early  attracted  the  attention  of  her 
teachers  by  her  unusual  mental  ability  and  love 
of  study,  being  especially  proficient  in  mathe- 
matics. Unfortunately  further  training  seemed 
impossible  to  her  since  none  of  the  eastern  col- 
leges were  open  to  women,  but  while  still  in  high 
school  she  heard  of  the  new  college  intended  es- 
pecially for  women  being  established  in  the  Hud- 
son Valley  by  Matthew  Vassar  [#.#.].  Her  ear- 
nest desire  to  go  there  was  gratified  by  her  father, 
and  accompanied  by  him  she  presented  herself 
at  Vassar  College  on  its  opening  day  in  Septem- 
ber 1865.  She  was  at  once  greatly  attracted  by 
Prof.  Maria  Mitchell  \_q.v.~\,  the  distinguished 
astronomer  whose  classes  she  entered.  Her  su- 
periority and  interest  endeared  her  to  the  older 
woman  and  she  became  one  of  her  most  cher- 
ished pupils.  She  graduated  in  1868,  in  the  sec- 
ond class.  Mary  Whitney  was  much  admired  by 
her  fellow  students  and  recognized  as  a  leader. 
Several  times  she  served  as  president  of  their 
newly  formed  organizations.  Her  fine  presence, 
good  judgment  and  impartiality  made  her  an  ex- 
cellent presiding  officer,  while  her  modesty  and 
kindness  of  heart  won  their  devoted  affection. 

After  graduation  she  continued  her  studies  at 
home,  and  received  the  A.M.  degree  from  Vas- 
sar in  1872.  By  personal  invitation  she  attended 
mathematical  lectures  given  by  Prof.  Benjamin 
Peirce  [q.v.~\  at  Harvard  College,  and  from  1874 
to  1876  she  attended  lectures  in  mathematics  at 
Zurich,  Switzerland.  Occasionally  she  returned 
to  Vassar  to  assist  Professor  Mitchell  in  some 
piece  of  astronomical  research,  and  in  1881  ac- 
cepted an  urgent  call  to  become  her  permanent 
assistant.  She  kept  this  position  until  Professor 
Mitchell  resigned  in  1888,  when  she  was  ap- 
pointed her  successor.  She  was  the  director  of 
the  Vassar  Observatory  as  well  as  professor  of 
astronomy.  In  the  former  capacity  she  carried 
on  research  work  with  excellent  equipment.  She 
summoned  to  her  assistance  one  of  her  own 
pupils  and,  working  together,  they  published  a 
long  series  of  positions  of  comets  and  asteroids. 
Later  they  took  up  the  study  of  variable  stars 
and  the  measurement  of  photographic  plates.  In 
all,  one  hundred  publications  issued  from  the 
Vassar  Observatory  during  her  tenure  of  office 
which  lasted  until  1910  when  a  serious  illness 
forced  her  retirement.  Her  research  work  was 
marked  by  accuracy  and  thoroughness.  As  a 
teacher  she  was  noted  for  her  clearness  in  ex- 


Whitney 


plaining  difficult  mathematical  points  and  for  the 
vividness  and  elegance  with  which  she  presented 
the  more  descriptive  topics.  Many  students  elect- 
ed her  courses  merely  to  come  in  contact  with 
her  personality.  As  a  member  of  the  faculty,  she 
was  highly  esteemed  for  her  soundness  of  judg- 
ment and  her  progressive  ideas.  As  a  scholar 
she  was  a  constant  stimulus  to  her  younger  col- 
leagues. She  read  extensively  on  political  and 
philosophical  topics,  and  had  highly  developed 
tastes  in  literature  and  music.  She  was  a  fellow 
of  the  American  Academy  for  the  Advancement 
of  Science. 

[Personal  information;  Who's  Who  in  America, 
1920-21  ;  F.  C.  Pierce,  Whitney:  The  Descendants  of 
John  Whitney  (1895)  ;  C.  F.  Crehore,  A  Geneal.  of  the 
Crehore  Family  (1887);  Popular  Astronomy,  Jan. 
J923]  C.E.F. 

WHITNEY,  MYRON  WILLIAM  (Sept.  6, 
1836-Sept.  18,  1910),  singer,  was  born  in  Ash- 
by,  Mass.,  the  fourth  child  of  Fanny  (Lincoln) 
and  William  Whitney  (1798-1894).  His  father, 
a  descendant  of  John  Whitney  who  settled  in 
Watertown,  Mass.,  in  1635,  was  a  shoemaker 
and  later  a  farmer,  and  lived  to  be  the  oldest 
citizen  of  Ashby.  The  atmosphere  of  the  Whit- 
ney home  was  musical — the  father  led  the  sing- 
ing at  the  Ashby  Congregational  Church  and 
played  the  bass  viol  at  its  services — but  Myron 
found  that  there  was  little  opportunity  in  the  vil- 
lage for  training  his  talents,  and  in  1852  went  to 
Boston,  where  he  became  a  pupil  of  E.  H.  Frost. 
He  soon  became  bass  soloist  at  the  Tremont 
Temple,  and  on  Dec.  25,  1858,  made  his  debut  as 
an  oratorio  singer  in  a  performance  of  the  Mes- 
siah, given  at  the  Tabernacle.  For  the  next  ten 
years  he  was  active  as  a  singer  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  Boston.  On  Christmas  of  1861  he  made 
his  first  appearance  as  a  soloist  with  the  Boston 
Handel  and  Haydn  Society,  again  singing  the 
bass  role  in  the  Messiah.  In  1868  he  went  to 
Florence  to  study  with  Luigi  Vannucini.  In 
1871  he  spent  a  year  in  England,  appearing  in 
London  and  the  provinces,  and  filling  a  seven 
weeks'  engagement  at  Covent  Garden.  He  sang 
in  Elijah  at  the  Birmingham  festival  and  had  the 
role  of  Polyphemus  in  Handel's  Acts  and  Galatea. 
After  1876  he  confined  his  appearance  and  tours 
to  the  United  States,  where  he  had  already 
gained  distinction.  He  was  a  soloist  at  the  Cin- 
cinnati festivals  of  1873  ar>d  1875,  as  weu"  as 
those  of  1878  and  1880.  In  1876  he  was  the  only 
soloist  at  the  opening  of  the  Centennial  Exhi- 
bition in  Philadelphia.  He  was  engaged  for  two 
tours  with  the  Theodore  Thomas  Orchestra,  and 
during  the  season  1886-87  was  one  of  the  bassos 
of  the  American  Opera  Company,  directed  by 
Thomas.   After  1879  he  was  associated  with  the 


64 


Whitney- 


Whitney 


Boston  Ideal  Opera  Company  (later  the  Bos- 
tonians),  famous  for  its  productions  of  light 
operas.  He  retired  from  the  concert  stage  in 
1890.  He  died  in  Sandwich,  Mass.  On  May  4, 
1859,  he  was  married  to  Eleanor  Breasha  of 
Boston,  by  whom  he  had  three  children.  He  was 
survived  by  his  wife  and  two  sons. 

There  are  many  tributes  to  Whitney's  impor- 
tance as  a  singer.  George  Putnam  Upton  [q.v.~\ 
wrote:  "He  had  a  smooth,  rich,  resonant  bass, 
admirably  schooled,  and  delivered  with  refine- 
ment, dignity,  and  classical  repose.  As  an  ora- 
torio singer,  indeed,  he  had  no  equal  in  his  time, 
and  his  superior  has  not  yet  been  found"  (post, 
pp.  133-34).  Elsewhere  he  has  been  called  "one 
of  the  best  bass  singers  ever  heard  on  any  stage" 
(C.  E.  Russell,  The  American  Orchestra  and 
Theodore  Thomas,  1927,  p.  165).  During  the 
period  of  his  activity  on  the  American  stage  he 
is  said  to  have  had  but  one  conspicuous  rival, 
Franz  Remmertz,  the  German  (Matthews,  post). 
Those  who  knew  Whitney  personally  invariably 
spoke  of  his  genial  disposition.  Upton  wrote: 
"He  is  the  soul  of  geniality  and  has  a  quiet 
humor  that  makes  him  a  delightful  companion. 
He  has  always  been  universally  beloved  on  and 
off  the  stage,  and  respected  and  honored  as  few 
singers  have  been"  (op.  cit.). 

[F.  C.  Pierce,  Whitney :  The  Descendants  of  John 
Whitney  (1895)  ;  Who's  Who  in  America,  1910— 11  ;  G. 
P.  Upton,  Musical  Memories  (1908)  ;  W.  S.  B.  Mat- 
thews and  G.  L.  Howe,  A  Hundred  Years  of  Music  in 
America  (1889)  ;  J.  C.  Macy,  in  Musician,  Dec.  1910; 
obituary  in  Boston  Transcript,  Sept.  19,  1910.] 

J.T.H. 

WHITNEY,  WILLIAM  COLLINS  (July 
5,  1841-Feb.  2,  1904),  financier,  secretary  of  the 
navy,  sportsman,  was  born  in  Conway,  Mass.,  of 
Puritan  stock ;  and  in  spite  of  great  wealth  he 
remained  a  Democrat  through  life.  He  was  the 
son  of  Brig.-Gen.  James  Scollay  Whitney  and 
Laurinda  (Collins)  and  a  descendant  of  John 
Whitney  who  came  to  Watertown,  Mass.,  from 
London  in  1635.  Graduating  from  Yale  in  1863, 
he  attended  the  Harvard  Law  School  in  1863-64, 
studied  law  in  the  office  of  Abraham  R.  Law- 
rence, and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1865.  He 
made  an  immediate  success  at  law  and  politics  in 
New  York,  gained  the  confidence  of  Samuel  J. 
Tilden,  took  part  in  the  action  against  the  "Tweed 
ring,"  and  for  six  years  (1875-82)  gave  effec- 
tive reorganization  to  the  office  of  corporation 
counsel  in  New  York  City.  He  worked  through 
the  County  Democracy,  opposed  Irving  Hall  and 
Tammany,  and  became  a  natural  supporter  of 
Grover  Cleveland.  He  went  to  Washington  as 
Cleveland's  secretary  of  the  navy  in  March  1885. 
By  his  marriage  on  Oct.  13,  1869,  to  Flora 

165 


Payne,  sister  of  a  college  classmate,  Oliver  H. 
Payne,  and  daughter  of  Henry  B.  Payne  [qq.v.~\, 
Whitney  acquired  contacts  with  great  wealth 
and  corporate  activity.  Prior  to  his  appointment 
to  the  cabinet  he  had  become  identified  with  the 
utilities  of  New  York  City.  In  1883,  through  the 
Broadway  Railroad  Company,  he  participated  in 
a  triangular  struggle  with  Thomas  Fortune  Ryan 
[q.v.]  and  Jacob  Sharp  for  the  Broadway  street- 
railway  franchise.  The  fight  was  won  tempo- 
rarily by  Sharp  by  means  of  bribery,  but  in  De- 
cember 1884  Ryan  allied  Whitney  and  Peter  A. 
B.  Widener  [q.v.]  with  himself.  Together  they 
fought  Sharp  by  arousing  public  opinion,  insti- 
tuting court  action,  and  stimulating  legislative 
investigation.  In  this  connection  Whitney's  po- 
litical prominence  was  a  distinct  asset  (for  his 
methods,  see  B.  J.  Hendrick  in  McClure's  Maga- 
zine, Nov.  1907,  p.  45).  The  Ryan  syndicate 
finally  acquired  the  franchise.  Whitney  con- 
tinued to  be  active  in  street-railway  affairs  until 
the  reorganization  of  the  Metropolitan  Street 
Railway  Company  in  1902,  when  he  retired  from 
all  personal  identification  with  it. 

Whitney  went  to  Washington  accustomed  to 
the  habits  of  wealthy  society ;  and  he  and  his 
wife  took  a  lead  in  the  social  affairs  of  the 
administration.  Their  remodeled  home,  with  its 
great  ballroom,  offered  entertainments  beyond 
anything  that  Cleveland  could  manage  while  a 
bachelor,  and  the  like  of  which  Whitney's  col- 
leagues in  the  cabinet  could  not  afford  to  under- 
take. Later,  it  was  from  Mrs.  Whitney  that  there 
came  indignant  denial  of  Cleveland's  maltreat- 
ment of  his  wife,  when  opposition  canards  be- 
came too  virulent  to  be  ignored.  Whitney  earned 
a  place  in  the  inner  circle  of  Cleveland's  advisers 
and  had  more  than  an  ordinary  hand  in  the  man- 
agement of  the  Navy  Department  at  the  mo- 
ment when  transition  to  a  new  establishment  was 
under  way.  "In  March,  1885,"  he  declared,  "the 
United  States  had  no  vessel  of  war  which  could 
have  kept  the  seas  for  one  week  as  against  any 
first-rate  naval  power"  (Report  of  the  Secretary 
of  the  Navy  .  .  .  1888,  p.  iii).  Congress  had  in 
the  preceding  administration  taken  the  first  steps 
for  the  creation  of  a  new  navy,  built,  protected, 
and  armed  in  accordance  with  modern  practice. 
The  earliest  of  the  new  units,  soon  in  service, 
were  of  greater  interest  as  marking  the  first 
steps  toward  a  new  craftsmanship  than  as  weap- 
ons of  naval  warfare.  Whitney  as  secretary  de- 
voted himself  to  fighting  contractors,  particular- 
ly John  Roach  [(7.7'.],  who  delivered  vessels  built 
according  to  obsolete  specifications,  drawn  up 
during  the  administration  of  Secretary  William 
E.  Chandler  [q.v.]  ;  to  striking  from  the  navy 


Whitney- 
list  the  superannuated  ships  that  were  not  worth 
repairing;  to  planning  constructive  approaches 
towards  an  independent  establishment ;  and  to 
the  inauguration  of  the  Naval  War  College  at 
Newport,  R.  I.,  where  A.  T.  Mahan  [q.v.~\  did 
his  creative  work  in  naval  history  and  theory. 
Shipyards  had  to  be  taught  to  build  vessels  of 
size  and  soundness,  gun  foundries  large  enough 
to  cast  the  ingots  needed  by  modern  guns  had  to 
be  designed,  plants  were  needed  for  turning  and 
finishing  the  great  guns  and  for  rolling  armor 
plate.  In  all  of  these  tasks  Whitney  showed  in- 
genuity and  imagination.  He  left  an  effective  es- 
tablishment for  his  successor  when,  at  the  close 
of  the  first  Cleveland  administration,  he  re- 
turned to  New  York  business,  society,  and  sport. 
Between  the  debut  of  his  daughter  Pauline  in 
1892,  and  her  marriage  in  1895  (New  York 
World,  Nov.  13,  1895)  to  Almeric  Hugh  Paget, 
the  Whitneys  were  important  figures  in  interna- 
tional society.  Whitney  played  a  significant  part 
in  connection  with  the  nomination  and  election 
of  Cleveland  in  1892,  and  he  fought  Free  Silver 
at  the  Democratic  convention  of  1896,  but  he  de- 
clined to  accept  further  public  office.  After  the 
death  of  Flora  Payne  Whitney  (Feb.  5,  1893) 
he  married  Mrs.  Edith  Sibyl  (May)  Randolph, 
commissioning  McKim,  Mead,  and  White  to 
build  her  a  house  in  the  style  of  the  Italian  Ren- 
aissance at  Fifth  Avenue  and  68th  Street.  Short- 
ly after  her  early  death  (May  6,  1899)  he  with- 
drew from  business  and  society  to  devote  him- 
self to  sport.  A  lover  of  horses,  he  built  up  a 
breeding  farm  near  Lexington,  Ky.,  operated  a 
racing  stable,  begun  in  1898,  and  tried  to  revive 
the  glories  of  the  race  track  at  Saratoga.  On 
June  5,  1901,  a  horse,  Volodyovski,  run  but  not 
bred  by  him,  won  the  English  Derby  (London 
Times,  June  6,  1901).  In  1902  he  published  The 
Whitney  Stud.  He  left  at  least  ten  residences  at 
his  death.  Of  his  four  surviving  children,  Harry 
Payne  Whitney  [q.v.1  was  married  to  Gertrude 
Vanderbilt,  and  Payne  Whitney  was  married  to 
Helen,  daughter  of  John  Hay. 

[F.  C.  Pierce,  Whitney:  The  Descendants  of  John 
Whitney,  Who  Came  from  London,  England,  to  Water- 
town,  Mass.,  in  1635  (1895)  ;  W.  H.  Rowe,  "The  Turf 
Career  of  Hon.  W.  C.  Whitney,"  Outing,  July  1901  ; 
Obit.  Record  of  Grads.  of  Yale  Univ.  Deceased  during 
the  Academical  Year  Ending  in  June,  1904  (1904); 
obituaries  in  N.  Y.  Times,  N.  Y.  Tribune,  Feb.  3, 
1904;  Who's  Who  in  America,  1903-05;  B.  J.  Hen- 
drick,  "Great  American  Fortunes  and  Their  Making. 
Street  Railway  Financiers,"  in  McClure's  Mag.,  Nov., 
Dec.  1907  ;  H.  J.  Carman,  The  Street  Surface  Railway 
Franchises  of  New  York  City  (19 19)  ;  Allan  Nevins, 
Grover  Cleveland.  A  Study  in  Courage  (1932).  In 
some  accounts  the  date  of  birth  is  given  as  July  15.] 

F.L.  P. 
WHITNEY,  WILLIAM  DWIGHT  (Feb.  9, 
1827-June  7,   1894),  Sanskritist  and  linguistic 

I 


Whitney 

scientist,  was  born  at  Northampton,  Mass.,  the 
fourth  child  of  Josiah  Dwight  Whitney  (1786- 
1869),  banker,  and  Sarah  (Williston)  Whitney, 
of  old  New  England  stock,  strong  in  body,  mind, 
and  character,  and  in  a  community  where  edu- 
cation, religion,  thrift,  and  serious  performance 
were  the  foundations  of  society.  His  grandfa- 
ther was  Abel  Whitney  (Harvard,  1773),  and 
his  paternal  grandmother  was  Clarissa,  daugh- 
ter of  Col.  Josiah  Dwight,  of  the  family  that 
gave  three  presidents  to  Yale.  His  mother  was 
daughter  of  the  Rev.  Payson  Williston  (Yale, 
1783)  of  Easthampton,  and  sister  of  Samuel 
Williston  [q.v.~\,  founder  of  Williston  Seminary. 
His  eldest  brother,  Josiah  Dwight  Whitney 
[?.?'.],  of  Harvard,  was  an  eminent  geologist; 
another  brother,  James  Lyman  [q.z>.~\,  was  head 
of  the  Boston  Public  Library;  a  third,  Henry 
Mitchell,  was  professor  of  English  at  Beloit  Col- 
lege; his  sister  Maria  was  professor  of  modern 
languages  in  Smith  College. 

His  brothers  went  to  Yale,  but  William  en- 
tered, from  the  public  schools  of  Northampton, 
the  sophomore  class  at  Williams  College,  where 
he  graduated  in  1845  as  valedictorian.  From 
boyhood  his  chief  interest  had  been  outdoor  life, 
nature,  and  natural  science,  and  this  interest 
never  left  him.  In  his  youth  he  shot,  mounted, 
and  presented  to  the  Peabody  Museum  at  Yale  a 
collection  of  the  birds  of  New  England,  includ- 
ing, it  is  believed,  the  last  wild  turkey.  In  1849 
he  spent  the  summer  with  his  brother  Josiah  in 
the  United  States  geological  survey  of  the  Lake 
Superior  region,  and  the  report  on  the  botany 
was  published  under  his  name  as  a  chapter  of 
the  general  report  (1851).  In  1873,  m  the  mid- 
dle of  his  linguistic  career,  he  joined  the  Hayden 
expedition  in  Colorado  as  assistant  in  the  geo- 
graphical work  of  the  survey.  He  was  always 
keen  and  competent  in  botany  and  ornithology. 

By  all  the  omens  Whitney  should  have  de- 
voted his  life  to  natural  science.  But  a  chance  oc- 
currence turned  him  toward  linguistics.  When 
he  graduated  from  college,  knowledge  of  San- 
skrit in  the  West,  with  realization  of  its  sig- 
nificant relationship  to  the  languages  of  Europe, 
was  scarcely  half  a  century  old.  Chairs  of  San- 
skrit had  been  established  at  Bonn  and  Oxford 
little  more  than  a  decade  before.  Early  in  1845 
William's  brother  Josiah  returned  from  Europe, 
bringing  with  him  341  volumes  for  his  library. 
Among  these  was  a  Sanskrit  grammar  by  Franz 
Bopp.  On  Oct.  1,  1845,  William  began  the  study 
of  medicine  in  a  physician's  office.  The  next  day 
measles  developed.  During  his  convalescence  he 
picked  up  Bopp's  grammar.  After  his  recovery 
he  became  a  clerk  in  his  father's  bank  for  more 


66 


Whitney 

than  three  years,  but  when  he  joined  the  geo- 
logical survey  in  1849  he  took  the  grammar  with 
him.  In  the  fall  of  1849  he  went  to  Yale  for  a 
year  under  Edward  Elbridge  Salisbury  [g.f.], 
"the  pioneer  and  patron  of  Sanskrit  studies  in 
America,"  as  Whitney  later  described  him  in  a 
dedication.  By  then,  self-taught,  he  could  read 
simple  Sanskrit. 

At  that  time  there  were  no  distinctive  graduate 
schools  in  America,  but  there  was  a  beginning 
in  the  department  of  philosophy  and  the  arts  at 
Yale,  where  Salisbury,  pupil  of  Bopp,  G.  W.  F. 
Freytag,  and  Christian  Lassen,  and  the  only  pro- 
fessional Orientalist  in  the  country,  had  since 
1841  been  professor  of  Arabic  and  Sanskrit.  The 
only  class  Salisbury  ever  had  in  Sanskrit  was 
composed  of  William  Dwight  Whitney  and 
James  Hadley  [#.?'.].  But  what  a  class!  Salis- 
bury himself  generously  said  that  it  soon  became 
"evident  that  the  teacher  and  the  taught  must 
change  places."  In  1850  Whitney  went  to  Ger- 
many, where  he  studied  three  semesters  under 
Bopp,  Albrecht  Weber,  and  Karl  Lepsius  in  Ber- 
lin, and  two  under  Rudolph  Roth  in  Tubingen. 

Meanwhile  Salisbury  had  been  making  plans 
at  Yale.  He  created  a  fund,  and  on  May  10, 
1854,  the  Corporation  elected  Whitney  to  a  new 
and  separate  "Professorship  of  the  Sanskrit  and 
its  relations  to  kindred  languages,  and  Sanskrit 
literature."  Whitney  returned  to  America  in 
August  1853,  and  a  year  later  went  to  Yale, 
where  he  remained  active  until  his  death,  despite 
a  call  to  Harvard  in  1869,  when  Salisbury  pro- 
vided additional  endowment  for  the  chair  that 
has  since  been  called  the  Salisbury  professor- 
ship of  Sanskrit  and  comparative  philology  and 
is  now  (1936)  held  by  a  pupil  (Edgerton)  of  a 
pupil  (Bloomfield)  of  a  pupil  (Whitney)  of 
Salisbury.  His  forty  years  of  labor  there,  teach- 
ing and  research,  were  devoted  to  four  main  in- 
terests, often  overlapping,  but  still  indicative  of 
remarkable  versatility,  as  well  as  industry:  San- 
skrit, linguistic  science,  modern  languages,  lexi- 
cography. His  bibliography  in  the  Whitney 
Memorial  volume  numbers  360  titles. 

While  a  student  in  Germany  he  had  planned 
with  Roth  an  edition  of  the  Atharva-Veda,  then 
unpublished,  and  in  Berlin  he  copied  all  the  man- 
uscripts available,  collating  them  in  1853  with 
those  in  Paris,  Oxford,  and  London.  The  San- 
skrit text  (alone)  was  issued  at  Berlin  in  1856 
as  Atliarva  Veda  Sanhita,  edited  by  R.  Roth  and 
W.  D.  Whitney.  This  was  followed  by  Whit- 
ney's "Alphabctischcs  Verzeichniss  der  Versan- 
fange  der  Atharva-Samhita"  (Indische  Studien, 
vol.  IV,  1857)  ;  an  edition,  with  text,  translation, 
and  notes,  of  a  phonetico-grammatical  treatise, 

167 


Whitney 


"The  Atharva-Veda  Pratiqakhya"  (Journal  of 
the  American  Oriental  Society,  vol.  VII,  1862)  ; 
"Index- Verborum  to  the  Published  Text  of  the 
Atharva-Veda"  (Ibid.,  vol.  XII,  1881)  ;  Atharva- 
Veda  Samhita,  Translated  with  a  Critical  and 
Exegetical  Commentary  (2  vols.,  1905),  com- 
pleted and  edited  by  C.  R.  Lanman.  After  Roth, 
Whitney  and  his  American  successors  have  led 
the  world  in  the  study  of  the  Atharva-Veda.  In 
1871  Whitney  published  the  Taittir'iya-Pra- 
tigakhya,  with  its  commentary,  edited  with  text, 
translation,  and  notes  (Journal  of  the  American 
Oriental  Society,  vol.  IX).  One  of  his  hobbies 
was  astronomy,  and  he  spent  many  leisure  hours 
working  on  a  chart  of  the  heavens  as  the  ancient 
Orient  imagined  them  (see  his  Oriental  and 
Linguistic  Studies,  second  series).  In  i860  he 
published,  with  notes,  a  translation  of  the  Surya- 
Siddhanta,  a  Hindu  treatise  on  astronomy  (Jour- 
nal of  the  American  Oriental  Society,  vol.  VI). 
Mention  should  be  made  also  of  his  little  classic, 
"On  the  Vedic  Doctrine  of  a  Future  Life"  (Bib- 
liotheca  Sacra,  Apr.  1859,  republished  in  Ori- 
ental and  Linguistic  Studies,  first  series). 

Whitney's  most  important  work  was  his  San- 
skrit Grammar,  which  was  issued  at  Leipzig  in 
1879,  translated  into  German  by  Zimmer,  and 
revised  by  Whitney  a  decade  later.  He  subordi- 
nated to  the  technique  of  modern  linguistic  sci- 
ence the  classifications,  arrangements,  rules,  and 
terms  of  the  ancient  and  medieval  Hindu  gram- 
marians, whose  traditions  had  previously  pre- 
vailed in  the  West,  and  he  took  his  material 
primarily  from  recorded  Sanskrit  literature,  cov- 
ering historically  both  the  classical  language  and 
the  older  Vedic.  He  was  too  skeptical  as  to  the 
intrinsic  value  of  Indian  linguistic  scholarship, 
but  his  general  emphasis  was  sound,  and  his 
work  marks  a  great  transition  in  the  history  of 
Sanskrit  study.  His  method  was  essentially  de- 
scriptive and  statistical.  Regret  has  been  ex- 
pressed that  it  was  not  comparative.  But  he  was 
limited  in  time  and  space,  and  in  the  sequel  his 
procedure  proved  fortunate,  for  otherwise  the 
advances  in  Indo-European  grammar  would  long 
since  have  outdated  his  work,  whereas  in  fact  it 
is  still  indispensable  to  student  and  scholar.  And 
it  laid  the  foundations  for  Wackernagel  and  oth- 
er comparative  grammarians  in  the  years  to 
come.  The  Grammar  was  followed  by  a  formal 
supplement,  The  Roots,  Verb-forms,  and  Primary 
Derivatives  of  the  Sanskrit  Language  (Leipzig, 
1885). 

In  linguistics  Whitney's  work  antedated  many 
recent  developments,  and  he  held — sometimes 
unnecessarily,  perhaps — theories  that  have  since 
been  overthrown,  but  he  was  one  of  the  wisest 


Whitney 

leaders  of  his  day,  entitled  to  a  prominent  and 
permanent  place  in  the  history  of  the  study  of 
language,  and  his  books  still  serve  as  a  valuable 
introduction  to  the  science.  While  his  writings 
in  this  field  were  general,  descriptive,  and  semi- 
popular,  they  discussed,  with  notable  sanity  of 
thought  and  clarity  of  expression,  fundamental 
problems  of  scholarship  concerning  human 
speech.  Whitney  had  considerable  influence  upon 
the  trend  of  modern  linguistic  science,  especially 
in  his  recognition  of  its  distinction  from  philol- 
ogy, in  his  opposition  to  the  abstract,  figurative, 
and  almost  mystic  vagueness  that  still  prevailed 
in  certain  quarters,  and  in  his  conception  of 
linguistics  as  a  historical,  and  not  a  physical  or 
natural,  science.  In  1864  he  delivered  a  series 
of  lectures  before  the  Smithsonian  Institution, 
and  later  before  the  Lowell  Institute,  on  the 
principles  of  linguistic  science.  These  were  pub- 
lished in  1867  under  the  title  Language  and  the 
Study  of  Language,  and  translated  into  German 
by  Jolly  and  into  Dutch  by  Vinckers.  This  was 
followed,  in  1875,  by  The  Life  and  Grozvth  of 
Language,  which  was  translated  into  German, 
French,  Italian,  Dutch,  Swedish,  and  Russian. 
Similar  discussions  are  contained  also  in  his 
two  volumes  of  Oriental  and  Linguistic  Studies 
(collections  of  previous  contributions  to  various 
periodicals),  which  appeared  in  1873  and  1874; 
in  his  little  book,  Max  Muller  and  the  Science  of 
Language:  a  Criticism  (1892)  ;  and  in  many  ar- 
ticles. 

In  his  earlier  years  at  Yale  Whitney's  salary 
was  insufficient  for  the  support  of  his  growing 
family,  and  he  added  to  his  income  by  teaching 
German  and  French,  at  first  privately  and  later 
in  college  classes.  When  the  Sheffield  Scientific 
School  was  established  he  organized  its  modern 
language  department  and  became  its  head.  Out 
of  this  subsidiary  activity  grew  a  list  of  publi- 
cations that  might  well  represent  the  lifework 
of  a  prominent  professor  in  modern  languages : 
a  series  of  annotated  German  texts  (1876  ff.)  ; 
a  German  reader,  with  notes  and  vocabulary 
(1870)  ;  a  larger  (1869)  and  a  smaller  (1885) 
German  grammar ;  a  German  dictionary  ( 1877)  ; 
a  French  grammar  (1886).  To  these  should  be 
added  his  Essentials  of  English  Grammar 
(1877).  These  grammars,  all  for  practical  use 
in  school  or  college,  show  the  same  clarity,  con- 
ciseness, and  insight  that  mark  his  Sanskrit; 
they  anticipated  contemporary  methods  and  were 
widely  used  and  deservedly  influential. 

A  number  of  the  works  already  mentioned  be- 
long to  the  category  of  lexicography  and  works 
of  reference.  Under  this  heading  come  also  his 
valuable  contributions,  chiefly  from  his  Atharva- 


Whitney 

Veda  material,  to  the  great  (St.  Petersburg) 
Sanskrit  lexicon  of  Bohtlingk  and  Roth;  his 
definitions  in  the  1864  edition  of  Webster's  Eng- 
lish dictionary;  his  articles  in  Appleton's  New 
American  Cyclopaedia,  Johnson's  New  Universal 
Cyclopaedia,  and  the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica. 
The  last  decade  of  his  life  was  largely  given  to 
The  Century  Dictionary :  An  Encyclopedic  Lexi- 
con of  the  English  Language  (6  vols.,  1889-91), 
of  which  he  was  editor-in-chief.  His  is  the  only 
name  on  the  title-page,  which  says  that  the  work 
was  prepared  under  his  superintendence,  and  he 
wrote  and  signed  the  preface.  He  shared  re- 
sponsibility for  plan,  method,  and  execution,  su- 
pervised spelling,  pronunciation,  etc.,  and  read 
all  the  proofs. 

Whitney  wrote  on  many  subjects,  but  essen- 
tially he  was  a  grammarian.  His  chief  contribu- 
tion was  to  the  study  and  teaching  of  Sanskrit, 
and  there  have  been  few  American  Sanskritists 
who  were  not  trained  under  him  or  one  of  his 
pupils.  Neither  his  writing  nor  his  teaching  was 
fired  by  any  high  degree  of  imagination,  en- 
thusiasm, or  other  emotion.  What  he  wanted 
was  facts,  carefully  arranged  and  accurately  pre- 
sented. But  he  was  not  cold :  his  personal  sym- 
pathy, patience,  and  kindness  were  proverbial,  as 
were  his  natural  simplicity  and  sincerity. 

It  is  almost  incredible  that  any  man  should 
have  done  so  much  in  four  decades  of  productive 
scholarship — really  three,  for  his  last  eight  years 
were  spent  in  a  state  of  invalidism.  Recognition 
came  to  him  in  abundance  from  America  and 
abroad.  He  received  honorary  degrees  from  a 
number  of  American  and  foreign  universities ; 
he  was  an  honorary  member  of  the  Oriental  so- 
cieties of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  Japan,  Ger- 
many, Bengal,  Peking,  and  Italy,  and  of  the  lit- 
erary societies  of  Leyden,  Upsala,  and  Helsing- 
fors.  He  was  a  foreign  or  corresponding  member 
of  the  Institute  of  France,  the  royal  academies 
of  Ireland,  Denmark,  Berlin,  Turin,  the  Imperial 
Academy  of  St.  Petersburg,  and  the  Royal  Acad- 
emy dci  Lincci  of  Rome,  fellow  of  the  Royal 
Society  of  Edinburgh,  and  Foreign  Knight  of 
the  Royal  Prussian  Order  pour  le  merite  (suc- 
ceeding Thomas  Carlyle).  In  1870  the  Berlin 
Academy  awarded  him  the  Bopp  prize  for  his 
publication  of  the  Tdittir'iya-Prdtigakhya. 

An  outstanding  interest  in  Whitney's  life  was 
the  American  Oriental  Society,  which  he  joined 
in  1850.  He  was  librarian  from  1855  until  1873, 
corresponding  secretary  (and  editor  of  publica- 
tions) from  1857,  when  he  succeeded  Salisbury, 
until  1884,  when  he  was  elected  president,  in 
which  office  he  served  six  years.  In  1885  he 
wrote,  of  himself,  "no  small  part  of  his  work  has 


68 


Whiton 

been  done  in  the  service  of  the  Society ;  from 
1857  to  the  present  time,  just  a  half  of  the  con- 
tents of  its  Journal  is  from  his  pen"  {Forty 
Years'  Record,  post,  p.  178).  He  was  one  of  the 
founders  and  the  first  president  ( 1869)  of  the 
American  Philological  Association.  As  chairman 
of  a  committee  appointed  by  the  Association  to 
study  the  question  of  English  spelling  he  pre- 
pared the  report  which  was  presented  in  1876. 
He  was  opposed  to  the  principle  of  "historical" 
or  "etymological"  spelling,  favored  reform,  es- 
pecially the  use  of  the  simpler  of  alternative 
forms,  and  held  office  in  the  Spelling  Reform 
Association,  but  he  was  less  active  and  less  radi- 
cal in  the  movement  than  F.  A.  March  [q.v.~\ 
and  others. 

On  Aug.  27,  1856,  Whitney  married  Elizabeth 
Wooster  Baldwin  of  New  Haven,  daughter  of 
Roger  Sherman  Baldwin  [g.r.].  Three  sons  and 
three  daughters  were  born  to  them.  Whitney 
was  devoted  to  his  family  and  his  home,  and  in 
country  walks  with  his  children  or  in  conversa- 
tion with  his  friends  he  found  his  recreation.  He 
was  a  lover  of  music  and  had  a  good  baritone 
voice.  He  was  of  average  height  and  weight, 
had  deep  blue  eyes,  slightly  curling  reddish  hair, 
and,  most  of  his  life,  a  full  beard.  He  was  not 
orthodox  nor  a  member  of  any  church,  but  he  at- 
tended services  regularly  and  knew  the  Bible 
thoroughly.  In  1886  he  learned  that  he  was  suf- 
fering from  a  grave  affection  of  the  heart  (an- 
gina pectoris),  and  that  his  active  life  was  end- 
ed. But  so  far  as  his  strict  regimen  permitted  he 
continued  his  work,  serene  and  objective  as  ever, 
although  he  knew  that  any  day  might  be  his  last. 

[Whitney  wrote  his  own  biog.  for  Forty  Years'  Rec- 
ord of  the  Class  of  1845,  Williams  Coll.  (1885),  which 
he  edited,  and  his  own  bibliog.  (selected)  for  Bibliogs. 
of  the  Present  Officers  of  Yale  Univ.  (1893),  ed.  by 
Irving  Fisher.  See  also  The  Whitney  Memorial  Meet- 
ing (1897),  ed.  by  C.  R.  Lanman,  with  photograph  and 
full  bibliog.;  intro.  to  Whitney's  Atharva-Veda  Sam- 
hitd  (2  vols.,  1905),  ed.  by  C.  R.  Lanman  ;  T.  D.  Sey- 
mour, in  Am.  Jour.  Philology,  Oct.  1894  ;  T.  R.  Louns- 
bury,  in  Proc.  Am.  Acad.  Arts  and  Sciences,  n.s.,  vol. 
XII  (1895)  ;  Hanns  Oertel,  in  Beitrage  zur  Kunde  der 
Indogcrmanischcn  Sprachen,  vol.  XX  (1894),  pp.  308- 
33,  ed.  by  Adalbert  Bezzenberger  ;  E.  T.  Brewster,  Life 
and  Letters  of  Josiah  Dwight  Whitney  (1909);  and 
obituary  in  New  Haven  Evening  Reg.,  June  7,  1894. 
The  present  biog.  is  indebted  to  Prof.  Marian  Parker 
Whitney  for  recollections  of  her  father.]        H  H  B 

WHITON,  JAMES  MORRIS  (Apr.  n,  1833- 
Jan.  25,  1920),  Congregational  clergyman,  edu- 
cator, author,  was  born  in  Boston,  Mass.,  the 
son  of  James  Morris  and  Mary  Elizabeth 
(Knowlton)  Whiton.  He  was  a  descendant  of 
James  Whiton  of  Hingham,  England,  who  emi- 
grated to  Plymouth,  Mass.,  in  1635.  His  first  ma- 
ternal ancestor  in  America  was  John  Alden  of 
Plymouth    Colony.     From    the    Boston    Latin 


Whiton 

School  he  entered  Yale  College,  where  he  won 
distinction  in  the  classics  and  English,  and  was 
graduated  in  1853.  After  a  year  of  teaching  at 
the  high  school  in  Worcester,  Mass.,  he  served 
as  rector  of  the  Hopkins  Grammar  School,  New 
Haven,  Conn.  (1854-64).  In  186 1  he  received 
the  degree  of  Ph.D.  from  Yale,  having  at  the 
same  time  pursued  theological  studies  privately 
under  Yale  professors.  After  a  year  at  Andover 
Seminary  (1864-65),  he  was  ordained  at  Lynn, 
Mass.,  on  May  10,  1865,  and  held  pastorates 
there  at  the  First  Church  (1865-69)  and  at  the 
newly  formed  North  Church  (1869-75).  From 
1876  to  1878  he  was  principal  of  the  Williston 
Seminary,  Easthampton,  Mass.,  resigning  be- 
cause of  hostility  aroused  by  his  book  Is  'Eternal' 
Punishment  Endless?  (1876).  His  remaining 
pastorates  were  at  the  First  Congregational 
Church,  Newark,  N.  J.  (1879-85),  and  Trinity 
Congregational  Church,  New  York  City  ( 1886- 
91).  During  the  latter  period  he  was  instru- 
mental in  forming  two  other  churches  of  the 
same  denomination  in  the  Bronx.  During  1893- 
94  he  was  acting  professor  of  ethics  and  eco- 
nomics in  the  Meadville  Theological  School, 
Meadville,  Pa.  In  1896  he  became  a  member  of 
the  editorial  staff  of  the  Outlook,  engaging  also 
in  much  miscellaneous  literary  work.  He  became 
one  of  the  promoters  of  the  New  York  State 
Conference  of  Religion  in  1899,  an  organization 
representing  fourteen  different  denominations. 
An  outgrowth  of  this  movement  was  a  volume 
of  essays,  Getting  Together  (1913),  which 
Whiton  edited  and  to  which  he  contributed.  His 
best-known  books  are  The  Gospel  of  the  Resur- 
rection (1881);  The  Evolution  of  Revelation 
(1885)  ;  The  Divine  Satisfaction;  a  Critique  of 
Theories  of  the  Atonement  (1886)  ;  Turning 
Points  of  Thought  and  Conduct  (1888);  New 
Points  to  Old  Texts  (1889);  Gloria  Patri 
( 1892)  ;  Interludes  in  a  Time  of  Change  ( 1909)  ; 
The  Life  of  God  in  the  Life  of  His  World 
(1918).  As  secretary  of  his  college  class  he  pre- 
pared The  Class  of  1853,  Yale  College  (1903). 
He  was  also  the  author  of  several  classical  text- 
books. 

As  a  preacher  Whiton  combined  thoughtful 
scholarship  with  the  more  popular  gifts  to  a  rare 
degree,  and  few  American  clergymen  were  so 
gladly  heard  in  English  pulpits.  He  was  both 
broad  and  progressive.  Familiar  with  all  schools 
of  thought,  he  saw  the  spiritual  truth  underlying 
all  forms  of  faith.  He  was  an  able  controversial- 
ist as  well  as  a  writer  on  spiritual  topics,  and  to 
timid  thinkers  was  often  an  object  of  suspicion. 
He  was  married,  May  1,  1855,  to  Mary  Eliza 
Bartlett,  who  died  Sept.  27,  1917.  Of  their  family 


69 


Whitsitt 

of  two  sons  and  two  daughters,  the  daughters 

and  one  son  survived  their  parents. 

[A.  S.  Whiton,  The  Whiton  Family  in  America 
(1932);  Who's  Who  in  America,  19 18-19;  The  Con- 
grcg.  Year  Book  .  .  .  1920  (n.d.)  ;  Congregationalist, 
Feb.  12,  1920,  pp.  203,  219;  Outlook,  Feb.  4,  1920,  p. 
186,  with  portrait;  Obit.  Record  Yale  Grads.  (1921)  ; 
obituary  in  N.  Y.  Times,  Jan.  28,  1920.]  p  -p  p_ 

WHITSITT,  WILLIAM  HETH  (Nov.  25, 
1841-Jan.  20,  191 1 ),  Baptist  minister,  church 
historian,  and  theological  seminary  president, 
was  born  near  Nashville,  Tenn.,  the  son  of  Reu- 
ben Ewing  and  Dicey  (McFarland)  Whitsitt. 
His  colonial  ancestors  were  Scotch-Irish  Pres- 
byterians who  settled  in  Amherst  County,  Va., 
about  1741.  His  grandfather,  James  Whitsitt, 
moved  in  1790  to  Tennessee,  where  as  the  pastor 
of  a  group  of  country  churches  he  effectively  aid- 
ed in  the  establishment  of  the  Baptist  interpre- 
tation of  Christianity  throughout  middle  Tennes- 
see. William  Heth  Whitsitt  attended  Mount 
Juliet  Academy  and  was  graduated  from  Union 
University,  Jackson,  Tenn.,  in  1861.  Enlisting 
in  the  Confederate  army,  he  served  as  a  scout 
under  Gen.  Nathan  Bedford  Forrest.  Following 
his  ordination  as  a  Baptist  minister  in  1862,  he 
was  appointed  chaplain  and  served  throughout 
the  Civil  War.  He  studied  at  the  University  of 
Virginia  (1866)  and  the  Southern  Baptist  Theo- 
logical Seminary  (1866-68),  and  completed  his 
training  with  two  years  of  study  in  the  univer- 
sities of  Leipzig  and  Berlin,  where  he  was  under 
the  instruction  of  Christoph  Ernst  Luthardt, 
Ernst  Curtius,  Richard  A.  Lipsius,  and  L.  F.  K. 
Tischendorf.  After  a  brief  pastorate  in  Albany, 
Ga.,  he  accepted  (1872)  the  chair  of  ecclesiasti- 
cal history  in  the  Southern  Baptist  Theological 
Seminary,  Greenville,  S.  C,  where  he  later 
taught  polemical  theology.  On  Oct.  4,  1881,  he 
married  Florence  Wallace  of  Woodford  County, 
Ky.  In  1895  ne  was  elected  president  of  the  semi- 
nary, which  in  1877  had  been  moved  to  Louis- 
ville, Ky.  Under  his  administration  the  enroll- 
ment surpassed  that  of  any  other  American  theo- 
logical seminary,  and  his  thorough  scholarship 
and  courageous  devotion  to  truth  commanded 
the  unstinted  admiration  of  his  students. 

A  statement  made  by  Whitsitt  in  his  article 
upon  the  Baptists  published  in  Johnson's  Uni- 
versal Encyclopaedia  (1896)  precipitated  what 
was  known  as  "the  Whitsitt  controversy."  He 
said  that  "the  immersion  of  adult  believers"  had 
been  lost  in  England  and  that  such  baptisms 
were  restored  by  the  English  Baptists  in  1641. 
A  large  proportion  of  Southern  Baptists  held 
that  a  succession  of  Baptist  churches  could  be 
traced  from  New  Testament  times  to  the  present, 
though  it  was  admitted  that  they  had  not  always 


Whittelsey 


borne  the  name  of  Baptist ;  to  accept  Whitsitt's 
conclusions  made  this  theory  of  church  succes- 
sion untenable.  When  a  group  of  serious  schol- 
ars in  America  and  Great  Britain  reviewed  the 
historical  material  upon  which  Whitsitt  based 
his  conclusions,  most  of  them  reached  a  like  con- 
viction as  to  the  origin  of  the  English  Baptists, 
but  the  controversy  lasted  for  four  years,  in- 
creasing in  bitterness  as  the  weakness  of  the 
arguments  of  the  church  successionists  became 
more  evident.  Many  who  recognized  the  prin- 
ciple of  academic  freedom  became  convinced  that 
denominational  concord  could  be  gained  only 
through  Whitsitt's  withdrawal  from  the  insti- 
tution, and  the  trustees  of  the  seminary  at  length 
accepted  his  resignation  (1899).  After  a  year's 
rest  he  accepted  the  chair  of  philosophy  in  Rich- 
mond College,  Richmond,  Va.,  where  he  re- 
mained until  the  spring  of  1910.  He  died  on  Jan. 
20,  191 1,  survived  by  his  wife,  a  son,  and  a 
daughter,  and  was  buried  in  Richmond.  His  lit- 
erary work  includes  Position  of  the  Baptists  in 
the  History  of  American  Culture  (1872),  The 
History  of  the  Rise  of  Infant  Baptism  (1878), 
The  History  of  Communion  among  Baptists 
(1880),  A  Question  in  Baptist  History  (1896), 
The  Origin  of  the  Disciples  of  Christ  (1888), 
The  Life  and  Times  of  Judge  Caleb  Wallace 
(1888),  The  Genealogy  of  Jefferson  Davis 
( 1908),  "Annals  of  a  Scotch-Irish  Family — The 
Whitsitts  of  Nashville,  Tenn."  (American  His- 
torical Magazine  and  Tennessee  Historical  So- 
ciety Quarterly,  Jan.,  July,  Oct.  1904),  and  nu- 
merous articles  in  reviews  and  religious  news- 
papers. 

[See  Who's  Who  in  America,  1910-11  ;  E.  P.  Pol- 
lard, in  Rev.  and  Expositor,  Apr.  1912;  J.  R.  Sampey, 
Southern  Baptist  Theological  Seminary,  1859-1889 
(1890)  ;  W.  D.  Nowlin,  Ky.  Baptist  Hist.  (1922)  ;  obit- 
uary in  Times-Dispatch  (Richmond,  Va.),  Jan.  21, 
191 1.  For  the  Whitsitt  controversy,  see  files  of  Bap- 
tist Argus  and  Western  Recorder,  1 896-1 900.  For 
James  Whitsitt,  see  W.  B.  Sprague,  Annals  Am.  Pulpit, 
vol.  VI  (i860)  ;  Am.  Hist.  Mag.  and  Tenn.  Hist.  Soc. 
Quart.,  Jan.,  July,  Oct.  1904.]  R.  W.  W r. 

WHITTELSEY,  ABIGAIL  GOODRICH 

(Nov.  29,  1788-July  16,  1858),  editor  and  au- 
thor, was  born  in  Ridgefield,  Conn.,  the  daugh- 
ter of  the  Rev.  Samuel  and  Elizabeth  (Ely) 
Goodrich.  She  was  the  descendant  of  William 
Goodrich  who  emigrated  from  England  and  set- 
tled in  Wethersfield,  Conn.,  about  1643.  She 
was  the  grand-daughter  of  Elizur  Goodrich, 
1734-1797,  niece  of  Elizur  Goodrich,  1761-1849, 
and  of  Chauncey  Goodrich,  1759-1815,  and  the 
sister  of  Samuel  Griswold  Goodrich  and  Charles 
Augustus  Goodrich  [qq.z>.~\.  Until  her  marriage 
to  the  Rev.  Samuel  Whittelsey  on  Nov.  10, 
1808,  she  lived  in  her  native  village,  where  her 


170 


Whittelsey 

father  served  as  Congregational  minister,  farmed 
forty  acres  of  land,  and  sometimes  took  in  pu- 
pils to  be  fitted  for  college.  Her  brother  Samuel 
Griswold  Goodrich  (Peter  Parley)  in  his  Recol- 
lections (post)  has  left  an  interesting  account 
of  rural  Connecticut  during  these  years.  She 
grew  up  in  an  atmosphere  of  thrift,  energy,  and 
piety,  enjoying  such  educational  advantages  as 
her  home  and  the  local  seminaries  afforded.  Af- 
ter her  marriage  she  accompanied  her  husband 
to  his  country  parish  in  New  Preston,  Conn. 
Ten  years  later  they  removed  to  Hartford,  where 
for  six  years  she  served  as  matron  in  the  Ameri- 
can School  for  the  Deaf,  of  which  her  husband 
had  been  appointed  superintendent.  In  1824  she 
and  her  husband  had  charge  of  the  Ontario  Fe- 
male Seminary  in  Canandaigua,  N.  Y.,  and  from 
1827  to  1833  they  conducted  a  similar  school  in 
Utica. 

While  living  in  Utica  she  began  the  work 
that  made  her  well  known  to  her  contemporaries 
— the  editorship  of  the  Mother's  Magazine.  For 
some  years  she  had  been  active  in  promoting 
maternal  organizations  in  church  circles.  As 
the  mother  of  seven  children  and  the  wife  of  a 
clergyman  she  was  well  acquainted  with  the  in- 
terests of  women  in  the  home ;  as  matron  and 
teacher  she  had  observed  a  need  for  domestic  and 
religious  instruction.  When,  therefore,  the  Ma- 
ternal Association  of  Utica  noted  that  "among 
the  multitude  of  periodicals  of  the  day  not  one 
has  been  dci'otcd  to  mothers"  (Mother's  Maza- 
zine,  Jan.  1833,  p.  3)  and  promptly  established 
such  a  publication,  she  became  its  editor  and 
contributed  regularly  to  its  columns.  The,  pur- 
pose of  the  magazine  as  set  forth  in  the  opening 
number  January  1833,  was  "to  awaken"  moth- 
ers to  "their  responsibility" ;  "to  call  attention 
...  to  the  importance  of  having  suitable  schools 
and  seminaries,"  emphasize  the  need  for  "phys- 
ical education,"  and  very  particularly  to  stress  the 
domestic  education  of  daughters  (Ibid.,  pp.  4- 
5).  In  1834  she  removed  to  New  York  City. 
There  the  work  prospered,  attaining  a  circula- 
tion of  10,000  copies  by  1837,  although  a  rival 
publication,  the  Mother's  Journal  and  Family 
Visitant,  appeared  in  the  field  in  1836.  After 
the  death  of  her  husband  in  1842,  she  carried  on 
the  magazine  with  her  brother-in-law,  Darius 
Mead,  editor  of  the  Christian  Parlor  Magazine. 
In  1847  she  withdrew  from  the  work  for  a  year 
but  in  January  1848  resumed  her  connection 
with  it  under  its  new  proprietor,  Myron  Finch. 
The  same  year  Finch  purchased  the  rival  Moth- 
er's Journal,  and,  contrary  to  her  wishes,  de- 
cided to  unite  the  two  papers.  Disagreement  fol- 
lowed, and  she  severed  her  long  connection  with 


Whittemore 

the  magazine  in  1849.  From  1850  to  1852,  aided 
by  her  son  Henry  M.  Whittelsey,  she  issued  a 
new  periodical  of  her  own,  Mrs.  IVhittelsey's 
Magazine  for  Mothers,  in  which  she  continued 
to  give  instruction  and  advice.  She  hoped 
through  the  influence  of  mothers  to  raise  the 
level  of  social  and  religious  life.  She  was  de- 
scribed by  a  contemporary  editor  as  queenly  in 
appearance,  persuasive  in  manner,  and  sensible 
in  judgment  (Hale,  post,  p.  872).  Her  last  years 
were  spent  in  the  home  of  a  daughter  in  Colches- 
ter, Conn.,  where  she  died.  She  was  buried  in 
Maple  Cemetery,  Berlin,  Conn. 

[C.  B.  Whittelsey,  Geneal.  of  the  Whittelsey-Whit- 

tlesey  Family  (1898);  S.  J.  Hale,  Woman's  Record 
(1876)  ;  G.  L.  Rockwell,  The  Hist,  of  Ridge  field,  Conn. 
(1927)  ;  S.  G.  Goodrich,  Recollections  (2  vols.,  1856)  ; 
pamphlet  in  N.  Y.  Pub.  Lib.,  Mrs.  Whittlesey's  Reply 
to  .  .  .  Myron  Finch,  dated  April  1850.]        B.  M.  S. 

WHITTEMORE,  AMOS  (Apr.  19,  1759- 
Mar.  2/,  1828),  inventor,  gunsmith,  was  the  son 
of  Thomas  and  Anna  (Cutter)  Whittemore,  and 
a  descendant  of  Thomas  Whittemore  who  emi- 
grated from  England  and  settled  in  Charlestown, 
Mass.,  between  1639  and  1645.  He  was  born  on 
his  father's  farm  at  Cambridge,  Mass.  During 
his  boyhood  he  worked  on  the  farm  and  in  winter 
attended  the  district  school.  Upon  completing 
school  he  apprenticed  himself  to  a  gunsmith  and 
at  the  end  of  his  apprenticeship  set  up  a  shop  of 
his  own.  The  gunsmithing  business  was  poor, 
however,  and  for  years  he  was  variously  and  un- 
profitably  employed  in  and  about  Boston.  About 
1795  he  entered  into  a  gentleman's  agreement 
with  his  brother  William,  Giles  Richards,  and  a 
number  of  other  producers  in  the  manufacture 
of  brushes  for  carding  cotton  and  wool.  This 
group,  which  furnished  nearly  all  the  cards  then 
used  in  the  colonies,  had  three  factories  in  Bos- 
ton, employed  sixty  men  and  two  thousand  chil- 
dren, and  produced  about  twelve  thousand  dozen 
cards  a  year.  Whittemore  was  in  charge  of  the 
mechanical  equipment  which  consisted  of  two 
types  of  machines,  one  for  cutting  and  bending 
card  wire,  and  one  for  piercing  leather  with 
holes  into  which  the  bent  wire  was  placed.  Ap- 
parently these  simple  machines  did  not  require 
much  attention,  and  Whittemore  had  an  oppor- 
tunity to  apply  himself  to  invention,  in  which  he 
had  been  interested  for  years.  At  all  events,  in 
November  1796  he  was  granted  three  United 
States  patents,  one  for  a  machine  for  cutting 
nails,  another  for  a  loom  for  weaving  duck,  and 
a  third  for  a  "nautical  preambulator,"  which  was 
a  form  of  mechanical  ship's  log. 

Encouraged  by  the  acquisition  of  these  patents, 
he  turned  his  attention  to  the  problem  of  devis- 
ing a  machine  that  would  eliminate  all  hand  la- 


I7I 


Whittemore 

bor  in  making  cotton  and  wool  cards.  A  patent 
was  issued  to  him  on  June  5,  1797,  for  a  machine 
which  reduced  to  a  series  of  rapid,  precise,  and 
entirely  automatic  movements  all  the  successive 
operations  of  holding  and  piercing  the  leather, 
cutting  and  binding  the  wire,  and  inserting  and 
bending  the  wire  to  the  proper  angle.  Early  in 
1799,  after  working  eighteen  months  on  improv- 
ing his  crude  machine,  Whittemore  went  to  Eng- 
land to  obtain  a  British  patent.  His  efforts  to 
introduce  his  machine  in  England  were  unsuc- 
cessful, and  after  a  year  abroad  he  returned  to 
Boston,  where  he  formed  a  partnership  with  his 
brother  William  and  Robert  Williams,  under  the 
firm  name  of  William  Whittemore  and  Com- 
pany, to  manufacture  both  the  card-making  ma- 
chine and  cotton  and  wool  cards.  The  partners 
in  the  course  of  the  succeeding  nine  years  expe- 
rienced little  success  in  selling  the  machines  and 
practically  failed.  A  petition  to  Congress  in 
1809,  however,  yielded  an  extension  of  the  pat- 
ent from  181 1.  Armed  with  this,  they  were  suc- 
cessful on  July  20,  1812,  in  selling  to  the  newly 
incorporated  New  York  Manufacturing  Com- 
pany of  New  York  City  their  patent  right  and 
entire  stock  of  machinery  for  $150,000.  Whitte- 
more then  retired  to  his  home  in  West  Cam- 
bridge (later  Arlington),  Mass.,  where  he  lived 
until  his  death.  His  brother  Samuel  and  his  son 
Timothy  purchased  the  patent  and  machinery 
from  the  New  York  company  in  1818,  and  Sam- 
uel conducted  a  successful  business  in  West 
Cambridge  for  many  years.  Whittemore  mar- 
ried Helen  Weston  of  Cambridge  on  June  18, 
1781.   He  was  survived  by  twelve  children. 

[B.  B.  Whittemore,  A  Geneal.  of  Several  Branches 
of  the  Whittemore  Family  (1893);  Benjamin  Cutter, 
A  Hist,  of  the  Cutter  Family  of  New  England  (1871)  ; 
J.  L.  Bishop,  A  Hist,  of  Am.  Manufactures  (2  vols., 
1861-62)  ;  Henry  Howe,  Memoirs  of  .  .  .  Eminent  Am. 
Mechanics  (1847);  Patent  Office  records;  obituary  in 
Boston  Daily  Advertiser,  Apr.  1,  1828.]        C.  W.  M. 

WHITTEMORE,  THOMAS  (Jan.  1,  1800- 
Mar.  21,  1861),  Universalist  clergyman,  editor, 
author,  financier,  was  born  in  Boston,  Mass.,  the 
fourth  child  of  Joseph  and  Comfort  (Quiner) 
Whittemore,  and  a  descendant  of  Thomas  Whit- 
temore who  emigrated  from  England  to  Charles- 
town  before  1645.  He  attended  the  public  schools 
of  Charlestown,  Mass.,  but  the  necessitous  con- 
dition of  his  family  forced  him  to  leave  school 
before  reaching  his  teens.  As  a  boy  he  seems  to 
have  been  more  than  ordinarily  self-willed.  He 
was  apprenticed  to  three  different  trades  and 
twice  ran  away.  In  his  twentieth  year  he  came 
under  the  spell  of  the  popular  Universalist 
preacher,  the  Rev.  Hosea  Ballou  [q.z>.].  When 
in   December   1820  he  was  given  a  chance  to 


Whittemore 

preach  before  the  Universalist  congregation  in 
Roxbury,  Mass.,  he  acquitted  himself  very  cred- 
itably, and  at  the  close  of  his  apprenticeship  with 
a  Boston  firm  of  boot  and  shoe  makers  in  1821, 
Ballou  invited  him  to  become  a  member  of  his 
family  for  a  year  to  prepare  for  the  ministry. 
His  studies  were  frequently  interrupted  by  invi- 
tations to  preach  in  Universalist  churches.  In 
June  182 1  he  was  asked  to  become  minister  of 
the  church  in  Milford,  Mass.,  and  was  ordained 
there  on  June  13.  On  Sept.  17,  1821,  he  was 
married  to  Lovice  Corbett  of  Milford,  by  whom 
he  had  a  son.  A  year  later  he  accepted  the  pas- 
torate of  a  church  in  Cambridgeport,  Mass. 
(later  part  of  Cambridge),  where  he  quickly 
became  a  conspicuous  figure  among  the  group 
of  forceful  Universalist  preachers  and  writers 
of  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century.  In 
1828  he  and  Russell  Streeter  purchased  the  semi- 
monthly Universalist  Magazine  and  issued  it  as 
a  weekly  under  the  title  of  the  Trumpet  and  Uni- 
versalist Magazine.  Streeter  shortly  sold  his 
share  to  Whittemore,  who  became  the  sole  owner 
and  editor.  The  venture  turned  out  to  be  ex- 
tremely profitable,  and  Whittemore  continued 
as  editor  of  the  magazine  for  thirty-three  years. 
After  1828  books  and  pamphlets  came  thick  and 
fast  from  his  pen.  Among  his  publications  were 
The  Modern  History  of  Univcrsalism  (1830), 
Notes  and  Illustrations  of  the  Parables  of  the 
New  Testament  (1832),  a  commentary  on  the 
Revelations,  which  reveals  a  curious  streak  of 
mysticism  in  his  makeup,  and  The  Plain  Guide 
to  Univcrsalism  (1840).  There  was  a  lyrical 
strain,  in  him  which  expressed  itself  in  musical 
compositions  and  the  compilation  of  a  series  of 
hymn  books:  Songs  of  Zion  (1837),  containing 
many  tunes  from  his  pen,  The  Gospel  Harmonist 
(1841),  two  books  of  Conference  Hymns  (1842- 
43),  and  the  Sunday  School  Choir  (1844).  Later 
in  life  he  turned  to  biography  and  produced  The 
Memoir  of  Walter  Balfour  (1852),  The  Life  of 
Rev.  Hosea  Ballou  (4  vols.,  1854-55),  and  The 
Early  Days  of  Thomas  Whittemore,  an  Auto- 
biography (1859). 

He  was  not  less  busy  in  the  public  life  of  the 
town.  He  was  elected  in  1830  to  the  state  legis- 
lature and  was  reelected  to  that  post  for  several 
years.  There  he  expressed  his  unrelenting  oppo- 
sition to  compulsory  support  of  religion.  He 
served  his  town  also  as  selectman  for  a  consid- 
erable time.  During  the  years  1833  to  1845  he 
gave  his  services  as  lecturer  in  the  cause  of  tem- 
perance. In  1840  he  undertook  a  radically  differ- 
ent line  of  activity.  The  bank  in  Cambridge 
having  fallen  into  difficulties,  he  was  chosen 
first  as  director  of  the  institution  and  then  pres- 


172 


Whittier 

ident,  and  succeeded  in  rescuing  it  from  its  trou- 
ble. Nine  years  later  (1849)  he  was  made  pres- 
ident of  the  Vermont  and  Massachusetts  Rail- 
road, which  was  involved  in  deep  financial  dis- 
tress. He  completed  the  branch  lines,  settled 
the  lawsuits  pending  against  the  road,  and  suc- 
cessfully freed  it  from  debt.  He  died  in  Cam- 
bridge, Mass.,  while  busy  revising  and  enlarg- 
ing his  Modern  History  of  Universalism. 

[In  addition  to  The  Early  Days  of  Thomas  Whitte- 
more  (1859),  see  J.  G.  Adams,  Memoir  of  Thomas 
Whittemore,  D.D.  (1878);  B.  B.  Whittemore,  A  Gen- 
eal.  of  Several  Branches  of  the  Whittemore  Family 
(1893);  Richard  Eddy,  Universalism  in  America  (2 
vols.,  1884-86)  ;  and  obituary  in  Boston  Transcript, 
Mar.  22,  1 86 1.]  C.  G. 

WHITTIER,  JOHN  GREENLEAF  (Dec. 
17,  1807-Sept.  7,  1892),  poet,  abolitionist,  was 
born  in  Haverhill,  Mass.,  the  son  of  Quaker  par- 
ents. His  father,  John  Whittier,  was  a  stern, 
prosaic,  but  generous  man,  while  his  mother, 
Abigail  (Hussey)  Whittier,  was  a  kindly  soul, 
who  to  some  extent  sympathized  with  her  son's 
literary  leanings.  Both  parents  influenced  him 
considerably  by  their  religious  doctrines  and 
tales  of  local  history.  On  his  father's  side,  he 
was  descended  from  Thomas  Whittier  who  came 
to  Massachusetts  from  England  in  1638.  His 
youngest  son,  Joseph,  married  Mary  Peasley,  a 
Quakeress,  and  their  youngest  son,  also  named 
Joseph,  married  Sarah  Greenleaf,  member  of 
a  Puritan  family  believed  to  be  of  Huguenot 
origin.  Spending  his  boyhood  and  youth  on  a 
farm,  Whittier  came  close  to  nature,  and  later 
described  the  rural  scene  of  his  locality  more 
faithfully  than  had  any  other  writer  up  to  that 
time.  His  "Barefoot  Boy"  has  become  a  classic 
poem  of  New  England  farm  life.  Overexertion 
when  he  was  about  seventeen  resulted  in  injuries 
from  which  he  never  fully  recovered. 

His  formal  education  was  limited,  but  what  he 
did  not  obtain  from  schools  he  learned  from 
books.  For  a  brief  period  he  studied  under  Jos- 
hua Coffin,  in  the  unfinished  ell  of  a  farmhouse, 
and  at  another  time,  in  a  school  kept  by  a  New- 
buryport  woman.  When  he  was  about  fourteen 
he  became  acquainted  with  the  poems  of  Burns. 
He  read  them  studiously  and  soon  began  writ- 
ing poems  himself,  some  of  them  in  Scotch  dia- 
lect. As  time  went  on  his  reading  came  to  in- 
clude books  of  travel,  and  history,  works  on 
Quaker  doctrine  and  martyrology,  Thomas  Ell- 
wood's  poem  Davidcis,  and  the  writings  of  Mil- 
ton, Chatterton,  Coleridge,  Byron,  and  others. 
He  also  delved  into  colonial  literature,  becoming 
particularly  familiar  with  Cotton  Mather's  Mag- 
nalia  Christi  Americana. 

The  sending  of  one  of  his  poems,  "The  Exile's 


Whittier 

Departure,"  by  his  older  sister  Mary  to  the 
Newburyport  Free  Press,  edited  by  William 
Lloyd  Garrison  [q.v.],  was  an  important  event 
in  young  Whittier's  life.  The  poem  was  pub- 
lished June  8,  1826,  and  Garrison  was  sufficient- 
ly interested  in  the  unknown  author  to  call  upon 
him.  He  urged  the  father  to  send  his  son  to 
some  school  for  a  further  education,  but  the 
elder  Whittier  was  averse  to  such  a  procedure. 
Though  Garrison  continued  publishing  poems 
by  Whittier,  it  was  Abijah  W.  Thayer,  the  ed- 
itor of  the  Haverhill  Gazette  (later  called  the 
Essex  Gazette),  who  made  Whittier's  work 
widely  known,  publishing  poems  by  him  week- 
ly. Thayer,  also,  urged  the  elder  Whittier  to 
send  his  promising  son  to  an  academy  and  this 
time  the  father  agreed  to  do  so.  At  the  beginning 
of  May  1827,  Whittier  entered  the  newly  opened 
Haverhill  Academy,  where  a  poem  of  his  was 
sung  at  the  inauguration  ceremonies.  He  re- 
mained here  for  about  six  months,  taught  school 
during  the  winter,  and  then  returned  to  the  acad- 
emy for  another  term  of  six  months.  During  this 
period  he  poured  forth  a  steady  stream  of  poems, 
which  appeared  not  only  in  the  Free  Press  and 
the  Essex  Gazette,  but  for  a  time  in  the  Boston 
Statesman,  edited  by  Nathaniel  Greene  [q.v.']. 
Thayer  proposed  the  publication  of  Whittier's 
poems  in  book  form  by  subscription,  but  the  proj- 
ect was  not  carried  out. 

Through  the  help  of  Garrison,  Whittier,  in 
January  1829,  became  editor  of  The  American 
Manufacturer  (Boston),  serving  as  such  for 
seven  months  and  resigning  in  large  part  because 
he  was  needed  at  home.  This  was  the  first  of  the 
numerous  editorial  positions  he  held  during  his 
life.  In  the  early  part  of  1830  he  edited  the  Essex 
Gazette.  After  the  death  of  his  father  in  June, 
he  succeeded  George  D.  Prentice  [q.v.]  as  edi- 
tor of  the  Nezu  England  Weekly  Rcvicxu,  pub- 
lished in  Hartford,  Conn.  To  this  periodical  he 
contributed  many  poems,  stories,  and  sketches, 
most  of  which  have  remained  uncollected.  In 
February  1831  he  published  his  first  book,  Leg- 
ends of  New  England  in  Prose  and  Verse.  Re- 
linquishing the  editorship  of  the  Review  in  Jan- 
uary 1832  on  account  of  ill  health,  he  issued  that 
same  year  his  Moll  Pitcher,  and  edited  The  Lit- 
erary Remains  of  JoJin  G.  C.  Brainard,  With  a 
Sketch  of  His  Life.  During  these  years  he  suf- 
fered a  grievous  disappointment  because  of  the 
marriage  to  another  of  Mary  Emerson  Smith,  a 
relative,  for  whom  he  had  had  a  deep  affection 
since  boyhood.  She  is  doubtless  the  heroine  of 
many  of  his  early  uncollected  love  poems  and  of 
his  famous  "Memories"  and  "My  Playmate." 
His  pathetic  love  letter  to  her,  written  May  23, 


173 


Whittier 

1829,  is  the  only  one  of  those  that  passed  be- 
tween them  which  has  been  published  (L.  G. 
Swett,  John  Ruskin's  Letters  to  Francesca  and 
Memoirs  of  the  Alexanders,  1931,  417-21). 

A  reading  of  Garrison's  Thoughts  on  Coloni- 
sation (1832),  and  a  meeting  with  the  author  in 
the  spring  of  1833  made  Whittier  an  abolitionist. 
For  the  next  thirty  years  he  devoted  himself  to 
the  writing  of  Tyrtaen  poems  on  subjects  con- 
nected with  slavery  and  its  abolition.  In  Decem- 
ber he  was  a  delegate  to  the  anti-slavery  con- 
vention at  Philadelphia,  and  was  one  of  the  sign- 
ers of  its  declaration.  Prior  to  the  elections  of 
1834,  1836,  and  1838  he  secured  from  Caleb 
Cushing  [q.vJ]  pledges  that  he  would  support  the 
demand  of  the  abolitionists,  and  Cushing  attrib- 
uted his  success  in  the  elections  largely  to  the 
support  of  his  Quaker  friend  (Pickard,  post,  I, 
172).  He  was  practically  ostracized  socially  be- 
cause of  his  views  and  activities,  but  succeeded 
in  being  elected  a  member  of  the  Massachusetts 
legislature  from  Haverhill  for  the  year  1835.  On 
Sept.  4,  1835,  he  and  George  Thompson,  the 
English  lecturer,  were  mobbed  in  Concord,  N.  H. 
From  May  to  December  1836  he  was  again  in 
editorial  charge  of  the  Essex  Gazette.  Mean- 
while, he  sold  his  farm  in  Haverhill  and  moved, 
in  July  1836,  to  his  new  home  in  Amesbury.  His 
activities  during  the  next  few  years  were  varied 
and  his  labors  exacting ;  he  spoke  at  an  anti- 
slavery  convention  in  Harrisburg,  Pa. ;  he  lob- 
bied in  Boston  in  behalf  of  the  abolition  of  slav- 
ery in  the  District  of  Columbia ;  during  the 
summer  of  1837  he  was  employed  in  New  York 
under  the  auspices  of  the  American  Anti-Slav- 
ery Society.  From  March  1838  to  February  1840 
he  edited  the  Pennsylvania  Freeman,  to  which 
he  contributed  daring  editorials.  The  office  of 
the  paper  was  in  the  new  Pennsylvania  Hall, 
Philadelphia,  when  that  building  was  burned  to 
the  ground  by  a  mob  in  May  17,  1838.  In  No- 
vember of  that  year  he  published  a  volume  of 
fifty  of  his  poems.  Ill  health  compelled  his  res- 
ignation from  the  Freeman,  and  in  1840  he  re- 
turned to  Amesbury. 

He  was  much  depressed  by  the  disruption  of 
the  American  Anti-Slavery  Society  in  that  year, 
but  he  sympathized  with  the  political-action 
party,  to  which  Garrison  was  opposed,  and  be- 
came an  aggressive  member  of  the  American 
and  Foreign  Anti-Slavery  Society.  In  the  fall 
of  1842  he  ran  for  Congress  on  the  Liberty  party 
ticket.  The  following  year  he  published  Lays  of 
My  Home  and  Other  Poems,  which  contained 
some  of  his  best  work  and  placed  him  among 
the  leading  American  poets.  From  July  1844 
to  March  1845  he  edited  the  Middlesex  Standard, 


Whittier 

a  Liberty-party  paper  published  in  Lowell,  Mass., 
and  in  his  editorials  opposed  the  annexation  of 
Texas.  In  this  paper  appeared  serially  "The 
Stranger  in  Lowell,"  which  was  published  sepa- 
rately in  1845.  He  also  practically  edited  the 
Essex  Transcript,  an  organ  of  the  Liberty  party, 
published  in  Amesbury.  His  anti-slavery  poems 
were  collected  and  published  under  the  title 
Voices  of  Freedom,  in  1846.  In  January  of  the 
following  year  he  became  corresponding  editor 
of  the  National  Era,  published  in  Washington, 
and  he  contributed  most  of  his  poems  and  arti- 
cles to  it  for  the  next  thirteen  years.  In  this 
periodical  appeared  his  only  lengthy  work  in 
fiction,  "Stray  Leaves  from  Margaret  Smith's 
Diary,  in  the  Colony  of  Massachusetts"  (pub- 
lished in  book  form,  under  a  slightly  different 
title,  in  1849)  and  most  of  the  material  in  Old 
Portraits  and  Modem  Sketches  (1850)  and  Lit- 
erary Recreations  and  Miscellanies  (1854). 

Meanwhile,  there  was  no  relaxing  of  his  po- 
litical activities.  He  gave  John  P.  Hale  [q.z'.l 
of  New  Hampshire  much  political  advice,  and 
thus  indirectly  helped  elect  him  to  the  United 
States  Senate;  he  attacked  the  administration 
bitterly  for  the  Mexican  War;  and  in  the  well 
known  poem,  "Ichabod,"  which  appeared  in  the 
National  Era,  May  2,  1850,  he  castigated  Web- 
ster for  the  "Seventh  of  March  speech."  He  was 
instrumental  in  inducing  Charles  Sumner  to  run 
for  the  United  States  Senate  in  1851  on  a  coali- 
tion ticket  of  Free-Soilers  and  Democrats,  and 
he  urged  him  to  remain  a  candidate  when  he 
wished  to  retire  during  the  long  and  bitter  fight 
that  ensued  in  the  Massachusetts  legislature  be- 
fore he  was  elected.  He  was  one  of  the  first  to 
suggest  the  formation  of  the  Republican  party 
and  always  considered  himself  one  of  its  found- 
ers. In  the  mid-fifties,  though  he  wrote  cam- 
paign songs,  and  poems  on  the  happenings  in 
Kansas,  ill  health  compelled  him  to  abandon  some 
of  his  activities.  His  reputation  as  a  poet  had 
meanwhile  greatly  increased.  With  the  appear- 
ance of  Songs  of  Labor  (1850),  The  Chapel  of 
the  Hermits  (1853),  and  The  Panorama  and 
Other  Poems  (1856),  which  contained  his 
"Maud  Muller"  and  the  "Barefoot  Boy,"  he 
took  rank  with  Longfellow  and  Bryant  among 
the  greatest  American  poets. 

During  his  middle  years  he  had  several  ro- 
mances, two  of  which  almost  led  to  marriage. 
While  living  in  New  York,  in  the  summer  of 
1837,  he  met  Lucy  Hooper,  a  young  poetess  re- 
siding in  Brooklyn,  and  a  warm  friendship 
sprang  up  between  them.  In  1841  Lucy  died  of 
consumption.  Whittier  never  realized  to  what 
extent  she  was  attracted  to  him.  When  he  learned 


174 


Whittier 

from  her  surviving  sisters  the  depth  of  her  affec- 
tion he  wrote  to  them  contritely  and  defensively : 
"God  forgive  me,  if  with  no  other  than  kind 
feelings  I  have  done  wrong.  My  feelings  toward 
her  were  those  of  a  Brother.  I  admired  and 
loved  her ;  yet  felt  myself  compelled  to  crush 
every  warmer  feeling — poverty,  protracted  ill- 
ness, and  our  separate  faiths — the  pledge  that  I 
had  made  of  all  the  hopes  and  dreams  of  my 
younger  years  to  the  cause  of  freedom — com- 
pelled me  to  steel  myself  against  everything 
which  tended  to  attract  me — the  blessing  of  a 
woman's  love  and  a  home"  (Albert  Mordell,  in 
New  England  Quarterly,  June  1934).  His  most 
serious  affair,  however,  was  with  Elizabeth 
Lloyd,  the  poetess,  with  whom  he  formed  a 
friendship  in  Philadelphia  when  he  was  editing 
the  Freeman,  In  1853  she  married  Robert  How- 
ell, who  died  in  1856,  and  Whittier  resumed  his 
friendship  with  her  in  1858.  Both  were  looking 
forward  to  marriage  when  Mrs.  Howell  irri- 
tated the  poet  by  attacking  the  Quaker  creed,  of 
which  she  herself  was  an  adherent.  On  Aug.  3, 
1859,  he  wrote  her  a  letter  which  was  tantamount 
to  withdrawing  from  the  semi-engagement  that 
existed  between  them.  Their  friendship  drifted 
on  for  a  year  or  two,  and  by  the  end  of  i860  it 
was  over. 

From  the  beginning  of  the  Civil  War  Whit- 
tier's  life  was  uneventful.  His  fame  as  a  poet 
increased  by  reason  of  his  many  contributions 
to  the  Atlantic  Monthly,  in  the  founding  of 
which  he  had  a  part,  and  to  the  Independent. 
The  summit  of  his  poetic  career  was  reached  in 
the  decade  of  the  sixties,  during  which  appeared 
Home  Ballads  (i860)  ;  In  War  Time  and  Other 
Poems  (1864),  containing  "Barbara  Frietchie"; 
Snow-Bound  (1866)  ;  The  Tent  on  the  Beach 
(1867);  and  Among  the  Hills  (1869).  In  the 
summer  of  1876  he  moved  to  Danvers,  where  he 
lived  with  his  cousins,  the  three  daughters  of 
Col.  Edmund  Johnson.  Here  he  made  his  place 
of  abode  almost  to  the  time  of  his  death,  with 
occasional  visits  to  Amesbury,  which  always 
continued  to  be  his  legal  residence.  He  received 
numerous  honors  in  his  later  days,  was  surround- 
ed by  friends,  and  had  many  visitors.  Republi- 
can politicians  still  consulted  him.  The  more 
important  poetical  works  of  his  later  years  were  : 
Miriam  and  Other  Poems  (1871),  Hazel-Blos- 
soms (1875);  The  Vision  of  Echard  (1878); 
Saint  Gregory's  Guest  ( 1886)  ;  and  At  Sundown 
(1890).  A  complete,  edition  of  his  works,  re- 
vised and  corrected,  in  seven  volumes,  appeared 
in  1888-89.  He  died  at  Hampton  Falls  and  was 
buried  at  Amesbury. 

Whittier  was  a  tall  man  with  piercing  dark 


Whittier 

eyes  and  a  swarthy  complexion,  and  was  some- 
what vain  with  respect  to  his  appearance.  Al- 
though a  genial  person,  he  would  occasionally 
flash  out  in  anger  when  people  did  not  agree 
with  him.  He  resented  the  reputation  he  had  of 
being  a  saint.  That  he  was  of  heroic  spirit  is 
beyond  question,  for  he  sacrificed  much,  endured 
abuse,  and  faced  physical  perils  in  his  devotion 
to  the  cause  which  he  espoused.  He  had  a  fine 
sense  of  humor  and  was  adept  at  telling  amusing 
tales.  Toward  other  people's  beliefs  he  was  in 
general  tolerant,  and  he  sympathized  keenly 
with  those  who  were  persecuted  on  account  of 
their  race,  color,  or  creed.  His  religious  spirit 
as  expressed  in  his  poems  was  such  that  not  a 
few  of  them  have  found  a  permanent  place  in 
the  hymnals  of  various  denominations.  With  re- 
spect to  industrial  questions  he  was  always  ex- 
tremely conservative,  but  he  supported  the  oper- 
atives in  the  Amesbury-Salisbury  strike  of  1852 
(T.  F.  Currier,  in  New  England  Quarterly, 
March  1935).  As  a  means  of  settling  the  entire 
economic  problem  he  recommended  obedience 
to  the  Golden  Rule  and  the  saving  of  money.  He 
tried  to  justify  the  existing  system  by  showing 
that  the  laborer  derived  benefits  from  his  pov- 
erty. In  his  poem,  "The  Problem,"  published  in 
1877,  the  year  of  the  great  railroad  strikes,  he 
assailed  the  labor  leaders  who  sought  palliative 
reforms,  as  "demagogues"  proffering  their  vain 
and  evil  counsels.  In  the  late  eighties  he  refused 
to  aid  William  Dean  Howells  in  endeavoring  to 
obtain  clemency  for  the  convicted  Chicago  an- 
archists. 

Whittier's  standing  as  a  poet  has  somewhat 
declined  since  his  day.  "Snow-Bound"  is  still 
usually  considered  his  masterpiece.  A  few  of  his 
ballads,  like  "Skipper  Iresons's  Ride"  and  "Tell- 
ing the  Bees,"  and  religious  poems  like  "The 
Eternal  Goodness"  are  still  much  read  and 
quoted.  Critical  schools  differ  as  to  which  of  his 
poems  are  superior — those  treating  of  rural  life 
or  those  dealing  with  colonial  history.  There  is 
an  increasing  tendency,  however,  to  regard  him 
as  a  prophet  and  to  emphasize  the  value  of  his 
abolition  poems,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  oc- 
casion that  gave  rise  to  them  has  passed,  for  the 
spirit  that  prompted  them  was  the  same  spirit 
that  inspired  Milton  and  Shelley  to  battle  against 
oppression  and  tyranny.  "It  is  as  a  poet  of  hu- 
man freedom  that  he  must  live  if  he  is  to  hold  his 
own  with  posterity.  . .  .  He  has  not  a  well-defined 
domain  of  mastery  save  perhaps  in  the  verses  in- 
spired by  the  contest  over  slavery"  ( W.  P.  Trent 
and  John  Erskine,  Great  American  Writers,  pp. 
144,  147).  While  some  of  the  abolition  poems 
are  still  read  and  admired,  notably  "Massachu- 


*75 


Whittingham 


setts  to  Virginia,"  there  are  others  which  de- 
serve to  be  revived. 

[The  largest  collection  of  manuscript  material  is  to 
be  found  in  the  Essex  Institute,  Salem,  Mass.,  which 
also  has  photostats  and  typewritten  copies  of  letters  to 
be  found  in  libraries  elsewhere.  Whittier  letters  are 
preserved  in  the  Lib.  of  Cong.,  the  John  Pierpont  Mor- 
gan Lib.,  N.  Y.,  the  Henry  E.  Huntington  Lib.,  San 
Marino,  Gal.,  the  N.  Y.  Pub.  Lib.,  the  Mass.  Hist.  Soc, 
and  the  libraries  of  Harvard  and  Yale.  The  largest 
collection  of  printed  material  by  and  about  Whittier, 
and  some  manuscript  material  is  in  the  Haverhill  Pub. 
Lib.,  the  N.  H.  Hist.  Soc,  Concord,  and  the  Boston 
Pub.  Lib.  For  other  sources,  see  S.  T.  Pickard,  Life 
and  Letters  of  John  Grccnleaf  Whittier  (2  vols.,  1894  ; 
1  vol.,  1907),  and  Whitticr-Land  (1904);  W.  S.  Ken- 
nedy, John  Grecnleaf  Whittier — His  Life,  Genius,  and 
Writings  (1882)  and  John  G.  Whittier,  the  Poet  of 
Freedom  (1892);  F.  H.  Underwood,  John  Grccnleaf 
Whittier:  A  Biog.  (1884);  T.  W.  Higginson,  John 
Grccnleaf  Whittier  (1902);  G.  R.  Carpenter,  John 
Grccnleaf  Whittier  (1903)  ;  A.  J.  Woodman,  Reminis- 
cences of  John  Grecnleaf  Whitticr's  Life  at  Oak  Knoll, 
Danvcrs  (1908)  ;  John  Albree,  Whittier  Correspond- 
ence from  Oak  Knoll  Colls.  (1911)  ;  M.  V.  Denervaud, 
ed.,  Whitticr's  Unknown  Romance:  Letters  to  Eliza- 
beth Lloyd  (1922)  ;  F.  M.  Pray,  A  Study  of  Whitticr's 
Apprenticeship  as  Poet :  Dealing  with  Poems  Written 
between  1825  and  1835  not  available  in  the  Poet's  Col- 
lected Works  (1930)  ;  Albert  Mordell,  Quaker  Militant, 
John  Grecnleaf  Whittier  (1933).  More  complete  bib- 
liogs.  are  in  the  Cambridge  Hist,  of  Am.  Lit.,  II  (1918), 
436-51,  and  in  Quaker  Militant,  pp.  333-43.  An  ex- 
haustive bibliography  by  T.  F.  Currier  has  been 
announced  for  publication.]  A.M. 

WHITTINGHAM,  WILLIAM  ROLLIN- 
SON (Dec.  2,  1 805-0 ct.  17,  1879),  fourth 
Protestant  Episcopal  bishop  of  Maryland,  was 
born  in  New  York  City.  His  father  and  grand- 
father, both  named  Richard,  were  brass-found- 
ers, who  emigrated  from  Birmingham,  England, 
in  1 79 1  and  developed  a  prosperous  industry  in 
New  York.  His  mother,  Mary  Ann  Rollinson, 
was  the  daughter  of  William  Rollinson  [q.v.~\. 
A  precocious  child,  Whittingham  learned  to  read 
and  write  in  his  second  year,  and  at  the  age  when 
other  children  were  learning  the  alphabet  he 
could  read  and  write  English,  Latin,  Greek, 
French,  and  Hebrew.  These  he  learned  chiefly 
from  his  parents  and  not  at  school.  In  his  nine- 
teenth year  he  was  graduated  from  the  General 
Theological  Seminary,  New  York  City,  and  be- 
came its  librarian,  collaborating  with  Prof.  Sam- 
uel Turner  in  translating  and  editing  An  Intro- 
duction to  the  Old  Testament  (1827),  from  the 
German  of  Johann  Jahn.  He  was  ordained  dea- 
con (Mar.  11,  1827)  by  Bishop  John  H.  Ho- 
bart  in  Trinity  Church,  New  York,  and  advanced 
to  the  priesthood  (Dec.  17,  1829)  by  Bishop 
John  Croes  in  St.  Mark's  Church,  Orange,  N. 
J.,  where  he  served  as  rector  (1829-30).  On 
Apr.  15,  1830,  he  was  married  to  Hannah  Har- 
rison, by  whom  he  had  a  son  and  two  daughters. 
He  was  rector  of  St.  Luke's  Church,  New  York 
(1831-36),  and  professor  of  ecclesiastical  history 
at  the  General  Theological  Seminary  (1836-40). 


Whittingham 

He  was  elected  bishop  of  Maryland  on  May  28, 
1840,  and  consecrated  in  St.  Paul's  Church,  Bal- 
timore, Sept.  17.  During  the  stormy  years  from 
1857  to  1865  he  was  sorely  tried.  He  was  a  man 
of  positive  convictions,  which  had  been  formed 
in  the  North,  and,  as  two-thirds  of  the  laity  and 
three-fifths  of  the  clergy  of  Maryland  were  allied 
with  the  Confederacy,  his  position  was  most  dif- 
ficult and  delicate.  His  ruling  that  there  should 
be  no  change  in  the  Prayer-Book  services  used 
in  public  worship  aroused  violent  opposition  both 
during  and  after  the  Civil  War.  He  was  deeply 
interested  in  education  and  labored  tirelessly  for 
the  development  of  church  schools.  He  was  also 
a  pioneer  in  the  revival  of  community  life,  several 
brotherhoods  and  sisterhoods  being  organized 
under  his  auspices.  In  his  early  years  he  was  in 
doctrinal  agreement  with  Keble,  Pusey,  and  the 
early  leaders  of  the  Oxford  Movement,  but  later 
he  became  alarmed  at  its  ritual  developments. 
As  an  ecclesiastical  statesman  he  foresaw  the 
impending  growth  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  in  Maryland,  and  advocated  the  building 
of  a  great  national  cathedral  in  Washington  and 
the  division  of  the  diocese. 

Whittingham  was  a  scholarly  ecclesiastic  of  a 
kind  now  well-nigh  extinct.  His  reading  and  re- 
search covered  not  only  classical,  critical,  and 
Biblical  literature,  but  every  department  of 
sacred  and  secular  learning,  and  he  and  his  agents 
ransacked  the  world  for  rare  and  valuable  books, 
both  ancient  and  modern.  His  choice  library  of 
17,000  volumes,  which  he  bequeathed  to  the 
diocese  of  Maryland,  became  the  nucleus  of  the 
Maryland  Diocesan  Library.  The  breadth  and 
depth  of  his  learning  is  evidenced  in  his  pub- 
lished writings,  which  include  The  Pursuit  of 
Knowledge  (1837),  The  Voice  of  the  Lord 
(1841),  The  Godly  Quietness  of  the  Church 
(1842),  The  Priesthood  in  the  Church  (1842), 
The  Body  of  Christ  (1843),  The  Apostle  in  His 
Master's  House  (1844),  The  Work  of  the  Min- 
istry in  a  Day  of  Rebuke  ( 1846) ,  Gifts  and  Their 
Right  Estimate  (1855),  The  Work  of  Christ  by 
His  Ministry  (1856),  Conformity  in  Worship 
(1857),  and  Fifteen  Sermons  (1880).  He  also 
translated  or  edited  a  number  of  theological 
works. 

His  character  and  accomplishments  were  ac- 
curately evaluated  by  Bishop  W.  C.  Doane  of 
Albany,  who  described  him  as  "full  and  running 
over  with  every  kind  of  learning  .  .  .,  a  powerful 
preacher,  an  able  debater,  an  irresistible  con- 
troversialist," his  word  "an  authority  in  the 
House  of  Bishops  which  no  one  questioned" 
(Brand,  post,  II,  374-75).  There  are  admirable 
paintings  of  Whittingham  at  the  Diocesan  House 


176 


Whittredge 

in  Baltimore  and  the  General  Theological  Semi- 
nary in  New  York  which  reveal  a  remarkable 
blend  of  ascetic  self-discipline,  intellectual  abil- 
ity, and  large-hearted  benevolence.  He  died  in 
Orange,  N.  J. 

[See  W.  F.  Brand,  Life  of  William  Rollinson  Whit- 
tingham  (2  vols.,  ed.  of  1886),  with  portrait;  W.  S. 
Perry,  The  Episcopate  in  America  (1895)  ;  H.  C.  Pot- 
ter, Reminiscences  of  Bishops  and  Archbishops  (1906)  ; 
Hall  Harrison,  Life  of  the  Right  Rev.  John  Barrett 
Kerfoot  (2  vols.,  1886)  ;  H.  G.  Batterson,  A  Sketch- 
Book  of  the  Am.  Episcopate  (1878)  ;  and  obituaries  in 
Churchman,  Oct.  25,  and  Sun  ( Baltimore), _  Oct.  18, 
1879.  In  the  Md.  Diocesan  Lib.,  Baltimore,  is  a  large 
coll.  of  Whittingham's  papers,  including  notes,  diaries, 
and  correspondence.]  W.  R. 

WHITTREDGE,  WORTHINGTON  (May 
22,  1820-Feb.  25,  1910),  painter,  was  born  in 
Springfield,  Ohio,  the  son  of  Joseph  Whittredge. 
He  received  his  first  instruction  in  art  in  Cin- 
cinnati, where  even  then  there  were  some  good 
pictures  and  a  lively  interest  in  local  art.  In 
1849  ne  went  abroad  to  study  and  remained  for 
ten  years.  He  spent  half  this  time  in  Diisseldorf, 
where  for  three  years  he  studied  continuously 
under  Andreas  Achenbach.  During  five  later 
winters  he  lived  in  Rome,  but  made  visits  to 
London,  Antwerp,  Paris,  and  other  cities.  In 
Diisseldorf  he  met  Albert  Bierstadt  and  Emanuel 
Leutze  [qq.v.'],  the  latter  of  whom  became  a  life- 
long friend.  Leutze  painted  his  portrait  in  Diis- 
seldorf, representing  him  as  a  young  cavalier, 
wearing  a  ruff,  with  sword  in  one  hand  and  hat 
in  the  other,  the  latter  held  against  his  hip  (in 
the  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art,  New  York). 
Years  later  John  W.  Alexander  [q.v.~\  painted 
his  portrait  for  the  National  Academy  of  Design. 
This  too  shows  him  as  a  picturesque  figure,  a 
man  of  fine  presence  and  physique.  When  Leutze 
painted  his  famous  "Washington  Crossing  the 
Delaware,"  it  was  Whittredge  in  an  old  uniform 
worn  by  the  General  who  posed  for  the  figure  of 
Washington.  Upon  his  return  to  the  United 
States  in  1859,  Whittredge  established  himself 
in  New  York  with  a  studio  on  Tenth  Street  in 
what  was  then  the  artists'  quarter.  He  was  mar- 
ried on  Oct.  16,  1867,  at  Geneva,  N.  Y.,  to 
Euphemia  Foote,  by  whom  he  had  four  children. 
His  first  exhibit  was  a  painting,  "The  Roman 
Campagna,"  done  in  Rome,  which  he  entered  in 
the  exhibition  of  the  National  Academy  of  De- 
sign in  1859.  He  was  elected  an  Academician  in 
1861,  and  served  as  president  of  the  Academy  in 
1865  and  from  1874  to  1877.  In  his  connection 
with  the  Academy  he  rendered  conscientious 
service,  devoting  himself  to  promoting  the  inter- 
ests of  his  fellow  Academicians.  He  is  said,  on 
good  authority,  to  have  had  "a  lifelong  habit  of 
kindness  and  generosity"  (Clark,  post,  p.  180). 


Whitworth 

As  a  painter  Whittredge  gave  himself  to  de- 
picting the  gentler  aspects  of  nature.  In  1866 
with  Sanford  R.  Gifford  and  John  F.  Kensett 
[qq.v.]  he  made  a  trip  to  the  far  West  and  paint- 
ed a  number  of  pictures  of  the  country  between 
the  Mississippi  River  and  the  Rocky  Mountains, 
but  it  was  the  woods  and  streams  of  New  York 
State  and  New  England  that  he  loved  best  and 
painted  most  feelingly.  Like  all  the  painters  of  the 
Hudson  River  School,  he  strove  earnestly  to  rep- 
resent on  canvas  exactly  what  he  saw.  He  was 
technically  well  trained  and  sensitively  appreci- 
ative of  beauty,  and  his  pictures,  despite  their 
over-emphasis  on  detail,  possess  an  individuality 
and  charm  that  give  them  lasting  value.  He 
was  awarded  a  bronze  medal  at  the  Centennial 
Exhibition  in  Philadelphia  (1876),  and  silver 
medals  at  the  Pan-American  Exposition  in  Buf- 
falo (1901)  and  the  Louisiana  Purchase  Expo- 
sition in  St.  Louis  (1904).  The  Metropolitan 
Museum  of  Art  owns  his  "Evening  in  the 
Woods,"  "Camp  Meeting"  (1874),  and,  notably, 
"The  Trout  Pool."  The  Corcoran  Gallery  of 
Art,  Washington,  D.  C,  has  "Trout  Brook  in 
the  Catskills"  (1875).  He  is  represented  in  other 
well-known  museum  collections.  Among  his 
early  works  the  most  famous  is  "The  Poachers," 
frequently  reproduced  through  the  medium  of 
lithography.  Whittredge  died  in  Summit,  N.  J., 
where  he  made  his  home,  survived  by  his  wife 
and  three  daughters. 

[See  Who's  Who  in  America,  1908-09  ;  A.  W.  Foote, 
Foote  Family  (2  vols.,  1907—32)  ;  Samuel  Isham,  The 
Hist,  of  Am.  Painting  (1905);  Edna  M.  Clark,  Ohio 
Art  and  Artists  (1932)  ;  Am.  Art  Ann.,  1910-1 1  ;  death 
notice  in  N.  Y.  Times,  obituary  in  N .  Y.  Tribune,  Feb. 
27,  1 9 10.  The  name  of  Whittredge's  father  is  from 
Cliff  Whittredge  of  Springfield,  Ohio.]  L.  M. 

WHITWORTH,   GEORGE   FREDERIC 

(Mar.  15,  1816-Oct.  6,  1907),  Presbyterian  cler- 
gyman and  educator,  was  born  in  Boston,  Eng- 
land. In  1828  his  parents  settled,  according  to 
one  authority  (Prosser,  post,  II,  574),  near 
Mansfield,  Ohio;  according  to  another  (Bagley, 
post,  I,  141),  in  Terre  Haute,  Ind.  After  serv- 
ing as  an  apprentice  to  a  saddler  and  harness 
maker,  George  entered  Hanover  College,  where 
he  was  graduated  in  1838.  On  July  17  of  that 
year  he  married  Mary  Elizabeth  Thomson  of 
Decatur  County,  Ind.,  by  whom  he  had  seven 
children.  Subsequently,  he  taught  school  in  Lan- 
caster, Ohio,  and  Greenburg,  Ind.,  studied  law, 
and  in  1843  was  admitted  to  the  bar.  Soon,  how- 
ever, he  determined  to  enter  the  ministry,  and  in 
1847  was  graduated  at  New  Albany  Theological 
Seminary  (later  McCormick  Theological  Semi- 
nary). 

After  serving  several  Presbyterian  churches, 


177 


Whitworth 

he  was  invited  in  1852  to  lead  a  company  of  colo- 
nists across  the  continent,  and  the  Presbyterian 
Board  of  Home  Missions  appointed  him  mis- 
sionary to  Puget  Sound.  In  October  1853  he 
reached  Portland,  Ore.,  where  he  helped  to  found 
the  First  Presbyterian  Church.  Proceeding  to 
Olympia,  Wash.,  early  in  1854,  he  organized  a 
church  there  and  in  the  following  year,  one  in 
what  is  now  Claquato  and  another  at  Grand 
Mound.  He  was  the  first  Presbyterian  to  preach 
in  Seattle  (March  1865),  and  in  December  1869 
established  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  there. 
He  served  as  moderator  of  the  presbytery  of 
Puget  Sound,  and  of  the  synod ;  at  various  times 
he  was  also  stated  clerk  of  both  bodies. 

A  missionary's  wage  proving  inadequate  to 
support  his  family,  he  resigned  from  the  mission 
about  1856  and  turned  for  some  years  to  secular 
occupations.  From  1856  to  1865  he  held  many 
minor  government  offices  and  energetically  pro- 
moted public  improvements.  He  foresaw  that 
Washington  coal  would  prove  abundant  and  good 
and  wrote  much  upon  the  subject.  In  1866  he 
became  a  member  of  the  Lake  Washington  Coal 
Company,  which  soon  went  out  of  existence,  and 
in  1868-69,  whh  Daniel  Bagley,  he  operated  the 
Newcastle  Coal  Mines.  He  was  also  a  member 
of  the  Seattle  Coal  Company,  incorporated  in 
1870. 

Meanwhile,  in  1866,  he  had  left  Olympia  to 
assume  the  presidency  of  the  University  of 
Washington.  He  was  an  outstanding  personage, 
and  the  reputation  and  character  he  brought  to 
the  Seattle  institution  did  much  to  save  it  from 
extinction.  He  served  only  until  June  28,  1867, 
but  from  the  spring  of  1875  to  Christmas  of  1876 
he  again  occupied  the  position.  He  had  charge 
of  the  university  at  difficult  times,  but  under  his 
leadership  it  made  progress.  He  did  much  to 
popularize  civil  engineering  and  organized  mili- 
tary and  engineering  departments.  In  1883  he 
established  an  academy  at  Sumner,  Wash.,  and 
in  1890,  while  president  of  its  trustees,  incor- 
porated it  as  a  college.  In  1899  the  institution 
was  moved  to  Tacoma  and  later  to  Spokane.  In 
his  honor  it  was  named  by  others  Whitworth 
College. 

[G.  B.  Bagley,  Hist,  of  Seattle  (1916)  ;  V.  J.  Farrar, 
"Hist,  of  the  Univ.,"  in  The  Washington  Alumnus, 
Apr.  1921  ;  G.  W.  Fuller,  Hist,  of  the  Inland  Empire 
(1928)  ;  F.  J.  Grant,  Hist,  of  Seattle  (1891)  ;  H.  K. 
Hines,  An  Illustrated  Hist,  of  the  State  of  Washington 
(1898),  p.  257;  Morning  Orcgonian  (Portland),  Jan. 
18,  19,  1904,  Oct.  7,  1907;  W.  F.  Prosser,  Hist,  of  the 
Puget  Sound  Country  (1903);  H.  W.  Scott.  Hist,  of 
the  Oregon  Country  (1924),  ed.  by  L.  M.  Scott;  C.  A. 
Snowden,  Hist,  of  Washington  (1909)  ;  Washington 
Alumnus,  Dec.  17,  1910;  Washington  Hist.  Quart., 
July  1907,  Apr.  1915.]  F.P.N. 


Whyte 

WHYTE,  WILLIAM  PINKNEY  (Aug.  9, 
1824-Mar.  17, 1908),  lawyer,  senator  from  Mary- 
land, was  the  son  of  Joseph  and  Isabella  (Pink- 
ney)  White.  He  was  the  grandson  of  William 
Pinkney  [q.v.~\  and  of  Dr.  William  Campbell 
White,  an  Irish  rebel  who  emigrated  to  Amer- 
ica at  the  failure  of  the  Irish  Rebellion  in  1798. 
William  changed  his  name  from  White  to  Whyte 
to  distinguish  his  family  from  that  of  his  uncle, 
with  whom  his  father  had  quarreled  over  a  mat- 
ter of  business.  His  early  education  was  under 
the  direction  of  M.  R.  McNally,  an  accomplished 
scholar  who  had  been  secretary  to  Napoleon 
Bonaparte.  At  the  age  of  eighteen,  Whyte  en- 
tered the  employ  of  the  banking  firm  of  Peabody, 
Riggs  and  Company.  When  this  clerkship  proved 
uncongenial,  he  resigned  to  study  law  in  the  firm 
of  Brown  and  Brune.  The  winter  of  1844-45  he 
studied  law  at  Harvard ;  he  then  returned  to 
Baltimore  to  continue  his  studies  in  the  law  firm 
of  John  Glenn.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in 
1846  and  in  the  same  year  was  elected  as  a 
Democrat  to  the  Maryland  House  of  Delegates. 
In  1851  he  entered  the  Democratic  primary  as  a 
candidate  for  Congress  but  was  defeated ;  two 
years  later  he  was  elected  comptroller  of  the 
treasury  of  Maryland.  Declining  reelection  to 
this  office,  he  was  again  a  candidate  for  Congress 
in  1857,  opposing  the  Know-Nothings,  although 
foredoomed  to  defeat,  in  order  to  expose  their 
corrupt  election  methods.  He  contested  the  elec- 
tion, charging  them  with  the  use  of  fraud  and 
violence.  Though  he  lost  by  a  small  vote,  the 
publication  of  the  testimony  and  the  exposure  of 
the  proceedings  led  in  the  next  legislature  to  the 
passage  of  a  series  of  laws  effectually  ending  un- 
fair election  practices.  At  the  outbreak  of  the 
Civil  War,  Whyte  was  drafted  by  the  federal 
government  but  was  disqualified  on  physical 
grounds.  His  sympathy  was  for  the  Confederacy. 
At  the  height  of  the  war  hysteria  he  was  de- 
prived of  his  citizenship,  but  he  was  later  re- 
enfranchised.  During  this  period  he  traveled 
abroad.  On  July  14,  1868,  he  was  appointed  to 
fill,  for  one  year,  the  vacant  seat  of  Senator 
Reverdy  Johnson  [q.v.~\,  who  had  been  sent  as 
minister  to  Great  Britain.  In  1871  he  was  elect- 
ed Democratic  governor  of  Maryland;  he  re- 
signed in  1874  to  return  to  the  Senate  as  suc- 
cessor to  William  T.  Hamilton.  At  this  time  he 
was  victorious  as  counsel  for  Maryland  before 
the  arbitration  board  in  the  boundary  dispute 
between  Virginia  and  Maryland.  During  his 
six  years  in  the  Senate  (1875-81),  the  most  bril- 
liant of  his  career,  he  championed  sound  currency 
and  helped  to  devise  the  form  of  government  for 
the  District  of  Columbia.    He  was  defeated  for 


78 


Wickersham 

reelection  by  Arthur  Pue  Gorman  [q.v.'}.  There- 
after he  was  successively  mayor  of  Baltimore 
(1881-83),  attorney  general  of  Maryland  (1887- 
91),  and  city  solicitor  of  Baltimore  (1900-03). 
In  1906,  when  his  old  enemy,  Arthur  Pue  Gor- 
man, died,  he  was  appointed  to  fill  Gorman's 
vacant  senatorial  seat. 

Whyte  died  suddenly  at  his  home  in  Baltimore 
before  the  expiration  of  this  last  term  in  office. 
He  had  long  been  known  affectionately  as  the 
"grand  old  man  of  Maryland."  He  took  great 
interest  and  pleasure  in  his  horses,  which  he 
drove  himself  every  day  between  luncheon  and 
dinner,  and  in  his  collection  of  the  belongings  of 
his  grandfather,  William  Pinkney.  He  was  not 
a  profound  student  of  the  law,  but  he  was  in- 
defatigable at  his  work  and  consistently  struggled 
against  class  legislation.  He  was  twice  married. 
His  first  wife,  Louisa  D.  Hollinsworth,  to  whom 
he  was  married  on  Dec.  7,  1847,  died  on  Oct.  28, 
1885.  On  Apr.  27,  1892,  he  was  married  to  Mary 
(McDonald)  Thomas,  who  had  been  his  ward. 
He  had  three  children  by  his  first  wife. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1908-09;  Biog.  Dir.  Am. 
Cong.  (1928);  W.  F.  Coyle,  Mayors  of  Baltimore 
(1919);  F.  A.  Richardson  and  W.  A.  Bennett,  Balti- 
more; Past  and  Present  (1871);  William  Pinkney 
White  .  .  .  Memorial  Addresses  (1909),  being  Sen.  Doc. 
765,  60  Cong.,  2  Sess. ;  J.  J.  Chamberlain,  Universities 
and  Their  Sons,  vol.  V  (1900)  ;  Message  of  William 
Pinkney  Whyte,  Mayor,  to  the  City  Council  of  Balti- 
more (1882)  ;  Boundary  Line  Between  the  States  of 
Va.  and  Md.  (1876);  H.  E.  Buchholz,  Governors  of 
Md.  (1908)  ;  Independent,  Mar.  21,  1907,  p.  667  ;  obitu- 
ary in  Sun  (Baltimore),  Mar.  18,  1908;  information 
from  Marjory  Whyte.]  H.  Ca-s. 

WICKERSHAM,  JAMES  PYLE  (Mar.  5, 
1825-Mar.  25,  1891),  educator,  was  born  in 
Newlin  Township,  Chester  County,  Pa.,  the  son 
of  Caleb  and  Abigail  Swayne  (Pyle)  Wicker- 
sham, and  a  descendant  of  Thomas  Wickersham 
who  settled  in  Chester  County  in  170 1.  He  grew 
up  on  his  father's  farm,  attending  the  local  dis- 
trict school  and  Unionville  Academy.  To  earn 
the  expenses  of  his  tuition  at  the  academy,  he 
taught  school  in  the  winter  of  1841-42  at  Brandy- 
wine  Manor  and  in  1843  near  Paoli.  From  1843 
to  1845  he  was  an  assistant  teacher  at  the  acad- 
emy. Abandoning  his  plan  to  prepare  for  the 
practice  of  law  in  deference  to  the  religious 
views  of  his  parents,  who  were  Friends,  he  ac- 
cepted an  appointment  in  1845  as  headmaster  of 
the  academy  at  Marietta,  Pa.,  and  within  a  few 
years  became  the  principal  owner.  On  Dec.  24, 
1847,  he  was  married  to  Emerine  Isaac  Taylor, 
daughter  of  Dr.  Isaac  Taylor  of  Chester,  Pa.  In 
1854  he  was  elected  first  county  superintendent 
of  schools  in  Lancaster  County.  Later  in  that 
year  he  organized  the  first  state  convention  of 
county  superintendents  and  presented  his  plan  of 


Wickersham 

developing  a  uniform  system  of  school  adminis- 
tration. He  was  chiefly  instrumental  in  the 
enactment  of  the  school  laws  of  1854,  which  pro- 
vided for  the  appointment  of  county  superin- 
tendents. A  county  teachers'  institute  at  Millers- 
ville  Academy,  which  he  established  in  the  spring 
of  1855,  was  incorporated  in  the  fall  as  the  Lan- 
caster County  Normal  School,  and  in  the  follow- 
ing year  Wickersham  resigned  the  county  su- 
perintendency  to  become  principal.  He  urged 
the  establishment  of  a  system  of  state  normal 
schools  and  assisted  in  framing  the  normal  school 
law  of  1857.  Under  his  administration  the  insti- 
tution at  Millersville  became  the  first  state  nor- 
mal school  in  Pennsylvania  (1859)  and  was 
a  noted  center  for  the  training  of  teachers.  Dur- 
ing the  Civil  War  Wickersham  raised  a  regi- 
ment, which  included  more  than  one  hundred 
students  and  instructors  of  the  Millersville  State 
Normal  School.  Commissioned  colonel  of  the 
47th  Regiment,  Pennsylvania  Volunteer  Emer- 
gency Militia,  July  9,  1863,  he  served  until  his 
command  was  mustered  out,  Aug.  14,  1863.  He 
was  one  of  the  organizers  of  the  Lancaster  Coun- 
ty Educational  Association  (1851),  the  Penn- 
sylvania State  Teachers'  Association  (1852), 
and  the  National  Teachers'  Association  (later 
the  National  Education  Association),  all  of 
which  he  served  as  president.  In  1870  and  1879 
he  served  as  president  of  the  department  of 
school  superintendence  of  the  National  Educa- 
tion Association. 

In  1866  he  was  appointed  state  superintendent 
of  common  schools.  During  his  administration, 
he  effected  a  classification  of  all  the  educational 
institutions  in  the  state  and  a  closer  union  among 
them,  better  grading  of  schools,  more  complete 
supervision,  and  increased  provision  for  improv- 
ing the  qualifications  of  teachers.  By  1874  he 
had  succeeded  in  having  a  school  established  in 
every  district  in  Pennsylvania.  He  wrote  the 
educational  provisions  of  the  state  constitution 
of  1874,  ar|d  established  the  school  department 
as  one  of  the  five  constitutional  departments  of 
the  state  government.  In  1864  he  brought  about 
the  establishment  of  the  Soldiers'  Orphans 
Schools,  which  provided  homes  and  education 
for  children  orphaned  by  the  Civil  War.  He  was 
editor  and  part  owner  of  the  Pennsylvania  School 
Journal  from  1870  to  188 1.  In  1878,  at  the  re- 
quest of  the  governor,  he  visited  various  Euro- 
pean schools,  and  was  awarded  a  medal  at  the 
Paris  Exposition  for  his  exhibit  of  state  school 
reports,  laws,  and  other  documents.  On  resign- 
ing the  state  super intendency  in  1 881,  he  devoted 
himself  to  writing,  and  to  the  management  of  the 
Inquirer  Printing  and  Publishing  Company,  Lan- 


179 


Wickes 


Wickes 


caster,  Pa.,  of  which  he  had  been  president  since 
its  organization  in  1873.  His  publications  in- 
clude School  Economy  (1864),  Methods  of  In- 
struction (1865),  and  A  History  of  Education  in 
Pennsylvania  (1886).  He  was  appointed  charge 
d'affaires  of  the  United  States  to  Denmark  on 
May  1,  1882,  and  minister  resident  and  consul 
general  on  July  13,  1882.  He  resigned,  Aug.  21, 
1882,  because  of  his  wife's  ill  health.  He  died  in 
Lancaster,  survived  by  one  son  and  three  daugh- 
ters. 

[Mary  Martin,  in  Pa.  School  Jour.,  Aug.  1891  ;  Ibid., 
Sept.  1 89 1  ;  J.  P.  Wickersham,  A  Hist,  of  Educ.  in  Pa. 
(1886)  ;  J.  S.  Futhey  and  Gilbert  Cope,  Hist,  of  Chester 
County,  Pa.  (1881)  ;  Alexander  Harris,  A  Biog.  Hist, 
of  Lancaster  County  (1872),  pp.  618-20;  H.  M.  J. 
Klein,  Lancaster  County,  Pa.,  a  Hist.  (1924),  vol.  Ill, 
pp.  11— 12;  Portrait  and  Biog.  Record  of  Lancaster 
County,  Pa.  (1894)  ;  obituary  in  Daily  New  Era  (Lan- 
caster), Mar.  25,  1891  ;  information  from  Lillian  Craw- 
ford Schlagle  of  Phila.,  Wickersham's  grand-daughter.] 

R.  F.  S. 

WICKES,  LAMBERT  (i735?-Oct.  1,  1777). 
Revolutionary  naval  officer,  the  son  of  Samuel 
Wickes,  was  born  on  Eastern  Neck  Island,  Kent 
County,  Md.  His  great-grandfather,  Joseph 
Wickes,  had  settled  in  Kent  County  by  1650.  In 
his  youth  Lambert  went  to  sea,  and  by  1769  was 
commanding  ships  out  of  Philadelphia  and  Ches- 
apeake Bay  ports.  By  December  1774  he  was 
part  owner  of  a  ship.  In  the  autumn  of  1774  he 
distinguished  himself  by  refusing  to  ship  any  tea 
from  London  in  his  vessel,  the  Neptune,  and  ar- 
rived in  Annapolis  almost  simultaneously  with 
the  Peggy  Stezvart,  which  was  burned  with  her 
cargo  of  tea  by  the  aroused  citizens.  His  pa- 
triotic stand  in  this  instance,  together  with  his 
acquaintance  with  Robert  Morris  [q.v.~],  prob- 
ably aided  him  in  securing  command  of  the  Con- 
tinental armed  ship  Reprisal  in  April  1776.  On 
June  10,  1776,  he  was  ordered  by  the  Commit- 
tee of  Secret  Correspondence  to  carry  Wil- 
liam Bingham,  1752-1804  [q.v.~],  to  Martinique. 
Wickes  sailed  on  July  3  from  Cape  May  after  a 
sharp  skirmish  with  the  British  off  that  place, 
where  his  brother  Richard,  his  third  lieutenant, 
was  killed.  On  the  voyage  he  captured  three  val- 
uable prizes  which  he  sent  back  to  Philadelphia, 
and  on  July  27  appeared  off  Martinique.  As  he 
was  about  to  enter  the  harbor  of  Saint-Pierre,  he 
was  attacked  by  H.  M.  S.  Shark,  Capt.  John  Chap- 
man, who,  after  a  short  engagement,  gave  up  the 
fight.  Captain  Wickes  won  the  sympathy  of  the 
French  governor  and  populace  for  his  gallantry 
in  the  affair.  He  left  Martinique  on  Aug.  26, 
with  a  cargo  of  powder,  500  muskets  and  cloth- 
ing, and  arrived  in  Philadelphia  after  an  unevent- 
ful voyage,  on  Sept.  13.  He  was  commanded 
immediately  upon  his  return  to  fit  the  Reprisal 


for  a  two  months'  voyage,  and  on  Oct.  24  was 
ordered  to  carry  Benjamin  Franklin  to  France. 
He  sailed  with  Franklin  secretly  on  Oct.  26,  and 
on  Nov.  28  reached  the  Brittany  coast.  On  his 
way  he  took  two  English  prizes.  The  Reprisal 
was  the  first  American  ship  of  war  and  Wickes 
was  the  first  American  naval  officer  to  appear  in 
European  waters  after  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence. He  won  high  praise  from  Franklin 
for  ability  and  courage  shown  on  the  voyage. 

In  January  1777  Wickes  made  a  third  cruise 
in  the  Reprisal,  this  time  in  the  English  Channel 
itself,  capturing  five  British  prizes,  all  of  which 
were  taken  to  the  port  L'Orient  and  clandestine- 
ly sold.  Lord  Stormont,  the  British  ambassador, 
protested  bitterly  and  with  much  justice  at  this 
breach  of  international  law.  Stirred  to  action  by 
his  remonstrance  the  French  authorities  ordered 
Wickes  to  leave  port  within  twenty-four  hours 
but  the  captain  claimed  that  his  ship  needed  re- 
pairs, and  thus  gained  a  few  weeks'  delay.  In 
April  1777,  the  Lexington,  Capt.  Henry  Johnson, 
and  the  Dolphin,  Capt.  Samuel  Nicholson  [q.vJ], 
joined  him.  These  three  vessels  under  the  orders 
of  the  American  commissioners  in  France,  and 
under  the  direct  command  of  Wickes,  sailed 
from  France  on  May  28,  1777.  They  cruised 
around  the  west  coast  of  Ireland,  thence  south- 
ward through  the  Irish  Sea,  taking  eighteen 
British  prizes  in  all.  On  the  return  voyage  to 
France,  the  Reprisal  was  chased  by  H.  M.  S. 
Burford,  74  guns,  and  escaped  only  after  Wickes 
threw  all  his  guns  overboard.  He  reached  Saint- 
Malo  on  June  28.  In  deference  to  Stormont's 
vigorous  protests  he  was  detained  at  Saint-Malo 
until  Sept.  14,  when  he  was  allowed  to  sail  for 
America.  On  Oct.  1,  1777,  his  ship  foundered  in 
a  storm  off  the  Banks  of  Newfoundland,  and  all 
on  board  perished  except  the  cook.  His  entire 
career  was  distinguished  by  patriotism  and  the 
highest  courage.  Franklin,  who  knew  him  well, 
spoke  of  him  as  "a  gallant  officer,  and  a  very 
worthy  man." 

[Papers  relating  to  Wickes  in  the  Library  of  Con- 
gress, Washington,  D.  C. ;  Port  records  of  Annapolis 
and  Philadelphia  ;  letter  and  will  of  Wickes,  Maryland 
Historical  Society  ;  W.  B.  Clark,  Lambert  Wickes,  Sea 
Raider  and  Diplomat  (1932)  ;  Henry  Hardy,  Narrative 
of  Events  in  the  Several  Cruises  of  Captain  Lambert 
Wickes  (Facsimile  of  copy  in  U.  S.  Naval  Acad.,  An- 
napolis), in  Library  of  Congress;  G.  A.  Hanson,  Old 
Kent  (1876)  ;  G.  W.  Allen,  A  Naval  Hist,  of  the  Am. 
Revolution  (2  vols.,  19 13)  ;  E.  E.  Hale,  Franklin  in 
France,  vol.  I  (1887)  ;  B.  F.  Stevens,  Facsimiles  of 
Manuscripts  in  European  Archives  Relating  to  America 
(25  vols.,  1889-98)  ;  The  Revolutionary  Diplomatic 
Correspondence  of  the  U.  S.  (1889),  vol.  II,  ed.  by 
Francis  Wharton  ;  Peter  Force,  Am.  Archives,  5  ser., 
vols.  I— III  (1848-53)  ;  Md.  Gazette,  Nov.  10,  17,  I774J 
Pa.  Packet  (Lancaster,  Pa.),  Feb.  11,  1778.] 

L.H.B. 


80 


Wickes 

WICKES,  STEPHEN  (Mar.  17,  1813-July  8, 
1889),  physician,  historical  writer,  was  born  at 
Jamaica,  L.  I.,  the  son  of  Van  Wyck  and  Eliza 
(Herriman)  Wickes.  He  was  a  descendant  of 
Thomas  Weekes  who  emigrated  to  Long  Island 
in  1635.  He  attended  the  Union  Academy  in  his 
native  town  and  later  entered  Union  College  at 
Schenectady,  N.  Y.,  where  he  was  graduated  in 
1831.  After  some  work  at  the  Rensselaer  Poly- 
technic Institute  at  Troy,  he  began  the  study  of 
medicine  in  the  office  of  Dr.  Thomas  W.  Blatch- 
ford  of  that  city,  and  was  graduated  from  the 
medical  department  of  the  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania in  1834.  After  a  short  term  of  practice 
in  New  York  City  he  returned  to  Troy  to  asso- 
ciate himself  with  his  former  preceptor.  Here 
he  lived  and  carried  on  a  general  practice  until 
1852,  when  he  removed  to  Orange,  N.  J.,  his 
residence  for  the  remainder  of  his  life.  His  prac- 
tice here  brought  him  a  reputation  for  accurate 
diagnosis,  therapeutic  skill  and  an  insistence 
upon  the  strict  regimen  of  the  sick-room.  In  1873 
he  became  a  member  of  the  medical  staff  of  the 
Memorial  Hospital  at  Orange.  He  retired  from 
active  practice  in  1886,  and  devoted  himself 
thereafter  to  his  literary  work. 

Upon  his  arrival  in  Orange  he  joined  the  Es- 
sex District  Medical  Society  and  was  chosen  to 
represent  it  in  the  councils  of  the  New  Jersey 
State  Medical  Society.  His  unpaid  services  as 
chairman  of  the  standing  committee  of  the  state 
society  covered  a  period  of  twenty-three  years, 
until  his  election  to  the  presidency  in  1883.  From 
1861  to  1882  he  edited  the  Transactions  of  the 
Medical  Society  of  New  Jersey,  producing  an 
annual  volume  of  original  papers  to  which  he 
added  historical  items  of  medical  interest  from 
all  parts  of  the  state.  In  addition  he  edited  The 
Rise,  Minutes  and  Proceedings  of  the  New 
Jersey  Medical  Society,  Established  July  23, 
1766  (1875),  which  carried  the  history  of  the 
society  down  to  1800.  This  work  led  to  the  prep- 
aration of  his  most  important  book,  the  History 
of  Medicine  in  New  Jersey,  and  of  its  Medical 
Men,  from  the  Settlement  of  the  Province  to 
A.  D.  1880  (1879).  The  first  part  consists  of 
historical  narrative,  while  the  second  part  is  de- 
voted to  medical  biography.  Other  writings  in- 
clude Medical  Topography  of  Orange,  New  Jer- 
sey (1859),  Sepulture,  its  History,  Methods  and 
Sanitary  Requisites  (1884),  the  History  of  the 
Newark  Mountains  (1888)  and  History  of  the 
Oranges,  in  Essex  County,  N.  J.  (1892).  His 
presidential  address  before  the  state  medical  so- 
ciety was  a  philosophical  paper  entitled  Living 
and  Dying,  their  Physics  and  Psychics  (1884). 

In  addition  to  his  medical  and  literary  inter- 


Wickham 

ests  he  had  a  part  in  every  local  enterprise  foi 
the  promotion  of  education  and  for  the  moral 
and  intellectual  improvement  of  the  community. 
While  a  resident  of  Troy  he  was  a  trustee  of  the 
Rensselaer  Polytechnic  Institute.  Always  inter- 
ested in  historical  research,  he  was  a  member 
and  corresponding  secretary  of  the  Historical 
Society  of  New  Jersey.  He  was  twice  married, 
on  Feb.  24,  1836,  to  Mary  Whitney  Heyer,  and 
on  Apr.  1,  1841,  to  Lydia  Matilda,  the  widow  of 
Dr.  William  H.  Van  Sinderen,  and  the  daughter 
of  Joseph  Howard,  of  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.  His  sec- 
ond wife,  two  of  their  daughters,  and  one  daugh- 
ter of  his  first  wife  survived  him  at  his  death  in 
Orange. 

[Thomas  Weekes  Emigrant  to  America  1635  (pri- 
vately printed,  1904)  ;  Abraham  Howard  of  Marble- 
head,  Mass.,  and  his  Descendants  (privately  printed, 
1897)  ;  H.  A.  Kelly,  W.  L.  Burrage,  Am.  Medic.  Biog. 
(1920)  ;  W.  B.  Atkinson,  The  Physicians  and  Surgeons 
of  the  U.  S.  (1878)  ;  Trans.  Medic.  Soc.  of  N.  J. 
(1890);  Medic.  News,  Philadelphia,  July  13,  1889; 
N.  Y.  Times,  July  9,  1889.]  J.M.P. 

WICKHAM,  JOHN  (June  6,  1763-Jan.  22, 
1839),  lawyer,  was  born  at  Southold,  Long 
Island,  N.  Y.,  the  son  of  John  and  Hannah  (Fan- 
ning) Wickham  and  a  descendant  of  Thomas 
Wickham  who  was  made  a  freeman  of  Wethers- 
field,  Conn.,  in  1658.  With  a  view  to  entering 
the  army,  John  attended  the  military  school  at 
Arras,  France,  but  preferring  the  law  he  went 
to  Williamsburg,  Va.,  during  the  Revolution  to 
live  with  an  uncle,  the  Rev.  William  Fanning, 
an  Episcopal  clergyman,  and  there  to  prepare 
himself  for  the  legal  profession.  Later  he  prac- 
tised in  Williamsburg  until  he  removed  to  Rich- 
mond in  1790.  On  Dec.  24,  1 791,  he  married  his 
cousin,  Mary  Smith  Fanning,  who  died  Feb.  1, 
1799.  As  his  second  wife  he  married  Elizabeth 
Selden  McClurg,  the  only  daughter  of  Dr.  James 
McClurg  [g.?'.].  Socially  prominent,  he  lived  on 
Clay -Street  near  the  home  of  his  friend  John 
Marshall. 

The  leader  of  a  bar  unsurpassed  in  America, 
Wickham  appeared  in  many  important  cases, 
three  of  which  are  unusually  noteworthy.  In 
x793>  m  the  case  of  Ware  vs.  Hylton,  he  was  of 
counsel  for  a  British  creditor  who  claimed  pro- 
tection of  the  Treaty  of  1783,  which  provided 
that  the  collection  of  bona  fide  debts  should  not 
be  impeded.  John  Marshall  was  one  of  the  debt- 
or's attorneys  and  contended  that  since  Virginia, 
an  independent  state,  had  suspended  these  debts 
during  the  Revolution,  they  had  ceased  to  be  law- 
ful obligations  and  were  not  within  the  terms  of 
the  Treaty,  an  anomalous  position  in  view  of  his 
later  great  decisions.  Wickham  took  the  sounder 
view  that  by  the  Constitution  treaties  were  a 

8t 


Wickham 


WicklifFe 


part  of  the  law  of  the  land  and  all  state  legisla- 
tion inconsistent  therewith  was  invalid.  Denied 
by  the  lower  court,  Wickham's  contention  was 
sustained  on  appeal  by  the  Supreme  Court  (3 
Dallas,  199).  In  1809  Wickham  represented  the 
plaintiff  in  the  case  of  Hunter  vs.  Fairfax's  De- 
visee (1  Munford,  218;  7  Crunch,  603),  involv- 
ing the  Fairfax  grant,  which,  although  finally 
decided  against  him  under  the  title  Martin  vs. 
Hunter's  Lessee  (1  Wheaton,  304)  established 
the  doctrine  that  the  Supreme  Court  has  ap- 
pellate jurisdiction  over  the  decisions  of  the  state 
courts. 

The  most  spectacular  case,  however,  in  which 
Wickham  participated  was  the  trial  of  Aaron 
Burr  [qs\].  Associated  with  him  were  Luther 
Martin,  Edmund  Randolph  \_qq.v.~\,  and  others, 
while  William  Wirt  [q.v.']  assisted  the  prosecu- 
tion. An  incident  occurred  which  caused  popu- 
lar clamor.  Wickham  gave  a  dinner  which  his 
friend  John  Marshall  attended — a  not  unusual 
event ;  but  Burr  also  was  present !  The  press 
denounced  the  spectacle  of  the  accused  in  a  trea- 
son trial  dining  at  the  home  of  one  of  his  chief 
counsel  with  the  judge  who  was  to  try  the  case. 
Aware  of  the  obvious  implications  of  such  an 
indiscretion,  Marshall  probably  did  not  know 
that  Burr  had  been  invited.  Early  in  the  trial 
Wickham  pointed  out  that  the  Constitution  spe- 
cifically defined  treason  and  for  conviction  re- 
quired two  witnesses  to  the  overt  act.  Since  the 
gathering  at  Blennerhassett's  island  was  al- 
leged in  the  indictment  as  the  act  of  treason  and 
since  Burr  was  hundreds  of  miles  away  at  the 
time,  Wickham  contended  that  Burr  had  com- 
mitted no  overt  act,  the  constitutional  provisions 
abrogating  the  common  law  rule  of  constructive 
presence  and  requiring  for  conviction  physical 
presence  at  the  commission  of  the  act  charged. 
The  Chief  Justice  adopted  Wickham's  view  and 
so  instructed  the  jury. 

Wickham  was  one  of  the  greatest  pleaders  at 
the  bar.  His  mind  was  alert  yet  profound ;  his 
wit  vivid  and  brilliant;  his  style  classically  pure; 
and  his  elocution  unusually  fine.  Extravagantly 
esteemed  by  John  Randolph  of  Roanoke,  he  was 
even  more  extravagantly  praised  by  Tom  Moore, 
as  the  only  gentleman  the  poet  found  in  America 
(Werner,  post,  p.  46).  Wickham  had  two  sons 
by  his  first  wife,  and  numerous  children  by  the 
second. 

[A.  J.  Beveridge,  Life  of  John  Marshall  (1919)  ;  C. 
A.  Hoppin,  Wickham  (1899)  ;  W.  D.  Lewis,  Great  Am. 
Lawyers,  vol.  II  (1907);  S.  H.  Wandell  and  Meade 
Minnigerode,  Aaron  Burr  (1925)  ;  Reports  of  the  Trials 
of  Col.  Aaron  Burr  (1808)  ;  C.  J.  Werner,  Gcneals.  of 
Long  Island  Families  (1919)  ;  Pa.  Mag.  of  Hist,  and 
Biog.,  Jan.  1922;  Richmond  Enquirer,  Jan.  26,  1839.] 

T.S.C. 


WICKLIFFE,   CHARLES    ANDERSON 

(June  8,  1788-Oct.  31,  1869),  Kentucky  official, 
congressman,  postmaster-general,  was  the  young- 
est of  the  nine  children  of  Charles  and  Lydia 
(Hardin)  Wickliffe,  both  natives  of  Virginia. 
He  was  born  near  Springfield,  Washington 
County,  Ky.,  and  received  his  elementary  edu- 
cation there.  During  1805  he  attended  Wilson's 
Academy  at  Bardstown  and  then  for  a  year  re- 
ceived private  instruction  under  James  Blythe, 
acting  president  of  Transylvania  University. 
Returning  to  Bardstown,  he  studied  law  in  the 
office  of  his  cousin,  M.  D.  Hardin  [q.v.~\,  and  in 
1809  was  admitted  to  the  bar.  He  soon  became 
one  of  the  group  of  Bardstown  lawyers  which 
included  Ben  Hardin,  Felix  Grundy,  John  Row- 
an, and  W.  P.  Duval  [qq.v.~\.  This  group  was  as 
famous  for  its  revelries  as  for  its  forensic  talent, 
and  Wickliffe  early  established  a  reputation  as  a 
bacchanalian  and  a  gambler  for  high  stakes. 

He  was  a  member  of  the  Kentucky  House  of 
Representatives  from  Nelson  County  in  1812  and 
1813.  In  the  latter  year,  he  married  Margaret 
Cripps  and  enlisted  (Sept.  2)  as  a  private  in  M. 
H.  Wickliffe's  company  of  Kentucky  mounted 
volunteers,  from  which  station  he  was  shortly 
promoted  to  be  aide  to  General  Caldwell  (Report 
of  the  Adjutant  General  .  .  .  of  Kentucky :  Sol- 
diers of  the  War  of  1812,  1891,  p.  147).  In  1816 
he  succeeded  his  cousin,  Ben  Hardin,  as  com- 
monwealth attorney  for  Nelson  County,  and  in 
1820  and  1821  was  again  a  member  of  the  lower 
house  of  the  Kentucky  legislature.  In  1823  he 
was  sent  to  the  federal  House  of  Representatives. 
Here  in  1825  he  cast  his  vote  for  Jackson  for 
president,  an  action  that  required  a  great  deal  of 
explaining  later,  and  was  perhaps  responsible 
for  his  lack  of  committee  assignments  during  the 
early  portion  of  his  congressional  service.  By 
successive  elections  he  remained  in  the  House 
until  1833,  and  in  1829  became  chairman  of  the 
committee  on  public  lands.  In  1831  he  was  an 
unsuccessful  candidate  for  United  States  senator 
from  Kentucky.  Returning  to  Kentucky  in  1833, 
he  was  for  the  third  time  sent  to  the  legislature 
by  his  faithful  constituents  in  Nelson  County. 
Here  he  served  for  three  years,  being  speaker  of 
the  House  in  1835.  In  1836  he  was  elected  lieu- 
tenant-governor of  Kentucky  on  the  Whig  ticket 
and  on  the  death  of  Gov.  James  Clark  \_q.v.]  in 
September  1839  Wickliffe  succeeded  to  the  of- 
fice of  governor,  in  which  he  continued  until  the 
following  September. 

With  his  appointment  by  President  Tyler  as 
postmaster-general  in  October  1841  Wickliffe 
again  shifted  back  to  national  politics.  In  this 
position,  which  he  held  until  Mar.  6,  1845,  he 


182 


Wickliffe 

occupied  himself  with  duties  of  a  routine  nature, 
although  he  is  credited  with  securing  a  slight 
reduction  in  postal  rates  (L.  R.  Hafen,  The 
Overland  Mail,  1926,  p.  29).  On  the  issue  of  the 
annexation  of  Texas  he  was  converted  to  Democ- 
racy and  so  was  eligible  to  receive  an  appoint- 
ment from  Polk  in  1845  as  an  agent  to  ferret  out 
and  oppose  the  designs  of  France  and  England 
in  Texas  (S.  F.  Bemis,  American  Secretaries  of 
State  and  Their  Diplomacy,  vol.  V,  1928,  p.  185). 
Returning  once  more  to  state  politics,  in  1849  he 
was  elected  as  a  Democrat  to  the  constitutional 
convention,  in  which  he  was  chairman  of  the 
committee  on  the  court  of  appeals,  and  was  vig- 
orous in  his  opposition  to  suffrage  restrictions 
(Report  of  the  Debates  and  Proceedings,  1849, 
p.  36).  The  next  year  he  was  appointed  by  the 
legislature  on  committee  to  revise  the  statutes  of 
Kentucky.  He  opposed  the  movement  for  the 
secession  of  Kentucky  in  1861,  and  was  a  mem- 
ber both  of  the  Washington  Peace  Conference 
and  of  the  Border  State  Conference  (Lewis  and 
R.  H.  Collins,  History  of  Kentucky,  1882,  I,  86, 
89).  In  1861  he  was  elected  to  Congress  as  a 
Union  Whig  and  at  the  close  of  his  term  was  a 
candidate  of  the  Peace  Democrats  for  governor, 
but  was  defeated  (E.  M.  Coulter,  The  Civil  War 
and  Readjustment  in  Kentucky,  1926,  pp.  174- 
78).  He  was  a  delegate  to  the  National  Demo- 
cratic Convention  in  1864.  His  death  occurred 
while  he  was  on  a  visit  to  his  daughter  near 
Ilchester,  Harford  County,  Md. ;  and  he  was 
buried  at  Bardstown. 

Wickliffe  was  an  able  lawyer  and  acquitted 
himself  creditably  in  the  various  positions  he 
held.  His  continued  political  success  is  note- 
worthy because  he  was  of  a  haughty  and  dis- 
dainful disposition ;  among  the  common  people 
he  was  commonly  referred  to  as  "the  Duke."  His 
career  was  marked  by  many  conflicts  both  verbal 
and  physical.  Like  Ben  Hardin,  he  had  a  talent 
for  vituperation  and  was  not  sparing  in  its  use. 
In  his  last  term  in  Congress  he  was  thrown  from 
his  carriage  and  was  a  cripple  for  the  remainder 
of  his  life,  and  for  several  years  before  his  death 
he  was  also  blind.  He  had  three  sons  and  five 
daughters,  one  of  the  former  being  Robert  C. 
Wickliffe  [q.v.]. 

[In  addition  to  sources  mentioned  above,  see  L.  P. 
Little,  Ben  Hardin:  His  Times  and  Contemporaries 
(1887);  J.  C.  Morton,  "Gov.  Charles  A.  Wickliffe," 
in  the  Reg.  Ky.  State  Hist.  Soc.,  Sept.  1904 ;  Biog. 
Encyc.  of  Ky.  (1878)  ;  Biog.  Dir.  Am.  Cong.  (1928)  ; 
N.  Y.  Times,  Nov.  3,  1869.]  R.  S.  C. 

WICKLIFFE,  ROBERT  CHARLES  (Jan. 
6,  1819-Apr.  18,  1895),  governor  of  Louisiana, 
was  born  at  Bardstown,  Ky.  His  father  was 
Charles   A.   Wickliffe   [q.v.~\.   and   his   mother, 


Wickliffe 

Margaret  (Cripps)  Wickliffe,  was  the  daughter 
of  Col.  Christian  Cripps,  the  hero  of  many  In- 
dian fights.  Wealth  made  possible  a  liberal  edu- 
cation. After  a  stern  discipline  in  the  humani- 
ties under  Louis  Marshall,  1773-1866  \_q.v.~\, 
of  "Buckpond,"  near  Versailles,  Ky.,  his  train- 
ing was  continued  at  the  Jesuit  institution  of  St. 
Joseph's  College  at  Bardstown  for  a  year,  fol- 
lowed by  two  years  at  Augusta  College  at  Au- 
gusta, Ky.,  and  was  concluded  with  the  last  two 
years  at  Centre  College  in  Danville,  where  he 
graduated  in  1840.  Removal  of  the  family  to 
Washington,  when  his  father  became  postmaster- 
general,  afforded  him  opportunity  to  study  law 
with  Hugh  Legare  [q.v.],  then  attorney-general ; 
but  he  returned  to  Bardstown  for  admission  to 
the  bar.  Failing  health  interrupted  his  practice 
so  that  he  removed  to  St.  Francisville,  La.,  in 
1846,  where  he  engaged  in  cotton  planting  as 
well  as  in  the  practice  of  his  profession.  In  1851 
he  was  sent  to  the  state  Senate  from  West 
Feliciana  Parish,  was  twice  reelected  without 
opposition,  and  was  chosen  president  of  that 
body  upon  the  death  of  the  lieutenant-governor, 
William  Farmer.  So  effective  did  the  Demo- 
cratic party  find  him  in  the  campaign  against  the 
Know-Nothing  party  that  it  made  him  candidate 
for  governor  in  1855,  ar>d  he  carried  it  to  suc- 
cess by  a  vigorous  campaign.  Firmly  convinced 
that  the  South  could  remain  honorably  in  the 
Union,  he  atrfirst  disapproved  of  secession,  but, 
when  he  saw  that  the  tide  could  not  be  stemmed, 
he  endeavored  to  hasten  separation.  As  a  pre- 
cautionary measure  he  urged  removal  of  the  free 
negroes  from  the  state  to  eliminate  their  influ- 
ence on  the  slaves. 

At  the  expiration  of  his  gubernatorial  term  in 
i860,  he  returned  to  his  planting  and  legal  prac- 
tice. In  1866  he  was  elected  to  Congress  but  was 
denied  admission,  along  with  all  representatives 
who  refused  to  take  the  iron-clad  oath.  In  1876 
he  was  an  elector-at-large  on  the  Tilden  ticket 
and  served  as  chairman  of  the  Louisiana  delega- 
tion at  the  National  Democratic  Convention. 
After  a  long  retirement  he  last  figured  in  state 
politics  during  the  campaign  of  1891-92,  when 
he  was  nominated  to  the  lieutenant-governorship 
on  the  McEnery  ticket.  With  the  defeat  of  the 
party  he  returned  to  his  home  and  work  with  all 
of  the  energy  of  his  earlier  days.  He  met  with 
great  success  in  his  profession.  It  is  recorded 
that  out  of  fifty  men  charged  with  murder  he 
saved  all  but  one  from  conviction.  Hard  study, 
polished  manners,  and  an  illustrious  name  en- 
abled him  to  render  distinguished  service  to  the 
state  of  his  adoption.  He  was  twice  married,  in 
February  1843  to  Anna  Dawson,  of  Feliciana, 

83 


Wickson 

and  in  1870  to  his  cousin,  Annie  (Davis)  Ander- 
son of  Brandenburg,  Ky. 

[Mrs.  E.  S.  du  Fossat,  Biog.  Sketches  of  Louisiana's 
Governors  (.1885);  Arthur  Meynier,  Mcynier's  La. 
Biog.,  pt.  1  (1882);  Charles  Gayarre,  Hist,  of  La., 
vol.  IV  (1866);  Daily  Picayune  and  Times-Democrat 
(New  Orleans),  Apr.  19,  1895  ;  dates  of  birth  and  sec- 
ond marriage  from  daughter,  Mrs.  Charles  Cotesworth 
Marshall,  Shelbyville,  Ky.]  E  L 

WICKSON,  EDWARD  JAMES  (Aug.  3. 
1848-July  16,  1923),  horticulturist,  the  son  of 
George  Guest  and  Catherine  (Ray)  Wickson, 
was  born  at  Rochester,  N.  Y.  Graduating  from 
Hamilton  College  in  1869,  he  went  to  Utica  as  a 
staff-member  of  the  Utica  Morning  Herald,  and 
in  1875  became  attached  to  the  Pacific  Rural 
Press  in  San  Francisco.  It  was  a  period  of  early 
experiment  on  ranch,  range,  and  orchard  in 
California,  and  Wickson  everywhere  had  a  part 
in  organizing  new  or  revivifying  old  agricultural 
organizations.  He  was  a  founder  of  the  first 
dairyman's  association  (1876),  and  a  founder 
( 1879)  and  long  an  officer  of  the  California  State 
Horticultural  Society,  which  exerted  a  strong 
influence  in  farming  matters  and  on  state  legis- 
lation. The  objectives  were  always  clear  to  him : 
to  observe  method  and  large-scale  production  on 
the  great  ranches  or  detailed  results  on  the  in- 
tensively-worked small  place,  and  deduce  there- 
from tried  knowledge  for  diffusion  to  the  general 
public.  Under  his  guidance  the  Pacific  Rural 
Press  won  a  wide  reputation  for*  sagacity,  re- 
liability, and  integrity.  From  1879  on,  he  was 
also  associated  with  the  University  of  California. 
At  first  a  lecturer  in  agriculture,  in  1897  he  be- 
came a  full  professor  in  the  College  of  Agricul- 
ture. He  taught  economic  entomology,  irriga- 
tion, dairying,  range  management,  and  general 
farming,  as  well  as  his  own  special  subject  of 
horticulture.  In  1905  he  was  appointed  dean  of 
the  College  of  Agriculture  and  professor  of  hor- 
ticulture. A  few  years  after  he  assumed  office  as 
director  of  the  agricultural  experiment  station  of 
the  university  (1907)  there  began  to  stir  a  move- 
ment for  more  active  scientific  research  in  agri- 
culture, coincident  with  a  program  of  publicity 
and  of  rapid  expansion  in  all  of  the  colleges  of  the 
university.  Wickson  distrusted  isolated  experi- 
ment and  viewed  agricultural  research  as  a  lux- 
ury that  often  brought  little  return  for  vast  ex- 
penditure. In  1912  he  refused  to  consider  a  plan 
designed  to  exploit  California  agriculture  and  to 
furnish  frequent  announcements  to  the  press  of 
insufficiently  tried  agricultural  methods.  As  a 
consequence,  his  resignation  as  dean  and  direc- 
tor was  demanded  by  President  Benjamin  Ide 
Wheeler,  and  he  retired  to  the  professorship  of 
horticulture  with  a  serenity  fortified  by  the  wide- 

l8 


Widener 

spread  prestige  which  he  enjoyed  with  rural 
Californians.  His  book,  The  California  Fruits 
and  How  to  Grow  Them,  was  the  law  and  the 
gospel  of  the  little  fruitgrower  as  well  as  the 
large  one,  and  went  through  ten  editions  from 
1889  to  1926 ;  The  California  Vegetables  in  Gar- 
den and  Field  (1897)  reached  a  fifth  edition 
(1923).  Others  of  his  farm  books  were  much 
used.  His  Rural  California  (1923)  represents 
his  economic  views. 

Wickson  was  in  great  demand  as  a  speaker  at 
conventions,  as  an  officer  in  societies,  as  a  mem- 
ber of  commissions,  as  a  trustee  of  schools. 
Wherever  he  spoke,  this  tall  large-framed  man 
with  the  prominent  features,  ruddy  countenance, 
sandy  beard,  and  beneficent  manner  captured 
every  one  within  range  of  his  voice.  Even  his 
scathing  wit  was  taken  in  good  part,  and  it 
seemed  difficult  for  him  to  make  an  enemy.  On 
Apr.  27,  1875,  he  was  married  to  Ednah  Newell 
Harmon  of  Irvington,  Cal.,  by  whom  he  had  six 
children.  In  May  1898  he  had  been  advanced  to 
chief  of  the  Pacific  Rural  Press  staff  and  since 
then  had  regularly  written  its  editorial  page. 
The  issue  for  July  21,  1923,  was  still  a  week 
ahead  when  he  prepared  the  editorials  for  it.  At 
the  end  of  the  day,  after  his  habit,  he  crossed  the 
bay  of  San  Francisco  to  the  family  home  on  the 
edge  of  the  Berkeley  campus,  and  there  within 
two  days  he  died.  He  was  survived  by  his  wife, 
two  sons,  and  four  daughters. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1922—23  ;  In  Memoriam, 
Edward  James  Wickson  (Univ.  of  Cal.,  1924)  ;  W.  L. 
Howard,  in  W.  L.  Jepson,  "Men  and  Manners,"  vol. 
VI,  pp.  194-200,  in  MS. ;  Pacific  Rural  Press,  July  21, 
28,  1923;  obituary  in  San  Francisco  Chronicle,  July 
'7.  1923.]  W.L.J— n. 

WIDENER,  HARRY  ELKINS  (Jan.  3, 1885- 
Apr.  15,  1912),  collector  of  rare  books,  was  born 
in  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  of  a  wealthy,  cultivated 
family.  He  was  a  grandson  of  P.  A.  B.  Widener 
and  William  Lukens  Elkins  [qq.v.~\.  His  father, 
George  Dunton  Widener,  and  his  mother,  Elea- 
nore  Elkins,  fostered  the  boy's  love  of  books. 
Having  prepared  for  college  at  the  DeLancey 
School,  Philadelphia,  and  the  Hill  School  at 
Pottstown,  Pa.,  he  entered  Harvard  College, 
where  he  pored  over  Book  Prices  Current  and 
learned  the  joy  of  collecting.  Graduating  in  1907, 
he  decided  to  make  collecting  his  life  work.  He 
acquired  a  profound  knowledge  of  bibliography, 
not  only  storing  up  details  of  rare  editions  in  his 
retentive  memory  but  seeking  out  volumes  that 
had  human  interest.  Cowper's  The  Task,  a  copy 
once  owned  by  Thackeray,  had  the  novelist's 
note :  "A  great  point  in  a  great  man — a  great 
love  for  his  mother" ;  Widener's  frequent  refer- 
ence to  this  sentiment  bears  on  the  close  bond  be- 


Widener 


Widener 


tween  him  and  his  mother.  One  of  his  favorite 
books  was  the  Countess  of  Pembroke's  own  copy 
of  Sir  Philip  Sidney's  Arcadia  (1613).  Steven- 
son's work  made  a  great  appeal  to  him ;  Treasure 
Island  was  always  with  him  on  his  travels,  and  in 
1912  he  printed  privately  Stevenson's  Memoirs 
of  Himself.  In  1913  Dr.  A.  S.  W.  Rosenbach, 
who  started  him  on  his  career  professionally, 
printed  privately  a  catalogue  of  his  Stevenson 
collection. 

Widener  passed  days  in  the  auction  room, 
rummaged  through  dusty  alcoves  of  book  shops 
and  under  book-laden  tables,  and  spent  happy 
evenings  in  conversation  with  Bernard  Quaritch 
and  Rosenbach.  Yet  he  realized  clearly  that 
mere  gathering  of  books  leaves  no  permanent 
profit  to  mankind.  He  once  told  A.  Edward 
Newton  that  he  did  not  wish  to  be  remembered 
merely  as  a  collector  of  a  few  books,  however 
fine,  but  in  connection  with  a  great  library  (New- 
ton, post,  p.  352).  With  this  aspiration,  he  went 
to  London  in  March  19 12,  and  spent  much  time 
with  Quaritch  and  at  Sotheby's.  At  the  Huth 
sale  he  obtained  Bacon's  Essaies  (1598),  saying 
to  Quaritch,  "I  think  I'll  take  that  little  Bacon 
with  me  in  my  pocket,  and  if  I  am  shipwrecked 
it  will  go  with  me"  (Ibid.,  354).  He  then  set  his 
face  homeward.  In  the  early  morning  of  Apr. 
15,  1912,  he  stood  on  the  deck  of  the  stricken 
Titanic  while  women  pushed  off  in  boats,  his 
mother  among  them,  and  at  2 :20  he  went  down 
with  the  ship.  The  Harry  Elkins  Widener  Memo- 
rial Library  at  Harvard  College  was  given  by 
his  mother  and  was  opened  June  24,  191 5.  A 
portrait  of  Widener  by  Gilbert  Farrier  is  in  the 
library. 

[Sources  include  memoir  in  A.  S.  W.  Rosenbach,  A 
Cat.  of  the  Books  and  MSS.  of  Robert  Louis  Stevenson 
in  the  Lib.  of  the  Late  Harry  Elkins  Widener  (1913)  ; 
A.  E.  Newton,  The  Amenities  of  Book-Colleetiug 
(1918)  ;  A.  H.  Rice,  in  Harvard  Class  of  1907,  Twenty- 
Fifth  Anniversary  Report  (1932)  ;  obituary  notices  in 
Phila.  Press,  Apr.  16-20,  1912;  information  from  A. 
S.  W.  Rosenbach  and  A.  C.  Potter.  Cats,  of  Widener's 
books  and  MSS.,  his  Dickens  coll.,  and  his  Cruikshank 
coll.  were  issued  in  1918  by  A.  S.  W.  Rosenbach.] 

C.K.  B. 

WIDENER,  PETER  ARRELL  BROWN 

(Nov.  13,  1834-Nov.  6,  1915).  financier  and 
philanthropist,  was  born  in  Philadelphia,  Pa., 
the  son  of  John  and  Sarah  (Fulmer)  Widener, 
who  were  of  pre-Revolutionary  German  stock. 
His  early  education  was  good,  although  his  fa- 
ther, who  at  one  time  freighted  goods  between 
Philadelphia  and  Pittsburgh  and  later  became  a 
brick-maker,  was  in  very  moderate  circumstance. 
He  attended  the  Coates  Street  Grammar  School 
and  attended  Central  High  School  for  two  years. 
Upon  leaving  school  he  became  a  butcher's  boy 

'85 


in  his  brother's  meatshop.  He  remained  in  the 
meat  business  for  many  years,  became  interested 
in  politics,  and  was  soon  an  important  factor  in 
the  local  Republican  party. 

During  the  Civil  War  he  secured  a  contract 
from  the  Federal  government  to  supply  with  mut- 
ton all  its  troops  that  were  located  within  a  ra- 
dius of  ten  miles  of  Philadelphia.  The  contract 
netted  him  a  profit  of  $50,000,  a  very  large  sum 
for  that  time,  and  he  invested  this  money  in  cer- 
tain strategically  located  street  railways  and 
built  up  a  chain  of  meatstores  throughout  Phila- 
delphia. His  political  influence  grew  rapidly  and 
he  was  elected  to  several  minor  offices.  He  was 
a  member  of  the  Philadelphia  board  of  education 
from  1867  to  1870.  In  1873  he  was  appointed 
to  complete  the  unexpired  term  of  Joseph  F.  Mer- 
cer as  city  treasurer  and  the  next  year  was  elect- 
ed to  this  office,  in  which  he  served  one  term. 
Philadelphia's  political  offices  at  this  time  car- 
ried with  them  especially  large  salaries  and  fees 
and  Widener  was  able  to  accumulate  a  large  sum 
of  money. 

Meanwhile,  he  had  been  buying  stock  in  Phil- 
adelphia traction  companies.  In  1875,  he,  Wil- 
liam L.  Elkins  [</.?'.],  and  several  others  became 
definitely  interested  in  street-railway  owner- 
ship and  operation.  Eventually  they  effected  a 
consolidation  of  all  the  lines  in  the  city,  first  as 
the  Philadelphia  Traction  Company  (1883), 
then  as  the  Union  Traction  Company,  and  final- 
ly as  the  Philadelphia  Rapid  Transit  Company. 
In  New  York,  beginning  in  December  1884,  he 
was  associated  with  Thomas  F.  Ryan  and  Wil- 
liam C.  Whitney  [q.v.],  supplying  large  capital 
to  their  joint  operations  and  contributing  valu- 
able experience  in  the  practical  management  of 
street  railways.  In  the  development  of  traction 
lines  in  Chicago,  he  and  Elkins  were  conspicu- 
ous. He  and  his  associates  also  acquired  large 
street-railway  holdings  in  Pittsburgh  and  Balti- 
more. Their  properties  totaled  a  greater  mileage 
than  those  of  any  other  similar  syndicate.  As  a 
street-railway  magnate,  Widener  greatly  ad- 
vanced technical  developments.  When  he  first 
entered  the  business,  horse-cars  were  used  ex- 
clusively. He  became  interested  in  the  use  of 
cable-cars,  and  then  of  electric  cars,  in  an  en- 
deavor to  create  the  most  modern  and  efficient 
system  of  local  transportation. 

Widener  helped  to  organize  the  United  States 
Steel  Corporation,  the  International  Mercan- 
tile Marine  Company,  and  the  American  To- 
bacco Company.  He  had  large  investments  in 
many  other  corporations,  among  them  the  Penn- 
sylvania Railroad  Company,  the  Standard  Oil 
Company,  the  United  Gas  Improvement  Com- 


Widforss 

pany,  the  Philadelphia  Land  Title  and  Trust 
Company,  and  the  Philadelphia  Company  for 
Guaranteeing  Mortgages.  His  directorships 
were  legion  and  his  authority  in  many  cases  was 
complete. 

His  main  interest,  outside  of  business,  was  in 
the  collection  of  old  and  valuable  articles.  His 
art  collection,  which  he  kept  in  his  beautiful 
home,  "Lynnewood  Hall,"  Elkins  Park,  a  suburb 
of  Philadelphia,  contained  many  of  the  most 
valuable  paintings,  among  them  the  small  "Cow- 
per  Madonna"  by  Raphael  and  "The  Mill"  by 
Rembrandt.  This  collection  and  that  of  Chinese 
porcelains  were  considered  among  the  finest  in 
the  country.  He  also  gathered  together  rare  and 
valuable  bronzes,  tapestries,  statuary,  chinaware, 
and  old  furniture.  It  has  been  estimated  that  he 
gave  over  eleven  millions  of  dollars  in  money 
and  property  to  those  institutions  and  organi- 
zations in  which  he  was  interested.  He  built 
and  endowed  the  Widener  Memorial  Industrial 
Training  School  for  Crippled  Children  (opened 
in  1906)  in  memory  of  his  wife  and  their  son 
Harry  K.  Widener.  He  gave  his  Broad  Street 
residence  to  the  city  for  the  purpose  of  housing 
a  branch  of  the  Philadelphia  Free  Library  (Jo- 
sephine Widener  Branch),  and  upon  his  death 
he  gave  the  city  his  valuable  art  collection.  He 
was  then  probably  the  richest  man  in  Philadel- 
phia, his  fortune  being  estimated  at  from  thirty- 
five  to  fifty  millions  of  dollars. 

Widener  traveled  extensively  and  maintained 
a  large  library  with  which  he  was  familiar.  He 
was  well  informed,  an  interesting  conversation- 
alist and  a  ready,  forceful,  and  convincing  speak- 
er. He  was  one  of  the  leaders  in  the  consolida- 
tion movement  which  swept  the  country  during 
the  latter  part  of  the  nineteenth  century  and  he 
was  among  the  first  wealthy  men  to  share  a  large 
part  of  his  accumulations  with  society.  On  Aug. 
18,  1858,  he  married  Hannah  Josephine  Dunton. 
She  died  in  1905,  and  two  of  their  three  sons 
predeceased  him.  Harry  Elkins  Widener  \_q.v.~\ 
was  his  grandson. 

[B.  J.  Hendrick,  "Great  American  Fortunes  and 
Their  Making.  Street  Railway  Financiers,"  in  Mc- 
Clurc's  Mag.,  Nov.,  Dec.  1907,  Jan.  1908;  H.  J.  Car- 
man, The  Street  Surface  Railway  Franchises  of  New 
York  City  (1919)  ;  "The  Widener  Memorial  Industrial 
Training  School  for  Crippled  Children,"  in  F.  P. 
Henry,  ed.,  Founders'  Week  Memorial  Volume  (1909)  ; 
"Mr.  Widener's  Pictures,"  Literary  Digest,  Mar  16, 
1912;  "Mr.  Widener's  Art  Collection,"  Ibid.,  Nov.  20, 
1915  ;  Who's  Who  in  America,  1914-15;  obituaries  in 
N.  Y.  Times,  Public  Ledger  (Philadelphia),  Nov.  7, 
1915  ;  reproduction  of  Sargent  portrait  of  Widener, 
Current  Literature,  Apr.  1903,  p.  444;  H.  H.  Widener, 
The  Wideners  in  America  (n.d.)  ;  fragmentary  and 
inaccurate.]  H.  S.P. 

WIDFORSS,  GUNNAR  MAURITZ  (Oct. 
21,  1879-Nov.  30,  1934),  artist,  called  the  "paint- 

I 


Widforss 

er  of  the  national  parks,"  was  born  in  the  Norr- 
malm  section  of  Stockholm,  Sweden,  sixth  child 
in  a  family  of  thirteen.  His  father,  Laurentius 
Mauritz  Viktor  Widforss,  was  a  shopkeeper ;  his 
mother,  Blenda  Carolina  (Weidenhayn)  Wid- 
forss, was  the  grand-daughter  of  an  engraver  at 
the  Swedish  mint.  The  boy  cared  little  for  regu- 
lar school  and  less  for  his  father's  business.  In- 
tending to  become  a  muralist,  he  studied  in  the 
Institute  of  Technology  in  Stockholm  from 
1896  to  1900,  after  which  he  began  the  wander- 
ings which  took  him  to  Russia,  Austria,  Switz- 
erland, France,  Italy,  Africa  and  finally  the 
United  States  in  search  of  subjects  in  nature  for 
his  brush  and  palette.  Important  recognition  first 
came  from  the  Paris  Salon  which  exhibited  two 
of  his  paintings  in  1912.  Among  early  patrons 
were  Anders  Zorn,  King  Gustav  V  of  Sweden, 
and  Archduke  Franz  Ferdinand  of  Austria. 

Widforss  first  came  to  the  United  States  in 
1905.  Meeting  no  encouragement,  he  returned 
to  Sweden  three  years  later,  where  his  work  soon 
became  popular.  He  came  back  to  the  United 
States  again  in  1921  on  a  projected  trip  to  the 
Orient,  but  his  journey  terminated  in  California 
whose  natural  grandeur  immediately  captivated 
him.  The  next  year  while  at  work  with  water 
colors  in  Yosemite  National  Park,  he  met  Ste- 
phen T.  Mather  [q.v.]  who,  as  director  of  the 
national  parks,  was  at  once  enthusiastic  about 
Widforss'  handling  of  the  outdoors  and  urged 
him  to  make  the  national  parks  his  special  prov- 
ince. Thereafter  until  his  death  the  quiet  Swede 
worked  zealously  under  the  open  sky  of  the  great 
West — in  the  canyons  of  the  Colorado  and  Yel- 
lowstone, in  Zion  and  Brice  canyons,  in  the 
Kaibab  forest,  at  Mesa  Verde,  Taos,  Crater 
Lake  and  along  the  Monterey  coast.  Whether 
his  subject  was  drifted  mountain  snow,  the  giant 
cacti  of  the  desert  or  sunlight  filtering  through 
redwoods,  he  reproduced  it  with  remarkable  ac- 
curacy and  feeling.  A  careful  draftsman,  he  fa- 
miliarized himself  with  geological  formations 
and  the  architecture  of  nature  generally.  His 
great  love  was  the  Grand  Canyon  and  so  that 
its  country  might  become  his  he  became  a  citi- 
zen of  the  United  States,  on  June  3,  1929.  In 
"hermitlike  simplicity"  (The  Art  Digest,  Jan. 
ri  I93S).  he  spent  his  last  years  on  the  rim  of 
that  vast  chasm,  seeking,  from  many  vantage 
points,  to  record  its  many  moods  in  water  color 
and  oil.  A  collection  of  these  studies  was  ex- 
hibited at  the  National  Gallery  of  Art  in  Wash- 
ington, D.  C,  in  December  1924,  and  was  de- 
scribed by  the  director  as  the  "finest  things  of 
the  kind  that  have  come  out  of  the  west"  (  Wash- 
ington Post,  Dec.  21,  1924). 

86 


Wiechmann 

The  artist's  work  followed  devotees  of  the  na- 
tional parks  into  all  parts  of  the  United  States. 
His  paintings  illustrated  Harold  Symmes'  Songs 
of  Yosemite  (1923),  and,  as  interest  in  these 
great  playgrounds  developed,  the  Literary  Digest 
and  other  magazines  reproduced  representative 
studies  on  their  covers.  In  1928  Widforss  won 
first  prize  in  the  American- Scandinavian  exhi- 
bition in  New  York.  He  also  won  a  first  prize  of 
the  California  Water  Color  Society,  of  which 
he  was  a  member.  Soon  after  a  widely  viewed 
exhibit  in  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  in  the  fall  of  1934,  he 
died  of  a  heart  attack  at  the  steering  wheel  of 
his  loaded  automobile  at  Grand  Canyon,  Ariz., 
as  he  prepared  to  leave  the  altitude  of  the  rim 
for  a  lower  elevation  as  directed  by  a  physician. 
Friends  buried  him  under  the  great  pines  in  the 
little  cemetery  at  Grand  Canyon.  Widforss  had 
never  married.  His  estate  consisted  of  150  paint- 
ings of  the  natural  wonders  which  he  knew  so 
intimately  and  loved  so  deeply. 

[Information  from  Widforss'  mother,  Mrs.  Blenda 
Widforss,  and  C.  E.  Haggart,  of  Stockholm,  Daniel 
McDade  of  Grand  Canyon,  Ariz.,  and  Bishop  William 
Scarlett,  of  St.  Louis,  Mo.  ;  Dagmar  F.  Knudsen,  "A 
Painter  of  National  Parks,"  Sunset,  Jan.  1929,  and  "A 
Swedish  Water  Colorist,"  Argus,  Mar.  1929 ;  Wasp, 
Apr.  17,  1926;  Star  (Washington),  Dec.  14,  1924,  San 
Francisco  Examiner,  Oct.  25,  1923,  Apr.  10,  1927,  Oak- 
land Tribune,  Nov.  8,  1925,  Los  Angeles  Times,  Jan. 
31,  1926,  Nov.  18,  1928;  Phoenix  Evening  Gazette, 
Feb.  20,  1929,  San  Francisco  Chronicle,  Mar.  10,  1929  ; 
St.  Louis  Post-Dispatch,  Oct.  30,  Dec.  2,  1934,  and 
Jan.  28,  29,  1935.]  ID. 

WIECHMANN,  FERDINAND  GER- 
HARD (Nov.  12,  1858-Apr.  24,  1919),  chemist, 
sugar  technologist,  and  author,  was  born  in 
Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  the  son  of  Ernst  Gustav  and 
Anna  Caecilie  (Albers)  Wiechmann,  both  of 
German  ancestry.  After  attending  the  Brooklyn 
schools,  he  studied  chemistry  under  C.  F.  Chan- 
dler [<7.t\]  at  the  Columbia  School  of  Mines, 
from  which  he  received  the  degree  of  Ph.B. 
(1881)  and  Ph.D.  (1882).  The  following  year 
he  spent  in  the  study  of  chemistry  at  the  Univer- 
sity of  Berlin.  Upon  his  return  to  America  he 
accepted  a  position  as  private  assistant  to  Dr. 
Chandler  and  instructor  in  chemistry  in  the  Co- 
lumbia School  of  Mines  (1884-97).  On  Mar. 
26,  1885,  he  was  married  to  Marie  Helen  Dam- 
rosch,  daughter  of  Leopold  Damrosch  \q.7'.~]. 
From  1883  to  1885  he  acted  as  chemist  for  the 
Brooklyn  Sugar  Refining  Company  and  then 
for  six  months  with  the  Havemeyer  Refining 
Company  of  Green  Point.  During  the  years  from 
1887  to  1909,  as  chief  chemist  for  the  Havemeyer 
and  Elder  Sugar  Refining  Company  of  Brook- 
lyn, N.  Y.  (later  the  American  Sugar  Refining 
Company),  he  devoted  much  attention  to  im- 
proving methods   of   sampling,   analyzing,   and 

187 


Wigfall 

making  sugar.  He  was  among  the  first  in  Amer- 
ica to  propose  the  use  of  kieselguhr  (patent  no. 
343,287)  as  a  filter  aid  in  the  clarification  of 
sugar  solutions.  His  well-known  Sugar  Analy- 
sis (1890)  for  several  decades  was  the  leading 
treatise  upon  the  subject.  He  resigned  his  po- 
sition with  the  American  Sugar  Refining  Com- 
pany in  1909  in  order  to  devote  himself  to  pri- 
vate consulting  practice.  At  this  time  he  took 
out  a  series  of  patents  for  a  vegetable  albumin 
plastic  called  "protal."  In  191 1  he  was  expert 
and  consultant  for  the  Gramercy  Refinery  of  the 
Colonial  Sugars  Company  in  Louisiana.  He 
became  interested  in  the  dehydration  of  sugar- 
beet  cossettes  about  1915  and  published  numer- 
ous articles  upon  the  economic  advantages  of  the 
use  of  dehydrated  cossettes  in  beet  sugar  man- 
ufacture. From  1918  until  his  death  in  1919  he 
was  chief  chemist  of  the  Warner  Sugar  Refining 
Company  at  Edgewater,  N.  J. 

In  addition  to  his  Sugar  Analysis,  Wiech- 
mann published  Lecture  Notes  on  Theoretical 
Chemistry  (1893),  Chemistry — Its  Evolution 
and  Achievements  (1899),  and  Notes  on  Elec- 
trochemistry (1906).  Under  the  pen  name  of 
Forest  Monroe  he  published  a  novel,  Maid  of 
Montauk  (1902).  He  was  also  a  contributor  of 
many  articles  to  chemical  and  technological 
journals.  He  rendered  distinguished  services  for 
many  years  as  secretary  of  the  International 
Commission  on  Uniform  Methods  of  Sugar 
Analysis  at  its  Vienna,  Paris,  Berlin,  and  New 
York  meetings.  An  accomplished  linguist,  he 
officiated  as  interpreter  at  international  con- 
gresses of  chemistry,  where  his  kindly,  courteous 
manner  won  him  a  host  of  friends. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1918-19;  J.  M.  Cattell, 
Am.  Men  of  Sci.  (19 10)  ;  La.  Planter  and  Sugar  Manu- 
facturer, May  10,  1919;  Facts  about  Sugar,  May  3, 
1919  ;  death  notices  in  N.  Y.  Times,  Apr.  25,  and  N.  Y. 
Tribune,  Apr.  26,  1919.]  C.  A.  B e. 

WIGFALL,  LOUIS  TREZEVANT  (Apr. 
21,  1816-Feb.  18,  1874),  senator  from  Texas, 
Confederate  brigadier-general  and  senator,  was 
born  near  Edgefield,  S.  C,  the  son  of  Levi  Du- 
rand  Wigfall,  a  planter,  and  Eliza  (Thompson) 
Wigfall.  He  was  the  great-grandson  of  Levi 
Durand,  an  Anglican  clergyman  who  emigrated 
to  South  Carolina  early  in  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury. He  attended  the  University  of  Virginia 
the  session  of  1834-35  ar>d  in  1837  graduated 
from  South  Carolina  College,  now  the  Univer- 
sity of  South  Carolina.  Admitted  to  the  bar  in 
1839,  he  was  soon  in  bitter  political  feud,  killing 
young  Thomas  Bird,  and  receiving  and  inflict- 
ing a  wound  in  a  duel  with  Preston  Smith  Brooks 
[5.V.].  He  favored  the  secession  of  South  Caro- 
lina in  1844  in  protest  against  the  protective  tar- 


Wigfall 


Wigfall 


iff  and  defeat  of  the  Texas  annexation  treaty. 
Meantime  he  married  Charlotte  Maria  Cross, 
the  daughter  of  George  Warren  Cross  of 
Charleston.  Three  of  their  five  children  reached 
maturity.  Removing  to  Texas  Wigfall  settled 
at  Marshall  in  1848.  Early  in  the  crisis  of  1849- 
50  he  again  declared  for  separation  from  the 
North,  hoping  that  South  Carolina  would  strike 
the  blow  necessary  to  unite  the  South.  As  a 
member  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of 
Texas  in  1850,  he  led  the  unsuccessful  opposi- 
tion to  the  cession  of  the  disputed  Santa  Fe  Ter- 
ritory. In  1857  he  was  elected  to  the  state  Sen- 
ate, where  he  became  the  leader  of  the  "South- 
ern-rights" Democrats  and  was  chosen  to  the 
federal  Senate  in  December  1859  over  the  oppo- 
sition led  by  his  bitter  enemy,  Sam  Houston. 

In  the  Senate  he  contended  that  it  was  the 
duty  of  the  federal  government  to  protect  slave 
property  in  the  territories.  He  supported  Breck- 
inridge in  i860,  justifying  secession  upon  the 
compact  theory,  upon  the  reservation  of  this 
right  by  three  states,  and  upon  international  law 
affecting  treaties  {Speech  .  .  .  Delivered  at  Ty- 
ler, Smith  County,  Tex.,  Sept.  3,  1860,  i860). 
He  was  one  of  the  authors  of  the  Southern  ad- 
dress signed  Dec.  14,  i860,  urging  secession  and 
organization  of  the  confederacy  (Dunbar  Row- 
land, Jefferson  Dazns,  Constitutionalist,  1923, 
VIII,  460-61 ) .  By  refraining  from  voting,  Wig- 
fall and  five  other  Southerners  enabled  the  Re- 
publicans on  Jan.  16,  1861,  to  deal  the  death 
blow  to  "Crittenden's  compromise."  As  the  tur- 
bulent session  drew  to  a  close  he  challenged :  "We 
have  dissolved  the  Union;  mend  it  if  you  can; 
cement  it  with  blood  .  .  ."  ( Congressional  Globe, 
36  Cong.,  2  Sess.,  p.  1373,  col.  2).  The  Senate  at 
times  went  into  uproar  over  his  caustic  language. 
He  was  a  ready  and  commanding  speaker,  erect 
and  powerful  in  physique,  featured  by  "a  straight, 
broad  brow,  ...  a  mouth  coarse  and  grim,  yet 
full  of  power,  a  square  jaw  .  .  .  eyes  of  wonder- 
ful depth  and  light,  .  .  .  flashing,  fierce,  yet  calm 
.  .  ."  (W.  H.  Russell,  My  Diary  North  and 
South,  1863,  I,  p.  154).  On  hearing  Lincoln's 
inaugural  he  predicted  war  and  urged  that  the 
Confederacy  take  the  forts,  Sumter  and  Pickens, 
before  reinforcements  could  reach  them.  He 
prolonged  his  stay  in  the  Senate  until  Mar.  23, 
remaining  in  the  counsels  of  the  enemy  as  a  sort 
of  confidential  adviser  to  the  Confederacy.  Ar- 
riving in  Charleston,  his  spectacular  visit  to  Fort 
Sumter  during  the  bombardment  in  order  to 
demand  its  surrender  advertised  him  as  a  mili- 
tary hero.  He  became  a  brigadier-general  in  the 
army  and  was  placed  in  command  of  the  troops 
in  Virginia,  known  as  "The  Texas  Brigade." 

l8 


He  resigned  on  Feb.  18,  1862,  to  accept  a  seat  in 
the  Confederate  States  Senate. 

Advocating  strong  military  measures  as  nec- 
essary to  success,  he  supported  conscription  and 
other  legislation  designed  to  strengthen  the  army. 
He  upheld  the  power  of  impressment  and  ably 
defended  the  authority  of  Congress  to  suspend 
the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  unimpeded  by  action 
of  the  state  governments  (Sentinel,  Richmond, 
June  14,  1864).  Although  a  latitudinarian  with 
reference  to  military  powers,  he  adhered  strictly 
to  state  sovereignty  in  regard  to  citizenship  and 
the  Confederate  judiciary — opposing  a  Confed- 
erate supreme  court  with  appellate  jurisdiction 
over  state  courts.  He  early  became  bitter  over 
President  Davis'  conduct  of  the  war.  He  cen- 
sured him  for  rejecting  Joseph  E.  Johnston's 
proposals  to  concentrate  for  an  offensive  in  the 
fall  of  1861,  and  for  the  defense  of  Richmond  in 
the  spring  of  1862.  He  attributed  the  loss  of 
Vicksburg  to  Davis'  malignant  mismanagement 
and  regretted  that  Johnston  had  not  been  allowed 
to  unite  the  forces  of  the  West,  destroy  the 
enemy,  and  reclaim  the  Mississippi  Valley.  "But 
the  pig-headed  perverseness  of  Davis  willed  it 
otherwise"  (Wigfall  to  C.  C.  Clay,  Aug.  13,  1863, 
Clay  Collection).  He  proposed  that  the  chief 
executive  be  deprived  of  his  power  as  command- 
er-in-chief, and  that  this  power  be  vested  in  an 
officer  appointed  and  removable  by  the  president 
and  Senate  (Wigfall  to  J.  H.  Hammond,  April 
?,  1864,  Hammond  Papers).  Bitterly  denounc- 
ing the  removal  of  Johnston  from  command,  he 
led  the  movement  that  finally  made  Lee  general- 
in-chief  of  all  the  Confederate  armies.  He  was 
a  leader  of  the  Congressional  opposition  to  the 
president,  firing  his  hearers  "with  the  electrical 
passion  that  would  blaze  in  his  seamed  fierce 
face  .  .  ."  (E.  A.  Pollard,  Life  of  Jefferson 
Dazns,  1869,  pp.  419).  He  entertained  an  ex- 
alted opinion  of  his  own  grasp  of  military  sci- 
ence, which  made  the  clash  between  him  and 
Davis  inevitable.  After  the  war  he  escaped  from 
Galveston  to  England.  He  returned  to  the 
United  States  in  1872  and  reestablished  resi- 
dence in  Baltimore,  Md.,  with  his  daughter.  De- 
siring to  resume  life  in  Texas,  he  went  to  Gal- 
veston in  January  1874  and  died  there. 

[Dienst  Coll.,  Univ.  of  Texas,  Austin,  Tex. ;  Clay 
Coll.,  Duke  Univ.,  Durham,  N.  C,  Johnston  Coll., 
Huntington  Lib.,  San  Marino,  Cal. ;  Hammond  Papers, 
Lib.  of  Cong. ;  L.  W.  Wright,  A  Southern  Girl  in  '61 
(1905);  J.  T.  Trezevant,  The  Tresevant  Family 
(1914)  ;  Ann.  Report  Am.  Hist.  Asso.  .  .  .  1929  (1930)  ; 
War  of  the  Rebellion:  Official  Records  {Army),  1  ser., 
I,  V,  LIII  ;  Galveston  News,  Sept.  21.  1864,  Feb.  19, 
1874;  News  and  Courier  (Charleston,  S.  C),  Feb.  23, 
1874.]  C.W.L. 

8 


Wigger 

WIGGER,  WINAND  MICHAEL  (Dec.  9, 

1841-Jan.  5,  1901),  third  Roman  Catholic  bishop 
of  Newark,  N.  J.,  was  born  in  New  York  City, 
the  son  of  John  Joseph  and  Elizabeth  (Strucke) 
Wigger,  successful  immigrants  from  Westphalia. 
He  was  educated  in  the  parochial  school  of  St. 
Francis  of  Assisi,  at  the  College  of  St.  Francis 
Xavier,  and  at  St.  John's  College,  Fordham 
(A.B.,  i860).  Refused  admission  to  the  dioce- 
san seminary  of  New  York  by  Vicar  General 
William  Starrs  on  the  score  of  poor  health,  Wig- 
ger appealed  to  Bishop  James  Roosevelt  Bayley 
\_q.vJ]  of  Newark,  who  enrolled  him  in  the  Seton 
Hall  Seminary  at  South  Orange  and  later  in 
the  Lazarist's  Collegio  Brignole-Sale  in  Genoa, 
where  he  was  ordained  a  priest  (June  10,  1865). 
In  addition  to  theological  lore,  he  acquired  a 
fluent  knowledge  of  French  and  Italian,  studied 
music,  and  gained  considerable  physical  vigor. 
After  a  brief  term  in  the  University  of  the 
Sapienza,  Rome,  from  which  he  later  received 
a  doctorate  in  divinity  (1869),  he  returned  to 
America  (1866).  A  curate  at  St.  Patrick's  Ca- 
thedral in  Newark,  he  profited  under  the  guid- 
ance of  th§  learned  Msgr.  George  Doane,  and 
displayed  a  courageous,  straightforward  charac- 
ter, a  loving  interest  in  the  poor,  and  consider- 
able tact.  In  1869  he  was  appointed  to  the  pas- 
torate of  St.  Vincent's  Church  in  Madison,  N.  J. ; 
he  later  reorganized  the  finances  of  St.  John's 
Church  in  Orange,  which  struggled  with  a  heavy 
indebtedness,  and  then  was  assigned  an  easy 
parish  in  healthful  Summit  (1874-76),  after 
which  he  returned  to  Madison.  In  1880,  when 
Bishop  Michael  Corrigan  \_q.v.~]  was  translated 
to  New  York,  he  was  named  bishop  of  Newark, 
though  as  a  German  without  political  finesse  his 
selection  had  seemed  doubtful.  Consecrated  by 
Corrigan  (Oct.  18,  1881),  he  soon  convinced 
some  of  the  Irish  priests  and  laity,  who  resented 
a  German  ordinary,  that  he  was  honest,  affable, 
and  judicious.  For  the  sake  of  his  health,  he  re- 
sided with  the  faculty  of  Seton  Hall  College. 

A  leader  in  the  Third  Plenary  Council  of  Bal- 
timore (1884),  he  took  a  decided  stand  in  sup- 
port of  Christian  education,  parochial  schools, 
and  the  relief  of  Catholic  immigrants,  especially 
Germans  and  Italians  for  whom  little  had  been 
done.  As  president  of  the  New  York  branch  of 
Peter  Paul  Cahensly's  St.  Raphael's  Society,  he 
established  St.  Leo's  House  at  the  Battery  for 
the  care  of  German  arrivals  (1889).  A  partici- 
pant from  1885  in  the  annual  conventions  of  the 
Priester-Verein,  he  was  a  friend  of  Fathers 
George  Bornemann,  H.  Miihlsiepen,  vicar-gen- 
eral of  St.  Louis,  and  P.  J.  Shroeder  of  the  Cath- 
olic   University    in    Washington,    an    intimate 


Wiggin 

friend  of  Cahensly.  Like  many  other  German 
leaders,  these  men  were  vitally  interested  in  na- 
tional bishops,  racial  parishes,  parochial  schools 
which  would  preserve  both  faith  and  mother 
tongue,  and  greater  recognition  of  German  num- 
bers and  leadership  in  appointments  to  positions 
of  consequence  in  the  Church.  While  Wigger 
was  sympathetic,  he  did  not  go  the  whole  dis- 
tance. Yet  he  refused  to  cast  aside  his  German 
friends  when  they  were  misrepresented  and  at- 
tacked by  some  of  the  Catholic  journals,  and 
when  he  drew  his  share  of  fire  his  critics  learned 
that  the  full-bearded  German  lacked  neither 
courage  nor  moral  stamina.  Attached  to  his  dio- 
cese, Wigger  refused  an  appointment  to  the 
archepiscopal  see  of  Milwaukee  (1890),  but 
building  churches,  organizing  parishes,  erecting 
schools,  constructing  a  cathedral,  and  minister- 
ing to  the  lax  Italian  immigrants  kept  him  on 
edge,  despite  pleasant  journeys  to  the  Holy 
Land  and  Europe.  Subject  to  pulmonary  dis- 
eases, he  died  of  a  third  attack  of  pneumonia. 
While  not  a  great  figure,  he  was  a  courageous 
prelate  whom  Bishop  James  A.  McFaul  [q.v.~] 
could  conscientiously  eulogize  at  his  obsequies. 

[C.  G.  Herbermann  in  U.  S.  Cath.  Hist.  Soc,  Hist. 
Records  and  Studies,  Aug-.  1901  ;  F.  J.  Zwierlein,  The 
Life  and  Letters  of  Bishop  McQuaid,  vol.  II  (1926)  ; 
"The  'Leo  House'  for  Immigrants,"  Records  Am.  Cath. 
Hist.  Soc.  of  Phila.,  Dec.  1905  ;  New-Yorker  Staats- 
Zeitung,  Jan.  13,  1901  ;  Diocesan  Reg.  of  Newark; 
and  Newark  Daily  Advertiser,  Jan.  4-10,  1901.] 

RJ.P. 

WIGGIN,  JAMES  HENRY  (May  14,  1836- 
Nov.  3,  1900),  Unitarian  clergyman,  editor,  the 
son  of  James  Simon  Wiggin  and  Sarah  Eliza- 
beth (Robinson)  Wiggin,  belonged  to  an  old 
New  England  family  descended  from  Thomas 
Wiggin  who  came  to  Massachusetts  in  163 1. 
James  Henry  was  born  in  Boston,  where  the 
elder  James  in  partnership  with  his  father-in- 
law,  Simon  W.  Robinson,  conducted  a  prosper- 
ous shipping  business.  The  boy  attended  vari- 
ous schools  and  in  1850  went  on  a  year's  voyage 
to  Malacca  Straits  and  Java  in  a  sailing  vessel 
belonging  to  his  father's  firm.  After  studying 
for  a  time  in  Tufts  College  at  Medford,  Mass., 
at  the  age  of  twenty-one  he  entered  the  Mead- 
ville  Theological  School.  He  was  graduated  in 
1861  and  was  ordained  to  the  Unitarian  minis- 
try in  the  following  year.  On  Nov.  21,  1864,  he 
married  Laura  Emma  Newman  of  Brattleboro, 
Vt.  He  held  various  Unitarian  pastorates  in 
Massachusetts :  at  Montague,  1861-63 ;  at  Law- 
rence, 1864-65;  at  Marblehead,  1865-67;  at 
Medfield,  1867-73 ;  at  Marlboro,  1873-75.  In  the 
latter  year  he  moved  to  New  York  City  to  be- 
come editor  of  a  weekly,  the  Liberal  Christian, 


89 


Wiggin 

but  he  never  felt  entirely  comfortable  outside  the 
radius  of  Boston  and  in  1876  returned  to  that 
city,  where  for  a  short  period  he  edited  the  Dor- 
chester Beacon,  a  suburban  newspaper.  Until 
1881  he  occasionally  supplied  vacant  pulpits,  but 
by  that  date  he  had  become  so  definitely  an  ag- 
nostic that  he  felt  it  his  duty  to  sever  all  con- 
nection with  the  ministry. 

Henceforth  he  devoted  his  energy  mainly  to 
musical  and  dramatic  criticism,  the  preparing  of 
indexes,  and  the  revising  of  books  for  the  press. 
He  translated  two  volumes  in  the  Little,  Brown 
&  Company  series  of  Dumas'  works,  and  he  was 
connected  for  some  years  with  the  Harvard  Uni- 
versity Press.  In  1885  he  was  asked  by  Mary 
Baker  Eddy  \_q.v.~]  to  assist  in  the  preparation 
of  the  sixteenth  edition  of  Science  and  Health, 
in  the  course  of  which  task  he  revised  the  entire 
book,  much  simplifying  Mrs.  Eddy's  impassioned 
but  obscure  style.  One  chapter  wholly  written 
by  him,  entitled  "Wayside  Hints,"  was  included 
in  a  number  of  subsequent  editions,  though  ulti- 
mately deleted.  The  great  popularity  of  Science 
and  Health  dated  from  his  revision.  He  was  also 
employed  by  Mrs.  Eddy  to  answer,  under  the 
nom  de  plume  "Phare  Pleigh,"  a  hostile  criti- 
cism by  the  Rev.  H.  B.  Heacock  of  California. 
From  1887  to  1889  he  was  an  unofficial  editor  of 
the  Christian  Science  Journal.  In  1890  he  as- 
sisted in  the  preparation  of  a  new  revised  edi- 
tion of  Science  and  Health,  and  in  1891  he  re- 
vised the  first  draft  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  Retrospection 
and  Introspection.  His  relations  with  her,  how- 
ever, gradually  became  more  difficult,  once  the 
novelty  of  their  strange  partnership  had  worn 
off,  and  eventually,  during  1891,  she  accused 
him  of  falling  under  the  influence  of  "Malicious 
Animal  Magnetism,"  after  which  they  separated. 
His  own  account  of  their  relationship  was  pub- 
lished posthumously  in  the  New  York  World, 
Nov.  4  and  5,  1906. 

He  was  a  devoted  theatre-goer  and  had  many 
friends  among  the  actors,  including  Sol  Smith 
Russell,  Horace  Lewis,  William  Warren,  Mrs. 
John  Drew,  and  Adelaide  Phillips.  A  man  of 
great  bulk  and  much  geniality,  sybaritic,  skep- 
tical, and  witty,  he  was  a  delightful  figure  on 
the  streets  of  Boston  in  the  last  days  Of  its  cul- 
tural glory.  Sol  Smith  Russell  is  reported  to 
have  said  that  he  could  as  soon  think  of  Boston 
without  the  Common  as  without  James  Henry 
Wiggin. 

[Information  from  a  son,  Albert  H.  Wiggin,  New- 
York  City,  and  from  the  Am.  Unitarian  Asso.  ;  E.  S. 
Bates  and  J.  V.  Dittemore,  Mary  Baker  Eddy  (1932)  ; 
F.  C.  Springer,  According  to  the  Flesh  (1930)  ;  E.  F. 
Dakin,  Mrs.  Eddy  (1929)  ;  Georgine  Milmine,  The  Life 
of  Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy  (1909)  ;  J.  H.  Wiggin,  181 3- 


Wiggin 

Charles  E.  Wiggin-1888  (n.d.),  pp.  135-37;  Christian 
Reg.,  Nov.  15,  1900  ;  Boston  Transcript,  Nov.  3,  1900.  j 

E.  S.B. 

WIGGIN,  KATE  DOUGLAS  (Sept.  28, 
1856-Aug.  24,  1923),  author,  pioneer  kinder- 
garten worker,  was  born  in  Philadelphia,  Pa., 
the  daughter  of  Helen  Elizabeth  (Dyer)  and 
Robert  Noah  Smith,  both  of  New  England  an- 
cestry. Her  father,  a  lawyer,  died  when  she  was 
a  child,  and  a  few  years  later  her  mother  married 
a  physician  of  Hollis,  Me.  With  her  sister  and 
a  half-brother,  she  spent  a  happy  and  healthy 
childhood  in  Hollis,  where  she  bought  in  later 
life  the  farmhouse,  "Quillcote,"  in  which  most 
of  her  writing  was  done.  She  was  taught  at 
home  by  her  stepfather  for  a  time,  and  then  at- 
tended the  district  school  and  a  series  of  private 
schools.  When  she  was  about  seventeen  the  fam- 
ily moved  to  Santa  Barbara,  Cal. ;  there  a  few 
years  later  her  stepfather  died.  In  1877  she  went 
to  Los  Angeles  and  entered  the  first  class  in  kin- 
dergarten training  conducted  by  Emma  J.  C. 
Marwedel  [q.i'.].  A  year  later  she  was  selected 
to  organize  in  San  Francisco  the  Silver  Street 
Kindergarten,  the  first  free  kindergarten  west 
of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  In  connection  with 
this  is  the  California  Kindergarten  Training 
School,  which  she  established  in  1880  with  her 
sister,  Nora  Archibald  Smith  (c.  1859-1934), 
her  constant  collaborator  both  in  teaching  and  in 
the  writing  of  kindergarten  literature.  Among 
the  fifteen  books  written  or  edited  by  the  two 
sisters  were  The  Story  Hour  (1890),  Children's 
Rights  (1892),  and  The  Republic  of  Childhood 
(1895-96).  Kate  Douglas  Smith's  marriage  in 
December  1881  to  Samuel  Bradley  Wiggin,  a 
Boston  lawyer,  ended  her  daily  work  at  the 
Silver  Street  Kindergarten,  but  her  interest  in 
it  and  in  the  training  school  never  lapsed ;  even 
after  moving  to  New  York  (1884-85),  she  vis- 
ited them  regularly,  as  she  did  all  other  impor- 
tant kindergarten  centers  in  the  country.  Her 
first  mature  literary  work,  The  Story  of  Patsy 
(1883),  was  written  and  printed  by  her  only  to 
raise  money  for  kindergarten  work,  and  this  and 
the  well-known  Birds'  Christmas  Carol  (1887) 
were  published  in  the  regular  manner  only  after 
their  success  in  the  first  form  induced  her  to 
enter  the  field  of  authorship  definitely.  Out  of 
the  same  collection  of  experiences  grew  Timo- 
thy's Quest  (1890)  and  Polly  Oliver's  Problem 
(1893),  a  story  for  girls. 

After  the  sudden  death  of  her  husband  in 
1889,  she  made  her  first  visit  to  Europe.  This 
first  experience  of  foreign  travel  resulted  in  three 
popular  books — A  Cathedral  Courtship  (1893), 
Penelope's    Progress    (1898),    and    Penelope's 


I90 


Wii 


nn 


Irish  Experiences  (1901),  all  exhibiting  the 
frank  and  simple  biographical  method  by  which 
the  impact  of  the  older  civilizations  on  an  attrac- 
tive, enthusiastic,  and  ■  witty  young  American 
woman  was  interpreted  to  her  own  country  and 
to  England  by  a  marked  example  of  this  type. 
On  this  journey  and  others  she  made  acquaint- 
ances and  friends  without  number  in  the  literary 
and  social  world,  where  she  became,  as  in  New 
York  later,  and  in  the  Maine  village  of  her  adop- 
tion, a  well-known  and  well-loved  figure.  Her 
charm  and  social  gifts  were  as  marked  as  her 
talent,  and  her  keen  interest  in  music  and  the 
stage  added  a  long  list  of  artists  in  these  fields 
to  her  friends  in  her  own  profession.  Between 
1890  and  1895  sne  was  occupied  chiefly  with 
public  readings,  and  with  the  writing  of  stories 
and  articles  for  magazines.  She  was  married  on 
Mar.  30,  1895,  to  George  Christopher  Riggs,  an 
American  with  business  connections  in  Scotland 
and  Ireland,  and  until  her  death  in  1923  lived  in 
New  York  City  and  Hollis,  Me.,  with  annual 
trips  of  about  three  months  to  the  British  Isles. 

In  1903  appeared  Rebecca  of  Sunnybrook 
Farm,  one  of  the  most  widely  sold  books  of  its 
day.  It  reveals  the  autobiographical  character 
of  her  work  as  a  whole,  which  never  exhibited 
imaginative  flights  nor  aimed  at  any  construc- 
tive picture  of  life,  nor  essayed  the  human  com- 
edy, as  such,  from  any  broad  angle  of  theory  or 
observation.  In  it  and  Polly  Oliver's  Problem 
there  appear  the  same  fresh,  natural  simplicity 
of  style,  the  same  lack  of  interest  in  plot  as  such, 
the  same  faithful  transcription  of  a  warmhearted, 
impulsive  nature  dramatizing  its  own  objective 
experiences,  with  a  peculiarly  feminine  quality 
of  intelligence  and  wit.  It  is  to  be  doubted,  how- 
ever, if  the  history  of  Rebecca,  characterized 
by  Thomas  Bailey  Aldrich  as  "the  nicest  child 
in  American  literature,"  equals  The  Birds' 
Christmas  Carol  as  an  example  of  the  author's 
best  and  most  characteristic  capacities.  The 
brevity  of  the  latter,  better  suited  to  her  lack  of 
technical  structural  skill,  its  wider  range  of 
characterization,  broader  humor,  and  above  all, 
the  touch  of  pathos  which  links  it  to  the  Dickens 
tradition  that  underlies  her  style,  make  it  the 
work  which  Time  will  most  surely  spare.  In 
1917  her  collected  works  were  issued  in  nine 
volumes;  in  1923  My  Garden  of  Memory:  An 
Autobiography  was  published.  She  died  in  1923 
at  Harrow,  England. 

[In  addition  to  My  Garden  of  Memory  (1923), 
sources  include  Who's  Who  in  America,  1922-23  ;  Nora 
A.  Smith,  Kate  Douglas  Wiggin  As  Her  Sister  Knew 
Her  (1925),  from  which  the  date  of  birth  is  taken; 
Emma  S.  Echols,  in  Polly  Oliver's  Problem  (1896), 
Riverside  Lit.  ed.  ;  Current  Opinion,  Jan.  1924;  obit- 
uary in  N.  Y.  Times,  Aug.  25,   1923  ;  correspondence 


Wiggins  —  Wigglesworth 

with  Nora  A.  Smith  ;  personal  acquaintance.  For 
Nora  A.  Smith,  see  Who's  Who  in  America,  1932-33, 
and  obituary  in  N.  Y.  Times,  Feb.  2,  1934.] 

J— e.  D.  B. 

WIGGINS,  CARLETON  (Mar.  4,  1848-June 
11,  1932),  landscape  and  animal  painter,  the  son 
of  Guy  Carleton  and  Adelaide  (Ludlum)  Wig- 
gins, was  born  at  Turner,  Orange  County,  N.  Y. 
He  was  educated  in  the  public  schools  of  Brook- 
lyn, N.  Y.,  and  studied  art  at  the  National  Acad- 
emy of  Design  (1870)  and  under  George  Inness 
[q.v.~\.  He  exhibited  his  first  picture  at  the  Na- 
tional Academy  in  1870.  On  Oct.  19,  1872,  he 
was  married  to  Mary  Clucas  of  Brooklyn,  by 
whom  he  had  two  sons  and  two  daughters.  Af- 
ter a  year  in  France  ( 1880-81 )  he  took  a  studio 
in  New  York.  His  home  was  in  Brooklyn,  but 
he  had  a  summer  home  at  Old  Lyme,  Conn., 
where  he  found  many  of  his  best  subjects.  He 
was  a  charter  member  of  the  Lyme  Art  Asso- 
ciation. From  1894  onward  he  was  the  recipient 
of  many  honors  and  awards ;  he  was  elected  an 
Academician  in  1906.  Among  his  pictures  in 
public  collections  and  galleries  are  "A  Young 
Holstein  Bull,"  in  the  Metropolitan  Museum  of 
Art,  New  York ;  "The  Plow  Horse,"  in  the  Lotos 
Club,  New  York;  "The  Wanderers,"  in  the 
Hamilton  Club,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. ;  and  "Evening 
after  a  Shower"  and  "The  Pasture  Lot,"  in  the 
National  Gallery  of  Art,  Washington,  D.  C. 
Other  well-known  pictures  are  "On  the  Road" 
(1879),  "September  Day"  (1880),  "Hillside 
near  Fontainebleau"  (1882),  "October  Morn- 
ing" (1883),  "Gathering  Seaweed,"  "September 
Harvest"  (1884),  "Summer  Morning"  (1885), 
"Three-year-old  Heifer,"  and  "Landscape  near 
Meudon"  (1886). 

According  to  Samuel  Isham  [q.v.~\,  Wiggins' 
work  "will  stand  in  any  company  of  his  con- 
temporaries" ;  the  same  critic  alludes  to  "the 
gravity  of  Wiggins,  the  broad  sweeping  lines 
of  whose  landscapes  call  up  vague  memories  of 
men  like  old  Crome  or  some  of  their  Dutch  pro- 
totypes" (post,  pp.  447-48).  Wiggins  died  at 
Old  Lyme,  Conn.  One  of  his  sons,  Guy  Carle- 
ton  Wiggins,  also  became  a  painter. 

[Sources  include  Who's  Who  in  America,  1930- 
31  ;  Samuel  Isham,  The  Hist,  of  Am.  Painting  (1905)  ; 
J.  D.  Champlin,  Jr.,  and  C.  C.  Perkins,  Cyc.  of  Painters 
and  Painting  (4  vols.,  1885-87)  ;  Helen  L.  Earle,  Biog. 
Sketches  of  Am.  Artists  (191 5);  obituary  in  N.  Y. 
Times,  June  13,  1932;  information  from  Guy  Carleton 
Wiggins,  Lyme,  Conn.  Wiggins'  full  name  was  John 
Carleton.]  \y  jj  rj_ 

WIGGLESWORTH,  EDWARD  (c.  1693- 
Jan.  16,  1765),  educator,  theologian,  was  born 
in  Maiden,  Mass.,  son  of  the  poet  Michael  Wig- 
glesworth [q.v.~\  and  his  third  wife,  Sybil  (Spar- 
hawk)    Avery.    Edward   attended   the    Boston 


191 


Wigglesworth 


Wigglesworth 


Latin  School,  where  he  was  an  usher,  and  grad- 
uated from  Harvard  College  in  1710.  Taking 
up  residence  at  the  College,  he  continued  his 
studies  in  divinity.  Harvard's  first  great  patron, 
Thomas  Hollis,  established  a  chair  of  divinity 
in  1 72 1  and  Wigglesworth  was  made  the  first 
Hollis  Professor  on  Jan.  24,  1722.  In  1724  he 
was  elected  to  the  Corporation  of  the  college. 
He  married  Sarah,  daughter  of  President  John 
Leverett  [q.v.~\,  June  15,  1726.  The  Wiggles- 
worths  lived  opposite  the  head  of  Holyoke  Street, 
on  the  northerly  side  of  Harvard  Street,  where 
Wigglesworth  Hall  now  stands.  Sarah  died  in 
1727,  and  on  Sept.  10,  1729,  Edward  married 
Rebecca  Coolidge,  by  whom  he  had  three  sons 
and  a  daughter.  In  spite  of  the  handicap  of  in- 
creasing deafness,  he  was  constantly  active  in 
the  pulpit,  preaching  in  a  "nervous  and  suffi- 
ciently animated  style,"  and  instructing  young 
students  in  theology.  In  1730  he  was  granted  a 
doctorate  in  divinity  by  the  University  of  Edin- 
burgh. 

When  George  Whitefield,  the  itinerant  evan- 
gelist, came  to  Harvard  in  1745,  to  find  that 
"Tutors  neglect  to  pray  with  and  examine  the 
Heart  of  their  Pupils,"  Wigglesworth  was  the 
College's  stoutest  defender.  In  A  Letter  to  the 
Reverend  Mr.  George  Whitefield  (1745),  he 
openly  accused  Whitefield  of  being  "an  unchar- 
itable, censorious,  and  slanderous  man"  (p.  22) 
and  urged  him  to  a  public  apology.  By  this  de- 
fense and  his  later  publication,  Some  Distin- 
guishing Characters  of  the  Extraordinary  and 
Ordinary  Ministers  of  the  Church  of  Christ 
(1754),  he  became  a  leader  among  the  anti-evan- 
gelical clergy.  Growing  reputation  brought 
him  in  1761  the  offer  of  the  Yale  rectorship, 
which  he  declined.  He  died  some  four  years 
later  and  was  given  impressive  funeral  cere- 
monies in  the  College  Chapel,  with  a  notable  ser- 
mon by  Nathaniel  Appleton  and  a  Latin  oration 
by  one  of  his  senior  students.  His  successor  in 
the  Hollis  Professorship  was  his  son  Edward 
[q.v.'j. 

In  addition  to  the  works  already  mentioned, 
Wigglesworth  published  several  sermons.  In 
A  Seasonable  Caveat  against  Believing  Every 
Spirit  (1735)  and  Some  Evidences  of  the  Di- 
vine Inspiration  of  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old 
Testament  (1755),  he  denied  the  peculiar  gift 
of  God  to  evangelists  in  general  and  Whitefield 
in  particular.  A  sermon  on  the  death  of  Hollis, 
The  Blessedness  of  the  Dead  Who  Die  in  the 
Lord  (1731),  and  an  anti-papal  sermon,  Some 
Thoughts  upon  the  Spirit  of  Infallibility  Claimed 
by  the  Church  of  Rome  (1757)  deserve  mention 
because  of  their  cogent  style.  A  last  group  com- 


prises three  sermons  in  the  field  of  Arminian- 
Calvinistic  controversy:  In  A  Discourse  Con- 
cerning the  Duration  of  the  Punishment  of  the 
Wicked  (1729)  Wigglesworth  showed  himself 
to  be  an  uncompromising  Calvinist.  Observable 
in  the  second  of  these  three  {An  Enquiry  into 
the  Truth  of  the  Imputation  of  the  Guilt  of 
Adam's  First  Sin,  1738)  is  the  gradual  break- 
down of  unconditional  Calvinism  and  a  new  em- 
phasis on  the  independence  of  the  will  as  op- 
posed to  strict  accounting  to  God  for  the  original 
sin.  Here  Wigglesworth  mirrors  the  trend  of 
the  times.  More  especially  does  he  show  the  split 
between  conditional  Arminianism,  which  pro- 
vides salvation  to  those  men  redeemed  by  faith, 
and  unconditional  Calvinism  in  The  Doctrine  of 
Reprobation  Briefly  Considered  (1763).  He 
considered  the  Sub-  and  Supralapsarian  aspects 
of  the  older  doctrine :  the  Sublapsarians  held  that 
God's  decree  with  respect  to  original  sin  was 
antecedent  to  His  foreknowledge,  while  the  Su- 
pralapsarians  placed  His  judgment  afterwards. 
In  reply  to  both  points  of  doctrine  Wiggles- 
worth, voicing  distinct  Arminian  sentiments,  an- 
swered that  all  election  and  foreordination  are 
conditional,  and  that  no  man  is  "under  irresisti- 
ble motions,  either  to  good  or  evil."  From  the 
point  of  view  of  theological  doctrine,  Wiggles- 
worth's  gradual  compromise  heralds  the  advent 
of  Unitarianism. 

[Nathaniel  Appleton,  A  Faithful  and  Wise  Servant 
Had  in  Honour  .  .  .  A  Discourse  Occasioned  by  the 
.  .  .  Death  of  the  Rev.  Edward  Wigglesworth  (1765), 
with  a  short  biog.  account  appended ;  Charles  Chauncy, 
"A  Sketch  of  Eminent  Men  in  New  England,"  Mass. 
Hist.  Soc.  Colls.,  1  ser.  X  (1809)  ;  J.  B.  Felt,  Ecclesi- 
astical Hist,  of  New  England  (1862)  ;  F.  H.  Foster, 
A  Genetic  Hist,  of  the  New  England  Theology  (1907)  ; 
W.  B.  Sprague,  Annals  Am.  Pulpit,  vol.  I  (1857)  ;  L.  R. 
Paige,  Hist,  of  Cambridge,  Mass.  (1877),  and  Supp. 
and  Index  ( 1930),  by  M.  I.  Gazzaldi ;  Col.  Soc.  of  Mass. 
Pubs.,  vols.  XV,  XVI  (1925),  XXXI  (1935).! 

E.  H.  D. 

WIGGLESWORTH,  EDWARD  (Feb.  7. 
1732-June  17,  1794),  educator,  theologian,  was 
born  in  Cambridge,  Mass.,  son  of  Edward  [q.v.~] 
and  Rebecca  (Coolidge)  Wigglesworth  and 
grandson  of  Michael  Wigglesworth  [q.v.~\.  He 
graduated  from  Harvard  College  in  1749  and  re- 
mained there  as  resident  scholar.  In  1756  he  be- 
came interested  in  raising  funds  for  the  new 
meeting-house  for  the  First  Parish,  and  was 
one  of  its  heaviest  subscribers.  He  was  made 
tutor  in  the  College  in  1764.  The  next  year, 
upon  the  death  of  his  father  he  was  appointed 
successor  to  the  Hollis  Professorship  of  Divin- 
ity. On  his  induction,  June  16,  1765,  the  Cor- 
poration sent  for  him  to  make  sure  of  his  Divin- 
ity principles.  He  was  careful  to  safeguard  his 
orthodoxy  by  keeping  out  of  all   controversy, 


192 


Wigglesworth 


Wigglcsworth 


except  for  a  single  sermon  against  Popery,  and 
attending  exclusively  to  matters  of  academic  life 
and  instruction. 

In  October  1765  he  married  Margaret  Hill  of 
Boston,  by  whom  he  had  three  daughters  and 
two  sons.  She  died  in  1776;  on  Jan.  6,  1778,  he 
married  Dorothy  Sparhawk,  who  died  in  1782; 
and  on  Oct.  20,  1785,  he  married  as  his  third 
wife  Sarah  Wigglesworth.  He  was  responsible 
for  the  raising  of  annuities  to  provide  for  the 
widows  of  ministers  and  professors,  and,  al- 
though primarily  a  churchman,  he  was  much 
interested  in  civil  affairs.  His  Calculations  on 
American  Population  (1775)  discussed  the  steady 
increase  of  the  Colonies'  population,  owing,  ac- 
cording to  Wigglesworth,  to  simple  living  con- 
ditions and  early  marriage.  Of  the  3,250,000 
inhabitants  in  1775,  he  noted,  more  than  500,000 
were  slaves — "to  the  disgrace  of  America"  (p. 
12).  This  pamphlet  made  some  striking  prophe- 
sies as  to  the  increase  of  population ;  he  calcu- 
lated that  the  "British  Americans,"  as  he  called 
them,  would  double  their  number  every  twenty- 
five  years,  so  that  at  the  end  of  the  twentieth 
century  the  population  would  have  mounted  to 
nearly  one  and  a  half  billion. 

During  the  Revolution,  Wigglesworth  was 
among  those  who  held  out  hopes  for  reconcilia- 
tion until  the  end.  In  a  period  of  brilliant  pulpit 
patriotism,  he  was  uncommonly  silent.  Through- 
out the  war,  he  was  closely  concerned  with  Col- 
lege affairs.  Appointed  a  fellow  in  1779,  he  was 
acting  president  in  1780,  in  the  interval  between 
the  death  of  Samuel  Langdon  and  the  succession 
of  Joseph  Willard.  Paralysis  forced  him  to  re- 
sign all  public  and  private  offices  in  1791.  The 
Overseers  of  the"  College  granted  him  a  large 
annuity  and  he  became  a  professor  emeritus. 
He  died  after  a  long  illness. 

Wigglesworth  was  a  man  of  many  friends. 
When  in  1786  fuel  was  scarce  at  the  University, 
he  opened  his  doors  to  John  Quincy  Adams  as 
a  "free  boarder"  for  the  winter.  President 
Quincy  later  said  of  him  (post,  II,  261)  that 
he  had  "an  equal  reputation  for  learning,  fidel- 
ity, and  the  catholic  spirit."  With  the  exception 
of  his  pamphlet  on  population,  a  Dudleian  lec- 
ture and  a  funeral  sermon  are  all  that  survive 
of  his  utterances.  The  lecture,  The  Authority 
of  Tradition  Considered  (1778),  is  vigorously 
anti-Roman ;  discussing  apostolic  succession,  he 
indicates  Popery  as  having  for  the  foundation  of 
all  its  distinguishing  tenets  "tradition,  or  tradi- 
tive  interpretations  of  Scripture."  The  funeral 
sermon  The  Hope  of  Immortality  (1779),  was 
delivered  on  the  death  of  John  Winthrop,  Hollis 
Professor  of  Mathematics,  and  stressed  chiefly 


the  reward  for  the  good  life  in  the  life  to  come. 
Wigglesworth  lacked  the  versatility  of  knowl- 
edge that  his  father  and  grandfather  possessed, 
but  his  service  as  an  educator  and  citizen  make 
him  worthy  of  memory. 

[L.  R.  Paige,  Hist,  of  Cambridge,  Mass.  (1877), 
with  Supp.  mid  Index  (1930)  by  M.  I.  Gazzaldi  ;  Josiah 
Quincy,  The  Hist,  of  Harvard  Univ.  (i860);  Proc. 
Mass.  Hist.  Soc,  2  ser.  XVI  (1903)  ;  Col.  Soc.  of  Mass. 
Pubs.,  vols.  XV,  XVI    (1925),  XXXI   (1930).] 

E.  H.  D. 

WIGGLESWORTH,  EDWARD  (Dec.  30, 
1840-Jan.  23,  1896),  dermatologist,  was  born  in 
Boston,  Mass.,  the  son  of  Edward  and  Henrietta 
May  (Goddard)  Wigglesworth,  daughter  of 
Nathaniel  Goddard.  The  family,  long  prominent 
in  New  England,  descended  from  Edward  Wig- 
glesworth, who  came  to  America  from  York- 
shire, England,  in  1638.  His  son,  Michael  J»<7.7\], 
was  graduated  by  Harvard  College  in  1651 ;  sub- 
sequently every  male  Wigglesworth  for  six  gen- 
erations became  an  alumnus  of  Harvard.  After 
a  preliminary  education  in  the  Boston  Latin 
School,  Edward  was  graduated  by  Harvard 
College  in  the  class  of  1861.  He  served  for  nine 
months  in  the  Civil  War,  first  with  the  United 
States  Sanitary  Commission,  later  as  a  private 
in  the  45th  Massachusetts  Voluntary  Militia 
and,  finally,  as  a  voluntary  surgeon  with  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac.  During  the  same  period 
he  attended  the  lectures  at  the  Harvard  Medi- 
cal School  and  was  graduated,  with  the  degree 
of  M.D.,  in  1865.  Having  independent  means, 
he  was  able  to  study  dermatology  under  the  best 
teachers  in  Europe  from  1865  to  1870.  Return- 
ing home,  he  began  the  practice  of  his  specialty, 
being  one  of  the  first  physicians  in  Boston  to 
do  so.  At  his  own  expense  he  inaugurated  and 
maintained  the  Boston  Dispensary  for  Skin  Dis- 
eases from  1872  to  1877.  A  group  of  179  mod- 
els of  dermatological  lesions,  duplicates  from 
the  Hospital  St.  Louis  collections  in  Paris,  and 
an  extensive  library  were  maintained  by  Wig- 
glesworth for  the  use  of  physicians ;  the  models 
were  ultimately  given  to  the  Harvard  Medical 
School  and  his  books  to  the  Boston  Medical  Li- 
brary. He  served  as  head  of  the  department  of 
diseases  of  the  skin,  Boston  City  Hospital,  for 
many  years  and  as  an  instructor  in  dermatology 
at  the  Harvard  Medical  School. 

Although  never  in  very  good  health,  Wig- 
glesworth was  an  active  member  of  his  profes- 
sion. Many  papers  on  dermatology  were  contrib- 
uted by  him  to  local  and  national  societies.  He 
was  one  of  the  collaborators  of  the  Archives  of 
Dermatology,  a  quarterly  journal  of  skin  and 
venereal  diseases,  when  it  was  founded  in  1874, 
and  he  served  as  president  of  the  American  Der- 


J93 


Wigglesworth 


matological  Association  in  1885.  Other  inter- 
ests centered  around  the  Boston  Medical  Li- 
brary, the  raising  of  funds  for  rebuilding  the 
Harvard  Medical  School,  the  health  department 
of  the  American  Social  Science  Association,  and 
the  Colonial  Society  of  Massachusetts.  He  was 
active  in  introducing  a  law  requiring  the  regis- 
tration of  physicians  in  Massachusetts  (an  ef- 
fort to  eliminate  quacks),  started  the  Boston 
Medical  Register,  and  attempted,  prematurely, 
to  popularize  the  metric  system.  So  ardent  was 
his  desire  to  see  a  system  of  metrics  adopted  that 
he  spent  three  years  and  a  small  fortune  on  this 
project  without  winning  public  approval.  Al- 
though he  might  have  led  a  life  of  leisure,  he 
chose  one  continually  devoted  to  the  welfare  of 
others.  His  charities  were  wide-spread.  Quiet 
and  scholarly,  but  with  a  lively  wit,  Wiggles- 
worth  was  much  beloved  by  his  contemporaries. 
He  was  married,  on  Apr.  4,  1882,  to  Mrs.  Sarah 
(Willard)  Frothingham  of  New  York  City. 
Of  three  children,  a  son  became  director  of  the 
Museum  of  Natural  History  in  Boston. 

[H.  P.  Quincy,  memoir  in  Colonial  Soc.  of  Mass. 
Pubs.,  vol.  Ill  (1900)  ;  Boston  Medic,  and  Surgical 
Jour.,  Jan.  30,  Apr.  23,  1896  ;  letters  and  manuscripts 
in  Boston  Medical  Library  ;  P.  A.  Morrow,  sketch  of 
Wigglesworth  in  H.  A.  Kelly  and  W.  L.  Burrage,  Am. 
Medic.  Biog.  (1920),  Harvard  Coll.  Class  ofl86i,  Sixth 
Report  (1902)  ;  bibliography  of  works,  Ibid.,  Fifth  Re- 
port (1892);  Boston  Evening  Transcript,  Jan.  23, 
1896;  information  from  the  Wigglesworth  family.] 

H.  R.  V. 

WIGGLESWORTH,  MICHAEL  (Oct.  18, 
1 63 1 -May  27,  1705),  minister,  author,  was  born 
in  England,  probably  in  Yorkshire,  the  son  of 
Edward  and  Esther  (?)  Wigglesworth,  and 
came  to  Massachusetts  Bay  with  his  Puritan  par- 
ents in  1638.  After  a  few  weeks  at  Charlestown 
they  went  to  New  Haven,  where  Michael  was 
sent  to  school  with  Ezekiel  Cheever  [q.z>.].  His 
education  was  interrupted  in  order  that  he  might 
help  his  lame  father  at  home,  but  he  was  too  frail  < 
to  be  of  use,  returned  to  school,  and  completed 
his  preparation  for  Harvard.  He  graduated 
B.A.  in  1651,  continued  his  studies,  and  was  ap- 
pointed fellow  and  tutor  from  1652  to  1654.  On 
May  18,  1655,  he  married  Mary  Reyner  of 
Rowley.  He  began  preaching  occasionally  at 
least  as  early  as  1653,  and  in  1654  or  1655  had 
an  invitation  to  settle  as  minister  at  Maiden. 
After  long  consideration  and  a  period  of  preach- 
ing in  Maiden  without  ordination  he  was  given, 
in  August  1656,  a  letter  of  dismission  from 
the  Cambridge  church  and  presumably  was  or- 
dained in  Maiden  soon  afterward.  Morbidly 
conscious  of  his  shortcomings,  he  often  thought 
of  giving  up  his  ministry,  particularly  because 
from  1657  to  1686  ill  health  prevented  him  from 


Wigglesworth 

performing  his  full  duty  in  the  church.  He 
studied  and  practised  medicine,  and  also  found 
time  to  write.  His  most  noted  work,  The  Day 
of  Doom,  a  long  poem  in  ballad  meter,  was  print- 
ed in  1662.  Almost  eighteen  hundred  copies  sold 
within  a  year — an  extraordinary  number  in  rela- 
tion to  the  population  at  the  time.  In  1663  Wig- 
glesworth went  to  Bermuda  for  about  seven 
months,  but  gained  little  in  health.  By  1686, 
however,  he  seems  to  have  been  better,  and  in 
that  year  he  preached  the  Election  Sermon,  and 
in  1696,  the  Artillery  Election  Sermon.  It  is 
probable  that  in  1684  he  had  been  asked  to  con- 
sider taking  the  presidency  at  Harvard,  and  had 
declined  because  of  his  health.  He  was  a  fellow 
of  the  college  from  1697  until  his  death. 

His  first  wife  died  in  1659.  By  her,  he  had 
one  daughter.  In  1679  he  married  Martha 
Mudge,  in  spite  of  protests  from  Increase  Mather 
and  others  on  the  grounds  that  she  was  of  lower 
social  rank  than  he,  and  was  not  a  church-mem- 
ber. Six  children  were  born  of  this  marriage. 
Martha  Wigglesworth  died  in  1690  and  on  June 
23,  1691,  Michael  married  Sybil  (Sparhawk) 
Avery,  a  widow,  who  outlived  him  by  three 
years.  Their  one  child,  Edward  [q.v.],  became 
the  first  Hollis  Professor  at  Harvard. 

Tormented  as  he  was  by  sickness,  Wiggles- 
worth, as  physician,  minister,  and  writer,  won 
the  love  and  respect  of  his  contemporaries.  In- 
tensely conscientious,  ardently  religious,  and 
restlessly  seeking  always  to  perfect  himself  in 
holiness,  he  wrote  verse  as  a  means  of  serving 
God,  and  The  Day  of  Doom,  like  his  other  works, 
was  designed  primarily  for  edification.  Its  pic- 
ture of  the  judgment  day  has  occasional  dramatic 
flashes  and  in  a  few  passages'  hints  at  a  real  if 
undeveloped  poetic  power.  For  the  most  part  it 
is  versified  theology,  obviously  calculated  to  ap- 
peal to  untutored  readers.  The  ballad  meter, 
which  seems  inappropriate  to  the  theme,  had  at 
least  the  merit  of  being  familiar  to  colonists 
who  would  have  been  unlikely  to  respond  to  more 
subtle  measures.  In  a  few  lines  of  the  poem  it- 
self, however,  and  certainly  in  bits  of  his  auto- 
biographic writing,  Wigglesworth  shows  imag- 
ination and  poetic  sensitiveness,  and  it  is  prob- 
able that  in  a  more  cultured  environment  and 
less  obsessed  by  zeal  for  pious  instruction,  he 
might  have  achieved  some  genuine  poetry.  He 
had  definite  artistic  desires,  but  his  surround- 
ings and  his  belief  that  he  must  teach  as  he  wrote 
stifled  his  powers.  Whatever  its  defects,  The 
Day  of  Doom  had  great  and  lasting  popularity. 
The  edition  of  Cambridge,  1701,  was  labeled  as 
the  fifth.  Presumably,  then,  there  were  four 
editions  in  Massachusetts  before  1701 ;  certain- 


194 


Wight 

ly  there  were  English  editions  in  1666  and  1673. 
It  was  reissued  in  171 1,  1715,  1751,  1774.  Y717> 
181 1,  1828,  1867,  and  1929,  and  is  said  to  have 
been  printed  and  sold  as  a  ballad  sheet  in  colonial 
New  England.  Much  has  been  said  of  the  in- 
humanly cruel  theology  displayed  in  the  book, 
but  compared  with  the  doctrines  held  by  others, 
Puritans  and  non-Puritans,  in  his  time,  Wig- 
glesworth's  are  in  no  way  exceptional ;  the  pres- 
entation of  them  in  dramatic  form  has  given 
them  unenviable  notoriety.  Another  example  of 
edificatory  verse,  Meat  out  of  the  Eater  or  Medi- 
tations Concerning  the  Necessity,  End,  and 
Usefulness  of  Afflictions  Unto  Gods  Children, 
was  printed  in  1669,  had  a  fourth  edition  in 
1689,  and  at  least  two  later  printings;  "God's 
Controversy  with  New-England,"  first  printed 
in  Proceedings  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical 
Society  (1  ser.,  XII,  1873),  is  competent  versi- 
fying about  the  sins  of  the  colonists.  Other  bits 
of  his  writing  have  been  printed  since  his  death 
and  are  listed  in  Sibley's  bibliography. 

[The  New  Eng.  Hist.  Geneal.  Soc.  owns  sermon 
notes  by  Wigglesworth  ;  a  book  of  exercises  kept  by  him 
in  college,  containing  his  Commencement  part  and  two 
orations  on  eloquence  ;  as  well  as  two  volumes  of  his 
manuscript  notes,  mostly  in  shorthand.  The  Mass. 
Hist.  Soc.  owns  a  manuscript  book  of  autobiographic 
notes  and  records  of  religious  experiences.  The  best 
biography  is  J.  W.  Dean,  Memoir  of  Rev.  Michael  Wig- 
glesworth (2nd  ed.,  1871),  which  contains  Wiggles- 
worth's  account  of  his  early  years  and  extracts  from 
his  otherwise  unpublished  work,  lists  his  library,  and 
supplies  a  documented  narrative  of  his  life.  J.  L. 
Sibley,  Biog.  Sketches  of  Grads.  of  Harvard  Univ. 
(1873),  I,  259-86,  contains  a  good  brief  biography,  a 
bibliography,  and  a  list  of  authorities  on  Wiggles- 
worth.  These  two  books  supply  references  to  the  other 
sources  of  information.  The  best  study  of  Wiggles- 
worth  as  a  writer  is  F.  O.  Matthiessen,  "Michael  Wig- 
glesworth, A  Puritan  Artist,"  Nczv  Eng.  Quart.  (Oct. 
1928).  See  also  K.  B.  Murdock,  "Introduction,"  in  the 
1929  edition  of  The  Day  of  Doom  ;  M.  C.  Tyler,  A  Hist, 
of  Am.  Lit.  during  the  Colonial  Time  (1878),  II,  23- 
35  ;  and  D.  P.  Corey.  The  Hist,  of  Maiden  (1899).  On 
the  bibliography  of  The  Day  of  Doom,  see  S.  A.  Green, 
in  Proc.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc,  2  ser.  IX  (1895)  ;  and  M.  B. 
Jones  in  Proc.  Am.  Antiquarian  Soc,  n.s.  XXXIX 
(1930).]  K.B.M. 

WIGHT,  FREDERICK  COIT  (Apr.  30, 
1859-Dec.  23,  1933),  musician,  composer,  was 
born  in  New  London,  Conn.,  the  son  of  David 
and  Nancy  (Coit)  Wight.  His  grandfather, 
John  Wight,  was  a  Scotch  bandmaster  of  the 
Coldstream  Guards  of  London  who  moved  to 
Paris,  where  he  played  at  the  Opera  Comique 
and  married  a  French  opera  singer,  and  then 
emigrated  to  America  and  settled  in  Providence, 
R.  I.  His  father  was  prominent  in  New  London 
for  many  years  as  an  orchestra  conductor  and 
dancing  master.  After  Wight  had  received  his 
elementary  education  at  the  Coit  Street  School, 
his  father  decided  that  he  would  make  a  musi- 
cian of  him  instead  of  allowing  him  to  attend  the 


Wight 


local  high  school.  Accordingly,  he  laid  out  a 
schedule  of  six  hours  of  music  study  daily,  and 
in  addition  to  his  own  teaching  procured  instruc- 
tion for  his  son  under  such  local  musicians  as 
Alfred  H.  Chappell,  Frederick  Sweetser,  and 
Charles  S.  Elliott.  For  five  years  the  boy  jour- 
neyed once  a  week  to  Providence  for  lessons  with 
David  Wallace  Reeves,  a  prominent  band  leader 
of  the  time.  From  Reeves  he  learned  to  com- 
pose for  band,  and  received  thorough  instruction 
in  harmony  and  composition.  In  addition  to  his 
studies  he  conducted  an  orchestra  in  New  Lon- 
don and  played  the  piano  for  his  father's  dancing 
school.  In  1876  he  enlisted  in  the  3rd  Regiment 
of  the  Connecticut  National  Guard  and  became 
a  member  of  its  band.  The  organization  attend- 
ed the  Centennial  Exhibition  at  Philadelphia, 
marched  in  the  Evacuation  Parade  in  New  York, 
and  took  part  in  President  Harrison's  inaugura- 
tion in  Washington.  Wight  was  married  on  Oct. 
29,  1885,  to  Ora  Belle  Brown,  daughter  of  Dr. 
William  Leonard  Marcy  Brown.  There  was  one 
child,  a  daughter. 

As  a  composer  Wight  was  distinguished  prin- 
cipally for  his  marches,  the  first  of  which  was 
introduced  by  his  teacher,  D.  W.  Reeves,  during 
a  concert  tour  of  New  England.  Many  were 
written  in  honor  of  presidents  of  the  United 
States — McKinley,  Wilson,  Coolidge,  Harding, 
and  others.  During  McKinley's  administration 
Wight  was  a  guest  of  honor  at  a  concert  of  his 
compositions  given  in  Washington  for  the  bene- 
fit of  those  who  had  suffered  from  the  loss  of  the 
Maine.  Two  of  Wight's  marches  were  included 
on  the  official  program  at  the  inauguration  of 
Theodore  Roosevelt.  Of  his  one  hundred  and 
fifty  compositions,  the  most  ambitious  was  a 
comic  opera,  A  Venetian  Romance,  produced  at 
the  Knickerbocker  Theatre,  New  York,  by  the 
Frank  Perley  Opera  Company  in  1903 ;  in  re- 
vised form  it  was  later  presented  at  the  Stude- 
baker  Theatre,  Chicago,  as  The  Girl  and  the 
Bandit.  Another  comic  opera  was  The  Temple 
of  Hymen.  In  his  last  years  Wight  suffered  from 
reduced  finances  and  was  aided  by  the  New  Lon- 
don Rotary  Club,  for  whose  weekly  luncheons 
he  played  the  piano.  He  was  active  until  his  last 
years.  His  last  composition,  written  in  1930,  was 
the  "General  Payne  March,"  dedicated  to  Brig- 
adier-General Morris  B.  Payne  of  the  Connecti- 
cut National  Guard. 

[See  W.  W.  Wight,  The  Wights,  A  Record  of  Thomas 
Wight  of  Dcdham  (1890);  obituaries  in  Day  (New 
London),  Dec.  23,  and  N.  Y.  Times  and  N.  Y.  Herald 
Tribune,  Dec.  24,  1933.  The  date  of  birth  is  from  New 
London  records. I  J.  T.  H. 

WIGHT,  PETER  BONNETT  (Aug.  1,  1838- 
Sept,  8,  1925),  architect,  was  born  in  New  York 


195 


Wight 

City,  the  son  of  Amherst  and  Joanna  G.  (San- 
derson) Wight,  and  a  descendant  of  Thomas 
Wight  who  came  to  Dedham,  Mass.,  in  1635. 
Peter  was  educated  in  the  New  York  public 
schools  and  at  the  Free  Academy,  now  the  Col- 
lege of  the  City  of  New  York,  where  he  was 
graduated  in  1855  with  the  degree  of  B.A.  Dur- 
ing his  college  course  he  read  works  on  archi- 
tecture and  the  writings  of  John  Ruskin ;  he  also 
specialized  in  drawing,  in  which  he  was  always 
unusually  proficient  even  for  an  architect.  A 
postgraduate  year  spent  in  drawing  and  a  year 
as  a  student  draftsman  in  an  architect's  office 
completed  his  architectural  training.  In  1858, 
persuaded  by  a  family  friend,  Josiah  L.  James, 
he  went  to  Chicago  and  occupied  space  as  an  in- 
dependent architect  in  the  office  of  Carter  & 
Bauer.  He  remodeled  the  Commercial  College 
building,  but  work  became  scarce  and  in  1859 
he  returned  to  New  York. 

During  the  next  three  years  he  studied  in  the 
Astor  Library,  built  a  bank  in  Middletown,  and 
a  hospital  for  the  insane  in  Binghamton.  At  the 
outbreak  of  the  Civil  War  he  devoted  himself 
for  six  months  to  the  study  of  military  engineer- 
ing and  drill.  In  1862  he  was  architect  for  the 
United  States  Sanitary  Commission  and  he  built 
the  first  field  hospital  for  the  government,  in 
Washington;  but  his  application  for  a  commis- 
sion in  the  army,  indorsed  by  General  Burnside, 
was  denied.  In  1862  he  won  his  first  and  most 
important  competition,  and  as  a  result,  though 
an  unknown  youth,  had  the  satisfaction  of  plan- 
ning and  constructing  a  building  for  the  National 
Academy  of  Design.  Its  faqades,  beautifully  pro- 
portioned and  detailed,  were  in  the  Italian  phase 
of  the  Gothic  style,  so  passionately  praised  by 
Ruskin.  The  building  stood  at  Fourth  Avenue 
and  Twenty-third  Street,  New  York  City.  Sub- 
sequently, his  plans  were  chosen  for  the  Brook- 
lyn Mercantile  Library  building  and  he  was  com- 
missioned to  design  the  Yale  School  of  Fine  Arts. 
From  1863  to  1868  he  was  associated  in  archi- 
tectural practice  with  Russell  Sturgis  \_q.v.~\. 

The  news  of  the  great  fire  and  an  invitation 
from  Asher  Carter,  his  old  office  companion,  led 
Wight  to  go  to  Chicago  in  December  1871.  The 
firm  of  Carter,  Drake  &  Wight  was  formed, 
which  became  Drake  &  Wight  on  the  death,  two 
years  later,  of  Carter  (see  Wight's  article  on 
Asher  Carter  in  the  Western  Architect,  January 
1925).  A  great  deal  of  work  was  done  in  this 
office,  commercial  and  domestic  rather  than  mon- 
umental, and  it  became  a  training  ground  for 
many  young  architects,  among  them  Daniel  H. 
Burnham  and  John  W.  Root.  Wight  centered 
his    activities   on    fire-proof   construction,   and 


Wignell 

from  1881  to  1891  gave  up  the  practice  of  archi- 
tecture to  devote  himself  to  the  development  of 
terra-cotta  structural  tile.  He  claimed  to  have 
been  the  inventor  and  first  user  of  the  "grill 
foundation,"  i.e.,  slabs  composed  of  crossed  iron 
rails  imbedded  in  concrete,  although  John  W. 
Root  [q.v.~\  is  generally  regarded  as  the  inventor. 
He  resumed  practice  and  did  some  not  very  im- 
portant work  in  connection  with  the  World's 
Columbian  Exposition  of  1893,  but  after  1895 
devoted  himself  to  the  passage  of  a  law  in  the 
state  of  Illinois  requiring  the  examination,  li- 
censing, and  registration  of  architects.  This 
law,  enacted  in  1897,  was  the  first  of  its  kind 
in  America.  Wight  was  elected  secretary  and 
treasurer  of  the  board  of  examiners  created  by 
this  act,  and  held  this  position  until  he  retired 
from  professional  activity  in  1914.  He  contrib- 
uted numerous  articles  to  the  Architectural  Rec- 
ord and  the  Inland  Architect,  and  was  active  in 
the  work  of  the  American  Institute  of  Architects, 
serving  as  secretary  in  1869-71,  and  as  president 
and  secretary  on  several  occasions  of  the  Chi- 
cago chapter  of  the  Institute.  He  was  married 
twice:  first,  Oct.  13,  1864,  in  New  York,  to 
Mary  Frances  Hoagland;  second,  Nov.  23,  1882, 
at  Norwich,  England,  to  Marion,  daughter  of 
William  Olney.  By  his  first  wife  he  had  two 
daughters.  On  his  eightieth  birthday  he  moved 
to  Pasadena,  Cal.,  where  he  died. 

[Sources  include,  W.  W.  Wight,  The  Wights  (1890)  ; 
Am.  Architect,  Nov.  5,  1925  ;  Western  Architect,  Oct. 
1925  ;  Jour.  Am.  Institute  of  Architecture,  Oct.  1925  ; 
Who's  Who  in  America,  1918-19;  coll.  of  original 
drawings  in  Burnham  Lib.,  Art  Institute,  Chicago  ;  per- 
sonal acquaintance.  The  name  of  Wight's  second  wife 
is  spelled  "Olney"  in  The  Wights,  and  "Onley"  in  Who's 
Who  in  America.]  "p  g  "p. 

WIGNELL,  THOMAS  (c.  1753-Feb.  21, 
1803),  comedian,  theatrical  manager,  was  the 
son  of  J.  Wignell,  an  inferior  actor  in  Garrick's 
company  (Wood,  post,  and  The  Thespian  Dic- 
tionary, London,  1802).  He  was  apprenticed  to 
the  business  of  seal  cutting,  but  abandoned  it  for 
his  father's  vocation.  In  the  fall  of  1774  he  was 
sent  out  to  join  the  American  Company  by  his 
cousin,  the  actor  Lewis  Hallam  [g.z'.],  who  was 
then  in  England.  On  the  day  after  his  arrival, 
information  was  received  that  the  Continental 
Congress  had  recommended  the  cessation  of  all 
public  amusements.  Consequently,  without  ap- 
pearing on  the  American  stage,  he  accompanied 
his  fellow-actors  to  Jamaica,  where  he  followed 
his  profession  for  ten  years.  Apparently  his  first 
performance  in  America  occurred  on  Nov.  21, 
1785,  when  the  company  resumed  its  activities 
in  New  York. 
Wignell  was  the  best  comedian  seen  in  Amer- 


I96 


Wignell 

ica  up  to  that  time,  and  he  quickly  became  a  fa- 
vorite. Although  his  powers  were  limited,  he 
was  an  actor  of  intelligence  and  taste.  William 
Dunlap  [q.r.],  who  knew  him  well,  says:  "His 
comedy  was  luxuriant  in  humour,  but  always 
faithful  to  his  author.  He  was  a  comic  actor,  not 
a  buffoon"  (post,  pp.  81-82).  With  his  short, 
athletic  figure,  stooping  shoulders,  and  bow  legs, 
he  was  well  qualified  physically  for  low  comedy, 
but  he  was  also  competent  in  high  comedy,  Jo- 
seph Surface  in  The  School  for  Scandal  being 
one  of  his  most  popular  characters.  He  had  aspi- 
rations toward  membership  in  the  firm  of  Hal- 
lam  and  Henry,  the  managers  of  the  company, 
but  John  Henry  [q.v.~\,  a  rival  comedian,  vigor- 
ously opposed  his  rise  to  power.  When  Wignell 
discovered  that  Hallam,  though  outwardly  his 
friend,  was  also  thwarting  his  aims,  he  resigned 
his  position  in  the  spring  of  1791  and  entered  into 
partnership  with  Alexander  Reinagle  [q.z>.],  a 
prominent  musician  of  Philadelphia,  preparatory 
to  forming  an  organization  of  his  own.  Arrange- 
ments were  made  for  them  to  occupy  a  theatre 
about  to  be  built  in  Chestnut  Street,  Philadelphia, 
and  Wignell  went  to  England  to  secure  players. 
On  his  return  in  1793,  bringing  with  him  the 
best  group  of  actors  America  had  yet  seen,  he 
found  awaiting  his  occupancy  the  new  Chestnut 
Street  Theatre,  which  far  surpassed  in  size  and 
splendor  every  other  house  in  the  United  States. 
After  a  delay  caused  by  yellow  fever,  it  was 
opened  on  Feb.  17,  1794.  The  first  season  was 
a  distinguished  one,  the  acting,  music,  and  scenic 
effects  all  being  superior  to  those  of  the  old 
American  Company,  which  was  now  centering 
its  efforts  on  New  York.  To  extend  their  do- 
main, Wignell  and  Reinagle  built  a  theatre  in 
Baltimore  in  1794,  and  there  a  preliminary  sea- 
son was  annually  conducted.  In  1796  Wignell 
again  went  to  England  for  reinforcements  and 
engaged,  among  others,  Ann  Brunton  Merry  and 
Thomas  Abthorpe  Cooper  [qq.v.].  The  next  sev- 
eral seasons  at  Philadelphia  were  the  most  bril- 
liant of  their  time.  In  1797  Wignell  and  Reinagle 
conducted  a  notable  summer  campaign  in  New 
York,  but  they  lost  heavily,  and  the  experiment 
was  not  repeated.  Summer  tours,  however,  were 
made  to  other  cities,  including  Washington, 
where  Wignell  opened  the  town's  first  theatre  in 
1800.  But  in  spite  of  the  continuous  activity  of 
the  company,  the  directors  were  often  in  financial 
difficulties,  partly  because  they  heavily  stressed 
the  very  expensive  business  of  operatic  produc- 
tion. 

On  Jan.  1,  1803,  Wignell  married  Mrs.  Merry, 
who  had  been  a  widow  for  some  years.  Seven 
weeks  later  he  died  of  infection  resulting  from  a 


Wikoff 

blood-letting  operation.  He  is  said  to  have  been 
about  fifty  years  old  (Ireland,  post,  I,  70).  He 
was  accorded  an  imposing  funeral  by  his  fellow- 
townsmen,  who  esteemed  him  as  a  generous  and 
honorable  man. 

[See  J.  N.  Ireland,  Records  of  the  N.  Y.  Stage,  vol. 
I  (1866)  ;  William  Dunlap,  A  Hist,  of  the  Am.  Theatre 
(1832);  W.  B.  Wood,  Personal  Recollections  of  the 
Stage  (1855);  Charles  Durang,  "The  Phila.  Stage," 
Phila.  Dispatch,  May  7,  1854-1860,  of  which  there  are 
files  at  the  Univ.  of  Pa.,  Hist.  Soc.  of  Pa.,  and  Harvard 
Univ. ;  John  Bernard,  Retrospections  of  America 
(1887)  ;  G.  O.  Seilhamer,  Hist,  of  the  Am.  Theatre, 
vols.  II— III  (1889-91)  ;  G.  C.  D.  Odell,  Annals  of  the 
N.  Y.  Stage,  vols.  I — II  (1927)  ;  obituary  in  General  Ad- 
vertiser (Phila.),  Feb.  22,  1803.]  O.  S.  C. 

WIKOFF,  HENRY  (c.  1813-May  2,  1884), 
author  and  adventurer,  was  of  dubious  origins. 
The  date  of  his  birth,  as  well  as  his  paternity, 
was  carefully  and  successfully  concealed.  He 
was  said  to  be  the  son  of  Henry  Wikoff,  a  wealthy 
physician  of  Philadelphia,  but  a  manuscript 
diary  preserved  in  the  library  of  Union  College 
suggests  that  he  was  the  son  of  S.  P.  Weth- 
erill,  who  was  later  his  guardian.  In  1823  he  was 
sent  to  the  academy  at  Princeton,  N.  J.,  kept  by 
Rev.  Robert  Baird,  and  in  September  1827  en- 
tered Yale  College.  Dismissed  near  the  close  of 
his  third  year  for  a  student  prank,  he  went  to 
Union  College,  where  he  was  graduated  in  1832. 
Early  in  his  life  he  inherited  a  considerable  for- 
tune which  maintained  him  in  comfortable  cir- 
cumstances throughout  a  long  and  varied  career. 
He  became  a  student  in  the  law  office  of  Joseph 
R.  Ingersoll  in  Philadelphia  in  1831  and  despite 
the  fact  that  he  spent  most  of  the  next  three  years 
in  extensive  travels  in  many  parts  of  the  Eastern 
and  Middle  Western  states,  he  was  admitted  to 
the  Pennsylvania  bar  in  June  1834. 

He  at  once  departed  upon  a  grand  tour  of  Eu- 
rope and  during  the  six  years  following  visited 
France,  England,  Germany,  Russia,  Greece,  and 
Italy.  He  was  a  man  of  ready  wit,  deep  intelV  • 
gence,  and  captivating  manners.  Armed  with 
the  proper  introductions,  he  soon  penetrated  the 
most  exclusive  and  interesting  circles  of  Euro- 
pean society.  It  was  said  that  no  American  of 
the  period  knew  so  many  European  notables  as 
Wikoff.  His  interests  were  many — politics,  di- 
plomacy, journalism,  the  theatre,  literature — so 
that  he  never  found  the  time  to  concentrate  upon 
any  one  of  them.  His  energies  were  dissipated 
and  he  was  regarded  as  an  elegant  and  accom- 
plished dilettante.  In  1836  he  was  made  an  at- 
tache of  the  United  States  legation  in  London. 
During  the  following  year  he  was  in  Paris  and 
secured  many  of  the  personal  effects  of  Napo- 
leon I  to  take  back  to  Joseph  Bonaparte  in  Lon- 
don. He  subsequently  received  a  decoration  from 


197 


Wikoff 

the  queen  of  Spain ;  hence  arose  the  title  of 
"Chevalier"  by  which  he  was  known  to  many 
Americans.  When  one  of  his  theatrical  friends 
who  had  contracted  to  bring-  the  celebrated  dancer 
Fanny  Elssler  to  America  died,  Wikoff,  who 
had  been  assisting  him  in  the  negotiations,  as- 
sumed the  responsibility  and  contributed  greatly 
to  the  success  of  her  American  tour  in  1840. 

During  the  next  decade  he  became  somewhat 
of  a  transatlantic  commuter,  visiting  France  and 
England  yearly  and  maintaining  his  social  and 
political  contacts.  He  was  said  by  persons  of  dis- 
cernment to  have  known  more  important  unwrit- 
ten political  history  than  any  other  person  of  his 
time.  For  a  short  time  in  1849  he  was  editor  of 
the  Democratic  Review,  the  same  year  he  pub- 
lished Napoleon  Louis  Bonaparte,  First  Presi- 
dent of  France,  an  illuminating  book  on  Louis 
Napoleon,  of  whom  he  was  an  ardent  partisan  and 
a  devoted  friend.  While  in  England  in  1850  he 
was  persuaded  by  Lord  Palmerston  to  become  an 
agent  of  the  British  Foreign  Office.  During  the 
next  year  Wikoff  was  successful  in  modifying 
the  anti-British  tone  of  two  important  Parisian 
newspapers :  La  Presse  and  Le  Steele.  Beyond 
this,  he  tried  to  promote  a  fraternal  alliance  be- 
tween the  United  States  and  Great  Britain.  He 
was  zealous  and  indiscreet,  so  that  after  a  year 
Palmerston  gave  up  "the  Yankee  diplomat." 

In  185 1  Wikoff  was  about  to  marry  Jane  C. 
Gamble,  an  American  heiress  resident  in  Lon- 
don. The  day  before  the  wedding  she  left  Lon- 
don and  went  to  Genoa,  where  Wikoff  found  her. 
They  were  reconciled ;  the  lady  again  changed 
her  mind;  and  "the  Chevalier"  attempted  a 
friendly  abduction.  His  fiancee  appealed  to  the 
British  consul,  who  had  Wikoff  arrested  and 
thrown  into  jail.  The  lady  repented  and  urged 
clemency,  but  the  consul,  probably  acting  upon 
instructions  from  London,  pressed  the  prosecu- 
tion, which  resulted  in  a  sentence  of  imprison- 
ment. British  influence  defeated  all  moves 
toward  a  pardon  and  Wikoff  finally  spent  more 
than  fifteen  months  in  a  common  jail  in  Genoa. 
These  experiences  produced  his  best-known 
book:  My  Courtship  and  Its  Consequences 
(1855).  The  same  theme  was  further  elaborated 
in   The  Adventures  of  a  Roving  Diplomatist 

(1857). 

He  engaged  in  a  pamphlet  dispute  with  Pal- 
merston in  1861,  on  the  question  of  American 
slavery,  publishing  Secession,  and  Its  Causes,  in 
a  Letter  to  Viscount  Palmerston,  and  issued 
Memoir  of  Gincvra  Guerrabella,  an  account  of 
the  actress  Genevieve  Ward  [q.v.],  in  1863.  His 
most  important  literary  production,  The  Remi- 
niscences  of   an   Idler    (1880),    is    filled   with 


19 


Wilbur 

charming  anecdotes  and  many  profound  obser- 
vations ;  it  covers  his  career  up  to  1840.  Failing 
health  prevented  the  completion  of  his  memoirs ; 
he  died  of  paralysis  at  Brighton,  England,  in 
1884. 

[Works  cited  above ;  N.  Y.  Times,  and  N.  Y .  Trib- 
une, May  3,  1884;  manuscript  records  at  Yale  Univer- 
sity and  Union  College.]  F.  M. 

WILBUR,  CRESSY  LIVINGSTON  (Mar. 
16,  1865-Aug.  9,  1928),  vital  statistician,  was 
born  in  Hillsdale,  Mich.,  the  son  of  Rodney  G. 
Wilbur  and  Frances  (Cressy)  Wilbur  and  a  de- 
scendant of  Samuel  Wilbur  [q.v.~\.  He  was  edu- 
cated in  the  public  schools  of  his  native  city  and 
at  Hillsdale  College,  where  he  received  the  de- 
grees of  Ph.B.  in  1886,  and  Ph.M.  in  1889.  He 
commenced  the  study  of  medicine  at  the  Univer- 
sity of  Michigan,  1888-89,  but  completed  his 
training  at  Bellevue  Hospital  Medical  College 
(New  York  University)  in  1890.  His  public 
health  career  began  in  1893,  when  he  was  ap- 
pointed chief  of  the  Division  of  Vital  Statistics 
of  the  Michigan  State  Department  of  Health. 
Although  the  United  States  was  first  among  the 
civilized  nations  of  the  world  to  provide  for  a 
periodic  enumeration  of  its  population,  it  lagged 
shamefully  in  recognizing  the  need  of  recording 
the  births  and  deaths  occurring  within  its  boun- 
daries. In  1880,  ninety  years  after  the  first  fed- 
eral census  was  taken,  the  registration  of  deaths 
was  reasonably  complete  in  only  two  states — 
Massachusetts  and  New  Jersey,  and  in  a  num- 
ber of  individual  cities  in  other  states.  It  was 
fortunate  for  the  cause  of  public  health  that,  even 
as  a  state  official,  Wilbur  considered  the  na- 
tional and  not  merely  the  local  aspects  of  the 
problem.  Only  three  years  after  his  Michigan 
appointment,  before  the  American  Public  Health 
Association,  he  urged  the  establishment  of  a  per- 
manent census  bureau  with  a  division  of  vital 
statistics  as  a  means  for  promoting  efficient  reg- 
istration in  all  the  states  of  the  Union. 

In  1901  he  was  appointed  expert  special  agent 
in  charge  of  extension  of  the  registration  area. 
In  1902  the  Census  Bureau  was  made  a  perma- 
nent office,  and  in  1906  Wilbur  became  its  chief 
statistician  for  vital  statistics.  His  persistent, 
intelligent,  and  uncompromising  efforts  toward 
the  upbuilding  of  a  national  system  of  registra- 
tion were  undeterred  by  the  indifference  of  the 
general  public,  the  medical  profession,  and  what 
was  even  harder  to  bear — the  frequent  lack  of 
interest  and  understanding  in  official  circles. 
With  the  appointment  of  a  new  director  of  the 
census  in  1914  Wilbur  resigned.  He  was  then 
invited  to  take  charge  of  the  Division  of  Vital 
Statistics  of  the  New  York  State  Department  of 

8 


Wilb 


ur 


Wilbur 


Health.  In  the  course  of  a  brief  two-year  period, 
he  perfected  the  registration  of  births  and  deaths, 
and  laid  the  foundation  for  scientifically  sound 
analyses  of  the  vital  statistics  of  the  state.  In 
1916  his  health  broke  down,  and  he  was  obliged 
to  retire.  After  years  of  invalidism  he  died  in  a 
sanitarium  in  Utica,  N.  Y.  He  knew  that  he 
would  not  live  to  see  the  fruition  of  his  labors, 
but  he  had  given  unstintingly  to  his  chosen  cause 
all  of  his  uncommon  abilities  and,  almost  literally, 
his  life.  His  wife,  Blanche  M.  Mead  of  Hastings, 
Mich.,  to  whom  he  had  been  married  on  June  30, 
1891,  one  son,  and  two  daughters  survived  him. 

Wilbur's  outstanding  contribution  to  Ameri- 
can vital  statistics  was  the  fostering  of  a  model 
vital  statistics  law  that  led  to  the  establishment 
of  uniform  and  effective  registration  in  all  states. 
He  assisted  in  the  preparation  of  the  second  re- 
vision of  the  Manual  of  the  International  List  of 
Causes  of  Death  (1909),  and  was  responsible 
for  the  official  English  text  of  this  revision 
(1911).  Besides  numerous  official  reports,  state 
and  federal,  he  was  the  author  of  two  score  of 
published  papers,  mainly  on  the  subject  of  regis- 
tration (see  Annals  of  the  American  Academy  of 
Political  and  Social  Science,  March  191 1,  and 
Quarterly  Publications  of  the  American  Statis- 
tical Association,  December  1907).  He  was  a 
member  of  the  American  Public  Health  Associa- 
tion, the  American  Medical  Association,  the 
American  Statistical  Association,  the  Interna- 
tional Statistical  Institute,  and  was  a  Fellow  of 
the  Royal  Statistical  Society  of  England.  He 
was  official  delegate  of  the  Census  Bureau  to 
the  International  Congress  of  Tuberculosis  held 
in  Washington  in  1908,  and  served  as  vice-presi- 
dent at  the  second  decennial  meeting  of  the  inter- 
national commission  for  the  revision  of  the  Man- 
ual of  Causes  of  Death  held  in  Paris  in  1909,  at 
which  he  was  the  principal  representative  of  the 
United  States. 

[Personal  communications  from  Prof.  Walter  F. 
Willcox,  Miss  Fanny  P.  Lamson,  secretary  of  Dr.  Wil- 
bur in  the  Census  Bureau,  and  Mr.  George  H.  Van 
Buren,  general  supervisor  of  the  Metropolitan  Life  In- 
surance Company,  and  a  former  associate  of  Dr.  Wil- 
bur in  the  Census  Bureau  ;  J.  R.  Wilbor,  The  Wildbores 
in  America  (1907);  Who's  Who  in  America,  1918- 
19;  W.  H.  Guilfoy,  "Past  and  Future  Development  of 
Vital  Statistics  in  the  United  States:  III,  Cressy  L. 
Wilbur,"  Jour,  of  Am.  Statistical  Asso.,  Sept.  1926; 
Lancet  (London),  Sept.  15,  1928;  N.  Y.  Times,  Aug. 
11,  1928.]  J.V.  D-P. 

WILBUR,  HERVEY  BACKUS  (Aug.  18, 
1820-May  1,  1883),  pioneer  educator  of  the  fee- 
ble-minded, was  born  in  Wendell,  Franklin 
County,  Mass.,  the  son  of  Hervey  Wilbur,  a 
Congregational  clergyman,  and  Ann  (Toppan) 
Wilbur  and  a  descendant  of  Samuel  Wilbur 
[q.v.'].     He  was  graduated  from  Newburyport 


High  School,  attended  Dartmouth  College  from 
1834  to  1836,  and  then  Amherst  College,  where 
he  received  the  degree  of  B.A.  in  1838  and  that 
of  A.M.  in  1841.  After  a  trial  of  school  teach- 
ing and  civil  engineering  he  took  up  the  study  of 
medicine  at  the  Berkshire  Medical  Institution, 
Pittsfield,  Mass.,  where  he  was  graduated  in 
1843.  He  began  to  practise  in  Lowell,  later  mov- 
ing to  Dana  and  thence  to  Barre.  He  early  be- 
came impressed  by  the  reported  accounts  of  the 
work  of  Dr.  Edouard  Seguin  [g.i\]  in  the  in- 
struction of  feeble-minded  children.  Following 
the  lead  of  Dr.  Seguin  he  took  into  his  home  in 
Barre  in  1848  a  group  of  children  of  defective 
mentality,  and  thus  organized  the  first  school  for 
this  class  of  unfortunates  in  the  United  States. 
Except  for  the  published  accounts  of  the  Seguin 
experiment  there  was  no  literature  in  any  lan- 
guage dealing  with  the  education  of  the  feeble- 
minded, and  Wilbur  was  compelled  to  develop 
a  system  of  teaching  out  of  his  experience  with 
this  limited  material.  In  his  early  work  he  was 
at  the  same  time  physician,  teacher,  and  gym- 
nastic trainer  for  his  little  group.  His  success 
was  remarkable.  He  was  able  to  develop  marked 
improvement  in  intellects  so  feeble  as  to  seem 
beyond  any  aid.  The  "Institute  for  Idiots,"  thus 
established  at  Barre,  drew  the  attention  of  Dr. 
Frederick  F.  Backus,  of  Rochester,  N.  Y.,  a  mem- 
ber of  the  state  legislature  who  in  185 1  pre- 
vailed upon  that  body  to  establish  an  experi- 
mental school  for  the  feeble-minded  at  Albany, 
N.  Y.,  with  Wilbur  in  charge.  This  institution 
was  transferred  to  Syracuse  in  1854  and  became 
the  New  York  State  Asylum  for  Idiots. 

For  the  remainder  of  his  life  Wilbur  devoted 
himself  to  the  welfare  of  this  institution,  and  his 
system  of  training  and  instruction  became  the 
basis  for  that  adopted  by  every  similar  institu- 
tion not  only  in  the  United  States  but  also  in  Can- 
ada and  in  many  European  countries.  His  inter- 
est in  the  feeble-minded  led  to  a  similar  interest 
in  the  insane,  in  whose  behalf  he  was  a  constant 
advocate  before  the  state  legislature.  He  visited 
various  asylums  in  the  United  States,  studied 
British  asylums  and  became  an  authority  on  the 
care  of  the  insane.  He  was  a  caustic  critic  of 
prevailing  methods.  The  greater  part  of  his  pro- 
fessional career  was  marked  by  controversy  over 
asylum  management  and  the  care  of  inmates. 
His  writings  consist  mainly  of  journal  articles 
and  pamphlets  dealing  with  the  welfare  of  the 
feeble-minded  and  the  insane.  Notable  are  a 
pamphlet  on  Aphasia  (1867)  and  the  Report  on 
the  Management  of  the  Insane  in  Great  Britain 
(1876).  He  participated  in  the  founding  of 
Syracuse  University,  and  served  as  lecturer  on 


199 


Wilbur 


Wilbur 


mental  diseases.  He  was  an  active  member  and 
one-time  president  of  the  National  Association 
for  the  Protection  of  the  Insane  and  the  Preven- 
tion of  Insanity. 

The  qualities  which  made  possible  the  success 
of  his  great  work  were  an  indomitable  will,  un- 
limited patience,  and  a  genuine  pity  for  his  un- 
fortunate charges.  In  their  interest  and  for  a 
cause  that  was  unpopular  he  was  the  best  of 
fighters.  He  was  assisted  by  an  attractive  per- 
sonality and  rich  social  qualities.  He  was  mar- 
ried on  May  12,  1847,  to  Harriet  Holden  of 
Barre,  Mass.,  who  died  in  1870.  On  Aug.  13, 
1874,  he  was  married  to  Emily  Petheram  of 
Skaneateles,  N.  Y.,  who,  with  the  two  sons  of 
his  earlier  marriage,  and  two  sons  of  the  later, 
survived  him  at  the  time  of  his  sudden  death  at 
Syracuse. 

[Amherst  Coll.,  Biog.  Records  (1927)  ;  H.  A.  Kelly, 
W.  L.  Burrage,  Am.  Medic.  Biogs.  (1920)  ;  J.  R.  Wil- 
bor  and  B.  F.  Wilbour,  The  Wildbores  in  America 
('933)  ;  W.  W.  Godding,  biographical  article  in  Jour, 
of  Nervous  and  Mental  Disease,  Oct.  1883  ;  Jour.  Am. 
Medic.  Asso.,  Sept.  1,  1883;  Archives  of  Med.,  June 
1883  ;  Evening  Herald  (Syracuse,  N.  Y.),  May  1,  1883.] 

J.  M.  P. 

WILBUR,  JOHN  (June  17,  1774-May  1, 
1856),  Quaker  preacher,  leader  of  the  "Wilbur- 
ites"  in  New  England,  was  born  at  Hopkinton, 
R.  I.,  a  descendant  of  Samuel  Wilbur  \_q.v.~\  and 
the  son  of  Thomas  and  Mary  (Hoxie)  Wilbur. 
He  received  a  common-school  education  and  for 
several  years  taught  in  the  public  schools  of 
Rhode  Island.  On  Oct.  17,  1793,  he  was  mar- 
ried to  Lydia  Collins  of  Stonington,  Conn.  Re- 
ligion of  the  type  in  which  he  was  bred  by  his 
pious  parents  soon  became  the  supreme  interest 
of  his  life.  He  was  recorded  a  minister  of  the 
Society  of  Friends  in  18 12,  and  became  an  ef- 
fective preacher  of  the  inspirational  or  prophetic 
type.  He  was  known  for  his  rugged  moral  integ- 
rity and  for  his  unswerving  convictions. 

Wilbur  spent  the  years  1831-33  in  an  eventful 
preaching  tour  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland, 
where  he  became  the  zealous  opponent  of  the 
evangelical  movement,  which,  under  the  leader- 
ship of  Joseph  John  Gurney  ( 1788-1847) ,  broth- 
er of  Elizabeth  Fry,  the  famous  prison  reformer, 
was  invading  the  Society  of  Friends.  In  1832 
Wilbur  published  in  England  a  series  of  letters 
which  he  had  written  to  George  Crosfield,  under 
the  title  Letters  to  a  Friend  on  Some  of  the  Prim- 
itive Doctrines  of  Christianity.  They  strongly 
defended  the  old-time  Quaker  position  on  the  In- 
ward Light  and  emphasized  what  the  writer  be- 
lieved to  be  dangerous  innovations  that  were 
threatening  to  transform  the  Society  of  Friends. 
No  mention  was  made  by  name  of  Gurney,  but 
his  line  of  teaching  was  obviously  attacked. 


Gurney  spent  the  years  1837  and  1838  on  a 
preaching  tour  in  America,  and  Wilbur  became 
his  settled  opponent,  challenging  the  distin- 
guished visitor  at  many  points  in  his  extensive 
travels.  The  effect  of  Gurney's  visit  in  America 
was  quite  extraordinary,  and  in  most  of  the 
Quaker  sections  members  of  the  Society  of 
Friends  were  carried  in  large  numbers  over  to 
the  evangelical  position  which  Gurney  cham- 
pioned. In  consequence  of  this  changed  attitude, 
Wilbur's  attacks  upon  Gurney  and  his  movement 
were  resented  and  produced  a  serious  amount  of 
friction.  Disciplinary  proceedings  were  launched 
against  him  and  as  the  Monthly  Meeting  to  which 
he  belonged  loyally  supported  him  the  superior 
Meetings  employed  unusual  methods  to  deal  with 
him,  which  his  friends  resented.  By  such  pro- 
ceedings he  was  finally  expelled  from  member- 
ship in  1843.  His  supporters  appealed  the  case 
to  the  New  England  Yearly  Meeting  and  failing 
to  receive  satisfaction,  separated  in  1845  to  tne 
number  of  five  hundred.  They  were  popularly 
known  as  "Wilburites"  and  the  larger  body, 
containing  6500,  were  known  as  "Gurneyites." 
Officially  the  smaller  body  was  called  "New  Eng- 
land Yearly  Meeting  of  Friends"  and  the  larger 
body,  "The  Yearly  Meeting  of  Friends  for  New 
England."  Separations  of  larger  or  smaller 
groups  followed  in  New  York  and  Ohio,  while 
a  large  part  of  Philadelphia  Yearly  Meeting  gave 
sympathy  and  support  to  the  "Wilburites."  In 
1853-54  Wilbur  made  a  second  trip  to  England. 
He  died  at  Hopkinton,  R.  I. 

[J.  R.  Wilbor  and  B.  F.  Wilbour,  The  Wildbores  in 
America  (1933);  Jour,  of  the  Life  of  John  Wilbur 
(1859)  ;  William  Hodgson,  Selections  from  the  Letters 
of  T.  B.  Gould  (i860)  ;  John  Wilbur,  A  Narrative  and 
Exposition  of  the  I^ate  Proceedings  of  New  England 
Yearly  Meeting  (1845)  ;  Narrative  of  Facts  and  Cir- 
cumstances That  Have  Tended  to  produce  a  Secession 
from  the  Society  of  Friends,  New  England  Yearly 
Meeting  (1845)  ;  Report  of  the  Case  of  Earlc  et  al.  vs. 
Wood  et  al.  ( 1855)  ;  R.  M.  Jones,  The  Later  Periods  of 
Quakerism  (London,  1921)  ;  Edward  Grubb,  Separa- 
tions (London,  1914)  ;  Providence  Daily  Jour.,  May  6, 
1856.]  R.M.J. 

WILBUR,  SAMUEL  (c.  1585-July  29,  1656), 
Rhode  Island  merchant  and  colonist,  whose  name 
is  also  spelled  Wilbor  and  Wildbore,  was  born  in 
England  and  came  to  America  some  time  before 
1633.  The  first  known  fact  about  him  is  that 
with  his  wife,  Anne,  he  joined  the  First  Church 
of  Boston  Oct.  1,  1633.  He  turned  to  trade  and 
soon  became  a  person  of  considerable  importance. 
He  owned  a  parcel  of  land  near  the  present  site 
of  the  city  of  Revere,  another  near  the  Roxbury 
boundary,  a  house  and  lot  on  Essex  Street  in 
Boston,  and  still  another  house  on  Milk  Street. 
His  interest  in  public  affairs  is  evinced  by  the 
fact  that  he  was  one  of  the  small  circle  of  men 


200 


Wilcox 


Wilcox 


who  bought  the  Common  for  Boston  from  Wil- 
liam Blackstone  [q.r.]  in  1634.  A  year  later 
he  contributed  £10  for  the  first  Massachusetts 
free  school. 

In  1637  he  became  involved  in  the  Antinomian 
controversy  and  was  banished  for  having  been 
"seduced  and  led  into  dangerous  errors."  Ac- 
cordingly he  turned  south  to  the  more  liberal 
colony  of  Rhode  Island.  He  was  one  of  the  eigh- 
teen purchasers  of  the  island  of  Aquidneck  (now 
the  island  of  Rhode  Island)  from  the  Narragan- 
sett  Indians,  and  a  few  months  later  established 
there  his  wife  and  four  sons.  He  was  one  of 
the  signers  of  the  Portsmouth  Compact,  which 
organized  the  infant  government ;  he  farmed  the 
lands  granted  to  him ;  he  built  and  managed  the 
only  planing  mill  in  the  community-  He  was 
chosen  clerk  of  one  of  the  train  bands,  and  sub- 
sequently served  as  sergeant  and  constable.  In 
1645  he  returned  to  Massachusetts  to  find  the 
colony  about  to  declare  war  on  the  Narragan- 
setts,  whose  feud  with  the  Mohegans  of  Connect- 
icut was  endangering  the  security  of  New  Eng- 
land. Three  messengers  were  therefore  appoint- 
ed to  give  back  to  the  Indians  the  presents  they 
had  recently  offered  as  promises  of  peace.  Wil- 
bur was  one  of  those  chosen  for  this  critical  task, 
which  successfully  frightened  the  Indians  into 
submission. 

His  last  years  proved  to  be  more  tranquil. 
After  the  death  of  his  first  wife,  he  married  Eliz- 
abeth Lechford,  widow  of  Thomas  Lechford 
[q.z'.^,  who  had  been  Boston's  only  trained  law- 
yer. Settling  in  Taunton,  Mass.,  Wilbur  devoted 
himself  to  his  commercial  interests  and  identified 
himself  with  the  life  of  the  town.  He  died  in  Bos- 
ton, leaving  a  comfortable  inheritance  for  his 
sons.  He  was  one  of  that  courageous  early  group 
of  settlers  who  by  successfully  meeting  the  many 
problems  of  frontier  life  in  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury founded  American  civilization  in  the  wil- 
derness. 

[J.  R.  Wilbor  and  B.  F.  Wilbour,  The  Wildbores  in 
America  (1933);  J.  R.  Bartlett,  The  Records  of  the 
Colony  of  R.  I.  and  Providence  Plantations,  vol.  I 
(1856)  ;  S.  G.  Arnold,  The  Hist,  of  the  State  of  R.  I., 
vol.  I  (1859).]  M.A. 

WILCOX,  CADMUS  MARCELLUS  (May 
29,  1824-Dec.  2,  1890),  Confederate  soldier,  was 
born  in  Wayne  County,  N.  C,  where  his  father, 
Reuben  Wilcox,  a  native  of  Connecticut,  had 
settled,  marrying  Sarah  Garland,  a  noted  North 
Carolina  beauty.  Of  this  union  Cadmus  was  the 
second  among  four  children.  His  parents  remov- 
ing to  Tipton  County,  Tenn.,  he  grew  up  there, 
attending  the  University  of  Nashville.  He  en- 
tered the  United  States  Military  Academy  in 
1842,  at  the  age  of  eighteen  (Official  Register, 


1843),  and  was  graduated  in  1846  in  the  class 
with  George  B.  McClellan,  Thomas  Jonathan 
Jackson,  and  George  E.  Pickett  [qq.v.~\.  Apoint- 
ed  brevet  second  lieutenant,  4th  Infantry,  he 
joined  General  Taylor's  forces  in  Mexico  and 
fought  at  Monterey,  but  was  promoted  second 
lieutenant,  7th  Infantry,  Feb.  16,  1847,  and 
transferred  to  General  Scott's  army.  He  was 
at  Vera  Cruz,  Cerro  Gordo,  and  in  the  advance 
on  Mexico  city,  so  distinguishing  himself  that 
in  July  General  John  A.  Quitman  [q.v.]  appoint- 
ed him  an  aide.  Wilcox  led  the  storming  party 
at  Chapultepec,  and  afterward  nearly  lost  his 
life  by  mounting  an  aqueduct  under  fire  to  signal 
the  American  capture  of  the  Belen  gate  and  en- 
try into  the  city  of  Mexico.  In  1848,  when  Lieut. 
Ulysses  S.  Grant  was  married,  Wilcox  was  his 
groomsman.  Three  years  later  he  became  a  first 
lieutenant,  serving  in  Florida,  and  then,  1852- 
57,  as  assistant  instructor  of  infantry  tactics  at 
West  Point.  Failing  health  brought  him  a  year's 
sick  leave  in  Europe.  On  his  return  he  pub- 
lished Rifles  and  Rifle  Practice  (1859),  the  first 
American  textbook  on  this  subject,  and  in  i860 
translated  from  the  French  a  work  on  Austrian 
evolutions  of  the  line. 

Having  been  commissioned  captain,  Dec.  20, 
i860,  Wilcox  was  in  New  Mexico  when  Ten- 
nessee seceded.  Though  attached  to  the  Union, 
he  resigned  his  commission  June  8,  1861,  and  ac- 
cepted the  colonelcy  of  the  9th  Alabama  Infan- 
try, Confederate  States  Army.  He  was  present 
at  First  Manassas  (Bull  Run),  and  thereafter 
until  Appomattox  was  with  Lee's  army  in  nearly 
every  great  battle,  establishing  a  record  as  one 
of  the  best  subordinate  commanders  of  the  South. 
He  was  made  a  brigadier-general  as  of  Oct.  21, 
1861.  In  the  Seven  Days'  battles  his  brigade 
lost  1,055  men  out  of  1,800.  Wilcox  himself  was 
never  wounded,  though  he  received  six  bullets 
through  his  clothing  in  ferocious  fighting  at 
Frazier's  Farm,  where  he  defeated  Meade's  bri- 
gade. At  Second  Manassas  (Aug.  30,  1862),  he 
ably  commanded  three  brigades,  and  in  the  Chan- 
cellorsville  campaign,  Sedgwick  could  hardly 
have  been  beaten  at  Salem  Church  but  for  Wil- 
cox's stubborn  resistance  while  awaiting  rein- 
forcements (War  of  the  Rebellion:  Official  Rec- 
ords, Army,  1  ser.  XXV,  pt.  1,  pp.  854-61).  On 
July  2,  1863,  at  Gettysburg,  he  made  a  charge 
which,  if  supported,  might  have  ruptured  the 
Union  center  (Ibid.,  1  ser.  XXVII,  pt.  2,  pp. 
616-21).  The  next  day,  however,  with  Pickett, 
he  suffered  a  bloody  repulse. 

In  January  1864  Wilcox  was  made  a  major- 
general,  to  rank  from  August  1863.  He  was 
given   William    Dorsey   Pender's   old   division, 


20I 


Wilcox 

with  which  at  the  Wilderness  and  Spotsylvania 
he  greatly  enhanced  his  reputation  as  a  skilful 
tactician.  At  Petersburg,  Apr.  2,  1865,  part  of 
his  troops  held  Forts  Gregg  and  Alexander  un- 
til they  were  nearly  annihilated,  enabling  Long- 
street  to  cover  Lee's  retreat  westward.  Seven 
days  later,  at  Appomattox  Court  House,  Wil- 
cox's division  was  ordered  to  support  Gordon's 
corps  in  attempting  to  break  through  the  Union 
lines,  but  the  Confederate  surrender  terminated 
operations.  While  Grant  and  Lee  negotiated, 
some  of  the  Union  generals,  including  Sheridan, 
Ingalls,  and  Gibbon,  rode  forward  to  find  their 
old  friend  Wilcox,  bringing  him  back  to  visit 
Grant. 

After  the  war  Wilcox,  a  bachelor,  resided  in 
Washington  with  the  widow  and  two  children  of 
his  elder  brother.  Devoted  to  their  care,  he  de- 
clined leaving  them  for  a  commission  in  the 
Egyptian  army,  or  in  Korea.  President  Cleve- 
land in  1886  appointed  him  chief  of  the  railroad 
division  of  the  General  Land  Office,  a  position 
he  retained  until  his  death.  In  Washington  he 
wrote  his  History  of  the  Mexican  War,  which 
was  edited  by  his  niece,  Mary  Rachel  Wilcox, 
and  published  posthumously  (1892).  "I  know 
of  no  man  of  rank  ...  on  the  Southern  side 
who  had  more  warm  friends,  North  and  South, 
than  Cadmus  M.  Wilcox,"  wrote  Gen.  Henry 
Heth  (Couch,  post,  pp.  34-35).  That  opinion 
was  justified  at  his  funeral,  where  Gen.  Joseph 
E.  Johnston  was  chief  mourner,  while  four  dis- 
tinguished Union  officers  and  four  Confederates 
were  honorary  pallbearers. 

[In  addition  to  the  volumes  of  Official  Records  cited 
above,  see  1  ser.  II,  XI  (pt.  2),  XII  (pt.  2),  XIX  (pt. 
1),  XXI,  XXXVII  (pt.  1),  XLVI;  C.  A.  Evans,  Con- 
fed,  Mil.  Hist.  (1890),  VII,  342-44;  The  Photographic 
Hist,  of  the  Civil  War  (1911),  vol.  X;  Battles  and 
Leaders  of  the  Civil  War  (1887-88),  vols.  II,  III,  IV; 
A.  L.  Long,  Memoirs  of  Robert  E.  Lee  (1886)  ;  George 
Meade,  The  Life  and  Letters  of  George  Gordon  Meade 
(1913),  I,  290-95,  II,  75,  89-90;  Morris  Schaff,  The 
Battle  of  the  Wilderness  (1910)  ;  G.  W.  Cullum,  Biog. 
Reg.  Officers  and  Grads.  U.  S.  Mil.  Acad.  (3rd  ed., 
1891),  vol.  II;  D.  N.  Couch,  "Cadmus  M.  Wilcox," 
Twenty-second  Ann.  Reunion,  Asso.  Grads.  U.  S.  Mil. 
Acad.  (1891)  ;  Washington  Post,  Dec.  3,  1890.] 

J.M.H. 

WILCOX,  DELOS  FRANKLIN  (Apr.  22, 
1873-Apr.  4,  1928),  franchise  and  public  utility 
expert,  was  born  on  a  farm  near  Ida,  Mich.,  the 
son  of  Byron  M.  and  Lorain  (Jones)  Wilcox. 
He  received  his  elementary  education  on  his  fa- 
ther's acres  and  in  the  neighborhood  schools 
and  entered  the  University  of  Michigan,  where 
he  was  profoundly  influenced  by  John  Dewey. 
When  he  graduated,  in  1894,  he  had  determined 
to  make  his  life  work  a  definite  contribution  to 
the  improvement  of  local  government.  He  pre- 
sented for  the  degree  of  Ph.D.  at  Columbia  in 


Wilcox 

1896  a  thesis  entitled  Municipal  Government  in 
Michigan  and  Ohio  (1896),  which  was  followed 
by  The  American  City  (1904)  and  Great  Cities 
in  America  (1910).  The  first  practical  applica- 
tion of  his  purpose  was  the  direction  of  civic  re- 
form agencies  in  Grand  Rapids  and  Detroit  from 
1905  to  1907,  during  which  period  he  edited  Civic 
News,  the  weekly  journal  of  the  Detroit  Munic- 
ipal League  and  the  Civic  Club  of  Grand  Rap- 
ids. He  learned  much  from  the  struggle  for 
control  of  public  utilities  going  on  in  Detroit, 
particularly  with  respect  to  transportation.  This 
insight  was  most  useful  when  in  1907  he  accept- 
ed an  appointment  as  chief  of  the  bureau  of  fran- 
chises of  the  public  service  commission  for  the 
first  district  of  New  York  (New  York  City). 
He  resigned  in  1913  to  become  deputy  commis- 
sioner of  the  department  of  water  supply,  gas 
and  electricity  of  New  York  City,  a  position 
which  he  held  until  1917.  During  this  period  he 
produced  several  additional  books  on  city  gov- 
ernment and  published  his  notable  two-volume 
work,  Municipal  Franchises  (1910-11).  These 
volumes  on  franchises  exerted  a  wide  influence 
and  upon  them  his  professional  reputation  prin- 
cipally rests. 

In  1917  Wilcox  organized  a  staff  of  assistants 
and  established  himself  as  a  consultant  on  util- 
ity problems — always  on  the  side  of  the  public. 
He  made  an  extensive  investigation  of  street 
railway  problems  for  the  Federal  Electric  Rail- 
ways Commission  in  1919,  issuing  his  conclu- 
sions privately  as  Analysis  of  the  Electric  Rail- 
zvay  Problem  (1921).  In  his  Preface  he  reiter- 
ated his  opinion  that  "no  permanent  solution  of 
the  electric  railway  problem,  consistent  with  the 
public  interest,  is  possible  except  in  public  own- 
ership" (p.  xi),  a  view  much  more  extreme  than 
that  of  the  Commission  as  a  whole.  He  also 
participated  as  an  expert  in  a  number  of  impor- 
tant utility  rate  cases  in  which  his  position  re- 
garding several  important  factors  was  at  dis- 
tinct variance  with  that  of  many  other  authori- 
ties. He  was  a  stanch  defender  of  prudent  in- 
vestment as  the  basis  for  rates;  objected  to  the 
addition  of  such  intangibles  as  "going  value" 
and  "cost  of  financing" ;  and  insisted  that  annual 
charges  to  operating  expenses  for  depreciation 
should  be  consistent  with  the  deduction  of  ac- 
crued depreciation  from  the  rate  base,  and  that 
both  are  directly  related  to  the  service  life  of 
utility  property.  His  depreciation  theory  was 
embodied  in  his  monograph,  Depreciation  in 
Public  Utilities  (1925). 

The  technical  work  underlying  his  valuations 
and  rate  studies  was  done  by  his  staff,  and  he  cor- 
related the  engineering,  accounting,  economic, 


202 


Wilcox 


Wilcox 


and  legal  phases.  He  was  attacked  by  utility 
companies  on  the  score  that  only  engineers  and 
utility  builders  can  make  valuations ;  and  finally 
in  the  Denver  Tramways  case,  a  federal  judge 
granted  the  company's  contention  and  excluded 
his  testimony.  His  later  activities  were  directed 
more  particularly  toward  writing,  which  includ- 
ed a  revision  of  Robert  A.  Whitten's  two-volume 
work  on  Valuation  of  Public  Service  Corpora- 
tions. This  was  completed  shortly  before  his 
sudden  death  on  Apr.  4,  1928,  but  a  labor  still 
closer  to  his  ideals  was  left  unfinished — a  com- 
prehensive work  on  the  administration  of  mu- 
nicipally owned  and  operated  utilities.  His  pre- 
liminary outline  and  partial  development  of  this 
thesis  was  published  posthumously  as  a  booklet, 
The  Administration  of  Municipally  Owned  Util- 
ities (1931). 

Wilcox  spent  considerable  time,  especially  in 
the  later  years,  at  his  fruit  farm,  "Wandawood," 
at  Elk  Rapids,  Mich.  He  was  survived  by  his 
wife,  Mina  M.  (Gates),  whom  he  married  Feb. 
22,  1898,  and  by  four  adult  children.  His  tech- 
nical library,  including  a  file  of  his  writings, 
was  donated  to  the  University  of  Chicago.  A 
man  of  great  modesty  and  personal  charm,  with 
an  effervescent  sense  of  humor,  he  was  an  ex- 
cellent public  speaker  and  an  effective  writer. 
Among  his  publications,  besides  the  more  notable 
works  previously  mentioned,  were :  The  Study 
of  City  Government  (1897);  City  Problems 
(1899)  ;  Ethical  Marriage  (copr.  1900)  ;  Gov- 
ernment by  All  the  People,  or  the  Initiative,  the 
Referendum  and  the  Recall  as  Instruments  of 
Democracy  (1912);  The  Indeterminate  Permit 
in  Relation  to  Home  Ride  and  Public  Ownership 
(1926)  ;  and  many  reports  on  special  utility 
problems,  as  well  as  pamphlets  and  magazine  ar- 
ticles on  local  government,  franchises,  and  utili- 
ties. 

[Wilcox's  Municipal  Franchises,  his  Depreciation  in 
Public  Utilities,  and  a  pamphlet,  Why  the  Utilities 
Win;  Who's  Who  in  America,  1928—29;  N.  Y.  Times, 
Apr.  5,  1928;  correspondence  with  family  and  asso- 
ciates.] L.  D.U. 

WILCOX,  ELLA  WHEELER  (Nov.  5, 1850- 
Oct.  30,  1919),  poet,  was  the  youngest  daughter 
of  Marius  Hartwell  and  Sarah  (Pratt)  Wheeler. 
She  was  born  in  Johnstown  Center,  Wis.,  not  far 
from  Madison.  A  few  years  before  her  bfirth,  her 
father,  a  teacher  of  the  violin,  dancing,  and  de- 
portment in  Thetford,  Vt,  had  emigrated  to  Wis- 
consin, where  after  the  failure  of  financial  ven- 
tures he  resumed  his  teaching  of  dancing.  It 
was,  however,  to  her  mother,  also  of  Vermont 
stock,  that  Ella  Wheeler  Wilcox  attributed  her 
literary  talents.  Interest  in  writing  manifested 
itself  very  early.    She  wrote   a  novel   for  the 


amusement  of  her  sisters  before  she  was  ten, 
and  read  eagerly  such  publications  as  the  New 
York  Mercury  and  the  New  York  Ledger,  and 
the  books  of  such  authors  as  Mary  Jane  Holmes, 
Mrs.  E.  D.  E.  N.  Southworth  [qq.v.],  and 
"Ouida."  Having  had  an  essay  published  in  the 
New  York  Mercury  in  her  early  teens,  she  of- 
fered other  essays  in  various  competitions,  won 
a  number  of  prizes,  and  began  to  send  out  her 
poems,  the  first  of  which  were  ridiculed  by  the 
editor  of  the  Mercury.  The  first  poem  published 
under  her  name  appeared  in  W overly  Magazine, 
and  her  first  cash  payment  came  from  Leslie's. 
Her  family,  hoping  to  encourage  her  in  her  lit- 
erary work,  sent  her  for  a  year  (1867-68)  to 
the  University  of  Wisconsin,  but  she  found  her 
work  there  of  little  value  to  her.  She  continued 
to  write  at  least  two  poems  a  day,  many  of  them 
being  accepted  for  publication,  and  by  the  time 
she  was  eighteen  she  was  making  a  substantial 
contribution  to  the  family  income.  For  a  few 
months  she  worked  on  a  trade  paper  in  Milwau- 
kee. Her  first  book  of  poems,  Drops  of  Water 
(1872),  a  collection  of  temperance  verses,  was 
followed  by  Shells  (1873),  and  Maurine  (1876), 
a  narrative  poem.  Her  first  success,  however, 
came  with  the  rejection  of  Poems  of  Passion  by 
Jansen  and  McClurg  of  Chicago  on  the  ground 
that  the  volume  was  immoral.  The  story  ap- 
peared in  the  Milwaukee  newspapers,  was  widely 
reprinted,  and  served  to  insure  the  book  a  wide 
sale  when  it  was  published  in  1883  by  another 
company.  On  May  1,  1884,  she  was  married  to 
Robert  Marius  Wilcox  (d.  1916),  a  manufac- 
turer of  works  of  art  in  silver,  and  went  to  live 
in  Meriden,  Conn.  A  son,  born  on  May  27, 
1887,  lived  only  a  few  hours.  Thereafter  the 
Wilcoxes  spent  their  winters  in  New  York,  en- 
tertaining many  writers  and  artists.  In  1891 
they  built  a  bungalow  at  Short  Beach,  Conn., 
where  they  spent  their  summers.  They  traveled 
widely,  in  the  Orient  as  well  as  Europe.  They 
both  constantly  engaged  in  private  charitable 
enterprises. 

Mrs.  Wilcox's  literary  activities  did  not  cease 
with  her  marriage.  She  published  some  twenty 
volumes  (for  the  most  part,  poetry)  after  1884, 
wrote  a  daily  poem  for  a  newspaper  syndicate 
for  several  years,  and  contributed  frequent  es- 
says to  the  Cosmopolitan  and  other  magazines. 
In  1901  she  was  commissioned  by  the  New  York 
American  to  go  to  London  and  write  a  poem  on 
the  death  of  Queen  Victoria.  In  191 3  she  was 
presented  at  the  Court  of  St.  James's.  During 
19 18  she  toured  the  army  camps  in  France,  re- 
citing her  poems  and  delivering  talks  on  sexual 
problems.    As  a  result  of  over-exertion,  she  fell 


203 


Wilcox 

ill  in  the  spring  of  1919.  After  spending  some 
time  in  a  nursing  home  in  Bath,  England,  she 
was  brought  back  to  the  United  States.  She 
died  three  months  later  at  Short  Beach,  Conn. 

Both  she  and  her  husband  believed  in  the  pos- 
sibility of  communication  with  the  dead  and 
were  frequent  attendants  at  spiritualist  seances. 
After  her  husband's  death  she  made  repeated  ef- 
forts to  communicate  with  him,  and  believed  that 
she  finally  succeeded  in  doing  so  by  means  of 
the  ouija  board.  She  was  also  interested  in  the- 
osophy,  maintaining  that  she  had  learned  self- 
control  from  an  East  Indian  monk.  All  her  la- 
ter work,  poetry  and  prose,  shows  the  influ- 
ence of  the  teachings  of  "New  Thought."  Her 
autobiographical  writings  were  "Literary  Con- 
fessions of  a  Western  Poetess"  (Lippincott's 
Monthly  Magazine,  May  1886),  "My  Autobiog- 
raphy" (Cosmopolitan,  August  1901),  The 
Story  of  a  Literary  Career  (1905),  and  The 
Worlds  and  I  (1918).  Throughout  her  life  she 
enjoyed  great  popularity.  She  took  her  work 
most  seriously.  Defending  herself  against  critics 
who  spoke  of  platitudes  and  sentimentality,  she 
maintained  that  her  poems  comforted  millions 
of  weary  and  unhappy  persons,  and  she  appears 
to  have  been  right. 

[In  addition  to  Ella  Wheeler  Wilcox's  autobiog. 
writings,  sources  include  Who's  Who  in  America,  1016— 
17;  E.  D.  Walker,  in  Cosmopolitan,  Nov.  1888;  Lit. 
Digest,  Nov.  22,  1919;  Theodosia  Garrison,  in  Book- 
man, Jan.  1920  ;  obituary  in  N.  Y.  Times,  Oct.  31,  1919  ; 
information  from  Ruth  Chapin  Ritter.]  G.  H. 

WILCOX,  REYNOLD  WEBB  (Mar.  29, 
1856-June  6,  1931),  physician,  was  born  in  Mad- 
ison, Conn.,  the  son  of  Col.  Vincent  Meigs  Wil- 
cox and  Catherine  Mellicent  (Webb)  Wilcox. 
His  father's  ancestor,  William  Wilcoxson,  one 
of  the  original  settlers  of  Stratford,  Conn.,  came 
to  America  from  England  in  1635.  His  mother 
was  a  descendant  of  Richard  Webb  who  lived  in 
Stamford  as  early  as  1636.  Both  of  his  grand- 
mothers claimed  as  a  common  ancestor  Vincent 
Meigs,  an  early  settler  of  Madison.  As  a  young 
boy,  Wilcox  showed  great  aptitude  and  desire 
for  learning.  His  early  education  was  acquired 
at  Lee's  Academy,  a  local  school.  In  1878  he  re- 
ceived the  degree  of  A.B.  from  Yale  and  in  1881 
that  of  M.D.  from  Harvard.  His  desire  for  fur- 
ther knowledge  led  him  to  spend  a  year  in  study 
abroad  before  entering  upon  the  practice  of  med- 
icine. 

Settling  in  New  York  City,  he  was  an  active 
practitioner  there  for  about  forty  years,  finding 
time,  also,  to  write  innumerable  articles,  to  serve 
on  the  staff  of  various  hospitals,  and  to  take 
part  in  the  administration  of  many  medical  so- 
cieties.    William   Hale-White's   textbook,   Ma- 


Wilcox 

teria  Mcdica,  edited  by  Wilcox  and  published  in 
1892,  went  through  twelve  editions;  his  Treat- 
ment of  Disease  (1907),  reached  four  editions; 
and  a  second  edition  of  his  Manual  of  Fez'er 
Nursing  (1904)  appeared.  His  hospital  con- 
nections included  St.  Mary's  and  Ossining  hos- 
pitals, in  New  York,  Eastern  Long  Island, 
Greenport,  Nassau  Hospital,  Mineola,  and  the 
New  Jersey  State  Hospital  at  Greystone  Park. 
A  charter  member  of  the  American  College  of 
Physicians,  he  served  as  president  from  191 5  to 
1922.  He  was  president  also  of.  the  American 
Therapeutic  Society,  1901-02;  the  Medical  As- 
sociation of  Greater  New  York,  1910-13;  the 
Society  for  Medical  Jurisprudence,  1913-14;  the 
Association  for  Medical  Reserve  Corps,  United 
States  Army,  1914-16 ;  and  the  American  Con- 
gress on  Internal  Medicine,  191 5-17.  As  pro- 
fessor of  medicine  at  the  New  York  Post-Grad- 
uate  Medical  School  and  Hospital  he  gave  in- 
struction from  1886  to  1908,  keeping  abreast  of 
the  times  by  making  short  trips  abroad  to  study 
during  the  years  1889-1901  and  1903-1908.  He 
was  therapeutic  editor  of  the  American  Journal 
of  Medical  Sciences  for  many  years  and  a  mem- 
ber of  the  revision  committee  of  the  United 
States  Pharmacopoeia,  1900-10.  He  served  with 
the  army  during  the  World  War,  reaching  the 
rank  of  major,  and  was  of  the  eighth  generation 
in  his  family  to  hold  a  commission  since  1636. 

A  heavily  built  man,  swarthy  in  complexion, 
he  stood  over  six  feet  tall.  Strongly  inclined  to 
overconfidence,  he  became  unpopular  with  his 
colleagues  because  of  his  unpleasant,  domineer- 
ing ways,  his  unwillingness  to  listen  to  the  opin- 
ion of  others,  and  his  positive  asserting  of  his 
own  views.  In  spite  of  the  enemies  his  personal 
traits  made  for  him,  his  investigations  in  clin- 
ical therapeutics  and  his  work  in  internal  medi- 
cine won  him  wide  recognition.  Outside  of  his 
profession  his  interests  seem  to  have  been  few. 
He  was  a  member  of  several  patriotic  societies, 
and  was  the  author  of  a  little  book  about  his  an- 
cestors, The  Descendants  of  William  Wilcoxson, 
Vincent  Meigs  and  Richard  Webb  (1893).  He 
was  twice  married :  first,  June  5,  1895,  to  Fran- 
ces Maud  Weeks  of  New  York  City ;  and  second, 
Dec.  12,  1917,  to  Grace  Clarkson,  daughter  of 
Col.  Floyd  Clarkson ;  no  children  survived  him. 

[Yale  Univ.,  Obit.  Record,  1931  ;  Quarter-Century 
Record  of  the  Class  of  1878,  Yale  Univ.  (1905)  ;  J.  J. 
Walsh,  Hist,  of  Medicine  in  N.  Y.  (1919),  vol.  V;  An- 
nals of  Internal  Medicine,  Aug.  1931  ;  T.  F.  Harring- 
ton, Harvard  Medic.  School  (1905);  Doctor's  Who's 
Who,  1906;  Trenton  State  Gazette,  July  8,  1931.] 

G.L.A. 

WILCOX,  STEPHEN  (Feb.  12,  1830-Nov. 
27,  1893),  inventor,  engineer,  was  born  in  Wes- 


204 


Wilcox 

terly,  R.  I.,  a  descendant  of  Edward  Wilcox, 
who  was  in  Portsmouth,  R.  I.,  as  early  as  1638, 
and  the  son  of  Stephen  and  Sophia  (Vose)  Wil- 
cox. His  father  was  a  banker  and  business  man, 
a  strong-  opponent  of  slavery.  Stephen  was  edu- 
cated in  the  common  schools  of  Westerly,  and 
seems  to  have  followed  his  natural  aptitude  for 
mechanics  without  serving  a  regular  apprentice- 
ship. He  was  a  prolific  inventor  even  as  a  young 
man,  but  when  he  attempted  to  patent  his  de- 
vices usually  found  that  he  had  been  anticipated. 
One  of  his  early  inventions  was  a  practical  ca- 
loric or  hot-air  engine,  which  he  submitted  to 
the  United  States  Lighthouse  Board  for  oper- 
ating fog  signals.  Believing,  however,  that  the 
field  for  the  hot-air  engine  was  limited,  he  turned 
his  attention  to  steam  boilers,  and,  in  1856,  in- 
vented a  safety  water-tube  boiler  with  inclined 
tubes — the  germ  of  the  Babcock  &  Wilcox  boiler 
later  well  known  throughout  the  world.  In  part- 
nership with  D.  M.  Stillman  of  Westerly  he  was 
granted  Patent  No.  14,523  for  this  boiler,  Mar. 
25,  1856. 

Some  ten  years  later,  with  his  boyhood  friend 
George  Herman  Babcock  [q.v.~\,  he  designed  a 
steam  generator  based  on  the  principal  of  the 
earlier  boiler,  and  was  granted  a  patent  for  it 
on  May  28,  1867.  In  that  year  the  firm  of  Bab- 
cock, Wilcox  &  Company  was  formed  to  manu- 
facture the  boiler ;  the  concern  was  incorporated 
in  1881,  and  Wilcox  was  vice-president  from 
then  until  his  death.  The  Babcock  &  Wilcox 
boiler  and  the  Babcock  &  Wilcox  stationary 
steam-engine  were  used  in  the  first  central  sta- 
tions (power  plants)  in  the  country  and  were 
of  considerable  significance  in  the  development 
of  electric  lighting.  Babcock  &  Wilcox  prod- 
ucts were  used  all  over  the  world,  and  the  com- 
pany opened  offices  in  Cuba  and  Puerto  Rico. 

Wilcox  was  primarily  the  inventor  and  me- 
chanic of  the  combination  while  Babcock  was 
the  executive ;  the  boiler  is  the  Wilcox  boiler 
but  is  often  called  the  Babcock,  because  Bab- 
cock's  name  came  first  in  the  title  of  the  firm. 
Wilcox  continued  his  experimentation  with 
engines  and  boilers  till  the  end  of  his  life,  in 
later  years  being  assisted  by  his  wife's  nephew, 
William  D.  Hoxie  \_q.v.~\.  Much  of  his  work  was 
carried  out  on  his  yacht,  the  Reverie,  and  this 
circumstance  may  have  been  responsible  for 
Hoxie's  perfection  of  the  marine  form  of  the 
Babcock  &  Wilcox  boiler.  Wilcox  secured, 
alone  or  with  others,  forty-seven  patents  in  forty 
years.  He  was  married  in  1865  to  Harriet  Hoxie, 
who  survived  him.  He  was  handsome  and  popu- 
lar, simple  and  unaffected  by  his  rise  to  afflu- 
ence.   During  the  last  part  of  his  life  he  made 


Wilczynski 


his  home  in  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  where  he  died. 
Public-spirited  and  generous,  he  presented  to 
Westerly,  his  birthplace,  a  public  library  build- 
ing, which,  after  his  death  was  enlarged  and 
endowed  by  his  widow,  who  also  carried  out 
their  joint  plans  for  many  other  gifts  to  the 
town,  including  a  park  and  a  high-school  build- 
ing. 

[Representative  Men  and  Old  Families  of  R.  I. 
(1908),  vol.  I  ;  Trans.  Am.  Soc.  Mcch.  Engineers,  vol. 
XV  (1894)  ;  Fifty  Years  of  Steam:  A  Brief  Hist,  of 
the  Babcock  &  Wilcox  Company  (1931)  ;  J.  N.  Arnold, 
Vital  Record  of  R.  I.  .  .  .  Washington  County  (1894)  ; 
Brooklyn  Daily  Eagle,  Nov.  28,  1893.]  W.  M.M. 

WILCZYNSKI,  ERNEST  JULIUS  (Nov. 
13,  1876-Sept.  14,  1932),  mathematician,  edu- 
cator, was  born  in  Hamburg,  Germany,  the  son 
of  Max  and  Friederike  (Hurwitz)  Wilczynski. 
His  family  emigrated  to  America  while  he  was 
still  quite  young,  and  settled  in  Chicago,  111.  He 
attended  elementary  school  and  high  school  in 
Chicago  and,  with  the  assistance  of  an  uncle,  re- 
turned to  Germany  to  enter  the  University  of 
Berlin,  where  he  received  the  degree  of  Ph.D.  in 
1897.  He  was  then  in  his  twenty-first  year.  Af- 
ter his  return  to  the  United  States  he  was  a 
computer  in  the  office  of  the  Nautical  Almanac 
in  1898,  and  then  he  was  appointed  instructor  in 
mathematics  at  the  University  of  California. 
Here  he  remained  as  assistant  and  associate  pro- 
fessor until  1907,  with  the  exception  of  the  pe- 
riod from  1903  to  1905  when  he  was  in  Europe 
as  a  research  associate  of  the  Carnegie  Institu- 
tion of  Washington.  He  was  associate  professor 
of  mathematics  at  the  University  of  Illinois  from 
1907  to  1910  and  at  the  University  of  Chicago 
from  1910  to  1914.  He  was  made  professor  of 
mathematics  at  Chicago  in  1914  and,  after  his 
health  failed,  professor  emeritus  in  1926.  His 
death  came  at  Denver,  Col.,  after  a  lingering  ill- 
ness of  about  nine  years.  Most  of  this  time  he 
was  confined  to  his  bed,  but  he  never  gave  up 
hope  of  some  day  returning  to  his  academic  du- 
ties. 

He  began  his  scientific  career  as  a  mathemat- 
ical astronomer  and  his  interest  then  turned  to 
differential  equations,  but  he  attained  eminence 
as  a  projective  differential  geometer.  This  field 
of  geometry  was  largely  created  by  him.  He  in- 
vented a  new  method  in  geometry  and  estab- 
lished himself  as  the  leader  of  a  new  school  of 
geometers.  Various  scientific  honors  and  recog- 
nitions were  conferred  upon  him.  He  was  lec- 
turer at  the  New  Haven  Colloquium  of  the 
American  Mathematical  Society  in  1906  with  E. 
H.  Moore  and  Max  Mason.  He  was  vice-presi- 
dent of  the  American  Mathematical  Society,  and 
a  member  of  the  council  of  the  Mathematical  As- 


205 


Wilde 

sociation  of  America.  In  1909  he  won  a  prize 
of  the  Royal  Belgian  Academy  of  Sciences  for 
an  original  paper  in  geometry,  and  he  was  elect- 
ed a  member  of  the  National  Academy  of  Sci- 
ences in  1919.  He  was  also  a  fellow  of  the  Amer- 
ican Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Sci- 
ence. 

One  of  Wilczynski's  primary  accomplish- 
ments was  his  mastery  of  the  difficult  art  of  lucid 
mathematical  exposition.  He  possessed  a  fine 
and  polished  style  both  in  spoken  and  written 
English  and  in  German,  his  native  language.  He 
was  familiar  with  French  and  Italian.  His  lec- 
tures, clear  and  concise,  were  greatly  admired 
by  his  students.  His  genius  and  enthusiasm  for 
mathematics  attracted  many  people  around  him 
and  placed  him  early  in  a  position  of  great  in- 
fluence in  American  mathematical  education. 
His  college  texts,  as  well  as  various  labors  en- 
tirely disconnected  with  the  class  room,  contrib- 
uted to  this  end.  A  complete  bibliography  of 
Wilczynski's  publications  numbers  more  than 
seventy-five  (see  Lane,  in  Bulletin  of  the  Amer- 
ican Mathematical  Society,  post).  He  was  mar- 
ried to  Countess  Inez  Macola  of  Verona,  Italy, 
on  Aug.  9,  1906.  She,  with  their  three  daugh- 
ters, survived  him. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1926—27  ;  E.  P.  Lane,  "Er- 
nest Julius  Wilczynski — In  Memoriam,"  in  Bull,  of 
the  Am.  Mathematical  Soc,  Jan.  19.3.3,  in  Am.  Mathe- 
matical Monthly,  Dee.  1932,  and  a  biographical  mem- 
oir in  Nat.  Acad,  of  Sciences,  Biographical  Memoirs, 
vol.  XVI  ;  G.  A.  Bliss,  "Ernest  Julius  Wilczynski," 
Science,  Oct.  7,  1932;  Chicago  Daily  Tribune,  Sept. 
16,  1932.]  E.  P.  L. 

WILDE,   GEORGE    FRANCIS    FAXON 

(Feb.  23,  1845-Dec.  3,  191 1 ),  naval  officer,  was 
born  at  Braintree,  Mass.,  the  son  of  William 
Read  and  Mary  Elizabeth  (Thayer)  Wilde  and 
a  descendant  through  his  mother  of  William 
Thayer  who  came  to  New  England  about  1640. 
After  attending  school  at  Braintree  he  secured 
an  appointment  as  midshipman,  walked  to  Bos- 
ton for  his  examination,  and  entered  the  Naval 
Academy,  then  at  Newport,  R.  I.,  Nov.  30,  1861. 
Following  his  early  wartime  graduation  in 
the  summer  of  1864,  he  served  in  the  Susque- 
hanna, which  blockaded  the  Stonewall  at  Havana 
in  the  spring  of  1865  and  later  was  flagship  in 
the  Brazil  Squadron.  He  was  made  lieutenant 
Mar.  12,  1868,  and  lieutenant  commander  June 
26,  1869,  continuing  in  routine  sea  and  shore 
duty  until  his  promotion  to  commander  Oct.  2, 
1885.  He  then  received  his  first  noteworthy  in- 
dependent command,  the  new  steel  cruiser  Dol- 
phin, which  in  1886-89  he  took  on  a  cruise 
around  the  world.  After  serving  in  1889-93  as 
inspector  of  the  Second  Lighthouse  District, 
New  England,  he  was  secretary  of  the  lighthouse 


Wilde 

board,  1894-98,  in  which  position  he  was  chiefly 
instrumental  in  the  introduction  of  gas  buoys  on 
the  Great  Lakes,  of  telephones  from  lightships  to 
shore,  and  of  an  electric  lightship  on  Diamond 
Shoal,  Cape  Hatteras.  In  the  Spanish-American 
War  he  commanded  the  harbor  defense  ram 
Katahdin  on  the  North  Atlantic  patrol,  April- 
September  1898.  On  Nov.  7  following,  he  took 
command  of  the  cruiser  Boston,  then  stationed 
at  Taku,  China,  for  the  protection  of  American 
interests  at  the  beginning  of  the  Boxer  upris- 
ing. The  Boston  during  the  following  winter 
cooperated  with  the  army  in  suppressing  the 
Philippine  insurrection,  and  on  Feb.  11  landed  a 
marine  force  which  held  the  town  of  Iloilo, 
Panay  Island,  until  the  arrival  of  troops.  Later, 
in  command  of  the  battleship  Oregon  from  May 
1899  to  January  1901,  Wilde  landed  marines  to 
occupy  the  town  of  Vigan  and  held  it  four  days, 
releasing  160  Spanish  officers  and  their  families, 
for  which  service  he  received  the  thanks  of  the 
Spanish  representative  at  Manila  (see  Report 
of  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  1900,  p.  503).  The 
Oregon  on  June  28,  1900,  struck  an  uncharted 
reef  in  Pechili  Gulf,  China,  but  with  consider- 
able effort  and  good  seamanship  was  gotten  off 
and  taken  to  Kure,  Japan,  for  repairs.  He  was 
subsequently  at  the  Portsmouth  and  (after  May 
28,  1902)  at  the  Boston  navy  yard,  and  from 
February  to  May  1904  was  commandant  of  the 
Philadelphia  navy  yard ;  thereafter  he  was  again 
at  the  Boston  yard  as  commandant,  with  promo- 
tion to  rear  admiral  Aug.  10,  1904. 

He  retired  at  his  own  request  Feb.  10,  1905, 
and  until  his  death  was  chairman  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Nautical  Training  School  Commission, 
making  his  home  at  North  Easton,  Mass.,  near 
the  scenes  of  his  boyhood.  His  death  from  heart 
trouble  followed  only  a  few  months  that  of  his 
wife  Emogen  B.,  daughter  of  Jason  Howard  of 
Easton,  Mass.,  whom  he  married  at  Braintree 
Dec.  13,  1868.    He  had  no  children. 

[L.  R.  Hamersly,  The  Records  of  Living  Officers  of 
the  U.  S.  Navy  and  Marine  Corps  (1902)  ;  A.  P.  Nib- 
lack,  "Operations  of  the  Navy  and  Marine  Corps  in 
the  Philippine  Archipelago,"  in  Proc.  U.  S.  Naval  Inst., 
Dec.  1904;  Who's  Who  in  America,  1910-11  ;  Boston 
Transcript,  Dec.  4,  191 1;  Army  and  Navy  Journal, 
Dec.  9,  1911,  Feb.  24,  1912.]  A.  W. 

WILDE,  RICHARD  HENRY  (Sept.  24, 
1789-Sept.  10,  1847),  poet,  congressman,  Italian 
scholar,  was  born  in  Dublin,  Ireland,  the  son  of 
Richard  and  Mary  (Newitt)  Wilde.  Soon  after 
arriving  at  Baltimore  with  his  family  in  1797, 
the  poet's  father  lost  his  property  because  of  his 
partner's  participation  in  the  Irish  rebellion  and 
in  1802  he  died.  The  next  year  the  mother  moved 
to  Augusta,  Ga.,  where  her  son  assisted  her  in 


206 


Wilde 


Wilder 


running  a  store.  From  her  and  through  his  own 
studies  he  received  most  of  his  education.  Af- 
ter studying  law  privately,  he  was  admitted  to 
the  bar  in  1809,  and  in  181 1  became  attorney- 
general  of  Georgia.  In  1819  he  married  Mrs. 
Caroline  Buckle,  who  died  in  1827. 

Wilde  divided  his  time  between  law,  politics, 
and  literature.  He  was  elected  to  Congress  for 
five  terms,  181 5-1 7,  1827-35,  and  was  appointed 
to  fill  vacancies  in  1825  and  1827.  His  opposition 
to  the  Jacksonian  Whigs,  then  dominant  in 
Georgia,  his  defeat  for  reelection  in  1834,  and 
his  own  temperamental  dissatisfaction  with  pub- 
lic life  led  to  his  retirement.  In  June  1835  he 
went  abroad.  After  extensive  travel,  he  settled 
in  Florence  and  commenced  "The  Life  and  Times 
of  Dante"  and  "The  Italian  Lyric  Poets."  (The 
unfinished  manuscripts  are  in  the  Library  of 
Congress.)  To  Wilde  belongs  the  chief  credit 
for  the  discovery  in  the  Bargello  of  Giotto's  por- 
trait of  the  youthful  Dante.  After  his  return  to 
America  between  November  1840  and  February 
1841,  he  published  his  Conjectures  and  Re- 
searches Concerning  the  Love,  Madness,  and 
Imprisonment  of  Torquato  Tasso  (2  vols.,  1842), 
a  well-documented  but  romantic  argument.  He 
moved  to  New  Orleans  in  1843  to  practise  law 
and  in  1847  was  appointed  professor  of  consti- 
tutional law  in  the  newly  organized  law  depart- 
ment of  the  University  of  Louisiana  (now  Tu- 
lane  University),  where  he  served  until  his 
death. 

Wilde's  contemporary  reputation  as  a  poet 
rested  almost  entirely  upon  "My  life  is  like  the 
summer  rose,"  composed  before  18 15  as  an  in- 
terpolated lyric  in  an  unfinished  epic.  In  spite 
of  his  determination  not  to  publish  the  poem,  it 
was  printed  as  early  as  April  1819,  in  the  Ana- 
lectic  Magazine,  and  came  to  be  generally  at- 
tributed to  Wilde.  Later  its  authorship  was 
claimed  for  the  eccentric  Irish  bard  Patrick 
O'Kelly,  and  Wilde  was  charged  with  plagia- 
rism. As  a  hoax,  Anthony  Barclay  of  Savannah 
translated  the  poem  into  Greek  and  passed  it  off 
as  a  newly  discovered  fragment  of  Alcseus.  A 
lively  newspaper  controversy  over  the  author- 
ship led  Wilde  to  acknowledge  it  in  a  letter  to  the 
press  dated  Dec.  31,  1834  (Davidson,  post),  and 
to  give  an  account  of  its  origin.  During  the 
poet's  lifetime  it  was  highly  praised  and  frequent- 
ly reprinted ;  it  was  set  to  music  by  Sidney  La- 
nier [q.v.~\  and  others.  Of  Wilde's  poems  it  is  the 
only  one  to  remain  generally  known.  His  Hes- 
peria,  which  did  not  appear  until  after  his  death, 
was  intended  for  anonymous  publication  as  "A 
Fragment  by  the  Late  Fitzhugh  de  Lancy,  Esq." 
It  consists  of  four  cantos  addressed  to  the  Mar- 


chesa  Manfredina  di  Cosenza  (identified  by  Mr. 
Aubrey  H.  Starke  as  Mrs.  Ellen  Adair  White- 
Beatty ;  see  American  Book  Collector,  May-June 
J935)-  The  poem  is  a  series  of  descriptions  of 
travels  in  America  and  Europe,  and  in  diction, 
meter,  stanza  form,  and  sentiment  follows  the 
Byron-Thomas  Moore  tradition.  The  notes  re- 
veal the  author's  extensive  reading,  embody 
some  of  the  results  of  his  studies  in  Europe,  and 
include  original  poems,  notably  the  sonnet  "To 
the  Mocking-Bird"  and  "Star  of  My  Love." 

Wilde  died  in  New  Orleans  of  yellow  fever, 
and  was  buried  in  a  vault  in  that  city.  In  1854 
his  remains  were  reinterred  in  an  unmarked 
grave  in  the  garden  of  his  home  in  Augusta.  In 
1886  he  was  again  reburied,  in  the  "Poet's  Cor- 
ner" of  the  City  Cemetery  of  Augusta.  This 
reburial  was  due  to  the  efforts  of  the  Hayne  Cir- 
cle, a  literary  society,  which  in  1896  erected  a 
monument  to  the  memory  of  Wilde  and  three 
other  Southern  poets.  Besides  a  number  of  sep- 
arately printed  speeches,  Wilde's  published  works 
consist  only  of  uncollected  essays  and  poems, 
Conjectures  and  Researches  Concerning  .  .  . 
Torquato  Tasso,  and  Hcspcria :  A  Poem  (1867), 
edited  by  William  Cumming  Wilde,  one  of  the 
two  sons  who  survived  him. 

[A.  H.  Starke,  "Richard  Henry  Wilde  :  Some  Notes 
and  a  Check-List,"  Am.  Book  Collector,  Nov.-Dec. 
J933,  Jan.  1934;  J.  W.  Davidson,  "The  Authorship  of 
'My  Life  is  Like  the  Summer  Rose,'  "  Southern  Lit. 
Messenger,  Oct.  1856;  S.  F.  Miller,  The  Bench  and 
Bar  of  Ga.  (1858),  vol.  II,  containing  sketch  written 
by  Wilde's  son  correcting  account  in  R.  W.  Griswold, 
The  Poets  and  Poetry  of  America  (1850);  Anthony 
Barclay,  Wilde's  Summer  Rose;  or  The  Lament  of  the 
Captive  ;  An  Authentic  Account  of  the  Origin,  Mystery 
and  Explanation  of  Hon.  R.  H.  Wilde's  Alleged  Plagi- 
arism (1871)  ;  C.  C.  Jones,  The  Life,  Literary  Labors, 
and  Neglected  Grave  of  Richard  Henry  Wilde  (1885)  ; 
T.  W.  Koch,  Dante  in  America  (1896)  ;  Biog.  Dir.  Am. 
Cong.  (1928);  Daily  Picayune  (New  Orleans),  Sept. 
11,  1847  ;  information  from  Martha  Wilde  Pournelle,  a 
grand-niece.]  J.  M.  S.  Jr. 

WILDER,  ALEXANDER  (May  14,  1823- 
Sept.  18,  1908),  eccentric  philosopher  and  phy- 
sician, was  born  at  Verona,  Oneida  County, 
N.  Y.,  the  son  of  Abel  and  Asenath  (Smith) 
Wilder.  Both  parents  were  of  old  American 
stock,  the  Wilder  ancestry  going  back  to  Thomas 
Wilder  who  came  from  England  to  Massachu- 
setts Bay  in  1640  or  earlier.  Brought  up  on  his 
father's  farm  and  educated  in  the  common 
schools,  Alexander  became  a  country  school- 
teacher at  the  age  of  fifteen.  He  is  said  to  have 
published  in  1846,  when  he  was  twenty-three,  a 
pamphlet  entitled  The  Secret  of  Immortality 
Revealed,  which  showed  a  strong  mystical  tend- 
ency. For  some  years  he  supported  himself  by 
teaching,  farming,  and  typesetting.  Having 
taught  himself  Greek,  Latin,  and  Hebrew,  he 


207 


Wilder 


Wilder 


next  took  up  the  study  of  medicine  in  order  to 
be  independent  of  doctors  in  the  matter  of  his 
own  health  but  became  so  interested  in  the  sub- 
ject that  he  pursued  it  intensively  under  the 
guidance  of  a  local  physician  and  eventually 
succeeded  in  obtaining  a  degree  from  the  Syra- 
cuse Medical  College  in  1850.  For  the  two  years 
following  he  lectured  on  chemistry  and  anatomy 
in  the  college.  In  1852  he  became  assistant  ed- 
itor of  the  Syracuse  Star  but  soon  went  over  to 
the  staff  of  the  Syracuse  Journal;  in  1854  he 
was  appointed  clerk  in  the  newly  created  state 
department  of  public  instruction;  for  some  time 
he  edited  the  College  Rcvie^v  and  the  New  York 
Teacher;  then  in  1857  he  moved  to  the  city  of 
New  York  where  for  thirteen  years  he  held  a 
position  on  the  editorial  staff  of  the  New  York 
Evening  Post.  In  1869  he  published  New  Pla- 
tonism  and  Alchemy,  an  enthusiastic  biograph- 
ical and  expository  study  of  the  Neo-Platonists. 
Although  a  natural  heretic  and  mystic,  Wilder 
possessed  a  shrewd  financial  sense,  an  aptitude 
for  politics,  and  considerable  organizational  abil- 
ity. All  his  varied  talents  found  expression  dur- 
ing the  decade  of  the  seventies.  Disbelieving  in 
the  use  of  animal  matter  in  medicine,  as  early  as 
1848  he  had  founded  a  County  Botanical  Med- 
ical Society,  and  in  1869  he  became  president  of 
the  New  York  State  Eclectic  Medical  Society, 
a  branch  of  the  National  Eclectic  Medical  Asso- 
ciation formed  to  promote  "botanic  medicine." 
From  1867  to  1877  he  served  as  president  of  the 
Eclectic  Medical  College ;  he  was  an  editor  of 
the  American  Eclectic  Medical  Review,  1871- 
72,  and  of  the  Medical  Eclectic,  1873-77.  Owing 
to  his  reputation  as  financial  expert  and  political 
journalist  on  the  Evening  Post,  he  was  elected 
an  alderman  of  New  York  in  1871  on  an  anti- 
Tweed  ticket.  After  this  experience  in  politics, 
he  moved  to  Newark,  where  he  lived  until  his 
death.  He  was  professor  of  physiology  in  the 
Eclectic  Medical  College,  1873-77,  and  subse- 
quently became  professor  of  psychology  in  the 
United  States  Medical  College,  serving  from 
1878  to  1883,  when  the  institution  was  abolished 
by  court  decision.  He  is  said  to  have  published 
in  1873  Our  Darwinian  Cousins,  and  he  subse- 
quently edited  A ncient  Symbol  Worship  (1875), 
by  H.  M.  Westropp  and  C.  S.  Wake ;  Eleusinian 
and  Bacchic  Mysteries  (1875),  by  Thomas  Tay- 
lor; The  Symbolic  Language  (1876),  by  R.  P. 
Knight ;  and  Serpent  and  Siva  Worship  and  .  .  . 
The  Origin  of  Serpent  Worship  (1877),  by 
Hyde  Clarke  and  C.  S.  Wake.  In  1875  he 
brought  out  Vaccination  a  Medical  Fallacy, 
wherein  he  declared,  "Vaccination  is  physically 
and  morally  wrong,  and  its  advocates  are  inte- 


riorly conscious  of  it,  or  else  they  would  trust  to 
argument  and  conviction,"  whereas  he,  in  op- 
posing them,  professed  to  base  his  conclusions 
on  irrefutable  evidence.  In  1882  he  attended 
Bronson  Alcott's  School  of  Philosophy  in  Con- 
cord, and  later  took  part  in  organizing  the 
"American  Akademe"  at  Jacksonville,  Fla.  From 
1876  to  1895  he  was  secretary  of  the  National 
Eclectic  Medical  Association,  editing  its  annual 
Transactions.  In  1901  he  published  a  History 
of  Medicine,  notable  for  its  discussion  of  the 
"new  schools"  which  arose  in  America  in  the 
nineteenth  century.  His  last  work,  a  translation 
of  the  Thcurgia  of  Iamblichos,  was  published 
posthumously  in  191 1.  During  his  connection 
with  the  Evening  Post  he  married  a  cousin,  but 
the  marriage  was  unhappy  and  a  separation  en- 
sued. 

[Biog.  sketch  in  J.  U.  Lloyd,  "The  Eclectic  Alka- 
loids," Bull.  Lloyd  Lib.  of  Botany,  Pharmacy,  and  Ma- 
teria Medica,  No.  12  (1910)  ;  Who's  Who  in  America, 
1906-07  ;  M.  H.  Wilder,  Book  of  the  Wilders  (1878)  ; 
R.  A.  Gunn,  "Alexander  Wilder,"  Am.  Medic.  Jour., 
Nov.  1908,  which  makes  use  of  autobiog.  material  ; 
Eclectic  Medic.  Jour.,  Nov.  1908  ;  Evening  Post  (N.  Y.), 
Sept.  31,  1908  ;  Newark  Evening  News,  Sept.  19,  1908; 
N.  Y.  Tribune,  Sept.  20,  1908.]  E  S  B 

WILDER,  HARRIS  HAWTHORNE  (Apr. 
7,  1864-Feb.  2/,  1928),  zoologist,  was  born  in 
Bangor,  Me.,  the  son  of  Solon  Wilder,  chorister 
and  teacher  of  vocal  music,  and  Sarah  Watkins 
(Smith)  Wilder,  both  descendants  of  old  New 
England  stock.  The  original  American  ancestor 
on  his  father's  side  was  Thomas  Wilder,  who 
was  settled  in  Charlestown,  Mass.,  in  1640.  He 
attended  various  schools  in  Bangor,  and  in 
Cambridge  and  Princeton,  Mass.,  though  most 
of  his  early  education  depended  on  private  in- 
struction, and  was  graduated  from  the  Worces- 
ter Classical  High  School  in  1882.  He  then  en- 
tered Amherst  College,  where  he  came  under  the 
influence  of  Prof.  John  M.  Tyler,  who  fostered 
and  strengthened  the  interest  in  natural  history 
which  he  had  shown  from  very  early  childhood. 
He  was  graduated  in  1886  and  taught  biology 
in  a  Chicago  high  school  for  a  time.  In  1889  he 
went  to  Germany  and  began  graduate  work  in 
anatomy  and  zoology  under  Robert  Wiedersheim 
and  Weismann,  taking  the  degree  of  Ph.D.  at  the 
University  of  Freiburg  in  1891.  After  another 
year  of  teaching  in  Chicago,  he  became  pro- 
fessor of  zoology  at  Smith  College  and  remained 
there  in  charge  of  the  department  of  zoology 
until  his  death.  In  addition  to  his  earlier  work 
on  anatomy,  Wilder  devoted  himself  to  the  study 
of  amphibians,  the  friction-ridges  of  the  skin 
(fingerprints),  teratology,  and  anthropology. 
He  was  tireless  in  research  as  well  as  in  teach- 
ing, and  published  his  results  in  about  forty  sci- 


208 


Wilder 

entific  papers  and  a  number  of  books,  among 
them  History  of  the  Human  Body  ( 1909,  revised 
edition,  1923),  Personal  Identification  (1918), 
written  in  collaboration  with  Bert  Wentworth, 
A  Laboratory  Manual  of  Anthropometry  ( 1920) , 
Man's  Prehistoric  Past  (1923),  The  Pedigree 
of  the  Human  Race  (1926).  He  also  wrote  The 
Early  Years  of  a  Zoologist,  an  autobiography 
published  posthumously  (1930).  His  sound  clas- 
sical education,  the  foundation  of  his  cultured 
personality,  influenced  strongly  the  excellent  lit- 
erary style  characteristic  of  his  books. 

He  had  rather  short  stature,  red  hair,  twin- 
kling blue  eyes,  an  expressive  face,  and  a  viva- 
cious, somewhat  erratic  disposition.  In  spite  of 
his  extraordinary  enthusiasm  for  biological 
teaching  and  research,  he  was  always  a  lively 
social  being,  fond  of  entertaining  and  full  of 
wit  and  sparkling  conversation.  He  was  talented 
in  many  ways,  having  a  pronounced  gift  for  hu- 
morous verse,  drawing,  and  wood  carving. 
Rather  late  in  life,  on  July  26,  1906,  he  was  mar- 
ried to  Inez  Luanne  Whipple,  who  did  graduate 
work  under  his  direction,  and  became  his  col- 
league at  Smith  College.  They  were  remark- 
ably compatible  and  together  built  up  a  college 
department  notable  for  its  devotion  to  the  ideals 
of  research.  Wilder's  personal  charm  and  his 
continued  cheerfulness  and  industry  under  the 
handicap  of  ill  health  endeared  him  to  his 
friends ;  for  scientists,  his  name  will  be  linked 
with  fundamentally  important  contributions  in 
the  fields  of  vertebrate  anatomy,  friction-ridge 
patterns,  and  descriptive  anthropology.  He  in- 
fluenced no  small  number  of  students  to  under- 
take successfully  careers  in  biological  teaching 
and  research.  He  was  a  fellow  of  the  American 
Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1928-29;  M.  H.  Wilder, 
Book  of  the  Wilders  (1878)  ;  Wilder's  autobiography, 
The  Early  Years  of  a  Zoologist  (privately  printed 
1930),  ed.  by  Inez  W.  Wilder;  Amherst  Coll.,  Biog. 
Record  (1927)  ;  J.  McK.  and  Jaques  Cattell,  Am.  Men 
of  Sci.  (1927)  ;  H.  S.  Pratt,  obituary  notice  in  Science, 
May  11,  1928;  N.  Y.  Times,  Feb.  28,  1928.] 

H.  M.P. 

WILDER,  JOHN  THOMAS  (Jan.  31,  1830- 
Oct.  20,  1917),  soldier  and  industrialist,  the  son 
of  Reuben  and  Mary  (Merritt)  Wilder,  was 
born  in  Hunter  Village,  Greene  County,  N.  Y. 
He  was  a  descendant  of  Edward  Wilder,  whose 
mother  Martha  Wilder,  came  to  America  on  the 
ship  Confidence  in  1638.  As  a  lad  John  served 
as  apprenticed  draftsman  in  a  millwright  plant 
in  Columbus,  Ohio.  Subsequently,  he  established 
himself  as  a  foundryman  and  millwright  in 
Greensburg,  Ind.,  where  on  May  18,  1858,  he 
was  married  to  Martha  Stewart. 

He  enlisted  as  a  private  in  the  1st  Independent 


Wilder 

Battery  Apr.  21,  1861,  and  the  following  day  he 
was  elected  captain.  On  June  12  of  the  same  year 
he  was  appointed  by  Gov.  Oliver  P.  Morton  lieu- 
tenant-colonel of  the  17th  Indiana  Volunteer  In- 
fantry, and  was  advanced  to  the  colonelcy  on 
Mar.  2.  His  command  saw  its  first  field  service 
in  West  Virginia.  It  was  with  Buell's  army  in 
the  second  day's  battle  at  Shiloh,  after  which 
Wilder  was  given  command,  as  senior  colonel,  of 
a  brigade  which  served  at  Munfordville,  Ky., 
and  in  the  Tullahoma  campaign  in  Middle  Ten- 
nessee. In  June  1863,  when  Hoover's  Gap  of 
Cumberland  Mountains  was  held  by  a  strong 
Confederate  force  to  give  time  to  Bragg's  main 
army  to  fall  back  towards  Chattanooga,  Wilder's 
brigade  by  the  celerity  of  its  movements  forced 
the  Gap  open  and  pursued  its  defenders  on  their 
retreat.  This  engagement  caused  the  brigade 
thereafter  to  be  called  "Wilder's  Lightning  Bri- 
gade." It  was  composed  of  the  Indiana  and  Illi- 
nois infantry  regiments,  but  it  differed  from 
other  infantry  commands  in  that  its  men  were 
equipped,  at  the  instance  of  Wilder,  with  the 
then  new  model  Spencer  repeating  rifles,  and  its 
troopers  were  mounted.  It  led  the  advance  of 
Rosecrans'  army  to  the  environs  of  Chattanooga 
and  was  the  first  brigade  to  enter  the  city.  In 
the  major  battle  of  Chickamauga,  engaging  as 
a  distinct  unit,  it  acquitted  itself  brilliantly,  and 
Wilder  was  recommended  by  Maj.-Gen.  George 
H.  Thomas  for  promotion  to  the  rank  of  briga- 
dier-general "for  his  ingenuity  and  fertility  of 
resource  .  .  .  and  for  his  valor  and  the  many 
qualities  of  commander  displayed  by  him  in  the 
numerous  engagements  of  his  brigade  with  the 
enemy  before  and  during  the  battle  of  Chicka- 
mauga." On  Aug.  6,  1864,  Wilder  was  brevetted 
brigadier-general. 

Resigning  from  the  army  in  October  1864,  he 
removed  to  Chattanooga  and  took  a  leading  part 
in  the  development  of  the  natural  resources 
around  that  city.  In  1867  he  founded  the  Roane 
Iron  Works,  and  at  Rockwood  he  built  one  of 
the  first  blast  furnaces  in  the  South.  In  1870  he 
established  a  rail  mill  in  Chattanooga.  He  was 
also  active  in  the  promotion  and  partial  con- 
struction (1890-92)  of  the  Charleston,  Cincin- 
nati &  Chicago  Railroad  (now  the  Clinchfield 
Railroad).  For  himself  and  his  associates  he  ac- 
quired about  half  a  million  acres  of  iron  and  coal 
lands  in  Kentucky,  Virginia,  North  Carolina, 
and  Tennessee,  and  built  the  Carnegie  furnace 
at  Johnson  City.  Tennesseans  rank  him  high 
among  the  developers  of  the  state's  resources. 
He  served  as  mayor  and  postmaster  of  Chat- 
tanooga, as  pension  agent  at  Knoxville,  and  as  a 
commissioner  of  Chickamauga  and  Chattanooga 


209 


Wilder 


Wilder 


National  Park.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Amer- 
ican Institute  of  Mining  Engineers,  and  an  hon- 
orary member  of  the  Iron  and  Steel  Institute  of 
Great  Britain. 

Tall  and  well-proportioned,  Wilder  was  a 
striking  figure — capable  of  the  great  endurance 
which  his  initiative  and  energy  impelled.  His 
first  wife  died  Feb.  29,  1892,  and  in  1904  he  mar- 
ried Dora  E.  Lee.  He  died  at  Jacksonville,  Fla., 
survived  by  his  wife,  with  five  daughters  and 
one  son  of  his  first  marriage.  He  was  buried  in 
Forest  Hills  Cemetery,  Chattanooga. 

[M.  H.  Wilder,  Book  of  the  Wilders  (1878)  ;  W.  T. 
Hale  and  D.  L.  Merritt,  A  Hist,  of  Tenn.  (1913)  ;  C. 
D.  McGuffey,  Chattanooga  and  Her  Battlefields  (1912)  ; 
Archibald  Gracie,  The  Truth  About  Chickamauga 
(191 1)  ;  H.  V.  Boynton,  The  Nat.  Mil.  Park,  Chicka- 
mauaga — Chattanooga  (1895)  and  Dedication  of  the 
Chickamauga  and  Chattanooga  Mil.  Park  (1896)  ;  John 
Fitch,  Annals  of  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland  (1863)  ; 
H.  M.  Cist,  The  Army  of  the  Cumberland  (1882); 
Who's , Who  in  America,  1912-13  ;  Chattanooga  Times 
and  Chattanooga  News,  Oct.  21,   1917.]  S.  C.  W. 

WILDER,    MARSHALL    PINCKNEY 

(Sept.  22,  1798-Dec.  16,  1886),  merchant,  agri- 
culturist, was  born  at  Rindge,  N.  H.,  a  descend- 
ant of  Thomas  Wilder,  freeman  of  Charlestown, 
Mass.,  in  1640.  The  eldest  son  of  Samuel  Locke 
and  Anna  (Sherwin)  Wilder,  Marshall  Pinck- 
ney  was  educated  at  a  district  school,  at  an  acad- 
emy at  New  Ipswich,  and  by  private  tutor.  Given 
choice  of  occupation  at  sixteen,  he  chose  farm- 
ing, a  preference  which  he  was  forced  to  yield  to 
the  demands  of  his  father's  mercantile  business. 
At  twenty-one  he  was  given  a  partnership,  a  re- 
sponsibility to  which  he  soon  added  the  duties  of 
postmaster  at  Rindge  and  the  teaching  of  vocal 
music.  He  moved  to  Boston  in  1825,  and  was  a 
partner  successively  in  a  number  of  commission 
firms. 

Having  acquired  a  fortune  within  a  reasonable 
period,  he  proceeded  to  exercise  his  abilities  in 
diverse  directions.  As  representative  in  the  state 
legislature  in  1839,  member  of  the  executive 
council  in  1849,  president  of  the  state  Senate  in 
1850,  an  ardent  supporter  of  Webster  while  he 
lived,  and  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Constitu- 
tional Union  party  in  i860,  he  consistently  en- 
deavored to  act  as  a  statesman  rather  than  a 
politician.  After  the  Civil  War,  during  which 
he  strongly  supported  the  government,  he  took 
little  active  part  in  politics.  Shortly  after  his 
removal  to  Boston,  he  joined  the  Ancient  and 
Honorable  Artillery  Company ;  he  was  its  cap- 
tain in  1856  and  lived  to  be  its  oldest  past  com- 
mander. With  other  public-spirited  citizens  he 
founded  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Tech- 
nology in  1861 ;  he  served  it  as  vice-president, 
1865-70,  and  as  trustee,   1870-86.    He  was  a 


member  of  the  New-England  Historic  Genealog- 
ical Society  from  1850  and  its  president  from 
1868  to  1886.  Through  his  efforts  the  Society 
obtained  a  new  building,  created  an  endowment, 
enlarged  its  collections,  and  encouraged  his- 
torical research  and  publication.  In  the  Masonic 
order  Wilder  rose  to  the  thirty-third  degree  and 
became  a  member  of  the  Supreme  Council. 

He  gave  his  first  allegiance,  however,  to  agri- 
culture. Changing  his  residence  to  Dorchester, 
a  suburb  of  Boston,  in  1832,  he  planted  a  nurs- 
ery and  began  extensive  experiments  in  horti- 
culture which  continued  for  more  than  fifty 
years.  He  developed  many  new  and  important 
varieties  of  flowers  and  fruits,  including  the  fa- 
mous "Wilder  Rose,"  and  at  one  time  had  nine 
hundred  varieties  of  pears  growing  in  his  gar- 
den. His  experiments  in  hybridization  were 
made  possible  through  regular  importations  of 
plants  from  abroad.  The  Massachusetts  Horti- 
cultural Society  owed  much  to  his  counsel  and 
leadership.  It  had  established  Mount  Auburn 
Cemetery,  ornamenting  it  with  trees  and  flowers, 
and  in  1835  Wilder  devised  a  contract  whereby, 
in  return  for  agreeing  to  the  separation  of  the 
Horticultural  Society  from  the  cemetery  project, 
the  Society  received  a  percentage  of  the  sales  of 
cemetery  lots,  thus  accumulating  an  endowment 
which  by  1878  amounted  to  more  than  $150,000. 
Under  Wilder's  presidency  from  1840  to  1848 
the  organization  built  its  first  hall  and  otherwise 
greatly  extended  its  interests.  Acting  for  this 
Society  in  1848  Wilder  issued  a  call  for  a  con- 
vention of  fruit  growers  in  New  York  City, 
which  resulted  in  the  formation  of  the  American 
Pomological  Society.  Wilder  was  elected  presi- 
dent and  served  repeatedly  for  thirty-eight  years, 
during  which  period  the  organization  molded  the 
whole  development  of  American  horticulture.  In 
September  1883  he  proposed  a  reform  in  the  no- 
menclature of  the  fruits  of  America  which  was 
later  carried  out.  In  his  first  address  before  the 
Norfolk  Agricultural  Society,  which  he  helped 
to  organize  in  1849  and  over  which  he  presided 
for  twenty  years,  he  pleaded  the  great  need  for 
agricultural  education. 

At  Wilder's  instigation,  in  September  1851, 
the  several  agricultural  societies  of  Massachu- 
setts formed  a  central  board  of  agriculture.  As 
president  of  this  organization  he  prevailed  upon 
the  legislature  to  establish  a  state  board  of  agri- 
culture in  1852.  Chosen  senior  member  of  this 
body,  he  directed  its  activities  until  shortly  be- 
fore his  death.  In  1852  as  representative  of 
the  new  Massachusetts  board,  he  requested 
other  state  boards  and  societies  to  appoint  dele- 
gates to  a  national  agricultural  meeting  in  Wash- 


2IO 


Wilder 

ington,  which  resulted  in  the  formation  of  the 
United  States  Agricultural  Society.  Wilder  was 
made  president  and  held  office  for  six  years.  This 
society  by  its  national  fairs  and  exhibitions  stim- 
ulated agricultural  improvement ;  it  was  influ- 
ential in  the  establishment,  in  the  early  sixties, 
of  the  office  of  United  States  commissioner  of 
agriculture,  and  supported  legislation  for  the 
creation  of  state  colleges  of  agriculture.  Wilder 
was  a  leader  in  the  formation  of  the  Massachu- 
setts Agricultural  College,  one  of  the  first  to  be 
organized  in  any  state,  and  was  a  trustee  of  this 
institution  to  the  end  of  his  life.  As  a  member 
of  the  United  States  Commission  to  the  Paris 
Universal  Exposition  of  1867  he  made  a  valuable 
report  on  the  horticultural  exhibits  there.  In 
1870  he  visited  California  to  survey  its  horti- 
cultural products.  The  addresses  which  he  de- 
livered as  president  or  other  officer  of  the  vari- 
ous societies  and  institutions  with  which  he  was 
connected  would  fill  volumes.  He  also  contrib- 
uted numerous  articles  to  agricultural  journals 
such  as  the  Horticulturist,  New  England  Farm- 
er, Country  Gentleman,  and  Genesee  Farmer. 

On  Dec.  31,  1820,  at  Rindge,  Wilder  married 
Tryphosa  Jewett,  daughter  of  Dr.  Stephen  Jew- 
ett.  He  had  six  children  by  this  marriage,  two  of 
whom  died  before  their  mother,  whose  death  oc- 
curred in  July  1831.  On  Aug.  29,  1833,  he  mar- 
ried Abigail  Baker,  daughter  of  Capt.  David 
Baker  of  Franklin,  Mass.,  by  whom  he  had  six 
children.  She  died  in  April  1854,  and  on  Sept. 
3,  1855,  he  married  her  sister,  Julia  Baker.  By 
this  marriage  he  had  two  children.  Only  six  of 
his  fourteen  children  lived  to  adult  life. 

Wilder  was  a  born  promoter  and  leader  of 
men.  Original  in  ideas  and  practical  in  develop- 
ing them,  he  inspired  unusual  confidence  by  his 
genial  character  and  solid  reputation  as  a  man  of 
business.  For  many  years  he  was  known  as  the 
chief  citizen  of  Boston ;  for  more  than  sixty 
years  he  devoted  his  money  and  his  talents  to 
public  service,  consistently  evidencing  an  in- 
telligence, a  whole-hearted  enthusiasm,  and  a 
lack  of  self-interest  which  made  him  one  of  the 
best  loved  and  most  influential  men  of  his  time. 
The  results  of  his  work  are  felt  today  in  the 
various  societies  and  institutions  which  he 
founded  and  developed,  and  in  his  valuable  con- 
tributions to  the  knowledge  and  practice  of  hor- 
ticulture. He  died  suddenly,  in  the  midst  of  his 
activities,  at  the  age  of  eighty-eight. 

[M.  H.  Wilder,  Book  of  the  Wildcrs  (1878)  ;  J.  H. 
Sheppard,  "Memoir  of  Hon.  Marshall  Pinckney  Wild- 
er," New  Eng.  Hist,  and  Geneal.  Reg.,  Apr.  1867; 
H.  A.  Hill,  "Marshall  Pinckney  Wilder,"  Ibid.,  July 
1888  ;  A.  P.  Peabody,  A  Memorial  Address  on  the  Late 
Marshall  Pinckney  Wilder  (1888);  Robert  Manning, 
Biog.  Sketch  of  Hon.  Marshall  P.  Wilder  (1887)  ;  L.  H. 


Wildman 

Bailey,  Cyc.  of  Am.  Agriculture  (1909),  vol.  IV  ;  John 
Livingston,  Portraits  of  Eminent  Americans  Now  Liv- 
ing (1854)  ;  Justin  Winsor,  The  Memorial  Hist,  of  Bos- 
ton (1881),  III,  596,  IV,  274-75,  607-40  ;  Trans.  Mass. 
Horticultural  Soc,  1840-48;  Proc.  Am.  Pomological 
Soc,  1848-86;  Trans.  Norfolk  (Mass.)  Agric.  Soc, 
1849-69;  U.  S.  Agric.  Soc.  Jour.,  1853-58;  Ann.  Re- 
port of  the  Sec.  of  the  Mass.  Board  of  Agriculture, 
1853-87;  files  of  the  New  England  Farmer,  Country 
Gentleman,  Horticulturist,  and  Genesee  Farmer ;  Bos- 
ton Transcript,  Dec.  16,  1886.]  H.  A.K r. 

WILDMAN,  MURRAY  SHIPLEY  (Feb. 
22,  1868-Dec.  24,  1930),  economist,  was  born  in 
the  little  Quaker  town  of  Selma,  Ohio,  the  eldest 
child  of  John  and  Mary  Taylor  (Pugh)  Wild- 
man.  The  boy  was  only  eleven  when  his  father 
died,  and  during  his  years  of  schooling  he  worked 
on  the  farm  and  at  whatever  other  employment 
he  could  find  to  help  support  his  mother  and  the 
three  younger  children.  Deciding  that  he  want- 
ed to  be  a  teacher,  he  entered  Earlham  College, 
a  Friends'  institution  at  Richmond,  Ind.,  and  in 
1893  received  the  degree  of  Ph.B.  On  Aug.  16 
of  that  year  he  married  Olive  Stigleman  of  Rich- 
mond. Until  1895  he  was  teacher  of  history  and 
science  at  Spiceland  Academy,  a  Friends'  school 
in  Indiana.  Here  he  became  interested  in  bank- 
ing and  in  1895  founded  the  Henry  County  Bank, 
of  which  he  was  vice-president  and  cashier  until 
1902.  For  the  last  three  years  of  this  period  he 
was  principal  of  the  Spiceland  Academy  and 
superintendent  of  the  schools  of  that  town. 

In  1902  he  went  to  the  University  of  Chicago 
to  study  political  economy,  where  he  gave  chief 
attention  to  the  subjects  of  money  and  banking, 
coming  especially  under  the  influence  of  Prof.  J. 
Laurence  Laughlin.  He  received  the  degree  of 
Ph.D.  in  1904,  his  dissertation  being  published 
under  the  title  Money  Inflation  in  the  United 
States  (1905).  Marked  by  skill  in  composition 
as  well  as  by  accurate  research  and  judicious 
selection  of  material,  this  study  forms  a  useful 
chapter  in  American  economic  history.  Opening 
the  work  with  a  discussion  of  the  contributing 
psychological  forces,  he  went  on  to  the  economic 
causes  and  showed  how  a  series  of  liquidated 
frontiers  set  up  the  cry  for  easy  money.  His 
prejudice  against  socialist  proposals  was  inten- 
sified by  his  review  of  the  inflationist  demands 
of  those  without  property.  In  1905  he  became 
instructor  and  the  following  year  assistant  pro- 
fessor of  economics  at  the  University  of  Mis- 
souri. In  1909-10  he  was  assistant  professor 
of  economics  in  the  school  of  commerce  at  North- 
western University,  in  1910-11,  taught  econom- 
ics and  commerce,  and  in  1911-12  was  professor 
of  economics  and  commerce.  During  his  last  year 
at  Northwestern  he  performed  effective  service 
as  secretary  of  the  National   Citizen's  League 


21  1 


Wildwood  —  Wiley 

for  the  Promotion  of  a  Sound  Banking  System, 
interviewing  business  men,  writing,  and  speak- 
ing. His  teacher,  Professor  Laughlin,  was  the 
League's  founder  and  guiding  spirit.  It  took 
form  in  the  spring  of  191 1,  when  it  was  apparent 
that  the  Aldrich  bill,  for  all  of  its  desirable  fea- 
tures, would  not  be  enacted.  The  League  under- 
took, on  behalf  of  business  men,  borrowers  rath- 
er than  bankers,  to  educate  the  country  in  the 
principles  of  banking  reform,  including  the  need 
of  credit  reorganization  as  against  mere  note 
issue,  and  emphasizing  the  importance  of  mak- 
ing liquid  the  sound  commercial  paper  of  the 
banks  in  the  form  of  credits  or  bank  notes  re- 
deemable in  gold  or  lawful  money.  Regional 
bankers'  control,  with  government  sponsorship, 
instead  of  the  European  system  of  central  banks 
was  favored.  This  program  was  thoroughly  con- 
genial to  Wildman,  and  his  work  contributed  to 
the  League's  influence  in  bringing  about  the  es- 
tablishment of  the  Federal  Reserve  System. 

In  1912  he  became  head  of  the  department  of 
economics  at  Leland  Stanford  Junior  University. 
Here  he  displayed  remarkable  aptitude  both  for 
administrative  and  teaching  duties,  and  won  the 
enthusiastic  cooperation  of  his  colleagues.  From 
1925  till  his  death  he  was  dean  of  the  school  of 
social  sciences.  He  served  in  the  bureau  of  re- 
search of  the  war  trade  board  and  the  division 
of  planning  and  statistics  of  the  war  industries 
board,  1918-19,  engaged  particularly  in  making 
studies  of  food  prices  during  the  war  period. 
His  heavy  teaching  and  administrative  duties 
left  comparatively  little  time  for  writing.  He 
was  an  active  member  of  the  Commonwealth 
Club  of  San  Francisco,  where  he  had  intimate 
contact  with  men  of  affairs,  and  of  other  organi- 
zations of  business  men  and  economists.  He  was 
also  a  member  of  the  committee  on  statistics  and 
standards  of  the  United  States  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce. He  died  at  Stanford  University,  survived 
by  his  wife  and  a  daughter. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1 g 26-27 ;  A.  C.  Whitaker, 
in  Stanford  Illustrated  Rev.,  Feb.  1931  ;  Ann.  Report 
of  the  President  of  Stanford  Univ.  (1931)  ;  J.  L.  Laugh- 
lin, The  Federal  Reserve  Act,  its  Origin  and  Problems 
(1933)1  especially  pp.  56  ff.  ;  San  Francisco  Chronicle 
and  N.  Y.  Times,  Dec.  25,   1930.]  B.  M 1. 

WILDWOOD,  WILL  [See  Pond,  Frederick 
Eugene,  1856-1925]. 

WILEY,  ANDREW  JACKSON  (July  15, 
1862-Oct.  8,  1931),  irrigation  engineer,  was 
born  in  New  Castle  County,  Del.,  the  son  of  John 
and  Mary  (Hukill)  Wiley.  He  attended  Newark 
Academy,  Newark,  Del.,  graduating  at  the  head 
of  his  class  and  winning  a  scholarship  at  Dela- 
ware College,  where  he  was  graduated  in  engi- 
neering in  1882.   He  then  spent  a  year  on  sur- 


Wiley 


veys  and  construction  for  the  Baltimore  &  Ohio 
Railroad  Company  in  Delaware  and  Maryland. 

In  1883  he  entered  the  field  of  irrigation  work 
at  Boise,  Idaho,  with  the  Idaho  Mining  &  Irri- 
gation Company.  From  1886  to  1888  he  was 
assistant  engineer  on  construction  for  the  Union 
Pacific  Railway  Company  in  Montana.  In  the 
latter  year  he  again  became  associated  with  the 
Idaho  Mining  &  Irrigation  Company,  in  connec- 
tion with  an  irrigation  project  in  southern  Idaho. 
From  1892  to  1898  he  was  chief  engineer  and 
manager  of  the  Owyhee  Land  &  Irrigation  Com- 
pany in  the  construction  of  a  large  irrigation 
project  in  the  same  state.  Land  development 
and  irrigation  work  was  at  this  time  difficult 
and  discouraging  in  results,  and  Wiley's  finan- 
cial returns  were  relatively  small,  but  he  be- 
came known  as  a  man  of  the  highest  integrity 
"whose  word  alone  was  a  guarantee  of  perform- 
ance" and  thus  laid  a  sound  foundation  for  his 
later  accomplishments. 

About  1900  conditions  became  more  favor- 
able and  during  the  next  thirty  years  Wiley  was 
busy  upon  a  continuous  procession  of  great  irri- 
gation and  power  projects  in  Idaho,  Oregon,  Cal- 
ifornia, and  other  Western  states.  In  addition 
to  numerous  non-federal  enterprises,  he  was  also 
consultant  to  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Recla- 
mation from  its  inception  in  1902,  and  from  1925 
he  held  a  similar  appointment  for  the  Depart- 
ment of  the  Interior  at  large.  His  assignments 
included  practically  all  of  the  major  government 
dams,  such  as  the  Belle  Fourche,  Shoshone, 
Roosevelt,  Pathfinder,  Arrowrock,  Owyhee,  and 
Hoover  (now  Boulder).  These  projects  includ- 
ed the  ranking  high  masonry  dams  of  the  world, 
many  of  them  between  300  and  400  feet  in  height, 
and  the  last-named  727  feet.  Wiley's  work  in- 
cluded many  detailed  studies  of  design  as  well 
as  periodical  field  inspections  during  construc- 
tion. He  was  the  first  engineer  to  be  named  for 
the  Boulder  Dam  consulting  board,  where  his 
broad  experience  and  sound  judgment  were  in- 
valuable in  the  preliminary  studies  of  this  great 
project.  He  was  also  consulted  about  projects 
of  other  departments  of  the  federal  government, 
including  the  design  and  construction  of  the  Coo- 
lidge  Dam,  the  Madden  Dam  and  power  plant 
for  the  Canal  Zone,  and  the  Columbia  River 
Basin  power  and  irrigation  project. 

Acting  as  consultant  for  the  British  govern- 
ment in  1927-28,  he  investigated  dam  sites  in  the 
Himalayas,  and  as  a  result  the  Bhakra  Dam, 
about  500  feet  high,  was  designed.  His  profes- 
sional engagements  also  took  him  to  Puerto  Rico 
several  times.  In  1928,  following  the  great  St. 
Francis  dam  disaster  in  California,  Wiley  was 


212 


Wiley 

chosen  to  report  upon  the  safety  of  the  twenty  or 
more  bureau  of  reclamation  dams.  He  also  was 
retained  to  make  a  similar  investigation  for  the 
city  of  Los  Angeles.  At  the  time  of  his  death  his 
consulting  engagements  included  such  outstand- 
ing works  as  the  $165,000,000  Boulder  Canyon 
project,  the  $220,000,000  aqueduct  of  the  metro- 
politan water  district  of  southern  California,  and 
the  $400,000,000  Columbia  River  project  in 
Washington. 

Wiley  was  averse  to  publicity  and  seldom 
spoke  in  public.  He  greatly  enjoyed  the  com- 
panionship of  friends  and  was  a  genial  and  en- 
tertaining host.  His  kindness  and  consideration 
of  others  always  secured  the  loyalty  and  diligence 
of  his  associates.  His  engineering  career  was 
exceptionally  brilliant  and  his  reputation  as  a 
consultant  was  of  the  highest,  both  in  the  United 
States  and  abroad.  He  made  his  home  in  Boise, 
Idaho,  but  died  in  Monrovia,  Cal.  He  never  mar- 
ried. 

[Trans.  Am.  Soc.  of  Civil  Engineers,  vol.  XC  (1932)  ; 
Who's  Who  in  America,  1928—29;  Engineering  News- 
Record,  Oct.  15,  1931  ;  N.  Y.  Times,  Oct.  9,  1931.] 

H.K.B. 

WILEY,  CALVIN  HENDERSON  (Feb.  3, 
1819-Jan.  11,  1887),  first  superintendent  of 
common  schools  in  North  Carolina,  was  born  in 
Guilford  County,  N.  C,  the  son  of  David  L.  and 
Anne  (Woodburn)  Wiley.  He  was  of  Scotch- 
Irish  stock,  a  descendant  of  William  Wiley  who 
in  1754  moved  from  Pennsylvania  to  North  Car- 
olina. At  Caldwell  Institute  in  his  native  county, 
one  of  the  foremost  preparatory  schools  of  the 
period,  he  was  prepared  for  the  University  of 
North  Carolina,  from  which  he  was  graduated 
in  1840.  He  studied  law,  was  admitted  to  prac- 
tice in  1841,  and  settled  in  Oxford,  S.  C,  where 
he  also  edited  (1841-43)  the  Oxford  Mercury. 
In  1847  he  published  a  novel  called  Alamance ; 
or,  The  Great  and  Final  Experiment;  this  was 
followed  by  another  novel,  Roanoke;  or,  Where 
Is  Utopia?  (1849),  which  appeared  in  England 
as  Adventures  of  Old  Dan  Tucker,  and  His  Son 
Walter  (1851).  The  backward  economic  and 
social  conditions  of  North  Carolina  in  the  1840's 
aroused  Wiley's  interest  in  education.  Gaining 
a  seat  in  the  state  legislature  (1850-52),  he  se- 
cured legal  provision  for  a  superintendent  of 
common  schools  to  be  chosen  by  the  legislature 
and  to  hold  office  for  two  years.  Though  Wiley 
was  a  Whig  and  the  legislature  Democratic,  he 
was  chosen  for  the  position  and  entered  upon 
its  duties,  Jan.  1,  1853.  He  was  continuously  ap- 
pointed by  a  legislature  of  political  opponents 
until  1865,  when  all  state  offices  in  existence  on 
Apr.  26  of  that  year  were  declared  vacant.   Dur- 


Wiley 

ing  the  thirteen  years  of  his  service  he  labored 
for  a  complete  reorganization  and  improvement 
of  education.  He  visited  all  parts  of  the  state  in 
his  buggy  and  at  his  own  expense,  and  through 
educational  speeches,  newspaper  articles,  annual 
reports,  and  the  North  Carolina  Journal  of  Edu- 
cation (originally  Common  School  Journal) 
which  he  established  (1856)  and  edited,  and 
through  the  Educational  Association  of  North 
Carolina,  which  he  organized,  he  aroused  wide 
interest  in  the  cause  of  popular  education.  He 
had  previously  published  at  his  own  expense  The 
North-Carolina  Reader  (1851),  which  became 
a  standard  school  text.  When  he  became  su- 
perintendent he  disposed  of  his  copyright,  sold 
all  of  the  copies  and  the  plates  at  cost,  and  re- 
fused to  accept  any  remuneration.  Before  the 
outbreak  of  the  Civil  War  his  services  were  in 
demand  in  states  which  sought  to  copy  the  edu- 
cational plan  of  North  Carolina,  and  he  was  held 
in  high  esteem  among  national  educational  lead- 
ers. In  cooperation  with  Braxton  Craven  [q.v.~], 
he  helped  to  promote  the  work  of  Normal  Col- 
lege, the  first  teacher  training  institution  of 
semi-public  character  in  the  state  (1852-59). 
The  schools  continued  to  operate  even  during  the 
war  and  until  1865 ;  largely  through  Wiley's  ef- 
forts the  permanent  public  school  endowment 
was  left  untouched  for  military  purposes. 

Wiley  believed  in  universal  free  education. 
At  the  close  of  the  war  he  was  very  decided  in 
his  advocacy  of  the  freedmen.  A  deeply  religious 
man,  he  sought  to  apply  to  education  everywhere 
the  ideas  of  the  Christian  faith.  In  his  later  years 
he  was  engaged  in  patriotic  and  religious  work, 
principally  with  the  American  Bible  Society, 
which  he  served  as  general  agent  in  some  of  the 
southern  states  (1869).  Settling  in  Winston, 
N.  C,  he  assisted  in  the  establishment  of  a  graded 
school  system  there.  In  1855  he  was  licensed  by 
the  Presbyterian  Church  to  preach ;  he  was  or- 
dained in  1866,  but  he  never  had  a  regular  charge. 
On  Feb.  25,  1862,  he  was  married  to  Mittie 
Towles  of  Raleigh,  by  whom  he  had  seven  chil- 
dren.  He  died  at  his  home  in  Winston. 

[S.  B.  Weeks,  in  Report  of  the  U.  S.  Commissioner 
of  Educ.  .  .  .  1896-97  (1898),  vol.  II,  pp.  1376-1474; 
E.  W.  Knight,  Pub.  School  Educ.  in  N.  C.  (1916),  and 
Pub.  Educ.  in  the  South  (1922)  ;  R.  D.  W.  Connor,  in 
Biog.  Hist,  of  N.  C,  vol.  II  (1905),  ed.  by  S.  A.  Ashe, 
N.  C.  Day  Program  (1905),  and  "Ante-Bellum  Build- 
ers of  N.  C,"  AT.  C.  State  Normal  and  Industrial  Coll. 
Hist.  Pubs.,  no.  3  (1914);  A.  L.  Bramlett,  Popular 
Educ.  in  N.  C.  (1917)  ;  H.  C.  Renegar,  The  Problems, 
Policies  and  Achiei'ements  of  Calvin  Henderson  Wiley 
(1925);  C.  L.  Smith,  The  Hist,  of  Educ.  in  N.  C. 
(1888)  ;  Alumni  Hist,  of  the  Univ.  of  N.  C.  (1924)  ; 
obituary  in  News  and  Observer  (Raleigh,  N.  C),  Jan. 
12,1887.]  E.W.K. 

WILEY,  DAVID  (d.  c.  1813),  Presbyterian 
minister   and   pioneer   agricultural   editor,  was 


213 


Wiley 

probably  a  native  of  Pennsylvania.  He  was 
graduated  from  the  College  of  New  Jersey  (later 
Princeton)  with  distinction  in  1788  and  was 
a  tutor  at  Hampden  Sidney  College,  Virginia, 
from  November  1788  to  April  1790.  He  studied 
for  the  Presbyterian  ministry,  was  a  licenti- 
ate of  the  Presbytery  of  New  Castle,  and  was 
first  called  by  Cedar  Creek  and  Spring  Creek 
Churches,  Huntington  Presbytery,  in  April  1793. 
He  was  ordained  by  the  Presbytery  of  Carlisle, 
Pa.,  Apr.  9,  1794.  Later  he  was  called  for  half 
his  time  to  the  Sinking  Creek  Church,  serving 
as  pastor  for  one  year.  In  October  1797  he  re- 
signed this  charge,  retaining,  however,  the 
charge  of  Spring  Creek  until  June  12,  1799.  He 
continued  within  the  bounds  of  the  Huntington 
Presbytery  about  a  year  longer.  It  seems  prob- 
able that  he  resigned  his  pastorate  to  study  at 
Princeton,  for  he  took  the  degree  of  M.A.  there 
in  1801.  In  the  same  year  he  moved  to  George- 
town, D.  C,  called  there  by  Dr.  Stephen  Bloomer 
Balch,  a  prominent  Presbyterian  minister  and 
principal  of  the  Columbian  Academy,  as  his  suc- 
cessor at  the  academy.  Wiley  was  a  good  mathe- 
matician, but  he  was  apparently  more  interested 
in  science  itself  than  in  teaching,  for  it  was  said 
of  him  that  "he  did  not  seem  to  care  whether  the 
school  kept  or  not,  when  he  went  surveying" 
(Records  of  the  Columbia  Historical  Society, 
post,  p.  81).  For  a  time  he  served  also  as  libra- 
rian of  the  Columbian  Library,  but  these  duties 
did  not  weigh  heavily  upon  him.  Under  his  re- 
gime the  books  were  scattered  and  never  re- 
gathered,  "for  the  principal  and  librarian  had 
more  than  even  his  mighty  mind  could  manipu- 
late successfully,"  being  at  the  same  time  "the 
superintendent  of  a  turnpike,  the  editor  of  an  ag- 
ricultural paper,  the  postmaster,  a  merchant,  a 
miller,  and  a  minister"  (Ibid.).  He  also  served 
as  major  of  Georgetown  from  181 1  to  1812.  He 
is  said  to  have  died  in  1813  in  North  Carolina, 
where  he  had  gone  on  a  government  survey.  He 
was  married  and  had  a  large  family.  The  vari- 
ety and  number  of  his  activities  may  have  been 
due  to  the  fact  that  he  was  at  times  harassed  by 
financial  difficulties ;  it  seems  clear,  however, 
that  he  was  a  man  of  great  public  spirit  and 
energy,  and  of  remarkable  versatility. 

It  is  in  connection  with  his  agricultural  ac- 
tivities that  he  deserves  most  to  be  remembered. 
He  was  secretary  of  the  Columbian  Agricultural 
Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Rural  and  Domes- 
tic Economy,  organized  in  1809  by  a  number  of 
gentlemen  residing  in  Maryland,  Virginia,  and 
the  District  of  Columbia.  Embracing  as  it  did 
several  states,  it  was  the  germ  of  a  national  or- 
ganization.   The  Agricultural  Museum,   edited 


Wiley 

by  Wiley  in  connection  with  the  society,  was 
probably  the  first  agricultural  journal  published 
in  the  United  States.  The  first  number  appeared 
from  the  printing  press  of  W.  A.  Rind  in  George- 
town in  July  1810,  nearly  nine  years  before  the 
first  number  of  the  American  Farmer.  The  mag- 
azine was  well  edited  and  contained  a  consider- 
able amount  of  original  material  written  espe- 
cially for  it;  among  its  contributors  were  Joel 
Barlow,  John  Taylor  (1753-1824),  and  Benja- 
min Franklin  [qq.v.~\.  It  probably  never  at- 
tained a  large  circulation,  and  may  not  have  con- 
tinued after  May  1812.  A  small  octavo,  it  was 
issued  semi-monthly  during  the  first  year  but 
later  became  a  monthly. 

[T.  B.  Balch,  Reminiscences  of  Georgetown,  D.  C. 
(1859)  ;  Records  of  the  Columbia  Hist.  Soc,  vol.  XV 
(1912);  W.  B.  Bryan,  A  Hist,  of  the  Nat.  Capital 
(1914),  vol.  I  ;  S.  D.  Alexander,  Princeton  Coll.  during 
the  Eighteenth  Century  (1872);  W.  J.  Gibson,  Hist, 
of  the  Presbytery  of  Huntington  (1874)  ;  Hist.  Memo- 
rial of  the  Centennial  Anniv.  of  the  Presbytery  of  Hunt- 
ington (1896)  ;  article  on  S.  B.  Balch  in  Evening  Star 
(Washington,  D.  C),  Apr.  1,  1893.]  C  R  B 

WILEY,  EPHRAIM   EMERSON   (Oct.  6, 

1814-Mar.  13,  1893),  Methodist  clergyman  and 
educator,  was  born  at  Maiden,  Mass.,  the  son  of 
Ephraim  Wiley,  a  Methodist  preacher,  and  Re- 
becca (Emerson)  Wiley.  His  background  was 
that  of  New  England  Puritanism.  He  was  grad- 
uated at  Wesleyan  University  in  1837,  and  upon 
the  recommendation  of  President  Wilbur  Fisk 
[q.v.~\,  Emory  and  Henry  College  (Emory,  Va.), 
a  Methodist  institution,  elected  him  in  1838  pro- 
fessor of  ancient  languages  and  literature. 

At  Emory  and  Henry  he  served  as  professor, 
1838-52,  and  as  president,  1852-79.  In  the  lat- 
ter capacity  he  endeavored  to  strengthen  the 
struggling  school.  Through  the  church  press  and 
before  Methodist  conferences  he  made  pleas  for 
better  support.  As  a  result  the  enrollment  for 
the  academic  session  of  1858-60  reached  the 
highest  figure  attained  during  the  nineteenth 
century.  By  1861  he  had  also  developed  plans 
for  raising  an  endowment  by  the  sale  of  scholar- 
ships, but  during  the  Civil  War  the  college  was 
forced  to  cease  operations  and  the  buildings  were 
used  as  a  Confederate  hospital,  of  which  Wiley 
was  chaplain.  After  the  war  he  made  a  desperate 
effort  to  recoup  the  fortunes  of  the  college.  In 
1879  he  resigned  as  president,  although  during 
part  of  the  academic  session  of  1879-80  he  was 
acting  president.  From  1881  to  1886  he  was 
president  of  Martha  Washington  College  at  Ab- 
ingdon, Va.,  then  returned  to  Emory  and  Henry 
as  treasurer  and  financial  agent,   1886-93. 

During  his  nearly  fifty  years  at  Emory  and 
Henry  he  wielded  a  great  personal  influence. 
Nearly  seven  thousand  students  were  enrolled 


214 


Wiley 

in  the  institution  during  that  period  and  the 
"Wiley  imprint"  was  placed  upon  the  majority 
of  them.  Although  he  was  nicknamed  "Old 
Eph,"  the  students  always  held  him  in  the  high- 
est esteem.  Through  his  chapel  talks  and  evan- 
gelistic meetings  he  made  Emory  and  Henry 
noted  for  its  religious  atmosphere.  For  many 
years  the  majority  of  the  trained  preachers  of 
the  Holston  Conference  were  educated  under 
him.  Of  this  Conference,  by  which  he  was  ad- 
mitted to  full  connection  in  1843,  Wiley  was  for 
many  years  the  acknowledged  leader.  On  nine 
consecutive  occasions  he  was  sent  as  a  delegate 
to  the  General  Conference  of  the  Church.  In 
1866  and  in  1870  his  friends  actively  supported 
him  for  the  episcopacy.  He  was  a  delegate  to  the 
Ecumenical  Methodist  Conferences  in  1881  and 
1891. 

After  removing  to  Virginia  Wiley  became  a 
slaveholder  and  a  champion  of  the  rights  of  the 
South.  He  adhered  with  his  Conference  to  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  after  the 
schism  of  1844  in  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church.  During  the  Civil  War  and  the  Recon- 
struction period  certain  church  property  of  the 
Holston  Conference  was  appropriated  by  North- 
ern Methodists,  and  beginning  in  1867,  Wiley 
kept  the  question  of  this  property  before  both 
sides  until  a  settlement  was  reached.  Between 
1866  and  1879  he  carried  on  in  various  Metho- 
dist periodicals  debates  with  Northern  leaders 
over  the  issues  between  the  Northern  and  South- 
ern Methodists. 

He  was  twice  married;  first,  Feb.  18,  1839,  to 
Elizabeth  H.  Hammond  of  Middletown,  Conn. ; 
second,  in  October  1870,  to  Elizabeth  J.  Reeves 
of  Jonesboro,  Tenn.  There  were  six  children  by 
the  first  marriage  and  three  by  the  second.  Wiley 
was  buried  in  the  cemetery  overlooking  Emory 
and  Henry  College.  "The  school  is  dismissed  and 
the  'Old  Master'  sleeps,"  is  inscribed  on  his 
tombstone. 

[Manuscript  material  concerning  Wiley,  and  some 
private  correspondence  are  at  Emory  and  Henry  Col- 
lege ;  E.  E.  Wiley,  Abingdon,  Va.,  has  a  number  of 
his  father's  MSS.  and  a  three-volume  scrapbook  con- 
taining clippings,  sermons,  speeches,  etc.  Other  sources 
of  information  include  the  printed  journals  of  the  Gen. 
Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South, 
1854-90,  and  the  minutes  of  the  Holston  Conference, 
1869-93  ;  E.  E.  Wiley,  "The  Contributions  of  Ephraim 
Emerson  Wiley  to  Holston  Methodism"  (unpublished 
thesis  for  the  degree  of  B.D.,  Duke  Univ.,  1934)  ;  R.  N. 
Price,  Holston  Methodism :  From  Its  Origin  to  the 
Present  Time  (5  vols.,  1904-14)  ;  E.  E.  Hoss,  in  Chris- 
tian Advocate  (Nashville),  Mar.  23,  1893  ;  B.  K.  Emer- 
son, The  Ipswich  Emersons  (1900).]  P.  N.  G. 

WILEY,  HARVEY  WASHINGTON  (Oct. 
18,  1844-June  30,  1930),  pure  food  reformer, 
chemist,  teacher,  author,  and  lecturer,  was  born 
in  a  log  cabin  at  Kent,  Jefferson  County,  Ind., 


Wiley 


the  sixth  of  the  seven  children  of  Preston  Pritch- 
ard  and  Lucinda  Weir  (Maxwell)  Wiley,  both 
descendants  of  Scotch-Irish  pioneers  who  had 
fought  in  the  Revolution.  Young  Wiley  had  his 
early  training  in  a  log  schoolhouse,  in  neighbor- 
ing district  schools,  and  in  his  home.  In  1863 
he  entered  Hanover  College  (A.B.,  1867).  His 
studies  were  interrupted  in  1864  by  the  Civil 
War,  in  which  he  served  as  corporal  with  the 
137th  Indiana  Volunteers.  After  teaching  for  a 
year  (1868),  he  entered  the  Medical  College  of 
Indiana  in  Indianapolis,  from  which  he  was 
graduated  with  the  degree  of  M.D.  in  1871.  Co- 
incident with  his  medical  studies  he  taught  Greek 
and  Latin  at  Northwestern  Christian  University 
(later  Butler  College).  He  received  the  degree 
of  B.S.  at  Harvard  in  1873,  an<3  returned  to  In- 
dianapolis to  assume  professorships  of  chemis- 
try at  Butler  and  the  Medical  College  of  Indiana. 
After  a  temporary  breakdown  that  obliged  him 
to  discontinue  all  work,  he  became  professor  of 
chemistry  at  Purdue  University,  Lafayette,  Ind. 
(1874-83),  serving  also  as  state  chemist  of  In- 
diana. He  spent  a  year  in  Germany  (1878), 
largely  at  the  University  of  Berlin  in  the  study 
of  chemistry  under  A.  W.  von  Hofmann,  of  phys- 
ics under  Herman  L.  F.  von  Helmholtz,  and  of 
pathology  under  Rudolf  Virchow.  His  studies 
of  food  adulteration,  begun  under  Sell  of  the 
German  Imperial  Health  Office,  he  energetically 
continued  after  his  return  to  Purdue. 

In  1883  he  accepted  an  appointment  as  chief 
chemist  of  the  United  States  Department  of  Ag- 
riculture and  remained  in  this  position  until  1912. 
This  was  a  period  of  active  productivity  along 
three  principal  lines.  The  first  was  a  chemical 
study  of  the  sugar  and  sirup  crops  of  the  United 
States,  in  which  he  performed  technological  work 
upon  the  application  of  diffusion  to  the  extrac- 
tion of  sugar  from  sugar  cane  and — more  impor- 
tant— determined  the  climatic  boundaries  with- 
in which  the  sugar  beet  can  be  grown  success- 
fully in  the  United  States.  The  second  was  his 
work  in  agricultural  chemical  analysis,  for  which 
he  devised  many  new  pieces  of  apparatus  and  or- 
iginated many  new  methods  of  procedure.  The 
third,  his  greatest  achievement,  was  his  public 
service  in  the  campaign  against  food  adultera- 
tion. The  analyses  of  American  food  products, 
which  he  began  immediately  after  his  appoint- 
ment as  chemist  of  the  Department  of  Agricul- 
ture, revealed  a  shocking  state  of  adulteration, 
and  Wiley  gave  the  rest  of  his  life  to  correcting 
this  evil.  In  the  face  of  prolonged  opposition  he 
finally  secured  in  1906  the  passage  by  Congress 
of  the  Food  and  Drugs  Act.  Confronted  with  an 
even  more  determined  resistance,  he  then  began 


215 


Wiley 

the  administration  of  this  Act  under  difficulties 
that  would  have  discouraged  a  less  resolute  re- 
former. When  he  investigated  the  effect  of  ben- 
zoate  of  soda  and  other  food  preservatives  upon 
the  health  of  his  assistants  (his  famous  "Poison 
Squad"),  his  damaging  reports  aroused  so  much 
criticism  that  President  Theodore  Roosevelt  ap- 
pointed the  Remsen  Referee  Board  to  reconsider 
the  question.  Although  the  conclusions  of  the 
board  differed  from  Wiley's  public  sentiment 
generally  was  upon  his  side,  and  the  use  of  food 
preservatives  has  in  consequence  diminished. 

In  March  1912,  after  having  completely  vindi- 
cated himself  against  unjust  charges  of  malad- 
ministration, Wiley  resigned  his  office  as  chief  of 
the  bureau  of  chemistry.  In  his  twenty-nine 
years  of  service  he  built  up  an  organization  from 
six  to  more  than  five  hundred  employees.  Dur- 
ing this  period  he  originated  many  lines  of  chem- 
ical research  in  such  fields  as  soils,  milk  prod- 
ucts, road  construction,  and  standardization  of 
apparatus  that  afterwards  led  to  the  establish- 
ment of  separate  bureaus.  Until  1914  he  con- 
tinued to  hold  the  position  of  professor  of  agri- 
cultural chemistry  at  George  Washington  Uni- 
versity which  he  had  assumed  in  1899.  He  de- 
voted the  rest  of  his  life  to  writing  and  lecturing 
in  the  interest  of  pure  food.  He  accepted  a  posi- 
tion (1912-30)  as  director  of  the  bureau  of  foods, 
sanitation,  and  health  of  the  Good  Housekeeping 
magazine,  for  which  he  wrote  monthly  articles 
and  conducted  a  question  box.  He  was  very  suc- 
cessful on  the  lyceum  and  Chatauqua  platform, 
and  delivered  hundreds  of  lectures. 

Wiley  had  great  natural  gifts  as  a  wit,  poet, 
and  public  speaker.  His  commanding  presence, 
unfailing  humor,  and  courageous  expression  of 
opinion  held  the  attention  of  every  audience. 
His  public  services  won  for  him  many  degrees, 
medals,  decorations,  and  honorary  memberships 
in  societies  both  at  home  and  abroad.  He  was  a 
member  of  the  jury  of  awards  at  various  national 
and  international  expositions.  In  1907  he  was 
invited  to  help  revise  the  French  pure  food  law, 
a  service  for  which  he  was  made  a  chevalier  of 
the  Legion  of  Honor.  He  was  one  of  the  found- 
ers (1884)  of  the  Association  of  Official  Agri- 
cultural Chemists,  and  served  as  secretary 
(1889-1912)  and  president  (1886).  As  presi- 
dent of  the  American  Chemical  Society  (1893- 
94),  he  was  successful  in  doubling  the  society's 
membership.  He  was  also  president  of  the  Indi- 
ana Academy  of  Science  (1901),  of  the  Unit- 
ed States  Pharmacopoeia  Revision  Committee 
(1910-20),  and  of  the  American  Therapeutic 
Society  (1910-n).  In  addition  to  numerous  sci- 
entific bulletins,  he  was  the  author  of  Princi- 


Wilkes 

pies  and  Practice  of  Agricultural  Analysis  (3 
vols.,  1894-97),  Foods  and  Their  Adulteration 
( 1907)  ;  Not  by  Bread  Alone  (1915),  The  Lure 
of  the  Land  (1915) ,  Health  Reader  (1916),  Bev- 
erages and  Their  Adulteration  (1919),  History 
of  a  Crime  Against  the  Food  Law  (1929),  and 
Harvey  W.  Wiley — An  Autobiography  (1930). 
Although  urged  to  consider  nominations  as  gov- 
ernor and  vice-president,  Wiley  declined  all  po- 
litical offices.  He  was  usually  a  Republican  but 
spoke  in  the  campaign  for  Wilson  in  1912.  On 
Feb.  27,  191 1,  he  married  Anna  Campbell  Keh 
ton,  by  whom  he  had  two  sons.  His  activity  in 
promoting  the  cause  of  pure  food  continued  al- 
most to  the  day  of  his  death,  which  occurred  in 
Washington.  He  was  buried  in  Arlington  Cem- 
etery. 

[In  addition  to  Harvey  W.  Wiley — An  Autobiog. 
(1930),  sources  include  F.  W.  Houston,  L.  C.  Blaine, 
and  E.  D.  Mellette,  Maxwell  Hist,  and  Geneal.  (1916)  ; 
Who's  Who  in  America,  1930-31  ;  Jour.  Asso.  Official 
Agricultural  Chemists,  Feb.  15,  193 1;  obituaries  in 
Evening  Star  (Washington),  June  30,  and  N.  Y.  Times, 
July  1,  1930;  personal  acquaintance.]  C.  A.  B e. 

WILKES,  CHARLES  (Apr.  3,  1798-Feb.  8, 
1877),  naval  officer,  explorer,  was  born  in  New 
York  City,  the  son  of  John  De  Ponthieu  and 
Mary  (Seton)  Wilkes.  His  grandfather  Israel 
was  a  brother  of  John,  the  English  politician 
(see  The  Dictionary  of  National  Biography), 
and  a  son  of  Israel,  a  prosperous  distiller  of  Lon- 
don. His  father,  a  successful  man  of  business, 
was  able  to  give  his  son  a  good  preliminary  edu- 
cation in  mathematics,  navigation,  drawing,  and 
the  modern  languages.  Showing  a  liking  for  the 
sea,  Charles  in  1815  entered  the  merchant  serv- 
ice, where  he  remained  until  he  was  appointed 
midshipman  (Jan.  1,  1818)  partly  through  the 
influence  of  the  French  minister  in  Washington. 
After  attending  a  naval  school  in  Boston,  he 
cruised  first  in  the  Mediterranean  on  board  the 
Guerriere  and  later  in  the  Pacific  on  board  the 
Franklin.  During  a  long  period  on  waiting  or- 
ders or  on  leave  of  absence  he  found  time  for 
study  under  Ferdinand  R.  Hassler  [q.i>.],  found- 
er of  the  United  States  Coast  and  Geodetic  Sur- 
vey. His  marriage  to  Jane  Jeffrey  Renwick,  sis- 
ter of  the  elder  James  Renwick  [q.v.~\,  took  place 
on  Apr.  26,  1826,  two  days  before  his  promotion 
to  a  lieutenancy.  In  1832-33  he  was  engaged  in 
surveying  the  Narragansett  Bay,  and  on  Feb. 
16  of  the  last-named  year  his  scientific  attain- 
ments received  recognition  by  his  appointment 
to  take  charge  in  Washington  of  the  Depot  of 
Charts  and  Instruments,  out  of  which  grew  the 
Naval  Observatory  and  the  Hydrographic  Of- 
fice. In  1836  his  work  at  the  depot  was  interrupt- 
ed by  a  trip  to  Europe  to  procure  astronomical 

16 


Wilkes 

and  scientific  instruments  for  a  proposed  explor- 
ing' expedition.  In  1837-38  he  commanded  the 
Porpoise  and  engaged  in  the  survey  of  St. 
George's  Bank  and  of  the  Savannah  River. 

From  early  boyhood  he  had  had  a  desire  to 
make  geographical  discoveries,  and  he  had  been 
greatly  interested  in  the  exploring  expedition 
when  it  was  first  proposed  in  1828.  After  sev- 
eral officers  had  declined  to  command  it,  Wilkes, 
although  only  a  lieutenant,  was  chosen.  A  civil- 
ian corps  of  specialists,  which  included  Charles 
Pickering,  James  D.  Dana,  and  Horatio  E.  Hale 
[qq.v.~\,  accompanied  the  fleet,  consisting  of  the 
Vincennes  (flagship)  and  five  other  vessels. 
The  expedition  was  absent  from  the  United 
States  from  August  1838  until  July  1842.  The 
chief  fields  of  exploration  were  the  coast  of  the 
Antarctic  continent,  the  islands  of  the  Pacific 
Ocean,  and  the  American  northwest  coast.  Some 
280  islands  in  the  Pacific  and  adjacent  waters 
and  800  miles  of  streams  and  coasts  in  the  Ore- 
gon country  were  surveyed,  and  1600  miles  of 
the  coast  of  Antarctica  were  laid  down.  "Wilkes 
Land"  in  the  last-named  region  perpetuates  the 
name  of  the  explorer.  One  of  his  parties  estab- 
lished an  observatory  on  the  summit  of  Mauna 
Loa,  Hawaii,  and  made  valuable  observations 
for  a  period  of  several  weeks.  From  1843  until 
1861  Wilkes  was  on  special  service,  chiefly  in 
Washington,  preparing  for  publication  and  pub- 
lishing the  information  collected  by  the  expedi- 
tion. In  1844  his  Narrative  of  the  United  States 
Exploring  Expedition,  in  five  volumes,  was 
brought  out.  There  were  several  later  editions 
and  brief  popular  accounts.  The  scientific  vol- 
umes appeared  from  time  to  time,  the  last  in 
1874.  Wilkes  contributed  Meteorology  (vol.  XI, 
1851),  Atlas  of  Charts  (2  vols.,  1858),  and  Hy- 
drography (vol.  XXIII,  1861).  He  also  pub- 
lished Western  America  (1849),  Theory  of  the 
Zodiacal  Light  (1857),  and  On  the  Circulation 
of  Oceans  (1859).  In  1847  he  was  awarded  the 
Founder's  medal  of  the  Royal  Geographical  So- 
ciety of  London  for  his  discoveries  and  his  ac- 
count of  them.  Soon  after  his  return  in  1842  he 
was  tried  by  a  court  martial  and  sentenced  to 
be  publicly  reprimanded  for  illegally  punishing 
some  of  his  men.  He  was  promoted  commander 
from  July  13,  1843,  ar>d  captain  from  Sept.  14, 
1855.  On  Oct.  3,  1854,  he  was  married  to  Mary 
H.  (Lynch)  Bolton,  his  first  wife  having  died 
on  Aug.  11,  1843,  after  bearing  him  two  sons  and 
two  daughters. 

On  Apr.  19,  1861,  Wilkes  was  ordered  to  the 
Norfolk  navy  yard  to  command  the  Merrimac, 
but  when  he  arrived  there  next  day  he  found  that 
she  had  been  scuttled  to  prevent  her  capture.  He 


Wilkes 

was  next  ordered  to  proceed  to  the  coast  of  Af- 
rica and  take  command  of  the  San  Jacinto.  On 
Nov.  8  he  overhauled  the  British  mail  steamer 
Trent  in  the  Bahama  Channel  and  took  from  her 
by  force  the  Confederate  commissioners,  James 
M.  Mason  and  John  Slidell  [qq.v.],  and  con- 
veyed them  to  Boston.  News  of  the  exploit  had 
preceded  him,  and  the  jubilant  North  welcomed 
him  as  a  hero.  Secretary  Welles  sent  him  a  con- 
gratulatory letter,  and  the  House  of  Represen- 
tatives voted  him  its  thanks,  but,  as  the  United 
States  did  not  have  a  good  case  and  could  not 
afford  to  go  to  war  with  England,  his  action  was 
disallowed.  On  July  6,  1862,  he  was  placed  in 
command  of  the  James  River  flotilla  ;  a  few  weeks 
later  he  was  transferred  to  the  Potomac  flotilla. 
In  September  he  was  made  an  acting  rear  ad- 
miral, and  ordered  to  take  command  of  a  special 
squadron  and  operate  in  the  West  Indies  and 
Bahamas  against  Confederate  commerce  de- 
stroyers. He  failed  to  capture  the  destroyers, 
offended  several  foreign  governments,  who 
claimed  violations  of  neutrality,  and  incurred  the 
displeasure  of  Secretary  Welles ;  consequently, 
on  June  1,  1863,  he  was  recalled.  On  the  discov- 
ery that  he  was  three  years  older  ihan  he  had 
been  thought  to  be,  his  commission  of  commo- 
dore, to  which  rank  he  had  been  promoted  from 
July  16,  1862,  was  cancelled,  and  he  was  placed 
on  the  retired  list  as  captain.  On  Mar.  27,  1863, 
he  was  made  a  commodore  on  the  retired  list. 
These  professional  discouragements,  together 
with  limitations  of  temperament,  brought  him 
into  conflict  with  the  Navy  Department,  and  in 
March- April  1864  he  was  court-martialed.  He 
was  found  guilty  of  disobedience,  disrespect,  and 
insubordination,  and  of  conduct  unbecoming  an 
officer,  and  was  sentenced  to  be  reprimanded  and 
to  be  suspended  from  duty  for  three  years.  Later 
the  period  of  suspension  was  reduced  to  one 
year.  On  July  25,  1866,  he  was  commissioned 
rear  admiral  on  the  retired  list.  For  a  part  of 
1870-73  he  was  on  special  duty.  For  many  years 
his  home  was  the  Dolly  Madison  house,  corner 
of  Madison  Place  and  H  Street,  Washington, 
D.  C. 

[Sources  include  Wilkes's  autobiog.  (to  about  1845), 
MS.  in  Lib.  of  Cong.;  H.  H.  Mclver,  Gcneal.  of  the 
Renwick  Family  (1924);  Record  of  Officers,  Bureau 
of  Navigation,  1818-78;  Navy  Reg.,  1819-66;  War  of 
the  Rebellion:  Official  Records  (Naz'y),  1  ser.,  vols.  I, 
II,  IV,  V,  VII,  XVII ;  Diary  of  Gideon  Welles  (3  vols., 
191 1)  ;  Defence  .  .  .  of  Lieut.  Charles  Wilkes  (1842)  ; 
Defence  of  Corn.  Charles  Wilkes  (1864),  being  House 
Exec.  Doc.  102,  38  Cong.,  1  Sess.  ;  obituaries  in  Army 
and  Navy  Jour.,  Feb.  17,  1877.  Evening  Star  (Wash- 
ington. D.  C),  Veb.  8,  and  N.  Y.  Tribune,  Feb.  9.  i«77. 
For  the  exploring  expedition,  see,  in  addition  to  its  pub- 
lications, J.  C.  Palmer,  Thulia:  A  Tale  of  the  Antarctic 
(1843),  a  poem;  J.  G.  Clark,  Lights  and  Shadow's  of 
Sailor  Life  (1847)  ;  G.  M.  Colvocoresses,  Four  Years 


217 


Wilkes 

in  a  Government  Exploring  Expedition  (1852)  ;  L.  N. 
Feipel,  in  Proc.  U.  S.  Naval  Inst.,  Sept.-Oct.  1914;  J. 
E.  Pillsbury,  Ibid.,  June  1910;  J.  D.  Hill,  Ibid.,  July 
1 93 1  ;  and  W.  H.  Hobbs,  in  Geographical  Rev.,  Oct. 
1932.  For  the  Trent  affair,  see  C.  F.  Adams,  in  Proc. 
Mass.  Hist.  Soc,  vol.  XLV  (1912)  ;  T.  L.  Harris,  The 
Trent  Affair  (1896)  ;  and  War  of  the  Rebellion  :  Official 
Records  (Navy),  2  ser.,  vol.  II.  A  biog.  of  Wilkes  is 
being  prepared  by  Mary  E.  Cooley,  Mt.  Holyoke  Coll.] 

CO.  P. 

WILKES,  GEORGE  (1817-Sept.  23,  1885), 
journalist,  was  a  native  New  Yorker  of  obscure 
origin,  possibly  the  son  of  George  Wilkes,  cab- 
inet and  frame  maker,  and  his  wife  Helen.  He 
became  a  clerk  in  the  law  office  of  one  Enoch  E. 
Camp  and  descended  thence  to  journalism  as 
editor  or  proprietor  of  the  Flash,  Whip,  and 
Subterranean,  ephemeral  organs  of  the  city's  po- 
litical and  sporting  underworld.  A  term  in  the 
Tombs  for  libel  eventuated  in  a  pamphlet,  The 
Mysteries  of  the  Tombs:  A  Journal  of  Thirty 
Days  Imprisonment  in  the  N.  Y.  City  Prison 
(1844),  which  evinced  an  able  pen  and  sympa- 
thy for  the  exploited  and  friendless.  In  1845  he 
and  Camp  started  the  National  Police  Gazette, 
control  of  which  passed  in  1857  to  George  W. 
Matsell,  a  former  police  chief,  and  in  1877  to 
Richard  Kyle  Fox  [g.7\].  During  Wilkes's  re- 
gime it  was  a  robust,  rowdy,  scandal  sheet,  ob- 
jectionable to  vicious  and  decent  men  alike. 
Gangsters  wrecked  its  office  more  than  once, 
but  the  editors  made  capital  of  the  attacks. 

Wilkes's  interest  in  the  West  was  first  mani- 
fested in  an  inaccurate,  misleading  History  of 
Oregon,  Geographical  and  Political  ( 1845  ) ,  from 
which  an  excerpt  entitled  Project  for  a  National 
Railroad  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  Ocean 
(1845)  was  issued  separately  and  ran  through 
four  editions  by  1847.  1°  l87°>  it  is  said,  the 
Czar  of  Russia  conferred  on  him  the  grand  cross 
of  the  Order  of  St.  Stanislas  for  advocating  a 
railroad  through  Russian  territory  to  India  and 
China.  In  1849  he  accompanied  or  followed 
his  friend  David  Colbreth  Broderick  [_q.v.~\  to 
California,  made  himself  useful  to  him,  and  sub- 
sequently inherited  his  fortune.  In  1853  he  made 
his  first  trip  to  Europe  and  published  his  obser- 
vations as  Europe  in  a  Hurry.  Ever  since  his 
return  from  California  he  had  been  connected 
with  the  well-known  sporting  paper,  the  Spirit 
of  the  Times,  owned  and  edited  by  William  Trot- 
ter Porter  [g.w.].  He  bought  the  paper  in  1856, 
renaming  it  Porter's  Spirit  of  the  Times  and  re- 
taining Porter  on  the  staff  until  his  death,  July 
19,  1858.  From  1859  to  1866  the  publication  was 
known  as  Wilkes'  Spirit  of  the  Times. 

Wilkes  owned  it  until  his  own  death.  Despite 
his  meager  schooling,  he  was  master  of  a  vig- 
orous, vivid,  precise  style  that  exactly  suited  his 


Wilkeson 

hard,  truculent  disposition,  and  his  signed  arti- 
cles always  attracted  attention  and  admiration. 
Though  the  Spirit  remained  primarily  a  sport- 
ing paper,  it  soon  began  to  reflect  its  owner's 
relish  for  politics,  and  its  political  articles  were 
influential.  Wilkes  was  on  the  ground  at  the  bat- 
tle of  Bull  Run,  was  greatly  taken  with  the  prow- 
ess of  the  Confederates,  and  wrote  an  excellent 
account  of  the  action :  The  Great  Battle  Fought 
at  Manassas  .  .  .  Sunday,  July  21,  1861  (1861). 
Immediately  he  turned  war  correspondent  and 
reported  the  major  engagements  for  his  paper 
as  if  they  were  a  series  of  sporting  events.  James 
Parton  (General  Butler  in  New  Orleans,  1864, 
p.  9)  thought  Wilkes,  Butler,  and  Lincoln  the 
three  ablest  writers  developed  by  the  war. 
Wilkes  despised  McClellan  and  assailed  him  in 
article  and  pamphlet.  During  the  war  he  con- 
tracted the  kidney  disease  of  which  ultimately  he 
died. 

After  the  war  he  was  fairly  prominent  in  Re- 
publican politics,  ran  unsuccessfully  for  Con- 
gress against  James  Brooks,  and  hoped  for  a  dip- 
lomatic appointment  under  Grant.  With  the  co- 
operation of  John  Chamberlain  and  his  own  lieu- 
tenant, Marcus  Cicero  Stanley,  he  introduced 
the  American  people  to  the  pari  mutuel  system 
of  betting.  He  promoted  various  famous  prize- 
fights and  often  quarreled  with  the  fighters.  He 
was  tall  and  erect,  with  dark  eyes  and  a  large 
moustache,  dressed  in  good  taste,  and  gave  gen- 
erously to  charities.  He  never  talked  about  his 
early  life.  He  was  married  twice.  A  life-long 
reader  of  Shakespeare,  he  published  as  his  last 
book  Shakespeare  from  an  American  Point  of 
View  (1877,  3rd  ed.,  1882).  A  shrewd  man  of 
business,  with  ample  capital  in  reserve,  he  grew 
increasingly  wealthy.  In  his  later  years  he  lived 
much  in  London  and  Paris,  although  he  died  in 
his  New  York  house  at  352  West  Sixty-first  St, 
On  his  deathbed  the  "fighting  cock  of  journal- 
ism," a  strong  Protestant  all  his  life,  was  con- 
verted to  Catholicism  by  a  Paulist  father,  but 
his  friends  scouted  the  priest's  story,  and  em- 
ployed the  Rev.  Dr.  R.  S.  MacArthur  [q.v.~\  of 
Calvary  Baptist  Church  to  bury  him. 

[Sun  (N.  Y.),  Sept.  24,  1885;  N.  Y.  Herald,  N.  Y. 
Times,  World  (N.  Y.),  Sept.  25,  1885  ;  N.  Y.  Tribune, 
Sept.  27,  1885  ;  Spirit  of  the  Times,  Sept.  26,  1885  ; 
Francis  Brinley,  Life  of  William  T.  Porter  (i860); 
James  O'Meara,  Broderick  and  Gwin  (1881);  H.  H. 
Bancroft,  Hist,  of  the  Pacific  States:  Cat.,  vols.  VI-VII 
(1888-90)  ;  C.  B.  Bagley,  "George  Wilkes,"  Wash. 
Hist.  Quart.,  Oct.  1907-Jan.   1914]  G.  H.G. 

WILKESON,  SAMUEL  (June  1,  1781-July 
7,  1848),  pioneer,  was  born  in  Carlisle,  Pa.,  the 
son  of  John  and  Mary  (Robinson)  Wilkeson. 
His  father  emigrated  from  the  north  of  Ireland 


2l8 


Wilkeson 

in  1760,  settling  first  in  Delaware,  then  at  Car- 
lisle, Pa.,  and  in  1784,  having  served  as  lieuten- 
ant in  the  Revolution,  took  up  a  soldier's  grant 
in  Washington  County,  near  Pittsburgh,  with 
his  wife  and  three  young  children.  Samuel 
worked  on  his  father's  farm  and  had  only  a  few 
weeks  of  schooling.  In  1802  he  removed  to  Ohio, 
near  the  site  of  Youngstown.  In  1809  he  re- 
moved to  Lake  Erie,  near  the  present  Westfield, 
N.  Y.  There  he  built  keel  boats  and  engaged  in 
the  lake  and  river  trade.  When,  on  a  trading  ex- 
pedition to  Detroit,  he  found  General  Harrison's 
army  delayed  in  the  Grand  River  by  lack  of 
transports,  he  successfully  undertook  the  build- 
ing of  the  necessary  vessels.  With  Pennsyl- 
vania militia  he  took  part  in  the  unsuccessful  de- 
fense of  Buffalo  against  the  British.  Convinced 
of  the  commercial  possibilities  of  the  ruined  vil- 
lage, on  his  return  home  in  1814  he  loaded  a  lake 
boat  with  the  frames  and  covering  for  a  store 
and  dwelling,  embarked  his  family,  and  sailed  to 
his  new  home.  As  trader,  shipowner,  contractor, 
iron  founder,  and  manufacturer  he  engaged  with 
success  in  practically  all  the  business  enterprises 
of  the  frontier  community.  His  uncompromising 
dealing,  as  justice  of  the  peace,  with  unruly  dis- 
banded soldiers  won  him  the  respect  and  grati- 
tude of  his  neighbors;  but  the  accomplishment 
that  marked  him  as  a  leader  in  the  community 
was  the  construction  in  1820,  in  the  face  of  great 
odds,  of  a  harbor  at  the  mouth  of  Buffalo  Creek 
suitable  for  the  western  terminus  of  the  Erie 
Canal.  With  two  others  he  pledged  property  to 
the  value  of  $24,000  to  secure  a  loan  of  $12,000 
from  the  state  of  New  York.  When  the  superin- 
tendent of  the  work  proved  incompetent,  Wil- 
keson was  asked  to  take  charge.  He  lacked  en- 
gineering training  and  had  never  seen  an  arti- 
ficial harbor  of  any  kind;  but  the  following 
morning  at  daylight  he  was  on  the  job.  Neither 
the  plan  of  the  work  nor  its  precise  location  had 
been  determined.  All  kinds  of  makeshift  devices 
were  employed.  A  pile-driver  was  improvised 
from  a  two-thousand-pound  mortar.  After  eight 
months  of  unremitting  effort  a  pier  eighty  rods 
long  was  extended,  reaching  water  twelve  feet 
deep.  In  1821  he  was  appointed  first  judge  of 
common  pleas  in  Erie  County,  in  1824  was  elect- 
ed state  senator,  and  in  1836  became  mayor  of 
Buffalo. 

In  federal  affairs,  his  chief  interest  seems  to 
have  been  the  abolition  of  slavery,  which  he 
hoped  to  bring  about  gradually  with  compensa- 
tion to  slaveholders.  He  was  a  member  of  the 
American  Colonization  Society,  for  some  time 
president  of  its  board  of  directors,  and  was  in- 
strumental in  shipping  many  freed  negroes  to 


Wilkie 

Liberia.  While  traveling  in  Tennessee,  he  was 
suddenly  taken  ill  at  Kingston  and  died  there. 
He  was  married  three  times,  before  1802  to  Jane 
Oram,  who  bore  him  six  children,  and  after  her 
death  to  Sarah  St.  John,  of  Buffalo.  His  third 
wife  was  Mary  Peters  of  New  Haven,  a  teacher. 
A  tall  man,  his  appearance  was  stern  and  com- 
manding. His  fearlessness  won  him  many  de- 
voted friends,  but  his  unwillingness  to  conciliate 
his  opponents,  and  to  explain  or  justify  his  ac- 
tions, involved  him  in  many  controversies  and 
provoked  bitter  enmities.  He  was  an  eloquent 
and  convincing  speaker.  In  1842  and  1843  he 
published  in  the  American  Pioneer  of  Cincin- 
nati a  series  of  articles  on  his  own  experiences 
(reprinted  in  Buffalo  Historical  Society  Publi- 
cations, vol.  V,  1902).  These  recollections  show 
not  only  accurate  and  discriminating  observa- 
tion but  also  unusual  literary  powers.  Consider- 
ing his  entire  lack  of  formal  education,  the  va- 
riety and  solidity  of  his  achievements  were  amaz- 
ing. 

["Recollections,"  ante  ;  Samuel  Wilkeson,  Jr.,  "Biog. 
Sketch,"  Buffalo  Hist.  Soc.  Pubs.,  vol.  V  (1902)  ;  Ibid., 
vol.  IV  (1896);  J.  C.  Lord,  "The  Valiant  Man,"  A 
Discourse  on  the  Death  of  the  Hon.  Samuel  Wilkeson 
(1848)  ;  African  Repository,  Aug.  1848,  also  May  1838, 
Jan.  15,  1840.]  P.  W.B. 

WILKIE,  FRANC  BANGS  (July  2,  1832- 
Apr.  12,  1892),  journalist,  was  born  at  West 
Charlton,  Saratoga  County,  N.  Y.,  the  son  of 
John  Wilkie  and  his  second  wife,  Elizabeth 
(Penny).  As  a  boy  of  twelve  he  was  placed  in 
service  with  a  neighboring  farmer,  but,  displeas- 
ing his  employer,  he  ran  away  and  obtained  a 
position  as  a  driver  on  the  Erie  Canal.  He  was 
cheated  out  of  his  wages  at  the  end  of  the  navi- 
gation season,  but  managed  to  secure  passage 
down  the  Hudson  to  New  York  City,  where  for 
about  two  years  he  supported  himself  by  selling 
newspapers  and  running  errands.  Returning 
home,  he  worked  on  the  farm  and  at  blacksmith- 
ing.  In  1855  he  entered  Union  College  with  the 
class  of  1857,  and  supported  himself  by  writing 
and  setting  type  for  the  Schenectady  Evening 
Star.  In  1856,  leaving  college,  he  followed  a 
friend  to  Davenport,  Iowa,  where  they  began 
(Sept.  20,  1856)  editing  and  publishing  the  Daily 
Evening  Ncivs,  an  enterprise  which  collapsed  in 
the  financial  crisis  of  1857.  For  want  of  other 
occupation  Wilkie  wrote  and  had  published 
Davenport,  Past  and  Present  (1858).  After  va- 
rious makeshifts  and  the  publication,  in  Elgin, 
111.,  of  a  campaign  paper  in  the  interest  of  Ste- 
phen A.  Douglas,  he  became  in  November  1858 
city  editor  of  the  Dubuque  Daily  Herald.  When 
war  broke  out  in  1861  he  accompanied  the  1st 
Iowa  Regiment  as  army  correspondent  for  the 


219 


Wilkie 


Wilkins 


Herald.  His  ingenuity  in  obtaining  war  news 
and  his  clarity  in  reporting  it  attracted  the  at- 
tention of  Henry  J.  Raymond  [g.f.],  editor  of 
the  New  York  Times,  and  Wilkie  soon  became 
that  paper's  chief  war  correspondent  in  the  West, 
so  serving,  except  for  a  few  months  in  1862, 
until  he  left  the  army  in  1863.  He  was  with 
Nathaniel  Lyon  and  John  Charles  Fremont,  and 
with  U.  S.  Grant  \_qq.v.~\  from  the  capture  of 
Fort  Henry  to  the  surrender  of  Vicksburg,  wit- 
nessing and  describing  every  important  battle  in 
the  West  and  Southwest.  His  accounts,  signed 
"Galway,"  were  crisp  and  vivid,  and  he  was 
considered  the  best  correspondent  with  the  west- 
ern armies.  Some  of  his  war  sketches  were  pub- 
lished under  the  title  Pen  and  Poivder  ( 1888). 

In  September  1863  he  became  assistant  editor 
of  the  Chicago  Times,  and  remained  with  that 
paper,  chiefly  as  editorial  writer,  continuously 
for  twenty-five  years,  save  for  the  period  from 
1881  to  1883,  when  he  engaged  in  independent 
literary  work.  He  served  at  two  different  peri- 
ods (1877-78  and  1880-81)  as  European  repre- 
sentative of  the  Times.  His  book,  Sketches  be- 
yond the  Sea  (1879),  deals  with  his  foreign  ex- 
periences. His  "Walks  about  Chicago"  (1869) 
was  first  printed  in  the  form  of  articles  in  the 
Times.  His  Personal  Reminiscences  of  Thirty- 
five  Years  of  Journalism  (1891)  deals  chiefly 
with  his  years  with  the  Chicago  Times  and  con- 
stitutes not  only  a  partial  autobiography,  but 
also  practically  a  biography  of  Wilbur  Fisk 
Storey  [7.?;.],  that  newspaper's  erratic  and  iras- 
cible editor.  After  leaving  the  Times  in  1888 
he  wrote  for  the  Chicago  Globe  and  later  for  the 
Chicago  Herald,  until  ill  health  in  1890  compelled 
his  retirement  from  active  work.  He  had  a  fer- 
tile imagination  and  a  fund  of  sarcasm,  which 
he  employed  effectively  in  his  editorials.  His 
other  published  writings,  generally  appearing 
under  the  pseudonym  "Poliuto,"  included  The 
Great  Inventions:  Their  History  .  .  .  Their  In- 
fluence on  Civilization  (1883),  The  Gambler 
(1888),  and  A  Life  of  Christopher  Columbus 
(1892).  Wilkie  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the 
Chicago  Press  Club  and  its  first  president  ( 1880). 
He  died  at  his  home  in  Norwood  Park,  111.,  and 
was  buried  at  Elgin,  111.  In  1857  he  was  mar- 
ried to  Ellen  Morse,  daughter  of  John  Morse  of 
Elgin,  who,  with  one  son  and  an  adopted  daugh- 
ter, survived  him. 

[Two  of  Wilkie's  books,  Pen  and  Powder  (1888)  and 
Personal  Reminiscences  (1891),  are  largely  autobiog. 
See  also  John  Moses  and  Joseph  Kirkland,  Aboriginal 
to  Metropolitan  Hist,  of  Chicago,  III.  (1895),  vol.  II, 
p.  56 ;  Newton  Bateman  and  Paul  Selby,  eds.,  Hist. 
Encyc.  of  III.,  Cook  County  Ed.  (1905),  vol.  I,  p.  588; 
obituaries  in  Chicago  Times,  Chicago  Tribune,  and 
Daily  Inter  Ocean  (Chicago),  Apr.  13,  1892.  The 
date  of  birth  is  sometimes  given  as  1830.]        G.  B.  U. 


WILKINS,  ROSS  (Feb.  19,  1799-May  17, 
1872),  lawyer  and  jurist,  was  born  in  Pittsburgh, 
Pa.,  the  son  of  John  and  Catherine  (Stevenson) 
Wilkins.  His  father  had  been  a  soldier  in  the 
Revolution ;  William  Wilkins  [<7.?'.J  was  his  un- 
cle. Ross  Wilkins  was  educated  at  Dickinson 
College,  Carlisle,  Pa.  Following  his  graduation 
in  1816,  he  studied  law  in  Pittsburgh,  and  had 
been  admitted  to  the  bar  and  elected  prosecuting 
attorney  by  the  time  he  was  twenty-one.  He 
practised  law  in  Pittsburgh  from  1823  to  1832. 
On  May  13,  1823,  he  married  Maria  Duncan,  by 
whom  he  had  seven  children.  In  1832  he  was 
appointed  by  President  Andrew  Jackson,  a  per- 
sonal friend,  territorial  judge  of  Michigan,  an 
office  he  held  until  1837.  In  1835  he  served  as 
delegate  to  the  Michigan  constitutional  conven- 
tion. In  1836,  when  the  admission  of  Michigan 
as  a  state  was  being  considered,  he  represented 
Lenawee  County  in  the  "First  Convention  of 
Assent"  and  Wayne  County  in  the  "Second  Con- 
vention of  Assent."  He  was  an  influential  mem- 
ber of  both  conventions.  He  was  for  five  years 
(1837-42)  a  member  of  the  board  of  regents  of 
the  University  of  Michigan.  He  served  as  re- 
corder of  the  city  of  Detroit  in  1837  and  in  the 
same  year  was  appointed  United  States  district 
judge  of  Michigan.  When  the  state  was  divided 
into  two  judicial  districts,  he  became  judge  of 
the  eastern  district,  an  office  which  he  held  con- 
tinuously from  1837  to  1870,  when  he  resigned. 
In  politics  he  was  a  Democrat.  He  was  an  ultra- 
temperance  man,  a  leader  in  the  Washingtonian 
teetotal  movement  of  the  forties.  During  his 
late  years  he  was  much  interested  in  theology 
and  doctrinal  controversy.  It  is  said  that  he  kept 
his  Greek  testament  constantly  at  his  side.  Al- 
though he  had  been  a  Methodist  for  many  years, 
he  became  a  Catholic  towards  the  end  of  his  life. 
He  was  survived  by  a  son  and  two  daughters. 
He  was  said  to  resemble  Lord  Byron  and  is 
described  by  a  contemporary  as  one  of  the  hand- 
somest men  of  his  day.  In  his  later  years  he 
was  calm  and  judicial  in  manner.  One  of  the 
most  important  trials  at  which  he  presided  was 
that  of  James  Jesse  Strang  [q.v.~\,  head  of  the 
Beaver  Island  Mormon  colony  (see  H.  M.  Utley, 
Michigan  as  a  Province,  Territory,  and  State, 
1906,  III,  297-310).  As  a  judge,  he  is  said  al- 
ways to  have  endeavored  to  reach  the  substantial 
justice  of  the  case,  but  he  was  never  fond  of 
acute  or  logical  distinctions.  His  charges  to 
the  jury  were  famous  for  their  classic  diction 
and  impressive  manner.  His  published  opinions 
appear  in  Federal  Cases,  J.  S.  Newberry's  Re- 
ports of  Admiralty  Cases  .  .  .  1842  to  1857 
(1857),  McLean's  Circuit  Court  Reports,  and 


220 


Wilkins 


Wilkins 


H.  B.  Brown's  United  States  Admiralty  and 
Revenue  Cases  (1876). 

[G.  W.  Jordan,  Colonial  and  Revolutionary  Families 
of  Pa.  (101O.  vol.  II,  pp.  884-86;  R.  B.  Ross,  The 
Early  Bench  and  Bar  of  Detroit  (1907),  pp.  217-20; 
G.  I.  Reed,  Bench  and  Bar  of  Mich.  (1897)  ;  Wayne 
County  Hist,  and  Pioneer  Soc.  Chronography  (1890), 
pp.  132-33  ;  Hist.  Colls.  .  .  .  Mich.  Pioneer  and  Hist. 
Soc,  vol.  XXII  (1894),  pp.  326-28;  death  notice  in 
Detroit  Free  Press,  May  18,  1872  ;  Burton  Scrap-Book, 
vol.  II,  pp.  9,  95,  vol.  XVII,  p.  47,  and  Walker  Scrap- 
Book,  vol.  II,  p.  40,  in  Burton  Hist.  Coll.,  Detroit  Pub. 
Lib.  ;  information  from  Wilkins'  grandson,  Ross  Wil- 
kins of  Detroit.]  H.  C y. 

WILKINS,  WILLIAM  (Dec.  20,  1779-June 

23,  1865),  jurist,  senator,  diplomat,  secretary  of 
war,  was  born  in  Carlisle,  Pa.,  the  tenth  child 
of  John  and  Catherine  (Rowan)  Wilkins.  He 
was  descended  from  Robert  Wilkins,  who  emi- 
grated from  Wales  to  Lancaster  County,  Pa.,  in 
1694.  William's  father  removed  from  Donegal 
Township,  Lancaster  County,  to  Carlisle  in 
1763;  he  was  a  tavern  and  storekeeper  and  dur- 
ing the  Revolution  served  as  captain  in  the  Con- 
tinental Army.  In  1783  he  removed  to  Pitts- 
burgh to  establish  a  store,  subsequently  achiev- 
ing some  prominence  and  holding  various  city 
and  county  offices.  William  probably  received 
his  early  education  in  Pittsburgh.  He  attended 
Dickinson  College,  Carlisle,  in  the  class  of  1802 
and,  after  studying  law  with  David  Watts  of 
Carlisle,  he  returned  to  Pittsburgh  and  was  ad- 
mitted to  the  Allegheny  County  bar  in  1801.  In 
1806,  under  censure  for  serving  as  a  second  in  a 
duel,  he  spent  a  year  in  Kentucky  with  his  broth- 
er. After  his  return  he  became  active  in  city 
affairs ;  he  was  one  of  the  organizers  of  the  Pitts- 
burgh Manufacturing  Company,  which,  largely 
through  his  efforts,  was  chartered  in  1814  as  the 
Bank  of  Pittsburgh,  of  which  he  served  as  presi- 
dent until  1819 ;  he  was  also  president  of  the 
Monongahela  Bridge  Company,  of  the  Greens- 
burg  and  Pittsburgh  Turnpike  Company,  and 
from  1816  to  1819  of  the  Pittsburgh  common 
council. 

In  1819  Wilkins  was  elected  as  a  Federalist 
to  the  state  legislature,  but  in  December  1820 
resigned  to  accept  appointment  as  president  judge 
of  the  fifth  judicial  district  of  Pennsylvania.  In 
May  1824  he  was  appointed  judge  of  the  United 
States  district  court  for  western  Pennsylvania. 
In  1826  he  was  an  unsuccessful  candidate  for 
election  to  Congress.  Elected  in  1828  as  a  Demo- 
crat, he  resigned  before  qualifying,  principally 
for  financial  reasons.  He  had  become  an  admirer 
of  Andrew  Jackson  and  in  183 1  was  elected  to 
the  United  States  Senate  as  a  Democrat  and 
Anti-Mason.  He  gained  some  prominence  dur- 
ing the  debates  on  the  nullification  question, 
when  he  heatedly  supported  Jackson  against  Cal- 


houn. In  1833  he  angered  many  of  his  constitu- 
ents by  his  support  of  the  measure  removing  the 
deposits  from  the  state  banks.  On  June  30,  1834, 
he  resigned  his  seat  in  the  Senate  to  accept  ap- 
pointment as  minister  to  Russia.  His  negotia- 
tions for  a  treaty  of  neutral  rights  and  for  the 
renewal  of  certain  trading  rights  in  North 
America  were  alike  unsuccessful,  and  he  re- 
turned in  April  1836.  In  1840  he  again  ran  for 
Congress  but  was  defeated.  He  was  elected  in 
1842,  however,  but  his  career  in  the  House  was 
cut  short  by  his  appointment  in  February  1844 
as  secretary  of  war  in  Tyler's  cabinet.  His  main 
interest  seems  to  have  been  in  territorial  expan- 
sion, and  he  suggested  means  of  organizing  new 
territories  and  spoke  in  favor  of  the  annexation 
of  Texas.  He  went  out  of  office  in  1845.  Ten 
years  later  he  was  elected  to  the  state  Senate  on 
the  Democratic  ticket,  where  he  served  one  term, 
during  which  he  sponsored  a  bill  known  as  the 
"Wilkins  Bill"  proposing  legislation  favorable 
to  the  liquor  interests. 

After  the  increase  in  real-estate  values  in 
1855  he  found  himself  in  comfortable  circum- 
stances, and  on  an  estate  of  650  acres  in  the  east 
end  of  Pittsburgh  he  built  an  elaborate  mansion, 
"Homewood,"  which  became  a  fashionable  so- 
cial center.  He  was  twice  married :  first,  in  1815, 
to  Catherine  Holmes  of  Baltimore,  who  died  in 
1816;  and  second,  Oct.  1,  1818,  to  Mathilda 
Dallas,  daughter  of  Alexander  J.  Dallas  [q.v.~\ 
of  Philadelphia ;  by  his  second  wife  he  had  three 
sons  and  four  daughters.  Ross  Wilkins  [q.v.~\ 
was  his  nephew.  William  Wilkins  was  known 
as  a  man  of  great  amiability  and  public  spirit; 
he  was  moderate  in  his  habits,  tall  and  rugged  in 
appearance,  and  courteous  in  manner.  At  the  be- 
ginning of  the  Civil  War  he  took  an  active  part 
in  rallying  troops  and  fostering  patriotism.  He 
was  fond  of  military  display  and  in  1862  was 
appointed  major-general  of  the  Pennsylvania 
Home  Guard.  Wilkins  Avenue  in  Pittsburgh 
and  Wilkins  Township  and  the  borough  of  Wil- 
kinsburg  in  Allegheny  County  were  named  for 
him. 

[The  most  extensive  biog.  is  S.  E.  Slick,  "The  Life 
of  William  Wilkins"  (unpublished  thesis,  Univ.  of 
Pittsburgh,  193 1).  A  copy  of  a  manuscript  autobiog.  of 
John  Wilkins  and  scattered  records  of  the  Wilkins  fam- 
ily are  in  the  Hist.  Soc.  of  Western  Pa.  Consult  also 
L.  D.  Ingersoll,  A  Hist,  of  the  War  Dcpt.  (1879); 
J.  W.  F.  White,  "The  Judiciary  of  Allegheny  County," 
in  Pa.  Mag.  of  Hist,  and  Biog.,  July  1883  ;  Daniel  Ag- 
new,  "Address  to  the  Allegheny  County  Bar  Associa- 
tion," in  Ibid.,  1889  ;  F.  M.  Eastman,  Courts  and  Law- 
yers of  Pa.  ( 1922)  ;  Biog.  Dir.  Am.  Cong.  ( 1928)  ;  B.  P. 
Thomas, "Russo-American  Relations,  i8i5-i867,"/o/i»ii 
Hopkins  Univ.  Studies  in  Hist,  and  Pol.  Sci.,  vol. 
XLVIII  (1930);  Hist,  of  Allegheny  County  (1889); 
Pittsburgh  Gazette  Times,  Sept.  21,  1919,  July  30, 
1922;   Pittsburgh   livening  Chronicle,  June  23,    1865; 


221 


Wilkinson 


Wilkinson 


Pittsburgh  Commercial,  Daily  Pittsburgh  Gazette, 
Daily  Post   (Pittsburgh),  June  24,   1865.]       S.J.  B. 

WILKINSON,  DAVID  (Jan.  5,  1771-Feb. 
3,  1852),  inventor,  manufacturer,  was  born  in 
Smithfield,  R.  I.,  the  third  son  of  Oziel  and  Lydia 
(Smith)  Wilkinson.  He  was  a  descendant  of 
Lawrance  Wilkinson,  a  prominent  Quaker,  who 
came  from  England  about  1645  and  settled  in 
Providence,  R.  I.  Oziel,  David's  father,  was  the 
son  of  John  and  Ruth  (Angell)  Wilkinson  and 
was  born  in  Smithfield  (now  Slatersville),  R.  I., 
on  Jan.  30,  1744.  He  was  a  blacksmith  by  trade 
but  was  an  inventive  genius  as  well  and  at  an 
early  period  engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  a 
variety  of  iron  products.  Appreciating  the  great 
advantages  of  water  power  in  the  pursuance  of 
his  business,  he  moved  with  his  family  to  Paw- 
tucket,  R.  I.,  about  1783  and  established  a  plant 
there  for  the  manufacture  of  farm  tools,  domes- 
tic utensils,  and  cut  nails.  The  following  year 
he  added  an  anchor-forging  shop ;  still  later,  a 
metal  rolling  and  slitting  mill ;  and  gradually 
thereafter  with  the  aid  of  his  sons  built  up  an  es- 
tablishment which  by  1800  was  recognized  as 
the  hub  of  the  iron  and  machinery  manufactur- 
ing business  of  New  England.  As  his  sons  be- 
came active  in  the  concern,  Oziel  turned  to  other 
ventures,  and  particularly,  as  a  partner  with  his 
son-in-law  Samuel  Slater  [q.z>.],  to  the  manu- 
facture of  cotton,  in  which  enterprise  he  con- 
tinued active  until  his  death  on  Oct.  22,  1815. 

David  Wilkinson  entered  his  father's  manu- 
factory in  Pawtucket  at  the  age  of  thirteen,  and 
before  reaching  his  majority  had  perfected  a 
number  of  ingenious  devices  used  in  the  several 
shops.  About  1786  the  elder  Wilkinson  began 
making  iron  screws  for  clothier's  and  oil  presses 
and  the  method  of  cutting  and  finishing  the  screw 
threads  was  of  particular  interest  to  David.  He 
worked  on  the  problem  for  many  years  and  final- 
ly on  Dec.  14,  1798,  obtained  a  patent  for  a  ma- 
chine for  cutting  screw  threads  which  incorpo- 
rated the  slide  rest.  This  was  one  of  the  first,  if 
not  the  first,  invention  of  this  important  ma- 
chine tool  in  America,  but  the  basic  invention 
must  be  credited  to  Henry  Maudslay  of  Eng- 
land (see  Dictionary  of  National  Biography). 
In  1788-89  Wilkinson  assisted  in  the  develop- 
ment of  Slater's  cotton  machinery  through  the 
construction  of  the  iron  parts  ;  later  he  made  the 
patterns  and  cast  the  wheels  and  racks  for  the 
locks  of  the  new  canal  at  Charlestown,  Mass. 
About  1800,  when  the  elder  Wilkinson  became 
interested  in  the  manufacture  of  cotton,  David 
and  his  brother  Daniel  established  an  iron  manu- 
factory of  their  own  in  Pawtucket,  known  as 
David  Wilkinson  &  Company.   A  thriving  busi- 


ness was  soon  built  up  in  the  manufacture  of  tex- 
tile machinery,  the  Wilkinson  products  being 
sold  in  practically  every  state  on  the  Atlantic 
seaboard.  David  added  a  small  blast-furnace  to 
the  establishment  and  engaged  in  the  casting  of 
solid  cannon.  He  perfected,  also,  a  mill  to  bore 
cannon  by  water  power,  the  feature  of  the  ma- 
chine being  that  the  boring  tool  was  stationary 
and  the  cannon  revolved  against  it. 

After  developing  a  manufacturing  business 
which  included  the  construction  of  all  sorts  of 
textile  machinery  and  other  iron  products,  Wil- 
kinson lost  everything  in  the  financial  panic  of 
1829.  On  the  advice  of  friends  and  at  the  insti- 
gation of  the  founders  of  the  town,  he  moved  with 
his  family  to  Cohoes,  N.  Y.,  near  Albany,  to  start 
a  new  business.  He  was  unsuccessful  in  this  en- 
terprise, however,  and  from  1836  until  his  death 
he  wandered  about  with  his  family,  getting  em- 
ployment wherever  he  could,  chiefly  in  canal 
and  bridge  construction  work  in  New  Jersey, 
Ohio,  and  Canada.  Busy  with  other  things,  Wil- 
kinson never  paid  much  attention  to  his  slide-rest 
invention  of  1798.  The  tool,  however,  was  wide- 
ly adopted,  particularly  in  the  manufacture  of 
firearms  by  the  United  States  government.  Feel- 
ing entitled  to  remuneration,  in  1848  Wilkinson 
petitioned  Congress  for  some  financial  reward  for 
his  invention.  His  petition  was  granted  in  Au- 
gust of  that  year'and  he  received  the  sum  of  $10,- 
000.  His  wife  was  Martha  Sayles,  a  direct  de- 
scendant of  Roger  Williams,  by  whom  he  had 
four  children.  He  died  at  Caledonia  Springs, 
Ontario,  Canada,  and  was  buried  at  Pawtucket. 

[Trans,  of  the  R.  I.  Soc.  for  the  Encouragement  of 
Domestic  Industry,  1861  (1862);  Israel  Wilkinson, 
Memoirs  of  the  Wilkinson  Family  in  America  (1869)  ; 
North  Providence  Centennial :  A  Report  of  the  Celebra- 
tion (1865)  ;  Massena  Goodrich,  Hist.  Sketch  of  the 
Town  of  Pawtucket  (1876)  ;  J.  W.  Roe,  English  and 
Am.  Tool  Builders  (1926)  ;  A.  H.  Masten,  The  Hist,  of 
Cohoes,  N.  Y.  (1877)  ;  Providence  Daily  Jour.,  Feb.  9, 
1852;  Patent  Office  records.]  C.  W.  M. 

Wilkinson!  james  (1757-Dec.  28, 1825), 

soldier,  was  born  in  Calvert  County,  Md.,  the 
grandson  of  Joseph  Wilkinson  who  emigrated 
to  Maryland  from  England  in  1729.  His  father, 
also  Joseph  Wilkinson,  a  substantial  but  not 
wealthy  planter,  died  when  the  son  was  about 
seven.  The  boy  was  taught  by  a  private  tutor, 
began  the  study  of  medicine,  and  continued  his 
studies  in  Philadelphia.  Military  life  attracted 
him,  even  as  a  medical  student,  and  in  1776  he 
obtained  a  captain's  commission  in  the  Revolu- 
tionary Army,  to  rank  from  September  1775. 
He  served  in  the  siege  of  Boston  and  then  joined 
Benedict  Arnold  at  Montreal,  accompanied  him 
during  the  retreat  to  Albany,  and  in  December 
1776  became  aide-de-camp  to  Gates.   He  served 


222 


Wilkinson 


Wilkinson 


at  Trenton  and  Princeton  under  Washington, 
who  made  him  lieutenant-colonel  in  1/77,  re~ 
joined  Gates,  and  on  May  24,  1777,  was  ap- 
pointed deputy  adjutant-general  for  the  north- 
ern department.  Commissioned  to  report  the  vic- 
tory at  Saratoga,  he  proved  a  tardy  messenger; 
nevertheless  Congress  brevetted  him  brigadier- 
general  in  November  1777.  In  the  following 
January  he  also  became  secretary  of  the  newly 
organized  board  of  war.  Intrigue  was  his  ruling 
passion,  and  hard  drinking  too  often  his  nemesis. 
These  provocative  characteristics  brought  him 
into  the  Conway  cabal  against  Washington  and 
ultimately  forced  him  to  resign  his  multiple  hon- 
ors. Almost  immediately  he  sought  the  lucra- 
tive position  of  clothier-general ;  but  there  were 
grave  irregularities  in  his  accounts,  and  he  was 
obliged  to  give  it  up  on  Mar.  27,  1781  (Journals 
of  Continental  Congress,  vol.  XVII,  1910,  ed. 
by  Gaillard  Hunt,  p.  716;  vol.  XIX,  1912,  pp. 
3*3>  374)-  Thus  was  revealed  another  ruling 
passion — greed  for  money — which  often  led  him 
to  overestimate  both  his  ability  and  integrity. 
Having  in  the  meantime  married  Ann,  the  sister 
of  Clement  Biddle  [q.v.~\,  he  took  up  farming  in 
Bucks  County,  Pa.,  became  brigadier-general  of 
the  state  militia,  and  in  1783  obtained  election  to 
the  state  Assembly. 

Seeking  a  still  wider  outlet  for  his  restless  en- 
ergy, he  undertook  a  trading  venture  to  the  west- 
ward and  in  1784  entered  upon  the  first  major 
chapter  of  his  devious  career,  in  the  rapidly 
growing  district  of  Kentucky.  With  his  ready 
tongue  and  handsome  person,  his  facile  but 
treacherous  pen,  he  supplanted  George  Rogers 
Clark  [q.v.]  as  leader  of  the  region.  His  gran- 
diose manner  of  speaking  enabled  him  to  oppose 
Humphrey  Marshall,  1760-1841  [q.v.],  success- 
fully, but  made  of  the  latter  an  implacable  enemy. 
In  August  1785  Wilkinson  penned  two  fervid 
memorials  advocating  immediate  separation  from 
Virginia.  His  success  evidently  convinced  him 
that  he  might  turn  prevalent  discontent,  intensi- 
fied by  Jay's  proposed  concessions  to  the  Span- 
iards, to  his  own  financial  gain.  This,  it  seems, 
was  the  real  purpose  behind  the  so-called  "Span- 
ish Conspiracy."  He  first  used  his  distorted 
charges  against  Clark  to  commend  himself  to 
nearby  Spanish  authorities.  Then  in  1787  he 
ventured  on  a  trading  voyage  to  New  Orleans. 
By  means  of  personal  interviews  and  specious 
memorials  he  made  a  favorable  impression  on 
Gov.  Esteban  Miro  [q.v.'],  disposed  of  his  goods, 
and  petitioned  for  an  exclusive  trading  monopoly. 
To  strengthen  this  petition  Wilkinson  took  an 
oath  of  allegiance  to  the  Spanish  monarch.  He 
so  impressed  his  neighbors  on  his  return  to  Ken- 


tucky that  they  were  willing  to  entrust  him  with 
their  produce  for  the  New  Orleans  market. 
Availing  himself  of  the  local  agitation  for  state- 
hood, he  convinced  the  Spaniards  that  he  was 
working  towards  disunion  and  gained  his  cov- 
eted monopoly  for  a  few  years.  Ultimately  he 
was  granted  an  annual  pension  of  $2,000.  His 
use  of  western  discontent  and  the  credulity  of 
Spanish  officials  to  build  up  his  personal  for- 
tunes was  mercenary  and  despicable,  but  not  nec- 
essarily traitorous. 

As  a  member  of  the  Kentucky  convention  of 
November  1788,  he  read  an  address  on  separa- 
tion from  Virginia  and  the  navigation  of  the 
Mississippi  that  was  comparatively  mild  in  tone, 
and  he  linked  it  with  his  journey  to  New  Or- 
leans. For  this  contribution  he  received  ■  the 
thanks  of  his  fellow  members  and  was  empow- 
ered to  draw  up  resolutions  in  keeping  with  his 
ostensible  views,  which  merely  favored  separate 
statehood  (Bodley,  post,  pp.  lvii-lxiii).  By  let- 
ter he  assured  Miro  that  he  had  read  to  the  con- 
vention the  memoir  presented  at  New  Orleans 
during  the  preceding  summer.  To  strengthen 
himself  with  the  Spanish  executive  he  reported 
his  efforts  to  checkmate  the  influence  of  a  British 
agent  in  Kentucky  and  in  the  summer  of  1789 
made  another  journey  to  New  Orleans.  On  this 
occasion  he  composed  a  second  memorial  on  dis- 
union and  supplemented  this  with  a  list  of  promi- 
nent westerners,  including  himself,  to  whom  the 
Spanish  government  might  profitably  grant  pen- 
sions (American  Historical  Review,  July  1904, 
pp.  765-66).  This  list  is  imposing  rather  than 
conclusive,  but  he  induced  the  impressionable 
Miro  to  make  him  a  temporary  loan  of  $7,000 
(evidently  never  repaid)  and  eventually  gained 
the  coveted  pension.  The  Spaniards  granted 
Benjamin  Sebastian  [q.v.]  a  similar  favor,  evi- 
dently to  keep  an  eye  on  Wilkinson,  but  shortly 
opened  the  river  trade  generally  and  thus  ren- 
dered Wilkinson's  monopoly  valueless.  That 
wily  agent  also  endeavored  to  connect  himself 
with  a  group  of  the  Yazoo  land  speculators,  only 
to  betray  them  to  the  Spaniards.  His  commer- 
cial ventures  having  proved  largely  unproduc- 
tive and  his  local  land  speculations,  including  the 
founding  of  Frankfort,  disastrous,  he  betook 
himself  to  military  service,  leaving  his  tangled 
business  affairs  to  be  settled  by  Harry  Innes 
[q.v.]. 

In  March  1791  he  led  a  force  of  volunteers 
against  the  Indians  north  of  the  Ohio.  In  Octo- 
ber he  was  commissioned  lieutenant-colonel  in 
the  regular  army  and  in  March  1792  brigadier- 
general  under  Wayne.  During  the  next  five 
years  he  quarreled  openly  with  Wayne,  whose 


223 


Wilkinson 

place  he  had  sought  for  himself,  and  secretly 
plotted  to  thwart  and  discredit  his  superior's 
plan  of  campaign  (own  narrative  in  Mississippi 
Valley  Historical  Rcviezu,  June  1929,  pp.  81-90). 
The  Spaniards  attempted  to  send  him  $16,000  on 
his  pension,  but  he  received  barely  a  third,  owing 
to  the  death  or  defalcation  of  his  messengers.  In 
return  for  such  bounty  he  reported  to  Carondelet 
the  filibustering  activities  of  George  Rogers 
Clark  and  urged  more  vigorous  measures  against 
the  Kentuckians.  Nevertheless  in  1795  he  re- 
fused to  meet  Carondelet's  representative,  Ga- 
yoso,  at  New  Madrid.  In  1796  he  took  over  De- 
troit from  the  British  and  shortly  afterward  de- 
parted for  Philadelphia  to  defend  himself  and 
still  further  to  discredit  Wayne.  The  latter's 
death,  rather  than  his  own  lobbying,  made  Wil- 
kinson the  ranking  officer  of  the  army  but  did 
not  bring  him  the  coveted  rank  of  major-general. 
His  course  at  Detroit,  after  his  return  there  in 

1797,  made  him  extremely  unpopular.  In  that 
same  year  he  resisted  a  final  appeal  from  Caron- 
delet to  make  himself  the  "Washington  of  the 
West."    Transferred  to  the  southern  frontier  in 

1798,  he  endeavored  to  quiet  the  Indians  and  to 
maintain  friendly  relations  with  the  Spaniards. 
His  convivial  visits  with  Gayoso,  who  was  now 
governor  at  New  Orleans,  gave  rise,  however, 
to  unfavorable  comments  about  personal  land 
deals  and  army  contracts  (Manuscripts  of  war 
department,  post).  His  schemes  to  become  gov- 
ernor or  surveyor-general  of  Mississippi  Terri- 
tory disturbed  the  federal  authorities.  Washing- 
ton commissioned  Andrew  Ellicott  [g.z\]  to 
watch  him,  and  Wilkinson  in  turn  spied  on  Elli- 
cott. Adams  gave  Wilkinson  his  confidence. 
Hamilton,  during  threatened  hostilities  with 
France,  summoned  him  to  confer  on  western  de- 
fense and  a  possible  invasion  of  Spanish  terri- 
tory. Following  the  party  change  of  1801  Burr 
helped  him  keep  his  place  in  the  army  and  Jef- 
ferson commissioned  him  to  treat  with  the  vari- 
ous southern  tribes  (Manuscripts  of  war  depart- 
ment, post),  a  task  that  kept  him  traveling  a 
year  and  a  half.  Incidentally  he  obtained  com- 
mercial privileges  for  the  government  on  the  riv- 
ers east  of  the  Mississippi  and  established  a  new 
fort  and  trading  post  on  the  Tombigbee.  From 
these  months  of  wandering  he  was  summoned  in 
1803  to  share  with  Gov.  William  C.  C.  Claiborne 
[q.v.~\  the  honor  of  taking  possession  of  the 
Louisiana  Purchase.  Then  craftily  arousing 
Spanish  fears  with  a  characteristic  memoir,  he 
obtained  $12,000  from  the  Spanish  boundary 
commissioner,  invested  the  major  portion  of  this 
new  retaining  fee  in  sugar,  and  took  sail  for 
New  York  (American  Historical  Review,  July 


Wilkinson 

1914,  p.  800).  He  then  began  his  spectacular 
but  distrustful  relations  with  Aaron  Burr  \_q.v.]. 
The  two  "conspirators"  conferred  frequently  in 
Washington,  during  the  winter  of  1804-05,  and 
again  in  the  following  June  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Ohio,  where  Wilkinson  furnished  Burr  with 
conveyance  to  New  Orleans  and  flattering  let- 
ters of  introduction.  In  September  he  enter- 
tained Burr  at  St.  Louis  and  commended  him 
to  the  attention  of  Governor  Harrison  of  Indi- 
ana. Hence  public  opinion  naturally  associated 
the  two  in  some  nebulous  enterprise — possibly  an 
invasion  of  Mexico. 

Meanwhile  in  the  spring  of  1805,  the  admin- 
istration enlarged  Wilkinson's  functions  to  in- 
clude the  governorship  of  Louisiana  Territory. 
From  his  headquarters  at  St.  Louis  he  might  the 
better  feed  his  own  fortune  or  advance  the  "con- 
spiracy" with  Burr,  but  at  considerable  peril  to 
one  of  his  propensity  for  intrigue.  Moreover, 
his  combined  military  and  civilian  functions  pro- 
voked much  local  controversy  and  led  him  to  ex- 
ceed his  authority.  He  was  suspected — perhaps 
unjustly — of  profiteering  in  the  site  for  a  can- 
tonment and,  more  plausibly,  in  deciding  tangled 
land  titles  with  an  eye  to  his  own  interests 
(Louis  Houck,  A  History  of  Missouri,  1908, 
II,  404).  His  effort  to  further  the  President's 
plans  for  exploring  the  Louisiana  Purchase  co- 
incided with  his  presumptive  connection  with 
Burr  and  his  intention  to  engage  in  the  fur 
trade.  This  last  project  led  to  an  ill-concealed 
alliance  with  Rene  Auguste  Chouteau  [q.v.] 
and  to  three  preliminary  ventures  up  the  Osage, 
the  Mississippi,  and  the  Missouri.  His  own  son, 
James  B.  Wilkinson,  directed  the  last  one.  A 
more  famous  venture,  headed  by  Zebulon  M. 
Pike  \_q.v.~\,  was  designed  by  Wilkinson  to  open 
up  a  feasible  military  route  to  New  Mexico. 
This,  too,  public  opinion  quickly  associated  with 
Burr's  mysterious  movements,  and  the  disclaim- 
ers of  the  general  and  of  his  agent  were  unable 
to  remove  this  impression  (I.  J.  Cox,  "Opening 
the  Santa  Fe  Trail,"  Missouri  Historical  Re- 
viezv,  Oct.  1930).  After  a  few  months  Wilkin- 
son found  that  his  rule  was  more  unpopular  in 
St.  Louis  than  it  had  been  at  Detroit.  His  ene- 
mies bestirred  themselves  to  prevent  his  confir- 
mation as  governor  but  failed  by  a  narrow  mar- 
gin. Jefferson  was  finally  constrained  in  May 
1806  to  order  him  to  the  southern  frontier  and 
ultimately  to  remove  him  from  the  governorship. 
The  President,  however,  expressed  no  regret  at 
having  bestowed  the  office  on  him  {The  Writings 
of  Thomas  Jefferson,  vol.  X,  1905,  ed.  by  P.  L. 
Ford,  p.  264). 

During  the  summer  of  1806  more  serious  trou- 


224 


Wilkinson 

ble  threatened  Wilkinson.  Joseph  Street  [q.v.] 
began  to  expose  his  intimacy  with  Burr  and  to 
connect  it  with  the  earlier  Spanish  intrigue. 
Aroused  by  this  threat,  Wilkinson  devised  des- 
perate measures  to  save  himself.  From  his  head- 
quarters at  Natchitoches  he  warned  Jefferson 
that  a  plot  was  on  foot  to  disrupt  the  Union  and 
to  invade  Mexico  and  that  he  proposed  to  meet 
the  peril  by  transferring  his  troops  to  New  Or- 
leans, the  objective  point  of  the  conspiracy. 
This  he  did  during  the  next  few  weeks,  after  ar- 
ranging with  the  Spanish  frontier  authorities 
to  maintain  a  neutral  zone  between  their  respec- 
tive garrisons.  At  the  same  time,  he  dispatched 
a  messenger  to  inform  the  Mexican  viceroy  of 
the  peril  threatening  the  Spanish  dominions  and 
to  ask  for  a  sum  of  money  to  be  expended  in  his 
efforts  to  avert  it.  His  attempt  to  get  money 
from  the  Spaniard  signally  failed;  he  was  far 
more  successful  in  his  approach  to  Jefferson. 
Wilkinson,  meanwhile,  was  at  New  Orleans, 
making  ready  to  meet  the  oncoming  Burr.  With 
the  hesitant  support  of  Governor  Claiborne  he 
declared  martial  law,  rebuilt  defenses,  embar- 
goed vessels,  and  arrested  and  imprisoned  with- 
out regard  to  law  or  privilege  all  whom  he  re- 
garded as  Burr's  agents.  He  overrode  the  de- 
crees of  courts  and  spirited  away  those  arrested 
by  his  arbitrary  orders.  He  even  dispatched  sub- 
ordinates up  the  river  to  kidnap  Burr  should  the 
latter  be  released  by  the  civil  authorities.  New 
Orleans,  at  this  period,  represented  a  high  point 
in  the  domineering  procedure  previously  noted 
at  Detroit  and  St.  Louis.  John  Adair,  a  former 
intimate,  was  a  conspicuous  victim,  as  was  Sam- 
uel Swartwout  [qq.v.'].  In  order  to  forestall 
local  censure,  Wilkinson  appealed  to  Vizente 
Folch,  commandant  of  West  Florida,  for  help. 
During  this  trying  period  his  wife,  who  never 
lost  faith  in  him  nor  failed  to  share  his  wander- 
ing, died  at  New  Orleans  on  Feb.  23,  1807. 

At  the  Burr  trial  in  Richmond  he  assumed  the 
role  of  chief  witness  but  narrowly  escaped  in- 
dictment by  the  grand  jury.  Suspected  by  every- 
one, except  possibly  the  prejudiced  chief  execu- 
tive, he  saw  Daniel  Clark  \_q.v.~],  his  former 
friend  and  business  associate  turn  against  him, 
and  likewise  the  Spanish  agent,  Thomas  Power. 
He  was  caricatured  by  Washington  Irving,  de- 
nounced by  Andrew  Jackson,  challenged  and  pub- 
licly insulted  by  Samuel  Swartwout,  and  even 
George  Hay,  Jefferson's  mouthpiece,  lost  con- 
fidence in  him.  The  vindictive  John  Randolph 
who  had  headed  the  grand  jury,  used  the  pro- 
ceedings at  this  trial  to  attack  the  administra- 
tion and  forced  Wilkinson  to  appear  before  a 
court  of  inquiry.   The  accused  outranked  all  the 


Wilkinson 

members  of  this  body  which,  after  six  months, 
acquitted  him,  but  not  before  he  had  found  it 
necessary  to  appeal  once  more  to  Folch  for  vin- 
dication. 

Availing  himself  of  this  dubious  decision, 
Wilkinson  requested  the  administration  to  give 
him  some  proof  of  confidence  that  would  con- 
found his  "dam'd  enemies."  Jefferson  ordered 
him  to  New  Orleans  and,  while  on  the  way 
thither,  empowered  him  to  confer  with  Spanish 
officials  at  Havana  and  Pensacola.  Apples  and 
flour  were  to  pave  the  way  for  his  message, 
which,  it  seems,  was  a  proposed  alliance  between 
the  United  States,  the  Spanish  possessions,  and 
Brazil.  As  a  forerunner  of  Pan  Americanism 
Wilkinson  was  not  a  success.  His  difficulties 
with  the  army  led  to  a  second  congressional  in- 
quiry, embracing  his  whole  career.  This  inves- 
tigation, hastened  by  the  publication  in  1809  of 
the  untrustworthy  but  damaging  Proofs  of  the 
Corruption  of  General  James  Wilkinson,  which 
appeared  under  the  name  of  Daniel  Clark,  led  to 
a  more  thorough  inquiry.  He  again  appealed  to 
Spanish  officials  for  vindication  but  with  little 
success.  His  defense  forced  him  to  sell  much  of 
his  remaining  land  in  Kentucky.  In  July  181 1 
President  Madison  ordered  a  court  martial  to 
try  him.  Its  verdict,  Dec.  25,  181 1,  of  "not  guil- 
ty" was  so  worded  that  the  President  approved 
it  "with  regret."  This  verdict  restored  Wilkin- 
son to  his  command  at  New  Orleans.  From  that 
city  he  was  ordered,  early  in  1813,  to  occupy 
Mobile.  Later  in  1813  he  was  commissioned 
major-general  and  ordered  northward  to  the  St. 
Lawrence  frontier.  There  in  the  fall  of  that  year 
his  own  tardy  measures  and  the  failure  of  Wade 
Hampton,  1751  or  1752-1835  [q.v.]  to  cooperate 
with  him  made  a  fiasco  of  the  campaign  against 
Montreal.  Relieved  from  regular  duty  and  or- 
dered to  Washington,  he  was  an  inactive  but 
critical  spectator,  when  the  British  occupied 
and  burned  the  public  buildings  of  that  city. 
Attempting  to  defend  his  Canadian  campaign 
(Daily  National  Intelligencer,  Washington, 
D.  C,  July  30,  Aug.  3,  4,  1814)  he  provoked  a 
quarrel  with  John  Armstrong,  1758-1843  [q.v.], 
which  led  to  another  military  inquiry  and  acquit- 
tal, but  he  was  not  reinstated  in  the  service. 
With  the  aid  of  personal  friends  he  published 
and  distributed  his  Memoirs  of  My  Own  Times, 
three  turgid  and  confused  volumes  of  documents, 
which  are  as  significant  for  what  they  omit  as 
for  what  they  contain  (3  vols.,  1816,  "vol.  II" 
of  Memoirs  of  General  Wilkinson  was  pub- 
lished in  1810  and  in  181 1  but  was  unlike  vol.  II 
of  the  1816  edition). 

On  Mar.  5,  1810,  he  had  married  as  his  sec- 


225 


Wilkinson 


Wilkinson 


ond  wife,  Celestine  Laveau  (Trudeau)  Wilkin- 
son. For  some  years  following-  the  publication 
of  his  Memoirs  he  lived  with  her  and  their  young 
daughters  on  a  plantation  below  New  Orleans. 
In  1821  Mexico  once  more  claimed  his  attention, 
and  he  betook  himself  thither  in  pursuit  of  a 
Texas  land  grant.  In  Mexico  city  he  bestowed 
gratuitous  advice  upon  the  short-lived  Emperor 
Iturbide,  tried  to  collect  claims  for  Mexico's 
creditors,  and  indirectly  represented  the  Ameri- 
can Bible  Society.  Ultimately  he  obtained  an 
option  on  lands  in  Texas,  but,  before  he  could 
fulfill  the  conditions  imposed,  he  died.  He  was 
buried  from  the  house  of  Joel  R.  Poinsett  [#.?'.], 
who  obtained  for  him  a  Roman  Catholic  funeral 
and  interment  in  the  Church  of  the  Archangel 
San  Miguel.  His  remains,  along  with  others, 
rest  unidentified  in  a  common  vault  under  that 
church. 

[Photo-film  enlargements  of  legajos  2373-75  of  Pa- 
peles  de  Cuba  from  Archivo  General  de  Indies  at  Se- 
ville and  Papers  in  Relation  to  Burr's  Conspiracy,  both 
in  Lib.  of  Cong. ;  the  manuscript  colls,  of  war  depart- 
ment in  the  old  records  division  of  the  adj. -gen.  office; 
the  Wilkinson  papers  (3  vols.)  in  possession  of  Chi- 
cago Hist.  Soc.  ;  the  Wayne  Papers  (esp.  vols.  XX- 
XLVI)  in  possession  Pa.  Hist.  Soc.  ;  Durrett  Coll., 
Harper  Lib.,  Univ.  of  Chicago,  esp.  Gardoqui  Papers  ; 
the  Pontalba  transcripts  01  the  Louisiana  Hist.  Soc.  ; 
Memoirs,  ante,  necessary  but  unreliable  ;  Pa.  Archives, 
1  ser.,  vol.  X  (1854)  ;  Official  Letter  Books  of  W.  C.  C. 
Claiborne,  6  vols.,  1917,  ed.  by  Dunbar  Rowland;  Am. 
State  Papers:  Misc.  (2  vols.,  1834)  ;  Ibid:  Military  Af- 
fairs, vol.  I  (1832),  pp.  463-82;  House  Report  of  the 
Committee  to  Inquire  into  the  Conduct  of  General  Wil- 
kinson, n  Cong.,  3  Sess.  (1811)  ;  Reports  on  the  Trials 
of  Col.  Aaron  Burr  (2  vols.,  1808),  taken  in  shorthand 
by  David  Robertson  ;  Annals  of  Cong.,  10  Cong.,  1  Sess., 
pts.  1,  2  (1852);  Ibid.,  extra  Sess.  (1853);  Ibid.,  11 
Cong.,  2  and  3  Sess.  (1853)  ;  Ibid.,  12  Cong.,  1  Sess., 
pt.  2  (1853)  ;  "Reprints  of  Littell's  Political  Trans,  in 
Ky.  .  .  .  also  .  .  .  Wilkinson's  Memorial,"  Filson  Club 
Pubs.  no.  31  (1926)  with  intro.  by  Temple  Bodley ; 
"General  James  Wilkinson's  Narrative  of  the  Fallen 
Timbers  Campaign,"  ed.  by  M.  M.  Quaife,  Miss.  Val- 
ley Hist.  Rev.,  June  1929;  "James  Wilkinson's  First 
Descent  to  New  Orleans  in  1787,"  ed.  by  A.  P.  Whit- 
aker,  Hispanic  Am.  Hist.  Rev.,  Feb.  1828;  "Papers 
Bearing  on  James  Wilkinson's  Relations  with  Spain, 
1 788-1 789,"  ed.  by  W.  R.  Shepherd,  Am.  Hist.  Rev., 
July  1904  ;  "A  Faithful  Picture  of  the  Political  Situa- 
tion in  New  Orleans  .  .  .  Present  Year,  1807,"  with 
notes  by  J.  E.  Winston,  La.  Hist.  Quart.,  July  1928; 
"Gen.  James  Wilkinson  as  Adviser  to  Emperor  Itur- 
bide," ed.  by  H.  E.  Bolton,  Hispanic  Am.  Hist.  Rev., 
May  1918;  James  Wilkinson.  Wilkinson  (1935),  a 
family  biography  ;  R.  O.  Shreve,  The  Finished  Scoun- 
drel (1933);  T.  R.  Hay,  "Some  Reflections  on  .  .  . 
Wilkinson,"  Miss.  Valley  Hist.  Rev.,  Mar.  1935  ;  E.  B. 
Drewry,  Episodes  in  Westward  Expansion  as  Reflected 
in  the  Writings  of  .  .  .  Wilkinson  (1933)  :  W.  R.  Shep- 
herd, "Wilkinson  and  the  Beginning  of  the  Spanish 
Conspiracy,"  Am.  Hist.  Rev.,  Apr.  1904;  I.  J.  Cox, 
"Gen.  Wilkinson  and  his  Later  Intrigues,"  Ibid.,  July 
1914,  and  The  West  Florida  Controversy  (1918); 
unpub.  thesis  in  lib.  of  Northwestern  Univ.,  Evanston, 
111.,  by  P.  W.  Christian,  "Gen.  James  Wilkinson  and 
the  Spanish  Conspiracy"  ;  W.  F.  McCaleb,  The  Aaron 
Burr  Conspiracy  (1905)  ;  Henry  Adams,  Hist,  of  the 
U.  S.,  vol.  Ill  (1890)  ;  Charles  Gayarre,  Hist,  of  La., 
vol.  Ill  (1854);  T.  M.  Green,  Spanish  Conspiracy 
(1891);  J.  M.  Brown,  Political  Beginnings  of  Ky. 
(1889)  ;  A.  P.  Whitaker,  Spanish-Am.  Frontier  (1927) 


and  Miss.  Question  (1934);  National  Daily  Intelli- 
gencer (Washington,  D.  C),  Feb.  11,  20,  1826.] 

I.J.C. 

WILKINSON,  JEMIMA  (Nov.  29,  1752- 
July  1,  1819),  religious  leader,  was  born  in  Cum- 
berland, R.  I.,  daughter  of  Jeremiah  and  Eliza- 
beth Amey  (Whipple)  Wilkinson  and  sister  of 
Jeremiah  Wilkinson  [q.v.].  Her  father,  a  pros- 
perous farmer  and  a  member  of  the  Colony's 
Council,  was  almost  exclusively  interested  in 
profits  and  politics ;  her  mother,  who  belonged 
to  the  Society  of  Friends  and  who  might  perhaps 
have  exercised  more  influence  on  her  daughter's 
development,  died,  worn  out  with  child-bearing, 
when  Jemima,  the  eighth  of  twelve  children,  was 
about  ten  years  old.  Owing  to  her  prettiness  and 
cleverness,  the  future  prophetess  managed  to 
avoid  the  hard  work  on  the  farm  and  grew  up  as 
a  self-indulgent  girl  devoted  to  the  reading-  of 
romances  and  other  "frivolous  literature,"  with- 
out further  discipline  than  that  afforded  by  ir- 
regular attendance  in  the  common  schools.  Her 
religious  interest  was  first  aroused  when  she  was 
about  sixteen  by  the  sermons  of  George  White- 
field  and  by  the  meetings  of  the  "New  Light 
Baptists,"  an  evangelizing  sect  which  just  then 
appeared  in  Rhode  Island.  Later,  in  1774,  the 
coming  of  Ann  Lee  [q.z>.]  aroused  a  spirit  of 
emulation  in  her.  Soon  afterward,  during  the 
course  of  a  fever,  she  fell  into  a  prolonged  trance 
from  which  she  emerged  with  the  conviction  that 
she  had  died,  that  her  original  soul  had  ascended 
to  heaven,  and  that  her  body  was  now  inhabited 
by  the  "Spirit  of  Life"  which  came  from  God 
"to  warn  a  lost  and  guilty,  gossiping,  dying 
World  to  flee  from  the  wrath  ...  to  come."  Her 
belief  was  not  shaken  by  the  insistence  of  Dr. 
Mann,  the  physician  in  charge  of  the  case,  that 
there  was  no  evidence  whatever  of  her  having 
died. 

Taking  the  name  of  "Public  Universal  Friend," 
she  began  to  hold  open-air  meetings  which  at- 
tracted increasingly  large  audiences.  Her  power 
lay  not  in  the  substance  of  her  preaching,  which 
consisted  of  conventional  calls  to  repentance  in- 
terlarded with  copious  scriptural  quotations,  but 
in  her  magnetic  personality.  Tall  and  graceful, 
with  beautiful  dark  hair  and  hypnotic  black  eyes, 
and  with  better  manners  than  those  of  the  usual 
"exhorters,"  she  directed  her  appeal  especially 
to  the  more  educated  and  wealthy  members  of 
the  community.  Among  those  interested  in  her 
were  Gov.  Stephen  Hopkins  [q.v.~]  and  Joshua 
Babcock,  a  friend  of  George  Washington  and 
one  of  the  incorporators  of  Brown  University. 
Gathering  the  most  devoted  of  her  followers  into 
a  special  band  of  about  a  score,  she  led  a  series 


126 


Wilkinson 

of  processions  on  horseback  through  Rhode  Isl- 
and and  Connecticut,  she  herself,  clad  in  a  long 
flowing  robe  over  otherwise  masculine  attire, 
always  riding  a  little  in  advance  of  her  disciples, 
who  came  behind,  two  by  two,  in  solemn,  silent 
file.  She  preached  with  great  success  in  Provi- 
dence and  New  Bedford,  R.  I.,  and  between  1777 
and  1782  she  established  churches  at  New  Mil- 
ford,  Conn.,  and  at  East  Greenwich  and  South 
Kingston,  R.  I.  In  the  latter  town,  William  Pot- 
ter, a  rich  and  influential  judge,  built  a  special 
addition  to  his  large  mansion  for  the  accommo- 
dation of  the  Universal  Friend,  who  gradually 
acquired  almost  complete  control  over  his  house- 
hold and  the  management  of  his  estate.  Mean- 
while, in  her  preaching  she  began  to  emphasize 
the  inferiority  of  marriage  to  celibacy  and  also 
the  necessity  of  subordinating  family  obligations 
to  the  support  of  her  sect,  hence  she  was  charged 
with  causing  the  breakup  of  numerous  families. 
Furthermore,  the  claim  of  her  disciples  that  she 
was  Jesus  Christ  come  again,  together  with  her 
own  discreet  reticence  as  to  the  exact  nature  of 
her  relations  with  the  Divine  Spirit,  thoroughly 
scandalized  the  orthodox  churches  of  New  Eng- 
land until  even  the  Quakers  turned  against  her. 
By  1783  the  antagonism  to  her  had  become  so 
great  in  New  England  that  she  transferred  her 
headquarters  to  Philadelphia.    There,  too,  how- 

1  ever,  she  encountered  much  opposition,  being 
actually  stoned  at  one  of  her  meetings,  and  in 
1785  she  and  her  band  returned  to  New  England. 
During  the  Philadelphia  residence  her  only  dis- 
course in  print  was  brought  out,  The  Universal 
Friend's  Advice,  to  Those  of  the  Same  Religious 
Society,  Recommended  to  be  Read  in  Their  Pub- 
lic Meetings  for  Divine  Worship  (1784). 

Finding  herself  no  longer  able  to  obtain  a 
hearing  in  New  England,  the  Friend  in  1788  de- 
cided  to  establish  a  colony  for  her  group  "where 
no  intruding  foot  could  enter."  Securing  a  large 
tract  of  land  in  Yates  County,  near  Seneca  Lake 
in  western  New  York,  she  sent  a  part  of  her 
band  on  ahead  and  in  1790  followed  with  the 
rest.  Being  the  first  settlers  in  that  region,  they 
encountered  many  hardships,  but  their  colony, 
named  "Jerusalem,"  soon  began  to  prosper  un- 

I  der  the  energetic  leadership  of  the  Friend.  Their 
land  proved  fertile,  bounty  wheat  crops  were 

lj  raised,  a  sawmill  and  gristmill  were  built,  and 
a  school  followed.  By  1800  the  population  of 
Jerusalem  had  increased  to  two  hundred  and 

k    sixty  inhabitants.    The  Friend  exhibited  great 

I   tact   and   tolerance   in   her   relations   with   the 

!  frontier  Indians,  by  whom  she  was  named 
"Squaw  Shinnewanagistawge"   (Great  Woman 

;   Preacher),  and  her  pioneer  venture  proved  of 


Wilkinson 

importance  in  the  pacification  of  western  New 
York. 

Unfortunately,  with  prosperity  there  came  in- 
ternal dissensions.  Judge  Potter  and  others  with- 
drew after  unsuccessful  suits  against  the  Friend 
over  the  division  of  property  in  the  colony.  She 
was  accused  of  chicanery  and  avarice,  her  habit 
of  demanding  personal  gifts  with  her  constant 
phrase,  "The  Friend  hath  need  of  these  things," 
arousing  resentment  among  some  of  her  follow- 
ers. As  she  grew  older  she  became  more  dicta- 
torial in  her  methods  and  developed  a  penchant 
for  degrading  forms  of  punishment  for  infraction 
of  the  society's  rules,  such  as  compelling  one 
man  to  wear  a  black  hood  for  three  months  and 
another  to  carry  a  little  bell  fastened  to  the  skirts 
of  his  coat.  She  had  reserved  12,000  acres  of  the 
settlement's  property  for  herself,  and  in  the  far- 
thest corner  of  this  estate  she  built  an  elaborate 
house,  twenty  miles  from  the  center  of  the  set- 
tlement. There  she  dwelt  in  considerable  luxury 
but  afflicted  with  dropsy  which  destroyed  every 
trace  of  her  early  beauty  and  turned  her  into  a 
disfigured,  embittered  old  woman,  lingering  out 
her  days  as  a  spectacle  for  the  curiosity-mongers 
who  visited  the  neighborhood.  The  society  she 
had  founded  disintegrated  entirely  soon  after 
her  death. 

[Sources  include  contemporary  accounts  in  the  let- 
ters of  Frangois,  Marquis  de  Barbe-Marbois,  1779-85, 
translated  by  E.  P.  Chase  under  the  title  Our  Revolu- 
tionary Forefathers  (1929)  and  in  the  Travels  through 
the  United  States  (2  vols.,  1799)  of  Frangois,  Due  de  la 
Rochefoucauld-Liancourt ;  Orsamus  Turner,  Hist,  of 
the  Pioneer  Settlement  of  Phelps  and  Gorham's  Pur- 
chase and  Morris'  Reserve  (1851),  pp.  153-62;  Mrs. 
William  Hathaway,  A  Narrative  of  Thos.  Hathaway 
and  His  Family  (1869)  ;  J.  Q.  Adams,  "Jemima  Wil- 
kinson, the  Universal  Friend,"  in  Jour,  of  Am.  Hist., 
Apr.,  May,  June  1915;  R.  P.  St.  John,  Jerusalem  the 
Golden  (1926)  and  "Jemima  Wilkinson,"  with  bibliog., 
in  Quart.  Jour.  N.  Y.  State  Hist.  Asso.,  Apr.  1930. 
See  also  Israel  Wilkinson,  Memoirs  of  the  Wilkinson 
Family  (1869)  ;  S.  C.  Cleveland,  Hist,  and  Directory 
of  Yates  County  (1873)  ;  E.  W.  Vanderhoof,  Hist. 
Sketches  of  Western  N.  Y.  (1907)  ;  The  New  Yorker, 
May  9,  1936.  The  earliest  full  biography,  David  Hud- 
son, Hist,  of  Jemima  Wilkinson  (1821),  was  a  scur- 
rilous and  generally  inaccurate  work.  There  is  much 
discrepancy  as  to  dates  and  minor  details  among  all  the 
biographers.]  E.  S.  B. 

WILKINSON,  JEREMIAH  (July  6,  1741- 
Jan.  29,  1831),  inventor,  farmer,  was  the  son  of 
Jeremiah  and  Elizabeth  Amey  (Whipple)  Wil- 
kinson and  a  descendant  of  Lawrance  Wilkin- 
son, a  Quaker,  who  emigrated  from  England  and 
settled  in  Providence,  R.  I.,  about  1645.  Jere- 
miah was  born  on  his  father's  farm  at  Cumber- 
land, R.  I.,  and  after  obtaining  a  common-school 
education  went  to  work  on  the  farm.  He  was 
most  interested,  however,  in  the  forge  which  had 
been  erected  by  his  grandfather,  and  he  con- 
tinued the  local  iron-forging  business  which  his 


227 


Wilkinson 


Wilkinson 


grandfather  and  father  had  conducted  in  connec- 
tion with  their  farm  activities.  In  addition,  he 
mastered  the  gold  and  silversmith's  art,  and  the 
wealthier  residents  of  the  community  were  ac- 
customed to  furnish  him  with  coins  which  he 
would  melt  and  convert  into  spoons  and  other  ar- 
ticles. 

Another  successful  venture  which  he  under- 
took at  an  early  period  in  his  life  was  that  of 
making  hand  cards  for  carding  wool  and  for 
currying  horses  and  cattle.  His  skill  in  the  pro- 
duction of  properly  treated  iron  wire  for  these 
cards  yielded  a  superior  product  which  was 
much  in  demand,  and  to  supply  it  Wilkinson 
perfected  a  numher  of  inventions  to  increase  his 
speed  of  production.  One  of  these  was  a  hand- 
operated  machine  for  cutting  and  making  the 
four  bends  in  the  wire  at  one  operation  and 
punching  the  holes  in  the  leather  for  the  whole 
card  at  one  stroke  of  the  machine.  Because  of 
the  difficulties  of  importing  wire,  after  much  ex- 
perimenting he  devised  his  own  tools,  plates,  and 
dies  and  drew  wire  by  horsepower — probably  the 
first  attempt  at  wire  drawing  in  the  colonies. 
About  1776,  while  engaged  in  the  manufacture 
of  his  hand  cards,  Wilkinson  ran  out  of  the  tacks 
which  he  used  to  secure  the  leather  to  the  wooden 
back  of  the  card.  Picking  up  an  old  iron  plate 
on  the  floor,  he  cut  it  into  pointed  strips  with  a 
pair  of  tailor's  shears  and  headed  the  blunt  ends 
in  a  vise,  thus  producing  crude  tacks.  This  ex- 
periment was  the  first  attempted  by  any  one  to 
make  nails  or  tacks  from  cold  iron.  Under  the 
development  of  others  the  process  brought  into 
existence  a  large  and  important  industry.  Aside 
from  these  major  articles  Wilkinson  made  steel 
pins  and  needles,  and  it  is  said  that  his  wife  pur- 
chased a  spinning  wheel  for  three  darning  nee- 
dles of  her  husband's  manufacture. 

Though  busy  with  his  iron  work,  Wilkinson 
found  time  to  carry  on  extensive  farming  and 
fruit-growing,  in  connection  with  which  he  also 
employed  his  inventive  skill.  For  the  produc- 
tion of  corn  syrup  he  devised  a  mill  to  grind 
the  cornstalks,  and  then  pressed  them  in  a  com- 
mon cider  mill.  He  spent  the  whole  of  his  long 
life  in  Cumberland  and  was  twice  married :  first, 
to  Hopie  Mosier  (or  Mosher),  by  whom  he  had 
five  children ;  second,  to  Elizabeth  Southwick 
who  had  six  children.  Jemima  Wilkinson  [q.v.~\ 
was  his  sister. 

[Israel  Wilkinson,  Memoirs  of  the  Wilkinson  Fam- 
ily in  America  (1869)  ;  Trans,  of  the  R.  I.  Soc.  for  the 
Encouragement  of  Domestic  Industry,  1861  (1862); 
Pawtucket  Chronicle,  Feb.  4,  1831.]  C.  W.  M. 

WILKINSON,  JOHN  (Nov.  6, 1821-Dec.  29, 
1891),  Confederate  naval  officer,  was  born  in 


22 


Norfolk,  Va.,  the  eldest  son  of  Jesse  Wilkin- 
son, a  commodore  in  the  United  States  Navy. 
Through  the  influence  of  John  Y.  Mason,  young 
Wilkinson  became  a  midshipman,  Dec.  13,  1837. 
He  was  ordered  to  the  South  Atlantic  aboard 
the  Independence.  Immediately  after  his  return 
to  the  home  station  in  1840  he  was  assigned  to 
the  sloop  Boston  for  a  two-year  cruise  in  the 
East  Indies.  After  a  brief  assignment  to  school 
at  Philadelphia  he  was  warranted  a  passed  mid- 
shipman, June  29,  1843.  A  long  cruise  to  the 
Pacific  aboard  the  Portsmouth,  followed  by  a  pe- 
riod of  illness,  deprived  him  of  any  active  duty 
on  the  Gulf  during  the  Mexican  War.  He  was 
promoted  lieutenant,  Nov.  5,  1850.  Thereafter 
until  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War  practically 
all  of  his  service  was  ashore  or  with  the  home 
squadron.  In  the  light  of  his  subsequent  block- 
ade-running duties  for  the  Confederacy,  particu- 
larly fortunate  was  his  assignment  from  June  25, 
1859,  to  Apr.  6,  1861,  to  command  the  survey 
steamer  Corzvin,  collecting  data  for  charts  of 
waters  on  the  Florida  coast  and  including  the 
Bahamas.  On  Apr.  6,  he  tendered  his  resigna- 
tion to  enter  the  Confederacy.  In  his  Narrative 
of  a  Blockade-Runner  (1877,  p,  81)  he  wrote 
of  the  United  States  Navy  "that  gallant  Navy 
to  which  it  is  an  honor  ever  to  have  belonged. 
We,  who  so  reluctantly  severed  our  connection 
with  it,  still  feel  a  pride  in  its  achievements." 

Through  the  first  year  of  the  Civil  War  he 
saw  shore  battery  duty  in  Virginia.  He  was  or- 
dered to  the  immobile  and  incomplete  ironclad 
Louisiana  and,  when  her  capture  became  certain, 
Apr.  28,  1862,  by  virtue  of  the  surrender  of  the 
forts,  Jackson  and  St.  Philip,  and  the  fall  of  New 
Orleans,  he,  as  ranking  officer  present,  ordered 
her  destruction.  With  the  garrisons  of  these 
forts  he  was  captured  but  was  exchanged  Aug. 
5,  1862.  Special  duty,  1862-63,  carried  him  to 
England  to  purchase  and  command  the  blockade 
runner  Giraffe,  which  he  later  rechristened  the 
Robert  E.  Lee.  Under  his  command  she  was 
phenomenally  successful,  over  the  Nassau  to 
Wilmington,  N.  C,  route,  in  getting  through  the 
blockaders.  Indeed,  some  of  Wilkinson's  orig- 
inal ruses  for  baffling  the  federal  cruisers  were 
widely  imitated  by  other  blockade  runners.  On 
Oct.  16,  1863,  he  carried  a  party  of  daring  naval 
adventurers  to  Halifax.  There  he  relinquished 
command  of  the  Lee  to  assume  the  leadership  of 
these  adventurers,  whose  objective  was  to  cap- 
ture a  northern  owned  lake  steamer,  arm  her, 
capture  the  military  prison  on  Johnson's  Island 
in  Lake  Erie,  and  release  therefrom  into  Canada 
thousands  of  Confederate  prisoners.  Federal 
espionage  and  Canadian  neutrality  combined  to 

8 


Wilkinson 

foil  the  scheme.  Back  in  the  Confederacy  he  took 
command  of  the  armed  blockade  runner  Chicka- 
mauga.  She  got  to  sea,  Oct.  29,  1864,  and  within 
the  next  week  raided  to  within  sight  of  Mon- 
tauk  Point,  scuttling,  burning,  or  bonding  seven 
prizes.  He  ended  his  services  for  the  Confed- 
eracy as  lieutenant  in  command  of  the  blockade 
runner  Chameleon. 

He  was  a  sturdily  built  man,  with  a  full  open 
countenance  and  a  bushy  moustache,  and  hair 
which  was  heavy  and  curly,  well  down  over  his 
ears  and  to  his  coat  collar.  Though  an  omnivo- 
rous reader,  Cooper  seems  to  have  been  the  only 
American  author  that  he  considered  worth  while. 
Cicero,  Virgil,  and  Cato,  from  whom  he  fre- 
quently drew  many  pertinent  Latin  quotations, 
were  his  favorites.  For  some  years  after  the 
war  he  was  a  business  man  in  Nova  Scotia.  After 
the  general  amnesty  he  returned  to  the  old  fam- 
ily homestead  in  Amelia  County,  Va.,  and  died 
at  Annapolis,  Md.    He  never  married. 

[Personnel  records,  Naval  Records  Office,  Washing- 
ton, D.  C. ;  War  of  the  Rebellion :  Official  Records 
{Army),  esp.  1  ser.  vols.  Ill,  XI,  XVIII,  2  ser.,  vol.  II ; 
own  Narrative,  ante;  J.  T.  Scharf,  Hist,  of  the  Con- 
federate States  Navy  (1887)  ;  Army  and  Navy  Journal, 
Jan.  2,  1892.]  J.  D.H. 

WILKINSON,  ROBERT  SHAW  (Feb.  18, 
1865-Mar.  13,  1932),  negro  educator,  was  born 
in  Charleston,  S.  C,  just  before  the  54th  Massa- 
chusetts Regiment  entered  that  city,  and  was 
named  by  his  enthusiastic  parents  for  Robert 
Gould  Shaw,  the  deceased  commander  of  that 
famous  negro  organization.  His  parents,  Charles 
H.  and  Lavinia  (Brown)  Wilkinson,  were  "free 
persons  of  color" ;  at  the  time  of  his  birth  his 
father  kept  a  butcher  shop ;  later  he  became  jani- 
tor of  the  Porter  Military  Academy  and  of  the 
Church  of  the  Holy  Communion.  Encouraged 
by  his  father  and  the  rector  of  the  church,  Rev. 
A.  T.  Porter,  young  Wilkinson  received  his  early 
education  at  the  Shaw  Memorial  School  and 
Avery  Institute,  and  in  1883  went  to  Beaufort, 
S.  C,  to  prepare  for  entrance  into  West  Point. 
He  was  appointed  to  that  institution  by  Edmund 
W.  M.  Mackey,  a  white  Republican  congress- 
man, and  is  said  to  have  passed  the  entrance  ex- 
aminations but  to  have  been  denied  admission 
because  of  physical  disabilities.  In  1884  he  en- 
tered the  preparatory  department  of  Oberlin  Col- 
lege and  graduated  from  the  college  with  the  de- 
gree of  A.B.  in  1891.  He  had  supported  himself 
meanwhile  by  doing  odd  jobs  in  the  afternoons 
and  by  acting  as  a  writer  on  a  negro  newspaper 
and  as  a  Pullman  porter  during  vacations. 

Giving  up  an  ambition  to  become  a  lawyer  be- 
cause of  pecuniary  difficulties,  in  1891  he  became 
professor  of  Greek  and  Latin  in  the  State  Uni- 


Wilkinson 

versity,  Louisville,  Ky.,  a  negro  institution, 
where  he  served  until  1896.  In  that  year  he  was 
called  to  the  professorship  of  science  in  the  State 
Agricultural  and  Mechanical  College,  a  negro 
institution  at  Orangeburg,  S.  C.  On  June  29  of 
the  following  year  he  acquired  an  able  assistant 
in  his  endeavors  when  he  married  Marion  Ra- 
ven Birnie,  the  daughter  of  Richard  Birnie,  a 
Charleston  cotton  sampler.  His  success  as  a 
teacher  was  so  marked  that  ambitious  white 
youths  came  into  his  laboratory  at  night  to  watch 
his  experiments.  Having  previously  taken  an 
active  part  in  the  administration  of  the  Orange- 
burg institution,  he  was  elected  to  its  presidency 
in  191 1  and  served  brilliantly  in  that  capacity 
until  his  death  twenty-one  years  later.  When  he 
took  office,  the  school  was  a  neglected  academy 
of  592  students,  which  received  an  annual  legis- 
lative appropriation  of  only  five  thousand  dol- 
lars and  in  no  instance  maintained  a  level  of  in- 
struction above  that  of  the  high  school ;  before 
his  death  the  institution  was  a  college  of  1,691 
students  which  received  an  annual  legislative 
appropriation  of  $126,000  and  in  no  instance 
maintained  a  level  of  instruction  below  that  of 
the  high  school.  Moreover,  the  morale  of  the 
college  had  been  greatly  improved  by  Wilkin- 
son's encouragement  of  advanced  study  by  mem- 
bers of  the  faculty  and  by  his  emphasis  on  a  bal- 
anced compromise  between  industrial  and  liter- 
ary instruction. 

He  was  a  patient  and  urbane  little  man,  always 
immaculately  dressed,  whose  mind  was  fertile  in 
practical  suggestions  for  the  uplift  of  his  race 
and  keenly  alive  to  all  possible  sources  of  revenue 
for  negro  education.  He  won  the  admiration  and 
support  of  the  white  officials  and  legislators  who 
controlled  the  educational  destinies  of  South 
Carolina  by  eschewing  politics  and  accepting  the 
racial  conventions  of  the  state,  without,  however, 
groveling  before  those  of  whom  he  asked  favors. 
The  intelligent  were  won  with  arguments ;  the 
indifferent  or  ignorant  by  petty  gifts.  A  devout 
Episcopalian,  Wilkinson  was  a  lay  reader  and 
the  most  active  colored  layman  of  his  Church  in 
South  Carolina.  In  his  extensive  travels  he  car- 
ried the  gospel  of  social  and  economic  progress 
into  the  humblest  negro  homes.  He  was  active 
in  many  negro  business  and  fraternal  undertak- 
ings, serving  as  president  of  the  state  Business 
League  and  as  the  very  efficient  treasurer  of  the 
state  negro  organization  of  the  Knights  of  Pyth- 
ias. He  educated  his  four  children  in  Northern 
colleges  and  left  his  wife  a  substantial  compe- 
tence. When  he  died  he  enjoyed  the  esteem  of 
all  South  Carolinians  of  both  races  who  were 
acquainted  with  his  work. 


229 


Will 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1928-29;  Who's  Who  in 
Colored  America,  1927;  The  Collegian,  State  Agri- 
cultural and  Mechanical  Coll.,  Orangeburg,  S.  C,  May 
1932;  A  Birthday  Appreciation:  The  Class  of  '932 
Presents  Scenes  from  the  Life  of  Robert  Shaw  Wil- 
kinson, Feb.  18,  1932  (1932);  News  and  Courier 
(Charleston),  Mar.  14,  1932  ;  information  from  Marion 
Birnie  Wilkinson  and  Helen  Wilkinson  Sheffield  of 
Orangeburg,  S.  C,  Wilkinson's  wife  and  daughter.] 

F.B.S. 

WILL,  ALLEN  SINCLAIR  (July  28,  1868- 
Mar.  10,  1934),  journalist,  biographer,  and  edu- 
cator, was  born  at  Antioch,  Va.,  the  son  of  Wil- 
liam R.  and  Mildred  Florence  (Sinclair)  Will. 
He  received  his  early  education  in  Baltimore,  at- 
tended St.  John's  College,  Annapolis,  Md.,  for 
several  years,  and  then  became  principal  of  a 
public  school  in  Virginia.  Later  he  taught  in  a 
private  classical  school  in  Baltimore.  He  en- 
tered newspaper  work  in  1888  as  a  reporter  for 
the  Baltimore  Morning  Herald.  The  following 
year  he  joined  the  Baltimore  Sun,  which  he 
served  as  assistant  city  editor  (1893-96),  tele- 
graph editor  (1896-1905),  and  city  editor 
(1905-12).  Leaving  the  Sun  in  1912,  he  was 
successively  associate  editor  and  editorial  writer 
of  the  Baltimore  News  (1912-14)  and  news  ed- 
itor of  the  Philadelphia  Public  Ledger  ( 1914- 
16).  From  1917  to  1924  he  wrote  special  arti- 
cles for  the  New  York  Times  and  was  assistant 
editor.  From  1923  until  the  time  of  his  death  he 
wrote  book  reviews  for  the  Times  as  an  author- 
ity on  American  colonial  history  and  historical 
biography.  He  returned  to  teaching  in  1920 
when  he  was  invited  to  join  the  staff  of  the  Pulit- 
zer School  of  Journalism  at  Columbia  Univer- 
sity (associate  professor,  1924;  professor,  1925). 
He  conducted  courses  in  news  writing  and  book 
reviewing.  In  1925  he  joined  the  staff  of  Rut- 
gers University  in  order  to  organize  a  depart- 
ment of  journalism  there.  He  was  made  direc- 
tor of  the  department  in  1926  and  remained  in 
charge  until  his  death.  Realizing  that  the  suc- 
cess of  the  school  depended  upon  close  coopera- 
tion with  newspapers,  he  effected  an  agreement 
between  his  department  and  the  New  Jersey 
Press  Association  whereby  many  students  were 
absorbed  by  newspapers  soon  after  their  gradu- 
ation, and  he  became  known  as  the  only  man  in 
journalism  with  a  waiting  list  for  young  report- 
ers. He  described  the  operation  of  that  agree- 
ment and  urged  its  more  widespread  application 
in  a  book  which  expressed  the  preoccupation  of 
his  later  years,  Education  for  Newspaper  Life 

(I93i). 

His  most  notable  literary  achievement  was  his 
Life  of  Cardinal  Gibbons,  Archbishop  of  Balti- 
more (2  vols.,  1922).  His  friendship  with  Gib- 
bons (who  chose  Will,  a  Protestant,  as  his  biog- 
rapher) dated  back  to  the  time  when  he  was  a 


Willard 

young  reporter  on  the  Sun.  For  more  than  a 
year  they  spent  a  part  of  each  day  in  companion- 
able chat  together ;  Will  thus  obtained  a  clear  in- 
sight into  the  character  of  the  Cardinal  as  a 
man,  a  churchman,  and  a  political  power.  His 
other  books  were  World-Crisis  in  China  (1900) 
and  Our  City,  State  and  Nation  (1913).  He  was 
a  contributor  to  the  Dictionary  of  American  Bi- 
ography, and  wrote  several  monographs  on  civ- 
ics, American  history,  biography,  and  journal- 
ism. Those  who  attacked  modern  journalism  in 
books  and  on  the  public  platform  had  to  meet 
Will's  vigorous  defense.  He  said  that  the  arti- 
cles in  one  of  the  New  York  dailies  were  the  best 
examples  of  the  world's  journalism,  "complete, 
accurate  and  skillfully  expressed,  the  product  of 
trained  observation  and  orderly  thinking"  (  Yale 
Daily  Nezvs,  Jan.  6,  1926).  He  was  a  strict 
grammarian,  however,  and  deplored  widespread 
imitation  of  New  York  slang ;  crudities  of  speech 
annoyed  him,  and  he  zealously  guarded  standards 
of  correct  English  on  many  copy  desks.  He  was 
scholarly  and  distinguished  in  appearance,  bely- 
ing the  popular  picture  of  a  newspaperman.  He 
was  tall,  with  grey  hair  and  twinkling  eyes, 
ruddy-faced  and  immaculate  in  appearance. 
There  is  a  portrait  of  him  at  Rutgers.  On  Feb. 
17,  1891,  he  was  married  to  Allie  Stuart  Walter 
of  Linden,  Va.  (d.  1908).  He  died  in  New  York 
City,  survived  by  two  daughters. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1932-33  ;  Marlen  Pew, 
"Shop  Talk  at  Thirty,"  Editor  and  Publisher,  Mar.  17, 
1934;  obituary,  Ibid.,  and  in  AT.  Y.  Times,  Mar.  11, 
1934;  newspaper  clippings  and  letters  in  Columbia 
School  of  Journalism;  personal  reminiscences  of  Prof. 
C.  P.  Cooper  ;  letters  and  papers  in  the  possession  of 
Mrs.  H.  S.  Willis,  Will's  daughter,  Linden,  Va.] 

L.K. 

WILLARD,  DE  FOREST  (Mar.  23,  1846- 
Oct.  14,  1910),  physician,  pioneer  in  orthopedic 
surgery,  was  born  at  Newington,  Conn.,  the  son 
of  Daniel  Horatio  and  Sarah  Maria  (Deming) 
Willard,  and  a  descendant  of  Simon  Willard, 
1605-1676  [q.v.].  In  early  childhood  he  had  an 
attack  of  illness  which  required  tenotomy  in 
later  life,  leaving  him  permanently  lame.  He 
was  graduated  from  the  Hartford  High  School 
in  1863  and  at  once  entered  Yale  College.  After 
a  few  months  he  was  forced  to  withdraw  be- 
cause of  a  defect  of  his  eyes,  but  in  the  fall  of 
1863  he  went  to  Philadelphia  and  entered  the 
Jefferson  Medical  College,  where  he  studied  un- 
der Joseph  Pancoast  and  Samuel  D.  Gross 
[qq.v.~\.  In  1864  he  matriculated  at  the  Univer- 
sity of  Pennsylvania,  where  he  was  graduated 
in  1867.  His  studies  were  interrupted  by  service 
with  the  United  States  Sanitary  Commission 
during  the  last  year  of  the  Civil  War  and  by  a 
severe  attack  of  typhoid  fever. 


230 


Willard 

After  graduation  he  spent  fifteen  months  in 
the  Philadelphia  Hospital  as  resident  physician 
and  then  began  private  practice.  He  also  served 
on  the  faculty  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania 
as  assistant  demonstrator  of  anatomy  ( 1867- 
70),  assistant  demonstrator  of  surgery  (1870- 
yy),  lecturer  on  orthopedic  surgery  (1877-89), 
clinical  professor  of  orthopedic  surgery  (1889- 
1903),  and  professor  of  orthopedic  surgery 
(1903-10).  One  of  the  early  leaders  in  the 
field,  Willard  organized  the  department  of  or- 
thopedic surgery  at  Pennsylvania  and  was  ac- 
tive in  establishing  the  Agnew  ward  for  crip- 
pled children  at  the  university  hospital.  He  ad- 
vised Peter  A.  B.  Widener  [q.i'.]  in  planning  the 
Widener  Memorial  Industrial  Training  School 
for  Crippled  Children  and  served  as  surgeon-in- 
chief  of  the  institution.  He  also  acted  as  gen- 
eral surgeon  at  the  Presbyterian  Hospital  for 
twenty-five  years  and  was  consulting  surgeon  at 
many  hospitals  in  the  vicinity  of  Philadelphia. 

In  spite  of  his  many  activities,  he  found  time 
to  write  extensively  and  contributed  over  three 
hundred  articles  to  professional  journals.  He 
was  author  of  one  book,  Surgery  of  Child- 
hood, Including  Orthopaedic  Surgery  (copyright 
1910),  and  joint  author  with  L.  H.  Adler  of 
Artificial  Anaesthesia  and  Anaesthetics  (1891). 
He  was  an  active  member  in  medical  organiza- 
tions and  served  as  president  of  the  American 
Surgical  Association  (1901-02),  the  Philadel- 
phia Academy  of  Surgery  (1902),  the  American 
Orthopaedic  Association  (1890),  the  Philadel- 
phia County  Medical  Association  (1892-93), 
and  as  chairman  of  the  Surgery  Section  of  the 
American  Medical  Association  in  1902.  He  was 
a  delegate  to  national  and  international  conven- 
tions. He  gave  a  great  deal  of  his  time  to  re- 
ligious and  charitable  work ;  he  was  an  elder  and 
trustee  of  the  Second  Presbyterian  Church  in 
Philadelphia  and  founded  the  Midnight  Mission 
for  women.  His  ability  and  tremendous  capacity 
for  hard  work  were  tested  in  1877  when  the  sud- 
den death  of  a  brother  left  him  the  additional  re- 
sponsibilities of  rearing  five  small  children  and 
managing  the  Union  Steam  Forge  at  Borden- 
town,  N.  J.  On  Sept.  13,  1881,  he  was  married 
to  Elizabeth  Michler  Porter,  the  daughter  of 
William  A.  Porter.  They  had  two  children,  De 
Forest  Porter  Willard,  who  became  a  surgeon, 
and  a  daughter,  who  died  on  the  day  of  her  birth. 
Willard  died  of  multiple  neuritis  and  pneumonia 
at  his  home  in  Lansdowne,  Pa.  At  his  death,  the 
list  of  his  activities  in  connection  with  various 
professional,  charitable,  and  educational  organi- 
zations filled  two-thirds  of  a  column  in  a  news- 
paper. 


Willard 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1910-11  ;  Willard  Gencal. 
(1915),  ed.  by  C.  H.  Pope;  Am.  Medic.  Biogs.  (1920), 
ed.  by  H.  A.  Kelly  and  W.  L.  Burrage  ;  Encyc.  of  Pa. 
Biog.,  vol.  IX  (1918),  ed.  by  J.  W.  Jordan  ;  Jour.  Am. 
Medic.  Asso.,  Oct.  22,  1910  ;  Trans.  Am.  Surgical  Asso., 
vol.  XXIX  (191 1 )  ;  Evening  Bull.  (Philadelphia),  Oct. 
IS,   1910.]  F.  E.  W— s. 

WILLARD,  EMMA  HART  (Feb.  23,  1787- 
Apr.  15,  1870),  educator,  was  born  in  Berlin, 
Conn.,  the  ninth  child  of  Capt.  Samuel  and  Lydia 
(Hinsdale)  Hart.  Her  father  represented  Ber- 
lin in  the  General  Assembly  and  held  other  civil 
offices.  Brought  up  in  a  large  family  in  a  rural 
community,  she  was  trained  to  do  her  share  of 
the  household  tasks.  Because  the  best  books 
available  were  read  aloud  at  the  Hart  fireside, 
and  politics,  current  events,  and  religious  and 
moral  principles  were  freely  discussed,  even  as 
a  child  she  took  an  interest  in  world  affairs  and 
learned  to  do  her  own  thinking.  She  attended 
the  district  school  and  Berlin  Academy.  For 
several  years  she  taught  in  Berlin  but  managed 
to  alternate  with  this  work  several  months  of 
study  at  the  schools  of  the  Misses  Patten  and 
Mrs.  Royse  at  Hartford.  Her  first  teaching  ex- 
perience outside  of  her  native  town  was  at  West- 
field,  Mass.  From  there  in  1807  she  went  to 
Middlebury,  Vt.,  to  take  full  charge  of  the  Fe- 
male Academy,  and  was  unusually  successful. 
She  gave  up  this  position  in  1809  to  become,  on 
Aug.  10,  the  third  wife  of  John  Willard,  descend- 
ant of  Simon  Willard  \_q.v.~\,  and  one  of  Middle- 
bury's  leading  citizens,  a  physician  and  politi- 
cian. Her  only  child,  John  Hart  Willard,  was 
born  in  1810. 

Dr.  Willard's  nephew,  a  student  at  Middle- 
bury  College,  made  his  home-  with  them. 
Through  him  she  became  familiar  with  the 
course  of  study  at  men's  colleges  and  realized 
as  never  before  the  educational  opportunities  of 
which  women  were  deprived.  She  studied  his 
textbooks,  first  geometry,  then  Paley's  Mortl 
Philosophy  and  Locke's  Essay  Concerning  Moral 
Understanding.  When  in  1814  her  husband  suf- 
fered financial  reverses,  she  opened  in  her  own 
home  a  school  for  young  ladies,  the  Middlebury 
Female  Seminary.  At  this  time  there  were  no 
high  schools  for  girls,  and  no  college  in  the 
world  admitted  women.  Boarding  schools,  which 
only  daughters  of  the  well-to-do  were  able  to  at- 
tend, taught  the  mere  rudiments  and  stressed  the 
accomplishments,  such  as  painting,  embroidery, 
French,  singing,  playing  on  the  harpsichord, 
and  making  wax  or  shell  ornaments.  Mrs.  Wil- 
lard proved  to  her  entire  satisfaction  that  young 
ladies  were  able  to  master  such  subjects  as  math- 
ematics and  philosophy  and  not  lose  their  health, 
refinement,  or  charm.  In  1818  she  sent  to  Gov. 


231 


Willard 

DeWitt  Clinton  of  New  York  An  Address  to 
the  Public;  Particularly  to  the  Members  of  the 
Legislature  of  Nezv  York,  Proposing  a  Plan  for 
Improving  Female  Education,  published  the  fol- 
lowing year.  In  this  lengthy,  well-thought-out 
document,  she  appealed  for  state  aid  in  founding 
schools  for  girls,  asked  that  women  be  given  the 
same  educational  advantages  as  men,  and  showed 
of  what  benefit  to  the  state  well-educated  women 
would  be.  She  also  outlined  a  course  of  study, 
ambitious  for  that  period.  As  Governor  Clinton 
and  several  legislators  were  sympathetic,  her 
plan  was  presented  to  the  legislature  in  1819  and 
she  went  to  Albany  with  her  husband  to  plead 
personally  for  it.  A  few  recognized  the  justice 
and  wisdom  of  her  recommendations,  but  the 
majority  ridiculed  and  bitterly  attacked  what 
they  considered  interference  with  God's  will  for 
women. 

Mrs.  Willard  then  moved  to  Waterford,  N.  Y., 
and  established  Waterford  Academy,  chartered 
by  the  New  York  legislature  in  1819.  She 
hoped  for  state  aid,  but  no  funds  were  appropri- 
ated. Just  as  she  was  in  despair  over  the  future 
of  her  school,  the  citizens  of  Troy,  N.  Y.,  offered 
to  provide  a  building  for  the  Seminary.  In  1821, 
sixteen  years  before  Mary  Lyon  founded  her 
seminary  at  Mount  Holyoke,  Emma  Willard's 
Troy  Female  Seminary  received  its  first  pupils ; 
and  it  grew  in  popularity  and  influence  so  that 
she  was  able  to  accomplish  without  state  aid 
what  a  few  years  before  seemed  impossible.  She 
steadily  continued  her  policy  of  adding  higher 
subjects  to  the  curriculum,  placing  special  em- 
phasis on  mathematics,  which  she  felt  women 
needed  to  train  their  minds.  History,  philosophy, 
and  one  science  after  another  were  introduced, 
and  since  she  could  not  at  first  afford  to  employ 
professors  to  teach  these  subjects,  she  studied 
them  and  then  taught  them  herself.  She  evolved 
new  methods  of  teaching  geography  and  history 
and  published  geography  and  history  textbooks 
which  won  immediate  recognition  and  were 
widely  used.  Among  these  were  "Ancient  Geog- 
raphy," published  as  a  section  of  A  System  of 
Universal  Geography  (1824)  by  William  C. 
Woodbridge  [q.v.~],  History  of  the  United  States, 
or  Republic  of  America  (1828),  and  A  System 
of  Universal  History  in  Perspective  (1835). 
She  also  published  a  volume  of  poetry,  The  Ful- 
filment of  a  Promise  (1831).  In  general  her 
poems  are  mediocre,  the  only  one  which  is  well 
known  being  "Rocked  in  the  Cradle  of  the  Deep." 
Hundreds  of  teachers  were  trained  by  her,  many 
of  them  gratuitously,  and  sent  into  the  South 
and  West  where  they  carried  the  message  of 
woman's  education.    She  persuaded  her  pupils 


Willard 

that  they  owed  it  to  their  country  to  become 
teachers  for  at  least  a  few  years.  In  this  way 
she  enabled  many  poor  girls  to  be  self-supporting 
and  led  many  wealthy  girls  into  a  life  of  useful- 
ness. Outstanding  events  in  her  school  life  were 
her  trip  to  Europe  in  1830,  her  friendship  with 
Lafayette,  her  enthusiastic  help  in  founding  a 
training  school  for  teachers  in  liberated  Greece, 
in  connection  with  which  she  wrote  Advance- 
ment of  Female  Education;  or  A  Scries  of  Ad- 
dresses, in  Favor  of  Establishing  at  Athens,  in 
Greece,  a  Female  Seminary  (1833).  That  same 
year  she  published,  also,  Journal  and  Letters, 
from  France  and  Great  Britain.  She  was  regal 
in  appearance — a  beautiful  woman  with  classic 
features,  gowned  always  in  rich  black  silk  or 
satin  with  a  white  mull  turban  on  her  head. 
Kindly  and  understanding,  she  won  her  pupils 
affection  at  once. 

In  1838  she  retired  from  the  active  manage- 
ment of  the  Troy  Female  Seminary,  leaving  it 
in  charge  of  her  son  and  his  wife.  Dr.  Willard 
had  died  in  1825,  and  on  Sept.  17,  1838,  she  mar- 
ried Dr.  Christopher  Yates.  The  marriage  was 
unhappy  from  the  first,  and  she  left  him  within 
a  year.  In  1843  she  was  divorced  by  act  of  the 
Connecticut  legislature.  From  1838  on  her  in- 
terest was  primarily  in  the  improvement  of  the 
common  schools.  She  worked  with  Henry  Bar- 
nard in  Connecticut,  helping  to  make  the  schools 
there  models  for  other  states  to  follow.  She 
traveled  widely  through  the  state  of  New  York, 
holding  teachers'  institutes,  and  in  a  long  tour 
through  the  South  and  West,  by  stage,  canal 
boat,  and  packet,  did  much  to  arouse  interest  in 
education  and  to  impress  women  with  the  part 
they  must  play  in  this  great  movement.  Her 
plea  was  always  for  more  women  as  teachers, 
for  higher  salaries,  and  better  schoolhouses. 
Among  her  later  publications  were  A  Treatise  on 
the  Motive  Powers  which  Produce  the  Circula- 
tion of  the  Blood  (1846),  Guide  to  the  Temple 
of  Time;  and  Universal  History  for  Schools 
(1849);  Last  Leaves  of  American  History 
(1849)  ;  Astronography;  or  Astronomical  Geog- 
raphy (1854);  and  Late  American  History 
(1856). 

Emma  Willard  was  one  of  the  great  educators 
of  her  day.  She  was  the  first  woman  publicly  to 
take  her  stand  for  the  higher  education  of  women 
and  the  first  to  make  definite  experiments  to 
prove  that  women  were  capable  of  comprehend- 
ing higher  subjects.  Her  Troy  Female  .Sem- 
inary was  looked  upon  as  a  model  both  in  the 
United  States  and  in  Europe.  It  is  now  known 
as  the  Emma  Willard  School.  Because  of  the 
change  in  public  opinion,  which  her  daring,  de- 


232 


Willard 

termined  stand  did  much  to  effect,  seminaries 
and  high  schools  for  girls,  and  later  women's 
colleges  and  coeducational  universities,  became 
a  permanent  part  of  American  life. 

[John  Lord,  The  Life  of  Emma  Willard  (1873)  ;  A. 
W.  Fairbanks,  Emma  Willard  and  Her  Pupils  (1898)  ; 
Alma  Lutz,  Emma  Willard,  Daughter  of  Democracy 
(  1929)  ;  Thomas  Woody,  A  Hist,  of  Women's  Educa- 
tion in  the  U.  S.  (1929)  ;  Willystine  Goodsell,  Pioneers 
of  Woman's  Education  in  the  U.  S.  (1931)  ;  Troy  Daily 
Times,  Apr.  16,  1870;  unpublished  letters  and  cata- 
logues at  the  Emma  Willard  School,  Troy,  N.  Y. ;  un- 
published letters  in  possession  of  the  Conn.  Hist.  Soc, 
N.  Y.  Hist.  Soc,  Pa.  Hist.  Soc,  and  the  Lib.  of  Cong.] 

A.L. 

WILLARD,  FRANCES  ELIZABETH 
CAROLINE  (Sept.  28,  1839-Feb.  18,  1898), 
reformer,  known  in  public  life  as  Frances  E. 
Willard  and  to  her  friends  as  "Frank,"  was  born 
at  Churchville,  N.  Y.,  the  daughter  of  Josiah 
Flint  and  Mary  Thompson  (Hill)  Willard,  and 
a  descendant  of  Simon  Willard  \_q.vJ],  one  of 
the  founders  of  Concord,  Mass.  Her  parents 
came  from  Vermont.  They  were  teachers  when 
they  met  and  married,  and  they  entered  college 
after  they  were  the  parents  of  children.  Educa- 
tion, next  to  religion,  played  the  most  important 
part  in  their  ideals  of  life.  During  Frances' 
childhood  they  twice  journeyed  westward.  Their 
first  move  brought  them  to  Oberlin,  Ohio,  where 
they  attended  college ;  the  second,  to  Wisconsin, 
where  they  built  a  homestead  in  the  wilderness. 
Here  Frances  Willard  lived  until  her  eighteenth 
year. 

As  a  girl  she  disliked  housework  and  pre- 
ferred the  out-door  occupations  of  her  older 
brother.  She  liked  to  hunt  and  was  a  good  shot. 
The  loneliness  of  pioneer  life  was  a  girlhood 
grievance  and  she  especially  resented  the  fact 
that  her  father  would  not  allow  her  and  her 
younger  sister  to  ride  horseback,  thus  condemn- 
ing them  all  the  more  to  solitude.  Frances' 
mother  probably  shared  her  feelings,  for  when 
asked  years  afterwards  for  a  word  of  advice  to 
pioneer  women,  she  answered  without  hesitation, 
"I  should  say  pack  up  your  duds  and  go  where 
folks  live"  (Strachey,  post,  p.  8).  Frances  was 
taught  by  her  mother  and  early  became  an  om- 
nivorous reader.  The  family  library  consisted 
of  the  Bible,  Pilgrim's  Progress,  Shakespeare, 
and  odd  volumes  of  travel  and  biography ;  but 
weekly  journals,  magazines,  and  paper-bound 
fiction  penetrated  by  a  miraculous  mail  to  the 
remotest  districts,  and  Frances  read  this  litera- 
ture also.  True  to  her  out-of-doors  temperament, 
she  reveled  in  adventure  stories ;  pirate  tales  and 
wild  west  thrillers  formed  the  chief  excitement 
of  her  girlhood.  In  her  teens  she  turned  to 
novel  reading,  a  habit  which  led  in  time  to  a  con- 


Willard 

flict  between  herself  and  her  dogmatic  father. 
The  climax  came  when  Frances,  on  her  eigh- 
teenth birthday,  seated  herself  with  a  copy  of 
Ivanhoe  in  her  hand  and  waited  for  her  father's 
reprimand  to  follow.  When  it  did,  she  replied, 
"You  forget  what  day  it  is.  ...  I  am  eighteen — 
I  am  of  age — and  I  am  now  to  do  what  /  think 
right."  Her  father  found  no  reply  to  this  dec- 
laration and  Frances  felt  that  she  had  won  a 
great  victory  (Glimpses  of  Fifty  Years,  post, 
p.  72). 

At  seventeen,  she  was  sent  to  the  Milwaukee 
Female  College,  founded  by  Catharine  Beecher ; 
the  next  year  she  went  to  the  Northwestern  Fe- 
male College  in  Evanston,  111.,  from  which  she 
graduated  in  1859.  She  was  a  good  student  and 
valedictorian  of  her  class.  Her  interest  in  sci- 
ence was  thought  to  have  militated  against  her 
religious  faith,  since  she  experienced  conver- 
sion only  after  an  extreme  conflict.  She  fell  ill 
of  typhoid  fever  and  in  the  crisis,  fearing  that 
she  might  die,  she  made  the  following  pledge  to 
herself :  "If  God  lets  me  get  well  I'll  try  to  be  a 
Christian  girl"  (Gordon,  post,  p.  51).  Regard- 
ing the  pledge  as  her  conversion,  she  later  joined 
the  Methodist  Church,  and  was  apparently  dis- 
turbed by  no  further  religious  doubts.  After 
leaving  college  she  continued  her  education.  She 
set  herself  a  stiff  course  of  reading  and  study 
and  devoted  a  strenuous  year  to  self-improve- 
ment. When  Frances  and  her  younger  sister 
went  to  Evanston,  their  mother  persuaded  her 
husband  to  follow  them  thither,  where  he  found 
employment  in  a  Chicago  bank.  By  this  removal, 
Evanston  became  Frances'  permanent  home. 

To  an  extent  difficult  to  estimate  the  young 
women  of  her  generation  were  influenced  by  the 
lives  and  writings  of  Charlotte  Bronte  and  Mar- 
garet Fuller  [qr.T'.J,  and  Frances  was  one  who 
responded  passionately  to  their  ideal  of  inde- 
pendence for  women.  A  brief  engagement  to  be 
married  distracted  her  for  a  time  but,  her  en- 
gagement broken,  she  returned  to  this  ideal  with 
redoubled  zeal.  In  i860,  she  took  her  first  posi- 
tion as  a  teacher  in  a  country  school  near  Evans- 
ton.. Several  other  local  schools  employed  her : 
in  1863-64  she  taught  at  Pittsburgh  Female 
College  and  in  1866-67  at  Genesee  Wesleyan 
Seminary,  Lima,  N.  Y.  At  a  somewhat  later 
period  of  her  life  (1871-74)  she  was  president 
of  the  Evanston  College  for  Ladies.  Spurred  on 
by  literary  ambitions,  she  wrote  articles  for 
weekly  papers  and  magazines.  Her  first  bonk. 
Nineteen  Beautiful  Years  (1864) — a  life  of  her 
younger  sister  who  had  died — was  published 
when  Frances  was  twenty-five. 

In  1868  she  went  to  Europe  with  a  friend  and 


233 


Willard 


Willard 


traveled  for  two  years.  On  her  return  she  was 
asked  to  talk  about  her  experiences  and  presently 
found  herself  delivering  from  the  pulpit  of  a  large 
church  her  first  paid  public  lecture.  This  ven- 
ture initiated  her  career  as  a  public  speaker. 
With  her  Puritan  background,  it  was  natural 
that  she  should  join  the  temperance  crusade 
which  swept  the  country  in  1874.  In  that  year 
bands  of  women  appeared  everywhere — on  the 
streets  and  in  the  saloons — singing  and  praying 
against  the  sin  of  the  liquor  traffic.  Frances 
Willard  joined  one  of  these  bands  in  Pittsburgh 
and  delivered  her  first  prayer  in  public  kneeling 
on  the  sawdust  floor  of  a  Market  Street  saloon. 
The  next  week  she  became  president  of  the  Chi- 
cago Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union. 
From  this  office  she  advanced  to  the  secretary- 
ship of  the  Illinois  Woman's  Christian  Temper- 
ance Union  and  then  to  the  corresponding  sec- 
retaryship of  the  National  Woman's  Temper- 
ance Convention.  In  1879  sne  was  elected  presi- 
dent of  the  National  Woman's  Christian  Tem- 
perance Union  and  in  1891,  president  of  the 
World's  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union. 
In  the  meantime  she  had  enlisted  her  society  in 
the  cause  of  woman's  suffrage,  had  helped  to  or- 
ganize the  Prohibition  Party  in  1882,  and  had 
been  elected  president  of  the  National  Council 
of  Women. 

After  her  first  entrance  into  the  temperance 
movement,  she  gave,  almost  literally,  the  rest  of 
her  life  to  the  cause.  For  a  number  of  years  she 
received  no  salary,  so  anxious  was  she  to  give 
her  services  to  the  work  to  which  she  felt  her- 
self dedicated ;  but  without  independent  means 
of  support  for  herself  and  her  mother,  she  was 
obliged  in  the  end  to  accept  her  living  from  the 
organization.  Henceforth  a  salary  amounting 
to  what  she  had  received  as  a  college  teacher 
was  paid  her.  Notwithstanding  her  arduous 
work  and  many  trials  of  courage,  she  found  great 
happiness  in  promoting  the  temperance  cause. 
Her  liking  for  politics  as  well  as  her  talent  for 
oratory  found  scope  for  expression  therein ;  her 
sense  of  the  picturesque  was  stimulated  by  the 
monumental  petitions,  the  spectacular  campaigns, 
and  the  emblems  and  slogans  it  fell  to  her  to  in- 
vent. Her  literary  ambitions  were  turned  chiefly 
into  editing  the  organs  of  her  society  and  writ- 
ing its  books.  In  her  wildest  girlhood  dreams  of 
travel  and  adventure,  she  could  scarcely  have 
imagined  that  in  1883  she  would  actually  visit 
and  speak  in  every  state  and  territory  of  the 
United  States  and  that,  during  the  latter  years 
of  her  life,  she  would  have  almost  a  second  home 
in  England.  Her  profoundest  faiths  and  her 
highest  beliefs,  her  chivalry  and  her  supreme 


trust  in  woman,  all  bore  fruit  in  the  work  of  the 
Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union.  She 
saw  temperance  as  a  measure  for  the  protection 
of  the  home  and  the  Christian  life,  and  as  an 
ideal  involving  personal  sacrifice.  Other  lead- 
ers have  stressed  the  social  and  economic  aspects 
of  the  reform  and  used  more  practical  methods ; 
but  temperance  reform  has  remained  for  the  pop- 
ular mind  very  much  the  reform  for  which 
Frances  Willard  strove,  and  temperance  leg- 
islation has  risen  or  fallen  according  to  the 
strength  or  weakness  of  its  moral  appeal. 

After  her  mother's  death  in  1892,  Frances  con- 
tinued to  work  as  indefatigably  as  ever  but  she 
had  lost  one  of  her  greatest  sources  of  energy. 
Her  health  gave  way  and  many  restless  journeys 
failed  to  restore  it ;  she  died  from  influenza  in 
New  York  City.  So  much  of  a  national  figure 
had  she  become  that  in  1905  a  statue  in  her  honor 
was  placed  in  the  Capitol  at  Washington  by  the 
State  of  Illinois.  Among  her  publications  were 
Woman  and  Temperance  (1883),  Glimpses  of 
Fifty  Years  (1889),  A  Classic  Town;  The  Story 
of  Evanston  (1892),  A  Wheel  Within  a  Wheel; 
How  I  Learned  to  Ride  the  Bicycle  ( 1895).  She 
also  edited  A  Woman  of  the  Century  (1893),  in 
collaboration  with  Mary  A.  Livermore  [<?.£'.]. 

[C.  H.  Pope,  Willard  Geneal.  (1915)  ;  R.  F.  Dibble, 
Strenuous  Americans  (1923)  ;  A.  A.  Gordon,  The  Beau- 
tiful Life  of  Frances  E.  Willard  ( 1898)  ;  Ray  Strachey, 
Frances  Willard:  Her  Life  and  Work  (London,  1912)  ; 
N.  Y.  Times,  Feb.  18,  1898.]  K  a. 

WILLARD,  JOSEPH  (Dec.  29,  1738-Sept. 
25,  1804),  president  of  Harvard  College,  was  the 
son  of  Rev.  Samuel  and  Abigail  (Wright)  Wil- 
lard of  Biddeford,  Me.,  a  great-grandson  of  Rev. 
Samuel  Willard,  1639/40-1707  [q.v.],  and  a 
great-great-grandson  of  Simon  Willard  [q.v.], 
one  of  the  founders  of  Concord,  Mass.  Joseph 
tried  first  the  sea  and  then  medicine,  but  his  abil- 
ities attracted  the  attention  of  schoolmaster  Sam- 
uel Moody  of  York,  who  found  means  to  send 
him  to  Harvard,  where  he  was  graduated  in 
1765.  Because  of  his  progress  in  the  classics  he 
was  rewarded  with  the  post  of  college  butler  and, 
in  1766,  that  of  tutor  in  Greek. 

In  1767  he  accepted  a  call  to  the  church  in 
Haverhill,  but  something  prevented  his  being 
settled  there.  He  resigned  his  tutorship  to  take 
the  pulpit  at  Beverly,  Mass.,  in  1772,  and  on 
Nov.  25  he  was  ordained  despite  the  objections 
of  a  considerable  minority.  He  was  married, 
Mar.  7,  1774,  to  Mary,  daughter  of  Jacob  and 
Hannah  (Seavery)  Sheaf e  of  Portsmouth,  N.  H. 
During  the  Revolution  he  was  an  active  Whig. 
In  1780  he  took  part  in  the  formation  of  the 
American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences,  and 
for  many  years  served  as  corresponding  secre- 


2.34 


Willard 


Willard 


tary  and  vice-president,  besides  being  one  of 
the  leading  contributors  to  its  publications.  His 
position  as  secretary  brought  him  into  corre- 
spondence with  the  leading  men  of  science  and 
letters  in  Europe  and  America,  and  he  was  soon 
well  known  for  his  work  in  astronomy  and  math- 
ematics as  well  as  in  the  classics.  John  Adams 
thought  him  the  equal  of  David  Rittenhouse 
\_q.vJ]  as  a  scientist. 

As  early  as  1773  Willard's  brilliance  had 
caused  him  to  be  mentioned  for  the  Harvard 
presidency,  and  after  the  resignation  of  Sam- 
uel Langdon  [q.v.~\  in  1780  he  was  the  natural 
candidate.  Such,  however,  was  the  condition  of 
the  college  as  a  result  of  the  war  and  the  va- 
garies of  the  treasurer,  John  Hancock,  that  he 
was  not  inaugurated  until  Dec.  19,  1781.  Wil- 
lard was  a  noted  Federalist,  which  fact  probably 
influenced  the  General  Court  to  cut  off,  once 
and  for  all,  the  assistance  which  the  college  had 
received  from  the  government ;  but  the  redemp- 
tion of  the  Continental  certificates  of  indebted- 
ness, to  which  Harvard  had  trustingly  clung, 
made  it  possible  for  the  new  president  to  repair 
the  ravages  of  the  war.  He  raised  entrance  re- 
quirements, broadened  the  field  of  instruction, 
founded  the  medical  school,  and  longed  to  travel 
in  Europe  to  learn  from  the  universities  there. 
His  correspondence  with  Richard  Price,  Joseph 
Priestley  [q.z>.~\,  and  the  other  European  intelli- 
gentsia brought  the  college  many  valuable  gifts. 
In  matters  of  religion  and  learning  his  adminis- 
tration was  liberal  enough  to  win  their  approval. 
With  the  teaching  staff  he  was  gentle,  laconic, 
and  respectful  of  the  opinions  of  the  youngest. 
The  students,  awed  by  his  impressive  physique 
and  his  dignity,  did  not  riot  as  they  did  under 
the  presidents  before  and  after  him.  They  failed, 
however,  to  see  the  deep  interest  which  he  took 
in  them  under  his  reserve,  and  thought  him  stiff 
and  formal.  His  achievements  brought  him  many 
honors,  including  membership  in  several  learned 
societies,  among  them  the  Royal  Society  of  Got- 
tingen  and  the  Medical  Society  of  London.  He 
died  at  New  Bedford  Sept.  25,  1804.  Of  his  thir- 
teen children  Sidney  [q.v.~\  became  a  professor 
at  Harvard  and  Joseph  [<?.?;.]  won  distinction 
in  law. 

[Willard  Geneal.  (1915),  ed.  by  C.  H.  Pope;  S.  B. 
Willard,  Memories  of  Youth  and  Manhood  (1855); 
W.  B.  Sprague,  Annals  Am.  Pulpit,  vol.  II  (1857)  ;  E. 
M.  Stone,  Hist,  of  Beverly  (1843);  Repertory  (Bos- 
ton), Sept.  28,  1804.]  C  K  S 

WILLARD,  JOSEPH  (Mar.  14,  1798-May 
12,  1865),  lawyer  and  historian,  was  born  in 
Cambridge,  Mass.,  the  youngest  child  of  Joseph 
Willard   [q.v.],  president  of  Harvard  College, 


and  Mary  (Sheafe)  Willard.  Sidney  Willard 
\_q.v.~\  was  his  brother.  Joseph  studied  at  Phil- 
lips Academy,  Exeter,  N.  H.,  and  at  a  private 
school  in  Boston  conducted  by  William  Jenni- 
son.  Entering  Harvard,  he  was  graduated  with 
the  class  of  1816.  He  then  became  a  student  in 
the  law  office  of  Charles  H.  Atherton  of  Am- 
herst, N.  H.,  tutoring  the  Atherton  children  in 
return  for  his  own  instruction.  Later  he  re- 
moved to  the  office  of  Judge  Samuel  P.  P.  Fay  of 
Cambridge,  and  finally  entered  the  Harvard 
Law  School,  where  he  received  the  degree  of 
LL.B.  in  1820.  He  began  practice  in  Waltham, 
but  soon  removed  to  Lancaster,  Mass.,  where 
he  practised  for  ten  years.  Here  he  filled  various 
town  offices  and  was  a  member  of  the  legislature 
in  1828  and  1829.  His  Sketches  of  the  Town  of 
Lancaster  ( 1826)  led  to  his  election  to  the  Amer- 
ican Antiquarian  Society  and  the  Massachu- 
setts Historical  Society  at  an  unusually  early 
age.  He  served  the  latter  society  as  librarian 
(l833-35),  as  recording  secretary  (1835-57), 
and  as  corresponding  secretary  (1857-64). 

On  Feb.  24,  1830,  he  married  Susanna  Hick- 
ling  Lewis,  and  shortly  thereafter  he  removed 
to  Boston.  He  was  appointed  master  in  chan- 
cery in  1839  and  carried  on  his  duties  so  well 
that  there  was  hardly  an  objection  to,  or  an  ap- 
peal from,  his  probate  decisions.  In  1841  he  was 
appointed  to  one  of  the  clerkships  of  the  Suf- 
folk County  courts,  and  chose  to  act  in  the  court 
of  common  pleas.  Here  again  his  decisions  were 
seldom  appealed,  and  those  appeals  seldom  sus- 
tained. His  extensive  knowledge  of  law  and  pro- 
cedure made  him  of  great  service  to  the  law- 
yers practising  in  the  court.  When  the  office 
was  made  elective  in  1856  he  was  returned  as  a 
matter  of  course  in  recognition  of  the  fact  that 
he  was  a  rare  type  of  public  servant.  He  con- 
tinued in  office  until  his  death. 

In  1845  he  was  one  of  the  incorporators  of  the 
New-England  Historic  Genealogical  Society, 
and  he  was  one  of  the  trustees  of  the  old  Boston 
Library.  He  was  a  frequent  and  welcome  visitor 
in  the  homes  of  the  intellectual  leaders  who  then 
lived  in  Concord.  In  politics  he  was  an  ardent 
Whig.  He  was  a  Free-Soiler  in  1847  and  an 
abolitionist  in  1850;  finally,  he  almost  welcomed 
the  Civil  War  as  a  surgeon's  knife  to  remove 
the  cancer  of  slavery.  His  declining  health  was 
shattered  by  the  news  of  the  death  of  his  son, 
Maj.  Sidney  Willard,  at  Fredericksburg,  in  De- 
cember 1862.  He  was  a  Unitarian  by  religion 
and  a  practising  Christian  whose  contempora- 
ries had  only  praise  for  him.  In  1858  he  pub- 
lished Willard  Memoir,  or  Life  and  Times  of 
Major  Simon   Willard;   a   biography   of   Gen. 


235 


Willard 

Henry  Knox  he  left  unfinished  at  his  death,  and 
the  manuscript  is  now  in  the  library  of  the  Mas- 
sachusetts Historical  Society. 

[Willard  Geneal.  (1915),  ed.  by  C.  H.  Pope;  Proc. 
Mass.  Hist.  Soc,  1  ser.  IX  (1867),  et  passim;  New- 
England  Hist,  and  Geneal.  Reg.,  Oct.  1865  ;  Boston 
Transcript,  May    13,   1865.]  C  K  S. 

WILLARD,  JOSEPH  EDWARD  (May  i, 
1865-Apr.  4,  1924),  diplomat  and  lawyer,  was 
born  in  Washington,  D.  C,  the  ninth  in  line  of 
descent  from  Simon  Willard  [q.v.~\,  one  of  the 
founders  of  Concord,  Mass.  His  father  was  Jo- 
seph Clapp  Willard,  an  officer  in  the  Union  Army 
during  the  Civil  War,  and  his  mother  Antonia 
J.  (Ford)  Willard,  of  Fairfax  Court  House, 
Va.,  who  was  commissioned  by  Gen.  J.  E.  B. 
Stuart  as  honorary  aide-de-camp  on  Oct.  7, 
1861,  and  was  captured  as  a  Confederate  spy  on 
Mar.  16,  1863.  The  boy  was  graduated  from  the 
Virginia  Military  Institute  in  1886,  studied  law 
for  a  few  weeks  at  the  University  of  Virginia, 
and  later  practised  at  the  Richmond  bar  with 
such  financial  success  that  he  was  sometimes 
spoken  of  as  the  richest  man  in  Virginia.  He 
may  also  have  inherited  wealth  from  his  father 
who  was  at  one  time  owner  of  the  Willard  Hotel 
in  Washington.  On  Sept.  16,  1891,  he  married 
Belle  Layton  Wyatt  of  Baltimore  by  whom  he 
had  two  children.  The  Spanish-American  War 
gave  him  a  state-wide  reputation.  Mustered  in 
at  Richmond,  Va.,  on  May  23,  1898,  as  captain 
in  the  3rd  Virginia  Volunteer  Infantry,  he 
passed  the  summer  months  recruiting  a  volun- 
teer regiment  in  Fairfax  County.  On  Nov.  21 
of  the  same  year  he  was  commissioned  captain 
and  assistant  quartermaster  in  United  States 
Volunteers,  and  he  was  discharged  on  Apr.  2, 
1899.  From  Dec.  7,  1898,  to  Feb.  II,  1899,  he 
was  on  duty  as  acting  aide-de-camp  to  Gen.  Fitz- 
hugh  Lee,  and  as  assistant  quartermaster,  VII 
Army  Corps,  at  Camp  Columbia,  near  Habana, 
Cuba. 

His  political  career  commenced  in  1893  with 
his  election,  as  a  Democrat,  to  the  Virginia 
House  of  Delegates  to  represent  Fairfax  Coun- 
ty, which  was  for  many  years  his  home.  After 
eight  years  in  the  House  he  was  elected  in  1901 
lieutenant-governor  under  Gov.  Andrew  J.  Mon- 
tague. In  1905  he  contested  the  Democratic 
nomination  for  governor  with  Claude  A.  Swan- 
son  and  William  H.  Mann,  and,  emerging  in 
third  place,  obtained  appointment  as  a  state  cor- 
poration commissioner,  1906-1910.  Appointed 
on  July  28,  1913,  minister  to  Spain,  he  was  the 
last  of  the  long  line  of  American  ministers  to 
Spain  and  the  first  American  ambassador  to 
that  country,  Sept.  10,  1913,  to  June  28,  1921. 


Willard 

Although  he  was  absent  from  Madrid  during 
the  most  trying  days  of  early  August  1914  he  re- 
turned late  that  month  to  face  the  difficult  tasks 
arising  from  the  war.  In  December  he  was  in- 
structed to  reject  the  Spanish  proposal  that 
Spain  and  the  United  States  cooperate  in  offer- 
ing mediation  to  the  belligerents.  Again  in  Au- 
gust 1916  it  was  necessary  for  him  to  inform  the 
Spanish  Government  of  President  Wilson's  de- 
cision not  to  cooperate  with  the  Spanish  King 
in  offering  good  offices  to  the  belligerents.  Some- 
what irritated  at  Wilson's  policy  of  acting  with- 
out consultation,  the  Spanish  Government  in  its 
turn  rejected  Willard's  invitation  to  lend  its  sup- 
port to  the  President's  peace  proposals  of  Dec. 
18,  1916.  The  two  governments  also  failed  to 
cooperate  in  protesting  Germany's  submarine 
policy.  After  the  United  States  became  a  bel- 
ligerent Willard  conducted  the  negotiations  that 
led  to  the  arrangement  of  Mar.  7,  1918,  provid- 
ing for  the  exportation  from  the  United  States 
of  commodities  needed  by  Spain  and  the  sale  by 
Spain  of  supplies  needed  for  the  American  troops 
in  Europe.  In  1921  Willard  returned  to  his  law 
practice  in  the  United  States.  He  had  business 
interests  in  Richmond  and  Washington,  where  he 
was  occupied  in  part  with  the  affairs  of  his  son- 
in-law,  Kermit  Roosevelt,  and  in  New  York  City, 
where  he  was  living  at  the  time  of  his  death. 

[New  York  Times,  Apr.  5,  1924;  Willard  Genealogy 
(191 5),  ed.  by  C.  H.  Pope  ;  Papers  Relating  to  the  For- 
eign Relations  of  the  U.  S.,  1913-18  ;  E.  G.  Swem  and 
J.  W.  Williams,  Register  of  the  General  Assembly  of 
Va.  (1918)  ;  Who's  Who  in  America,  1922-23;  F.  B. 
Heitman,  Hist.  Register  .  .  .  of  the  U.  S.  Army  (1903), 
vol.  I ;  W.  A.  Christian,  Richmond,  her  Past  and  Present 
(1912),  information  from  the  war  department  regarding 
Willard's  Spanish  War  record  and  his  mother's  Confed- 
erate service.]  E.  W.  S. 

WILLARD,  MARY  HATCH  (Dec.  15,  1856- 
Mar.  29,  1926),  business  woman  and  social 
worker,  was  born  in  Jersey  City,  N.  J.,  the  eldest 
of  the  eleven  children  of  Alfrederick  S.  and  The- 
odosia  (Ruggles)  Hatch.  Her  childhood  and 
youth  were  passed  for  the  most  part  in  compara- 
tive affluence,  although  her  father,  junior  mem- 
ber of  the  Wall  Street  banking  firm  of  Fisk  & 
Hatch,  met  repeated  reverses  in  fortune.  The 
family  removed  to  New  York  City,  where  Mary 
attended  private  schools.  For  a  number  of  years 
their  summer  home  was  in  Newport,  R.  I.  In 
1871  Eastman  Johnson  [q.z>.~\  painted  the  Hatch 
"Family  Group"  (including  the  parents  and 
grandparents)  which  now  hangs  in  the  Metro- 
politan Museum  of  Art  as  an  illuminating  and 
authentic  social  study  of  its  period.  Mary  was 
then  fifteen.  As  she  grew  older  she  entered 
whole-heartedly  into  the  New  York  society  life 
of  that  day  and  attained  a  place  of  leadership  in 


36 


Willard 

it.  On  June  6,  1882,  she  married  Henry  Brad- 
ford Willard. 

Eight  years  later,  finding  herself  dependent  on 
her  own  resources  and  wholly  without  train- 
ing for  a  business  career,  she  achieved  single- 
handed  what  might  well  have  seemed  an  impossi- 
bility— the  building  up,  without  capital  and  with 
only  the  most  meager  encouragement  at  first 
from  any  source,  of  a  new  business  in  the  heart 
of  New  York.  While  making  broth,  under  the 
doctor's  orders,  for  a  sister-in-law  ill  with  ty- 
phoid fever,  the  thought  came  to  her  that  many 
sick  persons  in  need  of  such  aids  to  recovery 
were  probably  unable  to  obtain  them  convenient- 
ly in  New  York.  She  had  become  an  expert  in 
cookery  from  sheer  love  of  the  art  and  had  sought 
the  best  available  medical  advice  on  dietetics.  Ac- 
cordingly, she  established  a  modest  kitchen  on 
Forty-second  Street,  and  since  she  had  no  money 
to  spend  for  advertising  or  even  to  advance  the 
first  month's  rent,  she  parted  with  some  of  her 
most  cherished  personal  belongings.  Practising 
physicians  brought  to  the  Home  Bureau,  as  her 
enterprise  was  named,  a  great  part  of  its  early 
patronage.  They  quickly  learned  that  her  prod- 
ucts were  dependable  and  they  recommended 
them  to  their  patients.  From  broths  and  jellies 
the  list  of  prepared  foods  was  extended  to  include 
many  staples  and  sick-room  delicacies.  Then, 
in  response  to  requests  from  doctors,  other  in- 
valids' supplies  were  added.  As  a  farther  emer- 
gency service  a  registry  for  trained  nurses  was 
maintained. 

In  the  Spanish-American  War,  after  the  re- 
turn of  the  troops  to  the  Montauk  Point  camp 
on  Long  Island,  she  started  diet  kitchens  to  co- 
operate with  the  medical  corps  in  restoring  hun- 
dreds of  fever  victims  to  health.  Important  as 
that  service  was,  her  work  in  the  World  War 
made  far  greater  demands  on  her  energy  and 
organizing  ability,  for  then  she  was  called  upon 
to  lead  American  women  in  a  stupendous  ef- 
fort to  supply  with  surgical  dressings — the  hos- 
pitals of  the  Allies  on  the  Western  Front.  In 
the  emergency  following  the  shortage  of  the 
manufactured  gauze  supply,  the  women  of  New 
York  made  temporary  dressings  from  old  linen 
and  cotton.  The  contribution  of  25,000,000 
dressings  by  the  national  surgical  dressings  com- 
mittee headed  by  Mrs.  Willard  was  recognized 
by  England,  France,  Belgium,  and  Italy.  She 
was  the  recipient  of  six  war-service  medals  from 
those  governments.  For  some  twenty-five  years 
she  served  as  a  member  of  the  board  of  managers 
of  the  State  Charities  Aid  Association  of  New 
York,  holding  from  1901  to  1909  the  chairman- 
ship of  a  committee  charged  with  the  placing  of 


Willard 

dependent  orphans  in  families,  for  3500  of  whom 
suitable  homes  were  provided.  She  died  in  New 
York  City. 

[M.  E.  Goddard  and  H.  V.  Partridge,  A  Hist,  of 
Norwich,  Vt.  (1905);  Elizabeth  Jordan,  in  Ladies' 
Home  Jour.,  Aug.  1921  ;  Woman's  Who's  Who  of 
America,  1914-15  ;  TV.  Y.  Times,  Mar.  30,  1926  ;  annual 
reports  of  the  State  Charities  Aid  Asso.  of  N.  Y.,  1901- 
09;  personal  information  supplied  by  Mrs.  Jane  H. 
Gardiner  of  New  York,  a  sister  of  Mrs.  Willard.] 

W.B.  S. 

WILLARD,  SAMUEL  (Jan.  31,  1639/40- 
Sept.  12,  1707),  colonial  clergyman  and  vice- 
president  of  Harvard  College,  was  born  at  Con- 
cord, Mass.,  the  son  of  Simon  Willard  [q.v.~],  one 
of  the  founders  of  Concord,  and  his  first  wife, 
Mary  (Sharpe).  He  graduated  from  Harvard 
in  1659  and  received  the  degree  of  M.A.  in  course. 
In  June  1663  he  was  called  to  the  pulpit  of  the 
frontier  settlement  of  Groton,  Mass.  Despite  an 
unusual  degree  of  resistance  by  a  strong  minor- 
ity he  was  ordained  July  13,  1664.  On  Aug.  8, 
he  married  Abigail,  daughter  of  the  Rev.  John 
[q.v.]  and  Mary  (Launce)  Sherman  of  Water- 
town.  His  parish  was  early  troubled  by  a  case 
of  "diabolical  seizure"  and  in  connection  with 
it  Willard  made  one  of  the  best  psychic  investi- 
gations recorded  in  the  witchcraft  literature 
(Massachusetts  Historical  Society  Collections, 
4  ser.  VIII,  1868). 

Before  the  destruction  of  Groton  by  the  In- 
dians, Willard  had  become  well  known  in  Bos- 
ton through  his  printed  sermons,  and  on  Mar. 
31,  1678,  he  was  installed  at  the  Old  South 
Church  as  colleague  pastor  to  Thomas  Thacher. 
On  July  29,  1679,  he  married,  as  his  second  wife, 
Eunice,  daughter  of  Edward  [q.v.J  and  Mary 
Tyng;  the  date  of  his  first  wife's  death  is  un- 
known. Left  sole  pastor  by  the  death  of  Thacher, 
Oct.  15,  1678,  Willard  acquired  distinction  as 
the  result  of  a  series  of  lectures  in  which  he  sys- 
tematically surveyed  the  entire  field  of  theology. 
As  a  master  of  learning  and  logic,  whose  ser- 
mons were  frequently  beyond  the  comprehen- 
sion of  his  simpler  hearers,  he  scorned  the  "En- 
thusiasm" of  the  Baptist  preachers  and  said  that 
such  rough  things  as  they  were  "not  to  be  han- 
dled over-tenderly."  He  pointed  out  that  the 
Puritans  had  not  intended  to  establish  toleration 
in  New  England,  and  suggested  that  the  Bap- 
tists go  and  hew  their  own  colonies  out  of  the 
wilderness  instead  of  troubling  those  established 
by  others  (Ne  Sutor  ultra  Crepidam,  1681,  p. 
4).  Conservative  in  theology,  he  was  liberal  in 
the  practice  of  religion,  and  early  relaxed  the 
requirement  of  a  public  confession  at  the  time 
of  admission  to  the  church.  Edward  Randolph 
[q.v.~\  called  him  a  moderate  and  reported  to  the 


237 


Willard 


Willard 


Bishop  of  London  that  he  was  incurring  hatred 
by  baptizing  people  refused  by  other  churches 
(R.  N.  Toppan  and  A.  T.  S.  Goodrick,  Edward 
Randolph,  vol.  Ill,  1899,  p.  148).  When  the 
King  demanded  the  surrender  of  the  colony's 
charter,  Willard  opposed  Increase  Mather  [g.?'.] 
and  advocated  submission,  but  after  the  experi- 
ence of  having  his  meeting-house  seized  by  Sir 
Edmund  Andros  [#.?\],  he  appeared  on  the  pop- 
ular side.  In  a  later  election  sermon  he  held  that 
"Civil  Government  is  seated  in  no  particular 
Person  or  Families  by  a  Natural  Right"  (The 
Character  of  a  Good  Rider,  1694,  p.  20).  Al- 
though three  of  the  witchcraft  judges  were  Wil- 
lard's  personal  friends  and  parishioners,  he  was 
the  most  outspoken  responsible  opponent  of  the 
methods  of  the  court.  Holding  that  the  evidence 
accepted  was  but  the  "Cheats  and  Delusions  of 
Satan,"  he  advocated  (as  did  the  Mathers)  a 
procedure  far  more  enlightened  than  that  pro- 
vided by  English  law,  and  under  which  no  one 
could  have  been  sent  to  the  gallows.  He  pub- 
lished an  anonymous  pamphlet  on  the  subject 
and  is  supposed  to  have  aided  the  accused  prison- 
ers. As  a  result  he  shared  the  unpopularity  of 
the  Mathers. 

Willard  was  made  a  fellow  of  Harvard  Col- 
lege in  1692,  and  on  July  12,  1700,  he  was  made 
vice-president.  When  President  Increase  Ma- 
ther refused  to  comply  with  the  requirement  that 
the  president  reside  at  Cambridge,  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  College  was  turned  over  to  Vice- 
President  Willard  (Sept.  6,  1701),  and  for  six 
years  he  headed  the  institution.  His  succession 
did  not,  as  has  been  said,  mark  a  revolution,  for 
he  was  fully  as  orthodox  as  his  predecessor,  and 
in  1 701  on  friendly  terms  with  him.  Almost  the 
equal  of  Mather  in  intellectual  stature,  and  less 
prone  to  quarrels,  he  would  have  been  the  nat- 
ural candidate  of  the  Mather  faction  for  the 
presidency,  had  Increase  and  Cotton  not  been 
in  the  field.  In  1704  he  supported  the  Mather 
project  for  a  closer  association  of  churches 
(Proceedings  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical 
Society,  1  ser.  XVII,  1880,  pp.  280-81).  He 
gave  the  college  only  a  day  or  two  a  week,  re- 
taining his  pulpit  and  his  iron  grip  on  Old 
South  Church  affairs.  When  George  Keith 
\_q.v.~\,  the  Quaker  recently  converted  to  Angli- 
canism, challenged  the  theology  expressed  in  a 
commencement  thesis,  Willard  sank  him  with  a 
broadside  of  ammunition  from  Church  of  Eng- 
land writers  (A  Brief  Reply  to  George  Keith 
•  •  •»  I7°3)-  Failing  health  caused  him  to  lay 
down  the  vice-presidency  Aug.  14,  1707,  and  on 
Sept.  12  he  died.  He  was  one  of  the  most  volu- 
minous writers  New  England  ever  had;  about 


twenty  years  after  his  death  two  of  his  students 
published  his  famous  lectures  under  the  title 
Compleat  Body  of  Divinity  (1726),  the  largest 
volume  that  had  ever  come  from  the  colonial 
presses.    He  had  eighteen  children. 

[Willard  Geneal.  (1915),  ed.  by  C.  H.  Pope;  J.  L. 
Sibley,  Biog.  Sketches  Grads.  of  Harvard  Univ.,  vol. 
II  (188O,  containing  complete  bibliog.  of  Willard's 
works,  and  C.  K.  Shipton,  Sibley's  Harvard  Grads., 
vol.  IV  (1933)  ;  S.  A.  Green,  Groton  during  the  Indian 
Wars  (1883),  Early  Church  Records  of  Groton,  Mass. 
(1883),  and  Groton  Hist.  Scries  (4  vols.,  1887-89); 
H.  A.  Hill,  Hist,  of  the  Old  South  Church  (1890)  ;  Sid- 
ney Willard,  Memories  of  Youth  and  Manhood  (1855)  ; 
Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Colls.,  5  ser.  V-VII  (1878-82).] 

C.  K.  S. 

WILLARD,  SAMUEL  (Apr.  18,  1775-Oct. 
8,  1859),  clergyman,  educator,  hymn-writer,  was 
born  in  Petersham,  Mass.,  seventh  of  the  eleven 
children  of  William  and  Katherine  (Wilder) 
Willard  and  a  great-great-grandson  of  Samuel 
Willard,  1639/40-1707  [q.v.~\.  Solomon  Willard 
[q.v.~\  was  a  brother.  Samuel  did  not  begin  to 
prepare  for  college  until  after  he  was  twenty-one, 
when  an  injury  to  his  back  made  farm  work  im- 
possible. In  1803  he  was  graduated  at  Harvard 
College.  The  following  year  he  taught  at  Phil- 
lips Academy,  Exeter,  N.  H.,  and  in  1804-05 
was  tutor  at  Bowdoin  College.  Licensed  by  the 
Cambridge  Association  in  1805,  he  preached  in 
Cambridge  and  later  lived  in  Andover  for  a  time, 
preaching  as  opportunity  offered. 

He  received  a  call  in  1807  to  become  pastor  of 
the  Congregational  church  in  Deerfield,  but  his 
theological  views  were  so  broad  that  the  coun- 
cil called  to  examine  him  would  not  ordain  him. 
A  month  later,  however,  a  second  council  ap- 
proved him  and  proceeded  to  his  ordination.  On 
May  30,  1808,  at  Hingham,  he  married  Susan 
Barker.  He  served  the  Deerfield  church  until 
1829,  when  failing  sight  compelled  him  to  re- 
sign. From  1829  to  1836,  except  for  a  short  time 
in  Concord,  he  resided  in  Hingham  and  for  two 
years  taught  in  a  school  which  his  future  son- 
in-law,  Luther  Barker  Lincoln,  had  opened.  He 
then  returned  to  Deerfield,  where  he  resided 
until  his  death,  frequently  being  called  upon  to 
preach.  The  diary  which  he  kept  during  most  of 
his  life  records  a  complete  history  of  the  objec- 
tions made  by  the  council  to  his  religious  views. 
These  were  repeated  in  his  fiftieth  anniversary 
sermon,  preached  in  Deerfield  Sept.  22,  1858 
(History  of  the  Rise,  Progress  and  Consumma- 
tion of  the  Rupture,  U'hich  now  Divides  the 
Congregational  Clergy  and  Churches  of  Massa- 
chusetts, 1858).  They  are  again  stated  in  an 
article,  "Early  Unitarian  Movement  in  Western 
Massachusetts,"  written  by  his  daughter  and 
published  in  the  Unitarian  Rcviciv  (February 


*« 


Willard 


Willard 


1881).  The  controversy  over  his  ordination  was 
the  first  intimation  in  Western  Massachusetts  of 
the  liberal  theological  opinions  which  finally  led 
to  the  separation  of  the  Unitarians  from  the 
Congregational  body.  In  1813  several  ministers 
refused  to  take  part  in  an  ordination  service 
with  him.  Their  refusal  provoked  a  pamphlet 
controversy,  in  which,  also,  Willard's  views  as 
expressed  at  his  ordination  were  discussed. 

In  addition  to  his  pastoral  duties  Willard  gave 
much  time  to  education  and  music.  He  served 
as  superintendent  of  schools,  examined  the  teach- 
ers, and  prescribed  the  textbooks  to  be  used.  In 
order  that  what  he  considered  proper  methods 
of  instruction  might  be  put  into  effect  he  pub- 
lished various  textbooks,  including:  The  Frank- 
lin Primer  (2nd  ed.,  1802  and  later  editions), 
Secondary  Lessons,  or  the  Improved  Reader 
(1827),  The  General  Class-Book  (1828),  Rhet- 
oric, or  the  Principles  of  Elocution  (1830),  The 
Popular  Reader  (1834),  and  An  Introduction  to 
the  Latin  Language  (1835).  Beginning  with  his 
first  Sunday  in  Deerfield,  he  selected  all  the 
hymns  for  his  services,  and  in  1814  published 
Deerfield  Collection  of  Sacred  Music,  a  second 
edition  of  which  appeared  in  1818;  this  con- 
tained both  words  and  music.  A  book  of  158 
hymns,  words  only,  entitled  Regular  Hymns,  on 
a  Great  Variety  of  Evangelical  Subjects,  was 
issued  in  1824,  containing,  as  the  compiler  said, 
"a  greater  variety  of  practical  subjects  than  is 
to  be  found  in  any  other,  however  large,  that  has 
ever  fallen  into  his  hands."  His  final  work  in 
hymnology  was  a  collection  of  518  hymns,  orig- 
inal and  compiled,  adopted  while  in  manuscript 
by  the  Third  Congregational  Society  in  Hing- 
ham,  and  called  Sacred  Music  and  Poetry  Recon- 
ciled (1830).  His  purpose  was  to  have  the  em- 
phasis of  the  words  the  same  in  every  stanza, 
and  coincide  with  the  emphasis  of  the  tune  used. 
During  his  eighty-second  year  he  revised  his 
hymns  to  conform  with  this  plan  and  called  the 
collection  "Family  Psalter."  It  was  never  pub- 
lished, but  the  manuscript  is  in  the  Library  of 
Harvard  University. 

[Sources  include :  Life  of  Samuel  Willard,  D.D. 
(1892),  ed.  by  his  daughter  Mary;  W.  B.  Sprague, 
Annals  of  the  Am.  Unitarian  Pulpit  (1865);  Joseph 
Palmer,  Necrology  of  the  Alumni  of  Harvard  Coll. 
(1864)  ;  A.  P.  Putnam,  Singers  and  Songs  of  the  Lib- 
eral Faith  (1875)  ;  S.  A.  Eliot,  Heralds  of  a  Liberal 
Faith  (1910),  vol.  II;  Vital  Records  of  Deerfield 
(1920);  George  Sheldon,  A  Hist,  of  Deerfield,  Mass. 
(2  vols.,  1895-96)  ;  C.  B.  Yale,  Story  of  the  Old  Wil- 
lard House  in  Deerfield  (1887)  ;  Boston  Transcript, 
Oct.  n,  1859.  Authority  for  year  of  birth  is  Vital  Rec- 
ords of  Petersham,  Mass.  (1904).]  F.  T.M. 

WILLARD,  SIDNEY  (Sept.  19,  1780-Dec.  6, 
1856),  educator,  writer,  was  a  son  of  Joseph 
Willard,  1738-1804  [q.v.~\,  and  Mary  (Sheafe) 


Willard.  Joseph  Willard,  1798-1865  [q.v.~\  was 
his  brother  and  Samuel,  1 775-1 859,  and  Solo- 
mon Willard  [qq.v.J  his  first  cousins.  Sidney 
was  born  in  Beverly,  Mass.,  when  his  father, 
later  president  of  Harvard  College,  was  pastor 
of  the  First  Congregational  Church  there.  In 
his  seventh  year  he  entered  the  Hopkins  Gram- 
mar School,  Cambridge,  where  he  remained  until 
1791 ;  he  was  then  sent,  with  a  younger  brother, 
to  the  home  of  his  uncle,  Rev.  John  Willard  of 
Stafford,  Conn.,  who  prepared  him  for  college. 
Entering  Harvard  in  1794,  he  took  high  stand 
as  a  scholar  and  graduated  in  1798.  He  remained 
at  the  college  as  a  student  of  theology  and,  in 
order  to  relieve  the  financial  burden  of  his  father, 
taught  a  district  school  in  Waltham,  Mass.,  dur- 
ing the  winter  of  1798-99.  In  1800  he  was  ap- 
pointed librarian  of  Harvard.  Approved  as  a 
preacher  the  following  year,  he  supplied  churches 
as  opportunity  offered  and  in  1802  was  called  to 
Wiscasset,  Me.,  but  declined.  In  1805  he  re- 
signed his  librarianship.  The  following  year  he 
was  engaged  in  preaching,  a  part  of  the  time  in 
Burlington,  Vt,  where  he  refused  an  invitation 
to  settle  as  pastor  of  the  Congregational  church. 
In  December  1806  he  was  appointed  Hancock 
Professor  of  Hebrew  and  Oriental  Languages  at 
Harvard,  which  position  he  held  for  about  twen- 
ty-four years.  During  a  part  of  this  time  he  also 
gave  instruction  in  English  and  from  1827  to 
183 1  performed  the  duties  of  professor  of  Latin. 
He  published  in  1817  A  Hebrew  Grammar,  Com- 
piled from  Some  of  the  Best  Authorities. 

Willard  was  connected  in  one  way  or  another 
with  almost  all  the  Massachusetts  magazine  ven- 
tures of  this  period.  He  was  one  of  the  commit- 
tee appointed  by  the  Harvard  chapter  of  Phi 
Beta  Kappa  in  1803  to  establish  and  conduct  a 
publication — a  project  which  he  himself  had 
proposed.  In  July  1804  the  committee  issued  the 
first  number  of  the  Literary  Miscellany,  which 
was  continued  for  two  years.  In  1807  Willard 
was  made  a  member  of  the  Anthology  Society 
and  thereafter  had  a  hand  in  editing  the  Monthly 
Anthology.  He  became  a  contributor  to  the  Gen- 
eral Repository  and  Review,  founded  in  1812, 
and  also  to  the  North  American  Review  and 
Miscellaneous  Journal  after  its  establishment  in 
1815.  From  1818  to  1831  he  occasionally  wrote 
for  the  Christian  Disciple,  or  the  Christian  Ex- 
aminer as  in  1824  it  came  to  be  called.  In  1831 
he  established  the  American  Monthly  Review, 
the  first  number  of  which  appeared  in  January 
1832.  During  its  existence  of  two  years  under 
his  editorship  it  attained  considerable  reputa- 
tion both  in  the  United  States  and  in  England. 

Willard  was  a  man  of  attractive  personal  qual- 


239 


Willard 


Willard 


ities  and  of  varied  abilities.  In  a  high  degree 
scholarly  and  literary,  he  was  not  without  taste 
and  fitness  for  practical  affairs.  Before  estab- 
lishing the  American  Monthly  Review  he  had 
resigned  his  professorship.  The  latter  years  of 
his  life  he  was  much  engaged  in  public  services. 
He  was  representative  in  the  General  Court  in 
1833,  1837,  and  1843;  state  senator  in  1834,  1835, 
1839,  and  1840;  and  councillor  in  1837  and  1838. 
He  served  as  selectman  of  Cambridge,  and  was 
one  of  the  committee  in  1846  that  drafted  the 
petition  to  the  legislature  for  a  city  charter. 
From  1848  to  1850  he  was  mayor  of  Cambridge. 
He  was  twice  married:  first,  Dec.  28,  1815,  at 
Ipswich,  Mass.,  to  Elizabeth  Ann,  daughter  of 
Asa  and  Joanna  (Heard)  Andrews;  she  died 
Sept.  17,  1817,  and  on  Jan.  26,  1819,  he  married 
Hannah  Staniford,  daughter  of  John  and  Sally 
(Staniford)  Heard  of  Ipswich.  By  his  first  mar- 
riage he  had  a  son,  and  by  the  second,  a  son  and 
two  daughters.  His  Memories  of  Youth  and 
Manhood  (2  vols.,  1855)  contains  much  valuable 
historical   and  biographical   information. 

[In  addition  to  the  Memories  mentioned  above,  see 
Willard  Gcncal.  (1915),  ed.  by  C.  H.  Pope  ;  L.  R.  Page, 
Hist,  of  Cambridge,  Mass.  1630-1877  (1877);  F.  L. 
Mott,  A  Hist,  of  Am.  Mags.,  1741-1850  (1930)  ;  Chris- 
tian Examiner,  Mar.  1857.]  H.  E.  S. 

WILLARD,  SIMON  (1605-Apr.  24,  1676 
o.s.),  colonist,  fur-trader,  the  son  of  Richard  and 
Margery  Willard,  was  baptized  at  Horsmonden, 
Kent,  England,  on  Apr.  7,  1605  o.s.  Emigrating 
to  Massachusetts  in  1634,  he  settled  at  Cam- 
bridge, where  he  engaged  in  the  fur  trade.  In 
1635  he  joined  with  Peter  Bulkeley  [q.v.~\  and 
others  to  establish  the  town  of  Concord.  From 
this  time  until  his  death  he  was  one  of  the 
leading  men  on  the  Merrimac  frontier.  At  Con- 
cord he  served  as  local  magistrate  and  com- 
manded the  militia  company.  He  represented 
Concord  in  the  General  Court  from  1636  to  1654, 
except  1643,  1647,  1648,  and  in  1654  he  was 
chosen  assistant  and  served  until  his  death.  In 
1653  he  was  made  sergeant-major  of  the  Middle- 
sex regiment.  His  activities,  both  public  and 
private,  were  closely  associated  with  the  Indian 
trade  and  the  affairs  of  the  frontier  settlements. 
In  1641  he  was  appointed  chief  of  a  committee  to 
carry  on  and  regulate  the  fur  trade,  and  in  1657 
he  and  three  associates  farmed  the  trade  of  the 
Merrimac  for  £25.  In  1646  and  afterward  he  as- 
sisted John  Eliot  in  his  work  among  the  Merri- 
mac tribes.  He  was  extensively  employed  by  the 
General  Court  in  Indian  affairs,  in  locating  and 
laying  out  land  grants,  in  settling  the  bounds 
and  regulating  the  affairs  of  the  frontier  towns. 
In  1659  he  sold  a  large  part  of  his  Concord  es- 
tate and  removed  to  Lancaster,   Mass.    About 


1671  he  went  to  live  in  the  southern  part  of  Gro- 
ton,  now  Ayer. 

In  1654  he  was  appointed  to  command  a  puni- 
tive expedition  against  the  Niantic  sachem,  Nini- 
gret.  On  the  approach  of  the  English,  Ninigret 
fled  into  a  swamp,  and  the  expedition  ended  in  a 
parley.  Disappointed  at  this  inconclusive  out- 
come, the  commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies 
reproved  Willard  for  failure  to  carry  out  their 
instructions.  At  the  outbreak  of  King  Philip's 
War,  in  spite  of  his  advanced  age,  he  took  charge 
of  the  defense  of  the  Merrimac  frontier.  His 
most  conspicuous  service  was  the  relief  of 
Brookfield  on  Aug.  4,  1675.  Ordered  thence  to 
the  Connecticut  Valley,  he  soon  returned  to 
Groton  to  defend  the  frontier  towns  from 
Chelmsford  to  Lancaster  against  the  Indians 
gathered  at  Mount  Wachusett.  His  duties  in- 
cluded the  placing  of  garrisons,  the  patrolling 
of  the  frontier  with  a  party  of  dragoons,  and  the 
relief  of  threatened  settlements.  Called  away 
by  his  duties  as  magistrate,  he  was  absent  when 
the  Indians  destroyed  Groton  in  March  1676, 
but  he  arrived  with  a  relieving  force  in  time  to 
assist  in  removing  the  inhabitants.  His  own 
house  was  destroyed  and  his  family  forced  to  re- 
move to  Charlestown.  There,  after  further  serv- 
ice on  the  frontier,  he  died,  "a  pious,  orthodox 
man,"  according  to  John  Hull  (diary  in  Archae- 
logia  Americana:  Trans,  and  Colls.  Am.  Antiq. 
Soc,  vol.  Ill,  1857,  p.  241).  He  was  married 
three  times,  first  in  England  to  Mary  Sharpe, 
second  to  Elizabeth,  the  sister  of  Henry  Dun- 
ster  \_q.v.~],  and  third  to  Mary  Dunster,  either 
his  second  wife's  sister  or  cousin.  He  had  seven- 
teen children,  of  whom  Samuel,  1639/40-1707 
[q.v.~\,  was  the  most  distinguished. 

[Joseph  Willard,  Willard  Memoir  (1858),  with  most 
of  the  pertinent  documents  ;  William  Hubbard,  A  Nar- 
rative of  the  Troubles  with  the  Indians  in  New  Eng- 
land (1677)  ;  Thomas  Wheeler,  "Narrative,"  N.  H. 
Hist.  Soc.  Colls.,  vol.  II  (1827)  ;  F.  X.  Moloney,  The 
Fur  Trade  in  New  England  (1931).]  A.  H.  B. 

WILLARD,  SIMON  (Apr.  3,  1753-Aug:  30, 
1848),  clockmaker,  was  born  in  Grafton,  Mass., 
the  eighth  child  of  Benjamin  and  Sarah 
(Brooks)  Willard  and  a  descendant  of  Maj. 
Simon  Willard  \_q.v.~],  one  of  the  founders  of 
Concord.  He  had  but  a  limited  schooling  and 
when  he  was  twelve  years  old  his  father  appren- 
ticed him  to  a  clockmaker  in  Grafton.  Within 
a  year  (1766)  he  had  made  with  his  own  hands 
and  without  any  assistance  a  grandfather  clock 
which  was  pronounced  far  superior  to  those  pro- 
duced by  his  master.  For  the  next  nine  or  ten 
years  little  is  definitely  known  of  Willard's  ac- 
tivities. An  older  brother  was  engaged  in  the 
clock  manufacturing  business  in  Grafton  at  the 


240 


Willard 

time,  and  Simon  may  have  been  employed  by 
him.  He  may,  however,  have  made  clocks  for 
himself,  for,  clocks  marked  "Simon  Willard, 
Grafton,"  are  occasionally  found.  At  the  time 
of  the  Lexington  alarm,  Apr.  19,  1775,  he 
marched  with  his  brothers  in  Capt.  Aaron  Kim- 
ball's company  of  militia  to  Roxbury,  Mass.,  but 
he  was  not  war-minded  and  returned  to  Grafton 
after  a  week.  He  was  drafted  into  the  army  later 
but  he  paid  for  a  substitute,  and  presumably  re- 
mained in  Grafton  making  clocks  during  the 
Revolutionary  War. 

On  Nov.  29,  1776,  he  married  Hannah  Wil- 
lard, his  first  cousin.  After  her  death  and  that 
of  their  child  the  following  August,  he  appar- 
ently determined  to  leave  Grafton,  and  some 
time  between  1777  and  1780  he  went  to  Roxbury, 
where  he  established  a  combined  clock  factory 
and  home  and  occupied  it  until  his  retirement  in 
1839,  a  period  of  over  fifty-eight  years.  During 
his  long  and  active  career  he  manufactured  every 
kind  of  clock,  but  specialized  in  church,  hall,  and 
gallery  timepieces.  He  had  not  been  in  Roxbury 
long  before  his  inventive  faculties  asserted  them- 
selves and  at  the  May  1784  session  of  the  Gen- 
eral Court  of  Massachusetts,  he  was  granted  the 
exclusive  privilege  of  making  and  vending  clock 
jacks  for  five  years.  This,  his  first  patent,  was 
for  a  piece  of  kitchen  furniture  used  for  roasting 
meat  before  the  open  fire.  The  jack  was  sus- 
pended by  a  hook  from  the  mantel  in  front  of 
the  fireplace,  the  meat  was  hung  on  a  hook  on 
the  lower  end  of  the  jack,  and  a  clock  mechanism 
within  the  jack  turned  the  meat  before  the  fire. 
The  invention  for  which  Willard  is  especially 
renowned,  however,  is  that  for  an  improved  time- 
piece, which  he  devised  in  1801,  and  for  which 
a  United  States  patent  was  granted  Feb.  8,  1802. 
This  "Willard  Patent  Timepiece"  at  once  won 
popular  favor  and  in  the  course  of  time  came  to 
be  known  as  a  "banjo  clock,"  a  name  which 
Willard  himself  did  not  use  either  in  his  patent 
specifications  or  advertisements  and  sales.  How 
or  when  the  name  originated  is  not  known.  His 
third  invention  was  an  alarm  clock,  for  which 
he  obtained  a  patent  Dec.  8,  1819,  but  it  was  not 
very  successful  or  popular. 

Willard  built  up  an  enviable  reputation  for 
the  quality  of  the  clocks  he  produced  and  his 
clientele  was  restricted  to  the  wealthier  classes. 
President  Jefferson  was  one  of  his  patrons  and 
as  a  result,  several  of  Willard's  clocks  were  in- 
stalled at  the  University  of  Virginia.  One  is  to- 
day (1936)  in  the  file  room  of  the  office  of  the 
chief  clerk  of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court 
— still  keeping  perfect  time — and  another  is  con- 
tained in  the  Franzoni  case  in  Statuary  Hall  in 


Willard 

the  Capitol  at  Washington.  Willard  was  an 
extremely  poor  business  man ;  he  paid  no  atten- 
tion to  the  fact  that  other  clockmakers  stole  hi^ 
inventions  beyond  spurning  them  personally, 
and  he  retired  at  the  age  of  eighty-six  with  five 
hundred  dollars.  On  Jan.  23,  1788,  he  married 
as  his  second  wife,  Mrs.  Mary  (Bird)  Leeds, 
and  at  the  time  of  his  death  at  Roxbury  he  was 
survived  by  several  of  their  eleven  children. 

[Willard  Geneal.  (1915),  ed.  by  C.  H.  Pope;  J.  W. 
Willard,  A  Hist,  of  Simon  Willard,  Inventor  and  Clock- 
maker  (1911);  N.  H.  Moore,  The  Old  Clock  Book 
(ion)  ;  W.  I.  Milham,  Time  &  Timekeepers  (1923)  ; 
Boston  Transcript,  Sept.  2,  1848;  Patent  Office  rec- 
ords.] C.W.M. 

WILLARD,  SOLOMON  (June  26,  1783- 
Feb.  27,  1861),  sculptor  and  architect,  born  in 
Petersham,  Mass.,  was  the  tenth  child  of  Dea- 
con William  and  Katherine  (Wilder)  Willard, 
a  brother  of  Samuel,  1775-1859,  and  a  nephew 
of  Joseph,  1738-1804  [qq.r.J.  He  was  brought 
up  at  Petersham  and  helped  his  father,  a  car- 
penter and  cabinet-maker,  until  October  1804, 
when  he  went  to  Boston  to  obtain  work  as  a 
carpenter.  In  1808  he  built  the  famous  spiral 
stair  in  the  Exchange  Coffee  House  of  Boston. 
Meanwhile  he  had  studied  architectural  drawing, 
possibly  at  Asher  Benjamin's  school.  In  1809 
he  began  woodcarving,  doing  all  the  capitals  for 
the  Park  Street  Church  and  the  Federal  Street 
Church ;  the  same  year  saw  his  first  sculpture — 
the  colossal  eagle  on  the  old  Boston  Customs 
House.  In  18 10  he  made  the  first  of  several  trips 
south,  visiting  Virginia,  Washington,  Baltimore, 
Philadelphia,  and  New  York.  He  took  up  the 
carving  of  figureheads  for  ships  about  1813,  the 
most  famous  being  that  of  the  Washington, 
launched  in  1816.  He  also  began  carving  in 
stone,  completing  panels  for  the  Sears  house 
and  other  work  for  St.  Paul's  Church,  both  for 
his  intimate  friend  Alexander  Parris  [q.v.~\.  In 
1817-18  he  made  another  long  trip  south  to  study 
the  Houdon  "Washington"  in  Richmond,  as  he 
wished  to  be  the  sculptor  of  the  "Washington" 
lately  authorized  by  the  city  of  Boston.  Unfor- 
tunately, his  elaborate  clay  models  were  de- 
stroyed during  their  sea  trip  back  to  Boston. 
During  the  trip,  however,  he  made  the  models 
for  the  interior  plaster  work  for  the  Unitarian 
Church,  Baltimore,  designed  by  Maximilian 
Godefroy  [q.v.~\,  and  later  a  wooden  model  of 
the  completed  United  States  Capitol  for  Charles 
Bui  finch,  to  whom  he  was  recommended  by  Ithiel 
Town  [qq.v.].  He  refused  Bulfinch's  request 
that  he  take  charge  of  the  decorative  modeling 
for  the  Capitol  and,  after  three  months  in  New 
York,  returned  to  Boston. 

Meanwhile  he  had  been  studying  architecture, 


24I 


Willcox 


Willcox 


physics,  and  chemistry.  He  now  began  practis- 
ing as  an  architect,  besides  giving  lessons  in 
drawing,  sculpture,  and  the  sciences.  He  made 
scale  models  of  the  Pantheon  and  the  Parthe- 
non for  the  Boston  Athenaeum.  He  invented, 
though  he  did  not  patent,  a  hot-air  heating  de- 
vice used  in  many  churches,  and  in  1825  was 
consulted  by  Bulfinch  as  to  the  best  way  of 
heating  the  White  House.  He  was  the  architect 
for  the  Doric  United  States  Branch  Bank  in 
Boston  (1824)  and,  with  Peter  Banner  [<j.?'.], 
for  the  new  building  of  the  Salem  First  Church 
(1826).  Among  his  later  architectural  works 
were  the  Suffolk  County  Court  House,  Boston 
(1825),  the  Boston  Court  House  (1832),  the 
Norfolk  County  Court  House  at  Dedham  (1826), 
the  Quincy  School  (1842),  and  the  Quincy 
Town  Hall   (1844). 

He  is  famous  chiefly  as  architect  of  the  Bunker 
Hill  Monument,  a  position  to  which  he  was  ap- 
pointed in  November  1825.  Various  others 
claimed  a  part  in  its  design,  especially  Horatio 
Greenough  and  Robert  Mills  [qq.v.~\,  but  Wil- 
lard  asserted  that  he  had  never  seen  Greenough's 
model,  and  Mills's  design  only  in  passing  (see 
Wheildon  and  Gallagher,  post).  At  any  rate, 
the  working  drawings  were  his,  and  the  entire 
superintendence  was  in  his  hands  during  the  long, 
troubled  period  of  construction  (1825-42).  In 
1843  he  published  Plans  and  Section  of  the  Obe- 
lisk on  Bunker's  Hill,  with  the  Details  of  Ex- 
periments Made  in  Quarrying  the  Granite.  In 
connection  with  his  work  on  the  monument  Wil- 
lard  had  discovered  the  Quincy  granite  quarries, 
and  with  his  customary  energy  he  began  their 
exploitation,  developing  many  machines  for 
handling  the  stone  and  cutting  in  the  quarries 
columns  and  other  work  for  many  important 
buildings,  especially  the  New  York  Merchants' 
Exchange.  In  the  forties  he  retired  from  the 
quarry  business  and  became  a  gentleman  farmer 
in  Quincy,  characteristically  attempting  farm- 
ing in  a  scientific  way.  He  died  in  Quincy  of 
apoplexy.  Despite  his  eager  restlessness  and 
the  insatiable  curiosity  that  made  him  a  student 
all  his  life,  he  was  slow  of  speech,  meditative, 
and  basically  solitary.  He  never  married,  and  in 
his  later  years  became  something  of  an  eccentric. 

[See  C.  H.  Pope,  Willard  Cencal.  (1915)  ;  W.  W. 
Wheildon,  Memoir  of  Solomon  Willard  (1865)  ;  Helen 
M.  P.  Gallagher,  Robert  Mills  (1935)  ;  Bowen's  Boston 
News-Letter,  Nov.  5,  1825,  Dec.  2,  1826;  £lie  Brault, 
Les  Architectes  par  Leurs  Oeuvres  (Paris,  3  vols., 
1892-93),  where  the  date  of  death  is  given  incorrectly; 
notice  of  death  in  Proc.  Bunker  Hill  Monument  Asso. 
(1861)  and  Boston  Daily  Evening  Traveller,  Mar.  4, 
1861.]  T.  F.H. 

WILLCOX,  LOUISE  COLLIER  (Apr.  24, 
1865-Sept.  13,  1929),  essayist,  critic,  and  editor, 


was  born  in  Chicago,  111.,  one  of  four  children  of 
the  Rev.  Robert  Laird  and  Mary  (Price)  Col- 
lier. Her  father,  a  Unitarian  clergyman,  was  of 
a  Maryland  family;  her  mother's  people  lived  in 
Iowa.  When  she  was  seven  her  mother  died,  and 
soon  afterward  the  father  took  Louise  and  her 
brother,  Hiram  Price  Collier  [q.v.~\,  to  Europe 
with  him.  Louise  was  taught  at  first  by  private 
tutors.  She  studied  in  France,  Germany,  and 
England,  and  then  attended  the  Royal  Conserva- 
tory of  Music  in  Leipzig  (1882-83).  Later  she 
lived  in  England  and  met  some  of  the  eminent 
men  of  the  period,  among  them  John  Bright, 
Cardinal  Newman,  and  Joseph  Chamberlain.  In 
1887  she  joined  the  faculty  of  the  Leache-Wood 
Seminary  of  Norfolk,  Va.,  which  at  that  period 
was  exerting  a  wide  influence  upon  the  cultural 
development  of  Tidewater  Virginia.  Always 
positive  in  her  tastes  and  ideas  in  literature  and 
art,  she  was  one  of  the  most  active  forces  in  the 
school  during  the  three  years  of  her  teaching 
there.  She  was  married  on  June  25,  1890,  to  J. 
Westmore  Willcox,  attorney  of  Norfolk,  and 
made  Norfolk  her  home  for  the  remainder  of  her 
life.  She  was  a  frequent  visitor  to  New  York 
during  the  years  when  she  was  at  the  same  time 
a  publisher's  reader  and  an  editorial  writer  for 
several  periodicals.  With  her  husband  and  two 
children,  she  traveled  extensively  in  Europe. 
She  was  at  times  editorial  writer  for  Har- 
per's Weekly  and  Harper's  Bazar,  and  a  regular 
writer  for  the  Delineator.  From  1906  to  1913 
she  was  a  member  of  the  editorial  staff  of  the 
North  American  Rcviciv,  contributing  princi- 
pally critical  and  review  articles.  She  was  also 
reader  and  adviser  for  the  Macmillan  Company 
(1903-09)  and  for  E.  P.  Dutton  &  Company 
(1910-17).  Her  first  book,  Answers  of  the  Ages 
(1900),  edited  in  collaboration  with  Irene  K. 
Leache,  was  an  anthology  of  quotations  from 
famous  people  bearing  on  the  nature  of  God, 
man,  and  the  soul.  Her  most  original  writing 
appears  in  The  Human  Way  (1909),  a  collection 
of  essays  on  topics  ranging  from  "The  Service 
of  Books"  to  "Friendship,"  "Out-of-Doors," 
and  "The  Hidden  Life."  Her  notable  anthology 
of  mystic  poetry,  A  Manual  of  Spiritual  Fortifi- 
cation (1910),  was  later  republished  as  A  Man- 
ual of  Mystic  Verse  (1917).  Two  small  books, 
The  Road  to  Joy  (1911),  and  The  House  in 
Order  (1917),  are  collections  of  essays  that 
show  her  growing  interest  in  religious  and  mys- 
tical thought.  An  ably  selected  anthology  of 
verse  for  children,  The  Torch,  was  issued  in  two 
handsome  editions,  the  first  in  1924.  During  the 
latter  part  of  her  life  she  devoted  much  of  her 
time  to  the  translation  of  books  by  contemporary 


242 


Willcox 

French  and  German  authors,  among  them  My 
Friend  from  Limousin  (1923),  by  Jean  Girau- 
doux;  Gold  (1924),  a  translation  of  Jacob  Was- 
sermann's  Ulrika  Woytich ;  The  Sentimental 
Bestiary  (1924),  by  Charles  Derennes  ;  The  Sar- 
donic Smile  (1926),  by  Ludwig  Diehl ;  and  The 
Bewitched  (1928),  by  J.  Barbey  d'Aurevilly. 
Throughout  her  life  she  contributed  articles  to 
magazines  and  newspapers,  and  she  lectured  fre- 
quently on  literary  and  artistic  subjects.  She 
was  a  woman  of  striking  appearance,  and  an  en- 
ergetic and  markedly  individual  personality. 
Her  power  as  an  intellectual  force  exerted  itself 
in  many  ways  upon  the  community  in  which  she 
lived.  She  died  in  Paris,  while  on  a  visit  to  her 
son,  on  Friday,  Sept.  13,  1929. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1928-29  ;  obituary  in  N.  Y. 
Times,  Sept.  14,  1929  ;  information  from  J.  Westmore 
Willcox.]  t  5  \\r_ 

WILLCOX,  ORLANDO  BOLIVAR  (Apr. 
16,  1823-May  10,  1907),  soldier,  was  born  in 
Detroit,  Mich.,  the  son  of  Charles  and  Almira 
(Rood)  Powers  Willcox.  The  family  traces  its 
descent  from  William  Wilcoxson,  one  of  the 
founders  of  Stratford,  Conn.  Orlando  was  ap- 
pointed a  cadet  at  West  Point  in  1843,  graduated 
in  1847,  ranking  eighth  in  a  class  of  thirty-eight, 
and  was  promoted  second  lieutenant  in  the  4th 
Artillery.  He  joined  his  regiment  in  Mexico, 
and  returned  home  with  it  in  1848.  His  next 
service  was  on  the  southern  and  western  frontier, 
including  campaigns  against  the  Seminole  In- 
dians in  1856  and  1857;  he  was  promoted  first 
lieutenant  Apr.  30,  1850.  On  Sept.  10,  1857,  he 
resigned  his  commission,  and  entered  upon  the 
practice  of  law  in  Detroit  with  his  brother,  Eben 
N.  Willcox. 

When  the  Civil  War  began  he  was  commis- 
sioned colonel  of  the  1st  Michigan  Infantry.  At 
Bull  Run,  where  he  commanded  a  brigade,  he 
was  wounded  and  captured,  and  remained  a  pris- 
oner for  over  a  year,  for  several  months  in  close 
confinement  as  a  hostage  for  Confederate  pri- 
vateersmen  in  the  hands  of  the  United  States, 
whose  status  as  prisoners  of  war  was  under  ques- 
tion. Exchanged  Aug.  19,  1862,  he  was  made 
brigadier-general  of  volunteers,  his  rank  dating 
from  July  21,  1861,  the  date  of  the  battle  of  Bull 
Run.  He  was  assigned  to  Burnside's  IX  Corps, 
with  which  he  served  with  marked  distinction  in 
the  Antietam  campaign  and  throughout  the  rest 
of  the  war,  commanding  a  division.  While  Burn- 
side  was  in  command  of  the  Army  of  the  Poto- 
mac, and  at  various  other  times,  Willcox  com- 
manded the  corps ;  he  was  actively  employed  at 
Fredericksburg,  Knoxville,  and  in  the  final  cam- 
paigns from  the  Wilderness  to  Petersburg.   For 


Willet 

distinguished  service  he  received  the  brevet  rank 
of  major-general  of  volunteers,  Aug.  1,  1864, 
and  of  brigadier-general  and  major-general  in 
the  regular  service,  Mar.  2,  1867. 

Mustered  out  of  the  service,  Jan.  15,  1866,  he 
returned  to  Detroit  to  resume  the  practice  of 
law ;  but  on  July  28,  1866,  he  was  reappointed  in 
the  regular  army  as  colonel,  29th  Infantry,  and 
assigned  to  duty  in  Virginia.  In  March  1869  he 
was  transferred  to  the  12th  Infantry,  joining  it 
at  San  Francisco,  where  he  served  until  Febru- 
ary 1878,  except  for  a  brief  tour  as  superintend- 
ent of  recruiting  in  New  York.  For  over  four 
years  (March  1878-September  1882),  he  com- 
manded the  Department  of  Arizona,  and  received 
the  thanks  of  the  territorial  legislature  for  his 
conduct  of  operations  against  the  Apache  In- 
dians. His  next  station  was  Madison  Barracks, 
New  York,  where  he  was  in  command  until  1886. 
On  Oct.  13  of  that  year  he  was  promoted  brig- 
adier-general, and  assumed  command  of  the  De- 
partment of  the  Missouri,  where  he  remained 
until  his  retirement,  Apr.  16,  1887.  In  1889  he 
was  made  governor  of  the  Soldiers'  Home  in 
Washington,  and  after  completing  this  tour  of 
duty  resided  for  a  time  in  that  city.  In  1905  he 
took  up  his  residence  in  Coburg,  Ontario,  where 
he  remained  until  his  death. 

Willcox  was  twice  married ;  first,  in  1852,  to 
Marie  Louise,  daughter  of  Chancellor  Elon 
Farnsworth  of  Detroit ;  second,  to  Julia  Eliza- 
beth (McReynolds)  Wyeth,  widow  of  Charles  J. 
Wyeth  of  Detroit.  He  had  six  children,  five  by 
his  first  marriage  and  one  by  the  second.  He  was 
the  author  of  an  artillery  manual,  and  of  two 
novels  dealing  with  army  life  and  with  Detroit. 
Both  of  the  novels  were  published  under  the  pen 
name  of  "Walter  March" — Shoepac  Recollec- 
tions: A  Way-side  Glimpse  of  American  Life  in 
1856,  and  Faca,  an  Army  Memoir,  in  1857. 

[G.  W.  Cullum,  Biog.  Reg.  Officers  and  Grads.  U.  S. 
Mil.  Acad.  (3rd  ed.,  189 1),  vol.  II  ;  Thirty-Eighth  Ann. 
Reunion,  Asso.  Grads.  U.  S.  Mil.  Acad.  (1907)  ;  War 
of  the  Rebellion:  Official  Records  (Army)  ;  Who's  Who 
in  America,  1906—07  ;  Army  and  Navy  Jour.,  May  18, 
1907;  Detroit  Free  Press,  May  11,  1907.] 

O.L.S.Jr. 

WILLET,  WILLIAM  (Nov.  1,  1867-Mar.  29, 
1921),  artist  in  stained  glass,  was  born  in  New 
York  City,  the  son  of  George  and  Catherine 
(Van  Ranst)  Willet.  His  father's  occupation 
as  a  wood-worker  and  his  mother's  musical  tal- 
ent may  have  been  related  to  young  Willet's 
esthetic  enthusiasms.  Of  his  earlier  ancestors, 
Thomas  Willet  was  the  first  English  mayor  of 
New  York  City ;  on  his  mother's  side  there  was 
the  romantic  Anneke  Jans,  wife  of  Everardus 
Bogardus  [q.v.~\.  Willet  never  boasted  of  his  an- 


243 


Willet 


Willett 


cestors,  of  his  athletic  skill,  nor  of  his  struggles 
against  poverty  after  his  father's  death  in  1880. 
But  he  did  chuckle  to  recall  the  hot  baked  po- 
tatoes that  kept  him  warm  on  windy  walks  over 
Brooklyn  Bridge  before  he  devoured  them.  He 
never  mentioned  the  world-championship  medal 
he  won  in  an  English-American  Walking  Race 
in  1886,  nor  his  successes  in  portrait  painting 
in  1885  that,  with  his  mother's  position  as  solo- 
ist in  prominent  churches,  kept  the  Willet  home 
from  crumbling.  He  won  a  college  scholarship 
in  1884  which  he  could  not  afford  to  accept,  but 
he  did  study  at  the  Mechanics'  and  Tradesmen's 
Institute  in  1884-85  and  under  the  artists  Wil- 
liam Merritt  Chase  and  John  La  Farge  [qq.v.] 
from  1884  to  1886.  His  vivid  color-sense  inter- 
ested La  Farge,  and  in  that  master's  studio-work- 
shop young  Willet  learned  to  make  picture  win- 
dows of  the  new  opalescent  glass.  Later,  when 
it  was  exploited  by  the  art-glass  industry,  Wil- 
let rebelled  against  it  and  all  its  works.  He  ap- 
pears in  Brooklyn  city  directories  from  1887  to 
1892  as  a  designer  and  as  a  worker  in  stained 
glass.  From  about  1898  to  1913  he  lived  in  Pitts- 
burgh, where  by  1899  he  had  established  the 
Willet  Stained  Glass  and  Decorating  Company. 
His  influence  increased  after  his  marriage  in 
1896  to  Anne  Lee,  daughter  of  the  Rev.  Henry 
Flavel  Lee  of  Philadelphia.  Mrs.  Willett  was 
herself  a  trained  artist,  and  through  her  sympa- 
thetic cooperation,  he  was  encouraged  in  his 
own  efforts  and  to  study  old  windows  in  Eu- 
rope. From  his  trip  in  1902  he  returned  with  re- 
newed convictions.  The  energy  that  he  had 
poured  into  athletics  and  later  into  religious 
work  returned  to  him  when  in  1902  he  first  chal- 
lenged popular  taste  in  Christian  art.  His  tall, 
slender  figure  would  straighten  and  his  quiet 
voice  would  take  on  power  when  he  talked  be- 
fore interested  audiences,  large  or  small.  Among 
the  converts  to  his  convictions  was  the  architect 
of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  in  Pittsburgh, 
where  minister  and  congregation  preferred  pic- 
ture windows.  Willet's  "antique"  window  of 
1906  was  promptly  hidden  behind  a  great  organ, 
but  not  before  it  had  been  observed  by  Ralph 
Adams  Cram,  who  gave  him  a  commission  for 
the  chancel  window  in  his  distinguished  Cal- 
vary Church  of  Pittsburgh  in  1907.  That  win- 
dow was  hailed  with  delight  and  was  followed 
by  many  other  windows  for  important  buildings. 
Of  these,  the  best  known  are  the  sanctuary  win- 
dow of  the  chapel  at  West  Point  (1910)  and  the 
great  west  window  of  the  Graduate  School, 
Princeton  University  (1913).  The  West  Point 
competition  was  international  in  scope,  and  the 
winning  design  by  Willet  has  been  called  the 


symbol  of  a  regenerated  craft  in  America.  Other 
work  by  Willet  is  to  be  seen  in  St.  John's  of  Lat- 
tington,  L.  I.,  Trinity  Church  in  Syracuse,  N.  Y., 
Holy  Trinity  Church  in  Philadelphia,  and  Cal- 
vary Church  in  Germantown,  Pa.  His  original 
designs  were  exquisite  water-color  miniatures 
that  seemed  almost  miraculous  as  they  were  de- 
veloped from  a  grubby  box  of  water-colors  in  a 
dusty  shop.  His  article,  "The  Art  of  Stained 
Glass,"  appeared  in  Architecture  in  April  1918. 
In  1913  the  Willet  family  moved  to  Philadel- 
phia, where  Willet  was  president  of  the  Willet 
Stained  Glass  and  Decorating  Company  from 
1915  until  his  death  in  1921.  He  was  survived  by 
his  wife,  two  daughters,  and  a  son,  who  also  be- 
came an  artist  in  stained  glass. 

[Sources  include  J.  E.  Bookstaver,  The  Willet  .  .  . 
Geneal.  (1914  ed.)  ;  N.  H.  Dole,  in  Internat.  Studio, 
Oct.  1904;  Am.  Mag.  of  Art,  Sept.  1921  ;  obituary  in 
Pub.  Ledger  (Phila.),  Mar.  30,  1921  ;  information  from 
Willet's  son,  Henry  Lee  Willet.]  C  J  C. 

WILLETT,  MARINUS  (July  31,  1740-Aug. 
22,  1830),  Revolutionary  soldier,  one  of  the  six 
sons  of  Aletta  Clowes  and  Edward  Willett,  de- 
scendant of  Thomas  Willet  (or  Willett)  of 
Flushing,  was  born  at  Jamaica,  L.  I.  For  the 
greater  part  of  his  life  he  was  a  resident  of  New 
York  City,  in  which  place  he  attended  King's 
College,  worked  at  cabinet  making,  and  there- 
after became  a  merchant  of  means  and  the  owner 
of  considerable  real  property.  In  1758,  he  ob- 
tained a  commission  as  second  lieutenant  in  Oli- 
ver De  Lancey's  New  York  regiment ;  he  served 
with  General  Abercromby  in  his  unsuccessful  ex- 
pedition against  the  French  at  Fort  Ticonderoga ; 
and  later  participated  in  Col.  John  Bradstreet's 
campaign  against  Fort  Frontenac.  During  the 
period  before  the  Revolution,  he  was  an  out- 
standing Son  of  Liberty  and  a  leader  of  the  rad- 
ical patriots  in  New  York  City.  He  aided  in  the 
attack  on  the  arsenal,  Apr.  23,  1775,  and  on  June 
6,  he  and  his  associates  seized  arms  from  the 
British  forces  which  were  evacuating  the  city,  an 
act  which  was  disavowed  by  the  Provincial  Con- 
gress. From  June  28,  1775,  to  May  9,  1776,  he 
served  as  a  captain  in  Alexander  McDougall's 
first  New  York  regiment.  Participating  in  1775 
in  the  invasion  of  Canada  under  General  Mont- 
gomery, he  was  left  in  command  of  Fort  St. 
Johns,  captured  on  Nov.  3. 

Returning  after  a  brief  period  to  New  York 
City,  he  was  commissioned  lieutenant-colonel, 
3rd  New  York  Regiment,  on  Nov.  21,  1776,  and 
placed  in  command  of  Fort  Constitution.  In 
May  1777  he  was  ordered  to  Fort  Stanwix, 
where  he  was  second  in  command  under  Colonel 
Gansevoort.    During  an  attack  on  the  fort  by 


244 


Willett 

the  British  under  Col.  Barry  St.  Leger,  Willett 
distinguished  himself  hy  leading  a  successful 
sortie  against  the  enemy.  For  his  bravery  on 
this  occasion,  Congress  voted,  Oct.  4,  i/"7,  to 
present  him  with  an  "elegant  sword."  In  1778 
he  joined  Washington's  army,  and  fought  at 
Monmouth,  under  General  Scott.  The  next  year 
he  took  part  in  the  Sullivan-Clinton  expedition 
against  the  Indians.  On  July  1,  1780,  he  was  ap- 
pointed lieutenant-colonel  commandant,  5th  Reg- 
iment of  New  York.  After  the  consolidation  of 
the  five  New  York  regiments  into  two,  Willett 
was  prevailed  upon  by  Governor  Clinton  to  ac- 
cept command  of  a  regiment  of  levies  on  the 
Tryon  frontier,  where,  on  Oct.  25,  1781,  he  led 
the  attack  in  the  successful  battle  of  Johnstown. 

At  the  close  of  the  war,  Willett  was  elected  to 
the  Assembly,  but  vacated  his  seat  to  accept,  in 
1784,  an  appointment  as  sheriff  of  the  city  and 
county  of  New  York,  which  office  he  held  until 
1788.  He  failed  of  election  as  an  anti-Federalist 
to  the  New  York  convention  of  1788.  In  1790, 
he  was  sent  by  Washington  to  treat  with  the 
Creek  Indians,  and  so  successful  was  his  diplo- 
macy that  he  returned,  bringing  with  him  the 
half-breed  chief,  Alexander  McGillivray  \_q.v.~\. 
After  a  succession  of  festivities,  including  a  re- 
ception by  President  Washington  and  Governor 
Clinton,  Willett  witnessed  the  conclusion  of  a 
treaty  with  the  Creeks,  Aug.  7,  1790.  Offered  an 
appointment  as  brigadier-general  in  the  United 
States  Army  in  April  1792,  he  declined  to  serve 
on  the  ground  that  he  considered  it  unwise  for 
the  United  States  to  engage  at  that  time  in  any 
Indian  war  (W.  M.  Willett,  post,  pp.  1 16-18). 
He  was  reappointed  sheriff  in  1792  for  another 
term  of  four  years.  In  politics  a  Republican  and 
long  a  supporter  of  Gov.  George  Clinton,  he 
turned  to  Burr,  was  appointed  mayor  of  New 
York  City  in  1807  to  succeed  DeWitt  Clinton, 
and  four  years  later,  as  candidate  for  lieutenant- 
governor  in  opposition  to  DeWitt  Clinton,  he 
was  defeated. 

Willett  was  married  on  Apr.  2,  1760,  in  Trin- 
ity Church,  to  Mary  Pearsee,  who  died  on  July 
3,  1793.  He  next  married,  on  Oct.  3,  1793 
{Weekly  Museum,  New  York,  Oct.  5,  1793), 
Mrs.  Susannah  Vardill,  the  daughter  of  Edward 
Nicoll  of  New  York,  and  the  widow  of  Joseph 
Jauncey  and  of  Thomas  Vardill.  This  marriage 
proving  an  unhappy  one,  a  divorce  was  obtained 
by  Mrs.  Willett  (bill  filed  Nov.  II,  1799;  decree 
filed  Apr.  10,  1805).  Willett  married,  for  his 
third  wife,  probably  in  1799  to  1800,  Margaret 
Bancker,  daughter  of  Christopher  and  Mary 
Smith  Bancker,  by  whom  he  had  five  children. 
He  died  at  his  home  at  Cedar  Grove,  New  York. 


Willey 


[Sources  include  H.  J.  Banker,  A  Partial  Hist,  and 
Geneal,  Record  of  the  Bancker  or  Banker  Families  of 
America  (1909);  J.  E.  Bookstaver,  The  Willet  .  .  . 
Geneal.  (1906)  ;  A.  C.  Flick,  Hist,  of  the  State  of  N.  Y ., 
vols.  III-V  (1933-34)  ;  E.  H.  Hillman,  in  N.  Y.  Gen- 
eal. and  Biog.  Record,  Apr.  1916;  Names  of  Persons 
for  Whom  Marriage  Licenses  Were  Issued  by  the  Sec- 
retary of  the  Province  of  N.  Y '.,  Prcz'ious  to  1784 
(i860);  D.  T.  Valentine,  Manual  of  the  Corporation 
of  the  City  of  N.  Y.  (1853)  ;  W.  M.  Willett,  A  Narra- 
tive of  the  Mil.  Actions  of  Col.  Marinus  Willett  { 1831 )  ; 
N.  Y.  Geneal.  and  Biog.  Record,  Jan.  1888,  Oct.  1896, 
Jan.  1897,  Apr.  1919  ;  N.  Y.  State  Archives:  New  York 
in  the  Revolution,  vol.  I  (1887);  Public  Papers  of 
George  Clinton  (10  vols.,  1899-1914)  ;  D.  E.  Wager, 
Col.  Marinus  Willett:  The  Hero  of  Mohawk  (1891)  ; 
N.  Y.  American,  Aug.  24,  1830;  the  N.  Y.  Hist.  Soc. 
has  notes  prepared  by  William  Kelby  regarding  Wil- 
letl's  marriages,  etc.  The  journal  of  Willett's  mission 
to  the  Creek  Indians  (76  pp.)  is  in  the  N.  Y.  Pub.  Lib.] 

E.W.S. 

WILLEY,  SAMUEL  HOPKINS  (Mar.  11, 
1821-Jan.  21,  1914),  pioneer  California  clergy- 
man and  educator,  was  born  in  Campton,  Graf- 
ton County,  N.  H.,  the  son  of  Darius  and  Mary 
(Pulsifer)  Willey.  His  earliest  American  ances- 
tor was  Isaac  Willey  who  was  in  Boston,  Mass., 
as  early  as  1640,  soon  removed  to  Charles- 
town,  and  later  went  with  John  Winthrop,  Jr., 
to  what  is  now  New  London,  Conn.  Samuel 
graduated  from  Dartmouth  College  in  1845  and 
from  Union  Theological  Seminary,  New  York, 
in  1848.  On  Nov.  30  of  the  same  year  he  was 
ordained  by  the  Fourth  Presbytery  of  New 
York.  He  then  went  to  Medford,  Mass.,  with 
the  expectation  of  settling  there  as  pastor  of 
the  Congregational  church. 

Circumstances  were  conspiring  to  take  him  to 
the  other  side  of  the  continent,  however.  With 
the  acquisition  of  California  by  the  United  States 
and  the  discovery  of  gold  there,  the  officials  of 
the  American  Missionary  Society  felt  a  duty  to 
the  people  that  were  flocking  thither.  They  per- 
suaded Willey  to  accept  a  mission  to  the  newly 
acquired  territory,  and  accordingly,  on  Dec.  1, 
1848,  he  sailed  from  New  York  for  the  Pacific 
Coast  by  way  of  the  Isthmus  of  Panama.  Arriv- 
ing at  Chagres,  the  ship's  company  was  taken  up 
the  Chagres  River  to  Cruces,  and  then  overland 
to  Panama,  encountering  cholera  on  the  way. 
After  a  month's  delay,  they  went  up  the  coast  on 
the  California,  the  first  steamship  to  make  the 
trip,  and  landed  at  Monterey  on  Feb.  23,  1849. 
Two  days  later  Willey  conducted  his  first  serv- 
ice there.  Monterey  was  at  that  time  the  resi- 
dence of  the  governor  and  army  headquarters, 
and  Willey  remained  until  the  importance  of  the 
place  passed  with  the  organization  of  a  state 
government.  The  council  of  administration  ap- 
pointed him  chaplain  to  the  post,  securing  a 
commission  for  him  from  Washington.  He 
opened  a  school  in  Colton  Hall,  where  he  taught 


245 


Willey 

forty  or  fifty  children.  Securing  subscriptions  of 
some  $1500  from  the  residents,  he  sent  to  New 
York  for  books  and  established  what  was  prob- 
ably the  first  public  library  in  California.  At  the 
constitutional  convention  which  opened  Sept.  1, 
1849,  he  served  as  chaplain,  alternating  in  the 
duties  of  that  office  with  Padre  Juan  Ramirez. 
In  May  1850  he  transferred  his  activities  to  San 
Francisco.  Here  he  labored  for  twelve  years, 
establishing  and  becoming  pastor  of  the  How- 
ard Presbyterian  Church  in  the  section  of  the 
city  then  called  "Happy  Valley" ;  taking  an  ac- 
tive part  in  the  opening  of  public  schools ;  assist- 
ing in  editing  The  Pacific,  a  religious  period- 
ical ;  and  serving  as  representative  for  the  Amer- 
ican Missionary  Society  in  the  extension  of  re- 
ligious work  in  the  state. 

Soon  after  his  arrival  in  California  he  inter- 
ested himself  actively  in  a  project  for  founding 
a  college.  Although  encouraging  progress  was 
made,  the  enterprise  met  with  difficulties  which 
caused  its  temporary  abandonment.  When  in 
1853,  however,  Henry  Durant  [q.v.~\  opened  an 
academy  at  Contra  Costa  (Berkeley)  in  the  hope 
that  it  would  develop  into  a  college,  Willey  be- 
came one  of  his  leading  advisers  and  helpers.  On 
Apr.  13,  1855,  the  legislature  incorporated  the 
College  of  California  in  Berkeley,  with  Willey 
as  one  of  the  trustees.  The  board  took  over  the 
property  and  control  of  the  academy,  and  in  i860 
collegiate  work  was  begun.  Two  years  later 
Willey  resigned  his  pastorate  with  the  idea  of 
continuing  his  ministry  in  the  East,  but  was  per- 
suaded to  remain  in  California  and  devote  him- 
self to  building  up  the  college.  Accordingly,  he 
was  appointed  its  vice-president  and  served  as 
acting  president  until  1869,  when  the  property 
and  management  of  the  institution  were  turned 
over  to  the  board  of  regents  of  the  University  of 
California,  established  by  legislative  enactment 
in  1868. 

For  the  next  ten  years  (1 870-1 880)  he  was 
pastor  of  the  Congregational  church  in  Santa 
Cruz,  Cal.,  and  from  1880  to  1889,  of  the  Con- 
gregational church  in  Benicia.  He  then  became 
president  of  Van  Ness  Seminary,  San  Francisco, 
in  which  capacity  he  served  until  1896.  There- 
after, he  made  his  home  in  Berkeley,  engaged 
chiefly  in  writing.  He  was  the  author  of  Decade 
Sermons  (1859)  ;  A  Historical  Paper  Relating 
to  Santa  Cruz,  California  (1876)  ;  Thirty  Years 
in  California  (1879)  >  A  History  of  the  College 
of  California  (1887)  ;  The  History  of  the  First 
Pastorate  of  the  Howard  Presbyterian  Church, 
San  Francisco,  California  (1900)  ;  The  Transi- 
tion Period  of  California  From  a  Province  of 
Mexico  in  1846  to  a  State  of  the  American  Union 


Willey 


in  1850  (1901).  He  was  married,  Sept.  19,  1849, 

to  Martha  N.  Jeffers  of  Bridgeton,  N.  J.,  by 

whom  he  had  six  children. 

[In  addition  to  Willey 's  writings  mentioned  above, 
see  Henry  Willey,  Isaac  Willey  of  New  London,  Conn., 
and  His  Descendants  (1888)  ;  Gen.  Cat.  Union  Theo- 
logical Seminary  (1919)  ;  W.  C.  Jones,  Illustrated  Hist, 
of  the  Univ.  of  Cal.  (1901)  ;  The  Congregational  Y ear- 
Book,  1914  ;  Who's  Who  in  America,  1912-13  ;  Los 
Angeles  Daily  Times,  Jan.  ,22,  1914.]  H.  E.  S. 

WILLEY,  WAITMAN  THOMAS  (Oct.  18, 
1811-May  2,  1900),  senator  from  West  Vir- 
ginia, was  born  in  a  log  cabin  in  Monongalia 
County,  Va.,  near  what  is  now  Farmington, 
Marion  County,  W.  Va.  William,  his  father,  of 
English  descent,  had  moved  west  from  Delaware 
about  1782  ;  Waitman's  mother,  Sarah  (Barnes), 
was  born  in  Maryland  of  English  and  Irish  stock. 
As  a  child,  Waitman  attended  school  less  than 
twelve  months,  most  of  his  youth  being  spent  on 
his  father's  farm,  first  on  Buffalo  Creek  and 
later  on  the  banks  of  the  Monongahela.  He  was 
graduated  in  183 1  from  Madison  College,  Union- 
town,  Pa.,  studied  law  with  Philip  Doddridge 
[q.v.]  and  John  C.  Campbell,  and  in  Morgan- 
town  (then  in  Virginia)  began  a  practice  in 
which  he  gained  a  livelihood  and  a  local  repu- 
tation. He  married  Elizabeth  E.  Ray  on  Oct.  9, 
1834. 

A  Whig  in  political  faith,  Willey  served  in 
various  minor  positions,  from  1840  to  1850,  and 
was  a  delegate  to  the  Virginia  constitutional  con- 
vention of  1850,  where  he  championed  western 
measures,  especially  white  manhood  suffrage. 
He  also  joined  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
and  became  active  in  the  Sons  of  Temperance. 
He  was  defeated  as  a  candidate  for  lieutenant- 
governor  in  1859.  The  next  year,  supporting 
Bell  and  Everett,  he  struggled  against  the  tide 
of  disunion,  and  in  the  state  convention  of  1861 
voted  against  the  secession  of  Virginia. 

His  chief  work  began  with  the  movement  for 
a  new  state  in  western  Virginia.  Reluctantly 
he  admitted  the  necessity  for  dividing  the  Old 
Dominion.  In  the  Mass  Convention  at  Wheel- 
ing, May  12,  1861,  he  was  one  of  the  conserva- 
tive leaders  who  checked  the  radical  movement 
to  create  a  state  government  immediately.  A  new 
convention,  contingent  upon  the  ratification  of 
secession  at  the  polls,  met  on  June  11,  and  reor- 
ganized the  government  of  Virginia  in  the  north- 
western counties,  under  Francis  H.  Pierpont 
[q.v.~\  as  governor.  In  addition  to  consenting  to 
the  division  of  the  state,  this  government  later  be- 
came the  reconstruction  government  of  Virginia. 
By  it  Willey  was  elected  almost  immediately  to 
the  United  States  Senate  to  fill  the  vacancy  caused 
by  the  withdrawal  of  James  M.  Mason  [q.v.~]. 


I46 


Williams 

He  presented  the  constitution  of  West  Virginia 
and  was  instrumental  in  securing  its  acceptance 
by  Congress  and  the  ratification  by  the  people 
of  the  "Willey  amendment"  providing  for  the 
gradual  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  proposed  state. 
He  was  continued  in  the  Senate  by  the  legisla- 
ture of  West  Virginia  and  was  reelected  in  1865. 
That  the  West  Virginia  revolution  took  the 
form  of  law  and  that  the  statehood  movement 
was  successful  were  in  large  measure  due  to  the 
leadership  of  Willey  and  his  associates. 

In  the  meantime,  he  had  become  a  Republican 
and  had  campaigned  for  Lincoln  in  1864.  He 
later  became  a  Radical  Republican  and  voted  for 
the  impeachment  of  President  Johnson.  Usually, 
but  not  invariably,  he  supported  party  measures. 
Democratic  victory  in  West  Virginia  in  1870 
resulted  in  his  retirement  from  office,  which  he 
accepted  gracefully,  closing  his  work  in  the  state 
constitutional  convention  of  1872  by  introducing 
resolutions  calling  for  a  cessation  of  political 
disabilities.  He  campaigned  for  the  Republicans 
in  1868,  1872,  and  1876,  being  a  member  of  the 
national  convention  in  the  last-named  year.  Lo- 
cal office  holding,  law,  and  domestic  duties  en- 
gaged his  activities  during  the  remainder  of  his 
life.  He  died  in  Morgantown,  W.  Va.,  in  his 
eighty-ninth  year. 

[Willey's  diary  (2  vols.,  covering  1844-1900  and 
containing  newspaper  clippings)  and  15  boxes  of  letters 
to  Willey  in  W.  Va.  Univ.  Lib.  ;  biog.  essay  written  be- 
fore Willey's  death  by  his  son-in-law,  J.  M.  Hagans, 
in  S.  T.  Wiley,  Hist,  of  Monongalia  County,  W.  Va. 
(1883),  and  in  abridged  form  in  Biog.  and  Port r.  Cyc. 
of  Monongalia,  Marion  and  Taylor  Counties,  W.  Va. 
(1895)  ;  W.  P.  Willey,  An  Inside  View  of  the  Forma- 
tion of  the  State  of  W.  Va.  (1901)  ;  Biog.  Dir.  Am. 
Cong.  (1028)  ;  Wheeling  Register,  May  3,  1900.] 

J— n  D.  B. 

WILLIAMS,  ALPHEUS  STARKEY  (Sept. 
20,  1810-Dec.  21,  1878),  soldier,  congressman, 
was  born  at  Saybrook,  Conn.,  the  son  of  Ezra 
and  Hepzibah  (Starkey)  Williams.  His  father 
was  a  prosperous  manufacturer.  The  son  was 
graduated  from  Yale  College  in  1831  and  studied 
for  three  years  in  the  Yale  law  school,  spend- 
ing his  vacations  in  travel  which  took  him  into 
every  state  of  the  Union  and  into  Texas  (then 
Mexican  territory).  From  1834  to  1836  he  trav- 
eled in  Europe  in  company  with  Nathaniel  P. 
Willis  and  Edwin  Forrest  [qq.v.],  and  after 
his  return  to  the  United  States  he  was  admitted 
to  the  bar  of  the  state  of  Michigan  and  estab- 
lished a  practice  in  Detroit.  He  was  county  pro- 
bate judge  from  1840  to  1844.  He  then  bought 
a  controlling  interest  in  the  Detroit  Daily  Ad- 
vertiser, the  leading  Whig  newspaper  in  Michi- 
gan, but  he  disposed  of  it  when  he  entered  the 
volunteer  army  late  in  1847  as  lieutenant-colonel, 
1st  Michigan  Infantry.  The  regiment  had  garri- 


Williams 

son  duty  in  Mexico,  experienced  some  guerrilla 
warfare,  and  was  mustered  out  in  July  1848. 
Williams  was  postmaster  of  Detroit  from  1849 
to  1853,  then  president  of  the  Michigan  Oil  Com- 
pany, member  of  the  city  council  and  board  of 
education,  and  president  of  the  state  military 
board. 

In  April  1861  he  was  appointed  brigadier-gen- 
eral of  state  troops  and  had  charge  of  the  camp 
instruction  of  Fort  Wayne  (Detroit)  until  ap- 
pointed brigadier-general  of  volunteers  in  Au- 
gust. He  commanded  a  division  in  the  Shenan- 
doah Valley  campaign  of  1862  and  a  division  of 
the  XII  Corps  at  the  battle  of  South  Mountain. 
It  was  to  his  headquarters  that  Lee's  famous  lost 
order  was  brought,  giving  full  information  as  to 
the  location  and  plans  of  the  Confederate  forces. 
When  Gen.  Joseph  K.  F.  Mansfield  [q.v.~\  was 
killed  early  in  the  battle  of  Antietam,  Williams 
succeeded  to  the  command  of  the  corps.  He  re- 
turned to  his  division  when  superseded  by  Slo- 
cum,  and  led  it  with  conspicuous  ability  at  Chan- 
cellorsville  and  Gettysburg.  On  the  consolida- 
tion of  the  XI  and  XII  Corps,  he  received  the 
1st  division  of  the  new  XX  Corps  in  the  Army  of 
the  Cumberland,  one  of  Sherman's  armies,  and 
served  with  it  through  the  Atlanta  campaign. 
During  the  march  to  the  sea  and  the  campaign 
of  the  Carolinas  he  commanded  the  XX  Corps. 
He  was  in  charge  of  a  military  district  in  Ar- 
kansas until  his  muster  out,  Jan.  15,  1866.  He 
had  proved  a  competent  division  and  corps  com- 
mander, large  responsibility  had  been  thrown 
early  upon  him,  and  his  superiors  trusted  him. 
To  his  men  he  was  always  known  as  "Old  Pap" 
Williams,  perhaps  because  he  wore  a  beard  even 
more  luxuriant  than  was  customary  in  those  days. 

In  1866  he  received  a  political  appointment 
as  minister  resident  to  the  republic  of  Salvador, 
and  served  for  three  years.  He  was  an  unsuc- 
cessful candidate  for  governor  in  1870,  but  in 
1874  and  again  in  1876  was  elected  to  congress 
as  a  Democrat.  He  died  in  Washington  during 
his  second  term  of  office.  He  was,  at  the  time, 
chairman  of  the  committee  on  the  District  of  Co- 
lumbia, a  more  than  ordinarily  responsible  posi- 
tion at  that  time,  when  the  government  of  the 
District  was  in  the  throes  of  reorganization.  He 
was  twice  married;  first,  in  January  1838,  to 
Mrs.  Jane  Hereford  (Larned)  Pierson  of  De- 
troit, and,  after  her  death  in  1848,  on  Sept.  17, 
1873,  to  Martha  Ann  (Conant)  Tillman,  the 
widow  of  James  W.  Tillman,  of  Detroit.  He  had 
three  children  by  his  first  wife  and  four  by  his 
second. 

[Joseph  Greusel,  Gen.  A.  S.  Williams  (1911)  ;  Memo- 
rial Addresses  on  the  Life  and  Character  of  A.  S.  Wil- 


247 


Williams 

Hams  (1880);  Representative  Men  of  Mich.  (1878); 
Biog.  Dir.  Am.  Cong.  (1928)  ;  Obit.  Record  of  Grads. 
of  Yale  Coll.  Deceased  During  Acad.  Year  Ending  June 
1879  ;  Battles  and  Leaders  of  the  Civil  War  (4  vols., 
1887-88);  S.  E.  Pittman,  Operations  of  Gen.  A.  S. 
Williams  and  His  Command  in  the  Chancellorsville 
Campaign  (1888)  ;  F.  O.  Conant,  A  Hist,  and  Geneal. 
of  the  Conant  Family  (1887);  W.  L.  Learned,  The 
Learned  Family  (2nd  ed.,  1898)  ;  Evening  Star  (Wash- 
ington, D.  C),  Dec.  21,  1878.]  T.  M.  S. 

WILLIAMS,  BARNEY  (July  20,  1823-Apr. 
25,  1876),  actor,  was  born  in  Cork,  Ireland,  the 
son  of  Michael  Flaherty,  who  emigrated  to 
America,  and  became  a  grocer  and  then  a  board- 
ing-house keeper  near  the  Bowery  in  New  York. 
The  son,  Bernard  Flaherty,  grew  up  in  that  sec- 
tion of  Manhattan,  and  was  familiar  with  the  life 
of  the  immigrants  who  were  beginning  to  stream 
in,  and  with  the  "fire  boys,"  or  volunteer  fire 
companies,  who  were  so  conspicuous  and  color- 
ful a  part  of  metropolitan  existence  in  those  days. 
He  assumed  the  name  of  Williams  for  the  stage. 
He  is  said  to  have  made  his  debut  as  a  super  in 
New  York  in  1836  at  the  Franklin  Theatre, 
Chatham  Square,  but  his  name  does  not  appear 
on  play  bills  until  June  15,  1840,  when  he  was 
playing  small  parts  at  the  Franklin  in  a  kind  of 
variety  show  (Odell,  post,  IV,  397).  The  top 
price  for  admission  was  thirty-seven  and  a  half 
cents.  The  next  night  he  was  cast  in  a  play  called 
Gamblers  of  the  Mississippi.  In  July  he  danced 
a  hornpipe,  and  enacted  Pat  Rooney  in  Powers' 
farce,  The  Omnibus.  But  he  did  not  immediate- 
ly obtain  serious  recognition,  for  in  June  1843 
he  was  with  a  circus  at  Vauxhall  Gardens,  New 
York,  enacting  Jack  in  Jack  Robinson  and  His 
Monkey.  He  also  took  part  in  a  blackface  act, 
for  minstrels  were  just  beginning  to  be  the 
vogue.  In  the  next  half  dozen  years,  however, 
he  began  to  find  an  assured  place  in  the  New 
York  theatre,  enacting  Irish  roles  with  a  rollick- 
ing good  nature.  To  a  later  age  the  plays  in 
which  he  appeared  mean  nothing.  In  June  1848 
The  Irish  Lion  and  The  Happy  Man  were  his 
vehicles  at  the  Chatham,  then  managed  by  Fran- 
cis S.  Chanfrau  [#.#.].  In  that  year  Chanfrau 
was  acting  his  famous  Mose  the  fireman,  in  A 
Glance  at  New  York,  and  it  is  surprising  to  find 
that  on  Jan.  26,  1849,  Williams  enacted  the  same 
role  in  a  benefit  at  the  Olympic ;  he  must  have 
been  sure  of  himself  and  his  public  to  risk  the 
comparison. 

In  1849  he  married  Maria  Pray,  the  widow  of 
Charles  Mestayer,  and  a  sister-in-law  of  Wil- 
liam Jermyn  Florence  \_q.v.~\.  She  was  a  popular 
actress  and  singer,  and  the  marriage  was  for- 
tunate for  the  happy-go-lucky  Barney.  There- 
after they  always  appeared  as  co-stars,  and  both 
Williams'   business  and  artistic  fortunes  were 


Williams 

greatly  improved  by  the  match.  The  pair  began 
almost  at  once  to  tour  the  country  in  Born  to 
Good  Luck  and  other  plays  with  an  Irish  male 
leading  role,  and  were  everywhere  popular. 
Sometimes  Barney  appeared  in  the  Irish  play, 
and  his  wife  in  a  musical  afterpiece.  Solomon 
Franklin  Smith  [q.v.~\  records  that  in  1852-53 
they  made  a  great  hit  in  New  Orleans,  and 
earned  $10,000  on  their  engagement  (post,  p. 
230).  They  continued  their  tour  to  the  west 
coast,  and  appeared  in  San  Francisco  and  the 
mountain  towns.  The  following  year  (1855) 
they  sailed  for  England,  and  made  their  debut 
at  the  Adelphi,  London,  June  30,  1855,  Williams 
acting  in  Rory  O'More.  Williams  was  so  satis- 
fied with  his  success  that  he  remained  abroad 
till  1859,  when  he  and  his  wife  returned  to  Amer- 
ica. On  Oct.  17,  at  Niblo's  Garden,  they  reap- 
peared in  New  York,  giving  three  plays  in  one 
evening.  Barney  appeared  in  Born  to  Good 
Luck,  Mrs.  Williams  in  An  Hour  in  Seville,  and 
both  in  The  Latest  from  New  York,  by  J.  S. 
Coyne.  This  bill  lasted  two  weeks,  and  was  then 
varied  by  other  plays — The  Irish  Lion,  O'Flan- 
nigan,  Shandy  Maguirc,  etc.  The  engagement 
lasted  for  thirty-six  nights  in  all,  a  fairly  long 
run  in  those  days.  From  1867  to  1869  Barney 
tried  his  hand  at  the  management  of  the  old 
Wallack's,  Theatre  (called  the  Broadway),  but 
gave  it  up  to  resume  touring  with  his  wife.  He 
made  his  last  appearance  on  Christmas  night, 
1875,  at  Booth's  Theatre  in  The  Connie  Soogah 
and  The  Fairy  Circle.  He  died  Apr.  25,  1876, 
at  his  home  on  Murray  Hill,  New  York,  leaving 
a  large  fortune.  He  was  survived  by  his  wife 
and  a  daughter.  In  the  New  York  Tribune  the 
following  day  appeared  an  appreciative  editorial, 
saying  that  he  had  performed  "a  very  important 
work  in  his  little  world,"  and  lauding  him  for 
the  good  cheer  he  had  always  brought  to  audi- 
ences. 

"Irish  Barney"  had  full  cheeks,  merrily  twin- 
kling blue  eyes,  a  well-shaped  mouth  wrinkling 
with  laughter,  a  compact  but  graceful  figure,  and 
a  rich  native  brogue.  His  acting  was  conspicu- 
ous for  breadth  and  florid  coloring,  and  he  was 
said  always  to  enter  the  stage  with  a  jovial  "who 
tread  on  the  tail  o'  me  coat"  air.  In  the  parts  he 
depicted,  and  in  method  of  depiction,  he  was 
true  to  the  ragged,  reckless,  drinking  Irishman 
he  had  doubtless  known  in  his  youth.  Accord- 
ing to  the  critics  of  the  sixties  and  seventies,  Dion 
Boucicault  \_q.v.~\  "raised  the  stage  Irishman  from 
the  whiskey  still  and  peat  fire  to  regions  of  chiv- 
alry and  poetry."  Barney  Williams  did  not  fol- 
low into  those  romantic  regions.  Nor  does  he 
seem,  from  this  distance,  to  have  been  a  first' 


248 


Williams 

rate  actor,  in  the  sense  his  friend  Joseph  Jeffer- 
son was,  or  Tyrone  Power,  the  first  prominent 
depictor  of  Irish  characters  on  the  American 
stage,  or  even  the  elder  Drew.  He  was  a  capital 
and  infectiously  humorous  entertainer,  in  broad 
Irish  character,  and  as  such  greatly  loved  and 
amply  rewarded  by  the  public. 

[G.  C.  D.  Odell,  Annals  of  the  N.  Y.  Stage,  vols.  IV- 
VII  (1928-31);  The  Autobiog.  of  Joseph  Jefferson 
(1899);  S.  F.  Smith,  Theatrical  Management  in  the 
West  and  South  for  Thirty  Years  (1868)  ;  N.  Y.  Dra- 
matic Mirror,  Mar.  20,  1898;  N.  Y.  Clipper,  May  6, 
1876;  obituary  in  N.  Y.  Tribune,  Apr.  26,  1876.] 

W.  P.  E. 

WILLIAMS,  BERT  (c.  1876-Mar.  4,  1922), 
negro  comedian  and  song  writer,  was  born  on 
the  island  of  New  Providence,  the  Bahamas,  the 
son  of  Frederick  and  Sarah  Williams.  His  full 
name  was  Egbert  Austin  Williams.  One  of  his 
grandfathers  was  white,  but  had  married  an  oc- 
toroon, and  Williams  in  his  subsequent  stage 
career  always  "blacked  up"  like  a  minstrel  to  ap- 
pear sufficiently  negroid.  When  he  was  a  child 
his  parents  moved  to  the  United  States,  and  he 
spent  his  youth  in  California,  where  he  attended 
the  Riverside  High  School.  Thereafter  he  joined 
a  small  minstrel  troupe  which  toured  the  mining 
and  lumber  camps,  and  in  1895  he  fell  in  with 
another  of  his  race,  George  Walker,  with  whom 
he  formed  a  vaudeville  team.  For  a  year  they 
drifted  about  the  country,  reaching  New  York 
in  1896.  That  year  they  were  put  into  a  musical 
piece  at  the  Casino,  as  "filler,"  and  did  so  well 
that  they  were  at  once  engaged  at  Koster  and 
Bial's,  where  they  performed  many  weeks,  popu- 
larizing, among  other  songs,  "Good  morning, 
Carrie."  Their  vaudeville  success  continued,  till 
in  1903  they  were  able  to  produce  a  full-fledged 
musical  comedy,  In  Dahomey,  with  music  and 
words  by  members  of  their  own  race,  in  which 
all  the  players  were  negroes.  This  piece,  thanks 
to  its  novelty,  zest,  and  especially  to  Williams' 
fun-making,  was  a  success  on  Broadway,  and 
was  taken  to  London  (May  16,  1903,  Shaftsbury 
Theatre),  where  its  success  was  repeated;  it  ran 
eight  months  and  a  "command"  performance 
was  ordered  at  Buckingham  Palace.  Other  sim- 
ilar pieces  followed  (such  as  Abyssinia,  The 
Policy  Players,  and  Bandanna  Land)  which 
made  the  composer,  Will  Marion  Cook,  scarcely 
less  well  known  than  the  stars. 

Walker  died  in  1909,  and  thereafter  for  some 
years  Williams  abandoned  these  all-negro  pro- 
ductions and  became  the  leading  comedian  in  the 
Ziegfeld  Follies,  where  his  salary  was  in  four 
figures,  and  where,  not  infrequently,  his  skits 
and  songs,  largely  devised  and  written  by  him- 
self, were  the  best  part  of  the  entertainment.  He 


Williams 

was  extremely  popular  with  the  public  every- 
where, and  such  songs  as  his  "Jonah  Man"  were 
known  far  and  wide.  At  this  period  David  Be- 
lasco,  sensing  the  potentialities  Williams  pos- 
sessed for  touching  other  than  the  comic  stops, 
offered  to  star  him,  but  the  comedian  decided  he 
owed  a  debt  of  gratitude  to  Florenz  Ziegfeld 
\_q.v.~\.  He  finally  left  the  Follies  for  two  seasons 
(1919  and  1921)  with  the  Broadway  Brevities, 
and  then  entered  a  piece  called  Underneath  the 
Bamboo  Tree,  with  which  he  was  performing 
when  stricken  with  pneumonia  in  1922.  He  died 
in  New  York  City,  where  he  made  his  home. 

Williams  was  over  six  feet  tall,  and  weighed 
two  hundred  pounds.  His  color  was  light,  and 
he  had  no  particular  negro  accent  off-stage.  By 
nature  he  was  modest,  quiet,  genuinely  studious, 
and  anything  but  shiftless.  For  the  stage,  he 
wore  the  burnt  cork  traditional  with  "black  face" 
humor,  assumed  the  most  outrageously  lazy  lin- 
guistic peculiarities  of  his  race,  and  was  per- 
petually a  stupid,  melancholy  victim  of  hard  luck 
and  a  world  too  difficult  for  comprehension.  The 
formula  has  been  copiously  overworked  by  his 
imitators  (chiefly  whites  blacked-up).  His  songs 
were  sung  in  a  rich,  lugubrious  bass,  with  a  min- 
imum of  gesture,  but  that  minimum  as  wonder- 
fully expressive  as  Charlie  Chaplin's.  It  was, 
however,  in  the  telling  of  certain  stories,  such 
as  that  of  the  cats  who  appeared  to  the  preacher 
in  his  cabin,  each  one  larger  than  the  one  before, 
and  each  remarking,  after  eating  a  coal  from  the 
fire,  "We  can't  do  nothin'  till  Martin  comes," 
that  he  disclosed  an  eerie  quality  of  folk  imagina- 
tion which  makes  it  regrettable  that  he  never  at- 
tempted to  fulfil  his  often  declared  ambition — 
"To  stop  doing  piffle,  and  interpret  the  real  negro 
on  the  stage."  He  was,  however,  a  pioneer  in 
winning  for  talented  members  of  his  race  an  as- 
sured place  in  the  American  theatre,  making  pos- 
sible'the  many  negro  plays  since  the  World  War, 
and  he  accomplished  it  by  tact  and  character,  as 
well  as  by  comic  artistry.  He  was  married  in 
1900  to  Charlotte  Williams,  a  colored  player, 
who  survived  him. 

[Retinoid  Wolff,  in  Green  Book  Album,  June  1912; 
G.  VV.  Walker,  in  Theatre,  Aug.  1906;  Lit.  Digest, 
Mar.  25,  1922;  Eddie  Cantor,  in  N.  Y.  Sun,  Apr.  15, 
1922;  obituaries  in  World  (N.  Y.)  and  N.  Y.  Times, 
Mar.  6,  1922  ;  Heywood  Broun  and  Ring  I.ardner,  "It 
Seems  to  Me,"  World  (N.  Y.),  Mar.  7,  9,  1922.] 

W.  P.  E. 

WILLIAMS,  CATHARINE  READ  AR- 
NOLD (Dec.  31,  1787-Oct.  11,  1872),  poet, 
novelist,  and  biographer,  daughter  of  Capt.  Al- 
fred and  Amey  R.  Arnold,  was  born  in  Provi- 
dence, R.  T.,  a  descendant  of  noteworthy  stork. 
Her  grandfather,  Oliver  Arnold,  was  a  distin- 


249 


Williams 


Williams 


guished  attorney-general  of  the  state.  Losing 
her  mother  when  she  was  a  child,  she  was  en- 
trusted by  her  father,  a  sea-captain,  to  the  care 
of  two  maiden  aunts,  under  whom  her  education 
had  a  strong  religious  cast.  On  Sept.  28,  1824, 
she  was  married  to  Horatio  N.  Williams  in  New 
York  City.  After  a  residence  of  about  two  years 
in  western  New  York,  Mrs.  Williams,  with  her 
infant  daughter  in  her  arms,  left  her  husband, 
whom  she  never  saw  again.  She  returned  to 
Providence  and  subsequently  obtained  a  divorce 
there.  Thrown  on  her  own  resources,  she 
opened  a  school,  but  abandoned  the  project  with 
the  failure  of  her  health.  Eventually  she  essayed 
authorship.  Her  books,  covering  a  considerable 
range  of  topics,  found  great  favor  in  her  day. 
In  1828  she  published  Original  Poems,  on  Vari- 
ous Subjects,  the  edition  being  sold  by  subscrip- 
tion. The  poems  exhibit  a  mournful  spirit  that 
reflects  her  early  training.  Encouraged  by  a 
success  beyond  her  expectations,  she  wrote  a 
story,  Religion  at  Home  (1829),  which  passed 
through  several  editions.  It  was  followed  by 
Talcs,  National  and  Revolutionary  (1830); 
Aristocracy,  or  the  Holbcy  Family  (1832),  a 
satirical  novel ;  Fall  River,  An  Authentic  Record 
(1833),  concerned  largely  with  the  sensational 
case  of  the  Rev.  Ephraim  K.  Avery,  charged 
with  the  murder  of  a  girl ;  and  Biography  of  Rev- 
olutionary Heroes  (1839),  which  dealt  with  the 
lives  of  Gen.  William  Barton  and  Capt.  Stephen 
Olney.  She  regarded  as  her  best  work  The  Neu- 
tral French,  or  the  Exiles  of  Nova  Scotia  ( 1841 ) , 
which  in  theme  anticipated  Longfellow's  Evan- 
geline (1847)  ;  to  gather  material  for  it  she  made 
a  journey  through  the  Canadian  provinces.  Her 
last  book  was  a  collection  of  domestic  tales,  An- 
nals of  the  Aristocracy;  Being  a  Scries  of  Anec- 
dotes of  Some  of  the  Principal  Families  of  Rhode 
Island  (2  vols.,  1843-45).  She  left  a  story  in 
manuscript,  "Bertha,  a  Tale  of  St.  Domingo." 
Five  of  her  short  stories  were  reprinted  by  Hen- 
rietta R.  Palmer  in  Rhode  Island  Talcs  (1928). 
About  1849  she  removed  to  Brooklyn,  N.  Y., 
where  for  three  years  she  cared  for  an  aged  aunt. 
Returning  after  the  death  of  her  aunt  to  Rhode 
Island,  she  built  a  cottage  in  Johnston.  She  died 
in  Providence. 

A  woman  of  great  energy,  she  wrote  more 
vigorously  than  elegantly,  and  was  somewhat 
didactic,  as  befitted  her  tastes  and  the  demands 
of  the  times.  She  shone  as  a  conversationalist 
and  was  quick  at  repartee.  In  politics  she  took 
a  deep  and,  as  far  as  circumstances  permitted, 
an  active  interest ;  she  had  a  decided  antipathy, 
as  she  said,  both  to  kingcraft  and  to  priestcraft. 
Her  carelessness  in  attire  sometimes  led  to  queer 


situations ;  calling  in  calico  on  a  friend  at  a  hotel, 
she  was  first  escorted  into  the  cellar  kitchen.  Be- 
sides her  daughter,  Amey  R.  Arnold,  she  left  an 
adopted  son,  Lewis  Cass  DeWolf,  her  grandson, 
whom  she  termed  "my  dear  son"  in  her  will. 

[Sources  include  S.  S.  Rider,  in  Providence  Daily 
Jour.,  Oct.  14,  1872,  and  Bibliog.  Memoirs  of  Three 
R.  I.  Authors  (1880),  being  R.  I.  Hist.  Tracts,  no.  11, 
both  based  on  manuscript  autobiog.  in  the  lib.  of  Brown 
Univ.,  Providence ;  registry  of  vital  statistics,  Provi- 
dence ;  probate  records,  Providence  municipal  court ; 
R.  I.  supreme  court  records  (divorce)  ;  Henrietta  R. 
Palmer,  R.  I.  Tales  (1928),  foreword  ;  information  from 
Louis  Miller,  Manchester,  N.  H.]  W.  M.  E. 

WILLIAMS,  CHANNING  MOORE  (July 
18,  1829-Dec.  2,  1910),  Protestant  Episcopal 
bishop,  missionary  in  China  and  Japan,  was  born 
in  Richmond,  Va.,  the  son  of  John  G.  Williams, 
a  farmer,  and  his  wife,  whose  maiden  name  was 
Cringan.  He  was  a  descendant  of  John  Williams 
who  emigrated  from  London  to  the  region  of  the 
Rappahannock  in  1698.  His  father  died  early, 
and  the  children  knew  poverty  and  hard  labor. 
His  mother  was  deeply  religious  and  gave  him 
a  careful  training  in  her  faith.  Through  her 
care  he  overcame  the  ill  health  that  clouded  much 
of  his  childhood.  At  about  fifteen  he  went  to 
Henderson,  Ky.,  and  there  for  a  number  of  years 
was  employed  by  a  merchant.  There  he  decided 
to  enter  the  ministry,  and  in  preparation  for  that 
calling  attended  the  College  of  William  and 
Mary  for  at  least  two  years,  graduating  in  1852. 
In  1855  he  completed  his  work  at  the  Theological 
Seminary  at  Alexandria,  Va.  In  1853  he  was 
ordained  deacon  and  in  1857  priest.  While  in 
Alexandria  he  had  been  stirred  by  reports  of  the 
work  of  graduates  of  the  school  in  Africa  and 
China.  In  1859  he  and  one  other  were  appoint- 
ed by  the  board  of  missions  of  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church  to  initiate  the  activities  of 
that  body  in  Japan,  then  recently  opened  to  the 
residence  of  foreigners.  Landing  at  Nagasaki, 
he  and  his  colleague  began  holding  services  for 
English  and  American  merchants,  and  in  1861 
supervised  there  the  erection  of  what  seems  to 
have  been  the  first  Protestant  church  building 
in  the  empire.  In  1862  ill  health  compelled  his 
companion  to  leave  the  country,  and  until  1871 
Williams  was  the  only  representative  of  his  board 
in  Japan.  In  addition  to  holding  services  for  for- 
eign residents,  he  prepared  Christian  literature 
in  Japanese.  He  celebrated  his  first  baptism  of 
a  Japanese  in  February  1866.  Elected  to  suc- 
ceed the  first  Bishop  Boone,  he  was  consecrated 
in  New  York  in  1866  as  bishop  of  China  with 
jurisdiction  in  Japan.  He  returned  to  the  Far 
East  in  1868  and  lived  for  a  time  in  China,  but 
the  following  year  he  went  once  more  to  the  land 
of  his  preference,  residing  first  in  Osaka  and 


250 


Williams 


Williams 


then,  beginning  with  1873,  in  Tokyo.  In  1874, 
at  his  suggestion,  his  diocese  was  divided,  China 
being  separated  from  it  and  he  being  named 
bishop  of  Yedo  (Tokyo).  For  a  time,  however, 
he  had  the  oversight  of  certain  districts  of  the 
Anglican  diocese  of  Hong  Kong. 

Under  his  administration  the  mission  of  his 
church  in  Japan  grew  steadily.  He  himself  had 
direct  charge  of  several  congregations,  and  he 
established  schools,  including  one  for  boys  in 
Osaka,  another  for  boys  in  Tokyo  (1874),  and 
the  Trinity  Divinity  School  (1878),  in  which 
his  own  board  and  the  two  societies  of  the  Church 
of  England  united.  He  translated  into  Japanese 
part  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  and  assisted 
in  the  formation  of  a  prayer  book  for  the  An- 
glican communion  in  Japan.  He  aided  the  crea- 
tion of  the  Seikokwai  (1887),  in  which  were 
united  the  churches  formed  under  the  leadership 
of  the  American  Episcopalians  and  of  the  two 
societies  of  the  Church  of  England.  In  1889  he 
resigned  his  diocese  but  remained  in  Japan, 
serving  as  bishop  until  his  successor  could  be 
appointed,  and  performing  the  duties  of  a  par- 
ish priest  in  several  congregations.  Interested 
in  pioneering,  in  1895  he  went  to  Kyoto  and 
helped  open  new  stations  in  a  number  of  places 
in  that  vicinity.  Working  until  the  infirmities  of 
age  would  no  longer  allow  him  to  go  on,  he  re- 
tired to  America  in  1908  and  died  in  Richmond, 
Va.  Never  marrying,  he  gave  himself  unstint- 
edly to  his  calling.  Modest  almost  to  a  fault,  he 
lived  very  simply,  sought  nothing  for  himself, 
and  disliked  praise. 

[Louise  P.  Du  Bellet,  Some  Prominent  Va.  Families, 
vol.  IV  (1907)  ;  Who's  Who  in  America,  1910-11  ;  W. 
A.  R.  Goodwin,  Hist,  of  the  Theological  Seminary  in 
Va.  (1924),  vol.  II;  Southern  Churchman,  June  2J, 
1931  ;  Spirit  of  Missions,  Jan.  191 1  ;  ann.  reports  of 
the  board  of  missions  of  the  Prot.  Episc.  Church,  and 
of  the  Domestic  and  Foreign  Missionary  Soc.  of  the 
Prot.  Episc.  Church  ;  a  life  in  Japanese  by  K.  Orima, 
ed.  by  Bishop  Motoda ;  obituary  in  Times-Dispatch 
(Richmond),  Dec.  3,  1910.]  K.  S.  L. 

WILLIAMS,  CHARLES  DAVID  (July  30, 
1860-Feb.  14,  1923),  bishop  of  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church,  was  born  in  Bellevue,  Ohio, 
the  son  of  David  and  Eliza  (Dickson)  Williams. 
He  graduated  from  Kenyon  College  in  1880,  was 
ordained  deacon  in  1883,  and  priest  the  follow- 
ing year.  On  Sept.  29,  1886,  he  married  Lucy 
Victoria  Benedict  of  Cincinnati.  He  served  as 
rector  of  Fernbank  and  Riverside,  Ohio,  from 
1884  to  1889,  and  of  Trinity  Church,  Steuben- 
ville,  from  1889  to  1893.  In  the  latter  year  he 
became  dean  of  Trinity  Cathedral,  Cleveland,  in 
which  capacity  he  served  until  consecrated  bish- 
op of  Michigan,  Feb.  7,  1906. 

In  his  religious  and  social  views  Bishop  Wil- 


liams belonged  to  the  liberal  school  of  thought. 
He  had  strong  convictions  regarding  the  proper 
mission  of  the  Church  and  was  outspoken  and 
fearless  in  his  expression  of  them.  Gratefully 
acknowledging  that  the  writings  of  Walter 
Rauschenbush  [q.v.]  were  one  of  the  chief  in- 
spirations of  his  ministry,  he  became  the  leading 
exponent  in  his  own  communion  of  the  "social 
gospel."  His  activities,  addresses,  and  writings 
made  him  widely  known  in  the  United  States 
and  abroad.  In  1910  and  1920  he  attended  the 
Lambeth  Conference  in  London ;  during  the 
World  War,  he  went  to  France  under  appoint- 
ment of  the  Red  Cross ;  he  was  a  member  of  the 
commission  connected  with  the  Inter-Church 
World  Movement  that  investigated  the  steel  in- 
dustry; in  1921  he  visited  England  with  a  group 
of  Americans  to  study  the  English  labor  move- 
ment in  its  relations  to  the  Church ;  he  was  na- 
tional president  of  the  Church  League  for  In- 
dustrial Democracy.  The  first  of  his  books,  A 
Valid  Christianity  for  To-Day,  containing  ad- 
dresses delivered  on  various  occasions,  appeared 
in  1909.  His  social  views  are  most  definitely  set 
forth,  however,  in  the  three  that  followed :  The 
Christian  Ministry  and  Social  Problems  (1917)  ; 
The  Prophetic  Ministry  for  Today  (1912),  con- 
sisting of  his  Lyman  Beecher  Lectures  at  the 
Yale  Divinity  School ;  and  The  Gospel  of  Fel- 
lowship (copr.  1923),  in  which  he  discusses 
Christian  fellowship  as  applied  to  races,  na- 
tions, industry,  and  the  churches.  The  last- 
named  volume  comprises  the  Cole  Lectures  for 
1923  at  the  School  of  Religion,  Vanderbilt  Uni- 
versity. Bishop  Williams  died  before  the  date 
of  their  delivery  and  they  were  read,  with  some 
supplementation,  by  Rev.  Samuel  S.  Marquis. 
The  ideas  presented  in  these  volumes  were  all 
the  outgrowth  of  Williams'  dynamic  conviction 
that  the  Church  should  be  a  potent  agency  in 
bringing  about  a  new  social  order.  Although  ad- 
mitting, somewhat  reluctantly,  that  it  should 
minister  to  the  needs  of  the  individual,  he  in- 
sisted that  it  had  long  been  doing  this  too  ex- 
clusively, and  that  in  its  philanthropic  work  it 
had  been  taking  care  of  the  victims  of  the  eco- 
nomic and  industrial  system  without  attempting 
to  remedy  the  conditions  that  produced  them.  Its 
essential  mission,  he  maintained,  is  so  to  trans- 
form society  that  present  wrongs,  injustices, 
limitations,  and  suffering  shall  no  more  exist. 
This  end  is  to  be  achieved  by  engendering  a 
world-wide  fellowship — a  union  of  intelligences, 
consciences,  and  wills  in  pursuit  of  the  common 
good.  Emphatic  was  his  warning,  however,  that 
it  is  the  business  of  the  Church  to  proclaim 
principles,  and  not  its  business  to  recommend 


251 


Williams 


Williams 


economic  and  political  programs  and  methods ; 
it  must  advocate  industrial  democracy,  but  not 
concern  itself  with  the  mechanics  of  it :  minis- 
ters are  not  called  to  be  reformers,  but  to  be 
prophets.  "I  am  a  'root  and  branch'  Single  Taxer 
.  .  .,"  he  wrote ;  "but  I  have  never  preached  Sin- 
gle Tax  from  any  Christian  pulpit  and  never 
shall"  (Christian  Ministry  and  Social  Problems, 
p.  99). 

While  he  enjoyed  the  affectionate  admiration 
of  many,  he  did  not  escape  harsh  criticism  from 
those  of  more  conservative  beliefs.  At  the  an- 
nual convention  of  the  diocese  in  1921  he  dra- 
matically offered  to  resign  as  bishop,  if  his  per- 
sonal views  were  judged  an  embarrassment  tc 
the  Church.  He  died  suddenly  from  a  cerebral 
hemorrhage  in  his  sixty-third  year.  Four  sons 
and  five  daughters,  with  his  widow,  survived 
him. 

[In  addition  to  Williams'  writings,  see  Who's  Who 
in  America,  1922—23  ;  Churchman,  Feb.  24,  Mar.  3, 
1923;  Detroit  Free  Press,  Feb.   15,  1923.]      H.  E.  S. 

WILLIAMS,  CHARLES  RICHARD  (Apr. 
16,  1853-May  6,  1927),  editor,  author,  was  born 
at  Prattsburg,  N.  Y.,  son  of  Ira  Cone  and  Anna 
Maria  (Benedict)  Williams,  both  of  New  Eng- 
land ancestry.  After  two  years  at  the  Univer- 
sity of  Rochester,  he  went  to  the  College  of 
New  Jersey  (later  Princeton),  where  he  received 
the  degree  of  A.B.  in  1875  and  won  the  classical 
fellowship.  After  teaching  a  year  in  Princeton 
Preparatory  School,  he  went  abroad  for  two 
years,  studying  at  Gottingen  and  Leipzig,  and 
traveling  in  Italy  and  Switzerland.  He  was  prin- 
cipal of  the  high  school  in  Auburn,  N.  Y.,  for  a 
year  (1878-79),  and  tutor  in  Latin  at  Princeton 
in  1879  and  1880.  He  edited  Potter's  American 
Monthly,  Philadelphia,  during  the  first  half  of 
1 88 1,  and  in  the  fall  went  to  Lake  Forest  Uni- 
versity, Lake  Forest,  111.,  as  professor  of  Greek. 
There  he  became  an  intimate  friend  of  the  fam- 
ily of  William  Henry  Smith,  1833-1896  [q.v.'j, 
of  the  Western  Associated  Press,  a  man  of  large 
means  and  varied  interests.  He  was  married  to 
Smith's  daughter,  Emma  Almira,  on  Oct.  2, 
1884.  In  1883  he  became  literary  editor  of  the 
New  York  IVorld  and  later  in  the  same  year  was 
appointed  assistant  general  manager  of  the  As- 
sociated Press  at  New  York  City.  In  1892  Ik 
took  the  position  of  editor-in-chief  of  the  Indian- 
apolis ATcws.  Its  founder  and  proprietor,  John 
H.  Holliday,  retired  that  year  from  active  man- 
agement and  in  1899  S°W  his  interest  to  the 
Smith  family ;  Delavan  Smith,  Williams'  broth- 
er-in-law, later  became  proprietor.  In  191 1,  sell- 
ing his  interest  to  Smith,  Williams  retired.  As 
editor,  he  established  and  vigorously  maintained 


such  correctness  of  style  and  nicety  of  language 
that  the  News  set  a  new  standard  in  that  re- 
spect in  its  part  of  the  country.  The  little  style 
book  which  he  drafted  for  the  staff  was  followed 
for  more  than  a  generation.  He  gave  invaluable 
training  to  a  group  of  men  who  attained  promi- 
nence in  the  newspaper  and  publishing  world. 
Politically,  the  News  classed  itself  as  independ- 
ent; Williams  was  a  Democrat. 

Williams'  chief  interests  were  literary.  While 
at  Lake  Forest  he  edited  Selections  from  Lucian 
(1882).  He  wrote  many  occasional  poems;  a 
number  of  them  were  printed  in  the  News,  and  a 
volume  was  privately  printed  under  the  title,  /;/ 
Many  Moods  (1910).  Later  came  Hours  in  Ar- 
cady  (1926)  and  The  Return  of  the  Prodigal 
and  Other  Religious  Poems  (1927).  His  early 
historical  interests  were  represented  by  an  ad- 
dress on  George  Croghan  (Ohio  Archaeological 
and  Historical  Quarterly,  Oct.  1903).  At  the 
request  of  W.  H.  Smith,  who  had  begun  an  elab- 
orate life  of  Rutherford  B.  Hayes,  Williams  took 
up  this  task  and  after  his  retirement  devoted 
much  of  his  time  to  it,  working  in  the  Hayes 
home  at  Fremont,  Ohio.  His  The  Life  of  Ruth- 
erford Birchard  Hayes  (2  vols.,  1914)  and 
his  edition  of  the  Diary  and  Letters  of  Ruther- 
ford Birchard  Hayes  (5  vols.,  1922-26)  were 
conscientious  and  valuable  contributions  to  the 
history  of  the  United  States  during  the  genera- 
tion centering  in  the  Civil  War.  After  the  death 
of  his  wife  (May  24,  1895),  Williams  was  mar- 
ried on  June  23,  1902,  to  Bertha  Rose  Knefler, 
widow  of  Gen.  Frederick  Knefler.  When  he  re- 
tired from  the  Indianapolis  News  he  made  his 
home  at  Princeton,  N.  J.,  in  the  former  residence 
of  Woodrow  Wilson,  which  he  called  Benedict 
House.  His  interest  in  the  university  was  indi- 
cated, among  other  ways,  by  his  The  Cliosophic 
Society,  Princeton  University  (1916).  He  died 
in  Princeton,  survived  by  his  wife. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1926-27;  Gen.  Cat.  of 
Princeton  Univ.  (1908)  ;  Princeton  Univ.  records;  obit- 
uaries in  Indianapolis  News  and  Indianapolis  Star, 
May  7,  1927]  C.  B.C. 

WILLIAMS,  DANIEL  HALE  (Jan.  18, 
1858-Aug.  4,  1931),  negro  surgeon,  was  born  at 
Hollidaysburg,  Pa.,  the  son  of  Daniel  and  Sarah 
(Price)  Williams.  For  a  time  he  attended  Stan- 
ton School  at  Annapolis,  Md.,  but  after  the 
death  of  his  father  the  family  moved  first  to 
Rockford,  111.,  and  later  to  Janesville,  Wis., 
where  he  graduated  from  the  high  school  and 
from  Hare's  Classical  Academy.  He  attracted 
the  interest  of  Dr.  Henry  Palmer,  one  of  the 
leading  surgeons  of  that  section,  and  in  1878 
began  the  study  of  medicine  in  his  office.  In  1883 


252 


Williams 

he  was  graduated  with  the  degree  of  M.D.  at 
the  Chicago  Medical  College,  the  medical  depart- 
ment of  Northwestern  University.  After  an  in- 
terneship  in  Mercy  Hospital  he  entered  practice 
in  Chicago,  associating  himself  with  the  sur- 
gical service  of  the  South  Side  Dispensary 
(1884-91).  He  was  appointed  demonstrator  of 
anatomy  at  his  alma  mater  in  1885,  holding  the 
position  for  four  years.  , 

Realizing  the  lack  of  facilities  for  the  train- 
ing of  colored  men  as  internes  and  of  colored 
women  as  nurses,  he  organized  Provident  Hos- 
pital in  1891,  which  stands  a-s  an  enduring  monu- 
ment to  him.  Its  training  school  for  nurses  was 
the  first  for  colored  women  in  the  United  States. 
He  served  on  the  surgical  staff  of  this  hospital 
from  its  opening  until  1912.  This  service  was  in- 
terrupted in  1893,  when  President  Cleveland  ap- 
pointed him  surgeon-in-chief  of  Freedmen's 
Hospital  in  Washington.  During  his  five-year 
tenure  he  reorganized  the  hospital  and  estab- 
lished a  training  school  for  colored  nurses.  On 
Apr.  8,  1898,  he  married  Alice  D.  Johnson  of 
Washington  and  later  in  that  year  returned  to 
his  practice  in  Chicago.  He  served  on  the  sur- 
gical staff  of  Cook  County  Hospital  from  1900 
to  1906,  and  from  1907  to  the  time  of  his  death 
he  was  an  associate  attending  surgeon  to  St. 
Luke's  Hospital.  When  in  1899  he  was  appoint- 
ed professor  of  clinical  surgery  at  Meharry  Med- 
ical College  at  Nashville,  Tenn.,  he  inaugurated 
the  first  surgical  clinics  given  at  that  institu- 
tion. Though  careful  and  methodical  in  his  sur- 
gical technique  he  was  a  daring  operator.  He 
is  credited  with  having  performed  in  1893  the 
first  successful  surgical  closure  of  a  wound  of 
the  heart  and  pericardium  (Medical  Record, 
New  York,  Mar.  27,  1897).  He  also  perfected 
a  suture  for  the  arrest  of  hemorrhage  from  the 
spleen.  The  beginning  of  his  surgical  career 
was  coincident  with  the  advent  of  asepsis,  which 
he  adopted  and  followed  consistently.  When  in 
19 1 3  the  American  College  of  Surgeons  was  or- 
ganized he  was  invited  to  be  a  charter  member, 
the  only  colored  man  so  honored.  In  addition  to 
being  a  member  of  his  city  and  state  medical  so- 
cieties and  of  the  American  Medical  Association, 
he  was  one  of  the  founders  and  first  vice-presi- 
dent of  the  National  Medical  Association,  a  so- 
ciety of  colored  professional  men  organized  in 
Atlanta,  Ga.,  in  1895.  His  clinics  and  didactic 
instruction  at  Meharry  Medical  College  were  of 
a  high  order.  Always  he  was  a  strong  advocate 
of  the  negro's  right  in  medical  education  and  of 
high  standards  for  the  special  schools  of  the  race. 
He  served  the  state  of  Illinois  as  a  member  of 
the  board  of  health   (1887-91)  and  during  the 


Williams 

World  War  he  was  a  medical  examiner  on  the 
state  board  of  appeals. 

Williams  was  undoubtedly  the  most  gifted 
surgeon  and  the  most  notable  medical  man  that 
the  colored  race  had  produced.  Through  his  con- 
nection with  Provident  Hospital  and  Meharry 
Medical  College  he  exerted  a  profound  influence 
upon  the  development  of  surgical  thought  and 
practice  among  numerous  negro  surgeons,  to 
whom  his  career  was  a  shining  example.  His 
writings  were  confined  to  articles  on  surgical 
subjects,  published  in  medical  journals  of  the 
highest  class.  He  was  handsome  of  face  and 
figure,  and  of  attractive  personality,  and  was 
held  in  high  esteem  by  his  colleagues,  regardless 
of  color.  His  high  rating  in  the  surgical  world 
brought  him  contacts,  pleasant  and  otherwise, 
unusual  to  men  of  his  race.  Though  he  experi- 
enced them  without  apparent  embarrassment, 
they  left  his  later  life  shadowed  by  over-sensi- 
tiveness and  bitterness  of  spirit.  These  were  ag- 
gravated by  several  years  of  semi-invalidism  be- 
fore his  death  at  his  summer  home  at  Idlewild, 
Mich. 

[Who's  Who  of  the  Colored  Race,  191 5  ;  Who's  Who 
in  Colored  America,  1927  ;  Who's  Who  in  America, 
1920-21  ;  J.  A.  Kenney,  The  Negro  in  Medicine  ( 1912)  ; 
Jour,  of  the  Nat.  Medic.  Asso.  (Washington,  D.  C), 
Oct.-Dec.  1 93 1  ;  Jour.  Am.  Medic.  Asso.,  Sept.  5, 
1931  ;  Chicago  Tribune,  Aug.  7,  1931.]  J.  M.  P. 

WILLIAMS,  DAVID  ROGERSON  (Mar. 
8,  1776-Nov.  17,  1830),  pioneer  manufacturer, 
congressman,  governor  of  South  Carolina,  the 
son  of  David  and  Anne  (Rogerson)  Williams, 
was  born  at  Robbin's  Neck,  near  Society  Hill  in 
old  Cheraws  district,  South  Carolina,  where  his 
grandfather,  Robert  Williams,  had  been  a  pio- 
neer pastor  of  the  Welsh  Neck  Baptist  Church. 
The  elder  David  Williams,  a  wealthy  planter 
of  the  Peedee  section,  died  before  his  son's  birth, 
and  his  widow  afterward  removed  to  Charles- 
ton, where  the  family  had  previously  resided. 
Under  the  influence  of  his  mother's  pastor,  Rich- 
ard Furman  \_q.v.~\,  David  was  sent  for  prepara- 
tory training  to  Wrentham,  Mass.,  and  subse- 
quently to  Rhode  Island  College  (now  Brown 
University).  He  withdrew  from  the  college  dur- 
ing his  junior  year,  1795,  and  returned  to  South 
Carolina  to  redeem  his  inheritance,  which  had 
become  heavily  involved  in  debt,  thus  beginning 
a  career  as  a  planter  which  remained,  in  spite  of 
numerous  other  activities,  his  basic  interest 
throughout  life.  From  1801  to  1804  he  was  in 
Charleston  engaged,  first  with  John  E.  Mclver 
and  later  with  Peter  Freneau,  a  brother  of  Philip 
Freneau  [#.?'.],  in  the  publication  of  the  City 
Gazette  and  the  Weekly  Carolina  Gazette. 
Elected  as  a  Democrat,  he  served  in  the  Ninth 


253 


Williams 

and  Tenth  congresses  (1805-09)  and  in  the 
Twelfth  (1811-13).  While  he  believed  that  war 
with  Great  Britain  would  benefit  only  a  few 
merchants  at  the  expense  of  the  general  prosper- 
ity of  the  country,  he  supported  the  Embargo, 
although  its  enforcement  bore  heavily  upon  his 
section.  In  general,  however,  he  was  ill  fitted  by 
training  and  temperament  for  party  regularity. 
A  somewhat  theatrical  manner  and  the  frequent 
expression  of  intense  personal  feeling  won  for 
him  the  sobriquet  "Thunder  and  Lightning  Wil- 
liams." In  the  Twelfth  Congress,  as  a  member 
of  the  distinguished  South  Carolina  delegation 
that  included  John  C.  Calhoun,  William  Lowndes, 
and  Langdon  Cheves  [qq.f.],  he  espoused  the 
cause  of  the  War  Hawks  and,  as  chairman  of  the 
committee  on  military  affairs,  delivered  a  sting- 
ing retort  to  the  attack  of  Josiah  Quincy  [g.z'.] 
on  a  measure  for  increasing  the  army  which  the 
committee  had  reported.  As  one  of  the  brigadier- 
generals  appointed  by  President  Madison  in 
1813,  Williams  saw  service  on  the  northern 
frontier  during  the  War  of  18 12,  being  asso- 
ciated with  Gen.  John  Parker  Boyd  iq.v.']  at 
Fort  George,  but  he  returned  home  in  disgust 
before  the  victory  at  Lundy's  Lane  and,  after  an 
unsuccessful  attempt  to  secure  a  command  in  the 
campaign  against  the  Creeks  in  Georgia,  re- 
signed from  the  army  early  in  1814.  Later  in  the 
same  year,  when  the  South  Carolina  legislature 
manifested  a  tendency  to  disregard  the  "avowed 
candidates"  for  governor,  Williams'  name  was 
suggested  by  John  Belton  O'Neall  [q.v.],  and  he 
was  overwhelmingly  elected  although  he  had  not 
been  an  aspirant  for  the  office.  His  administra- 
tion was  a  vigorous  one,  being  notable  for  a  spir- 
ited controversy  with  the  federal  government 
regarding  the  equipment  of  the  militia,  the  set- 
tlement of  a  boundary  dispute  of  long  standing 
with  North  Carolina,  and  the  purchase  of  the 
Cherokee  strip  in  the  northwestern  portion  of 
the  state.  At  the  expiration  of  his  term  in  1816, 
he  returned  to  his  plantation,  "Centre  Hall,"  near 
Society  Hill,  and,  with  the  exception  of  three 
years  in  the  state  Senate,  1824-27,  resolutely  re- 
sisted all  inducements  to  enter  public  life  again. 
Williams  was  an  outspoken  enemy  of  the  pro- 
tective tariff,  but  he  protested  vigorously  against 
the  nullification  movement;  indeed  opposition  to 
John  C.  Calhoun  was  one  of  the  consuming  pur- 
poses of  the  last  few  years  of  his  life.  Rather 
than  nullification  he  advocated  the  development 
of  domestic  manufactures  in  the  South  as  a 
means  of  lessening  the  dependence  of  that  sec- 
tion upon  New  England.  In  this  respect  he  may 
be  regarded  as  a  prototype  of  the  later  Southern 
industrialists.    On  Cedar  Creek  near  his  plan- 


Williams 

tation  he  erected  a  mill  for  the  manufacture  of 
cotton  yarns.  This  factory  was  subsequently  en- 
larged, and  in  1829,  operating  with  slave  labor, 
mostly  children,  under  a  New  England  superin- 
tendent, Williams  was  advertising  cotton  bag- 
ging, osnaburgs,  and  "negro  cloth,"  and  was 
urging  the  value  of  his  cotton  cordage  upon  John 
Branch  [g.?'.],  the  Secretary  of  the  navy.  He  also 
operated  a  hat  and  shoe  factory,  and  engaged  ex- 
tensively in  the  manufacture  of  cottonseed  oil. 
He  was  interested  in  scientific  farming,  was  a 
frequent  contributor  to  agricultural  journals, 
and  claimed  to  have  been  the  first  to  introduce 
mules  into  Southern  agriculture  (Cook,  post,  p. 
166). 

He  was  killed  by  a  falling  timber  while  su- 
pervising the  erection  of  a  bridge  across  Lynch's 
Creek  at  Witherspoon's  Ferry  in  Williamsburg 
district.  He  was  twice  married:  first,  Aug.  14, 
1796,  to  Sarah  Power  of  Providence,  R.  I.;  sec- 
ond, in  1809,  to  Elizabeth  Witherspoon  of  Wil- 
liamsburg district,  S.  C. 

[H.  T.  Cook,  The  Life  and  Legacy  of  David  Roger- 
son  Williams  (1916)  ;  J.  S.  Ames,  The  Williams  Fam- 
ily of  Society  Hill  (1910)  ;  Henry  Adams,  Hist,  of  the 
U.  S.,  vols.  IV  and  VI  (1890)  ;  Alexander  Gregg,  Hist, 
of  the  Old  Cheraws  (1867);  Robert  Mills,  Statistics 
of  S.  C.  (1826)  ;  C.  S.  Boucher,  The  Nullification  Con- 
troversy in  S.  C.  (1916)  ;  August  Kohn,  Cotton  Mills 
of  S.  C.  (1907)  ;  A.  S.  Salley,  The  Boundary  Line  be- 
tween N.  C.  and  S.  C.  (1929)  ;  The  Diary  of  Edward 
Hooker  (1896),  ed.  by  J.  F.  Jameson  ;  Biog.  Dir.  Am. 
Cong.  (1928);  Centennial  Edition  of  the  News  and 
Courier  (1903);  Charleston  Courier,  Nov.  19,  1830; 
David  R.  Williams  Letters,  Univ.  of  S.  C.  Lib.] 

J.  W.  P. 

WILLIAMS,  EDWIN  (Sept.  25,  1797-Oct. 
21,  1854),  journalist,  author,  was  born  at  Nor- 
wich, Conn.,  the  fifth  son  of  Joseph  and  Abigail 
(Coit)  Williams.  He  was  a  descendant  of  John 
Williams  who  emigrated  to  Newbury,  Mass., 
before  1640  from  England  or  Wales.  His  father 
was  a  prosperous  merchant  of  Norwich,  a  gen- 
eral of  the  Connecticut  militia,  a  member  of  the 
state  legislature  (1791-98),  and  one  of  the  or- 
ganizers of  the  Western  Reserve  Land  Company 
(r795)-  Edwin  early  went  to  New  York  City. 
For  some  years  he  was  engaged  in  trade,  but 
his  love  for  historical  and  literary  work  was  ir- 
resistible, and  before  long  he  was  exclusively 
identified  with  writing,  especially  in  the  fields 
of  history,  statistics,  and  geography.  He  was 
one  of  the  founders  and  original  members  of  the 
American  Institute  of  the  City  of  New  York, 
chartered  in  1829,  and  for  a  number  of  years  re- 
cording secretary  (1830-37)  and  a  trustee.  He 
was  an  active  member  of  the  New  York  His- 
torical Society,  the  Mechanics'  Institute,  St. 
David's  Benevolent  Society,  and  other  historical 
and  statistical   societies.    His  books   show  un- 


254 


Williams 


Williams 


usual  fluency,  versatility,  and  industry,  were  well 
regarded  by  his  contemporaries,  and  are  still 
useful  as  embodying  facts  and  opinions  of  that 
time.  At  the  time  of  his  death  he  was  a  contribu- 
tor to  the  New  York  Herald. 

His  publications  include  The  New  York  An- 
nual Register,  1830-45  ;  The  Politician's  Manual, 
1832-34;  The  Book  of  the  Constitution  (1833)  ; 
New  York  As  It  Is,  1833-37;  Narrative  of  the 
Recent  Voyage  of  Captain  Ross  to  the  Arctic 
Regions  .  .  .  and  a  Notice  of  Captain  Back's  Ex- 
pedition (1835),  also  published  as  Arctic  Voy- 
ages (1835);  The  Statesman's  Manual,  1846- 
58;  Truths  in  Relation  to  the  Nezv  York  and 
Erie  Railroad  (1842)  ;  A  Political  History  of 
Ireland  (1843)  ;  The  Wheat  Trade  of  the  United 
States  and  Europe  (1846)  ;  The  Statistical  Com- 
panion for  1846  (1846)  ;  The  Presidents  of  the 
United  States  (1849),  which  also  appeared,  ex- 
tended and  revised,  as  volume  two  of  B.  J. 
Lossing  and  Williams'  National  History  of  the 
United  States  (1855)  ;  The  Twelve  Stars  of 
the  Republic  (1850)  ;  The  Napoleon  Dynasty 
(1852),  with  C.  Edwards  Lester;  The  New 
Universal  Gazetteer  or  Geographical  Dictionary 
( 1832) ,  being  Part  II  of  the  Treasury  of  Knowl- 
edge and  Library  of  Reference  (3  vols.,  1839)  ; 
"The  Life  and  Administration  of  Ex-President 
Fillmore"  (Statesman's  Manual,  1856). 

On  Aug.  24,  1834,  he  was  married  to  Grace 
Caroline  Clarke,  who  died  before  him.  He  died 
of  Asiatic  cholera  at  the  Union  Place  Hotel,  New 
York  City,  and  was  survived  by  a  son  and  a 
daughter.  He  was  buried  at  Norwich,  Conn. 

[See  obituary  in  N.  Y.  Herald,  Oct.  23,  1854;  New 
England  Hist,  and  Gencal.  Reg.,  Apr.  1908  ;  Trans,  of 
the  Am.  Institute  of  the  City  of  N.  Y.  (1855).  The 
date  of  birth  is  sometimes  given  as  Mar.  7,  1797.] 

J.I.W. 

WILLIAMS,  EGBERT  AUSTIN  [See  Wil- 
liams, Bert,  1876-1922]. 

WILLIAMS,  ELEAZAR  (c.  1789-Aug.  28, 
1858),  missionary  to  the  Indians,  half-breed 
leader,  erroneously  called  the  "Lost  Dauphin," 
was  the  son  of  a  St.  Regis  Indian,  Thomas  Wil- 
liams, and  his  wife,  Mary  Ann  Kenewatsenri. 
Thomas  was  the  grandson  of  Eunice  Williams, 
daughter  of  John  Williams,  1664-1729  [q.z'.'], 
minister  of  Deerfield,  Mass.,  who  was  captured 
in  1704  in  a  French  and  Indian  raid.  She  mar- 
ried an  Indian  chief  of  Caughnawaga  and  her 
descendants  all  bore  the  name  of  Williams.  Elea- 
zar  himself  asserted  in  1824  ( Wisconsin  His- 
torical Society  Collections,  vol.  VII,  1876,  p. 
355 )  that  he  was  born  at  Sault  St.  Louis 
(Caughnawaga,  Canada).  In  1800  Deacon  Na- 
thaniel Ely  of  Longmeadow,  Mass.,  whose  wife 


was  a  Williams,  invited  Thomas  to  bring  there 
two  of  his  sons  to  be  educated.  John  was  in- 
tractable and  was  soon  sent  home,  but  Eleazar 
remained  with  his  Puritan  relatives  for  several 
years.  He  proved  to  be  an  apt  scholar,  although 
he  never  fully  mastered  the  English  language. 

In  the  War  of  1812  he  served  as  a  scout  for  the 
Americans  on  the  northern  border  of  New  York. 
After  peace  was  declared  he  became  imbued 
with  a  desire  to  do  missionary  work  among  the 
Oneida,  and  was  appointed  lay  reader  and  cate- 
chist  by  Bishop  Hobart  of  the  Episcopal  Church. 
He  persuaded  a  number  of  the  New  York  In- 
dians to  embrace  the  Episcopal  faith,  a  small 
church  was  built  on  the  reservation,  and  the 
missionary  translated  the  prayer  book  and 
hymns  into  the  Iroquois  language. 

By  this  success  he  attracted  attention,  and  he 
was  approached  by  land  agents  who  were  eager 
to  obtain  the  Oneida  reservation.  With  them  he 
planned  to  persuade  the  Oneida  to  seek  a  new 
home  in  the  West,  conceiving  a  grandiose 
scheme  for  an  Indian  empire  in  the  promotion 
of  which  he  was  to  play  a  leading  part.  In  1821, 
with  the  permission  of  Lewis  Cass  [q.v.],  gov- 
ernor of  Michigan  Territory,  he  led  a  party  of 
chiefs  to  Green  Bay,  where  they  negotiated  a 
treaty  with  the  Menominee  and  Winnebago 
chiefs  by  which  the  Easterners  were  ceded  land 
on  Fox  River.  (The  original  parchment  copy 
of  this  treaty  is  in  the  library  of  the  State  His- 
torical Society  of  Wisconsin.)  Williams  signed 
the  document  as  an  Indian  chief ;  Charles  Trow- 
bridge, who  signed  as  Cass's  representative,  said 
of  him  later  that  he  "had  all  the  peculiarities  of 
a  half-breed  Indian  as  undoubtedly  he  was" 
(Ibid.,  p.  414). 

The  next  year  Williams  led  a  number  of  his 
neophytes  to  their  new  home  in  what  is  now 
Wisconsin.  As  their  missionary,  indorsed  by 
the  Episcopal  Church,  he  began  at  Green  Bay 
a  school  for  Indian  and  French  half-breed  chil- 
dren. He  did  not  shine  in  his  role  of  school- 
master, however,  and  ended  it  by  marrying,  Mar. 
3,  1823,  one  of  his  pupils,  Madeleine  Jourdain, 
then  fourteen  years  of  age,  by  whom  he  had  a 
son  and  two  daughters.  He  took  her  East,  and 
Bishop  Hobart  confirmed  her  and  gave  her  the 
name  of  Mary  Hobart.  Her  relatives,  the  Me- 
nominee Indians,  gave  her  a  large  tract  of  land 
on  Fox  River,  and  there  she  and  Williams  lived, 
though  he  was  frequently  away,  persuading  new 
groups  of  tribesmen  to  emigrate  and  pursuing 
his  plans  to  build  an  Indian  empire.  In  1830, 
however,  he  visited  Washington,  where  his  plans 
were  rejected.  Meanwhile,  in  1824,  he  had  been 
superseded  as   Episcopal   missionary  at   Green 


255 


Williams 


Williams 


Bay,  and  while  he  still  preached  occasionally  to 
the  Oneida  at  Duck  Creek,  about  1832  he  was 
repudiated  by  this  group.  Thereafter  he  became 
impecunious  and  unsettled,  absented  himself  from 
his  wife  and  home,  mortgaged  her  land,  and 
lost  caste  with  his  former  friends. 

A  handsome  man  and  vain  of  his  personal  ap- 
pearance, Williams  as  early  as  1839  confided  to 
an  editor  in  Buffalo  that  he  believed  that  he  was 
the  real  Dauphin  of  France  ( Wisconsin  His- 
torical Society  Collections,  VIII,  362).  In  1841 
the  Prince  de  Joinville,  son  of  King  Louis  Phi- 
lippe, visited  Green  Bay,  and  Williams  later 
claimed  that  the  prince  asked  him  to  sign  an  ab- 
dication, which  request  he  refused.  Prince  de 
Joinville  repudiated  this  account  of  his  interview 
with  Williams,  in  whom  he  said  he  was  interest- 
ed merely  as  an  Indian  missionary.  In  July  1849 
the  United  States  Magazine  and  Democratic  Re- 
view carried  an  anonymous  article  claiming  royal 
birth  for  Eleazar  Williams ;  his  literary  execu- 
tor later  asserted  (Putnam's  Magazine,  July 
1868)  that  the  article  was  probably  by  Williams 
himself.  It  was  not,  however,  until  J.  H.  Han- 
son, an  Episcopal  minister  with  a  romantic  turn 
of  mind,  published  in  Putnam's  Magazine  (Feb- 
ruary 1853)  an  article  entitled  "Have  We  a 
Bourbon  among  Us  ?"  that  Williams  sprang  into 
undeserved  fame.  Much  discussion  followed ; 
William  Gilmore  Simms  in  the  Southern  Quar- 
terly Review  (July  1853)  ridiculed  Williams' 
claim,  but  many  others  eagerly  accepted  it. 
Meanwhile,  Williams'  fortunes  fell  lower.  About 
1850  he  accepted  a  small  salary  to  preach  to  St. 
Regis  Indians  at  Hogansburg,  N.  Y.,  where  he 
died  eight  years  later  in  comparative  obscurity, 
still  maintaining  that  he  was  the  Dauphin  of 
France.  (See,  however,  his  disclaimer  to  cer- 
tain intimates,  Wisconsin  Historical  Society 
Collections;  VIII,  367.)  His  widow  lived  at  her 
home  at  Little  Rapids  on  Fox  River  until  her 
death  in  1886.  Williams'  title  to  eminence  might 
receive  more  acceptance  had  he  not  been  repu- 
diated by  the  Indians  he  served  and  well  known 
at  Green  Bay  for  his  hypocrisy  and  deceit,  in- 
dolence, and  desire  for  notoriety. 

Williams'  papers  and  books  were  presented 
to  the  State  Historical  Society  of  Wisconsin ; 
they  consist  of  sermons,  mostly  in  the  Indian  lan- 
guage, of  a  diary,  detailing  his  interview  with 
Joinville,  and  of  business  papers  and  documents. 
He  published  Prayers  for  Families  and  for  Par- 
ticular Persons,  Selected  from  the  Book  of 
Common  Prayer  (1816)  ;  a  spelling  book  (1813) 
"in  the  language  of  the  Seven  Iroquois  Nations"  ; 
Good  News  to  the  Iroquois  Nation  (1813)  ;  and 
translations  of  church  books.  A  life  of  his  father 


which  he  wrote  appeared  in  1859.  He  is  credited 
with  simplifying  the  writing  of  the  Mohawk  lan- 
guage by  using  only  eleven  letters  of  the  alpha- 
bet. 

[For  material  favorable  to  Williams'  claim  to  be 
Dauphin  of  France,  see  J.  H.  Hanson,  The  Lost  Prince 
(1854)  ;  Francis  Vinton,  in  Putnam's  Mag.,  Sept.  1868  ; 
E.  E.  G.  Evans,  The  Story  of  Louis  XVII  of  France 
(London,  1893)  ;  P.  V.  Lawson,  Prince  or  Creole 
(1901);  D.  B.  Martin,  Eleazar  Williams,  1821-1921 
(1921).  For  criticism  of  the  Dauphin  claim,  see  J.  Y. 
Smith,  in  Wis.  Hist.  Soc.  Colls.,  vol.  VI  (1872)  ;  A.  G. 
Ellis  and  L.  C.  Draper,  Ibid.,  vol.  VIII  (1879)  ;  W.  W. 
Wight,  in  Parkman  Club  Pubs.,  vol.  I,  no.  7  (1896). 
Consult  also  Green  Bay  Hist.  Bull.,  vol.  I,  nos.  5-6 
(1925)  ;  and  S.  W.  Williams,  The  Geneal.  and  Hist,  of 
the  Family  of  Williams  in  America  (1847).  Mary  H. 
Catherwood's  novel  Lasarre  (1901)  is  founded  on  Wil- 
liams' career.]  L.  P.  K. 

WILLIAMS,  ELISHA  (Aug.  24,  1694-July 
24>  I755)>  Congregational  clergyman,  rector  of 
Yale  College,  active  in  the  political  and  military 
affairs  of  Connecticut,  was  born  in  Hatfield, 
Mass.,  where  his  father,  the  Rev.  William  Wil- 
liams, was  pastor  of  the  Congregational  church ; 
Israel  Williams  [q.v.~\  was  Elisha's  half-brother. 
They  were  descended  from  Robert  Williams  who 
came  from  England  in  1637  and  settled  in  Rox- 
bury,  Mass.  Elisha's  mother,  Elizabeth  (Cot- 
ton), was  a  grand-daughter  of  John  Cotton 
\_q.v.~\,  and  also  of  Gov.  Simon  Bradstreet  [q.v.]. 
At  the  age  of  fourteen  Williams  entered  the 
sophomore  class  of  Harvard  College  and  was 
graduated  with  honors  in  171 1.  After  studying 
theology  with  his  father  for  a  time,  he  went  to 
Wethersfield,  Conn.,  where  he  later  acquired  a 
farm,  and  on  Feb.  23,  1713/14  married  Eunice, 
daughter  of  Thomas  and  Mary  (Treat)  Chester. 
A  man  of  great  physical  and  mental  energy, 
wide  interests,  varied  abilities,  and  roaming  dis- 
position, he  played  a  prominent  part  in  several 
different  fields.  Soon  after  his  marriage  he  went 
to  Canso  on  the  coast  of  Nova  Scotia,  where  he 
preached  to  the  fishermen.  Returning  to  Weth- 
ersfield, he  began  the  study  of  law.  From  1716 
to  1719,  while  the  location  of  the  Collegiate 
School  of  Connecticut  (Yale  College)  was  a  sub- 
ject of  heated  controversy,  he  instructed  a  part 
of  the  student  body  in  his  home,  achieving  a  high 
reputation  as  a  teacher ;  among  his  pupils  was 
Jonathan  Edwards  [q.v.].  In  the  meantime, 
1717,  he  was  chosen  to  represent  Wethersfield  in 
the  General  Assembly  and  was  present  at  five 
sessions,  serving  as  clerk  at  four  of  them  and  as 
auditor  of  public  accounts  at  the  other.  His  ex- 
periences during  a  severe  illness  that  befell  him 
in  1719  apparently  awakened  him  to  a  more  vital 
interest  in  religion,  and  the  following  year  the 
people  of  Newington  Parish,  in  the  western  part 
of  Wethersfield,  sought  his  services  as  pastor. 
On  Oct.   17,   1722,  a  formal  organization  of  a 


256 


Williams 


Williams 


church  there  having  been  effected  two  weeks 
before,  he  was  ordained.  Here  he  served  until 
1726,  when  he  assumed  the  duties  of  rector  of 
Yale  College,  to  which  office  he  had  been  elected 
in  September  of  the  year  preceding. 

For  some  thirteen  years  he  managed  the  af- 
fairs of  the  institution  with  dignity  and  wisdom ; 
its  reputation  was  strengthened,  and  the  number 
of  students  steadily  increased.  When  on  Oct. 
30,  1739,  Williams  offered  his  resignation,  the 
trustees  accepted  it  "with  great  reluctancy"  and 
"with  hearty  thankfulness  for  all  his  past  good 
service"  (Dexter,  post,  p.  632).  The  ostensible 
reason  for  his  resignation  was  impaired  health, 
but  it  was  hinted  that  he  aspired  to  be  governor 
of  Connecticut  (Ibid.).  Returning  to  his  farm 
in  Wethersfield,  he  again  became  active  in  pub- 
lic affairs.  In  1740  he  was  sent  to  the  General 
Assembly,  and  thereafter  served  in  that  body  al- 
most continuously  up  to  1749,  at  several  ses- 
sions being  chosen  speaker.  From  1740  to  1743 
he  was  also  a  judge  of  the  superior  court,  fail- 
ing of  subsequent  appointment,  it  is  said,  because 
of  "New  Light"  sympathies.  Generally  ascribed 
to  him,  though  also  to  Thomas  Cushing,  speaker 
of  the  Massachusetts  House  of  Representatives, 
1742-46,  is  a  pamphlet  by  "Philalethes" — The  Es- 
sential Rights  and  Liberties  of  Protestants.  A 
Seasonable  Plea  for  the  Liberty  of  Conscience, 
and  the  Right  of  Private  Judgment  in  Matters  of 
Religion,  Without  Any  Controul  from  Human 
Authority  .  .  .  (1744).  In  it  the  author  criticizes 
recent  restrictive  legislation  by  the  Connecticut 
Assembly.  When,  during  King  George's  War, 
the  expedition  against  Cape  Breton  was  under 
consideration,  Williams  and  Jonathan  Trumbull 
were  sent  to  Massachusetts  to  confer  with  Gov- 
ernor Shirley.  Later,  to  his  varied  experiences 
Williams  added  those  of  an  army  chaplain,  ac- 
companying the  Connecticut  troops  to  Louis- 
bourg  and  being  present  at  the  capture  of  the 
fortress  in  June  1745.  His  aptitude  for  military 
duties  was  such  that  when  the  expedition  for  the 
conquest  of  Canada  was  organized  he  was  made 
colonel  of  the  Connecticut  forces.  Since  the  en- 
terprise was  ultimately  abandoned,  however,  he 
had  no  opportunity  to  prove  his  ability  as  a 
commanding  officer  in  the  field. 

In  December  1749  he  went  to  England,  pri- 
marily to  secure  payment  of  money  that  had 
been  advanced  for  the  Canada  expedition  and 
incidentally  to  solicit  funds  for  the  College  of 
New  Jersey.  He  remained  abroad  for  more  than 
two  years  and  came  into  close  association  with 
leaders  of  the  evangelical  movement.  His  wife, 
who  had  remained  behind,  died  May  31,  1750, 
and   on   Jan.   29,    1751,   he  married   Elizabeth, 


daughter  of  the  Rev.  Thomas  Scott  of  Norwich, 
England,  the  noted  Bible  commentator.  She 
was  a  woman  of  considerable  literary  attainments 
and  a  writer  of  hymns.  After  his  return  to  Con- 
necticut, Williams  was  again  sent  to  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly,  and  was  one  of  the  Connecticut 
delegates  at  the  intercolonial  congress  held  in 
Albany  in  1754.  He  died  at  Wethersfield  in  his 
sixty-first  year ;  of  his  six  children,  a  son  and 
a  daughter  survived  him. 

[C.  J.  Hoadly.  The  Pub.  Records  of  the  Colony  of 
Conn.,  vols.  VI-X  (1872-77)  ;  S.  W.  Adams  and  H.  R. 
Stiles,  The  Hist,  of  Ancient  Wethersfield  (1904)  ;  W. 
B.  Sprague,  Annals  of  the  Am.  Pulpit,  vol.  I  (1857)  ; 
F.  B.  Dexter,  Biog.  Sketches  Grads.  Yale  Coll.,  with 
Annals  of  the  Coll.  Hist.,  vol.  I  (1885)  ;  Edwin  Oviatt, 
The  Beginnings  of  Yale  (1916);  New  England  Hist, 
and  Geneal.  Reg.,  Oct.  1858  ;  S.  W.  Williams,  The  Gen- 
eal.  and  Hist,  of  the  Family  of  Williams  (1847)  ;  New 
Englander,  Apr.  1876,  pp.  303-04;  Isaac  Backus,  A 
Hist,  of  New  England,  with  Particular  Reference  to 
the  Denomination  of  Christians  Called  Baptists  (ed. 
1871),  II,  60.]  H.  E.  S. 

WILLIAMS,  ELISHA  (Aug.  29,  1773-June 
29>  T833),  lawyer,  Federalist  politician,  was 
born  in  Pomfret,  Conn.,  one  of  thirteen  children 
of  Ebenezer  Williams,  a  colonel  in  the  Revolu- 
tionary militia,  and  Jerusha  (Porter)  Williams. 
He  was  a  descendant  in  the  fifth  generation  of 
Robert  Williams  of  Roxbury.  As  his  father  died 
when  he  was  very  young,  he  was  brought  up  un- 
der the  guardianship  of  Capt.  Seth  Grosvenor  of 
Pomfret,  Conn.,  studied  law  with  Judge  Tap- 
ping Reeve  at  Litchfield,  Conn.,  and  under  Chief 
Justice  Ambrose  Spencer  at  Hudson,  N.  Y.,  and 
was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1793.  In  the  same 
year  he  began  the  practice  of  the  law  at  Spencer- 
town,  N.  Y.,  moving  to  Hudson  seven  years 
later.  He  soon  forged  to  the  front  rank  among 
up-state  lawyers  and  crossed  swords  on  many 
occasions  with  the  outstanding  leaders  of  the 
state  bar,  including  Thomas  Addis  Emmet,  Am- 
brose Spencer,  William  W.  Van  Ness,  and  his 
political  opponent,  Martin  Van  Buren  [qq.v.~], 
whose  solid  analytical  talents  were  well  matched 
against  the  brilliant  oratorical  gifts  of  Williams. 
Williams  was  elected  a  member  of  the  Assem- 
bly in  1800  for  Columbia  County,  which  he  rep- 
resented at  nine  other  sessions  of  that  body,  in- 
cluding the  critical  war  period  (1812-15)  and 
extending  down  to  1828  (S.  C.  Hutchins,  Civil 
List  and  Constitutional  History  of  .  .  .  New 
York,  1883).  Early  in  his  political  career  he  be- 
came a  recognized  leader  of  the  Federalist  party 
in  the  state.  In  1813  he  opposed  taxation  for 
carrying  on  an  "unjust  and  unnecessary"  war, 
declaring,  "I  will  not  furnish  the  administra- 
tion with  the  means  for  carrying  on  this  war : 
I  would  starve  them  into  peace  with  all  my  heart" 
{Journal  of  the  Assembly  of  .  .  .  New  York  .  .  . 


*57 


Williams 

Thirty-Sixth  Session,  1813).  An  associate  of 
rich  Federalists  of  conservative  leanings,  such 
as  Jacob  Rutsen  van  Rensselaer  and  others 
whom  he  numbered  among  his  clients,  he  took  a 
strongly  anti-democratic  stand  in  the  Constitu- 
tional Convention  of  1821,  which  he  attended  as 
a  delegate.  He  fervently  opposed  the  extension 
of  the  franchise  to  non-freeholders,  and,  point- 
ing to  the  French  Revolution,  warned  that  po- 
litical democracy  would  be  followed  by  an  over- 
throw of  the  propertied  class.  Quoting  Jeffer- 
son to  the  effect  that  "great  cities  were  upon  the 
body  politic  great  sores,"  he  concluded  that  the 
urban  population  could  not  be  counted  on  in 
times  of  crisis.  Van  Buren  then  retorted  that  a 
false  construction  had  been  placed  upon  Jeffer- 
son's views  (N.  H.  Carter  and  W.  L.  Stone, 
Reports  of  the  Proceedings  and  Debates  of  the 
Convention  of  1821,  passim). 

Williams'  devotion  to  property  rights  is  best 
evidenced  by  the  large  fortune  he  was  able  to 
accumulate  in  the  practice  of  the  law  at  Hudson 
and  through  judicious  investments,  principally 
in  Seneca  County  real  estate ;  he  left  about  a 
quarter  of  a  million  dollars  at  his  death.  He 
also  served  as  president  of  the  Bank  of  Colum- 
bia at  Hudson  for  several  years.  His  reputation 
suffered  in  1820,  when  he  testified  before  a  leg- 
islative inquiry  that  he  had  received  payments 
from  the  Bank  of  America  for  his  services  in  se- 
curing its  charter  in  1812-13  (Ellis,  post,  pp. 
177-78;  Fox,  post,  pp.  227-28).  In  18 1 5  he 
founded  the  town  of  Waterloo,  Seneca  County, 
whither  he  removed  with  his  family  fifteen  years 
later  on  account  of  poor  health.  He  was  tall 
and  dignified  in  bearing  and  possessed  of  bril- 
liant oratorical  powers.  James  Kent  \_q.v.~\,  be- 
fore whom  he  had  frequently  tried  cases  at  the 
circuit,  was  impressed  with  his  abilities  as  a 
trial  lawyer,  by  what  he  called  his  "sagacity  and 
judgment  in  the  examination  of  witnesses,"  and 
"his  forcible,  pithy,  argumentative,  and  singu- 
larly attractive"  addresses,  which  were  height- 
ened by  his  language,  voice,  and  commanding 
person  (Raymond,  post,  p.  13).  In  The  Poet  at 
the  Breakfast  Table  (1891  ed.,  pp.  330-31) 
Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  relates  that  he  once 
asked  Gulian  C.  Verplanck  :  "Who,  on  the  whole, 
seemed  to  you  the  most  considerable  person  you 
ever  met  ?"  and  was  without  hesitation  answered : 
"Elisha  Williams."  In  1795  Williams  married 
Lucia  Grosvenor,  a  daughter  of  his  former  guar- 
dian, by  whom  he  had  five  children. 

[Sources  include  William  Raymond,  Biog.  Sketches 
of  the  Distinguished  Men  of  Columbia  County  (1851)  ; 
S.  W.  Williams,  The  Gcneal.  and  Hist,  of  the  Family 
of  Williams  in  America  (1847)  ;  Alden  Chester  and  E. 
M.  Williams,  Courts  and  Lawyers  of  N.  Y.   (1925); 


Will 


lams 


Franklin  Ellis,  Hist,  of  Columbia  County,  N.  Y.  (1878), 
pp.  83-85  ;  P.  F.  Miller,  A  Group  of  Great  Lawyers  of 
Columbia  County  (1904),  pp.  118-25;  obituaries  in 
N.  Y.  Evening  Post,  July  1,  1833,  and  N.  Y.  Daily  Ad- 
vertiser, July  2,  3.  See  also  D.  T.  Lynch,  An  Epoch 
and  a  Man:  Martin  Van  Buren  and  His  Times  (1929)  ; 
and  D.  R.  Fox,  The  Decline  of  Aristocracy  in  the  Poli- 
tics of  N.  Y.  (1919)-]  R.B.M. 

WILLIAMS,  ELKANAH  (Dec.  19,  1822- 
Oct.  5,  1888),  pioneer  ophthalmologist,  was  born 
on  a  farm  near  Bedford,  Lawrence  County,  Ind., 
the  son  of  Isaac  and  Amelia  (Gibson)  Williams, 
both  of  Welsh  lineage,  who  had  moved  westward 
from  North  Carolina  by  way  of  Tennessee.  The 
father  prospered  and  was  able  to  give  the  best 
available  educational  advantages  to  the  more  am- 
bitious of  his  large  family.  Elkanah  attended 
the  Bedford  Academy,  and  later  entered  the 
state  university  at  Bloomington.  Transferring 
to  Indiana  Asbury  (now  De  Pauw)  University, 
he  was  graduated  there  in  1847.  After  teaching 
school  for  a  short  time  he  entered  the  medical 
department  of  the  University  of  Louisville,  where 
he  received  the  degree  of  M.D.  in  1850.  He  be- 
gan practice  in  Bedford,  but  in  1852  moved  to 
Cincinnati,  Ohio,  and  later  in  the  same  year  left 
for  a  prolonged  tour  of  graduate  study  in  the 
eye  clinics  of  Europe.  Influenced  by  Dr.  S.  D. 
Gross  [q.v.]  of  Louisville  he  had  set  out  to  be 
an  operating  surgeon,  later  centering  his  inter- 
est upon  the  surgery  of  the  eye. 

Returning  to  Cincinnati  in  1855,  he  reopened 
his  practice,  devoting  it  exclusively  to  diseases 
of  the  eye  and  ear  and  thereby  becoming  one  of 
the  first  in  the  country  to  limit  his  practice  to 
this  specialty.  With  surgery  of  the  eye  and  ear 
in  the  hands  of  the  general  surgeon  and  diseases 
of  these  organs  in  the  field  of  the  general  prac- 
titioner, he  found  opposition  and  disappoint- 
ments in  his  new  venture.  Soon,  however,  he 
achieved  a  highly  lucrative  practice  and  in  time 
became  known  as  the  foremost  practitioner  of 
his  specialty  in  that  section  of  the  country.  In 
1855  he  established  a  charity  eye  clinic  along 
the  lines  of  European  institutions  in  connection 
with  the  Miami  Medical  College  and  became 
clinical  lecturer  on  diseases  of  the  eye  and  ear. 
When  the  school  was  reopened  in  1865,  after 
having  been  closed  because  of  the  Civil  War, 
Williams  joined  the  faculty  as  professor  of  oph- 
thalmology and  aural  surgery,  thus  filling  the 
first  chair  devoted  to  this  specialty  in  the  United 
States.  Throughout  his  teaching  career  of  over 
twenty  years,  he  conducted  didactic  and  clinical 
instruction  of  the  highest  order.  With  a  gift  for 
story  telling,  he  made  his  lectures  not  only  in- 
structive but  highly  entertaining.  He  was  one 
of  the  first  in  America  to  make  use  of  the  oph- 
thalmoscope.   While  in  Europe  in  1854  he  had 


:58 


Williams 

demonstrated  its  use  before  an  English  audience 
and  published  an  article,  "The  Ophthalmoscope," 
in  the  London  Medical  Times  and  Gazette  (July 
i  and  8,  1854),  dealing  with  Dr.  Andre  Anag- 
nostakis'  modification  of  Helmholtz'  recently  de- 
vised instrument.  He  wrote  nearly  fifty  arti- 
cles on  topics  relating  to  his  specialty,  nearly  all 
of  which  were  published  in  the  Cincinnati  Lan- 
cet and  Observer,  of  which  he  was  co-editor 
from  1867  to  1873.  He  also  contributed  "In- 
juries and  Diseases  of  the  Eyes  and  Their  Ap- 
pendages" to  John  Ashhurst's  International  En- 
cyclopedia of  Surgery  (vol.  V,  1884).  He  was 
a  member  and  one  time  president  (1876)  of  the 
American  Ophthalmological  Society  and  a  mem- 
ber of  the  American  Otological  Society.  He 
was  made  an  honorary  member  of  the  Ophthal- 
mological Society  of  Great  Britain  in  1884.  For 
twelve  years  (1862-73)  he  served  on  the  staff  of 
the  Cincinnati  Hospital  and  during  the  Civil 
War  he  was  an  assistant  surgeon  in  the  United 
States  Marine  Hospital  in  Cincinnati. 

He  was  a  large  man  of  jovial  appearance,  with 
a  disposition  full  of  spontaneous  generosity  and 
affection.  These  characteristics,  with  a  ready 
conversational  ability,  made  him  conspicuous 
and  popular  in  any  company  of  which  he  was  a 
member.  He  was  compelled  to  give  up  his  prac- 
tice and  teaching  by  an  organic  disease  of  the 
brain,  which  caused  his  death  at  the  home  of  a 
friend  in  Hazelwood,  Pa.  He  was  twice  mar- 
ried :  first,  in  December  1847,  to  Sarah  L.  Far- 
mer of  Bedford,  Ind.,  who  died  in  1851 ;  second, 
on  Apr.  7,  1857,  to  Sarah  B.  McGrew,  who  sur- 
vived him. 

[Trans.  Am.  Ophthalmological  Soc,  vol.  V  (1890)  ; 
Trans.  Am.  Otological  Soc,  vol.  IV  (1890);  Hist,  of 
the  Miami  Medic.  Coll.  (1881)  ;  H.  A.  Kelly  and  W.  L. 
Burrage,  Am.  Medic.  Biogs.  (1920);  Chicago  Medic. 
Jour,  and  Examiner,  Nov.  1888;  N.  Y.  Medic.  Jour., 
Oct.  27,  1888;  Cincinnati  Lancet  and  Clinic,  Oct.  13, 
1888;  Trans,  of  the  Forty-fourth  Ann.  Meeting,  Ohio 
State  Medic.  Soc.  (1889);  Cincinnati  Enquirer,  Oct. 
6,1888.]  J.M.P. 

WILLIAMS,  EPHRAIM  (Mar.  7,  1714  n.s- 
Sept.  8,  1755),  colonial  soldier,  was  born  in  New- 
ton, Mass.,  the  elder  of  the  two  sons  of  Ephraim 
Williams  by  his  first  wife,  Elisabeth  Jack- 
son, and  a  great-grandson  of  Robert  Williams, 
who  settled  in  Roxbury  in  1637.  His  father,  who 
practised  politics,  land  speculation,  frontier  war- 
fare, and  other  crafts,  removed  to  Stockbridge 
in  1739,  where  he  became  the  head  and  fore- 
front of  the  intrigues  against  Jonathan  Edwards 
[q.z'.].  Beaten  by  Edwards,  he  retired  to  Hat- 
field, where  he  died  in  1754.  In  his  early  years, 
according  to  tradition,  the  younger  Ephraim  fol- 
lowed the  sea,  visiting  England,  Spain,  and  Hol- 
land and  acquiring  the  polish  and  information  of 


Williams 

a  man  of  the  world.  With  slight  formal  educa- 
tion, he  had  a  hankering  for  learning  and  enjoyed 
the  company  of  educated  men.  He  was  tall,  port- 
ly, affable,  kindly,  by  nature  a  soldier  and  poli- 
tician. With  his  father  he  settled  in  Stockbridge, 
which  he  may  have  represented,  sometime  before 
1745,  in  the  General  Court.  In  that  year,  through 
the  influence  of  his  kinsman  Israel  Williams 
[q.v.~\,  one  of  the  "river  gods"  who  controlled 
everything  worth  controlling — civil,  military,  or 
ecclesiastical — along  the  Connecticut,  he  was 
commissioned  captain  and  placed  in  command  of 
the  forts  and  posts  extending  along  the  northern 
boundary  of  Massachusetts  from  Northfield  to 
the  New  York  border.  He  was  an  efficient,  pop- 
ular commander,  taking  good  care  of  his  men, 
and  a  brave  but  incautious  soldier.  In  time  of  war 
he  made  his  headquarters  at  Fort  Shirley  (Heath 
Township)  and  later  at  Fort  Massachusetts 
(Adams  Township),  in  time  of  peace  at  Hatfield. 
He  was  not  at  Fort  Massachusetts,  however, 
when  it  was  surprised  and  captured  by  a  French 
and  Indian  force  under  Rigaud  de  Vaudreuil, 
Aug.  30,  1746. 

In  1750  the  General  Court  granted  him  190 
acres  on  the  great  bend  of  the  Hoosac  (North 
Adams)  adjacent  to  Fort  Massachusetts,  and  he 
also  held  lots  in  the  West  Township  (Williams- 
town).  In  1753  he  was  made  a  major  and  in 
1755  colonel  of  a  regiment  raised  to  aid  Wil- 
liam Johnson  [q.z>.~\  in  his  projected  expedition 
against  Crown  Point.  At  Albany,  July  21,  1755, 
he  made  his  will.  Having  neither  wife  nor  child, 
he  left  a  good  part  of  his  estate  to  establish  a  free 
school  in  the  West  Township,  provided  that  the 
township  fell  within  the  jurisdiction  of  Massa- 
chusetts and  was  renamed  Williamstown.  On  the 
morning  of  Sept.  8  Johnson,  then  encamped  at 
the  southern  tip  of  Lake  George,  ordered  a  recon- 
naissance in  force  under  Williams  and  the  In- 
dian chief  Hendrick  [q.r.~],  detailing  1000  sol- 
diers and  200  Indians  for  the  mission.  Hen- 
drick's  comment,  "If  they  are  to  be  killed,  too 
many  ;  if  they  are  to  fight,  too  few"  (Perry,  post, 
P-  345 )>  went  unheeded,  and  Williams,  according 
to  the  preponderance  of  evidence,  aggravated  the 
situation  by  failing  to  send  out  scouts.  Two 
hours  after  starting  they  walked  into  an  ambush 
laid  by  Baron  Dieskau.  Williams  and  Hen- 
drick, at  the  head  of  the  column,  were  killed  by 
almost  the  first  volley.  The  approximate  site  of 
Williams'  death  is  marked  by  a  monument.  The 
free  school  established  by  his  liberality  was  char- 
tered in  1793  as  Williams  College. 

[Ebenezer  Fitch,  "Hist.  Sketch  of  the  Life  and  Char- 
acter of  Col.  Ephraim  Williams"  (written  Ian.  i.Soj), 
Colls.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  1  ser.,  VIII  ( 1802  ;  repr.  1856)  ; 
A.  L.  Perry,  Origins  in  Williamstown  (3rd  ed.,  1900) ; 


259 


Williams 

T.  A.  Holden,  "Col.  Ephraim  Williams,"  Proc.  N.  Y. 
State  Hist.  Asso.,  vol.  I  (1901 )  ;  L.  VV.  Spring,  A  Hist, 
of  Williams  Coll.  (19 17)  ;  W.  A.  Pew,  Col.  Ephraim 
Williams:  An  Appreciation  (1919);  A.  H.  Buffinton, 
"Did  His  Foes  Catch  Col.  Ephraim  Napping?",  Wil- 
liams Alumni  Rev.,  Mar.  1933;  S.  W.  Williams,  The 
Geneal.  and  Hist,  of  the  Family  of  Williams  (1847).] 

G.  H.  G. 


WILLIAMS,  FRANK  MARTIN  (Apr.  11, 
1873-Feb.  20,  1930),  civil  engineer,  was  born  in 
Durhamville,  N.  Y.,  the  son  of  William  and 
Ellen  L.  (Sterling)  Williams.  He  attended  the 
district  school  at  Durhamville,  the  Oneida  High 
School,  and  Colgate  University,  where  he  re- 
ceived the  degree  of  A.B.  with  honors  in  1895. 
Upon  graduation  he  engaged  for  a  while  in  high- 
way and  sewer  construction  in  Oneida,  during 
his  spare  time  studying  law.  He  then  took  a 
course  at  the  Syracuse  University  Law  School, 
receiving  the  degree  of  LL.B.  in  1897,  and  was 
admitted  to  the  bar.  Thereafter,  until  April  1898 
he  was  rodman  for  the  New  York  state  engi- 
neering department,  and  in  November  became 
resident  engineer  for  the  Stanwix  Engineering 
Company  of  Rome,  N.  Y.,  having  charge  of  the 
construction  of  the  water  system  and  electric- 
light  plant  at  Charlotte.  In  April  1900  he  reen- 
tered the  office  of  the  state  engineer,  and  ad- 
vanced through  the  various  grades  from  rodman 
to  resident  engineer. 

His  political  career  began  when  he  was  elect- 
ed state  engineer  and  surveyor  of  New  York 
for  1909  and  1910.  In  this  capacity  he  super- 
vised the  preparation  of  plans  and  estimates  and 
the  awarding  of  contracts  for  some  $30,000,000 
worth  of  work  in  the  construction  of  a  barge 
canal  to  supersede  the  old  Erie  Canal.  He  also 
served  as  chairman  of  the  Barge  Canal  Terminal 
Commission,  making  exhaustive  studies  of  wa- 
terway terminals  in  Europe  and  the  United 
States.  In  1911-12  he  was  chief  engineer  of  the 
Coleman  Du  Pont  Road,  Incorporated,  being  in 
charge  of  the  preliminary  work — plans,  surveys, 
and  estimates — for  the  proposed  Du  Pont  Boule- 
vard in  Delaware;  the  following  year,  1912-13, 
he  became  chief  engineer  of  the  Portage  County 
Improvement  Association,  thus  assuming  the 
supervision  of  extensive  highway  improvement 
in  Eastern  Ohio.  In  191 5,  for  the  second  time, 
he  was  elected  state  engineer  of  New  York  and 
retained  the  office,  through  reflections,  to  the 
end  of  1922.  During  his  administration  most  of 
the  difficulties  involved  in  the  building  of  the 
barge  canal  were  overcome,  including  the  prob- 
lem of  railroad  crossings  and  the  location  and 
design  of  terminals.  The  entire  barge  canal 
system  was  opened  for  service  on  May  15,  1918. 

After  he  left  the  state  engineer's  office,  Wil- 
liams  formed   a    firm   for   private   engineering 

260 


Williams 

practice.  His  services  as  consultant  were  imme- 
diately demanded  for  huge  projects,  such  as  the 
Holland  Vehicular  Tunnel  under  the  Hudson 
River,  connecting  New  York  City  with  Jersey 
City,  the  Sacandaga  Reservoir,-  and  a  hydro- 
electric development  in  Oswego,  N.  Y.  Shortly 
before  his  death  he  received  the  high  honor  of 
appointment  by  President  Hoover  as  one  of  five 
engineers  on  the  Interoceanic  Canal  Board,  to 
examine  into  a  waterway  across  Nicaragua.  He 
was  married,  June  4,  1907,  to  Lucy  Mary  Ster- 
ling, and  was  survived  by  his  wife  and  one  son. 
He  died  in  Albany. 

[Who's  Who  in  Engineering ,  1925  ;  Who's  Who  in 
America,  1928-29 ;  Trans.  Am.  Soc.  Civ.  Engineers, 
vol.  XCV  (1931);  Colgate  Alumni  News,  Apr.  1930; 
N.  E.  Whitford,  Hist,  of  the  Barge  Canal  of  N.  Y. 
State  (1922)  ;  N.  Y.  Times,  Feb.  21,  1930.]      B.  A.  R. 

WILLIAMS,  FREDERICK  WELLS  (Oct. 
31,  1857-Jan.  22,  1928),  writer  and  teacher,  was 
born  in  Macao,  China,  the  son  of  Samuel  Wells 
Williams  [g.f.]  and  Sarah  (Walworth)  Wil- 
liams and  the  descendant  of  Robert  Williams 
who  emigrated  to  Roxbury,  Mass.,  from  Norfolk 
County,  England,  in  1637.  Most  of  his  boyhood 
to  the  age  of  twelve  was  spent  in  China,  chiefly 
in  the  American  legation  in  Peking;  and  this 
fact,  together  with  his  father's  long  life  and  dis- 
tinguished service  in  that  country,  determined 
his  major  interests.  For  a  year  he  was  in  the 
public  schools  of  Utica.  Then  for  four  years  he 
prepared  for  college  at  the  Hopkins  Grammar 
School  at  New  Haven,  Conn.  He  graduated 
from  Yale  College  in  1879  and  spent  the  two  and 
a  half  following  years  in  study  in  Europe,  in 
Gottingen,  Berlin,  and  Paris.  Returning  to 
New  Haven,  he  gave  most  of  the  succeeding  two 
years  to  assisting  his  father  in  the  revision  and 
enlargement  of  the  latter's  Middle  Kingdom  (2 
vols.,  1883),  for  more  than  a  generation  the 
standard  general  work  in  English  on  China.  In 
1883-85  he  was  assistant  in  the  library  at  Yale. 
On  Nov.  19,  1885,  he  was  married  to  Fanny  Hap- 
good  Wayland  and  with  her  he  spent  a  year  in 
Europe.  From  1887  to  1893  he  was  the  literary 
editor  of  the  National  Baptist,  which  was  direct- 
ed by  his  father-in-law,  H.  L.  Wayland. 

In  1893  he  returned  to  Yale,  this  time  to  teach 
Oriental  history,  and  he  served  on  the  Yale  fac- 
ulty until  1925.  In  his  teaching  he  covered  Cen- 
tral Asia,  India,  and  the  Far  East  and  did  much 
to  stimulate  interest  in  fields  then  generally  neg- 
lected in  the  curriculums  of  American  colleges 
and  universities.  It  was  to  China,  however,  that 
he  devoted  the  major  part  of  his  attention.  Most 
of  his  books  and  numerous  articles  were  on  some 
phase  of  the  history  or  problems  of  that  country. 
Of  these  the  chief  were  The  Life  and  Letters  of 


Williams 

Samuel  Wells  Williams  (1889)  and  Anson  Bur- 
lingame  and  the  First  Chinese  Mission  to  For- 
eign Powers  (1912).  From  its  inception  in  1901 
he  was  associated  with  Yale-in-China,  the  Yale 
foreign  missionary  society,  which  developed  at 
Chang-sha  a  secondary  school,  a  college,  a  hos- 
pital, a  school  of  nursing,  and  a  medical  school. 
As  chairman  of  its  executive  committee  and  its 
board  of  trustees  he  gave  to  it  a  large  share  of 
his  time  up  to  the  very  week  of  his  death.  To 
his  wise  counsel,  his  steadfast  friendship  for  all 
those  who  served  in  Chang-sha,  and  his  quiet 
courage  in  the  recurrent  crises  that  overtook 
the  young  enterprise,  the  undertaking  owed  much 
of  its  success.  Aside  from  his  connection  with 
Yale-in-China,  his  life  was  that  of  a  member  of 
a  university  community.  As  secretary  of  his  col- 
lege class  he  devoted  much  attention  to  keeping 
in  touch  with  its  members  and  compiled  A  His- 
tory of  the  Class  of  Seventy-Nine,  Yale  College 
(1906).  Through  his  interest  in  literary  mat- 
ters he  held  membership  in  various  clubs,  which 
brought  him  in  contact  with  those  of  like  mind, 
and  he  was  a  member  and  vestryman  of  the  St. 
John's  Episcopal  Church  at  New  Haven.  His 
home  was  much  frequented  by  those  concerned 
with  the  Orient  and  with  literature.  At  the  time 
of  his  death  he  had  gathered  what  was  one  of 
the  best  private  libraries  on  China  in  the  United 
States.  Calm  and  unhurried,  he  gave  the  im- 
pression on  those  who  knew  him  of  being  not  so 
much  of  a  specialist  as  a  cultivated  gentleman, 
widely  read  and  urbane.  He  died  in  New  Haven. 
[Autobiog.  sketch  in  A  Hist,  of  .  .  .  1879,  ante ;  Who's 
Who  in  America,  1926-27  ;  Bulletin  of  Yale  Univ.  .  .  . 
Obituary  Records  .  .  .  1927-38  (1928)  ;  G.  H.  Williams, 
The  Williams  Family  (1880),  reprinted  from  New 
England  Hist,  and  Gcncal.  Register,  Jan.  1880;  N.  Y. 
Times,  Jan.  23,  25,  28,  1928.]  K.  S.  L. 

WILLIAMS,  GARDNER  FRED  (Mar.  14, 
1842-Aug.  22,  1922),  mining  engineer,  was  born 
at  Saginaw,  Mich.,  where  his  father,  Alpheus 
Fuller  Williams,  operated  a  sawmill.  His  mother 
was  Ann  Keyes  (Simpson)  Williams  and  his 
grandfather,  Oliver  Williams,  was  an  early  set- 
tler of  Detroit,  having  migrated  thither  from 
Boston  in  1815.  Gardner  received  his  prelimi- 
nary schooling  in  Michigan  and  was  being  fit- 
ted for  the  state  university  when  his  father,  in 
1858,  returned  from  California,  where  for  some 
years  he  had  been  engaged  in  building  flumes 
and  operating  placer  gold  mines,  to  take  the  fam- 
ily back  with  him.  Gardner  entered  the  College 
School  at  Oakland,  Cal.,  and  graduated  from 
the  College  of  California  (precursor  of  the  Uni- 
versity) in  1865. 

After  graduation  he  went  to  Germany,  where 
he  attended  the  Bergakadamie  at  Freiberg,  Sax- 


Williams 

ony,  for  three  years.  Returning  to  America  he 
was  appointed  assayer  of  the  mint  in  San  Fran- 
cisco in  1870,  but  resigned  the  next  year  to  go 
to  Pioche,  Nev.,  where  he  was  mill  superintend- 
ent for  the  Meadow  Valley  Company  for  three 
and  a  half  years.  From  there  he  went  to  Silver 
Reef,  Utah,  and  between  1875  and  1880,  when  he 
became  a  consultant  for  a  New  York  exploration 
company,  he  was  at  various  places  in  the  West. 
During  the  years  1880-83  he  visited  profession- 
ally many  western  mining  regions,  especially  the 
hydraulic  gold  mines  at  Dutch  Flat  and  Spring 
Valley,  Cal.  In  connection  with  these  mines  he 
came  into  contact  with  Edmund  de  Crano,  sub- 
sequently the  partner  of  Hamilton  Smith  [q.z'.], 
and  as  a  result  went  out  to  South  Africa  in  1884 
to  take  charge  of  a  gold  mine.  It  was  unsuccess- 
ful, however,  and  the  following  year  he  returned 
to  California,  but  soon  afterward  was  invited  by 
Smith  and  De  Crano  to  join  the  staff  of  their 
Exploration  Company.  Various  stories  are  told 
of  his  first  meeting  with  Cecil  Rhodes,  but  the 
only  fact  that  can  be  definitely  established  is  that 
Williams  met  Rhodes  on  a  steamer  early  in  1887, 
and  in  May  of  that  year  was  appointed  manager 
of  the  famous  De  Beers  Mining  Company  (after- 
ward the  De  Beers  Consolidated  Mines,  Ltd.), 
a  position  that  he  held  until  1905,  when  he  re- 
turned to  the  United  States.  He  lived  in  Wash- 
ington, D.  C,  until  1914,  then  went  to  San  Fran- 
cisco to  spend  his  remaining  years  with  his 
youngest  daughter. 

In  1902  Williams  published  a  680-page  mon- 
ograph, The  Diamond  Mines  of  South  Africa, 
telling  the  whole  story  of  South  African  dia- 
mond mining.  There  is  evidence  that  Cecil 
Rhodes  chose  him  as  manager  for  the  mines  be- 
cause he  was  confident  that  Williams  could  im- 
prove the  methods  of  working.  The  first  pro- 
duction of  diamonds  had  come  from  a  multitude 
of  small  square  "locations"  under  many  owners, 
and  had  resulted  in  unrestrained  competition 
which  threatened  to  wreck  the  diamond  market. 
Rhodes  and  his  financial  associates  undertook  to 
control  the  market  by  consolidating  control  of 
the  deposits,  and  in  consequence  it  was  neces- 
sary to  devise  methods  for  working  the  proper- 
ties as  a  whole  under  the  conditions  created  by 
the  previous  work.  This  problem  Williams  met 
successfully,  and  his  achievement  was  an  essen- 
tial factor  in  making  possible  worldwide  regu- 
lation of  the  price  of  diamonds. 

On  Oct.  23,  1872,  Williams  married  Fanny 
Martin  Locke  of  Oakland,  Cal.,  who  was  drowned 
in  the  shipwreck  of  the  Spokane  on  June  29, 
191 1.  They  had  three  daughters  and  one  son, 
Alpheus  Fuller,  who  became  his  father's  lieu- 


26l 


Williams 

tenant  and  successor  in  the  management  of  the 
South  African  mines.  Characterized  by  kindli- 
ness and  sagacity,  determination  and  persistence, 
Williams  was  well  fitted  to  cope  with  pioneer 
conditions.  During  the  siege  of  Kimberley,  in 
the  Boer  War,  he  was  as  active  in  the  military 
operations  as  his  technical  responsibilities  for 
the  property  under  his  charge  permitted. 

[Sources  include  Williams'  own  monograph,  The 
Diamond  Mines  of  South  Africa  (1902)  ;  T.  A.  Rick- 
ard,  "Gardner  F.  Williams — An  Appreciation,"  Engi- 
neering and  Mining  Journal-Press,  Sept.  23,  1922; 
Who's  Who  in  America,  1920-21  ;  San  Francisco  Ex- 
aminer, Aug.  23,  1922.  The  Directory  of  Graduates  of 
the  Univ.  of  Cal.  (1916)  gives  Williams'  middle  name 
as  Frederick,  but  it  appears  as  Fred  in  Who's  Who  in 
America,  1920-21.]  T.  T.  R. 

WILLIAMS,  GEORGE  HENRY  (Mar.  26, 
1820— Apr.  4,  1910),  attorney-general,  senator 
from  Oregon,  was  born  at  New  Lebanon,  Co- 
lumbia County,  N.  Y.,  the  son  of  Taber  and 
Lydia  (Goodrich)  Williams.  The  father  was  of 
Welsh,  the  mother  of  English  descent  and  both 
grandfathers  were  Revolutionary  soldiers.  Dur- 
ing George's  childhood  his  father  moved  to  On- 
ondaga County,  N.  Y.,  where  the  son  attended 
district  school  and  Pompey  Hill  Academy  until 
he  was  seventeen.  He  then  read  law,  was  admit- 
ted to  the  Syracuse  bar  in  1844,  and  began  prac- 
tice at  Fort  Madison,  Iowa  Territory. 

After  Iowa  was  admitted  to  statehood,  he  was 
elected  a  district  judge  in  1847  and  served  until 
1852.  The  next  year  President  Pierce  appoint- 
ed him  chief  justice  of  the  Territory  of  Oregon. 
Soon  after  his  arrival  at  Salem  in  June  1853  he 
rendered  a  decision  in  favor  of  a  freed  negro, 
Robin  Holmes,  suing  his  former  owner  for  the 
custody  of  his  three  minor  children  (Quarterly 
of  the  Oregon  Historical  Society,  June  1922). 
After  the  call  of  a  convention  to  meet  in  August 
1857  to  form  a  state  constitution,  he  wrote  a  let- 
ter to  the  Oregon  Statesman,  July  28,  urging  the 
inexpediency  of  slavery  in  Oregon  (Ibid.,  Sep- 
tember 1908 ;  C.  H.  Carey,  The  Oregon  Consti- 
tution .  .  .  of  1857,  1926,  pp.  32-33).  He  was  a 
leading  member  of  the  constitutional  convention 
and  chairman  of  the  committee  on  the  judicial 
department.  He  opposed  unsuccessfully  the  pro- 
posal that  the  property  of  a  married  woman 
should  not  be  subject  to  the  debts  of  a  husband 
and  should  be  registered  separately  (Art.  XV 
sect.  5)  on  the  ground  that  "in  this  age  of  wom- 
an's rights  and  insane  theories"  legislation  should 
"unite  the  family  circle"  and  make  husband  and 
wife  one  (Carey,  p.  368). 

Williams  retired  from  the  bench  in  1857  to 
take  up  the  practice  of  law  in  Portland.  He  sup- 
ported Douglas  in  the  campaign  of  i860,  and  as 
a  northern  Democrat  opposed  to  slavery  in  the 


Williams 

call  for  a  Union  state  convention  in  1862.  He 
was  a  delegate  to  this  body,  which  met  at  Eugene 
in  April,  and  was  chairman  of  the  executive 
committee  that  carried  on  the  campaign  for  the 
Union  state  ticket,  which  was  entirely  successful 
at  the  June  election.  In  September  1864  he  was 
elected  as  a  Republican  to  the  United  States 
Senate  for  the  term  beginning  in  March  1865. 
When  Congress  met  in  December  of  that  year 
he  was  appointed  a  member  of  the  Joint  Com- 
mittee on  Reconstruction  and  supported  Thad- 
deus  Stevens  and  the  Radicals  against  President 
Johnson.  He  introduced  the  Tenure  of  Office 
bill  in  the  Senate  in  December  1866,  and  held 
at  the  time  that  this  measure  did  not  take  away 
the  power  of  the  President  to  remove  cabinet 
officers  (J.  G.  Blaine,  Twenty  Years  of  Con- 
gress, vol.  II,  1886,  p.  270).  He  claimed  au- 
thorship for  the  Military  Reconstruction  bill, 
which  he  introduced  in  the  Senate  Feb.  4,  1867, 
and  which  was  passed  by  Congress  (see  his  ar- 
ticle, "Six  Years  in  the  United  States  Senate," 
Sunday  Orcgonian,  Portland,  Dec.  3,  10,  1905). 
With  his  Oregon  colleague,  H.  W.  Corbett,  he 
voted  "guilty"  in  the  impeachment  trial  of  Pres- 
ident Johnson.  He  failed  of  reelection  to  the 
Senate  in  1871,  but  in  February  of  that  year  was 
appointed  a  member  of  the  Joint  High  Commis- 
sion that  negotiated  the  Treaty  of  Washington 
with  Great  Britain,  and  in  May  was  appointed 
attorney-general,  a  position  which  he  held  until 
May  5,  1875.  In  J8/3  Grant  nominated  him  as 
chief  justice  to  succeed  Salmon  P.  Chase  [gw.], 
but  the  appointment  aroused  such  criticism  and 
opposition  that  Williams  requested  the  President 
to  withdraw  his  name.  The  Senate  judiciary 
committee  refused  to  recommend  him  after  an 
inquiry  that  revealed  that  Williams  had  removed 
from  office  A.  C.  Gibbs,  United  States  District 
Attorney  at  Portland,  Ore.,  to  prevent  him  from 
prosecuting  election  frauds,  an  action  taken  at 
the  insistence  of  Senator  John  H.  Mitchell 
[7.7'.],  who  was  said  to  have  been  implicated  in 
the  use  of  "bribes  and  repeaters"  (Diary  of  M. 
P.  Deady,  Jan.  7,  1874,  and  letters  of  J.  W.  Ne- 
smith  written  to  Deady  from  Washington,  Dec. 
2,  7,  8,  1873,  Jan.  10,  1874,  in  Oregon  Historical 
Society).  In  1876  Williams  and  Gen.  Lew  Wal- 
lace were  sent  to  Florida  by  the  Republican  Na- 
tional Committee  "to  save  the  state  for  Hayes" 
and  managed,  so  Williams  wrote  afterwards,  "to 
put  the  returns  in  such  shape  that  the  authori- 
ties would  know  how  the  people  voted." 

After  returning  to  Portland  he  renewed  his 
practice  of  law  and  was  twice  elected  mayor  of 
that  city,  serving  1902-05.  In  his  later  years  he 
lent  his  name  in  support  of  the  "Oregon  System" 


26: 


Williams 

of  popular  government  and  of  the  woman's  suf- 
frage movement. 

In  1850  Williams  married  Kate  Van  Antwerp 
of  Keokuk,  Iowa,  who  died  in  1863;  in  1867  he 
married  Kate  (Hughes)  George.  This  was  the 
"pushing  and  ambitious  wife"  whose  "new  lan- 
dau," furnished  at  public  expense  and  displayed 
at  Washington  while  the  husband  was  a  mem- 
ber of  Grant's  official  family,  is  said  to  have 
helped  block  the  way  to  her  husband's  promotion 
as  chief  justice  (James  Schouler,  History  of  the 
United  States,  vol.  VII,  copr.  1913,  p.  230).  He 
had  one  daughter  by  his  first  marriage  and  two 
adopted  children.  In  addition  to  "Six  Years  in 
the  Senate,"  cited  above,  Williams  published 
Occasional  Addresses  (1895),  and  "Political 
History  of  Oregon  from  1853  to  1865"  (Quar- 
terly of  the  Oregon  Historical  Society,  March 
1901). 

[Joseph  Gaston,  Portland,  Ore.  (ion),  vol.  II; 
Charles  Warren,  The  Supreme  Court  in  U.  S.  Hist. 
(1928),  vol.  II  ;  Proc.  Ore.  State  Bar  Asso.,  Eighteenth 
and  Nineteenth  Sessions  (n.d.)  ;  Who's  Who  in  Amer- 
ica, iqio-ii;  Oregon  Native  Son,  May  1899;  Ore. 
Hist.  Soc.  Quart.,  June  1910  ;  Morning  Oregonian 
(Portland),  Apr.   5,   1910.]  R.  C.  C. 

WILLIAMS,    GEORGE    HUNTINGTON 

(Jan.  28,  1856-July  12,  1894),  mineralogist,  pe- 
trologist,  and  teacher,  was  born  in  Utica,  N.  Y., 
the  eldest  son  of  Robert  Stanton  and  Abigail 
(Doolittle)  Williams,  a  grandson  of  William 
Williams,  1787-1850  [q.v.],  and  a  descendant  of 
Robert  Williams  who  was  admitted  freeman  in 
Roxbury,  Mass.,  in  1638.  The  family  was  well- 
to-do  and  influential,  and  young  Williams  grew 
up  under  conditions  of  unusual  refinement  and 
culture.  He  was  educated  in  the  public  schools, 
at  the  Utica  Free  Academy,  and  at  Amherst  Col- 
lege, from  which  he  received  the  degree  of  A.B. 
in  1878.  There  he  came  under  the  tutelage  of 
Benjamin  Kendall  Emerson,  one  of  the  most  suc- 
cessful teachers  of  geology  in  all  New  England. 
He  returned  to  Utica  and  taught  at  the  academy 
for  about  a  year.  In  1879  he  went  to  Germany. 
After  perfecting  himself  in  the  language,  he 
studied  at  Gottingen,  where  his  attention  was 
turned  strongly  in  the  direction  of  mineralogy, 
and  then  continued  his  studies  at  Heidelberg  un- 
der the  renowned  Heinrich  Rosenbusch,  the 
first  great  teacher  of  microscopic  petrography. 
He  remained  there  for  two  years,  receiving  the 
degree  of  Ph.D.  in  1882.  In  1882-83  he  was 
fellow  by  courtesy  at  the  Johns  Hopkins  Uni- 
versity in  Baltimore;  he  later  held  there  the 
positions  of  associate  in  mineralogy  (1883-85), 
associate  professor  of  mineralogy  (1885-89),  as- 
sociate professor  of  inorganic  geology   (1889- 


Williams 

91),  and  professor  of  inorganic  geology  (1891- 

94)  • 

As  a  teacher,  Williams  was  eminently  success- 
ful. Young,  of  pleasing  address,  companionable, 
fully  informed  in  all  the  most  recent  develop- 
ments, and  particularly  enthusiastic  over  the  new 
departures  in  microscopic  petrography,  he  at- 
tracted students  from  all  parts  of  the  country  and 
soon  became  one  of  the  leaders  in  a  coterie  of 
fellow  workers,  among  them  Joseph  Paxon  Id- 
dings,  James  Furman  Kemp,  Henry  Stephens 
Washington  [qq.v.],  Whitman  Cross,  and  others. 
Patient  with  beginners,  industrious  and  far-see- 
ing, he  was  on  his  way  to  building  up  at  Johns 
Hopkins  a  department  that  would  vie  with  the 
best  in  European  universities.  He  died  at  the 
early  age  of  thirty-eight,  of  typhoid  fever  con- 
tracted as  a  result  of  drinking  contaminated  wa- 
ter while  he  was  on  a  field  trip  in  the  Piedmont 
area  of  Maryland.  He  was  married  on  Sept.  15, 
1886,  to  Mary  Clifton  Wood  of  Syracuse,  N.  Y., 
by  whom  he  had  three  sons. 

Williams'  enthusiasm  was  not  limited  to  teach- 
ing. Like  all  good  teachers,  he  was  an  investi- 
gator as  well,  and  in  the  field  of  petrology  he 
soon  made  his  presence  felt.  One  of  his  earlier 
efforts  was  The  Gabbros  and  Associated  Horn- 
blende Rocks  Occurring  in  the  Neighborhood  of 
Baltimore,  Md.  ( 1886,  Bulletin  28  of  the  United 
States  Geological  Survey),  in  which  he  brought 
out  the  genetic  relationship  of  the  hypersthene- 
gabbro  and  the  gabbro-diorite,  showing  for  the 
first  time  the  chemical  and  physical  relationship 
both  of  the  rocks  and  of  their  pyroxenic  and 
amphebolic  constituents.  A  second  paper  of  sim- 
ilar import,  perhaps  the  most  valuable  of  all  his 
publications,  was  The  Greenstone  Schist  Areas 
of  the  Menominee  and  Marquette  Regions  of 
Michigan  ( 1890,  Bulletin  62  of  the  United  States 
Geological  Survey).  All  his  publications — re- 
ports on  research,  reviews  or  articles  in  diction- 
aries and  encyclopedias — were  prepared  with 
great  care  and  fidelity  to  fact.  His  only  textbook 
was  Elements  of  Crystallography  (1890).  It  is 
difficult  to  evaluate  the  worth  of  one  who  died 
at  the  height  of  his  effectiveness,  but  certainly 
Williams  was  one  of  the  most  brilliant  of  the 
younger  men  in  his  field,  and  occupied  a  position 
that  gave  promise  of  very  great  usefulness. 

[Sources  include  George  Huntington  Williams,  a 
Memorial  (1896,  privately  printed),  with  full  hibliog. ; 
George  Huntington  Williams  .  .  .  the  Johns  Hopkins 
University,  Oct.  14,  1894;  W.  B.  Clark,  in  Bull.  Geo- 
logical Soc.  of  America,  vol.  VI  (1895),  with  bibliog. ; 
obituary  in  Sun  (Baltimore),  July  13,  1894;  personal 
information.]  G  P  M 

WILLIAMS,    GEORGE    WASHINGTON 

(Oct.   16,   1849-Aug.  4,  1891),  author,  soldier, 


•63 


Williams 

Baptist  clergyman,  was  born  in  Bedford  Springs, 
Pa.,  the  son  of  Thomas  and  Nellie  (Rouse)  Wil- 
liams, of  mixed  white  and  negro  blood.  His  ele- 
mentary education  began  in  a  pay  school.  Dur- 
ing his  youth  his  mind  was  fired  by  the  argu- 
ments of  William  Lloyd  Garrison  and  Frederick 
Douglass  \_qq.v-]  and  by  such  literary  produc- 
tions as  Mrs.  Stowe's  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin  and 
Drcd.  In  1862,  as  soon  as  his  age  permitted,  he 
enlisted  as  a  private  in  the  6th  Massachusetts 
Regiment,  rose  at  once  to  be  an  orderly  ser- 
geant, and  before  the  war  closed  was  promoted 
to  Gen.  N.  J.  Jackson's  staff.  In  May  1865  he 
sailed  for  Texas,  where  he  landed  on  the  Rio 
Grande  and  went  as  colonel  at  the  head  of  his 
troops  to  capture  munitions  which  had  been  sold 
to  Mexico  by  the  Confederate  Gen.  Edmund 
Kirby-Smith.  Subsequently  he  was  sent  to  Car- 
lisle Barracks  to  drill  colored  troops.  His  work 
was  so  exemplary  that  he  was  recommended  by 
his  officers  for  a  commission  in  the  Regular 
Army,  but  the  Senate  refused  to  confirm  his  ap- 
pointment, supposedly  because  of  his  color.  Upon 
his  retirement  from  the  army  he  entered  How- 
ard University,  where,  at  his  own  suggestion,  he 
was  permitted  to  organize  the  institution  on  a 
military  plan  and  take  charge  of  the  grounds.  In 
1874  he  graduated  from  Newton  Theological 
Institution,  Newton  Centre,  Mass.,  and  on  June 
1 1  of  that  year  was  ordained  to  the  Baptist  min- 
istry. After  supplying  the  Twelfth  Baptist 
Church,  Boston,  for  a  time,  he  was  unanimously 
elected  pastor,  but  a  gunshot  wound  through  the 
left  lung  received  during  the  war  unfitted  him 
for  the  rigorous  climate  of  New  England,  and 
after  about  a  year  he  resigned  his  Boston  pas- 
torate and  went  to  Washington,  D.  C.  After  an 
attempt  to  launch  a  journal  called  The  Com- 
moner, for  which  he  secured  such  noted  con- 
tributors as  Wendell  Phillips  and  Frederick 
Douglass  but  was  unable  to  secure  subscribers, 
he  went  in  1876  to  Cincinnati,  where  he  was 
chosen  pastor  of  the  Union  Baptist  Church. 
Here  he  soon  won  the  respect  of  Murat  Hal- 
stead  [q.v.],  who  published  his  articles  signed 
Aristides  in  the  Cincinnati  Commercial.  Wil- 
liams' second  journalistic  venture,  the  South- 
western Review,  a  weekly  newspaper,  was  more 
successful  than  the  first,  but  it  failed  to  absorb, 
all  his  energy  or  satisfy  his  ambition.  After  at- 
tending lectures  in  the  Cincinnati  Law  School 
and  reading  law  for  two  years  in  the  office  of 
Alphonso  Taft  [q.v.~\,  he  was  admitted  to  the 
Ohio  bar.  In  1877  he  was  an  unsuccessful  can- 
didate for  the  state  legislature,  but  secured  an 
appointment  in  the  office  of  the  auditor  of  Ham- 
ilton County,  whence  he  entered  the  federal  in- 


Williams 

ternal  revenue  service  as  an  appointee  of  Presi- 
dent Hayes.  In  1879,  after  a  bitter  campaign,  he 
was  elected  to  the  Ohio  legislature  for  two  years. 
He  served  as  United  States  minister  to  Haiti  in 
1885-86,  and  in  the  latter  year  was  a  delegate 
to  the  World  Conference  of  Foreign  Missions 
at  London,  where  he  made  a  speech  on  the  "Drink 
Traffic  in  the  Congo."  He  had  become  interest- 
ed in  the  Congo  as  early  as  1884  and  proposed 
a  plan  for  employing  American  negroes  there 
in  the  service  of  the  Belgian  government.  Visit- 
ing the  region  under  Belgian  auspices,  he  pub- 
lished criticisms  of  the  methods  of  the  officials 
of  the  Congo  Free  State  {Report  upon  the  Congo 
State  and  Country  to  the  President  of  the  Re- 
public of  the  United  States,  n.d.,  and  An  Open 
Letter  to  .  .  .  Leopold  II,  1890).  In  America  he 
modestly  strove  for  the  recognition  of  his  race 
by  writing  History  of  the  Negro  Race  in  Amer- 
ica (1883)  and  A  History  of  the  Negro  Troops 
in  the  War  of  the  Rebellion  (1888).  He  died  at 
Blackpool,  England,  while  an  employee  of  the 
Belgian  government.  He  was  an  impassioned 
orator,  a  popular  speaker,  and  a  clear-thinking 
writer.  Personally,  he  was  somewhat  fastidious, 
kindly  and  genial  in  manner.  Though  a  partisan 
Republican,  he  was  an  honest  official  whose 
character  was  above  reproach. 

[The  Biog.  Cyc.  and  Portrait  Gallery  of  the  State  of 
Ohio,  vol.  Ill  (1884);  preface  in  Williams'  Hist,  of 
the  Negro  Race  in  America;  W.  J.  Simmons,  Men  of 
Mark  (2nd  ed.,  1891)  ;  N.  Y.  Tribune,  Aug.  5,  1891  ; 
reminiscences  of  personal  acquaintances.] 

W.  E.  S— h. 

WILLIAMS,  HENRY  SHALER   (Mar.  6, 

1847-July  31,  19 18),  paleontologist,  was  born  in 
Ithaca,  N.  Y.,  the  son  of  Mary  Huggeford 
(Hardy)  and  Josiah  Butler  Williams,  a  suc- 
cessful business  man  and  banker.  His  first 
American  ancestor  on  his  father's  side  emigrated 
from  Wales  to  Connecticut  sometime  before  1656. 
His  great-grandfather,  Elias  Hardy,  born  in 
London  in  1746,  emigrated  early  in  life  to  Amer- 
ica, living  first  in  Virginia  and  afterwards  in 
St.  John,  New  Brunswick.  Henry  was  next  to 
the  eldest  of  a  large  family  of  brothers  and  sis- 
ters who  lived  in  a  spacious,  well-ordered  home, 
where  questions  of  the  day  were  vigorously 
discussed  and  habits  of  reading  early  acquired. 
He  prepared  for  college  in  the  Ithaca  Academy 
and  entered  Yale  with  his  brother.  Because  of 
his  growing  interest  in  science,  he  transferred 
to  the  Sheffield  Scientific  School,  from  which  he 
was  graduated  with  the  degree  of  Ph.B.  in  1868. 
As  graduate  student  and  assistant  in  paleontol- 
ogy he  remained  at  Yale  two  years,  receiving 
the  degree  of  Ph.D.  in  the  field  of  comparative 
anatomy  in  187 1.    He  was  married  on  Oct.  18, 


264 


Williams 


Williams 


1871,  to  Harriet  Hart  Wilcox  of  New  Haven, 
Conn.  After  teaching  for  a  year  in  Kentucky 
University,  he  joined  his  father  and  brothers  in 
business,  never  losing,  however,  his  interest  in 
natural  science.  In  1879  he  was  appointed  as- 
sistant in  paleontology  at  Cornell  University. 
He  was  made  professor  of  paleontology  in  1884, 
and  of  paleontology  and  geology  in  1886.  In 
1892  he  resigned  to  become  Silliman  Professor 
at  Yale,  chosen  by  James  D.  Dana  [q.v.J  as  his 
successor.  He  returned  to  Cornell  in  1904  and 
in  1912  became  professor  emeritus. 

By  his  work  on  the  American  Devonian,  in 
which  he  was  one  of  two  authorities,  Williams 
made  a  definite  contribution  to  the  development 
of  American  paleontology.  He  was  not  inter- 
ested in  "species  making."  His  independence  of 
thought  was  early  exhibited  in  a  method  of 
stratigraphical  study  which  he  seems  to  have 
originated.  Collecting  faunas  along  ten  or  more 
parallel  meridians  in  southern  New  York,  Penn- 
sylvania, and  Ohio  across  the  strike  of  Devonian 
rocks,  he  compared  the  corresponding  zones  of 
various  formations.  His  carefully  localized  fau- 
nules  revealed  a  lateral  mutation  as  well  as  the 
recurrence  of  species  and  served  to  hasten  the 
abandonment  of  the  pre-Darwinian  idea  of  the 
fixity  of  species,  both  as  biologic  entities  and  as 
absolute  horizon  markers.  Williams'  publica- 
tions during  a  period  of  some  forty  years  show 
a  progression  from  detailed  description  of  faunas 
to  a  steadily  deepening  "philosophic  penetration 
into  the  significance  of  stratigraphy  and  fossil 
faunas"  (Schuchert,  post,  p.  682).  During  the 
close  studies  of  minute  varietal  characters  he 
also  developed  the  now  common  photographic 
method  of  fossil  illustration,  treating  specimens 
with  ammonium  chloride  before  exposure  to  the 
camera.  His  Geological  Biology  was  published 
in  1895.  He  was  associated  with  the  United 
States  Geological  Survey  as  assistant  geologist, 
geologist,  and  paleontologist  from  1883  until  his 
death,  and  many  of  his  paleontological  studies 
appeared  in  its  publications. 

He  was  a  leader  in  the  founding  of  the  Sigma 
Xi  Society  at  Cornell  (1886)  and  became  its 
first  president;  its  early  policies  were  largely 
formulated  by  him  and  were  reborn  in  the  Yale 
chapter  which  he  later  organized.  He  also  took 
an  active  part  in  the  founding  of  the  Geological 
Society  of  America  (1881),  served  as  treasurer 
in  1889-91,  and  exerted  his  influence  to  make  it 
a  strictly  scientific  organization  of  a  high  type. 
He  was  for  years  associate  editor  of  the  Journal 
of  Geology  ( 1893-1918)  and  of  the  American 
Journal  of  Science  (1894-1918).  Though  he 
made  no  appeal  to  superficial  students,  he  exer- 


cised a  lasting  influence  on  his  students  in  re- 
search. Considering  scientific  paleontology  an 
unprofitable  field  for  making  a  livelihood,  he 
discouraged  those  he  felt  unfit  for  it.  But  those 
who  worked  with  him  in  laboratory  and  field 
were  fundamentally  affected,  finding  in  him  an 
independent  thinker,  a  zealous  searcher  after  the 
whole  truth,  and  a  most  sympathetic  friend.  He 
died  in  Havana,  Cuba,  survived  by  his  wife,  two 
sons,  and  two  daughters. 

[See  Who's  Who  in  America,  1918-19;  Charles 
Schuchert,  in  Am.  Jour.  Sci.,  Nov.  1918  ;  H.  F.  Cleland, 
in  Bull.  Geological  Soc.  of  America,  vol.  XXX  (.1919), 
with  bibliog. ;  Obit.  Record  Yale  Grads.  (1919)  ;  H.  B. 
Ward,  Sigma  Xi  Quarter  Century  Record  (1913); 
Stuart  Weller,  in  Jour,  of  Geology,  Nov.-Dec.  1918; 
obituary  in  N.  Y.  Times,  Aug.  1,  1918;  personal  recol- 
lections ;  information  assembled  from  family  records 
by  E.  C.  Williams,  Williams'  daughter.]        q  q  jj 

WILLIAMS,  HENRY  WILLARD  (Dec.  11, 
1821-June  13,  1895),  ophthalmologist,  was  born 
in  Boston,  Mass.,  the  son  of  Willard  and  Eliza- 
beth (Osgood)  Williams,  both  natives  of  Salem, 
Mass.  He  received  his  early  education  at  the 
Boston  Latin  School  and,  after  the  death  of  his 
parents,  at  the  Salem  Latin  School.  At  first  des- 
tined for  business,  he  finally  entered  the  Har- 
vard Medical  School  at  the  age  of  twenty-three. 
Before  graduating  in  1849,  he  spent  three  years 
in  Paris,  London,  and  Vienna,  where  he  became 
greatly  interested  in  the  study  of  diseases  of  the 
eye,  then  developing  as  a  special  field  of  medi- 
cine. Returning  to  Boston,  he  organized  in  1850 
a  voluntary  class  of  Harvard  students  for  his 
lectures  in  ophthalmology,  and  began  private 
practice.  From  1866  to  1871  he  was  lecturer  in 
ophthalmology  in  the  Harvard  Medical  School, 
and  in  1871,  when  a  chair  was  established,  he  be- 
came the  first  professor  in  that  subject.  He 
served  as  ophthalmologic  surgeon  at  the  Boston 
City  Hospital  from  its  founding  in  1864  to  1891. 
He  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  American 
Ophthalmological  Society  (1864)  and  served  as 
its  president  (1868-75).  He  made  very  valuable 
contributions  to  his  subject  in  his  writings  on 
the  operation  for  cataract  (Boston  Medical  and 
Surgical  Journal,  June  26,  1850),  the  use  of  a 
general  anesthetic  in  eye  surgery  (Ibid.,  June  18, 
1851),  and  the  simplified  treatment  of  iritis  with 
atropine  (Ibid.,  Aug.  21,  28,  and  Sept.  4,  1856). 
He  published  three  books :  A  Practical  Guide  to 
the  Study  of  the  Diseases  of  the  Eye  ( 1862),  one 
of  the  first  American  textbooks  of  ophthalmol- 
ogy ;  Our  Eyes,  and  How  to  Take  Care  of  Them 
(1871),  first  published  as  a  series  of  papers  in 
the  Atlantic  Monthly  (January-May  1871); 
and  The  Diagnosis  and  Treatment  of  the  Dis- 
eases of  the  Eye  (1881),  the  best  book  of  its  day 
on  the  subject.    He  was  one  of  the  first  in  the 


'65 


Williams 


Williams 


United  States  to  recognize  the  value  of  the  oph- 
thalmoscope, invented  by  Hermann  von  Helm- 
holtz  in  1851,  for  examining  the  inside  of  the 
eye,  and  should  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  found- 
ers of  ophthalmology  in  the  United  States. 

He  took  an  active  interest  in  the  Massachu- 
setts Medical  Society,  of  which  he  was  presi- 
dent in  1880-82.  As  a  member  of  the  American 
Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences,  he  wrote,  in  the 
latter  years  of  his  life,  a  few  excellent  obituary 
notices  of  deceased  fellows.  He  was  a  conspicu- 
ous figure  at  medical  meetings,  a  frequent,  vig- 
orous, and  persuasive  speaker.  He  was  mar- 
ried twice :  in  1848  to  Elizabeth  Dewe  of  Lon- 
don, and  in  i860  to  Elizabeth  Adeline  Low  of 
Boston.  Of  six  sons,  three  became  physicians. 
Williams  died  in  Boston. 

[The  chief  source  is  John  Green,  in  Trans.  Am.  Oph- 
thalmological  Soc.,  vol.  VII  (1897).  See  also  T.  F. 
Harrington,  The  Harvard  Medic.  School  (1905),  vol. 
II,  with  bibliog. ;  H.  A.  Kelly  and  W.  L.  Burrage,  Am. 
Medic.  Biogs.  (1920)  ;  Boston  Medic,  and  Surgical 
Jour.,  June  27,  1895  ;  Klinische  Monatsblattcr  filr  Au- 
genheilkunde ,  June  1897;  obituary  in  Boston  Tran- 
script, June  14,  1895.]  H.R.  V. 

WILLIAMS,  ISRAEL  (Nov.  30,  1700-Jan. 
10,  1788),  Loyalist,  was  born  in  Hatfield,  Mass., 
the  son  of  the  Rev.  William  Williams  and  the 
great-grandson  of  Robert  Williams  who  emi- 
grated to  Roxbury,  Mass.,  from  Norfolk  Coun- 
ty, England,  in  1637.  Elisha  Williams  was  a 
half-brother,  Ephraim  Williams,  a  cousin,  and 
William  Williams,  1731-1811  \_qq.v.~\,  a  nephew. 
>  His  mother  is  said  to  have  been  Christian,  the 
daughter  of  Solomon  Stoddard  of  Northampton 
and  the  aunt  of  Jonathan  Edwards  and  Joseph 
Hawley  [qq.v.'].  After  graduating  from  Har- 
vard College  in  the  class  of  1727,  where  his  fa- 
ther graduated  in  1683,  he  returned  to  Hatfield. 
He  became  a  selectman  in  1732  and  was  reelect- 
ed annually  until  1763.  Amassing  considerable 
wealth  through  trading,  farming,  and  land  spec- 
ulation, he  was  able  by  the  middle  of  the  cen- 
tury to  build  a  great  house  at  Hatfield  and  to 
own  one  of  the  few  wheeled  carriages  in  that 
section  of  the  province.  About  1731  he  married 
Sarah,  the  daughter  of  John  Chester  of  Weth- 
ersfield,  Conn.  They  had  seven  or  eight  chil- 
dren. His  influence  in  arousing  enmity  against 
his  cousin,  both  in  Northampton  and  among  the 
ministry  of  Hampshire  County,  was  important 
in  Jonathan  Edwards'  dismissal  from  the  North- 
ampton church  in  1750. 

In  1744  Williams  became  second  in  command 
of  the  militia  of  Hampshire  County  and  four 
years  later  was  made  colonel  of  the  county's 
regiment.  Throughout  the  French  and  Indian 
War  he  was  responsible  for  the  defense  of  west- 
ern Massachusetts,  a  work  in  which  he  was  dis- 


tinguished for  ability  and  foresight,  although 
his  tactlessness  and  arrogance  made  him  unpopu- 
lar with  his  fellow  officers.  Meanwhile  he  was 
winning  recognition  in  the  civil  service  of  the 
county  and  province.  He  was  long  a  justice  of 
the  peace  and  clerk  of  the  county  court,  while 
from  1758  to  1774  he  was  a  judge  of  the  Hamp- 
shire County  court  of  common  pleas.  He  repre- 
sented Hatfield  in  the  Massachusetts  legisla- 
ture, with  but  few  interruptions,  from   1733  to 

1773  and  was  a  member  of  the  governor's  coun- 
cil from  1761  to  1767.  The  years  gave  him  com- 
plete political  power  in  his  county  so  that  he 
was  called  the  "monarch  of  Hampshire"  ;  at  Bos- 
ton he  was  a  supporter  of  the  conservatives  and 
for  a  decade  or  more  before  the  Revolution  was 
a  close  ally  of  Thomas  Hutchinson  (Proceed- 
ings of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  1 
ser.,  vol.  XX,  1884,  p.  48  n.).  But,  as  in  military 
matters,  his  autocratic,  domineering  manner  did 
not  make  for  popularity  and,  added  to  his  haugh- 
tiness and  conservatism,  caused  him  to  lose  polit- 
ical influence  in  Hampshire  County  to  his  more 
radical  cousin,  Joseph  Hawley.  In  1762  he 
sought  to  found  a  college  in  the  Connecticut  Val- 
ley, but,  largely  through  the  opposition  of  Har- 
vard College,  the  attempt  was  frustrated,  al- 
though Gov.  Francis  Bernard  was  at  first  ready 
to  grant  a  charter.  Later,  as  executor  under 
the  will  of  Ephraim  Williams  [q.v.],  he  was  in- 
strumental in  founding  the  "free  school"  that  be- 
came Williams  College. 

With  the  approach  of  the  Revolution  Williams 
was  forced  into  political  retirement.    In  August 

1774  he  was  made  a  mandamus  councillor  but 
never  took  the  oath.  During  the  early  years  of 
the  Revolution  he  was  considered  the  leading 
Loyalist  in  western  Massachusetts  and  frequent- 
ly was  subjected  to  indignities  at  the  hands  of 
the  Hampshire  mobs.  One  of  these  incidents 
was  celebrated  in  John  Trumbull's  M'Fingal 
(1776  with  imprint  1775).  In  1777  Williams 
spent  several  months  in  jail  for  his  Loyalism 
and  was  deprived  of  his  citizenship  until  1780. 
Thereafter  he  lived  quietly  in  Hatfield  until  his 
death. 

[Williams  Papers  in  possession  of  Mass.  Hist.  Soc. ; 
Massachusetts  Archives,  vols.  XXV,  XLIV,  Literary, 
Vol.  LVIII,  in  State  House,  Boston,  Mass.  ;  A.  L. 
Perry,  Origins  in  IVilliamstoivn  (2nd  ed.,  1896)  ;  Lo- 
renzo Sabine,  Biog.  Sketches  of  Loyalists  of  the  Am. 
Revolution  (1864),  vol.  II;  J.  R.  Trumbull,  Hist,  of 
Northampton,  vol.  II,  (1902)  ;  D.  W.  and  R.  F.  Wells, 
Hist,  of  Hatfield  (1910)  ;  Harrison  Williams,  The  Life, 
Ancestors,  and  Descendants  of  Robert  Williams  of 
Roxbury  (1934)  ;  J.  L.  Sibley,  Biog.  Sketches  of  Grads^ 
of  Harvard  Univ.,  vol.  Ill  (1885),  p.  264,  questions 
the  statement  that  Christian  was  Israel's  mother  on 
the  ground  that  Christian,  the  child  of  Solomon  Stod- 
dard, was  a  son  ;  American  Mag.,  Jan.  1788,  p.  128,  for 
death  notice.]  E.  F.  B. 


»66 


Williams 

WILLIAMS,  JAMES  (July  i,  1796-Apr.  10, 
1869),  journalist,  diplomat,  was  born  in  Grain- 
ger County,  Tenn.,  son  of  Ethelred  and  Mary 
(Copeland)  Williams  and  a  grandson  of  James 
and  Elizabeth  Williams.  Details  of  his  early 
career  are  obscure,  but  he  apparently  had  mili- 
tary experience  which  brought  him  the  title  of 
captain.  In  1841  he  founded  the  Knoxville  Post, 
which  he  edited  for  some  years,  developing  a 
facile  pen.  In  1843  he  gained  election  to  the  Ten- 
nessee House  of  Representatives.  He  was  evi- 
dently a  man  of  great  energy  and  initiative,  for 
after  his  short  career  as  legislator  he  and  his 
brother  William  organized  a  Navigation  Soci- 
ety of  which  he  was  president,  and  he  soon  be- 
came an  active  promoter  of  railroads.  While 
engaged  in  these  enterprises  he  founded  the 
Deaf  and  Dumb  Asylum  of  Knoxville. 

He  eventually  moved  to  Nashville,  where  he 
continued  along  with  his  business  interests  his 
interest  in  public  affairs.  Here  he  published  nu- 
merous essays  under  the  pseudonym  of  "Old  Line 
Whig."  He  had  been  a  Whig,  but  the  anti-slav- 
ery trend  of  his  party  in  the  North  and  its  final 
absorption  into  the  Republican  party  caused  him 
in  the  late  fifties  to  ally  himself  with  the  Demo- 
crats. In  recognition  of  his  merit  as  well  as  of 
his  political  importance  to  the  party,  President 
Buchanan  appointed  him  minister  to  Turkey  in 
1858.  In  this  capacity  he  urged  upon  the  state 
department  that  consular  jurisdiction,  which,  by 
agreement  with  Turkey,  was  already  exercised 
over  criminal  cases  involving  Americans,  be  ex- 
tended to  include  all  civil  cases  as  well,  and  that 
the  right  of  appeal  to  the  American  minister 
from  the  consular  courts  be  established  in  cases 
involving  over  fifty  dollars  or  imprisonment. 
He  also  traveled  through  Syria,  Egypt,  and 
Palestine  in  behalf  of  the  American  missionaries 
in  these  countries  and  was  eventually  able  to 
obtain  local  concessions  looking  toward  their 
protection. 

When  Lincoln  was  elected  in  i860  Williams 
resigned  and  hastened  home  in  the  hope  of  aid- 
ing in  some  way  the  settlement  of  the  sectional 
quarrel  so  as  to  prevent  war.  When  war  began, 
nevertheless,  he  returned  to  Europe,  where  he 
acted  as  Confederate  propagandist  and  minister 
at  large.  In  London  he  gave  much  aid  to  Henry 
Hotze,  Confederate  propagandist  chief  and  ed- 
itor of  the  Confederate  organ,  The  Index;  in- 
deed, Williams  presented  the  history  of  the  sec- 
tional struggle  and  explained  the  slavery  ques- 
tion better  than  any  other  Southern  representa- 
tive abroad.  His  articles  in  the  Times,  the  Stand- 
ard, and  the  Index  had  no  unimportant  part  in 
swinging  middle  and   upper  class   England  to 


Williams 

the  side  of  the  South.  Some  of  his  essays  con- 
cerning slavery  were  gathered  into  a  volume 
published  in  Nashville  in  1861  under  the  title 
Letters  on  Slavery  from  the  Old  World;  after 
considerable  enlargement  the  book  was  repub- 
lished in  London  as  The  South  Vindicated.  Un- 
der the  clever  management  of  Henry  Hotze,  it 
was  translated  into  German  and  circulated 
among  the  German  people.  In  1863  Williams 
published  The  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Model  Re- 
public. While  laboring  in  the  effort  to  educate 
European  public  opinion,  he  was  in  close  touch 
with  the  Confederate  diplomats ;  and  finally, 
when  French  intervention  in  Mexico  developed 
into  French  conquest  with  the  prospect  of  Maxi- 
milian as  puppet  emperor,  it  was  Williams  who 
visited  Maximilian  at  Miramar  and  persuaded 
him  that  it  would  be  to  his  advantage  to  ally 
himself  with  the  Confederacy  or  at  least  to  give 
it  recognition.  Williams  not  only  kept  John 
Slidell  and  James  M.  Mason  [qq.z\~\  posted,  but 
carried  on  a  secret  and  perhaps  more  detailed 
correspondence  with  President  Jefferson  Davis 
concerning  the  situation.  Had  not  Napoleon  III 
silenced  the  royal  dupe,  Maximilian  would  prob- 
ably have  recognized  the  independence  of  the 
Confederacy. 

After  the  war  Williams  remained  in  Germany 
with  his  wife,  the  former  Lucy  Jane  Graham  of 
Tennessee.  Like  Slidell,  he  died  in  Europe  (at 
Gratz,  Austria)  and  was  buried  there.  His  two 
daughters  married  officers  of  the  Austrian  army, 
both  members  of  noble  families ;  his  widow  and 
son  later  returned  to  Tennessee. 

[IVar  of  the  Rebellion:  Official  Records  {Army),  2 
ser.  II,  75  ;  House  Ex.  Doc.  68,  35  Cong.,  2  Sess.,  pp. 
69-73  ;  W.  T.  Hale  and  D.  L.  Merritt,  A  Hist,  of  Tenn., 
vol.  Ill  (1013)  ;  F.  L.  Owsley,  King  Cotton  Diplomacy 
( 193 1 )  ;  War  of  the  Rebellion  :  Official  Records  (Navy), 
2  ser.  Ill ;  Pickett  Papers,  Lib.  of  Cong.]         p  l.  O. 

WILLIAMS,  JAMES  DOUGLAS  (Jan.  16, 
1808-Nov.  20,  1880),  governor  of  Indiana,  eld- 
est of  six  children  of  George  Williams,  of  Eng- 
lish-Welsh Virginian  stock,  was  born  in  Picka- 
way County,  Ohio.  In  1818  the  family  moved  to 
a  farm  near  Vincennes  in  Knox  County,  Ind. 
James  grew  up  under  pioneer  conditions  with 
very  little  schooling.  At  his  father's  death  in 
1828  he  assumed  the  support  of  the  family.  On 
Feb.  17,  1831,  he  married  Nancy  Huffman.  Of 
their  seven  children  three  died  in  infancy.  In 
1836  he  purchased  a  section  of  land  near  Wheat- 
land, and  on  it  made  his  home  for  the  rest  of  his 
life.  He  acquired  a  total  of  some  four  thousand 
acres,  from  which,  together  with  a  grist  mill,  a 
sawmill,  and  a  pork  packing  plant,  he  accumu- 
lated "a  handsome  competence."  Of  great  phys- 
ical strength,  six  feet  four  inches  in  height  and 


167 


Williams 

spare  of  build,  he  was  a  hard  working  as  well  as 
an  expert  and  progressive  farmer,  excelling  in 
raising  both  grain  and  stock.  He  retained  pio- 
neer habits,  living  largely  on  the  products  of 
his  farm  and  wearing,  even  in  Congress,  home- 
spun "blue  jeans"  woven  from  the  fleece  of  his 
own  flocks. 

Williams  was  active  in  local,  state,  and  na- 
tional Democratic  organizations.  In  1839  he 
became  by  election  justice  of  the  peace.  He 
served  five  terms  in  the  Indiana  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives between  1843  and  1869,  and  three 
terms  in  the  Senate  between  1858  and  1873,  sit- 
ting altogether  in  sixteen  sessions  of  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly.  Among  the  laws  he  sponsored, 
one  allowed  widows  to  hold  small  estates  of  de- 
ceased husbands  without  court  action ;  another 
distributed  a  state  sinking  fund  among  coun- 
ties for  school  funds.  He  worked  for  the  im- 
provement of  the  Wabash  River  to  make  it  navi- 
gable, but  opposed  the  retrocession  of  the  Wa- 
bash and  Erie  Canal  to  the  state.  He  promoted 
the  creation  of  a  state  board  of  agriculture,  and 
was  a  member  of  it  for  sixteen  years  and  presi- 
dent for  four.  He  voted  for  a  contingent  war 
fund  of  $100,000  for  Gov.  Oliver  Perry  Morton 
[q.v.],  but  joined  in  his  party's  opposition  to  the 
administration  and  was  branded  a  "Copper- 
head" by  Republicans.  He  was  elected  to  the 
national  House  of  Representatives  in  1874  and 
in  the  session  of  1875-76  was  chairman  of  the 
committee  on  accounts.  Both  in  the  state  legis- 
lature and  in  Congress  he  was  insistent  upon 
cutting  down  expenses  to  the  last  possible  penny. 
This  accorded  with  his  peculiar  attire,  and  the 
public  came  to  know  him  as  "Blue  Jeans  Wil- 
liams." 

At  the  Democratic  state  convention,  Apr.  19, 
1876,  two  factions  compromised  on  him,  and  he 
was  unanimously  nominated  for  governor  against 
Godlove  Stein  Orth  [g.7\],  later  replaced  by 
Gen.  Benjamin  Harrison,  as  the  Republican  can- 
didate. Indiana  was  a  pivotal  state  in  the  na- 
tional presidential  election,  and  the  campaign 
was  a  famous  one.  Williams  made  a  thorough 
canvass,  especially  in  the  rural  districts,  taking 
Daniel  W.  Voorhees  [  g.r.]  with  him  as  his 
spokesman  at  meetings.  He  was  elected  by  a 
vote  of  213,219  to  Harrison's  208,080  and  was 
inaugurated  on  Jan.  8,  1877.  He  was  a  consci- 
entious, painstaking,  self-reliant  governor.  In 
the  labor  troubles  of  1877  he  refused  at  first  to 
call  out  the  National  Guard  but  finally  did  so  in 
time  to  prevent  serious  outbreaks.  The  present 
state  capital  was  provided  for  in  his  administra- 
tion, begun  in  1878,  and  completed  in  1888,  well 
within  the  amount  appropriated    ($2,000,000). 


Williams 

Williams  died  at  Indianapolis  shortly  before  the 
end  of  his  term  of  office.  He  was  buried  in  Wal- 
nut Grove  Cemetery,  near  his  home  in  Knox 
County.  He  was  survived  by  a  son  and  a  daugh- 
ter. 

[See  Biog.Dir.Am.Cong.  (1928)  ;  Ind.  House  Jours. ; 
Ind.  Sen.  Jours. ;  H.  R.  Burnett,  in  Ind.  Mag.  of  Hist., 
June  1926  ;  W.  W.  Woollen,  Biog.  and  Hist.  Sketches  of 
Early  Ind.  (1883)  ;  A  Biog.  Hist,  of  Eminent  and  Self- 
Made  Men  .  .  .  of  Ind.  (1880),  vol.  I;  Proc.  in  the 
House  of  Reps.  .  .  .  on  the  Death  of  .  .  .  James  D.  Wit- 
Hams  (Indianapolis,  1881)  ;  Weekly  Western  Sun 
(Vincennes,  Ind.),  Sept.  19,  1873  !  obituaries  in  In- 
dianapolis Sentinel  and  Indianapolis  Jour.,  Nov.  22, 
1880.  The  date  of  marriage  is  from  a  copy  of  the 
marriage  certificate  in  the  clerk's  office,  Knox  County, 
Ind.]  C.  B.  C. 

WILLIAMS,  JESSE  LYNCH  (May  6,  1807- 
Oct.  9,  1886),  civil  engineer,  was  born  at  West- 
field,  Stokes  County,  N.  C,  the  youngest  son  of 
Jesse  and  Sarah  (Terrell)  Williams,  members 
of  the  Society  of  Friends.  His  parents  removed 
to  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  about  1814,  then  to  War- 
ren County,  and  about  18 19  to  Wayne  County, 
Ind.  For  a  short  period  Jesse  was  a  student  at 
Lancasterian  Seminary,  Cincinnati.  Inspired  by 
the  great  schemes  of  canal  improvement  then 
popular,  he  selected  civil  engineering  as  his  life 
work  and  secured  a  minor  position  on  the  first 
survey  of  the  Miami  &  Erie  Canal  in  Ohio, 
from  Cincinnati  to  Maumee  Bay,  the  line  of 
which  lay  for  one-half  its  length  through  un- 
broken wilderness.  In  1828  he  made  the  final 
location  of  the  canal  from  Licking  Summit  to 
Chillicothe  and  constructed  one  division,  includ- 
ing a  dam  and  aqueduct  across  the  Scioto  River. 
He  was  a  member  of  the  board  of  engineers 
which  decided  to  use  reservoirs  rather  than  long 
feeders  from  distant  streams  for  supplying  wa- 
ter to  the  summit  level  of  the  canal,  as  a  result 
of  which  decision  a  reservoir  covering  15,000 
acres  was  built,  the  largest  anywhere  at  that 
time. 

In  his  twenty-fifth  year  he  was  appointed  chief 
engineer  of  the  Wabash  &  Erie  Canal  and  in 

1835  the  surveys  of  all  other  canals  in  Indiana 
were  placed  by  the  legislature  in  his  hands.    In 

1836  he  was  made  engineer-in-chief  of  all  canal 
routes  and  in  the  following  year  the  railroads 
and  turnpikes  were  also  placed  under  his  charge ; 
he  was  thus  given  supervision  of  1,300  miles  of 
public  works.  In  one  summer  he  attended  thir- 
teen lettings  of  contracts,  journeying  some  3,000 
miles  mainly  on  horseback  as  well  as  mastering 
the  multitudinous  details  of  construction.  When 
the  construction  of  public  works  was  suspended 
because  of  financial  stringency,  he  engaged  in 
mercantile  and  manufacturing  operations  at  Fort 
Wayne,  1842-47,  and  subsequently  served  the 
Wabash  &  Erie  Canal  as  chief  engineer,  from 


268 


Williams 


Williams 


1847  to  1876,  when  it  was  sold.  Meanwhile,  he 
was  also  chief  engineer  of  the  Fort  Wayne  & 
Chicago  Railroad  from  1854  until  its  consoli- 
dation in  1856  with  the  Pittsburgh,  Fort  Wayne 
&  Chicago  Railway,  of  which  he  was  a  direc- 
tor until  1873. 

From  1864  until  his  resignation  in  1869  he 
was  appointed  annually  by  three  successive  pres- 
idents (Lincoln,  Johnson,  and  Grant)  a  govern- 
ment director  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railway.  He 
devoted  himself  to  securing  the  best  possible  lo- 
cation and  the  lowest  feasible  maximum  grade 
through  the  Rocky  Mountains.  His  report  to  the 
secretary  of  the  interior,  Nov.  14,  1862  {House 
Executive  Document  No.  15,  40  Cong.,  3  Sess.), 
showed  that  the  actual  cost  of  constructing  and 
equipping  the  road  was  much  less  than  the  gov- 
ernment subsidy  and  thus  led  to  the  famous 
Credit  Mobilier  investigation.  On  Jan.  19,  1869, 
Williams  was  appointed  receiver  of  the  Grand 
Rapids  &  Indiana  Railroad,  with  the  heavy  re- 
sponsibility of  saving  a  land  grant  worth  seven 
million  dollars  by  completing  twenty  additional 
miles  of  road  through  a  section  remote  from  set- 
tlements within  fifty  days  after  the  yielding  of 
the  frost.  He  finished  this  task  eight  days  ahead 
of  the  time  limit  and  completed  the  rest  of  this 
325-mile  project  in  October  1870,  performing 
the  duties  of  both  receiver  and  engineer.  In 
June  1871  he  was  appointed  chief  engineer  in 
charge  of  the  completion  of  the  Cincinnati, 
Richmond  &  Fort  Wayne  Railroad,  which 
opened,  through  the  Grand  Rapids  &  Indiana 
Railroad,  a  route  from  Cincinnati  to  the  valuable 
pineries  of  northwestern  Michigan.  He  had  be- 
come an  active  member  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church,  and  was  one  of  the  original  directors  of 
the  Presbyterian  Theological  Seminary  of  the 
Northwest,  later  McCormick  Theological  Sem- 
inary. 

He  was  married  Nov.  15,  1831,  to  Susan, 
daughter  of  William  Creighton  [g.?'.]  and  Eliz- 
abeth (Meade)  Creighton  of  Chillicothe,  Ohio. 

[C.  B.  Stuart,  Lives  and  Works  of  Civil  and  Military 
Engineers  (1871);  Biog.  Hist,  of  Eminent  and  Sclf- 
Made  Men  of  .  .  .  hid.  (1880),  vol.  II  ;  Hugh  McCul- 
loch,  Men  and  Measures  of  Half  a  Century  (1888); 
Valley  of  the  Upper  Maumce  River  (2  vols.,  1889)  ; 
Railroad  Gazette,  Oct.  15,  1886;  Sunday  Inter  Ocean 
(Chicago),  Oct.  10,  1886.]  B.A.R. 

WILLIAMS,  JESSE  LYNCH  (Aug.  17, 
1871-Sept.  14,  1929),  author,  playwright,  ed- 
itor, was  born  in  Sterling,  111.,  the  son  of  Meade 
Creighton  and  Elizabeth  (Riddle)  Williams, 
and  a  grandson  of  Jesse  Lynch  Williams  [<7.f.]. 
He  prepared  for  college  at  the  Beloit  Academy 
in  Wisconsin,  and  received  the  degree  of  B.A. 
at  Princeton  in  1892.   As  an  undergraduate  he 


was  one  of  the  editors  of  the  Nassau  Literary 
Magazine.  He  was  even  then  keenly  interested 
in  the  drama,  and  with  Booth  Tarkington  and 
several  others  founded  the  Triangle  Club,  which 
has  ever  since  been  the  center  of  amateur  acting 
at  Princeton.  In  the  summer  of  1893  he  became 
a  reporter  on  the  New  York  Sun  under  Charles 
Anderson  Dana  [g.r.].  He  did  a  great  deal  of 
newspaper  and  fiction  writing  during  his  years 
on  the  Sun,  and  in  1895  published  his  first  vol- 
ume, Princeton  Stories,  the  forerunner  of  many 
volumes  of  college  fiction.  Years  later  it  was 
said  that  in  the  book  Williams  had  expressed,  as 
no  one  else  could  at  the  time,  the  spirit  of  under- 
graduate life  (Princeton  Alumni  Weekly,  post, 
p.  4).  For  a  time  (1897-1900)  he  was  connect- 
ed with  Scribncr's  Magazine,  but  he  returned  to 
Princeton  as  first  editor  of  the  Princeton  Alumni 
Weekly  (1900-03).  On  June  1,  1898,  he  was 
married  to  Alice  Laidlaw  of  New  York,  by  whom 
he  had  three  children. 

After  1903  he  devoted  himself  to  writing.  His 
first  play,  The  Stolen  Story,  produced  in  1906, 
was  followed  by  Why  Marry?  (1917),  in  which 
Nat  Goodwin  was  the  star;  Why  Not?  (1922), 
a  satiric  comedy;  and  Lovely  Lady  (1925).  Of 
these  the  most  popular  was  Why  Marry?,  based 
on  his  book  called  "And  So  They  Were  Mar- 
ried" (1914)  ;  it  ran  for  a  year  and  was  awarded 
a  Pulitzer  prize.  His  books  of  fiction,  in  addi- 
tion to  a  number  of  college  stories,  include  New 
York  Sketches  (1902),  The  Married  Life  of  the 
Frederic  Carrolls  (1910),  Not  Wanted  (1923), 
They  Still  Fall  in  Love  (1929),  and  She  Knew 
She  Was  Right  (1930).  All  his  prose  fiction 
was  vivid  and  effective  in  characterization.  He 
worked  over  details  with  unusual  care,  and  he 
was  never  satisfied  until  the  last  proof  was  read. 
The  manuscripts  of  his  last  novel,  She  Knew  She 
Was  Right  (1930),  which  was  written  four 
times,  are  filled  with  the  marks  of  his  intelligent 
industry.  In  1925-26  he  held  the  fellowship  in 
creative  art  at  the  University  of  Michigan.  He 
was  elected  president  of  the  Authors'  League  of 
America  in  192 1 ;  and  in  the  numerous  clubs  of 
which  he  was  a  member  he  had  circles  of  loyal 
and  affectionate  friends,  many  of  them  outside  of 
his  profession.  He  used  to  describe  himself  as 
"a  radical  among  conservatives,  and  a  conserva- 
tive among  radicals."  He  had  a  summer  home 
on  an  island  in  Maine,  and  winter  homes  in  New 
York  and  Princeton.  He  died  suddenly  of  heart 
disease  at  the  home  of  Mrs.  Douglas  Robinson, 
Herkimer  County,  N.  Y.  He  was  buried  in 
Princeton. 

{Who's  Wlio  in  America,  1928-29;  records  of  the 
class  of  1892,  Princeton;  Quindccennial  Record  of  the 


169 


Williams 

Class  of  Ninety-two  of  Princeton  Univ.  (1907); 
Princeton  Alumni  Weekly,  Sept.  27,  1929  ;  A.  H.  Quinn, 
A  Hist,  of  the  Am.  Drama  .  .  .  to  the  present  Day 
(1927),  vol.  II;  obituary  in  N.  Y.  Times,  Sept.  15, 
1929;  long  personal  acquaintance.]  r  g s 

WILLIAMS,  JOHN  (Dec.  10,  1664- June  12, 
1729),  clergyman  and  author,  was  oorn  in  Rox- 
bury,  Mass.,  the  fifth  child  and  second  son  of 
Deacon  Samuel  and  Theoda  (Park)  Williams 
and  a  grandson  of  Robert  Williams  who  was  ad- 
mitted freeman  of  Roxbury  in  1638.  John  was 
prepared  in  the  Roxbury  Latin  School  and  grad- 
uated B.A.  from  Harvard  College  in  1683.  For 
two  years  he  taught  school  in  Dorchester.  He 
prophesied  as  a  candidate  in  the  frontier  set- 
tlement of  Deerfield  and  when  some  time  later  a 
church  was  gathered  there,  he  was  formally  or- 
dained its  first  pastor,  Oct.  17,  1688.  In  the 
meantime,  on  July  21,  1687,  he  had  married  Eu- 
nice, daughter  of  the  Rev.  Eleazar  Mather  of 
Northampton  and  grand-daughter  of  Richard 
Mather  [q.z\]. 

Almost  from  the  beginning  of  Williams'  min- 
istry, Deerfield  was  in  peril  of  French  and 
Indian  attack.  Like  many  of  his  colleagues,  Wil- 
liams believed  the  border  wars  to  be  occasioned 
by  God's  dissatisfaction  with  his  spiritually  apa- 
thetic people ;  nevertheless,  he  met  danger  cou- 
rageously and  exhorted  his  people  to  stand  their 
ground.  When  Queen  Anne's  War  began,  he 
urged  Governor  Dudley  to  strengthen  the  Deer- 
field fortifications,  but  the  warning  was  too  late. 
Before  daybreak,  Feb.  29,  1703/04,  a  party  of 
French  and  Indians  sacked  the  town,  killed  many 
inhabitants,  including  Williams'  two  youngest 
children,  and  carried  the  rest  into  captivity. 
Williams'  wife,  weakened  by  recent  childbirth 
and  unable  to  withstand  the  hardships,  was  mur- 
dered by  the  savages.  Williams  was  well  treated, 
although  he  was  separated  from  his  children  and 
suffered  exposure,  hunger,  and  grief.  The  cap- 
tives were  detained  at  Fort  Chambly,  where  the 
Indians,  seconded  by  Jesuit  priests,  spared  no 
effort  to  convert  them  to  the  Catholic  faith. 
Williams  counteracted  their  exertions  among  his 
fellows  so  effectively  that  the  priests  sent  him 
to  Chateauviche,  where  he  remained  more  than 
two  years.  Finally,  Governor  Dudley  effected 
his  release  and  Williams  returned  to  Boston, 
Nov.  21,  1706. 

During  the  following  winter  he  preached  in 
churches  of  Boston  and  vicinity  and  prepared, 
with  Cotton  Mather's  help,  The  Redeemed  Cap- 
tive Returning  to  Zion  (1707),  a  book  which 
won  wide  approval  as  a  testimony  of  Congrega- 
tional fortitude  against  "Popish  Poisons."  De- 
spite continued  Indian  depredations  and  more 
lucrative  offers,  he  returned  to  his  post  in  Janu- 


Williams 

ary  1707,  where  "his  Presence  .  .  .  conduced 
much  to  the  rebuilding  of  the  Place"  (Sibley, 
post,  III,  257).  On  Sept.  16,  1707,  he  married 
Abigail  (Allen)  Bissell  of  Windsor,  Conn.  He 
served  as  chaplain  in  the  expedition  of  171 1 
against  Port  Royal  and,  with  John  Stoddard,  as 
commissioner  to  Canada  (1713-14)  for  the  re- 
turn of  English  prisoners;  he  regularly  attend- 
ed the  yearly  meetings  of  clergymen  in  Boston 
and  in  1728  preached  the  convention  sermon. 
Deploring  the  religious  indifference  of  his  age, 
he  strove  to  restore  the  pristine  spiritual  enthu- 
siasm of  Massachusetts  with  sermons  devoted  to 
the  principle  "That  it's  a  high  Privilege  to  be 
descended  from  godly  Ancestors;  and  'tis  the 
important  Duty  of  such  ...  to  exalt  the  God  of 
their  Fathers"  (A  Serious  Word  To  The  Pos- 
terity of  Holy  Men,  1729,  p.  2).  He  died  at 
Deerfield,  survived  by  his  second  wife,  their  five 
children,  and  six  children  of  his  first  marriage. 

[The  Redeemed  Captive  Returning  to  Zion  (Spring- 
field, Mass.,  1908),  in  the  Indian  Captivities  Series, 
lists  the  dozen  or  more  earlier  editions  and  includes  a 
sermon  by  Williams  sometimes  entitled  Reports  of  Di- 
vine Kindness,  or  Remarkable  Mercies,  &c.  Letters 
by  Williams  are  in  Cotton  Mather's  Good  Fctch'd  out 
of  Evil  (1706)  ;  in  the  "Winthrop  Papers,"  Mass.  Hist. 
Soc.  Colls.,  6  ser.  Ill  (1889)  ;  and  in  the  Coleman  Pa- 
pers, 1697-1723  (MSS.  in  the  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Lib.). 
Two  funeral  sermons  were  published  :  Isaac  Chauncey, 
A  Blessed  Manumission  of  Christ's  Faithful  Ministers 
(1729)  and  Thomas  Foxcroft,  Eli  the  Priest  Dying 
Suddenly  (1729).  See  also  "Diary  of  Samuel  Sewall," 
Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Colls.,  5  ser.  VI  (1879)  ;  "Letter  Book 
of  Samuel  Sewall,"  Ibid. ,6  ser.  I,  II  (1886-88)  ;  "Diary 
of  Cotton  Mather,"  Ibid.,  7  ser.  VII,  VIII  (1911-12)  ; 
George  Sheldon,  Heredity  and  Early  Environment  of 
John  Williams  (1905)  ;  S.  W.  Williams,  A  Biog.  Mem- 
oir of  the  Rev.  John  Williams  (1837)  ;  Allen  Hazen, 
"Some  Account  of  John  Williams,"  in  Hist,  and  Proc. 
of  the  Pocumtuck  Valley  Memorial  Asso.,  vol.  II 
(1898)  ;  New  Eng.  Hist,  and  Gcneal.  Reg.,  Jan.  1851, 
Apr.  1854,  Apr.  1856;  J.  L.  Sibley,  Biog.  Sketches  of 
Grads.  of  Harvard  Univ.  (1885),  III,  249-62;  W.  B. 
Sprague,  Annals  Am.  Pulpit,  vol.  I  (1857);  S.  W. 
Williams.  The  Geneal.  and  Hist,  of  the  Family  of  Wil- 
liams (1847).]  R.  P.  S. 

WILLIAMS,  JOHN  (Apr.  28,  1761-Oct.  12, 
1818),  satirist,  critic,  miscellaneous  writer,  bet- 
ter known  as  Anthony  Pasquin,  was  born  in 
London.  Of  exceptional  precocity,  he  was  chas- 
tised in  his  teens  for  a  stinging  epigram  on  his 
master  at  the  Merchant  Taylors'  School.  In 
Dublin  he  was  prosecuted  for  an  attack  on  the 
government.  He  published  books  on  a  variety  of 
subjects,  and  as  a  dramatic  critic  was  the  bete 
noir  of  the  London  theatrical  world.  (For  a  bib- 
liography and  the  details  of  his  colorful  Euro- 
pean years,  see  The  Dictionary  of  National  Biog- 
raphy.) He  emigrated  to  America,  probably  in 
1797  or  1798,  after  the  loss  of  a  suit  for  libel 
which  he  had  brought  against  Robert  Faulder, 
a  bookseller.  About  this  time  he  is  said  to  have 
edited  a  New  York  democratic  newspaper  called 


270 


Williams 

the  Federalist,  but  no  such  newspaper  is  known 
of  that  time  and  place.  William  Dunlap's  diary 
for  1798  has  a  number  of  references  to  him.  On 
June  29  his  "afterpiece  'The  federal  Oath  or 
(Columbians)  Americans  strike  home'"  was 
produced — a  piece  "of  patch'd  work,"  according 
to  Dunlap  (post,  I,  304) — and  through  one  of 
his  friends  he  applied  to  Dunlap  for  "a  situation 
in  the  Theatre  .  .  .  next  season"  (I,  316).  Dun- 
lap's  impression  was  far  from  favorable,  how- 
ever, for  he  confesses  that  he  "felt  an  indefin- 
able sort  of  shrinking  from  Williams"  (I,  342). 
In  1799  Williams  appears  as  editor  and  pub- 
lisher of  the  Columbian  Gazette,  a  New  York 
weekly  established  on  Apr.  6,  1799,  and  discon- 
tinued with  the  twelfth  number,  June  22.  His 
editorial  announcement  was  signed  John  Mason 
Williams,  and  in  other  places  he  used  this  mid- 
dle name  or  initial,  but  always  with  newspapers. 
He  appears  again  in  1804  as  editor  of  the  Boston 
Democrat.  He  soon  fell  out  with  his  partners, 
as  is  shown  in  a  notice  in  the  Columbian  Centiuel 
and  Massachusetts  Federalist  for  June  27,  in 
which  he  warned  all  subscribers  and  persons  in- 
debted to  the  establishment  against  making  any 
payment  to  it  until  a  future  legal  arrangement 
was  made,  a  warning  emphatically  repudiated  by 
his  partners,  Benjamin  True  and  Benjamin 
Parks,  in  the  Democrat  of  June  30.  Under  his 
pseudonym,  Anthony  Pasquin,  there  appeared 
in  Boston  (preface  dated  Sept.  6,  1804)  the 
Hamiltoniad.  a  savage,  intemperate,  bombastic 
anti-federalist  poem,  more  important  for  its  ex- 
tensive notes  than  for  its  verse.  A  Life  of  Alex- 
ander Hamilton  (1804)  is  sometimes  credited  to 
him.  It  is  possible  that  he  may  have  spent  a 
year  or  more  in  London  about  1811-12  ;  his  Dra- 
matic Censor  (London,  1812)  issued  in  twelve 
monthly  parts,  is  the  sole  instance  of  a  title  pub- 
lished in  England  during  his  American  years. 
Nothing  less  than  mixed  metaphors  will  ade- 
quately characterize  the  deep-rooted,  persistent, 
temperamental  infelicities  of  this  man.  He  was 
a  stormy  petrel,  and  a  bull  in  the  literary  and 
political  china  shops  of  two  continents.  His  con- 
temporaries dealt  even  less  gently  with  him,  for 
he  was  called  by  Lord  Kenyon  "a  common  libel- 
ler," by  Dr.  Robert  Watt,  "a  literary  character 
of  the  lowest  description"  (Bibliothcca  Britan- 
nica,  1824,  II,  97od)  ;  and  Macaulay's  pungent 
epithets  "polecat"  (Edinburgh  Review,  Jan. 
1843,  P-  537)  anfl  "malignant  and  filthy  baboon" 
(Ibid.,  Oct.  184 1,  p.  250)  may  well  be  regarded 
as  his  chief  claims  to  remembrance  if  not  dis- 
tinction. He  was  cursed  with  a  sharp  tongue,  a 
vitriolic  pen,  a  measure  of  facility  with  the  then 
fashionable  and  seductive  Byronic  satirical  coup- 


Williams 

let,  and  withal  a  nature  so  devoid  of  the  faintest 
intimations  of  tact,  moderation,  or  good  taste  in 
the  use  of  such  edged  tools  that  he  was  contin- 
ually in  hot  water  if  not  actually  in  the  law's 
clutches.  A  typical  illustration  of  his  outrage- 
ous language  and  behavior  is  described  in  the 
Thespian  Magazine  (Sept.,  Oct.  1792,  pp.  82- 
93,  104-09).  He  was  driven  in  disgrace  from 
his  own  country  to  die  in  America  in  a  destitu- 
tion traceable  to  the  identical  failings  which  had 
made  him  so  thoroughly  persona  non  grata  in 
England.  He  died  in  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  of  typhus 
fever,  on  Oct.  12,  1818. 

[In  addition  to  The  Diet,  of  Nat.  Biog.,  which  has 
a  list  of  further  sources,  see  P.  L.  Ford,  Bibliotheca 
Hamiltoniana  (1886),  pp.  79-81,  99;  William  Gifford, 
Works  ( 1800),  vol.  II,  pp.  41-94,  for  an  account  of  the 
libel  suit ;  John  Bernard,  Retrospections  of  the  Stage 
(1830),  vol.  II,  pp.  215-19;  Diary  of  William  Dunlap 
(3  vols.,  1930),  being  N.  Y.  Hist.  Soc.  Colls.,  vols. 
LXII-LXIV;  and  obituaries  in  TV.  Y.  Evening  Post, 
Oct.  16,  1818,  N.  Y.  Columbian,  Oct.  17,  and  N.  Y.  Ad- 
vertiser, Oct.  20.]  J.  I.W. 

WILLIAMS,  JOHN  (Jan.  29,  1778-Aug.  10, 
1837),  senator,  diplomat,  was  born  in  Surry 
County,  N.  C,  the  third  son  of  Joseph  and  Re- 
becca (Lanier)  Williams.  His  father,  a  native 
of  Hanover  County,  Va.,  was  an  active  figure  in 
local  affairs,  and  served  with  the  Surry  County 
militia  in  the  Revolution.  John  received  his  pre- 
paratory education  in  Surry ;  later  he  moved  to 
Knoxville,  Tenn.,  where  in  1803  he  was  admit- 
ted to  the  bar.  In  1799-1800,  when  war  with 
France  seemed  imminent,  he  was  a  captain  in 
the  6th  United  States  Infantry ;  when  the  War 
of  1812  began  he  raised  a  force  of  some  two  hun- 
dred mounted  volunteers  and  as  colonel  led  them 
to  Florida,  where  they  operated  against  the 
Seminoles.  After  successfully  devastating  In- 
dian territory,  they  returned  to  Tennessee  in  the 
early  part  of  1813.  Shortly  afterward,  Wil- 
liams became  colonel  of  the  39th  United  States 
Infantry.  He  recruited  this  regiment  to  a 
strength  of  about  six  hundred,  and  commanded 
it  under  General  Jackson  in  the  Creek  campaign. 
In  the  battle  of  Horseshoe  Bend,  it  rendered  in- 
valuable assistance  in  bringing  about  Jackson's 
victory. 

In  t 8 1 5 ,  he  was  appointed  to  fill  a  vacancy  in 
the  United  States  Senate  and  in  December  181 7 
took  his  seat  as  a  regularly  elected  senator  from 
Tennessee.  He  acted  as  the  chairman  of  the  com- 
mittee on  military  affairs  and  was  a  stanch  sup- 
porter of  the  administration,  voting  for  the  Tar- 
iff Bill  and  for  the  United  States  Bank  Bill  in 
1816.  In  the  controversies  over  the  Missouri 
Compromise  and  other  questions  concerning 
slavery,  he  usually  identified  himself  with  South- 
ern interests.  He  also  supported  projects  for  in- 


271 


Williams 


Williams 


ternal  improvements,  particularly  turnpike  de- 
velopment. When  his  term  as  senator  expired 
in  1823,  he  desired  reelection,  but  during  his  po- 
litical life  in  Washington  he  had  become  too 
closely  associated  with  the  Crawford  faction  of 
the  Democratic  party,  and  Andrew  Jackson's 
managers  decided  to  retire  him.  This  decision 
precipitated  one  of  the  bitterest  political  fights 
ever  to  take  place  within  Tennessee.  It  became 
apparent  that  the  Jackson  forces  could  not  dis- 
place Williams  unless  their  leader  himself  be- 
came a  candidate,  and  it  was  this  factor  which 
brought  Jackson  into  the  fight.  By  a  close  vote, 
in  which  sectional  and  personal  enmities  found 
expression,  Jackson  was  elected ;  Williams  never 
became  reconciled  to  his  defeat.  In  1825,  Presi- 
dent Adams  appointed  him  charge  d'affaires  to 
the  Federation  of  Central  America,  but  after 
several  months  in  Guatemala  he  returned,  and 
in  1827  was  elected  to  the  state  Senate. 

Williams  married  Melinda  White,  daughter  of 
Gen.  James  White  [q.v.]  of  Knoxville  and  sister 
of  Hugh  L.  White  {q.v.'].  They  had  three  chil- 
dren :  Joseph  Lanier  Williams,  member  of  Con- 
gress from  1837  to  x^43 ;  Margaret,  first  wife  of 
Richmond  Mumford  Pearson  [q.v.]  of  North 
Carolina ;  and  Col.  John  Williams.  Williams  died 
in  1837  and  was  buried  in  Knoxville.  Accounts 
agree  that  he  was  one  of  the  ablest  Tennesseans 
of  his  time,  a  brave  soldier,  and  an  efficient  poli- 
tician. The  rising  tide  of  Jackson's  popularity 
swept  him  into  the  obscurity  which  engulfed 
many  another. 

[Military  Papers,  Old  Records  Division,  Adj. -Gen. 's 
Office,  War  Dept.  ;  P.  M.  Hamer,  Tennessee,  A  Hist. 
('933),  vol.  I;  S.  G.  Heiskell,  Andrew  Jackson  and 
Early  Tcnn.  Hist.,  vol.  I  (1920)  ;  Biog.  Dir.  Am.  Cong. 
(1928);  Zella  Armstrong,  Notable  Southern  Families 
(copr.  1918-33),  vol.  II;  National  Banner  and  Nash- 
ville Whig,  Aug.  16,  1837.]  C.  S.  D. 

WILLIAMS,  JOHN  (Aug.  30,  1817-Feb.  7, 
1899),  Protestant  Episcopal  bishop,  was  born  in 
Old  Deerfield,  Mass.,  a  son  of  Ephraim  and 
Emily  (Trowbridge)  Williams  and  a  descendant 
of  Robert  Williams  who  was  admitted  freeman 
of  Roxbury,  Mass.,  in  1638.  Ephraim  Williams 
was  a  lawyer  of  Stockbridge  and  later  of  Deer- 
field,  who  edited  the  first  volume  of  Massachu- 
setts Reports;  he  was  a  son  of  Dr.  Thomas  Wil- 
liams (M.A.  Yale  1741)  who  served  as  a  sur- 
geon under  Sir  William  Johnson  in  the  French 
and  Indian  War,  a  nephew  of  Col.  Ephraim  Wil- 
liams [q.v.],  founder  of  Williams  College,  and 
through  his  mother,  Esther  Williams,  a  grand- 
nephew  of  Elisha  Williams  [q.v.'],  president  of 
Yale  College.  John  entered  Harvard  College 
at  the  age  of  fourteen  in  183 1,  but  at  the  end  of 
his  sophomore  year,  having  become  an  Episco- 


palian through  the  influence  of  the  Rev.  Benja- 
min Davis  Winslow,  he  transferred  to  Wash- 
ington (after  1845  Trinity)  College,  Hartford, 
Conn.  Here  he  roomed  with  James  Roosevelt 
Bayley  [q.v.],  later  Roman  Catholic  archbishop 
of  Baltimore.  After  his  graduation,  in  1835,  Wil- 
liams read  for  orders  in  the  Episcopal  Church 
under  the  direction  of  the  Rev.  Samuel  Farmar 
Jarvis,  rector  of  Christ  Church,  Middletown, 
Conn.  On  Sept.  2,  1838,  he  was  ordered  deacon 
in  Middletown,  and  on  Sept.  26,  1841,  was  ad- 
vanced to  the  priesthood  by  the  Rt.  Rev.  Thomas 
Church  Brownell  [q.v.].  He  was  a  tutor  in 
Washington  College  from  1837  to  1840,  then 
went  abroad,  spending  almost  a  year  in  England 
and  Scotland.  He  met  Pusey,  Newman,  Keble, 
and  Isaac  Williams,  later  leaders  in  the  Oxford 
Movement,  with  most  of  whom  he  maintained 
friendly  relations  as  long  as  they  lived.  For  a 
year  after  his  ordination  he  was  an  assistant  to 
Dr.  Jarvis  in  Middletown  and  from  1842  to  1848 
he  was  rector  of  St.  George's  Church,  Schenec- 
tady, N.  Y. 

On  Aug.  3,  1848,  just  before  he  was  thirty- 
one,  he  was  elected  fourth  president  of  Trinity 
College,  to  succeed  the  Rev.  Dr.  Silas  Totten, 
resigned,  and  in  1851  was  elected  bishop  coadju- 
tor of  the  diocese  of  Connecticut,  being  conse- 
crated in  St.  John's  Church,  Hartford,  Oct.  29, 
1851.  Increasing  episcopal  duties  led  him  to  re- 
sign the  presidency  of  the  college  in  1853,  though 
his  administration  had  been  most  successful. 
During  his  presidency  he  had  been  also  Hobart 
Professor  of  History  and  Literature,  and  after 
his  resignation  he  was  lecturer  in  history  till 
1892.  He  was  made  vice-chancellor  in  1853,  and 
on  the  death  of  Bishop  Brownell  in  1865,  became 
chancellor,  serving  till  his  death  in  1899.  During 
his  presidency  of  Trinity  College,  he  had  gath- 
ered a  number  of  students  for  the  ministry 
about  him,  and  in  1854,  after  his  resignation,  a 
charter  for  the  Berkeley  Divinity  School  in  Mid- 
dletown was  granted.  He  served  as  dean  and  as 
professor  of  theology  and  of  liturgies  in  this  in- 
stitution from  1854  until  his  death.  Having 
succeeded  Bishop  Brownell  as  diocesan  in  1865, 
Williams  became  presiding  bishop  of  the  Prot- 
estant Episcopal  Church,  through  seniority,  in 
1887.  His  diocese  prospered  under  his  adminis- 
tration, and  his  influence  in  the  councils  of  the 
general  Church  was  great. 

Williams  wrote  throughout  his  career.  In 
1845  ne  published  in  Hartford  a  small  volume 
of  translations  of  Latin  hymns,  entitled  Ancient 
Hymns  of  Holy  Church.  In  1848,  in  New  York, 
he  published  Thoughts  on  the  Gospel  Miracles. 
He  edited  Edward  Harold  Browne's  Exposition 


272 


Williams 

of  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles,  issuing  the  first 
American  edition  in  1865.  Six  valuable  ad- 
dresses delivered  by  him  were  included  in  The 
Seabury  Centenary  (1885).  A  considerable 
number  of  his  sermons  and  addresses  were 
printed,  and  he  contributed  many  articles  to  the 
Church  Review  and  to  other  periodicals.  In  1881 
he  was  the  first  lecturer  on  the  Paddock  founda- 
tion at  the  General  Theological  Seminary 
(Studies  on  the  English  Reformation,  1881) 
and  first  Bedell  Lecturer  at  Kenyon  College, 
Gambier,  Ohio  (The  World's  Witness  to  Jesus 
Christ,  1882).  In  1888  he  brought  out  Studies 
on  the  Book  of  Acts.  His  full  lecture  notes  for 
the  use  of  his  students  were  printed  but  not 
published. 

Failing  health  induced  the  Bishop  to  ask  for 
the  assistance  of  a  coadjutor,  and  in  1897  Chaun- 
cey  Bunce  Brewster  was  elected  to  that  office 
and  consecrated.  Williams  died  at  his  home  in 
Middletown  less  than  two  years  later.  He  was 
unmarried. 

[Records  of  Trinity  College,  Hartford  ;  Churchman, 
Feb.  18,  1899;  Samuel  Hart,  A  Humble  Master;  A 
Sermon  in  Memory  of  the  Rt.  Rev.  John  Williams 
(1899);  The  Am.  Church  Almanac,  1900  (1899);  S. 
W.  Williams,  The  Geneal.  and  Hist,  of  the  Family  of 
Williams  (1847)  ',  Hartford  Courant,  Feb.  8,  1899.] 

A— r.  A. 

WILLIAMS,  JOHN  ELIAS  (Oct.  28,  1853- 
Jan.  2,  1919),  industrial  mediator,  was  born  in 
Merthyr-Tydfil,  Wales.  His  parents,  John  Elias 
and  Elizabeth  (Bowen)  Williams,  brought  him 
to  America  in  1864  and  settled  in  Streator,  111., 
where  his  father,  a  coal  miner,  was  killed  by  a 
rock  fall.  Young  Williams  entered  the  mines  at 
thirteen  and  during  the  next  fifteen  years  be- 
came a  highly  skilled  pick  miner.  He  was  elect- 
ed the  first  secretary  and  first  check  weighman 
of  the  local  miners'  union.  He  had  had  some 
public-school  training,  but  his  education  came 
chiefly  from  his  daily  experiences,  study  clubs 
which  he  organized  among  his  fellow  workers, 
debates  with  miners  in  the  pits,  and  considerable 
reading. 

Seizing  an  opportunity  to  enter  journalism, 
he  was  gradually  drawn  into  industrial  media- 
tion, helping  to  settle  local  disputes  between  the 
miners  and  their  bosses.  In  1910  he  became  the 
official  arbitrator  for  the  United  Mine  Workers 
of  Illinois  and  the  Illinois  Coal  Operators  Asso- 
ciation. Two  years  later  his  great  opportunity 
came.  After  the  strike  of  1910-11  in  the  Chi- 
cago men's  clothing  industry,  Hart,  Schaffner 
&  Marx,  employing  10,000  workers,  signed  an 
agreement  with  the  United  Garment  Workers  of 
America  which  provided  for  an  arbitration  board 
for  final  action  on  controversies  arising  under 


Williams 

the  agreement.  Williams  was  chosen  impartial 
chairman  of  this  board  in  1912  and  continued  as 
such  until  his  death. 

He  developed  a  procedure  and  philosophy  of 
mediation  which  created  a  precedent  for  later 
impartial  chairmen  throughout  the  country  and 
also  profoundly  influenced  the  Amalgamated 
Clothing  Workers  and  other  so-called  progres- 
sive unions  which  followed  their  lead.  He  be- 
came one  of  the  first  advocates  of  union-manage- 
ment cooperation.  Considering  it  his  task  to 
help  the  employer  and  the  union  see  each  other's 
point  of  view,  then  help  them  find  a  line  of  com- 
mon interest,  and  finally,  through  suggestion  and 
invention,  assist  them  in  coming  to  an  agree- 
ment, he  measured  his  success  by  the  infre- 
quency  with  which  he  had  to  render  decisions. 
He  thought  that  his  type  of  arbitration,  which 
was  primarily  mediation,  could  succeed  only  if 
it  was  a  continuing  procedure  and  believed  that 
his  philosophy  of  continuous  collective  bargain- 
ing could  have  meaning  only  if  the  workers  were 
represented  by  a  strong,  independent,  and  re- 
sponsible union.  Holding  that  the  men's  cloth- 
ing workers  union  was  of  this  type,  he  called  it 
a  "school  in  co-operative  management"  in  which 
the  union  had  been  educated  in  the  rights  of  both 
business  and  labor,  and  through  which  the  em- 
ployers had  also  been  educated  ("The  Church 
and  the  Present-Day  Labor  Struggle,"  Biblical 
World,  March  19 14).  By  way  of  contrast  he 
criticized  the  Rockefeller  Industrial  Relations 
Plan  of  1914,  foreseeing  that  a  union  instituted 
by  an  employer  would  be  "a  feeble  and  spineless 
thing"  (Survey,  Nov.  6,  1915).  He  looked  for 
industrial  democracy  to  come,  not  through  rev- 
olution but  through  trades  organization,  collec- 
tive bargaining,  and  industrial  partnership  be- 
tween capital  and  labor. 

Williams  was  largely  instrumental  in  intro- 
ducing several  new  devices,  including  a  com- 
promise between  the  closed  and  open  shop  called 
the  preferential  shop,  which  provided  that  the 
company  should  prefer  union  men  in  hiring  new 
employees,  and,  subject  to  reasonable  prefer- 
ence for  old  employees,  dismiss  non-union  men 
first  when  laying  off  workers.  He  proposed  that 
his  industrial  mediation  procedure  be  extended 
to  settling  the  World  War,  believing  that  a  com- 
mon ground  for  settlement  could  be  found. 

Williams  was  a  kindly,  genial  man  who  was 
widely  respected  for  his  fair-mindedness.  He  was 
a  leading  spirit  in  the  Illinois  Unitarian  Con- 
ference and  became  its  first  president.  Most  of 
his  theories  took  a  puritanical-ethical  turn.  He 
constantly  spoke  of  restraint,  responsibility,  and 
the  constructive   spirit.    He  saw   "the   present 


273 


Williams 

day  labor  struggle"  as  "a  struggle  for  power" 
(Biblical  World,  ante,  p.  155)  in  which  power 
was  being  transferred  from  the  employer  to  the 
laborer,  and  believed  trade  unions  inevitable  and 
indispensable  because  of  the  "tyrannous  pres- 
sure" of  employers  (Ibid.,  p.  159)  ;  but  he  sought 
"the  salvation  of  society"  (Ibid.,  p.  162)  through 
a  renaissance  in  religion  and  he  called  upon  his 
Church  to  find  something  beyond  the  individual 
good  that  is  worthy  of  devotion. 

In  1877  ne  married  Isabella  Dickinson  of  Mor- 
peth, Northumberland,  England.  He  prided  him- 
self upon  living  simply  in  the  same  miner's  house 
for  over  forty  years.  In  the  life  of  Streator  he 
was  a  vital  force.  He  successfully  managed  its 
opera  house  for  over  two  decades,  organized  an 
orchestra  in  which  he  played  first  violin,  com- 
posed music  for  songs,  and  promoted  an  open 
forum.  He  was  also  a  member  of  the  Society  for 
Psychical  Research.  In  1917  he  was  appointed 
Federal  Fuel  Administrator  for  Illinois  and  ad- 
ministrator for  the  packing  industry.  He  died 
in  his  sixty-sixth  year,  survived  by  his  widow. 

[John  E.  Williams  (1929),  ed.  by  J.  S.  Potof sky  ; 
Who's  Who  in  America,  1918-19;  J.  A.  Fitch,  "John 
Williams — Peacemaker,"  Survey,  Jan.  18,  1919;  Final 
Report  and  Testimony  ...U.S.  Commission  on  In- 
dustrial Relations  (11  vols.,  1916),  I,  697;  Chicago 
Daily  Tribune,  J an.  3,  1919.]  G.  M. 

WILLIAMS,  JOHN  ELIAS  (June  n,  1871- 
Mar.  24,  1927),  missionary  to  China,  vice-pres- 
ident of  the  University  of  Nanking,  was  born  in 
Coshocton,  Ohio,  his  parents,  Elias  David  and 
Ann  (Edwards)  Williams,  having  migrated 
from  Ponterwyd,  a  village  near  Aberystwith, 
Wales,  in  1861.  One  of  his  Welsh  ancestors 
was  William  Williams,  author  of  the  hymn, 
"Guide  Me,  O  Thou  Great  Jehovah."  John's 
father,  Elias  David,  was  a  weaver,  a  coal  miner, 
and  a  preacher;  his  mother  was  a  woman  of 
unusual  loveliness  both  of  person  and  of  char- 
acter. From  his  twelfth  until  his  seventeenth 
year  the  boy  worked  in  the  mines,  until  oppor- 
tunity opened  for  him  to  earn  his  way  towards 
an  education.  After  some  months  in  the  high 
school  at  Shawnee,  Ohio,  and  two  years  at  Mari- 
etta Academy,  he  entered  Marietta  College.  At 
his  graduation  in  1894  he  was  leading  his  class. 
From  1894  to  1896  he  was  principal  of  an  acad- 
emy in  South  Salem,  Ohio,  and  the  next  three 
years  he  spent  in  the  theological  seminary  at 
Auburn,  N.  Y.  This  cloistered  period  revealed 
his  need  for  service  in  action,  and  he  offered 
himself  to  the  Presbyterian  Board  of  Foreign 
Missions  as  a  candidate  for  a  mission  field.  He 
was  graduated  from  the  seminary  in  the  spring 
of  1899,  on  July  24  he  was  ordained  by  the  Chil- 
licothe  Presbytery  in  Greenfield,  Ohio,  on  Aug. 


Williams 

2  he  was  married  to  Lilian  Caldwell  of  South 
Salem,  and  on  Aug.  14  sailed  with  his  bride  for 
China. 

The  Boxer  outbreak  occurred  shortly  after 
their  arrival  and  it  was  necessary  for  them  to 
take  refuge  in  Kanazawa,  Japan,  but  within  a 
twelvemonth  they  were  again  in  Nanking.  Seven 
years  of  language  study  and  of  teaching  in  a 
Presbyterian  boys'  school  followed.  His  un- 
usual mastery  of  the  Chinese  language  led  to 
Williams'  appointment  in  1906  for  special  serv- 
ice among  the  Chinese  students  in  Waseda  Uni- 
versity, Tokyo.  This  year  in  Japan  focused  his 
attention  on  the  need  of  higher  education  for 
Christian  Chinese,  and  he  began  to  formulate 
far-reaching  plans  for  a  union  missionary  uni- 
versity in  Nanking. 

For  such  an  institution  Nanking  was  an  ad- 
mirable location  both  because  of  its  reputation 
as  an  educational  center  and  because  of  the  no- 
tably cooperative  spirit  among  its  leading  mis- 
sionaries. By  19 10  a  union  had  been  effected 
between  the  Presbyterian  boys'  school  and  a  sim- 
ilar school  supported  by  the  Disciples  of  Christ. 
A  year  later  this  was  amalgamated  with  a  Meth- 
odist college  to  form  the  University  of  Nanking, 
with  Dr.  Arthur  John  Bowen  as  president  and 
Williams  as  vice-president — a  fortunate  com- 
bination that  proved  to  be  mutually  stimulating. 
Williams  had  meantime  begun  an  arduous  series 
of  journeys  to  the  United  States  to  secure  funds. 
Within  a  decade  the  main  portion  of  the  univer- 
sity was  housed  in  buildings  combining  Chinese 
architecture  and  western  construction,  there  was 
an  able  faculty,  and  the  colleges  of  arts  and  sci- 
ence and  of  agriculture  and  forestry,  combined 
with  a  hospital,  a  language  school  for  mission- 
aries, and  a  secondary  group,  were  attracting  a 
large  enrolment. 

In  this  development  "Jack"  Williams  had 
proved  himself  an  executive  of  marked  ability — 
a  type  of  work  more  suited  to  his  nature  than  the 
routine  of  teaching.  His  indefatigable  labors 
were  brightened  by  optimism  and  humor.  His 
home,  cheered  by  the  understanding  and  sympa- 
thy of  his  wife  and  by  the  attraction  of  his  three 
daughters  and  his  son,  had  become  a  Christian 
refuge  for  Chinese  and  missionaries  alike.  This 
was  especially  true  in  the  winter  of  1926-27  when 
the  revolution  started  by  Dr.  Sun  Yat-sen  in 
Canton  had,  under  Gen.  Chiang  Kai-chek, 
swept  rapidly  through  central  China.  Appre- 
hensions over  the  strange  alliances  within  the 
Kuomintang  or  Nationalist  Party  were  stifled 
by  the  excitement  of  success. 

Nanking  was  still  a  stronghold  of  the  north- 
ern   militarists.     But    firing   began    outside    its 


274 


Williams 


Williams 


massive  walls  on  Mar.  21,  and  during  the  night 
of  the  23rd  the  city  fell.  General  Chiang  had 
not  yet  arrived  on  the  scene,  and  Communist  of- 
ficers issued  orders  that  foreigners  be  slain  and 
their  property  looted.  The  evident  intention  was 
to  force  intervention  by  the  foreign  powers,  and 
thereby  to  create  a  situation  favorable  for  the 
spread  of  Communism.  On  the  morning  of  the 
24th,  Williams  and  a  group  of  his  associates, 
while  on  their  way  to  the  university  chapel  serv- 
ices, were  surrounded  and  robbed  by  a  motley 
crowd  of  soldiers.  Williams  spoke  to  them  quiet- 
ly and  kindly.  For  answer,  a  soldier  raised  his 
gun  and  shot,  killing  him  instantly. 

Thus  began  the  so-called  "Nanking  Incident." 
The  fact  that  it  started  with  the  brutal  murder 
of  this  friend  of  China  helped  to  produce  three 
results.  The  first  was  the  courageous  and  large- 
ly successful  attempt  of  the  Nanking  Chinese  to 
save  the  lives  of  the  other  missionaries.  The  sec- 
ond was  the  loyal  effort  made  by  the  Chinese  fac- 
ulty and  students  to  carry  on  the  university — an 
effort  that  has  remarkably  fulfilled  the  hopes  of 
the  founders.  The  third  is  expressed  in  words 
translated  from  the  tribute  to  his  friend  which 
the  Hon.  Wang  Chengting,  when  minister  for 
foreign  affairs,  placed  on  the  tombstone  over  the 
grave  in  Nanking :  "It  was  the  death  of  Doctor 
Williams  which  awoke  the  Chinese  people  to 
the  cold  fact  that  there  was  no  other  alternative 
except  to  purge  the  Kuomintang  of  its  Com- 
munist members.  ...  In  the  words  of  an  ancient 
Chinese  philosopher,  'One  man's  death  may 
weigh  as  heavily  as  Tai  Shan  Mountain.'  " 

[W.  R.  Wheeler,  "John  E.  Williams  of  Nanking,"  in 
MS.;  N.  Y.  Times,  Mar.  26,  27,  28,  1927;  Shawnee 
People's  Advocate  (Ohio),  Apr.  1,  1927;  Time,  Apr.  4, 
1927  ;  Minutes  of  the  Twenty-second  Year  of  the  Kiang- 
an  Mission  of  the  Prcsbyt.  Church  in  the  U.  S.  A. 
(1927)  ;  Marietta  Coll.  Alumni  Quart.,  Apr.  1927  ;  The 
Ninetieth  Ann.  Report  of  the  Board  of  Foreign  Mis- 
sions of  the  Presbyt.  Ch.  in  the  U.  S.  A.  (1927)  ;  Chi- 
nese Recorder,   Sept.    1927;  personal  recollections.] 

H.  Q— s. 

WILLIAMS,  JOHN  FLETCHER  (Sept. 
25,  1834-Apr.  28,  1895),  secretary  and  librarian 
of  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society,  journalist, 
author,  was  born  at  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  the  young- 
est of  eight  children.  His  father  was  Samuel 
Williams,  a  native  of  Pennsylvania,  who  had 
served  in  the  War  of  1812  and  in  the  forties 
helped  to  found  Ohio  Wesleyan  University ;  his 
mother,  Samuel's  second  wife,  was  Margaret 
Troutner.  He  was  a  descendant  of  William  Wil- 
liams who  emigrated  to  America  in  1784.  Wil- 
liams attended  Woodward  High  School  in  Cin- 
cinnati and  Ohio  Wesleyan  University.  He  then 
studied  engraving,  and  not  a  few  examples  of 
his  work  appeared  in  magazines  of  that  period. 


In  1855  he  went  to  the  frontier  town  of  St.  Paul, 
Minn.,  and  for  the  next  fifteen  years  he  was  ac- 
tive as  a  journalist.  His  interest  in  the  history 
of  the  West  led  him  to  write  many  sketches  of 
pioneer  days ;  the  experience  and  reputation  that 
he  thus  gained  won  him  his  election  in  1867  as 
secretary  and  librarian  of  the  Minnesota  His- 
torical Society.  The  society,  though  founded  as 
early  as  1849,  was  virtually  without  means,  its 
membership  was  small,  and  its  library,  stored  in 
what  was  little  more  than  a  closet,  was  of  slight 
value.  Williams  promptly  took  up  the  task  of 
building  up  the  collections,  and  his  personal  ac- 
quaintance with  prominent  men  of  the  state  and 
the  vigor  of  his  correspondence  led  to  many  val- 
uable accessions  of  historical  material.  In  1869 
he  began  to  devote  his  entire  time  to  the  work  of 
the  society ;  the  same  year  witnessed  the  inaugu- 
ration of  regular  legislative  appropriations  for 
the  institution.  The  society's  manuscript  pos- 
sessions expanded  slowly  during  his  regime,  but 
the  collection  of  books  and  pamphlets  grew  from 
a  total  of  2,415  in  1867,  when  he  took  office,  to 
51,740  in  1893,  when  he  resigned.  The  cramped 
room  that  was  library,  museum,  and  meeting 
hall  was  abandoned  in  1868  for  more  adequate 
quarters  in  the  state  capitol,  and  by  1893  an  agi- 
tation had  begun  for  a  separate  historical  build- 
ing. Five  volumes  of  Collections  were  published 
by  the  society  during  Williams'  secretaryship 
and  a  sixth,  which  he  edited,  was  brought  out  in 
1894.  These  volumes,  with  two  exceptions,  were 
miscellaneous  collections  of  reminiscences  and 
special  articles.  The  exceptions  were  "A  His- 
tory of  the  City  of  St.  Paul,  and  of  the  County  of 
Ramsey,  Minn."  (vol.  IV,  1876),  by  Williams 
himself,  and  William  W.  Warren's  important 
"History  of  the  Ojibways"  (vol.  V,  1885),  with 
a  prefatory  memoir  of  the  author  by  Williams. 
The  book  on  St.  Paul  contains  interesting  mate- 
rial, much  of  which  was  derived  from  interviews 
with  pioneers,  but  it  is  an  antiquarian  chronicle, 
not  a  history. 

In  the  seventies  Williams  represented  Minne- 
sota as  centennial  commissioner  for  the  Centen- 
nial Exhibition  in  Philadelphia.  He  was  an  ac- 
tive member  of  the  Independent  Order  of  Odd 
Fellows  and  for  twenty  years  served  it  as  "Grand 
Scribe"  for  Minnesota.  In  1889  the  historical 
society  authorized  a  survey  of  the  source  of  the 
Mississippi  River.  Williams  supplied  consid- 
erable material  for  this  investigation,  which  led 
ultimately  to  the  establishment  of  a  state  park  in 
the  Itasca  region.  A  bibliography  of  some  thirty 
titles  of  Williams'  published  works  includes  bio- 
graphical sketches,  brief  historical  articles,  ad- 
dresses, a  two-volume  catalogue  of  the  Minne- 


27S 


Williams 

sota  Historical  Society  library,  and  a  genealogy 
of  the  Williams  family.  A  contemporary  de- 
scribes him  as  "small,  polite,  obliging,  indus- 
trious, and  ...  a  walking  encyclopaedia  of  the 
dead  past"  (T.  M.  Newson,  Pen  Pictures  of  St. 
Paul,  Minn.,  1886,  p.  513).  He  resigned  his 
dual  position  on  the  historical  society  staff  in 
1893  following  a  stroke  of  paralysis;  he  died 
two  years  later  in  the  state  asylum  at  Rochester. 
He  was  survived  by  his  wife,  Catherine  Roberts, 
whom  he  married  in  July  1865,  and  by  several 
children. 

[See  J.  F.  Williams,  The  Groves  and  Lappon  .  .  . 
Gcncal  of  the  Williams  Family  (1889)  ;  Warren  Up- 
ham,  in  Minn.  Hist.  Colls.,  vol.  VIII  (1898)  ;  ann.  re- 
ports, Minn.  Hist.  Soc,  1867-78,  and  1889.  pp.  372-74, 
and  biennial  reports,  1879-93  ;  obituary  in  Daily  Pio- 
neer Press  (St.  Paul),  Apr.  30,  1895.  For  Williams' 
connection  with  the  Ind.  Order  of  Odd  Fellows,  see 
proc.  of  Grand  Encampment ,  I.  O.  O.  F.  of  Minn., 
1 896,  which  contains  a  portrait.  A  small  coll.  of  Wil- 
liams papers  and  much  correspondence  are  in  the  pos- 
session of  the  Minn.  Hist.  Soc.  The  date  of  death  is 
from   records  of  the  Rochester   State   Hospital.] 

T.C.B. 

WILLIAMS,  JOHN  FOSTER  (Oct.  12, 
1743-June  24,  1814),  naval  officer,  was  born  in 
Boston,  Mass.,  where,  on  Oct.  6,  1774,  he  was 
married  to  Hannah  Homer.  Little  is  known  of 
his  family  and  early  life,  but  he  seems  to  have 
had  some  connection  with  the  Lane  family  of 
Boston  (see  Fitts,  post).  On  May  8,  1776,  he 
was  commissioned  captain  of  the  Massachusetts 
state  sloop  Republic  and  in  December  was  trans- 
ferred to  the  Massachusetts,  another  state  ves- 
sel. In  June  1777  he  took  command  of  the  Wilkes 
and  in  October  of  the  Active,  both  privateers. 
In  1778-79  he  made  two  cruises  in  the  state  brig 
Hazard,  capturing  several  prizes.  On  Mar.  16, 
1779,  off  St.  Thomas,  West  Indies,  after  a  sharp 
action  of  thirty  minutes  he  forced  the  British 
brig  Active,  18  guns,  to  surrender.  In  the  un- 
fortunate Penobscot  expedition  he  burnt  his  ves- 
sel to  prevent  her  capture.  His  next  command, 
the  Protector,  was  the  largest  ship  in  the  Mas- 
sachusetts navy.  On  June  9,  1780,  southeast  of 
Newfoundland,  he  engaged  the  privateer  Admiral 
Duff  for  an  hour  and  a  half,  until  she  was  de- 
stroyed by  the  explosion  of  her  magazine  with  a 
heavy  loss  of  life.  In  his  next  cruise  he  visited 
the  Grand  Banks  and  the  West  Indies,  taking 
several  prizes.  Off  Nantasket,  in  the  spring  of 
1781,  he  was  compelled  to  strike  his  colors  to  a 
superior  force  consisting  of  the  British  vessels 
Roebuck,  44  guns,  and  Medea,  28  guns.  After 
confinement  for  several  months  in  England,  he 
was  exchanged  and  arrived  at  Boston  in  time  to 
take  command  early  in  1783  of  the  privateer 
Alexander.    By  his   Revolutionary  services  he 


Williams 

established  a  reputation  as  an  able  seaman  and 
officer. 

In  1788  when  Boston  celebrated  the  adoption 
of  the  federal  constitution  by  Massachusetts  he 
was  given  a  conspicuous  place  in  a  procession  as 
the  captain  of  a  ship  mounted  on  wheels  and  is 
said  to  have  made  a  striking  appearance  in  his 
Continental  uniform  with  a  speaking  trumpet  in 
his  hand.  From  1790  until  his  death  he  com- 
manded the  revenue  cutter  Massachusetts,  an 
office  to  which  he  was  appointed  by  President 
Washington.  Occasionally,  however,  he  turned 
his  attention  to  duties  outside  of  those  connect- 
ed with  the  revenue.  In  1792  he  communicated 
to  the  Boston  Marine  Society  an  invention  for 
distilling  fresh  water  from  salt  water,  with  ap- 
propriate drawings.  In  1797,  at  the  request  of 
Jeremy  Belknap  [q.v.~],  he  examined  the  coast  of 
Maine  to  determine  the  various  localities  visited 
by  George  Waymouth  [q.v.~\,  and  made  a  report 
of  his  conclusions  (see  Belknap,  post).  In  1803 
with  the  assistance  of  a  surveyor  he  surveyed 
Nantasket  Harbor  and  reported  his  results  to  the 
federal  government.  He  lived  on  Round  Lane, 
Boston,  which  later  was  renamed  Williams 
Street,  supposedly  in  his  honor.  He  was  buried 
in  the  Granary  Burying  Ground. 

[J.  H.  Fitts,  Lane  Gcncal.,  vol.  II  (1897);  Justin 
Winsor,  Memorial  Hist,  of  Boston,  vols.  Ill,  IV 
(1881)  ;  New  Eng.  Hist,  and  Geneal.  Reg.,  Jan.  1848, 
July  1865,  Jan.  1869,  July  1887;  Boston  Marriages, 
1752-1809  (1903)  ;  Ebenezer  Fox,  Revolutionary  Ad- 
ventures (1838)  ;  Jeremy  Belknap,  Am.  Biog.,  vol.  II 
(1798)  ;  Mass.  Soldiers  and  Sailors  of  the  Revolution- 
ary War,  vol.  XVII  (1908)  ;  Acts  and  Resolves  .  .  . 
Province  of  the  Mass.  Bay,  vols.  XX-XXI  (1918-22)  ; 
C.  O.  Paullin,  Navy  of  the  Am.  Revolution  (1906)  ;  C. 
H.  Lincoln,  Naval  Records  of  the  Am.  Revolution 
(1906)  ;  Columbian  Centinel  (Boston),  June  25,  1814.] 

CO.  P. 

WILLIAMS,  JOHN  JOSEPH  (Apr.  27, 
1822-Aug.  30,  1907),  Roman  Catholic  prelate, 
fourth  bishop  and  first  archbishop  of  Boston,  son 
of  Michael  and  Ann  (Egan)  Williams,  recent 
immigrants  (1818)  from  King's  County  and 
County  Tipperary,  Ireland,  was  born  in  the 
north  end  of  Boston,  Mass.,  where  his  father 
labored  at  blacksmithing.  As  a  child  he  attended 
the  Cathedral  School,  where  he  profited  by  the 
instruction  of  Father  James  Fitton  \_q.v.~]  and 
attracted  the  notice  of  Bishop  Benedict  J.  Fen- 
wick  [<?.?'.],  who  sent  him  to  the  Sulpician  col- 
lege in  Montreal  ( 1833-41 ) .  On  graduation  from 
college,  he  studied  theology  at  St.  Sulpice  in 
Paris,  where  he  was  ordained  a  priest  (May  27, 
1845)  by  Archbishop  Denis  Auguste  Afire.  Ap- 
pointed a  curate  at  the  Cathedral  of  the  Holy 
Cross  in  Boston  (1845),  he  became  a  valued  as- 
sistant of  Bishop  John  B.  Fitzpatrick  [q.v.~\,  who 
named  him  rector  of  the  cathedral  in  1855,  and 


76 


Williams 

selected  him  as  pastor  of  St.  James'  Church  and 
vicar-general  of  the  diocese  in  1857.  In  this  ad- 
ministrative capacity,  he  displayed  commendable 
tact  in  compromising  difficulties,  and  in  getting 
along  with  priests  and  people.  A  man  of  massive 
proportions  and  remarkable  vigor,  he  took  an 
active  part  in  religious  and  civic  affairs  during 
the  critical  period  of  the  Civil  War,  and  won  the 
respect  of  the  native  element  in  Boston  without 
losing  the  love  of  the  rapidly  increasing  Irish 
population.  At  the  request  of  Fitzpatrick,  he 
was  made  titular  bishop  of  Tripoli  and  coadjutor 
bishop  of  Boston  with  the  right  of  succession ; 
as  the  bishop  died  in  the  meantime,  Williams  was 
consecrated  bishop  of  Boston  in  his  own  right  by 
Archbishop  John  McCloskey  \_q.v.~],  Mar.  11, 
1866.  Nine  years  later  Boston  was  made  a  met- 
ropolitan see  with  Williams  as  archbishop,  and 
Cardinal  John  McCloskey  conferred  the  pallium 
on  him  (May  2). 

As  episcopal  ruler  of  the  diocese  of  Boston  for 
forty  years,  Williams  saw  the  rise  of  new  sees  at 
Springfield  (1870),  Providence  (1872),  Man- 
chester (1884),  and  Fall  River  (1905).  He  wit- 
nessed not  only  a  tremendous  material  growth  in 
churches,  institutions,  and  population,  but  the  so- 
cial and  economic  rise  of  the  Irish  population  as 
the  newer  groups  of  French-Canadians,  Poles, 
Italians,  and  Portuguese  appeared  in  engulfing 
waves.  While  as  ordinary  of  the  diocese  he  does 
not  deserve  entire  credit  for  the  contributions  of 
his  priests  and  people,  yet  his  leadership  actively 
promoted  the  construction  of  the  new  Holy  Cross 
Cathedral,  which  was  dedicated  in  1875,  the  es- 
tablishment of  St.  John's  Ecclesiastical  Semi- 
nary (1884),  and  the  foundation  of  such  chari- 
table institutions  as  St.  Elizabeth's  Hospital 
( 1868),  the  House  of  the  Good  Shepherd  ( 1867) , 
the  Home  of  the  Aged  ( 1870),  St.  Mary's  Infant 
Asylum  (1872),  homes  for  working  boys  and 
girls  (1883,  1884),  the  Free  Home  for  Con- 
sumptives (1891),  the  Holy  Ghost  Hospital  for 
Incurables  (1893),  and  the  Rev.  P.  J.  Daly's  In- 
dustrial School  (1899).  Williams  had  early 
shown  an  interest  in  the  poor  and  afflicted  when, 
as  pastor,  he  founded  the  first  conference  of  the 
St.  Vincent  de  Paul  Society  in  New  England. 
In  1868  he  established  separate  parishes  for  the 
French-Canadians,  and  in  1872,  for  the  Italians 
and  Portuguese.  The  harmonious  relations  be- 
tween the  various  racial  elements  were  due  to 
his  compromising  tact  and  catholic  devotion  to 
all  his  people.  Interested  in  education,  he  or- 
dered the  erection  of  numerous  parochial  schools, 
although  he  once  had  hopes  that  the  Faribault 
plan  of  Archbishop  John  Ireland  [q.vJ]  might 
relieve  him  of  this  costly  program.   To  staff  his 


Williams 

schools  and  charitable  foundations,  he  introduced 
such  additional  communities  into  the  diocese  as 
the  Sisters  of  St.  Joseph  (1873),  the  Sisters  of 
the  Sacred  Heart  (1880),  the  Franciscan  Sisters 
(1884),  the  Carmelite  Sisters  (1890),  and  the 
Marist  Fathers  (1883).  He  gave  ample  support 
to  the  Jesuits  of  Boston  College,  and  to  such  re- 
ligious orders  as  the  Augustinian  and  Redemptor- 
ist  Fathers.  A  loyal  citizen  of  blameless  life,  a 
pious  man,  a  firm  friend  of  law  and  order,  and  a 
scholar,  he  was  twice  offered  a  doctorate  by 
Harvard  University  but  in  humility  declined  the 
honor. 

One  of  the  founders  of  the  American  College 
in  Rome,  a  member  of  the  Vatican  Council,  an 
active  participant  in  the  Councils  of  Baltimore, 
a  connecting  link  in  Boston's  Catholic  life  with 
the  early  days  of  Bishop  Cheverus  [q.v.],  Wil- 
liams occupied  a  unique  position  in  the  Church 
when,  in  1906,  he  assigned  active  control  over  a 
well-ordered  diocese  of  six  hundred  priests  and 
nearly  a  million  communicants  to  his  coadjutor 
and  successor,  William  H.  O'Connell. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1906-07;  William  Byrne, 
Hist,  of  the  Cath.  Church  in  the  New  England  States 
(1899),  vol.  I;  Cath.  Encyc;  Pilot  (Boston),  Mar.  8, 
1930  ;  W.  H.  O'Connell,  Recollections  of  Seventy  Years 
(1934);  Boston  Transcript,  Aug.  31-Sept.  4,  1907; 
materials  from  priests  of  the  diocese.]  R  J  p, 

WILLIAMS,  JOHN  SHARP  (July  30,  1854- 
Sept.  27,  1932),  representative  and  senator  from 
Mississippi,  was  a  grandson  of  Christopher  Har- 
ris Williams,  a  congressman  from  Tennessee. 
His  forefathers,  however,  had  been  more  distin- 
guished in  military  than  in  civil  life,  having 
served  as  officers  in  the  Revolutionary,  Mexican, 
and  Civil  wars.  His  father,  Christopher  Harris 
Williams,  Jr.,  a  colonel  of  Tennessee  volunteers 
in  the  Confederate  army,  was  killed  in  the  battle 
at  Shiloh.  Since  his  mother,  Annie  Louise 
(Sharp),  had  died  earlier,  the  orphaned  boy  was 
taken  from  Memphis,  Tenn.,  his  birthplace,  to 
her  father's  large  plantation  near  Yazoo  City, 
Miss.  Here  he  developed  a  lasting  love  for  the 
old  plantation  way  of  life.  In  spite  of  the  general 
poverty  of  the  Reconstruction  period  his  educa- 
tional opportunities  were  excellent.  After  at- 
tending the  Kentucky  Military  Institute,  Frank- 
lin County,  Ky.,  the  University  of  the  South, 
Sewanee,  Tenn.,  and  the  University  of  Virginia, 
he  spent  two  and  a  half  years  in  Germany  at  the 
University  of  Heidelberg.  Upon  his  return  to 
America,  he  studied  law  at  the  University  of  Vir- 
ginia and  later  in  a  law  office  in  Memphis,  in 
which  city  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  March 
1877.  In  December  of  the  following  year  he  re- 
turned to  Yazoo  City,  where  he  devoted  the  next 
fifteen  years  to  practising  his  profession  and  to 


277 


Williams 

raising  cotton.  He  had  been  married  on  Oct.  2, 
1877,  to  Elizabeth  Dial  Webb,  of  Livingston,  Ala. 

In  1893  he  began  a  career  of  sixteen  years  in 
the  lower  house  of  Congress.  During  the  first 
ten  years  he  gained  a  reputation  among  his  col- 
leagues, and  to  some  extent  outside  of  Congress, 
as  a  vigorous  and  skilful  debater ;  he  came  into 
more  general  notice  when  he  was  chosen  leader 
of  the  Democratic  minority  in  the  Fifty-eighth 
Congress.  His  immediate  predecessors  had  ex- 
ercised little  authority,  and  the  Democrats  had 
become  noted  for  being  as  unrestrained  as  a  herd 
of  wild  steers.  With  little  apparent  effort,  Wil- 
liams speedily  brought  order  out  of  chaos.  Capi- 
tol correspondents  enlivened  their  accounts  of 
this  feat  by  describing  the  Democratic  floor  lead- 
er as  a  "character,"  remarkable  for  his  fund  of 
good  stories,  his  simple  tastes,  and  his  careless- 
ness in  dress.  His  clothes,  they  wrote,  "make  no 
pretense  of  fitting  him.  .  .  .  They  bag  and  droop 
impossibly"  (Bookman,  post,  169)  ;  "his  black 
string  tie  is  usually  loose  and  dangling  to  one 
side  or  the  other" ;  his  "hair  appears  never  to 
have  been  combed"  (Current  Literature,  post,  p. 
160).  Since  he  was  partially  deaf  in  his  right 
ear,  the  side  turned  toward  the  Republicans  in 
Congress,  he  often  sat  with  his  head  bent  for- 
ward and  to  the  right,  with  his  hand  serving  as 
an  impromptu  ear-trumpet.  He  seemed,  never- 
theless, to  hear  all  that  went  on,  and  an  alert  and 
well-informed  mind  was  evident  when  he  rose  to 
thrust  keenly  destructive  questions  into  the  heart 
of  an  opponent's  speech  or  to  ridicule  the  cham- 
pions of  the  protective  tariff.  No  matter  how  hot 
the  debate,  he  seemed  never  to  lose  his  temper 
and  was  liked  on  both  sides  of  the  House. 

In  addition  to  being  a  competent  and  popular 
field  commander  of  the  Democratic  forces  in 
Congress,  Williams  was  also  influential  in  de- 
termining the  objectives  of  his  party.  In  the 
Democratic  convention  of  1904,  of  which  he  was 
temporary  chairman,  he  was  the  champion  of  the 
conservative  wing  in  the  struggle  over  the  plat- 
form. Although  checkmated  at  this  time  by 
Bryan  and  the  radicals,  his  activities  help  to  ex- 
plain the  moderate  platform  of  his  party  when  it 
came  into  power  with  the  election  of  Woodrow 
Wilson.  His  political  philosophy  was  as  old- 
fashioned  as  his  clothes,  for  he  was  probably  the 
most  consistent  Jeffersonian  Democrat  of  his  day, 
constantly  striving  to  apply  his  fundamental  phi- 
losophy of  government  to  such  current  problems 
as  railroads,  trusts,  tariffs,  and  the  relation  be- 
tween federal  and  state  governments.  He  con- 
tributed to  The  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 
of  Political  and  Social  Science  two  articles,  "Fed- 
eral Usurpations"  (July  1908),  and  "Control  of 


Williams 

Corporations,  Persons  and  Firms  Engaged  in 
Interstate  Commerce"  (July  1912),  which  give 
a  good  insight  into  his  mind.  In  1912  he  gave  a 
series  of  lectures  at  Columbia  University,  which 
were  published  the  next  year  under  the  title 
Thomas  Jefferson,  His  Permanent  Influence  on 
American  Institutions.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that 
they  were  prepared  under  pressure,  they  are  a 
thoughtful  analysis  of  Jefferson's  views  and  in- 
fluence, and  are  equally  good  as  a  statement  of 
Williams'  political  philosophy. 

He  was  not  a  candidate  for  the  Sixty-first  Con- 
gress (1909-11).  In  August  1907,  he  had  de- 
feated James  K.  Vardaman  [q.v.~\  in  the  Demo- 
cratic primary,  which  in  Mississippi  insured 
election,  for  the  senatorial  term  which  was  to 
begin  in  191 1.  The  fight  was  bitter,  the  more  so 
since  it  was  something  of  a  class  struggle.  Though 
Williams  was  inferior  to  Vardaman  in  the  power 
to  sway  audiences  by  grandiose  oratory  and  po- 
litical dramatics,  he  was  much  superior  in  the 
ability  to  argue  issues  on  their  merits.  His  career 
in  the  lower  house  gave  him  immediate  recog- 
nition in  the  Senate,  where  he  attained  member- 
ship on  the  finance  committee  and  on  the  for- 
eign relations  committee ;  but  since  he  no  longer 
had  to  fight  against  radical  leadership  in  his 
party  or  against  a  dominant  opposition  party,  he 
appeared  less  prominent  than  formerly.  He  was 
in  close  agreement  with  President  Wilson  in  re- 
spect to  the  entrance  of  the  United  States  into 
the  World  War  and  its  vigorous  prosecution, 
and  he  also  strove  to  secure  the  entrance  of  the 
United  States  into  the  League  of  Nations.  The 
defeat  of  the  Wilson  post-war  program  and  the 
weakness,  as  he  thought  it  to  be,  of  Congress  in 
dealing  with  the  bonus  question  disappointed 
him.  While  in  this  humor  he  is  reported  to  have 
remarked :  "I'd  rather  be  a  hound  dog  and  bay  at 
the  moon  from  my  Mississippi  plantation  than 
remain  in  the  United  States  Senate"  (Memphis 
Commercial  Appeal,  Sept.  29,  1932).  Realizing 
that  he  was  growing  old  and  that  he  could  prob- 
ably do  little  to  change  the  direction  the  Senate 
was  going,  he  retired  in  1923  at  the  end  of  his 
second  term.  The  remaining  nine  years  he  lived 
in  almost  complete  political  retirement  at  "Cedar 
Grove,"  his  old  plantation  near  Yazoo  City,  "with 
old  books,  an  old  pipe,  a  dear  old  wife  and  very 
good  health  and  lots  of  good  friends  and  children 
and  grandchildren"  (Ibid.).  He  was  survived 
by  six  of  his  eight  children,  four  sons  and  two 
daughters. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1932-33;  Biog.  Dir.  Am. 
Cong.  (1928)  ;  Official  and  Statistical  Reg.  of  the  State 
of  Miss.,  1908  ;  Bookman,  Apr.  1904  ;  Rev.  of  Rev.  (N. 
Y.l,  Aug.  1904  ;  Current  Literature,  Feb.  1907  ;  Nation, 
May   10,   1917,  Oct.   12,  1932;  Evening  Appeal  (Mem- 


78 


Williams 

phis),  Sept.  28,  1932;  Commercial  Appeal  (Memphis), 
Sept.  29,  30,  1932;  Harris  Dickson,  An  Old-Fashioned 
Senator  (1925)-]  C.  S.  S. 

WILLIAMS,  JOHN  SKELTON  (July  6, 
1865-Xov.  4,  1926),  financier  and  public  official, 
was  born  in  Powhatan  County,  Va.,  one  of  sev- 
eral sons  of  John  Langbourne  Williams  and 
Maria  Ward  (Skelton),  a  grandson  of  John  Wil- 
liams, born  in  Ireland,  who  died  in  Richmond, 
Va.,  in  i860,  and  a  great-great-grandson  of  Ed- 
mund Randolph  [q.v.].  After  attending  public 
school  in  Richmond,  he  entered  the  banking 
house  of  J.  L.  Williams  &  Sons,  founded  by  his 
father,  which  was  active  in  promoting  and  financ- 
ing public  utilities  not  only  in  the  Richmond 
area  but  throughout  the  South.  In  1895  he  mar- 
ried Lila  Lefebvre  Isaacs,  by  whom  he  had  two 
sons.  His  most  important  financial  task  while  an 
investment  banker  was  the  formation,  beginning 
in  1895,  of  the  Seaboard  Air  Line  Railway  out 
of  an  array  of  shorter  railway  lines.  At  thirty- 
four  he  became  first  president  of  the  new  railroad. 
But  the  venture  which  was  apparently  consum- 
mated so  brilliantly  in  1900  soon  ran  into  finan- 
cial difficulties.  After  a  long  struggle  with  a  group 
of  New  York  financiers  headed  by  Thomas  For- 
tune Ryan  \_q.v.~\,  Williams  was  forced  out  of 
the  presidency  on  Dec.  30,  1903.  For  a  number 
of  years  thereafter  he  and  his  local  banking  allies 
struggled  unsuccessfully  to  regain  control  of  the 
road.  It  was  a  lesson  in  the  power  of  New  York 
financiers  which  left  him  bitterly  antagonistic  to 
them. 

In  March  1913  Williams  was  appointed  as- 
sistant secretary  of  the  treasury  by  President 
Wilson,  at  the  request  of  Secretary  McAdoo.  In 
January  19 14  he  was  named  comptroller  of  the 
currency,  but  his  appointment  was  confirmed  by 
the  Senate  only  after  a  committee  had  vindicated 
him  from  the  charge  of  using  treasury  deposits 
to  aid  his  brother's  bank  {New  York  Times, 
Dec.  24,  1913,  Feb.  1,  1914).  As  comptroller  of 
the  currency  he  was  ex  officio  a  member  of  the 
organizing  committee  which  set  up  the  new  Fed- 
eral Reserve  system.  He  served  also  as  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission's 
advisory  board  on  valuation.  When  McAdoo  was 
made  director-general  of  the  railroads  in  De- 
cember 1917,  Williams  became  his  director  of 
finances  and  purchases,  a  position  which  he  held 
until  March  1919  along  with  the  comptrollership. 

Williams  entered  upon  his  duties  as  comptrol- 
ler with  a  vigor  that  won  him  many  enemies. 
Three  months  after  assuming  the  office,  in  a  speech 
delivered  before  the  North  Carolina  Bankers' 
Association  (Democracy  in  Banking,  1914),  he 
attacked  the  concentration  of  banking  control  "in 


Williams 

the  hands  of  a  dozen  men,"  pointed  to  the  politi- 
cal and  economic  dangers  of  huge  fortunes,  and 
praised  the  Federal  Reserve  system  as  a  means 
of  decentralizing  financial  control.  Later  he  an- 
tagonized the  national  banks  by  accusing  them 
of  usurious  practices.  His  frequent  reiteration 
of  this  charge  in  the  course  of  the  next  seven 
years  served  to  reopen  old  wounds.  From  April 
1915  to  June  1916  he  was  engaged  in  a  series  of 
suits  with  officials  of  the  Riggs  National  Bank 
of  Washington,  D.  C,  and  although  a  perjury 
case  against  the  Bank's  directors  ended  in  an 
acquittal,  Williams'  charges  of  irregular  prac- 
tices were  sustained  and  the  bank's  charter  was 
renewed  only  after  the  directors  pledged  them- 
selves to  abide  by  the  law  in  the  future.  To  his 
lengthening  list  of  antagonists  he  added  the  state 
banks  and  state  banking  officials  when  in  a  public 
statement  he  contrasted  the  safety  of  national 
and  state  banks.  In  his  Annual  Report  for  1917, 
he  advocated  the  national  guaranty  of  all  de- 
posits of  $5,000  or  less  in  national  banks,  to  as- 
sure depositor  confidence  in  the  face  of  the  war 
situation  and  to  bring  money  out  of  hiding.  Not 
until  1933  did  the  federal  government,  faced  by 
financial  panic,  adopt  such  a  policy. 

Upon  the  expiration  of  Williams'  appointment 
in  1919,  bitter  opposition  was  evidenced  to  his 
reappointment.  He  remained  in  office  for  two 
years  more,  however,  although  neither  the  earlier 
committee  recommendation  to  confirm  nor  later 
recommendations  to  reject  the  renomination  were 
acted  upon  by  the  Senate  as  a  whole.  On  Mar. 
2,  1921,  with  the  accession  of  a  hostile  Repub- 
lican administration  two  days  off,  he  resigned. 
Shortly  after  leaving  office,  he  charged  that  the 
Federal  Reserve  Board,  of  which  he  had  himself 
been  a  member  ex  officio,  had  by  its  deflationary 
policies  caused  the  disastrous  decline  in  agricul- 
tural prices  which  began  in  1920;  he  also  at- 
tacked certain  of  the  Federal  Reserve  banks, 
notably  that  of  New  York,  for  what  he  termed 
extravagant  expenditures  for  buildings  and  sala- 
ries. His  accusations  formed  the  essential  basis 
for  a  Congressional  investigation,  which  sus- 
tained some  of  his  charges  against  the  Board. 

From  public  life,  Williams  returned  to  the 
Richmond  Trust  Company,  serving  as  chairman 
of  its  board  of  directors  until  his  sudden  death, 
in  1926,  at  his  home  near  Richmond,  Va.  In 
commenting  on  his  death,  the  Bankers'  Magazine 
(December  1926),  which  had  consistently  op- 
posed him  during  his  term  of  office,  characterized 
him  as  highly  efficient  but  unnecessarily  harsh. 

rThe  Lib.  of  Cong,  has  eleven  published  addresses  by 
Williams.  For  biog.  data,  see  Who's  Who  in  America, 
1 9 26-27  ;  N.  Y.  Times,  Feb.  1,  5,  1914,  Nov.  5,  1926; 
Carter  Glass,  "John   Skelton   Williams,"  in  Selections 


279 


Williams 

from  the  Family  Hist,  of  Randolph,  Dandridge,  Armi- 
stcad,  Langbourne,  Carter  and  Williams  Clans  in  Va. 
1650  to  1930  (n.d.).  See  also  Seaboard  Air  Line  Rail- 
way circulars,  nos.  2,  4,  8,  9,  10,  14  (1903-09)  avail- 
able at  Lib.  of  Cong.  ;  Nomination  of  John  Skclton  Wil- 
liams:  Hearing  before  the  Committee  on  Banking  and 
Currency,  U.  S.  Senate  (1919);  "The  Agricultural 
Crisis  and  Its  Causes,"  House  Report  408,  67  Cong., 
1  Sess. ;  W.  P.  G.  Harding,  The  Formative  Period  of 
the  Federal  Reserve  System  ( 1925),  ch.  xvi  and  passim  ; 
Bankers'  Magazine,  July  1914,  Feb.  1915,  Jan.  1916, 
Mar.  1918,  Sept.  1920,  Dec.  1926;  N.  Y.  Times,  Apr. 
>3,  1915— June  22,  1916  (Riggs  case).]  J.J.S. 

WILLIAMS,  JOHN  WHITRIDGE  (Jan. 
26,  1866-Oct.  21,  1931),  physician,  obstetrician, 
was  born  in  Baltimore,  Md.,  the  son  of  Dr.  Philip 
C.  and  Mary  Cushing  (Whitridge)  Williams. 
Through  his  mother  he  was  descended  from  a 
family  that  had  practised  medicine  in  America 
for  more  than  a  hundred  and  sixty  years.  After 
three  years  in  the  Baltimore  City  College,  he  en- 
tered the  Johns  Hopkins  University  and  was 
graduated  in  1886.  He  took  the  degree  of  M.D. 
at  the  University  of  Maryland  in  1888,  and  went 
at  once  to  Vienna  and  Berlin  for  general  courses 
in  bacteriology  and  pathology.  Returning,  he 
joined  the  gynecological-obstetrical  staff  of  the 
newly  opened  Johns  Hopkins  Hospital  as  asso- 
ciate in  obstetrics  (1893-96).  Although  he  had 
planned  to  devote  himself  to  gynecology,  he 
availed  himself  of  the  unusual  opportunity  in 
obstetrics  afforded  by  the  opening  of  the  Johns 
Hopkins  Medical  School  and  spent  the  year 
1894-95  studying  obstetrics  in  Leipzig,  writing 
a  monograph,  Contribution  to  the  Histology  and 
Histogenesis  of  Sarcoma  of  the  Uterus  (1894), 
while  in  Chiari's  laboratory  in  Prague.  He  was 
assistant  professor  of  obstetrics  at  Johns  Hopkins 
from  1896  until  1899,  when  the  chair  was  divid- 
ed, Howard  A.  Kelly  retaining  gynecology  and 
Williams  becoming  professor  of  obstetrics  and 
obstetrician-in-chief  to  the  hospital.  It  remained 
Williams'  conviction,  however,  that  these  sub- 
jects properly  and  logically  should  constitute  a 
single  department.  He  undertook  the  additional 
responsibilities  of  dean  of  the  Medical  School 
from  191 1  until  1923,  when  he  resigned  to  devote 
himself  wholly  to  research  and  the  service  of 
obstetrics  in  the  new  woman's  clinic  building. 
Williams'  preeminence  as  a  scientist  appears 
in  all  his  writings — some  hundred.  The  earliest 
deal  with  bacteriology  and  pathology  under  the 
aegis  of  Dr.  William  H.  Welch  [q.v.~\  ;  later  his 
statistical  papers  became  increasingly  valuable ; 
others  concern  rare  deformities,  the  toxemias  of 
pregnancy,  syphilis  during  pregnancy,  antenatal 
care,  contracted  pelves  and  general  pelvimetry, 
and  the  indications  for  cesarean  section.  The  his- 
torical background  which  prefaced  these  treatises 
was  of  incalculable  worth.  His  Textbook  of  Ob- 


Will 


lams 


stetrics  (1903)  was  a  potent  factor  in  promoting 
an  understanding  of  the  subject,  and  is  still 
( 1936)  undoubtedly  the  best  authority  in  English. 
Williams  was  a  remarkable  teacher,  constantly 
reminding  his  students  that  the  purpose  of  their 
training  was  to  enable  them  to  train  others  in 
turn.  He  was  honorary  president  of  the  Glasgow 
Gynecological  and  Obstetrical  Society  (1911- 
12),  and  president  of  the  American  Gynecologi- 
cal Society  (1914-15)  and  of  the  American  As- 
sociation for  the  Study  and  Prevention  of  Infant 
Mortality  (1914-16).  On  the  day  of  his  funeral 
one  of  the  first  honorary  fellowships  of  the  Brit- 
ish College  of  Obstetricians  and  Gynecologists 
was  conferred  upon  him.  He  held  several  honor- 
ary degrees. 

His  conservative  tendencies  were  revealed  not 
only  in  his  professional  life,  but  in  his  strong 
feeling  that  the  simple  life  of  his  youth  was  more 
abundant  than  the  complexity  of  later  years.  He 
was  an  ardent  exponent  of  state  as  against  na- 
tional authority.  Under  Mayor  Preston,  with 
Dr.  J.  Hall  Pleasants  he  reconstructed  along 
thoroughly  scientific  lines  old  Bay  View,  Balti- 
more's city  hospital,  with  a  full-time  staff  in 
pathology,  medicine,  and  surgery.  He  particu- 
larly advocated  moderate  fees.  Early  in  193 1  he 
participated  in  the  movement  to  repeal  the  Fed- 
eral law  forbidding  the  dissemination  of  birth- 
control  literature  through  the  mails. 

Williams  was  broadly  educated,  a  lover  of  old 
books,  a  loyal  and  devoted  friend,  honest  and 
straightforward  in  his  thinking.  His  devotion  to 
science  never  lessened  his  consideration  for  oth- 
ers or  his  humanity  of  spirit.  On  Jan.  14,  1891, 
he  married  Margaretta  Stewart  Brown  (d.  Feb. 
21,  1929),  daughter  of  Gen.  Stewart  Brown.  His 
second  wife,  Caroline  (Theobald)  Pennington, 
whom  he  married  in  April  1930,  was  the  daugh- 
ter of  Dr.  Samuel  Theobald  [q.v.~]  of  the  Johns 
Hopkins  faculty.  He  was  survived  by  his  wife 
and  three  daughters  by  his  first  marriage. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1930-31  ;  J.  M.  Slemons, 
John  Whitridge  Williams,  Academic  Aspects  and  Bib- 
liog.  (1935)  ;  Jour.  Am.  Medic.  Asso.,  Oct.  31,  1931  ; 
H.  J.  Stander,  Am.  Jour.  Obstetrics,  Nov.  193 1  ;  H.  M. 
Little,  in  Trans.  Am.  Gynecological  Soc,  vol.  LVII 
(T933)  ;  H.  A.  Kelly,  in  Am.  Jour.  Surgery,  Jan.  1932; 
Bull.  Johns  Hopkins  Hospital,  Dec.  193 1  ;  Jour.  Ob- 
stetrics and  Gynecology  of  the  British  Empire,  Spring 
1932;  Ernst  Philipp,  in  Zentralblatt  fitr  Gyn'dkologie, 
Nov.  28,  1 93 1  ;  obituary  in  Sun  (Baltimore),  Oct.  22, 
1931  ;   personal   recollections.]  H.A.K y. 

WILLIAMS,  JONATHAN  (May  26,  1750- 
May  16,  1815),  merchant  and  soldier,  was  born 
in  Boston,  the  son  of  Jonathan  Williams,  a  pros- 
perous merchant,  and  Grace  (Harris)  Williams, 
daughter  of  Benjamin  Franklin's  sister,  Anne. 
Having  received  their  early  education  in  the 

80 


Williams 


Williams 


Boston  schools,  Jonathan  and  a  brother  were  sent 
to  London  in  1770,  to  complete  their  training  and 
make  contacts  under  Franklin's  tutelage.  Jona- 
than's understanding  of  accounts  and  his  single- 
minded  devotion  to  business  made  a  favorable 
impression  on  Franklin.  To  the  young  man's 
mother  he  wrote :  "It  has  been  wonderful  to  me 
to  see  a  young  Man  from  America  in  a  Place  so 
full  of  various  Amusements  as  London  is,  as  at- 
tentive to  Business,  as  diligent  in  it,  and  keeping 
as  close  at  home  till  it  was  finished"  (A.  H. 
Smyth,  The  Writings  of  Benjamin  Franklin, 
vol.  V,  1906,  p.  312). 

When  Franklin  became  a  commissioner  of  the 
Continental  Congress  to  France  in  1776,  Wil- 
liams gave  up  the  promising  business  connections 
he  had  made  in  London  and  joined  his  kinsman. 
He  was  immediately  employed  by  the  commis- 
sioners as  their  agent  at  Nantes  to  inspect  the 
arms  and  other  supplies  they  were  having  shipped 
from  that  port.  Congress  had  already  appointed 
a  commercial  agent  there,  Thomas  Morris,  whose 
constant  drunkenness  made  him  totally  unfit  for 
work.  Morris,  a  half-brother  of  Robert  [q.v.~], 
was  jealous  of  Williams  and  would  not  cooperate 
with  him.  Affairs  at  Nantes  got  into  such  a 
tangle  that  Franklin  and  Silas  Deane  \_q.v.~\  in 
desperation  sent  John  Ross,  a  Philadelphia  mer- 
chant temporarily  in  France,  to  make  an  investi- 
gation. Ross,  assured  that  reports  of  Morris' 
debauchery  were  not  exaggerated,  advised  Wil- 
liams to  assume  control  until  William  Lee  [q.v.], 
who  had  been  asked  by  Congress  to  join  Morris, 
should  arrive.  Through  this  attempt  to  carry  on 
temporarily  the  vital  work  of  making  shipments, 
selling  prizes,  etc.,  Williams  became  involved  in 
the  controversy  which  arose  between  Deane  and 
Arthur  Lee  [q.v.] ,  and  was  charged  by  Lee  with 
plotting  to  supersede  all  other  officials  at  Nantes 
and  with  appropriating  for  private  purposes  100,- 
000  livres  of  public  money.  The  charges  were 
found  false  by  a  committee  of  merchants  at  Nan- 
tes and  were  never  considered  by  Congress,  but 
Franklin  was  so  incensed  at  the  Lees'  unjustified 
denunciations  that  he  made  no  further  attempt 
to  place  Williams  in  public  service,  though  he 
was  several  times  employed  to  purchase  supplies. 

He  remained  in  Europe  engaged  in  various 
business  ventures  until  Franklin  returned  home 
in  1785.  On  Sept.  12,  1779,  he  married  Mari- 
amne,  daughter  of  William  Alexander  of  Edin- 
burgh, Scotland.  Williams  accompanied  Frank- 
lin to  America,  and  a  few  years  later  established 
a  home  at  Philadelphia,  where  his  rating  as  a 
well-to-do  merchant,  joined  with  his  relationship 
to  Franklin,  found  him  ready  acceptance.  He 
became  in  1796  associate  judge  in  the  court  of 

28 


common  pleas,  and  acquired  reputation,  also,  as 
a  scientist.  He  had  worked  with  Franklin  in 
some  of  hi9  later  experiments  and  published  in 
1799  a  treatise  entitled  Thermometrical  Naziga- 
tion.  Other  results  of  his  experimentation  ap- 
peared in  the  Transactions  of  the  American  Phil- 
osophical Society,  of  which  he  was  at  various 
times  secretary,  councillor,  and  vice-president. 

His  scientific  interests  brought  him  into  con- 
tact with  Thomas  Jefferson,  who,  impressed  by 
Williams'  theoretical  knowledge  of  fortifications, 
acquired  while  he  was  in  France,  appointed  him 
in  1801  inspector  of  fortifications  and  superin- 
tendent at  West  Point,  with  the  rank  of  major. 
Shortly  afterward,  Congress  established  the  mili- 
tary academy,  and  Williams,  as  the  ranking  engi- 
neer at  West  Point,  became  automatically  its  first 
superintendent.  His  interest  in  military  education, 
as  in  all  questions  of  national  defense,  was  deep, 
but  in  his  attempts  to  make  a  first-rate  school  he 
labored  under  so  many  handicaps  that  the  acad- 
emy cannot  be  said  to  have  prospered.  The  num- 
ber of  instructors,  fixed  by  Congress,  was  too 
small,  and  there  were  frequent  changes ;  many 
subjects  considered  by  Williams  to  be  essential 
for  military  education  were  not  included ;  the 
buildings  and  equipment  were  inadequate ;  a 
library  hardly  existed  and  the  war  department 
refused  to  purchase  scientific  books  on  the  plea 
that  so  many  changes  in  scientific  thought  were 
occurring  that  textbooks  could  not  be  sufficiently 
up  to  date  to  be  useful.  Dissatisfied  with  his 
rank  and  limited  control  over  cadets  who  were 
not  in  the  engineering  corps,  Williams  resigned 
in  1803,  but  at  Jefferson's  insistence  accepted  re- 
appointment in  1805,  with  the  rank  of  lieutenant- 
colonel  of  engineers  and  with  complete  authority 
over  all  cadets. 

His  work  at  West  Point  was  additionally  im- 
peded by  the  fact  that  his  duties  as  the  ranking 
engineer  of  the  army  called  him  frequently  away 
on  long  trips  of  inspection.  He  also  had  charge 
of  some  construction  work,  notably  the  defenses 
of  New  York  harbor,  which  he  personally 
planned  and  supervised.  In  his  absences  the  acad- 
emy barely  continued  to  exist.  With  the  retire- 
ment of  Jefferson,  Williams  suffered  another 
blow.  A  Federalist,  he  had  always  been  distrust- 
ed by  the  secretary  of  war,  Henry  Dearborn 
[q.v.]  ;  under  Madison's  secretary  of  war,  Wil- 
liam Eustis  [q.v.~\,  the  antagonism  of  the  war 
department  toward  the  Military  Academy  in- 
creased. Supplies  and  funds  were  withheld;  new 
cadets  were  not  appointed  when  vacancies  oc- 
curred. Williams  specifically  recommended  to 
both  Jefferson  and  Madison  two  things — removal 
of  the  academy  to  Washington,  where  it  would 

I 


Williams 


Williams 


be  near  the  controlling  authority,  and  centraliza- 
tion of  control  in  the  hands  of  the  President. 
Jefferson  approved  of  both  recommendations,  but 
neither  was  heeded  by  Congress  or  considered 
by  Madison  and  Eustis.  On  July  31,  1812,  Wil- 
liams resigned  from  the  army,  embittered  be- 
cause of  his  failure  at  West  Point  and  also  be- 
cause at  the  outbreak  of  the  war  he  had  not  been 
given  command  of  the  fortifications  at  New  York. 
During  the  war  he  became  brevet  brigadier-gen- 
eral of  New  York  militia  and  was  on  a  committee 
in  Philadelphia  for  preparing  adequate  defenses 
for  the  Delaware.  He  was  elected  to  Congress 
in  1814,  but  did  not  live  to  take  his  seat. 

While  in  the  army,  he  published  The  Elements 
of  Fortification  (1801),  a  translation  from  the 
French  made  for  the  war  department*  Manccu- 
zres  of  Horse  Artillery  (1808),  a  translation  of 
the  work  by  Tadeuz  Kosciuszko.  He  was  in- 
strumental, also,  in  the  founding,  during  his  serv- 
ice at  West  Point,  of  the  Military  Philosophical 
Society  to  promote  rnilitary  science  and  history. 

[I.  M.  Hays,  Calendar  of  the  Papers  of  Benjamin 
Franklin  in  the  Lib.  of  the  Am.  Philosophical  Soc.  (5 
vols.,  1908)  ;  G.  W.  Cullum,  Campaigns  of  the  War  of 
1812-15,  Against  Great  Britain  (1879)  ;  E.  C.  Boynton, 
Hist,  of  West  Point  (1863)  ;  Am.  State  Papers.  Mil. 
Affairs,  vol.  I  (1832)  ;  The  Memoirs  of  Gen.  Joseph 
Gardner  Swift  (1890);  Arthur  Lee,  Observations  on 
Certain  Commercial  Transactions  in  France  (1780); 
J.  T.  Scliarf  and  Thompson  Westcott,  Hist,  of  Phila. 
(1884);  Biog.  Dir.  Am.  Cong.  (1928);  Relfs'  Phila. 
Gazette,  May  17.  1815.]  M.E.L— b— d. 

WILLIAMS,  LINSLY  RUDD  (Jan.  28, 
1875-Jan.  8,  1934),  physician,  organizer,  son  of 
John  Stanton  and  Mary  Maclay  (Pentz)  Wil- 
liams, was  born  in  New  York  City,  which  was 
his  home  throughout  his  life.  He  was  graduated 
at  the  College  of  New  Jersey  (Princeton)  with 
the  degree  of  A.B.  in  1895,  and  from  the  College 
of  Physicians  and  Surgeons,  New  York,  in  1899. 
He  was  then  appointed  interne  at  the  Presby- 
terian Hospital,  serving  from  1900  to  1902,  and 
in  the  latter  year  taking  further  service  at  Sloane 
Maternity  Hospital.  He  began  the  practice  of 
medicine  as  assistant  to  Dr.  John  S.  Thatcher, 
an  association  which  lasted  till  1908.  At  the  same 
time  he  was  successively  instructor  in  histology, 
assistant  in  medicine,  and  chief  of  the  medical 
clinics  at  the  Presbyterian  Hospital,  and  was 
visiting  physician  to  the  House  of  Rest  for  Tuber- 
culosis, to  Seton  Hospital,  and  to  the  City  Hos- 
pital. On  Jan.  18,  1908,  he  married  Grace  (Kid- 
der) Ford,  widow  of  Paul  Leicester  Ford  \_q.v.~\, 
by  whom  he  had  three  children. 

In  19 14  he  was  selected  for  the  position  of 
deputy  commissioner  of  health  for  the  state  of 
New  York  by  Dr.  Hermann  M.  Biggs  [q.v.], 
newly  appointed  commissioner  under  the  health 


law  adopted  the  previous  year.  In  this  work 
Williams  was  given  free  scope  for  the  unusual 
talent  for  organization  which  marked  his  subse- 
quent career.  When  the  United  States  entered 
the  World  War  he  at  once  joined  the  medical 
corps,  with  the  rank  of  first  lieutenant.  He  was 
promoted  rapidly  and  was  discharged  in  1919  as 
lieutenant-colonel.  In  August  1917  his  broad  ex- 
perience in  public  health  matters  led  to  his  being 
sent  to  investigate  sanitary  conditions  in  France 
and  England.  In  October  of  that  year  he  was 
made  an  assistant  division  surgeon.  Later  he 
served  as  sanitary  inspector  of  the  Eightieth 
Division  and  was  afterwards  attached  to  head- 
quarters as  assistant  sanitary  officer. 

As  the  result,  in  part,  of  his  war  service,  he 
was  appointed  in  1919  director  of  the  Rockefel- 
ler Commission  for  the  Prevention  of  Tuber- 
culosis in  France,  succeeding  in  that  office  Dr. 
Livingston  Farrand.  Appreciation  of  the  success 
with  which  he  performed  the  profoundly  difficult 
and  delicate  duties  of  this  position  was  shown 
not  only  by  France,  which  made  him  a  Com- 
mander of  the  Legion  of  Honor,  but  by  other 
governments  as  well,  which  studied  and  put  into 
practice  plans  for  the  control  of  tuberculosis  de- 
veloped by  Williams  during  the  three  years  of 
his  directorship.  From  1922  to  1928  as  managing 
director  of  the  National  Tuberculosis  Association 
he  visited  all  parts  of  the  United  States  and  won 
national  fame  as  an  organizer  of  the  social  and 
medical  forces  combating  preventable  disease 
and  promoting  the  public  health.  The  later  years 
of  his  life  were  devoted,  as  managing  director, 
to  developing  the  New  York  Academy  of  Medi- 
cine. To  this  task  he  brought  the  benefit  of  the 
broad  horizon  gained  in  his  world  service  and 
through  his  effort  the  Academy  acquired  not  only 
national  but  also  international  prestige.  The 
physical  plant  which  houses  the  Academy  is  the 
material  monument  to  his  labors,  but  a  more  im- 
portant achievement  was  the  spiritual  growth  of 
the  institution  under  the  guidance  of  his  wisdom 
and  understanding. 

Reserved  and  distinguished  in  manner  and 
poise,  he  gave  the  impression  of  judgment,  self- 
control,  and  resourcefulness  which  command  in- 
stant confidence.  His  counsel  was  so  valued  by 
all  who  knew  him  that  he  was  constantly  called 
upon  to  assume  new  burdens  of  responsibility. 
He  was  a  trustee  of  Columbia  University,  a  di- 
rector of  the  Milbank  Memorial  Fund,  and  presi- 
dent of  the  New  York  Tuberculosis  and  Health 
Association ;  he  served  also  on  countless  boards 
and  committees,  to  all  of  which  he  gave  unspar- 
ingly of  his  strength  and  interest.  His  pleasure 
appeared  to  lie  in  work  and  in  the  relaxation  af- 


28: 


Williams 

forded  by  the  warm  hospitality  for  which  his 
home  was  noted.  Without  doubt  such  unsparing 
generosity  had  made  inroads  on  his  physical 
strength,  and  when  in  October  1933  he  was 
seized  with  a  virulent  pneumonia,  there  was  not 
sufficient  vitality  remaining  to  fight  off  the  series 
of  complications  which  ensued. 

[Kendall  Emerson,  in  Jour,  of  the  Outdoor  Life,  Feb. 
1934  ;  J.  A.  Hartwell,  in  N.  Y.  State  Jour,  of  Medicine, 
Jan.  15,  1934;  P.  P.  Jacobs,  in  Bull,  of  the  Nat.  Tuber- 
culosis Asso.,  Feb.  1934  ;  Jour,  of  the  Am.  Medic.  Asso., 
Jan.  13,  1934;  In  Mcmoriam,  Linsly  R.  Williams  (N. 
Y.  Acad,  of  Medicine,  1934)  ;  J.  A.  Miller,  in  Am.  Rev. 
of  Tuberculosis,  Apr.  1934  ;  C.  E.  A.  Winslow,  The 
Life  of  Hermann  M.  Biggs  (1929)  ;  N.  Y.  Times,  Jan. 
8,1934-1  K.E. 

WILLIAMS,  MARSHALL  JAY  (Feb.  22, 
1837-July  7,  1902),  jurist,  son  of  Dr.  Charles 
M.  Williams  and  Margaret  J.  Williams,  was 
born  on  a  farm  in  Fayette  County,  Ohio.  His 
early  education  was  in  the  local  common  schools, 
in  which,  by  the  age  of  sixteen,  he  had  taught 
several  terms.  After  spending  two  years  at  Ohio 
Wesleyan  University,  he  began  the  study  of  law 
in  1855  in  the  office  of  Nelson  Rush  at  Washing- 
ton Court-House,  Ohio.  At  the  age  of  twenty, 
since  minors  were  not  admitted  to  the  bar  in 
Ohio,  he  moved  to  Iowa  where  the  rules  were 
less  stringent,  but  after  practising  there  for  a 
year,  returned  to  Ohio  and  settled  at  Washing- 
ton Court-House.  He  soon  acquired  a  large  prac- 
tice which  extended  into  surrounding  counties. 
He  was  elected  prosecuting  attorney  of  Fayette 
County  in  1859  and  reelected  in  1861 ;  in  1869  he 
was  elected  to  the  General  Assembly  and  re- 
turned in  1871.  Upon  the  establishment  of  the 
circuit  courts  in  1884,  he  was  elected  a  judge  of 
the  court  of  the  second  circuit  and  was  chosen  by 
his  colleagues  as  their  first  chief  justice.  After  but 
two  years'  service  on  this  bench  he  was  elected 
a  judge  of  the  supreme  court,  and  assumed  office 
in  1887.  Elected  for  three  successive  terms,  he 
served  for  nearly  sixteen  years,  being  chief  jus- 
tice by  rotation  during  the  last  year  of  each  term. 
In  1891  he  became  the  first  dean  of  the  College 
of  Law  of  Ohio  State  University,  which  opened 
its  doors  for  the  first  time  in  October  of  that 
year,  with  thirty-three  students  in  the  basement 
of  the  Franklin  County  Court  House.  He  lec- 
tured in  this  school  until  1893,  when  his  health 
began  to  decline. 

Williams'  opinions  as  a  supreme  court  judge 
are  found  in  45-66  Ohio  State  Reports.  They 
are  not  great  opinions  nor  do  they  show  a  wide 
range  of  scholarship,  but  they  are  able — charac- 
terized by  their  brevity,  unusual  clarity,  and  re- 
liance upon  principles  of  law  rather  than  decided 
cases.  In  accordance  with  the  prevailing  spirit 
of  the  times,  he  was  conservative  in  his  views  of 


28 


Williams 

constitutional  law,  as  is  evidenced  by  his  concur- 
rence in  the  decisions  declaring  unconstitutional 
the  "sub-mechanics  lien  law"  and  the  progressive 
inheritance  tax  law,  both  later  made  possible  in 
Ohio  by  constitutional  amendment,  but  both  of 
which,  according  to  modern  legal  thinking,  were 
valid  without  such  amendment.  In  the  field  of 
tort  law,  however,  when  questions  of  negligence 
and  liability  to  injured  workmen  were  involved, 
he  was  singularly  sympathetic  to  the  claims  of 
the  injured  party.  Infants  should  be  held  to  the 
degree  of  care  exercised  not  by  prudent  adults 
but  by  infants  of  their  own  age  and  experience ; 
railroads  cannot  by  contract  relieve  themselves 
of  liability  for  their  own  negligence;  persons 
having  on  their  premises  things  which  are  dan- 
gerous and  attractive  to  children  are  liable  for 
injuries  to  such  children  even  though  they  be 
trespassers ;  defendants  who  have  the  "last  clear 
chance"  to  avoid  an  injury  either  because  they 
saw  or  ought  to  have  seen  the  peril  of  the  plaintiff 
are  liable  for  injury  done  even  though  the  plain- 
tiff was  himself  guilty  of  contributory  negli- 
gence ;  a  municipality  is  liable  for  defects  in  the 
streets  even  though  such  streets  be  built  with 
care  according  to  a  plan  adopted  by  the  city 
council — these  are  examples  of  the  liberal  doc- 
trines which  found  expression  in  his  opinions. 

While  still  on  the  bench  and  serving  as  chief 
justice,  he  died,  in  Columbus,  leaving  a  widow, 
Bertha  (Taylor)  Williams  of  Clermont  County, 
whom  he  had  married  in  May  i860,  and  one 
adopted  daughter. 

[67  Ohio  State  Reports,  v-ix  ;  A  Hist,  of  the  Courts 
and  Lawyers  of  Ohio  (4  vols.,  1934),  ed.  by  C.  T.  Mar- 
shall ;  Who's  Who  in  America,  1899— 1900;  Green  Bag, 
June  1895  ;  Proc.  Ohio  State  Bar  Asso.  .  .  .  1003  (n.d.)  ; 
Ohio  State  Jour.  (Columbus),  July  7,  1902  ;  Ohio  Legal 
News,  III,  145,  IV,  142.]  A.H.  T. 

WILLIAMS,  NATHANAEL  (Aug.  25, 
1675-Jan.  10,  1737/38),  schoolmaster  and  phy- 
sician, was  born  in  Boston,  Mass.,  the  son  of 
Deacon  Nathanael  Williams  and  his  second  wife, 
Mary  (Oliver)  Shrimpton.  He  graduated  at 
Harvard  in  1693.  On  Aug.  16,  1698,  he  "was 
ordained  in  the  Colledge  Hall  at  Cambridge,  to 
go  and  preach  the  gospell  and  dispense  the  ordi- 
nances to  a  non-conformist  Church  at  Bar- 
badoes"  (Benjamin  Wadsworth,  manuscript 
commonplace  book,  Massachusetts  Historical  So- 
ciety, p.  10).  In  the  New  England  colony  in  Bar- 
bados he  married  Anne,  the  daughter  of  Samuel 
Bradstreet,  and  grand-daughter  of  Gov.  Simon 
Bradstreet  \q.i'.  |. 

After  two  years  the  tropical  climate  drove  Wil- 
liams back  to  Boston,  where  he  was  "employ'd 
by  several  Gentlemen  to  instruct  their  Sons  in 

3 


Williams 

Learning"  (Prince,  Funeral  Sermon,  post.  p. 
26).  Upon  the  recommendation  of  the  clergy  he 
was  appointed  to  assist  Ezekiel  Cheever  \_q.vJ] 
in  the  Boston  Latin  School,  where  he  entered 
upon  his  duties  July  12,  1703.  Five  years  later, 
upon  the  death  of  Cheever,  he  succeeded  to  the 
mastership.  There  is  some  evidence  that  he  ed- 
ited at  least  one  edition  of  Cheever's  famous 
Accidence. 

Besides  teaching  and  occasionally  preaching — 
he  was  a  pillar  of  the  Old  South  Church — Wil- 
liams "studied  Chymistry  and  Physick,  under  his 
Uncle  the  Learned  Dr.  James  Oliver  of  Cam- 
bridge" (Prince,  Preface,  post).  He  developed 
a  successful  private  practice  and  was  at  times 
employed  by  the  colony.  He  appears,  with  Zab- 
diel  Boylston  and  William  Douglass  [qq.v.~],  in 
an  imaginary  debate  on  inoculation  for  the  small- 
pox in  an  anonymous  satirical  pamphlet  by  Isaac 
Greenwood  entitled,  A  Friendly  Debate;  or,  A 
Dialogue  between  Academicus  and  Sawny  and 
Mundungus  (1722).  He  was  in  general  an  ad- 
vocate of  inoculation.  When  he  entered  the  cham- 
bers of  the  sick,  his  "lively  Voice  and  Coun- 
tenance," said  Thomas  Prince  [g.r.J,  "did  good 
like  a  Medicine,  reviv'd  our  Spirits,  and  light- 
en'd  our  Maladies"  (Funeral  Sermon,  p.  27). 
He  was  one  of  the  chief  backers  of  Prince's 
project  for  his  Chronological  History  of  New 
England. 

In  April  1723,  Williams  was  offered  the  rec- 
torship of  Yale,  but  his  family,  apparently  for 
financial  reasons,  induced  him  to  decline  it.  Ten 
years  later  he  resigned  from  the  Latin  School, 
but  after  some  months  succumbed  to  the  call  of 
form  and  ferule  and  opened  a  private  school  "for 
the  Teaching  and  Instructing  of  Children  or 
youth  in  Reading,  Writing  or  any  other  Science" 
("Records  of  the  Boston  Selectmen,  1716-1726," 
Reports  of  the  Record  Commissioners,  XIII, 
282-83).  He  died,  a  substantial  and  heartily  re- 
spected citizen,  at  the  age  of  sixty-two.  Of  his 
eight  children,  six  died  young.  His  daughter  Ann 
married  Belcher  Noyes,  and  his  daughter  Mary 
became  the  wife  of  the  portrait  painter,  John 
Smibert  [q.v.].  Some  years  after  Williams'  death, 
Thomas  Prince  edited  and  published  The  Method 
of  Practice  in  the  Small  Pox  .  .  .  Taken  from  a 
Manuscript  of  the  Late  Dr.  Nathanacl  Williams 
(1752). 

[New-England  Weekly  Journal,  Jan.  17,  1738; 
Thomas  Prince,  Funeral  Sermon  on  the  Rev.  Mr.  Na- 
thanael  Williams  (1738),  and  Preface  to  The  Method 
of  Practice  in  the  Small-Pox  (1752)  ;  Reports  of  the 
Record  Commissioners  of  the  City  of  Boston  (13  vols., 
1881-85),  passim  ;  H.  F.  Jenks.  Cat.  of  the  Boston  Pub- 
lic Latin  School  .  .  .  zvith  an  Historical  Sketch  (1886)  ; 
Boston  Weekly  News-Letter,  Jan.  12,  1738.] 

C.K.  S. 


Will 


tarns 


WILLIAMS,  OTHO  HOLLAND  (March 
1749-July  15,  1794),  Revolutionary  soldier,  was 
born  in  Prince  Georges  County,  Md.,  the  son  of 
Joseph  and  Prudence  (Holland)  Williams,  who 
had  emigrated  from  South  Wales  a  few  years  be- 
fore. In  1750  the  family  moved  to  the  mouth  of 
Conococheague  Creek,  in  what  was  then  Fred- 
erick County,  where  many  years  later  (1787) 
Williams  founded  the  town  of  Williamsport.  His 
father  presently  died,  leaving  only  a  small  estate 
for  the  support  of  his  seven  children,  and  the  boy 
at  the  age  of  thirteen  secured  employment  in  the 
office  of  the  county  clerk  at  Frederick.  In  time 
he  became  sufficiently  qualified  to  take  complete 
charge  of  the  office.  About  1767  he  moved  to  Bal- 
timore, where  he  remained  similarly  employed 
until  1774  when  he  returned  to  Frederick  and 
embarked  upon  a  commercial  career.  On  June 
22,  1775,  he  was  appointed  first  lieutenant  in  a 
company  raised  in  Maryland  under  Capt.  Thomas 
Price  for  service  in  New  England.  He  partici- 
pated in  the  siege  of  Boston  and  was  promoted 
to  the  rank  of  captain.  In  1776  rifle  companies 
from  Maryland  and  Virginia  were  combined  into 
a  regiment  of  which  Williams  was  appointed 
major,  June  27.  At  the  fall  of  Fort  Washington, 
Nov.  16,  he  was  wounded  in  the  groin  and  taken 
prisoner.  At  first  placed  on  parole  in  New  York, 
he  was  later  thrown  into  the  provost's  jail, 
charged  with  secretly  communicating  military 
information  to  Washington;  he  shared  a  cell 
with  Ethan  Allen.  Insufficient  food  and  unsani- 
tary quarters  seriously  impaired  his  health  be- 
fore he  was  exchanged,  Jan.  16,  1778.  In  the 
meantime  he  had  been  appointed,  Dec.  10,  1776, 
colonel  of  the  6th  Maryland  Regiment.  Rejoin- 
ing the  army  in  New  Jersey,  he  took  part  in  the 
battle  of  Monmouth,  served  as  deputy  adjutant- 
general  under  Horatio  Gates  in  1780,  and  was 
present  at  the  battles  of  Camden  and  King's 
Mountain.  Gates's  successor,  Nathanael  Greene, 
appointed  him  adjutant-general.  He  command- 
ed the  rear-guard  during  Greene's  retreat  across 
North  Carolina  and  took  a  distinguished  part  in 
the  subsequent  battles  of  Guilford  Court  House, 
Hobkirk  Hill,  and  Eutaw  Springs.  On  May  9, 
1782,  he  was  promoted  to  the  rank  of  brigadier- 
general. 

At  the  conclusion  of  the  war,  he  retired  from 
the  army.  On  Jan.  6,  1783,  he  was  elected  naval 
officer  of  the  Baltimore  district  by  the  state  coun- 
cil of  Maryland.  After  the  erection  of  the  federal 
government  under  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  he  was  appointed  collector  of  the  port  by 
President  Washington.  In  May  1792,  on  account 
of  ill-health  and  family  responsibilities,  he  de- 
clined a  commission  as  ranking  brigadier-gen- 


:84 


Williams 


Williams 


eral,  second  in  command  of  the  army.  In  a  vain 
attempt  to  improve  his  physical  condition,  he 
made  a  trip  to  Barbados  in  1793.  He  died  at  Mil- 
ler's Town,  Va.,  and  was  buried  in  Riverview 
Cemetery,  Williamsport.  Over  his  grave  the 
Mediary  Lodge  of  Masons  erected  a  commemo- 
rative shaft.  In  1786  he  married  Mary,  a  daugh- 
ter of  William  Smith,  a  wealthy  merchant  of  Bal- 
timore.  She  bore  him  four  sons. 

[The  Md.  Hist.  Soc,  Baltimore,  possesses  a  large 
collection  of  letters  and  papers  relating  to  Williams. 
His  "Southern  Army  :  A  Narrative  of  the  Campaign  of 
1780"  is  printed  in  W.  G.  Simms,  The  Life  of  Nathanael 
Greene  (1849),  App.  Consult  also:  T.  W.  Griffith, 
Sketches  of  the  Early  Hist,  of  Md.  (1821)  ;  William 
Johnson,  Sketches  of  the  Life  and  Correspondence  of 
Nathanael  Greene  (2  vols.,  1822)  ;  Osmond  Tiffany,  A 
Sketch  of  the  Life  and  Services  of  Gen.  Otho  Holland 
Williams  (1851)  ;  J.  T.  Scharf,  The  Chronicles  of  Bal- 
timore (1874);  G.  W.  Greene,  The  Life  of  Nathanael 
Greene  (3  vols.,  1867-71)  ;  J.  T.  Scharf,  Hist,  of  Md. 
(1879),  vol.  II;  Hist,  of  Baltimore  City  and  County 
(1881),  and  Hist,  of  Western  Md.  (1882),  vol.  II  ;  E. 
E.  Lantz,  in  "Maryland  Heraldry,"  The  Sun  (Balti- 
more), Apr.  2,  1 90s  ;  James  McSherry,  Hist,  of  Md. 
(1849)  ;  H.  W.  Ridgely,  Hist,  of  Graves  of  Md.  and  the 
D.  C.  (1908)  ;  S.  W.  Williams,  The  Geneal.  and  Hist, 
of  the  Family  of  Williams  (1847);  Md.  Hist.  Mag., 
vols.  VII  (1912),  XXII  (1927).  passim;  F.  B.  Heit- 
man,  Hist.  Reg.  Officers  of  the  Continental  Army  (rev. 

(ed.,  1914)  ;  M.  P.  Andrews,  Hist,  of  Md.  (1929); 
"Journal  and  Correspondence  of  the  State  Council," 
Archives  of  Md.,  vol.  XLVIII  (193O-]  E.  E.  C. 

WILLIAMS,  REUEL  (June  2,  1783-July  25, 
1862),  senator  from  Maine,  was  born  in  Au- 
gusta, then  part  of  Hallowell,  Me.  Said  to  have 
descended  from  Richard  Williams,  a  Welshman 
from  Glamorganshire  who  settled  at  Taunton, 
Mass.,  in  1637,  he  was  second  of  the  twelve 
children  of  Seth  and  Zilpha  (Ingraham)  Wil- 
liams. His  father,  tanner  and  shoemaker,  had 
removed  from  Stoughton  to  Hallowell  in  1779. 
In  1798  Reuel  went  from  the  Hallowell  Acad- 
emy to  read  law  with  Judge  James  Bridge, 
and  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1804.  By 
the  time  he  was  twenty-four,  his  ability  had 
attracted  attention  in  Boston,  and  in  18 12, 
when  Bridge  retired,  Williams  received  his  lu- 
crative practice.  This  included  the  important 
administration  of  the  "Kennebec  Purchase"  and 
the  Bowdoin  College  timberlands.  He  became 
one  of  the  successful  lawyers  in  Maine.  His  lack 
of  a  formal  higher  education  was  compensated 
by  shrewd  and  lucid  thinking,  revealed  in  clear, 
terse  expression.  His  considerable  fortune  did 
not  come  from  the  law  alone.  Even  at  nineteen, 
he  invested  his  savings  of  $1,000  in  Augusta 
real  estate.  When  the  old  "Kennebec  Purchase" 
came  to  an  end  in  18 16,  he  was  one  of  the  pur- 
chasers of  the  lands  and  other  interests  of  the 
proprietors.  He  invested  in  many  projects  in 
industry  and  communication,  with  very  good  suc- 
cess until  his  railroad  venture. 


A  Federalist  at  first  and  after  1832  a  Demo- 
crat, he  was  active  in  Maine  politics.  He  sat  in 
the  state  legislature  from  1812  to  1829  and  again 
in  1832  and  1848.  Elected  to  the  federal  Senate 
in  1837  to  fill  an  unexpired  term,  he  was  reelected 
in  1839  but  resigned  in  1843.  He  served  in  1825 
on  the  commission  to  divide  the  public  lands  be- 
tween Maine  and  Massachusetts,  in  1832  on  the 
Northeast  Boundary  Commission,  and  in  1861 
on  the  commission  for  defenses  in  the  northern 
states.  He  has  been  awarded  the  credit,  or  blame, 
for  removing  the  state  capital  in  1827  to  Augusta 
from  Portland.  His  $10,000  contribution  en- 
sured the  building  of  the  state  insane  asylum  at 
Augusta,  and  he  worked  diligently  for  the  im- 
provement of  Kennebec  navigation.  He  helped 
to  give  Augusta  excellent  stage  connections  with 
Bangor,  railroad  connection  with  Portland,  and, 
through  the  Augusta  Dam,  an  opportunity  for 
industrial  development.  From  1832  to  1842,  he 
was  a  very  active  supporter  of  Maine  in  the 
boundary  dispute  with  New  Brunswick,  Canada, 
not  only  through  his  service  on  the  Maine  bound- 
ary commission  but  also  as  a  senator.  At  Wash- 
ington he  proposed  frequent  measures  for  de- 
fending the  frontier  and  for  reopening  the  ques- 
tion, which  led  to  the  so-called  Aroostook  or 
Madawaska  "War"  and  the  Webster-Ashburton 
Treaty  in  1842.  With  Thomas  Hart  Benton,  he 
fought  strenuously  against  ratification  of  the 
treaty  in  the  Senate.  He  was  a  chief  promoter 
and  first  president  of  the  seventy-two-mile  Ken- 
nebec &  Portland  Railway,  running  from  Port- 
land to  Augusta  with  a  branch  from  Brunswick 
to  Bath,  all  now  part  of  the  Maine  Central  Rail- 
road. However,  he  seems  to  have  followed  a 
short-sighted  policy  during  the  railroad  disputes 
that  stirred  the  state.  The  road  had  constant 
financial  difficulties,  and  he  is  said  to  have  lost 
$200,000. 

He  had  married  in  November  1807  Sarah 
Lowell  Cony  of  Augusta.  They  had  one  son  and 
eight  daughters.  He  served  as  trustee  of  Bow- 
doin College  from  1822  to  i860.  In  1853  he  was 
baptized  into  the  Unitarian  Church.  With  all 
his  ability,  he  was  described  as  coldly  reserved 
toward  all  but  his  intimates  and  "almost  too  pre- 
cise and  methodical  for  a  man  of  ordinary  im- 
pulses" (Poor,  Memoir,  p.  57).  He  died  at  Au- 
gusta. 

[J.  A.  Poor,  Memoir  of  Hon.  Reuel  Williams  (1864), 
with  portrait  bust,  reprinted  from  Me.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll., 
1  ser.,  vol.  VIII  (1881),  also  pp.  30,  57,  92,  94,  97,  162, 
208;  Ibid.,  vol.  VI  (1859)  pp.  59,  358,  3  ser.,  vol.  I 
(1904),  p.  365;  Maine,  a  Hist.  (3  vols.  1919),  ed.  by 
L.  C.  Hatch,  Gen.  Cat.  of  Bowdoin  College  (1912); 
Biog.  Directory  Am.  Cong.  (1928)  ;  H.  V.  Poor,  Hist. 
of  the  Railroads  and  Canals  of  the  U.  S.,  vol.  I  (i860)  ; 
Portland  Daily  Advertiser,  July  26,   1862.]     J.  B.  P. 


28 


Williams 


Williams 


WILLIAMS,  ROBERT  (c.  1745-Sept.  26, 
1775),  pioneer  Methodist  preacher,  was  born 
probably  in  England  and  emigrated  to  America 
in  1769.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Irish  Metho- 
dist Conference  from  1766  to  1769,  and  was  a 
most  energetic  preacher.  John  Wesley,  however, 
objected  to  Williams'  vigorous  criticism  of  the 
Anglican  clergy  and  also  felt  that  he  lacked  a 
teachable  spirit.  Wesley  therefore  hesitated  to 
grant  Williams'  request  in  1769  for  an  appoint- 
ment as  a  Methodist  missionary  to  America,  but 
allowed  him  to  go  to  America  on  condition  that 
he  would  work  under  the  supervision  of  Richard 
Boardman  and  Joseph  Pilmore  [q.v.],  the  official 
missionaries  whom  he  was  sending.  Williams 
sold  his  horse  and  saddlebags  in  order  to  pay  his 
debts,  and  through  the  kindness  of  a  friend,  who 
paid  his  passage,  he  reached  America  in  the  au- 
tumn of  1769,  in  advance  of  Boardman  and  Pil- 
more. He  began  his  work  in  Wesley  Chapel  in 
New  York  City.  Between  1769  and  1771  his  ac- 
tivities were  confined  to  the  region  around  New 
York  City  and  to  Maryland. 

Williams'  impetuous  spirit  caused  him  soon  to 
seek  pioneer  fields  of  labor  and  early  in  1772  he 
went  to  Virginia,  preaching  first  in  Norfolk. 
His  type  of  preaching  attracted  attention,  for  in 
his  initial  sermon,  which  was  delivered  in  the 
open  air,  he  used  such  words  as  "hell"  and  "dev- 
il" so  frequently  that  many  of  his  listeners 
thought  that  he  was  either  swearing  or  that  he 
was  insane.  It  was  with  reluctance  that  hospi- 
tality was  shown  him.  He  also  preached  in 
Portsmouth,  and  in  February  1773  he  went  to 
Petersburg,  where  with  the  help  of  Devereux 
Jarratt  [q.v.'],  the  evangelical  rector  of  Bath 
Parish,  he  led  a  great  revival  of  religion.  At  the 
Conference  of  that  year  he  was  received  into  the 
traveling  connection,  and  appointed  to  serve  in 
Virginia.  In  1774  he  organized  the  Brunswick 
circuit,  which  extended  south  from  Petersburg 
into  North  Carolina.  Soon  after  this  he  married, 
retired  from  the  itinerancy,  and  established  a 
home  on  the  public  road  half-way  between  Ports- 
mouth and  Suffolk,  where  he  died. 

Upon  his  arrival  in  America  Williams  began 
to  reprint  some  of  Wesley's  sermons  and  pam- 
phlets. These  he  circulated  to  such  an  extent  that 
they  "had  a  very  good  effect — and  withal,  they 
opened  the  way  in  many  places  for  our  preach- 
ers to  be  invited  to  preach  where  they  had  never 
been  before"  (Lee,  post,  p.  48).  The  other  Meth- 
odist preachers,  however,  looked  askance  at  the 
undertaking.  Some  feared  that  Williams  was 
printing  the  books  for  his  own  personal  gain; 
others  held  that  such  an  enterprise  should  be 
under  the  supervision  of  all  the  preachers,  and 


that  any  profit  should  be  used  for  religious  and 
charitable  causes.  As  a  result,  at  the  Conference 
of  1773,  it  was  decided  that  none  of  them  was  to 
print  any  of  Wesley's  books  without  the  con- 
sent of  Wesley  and  the  Methodist  preachers  in 
America.  Williams  had,  however,  turned  the  at- 
tention of  the  American  Methodists  to  the  value 
of  the  religious  press. 

Williams  holds  a  unique  record  as  a  pioneer  in 
American  Methodism.  He  was  the  first  Metho- 
dist traveling  preacher  to  come  to  America,  the 
first  that  published  a  book,  the  first  that  married, 
the  first  that  located,  and  the  first  that  died.  He 
preached  the  first  Methodist  sermon  and  formed 
the  first  Methodist  circuit  in  Virginia.  He  prob- 
ably organized  the  first  Methodist  society  in 
North  Carolina.  He  was  the  spiritual  father  of 
Jesse  Lee  [q.v.].  Under  Williams'  guidance  Wil- 
liam Watters  entered  the  Methodist  ministry  and 
became  the  first  native  Methodist  itinerant. 

[John  Atkinson,  The  Beginnings  of  the  Weslcyan 
Movement  in  America  (1896);  J.  B.  Wakeley,  Lost 
Chapters  Recovered  from  the  Early  Hist,  of  Am.  Metlv- 
odism  (1858)  ;  Wm.  Crook,  Ireland  and  the  Centenary 
of  Am.  Methodism  (1866)  ;  Wm.  B.  Sprague,  Annals 
of  the  Am.  Pulpit,  vol.  VII  (1859)  ;  Jesse  Lee,  A  Short 
Hist,  of  the  Methodists  in  the  U.  S.  A.  (1810)  ;  M.  H. 
Moore,  Sketches  of  the  Pioneers  of  Methodism  in  N.  C. 
and  Va.  (1884)  ;  D.  A.  Watters,  First  Am.  Itinerant  of 
Methodism,  William  Watters  (1898)  ;  W.  W.  Bennett, 
Memorials  of  Methodism  in  Va.  (1871)  ;  W.  L.  Gris- 
som,  Hist,  of  Methodism  in  N.  C.  (1905);  Nathan 
Bangs,  A  Hist,  of  the  M.  E.  Church  (4  vols.,  1838-41)  ; 
W.  H.  Meredith,  in  Christian  Advocate  (N.  Y.),  Nov. 
28,  1907.]  P.  N.G. 

WILLIAMS,  ROGER  (c.  1603-1682/83), 
clergyman,  president  of  Rhode  Island,  was  born 
in  London,  England,  the  son  of  James  and  Alice 
(Pemberton)  Williams.  His  father,  "citizen 
and  freeman  of  London,"  was  of  the  well-to-do 
business  class,  with  a  shop  in  Cow  Lane  and 
membership  in  the  Merchant  Taylor  Company. 
On  the  maternal  side  Williams  came  of  a  family 
recently  risen  into  the  class  of  landed  gentry. 
His  grandfather  was  Robert  Pemberton  of  St. 
Albans  and  his  uncle,  Roger,  was  high  sheriff  of 
Hertfordshire.  Another  maternal  relative,  Sir 
James  Pemberton,  was  lord  mayor  of  London. 
The  birth  date,  1603,  commonly  assigned  to  Wil- 
liams is  merely  an  approximation.  On  Feb.  7, 
1677/78  he  spoke  of  himself  as  "aged  about  sev- 
entie  five  years."  By  comparing  this  with  sev- 
eral other  statements  he  made,  the  date  may  be 
placed  at  1603  or  a  little  earlier. 

Williams  had  a  "natural  inclination  to  study," 
and  gave  sufficient  evidence  of  it  to  attract  the 
interest  of  Sir  Edward  Coke,  who  made  him  his 
protege  and  furthered  his  education.  "This 
Roger  Williams,"  wrote  the  daughter  of  Coke, 
"when  he  was  a  youth  would,  in  a  short  hand, 
take  sermons  and  speeches  in  the  Star  Chamber 


:86 


Williams 

and  present  them  to  my  dear  father"  (Narragan- 
sctt  Club  Publications,  VI,  239).  Coke  placed 
him  in  the  Charterhouse  school  in  162 1  and  ob- 
tained for  him  a  scholarship.  Subsequently  he 
was  entered  as  a  pensioner  at  Pembroke  College, 
Cambridge,  matriculating  on  July  7,  1624.  He 
distinguished  himself  by  winning  one  of  the  un- 
dergraduate honors  and  received  the  degree  of 
B.A.  in  January  1627.  The  next  two  years  he 
continued  at  Cambridge,  preparing  himself  for 
the  Church;  he  appears  to  have  taken  holy  or- 
ders before  February  1629.  Becoming  chaplain 
to  Sir  William  Masham  at  Otes,  in  Essex,  he 
enlarged  his  acquaintance  with  Puritan  families 
who  later  played  a  dominant  part  in  the  Civil 
War. 

Near  Otes  lived  Mrs.  Masham's  mother,  Lady 
Barrington,  and  her  niece  Jane  Whalley,  sister 
of  the  regicide.  In  a  short  space  of  time  Jane 
and  the  young  clergyman  fell  in  love,  and  Wil- 
liams wrote  to  Lady  Barrington  asking  the  hand 
of  her  niece.  Lady  Barrington  had  higher  as- 
pirations, and  her  rejection  called  forth  a  second 
letter  from  Williams  in  which  the  ardent  young 
chaplain  indignantly  accepted  her  verdict,  but 
declared  in  his  capacity  as  clergyman  that  it  was 
doubtful  if  Lidy  Barrington  were  intended  for 
heaven.  Williams  took  his  disappointment  hard, 
fell  desperately  ill,  but  recovered  and  found  con- 
solation. Mary  Barnard,  who  waited  upon  Mrs. 
Masham's  daughter  at  Otes,  became  his  wife  on 
Dec.  15,  1629. 

Meanwhile,  Williams  had  already  had  a  call 
from  New  England,  and  during  the  summer  of 
1629  had  gone  with  John  Cotton  and  Thomas 
Hooker  [qq.vJ]  to  a  conference  of  the  founders 
of  the  Massachusetts  colony  at  Sempringham. 
Prospects  in  the  land  of  Charles  and  Laud  had 
now  become  gloomy  for  men  of  Puritan  belief, 
and  on  Dec.  I,  1630,  Roger  and  Mary  Williams 
took  ship  on  the  Lyon. 

Williams  was  welcomed  in  Massachusetts  as 
"a  godly  minister"  (Wiwthrop's  Journal,  I,  57), 
but  he  immediately  discovered  he  was  once  more 
in  a  land  where  the  non-conforming  were  unfree. 
He  received  a  call  from  Boston  Church  but  re- 
jected it,  because  he  "durst  not  officiate  to  an 
unseparated  people"  (Narragansctt  Club  Publi- 
cations, VI,  356).  His  frank  criticism  of  the 
Puritan  system  at  once  incurred  hostility.  Going 
even  beyond  the  principles  of  the  Separatists,  he 
declared  that  civil  governments  had  no  power  to 
enforce  the  religious  injunctions  of  the  Ten 
Commandments.  When  he  accepted  a  call  as 
teacher  of  Salem  Church,  the  civil  authorities 
interfered,  and  Williams  found  Plymouth  more 
hospitable.  Two  years  later  he  returned  to  Salem 


Williams 

and  joined  the  Rev.  Samuel  Skelton,  to  whom  he 
was  now  assistant,  in  attacking  meetings  of  the 
clergy  as  a  menace  to  the  liberties  of  church  con- 
gregations. Although  Williams  was  now  per- 
sona non  grata  with  the  authorities,  Salem  ac- 
cepted his  leadership  and  after  Skelton's  death 
in  August  1634  took  him  as  minister  in  defiance 
of  the  General  Court.  An  added  reason  for  the 
hostility  of  the  authorities  was  his  scruple  of 
conscience  in  regard  to  imperialistic  expropria- 
tion of  American  soil.  Williams  attacked  Eng- 
glish  claims  under  the  royal  charter  as  a  viola- 
tion of  the  rights  of  the  Indians.  The  magis- 
trates, smarting  under  the  charge  of  imperialism, 
resented  also  the  appearance  of  any  new  affront 
to  the  Crown  at  a  time  when  the  rulers  of  Mas- 
sachusetts were  already  under  fire.  Williams 
further  infuriated  the  Massachusetts  oligarchy 
by  attacking  the  oath  by  which  they  were  en- 
deavoring to  bind  the  lower  orders  to  strict  sub- 
mission. 

The  movement  of  Salem  under  Williams  in 
the  direction  of  a  more  democratic  church  sys- 
tem eventually  roused  the  fears  of  the  governing 
class  for  their  own  supremacy.  Following  a  se- 
ries of  summonses  before  ministers  and  magis- 
trates, the  General  Court  on  Oct.  9,  1635,  found 
him  guilty  of  disseminating  "newe  &  dangerous 
opinions,  against  the  aucthoritie  of  magistrates" 
and  ordered  him  banished.  (Records  of  the  Gov- 
ernor and  Company  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay, 
vol.  I,  1853,  p.  160).  Prior  to  his  departure  Wil- 
liams attempted  to  organize  his  Salem  followers 
to  colonize  in  Narragansett.  The  magistrates, 
fearing  the  example  of  a  radical  community  on 
their  southern  border,  sent  to  apprehend  him. 
Williams  was  warned,  however,  escaped  in  mid- 
winter, made  his  way  to  the  friendly  Indians  at 
Sowams,  and  after  suffering  privations  gathered 
enough  followers  to  found  the  earliest  Rhode 
Island  settlement,  Providence,  in  1636. 

During  the  Pequot  War  and  subsequent  times 
of  trouble,  Williams  exhibited  his  characteristic 
magnanimity  and  conducted  important  negotia- 
tions with  the  Indians,  rendering  signal  assist- 
ance to  the  colony  which  had  expelled  him. 
Throughout  later  years  he  remained  a  consistent 
friend  of  the  Indians,  protesting  to  the  Puritan 
colonies  against  unfair  measures  and  seeking 
humane  treatment  and  peaceful  relations.  Curi- 
ously, although  he  enjoyed  the  full  confidence  of 
the  Narragansetts  and  preached  to  them,  he  gave 
over  the  attempt  at  religious  conversion.  He  had 
himself  become  skeptical  of  divine  claims  of  ex- 
isting churches,  and  after  a  few  months  as  a 
Baptist,  in  1639  he  became  a  Seeker,  one  who 


:S7 


Williams 


Williams 


accepted  no  creed  although  clinging  to  the  fun- 
damental helief  of  Christianity. 

Frontier  influences  and  Williams'  liberalism 
produced  local  institutions  which  marked  a  radi- 
cal advance  over  those  of  the  Puritan  colonies. 
The  town  government  became  a  primitive  de- 
mocracy. All  heads  of  families  had  an  equal 
voice.  Almost  the  earliest  action  of  the  town  was 
to  provide  for  religious  liberty  and  complete  sep- 
aration of  church  and  state.  Williams  also  en- 
deavored at  once  to  provide  liberal  opportunity 
for  settlers  to  obtain  land.  He  organized  a  demo- 
cratic land  association  in  which  the  heads  of  fam- 
ilies were  to  share  alike.  Other  settlers  were  to 
be  admitted  as  they  came.  The  land  association 
became  more  exclusive  in  after  years,  but  Wil- 
liams succeeded  in  keeping  it  considerably  more 
democratic  than  was  usual  in  New  England. 

By  1643  four  settlements  had  sprung  up  in  the 
Narragansett  area.  Internal  difficulties  with  in- 
dividualistic settlers  and  the  external  menace  of 
encroachments  of  ambitious  colonies  round  about 
had  made  evident  the  necessity  of  a  charter.  The 
Puritan  colonies  were  organizing  the  New  Eng- 
land Confederation  and  were  determined  to  snuff 
out  the  independent  existence  of  settlements  so 
likely  to  infect  their  own  lower  orders  with  no- 
tions of  religious  and  political  freedom.  Massa- 
chusetts detached  some  of  the  Pawtuxet  men 
from  allegiance  to  Providence,  invaded  Rhode 
Island  and  carried  off  Samuel  Gorton  \_q.v.~\ 
and  the  Warwick  settlers  to  prison,  and  at  the 
same  time  negotiated  at  London  for  a  Narra- 
gansett patent.  Meanwhile,  to  head  off  the  men- 
ace to  Rhode  Island  liberties,  Williams  had  al- 
ready taken  ship  for  England  and  there,  with 
the  powerful  aid  of  Sir  Henry  Vane  [<?.?'.],  man- 
aged to  circumvent  the  Bay  authorities  and  se- 
cure a  patent  for  the  whole  area.  The  charter 
for  the  Providence  Plantations  in  the  Narra- 
gansett Bay  was  issued  Mar.  14,  1644. 

While  in  England  Williams  threw  himself 
into  the  liberal  cause  as  a  pamphleteer,  opposing 
the  Puritan  attempt  to  establish  a  national  church 
and  compulsory  uniformity.  In  his  most  cele- 
brated work,  The  Bloudy  Tenant  of  Persecution 
(1644),  he  expanded  his  grounds  for  believing 
that  "God  requireth  not  an  uniformity  of  Reli- 
gion," and  held  that  all  individuals  and  religious 
bodies — pagans,  Jews,  and  Catholics  as  well  as 
Protestants — were  entitled  to  religious  liberty 
as  a  natural  right.  He  also  attacked  the  undemo- 
cratic character  of  contemporary  governments 
and  declared  that  "the  Soveraigne,  originall,  and 
foundation  of  cizrill  power  lies  in  the  people  . .  ." ; 
and  that  neither  "Kings  or  Parliaments,  States, 
and  Governours"  could   in  justice  wield  more 


power  "then  what  the  People  give" ;  "and  if  so, 
that  a  People  may  erect  and  establish  what  forme 
of  Government  seemes  to  them  most  meete  .  .  ." 
(Narragansett  Club  Publications,  III,  249-50, 
355).  English-born  and  Cambridge-bred,  but 
imbued  with  the  tolerance  and  democracy  of  the 
American  frontier,  Williams  had  gone  beyond 
the  liberalism  even  of  his  friends  and  compeers, 
Cromwell  and  Milton. 

Upon  Williams'  return,  William  Coddington 
[q.z'.],  dominating  figure  of  Newport,  who  was 
friendly  neither  to  democracy  nor  union,  delayed 
organization  of  the  Rhode  Island  settlements  till 
1647,  and  four  years  later  obtained  a  commis- 
sion from  England  splitting  the  colony  and  mak- 
ing him  governor  of  Aquidneck  for  life.  Wil- 
liams then  undertook  a  second  voyage  overseas, 
this  time  accompanied  by  John  Clarke  [g.w.].  In 
1652  they  succeeded  in  getting  Coddington's 
commission  rescinded,  and  in  1663  Clarke  se- 
cured a  new  charter  from  Charles  II.  While  in 
England  Williams  carried  on  anew  his  pam- 
phleteering for  democratic  principles  and  reli- 
gious liberty,  publishing  among  other  works  The 
Bloody  Tenent  Yet  More  Bloody  (1652)  in 
reply  to  John  Cotton's  The  Bloudy  Tenent 
Washed  and  Made  White  (1647).  On  his  return 
he  made  a  celebrated  plea  for  orderly  democratic 
government  (Narragansett  Club  Publications, 
VI,  278-79),  reunited  the  colony,  became  presi- 
dent and  served  three  terms.  During  his  presi- 
dency the  Jews  first  came  to  Rhode  Island.  Two 
years  later  the  Quakers,  then  hated  and  hunted 
throughout  New  England,  found  the  same  safe 
harbor.  Massachusetts  sent  a  protest  and  a 
threat.  The  reply,  which  Williams  appears  to 
have  helped  frame,  was  to  lecture  the  Bay  on 
intolerance  and  make  a  strong  statement  of  the 
Rhode  Island  Way. 

The  last  years  of  Williams'  life  were  darkened 
by  controversy  and  Indian  war.  Although  he  had 
welcomed  the  Quakers  as  a  matter  of  principle, 
he  disagreed  with  their  views.  When  George 
Fox  visited  Newport,  Williams  sent  a  challenge 
to  a  debate.  Fox  departed  too  soon,  but  his  disci- 
ples responded,  and  in  a  three-day  debate  (1672) 
Williams  and  his  opponents  blackened  each  other 
with  unwonted  freedom  and  added  nothing  to 
the  reputations  of  either  side  (Williams,  George 
Fox  Digg'd  out  of  His  Burrowcs,  \6j6;  Fox,  A 
New  England  Fire-Brand  Quenched,  1678). 

In  1659  Williams  had  become  involved  in  a 
bitter  controversy  with  William  Harris  over 
Providence  boundaries.  Had  Harris  succeeded 
the  town  lands  would  have  been  extended  twenty 
miles  inland  and  the  Narragansetts  defrauded  of 
many  thousands  of  acres.  Williams  never  proved 


:88 


Williams 

himself  a  more  genuine  friend  of  the  Indians 
than  in  rallying  the  townsmen  to  disallow  the 
spurious  deeds  obtained  by  Harris.  In  spite  of 
these  and  many  other  efforts  in  behalf  of  the  na- 
tives, the  peace  for  which  Williams  had  labored 
so  long  was  beyond  his  power  to  maintain.  In 
King  Philip's  War  the  Narragansetts  cast  their 
lot  with  their  brethren,  and  their  old-time 
friends  in  the  Rhode  Island  settlements  cast 
theirs  with  their  fellow  countrymen.  Williams, 
now  a  septuagenarian,  took  part  as  one  of  the 
two  captains  in  command  of  the  Providence 
forces  and  had  the  bitterness  in  his  last  years  of 
seeing  Providence  and  Warwick  laid  in  ashes 
and  the  once  great  Narragansett  tribe  cut  to  rib- 
bons and  enslaved.  He  lived  on  a  half-dozen 
years  and  remained  active  in  town  affairs  to  the 
last,  dying  sometime  between  Jan.  16  and  Mar. 
15,  1682/83. 

Regarded  as  rash  and  hasty  in  judgment  by 
men  of  rigid  and  authoritarian  temper,  Williams 
was  recognized  even  by  these  as  having  the  "root 
of  the  matter"  in  him.  His  influence  on  later 
thinkers  was  inconspicuous,  for  his  writings  ap- 
pealed to  the  religiously  minded  men  of  the  sev- 
enteenth century  rather  than  to  the  more  secu- 
lar age  which  followed.  But  he  was  a  provoca- 
tive and  significant  figure  in  his  own  generation, 
and  he  left  his  mark  upon  the  colony  which  he 
founded.  Colonial  thinker,  religious  liberal,  and 
earliest  of  the  fathers  of  American  democracy, 
he  owes  his  enduring  fame  to  his  humanity  and 
breadth  of  view,  his  untiring  devotion  to  the  cause 
of  democracy  and  free  opportunity,  and  his  long 
record  of  opposition  to  the  privileged  and  self- 
seeking. 

[Narragansett  Club  Pubs.  (6  vols.,  1866-74)  reprint 
most  of  the  letters  and  writings  of  Williams.  Additional 
letters  appear  in  Letters  and  Papers  of  Roger  Williams, 
1629-1682  (1924),  facsimile  repr.,  Mass.  Hist.  Soc. 
Among  other  fugitive  writings  are  Christenings  make 
not  Christians  (1645)  ;  The  Fourth  Paper,  Presented 
by  Maj.  Butler  (1652)  ;  The  Hireling  Ministry  None 
of  Christs  (1652).  J.  D.  Knowles,  Memoir  of  Roger 
Williams  (1834),  is  still  useful.  The  only  detailed  biog- 
raphy, James  Ernst's  Roger  Williams  (1932),  contains 
few  references  to  sources  and  no  bibliography.  For 
English  background,  see  passim,  New  Eng.  Hist,  and 
Gencal.  Reg.  Materials  on  Williams'  banishment  ap- 
pear in  H.  M.  Dexter,  As  to  Roger  Williams  (1876)  ; 
and  Proc.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.,  1  ser.  XII  (1873),  337-58. 
The  order  of  banishment  was  rescinded  by  the  Massa- 
chusetts legislature  in  January  1936  in  compliment  to 
the  R.  I.  tercentenary  celebration  (N.  Y.  Times,  Jan.  22, 
26,  1936).  For  his  career  in  Rhode  Island  see  esp. 
H.  M.  Chapin,  Documentary  Hist,  of  R.  I.  (2  vols., 
1916-19)  ;  I.  B.  Richman,  R.  I.:  Its  Making  and  Its 
Meaning  (2nd  ed.,  1908)  ;  The  Early  Records  of  the 
Town  of  Providence  (21  vols.,  1892-1915)  ;  and  R.  I. 

Hist.  Soc.  Colls.   (1827 ).    For  Williams'  influence 

upon  England  cf.  William  Haller,  Tracts  on  Liberty  in 
the  Puritan  Revolution  (1934),  vol.  I,  with  David  Mas- 
son,  The  Life  of  John  Milton,  vol.  Ill  ( 1873)  and  James 
Ernst's  article  in  R.  I.  Hist.  Soc.  Colls.,  vol.  XXIV 
(1931).    Excellent   appraisals  of   Williams   appear   in 


Williams 

M.  C.  Tyler,  A  Hist,  of  Am.  Lit.  during  the  Colonial 
Time,  vol.  I  (1897),  and  V.  L.  Parrington,  The  Colonial 
Mind  (1927).  See  also  H.  M.  Chapin,  List  of  Roger 
Williams'  Writings  (1918)  ;  James  Ernst,  The  Political 
Thought  of  Roger  Williams  (1929)  ;  Winthrop's  Jour. 
(1908),  ed.  by  J.  K.  Hosmer  ;  and  Cotton  Mather,  Mag- 
nolia Christi  Americana  (1853  ed.),  II,  495-99.] 

S.H.B. 
WILLIAMS,  SAMUEL  MAY  (Oct.  4,  1795- 
Sept.  13,  1858),  Texas  pioneer  and  banker,  was 
born  in  Providence,  R.  I.,  the  son  of  Howell  and 
Dorothea  (Wheat)  Williams,  and  a  descendant 
of  Robert  Williams  who  was  admitted  freeman 
of  Roxbury,  Mass.,  in  1638.  At  the  age  of  thir- 
teen, Samuel  went  to  Baltimore,  Md.,  and  became 
a  clerk  in  the  store  of  his  uncle,  Nathaniel  F. 
Williams.  When  he  was  twenty  he  was  a  book- 
keeper in  New  Orleans,  where  He  also  served 
briefly  as  secretary  to  Gen.  Andrew  Jackson 
[g.z'.].  The  wonderful  stories  of  Texas  told  him 
by  Stephen  F.  Austin  [q.r.]  lured  him  westward, 
and  at  the  age  of  twenty-six  he  wandered  to  the 
new  settlement  of  San  Felipe  de  Austin,  where 
in  September  1824,  he  became  private  secretary 
to  Austin,  and  also  a  partner  in  his  great  coloni- 
zation project. 

In  this  capacity  he  had  charge  of  al!  drawings, 
maps,  charts,  and  clerical  work  in  the  newly  es- 
tablished colony.  Largely  as  a  result  of  his 
painstaking  diligence  and  excellent  handwriting 
the  records  of  the  colony  were  preserved  for  fu- 
ture generations.  The  numerous  original  letters 
now  in  the  Rosenberg  Library  at  Galveston  bear 
testimony  to  his  excellent  qualifications  as  an 
executive  secretary  and  business  man.  His  abil- 
ity to  speak  French  and  Spanish  fluently  was  a 
valuable  aid  to  him  in  his  work-  On  one  of  his 
journeys  to  Mexico  in  the  interest  of  the  colony 
he  was  imprisoned  for  eleven  months.  He  final- 
ly made  his  escape  on  horseback,  found  his  way 
to  San  Antonio,  and  then  rejoined  the  colony. 
The  extensive  land  speculations  in  which  he  en- 
gaged after  1834  made  him  extremely  unpopular 
in  Texas.  During  the  troubled  days  preceding 
the  revolution  of  1836,  the  Mexican  authorities 
proscribed  him,  put  a  price  on  his  head,  and  made 
several  unsuccessful  attempts  to  capture  him. 

Just  before  the  revolution,  Williams  resigned 
his  connections  with  the  Austin  colony,  and  or- 
ganized a  mercantile  partnership  with  Thomas 
F.  McKinney  at  Quintana,  Tex.,  a  village  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Brazos  River.  In  1837  the  firm 
opened  a  similar  business  at  the  village  of  Gal- 
veston, and  engaged  in  a  number  of  promotion 
enterprises.  Soon  afterwards  Williams  estab- 
lished his  home  there.  He  had  married,  Mar.  18, 
1828,  Sarah,  daughter  of  William  and  Mary 
Scott,  who  had  come  to  the  Austin  colony  from 
Kentucky  in  1824;  to  this  union  eight  children 


:89 


Williams 


Williams 


were  born.  Gradually  the  firm  of  McKinney  & 
Williams  took  on  banking  functions  to  supple- 
ment its  general  mercantile  business.  It  planned 
to  open  The  Commercial  &  Agricultural  Bank 
at  Galveston,  for  which  Williams  had  secured 
a  charter  from  the  combined  Mexican  state  of 
Coahuila  and  Texas  on  Apr.  30,  1835,  but  was 
unable  to  raise  the  necessary  $100,000  minimum 
capital.  The  firm  served,  however,  as  the  finan- 
cial backer  of  the  young  Republic  of  Texas.  Af- 
ter a  delay  of  twelve  years,  the  bank  was  finally 
opened  on  Dec.  30,  1847.  It  was  the  first  char- 
tered bank  in  Texas  and  carried  on  an  extensive 
business  throughout  the  state  for  over  ten  years. 
Hundreds  of  travelers  entering  Texas  by  way  of 
Galveston  formed  banking  connections  through 
it  with  the  North  and  the  East.  A  branch  bank 
was  opened  at  Brownsville  on  the  Mexican  bor- 
der, and  carried  on  a  large  international  as  well 
as  local  business.  The  people  of  Texas,  however, 
as  well  as  those  in  other  parts  of  the  United 
States  were  divided  on  the  question  of  banks. 
Numerous  lawsuits  were  filed  against  the  Com- 
mercial &  Agricultural  Bank  to  annul  its  char- 
ter. Finally,  with  the  death  of  Williams  at  his 
Galveston  home  on  Sept.  13,  1858,  and  the  ad- 
verse decision  of  the  supreme  court  of  Texas 
annulling  the  charter,  the  bank  was  closed. 

[A.  L.  Carlson,  A  Monetary  and  Banking  Hist,  of 
Tex.  (1930)  ;  decisions  of  the  supreme  court  of  Tex., 
particularly  18  Tex.,  811  (1857),  8  Tex.,  255  (1852), 
23  Tex.,  264  (1859);  Hist,  of  Tex.  (1895);  E.  C. 
Barker,  The  Life  of  Stephen  F.  Austin  (1925)  ;  L.  J. 
Wortham,  A  Hist,  of  Tex.  (1924);  S.  W.  Williams, 
The  Gencal.  and  Hist,  of  the  Family  of  Williams 
(1847)  ;  Samuel  May  Williams  manuscript  coll.,  1819— 
58,  in  Rosenberg  Lib.,  Galveston,  Tex.]  A.L.  C. 

WILLIAMS,  SAMUEL  WELLS  (Sept.  22, 
1812-Feb.  16,  1884),  missionary,  diplomat,  and 
sinologue,  was  born  in  Utica,  N.  Y.,  the  eldest  of 
the  fourteen  children  of  William  Williams,  1787- 
1850  [q.i>.~\,  a  printer  and  bookseller,  and  Sophia 
(Wells)  Williams.  His  parents  were  of  old  New 
England  stock.  Both  were  deeply  religious  and 
active  in  the  work  of  the  church.  Because  of  his 
mother's  ill  health,  he  spent  much  of  his  child- 
hood at  his  grandmother  Wells's  home  at  New 
Hartford,  N.  Y.  As  a  boy  he  was  studious  and 
somewhat  reserved ;  he  early  developed  the  in- 
terest in  botany  which  he  retained  through  life. 
He  attended  several  schools,  including  one  in 
Paris,  Hill,  N.  Y.,  and  the  Utica  High  School. 
In  1831-32  he  was  a  student  at  Rensselaer  Poly- 
technic Institute  in  Troy.  His  father,  asked  to 
nominate  a  printer  for  the  Canton  press  of  the 
American  Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign 
Missions,  suggested  him,  and  he  accepted.  He 
spent  several  months  in   1832-33  studying  the 


printing  trade  under  his  father's  direction,  and 
in  June  1833  sailed  for  China. 

Protestant  missions  among  the  Chinese  were 
then  twenty-six  years  old  and  were  carried  on 
by  a  small  group  who  in  China  itself  could  main- 
tain a  precarious  foothold  only  at  Macao  and 
Canton.  Williams  spent  his  first  months  in  Can- 
ton, studying  Chinese  and  Portuguese,  managing 
the  printing  press,  and  contributing  to  the  Chi- 
nese Repository,  which  had  been  recently  initi- 
ated by  Elijah  Coleman  Bridgman  [g.r.].  In 
1835  he  and  the  press  moved  to  Macao.  Within 
the  next  decade,  in  addition  to  his  direction  of 
the  press  and  his  assistance  with  the  Chinese  Re- 
pository, he  aided  Bridgman  in  preparing  A  Chi- 
nese Chrestomat-hy  in  the  Canton  Dialect  ( 1841 ) 
and  compiled  Easy  Lessons  in  Chinese  (1842), 
An  English  and  Chinese  Vocabulary  in  the  Court 
Dialect  (1844),  and  a  Chinese  Topography 
(1844),  and  edited  A  Chinese  Commercial  Guide 
(2nd  ed.,  1844).  From  1845  to  1848  he  was  in 
the  United  States.  There  (Nov.  25,  1847)  he 
married  Sarah  Walworth,  by  whom  he  had  three 
sons  and  two  daughters.  Out  of  lectures  which 
he  gave  during  this  sojourn  in  the  United  States 
grew  the  first  edition  of  his  The  Middle  Kingdom 
(2  vols.,  1848),  which  for  more  than  a  genera- 
tion was  the  standard  book  in  English  on  China. 
In  1837  he  had  been  a  member  of  the  Morrison 
party  which  attempted,  unsuccessfully,  to  repa- 
triate some  shipwrecked  Japanese.  From  one  of 
these  he  learned  enough  Japanese  to  prepare  in 
it  a  translation  of  the  Gospel  of  Matthew.  Be- 
cause of  this  acquaintance  with  the  language  he 
was  asked  to  accompany  the  Perry  expedition  as 
an  interpreter,  and  in  that  capacity  visited  Japan 
in  1853  and  in  1854.  In  1856  he  accepted  an  in- 
vitation to  become  secretary  and  interpreter  of 
the  American  legation  to  China.  At  about  the 
same  time  he  completed  his  A  Tonic  Dictionary 
of  the  Chinese  Language  in  the  Canton  Dialect 
(1856).  His  connection  with  the  legation  lasted 
until  1876.  He  helped  negotiate  the  American 
treaty  of  Tientsin  (1858),  being  responsible  for 
the  insertion  in  that  document  of  the  clause 
granting  toleration  to  Christianity;  he  accom- 
panied the  party  which  went  to  Peking  (1859) 
for  the  purpose  of  exchanging  the  ratifications 
of  the  treaty  ;  he  took  up  his  residence  in  Peking 
(1863),  being  several  times  in  charge  of  the 
legation  in  the  intervals  between  ministers ;  he 
assisted  Sweden  (1870)  in  obtaining  a  treaty 
with  China;  and  he  compiled  his  much-used  A 
Syllabic  Dictionary  of  the  Chinese  Language 

(1874). 

On  his  retirement  to  America  he  took  up  his 
residence    in    New    Haven,    Conn.,    becoming 


290 


Williams 

(1877)  professor  of  the  Chinese  language  and 
literature  at  Yale.  The  position  was  largely  hon- 
orary, as  the  salary  was  small  and  he  had  no 
students.  In  spite  of  failing  strength,  however, 
he  used  the  time  to  revise  and  enlarge  his  Middle 
Kingdom  (2  vols.,  1883),  a  task  in  which  he  was 
assisted  by  his  son  Frederick  Wells  [q.v.~\.  He 
actively  opposed  the  restriction  on  Chinese  im- 
migration, and  served  as  president  of  the  Ameri- 
can Bible  Society  and  the  American  Oriental 
Society.  Earnestly  religious,  he  maintained  his 
active  interest  in  missions  to  the  very  last.  Al- 
though he  was  a  specialist  on  China  and  the  out- 
standing American  sinologist,  his  inquiring  mind 
led  him  to  range  widely  over  the  field  of  human 
knowledge,  and  he  had  a  vast  store  of  informa- 
tion on  a  great  variety  of  subjects.  Well-built, 
active,  and  wiry,  but  never  especially  robust,  by 
temperate  and  regular  habits  and  unremitting 
diligence  he  accomplished  an  enormous  amount 
of  work. 

[G.  H.  Williams,  "The  Geneal.  of  Thomas  Williams," 
in  New  Eng.  Hist,  and  Geneal.  Reg.,  Jan.  1880  ;  F.  W. 
Williams,  The  Life  and  Letters  of  Samuel  Wells  Wil- 
liams (1889)  ;  Biog.  Record  .  .  .  Rensselaer  Polytechnic 
Inst.  (1887)  ;  ann.  reports,  Am.  Board  of  Commission- 
ers for  Foreign  Missions ;  H.  Blodget,  in  Chinese 
Recorder,  May-June  1884;  Noah  Porter,  in  Missionary 
Herald,  Apr.  1884;  obituary  in  N.  Y.  Tribune,  Feb.  18, 
1884.]  K.S.L. 

WILLIAMS,  STEPHEN  WEST  (Mar.  27, 
1790— July  6,  1855),  medical  historian,  was  born 
in  Deerfield,  Mass.,  the  son  of  William  Stoddard 
and  Mary  (Hoyt)  Williams,  and  a  descendant 
of  Robert  Williams  who  was  admitted  freeman 
in  Roxbury,  Mass.,  in  1638.  Both  his  father  and 
grandfather  were  physicians.  The  Rev.  John 
Williams,  1664-1729  [q.v.~\,  was  a  distant  kins- 
man. After  preliminary  education  at  Deerfield 
Academy,  Williams  was  apprenticed  to  his  fa- 
ther, a  man  of  scholarly  taste  who  maintained  an 
extensive  library.  Under  such  excellent  con- 
ditions he  learned  the  art  of  medicine,  supple- 
menting his  studies  at  home  by  a  winter  in  New 
York,  attending  the  medical  lectures  at  Columbia 
College.  Returning  to  Deerfield,  he  carried  on 
investigations  in  botany,  chemistry,  and  local 
history  while  waiting  for  his  practice  to  develop. 
With  Edward  Hitchcock  [q.v.],  the  geologist,  he 
explored  the  hills  of  western  Massachusetts,  col- 
lecting an  herbarium  of  the  indigenous  medical 
plants.  He  published  his  researches  in  1819, 
Floral  Calendar  Kept  at  Deerfield,  Mass.,  accom- 
panied by  colored  plates  painted  by  his  wife. 
Williams  was  soon  sought  out  as  a  teacher,  first 
by  Josiah  Goodhue,  as  lecturer  on  medical  juris- 
prudence in  the  Berkshire  Medical  Institution 
(1823-31),  and  later  by  his  friend,  Westel  Wil- 
loughby,  in  the  newly  founded  Willoughby  Uni- 


Williams 

versity  in  Ohio  (1838-53).  He  also  lectured  at 
the  Dartmouth  Medical  School  in  New  Hamp- 
shire (1838-41).  For  teaching  he  added  notes 
to  James  Bedingfield's  A  Compendium  of  Medi- 
cal Practice  (1823)  and  published  his  own  lec- 
tures on  jurisprudence,  A  Catechism  of  Medical 
Jurisprudence,  in  1835.  He  received  the  honor- 
ary degrees  of  M.D.  from  Berkshire  in  1824, 
and  A.M.  (1829)  and  M.D.  (1842)  from  Wil- 
liams College.  During  this  period  he  wrote  many 
papers  for  the  New  York  Historical  Society,  the 
Massachusetts  Medical  Society,  and  similar  as- 
sociations. 

A  number  of  his  writings  were  medical  biog- 
raphies; these,  with  others,  were  put  together 
in  one  volume,  American  Medical  Biography 
(1845).  Not  always  accurate,  the  book  neverthe- 
less was  a  worthy  successor  to,  and  served  to 
supplement,  a  previous  publication  (1828)  with 
the  same  title,  by  James  Thacher  [q.v.~\.  These 
two  books  form  the  basis  for  all  American  medi- 
cal biography  up  to  Williams'  time.  At  the  an- 
nual meeting  of  the  Massachusetts  Medical  So- 
ciety in  1842,  Williams  gave  a  paper,  "A  Medical 
History  of  the  County  of  Franklin  .  .  .,  Mass." 
(Medical  Communications  of  the  Massachusetts 
Medical  Society,  vol.  VII,  1848),  an  excellent 
local  history  on  diseases,  climate,  and  physicians. 
In  addition,  he  re-issued  John  Williams'  The  Re- 
deemed Captive  (1853),  with  an  accompanying 
biography  of  the  author,  and  wrote  an  authorita- 
tive Genealogy  and  History  of  the  Family  of 
Williams  (1847). 

A  man  of  wide  interests,  both  literary  and  sci- 
entific, he  was  the  most  conspicuous  medical  his- 
torian and  biographer  of  his  day.  He  married, 
Oct.  20,  18 18,  Harriet  T.  Goodhue,  daughter  of 
Dr.  Joseph  Goodhue,  an  army  surgeon.  Of  four 
children,  one  son  became  a  physician.  Towards 
the  close  of  his  life  Williams  left  Deerfield,  the 
center  of  all  his  activities  for  years,  and  went  to 
live  with  his  son  in  Laona,  111.,  where  he  died  at 
the  age  of  sixty- five. 

[Presumably  the  most  authentic  notice  of  Williams 
is  that  by  his  daughter,  Helen  M.  Huntington,  in  Me- 
morial Biogs.  New  Eng.  Hist,  and  Geneal.  Soc.,  vol.  II 
(1881),  which  contains  an  "autobiog.,"  marred  by  many 
errors.  See  also  James  Deane,  in  Boston  Medic,  and 
Surgic.  Jour.,  Aug.  9,  1855  ;  Trans.  Amer.  Medic.  As- 
so.,  vol.  XXIX  (1878)  ;  and  Boston  Evening  Transcript, 
July  24,  1855.]  H.R.V. 

WILLIAMS,  TALCOTT  (July  20,  1849- Jan. 
24,  1928),  journalist,  was  born  in  Abeih,  Turkey, 
the  son  of  William  Frederic  and  Sarah  Amelia 
(Pond)  Williams.  His  father,  a  Congregational 
missionary  and  a  brother  of  Samuel  Wells  Wil- 
liams Iq.r.],  was  instrumental  in  founding  Rob- 
ert College  in  Constantinople  and  the  American 


29I 


Williams 


Williams 


College  at  Beirut.  The  son,  brought  up  in  a 
household  where  five  languages  were  spoken 
daily,  early  acquired  the  foundation  for  a  knowl- 
edge of  Eastern  languages  and  culture  which 
was  to  make  him  in  adult  life  an  authority  on  the 
Near  East.  He  was  sent  to  America  to  be  edu- 
cated, and  graduated  from  Amherst  College  in 
1873.  That  same  year  he  joined  the  staff  of  the 
New  York  World  and  became  successively  Al- 
bany correspondent,  assistant  night  editor,  and 
night  editor.  In  1877  he  went  to  Washington, 
where,  as  correspondent  first  for  the  World  and 
later  for  the  San  Francisco  Chronicle  and  the 
New  York  Sun,  he  emerged  as  one  of  the  out- 
standing political  reporters  of  his  day.  So  thor- 
ough was  his  grasp  of  public  affairs  that  in  1879 
the  Springfield  Republican,  a  newspaper  of  out- 
standing national  importance,  invited  him  to 
become  one  of  its  editorial  writers. 

Two  years  later  he  left  the  Republican  to  write 
editorials  for  the  Philadelphia  Press.  There  fol- 
lowed thirty-one  years  of  prodigious  activity, 
during  which  time  he  became  managing  editor 
and  subsequently  associate  editor  of  the  Press. 
His  editorials  were  brilliant,  and  in  art,  litera- 
ture, and  drama  his  penetrating  reviews  brought 
him  recognition  as  Philadelphia's  leading  critic. 
He  studied  finance,  and  for  a  number  of  years 
wrote  a  weekly  review  of  business  conditions. 
During  this  period  also  he  twice  collected  anthro- 
pological material  in  Morocco  for  the  Smithso- 
nian Institution  and  the  Archaeological  Museum 
of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania.  His  wide  in- 
terests led  him  to  clip  and  save  news  items  likely 
to  be  of  value  in  his  work.  In  1880  he  began  clip- 
ping newspapers  for  items  of  political  or  per- 
sonal interest.  As  the  scope  of  journalistic  inter- 
ests widened  he  was  soon  clipping  upon  every 
subject.  By  1900  hundreds  of  boxes  were  re- 
quired to  hold  the  accumulated  masses  of  infor- 
mation which  became  the  foundation  for  the 
"morgue"  of  the  Columbia  School  of  Journalism, 
containing  more  than  1,400,000  clippings. 

In  1912  he  left  the  Press  to  become  the  first 
director  of  the  Columbia  University  School  of 
Journalism,  which  Joseph  Pulitzer  [q.i1.]  had 
endowed.  He  brought  to  the  task  of  organiza- 
tion the  benefit  of  thirty-nine  years  of  active 
newspaper  life.  What  was  more  significant,  how- 
ever, he  brought  the  background  and  the  vision 
of  one  who  all  his  life  had  been  noted  for  a  deep 
scholarliness  rare  at  that  time  in  the  development 
of  journalism  as  a  profession.  In  planning  a 
curriculum  for  the  new  school  he  combined  cul- 
tural courses  with  practical  training  as  he  had 
combined  them  in  his  own  life.  The  text  for  his 
classes  in  international  affairs  was  the  morning's 


cable  copy,  which  his  own  experience  as  a  politi- 
cal reporter  enabled  him  to  interpret.  It  is  sig- 
nificant of  his  deep  understanding  that  in  1912 
and  1913,  he  was  lecturing  to  his  classes  about 
the  coming  of  the  World  War,  its  causes,  its  par- 
ticipants, and  its  probable  outcome.  He  proved 
himself  a  prophet  in  more  than  politics,  for  in 
bringing  to  the  school  Dr.  Edwin  E.  Slosson 
[q.v.~\  to  teach  a  general  course  in  science  he  fore- 
saw and  to  a  great  extent  originated  the  report- 
ing of  scientific  news,  which  until  that  time  had 
not  been  considered  of  popular  interest.  He  was 
professor  emeritus  from  1919  until  his  death. 
Talcott  Williams'  greatest  contribution  to  jour- 
nalism was  his  ideal  of  a  journalist  as  a  man  of 
learning,  as  a  man  who  not  only  wrote  well  and 
accurately,  but  who  understood  the  meaning  of 
what  he  wrote. 

He  married  Sophia  Wells  Royce  of  Albion,  N. 
Y.,  on  May  28,  1879.  In  addition  to  numerous 
reports,  articles,  and  sections  of  books,  he  wrote 
Turkey,  A  World  Problem  of  Today  (1921)  and 
The  Newspaper  Man  (1922).  He  was  a  trustee 
of  Amherst  College  (1909-19)  and  of  Constan- 
tinople College  for  Women.  He  also  served  on 
the  committee  on  Babylonian  research  of  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania.  He  was  associated 
with  numerous  learned  societies  and  charitable 
organizations. 

[See  Who's  Who  in  America,  1926-27  ;  R.  C.  E. 
Brown,  Dr.  Talcott  Williams,  pamphlet  containing  ad- 
dress delivered  at  Columbia  Univ.,  May  16,  1928  ;  "Per- 
sonalities," Hampton  Mag.,  May  1912  ;  Rev.  of  Revs., 
Apr.  1912,  Mar.  1928;  obituary  notices  in  N.  Y.  Times 
and  World,  Jan.  25,  1928.  A  biog.  of  Williams  is  being 
prepared  by  Elizabeth  Dunbar  of  New  York  City.] 

C.W.A. 

WILLIAMS,  THOMAS  SCOTT  (June  26, 
1777-Dec.  15,  1861),  jurist,  was  born  in  Wethers- 
field,  Conn.  He  was  a  nephew  of  William  Wil- 
liams, 1731-1811  [q.v.~\,  signer  of  the  Declaration 
of  Independence,  and  a  son  of  Ezekiel  Williams 
who  held  many  civil  and  military  offices  during 
the  period  of  the  American  Revolution  and  was 
for  years  sheriff  of  Hartford  County.  Thomas' 
mother,  Prudence  Stoddard,  was  a  daughter  of 
Col.  John  Stoddard  of  Northampton,  Mass.,  chief 
justice  of  the  court  of  common  pleas,  a  grand- 
daughter of  the  Rev.  Solomon  Stoddard  [q.v.~\, 
and  a  first  cousin  of  Jonathan  Edwards. 

Williams  was  privately  tutored  by  Azel  Backus 
\_q.v.],  and  graduated  from  Yale  College  in  1794. 
He  studied  law  at  the  Litchfield  Law  School 
under  Judge  Tapping  Reeve  [q.v.~\,  who  is  re- 
ported to  have  said  that  Williams  was  the  best 
scholar  ever  sent  from  Litchfield.  He  continued 
his  legal  training  in  the  office  of  Zephaniah  Swift 
[q.v.]  at  Windham,  Conn.,  was  admitted  to  the 


2Q2 


Williams 

bar  in  1/99,  and  commenced  the  practice  of  law 
at  Mansfield,  Conn.  In  1803  he  removed  to  Hart- 
ford, where  he  soon  became  prominent  in  his 
profession.  He  held  many  public  offices :  he  was 
a  representative  in  the  Connecticut  General  As- 
sembly in  the  sessions  of  1813,  1815,  1816,  dur- 
ing the  last  two  years  serving  as  clerk  of  the 
House ;  he  was  a  member  of  Congress  from  1817 
to  1819;  he  was  again  a  member  of  the  Con- 
necticut legislature  in  1819,  1825,  and  from  1827 
to  1829 ;  and  was  mayor  of  Hartford  from  183 1  to 
1835.  In  May  1829  he  was  appointed  an  asso- 
ciate justice  of  the  supreme  court  of  errors  of 
the  state  and  in  1834  chief  justice,  which  office 
he  held  until  May  1847  when,  about  to  reach  the 
age  of  retirement,  he  resigned. 

His  career  was  also  distinguished  because  of 
his  interest  in  public  and  charitable  affairs.  He 
served  from  1840  until  his  death  as  president  of 
the  American  Asylum  for  the  Deaf  and  Dumb ; 
for  a  few  years  he  was  vice-president  of  the  Con- 
necticut Retreat  for  the  Insane ;  for  a  long  time 
he  was  vice-president  of  the  American  Board  of 
Commissioners  for  Foreign  Missions;  and  from 
May  1848  until  his  death  he  was  president  of  the 
American  Tract  Society.  He  became  a  member 
of  the  First  Church  of  Hartford  in  1834  and 
served  as  deacon  from  1836  until  his  death,  and 
as  a  teacher  in  its  Sunday  School  from  1834  to 
1861.  He  gave  liberally  to  charity  and  to  Yale 
College  during  his  life  and  by  will  at  his  death. 
On  Jan.  7,  1812,  he  married  Delia,  youngest 
daughter  of  Oliver  Ellsworth  [q.v.~],  Chief  Jus- 
tice of  the  United  States.  She  died  in  1840,  and 
on  Nov.  1,  1842,  he  married  Martha  Manwaring 
Coit,  daughter  of  Elisha  and  Rebecca  S.  (Man- 
waring)  Coit,  who  died  in  1867.  There  were  no 
children  by  either  marriage. 

Williams'  judicial  opinions  appear  in  7-18 
Connecticut  Reports.  Outside  of  these  his  writ- 
ings were  few.  They  include  a  pamphlet,  en- 
titled Chief  Justice  Williams  on  the  Maine  Law, 
Its  Expediency  and  Constitutionality,  published 
in  Hartford  about  1851,  being  a  report  of  a  com- 
mittee of  which  he  was  chairman  on  the  subject 
of  a  law  for  the  suppression  of  intemperance ;  an 
address  entitled  The  Tract  Society  and  Slavery 
(1859),  defense  of  the  conduct  of  the  American 
Tract  Society  in  refusing  to  distribute  pamphlets 
opposed  to  slavery ;  and  an  address  as  president 
of  the  Tract  Society  at  its  anniversary  in  1852. 
Both  in  practice  and  on  the  bench  Williams  was 
distinguished  for  his  methodical  habits,  his  com- 
mon sense,  his  thorough  study  and  mastery  of 
his  subject,  and  the  eminent  uprightness  and 
purity  of  his  character.  A  discriminating  re- 
view of  his  career  by  John  Hooker  (29  Connccti- 


Williams 

cut  Reports,  611),  states  that,  while  other  jurists 
and  lawyers  may  have  been  more  distinguished 
for  their  store  of  legal  learning,  few  have  stood 
higher  in  professional  opinion  for  the  soundness 
and  impartiality  of  their  judgments. 

[I.  P.  Langworthy,  "Thomas  Scott  Williams,"  first 
pub.  in  the  Congregational  Quart.,  Jan.  1863,  and  that 
same  year  reprinted  as  a  pamphlet  ;  Memorial  of  Hon. 
Thomas  Scott  Williams  (n.d.)  ;  Yale  Univ.:  Obit.  Rec- 
ord, 1859-70;  J.  H.  Trumbull,  The  Memorial  Hist,  of 
Hartford  County,  Conn.  (1886);  F.  B.  Dexter,  Biog. 
Sketches  Grads.  Yale  Coll.,  vol.  V  (1914)  ;  John  Hook- 
er, in  29  Conn.,  611-14;  "Memoranda,"  in  18  Conn., 
254;  Biog.  Dir.  Am.  Cong.  (1928);  M.  D.  McLean, 
The  Ancestors  and  Descendants  of  Esekiel  Williams, 
1608  to  1907  (1907);  Charles  and  E.  W.  Stoddard, 
Anthony  Stoddard  .  .  .  and  His  Descendants  (1865)  ; 
Hartford  Courant,  Dec.  16,  186 1.]  C.  E.  C. 

WILLIAMS,  WILLIAM  (Apr.  8,  1731-Aug. 
2,  1811),  signer  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, was  born  in  Lebanon,  Conn.,  the  son 
of  Solomon  Williams,  pastor  of  the  First  Congre- 
gational Church,  and  his  wife,  Mary,  the  daugh- 
ter of  Samuel  Porter,  of  Hadley,  Mass.  He  was 
the  descendant  of  Robert  Williams  who  emi- 
grated to  Roxbury,  Mass.,  from  Norfolk  County, 
England,  in  1637.  After  being  graduated  at 
Harvard  College  in  1751,  William  began  the 
study  of  theology  under  his  father's  instruction. 
During  the  French  and  Indian  War,  in  1755, 
he  took  part  in  the  operations  at  Lake  George  as 
a  member  of  the  staff  of  Ephraim  Williams 
[q.v.],  his  father's  cousin.  At  the  conclusion  of 
the  campaign  he  returned  to  Lebanon  and  short- 
ly thereafter  set  up  in  business.  On  Feb.  14, 
1 77 1,  he  married  Mary,  the  daughter  of  Jona- 
than Trumbull,  1710-1785,  and  the  sister  of 
Jonathan  Trumbull,  1740-1809  [qq.v.~\.  They 
had  three  children. 

He  threw  himself  ardently  into  the  struggle 
for  American  independence,  employing  both  his 
pen  and  his  purse  without  stint  in  behalf  of  the 
cause  (see  his  "Letter  to  'A  Landholder,'  "  Es- 
says on  the  Constitution,  1892,  ed.  by  P.  L.  Ford). 
He  set  forth  the  claims  of  the  colonists  in  the 
press  and  helped  to  compose  many  of  the  Revo- 
lutionary state  papers  of  Governor  Trumbull. 
On  his  promissory  note,  in  1775,  money  was 
raised  to  defray  the  cost  of  sending  Connecticut 
troops  to  aid  in  the  capture  of  Ticonderoga.  In 
1779,  when  it  was  found  impossible  to  purchase 
much  needed  supplies  for  the  army  owing  to  the 
depreciation  of  the  Continental  currency,  he  of- 
fered a  quantity  of  specie  in  his  possession,  ac- 
cepting in  return  paper  money  that  was  rapidly 
becoming  worthless.  He  is  said  to  have  re- 
marked that  if  independence  were  established  he 
would  get  his  pay;  if  not,  the  loss  would  be  of 
no  account  to  him.  In  the  winter  of  1780-81, 
when  a  French  regiment  was  quartered  at  Leb- 


293 


Williams 

anon,  he  moved  out  of  his  house  in  order  to 
place  it  at  the  disposal  of  the  officers.  He  was 
criticized  for  resigning  his  commission  as  colo- 
nel of  the  12th  Regiment  at  the  outbreak  of  the 
war  in  order  to  accept  an  election  to  the  Con- 
tinental Congress,  but  his  personal  courage  is 
attested  by  the  fact  that  in  1781,  when  word  was 
brought  to  Lebanon  of  Benedict  Arnold's  raid 
upon  New  London,  he  at  once  mounted  his  horse 
and  rode  twenty-three  miles  in  three  hours  to 
offer  his  services  as  a  volunteer. 

He  occupied  many  public  offices,  often  for 
lengthy  periods.  He  was  for  twenty-five  years, 
1760-85,  a  selectman  of  Lebanon,  for  forty-four 
years,  1752-96,  town  clerk,  for  twenty-one  years, 
1757-76,  1781-84,  a  member  of  the  lower  house 
of  the  state  legislature,  and  for  nineteen  years, 
1784-1803,  a  member  of  the  governor's  council. 
He  was  repeatedly  elected  clerk  and  also  speak- 
er of  the  house  and  appeared  on  committees  to 
consider  the  Stamp  Act,  the  claim  of  Connecti- 
cut to  the  Susquehanna  lands,  the  case  of  the 
Mohegan  Indians,  and  the  adjustment  of  the 
boundary  between  Connecticut  and  Massachu- 
setts. He  was  appointed  to  represent  Connecti- 
cut at  various  conferences  of  delegates  from  the 
New  England  states,  held  to  consider  matters  of 
common  interest.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Con- 
tinental Congress,  1776-78,  1783-84,  signing  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  and  assisting  in 
framing  the  Articles  of  Confederation.  In  1777 
he  was  elected  to  a  seat  on  the  board  of  war.  He 
was  a  delegate  to  the  convention  that  met  at 
Hartford  in  1788  to  consider  the  adoption  by 
Connecticut  of  the  constitution  of  the  United 
States,  and  he  voted  in  favor  of  it,  although  ob- 
jecting to  the  clause  forbidding  religious  tests 
.(see  his  "Letter  to  'A  Landholder,'  "  Essays  on 
the  Constitution,  1892,  ed.  by  P.  L.  Ford).  For 
twenty-nine  years,  1776-1805,  he  was  judge  of 
the  Windham  County  Court  and  for  thirty-four 
years,  1 775-1809,  judge  of  probate  for  the  Wind- 
ham District.  He  died  and  was  buried  at  Leb- 
anon. 

[Zebulon  Ely,  A  Ripe  Stock  Seasonably  Gathered,  A 
Discourse  occasioned  by  the  Death  of  the  Honourable 
William  Williams  (1812)  ;  John  Sanderson,  Biog.  of  the 
Signers  to  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  vol.  IV 
(1823)  ;  J.  W.  Barber,  Conn.  Hist.  Colls.  (1836)  ;  G.  H. 
Hollister,  The  Hist,  of  Conn.  (2  vols.,  185s)  ;  E.  D. 
Larned,  Hist,  of  Windham  County ,  Conn.  (2  vols.,  1874)  ; 
O.  D.  Hine,  Early  Lebanon  (1880)  ;  C.  J.  Hoadly,  The 
Public  Records  of  the  Colony  of  Conn.,  vols.  XI-XV 
(1880-90)  and  The  Public  Records  of  the  State  of  Conn. 
(3  vols.,  1 894-1922)  ;  Roll  of  State  Officers  (1881)  ;  H. 
P.  Johnston,  The  Record  of  Conn.  Men  .  .  .  during  the 
Revolution  (1889);  The  Lebanon  War  Office  (1891), 
ed.  by  Jonathan  Trumbull  ;  Letters  of  Members  of  the 
Continental  Congress,  vols.  I-IV  (1921-28),  ed.  by  E. 
C.  Burnett ;  Harrison  Williams,  The  Lffe,  Ancestors, 
and    Descendants    of    Robert    Williams    of    Roxbury 


Williams 

(1934)  ;  dates  of  tenure  of  office  from  town  and  court 
records.]  E.  E.  C. 

WILLIAMS,  WILLIAM  (Oct.  12,  1787- 
June  10,  1850),  printer  and  publisher,  son  of 
Thomas  and  Susanna  (Dana)  Williams,  was 
born  at  Framingham,  Mass.  He  was  of  the  fifth 
generation  in  direct  descent  from  Robert  Wil- 
liams, Puritan,  who  emigrated  in  1637  from 
Norwich,  England,  to  Roxbury,  Mass.  Here  the 
family  lived  until  1782,  when  it  moved  to  Fram- 
ingham. In  1790  Thomas  Williams  and  his  fam- 
ily went  from  Framingham  to  New  Hartford, 
near  Utica,  N.  Y.  William  was  an  apprentice  in 
the  printing  shops  of  William  McLean  and 
Asahel  Seward  in  Utica  from  1800  to  July  1807, 
when  he  became  partner  in  the  printing  firm  of 
Seward  &  Williams.  A  man  of  enterprise,  he 
began  at  once  to  make  the  paper  used  by  his 
firm,  learned  wood-engraving — he  was  perhaps 
the  third  such  artisan  in  the  country — and  in 
1814  was  taken  into  the  Seward  book  store  as 
partner.  The  first  Utica  directory,  issued  in  1817, 
is  the  first  book  bearing  his  name  alone  as  print- 
er. In  1820  he  had  the  largest  book  store  west  of 
Albany.  In  every  year  from  1807  to  1838  there 
appeared  with  his  imprint  a  half-dozen  to  twenty 
titles,  chiefly  almanacs,  collections  of  music, 
and  devotional,  instructional,  and  anti-Masonic 
books.  Many  sold  largely  for  years.  At  different 
times  he  owned  or  printed,  and  sometimes  edited, 
various  Utica  newspapers,  notably  the  Patriot 
and  the  Patrol.  He  was  an  ardent  Federalist, 
and  in  the  period  from  182 1  to  1824  he  exerted 
every  effort  to  have  DeWitt  Clinton  [q.v.~\  elect- 
ed governor  of  New  York.  His  editorials  on 
canals,  railroads,  and  negro  slavery  were  influ- 
ential in  central  New  York.  In  1833,  with  too 
many  irons  in  the  fire,  and  through  indorsing 
notes  for  others,  he  was  in  financial  distress.  In 
1834  there  were  two  sheriff's  sales  of  his  effects, 
following  which  his  creditors  ran  the  business 
under  his  name,  retaining  him  as  manager,  until 
1836;  in  1840  all  his  Utica  affairs  were  finally 
closed  out  by  creditors.  From  1836  to  1846  he 
lived  at  Tonawanda,  N.  Y.  In  1841  a  fall  from 
the  top  of  a  coach  progressively  affected  his  mind 
beyond  recovery,  and  during  his  last  years  com- 
pletely separated  him  from  society.  He  died  in 
Utica.  He  was  married  on  Nov.  5,  181 1,  to 
Sophia  Wells,  who  died  on  Nov.  12,  1831,  hav- 
ing borne  him  fourteen  children.  On  Mar.  26, 
1833,  he  was  married  to  Catherine  Huntington 
of  Rome,  N.  Y.  He  was  survived  by  his  wife, 
one  of  her  sons,  and  seven  children  of  his  first 
marriage.  One  of  his  sons  was  Samuel  Wells 
Williams  \_q.v.~\,  whose  missionary  service  and 
notable  reputation  in  China  sweetened  his  fa- 


294 


Williams 


Williams 


ther's  later  years.  F.  Wells  Williams,  George 
Huntington  Williams,  and  Talcott  Williams 
[qq.v.~\  were  his  grandsons. 

Beginning  with  the  War  of  1812  Williams  also 
had  something  of  a  military  career.  On  Feb.  29, 
1812,  he  was  commissioned  adjutant  of  militia 
by  Gov.  Daniel  Tompkins,  and  became  succes- 
sively brigade  major  and  colonel  on  the  staff  of 
Gen.  Oliver  Collins  in  1813  during  the  Sacketts 
Harbor  incident.  He  was  active  in  raising  a 
Utica  company,  and  was  at  the  front  most  of  the 
time  from  February  1813  to  July  1814.  In  1816 
he  was  commissioned  brigade  inspector  of  the 
13th  New  York  Infantry,  but  retained  his  colo- 
nelcy until  1820  or  later.  In  1832,  with  entire 
disregard  of  comfort  and  safety,  he  devoted  him- 
self to  improving  sanitary  conditions  in  Utica 
during  the  cholera  epidemic,  and  ministering  to 
the  sick  and  the  dead,  himself  suffering  an  attack. 

As  a  citizen,  he  was  public-spirited  beyond  his 
means.  His  counsel,  his  best  efforts,  and  his 
purse  were  ever  at  the  service  of  any  enterprise 
calculated  to  benefit  Utica.  He  was  especially 
identified  with  religious  activities,  and  his  life 
was  an  attractive  illustration  of  his  creed.  He 
was  one  of  that  group  of  early  New  York  State 
small-town  printers  that  included  Joel  Munsell 
[q.v.~\  and  Webster  of  Albany,  the  Phinneys  of 
Cooperstown,  Dodd  at  Salem,  and  Stoddard  at 
Hudson.  While  still  a  village,  and  solely  through 
the  efforts  of  Williams,  Utica  was  for  thirty 
years  an  important  publishing  center,  with  a 
production  in  quality  and  amount  creditable  to  a 
great  city. 

[The  chief  source  is  J.  C.  Williams,  An  Oneida  Coun- 
ty Printer  (1906).  See  also  G.  H.  Williams,  "The 
Geneal.  of  Thomas  Williams  of  New  Hartford  .  .  .  N. 
Y.,"  New  Eng.  Hist,  and  Geneal.  Reg.,  Jan.  1880  ;  Har- 
rison Williams,  The  Life,  Ancestors  and  Descendants 
of  Robert  Williams  of  Roxbury  (1934)  ;  F.  B.  Hough, 
Am.  Biog.  Notes  (1875)  ;  M.  M.  Bagg,  The  Pioneers  of 
Utica  (1877)  ;  obituary  by  Thurlow  Weed,  in  Albany 
Evening  Jour.,  June  12,  1850.]  J.  I.  W. 

WILLIAMS,  WILLIAM  R.  (Oct.  14,  1804- 
Apr.  1,  1885),  Baptist  clergyman,  author,  was 
born  in  New  York  City.  His  father,  Rev.  John 
Williams,  a  Welsh  preacher  who  came  to  the 
United  States  in  1795,  was  for  twenty-seven 
years  pastor  of  the  Baptist  Church  in  Fayette 
Street,  New  York  (W.  B.  Sprague,  Annals  of 
the  American  Pulpit,  vol.  VI,  i860,  pp.  358-62). 
His  mother  was  Gainor  Roberts.  Williams  had 
no  middle  name,  the  initial  "R"  being  added  for 
convenience.  A  shy,  lame  boy,  he  surpassed  all 
his  fellow  pupils  at  Wheaton's  School  and  was 
graduated  at  Columbia  College  in  1822  with  the 
highest  honors.  He  studied  law  and  practised 
for  five  years  with  the  Hon.  Peter  A.  Jay  [9.7'.], 
who  said  of  him :  "There  is  not  now  in  the  City 


of  New  York  a  lawyer  of  profounder  talent  than 
this  young  Williams"  (Weston,  post).  Abandon- 
ing the  law  in  1830,  he  went  abroad  for  study 
and  while  in  London  met  Mary  S.  Bowen,  whom 
he  married  in  April  1847.  1°  l%52  he  became 
pastor  of  the  newly  formed  Amity  Street  Bap- 
tist Church,  which  for  thirty-five  years  stood  on 
the  street  for  which  it  was  named  and  was  then 
moved  to  Fifty-fourth  Street,  from  which  time 
it  was  known  as  Amity  Church.  Of  this  church 
Williams  was  pastor  until  his  death. 

While  still  a  lawyer  he  first  attracted  public 
attention  by  an  address  which  he  delivered  at 
the  Hamilton  Literary  and  Theological  Insti- 
tution (now  Colgate  University),  The  Conserva- 
tive Principles  in  Our  Literature  (1844),  which 
made  a  profound  impression  both  at  home  and 
abroad.  This  address  constitutes  the  initial  essay 
in  his  Miscellanies  (1850).  His  other  books  in- 
clude Religious  Progress  (1850),  Lectures  on 
the  Lord's  Prayer  (1851),  Lectures  on  Baptist 
History  (1877),  Eras  and  Character  of  History 
(1882).  He  also  published  many  pamphlets,  ser- 
mons, and  addresses. 

He  was  a  man  of  acute  and  accurate  scholar- 
ship and  extensive  learning,  possessing  a  private 
library  of  25,000  volumes.  Because  of  his  quiet 
and  retiring  manner  he  was  sometimes  regarded 
as  a  recluse.  He  was  fully  abreast  of  the  times, 
however,  and  in  important  crises  exerted  a  strong 
influence.  His  voice  was  never  strong  nor  his 
manner  commanding;  but  his  weighty  thought 
expressed  in  glowing  periods  drew  discriminat- 
ing hearers  and  he  was  often  rated  as  a  peer  of 
Robert  Hall  as  a  rhetorician.  While  his  congre- 
gations were  never  large,  they  were  made  up  of 
people  of  culture,  representing  various  denomi- 
nations. He  was  a  leader  in  his  own  communion 
and  exerted  an  influence  that  extended  far  be- 
yond its  borders.  Under  his  presidency  of  the 
New  York  Baptist  Union  for  Ministerial  Edu- 
cation, 1850-51,  Rochester  Theological  Semi- 
nary was  founded.  He  was  a  trustee  of  Colum- 
bia College  from  1838  to  1848,  and  was  a  member 
of  the  New  York  Historical  Society,  the  Ameri- 
can Tract  Society,  and  the  American  Bible  So- 
ciety. He  preached  his  last  sermon  on  Mar.  22, 
1885,  and  was  the  senior  Baptist  pastor  of  New 
York  City  at  the  time  of  his  death.  He  was  sur- 
vived by  his  wife  and  their  two  sons. 

[H.  G.  Weston,  An  Address  Delivered  in  the  Madison 
Ave.  Baptist  Church,  N.  V.  City,  at  the  Funeral  of  the 
Rev.  William  R.  Williams.  D.D.,  Apr.  4,  1S85  ;  A.  C. 
Kendrick,  The  Works  of  Rev.  W.  R.  Williams.  D.D.;  a 
Tribute  and  a  Criticism  ;  J.  L.  Chamberlain,  ( 'niversities 
and  Their  Sons,  vol.  IV  (1900)  ;  J.  A.  Patton,  Lives  of 
the  Clergy  of  N.  V.  and  Brooklyn  (1874);  William 
Cathcart,  The  Baptist  Rncyc.  (1881)  ;  N.  Y.  Observer, 
Apr.  9,  1885;  Watchman,  Apr.  9,  1885;  National  Bap- 


295 


Williams 


Will 


lamson 


tist,  Apr.    1 6,    if 
Tribune,  Apr.  2, 


Examiner,  Apr.   9, 
5.J 


1885  ;  N.  Y. 
F.  T.  P. 


WILLIAMS,  WILLIAM  SHERLEY  (d. 

March  1849),  trapper,  guide,  better  known  as 
Bill  or  Old  Bill  Williams,  was  the  son  of  Joseph 
and  Sarah  (Musick)  Williams  and  was  horn 
probably  in  Kentucky.  After  some  schooling,  he 
became,  according  to  his  own  story,  an  itinerant 
Methodist  preacher  in  Missouri.  In  1825-26  he 
was  a  member  of  Joseph  C.  Brown's  surveying 
party  which  marked  the  greater  part  of  the  Santa 
Fe  Trail.  In  the  summer  of  1826  he  received  a 
new  Mexican  passport  permitting  him  to  trap  in 
the  Gila  country,  and  in  the  following  year  he 
visited  the  Moqui  (Hopi)  Indians,  living  among 
them  for  a  time  and  explaining  to  them  the 
Christian  religion.  In  1832  he  was  one  of  a  small 
party  of  trappers  on  the  Yellowstone,  and  later  in 
that  year  he  was  with  a  party  in  northern  Texas. 
In  1833-34  ne  was  a  member  of  the  California 
expedition  led  by  Joseph  R.  Walker  [q.v.~\.  For 
some  years  thereafter  he  trapped  the  Utah-Colo- 
rado country,  living  at  times  among  the  Utes 
and  learning  their  language.  In  1841  he  was 
back  in  Missouri,  but  in  the  following  spring 
left  with  a  party  for  the  mountains.  From  Bent's 
Fort,  in  March  1843,  with  another  party,  he  set 
out  on  a  two-year  journey  which  carried  him  to 
the  Columbia,  to  the  Great  Basin,  and  ultimately 
to  Santa  Fe.  In  November  1848,  again  at  Bent's 
Fort,  he  joined  the  fourth  expedition  of  John 
Charles  Fremont  [q.i'.]  as  guide.  A  few  weeks 
later,  after  struggling  through  terrible  snow- 
storms and  reaching  the  Continental  Divide  at 
the  head-waters  of  the  Rio  Grande,  the  expedi- 
tion came  to  an  end,  and  after  losing  eleven  men 
from  starvation  and  cold,  the  survivors  reached 
Taos.  Unjustly,  as  many  think,  Fremont  blamed 
Williams  for  the  disaster.  A  few  weeks  after  the 
return  Williams  and  another  survivor  retraced 
the  route  from  the  mountains  in  the  hope  of  re- 
covering some  of  the  lost  property.  About  the 
end  of  March — for  the  event  became  known  by 
Apr.  6 — both  were  killed,  probably  by  the  Utes. 
Of  the  noted  "mountain  men"  Williams  was 
the  most  eccentric.  He  was  six  feet  one  in 
height,  gaunt,  stooped,  red-haired  and  red-beard- 
ed, with  a  thin,  leathery  face  deeply  pitted  with 
smallpox,  and  small,  gray,  restless  eyes.  His 
voice  was  shrill,  his  dress  outlandish,  his  walk 
a  zigzag  wabble,  and  he  rode  with  an  indescrib- 
able awkwardness.  In  the  settlements  he  drank 
inordinately  and  gambled  recklessly,  often  squan- 
dering the  proceeds  of  a  season's  hunt  in  a  single 
spree.  He  spoke  a  quaint  jargon,  partly  of  his 
own  making — a  dialect  which  George  F.  Ruxton 
reproduced  in  his  Life  in  the  Far  West  (1849) 


and  which  has  become  standardized  by  fiction 
writers  as  the  normal  speech  of  the  trappers. 
For  all  his  eccentricities,  he  was  notably  coura- 
geous, as  well  as  shrewd  and  ingenious  in  match- 
ing wits  with  the  savages,  and  he  had  an  excep- 
tional sense  of  the  geography  of  every  section  he 
had  visited.  His  name  is  perpetuated  in  Bill  Wil- 
liams Mountain,  Bill  Williams  Fork  of  the  Colo- 
rado River,  and  probably  the  town  of  Williams, 
all  in  Arizona,  as  well  as  Williams  River,  in  Mid- 
dle Park,  Colo.,  and  the  nearby  Williams  River 
Mountains. 

[C.  L.  Camp,  "The  Chronicles  of  George  C.  Yount  " 
Cal.  Hist.  Soc.   Quart.,  Apr.    1923;   J.  J.   Hill,  "Free 
Trapper,"  Touring  Topics  (Los  Angeles),  Mar.   1930 
W.  T.  Hamilton,  My  Sixty  Years  on  the  Plains  (1905) 
Albert  Pike,  Prose  Sketches  and  Poems  (1834)  ;  D.  C 
Peters,  The  Life  and  Adventures  of  Kit  Carson  ( 1858) 
Ruxton,  ante  ;  Allan  Nevins,  Fremont  (1928),  II,  397- 
416;  A.  H.  Favour,  Old  Bill  Williams,  Mountain  Man 
(1936)  ;  C.  P.  Williams,  Lone  Elk:  The  Life  Story  of 
Bill  Williams,  Trapper  and  Guide  of  the  Far  West  (2 
parts,  1935-36).]  W.J.G. 

WILLIAMSON,  ANDREW  (c.  1730-Mar. 
21,  1786),  "Arnold  of  Carolina,"  Revolutionary 
soldier,  is  said  to  have  come  to  America  from 
Scotland  as  a  young  child.  Reputedly  illiterate, 
but  highly  intelligent  and  a  skilled  woodsman, 
he  probably  began  his  career  as  a  cow  driver. 
On  Sept.  22,  1760,  he  was  commissioned  lieu- 
tenant in  the  South  Carolina  regiment  which 
served  in  James  Grant's  expedition  against  the 
Cherokee.  By  1765  he  was  established  as  a  plant- 
er, with  several  small  holdings  on  Hard  Labor 
Creek  of  the  Savannah,  and  three  years  later, 
with  Patrick  Calhoun  and  others,  he  voiced  the 
needs  of  the  back  country  in  a  petition  for  courts, 
schools,  ministers  of  the  gospel,  and  public  roads. 
In  1770  he  was  named  to  lay  out  and  keep  in  re- 
pair a  road  to  his  plantation,  "Whitehall,"  six 
miles  west  of  Ninety  Six.  Here  he  lived  with 
his  wife,  Eliza  Tyler,  of  Virginia,  by  whom  he 
had  two  sons  and  two  daughters. 

When  the  Revolution  began,  Williamson,  a 
fine-looking  major  of  militia,  was  so  influential  in 
the  back  country  and  so  sound  a  Whig,  that  he 
was  elected  to  the  first  provincial  congress  and 
was  awarded  a  contract  to  supply  the  troops. 
Appointed  to  enforce  the  Association  in  his  dis- 
trict, he  was  summoned  with  the  militia  to  sup- 
port W.  H.  Drayton  against  the  Loyalists,  and 
for  the  capture  of  Robert  Cuningham  he  re- 
ceived the  thanks  of  the  provincial  congress. 
Besieged  by  the  Loyalists  in  Ninety  Six,  he 
signed  the  treaty  with  them  on  Nov.  21,  1775, 
but  was  in  the  "Snow  Campaign"  of  December 
which  continued  the  civil  war.  In  1776  he  led 
the  panic-stricken  militia  on  his  second  Cherokee 
expedition,  and  when  he  was  ambushed  at  Es- 


2Q6 


Williamson 


Williamson 


senecca  his  horse  was  shot  under  him.  Promoted 
to  colonel,  he  commanded  2,000  South  Carolina 
troops  in  the  devastating  campaign  which  sub- 
dued the  Cherokee.  He  received  the  unanimous 
thanks  of  the  Assembly  and  on  May  20,  1777, 
signed  the  treaty  which  took  from  the  Indians  a 
large  land  cession.  A  popular  officer,  attentive 
to  the  comfort  of  his  men,  Williamson  was  pro- 
moted to  brigadier-general  in  1778  and  com- 
manded the  South  Carolina  militia  in  Robert 
Howe's  Florida  expedition,  sharing  the  blame 
for  its  failure.  In  1779  he  was  with  Lincoln  be- 
fore Savannah  ;  but  it  was  necessary  to  furlough 
his  deserting  militia  when  the  British  approached 
Charleston.  He  was  accused  of  treason  after  the 
fall  of  that  city,  when,  encamped  with  300  men 
near  Augusta,  he  reputedly  concealed  the  news 
of  Charleston's  surrender  for  a  time  and  avoid- 
ed action.  It  is  said  that  he  was  rewarded  with 
a  British  commission  for  advising  his  officers  to 
return  home  and  take  protection,  but  no  docu- 
mentary evidence  of  this  allegation  has  been  re- 
vealed, and  his  brother-in-law,  Col.  Samuel 
Hammond,  one  of  the  officers  present,  affirms 
that  he  vainly  urged  that  the  struggle  be  con- 
tinued from  North  Carolina  (Joseph  Johnson, 
post,  pp.  149  ff.).  After  his  surrender,  he  re- 
mained at  "Whitehall,"  where  he  was  captured 
by  the  Americans  in  the  hope  that  he  might  there- 
by consider  himself  released  from  parole.  He 
escaped,  however,  and  went  into  the  British  lines 
at  Charleston.  So  strong  was  contemporary  feel- 
ing against  him,  that  when  Col.  Isaac  Hayne 
captured  him,  it  was  supposed  that  he  would  be 
hung  in  Greene's  camp,  and  his  prompt  rescue 
by  the  British  confirmed  that  supposition.  He  is 
credited,  however,  with  having  later  supplied 
the  Whigs  with  valuable  information  through 
Col.  John  Laurens,  and  in  1783  General  Greene 
intervened  to  save  his  estates  from  confiscation. 
Soon  after  the  war  he  ended  his  days  in  the  com- 
fortable seclusion  of  his  home  in  St.  Paul's  Par- 
ish, near  Charleston,  leaving  a  name  for  honesty 
and  benevolence,  and  an  estate,  including  ninety- 
odd  slaves,  valued  at  more  than  £2,600. 

[Williamson's  will  and  inventory  are  in  the  probate 
court,  Charleston.  John  Drayton,  Memoirs  of  the  Am. 
Revolution  (1821)  and  William  Moultrie,  Memoirs  of 
the  Am.  Revolution  (180^)  contain  documentary  ma- 
terial on  his  Whig  activities.  R.  W.  Gibbes,  Documen- 
tary Hist,  of  the  Am.  Revolution  .  .  .  1764-1776  (1855) 
and  1776-1782  (1857)  contain  many  of  his  letters.  See 
also  Henry  Lee,  Memoirs  of  the  War  in  the  Southern 
Department  of  the  U.  S.  (1812);  Hugh  M'Call,  The 
Hist,  of  Ga.,  vol.  II  (1816)  ;  William  Johnson,  Sketches 
of  the  Life  and  Correspondence  of  Nathanael  Greene 
(1822);  Lorenzo  Sabine,  Biog.  Sketches  of  Loyalists 
of  the  Am.  Revolution  (1864)  ;  Joseph  Johnson,  Tra- 
ditions and  Reminiscences  (1851);  Andrew  Pickens, 
manuscript  letter  to  Henry  Lee,  Aug.  28,  181 1,  Wis. 
Hist.  Soc.  ;  A.  S.  Salley,  Col.  William  Hills'  Memoirs 
of  the  Revolution  (1921);  E.  A.  Jones,  The  Jour,  of 


Alexander  Chesney  (1921);  Edward  McCrady,  The 
Hist,  of  S.  C.  in  the  Revolution  (1001)  ;  Royal  Gazette 
(Charleston),  July  11,  1781  ;  Charleston  Morning  Post, 
Mar.  22,  1786.]  A.K.G. 

WILLIAMSON,  CHARLES  (July  12,  1757- 
Sept.  4,  1808),  British  officer,  land  promoter, 
and  secret  agent,  the  second  of  three  sons  of 
Alexander  and  Christian  (Robertson)  William- 
son, was  born  at  Balgray,  Dumfriesshire,  Scot- 
land (Steuben  Farmers'  Advocate,  Bath,  N.  Y., 
Dec.  1,  1915;  Hull,  post,  p.  97).  Commissioned 
as  ensign  in  the  25th  Regiment  of  Foot,  Mar.  8, 
I775>  he  had  become  captain  in  1781,  when  he 
resigned  and  as  unattached  officer  started  to  join 
Cornwallis  in  America.  He  was  captured  on  the 
high  seas  and  taken  prisoner  to  Boston.  Shortly 
after  his  release  he  married  Abigail  Newell  and 
before  the  end  of  1782  had  returned  to  Scot- 
land with  his  wife  and  infant  daughter.  Early 
in  1784  he  set  out  on  a  secret  mission  to  Con- 
stantinople. This  journey,  apparently  of  a  com- 
mercial nature,  gave  him  some  claim  later  to 
speak  on  Near  East  affairs. 

In  1791  Williamson,  as  a  land  promoter  in 
western  New  York,  was  appointed  to  hold  in 
trust  a  tract  of  1,200,000  acres,  acquired  from 
Robert  Morris  [q.v.~\.  His  principals  were  three 
English  speculators  headed  by  Sir  William  Pul- 
teney  (Turner,  Phelps  and  Gorham's  Purchase, 
post,  p.  244).  His  task  was  to  open  up  the  land 
to  settlers,  give  titles,  and  promote  local  im- 
provements ;  in  order  to  carry  it  out  he  became 
a  naturalized  American  citizen.  As  such  he  held 
various  county  offices  and  was  four  times  (1796- 
1800)  a  member  of  the  New  York  Assembly. 
To  advertise  his  wilderness  domain  he  issued 
pamphlets,  promoted  horse  races,  patronized  a 
local  theatre,  and  published  a  local  newspaper. 
To  further  immigration  he  built  a  substantial 
hotel  at  Geneva,  laid  out  turnpikes,  built  bridges, 
and  provided  post  riders.  These  manifold  activi- 
ties, prompted  both  by  restless  energy  and  love 
of  display,  called  for  greater  expenditures  than 
his  principals  approved.  In  consequence  he  with- 
drew from  his  agency  in  1802,  but  not  before  he, 
Aaron  Burr,  and  other  members  of  the  New 
York  Assembly  had  secured  the  passage  of  a  law 
(Apr.  2,  1798)  that  permitted  aliens  for  a  limit- 
ed period  to  give  titles  to  lands  within  the  state 
(Evans,  "Holland  Land  Company,"  post,  pp. 
209-13). 

Among  other  influential  friends  Williamson 
numbered  Alexander  Hamilton,  who  acted  as 
one  of  his  legal  advisers  (  Osgood  Papers,  post). 
In  1794  he  attracted  national  attention  through 
a  controversy  with  J.  G.  Simcoe,  lieutenant-gov- 
ernor of  Upper  Canada  (Melville  Papers,  post, 
and  American  State  Papers,  Foreign  Affairs, 


297 


Williamson 


Williamson 


vol.  I,  1832,  p.  484).  During  ten  years  of  colo- 
nizing activity  he  had  done  much  to  develop 
western  New  York  and  had  acquired  a  knowledge 
of  American  affairs  that  was  to  prove  useful  to 
him  as  volunteer  adviser  to  successive  British 
cabinet  officers.  His  services  as  trustee  for  the 
Pulteney  estate  were  rewarded  by  substantial 
land  grants  and  £20,000  cash  (Williamson  Let- 
ters, post). 

Williamson's  first  assignment  after  his  return 
to  England  and  to  British  allegiance  in  1803, 
was  to  raise  a  special  regiment  for  service  in  the 
West  Indies  or  Spanish  America.  In  this  scheme 
he  was  only  partially  successful.  He  managed, 
however,  to  establish  covert  intimacy  with  Wil- 
liam Armstrong,  a  later  associate  of  Francisco 
Miranda,  and  to  renew  his  friendship  with  Burr 
(Melville  and  Osgood  papers).  He  was  em- 
powered to  present  the  latter's  Mexican  project 
to  the  British  ministry — a  trust  that  he  performed 
through  Henry  Dundas,  Lord  Melville.  The  im- 
peachment of  that  nobleman  and  the  military 
situation  in  Europe  thwarted  their  joint  plan 
and  likewise  kept  Williamson  from  joining  Mi- 
randa (Melville  Papers).  On  revisiting  the 
United  States  in  1806  he  became  convinced  that 
Great  Britain  must  pay  more  attention  to  trans- 
atlantic affairs  and  advised  changing  ministries 
during  the  next  two  years  to  overthrow  the 
"Frenchified"  Jeffersonian  regime.  His  numer- 
ous memoranda  on  that  subject  show  a  distinct 
Tory  bias,  especially  when  he  discussed  commer- 
cial topics,  but  he  confidently  expected  to  attract 
British  support  among  eastern  merchants  and  hy- 
pothetical western  separatists.  Despite  occasional 
doubts,  he  still  regarded  Burr  as  a  dependable 
agent  in  carrying  out  this  policy  and  was  pre- 
paring to  receive  Burr  in  England  when  events 
in  Spain  called  him  into  service  elsewhere.  In 
June  1808  Castlereagh  selected  him  as  a  mes- 
senger to  the  Spanish  West  Indies  (Williamson 
Papers,  Castlereagh  to  Williamson,  June  4,  1808 ; 
C.  W.  Vane,  Correspondence,  Despatches  and 
Other  Papers  of  Viscount  Castlereagh,  vol.  VI, 
1851,  p.  369).  While  pursuing  his  combined  mis- 
sion of  trade  and  good  will  he  contracted  yellow 
fever  in  Havana  and  died  on  his  homeward  voy- 
age. He  was  the  father  of  four  children,  two  of 
whom,  a  son  and  a  daughter,  survived  him.  His 
wife  died  in  Geneva,  N.  Y.,  in  1824. 

[The  chief  sources  of  information  concerning  Wil- 
liamson are  the  unpublished  letters  to  and  from  him, 
which  are  in  the  Newberry  Lib.  of  Chicago.  These  are 
in  two  general  groups  :  those  written  by  Williamson  to 
his  patron,  Lord  Melville,  which  were  obtained  from 
the  Melville  Papers,  and  the  family  letters,  mostly  to 
and  from  Charles  Williamson,  obtained  from  his  great- 
grandson.  These  groups  are  supplemented  by  the  Os- 
good Papers,  typed  copies  of  letters  to  and  from  Wil- 
liamson, and  other  papers,  owned  by  the  Rochester  Hist. 


Soc.  Among  the  printed  accounts  the  most  important 
are  Orsamus  Turner,  Pioneer  Hist,  of  the  Holland  Pur- 
chase (1849)  and  Hist,  of  the  Pioneer  Settlement  of 
Phelps  and  Gorham's  Purchase  and  Morris'  Reserve 
(1851)  ;  P.  D.  Evans,  "The  Holland  Land  Company," 
in  Buffalo  Hist.  Soc.  Pubs.,  vol.  XXVIII  (1924),  and 
"The  Pulteney  Purchase,"  in  N.  Y.  State  Hist.  Asso. 
Quart.  Jour.,  Apr.  1922,  pp.  83-104.  A  suggestive  ar- 
ticle on  Williamson's  activities  in  New  York  is  A.  C. 
Parker,  "Charles  Williamson,  Builder  of  the  Genesee 
Country,"  Rochester  Hist.  Soc.  Pub.  Fund  Ser.,  vol. 
VI  (1927)  ;  one  of  Williamson's  pamphlets  is  reprinted 
in  E.  B.  O'Callaghan,  The  Documentary  Hist,  of  the 
State  of  N.  Y .,  vol.  II  (1850).  See  also  Nora  Hull, 
The  Official  Records  of  the  Centennial  Celebration,  Bath, 
Steuben  County  (1893).]  LLC. 

WILLIAMSON,  HUGH  (Dec.  5,  1735-May 
22,  1819),  statesman  and  scientist,  was  born  at 
West  Nottingham,  Pa.  His  father,  John  W. 
Williamson,  was  a  native  of  Ireland,  of  Scotch 
descent,  a  clothier,  who  came  to  Chester  County 
from  Dublin  about  1730.  He  married  in  1731 
Mary,  the  daughter  of  George  Davison  of  Derry, 
Ireland.  She  had  been  brought  to  America  as  an 
infant  and  had  been  captured  by  the  pirate  Black- 
beard.  The  Williamsons  were  industrious,  thrifty, 
and  religious.  Hugh,  the  eldest  of  a  large  family, 
was  designed  for  the  ministry  and  was  prepared 
for  college  at  New  London  Cross  Roads  and  at 
Newark,  Del.  He  was  a  hard  student  with  a 
particular  bent  for  mathematics,  and  was  in  the 
first  class  to  graduate  from  the  College  of  Phila- 
delphia (now  the  University  of  Pennsylvania), 
in  1757.  He  then  spent  two  years  in  Shippens- 
burgh  settling  his  father's  estate.  Subsequently, 
he  studied  theology  in  Connecticut  and,  while 
never  ordained,  was  licensed  and  preached  for 
some  time. 

Becoming  increasingly  disgusted  with  the  doc- 
trinal controversies  among  the  Presbyterians,  he 
took  up  the  study  of  medicine,  and  at  the  same 
time  was  made  professor  of  mathematics  at  the 
College  of  Philadelphia.  In  1764  he  went  abroad, 
and  at  Edinburgh,  London,  and  Utrecht,  con- 
tinued his  medical  studies,  receiving  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Utrecht  the  degree  of  M.D.  Settling 
in  Philadelphia,  he  began  practice,  but  he  was 
very  frail  and  whenever  he  had  a  patient  who 
was  in  serious  danger  he  developed  a  fever.  Ac- 
cordingly he  began  to  consider  entering  upon  a 
business  career.  He  never  lost  interest  in  the 
sciences,  however,  and  to  the  study  of  mathe- 
matics he  was  particularly  devoted.  On  Jan.  19, 
1768,  he  was  elected  to  the  American  Philosophi- 
cal Society,  and  in  1769  appointed  one  of  a  com- 
mission to  study  the  transits  of  Venus  and  Mer- 
cury. His  observations  of  the  comet  of  that  year 
led  him  to  an  original  theory  regarding  comets, 
which  is  stated  in  "An  Essay  on  Comets" 
( Transactions  of  the  American  Philosophical 
Society,  vol.  I,  1771). 


>o8 


Williamson 


Williamson 


In  l773>  after  his  return  from  a  trip  to  the 
West  Indies  to  obtain  subscriptions  for  an  acad- 
emy at  Newark,  Del.,  he  went  to  Europe  on  the 
same  mission.  He  did  not,  however,  confine  his 
activities  to  the  cause  of  education.  While  wait- 
ing for  his  ship  to  sail  he  was  a  witness  of  the 
Boston  Tea  Party,  and  he  carried  the  first  news 
of  it  to  England.  Summoned  before  the  Privy 
Council  for  examination,  he  predicted  revolt  if 
the  British  colonial  policy  was  continued.  Just 
before  he  left  England  he  obtained  by  a  bold 
stratagem  the  Hutchinson-Oliver  letters  from 
Massachusetts,  which  he  delivered  to  Franklin. 
With  Franklin,  Williamson  established  a  close 
friendship,  and  collaborated  with  him  in  numer- 
ous experiments  in  electricity.  One  of  William- 
son's papers  ("Experiments  and  Observations 
on  the  Gymnotus  Electricus,  or  Electric  Eel") 
was  read  before  the  Royal  Society  and  published 
in  its  Transactions  in  1775.  He  was  the  author, 
also,  of  a  letter  addressed  to  Lord  Mansfield, 
called  The  Pica  of  the  Colonics,  which  appeared 
anonymously  in  1775,  answering  charges  of  sedi- 
tion, turbulence,  and  disloyalty  made  against  the 
American  colonies  and  written  in  the  hope  of 
holding  the  friendship  of  the  British  Whigs.  In 
Holland  Williamson  received  news  of  the  Dec- 
laration of  Independence,  and  in  December  1776 
he  sailed  for  home  carrying  dispatches.  The  ship 
was  captured  off  the  Delaware  capes,  but  he  es- 
caped in  a  small  boat. 

He  now  began  his  mercantile  career,  going 
first  to  Charleston,  S.  C,  but  almost  immediately 
moving  to  Edenton,  N.  C,  where  he  eventually 
built  up  a  large  trade  with  the  French  West  In- 
dies and  also  resumed  the  practice  of  medicine. 
He  offered  his  services  as  a  physician  to  Gover- 
nor Caswell  and  after  a  time  was  sent  to  New 
Bern  to  inoculate  troops  with  smallpox.  Soon 
thereafter  he  was  made  surgeon-general  of  the 
state  troops.  He  was  present  at  the  battle  of 
Camden  and  subsequently  crossed  repeatedly  into 
the  British  lines  to  care  for  American  prisoners, 
winning  the  confidence  of  the  British  who  also 
made  use  of  his  services.  From  experience  he 
became  an  eager  advocate  of  inoculation  as  an 
absolutely  necessary  prerequisite  for  effective 
military  service.  While  in  camp  in  the  Dismal 
Swamp  he  experimented  to  ascertain  if  attention 
to  dress,  diet,  lodging,  and  drainage  would  re- 
duce sickness.  Only  two  men,  out  of  a  force 
ranging  from  five  to  twelve  hundred  in  number, 
died  in  six  months,  an  unheard  of  record  for  that 
day. 

Williamson's  political  life  began  with  his  elec- 
tion from  the  borough  of  Edenton  to  the  House 
of  Commons  in  1782.    That  same  year  he  was 


also  elected  to  the  Continental  Congress,  where 
he  served  until  1785.  He  was  again  a  member 
of  the  House  of  Commons,  this  time  from  Cho- 
wan County,  in  1785.  Once  more  elected  to  the 
Continental  Congress  in  1787,  he  remained  a 
member  until  it  went  out  of  existence.  In  all  his 
legislative  service  he  was,  in  the  words  of  Jef- 
ferson, "a  very  useful  member,  of  an  acute  mind, 
attentive  to  business,  and  of  an  high  degree  of 
erudition"  (quoted  by  Hosack,  post).  He  was 
not  an  attractive  speaker,  but  was  a  good  de- 
bater, with  flashes  of  wit  and  much  force  of  ex- 
pression. Williamson's  experience  in  Congress 
made  him  favor  a  stronger  form  of  government, 
and  he  accepted  appointment  to  the  Annapolis 
Convention  in  1786,  but  reached  there  the  day  of 
adjournment.  Soon  afterwards  he  wrote  "Let- 
ters of  Sylvius"  (American  Museum,  August 
J7&7),  published  anonymously,  to  show  the  evils 
of  paper  money  and  to  advocate  an  excise  rather 
than  a  land  or  poll  tax.  He  also  advocated  the 
promotion  of  domestic  manufactures  and  the 
adoption  of  a  national  dress.  The  "Letters"  con- 
tain an  interesting  account  of  commercial  and 
economic  conditions  in  the  United  States  and 
some  valuable  information  respecting  North  Car- 
olina. They  were  also  printed  in  pamphlet  form, 
and  appear  in  Historical  Papers  Published  by  the 
Trinity    College    Historical    Society    (11    ser., 

1915). 

Governor  Caswell  appointed  Williamson  to 
succeed  Willie  Jones  [q.z'.~\  in  the  delegation  to 
the  Federal  Convention  of  1787,  and  he  was 
present  during  the  entire  session,  much  the  most 
active  of  the  North  Carolina  delegates.  He 
changed  his  mind  rather  frequently,  eliciting 
from  the  French  Charge  the  remark,  "II  est  dif- 
ficile de  bicn  connoitre  son  caractcre;  il  est  meme 
possible  qu'l  n'en  ait  pas  .  .  ."  (Farrand,  post,  p. 
238).  He  favored  a  plural  executive,  and  later, 
a  seven-year  term  and  reeligibility.  He  wanted 
legislative  election  of  the  executive.  In  securing 
the  compromise  on  representation  in  the  two 
houses,  he  played  a  considerable  part.  He  voted 
for  the  Constitution,  signed  it,  and  worked  for 
its  ratification,  publishing  in  a  North  Carolina 
newspaper  "Remarks  on  the  New  Plan  of  Gov- 
ernment" (see  P.  L.  Ford,  Essays  on  the  Consti- 
tution, 1892).  He  was  not  a  member  of  the  Hills- 
boro  convention  of  1788  which  refused  ratifica- 
tion, but  he  was  elected  from  Tyrrell  County 
to  the  Fayetteville  convention  of  1789,  and  voted 
for  the  ratification  ordinance.  In  1788  he  was 
elected  agent  to  settle  the  accounts  of  the  state 
with  the  federal  government,  and  in  1789  he  was 
elected  to  the  First  Congress  and  reelected  to 
the  Second. 


20Q 


Williamson 

In  January  1789  he  married  Maria,  the  daugh- 
ter of  Charles  Ward  Apthorpe,  a  wealthy  mer- 
chant of  New  York.  Upon  the  expiration  of  his 
term  as  congressman  in  1793,  he  moved  to  New 
York,  and  devoted  the  rest  of  his  life  to  literary 
and  scientific  pursuits.  Among  his  published 
works  of  this  period  are  "Of  the  Fascination 
of  Serpents"  (Medical  Repository,  February, 
March,  April,  1807)  ;  "Conjectures  Respecting 
the  Native  Climate  of  Pestilence"  (American 
Medical  and  Philosophical  Register,  July  1810), 
signed  "by  an  Observer";  "Remarks  Upon  the 
Incorrect  Manner  in  Which  Iron  Rods  are  Some- 
times Set  Up  for  Defending  Houses  from  Light- 
ning" (Ibid.);  "Observations  on  Navigable 
Canals"  (Ibid.,  October  1810)  ;  "Observations 
on  the  Means  of  Preserving  the  Commerce  of 
New  York"  (Ibid.,  January  181 1)  ;  Observations 
on  the  Climate  in  Different  Parts  of  America 
(1811)  ;  The  History  of  North  Carolina  (2  vols., 
1812)  ;  "Observations  on  the  Malignant  Pleurisy 
of  the  Southern  States"  (American  Medical  and 
Philosophical  Register,  April  1913).  William- 
son's theory  of  comets  was  original,  but  his  work 
on  climate,  which  showed  keen  observation  and 
much  research,  brought  him  his  greatest  reputa- 
tion, securing  him  membership  in  the  Holland 
Society  of  Science,  the  Society  of  Arts  and  Sci- 
ences of  Utrecht,  and  an  honorary  degree  from 
the  University  of  Leyden. 

Williamson  was  one  of  the  original  trustees 
of  the  University  of  North  Carolina  and  later  a 
trustee  of  the  College  of  Physicians  and  Sur- 
geons, and  of  the  University  of  the  State  of  New 
York.  He  was  a  founder  of  the  Literary  and 
Philosophical  Society  of  New  York  and  a  promi- 
nent member  of  the  New  York  Historical  So- 
ciety. The  last  years  of  his  life  were  saddened 
by  the  loss  of  his  wife  and  his  two  sons.  His 
own  health  failed  slowly  and  steadily,  but  his 
death  came  suddenly  while  he  was  driving  in  his 
carriage.  His  ability  is  indicated  in  many  varied 
lines  of  endeavor.  He  was  an  able  physician, 
and  as  an  army  surgeon  showed  himself  pos- 
sessed of  initiative,  resourcefulness,  and  con- 
structive ability.  In  mathematics,  astronomy, 
and  general  science  he  took  high  rank  among  his 
contemporaries  in  America  and  abroad.  He  was 
successful  in  business  and  showed  originality 
as  an  economist.  He  had  advanced  ideas  on  edu- 
cation and  was  himself  a  sound  scholar.  His  leg- 
islative service,  while  never  brilliant,  won  him 
deserved  reputation.  His  historical  work  was 
poor.  Personally  he  was  pleasant  and  genial, 
and  was  widely  popular.  He  was  inclined  to  be 
intolerant  of  those  whom  he  regarded  as  un- 
sound in  religion  and  on  occasion  he  was  a  mas- 


Williamson 

ter  of  "a  Johnsonian  rudeness"  in  dealing  with 
those  he  disliked. 

[David  Hosack,  A  Biog.  Memoir  of  Hugh  William- 
son (1820),  repr.  in  Essays  on  Various  Subjects  of 
Medical  Sci.  (1824),  vol.  I;  Hist.  Papers  Pub.  by  the 
Trinity  Coll.  Hist.  Soc,  13  ser.  (1919)  ;  G.  J.  McRee, 
Life  and  Correspondence  of  James  Iredell  (1857); 
Max  Farrand,  The  Records  of  the  Federal  Convention 
of  1787  (1911)  ;  Biog.  Dir.  Am.  Cong.  (1928)  ;  L.  I. 
Trenholme,  The  Ratification  of  the  Federal  Constitution 
in  N.  C.  (1932)  ;  N.  Y.  Evening  Post,  May  24,  1819.] 

J.G.deR.H. 

WILLIAMSON,  ISAAC  HALSTED  (Sept. 
27,  1767-July  10,  1844),  governor  and  chancellor 
of  New  Jersey,  lawyer,  was  born  in  Elizabeth- 
town  (later  Elizabeth),  N.  J.,  which  remained 
his  home  throughout  his  life.  The  youngest  son 
of  Gen.  Matthias  and  Susannah  (Halsted)  Wil- 
liamson, he  was  descended  from  a  family  which 
for  several  generations  had  been  prominent  in 
the  town.  After  attending  the  common  schools, 
he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1791.  He  quickly 
built  up  a  lucrative  practice,  showing  such  abil- 
ity that  Aaron  Ogden  [q.v.~\,  the  leader  of  the 
eastern  New  Jersey  bar,  said  that  he  soon  found 
Williamson  "pressing  on  him  very  hard,  and  the 
one  whose  skill  and  learning  he  found  the  most 
troublesome  as  an  adversary"  (Elmer,  post,  p. 
173).  His  reputation  spread  to  other  counties, 
and  for  some  time  he  was  prosecutor  for  Morris 
County,  drawing  up  indictments  which  long 
served  as  models.  A  Federalist  at  first,  he  disa- 
greed with  that  party  about  the  War  of  18 12, 
and  in  181 5  was  elected  to  the  state  Assembly  on 
the  Democratic  ticket.  In  1817,  when  Gov. 
Mahlon  Dickerson  [q.v.]  was  chosen  United 
States  senator,  Williamson  was  elected  by  the 
eastern  New  Jersey  votes  in  the  legislature  to 
succeed  him  in  the  dual  office  of  governor  and 
chancellor  at  $2,000  a  year.  He  continued  to  be 
reelected  annually  without  opposition  and  served 
until  1829.  The  governorship  was  uneventful 
during  those  twelve  years  of  the  "era  of  good 
feeling." 

Williamson's  lasting  reputation  came  through 
his  reviving  the  neglected  alternative  office  of 
chancellor.  New  Jersey  has  followed  the  old 
English  court  system  more  closely  than  most  of 
the  other  states,  and  until  1844  the  governors 
handled  equity  and  "prerogative"  cases  as  "chan- 
cellor and  ordinary,"  though  most  of  them  be- 
fore Williamson  had  slighted  this  office.  The 
legislature  in  1799  had  authorized  the  chancellor 
to  make,  alter,  and  amend  rules  of  practice  "so 
as  to  obviate  doubts,  advance  justice,  and  expe- 
dite suits  in  that  court"  (Halsted,  post,  p.  10). 
The  first  to  attempt  this  seriously,  Williamson 
made  an  exhaustive  study  of  the  English  court 
of  chancery  and  in  1822  drew  up  a  set  of  fifty- 


^OO 


Williamson 

eight  rules  which  at  the  time  of  his  death  had 
been  little  altered.  The  new  code  was  particu- 
larly important  in  its  clarification  of  the  situa- 
tion of  mortgages.  Enthusiastic  about  the  sub- 
ject and  tireless  in  research,  Williamson  pre- 
sided conscientiously  and  ably  over  the  court  for 
twelve  years,  his  lack  of  facility  in  speech  and 
writing  offset  by  his  practical  good  sense,  pro- 
fundity, and  probity.  He  increased  the  dignity 
as  well  as  the  effectiveness  of  the  chancery  court 
and  laid  the  foundations  for  the  unique  position 
which  it  still  holds  in  New  Jersey.  He  was  prob- 
ably instrumental  in  separating  the  offices  of  gov- 
ernor and  chancellor  in  1844  so  that  the  court 
would  not  be  dependent  upon  the  fortunes  of  fre- 
quent elections.  He  also  aided  the  repeal  of  the 
statute  forbidding  the  citing  of  an  English  prece- 
dent made  after  1776  in  a  New  Jersey  court  of 
law  or  equity. 

His  long  term  as  governor-chancellor  ended  in 
1829  when  the  Jackson  element  secured  the  elec- 
tion of  G.  D.  Wall,  who  yielded  to  Peter  Dumont 
Vroom  \_q.v.~\.  Williamson  is  said  to  have  de- 
clined the  opportunity  to  succeed  Charles  Ewing 
[q.v.~\  as  chief  justice  of  the  state  in  1832.  He 
sat  in  the  state  Council,  or  Senate  (1831-32), 
and  was  mayor  of  Elizabeth  (1830-33)  but  there- 
after devoted  himself  to  his  practice  without 
holding  office  until  the  last  few  weeks  of  his  life, 
when  he  was  chairman  of  the  state  constitu- 
tional convention.  He  seems  to  have  combined 
successfully  geniality  with  dignity  in  office.  He 
was  married  on  Aug.  6,  1808,  to  Anne  Crossdale 
Jouet.  They  had  two  sons,  of  whom  one,  Benja- 
min, was  graduated  from  the  College  of  New 
Jersey  (later  Princeton)  in  1827  and  also  served 
as  chancellor.  Williamson  died  at  his  home  in 
Elizabeth. 

[See  L.  Q.  C.  Elmer,  The  Constitution  and  Govern- 
ment of  ...  N.  J.  (1872)  ;  O.  S.  Halsted,  Address  upon 
the  Character  of  the  Late  Hon.  Isaac  H.  Williamson 
(1844)  ;  John  Whitehead,  The  Judicial  and  Civil  Hist. 
of  N.  J.  (1897)  ;  S.  G.  Potts,  Precedents  and  Notes  of 
Practice  in  the  Court  of  Chancery  of  N.  J.  (1841)  ;  F. 
B.  Lee,  N.  J.  as  a  Colony  and  as  a  State  (1902),  vol. 
Ill,  p.  377  and  passim,  with  portrait ;  W.  H.  Shaw, 
Hist,  of  Essex  and  Hudson  Counties,  N.  J.  (1884), 
vol.  I,  p.  251,  vol.  II,  p.  1057  ;  William  Nelson,  Nel- 
son's Biog.  Cyc.  of  N.  J.  (1913),  vol.  I,  p.  14  ;  and  obit- 
uary in  Newark  Daily  Advertiser,  July  10,  1844.  Chan- 
cery cases  were  not  reported  until  1830.  The  date  of 
Williamson's  birth  is  sometimes  given  as  1768.] 

R.G.A. 
WILLIAMSON,  WILLIAM  DURKEE 
(July  31,  1779-May  27,  1846),  historian,  gov- 
ernor of  Maine,  was  born  in  Canterbury,  Conn., 
the  eldest  son  of  George  and  Mary  (Foster) 
Williamson,  and  a  descendant  of  Timothy  Wil- 
liamson who  was  in  Plymouth  Colony  as  early 
as  1643.  His  early  education  was  in  the  common 
schools  of  Canterbury  and  of  Amherst,  Mass., 


Will 


lamson 


to  which  the  family  moved  in  1793.  He  taught 
for  some  time  in  a  private  school  in  Pittstown, 
N.  Y.,  and  then  in  a  public  school  in  Amherst, 
while  continuing  his  studies  privately  and  at 
Deerfield  Academy.  In  October  1800  he  entered 
Williams  College,  meanwhile  teaching  school 
during  the  winters.  Resenting  what  he  consid- 
ered a  Federalist  partisanship  that  excluded  him, 
a  Democrat,  from  taking  part  in  a  Junior  exhibi- 
tion, he  transferred  in  1804  to  Brown,  where  he 
graduated  in  September  of  the  same  year.  He 
then  took  up  the  study  of  law  in  the  office  of  S.  F. 
Dickinson  of  Amherst,  continuing  it  with  Sam- 
uel Thatcher  of  Warren,  Me.,  and  Joseph  Mc- 
Gaw  of  Bangor.  In  the  latter  place  he  began  the 
practice  of  law  in  1807.  In  January  1808  he 
was  commissioned  attorney-general  for  Hancock 
County.  He  lost  the  office  in  1809,  but,  since  he 
was  the  most  active  Democratic  lawyer  in  the 
county,  the  governor  reappointed  him  in  181 1. 
He  occupied  the  position  until  1816,  when  he 
was  elected  to  the  Massachusetts  Senate.  For 
three  years  he  was  chairman  of  the  committee  on 
eastern  lands.  From  1809  to  1820  he  was  post- 
master at  Bangor.  When  the  separation  of 
Maine  from  Massachusetts,  of  which  he  was  an 
ardent  advocate,  took  place  in  1820,  he  became 
the  first  senator  from  Penobscot  County  to  the 
state  Senate,  and  succeeded  John  Chandler  [g.?'.] 
as  president  of  that  body  when  the  latter  was 
elected  to  the  national  Senate.  After  Gov.  Wil- 
liam King  [q.v.]  resigned,  Williamson  was  act- 
ing governor  from  May  28  to  Dec.  5,  1821,  when 
he  resigned  to  take  the  seat  in  Congress  to  which 
he  had  been  elected  the  preceding  September. 
He  served  from  Mar.  4,  1821,  to  Mar.  3,  1823. 
He  was  not  reelected.  Gov.  Albion  K.  Parris 
[q.v.~\  appointed  him  judge  of  probate  for  Penob- 
scot County  in  1824.  He  occupied  this  position 
until  1840,  when,  by  an  amendment  to  the  state 
constitution  which  limited  the  tenure  of  judicial 
offices,  he  was  compelled  to  retire.  In  1834  and 
1839  he  was  commissioner  to  examine  the  banks 
of  Maine.  In  1840  he  was  chairman  of  a  com- 
mission of  the  Maine  State  Prison.  He  was  also 
president  of  the  Peoples'  Bank  of  Bangor.  He 
was  married  three  times :  first,  on  June  10,  1806, 
to  Jemima  Montague  Rice  of  Amherst  (d.  1822)  ; 
second,  on  June  3,  1823,  to  Susan  Ester  White 
of  Putney,  Vt.  (d.  1824)  ;  and  third,  on  Jan.  27, 
1825,  to  Clarissa  (Emerson)  Wiggin  of  York 
(d.  1881).  There  were  five  children  by  the  first 
marriage.    Williamson  died  in  Bangor. 

The  great  labor  of  his  life,  for  which  he  began 
gathering  materials  in  181 7,  was  his  History  of 
the  State  of  Maine,  published  in  two  volumes  in 
1832  and  reissued  in  1839.    Heavy  in  style  and 


301 


Willie 

in  need  of  thorough  revision  in  the  light  of  much 
material  not  available  to  the  author,  the  volumes 
yet  remain  an  indispensable  work  in  Maine  his- 
tory. Williamson  continued  to  collect  materials 
on  history  and  biography  until  his  death,  but,  ex- 
cept for  a  few  contributions  to  the  American 
Quarterly  Register,  1840-43,  and  to  the  Collec- 
tions of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society  (3 
ser.,  vol.  IX,  1846),  he  published  little.  Some  of 
his  manuscripts  have  been  published  in  the  Ban- 
gor Historical  Magazine  (July  1885-June  1887, 
passim).  All  his  writings  are  distinguished  for 
his  industry  in  accumulating  facts  rather  than 
for  style  of  presentation. 

[See  Grace  W.  Edes,  in  New  Eng.  Hist,  and  Geneal. 
Reg.,  Jan.  1927-Oct.  1928,  esp.  Oct.  1927,  p.  396  ;  Wil- 
liam Cranch,  Ibid.,  Jan.  1847,  pp.  90-91  ;  "Extracts 
from  the  Diary  of  the  Late  Hon.  William  D.  William- 
son," Ibid.,  Apr.,  Oct.  1876;  Joseph  Williamson,  in 
Memorial  Biogs.  of  the  New  Eng.  Hist.  Geneal.  Soc., 
vol.  I  (1880)  ;  Me.  Hist,  and  Geneal.  Recorder,  vol.  V 
(1888),  pp.  73-80;  "Hon.  William  D.  Williamson," 
Bangor  Hist.  Mag.,  Feb.  1886;  Joseph  Williamson, 
Ibid.,  May  1868,  and  article  on  Williamson  MSS.  in 
Colls,  and  Proc.  Me.  Hist.  Soc.,  2  ser.,  vol.  Ill  (1892), 
pp.  275-79  ;  William  Willis,  A  Hist,  of  the  Lcnv,  the 
Courts,  and  the  Lawyers  of  Me.  (1863)  ;  death  notice 
in  Kennebec  Jour.  (Augusta,  Me.),  June  5,  1846.] 

R.  E.  M. 

WILLIE,  ASA  HOXIE  (Oct.  11,  1829-Mar. 
16,  1899),  jurist,  was  born  in  Washington, 
Wilkes  County,  Ga.  His  father  was  James 
Willie,  a  merchant  and  farmer  of  influence,  a 
native  of  Vermont.  His  mother,  Caroline  Emily, 
daughter  of  Asa  Hoxie,  a  Quaker,  was  born  in 
Barnstable  County,  Mass.,  but  removed  to  Sa- 
vannah early  in  the  nineteenth  century.  Willie 
was  left  fatherless  at  the  age  of  four,  his  training 
devolving  upon  his  mother,  a  woman  of  culture 
and  determination  of  character.  He  attended  an 
academy  at  Washington,  Ga.,  and  later  another 
at  Powelton,  Ga.  In  1846,  in  company  with  his 
older  brother,  James  Willie,  he  moved  to  Texas 
and  took  up  residence  with  his  maternal  uncle, 
Dr.  Asa  Hoxie,  at  Independence.  A  year  or  so 
later  he  began  studying  law  with  his  brother  at 
Brenham,  and  in  1849  was  admitted  to  the  bar, 
before  he  had  attained  the  age  of  twenty-one,  by 
a  special  act  of  the  legislature.  He  began  the 
practice  of  the  law  at  Brenham  in  partnership 
with  his  brother.  In  1852  he  was  appointed  to 
fill  a  vacancy  in  the  district  attorney's  office,  and 
was  later  elected  to  that  office  for  a  two-year 
term.  In  1857  he  removed  to  Austin  to  assist  his 
brother  in  his  duties  as  attorney  general,  while 
the  latter  devoted  his  energies  to  indexing  and 
superintending  the  printing  of  the  criminal  and 
penal  codes  of  the  state,  which  he  had  compiled 
and  the  legislature  had  adopted  in  July  1856.  A 
year  later  Asa  removed  to  Marshall,  Tex.,  and 
became  a   partner   of  his   brother-in-law,   Col. 


Willing 


Alexander  Pope,  a  partnership  that  continued, 
except  for  the  period  covered  by  the  Civil  War, 
until  1866.  In  the  latter  year  he  removed  to  Gal- 
veston, where,  for  the  most  part,  he  resided  un- 
til his  death  thirty-three  years  later. 

With  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War  he  offered 
his  services  to  the  Confederacy  and  was  placed 
on  the  staff  of  Gen.  John  Gregg.  After  the  lat- 
ter's  death  he  saw  service  under  Generals  Pem- 
berton,  Johnson,  Bragg,  and  Hardee,  taking 
part,  among  others,  in  the  battles  of  Chicka- 
mauga  and  Missionary  Ridge.  During  the  last 
year  of  the  war  he  had  charge  of  the  exportation 
of  cotton  from  San  Antonio.  Upon  the  reorgani- 
zation of  the  state  government  in  1866,  he  was 
elected  to  the  supreme  court  for  a  term  of  nine 
years,  but  fifteen  months  later  he  was  removed, 
along  with  Gov.  J.  W.  Throckmorton  and  all 
other  members  of  the  state  government,  by  Gen. 
Charles  Griffin,  military  commander  of  Texas. 
In  1872  he  was  elected  congressman-at-large 
from  Texas  (Mar.  4,  1873-Mar.  3,  1875),  but 
refused  to  stand  for  reelection.  He  served  as 
city  attorney  of  Galveston  in  1875-76.  In  1882 
he  was  elected  chief  justice  of  the  supreme  court 
of  Texas  by  a  very  large  vote.  This  position  he 
resigned  in  1888  to  return  to  the  practice  of  his 
profession  in  Galveston,  where  he  died.  He  was 
a  conspicuous  figure  in  the  history  of  the  juris- 
prudence of  Texas.  His  opinions,  carefully  pre- 
pared and  happily  expressed,  are  to  be  found  in 
Texas  Reports  (vols.  XXVIII-XXX,  LVIII- 
LXX).  On  Oct.  20,  1859,  he  was  married  in 
Marshall  to  Bettie  Johnson,  youngest  daughter 
of  Lyttleton  and  Mary  C.  Johnson,  of  Bolivar, 
Tenn.  They  had  ten  children,  of  whom  three 
sons  and  two  daughters  survived  their  father. 

["Proc.  Touching  the  Death  ...  of  Hon.  Asa  H. 
Willie,"  92  Tex.  Reports,  xiii ;  J.  D.  Lynch,  The  Bench 
and  Bar  of  Tex.  (3885)  ;  J.  H.  Davenport,  The  Hist, 
of  the  Supreme  Court  .  .  .  of  Tex.  (copyright  1917)  ; 
Biog.  Encyc.  of  Tex.  (1880)  ;  W.  S.  Speer,  The  Encyc. 
of  the  New  West  (1881)  ;  Galveston  Daily  News,  Mar. 
16,  17,  1899.]  C.  S.  P. 

WILLING,  THOMAS  (Dec.  19,  1731,  o.s- 
Jan.  19,  1821),  banker,  was  born  at  Philadelphia, 
the  eldest  of  eleven  children  of  Charles  and  Anne 
(Shippen)  Willing.  His  father  was  a  prosper- 
ous merchant  of  English  birth  who  in  twenty- 
six  years  of  business  activity  in  Philadelphia  ac- 
cumulated a  fortune  of  some  £20,000  on  an  initial 
capital  of  £1,000.  His  mother  was  the  grand- 
daughter of  Edward  Shippen,  1639-1712  [q.v.]. 
In  1740  "Tommy"  was  sent  to  England,  where, 
under  the  supervision  of  his  paternal  grandpar- 
ents, he  was  educated  at  schools  in  Bath  and 
Wells,  Somersetshire.  In  September  1748  he 
went  to  London,  where  he  studied  for  six  months 


302 


Willing 

at  Watt's  Academy  and  also  entered  the  Inner 
Temple  to  read  law  on  Oct.  5,  1748.  Returning 
to  Philadelphia  on  May  19,  1749,  he  entered  his 
father's  counting-house  and  was  taken  into  part- 
nership in  1751.  Upon  the  untimely  death  of  his 
father  in  1754,  during  a  yellow  fever  epidemic 
to  which  he  was  particularly  exposed  by  his 
active  exertions  as  mayor  of  the  city,  the  son  as- 
sumed control  of  the  business  with  an  inheri- 
tance of  about  £6,000.  With  Robert  Morris 
[q.v.]  he  formed  the  partnership  of  Willing, 
Morris  &  Company,  eventually  perhaps  the  lead- 
ing  mercantile  firm  in  Philadelphia. 

Willing's  diligent  application  to  business  did 
not  preclude  his  engaging  in  public  activities.  In 
1754  he  served  as  assistant  secretary  to  the  Penn- 
sylvania delegation  at  the  Albany  Congress ;  in 
1757  he  was  elected  to  the  common  council  of 
Philadelphia;  in  1758  he  was  appointed  one  of 
the  Pennsylvania  commissioners  for  trade  with 
the  western  Indians,  serving  for  about  seven 
years;  in  1760  he  was  elected  a  trustee  of  the 
Academy  and  Charitable  School  of  the  Province 
of  Pennsylvania,  now  the  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania, and  served  until  1791 ;  he  was  one  of 
seven  commissioners  appointed  to  supervise  the 
surveying  of  the  Pennsylvania-Maryland  bound- 
ary line;  in  1761  he  was  appointed  judge  of  the 
orphans'  court  of  Philadelphia;  in  1763  he  was 
elected  mayor  of  Philadelphia ;  a  year  later  he 
was  elected  to  the  provincial  Assembly  and 
served  until  1767,  when  he  resigned  to  accept 
appointment  as  justice  of  the  supreme  court  of 
the  province.  In  1765  he  signed  the  Philadelphia 
non-importation  agreement  directed  against  the 
Stamp  Act.  During  the  years  1774-76  he  firmly 
championed  colonial  rights,  but  he  stoutly  re- 
sisted the  "radical"  elements  that  were  working 
for  an  internal  revolution  within  Pennsylvania 
as  well  as  a  complete  break  with  the  mother  coun- 
try. He  served  as  president  of  the  first  Provin- 
cial Congress  of  Pennsylvania  in  1774,  kept  in 
intimate  touch  with  the  members  of  the  First 
Continental  Congress,  and  in  1775  was  elected 
to  the  Second  Continental  Congress.  He  voted 
against  the  resolution  of  Richard  Henry  Lee 
[g.7\]  for  independence  in  July  1776,  "not  only 
because  I  thought  America  at  that  time  unequal 
to  such  a  Conflict  .  .  .  but  chiefly  because  the 
Delegates  of  Pennsylvania  were  not  then  au- 
thorized by  their  instructions  from  the  Assembly 
or  the  voice  of  the  People  at  large,  to  join  in 
such  a  vote"  (Autobiography,  post,  p.  126).  His 
English  legal  training,  his  extensive  mercantile 
interests,  his  religious  affiliation  with  the  Angli- 
can Church,  and  his  long  association  with  the 
Penns  probably  help  to  explain  his  stand.   When 


Willing 


a  new  Pennsylvania  delegation  to  Congress  was 
chosen  in  1776,  he  was  not  reappointed;  and  in 
1777  he  ceased  to  be  justice  of  the  supreme  court. 

Throughout  the  War  for  Independence  he  re- 
mained in  Philadelphia,  but  during  the  British 
occupation  he  declined  to  take  the  oath  of  alle- 
giance to  the  King.  He  worked  unceasingly  to 
maintain  the  financial  standing  of  his  firm  in  its 
successive  forms  of  Willing,  Morris  &  Co. ; 
Willing,  Morris  &  Inglis;  and  Willing,  Morris 
&  Swanwick.  The  credit  and  prestige  of  this 
firm  was  perhaps  the  most  solid  support  of  Rob- 
ert Morris  in  his  patriotic  financial  activities 
during  the  war.  In  1781  Willing  was  chosen 
president  of  the  newly  organized  Bank  of  North 
America.  His  judgment  and  diligence  were  in 
no  small  degree  responsible  for  the  success  of 
the  institution,  especially  during  the  economic 
depression  of  1785-86  and  the  contemporaneous 
"bank  war."  He  was  a  cordial  supporter  of  the 
movement  for  the  new  constitution  of  1787  and 
likewise  of  the  fiscal  measures  of  Alexander 
Hamilton.  His  daughter,  Anne  Willing  Bing- 
ham [g .r.],  became  the  acknowledged  leader  of 
Federalist  society  at  Philadelphia.  He  was  ap- 
pointed by  President  Washington  as  one  of  the 
commissioners  to  receive  subscriptions  to  the 
first  Bank  of  the  United  States,  and  he  served  as 
its  president  from  1791  to  1797.  Although  the 
board  of  directors,  over  which  he  presided,  had 
final  authority  over  the  bank's  policy,  Willing 
personally  exercised  a  very  solid  influence.  All 
during  these  years  he  continued  in  private  busi- 
ness, steadily  augmenting  his  fortune  until  it  ag- 
gregated about  one  million  dollars.  After  hav- 
ing enjoyed  unusually  good  health  throughout 
his  earlier  life,  he  was  suddenly  rendered  inar- 
ticulate by  a  paralytic  stroke  on  Aug.  10,  1807 
(Robert  Blackwell  to  George  Willing,  Aug.  10, 
1807,  Wallace  Papers,  vol.  IV,  p.  165,  Historical 
Society  of  Pennsylvania).  He  resigned  the  pres- 
idency of  the  Bank  on  Nov.  10,  1807  (Ponlson's 
American  Daily  Advertiser,  Philadelphia,  Nov. 
11,  12  and  16,  1807).  He  subsequently  recov- 
ered his  health  but  never  returned  to  active 
banking.  He  died  at  his  home  in  Philadelphia. 

On  June  9,  1763,  he  married  Anne  McCall,  the 
eldest  daughter  of  Samuel  McCall.  They  had 
thirteen  children.  Willing  did  not  remarry  after 
his  wife's  death  on  Feb.  5,  1781.  In  the  course 
of  time  he  became  a  veritable  patriarch  of  a  nu- 
merous and  influential  family  clan  in  Philadel- 
phia. In  his  Autobiography  (  post,  p.  128),  dated 
Feb.  4,  1786,  he  quite  correctly  says:  "My  suc- 
cess in  life  has  not  been  derived  from  superior 
abilities,  or  extensive  knowledge,  a  very  small 
and  scanty  share  of  cither  having  fallen  to  my 


3°3 


Willingham 

lot ;  therefore  it  can  only  be  ascribed  to  a  steady 

application  to  whatever  I   have  undertaken,  a 

civil  and  respectful  deportment  to  all  my  fellow 

Citizens,  and  an  honest  and  upright  conduct  in 

every  transaction  of  life." 

[T.  W.  Balch,  Willing  Letters  and  Papers  ed.  with 
a  Biog.  Sketch  of  Thomas  Willing  (1922),  with  brief 
autobiog.,  will,  and  scattered  letters,  and  brief  biog. 
Pa.  Mag.  of  Hist,  and  Biog.,  Jan.  1922;  Letter  Book 
of  Charles  Willing  &  Son,  June  15-Nov.  30,  1754 — 
Thomas  Willing,  Nov.  30,  1754-May  1,  1757,  Willing 
&  Morris,  May  1,  1757-Feb.  6,  1761,  and  incomplete 
rough  drafts  of  minutes  of  board  of  directors,  Bank  of 
the  U.  S.,  1795  and  1800,  Hist.  Soc.  of  Pa.;  letters  in 
Hamilton  Papers,  Lib.  of  Cong. ;  Oliver  Wolcott  Pa- 
pers, Conn.  Hist.  Soc. ;  and  Gratz  Collection,  Hist.  Soc. 
of  Pa.  ;  Lawrence  Lewis,  A  Hist,  of  the  Bank  of  North 
America  (1882)  ;  J.  T.  Holdsworth,  The  First  Bank  of 
the  U.  S.  (1910);  C.  H.  Lincoln,  The  Revolutionary 
Movement  in  Pa.  (1901)  ;  E.  A.  Jones,  Am.  Members 
of  the  Inns  of  Court  (1924).]  J.  O.  W. 

WILLINGHAM,  ROBERT  JOSIAH  (May 
15,  1854-Dec.  20,  1914),  Baptist  clergyman,  mis- 
sionary secretary,  born  in  Beaufort  District, 
S.  C,  was  a  descendant  of  Pierre  Robert,  the 
first  pastor  of  the  Huguenot  Church,  Santee, 
S.  C,  who  emigrated  to  America  after  the  Revo- 
cation of  the  Edict  of  Nantes.  His  paternal  great- 
grandfather, Thomas  Henry  Willingham,  set- 
tled upon  Sullivan's  Island,  near  Charleston,  in 
1790,  where  his  son,  Thomas  Willingham,  was 
born  Dec.  23,  1798.  The  latter  became  a  pros- 
perous merchant  and  for  fifty  years  was  a  Bap- 
tist deacon.  One  of  his  sons,  Benjamin  Lawton 
Willingham,  moved  from  the  Beaufort  District 
to  Macon,  Ga.,  where  he  amassed  a  considerable 
fortune  as  a  cotton  factor ;  his  wife  was  Eliza- 
beth Martha  (  Baynard).  They  were  the  parents 
of  eighteen  children,  thirteen  of  whom  reached 
maturity  and  reared  families. 

The  best  known  of  these  was  Robert  Josiah. 
Converted  when  he  was  thirteen  years  old,  he 
united  with  the  Concord  Baptist  Church.  He 
entered  the  University  of  Georgia  at  the  early 
age  of  fourteen  and  in  1873  was  graduated  with 
high  honors.  From  1874  to  1877  he  was  the  prin- 
cipal of  the  high  school  of  Macon,  Ga.  During 
this  period,  he  read  law,  preparatory  to  taking 
the  bar  examination.  On  Sept.  8,  1874,  he  mar- 
ried Corneille  Bacon.  Abandoning  his  inten- 
tion of  entering  the  law,  he  enrolled  in  the  South- 
ern Baptist  Theological  Seminary  and  remained 
there  as  a  student  from  1877  to  1879.  He  was 
ordained  in  Macon,  Ga.,  June  2,  1878,  and  served 
as  pastor  of  the  Baptist  Church,  Talbottom,  Ga., 
and  of  two  other  nearby  country  churches  from 
1879  to  1881.  During  the  succeeding  five  years 
he  was  pastor  of  the  Baptist  Church  at  Barnes- 
ville,  Ga.  Accepting  the  pastorate  of  the  First 
Baptist  Church,  Chattanooga,  Tenn.,  in  1887,  he 
led  in  the  erection  of  a  new  edifice.   In  1891  he 


Willis 

was  chosen  pastor  of  the  First  Baptist  Church, 
Memphis. 

Two  years  later,  he  accepted  the  invitation  of 
the  Foreign  Mission  Board  of  the  Southern  Bap- 
tist Convention  to  become  its  secretary.  When 
he  took  charge,  the  board  not  only  was  without 
funds  but  was  burdened  with  a  heavy  debt.  The 
whole  country  was  suffering  from  a  severe  finan- 
cial depression.  So  impassioned  were  his  ap- 
peals, so  arduous  were  his  labors,  and  so  wide- 
spread were  his  activities,  however,  that  within 
the  twenty-one  years  he  served  as  secretary  the 
annual  contributions  increased  fivefold ;  the  mis- 
sionaries employed,  over  threefold ;  and  the  num- 
ber of  baptisms  reported  annually,  over  twelve- 
fold ;  while  the  schools,  colleges,  and  seminaries 
under  the  control  of  the  board  increased  from 
sixteen  to  266.  He  visited  Mexico  in  1895  an^ 
made  a  trip  around  the  world  in  1907,  studying 
the  mission  work  in  Japan,  China,  Burma,  In- 
dia, and  Italy.  Upon  his  return  to  America,  he 
interpreted  foreign  missions  in  a  broader  way 
but  with  no  less  enthusiasm.  One-third  of  his 
time  was  spent  traveling  over  the  widely  extend- 
ed territory  of  the  Southern  Baptist  Convention 
and  under  the  strain  of  his  unceasing  labors  his 
health  failed.  At  his  death  he  was  buried  in 
Hollywood,  Richmond,  Va. 

[E.  W.  Willingham,  Life  of  Robert  Josiah  Willing- 
ham (1917);  The  Religions  Herald,  Dec.  24,  1914; 
Who's  Who  in  America,  1914-15  ;  Annual  of  the  South- 
ern Baptist  Convention,  191 5;  Foreign  Mission  Jour., 
1893-1914;  Richmond  Times-Dispatch,  Dec.  21,  1914.] 

R.  W.  W— r. 

WILLIS,  ALBERT  SHELBY  (Jan.  22, 1843- 
Jan.  6,  1897),  congressman,  diplomat,  was  born 
in  Shelbyville,  Shelby  County,  Ky.,  a  son  of  Dr. 
Shelby  Willis  and  Harriet  (Button)  Willis.  At 
the  age  of  seven  he  removed  to  Louisville  with 
his  widowed  mother,  and  he  made  his  residence 
in  that  city  during  the  remainder  of  his  life.  He 
attended  the  common  schools  and  graduated  from 
the  Male  High  School  in  i860,  then  taught  for 
two  years,  studied  law,  and  graduated  from 
Louisville  Law  School  at  the  age  of  twenty,  too 
young  to  be  admitted  to  the  bar.  After  another 
year  of  teaching  he  entered  law  practice  in  part- 
nership with  his  stepfather,  J.  L.  Clemmons,  a 
prominent  lawyer  of  Louisville.  In  1872  he  was 
presidential  elector  (Democratic)  from  the 
Louisville  district  and  in  1874  was  elected  coun- 
ty attorney  of  Jefferson  County,  which  office  he 
held  until  1877.  In  1876  he  was  elected  to  Con- 
gress. He  served  five  terms  in  the  House  of 
Representatives  (1877-87),  making  an  excellent 
though  not  a  distinguished  record.  During  the 
last  two  terms  he  was  chairman  of  the  committee 
on  rivers  and  harbors. 


3°4 


Willis 

After  retiring  from  Congress,  Willis  engaged 
in  the  practice  of  law  until  September  1893,  when 
President  Cleveland  appointed  him  envoy  ex- 
traordinary and  minister  plenipotentiary  to  Ha- 
waii. It  was  a  strange  and  difficult  mission  to 
which  he  was  called.  In  the  islands  a  Provisional 
Government  was  in  power,  following  the  revolu- 
tion of  January  1893.  President  Cleveland,  on 
coming  into  office  in  March  of  that  year,  had 
withdrawn  from  the  Senate  the  annexation  treaty 
negotiated  by  the  Harrison  administration  and 
had  sent  J.  H.  Blount  [q.v.]  to  Hawaii  to  make 
an  investigation.  On  the  basis  of  Blount's  re- 
port, Cleveland  adopted  the  policy  of  attempting 
to  restore  in  the  islands  the  status  existing  be- 
fore the  outbreak  of  the  revolution.  Willis  was 
the  instrument  selected  to  put  this  policy  into 
effect.  Though  he  was  accredited  in  the  usual 
diplomatic  form  to  the  Provisional  Government, 
it  was  his  business  to  induce  that  government  to 
terminate  its  own  existence  and  submit  to  the 
authority  of  the  deposed  Queen,  from  whom  a 
pledge  was  to  be  required  that  she  would  grant 
full  amnesty  to  the  revolutionists. 

Willis  arrived  in  Honolulu  Nov.  4,  1893;  it 
was  nearly  three  weeks  later  before  the  Hawaiian 
government  received,  not  from  him  but  through 
reports  from  Washington,  the  first  definite  indi- 
cation of  the  nature  of  Cleveland's  policy.  Wil- 
lis meantime  suppressed  whatever  doubts  he  may 
have  had  as  to  the  wisdom  of  the  policy — there  is 
reason  to  believe  he  had  some  doubts — and  went 
cautiously  about  his  business.  With  some  diffi- 
culty the  Queen  was  induced  to  agree  to  grant 
a  complete  amnesty  if  President  Cleveland  suc- 
ceeded in  getting  her  back  on  the  throne,  but  the 
Provisional  Government,  through  its  foreign 
minister,  Sanford  B.  Dole  [q.v.],  emphatically 
declined  to  acquiesce  when  the  restoration  plan 
was  presented  to  it  by  Willis,  and  the  whole  proj- 
ect fell  to  the  ground.  The  Cleveland  policy  and 
its  carrying  out  was  a  quixotic  enterprise  and 
its  only  important  practical  result  in  Hawaii 
was  further  to  embitter  the  situation.  Willis 
performed  his  disagreeable  task  with  perhaps  as 
much  tact  and  consideration  as  was  possible  un- 
der the  circumstances.  He  continued  in  office  as 
minister  three  years  longer,  until  his  death,  and 
despite  a  number  of  irritating  incidents  won  the 
respect  and  friendly  regard  of  all  elements  in  the 
community.  His  death  in  Honolulu  was  the  re- 
sult of  a  prolonged  illness  and  shock  due  to  an 
accident.  Willis  was  married  Nov.  20,  1878,  to 
Florence  Dulaney  of  Louisville,  and  was  sur- 
vived by  his  wife  and  one  son.  He  was  one  of 
the  founders  and  for  some  years  president  of  the 
Sun  Life  Insurance  Company. 


Willis 

[Papers  Relating  to  the  Foreign  Relations  of  the 
U.  S.,  1894  (App.  II),  1895,  1896,  1897;  manuscript 
records  of  the  Provisional  Government  in  Archives  ol 
Hawaii  ;  letter  by  Willis  printed  in  Robert  McElroy, 
Grovcr  Cleveland  (1923),  II,  63-64;  Biog.  Dir.  Am. 
Cong.  (1928);  J.  J.  McAfee,  Ky.  Politicians  (1S86); 
N.  Y.  Herald,  Sept.  9,  1893;  Courier-Journal  (Louis- 
ville, Ky.),  Jan.  16,  1897  ;  Hawaiian  Star  and  Evening 
Bulletin  (both  of  Honolulu),  Jan.  6,  1897  ;  Pacific  Com- 
mercial Advertiser  (Honolulu),  Jan.  7,  9,  1897.] 

R.  S.K— 1. 

WILLIS,  NATHANIEL  (June  6,  1780-May 
26,  1870),  editor,  journalist,  was  born  in  Boston, 
Mass.,  the  son  of  Nathaniel  and  Lucy  (Douglas) 
Willis,  and  the  sixth  in  descent  from  George 
Willis  who  emigrated  from  England  to  America 
about  1630.  He  eventually  became  well  known 
in  Boston  as  Deacon  Willis,  the  title  serving  to 
distinguish  him  from  his  more  famous  son  and 
namesake,  and  from  his  father,  both  of  whom 
were  also  journalists.  His  father,  Nathaniel 
Willis  (Feb.  7,  1755-Apr.  1,  1831),  was  part 
owner  of  the  militant  Independent  Chronicle  of 
Boston,  and  served  during  the  Revolution  as  ad- 
jutant of  a  regiment  under  the  command  of  Gen. 
John  Sullivan.  In  1784  he  sold  his  interest  in 
the  Chronicle  and  pioneered  westward,  establish- 
ing newspapers  in  Virginia  at  Winchester,  Shep- 
ardstown,  and  Martinsburg.  Finally,  following 
closely  William  Maxwell  [q.z\],  the  earlier  pub- 
lisher in  the  Northwestern  Territory,  he  found- 
ed in  Chillicothe,  Ohio,  the  Sciota  Gazette. 

The  son  had  been  left  in  Boston  when  his  fa- 
ther moved  to  Virginia,  but  at  the  age  of  seven 
he  was  sent  for  and  put  to  work  in  the  shop  at 
Winchester.  He  continued  in  his  father's  serv- 
ice until  he  was  sixteen,  when  he  returned  to 
Boston  to  complete  his  apprenticeship.  After 
serving  two  additional  years  as  a  journeyman, 
he  married  and  moved  to  Portland,  Me.,  to  en- 
ter political  journalism.  In  September  1803  he 
established  there  the  Eastern  Argus  in  opposition 
to  the  Federal  party,  but  his  experience  was  un- 
fortunate. Among  other  reverses  he  lost  the  de- 
cision in  a  suit  against  him  for  libel.  Unable  to 
pay  the  judgment,  he  suffered  a  prison  sentence 
of  ninety  days.  In  1807,  however,  under  the  in- 
fluence of  the  Rev.  Edward  Payson  [q.v.~\  of 
Portland,  he  began  his  lifelong  devotion  to  the 
letter  of  the  Christian  law.  After  his  conversion 
so  many  religious  expressions  continued  to  ap- 
pear in  the  Argus  that  its  political  supporters 
forced  him  to  sell  it  (1809).  He  opened  a  gro- 
cery store,  but  he  scrupled  at  selling  rum,  and 
the  business  failed.  In  the  meantime,  a  plan  came 
to  him  for  joining  his  skill  as  a  practical  jour- 
nalist with  his  increasing  interest  in  religion. 
He  removed  to  Boston  (1812)  and  after  several 
years  of  effort  began  the  publication  on  Jan.  3, 
1816,   of  the  Recorder    (later  the  Boston  Re- 


3°S 


Willis 


Willis 


carder),  which  he  asserted  to  be  the  first  reli- 
gious newspaper  in  the  world.  Anent  an  old  con- 
troversy as  to  whether  he  or  Sidney  E.  Morse 
[g.T'.]  founded  the  Recorder,  it  may  be  said  that 
only  Willis'  name,  given  as  the  publisher,  ap- 
pears in  the  first  issue.  Morse  certainly  acted  as 
the  first  editor,  but  withdrew  on  Apr.  i,  1817. 
With  the  help  of  subsequent  editors  Willis  was 
associated  with  the  paper  for  twenty-eight  years. 
He  became  identified  with  the  Park  Street 
Church  as  Deacon  Willis,  and  was  known  dur- 
ing his  long  life  for  his  rigid  and  formal  piety. 
An  impression  of  his  formalism,  however,  should 
be  tempered  by  a  remembrance  of  his  ultimate 
and  finest  contribution  to  journalism,  the  Youth's 
Companion.  Originated  in  the  Recorder  as  a  de- 
partment for  children,  the  feature  was  produced 
in  separate  covers  in  June  1827,  and  afforded 
wholesome,  albeit  intensely  didactic  literary  ad- 
ventures for  several  generations  of  young  people. 
Hannah  Parker  of  Holliston,  Mass.,  had  be- 
come Willis'  wife  on  July  21,  1803.  In  addition 
to  their  eldest  son,  Nathaniel  Parker  Willis 
[q.v.~\,  three  others  of  the  nine  children  showed 
the  influence  of  their  father's  profession.  It  was 
to  their  mother,  however,  that  Nathaniel  Parker 
Willis  ascribed  his  "quicksilver  spirit."  Her 
personal  attractiveness  touched  by  the  restraint 
of  her  husband's  piety,  she  devoted  her  life  to  a 
Christian  training  for  her  children,  but  to  more 
than  one  of  them  she  imparted  a  comeliness  and 
a  worldly  charm  absent  in  Deacon  Willis  and  his 
progenitors.  Sarah  Payson  Willis,  writing  un- 
der the  pseudonym  "Fanny  Fern,"  created  a 
widely  popular  series  of  stories  for  children. 
Julia  Dean  Willis  wrote  many  of  the  unsigned 
book  reviews  in  the  Home  Journal  (New  York). 
Richard  Storrs  Willis  became  the  editor  of  Mu- 
sical World,  and  composed  both  music  and 
poetry.  After  the  death  of  his  wife  (Mar.  21, 
1844),  Willis  married  Mrs.  Susan  (Capen) 
Douglas.  He  continued  to  edit  the  Youth's  Com- 
panion until  1857,  when  he  sold  it  to  J.  W.  Olm- 
stead  and  Daniel  Sharp  Ford  [q.v.~\,  who  re- 
tained his  name  as  senior  editor. 

[Nathaniel  Willis,  "Autobiog.  of  a  Journalist,"  in 
Frederic  Hudson,  Journalism  in  the  L  S.  from  1690 
to  1872  (1873)  ;  The  Willis  Geneal.  (1863),  ed.  by  Ab- 
ner  Morse;  F.  L.  Mott,  A  Hist,  of  Am.  Mags.,  1741- 
1850  (1930);  H.  A.  Beers,  Nathaniel  Parker  Willis 
( 1885)  ;  death  notice  and  editorial  in  Boston  Transcript, 
May  27,  1870.]  K.L.  D. 

WILLIS,  NATHANIEL  PARKER  (Jan.  20, 
1806-Jan.  20,  1867),  journalist,  poet,  editor, 
dramatist,  was  born  in  Portland,  Me.,  the  second 
child  of  Nathaniel  and  Hannah  (Parker)  Willis. 
Six  years  later  his  father,  Nathaniel  Willis, 
1780-1870   [q.v.],  removed  with  his  family  to 


Boston.  Young  Willis  attended  the  Boston  Latin 
School  and  prepared  for  Yale  at  Andover.  In 
his  seventeenth  year  his  first  verses  appeared  in 
his  father's  Boston  Recorder,  and  while  still  an 
undergraduate  at  Yale,  signing  usually  "Roy" 
or  "Cassius,"  he  became  nationally  known  as  a 
poet.  His  verse  paraphrases  of  Biblical  themes 
were  widely  admired  in  the  magazines,  and  a  col- 
lection of  them  chiefly  make  up  Sketches  (1827), 
published  in  the  year  of  his  graduation.  After 
earning  his  degree  Willis  turned  in  earnest  to 
journalism.  For  Samuel  G.  Goodrich  [q.v.]  he 
edited  two  issues  of  The  Legendary  (1828)  and 
an  annual,  The  Token  (1829).  Striking  out  for 
himself  in  his  twenty-third  year,  he  established 
in  Boston  (April  1829)  the  American  Monthly 
Magazine.  The  venture  existed  for  two  and  a 
half  years  in  spite  of  contrary  prophecies  from 
established  rivals.  Willis  soon  struck  a  stylistic 
pose  which  greatly  offended  his  sober-minded 
critics.  He  pretended  to  write  at  a  rosewood 
desk  in  a  crimson-curtained  sanctum ;  he  invent- 
ed a  French  valet,  wrote  of  his  ever-fresh  japon- 
ica,  and  invited  his  readers  to  imagine  them- 
selves on  a  dormeuse  with  a  bottle  of  Rudes- 
heimer  and  a  plate  of  olives  before  them.  There 
is  suggestive  evidence  that  Poe's  early  burlesque, 
"The  Due  de  l'Omelette,"  is  aimed  good-natured- 
ly at  the  audacious  young  editor,  but  most  of 
his  critics  were  unamused  in  denouncing  his  lit- 
erary and  personal  affectations.  Goodrich  al- 
leged that  some  of  these  attacks  were  "dictated 
by  envy,  for  we  have  had  no  other  example  of 
literary  success  so  early,  so  general,  and  so 
flattering"  (Recollections  of  a  Lifetime,  1856, 
11,266). 

Quitting  his  magazine  and  Boston  for  New 
York,  Willis  formed  an  association  with  George 
Pope  Morris  ['?.».],  who  was  editing  the  New- 
York  Mirror.  A  plan  was  soon  conceived  to  send 
Willis  abroad  as  a  foreign  correspondent.  Five 
hundred  dollars  were  found  for  his  first  ex- 
penses, and  Morris  promised  ten  dollars  for  each 
weekly  letter  written  for  the  Mirror.  The  twen- 
ty-five-year-old Willis  of  this  time  was  later  re- 
called by  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  \_q.v.~\  as 
"young  .  .  .  and  already  famous  .  .  .  He  was  tall ; 
his  hair,  of  light  brown  color,  waved  in  luxuri- 
ant abundance  .  .  .  He  was  something  between 
a  remembrance  of  Count  D'Orsay  and  an  antici- 
pation of  Oscar  Wilde"  (The  Writings  of  Oliver 
Wendell  Holmes,  VII,  189 1,  p.  4,  Riverside  ed.). 
Willis  had,  indeed,  increased  his  fame  by  publish- 
ing two  more  books,  Fugitive  Poetry  (1829) 
and  Poem  Delivered  before  the  Society  of  Unit- 
ed Brothers  ( 183 1 ) ,  but  even  though  he  was  con- 
scious of  his  handsome  appearance,  his  elegant 

06 


Willis 

taste  in  dress,  and  his  ability  for  meeting  and 
pleasing  people  of  importance,  he  could  scarcely 
have  dreamed  of  the  dazzling  adventures  which 
lay  before  him.  The  speculative  trip  extended 
for  nearly  five  years,  and  he  became  for  the  time, 
Irving  and  Cooper  excepted,  the  most  famous 
American  man  of  letters  abroad.  The  details  of 
his  travels  may  be  followed  in  the  letters,  col- 
lected as  Pencilling*  by  the  Way  (1844),  which 
appeared  irregularly  in  the  Mirror  from  Feb. 
13,  1832.  Beginning  in  France,  Willis  sauntered 
through  Europe,  making  his  way,  as  he  wrote  to 
his  sister,  "without  a  sou  in  the  world  beyond 
what  my  pen  brings  me."  In  Paris  the  Ameri- 
can minister  made  him  an  attache.  In  Florence 
he  was  dined  by  the  ex-king  of  Westphalia,  and 
he  became  intimate  enough  with  Walter  Savage 
Landor  to  incur  his  displeasure,  which  stands  re- 
corded in  an  addendum  to  the  first  edition  of 
Pericles  and  Aspasia.  After  a  six  months'  cruise 
on  the  Mediterranean  he  made  his  way  to  Eng- 
land, arriving  at  Dover,  June  1,  1834.  Offers 
from  English  periodicals  awaited  him,  and  he 
was  soon  contributing  over  the  signature  "Phil- 
ip Slingsby"  to  the  Metropolitan  Monthly,  the 
Court  Magazine,  and  the  New  Monthly.  Spon- 
sored by  Lady  Blessington,  he  was  bidden  to  the 
drawing-rooms  graced  by  Disraeli,  Moore,  Bul- 
wer,  and  their  circle.  Through  another  connec- 
tion there  was  a  breakfast  with  Charles  and 
Mary  Lamb.  Barry  Cornwall  wrote  an  intro- 
duction for  his  first  English  publication,  Mclanie 
and  Other  Poems  (1835).  He  became  fast 
friends  with  Joanna  Baillie  and  Jane  Porter,  and 
Mary  Russell  Mitford  wrote  to  a  friend  that 
he  w;..  'more  like  one  of  the  best  of  our  peers' 
sons  than  a  rough  republican"  (Beers,  post,  p. 
142).  Through  the  Skinners  of  Shirley  Park  he 
met  Mary  Stace,  a  daughter  of  Gen.  William 
Stace  of  Woolwich,  whom  he  married  Oct.  1, 
1835,  after  a  brief  courtship. 

Willis'  success  in  England  was  marred  by  his 
indiscretions  in  too  freely  reporting  his  observa- 
tions to  his  American  readers.  J.  G.  Lockhart 
began  the  attack  with  a  scathing  review  {Lon- 
don Quarterly,  Sept.  1835)  °f tne  original  Mirror 
letters.  The  Tory  press  followed  Lockhart's 
lead,  and,  among  others,  Harriet  Martineau  and 
Capt.  Frederick  Marryat  were  bitterly  censori- 
ous. Willis  came  through  the  ordeal,  losing  none 
of  his  personal  friends  or  rights  of  social  entry, 
although  only  the  intervention  of  seconds  kept 
him  from  engaging  Marryat  in  combat  on  the 
duelling  field.  With  his  bride  he  left  England 
for  America  in  May  1836.  Before  sailing  he  had 
published  a  collection  of  the  "Slingsby"  papers 
as  Inklings  of  Adventure  (3  vols.,  1836).    By 


Willis 

this  time  he  was  among  the  best  paid  of  Ameri- 
can writers,  but  he  seems  not  to  have  been  able 
to  trust  journalism  to  supply  a  livelihood.  He 
tried  in  vain  for  a  diplomatic  secretaryship  and 
soon  turned  his  talents  to  a  new  field.  His  play, 
Bianca  Visconti  (1839),  a  tragedy,  was  pro- 
duced with  moderate  success  at  the  Park  Thea- 
tre in  New  York  on  Aug.  25,  1837.  "The  Ken- 
tucky Heiress"  was  a  stage  failure,  never  pub- 
lished. With  Tortcsa,  or  the  Usurer  Matched 
(1839)  he  was  more  fortunate,  winning  Poe's 
judgment  that  it  was  "by  far  the  best  play  from 
the  pen  of  an  American  author"  (Burton's  Gen- 
tleman's Magazine,  Aug.  1839).  He  also  con- 
tinued to  travel  and  write  for  the  Mirror,  dating 
his  sketches  from  Washington,  where  he  de- 
scribed Van  Buren's  inauguration,  and  from 
Niagara,  where  he  had  gone  to  prepare  the  let- 
ter-press for  American  Scenery  (2  vols.,  1840). 
During  these  travels  he  discovered  and  bought 
an  estate  on  Owego  Creek,  and  established  there 
a  country  home,  "Glenmary."  From  this  retreat 
he  wrote  for  the  Mirror  "Letters  from  under  a 
Bridge,"  collected  as  A  I'Abri;  or,  the  Tent 
Pitch'd  (1839).  A  difference  with  Morris,  the 
only  obvious  rift  in  their  long  friendship,  now 
prompted  Willis  to  join  Dr.  T.  O.  Porter  in  es- 
tablishing the  Corsair,  a  short-lived  weekly 
(Mar.  16,  1839-Mar.  7,  1840),  significant  in  the 
fight  for  an  international  law  of  copyright.  The 
management  was  left  to  Porter,  Willis  sailing 
for  a  second  visit  to  England,  this  time  to  be 
gone  but  a  year.  His  Pcncillings  by  the  Way 
had  reached  a  fourth  London  edition,  and  Loiter- 
ings  of  Travel  (3  vols.,  1840)  was  soon  on  the 
English  market.  Perhaps  of  greatest  interest 
during  this  visit  was  his  engagement  of  Thack- 
eray to  write  for  the  Corsair  at  "a  guinea  a  close 
column  .  .  .  cheaper  than  I  ever  did  anything  in 
my  life,"  as  Willis  wrote  to  Porter  (Beers,  post, 
p.  254).  His  American  popularity  of  this  time 
may  be  indicated  by  the  anecdote  which  tells  of 
a  commercial  gentleman  who  "guessed  Goethe 
was  the  N.  P.  Willis  of  Germany."  Upon  his 
return  home  in  the  spring  of  1840,  rates  con- 
sidered widely  munificent  were  paid  him  by 
Graham's,  Godey's,  and  other  periodicals.  He 
was  forced,  however,  by  a  press  of  circumstances 
to  give  up  his  country  estate,  doing  so  with  a 
deep  regret  wistfully  expressed  in  the  once- 
famous  "Letter  to  the  Unknown  Purchaser  and 
Next  Occupant  of  Glenmary."  Removing  to  New 
York,  he  rejoined  Morris,  and  as  editors  of  the 
New  Mirror,  a  weekly,  soon  changed  to  the  Eve- 
ning Mirror,  a  daily,  they  began  a  partnership 
lasting  until  Morris'  death.  Willis  regularly  con- 
tributed his  own  poems,  stories,  and  miscellane- 


3°7 


Willis 


Willis 


ous  papers.  The  poems  were  chiefly  vers  de 
societe,  but  among  them  was  his  effective  "Un- 
seen Spirits,"  praised  by  Poe.  It  was  for  the 
Evening  Mirror  that  Willis  employed  Poe,  mark- 
ing the  beginning  of  their  personal  friendship, 
which  was  to  continue  generous  and  helpful  on 
Willis'  part,  and  to  culminate  in  his  refutation 
{Home  Journal,  Oct.  1849)  of  Rufus  M.  Gris- 
wold's  "Ludwig"  article  on  the  death  of  Poe 
(Daily  Tribune,  Oct.  9,  1849). 

His  good  fortune  was  tinged  with  sorrow  by 
the  death  of  his  mother  (1844)  and  of  his  wife 
in  childbirth  (1845).  Seeking  solace,  he  em- 
barked with  his  small  daughter,  Imogen,  for  a 
third  and  last  journey  to  England  and  the  Con- 
tinent. His  Dashes  at  Life  with  a  Free  Pencil 
(1845)  had  gone  to  press  before  he  left  America, 
and  his  "Invalid  Letters  from  Europe"  were  col- 
lected in  Rural  Letters  (1849)  and  in  Famous 
Persons  and  Places  ( 1854).  Morris  in  the  mean- 
time had  withdrawn  from  the  Evening  Mirror, 
and  upon  Willis'  return  in  1846  he  joined  Morris 
in  his  National  Press,  which  they  renamed  the 
Home  Journal,  their  final  and  most  prosperous 
engagement.  Willis  married  a  second  time  on 
Oct.  1,  1846,  choosing  Cornelia  Grinnell,  nearly 
twenty  years  his  junior,  and  acclaimed  for  her 
grace,  intellect,  and  energy.  Together  they  began 
an  active  life  in  New  York,  Willis  portraying 
the  news  of  fashion  with  Pepysian  acumen  for 
the  Home  Journal  and  becoming  himself  a  color- 
ful part  of  the  daily  Broadway  scene.  Lowell's 
A  Fable  for  Critics  records,  "He'd  have  been  just 
the  fellow  to  sup  at  the  Mermaid,"  and  named 
him  "the  topmost  bright  bubble  on  the  wave 
of  the  Town."  Interpretative  of  Willis'  whole 
work  also  is  Lowell's  "  'Tis  not  deep  as  a  river, 
but  who'd  have  it  deep  ?"  Not  so  keen-visioned, 
however,  were  some  of  the  critical  journalists, 
Willis'  character  and  his  work  becoming  their 
target  for  merciless  onslaughts.  As  all  evidence 
makes  of  Willis  a  most  urbane  gentleman,  these 
personal  attacks  culminating  in  Ruth  Hall  (copy- 
right 1854),  a  mordant  satire  by  his  sister, 
"Fanny  Fern,"  are  best  explained  by  a  note  in  his 
own  commonplace  book:  "A  name  too  soon  fa- 
mous is  a  heavy  weight."  In  addition  to  the 
strain  of  steeling  himself  against  his  persistent 
critics,  he  became  involved  in  the  notorious  di- 
vorce trial  of  Edwin  Forrest  \_q.v.~].  With  Mrs. 
Willis  he  joined  Bryant,  Parke  Godwin,  and 
others  siding  with  Mrs.  Forrest.  As  a  conse- 
quence, he  was  not  only  compromised  by  Forrest 
but  suffered  a  bodily  assault  at  the  hands  of  the 
actor. 

In  1852  slowly  failing  health  sent  him  to  Ber- 
muda and  the  West  Indies,  which  brought  more 


travel  letters  collected  as  Health  Trip  to  the 
Tropics  (1853).  With  the  single  exception  of 
his  one  and  unsuccessful  novel,  Paul  Fane 
(1857),  his  books  were  almost  wholly  made  up 
from  his  magazine  pieces,  but  for  most  of  them 
there  was  a  demand  for  simultaneous  editions 
in  England  and  America.  More  remarkable,  he 
was  able  to  sell  reissues  of  his  earlier  work  in 
new  editions  with  new  titles ;  practically  all  his 
short  stories  were  republished  after  1850  in 
People  I  Have  Met  ( 1850) ,  Life  Here  and  There 
(1850),  and  Fun  Jottings  (1853).  In  further 
search  of  health,  in  1853  he  again  set  up  a  coun- 
try seat,  "Idlewild,"  not  far  from  Irving's  "Sun- 
nyside"  on  the  Hudson.  Here  in  his  family 
circle — which  ultimately  included  two  more 
daughters  and  two  sons,  Grinnell  and  Bailey — 
there  were  a  few  happy  years  still  in  store  for 
him.  Through  his  weekly  letters  to  the  Home 
Journal  "Idlewild"  became  a  celebrated  place, 
and  there  were  famous  visits  from  Bayard  Tay- 
lor, Charles  A.  Dana,  James  T.  Fields  [qq.v.] 
and  others,  including  his  neighbor,  Washington 
Irving  \_q.v.~\.  The  Civil  War  brought  Willis 
to  Washington  as  the  Home  Journal's  corre- 
spondent. His  name  gave  him  social  right  of 
way,  and  he  became  a  pronounced  favorite  with 
Mrs.  Lincoln,  but  his  kind  of  genius  found  little 
inspiration  in  the  troubled  capital.  The  death  of 
Morris  in  1864  brought  added  editorial  burdens 
which  rapidly  drained  his  failing  mind  and  body. 
He  died  at  "Idlewild."  The  funeral  was  in  Bos- 
ton, and  the  burial  at  Mount  Auburn.  Holmes, 
Dana,  Longfellow,  and  Lowell  were  among  the 
bearers  of  his  pall.  The  legion  of  readers  once 
eager  for  the  latest  from  the  "Penciller  by  the 
Way"  has  few  descendants.  The  critical  rule  at 
first  ordered  him  dismissed  as  "gigantic  in  his 
contemporaneousness"  (G.  E.  Woodberry,  Amer- 
ica in  Literature,  1903,  p.  63),  but  revised  judg- 
ment has  accorded  him  a  place  of  importance  in 
the  development  of  the  short  story  (F.  L.  Pattee, 
The  Development  of  the  American  Short  Story, 
1923,  pp.  78-88).  Journalism  owes  him  a  debt, 
and  greater  favor  may  yet  be  shown  to  his  epis- 
tolary essays,  which  recreate  with  quick,  bright 
strokes  the  famous  persons  and  places  of  an  age 
now  quite  of  the  past. 

[See  H.  A.  Beers,  Nathaniel  Parker  Willis  (1885)  ; 
Obit.  Record  Grads.  Yale  Univ.,  July  1867;  R.  E.  Spil- 
ler,  The  American  in  England  (1926)  ;  G.  C.  D.  Odell, 
Annals  of  the  N.  Y.  Stage,  vol.  IV  (1928)  ;  H.  T.  Peck, 
in  Bookman,  Sept.  1906;  K.  L.  Daughrity,  in  Am.  Lit., 
Mar.  1933  ;  The  Works  of  Edgar  Allan  Poe,  vol.  V 
(1884),  pp.  440-49  ;  and  obituary  in  N.  Y.  Times,  Jan. 
22,  1867.  A  biog.  of  Willis  is  being  prepared  by  K.  L. 
Daughrity.  There  are  Willis  letters  in  MS.  in  the  Yale 
Univ.  Lib.,  and  a  fragmentary  diary  of  Willis'  and  let- 
ters from  Jane  Porter  to  Willis  in  the  pub.  lib.  of  Mor- 
ristown,  N.  J.     Acknowledgment  for  interest  and  aid 

308 


Willis 

is  made  to  Prof.  S.  T.  Williams  of  Yale  Univ.  and  to 
Katherine  Cappert  Willis,  widow  of  Grinnell  Willis.] 

K.L.  D. 

WILLIS,  OLYMPIA  BROWN  [See  Brown, 
Olympia,  1835-1926]. 

WILLIS,  WILLIAM  (Aug.  31,  1794-Feb.  17, 
1870),  historian  of  Maine,  was  born  in  Haver- 
hill, Mass.,  the  second  son  of  Benjamin  and 
Mary  (McKinstry)  Willis.  His  father,  one  of 
the  leading  merchant  shipowners  of  the  Haver- 
hill-Newburyport  district,  removed  with  his 
family  to  Portland  in  1803.  William  went  first 
to  Phillips  Exeter  Academy  and  then  was  grad- 
uated from  Harvard  College  in  1813.  He  re- 
turned to  Portland  and  began  reading  law  in  the 
office  of  Prentiss  Mellen  \_q.v.~\.  When  the  whole 
Willis  family  removed  to  Boston  in  1815,  he 
continued  his  law  studies  there  under  Peter  O. 
Thacher  and  was  admitted  to  the  Suffolk  bar  in 
1817.  For  a  year  or  two  he  dallied  with  the  idea 
of  a  commercial  career,  but  in  1819  he  returned 
to  Portland  to  enter  a  partnership  with  Prentiss 
Mellen,  but  this  relationship  was  dissolved  the 
next  year,  when  Mellen  became  chief  justice  of 
the  new  state.  In  1835  Willis  took,  as  a  younger 
partner,  William  Pitt  Fessenden  [q.v.~\,  and  this 
association  lasted  for  almost  twenty  years.  On 
Sept.  1,  1823,  he  had  married  Julia  Whitman, 
daughter  of  Ezekiel  Whitman  [q.z>.~\.  They  had 
eight  children.  Although  allied  with  distin- 
guished members  of  the  bench  and  bar  in  Maine, 
Willis'  interest  in  the  law  was  secondary  to  his 
other  concerns.  He  was  an  office,  not  a  court, 
lawyer  and  always  resented  the  drudgery  of  the 
legal  profession. 

For  fifty  years  he  filled  the  role  of  a  "sub- 
stantial citizen"  of  Portland.  Although  he  had 
no  desire  for  political  office  he  was  at  one  time 
or  another  senator  in  the  state  legislature,  mayor 
of  Portland,  presidential  elector,  bank  commis- 
sioner, and  chairman  of  the  state  board  of  rail- 
road commissioners.  His  considerable  business 
interests  included  a  directorship  and  vice-presi- 
dency in  a  Portland  bank  and  the  presidency  of 
the  Maine  Central  Railroad.  He  was  an  early 
advocate  of  the  advantages  of  the  railroad  for 
Portland  and  stimulated  her  efforts  to  obtain  rail 
connections  with  Canada  and  the  West.  A  main- 
stay of  the  Unitarian  Church,  he  was  still  a  con- 
servative in  religious  matters  and  a  humani- 
tarian busy  in  innumerable  causes  ranging  from 
the  wood  fund  for  poor  widows  to  the  recreation 
of  the  city  library  after  the  great  fire  of  1866. 
His  avocations  were  his  life.  His  diaries  reveal 
his  love  and  care  for  his  gardens  of  fine  roses 
and  his  cold-house  grapery.  He  found  satisfac- 
tion for  his  cultured  tastes  in  the  meetings  of  a 


Williston 

group  known  as  the  "Portland  Wits,"  whose  in- 
terests were  literary  and  historical.  For  the 
newspapers  he  wrote  sketches  of  old  houses,  ar- 
ticles on  the  weather,  past  and  present,  detailed 
obituaries  of  rich  and  poor,  and  episodic  accounts 
of  Maine  history.  Successively  secretary,  treas- 
urer, and  finally  president  of  the  Maine  Histori- 
cal Society  he  was  also  the  editor  of  the  first  six 
volumes  of  its  Collections  (1831-59),  and  all  but 
the  third  volume  of  these  contained  at  least  one 
article  from  his  pen.  His  chief  works  were  The 
History  of  Portland,  issued  in  two  volumes 
(1831-33  and  2nd  ed.  1865),  and  A  History  of 
the  Law,  the  Courts,  and  the  Lawyers  of  Maine 
(1863).  Only  the  early  adoption  of  systematic 
methods  of  investigation  and  a  retentive  memory 
enabled  him  to  produce  this  historical  flood.  He 
died  on  a  bed  that  had  been  set  up  in  his  library. 
[The  Necrology  of  Harvard  College,  1869-1872 
(1872)  ;  C.  H.  Hart,  A  Tribute  to  the  Memory  of  Hon. 
William  Willis.  Read  before  the  Numismatic  and 
Antiquarian  Society  of  Phila.  .  .  .  Mar.  3,  1870  (1870)  ; 
A.  W.  Packard,  "Notice  of  Hon.  William  Willis,"  Me. 
Hist.  Soc.  Colls.,  vol.  VII  (1876)  ;  Pauline  Willis,  Wil- 
lis Records   (1906);   Portland  Daily  Advertiser,  Feb. 

17,  1870;  Daily  Portland  Press,  Feb.  18,  1870.] 

E.  C.  K— d. 

WILLISTON,  SAMUEL  (June  17, 1795-July 

18,  1874),  philanthropist,  was  born  at  Easthamp- 
ton,  Mass.,  the  son  of  Sarah  (Birdseye)  and 
Payson  Williston.  His  father  was  a  graduate  of 
Yale  College,  the  first  pastor  of  the  first  church 
in  that  town,  the  descendant  of  Joseph  Willis- 
ton  who  was  born  in  Windsor,  Conn.,  before 
1667  and  cousin  of  Seth  Williston  [q.v.J.  Sam- 
uel obtained  his  early  education  in  the  district 
school,  supplemented  by  study  with  his  father. 
He  spent  a  term  at  the  West  field  Academy  and  a 
year,  1814-15,  at  Phillips  Academy  at  Andover 
but  suffered  a  good  deal  of  difficulty  with  his  eye- 
sight. After  several  years  in  farm  work  and  in 
stores  at  West  Springfield  and  in  New  York, 
where  he  became  a  member  of  the  Brick  Pres- 
byterian Church  under  the  Rev.  Gardiner  Spring 
[q.v.],  he  returned  to  Easthampton  in  1822. 
With  his  father's  assistance  he  bought  a  farm  on 
which  he  began  to  work  with  energy  and  enter- 
prise, adding  school-teaching  during  the  winter 
months.  On  May  27  of  that  year  he  married 
Emily  Graves  of  Williamsburg.  They  had  four 
children,  all  of  whom  died  young,  and  they 
adopted  one  son  and  three  daughters.  To  aug- 
ment the  family  income,  his  wife  began  covering 
buttons  by  hand.  He  promoted  the  sale  of  the 
product,  employed  others,  and  in  a  few  years  had 
the  buttons  covered  in  a  thousand  families  in 
western  Massachusetts.  He  formed  a  partner- 
ship with  Joseph  and  Joel  Hayden  of  Hayden- 
ville,  Mass.  (see  sketch  of  Joseph  Shepard  Hay- 


3°9 


Williston 


Williston 


den).  They  manufactured  die  product,  while 
Williston  promoted  the  enterprise  and  furnished 
the  capital.  On  the  dissolution  of  the  partner- 
ship in  1847,  the  business  was  removed  to  East- 
hampton,  where  other  factories  for  the  manu- 
facture of  suspenders,  rubber  thread,  and  cotton 
were  established. 

In  addition  to  his  business  enterprises  in  East- 
hampton,  he  was  interested  in  business  corpo- 
rations, such  as  banks,  railroads,  gas  and  wa- 
ter-power companies  in  Easthampton,  Northamp- 
ton, Holyoke,  and  elsewhere,  of  many  of  which 
he  was  president.  He  interested  himself  in  poli- 
tics, but  after  a  term  in  the  lower  house  of  the 
state  legislature  in  1841  and  two  terms  in  the 
Senate,  1842  and  1843,  he  declined  further  public 
office.  He  is  best  known  as  a  promoter  of  religious 
and  charitable  enterprises,  to  which  he  gave 
over  $1,000,000  during  his  lifetime.  In  1841  he 
founded  Williston  Seminary  at  Easthampton 
and  served  as  president  of  the  board  of  trustees 
for  thirty-three  years.  He  became  a  trustee  of 
Amherst  College  in  1841  and  served  the  rest  of 
his  life.  Including  the  endowment  of  three  im- 
portant professorships  there,  his  benefactions  to 
Amherst  during  his  lifetime  amounted  to  $150,- 
000.  He  was  one  of  the  first  trustees  of  Mount 
Holyoke  Female  Seminary  and  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts State  Reform  School.  He  was  a  builder 
and  promoter  of  churches  and  a  corporate  mem- 
ber of  the  American  Board  of  Commissioners 
for  Foreign  Missions.  Handicapped  by  partial 
blindness,  he  absorbed  the  contents  of  many 
books  through  readers  and  dictated  all  his  corre- 
spondence. He  died  at  Easthampton. 

[W.  S.  Tyler,  A  Discourse  Commemorative  of  Hon. 
Samuel  Williston  (1874),  with  portrait,  and  Hist,  of 
Amherst  College  (1873)  '<  P-  W.  Lyman,  Hist,  of  East- 
hampton (1866),  pp.  54-65,  179-81,  and  Hist.  Address 
Delivered  at  the  Centennial  Celebration  at  Easthamp- 
ton, Mass.,  July  4,  1876  (1877),  pp.  64-69  ;  A.  L.  Wil- 
liston, Williston  Genealogy  (1912);  Biog.  Cat.  .  .  . 
Phillips  Academy,  Andover  (1903)  ;  Springfield  Repub- 
lican, July  20,    1874.]  F.  T.  P. 

WILLISTON,  SAMUEL  WENDELL  (July 
10,  1852-Aug.  30,  1918),  paleontologist,  dipterist, 
was  born  in  Roxbury,  Mass.;  the  son  of  Samuel 
and  Jane  A.  (Turner)  Williston.  On  the  fa- 
ther's side  he  was  of  New  England  stock,  the 
name  having  been  traced  back  in  Massachusetts 
as  far  as  1650.  His  mother  was  born  in  Eng- 
land. His  parents  removed  to  Kansas  in  1857 
under  the  auspices  of  the  Emigrant  Aid  Society 
and  settled  at  Manhattan,  where  Williston's 
early  education  was  of  the  kind  available  in  the 
pioneer  community.  In  1866  he  entered  the 
Kansas  State  Agricultural  College  at  Manhat- 
tan and  in  1872  received  the  degree  of  B.S. 
Though  he  began  the  study  of  medicine  under 


the  preceptorship  of  a  local  physician  in  1873,  he 
was  employed  in  that  year  and  the  following  one 
by  Othniel  C.  Marsh  [q.v.]  of  Yale  University 
as  a  collector  in  the  Cretaceous  chalk  beds  of 
western  Kansas.  In  1876  he  was  called  to  New 
Haven  by  Marsh  and  remained  in  his  service  as 
collector,  preparator,  and  writer  until  1885.  Dur- 
ing this  time  he  collected  in  the  dinosaur-bearing 
beds  in  Colorado  and  Montana.  He  also  studied 
medicine  and  in  1880  received  the  degree  of  M.D. 
from  the  Yale  Medical  School.  He  was  married 
to  Annie  I.  Hathaway  on  Dec.  20,  1880.  Having 
received  the  degree  of  Ph.D.  at  Yale  (1885),  in 
1886  he  was  appointed  assistant  professor  of 
anatomy  and  in  1888  professor.  He  served  at 
Yale  until  1890,  continuing  private  practice  and 
acting  as  health  officer  of  New  Haven  at  the  same 
time. 

In  1890  he  was  called  to  the  University  of 
Kansas,  where  he  was  professor  of  geology  and 
paleontology  (1890-92)  and  professor  of  histori- 
cal geology,  vertebrate  anatomy,  and  physiology 
(1892-1902).  In  1898  he  also  became  dean  of 
the  school  of  medicine,  and  for  some  time  served 
on  the  state  board  of  health  and  the  board  of 
medical  examiners.  While  in  Kansas  he  returned 
to  his  interest  in  paleontology,  producing  a  long 
series  of  papers  upon  the  reptiles  of  the  Cretace- 
ous. The  most  important  of  these  were  volumes 
IV  (1898)  and  VI  (1900)  of  The  University 
Geological  Survey  of  Kansas,  the  first  of  which 
contained  his  classic  work  on  the  mosasaurs. 
Other  papers  in  these  volumes  were  written  by 
the  group  of  students  that  he  had  trained  in 
paleontological  work.  Among  his  many  activi- 
ties in  Kansas  was  the  publication  of  a  large 
number  of  papers  upon  Diptera.  He  began  in 
this  field  when  there  was  not  a  dipterist  on  the 
continent.  Lacking  guidance  and  sufficient  lit- 
erature, he  made  slow  progress  in  spite  of  great 
effort  until  he  discovered  Ignaz  R.  Schiner's 
Fauna  Austriaca  (i860),  in  which  he  found  the 
Austrian  Diptera  ably  analyzed  into  their  fam- 
ilies, genera  and  species.  He  was  so  profoundly 
impressed  with  the  plan  of  this  work  that  it 
largely  shaped  his  later  work  on  the  order;  he 
was  always  trying  to  analyze  and  simplify  for 
the  help  of  beginners.  The  climax  of  this  work 
was  the  publication  in  1908  of  his  Manual  of 
North  American  Diptera,  a  greatly  enlarged  re- 
vision of  his  two  earlier  publications  on  Dip- 
tera (1888,  1896),  which,  besides  the  analytical 
matter,  contained  more  than  eight  hundred  fig- 
ures drawn  by  his  own  hand.  This  volume  has 
been  used  extensively  in  the  Old  World,  where 
there  has  been  nothing  similar  to  it.  In  a  more 
technical  way  he  monographed  the  Syrphidae  oc 


310 


Williston 


Williston 


North  America  (Bulletin  of  the  United  States 
National  Museum,  No.  31,  1886)  and  published 
extensive  contributions  to  Biologia  Ccntrali- 
Americana  (1879-1910),  with  many  shorter  pa- 
pers on  Diptera.  In  the  decade  1890-1900  he 
easily  ranked  among  the  three  or  four  world  au- 
thorities in  the  order.  Several  of  his  students 
became  specialists  in  Diptera. 

In  1902  he  was  called  to  be  head  of  the  depart- 
ment of  vertebrate  paleontology  at  the  Univer- 
sity of  Chicago,  and  soon  entered  upon  the  ex- 
ploration of  the  Permian  beds  of  North  America, 
and  the  description  of  their  amphibian  and  rep- 
tilian fauna.  He  described  a  large  number  of 
new  forms,  and  made  fundamental  contributions 
to  the  anatomy  and  classification  of  these  primi- 
tive forms.  The  most  important  comprehensive 
works  published  during  this  period  were  his 
monographs,  American  Permian  Vertebrates 
( 191 1 )  and  Water  Reptiles  of  the  Pas;  and  Pres- 
ent ( 1914).  His  final  work,  a  general  description 
of  the  osteology  of  the  reptiles,  living  and  ex- 
tinct, was  not  completed  before  his  death,  but 
was  published  posthumously  under  the  editor- 
ship of  W.  K.  Gregory  as  The  Osteology  of  the 
Reptiles  (1925).  His  contributions  to  paleontol- 
ogy will  remain  as  fundamental  for  all  future 
work.  His  vigorous  personality  made  him  an 
inspiring  leader  in  every  subject  he  taught  and 
gathered  around  him  a  group  of  students  who 
carried  on  the  work  he  had  begun.  He  was  a 
corresponding  member  of  the  Geological  Society 
of  London  (1902)  and  of  the  Zoological  Society 
of  London,  fellow  of  the  American  Academy  of 
Arts  and  Sciences,  president  of  the  Sigma  Xi 
Society  from  1901  to  1904,  and  a  member  of  the 
National  Academy  of  Science  (1915).  He  was 
survived  at  the  time  of  his  death  by  his  wife, 
three  daughters,  and  a  son. 

[See  Who's  Who  in  America,  1918-19  ;  Record  of  the 
Alumni  of  the  Kan.  State  Agricultural  Coll.  (1914)  ; 
R.  S.  Lull,  in  Memoirs  Nat.  Acad,  of  Sciences,  vol. 
XVII  (1924),  with  bibliog.  ;  H.  F.  Osborn,  in  Jour,  of 
Geology,  Nov.-Dec.  1918;  F.  R.  Lillie,  E.  C.  Case,  and 
Stuart  Weller,  in  Univ.  Record  (Chicago),  Jan.  1919, 
with  portrait  ;  Samuel  Wendell  Williston,  1852-1918 
.  .  .  Memorial  Meeting  .  .  .  Univ.  of  Chicago,  Dec.  p, 
1918;  obituary  in  Chicago  Daily  Tribune,  Aug.  31, 
1918.  A  Bibliog.  of  Samuel  Wendell  Williston  (1911) 
and  a  supplement  (1918)  were  printed  in  New  Haven 
by  J.  T.  Hathaway  ;  there  is  also  a  bibliog.  in  Kan. 
Univ.  Quart.,  Oct.  1899.  The  portion  of  this  article  on 
Williston's  work  as  a  dipterist  was  written  by  Dr.  J. 
M.  Aldrich  of  the  U.  S.  Nat.  Museum.]  E.  C.  C. 

WILLISTON,  SETH  (Apr.  4,  1770-Mar.  2, 
1851),  clergyman  and  home  missionary,  was 
born  in  Suffield,  Conn.,  the  great-grandson  of 
Joseph  Williston  who  was  born  in  Windsor, 
Conn.,  before  1667,  the  cousin,  once  removed, 
of  Samuel  Williston  \_q.vJ],  and  the  son  of  Con- 
sider and  Rhoda  (King)  Williston.   He  assisted 


his  father  in  his  trade  of  saddler  and  on  the  farm, 
and  he  obtained  the  elements  of  an  education  un- 
der teachers  near  his  home.  In  1791  he  graduated 
from  Dartmouth  College.  After  teaching  for 
three  years  at  Windsor  and  New  London,  Conn., 
and  reading  a  good  deal  in  theology,  he  was 
licensed  by  the  Tolland  County  Association  on 
Oct.  7,  1794.  He  preached  in  churches  in  Con- 
necticut and  Vermont,  and  at  Rupert,  Vt,  was 
called  to  be  pastor.  Hearing  of  the  religious 
needs  of  the  "Chenango  country"  in  New  York, 
however,  in  July  1796  he  went  on  his  own  re- 
sponsibility to  Patterson's  Settlement  in  Broome 
County.  There  and  for  twenty  miles  south  and 
west,  among  New  England  immigrants,  he 
worked  with  growing  success.  During  a  short 
visit  home  he  was  ordained  by  the  North  Asso- 
ciation of  Hartford  County  on  June  7,  1797.  In 
this  year  and  in  1798  he  carried  his  missionary 
travels  northwestward  into  the  Cayuga  Lake 
country.  On  Dec.  15,  1797,  he  organized  the 
First  Congregational  Church  of  Lisle.  Then  not 
more  than  five  churches  existed  westward  in 
New  York.  In  June  1798  he  was  appointed  to 
missionary  service  by  the  Connecticut  General 
Association  (Congregational),  which  then  or- 
ganized itself  as  the  Connecticut  Missionary  So- 
ciety. The  next  three  years  he  spent  in  the  serv- 
ice of  this  society.  Living  at  Lisle  he  worked 
over  the  country  from  the  Chenango  to  the 
Genesee  and  northward  to  Lake  Ontario.  In  his 
theology  he  was  a  follower  of  Samuel  Hopkins, 
1721-1803  [q.z>.~\,  and  his  preaching,  in  an  im- 
portant degree,  evoked  the  revival  of  1 799-1 800 
in  this  region.  On  his  tours  he  preached  almost 
every  day,  held  conferences,  visited  from  house 
to  house  in  the  forests,  instructed  children,  ad- 
ministered the  sacraments,  organized  churches. 
He  records  preaching  in  forty-four  settlements, 
in  many  the  first  preacher  heard.  After  riding 
miles  he  spent  his  nights  in  log  cabins,  and  by 
firelight  did  much  solid  reading. 

In  May  1801  he  became  pastor  at  Lisle,  stipu- 
lating that  he  should  spend  a  quarter  of  his  time 
in  missionary  work.  He  spent  more,  preaching 
widely  in  central  New  York  and  northern  Penn- 
sylvania. He  organized  nine  churches  that  are 
recorded,  probably  more.  He  was  married  in 
May  1804  to  Sibyl  (Stoddard)  Dudley  of  Stock- 
bridge,  Mass.,  who  died  in  1849.  They  had  one 
son.  In  18 10  he  removed  to  Durham,  N.  Y.,  in 
the  Catskills.  During  his  eighteen  years'  service 
as  pastor  there  he  published  several  volumes  of 
sermons  and  religious  discussions.  In  1828  he 
received  his  dismissal  at  his  own  request  and 
devoted  himself  to  his  missionary  travels,  hon- 
ored as  one  of  the  principal  Christian  teachers 


311 


Willson 

of  the  region.  In  this  time  he  published  five  more 
books.  His  best-known  book  in  its  day  was  The 
Harmony  of  Dk'inc  Truth  (1836).  He  died  at 
Guilford  Center,  N.  Y. 

["The  Diaries  of  the  Rev.  Seth  Williston,"  ed.  by 
J.  Q.  Adams,  Jour,  of  the  Presbyterian  Hist.  Soc,  Dec. 
1913-Sept.  1919;  letters  in  Theological  Mag.,  Nov.- 
Dec.  1796,  pp.  159-60,  May,  June,  and  July  1797,  p. 
399  ;  letters  and  reports  of  Conn.  Missionary  Soc,  N. 
Y.  Missionary  Mag.,  vols.  I-IV  (1800-03)  '.  W.  B. 
Sprague,  Annals  of  the  Amer.  Pulpit,  vol.  IV  (1858)  ; 
J.  H.  Hotehkin,  Hist,  of  .  .  .  Western  N.  Y.  (1848)  ; 
P.  H.  Fowler,  Hist.  Sketch  of  Presbytcrianism  within 
..  .Central  N.Y.  (1877).]  R.H.N. 

WILLSON,  AUGUSTUS  EVERETT  (Oct. 
13,  1846-Aug.  24,  1931),  governor  of  Kentucky, 
came  of  a  Vermont  family.  Early  in  the  nine- 
teenth century  his  forebears  removed  to  Alle- 
gany County,  N.  Y.,  where  Hiram  Willson,  a 
lumberman,  married  Ann  Colvin  Ennis.  In  the 
early  1840's  Hiram  moved  with  his  family  to 
Maysville,  Ky.,  making  the  journey  down  the 
Allegheny  and  Ohio  rivers  on  a  raft  of  his  own 
lumber.  Here  at  Maysville  his  son  Augustus 
Everett  Willson  was  born.  In  1847  he  was  taken 
by  the  family  to  their  new  home  in  Covington 
and  in  1852  to  New  Albany,  Ind.,  opposite  Louis- 
ville. Following  the  death  of  his  mother  in  1856 
and  his  father  three  years  later,  the  boy  went  to 
live  with  his  grandmother  in  Allegany  County, 
N.  Y.  He  attended  Alfred  Academy  and  in  1865 
entered  Harvard  College.  After  receiving  the 
degree  of  A.B.  in  1869,  he  studied  for  a  short  time 
in  the  Harvard  Law  School  and  in  the  office  of 
Lothrop,  Bishop  &  Lincoln  in  Boston.  In  1870 
he  entered  the  law  office  of  John  M.  Harlan 
[g.T'.],  in  Louisville,  Ky.,  where  he  was  admitted 
to  the  bar.  He  was  a  junior  partner  in  Harlan's 
firm  from  1874  to  1879,  though  his  law  practice 
was  interrupted  by  a  brief  service  (December 
1875-August  1876)  as  chief  clerk  of  the  United 
States  Treasury  Department. 

Willson's  inherited  Republicanism  was  inten- 
sified by  association  with  Harlan  and  it  became 
one  of  his  fixed  ambitions  to  build  up  the  Repub- 
lican party  in  Kentucky  where,  at  that  time,  it 
was  distinctly  moribund.  With  this  idea  in  mind 
he  secured  the  Republican  nomination  for  the 
Kentucky  Senate  in  1879.  His  defeat  for  this 
office  was  followed  by  a  succession  of  defeats, 
1884-92,  for  the  United  States  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives. Such  chagrin  as  he  may  have  felt 
over  these  failures  was  assuaged,  at  least  partial- 
ly, by  his  selection  as  delegate  to  the  Republican 
National  Convention  in  1884,  1888,  and  1892. 
Following  his  unsuccessful  campaign  for  Con- 
gress in  the  last-named  year,  he  retired  from  poli- 
tics until  1903,  when  he  was  an  unsuccessful  can- 
didate for  the  Republican  nomination  for  gov- 


Wilmarth 

ernor.  In  1904  he  was  again  a  delegate  to  the 
Republican  National  Convention  and  in  1907  he 
was  elected  governor  of  Kentucky  by  a  small  ma- 
jority. During  his  entire  term  he  was  check- 
mated by  a  hostile  Democratic  legislature,  with 
the  result  that  his  administration  was  barren  of 
constructive  acts.  He  aroused  much  criticism  by 
pardoning  two  men  convicted  of  the  murder  of 
Gov.  William  Goebel  \_q.v.~\  and  by  declaring 
martial  law  in  certain  sections  of  western  Ken- 
tucky where  "night-riders"  were  waging  war 
against  the  tobacco  companies  and  against  plant- 
ers who  refused  to  join  the  "pool."  Partisan  crit- 
icisms of  his  use  of  the  militia  alleged  that  mar- 
tial law  was  enforced  only  in  Democratic  com- 
munities. 

After  his  four  years  as  governor,  Willson  did 
not  again  hold  public  office,  although  he  was  a 
delegate  to  the  Republican  National  Convention 
in  1908  and  1916.  He  died  in  Louisville,  sur- 
vived by  his  wife,  Mary  Elizabeth  (Ekin)  Will- 
son,  whom  he  had  married  July  27,,  1877.  Their 
only  child  had  died  in  infancy.  Willson  was  a 
member  of  the  board  of  overseers  of  Harvard 
University,  1910-18.  Although  so  long  involved 
in  politics,  he  was  at  all  times  more  interested  in 
the  law.  He  was  amiable  in  disposition  and  noted 
for  his  courtesy. 

[Reports  of  the  Class  of  i860  of  Harvard  Coll., 
1878-1919;  Who's  Who  in  America,  1930-31  ;  Charles 
Kerr,  Hist,  of  Ky.  (1922)  ;  H.  Levin,  The  Lawyers  and 
Lawmakers  of  Ky.  (1897);  Louisville  Times,  Aug. 
24,  1931  ;  Courier-Journal  (Louisville),  Aug.  25,  1931.] 

R.  S.C. 

WILMARTH,  LEMUEL  EVERETT  (Mar. 
11,  1835-July  27,  1918),  painter  and  teacher, 
was  born  in  Attleboro,  Mass.,  of  New  England 
Puritan  stock.  His  parents,  Benoni  and  Fanny 
(Fuller)  Wilmarth,  were  farming  people,  and 
each  child  of  the  household  was  expected  to  take 
his  turn  at  the  daily  farm  duties.  After  attend- 
ing the  district  school  and  a  school  in  Boston, 
he  began  his  art  study  at  the  Pennsylvania  Acad- 
emy of  the  Fine  Arts,  Philadelphia,  in  1854. 
Varying  his  studies  in  Philadelphia  with  ped- 
dling trips  in  the  South  and  other  more  or  less 
lucrative  jobs,  by  about  1859  he  had  accu- 
mulated enough  to  go  abroad.  He  spent  three 
and  a  half  years  at  the  Munich  Academy  under 
Wilhelm  von  Kaulbach,  and  two  and  one  half 
years  under  Jean  Leon  Gerome  in  Paris.  Re- 
turning to  America  with  his  funds  exhausted, 
he  was  fortunate  in  securing  a  commission  to 
paint  the  decorations  in  the  Park  Theatre  in 
Brooklyn.  He  began  in  1866  to  exhibit  at  the 
National  Academy  of  Design  genre  paintings, 
anecdotal  and  somewhat  sentimental  in  charac- 
ter, but  accurate  in  drawing  and  pleasing  in  com- 


312 


Wilmarth 

position.  He  was  appointed  instructor  at  the 
Academy  art  school  in  1870,  and  was  elected  an 
associate  member  of  the  Academy  in  187 1.  In 
the  spring  of  1871  he  declined  a  professorship  at 
Yale  because  the  position  at  the  Academy  of- 
fered "a  larger  field  of  usefulness"  (letter  to  J. 
F.  Weir,  May  27,  1871).  His  election  as  Aca- 
demician came  in  1873.  He  continued  as  the 
head  of  the  Academy  school  until  1887,  when  he 
requested  and  was  granted  a  leave  of  absence  for 
two  or  three  years.  Under  the  influence  of 
younger  men  who  were  returning  from  Europe 
and  bringing  with  them  new  methods  of  painting 
and  teaching,  a  spirit  of  change  was  beginning  to 
be  apparent  in  the  small  American  art  world. 
Wilmarth  never  resumed  an  active  position  and 
definitely  resigned  his  place  in  the  school  in 
1889.  In  his  teaching  he  stood  for  sound  con- 
struction, accurate  drawing,  and  a  high  degree 
of  finish.  He  was  elected  in  1892  a  member  of 
the  Academy  council,  but  resigned  in  the  follow- 
ing year  because  of  ill  health.  During  the  years 
of  his  teaching  he  continued  to  paint  and  exhibit, 
with  a  considerable  degree  of  financial  success. 
In  addition  to  a  winter  home  in  Brooklyn,  he 
purchased  a  farm  at  Marlboro  on  the  Hudson 
in  1882,  remodeled  the  house,  and  built  a  studio. 
Not  long  after  this  his  eyesight  began  to  fail, 
and  in  his  later  life  he  did  very  little  painting, 
though  he  produced  some  pictures  of  still  life 
and  fruits  from  his  own  orchard  and  vineyard 
which  delighted  his  patrons  with  their  realism. 
The  Wilmarth  home  was  always  a  center  of 
hospitality  for  friends  as  well  as  a  gathering 
place  for  a  group  of  serious  students,  who,  like 
Wilmarth  himself,  became  deeply  interested  in 
the  teachings  of  Emanuel  Swedenborg.  Wil- 
marth had  left  the  stern  religious  teachings  of 
his  childhood  behind  him  and  had  passed  through 
a  period  of  atheism,  but  now  found  great  joy  and 
comfort  in  Swedenborgianism.  He  was  promi- 
nent in  the  Church  of  the  New  Jerusalem  in 
Brooklyn,  and  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the 
New  Earth,  a  Swedenborgian  publication,  and 
for  several  years  its  editor.  He  was  much  in- 
terested in  the  social  doctrines  of  Henry  George 
[<?.£'.],  and  often  wrote  articles  on  religious  and 
social  subjects.  He  was  a  genial,  kindly  man,  of 
medium  height  and  rather  stocky  build,  with  a 
full  round  face.  In  1872  he  married  Emma  R. 
(Barrett)  Higginson,  who  died  in  1905.  They 
had  no  children.  Some  of  his  best  known  pic- 
tures are  "The  Pick  of  the  Orchard,"  "Ingrati- 
tude," "Another  Candidate  for  Adoption,"  "Sun- 
ny Italy,"  and  "Left  in  Charge" ;  the  last  named 
is  in  the  permanent  collection  of  the  National 
Academy  of  Design. 


Wilmer 

[Sources  include  Who's  Who  in  America,  1918-19, 
corrected  and  supplemented  by  information  from  Wil- 
marth's  family,  an  intimate  friend,  and  old  pupils; 
records  of  the  Nat.  Acad,  of  Design  ;  letters  and  rec- 
ords kept  by  Wilmarth  ;  Am.  Art  Ann.,  1918  ;  Am.  Art 
News,  Aug.  17,  1918;  death  notice  in  N.  Y.  Times, 
July  29,  1918.  The  date  of  birth,  from  Nat.  Acad,  rec- 
ords, was  supplied  by  Wilmarth  himself.  The  date  of 
Mrs.  Wilmarth 's  death  is  from  the  family.] 

G.W.C. 

WILMER,  JAMES  JONES  (Jan.  15, 1749/50- 

Apr.  14,  1814),  clergyman,  was  born  on  the 
Eastern  Shore  of  Maryland,  the  youngest  son  of 
Simon  and  Mary  (Price)  Wilmer.  His  father, 
a  planter  and  presiding  justice  of  the  Kent  Coun- 
ty court,  was  a  grandson  of  Simon  Wilmer  who 
settled  in  Kent  County  before  1680.  When  James 
was  nine  years  old  he  was  sent  to  a  maternal  uncle 
in  England  to  be  educated.  He  attended  St. 
Paul's  School,  London,  from  1763  to  1768,  when 
he  was  admitted  to  Christ  Church,  Oxford.  Af- 
ter eighteen  months,  however,  he  returned  to 
America.  Recommended  by  Gov.  Robert  Eden  of 
Maryland  to  the  Bishop  of  London,  he  went  back 
to  England  for  ordination  and  was  licensed,  Sept. 
25»  I773>  f°r  Maryland,  but  did  not  obtain  a 
suitable  charge  at  once,  and  led  a  rather  desul- 
tory life  for  the  next  few  years.  The  death  of 
his  English  uncle  and  Wilmer's  mistaken  belief 
that  his  share  of  the  uncle's  estate  would  make 
him  wealthy  seems  to  have  been  his  undoing ;  he 
was  unable  to  settle  down  seriously  and  spent 
most  of  his  time  traveling  between  Maryland 
and  England  in  search  of  the  fortune  which  never 
materialized.  Between  1779  and  1789,  however, 
he  was  rector  successively  of  four  Maryland  par- 
ishes :  St.  Paul's  in  Kent  County ;  Shrewsbury, 
Kent ;  St.  George's,  Harford  County ;  and  St. 
Stephen's,  Kent. 

While  rector  of  Shrewsbury,  North  Sassafras 
Parish,  Kent  County,  he  served  as  secretary  of 
a  convention  of  the  Anglican  clergymen  of  the 
Eastern  Shore,  held  at  Chestertown,  Nov.  9, 
1780,  at  which  "on  motion  of  the  Secretary,  it 
was  proposed  that  the  Church  known  in  the  prov- 
ince as  Protestant,  be  called  the  'Protestant  Epis- 
copal Church,'  and  it  was  so  adopted"  (Journal 
of  the  Ninety-fifth  Annual  Convention  of  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the  Diocese  of 
Maryland,  1878,  Appendix,  p.  146).  The  name 
was  in  a  short  time  in  general  use. 

It  seems  probable  that  when  Wilmer  was  in 
England  in  1790-91  in  pursuit  of  his  inheritance 
he  was  attracted  to  Swedenborgianism,  for  on 
his  return  he  became  the  leader  of  a  group  which 
in  Baltimore  founded  the  first  New  Church  So- 
ciety in  America.  It  was  Wilmer's  dream  at  the 
time  that  the  New  Church  should  become  the  es- 
tablished church  of  the  United  States,  and  in  the 


3J3 


Wilmer 

Maryland  Gazette  (Baltimore)  for  Oct.  18,  1791, 
he  announced  the  publication  of  A  Discourse  on 
a  Federal  Church  as  Lately  First  Commenced 
in  the  Town  of  Baltimore.  The  following  year 
he  published  A  Sermon  on  the  Doctrine  of  the 
New  Jerusalem  Church,  being  the  First  Pro- 
mulgated within  the  United  States  of  America, 
Delivered  on  the  First  Sunday  in  April  1792  in 
the  Court  House  of  Baltimore.  Established  as 
a  distinct  religious  society  in  England  in  1788, 
the  Church  of  the  New  Jerusalem  thus  came 
into  existence  in  America  four  years  later.  Wil- 
mer served  as  minister  for  a  time,  but  after  a 
year  or  two  of  struggle  became  discouraged  and 
sought  to  support  his  family  by  his  pen  and  by 
conducting  a  succession  of  short-lived  schools 
in  Baltimore,  Charles  Town,  and  Havre  de 
Grace. 

About  1799  he  was  reinstated  as  a  clergyman 
of  the  Episcopal  Church  and  during  the  next 
decade  held  charges  in  Delaware,  Maryland,  and 
Virginia.  From  1809  to  1813  he  was  one  of  the 
chaplains  of  Congress.  Appointed  in  the  latter 
year  chaplain  in  the  United  States  Army,  he  saw 
active  service  in  the  War  of  1812.  While  at- 
tached to  the  North  Western  Army  he  was  ship- 
wrecked on  the  "Chippaway  River,"  and  died 
at  Detroit  a  few  weeks  later,  apparently  as  the 
result  of  exposure.  He  was  married  twice :  first, 
May  21,  1783,  to  Sarah  Magee,  and  second,  in 
1803,  to  Letitia,  widow  of  William  Fell  Day. 
Several  children  of  his  first  marriage  survived 
him. 

Wilmer  was  a  prolific  writer  and  pamphleteer. 
His  style  was  lively  and  readable.  His  frequent 
newspaper  contributions,  usually  of  a  political, 
religious,  or  personal  character,  were  often  con- 
troversial and  unrestrained.  In  1792  he  pub- 
lished Memoirs,  by  James  Wilmer,  a  pamphlet 
of  which  the  only  surviving  copy  known  is  that 
which  was  presented  by  the  author  in  1793  to 
George  Washington,  when  Wilmer  was  seeking 
to  have  the  Swedenborgian  church  made  the  na- 
tional church.  Some  of  his  more  important 
books  were  Consolation,  being  a  Replication  to 
Thomas  Paine  (1794)  ;  Man  as  He  Is  and  the 
World  as  It  Goes  (1803)  ;  The  American  Nepos 
(1805),  a  volume  of  biographical  sketches;  and 
A  Narrative  Respecting  the  Conduct  of  the  Brit- 
ish (1813).  In  1796,  with  William  Pechin,  he 
began  the  publication  in  Baltimore  of  a  tri-week- 
ly  newspaper,  The  Eagle  of  Freedom,  but  it  last- 
ed only  a  few  months. 

[J.  H.  Pleasants,  "Memoirs  of  the  Rev.  James  Jones 
Wilmer,"  Md.  Hist.  Mag.,  Sept.  1924;  R.  B.  Gardiner, 
The  Admission  Registers  of  St.  Paul's  School  (1884)  ; 
Joseph  Foster,  Alumni  Oxonienses  .  .  .  1715-1886,  vol. 
IV    (1888);    Gerald    Fothergill,   A    List   of   Emigrant 


Wilmer 

Ministers  to  America,  1690-1811  (1904)  ;  Notices  and 
Journals  .  .  .  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the 
Diocese  of  Maryland  .  .  .  1783-89  (n.d.)  ;  M.  B.  Block, 
The  New  Church  in  the  New  World  (1932);  G.  A. 
Hanson,  Old  Kent  (1876)  ;  Maryland  Parish  Registers 
(MSS.),  Md.  Hist.  Soc]  J.H.P— s. 

WILMER,  JOSEPH  PERE  BELL  (Feb.  n, 
1812-Dec.  2,  1878),  Episcopal  bishop  of  Louisi- 
ana, came  of  a  distinguished  family,  long  active 
in  the  Episcopal  Church.  Son  of  the  Rev.  Simon 
Wilmer  and  his  first  wife,  Rebecca  (Frisby) 
Wilmer,  nephew  .of  Rev.  William  Holland  Wil- 
mer [q.z>.~],  and  first  cousin  of  Rt.  Rev.  Richard 
Hooker  Wilmer  [q.v.],  he  grew  up  in  Virginia. 
He  was  graduated  from  the  Theological  Sem- 
inary in  Virginia,  at  Alexandria,  in  1834,  and 
was  ordered  deacon  in  July  of  that  year.  From 
October  1834  to  May  1837  he  was  in  charge  of 
St.  Anne's  Parish,  Albemarle  County,  Va. ;  in 
1 837-38  he  acted  as  chaplain  at  the  University  of 
Virginia.  In  May  1838  he  was  ordained  priest. 
The  following  March  he  was  appointed  a  chap- 
lain in  the  United  States  Navy.  He  resigned 
his  commission  in  July  1844.  For  a  time,  in 
1842-43,  he  had  been  in  charge  of  Hungar's 
Parish  in  Northampton  County,  Va.,  and  during 
this  time,  on  Mar.  29,  1842,  had  married  Helen 
Skipwith  of  Muhlenburg  County.  Four  sons 
and  two  daughters  were  born  to  them.  After  his 
resignation  from  the  navy,  he  had  charge  of  St. 
James-Northam  Parish  in  Goochland  County 
until  early  in  1849,  when  he  became  rector  of  St. 
Mark's  Church,  Philadelphia.  He  served  there 
until  shortly  after  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War, 
when,  owing  to  his  Southern  sympathies,  he  re- 
tired to  his  summer  home,  "Plain  Dealing,"  in 
Albemarle  County,  Va.  The  only  service  he  per- 
formed for  the  Confederacy,  however,  was  a 
journey  to  England  in  1863  to  purchase  Bibles 
for  the  soldiers ;  on  the  return  voyage  he  was 
captured  and  confined  for  a  short  period  in  the 
Old  Capitol  Prison  at  Washington. 

He  was  consecrated  bishop  of  Louisiana  in 
November  1866,  and  devoted  himself  with  great 
energy  to  the  restoration  of  the  Church,  which 
had  been  left  by  the  war  in  a  sadly  disorganized 
condition.  In  religious  circles  he  was  identified 
with  the  high-church  party  and  was  noted  as  an 
eloquent  pulpit  orator.  In  the  bitter  presidential 
controversy  of  1876,  when  Louisiana  was  brought 
to  the  verge  of  revolt,  he  made  a  trip  to  the  North 
despite  the  protests  against  his  interference  in 
secular  affairs  in  order  to  lay  the  situation  before 
President  Grant  and  President-elect  Hayes, 
with  the  result  recorded  in  history.  He  died  sud- 
denly, as  he  had  always  desired,  in  New  Or- 
leans. 

Wilmer's  writing  was  confined  to  occasional 


3*4 


Wilmer 


Wilmer 


sermons,  episcopal  addresses,  and  pastoral  let- 
ters, and  the  political  pamphlet,  A  Defense  of 
Louisiana  (1868).  With  his  amusing  absent- 
mindedness,  his  keen  sense  of  humor,  his  wide 
information,  his  tenderness,  and  his  deep  resent- 
ment of  injustice,  he  was  one  of  the  most  pic- 
turesque as  well  as  influential  figures  of  his 
church  in  his  time. 

[H.  G.  Batterson,  A  Sketch-Book  of  the  Am.  Epis- 
copate (1884)  ;  W.  S.  Perry,  The  Episcopate  in  Amer- 
ica (1895)  ;  H.  C.  Potter,  Reminiscences  of  Bishops 
and  Archbishops  (1906)  ;  R.  H.  Wilmer,  The  Recent 
Past  (1887)  ;  Sun  (Baltimore),  Dec.  7,  1878.]    £,L 

WILMER,  RICHARD  HOOKER  (Mar.  15, 
1816-June  14,  1900),  second  Episcopal  bishop  of 
Alabama,  was  born  at  Alexandria,  Va.,  then  a 
part  of  the  District  of  Columbia,  the  third  child 
of  Rev.  William  Holland  Wilmer  [q.v.~\  and 
his  second  wife,  Marion  Hannah  Cox.  After  his 
father's  death  in  1827  the  boy  secured  his  school- 
ing under  straitened  circumstances.  He  gradu- 
ated from  Yale  College  in  1836  and  the  Theolog- 
ical Seminary  in  Virginia  three  years  later,  was 
ordered  deacon,  Mar.  31,  1839,  and  priested,  Apr. 
19,  1840,  in  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church, 
and  for  the  most  of  twenty-two  years  ministered 
in  rural  parishes  in  Virginia.  In  1843  he  had 
charge  for  one  year  of  St.  James  Church,  Wil- 
mington, N.  C.  He  grew  steadily  in  power  and 
reputation  as  a  preacher,  pastor,  and  leader. 
In  1859  his  diocese  elected  him  a  deputy  to  the 
General  Convention  of  the  Episcopal  Church. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  Civil  War  Wilmer 
was  ardently  active  and  outspoken  in  his  loyalty 
to  the  South.  On  Nov.  21,  1861,  he  was  elected 
bishop  of  the  diocese  of  Alabama.  Since  the  dio- 
ceses in  the  seceded  states  had  withdrawn  from 
the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the  United 
States  consent  was  given  to  his  consecration 
by  a  majority  of  dioceses  and  bishops  in  the 
Southern  states,  acting  autonomously,  and  he 
was  consecrated  on  Mar.  6,  1862,  in  St.  Paul's 
Church,  Richmond.  He  took  part  in  the  organi- 
zation of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in 
the  Confederate  States  and  returned  with  his 
diocese  into  union  with  the  Episcopal  Church  in 
the  United  States  after  the  collapse  of  the  Con- 
federacy. 

Wilmer  met  the  problems  of  diocesan  adminis- 
tration in  a  war-torn  state  with  an  earnestness 
and  power  that  won  for  him  the  loyalty  and  love 
of  his  clergy  and  people;  he  ministered  to  the 
soldiers  in  camp  and  hospital,  provided  for  the 
care  of  orphaned  children,  and  gave  attention 
to  the  religious  education  of  negroes.  At  the  end 
of  the  war,  when  Alabama  had  become  a  military 
district,  he  came  into  conflict  with  the  military 
authority  by  directing  his  clergy  not  to  use  the 


prayer  for  the  president  and  all  in  civil  author- 
ity until  civil  authority  should  be  restored  in 
consequence  he  and  his  clergy  were  suspended 
from  all  official  duties  and  their  churches  closed 
by  order  of  the  commanding  general.  Strong 
protest  was  made,  and  finally,  in  January  1866, 
the  military  order  was  rescinded  by  direction  of 
President  Johnson.  During  the  difficult  period  of 
reconstruction  and  the  years  that  followed,  facing 
the  widespread  poverty  of  his  people  and  later 
the  problems  arising  with  the  development  of  in- 
dustry, he  labored  as  a  wise  and  able  administra- 
tor, endowed  with  a  sense  of  humor  and  a  wit  that 
could  be  gentle  or  caustic  as  occasion  demanded. 
His  reputation  as  a  preacher  was  nation-wide, 
and  his  ability  was  recognized  by  the  degree  of 
Doctor  of  Laws  conferred  upon  him  by  the  Uni- 
versity of  Cambridge  when  he  attended  the  first 
Lambeth  Conference  in  1867. 

He  published  frequent  pastoral  letters,  the 
most  noteworthy  being  that  of  June  20,  1865, 
concerning  the  prayer  for  those  in  civil  author- 
ity. Others,  especially  letters  on  "Efficacy  of 
Prayer"  and  "Confession  of  Sin  not  Profession 
of  Religion,"  were  distributed  in  large  numbers. 
He  published  one  book,  The  Recent  Past  from 
a  Southern  Standpoint  (1887),  which  went 
through  several  editions. 

Wilmer  married,  on  Oct.  6,  1840,  Margaret, 
daughter  of  Alexander  and  Lucy  (Rives)  Brown, 
of  Nelson  County,  Va.,  who  in  a  long  life  shared 
with  him  contributed  greatly  to  his  success.  They 
had  three  children  who  grew  to  adult  years.  In 
1890  the  Bishop's  increasing  infirmities  necessi- 
tated the  election  of  a  coadjutor  who  relieved 
him  of  a  part  of  his  burden  during  the  last  ten 
years  of  his  life.  He  died  at  the  age  of  eighty- 
four  and  was  buried  in  Magnolia  Cemetery,  Mo- 
bile. 

[Wilmer's  own  book,  The  Recent  Past  (1887)  ;  W. 
C.  Whitaker,  Richard  Hooker  Wilmer  (1907);  J.  B. 
Cheshire,  The  Church  in  the  Confederate  States  ( 1912)  ; 
W.  S.  Perry,  The  Hist,  of  the  Am.  Episcopal  Church 
(1885),  vol.  II,  and  The  Episcopate  in  America  (189s)  ; 
Obit.  Record  Grads.  Yale  Univ.,  1900;  Churchman, 
June  23,  1900;  Daily  Register  (Mobile),  June  15, 
1900]  G.  M.  B. 

WILMER,  WILLIAM  HOLLAND  (Oct. 
29,  1782-July  24,  1827),  Episcopal  clergyman, 
was  born  in  Kent  County,  Md.,  a  descendant  of 
Simon  Wilmer  who  settled  there  before  1680. 
The  fifth  son  of  Simon  and  Ann  (Ringgold) 
Wilmer,  he  was  one  of  three  brothers  to  enter  the 
ministry  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church. 
He  received  his  collegiate  training  at  Washing- 
ton College,  Kent  County,  and  was  ordained  in 
1808.  His  first  charge  was  Chester  Parish,  Ches- 
tertown,   Md.,  which  he  held  until  he  became 


3*5 


Wilmer 

rector  in  February  1812  of  St.  Paul's  Church, 
Alexandria,  then  in  the  District  of  Columbia, 
but  within  the  diocese  of  Virginia. 

The  Episcopal  Church  in  Virginia  at  that  pe- 
riod was  so  utterly  prostrate  that  a  report  made 
to  the  General  Convention  of  181 1  expressed 
doubt  of  the  probability  of  its  revival.  No  dioc- 
esan convention  had  been  held  for  seven  years. 
In  March  1812,  however,  upon  the  death  of  the 
Bishop,  James  Madison  [q.v.],  Wilmer  united 
with  another  young  minister,  William  Meade 
[q.v.~\  of  Frederick  County,  in  taking  steps  to- 
ward the  calling  of  a  convention.  When  the  suc- 
ceeding convention  assembled  in  1813  the  reins 
were  taken  from  the  hands  of  the  older  clergy 
by  four  young  ministers — Wilmer,  Oliver  Nor- 
ris  of  Christ  Church,  Alexandria,  John  Dunn  of 
Shelburne  Parish,  Loudoun  County,  and  Wil- 
liam Meade,  the  first  three  being  elected  mem- 
bers of  the  standing  committee  of  the  diocese. 
This  group  entered  into  correspondence  with 
Rev.  Richard  Channing  Moore  [q.v.~\  of  New 
York,  as  the  result  of  which  Moore  was  elected 
bishop  of  Virginia  at  the  convention  of  1814. 
Wilmer  was  reelected  president  of  the  standing 
committee  every  year,  and  appointed  a  deputy 
from  the  diocese  to  every  meeting  of  the  Gen- 
eral Convention  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church,  from  that  time  until  his  death.  Four 
times  he  was  elected  by  the  General  Convention 
as  president  of  the  House  of  Clerical  and  Lay 
Deputies.  One  of  the  leaders  of  the  revival  of 
the  Church  in  Virginia,  he  was  also  a  notable 
figure  in  the  life  of  the  Church  outside  his  dio- 
cese. 

He  was  profoundly  interested  in  the  educa- 
tion of  young  men  for  the  ministry  and  a  vigor- 
ous leader  in  that  field.  Beginning  in  181 5,  a 
rapidly  developing  interest  in  this  problem  was 
aroused  in  both  Virginia  and  Maryland.  In  1818 
the  movement  took  form  by  the  organization  in 
the  District  of  Columbia  of  the  Society  for  the 
Education  of  Pious  Young  Men  for  the  Minis- 
try of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  still  in 
existence  as  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Education 
Society.  Wilmer  became  its  president  and  es- 
tablished in  Washington  in  1819  the  Theological 
Repertory  as  the  organ  of  its  cause.  He  con- 
tinued as  president  of  the  society  and  editor  of 
the  magazine  until  1826.  In  1821  a  theological 
professorship  was  established  at  the  College  of 
William  and  Mary,  but  it  met  with  much  oppo- 
sition and  was  unsuccessful.  The  following  year 
an  attempt  was  made  to  establish  a  theological 
school  in  Maryland  with  Wilmer  as  president, 
but  this  also  failed  of  success.  In  1823,  however, 
Wilmer,  Meade,  and  others  were  able  to  recon- 


Wilmer 

cile  the  divided  interests  and  organized  at  Alex- 
andria the  Theological  Seminary  in  Virginia, 
with  fourteen  students  and  a  faculty  consisting 
of  Wilmer  and  Rev.  Reuel  Keith.  Classes  were 
held  at  first  in  Wilmer's  study  and  later  in  his 
parish  house.  From  this  beginning  the  Theo- 
logical Seminary  in  Virginia  has  had  continu- 
ous existence. 

Wilmer  was  notably  successful  in  pastoral 
work.  The  membership  of  St.  Paul's  Church 
was  so  greatly  increased  under  his  ministry  that 
the  church  building  was  enlarged,  and  in  1818 
the  present  church  erected.  He  was  a  strong 
preacher,  of  deeply  spiritual  life,  and  a  tireless 
worker.  In  addition  to  his  duties  in  Alexandria 
he  assumed  for  the  period  of  one  year  in  1813-14 
the  rectorship  of  the  newly  established  St.  John's 
Church  in  Washington.  During  his  whole  min- 
istry he  was  indefatigable  in  the  effort  to  resusci- 
tate the  Church  in  dormant  parishes,  making  fre- 
quent trips  as  a  volunteer  missionary  into  neigh- 
boring counties,  holding  services,  and  visiting 
scattered  families.  In  1826  he  became  president 
of  the  College  of  William  and  Mary  and  rector 
of  Bruton  Parish,  Williamsburg,  Va.  He  car- 
ried into  the  administration  of  College  affairs 
the  same  spirit  of  zeal  and  ability  he  had  shown 
in  his  pastoral  work,  but  his  labors  were  cut 
short  by  his  death  in  July  1827. 

In  addition  to  editing  the  Theological  Reper- 
tory, Wilmer  published  a  number  of  sermons  and 
one  book,  The  Episcopal  Manual  (1815),  which 
went  through  several  editions  and  was  held  in 
high  esteem  for  many  years  after  his  death  as  a 
useful  compendium  of  information  and  instruc- 
tion. He  entered  into  a  controversy  with  Roger 
Baxter,  a  Jesuit,  the  substance  of  which  was 
published  as  The  Alexandria  Controversy  (1817) 
and,  in  enlarged  form,  as  The  Controversy  be- 
tween M.  B.  and  Quaero  .  .  .  on  Some  Points 
of  Roman  Catholicism  (1818).  Wilmer  was  mar- 
ried three  times ;  first  to  Harriet  Ringgold ;  sec- 
ond Jan.  23,  1812,  to  Marion  Hannah  Cox,  who 
died  in  1812 ;  and  third,  to  Anne  Brice  Fitzhugh. 
Six  children  were  born  of  the  second  union,  two 
of  the  third.  His  sons  Richard  Hooker  Wilmer 
[q.v.]  and  George  T.  Wilmer  entered  the  minis- 
try;  Joseph  P.  B.  Wilmer  [q.v.],  bishop  of 
Louisiana,  was  his  nephew. 

[Sources  include:  Va.  Diocesan  Jours.,  1812-28; 
Jours,  of  the  General  Convention  of  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church;  William  Meade,  Old  Churches, 
Ministers,  and  Families  of  Va.  (1857)  ;  R.  H.  Wilmer, 
The  Recent  Past  (1887)  ;  J.  P.  K.  Henshaw,  Memoir  of 
the  Life  of  the  Rt.  Rev.  Richard  Channing  Moore 
(1843)  I  W.  A.  R.  Goodwin,  Hist,  of  the  Theol.  Semi- 
nary in  Va.  (2  vols.,  1923-24)  :  W.  C.  Whitaker,  Rich- 
ard Hooker  Wilmer  (1907)  ;  Richmond  Enquirer,  July 
31,  1827.  The  date  of  birth  is  sometimes  given  as  Mar. 
9,  1784,  but  R.  H.  Wilmer,  op.  cit.,  and  G.  A.  Hanson, 


3l6 


Wilmot 


Old  Kent    (1876)    citing  records,   support   that   given 
above.]  G.  M.  B. 


WILMOT,  DAVID  (Jan.  20,  1814-Mar.  16, 
1868),  representative  from  Pennsylvania,  was 
born  at  Bethany,  Pa.,  the  descendant  of  Benjamin 
Wilmot  who  with  his  son,  William,  aged  six, 
emigrated  from  England  to  New  Haven,  Conn., 
before  164 1,  and  the  son  of  Randall  and  Mary 
(Grant)  Wilmot.  In  1820  his  mother  died  and 
a  step-mother  soon  took  her  place.  His  father,  a 
local  merchant,  prospered  and  built  a  large  pil- 
lared house  in  the  fashion  of  the  period,  where  the 
family  lived  during  David's  boyhood.  He  went  to 
school  at  the  local  academy  and  later  at  Aurora, 
N.  Y.  In  1832  he  entered  the  law  office  of  George 
W.  Woodward  at  Wilkes  Barre,  and  in  1834  he 
was  admitted  to  the  bar.  He  settled  down  in 
Towanda,  Pa.,  to  practise  law,  and  on  Nov.  28, 
1836,  he  married  Anne  Morgan  of  Bethlehem. 
For  ten  years  he  continued  law  and  politics,  with 
more  and  more  politics  and  less  and  less  law  in 
the  mixture.  He  was  an  ardent  Jacksonian  and 
an  inveterate  attendant  of  political  gatherings. 
He  was  stout  and  of  average  height,  rather 
slovenly  in  dress,  enormous  in  appetite  both  in 
eating  and  drinking,  forceful  in  speech,  and  lazy. 
It  was  much  easier  to  make  extempore  political 
speeches  than  engage  in  the  drudgery  of  the  law. 
In  1844  he  was  active  in  promoting  the  indorse- 
ment of  Van  Buren  by  the  Democratic  state  con- 
vention and  later  in  the  year  was  elected  to  Con- 
gress from  one  of  the  strongest  Democratic 
districts.  He  served  from  1845  to  185 1.  The 
Twenty-ninth  Congress  contained  many  North- 
ern Democrats  who  resented  Polk's  disregard  of 
Northern  interests.  Wilmot  at  first  was  loyal  to 
the  administration,  even  voting  for  the  tariff  of 
1846,  the  only  Pennsylvania  congressman  to  do 
so.  He  could  vote  thus  with  some  degree  of  safety, 
for  his  constituents  were  mostly  farmers.  How- 
ever, he,  like  many  others,  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  Southern  power  was  getting  too  well 
fortified  and  that  the  question  was  how  to  stop 
its  further  growth  (but  for  a  discussion  of  his 
motives  as  more  immediately  personal  and  po- 
litical see  R.  R.  Stenberg,  "The  Motivation  of 
the  Wilmot  Proviso,"  Mississippi  Valley  His- 
torical Reznew,  March  1932).  Wilmot  and  his 
associates  feared  the  Mexican  War  meant  the 
annexation  of  southwestern  territory,  so  when 
the  president  on  Aug.  8,  1846,  asked  for  $2,000,- 
000  with  which  to  make  peace,  Wilmot  deter- 
mined to  offer  a  proviso  using  the  phraseology 
of  the  Northwest  Ordinance  to  the  effect  that 
slavery  should  be  prohibited  in  any  territory  that 
might  be  acquired  with  this  money.  Jacob  Brink- 
erhoff  [<7.7'.l  of  Ohio  had  a  similar  plan.  There 


Wilson 

was  a  conference  of  Northern  Democrats,  and, 
after  Wilmot  had  rephrased  his  proviso,  he  in- 
troduced it  the  same  day,  perhaps  because  he  was 
less  identified  with  the  Free-Soil  movement.  The 
proviso  was  adopted  in  the  House  but  defeated 
in  the  Senate. 

Wilmot's  further  service  in  his  two  remaining 
congressional  terms  was  not  notable,  but  his  pro- 
viso had  made  him  famous  and,  with  his  bolt  with 
Van  Buren  in  1848,  placed  him  among  the  lead- 
ers of  Free-Soil  men.  In  1850  he  was  so  unpopu- 
lar with  the  predominant  Buchanan  wing  of 
the  Pennsylvania  Democracy  that  he  was  beset 
by  a  bolting  ticket,  and  in  the  interests  of  har- 
mony he  withdrew  from  the  campaign  for  con- 
gressman in  favor  of  Galusha  A.  Grow  [q.x'.~\, 
whom  he  designated.  In  1851  he  was  elected 
president  judge  of  the  13th  judicial  district,  over 
which  he  presided  until  1861.  He  was  one  of  the 
founders  of  the  Republican  party  and  was  its 
first  candidate  for  governor.  In  i860  he  sup- 
ported Lincoln  as  against  Cameron.  After  the 
election  Lincoln  offered  him  a  cabinet  position, 
which  Wilmot  declined,  preferring  the  Senate. 
The  pretensions  of  western  Pennsylvania  politi- 
cians prevented  his  selection  for  the  long  term 
(C.  P.  Markle  to  John  Covode,  Jan.  8,  1861, 
Historical  Society  of  Western  Pennsylvania), 
but,  when  Lincoln  finally  appointed  Cameron  to 
his  cabinet,  Wilmot  was  chosen  to  succeed  him 
for  the  short  term,  1861-63.  In  the  Senate,  he 
was  a  faithful  supporter  of  Lincoln  and  had  the 
satisfaction  of  seeing  his  proviso  finally  enacted 
into  a  law  forbidding  slavery  in  the  territories, 
the  act  approved  June  19,  1862.  When  a  Demo- 
cratic legislature  forced  him  to  retire,  Lincoln 
appointed  him  judge  of  the  reorganized  court  of 
claims.  His  health,  however,  was  failing,  and 
his  service,  neither  continuous  nor  effective,  was 
terminated  by  death.  He  was  survived  by  his 
wife  and  one  of  their  three  children. 

[C.  B.  Going,  David  Wilmot,  Frec-Soilcr  (1924)  ;  C. 
E.  Persinger,  "The  'Bargain  of  1S44'  as  the  Origin  of 
the  Wilmot  Proviso,"  Ann.  Rept.  of  the  Am.  Hist.  Asso. 
.  .  .  1911,  vol.  I  (1913)  ;  Press  (Philadelphia),  Mar.  19, 
l868-1  R.F.N. 

WILSON,  ALEXANDER  (July  6, 1766-Aug. 
23>  x8i3),  ornithologist,  was  born  in  the  Seed 
Hills  of  Paisley,  in  Renfrewshire,  Scotland,  the 
son  of  Alexander  Wilson  and  Mary  (McNab). 
His  mother  died  when  he  was  a  child  and  his  fa- 
ther married  again.  There  was  a  large  family  and 
they  were  often  in  want,  so  the  boy  had  little  op- 
portunity for  more  than  a  rudimentary  educa- 
tion. At  the  age  of  thirteen  he  was  apprenticed 
to  the  weaver's  trade,  the  occupation  of  most 
of  his  relatives  and  other  residents  of  the  neigh- 
borhood.   The  confinement  of  the  loom  was  irk- 


3U 


Wilson 


Wilson 


some  to  him,  for  he  loved  the  out-of-doors  and 
even  at  this  time  was  familiar  with  the  birds  and 
flowers  of  his  native  land.  Nevertheless,  he  con- 
tinued for  some  ten  years  as  a  weaver,  and  then 
toured  eastern  Scotland  as  a  peddler.  He  was 
at  heart  a  poet,  and  was  constantly  attempting 
verses,  some  of  which,  published  anonymously, 
were  attributed  to  Burns,  whom  he  greatly  ad- 
mired. He  realized  one  of  his  ambitions  in  1790 
with  the  publication  of  a  small  volume,  Poems, 
but  it  was  an  indifferent  production  and  did  not 
bring  him  the  renown  he  had  hoped  for. 

Discouraged  by  this  failure,  by  the  poverty 
that  surrounded  him,  and  by  a  brief  imprison- 
ment for  publishing  a  bitter  personal  satire, 
which  was  ordered  burned  by  the  hangman,  he 
decided  to  try  his  fortune  in  the  New  World, 
and  with  his  nephew  William  Duncan  sailed  for 
America  on  May  23,  1794.  Reaching  New  Cas- 
tle, Del.,  in  July,  he  disembarked  and  proceeded 
to  Philadelphia  on  foot,  rejoicing  in  the  beauty 
of  the  country  and  the  new  birds  which  he  saw 
on  every  side.  The  opportunities  for  making  a 
living  at  his  trade  proved  to  be  no  better  than  in 
Scotland,  but  having  spent  much  spare  time  in 
reading  and  in  self  education  Wilson  felt  that  he 
was  competent  to  fill  the  post  of  schoolmaster. 
He  gave  immediate  satisfaction  to  the  patrons 
of  his  first  school  and  for  about  ten  years  fol- 
lowed this  calling,  teaching  in  small  country 
schools  in  various  parts  of  New  Jersey  and 
eastern  Pennsylvania. 

In  February  1802  he  took  over  the  school  at 
Gray's  Ferry  on  the  Schuylkill  River  just  below 
Philadelphia.  This  charge  made  him  a  neighbor 
of  the  naturalist  William  Bartram  [q.i'.~\,  a  man 
after  his  own  heart,  capable  of  giving  him  advice 
and  help,  with  a  wide  experience  as  a  traveler 
and  with  a  library  to  which  Wilson  was  soon 
made  welcome.  Association  with  Bartram  proved 
the  turning  point  in  Wilson's  life,  and  the  desire 
for  expression  for  which  his  meager  talent  as  a 
poet  had  proved  inadequate  found  an  outlet  in 
the  work  on  the  birds  of  the  United  States  which 
he  was  soon  planning.  Upon  perusing  the  orni- 
thological works  in  Bartram's  library  he  became 
fully  aware  of  their  shortcomings  and  felt  even 
then  able  to  supplement  them  from  his  own 
knowledge.  Bartram  gave  him  every  encourage- 
ment, and  Wilson  began  at  once  to  collect  speci- 
mens and  make  observations  of  the  birds  of  the 
immediate  vicinity,  meanwhile  setting  himself 
to  learn  to  draw  and  paint  them.  Failing  to  mas- 
ter the  art  of  etching  which  Mark  Catesby 
[q.z:~\  and  George  Edwards,  who  were  appar- 
ently his  models,  had  employed,  he  engaged  his 
fellow  Scot,  Alexander  Lawson  [q.v.],  to  pre- 

31 


pare  the  plates  from  his  drawings,  and  to  the 
latter  almost  as  much  as  to  Wilson  is  due  the 
success  of  the  undertaking.  In  April  1807  Sam- 
uel F.  Bradford  of  Philadelphia,  then  engaged 
in  publishing  a  new  edition  of  Abraham  Rees's 
Cyclopaedia,  employed  Wilson  as  assistant  edi- 
tor, and  he  thus  not  only  escaped  from  the  drudg- 
ery of  school  teaching,  of  which  he  had  con- 
stantly complained,  but  found  opportunity  to  in- 
terest his  employer  in  financing  his  proposed 
American  Ornithology.  The  preparation  of  this 
work  now  went  on  apace ;  the  first  volume  ap- 
peared in  1808  and  seven  had  been  published  by 
1813.  The  eighth  was  in  press,  when  the  author, 
through  overwork  in  his  anxiety  to  complete 
his  undertaking,  so  weakened  his  constitution 
that  he  was  unable  to  withstand  an  attack  of  dys- 
entery, and  died  after  a  few  days'  illness.  George 
Ord  \_q.v.~\,  Wilson's  companion  during  the  last 
years  of  his  life  and  his  ardent  admirer,  com- 
pleted the  American  Ornithology  from  Wilson's 
manuscripts  and  later  published  two  new  editions 
to  meet  the  demand  for  the  book  that  had  devel- 
oped. While  Wilson  did  not  live  to  enjoy  any 
financial  profit  from  his  labors  nor  much  of  the 
praise  that  they  elicited,  he  was  recognized  dur- 
ing his  lifetime  by  election  to  the  Columbian  So- 
ciety of  Artists,  the  American  Philosophical  So- 
ciety, and  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences  of 
Philadelphia. 

Wilson's  reputation  rests  wholly  upon  his 
American  Ornithology,  a  work  of  outstanding 
merit.  Nothing  like  it  in  any  branch  of  science 
had  appeared  in  America  up  to  that  time  and 
the  mere  conception  of  such  a  work,  not  to  speak 
of  its  successful  completion,  was  remarkable. 
He  had  access  to  the  writings  of  Catesby,  La- 
tham, Turton,  Edwards,  and  Bartram,  but  found 
little  in  them  to  help  him  beyond  the  names  and 
technical  descriptions,  so  that  his  book  is  prac- 
tically all  his  own.  He  wrote  well,  presenting  in 
a  clear  style  his  experiences  with  the  birds  and 
their  characteristics  as  he  saw  them,  with  none 
of  the  egotism  or  exaggeration  of  some  writers  in 
their  striving  for  literary  effect.  From  his  fig- 
ures drawn  in  pencil  or  in  ink,  sometimes  only 
an  outline,  the  engraver  produced  the  plate  for 
his  criticism.  The  sample  proof  was  then  col- 
ored by  him  as  model  for  the  colorist  of  the  other 
copies,  who  was  apparently  an  artist,  although 
Wilson  did  some  of  this  work  himself  in  the  first 
edition  and  that  in  the  Ord  editions  was  done  by 
Lawson's  daughters.  Only  ten  years  were  de- 
voted to  the  accumulation  of  the  materials  upon 
which  the  Ornithology  is  based  and  to  its  publi- 
cation, while  J.  J.  Audubon  [q.v.],  by  way  of 
comparison,  spent  thirty  years  in  field  work  and 

8 


Wilson 

painting  before  he  began  the  publication  of  his 
Birds  of  America.  Wilson  covered  only  the  east- 
ern United  States  north  of  Florida,  but  during 
the  next  hundred  years  ornithologists  have  been 
able  to  add  but  twenty-three  indigenous  land 
birds  to  his  list.  Baron  Cuvier  seems  to  have  ex- 
pressed the  European  attitude  toward  Wilson's 
volumes  when  he  wrote:  "He  has  treated  of 
American  birds  better  than  those  of  Europe  have 
yet  been  treated"  (quoted  by  Jordan,  post,  p. 
69),  and  Dr.  Elliott  Coues  has  said:  "Perhaps 
no  other  work  on  ornithology  of  equal  extent  is 
equally  free  from  error;  and  its  truthfulness  is 
illumined  by  a  spark  of  the  'fire  divine.'  .  .  .  Sci- 
ence would  lose  little,  but,  on  the  contrary,  would 
gain  much  if  every  scrap  of  pre-Wilsonian  writ- 
ing about  United  States  birds  could  be  annihi- 
lated" (Birds  of  the  Colorado  Valley,  pt.  I,  1878, 
p.  600). 

While  love  of  tramping  took  Wilson  over  much 
of  the  country  surrounding  Philadelphia,  he  made 
comparatively  few  long  journeys.  In  October 
1804,  with  a  companion,  he  set  out  to  walk  from 
Philadelphia  to  Niagara  Falls  and  back,  pub- 
lishing after  he  returned  an  account  of  his  trip 
in  verse,  The  Foresters  (1805),  which  has  been 
republished  several  times.  In  1808,  when  the 
first  volume  of  the  American  Ornithology  had 
appeared,  he  started  on  a  personal  canvass  of 
the  country  in  search  of  the  250  subscribers  at 
$120  each  which  were  considered  necessary  be- 
fore publication  could  proceed.  Traveling  partly 
by  stage  and  partly  on  foot,  he  visited  the  cities 
and  towns  from  Portland,  Me.,  to  Savannah,  Ga., 
making  acquaintances  and  securing  valuable  cor- 
respondents as  well  as  the  necessary  subscribers 
and  further  ornithological  information.  In  1809 
he  visited  St.  Augustine,  Fla.,  and  in  1810  he 
made  a  journey  into  the  ornithological  terra  in- 
cognita which  lay  west  of  the  Alleghanies  in 
search  of  additional  birds.  Going  down  the  Ohio 
from  Pittsburgh  in  a  small  boat,  he  proceeded 
thence  by  horseback  or  on  foot  to  New  Orleans, 
and  returned  to  Philadelphia  by  sea,  but  although 
he  secured  many  interesting  specimens  there 
were  none  that  could  not  have  been  found  east  of 
the  mountains.  Had  he  explored  Florida,  how- 
ever, instead  of  rounding  it  on  his  voyage,  he 
might  have  added  to  his  collection  many  species 
then  quite  unknown. 

Wilson  the  man,  his  friend  and  biographer 
George  Ord  characterized  as  "possessed  of  the 
nicest  sense  of  honor  .  .  .  not  only  scrupulously 
just,  but  highly  generous  .  .  .  social  and  affec- 
tionate," adding,  "He  was  of  the  Genus  irritabile, 
and  was  obstinate  in  opinion.  It  ever  gave  him 
pleasure  to  acknowledge  error  when  the  con- 


Wilson 

viction  resulted  from  his  own  judgment  alone, 
but  he  could  not  endure  to  be  told  of  his  mis- 
takes" (post,  pp.  xlvi-xlvii).  He  was  of  medium 
height,  and  thin,  with  projecting  cheek  bones 
and  hollow  but  vivacious  eyes.  "His  complexion 
was  sallow,  his  mien  thoughtful ;  his  features 
were  coarse,  and  there  was  a  dash  of  vulgarity 
which  struck  the  observer  at  first  view,  but  which 
failed  to  impress  one  on  acquaintance"  (Jordan, 
p.  67).  Careless  but  not  eccentric  in  dress,  he 
was  very  particular  about  his  linen.  He  was  "al- 
most a  pure  type  of  the  bilious  temperament, 
which  is  best  fitted  for  constant  exertion,  and  he 
could  bear  great  fatigue  without  flinching." 
His  hands  were  delicate;  "he  wrote  beautifully 
and  played  charmingly  on  the  flute."  At  the  time 
of  his  death  he  was  engaged  to  marry  Sarah  Mil- 
ler, sister  of  Hon.  Daniel  Miller,  a  member  of 
Congress  from  Philadelphia,  and  he  was  buried 
in  the  graveyard  of  Old  Swedes  Church,  Phila- 
delphia, under  a  stone  erected  by  his  fiancee. 

After  his  death  a  volume  entitled  Poems; 
Chiefly  in  the  Scottish  Dialect,  by  Alexander 
Wilson,  Author  of  American  Ornithology,  with 
an  Account  of  His  Life  and  Writings  (1816) 
was  printed  in  Paisley  and  published  in  London. 
Wilson's  poems  are  undistinguished  except  by 
their  great  fidelity  to  nature ;  much  more  felici- 
tous are  the  charming  essays  in  his  American 
Ornithology  in  which  he  introduces  the  reader 
in  an  intimate  and  personal  fashion  to  the  birds 
he  loves.  He  has  been  called  "the  pioneer  writer 
of  the  bird  essay"  and  was  certainly  one  of  the 
pioneers  in  American  nature  literature. 

[Biog.  sketch  by  George  Ord  in  Am.  Ornithology, 
vol.  IX  (1814);  "Life"  in  Poems  (1816),  mentioned 
above  ;  William  Dunlap,  A  Hist,  of  the  Rise  and  Prog- 
ress of  the  Arts  of  Design  in  the  U .  S.  (1834),  vol.  II ; 
Henry  Simpson,  The  Lives  of  Eminent  Philadclphians 
(1859)  ;  A.  B.  Grosart,  Memoir  and  Remains  of  Alex- 
ander Wilson  (2  vols.,  1876)  ;  J.  S.  Wilson,  Alexander 
Wilson:  Poet-Naturalist  (1906)  ;  Witmer  Stone,  "Alex- 
ander Wilson,"  in  D.  S.  Jordan,  Leading  Am.  Men  of 
Science  (1910);  Auk,  Apr.  1901,  July  1917  ;  studies 
by  F.  L.  Burns,  in  Wilson  Bull.  (Oberlin,  Ohio),  vols. 
XX-XXII  (1908-10),  passim;  Cassinia,  vol.  XVII 
(1913);  Gordon  Wilson,  Alexander  Wilson  (1930), 
abstract  of  thesis,  Ind.  Univ.  ;  D.  C.  Peattie,  Green 
Laurels  (1936).]  W.  S. 

WILSON,  ALLEN  BENJAMIN  (Oct.  18, 

1824-Apr.  29,  1888),  inventor,  was  the  son  of 
Benjamin  and  Frances  Wilson,  and  was  born  at 
Willet,  Cortland  County,  N.  Y.,  where  his  fa- 
ther was  engaged  as  a  millwright.  He  led  a  nor- 
mal boy's  life,  attending  school  in  the  winter  and 
assisting  his  father,  but  with  the  accidental 
death  of  the  latter  in  1835  Wilson  was  indentured 
to  a  neighboring  farmer  who  was  also  a  carpen- 
ter. After  a  year,  although  but  twelve  years  old, 
he  struck  out  for  himself,  working  on  various 
farms  and  picking  up  a  bit  of  the  blacksmith's 


3*9 


Wilson 

trade  on  the  side.  In  1840  he  apprenticed  himself 
to  a  cabinet-maker  at  Cincinnatus,  Cortland 
County,  N.  Y.  After  learning  this  trade  he  again 
took  the  road  and  worked  as  journeyman  cab- 
inet-maker in  various  parts  of  the  East  and  Mid- 
dle West.  In  1847,  while  employed  at  his  trade 
at  Adrian,  Mich.,  he  conceived  the  idea  of  a 
sewing  machine  without  having  heard  of  or  seen 
one,  but  illness  and  poverty  prevented  him  from 
converting  his  idea  into  a  practical  form  at  that 
time.  The  following  year,  however,  while  em- 
ployed at  Pittsfield,  Mass.,  he  progressed  to  the 
point  of  preparing  full-sized  drawings,  and  on 
Feb.  3,  1849,  began  the  construction  of  his  first 
machine.  The  machine  was  very  crude,  but  Wil- 
son could  sew  with  it,  and  it  possessed  one  very 
interesting  feature,  that  of  a  double-pointed  shut- 
tle which  moved  in  a  curved  path  and  formed  a 
stitch  at  each  forward  and  backward  stroke.  In 
this  respect  it  differed  from  the  invention  of  Elias 
Howe  [q.v.J.  In  order  to  acquire  sufficient  money 
to  secure  a  patent,  Wilson  induced  Joseph  N. 
Chapin  of  North  Adams,  Mass.,  to  buy  a  half  in- 
terest in  the  invention  for  $200,  and  with  this  he 
secured  a  United  States  patent  on  Nov.  12,  1850. 
During  the  year  that  this  patent  was  pending 
Wilson  was  threatened  with  a  lawsuit  by  the 
owners  of  another  patent  covering  a  double- 
pointed  shuttle.  In  view  of  the  fact  that  he  had 
no  money  with  which  to  defend  himself,  he  com- 
promised by  conveying  half  of  his  patent  inter- 
est to  E.  Lee  &  Company  of  New  York,  and 
agreed  to  assist  in  the  manufacture  and  sale  of 
the  machines.  Shortly  after  securing  his  patent 
he  sold  all  of  his  interests  to  the  company  for 
$2000,  reserving  only  the  rights  to  manufacture 
the  machine  in  New  Jersey  and  to  use  it  to  sew 
leather  in  Massachusetts. 

Just  before  this  Wilson  had  met  Nathaniel 
Wheeler  [q.z'.^,  who  was  so  much  interested  in 
the  invention  that  he  contracted  with  E.  Lee  & 
Company  to  make  five  hundred  of  the  machines 
and  persuaded  Wilson  to  remove  to  Watertown, 
Conn.,  to  superintend  the  work.  Wilson  mean- 
while had  devised  on  paper  the  rotary  hook  and 
bobbin  as  a  substitute  for  the  double-pointed 
shuttle.  Devoting  his  first  attention  to  develop- 
ing this  new  contrivance,  he  obtained  a  patent  on 
Aug.  12,  1 85 1.  Wheeler  thereupon  took  Wilson 
into  partnership  with  him  under  the  name  of 
Wheeler,  Wilson  &  Company,  and  began  the 
manufacture  of  sewing  machines  with  Wilson's 
new  improvement,  leaving  E.  Lee  &  Company 
to  shift  for  itself.  With  Wheeler  in  charge  of  the 
commercial  side  of  the  business,  which  was  an 
immediate  success,  Wilson  contrived  a  station- 
ary bobbin  which  became  a  permanent  feature  of 


Wilson 

the  Wheeler  &  Wilson  sewing  machine.  He  then 
turned  to  the  improvement  of  the  feeding  mech- 
anism of  the  sewing  machine,  and  on  Dec.  19, 
1854,  obtained  patent  No.  12,116  for  his  four- 
motion  feed,  a  fundamental  invention  used  on  all 
later  sewing  machines.  Before  this  patent  was 
issued,  however,  on  account  of  ill  health,  and  at 
his  own  request,  he  was  relieved  from  ac- 
tive service  and  responsibility  in  the  company. 
Thereafter  until  his  death  he  devoted  himself  to 
other  inventions,  such  as  cotton-picking  ma- 
chines, and  devices  for  photography  and  for  the 
manufacture  of  illuminating  gas.  Compared 
with  Howe  and  Isaac  M  Singer  [q.v.~\,  he  did 
not  receive  a  proper  reward  for  his  inventions 
even  though  an  extension  of  his  patents  had 
been  granted  by  Congress.  His  revolving-hook 
system  has  remained  unchanged  in  principle, 
and  continues  in  use ;  a  sewing  machine  embody- 
ing the  form  and  principles  used  in  the  first  type 
of  machine  manufactured  in  1852  by  the  Wheeler 
&  Wilson  Company  is  made  and  used  by  its  suc- 
cessor today  (1936).  In  1850  Wilson  married 
Harriet  Emeline  Brooks  of  Williamstown,  Mass., 
and  at  the  time  of  his  death  at  Woodmont,  Conn., 
he  was  survived  by  his  widow  and  one  child. 
He  was  buried  at  Waterbury,  Conn. 

[E.  W.  Byrn,  Progress  of  Invention  in  the  Nine- 
teenth Century  (1900);  C.  M.  Depew,  One  Hundred 
Years  of  Am.  Commerce,  vol.  II  ( 1895)  ;  F.  L.  Lewton, 
"The  Servant  in  the  House  :  a  Brief  Hist,  of  the  Sew- 
ing Machine,"  Ann.  Report  .  .  .  Smithsonian  Inst. 
(1929)  ;  Joseph  Anderson,  The  Town  and  City  of  Wa- 
terbury, Conn.  (1896),  vol.  II;  Patent  Office  records; 
obituary  in  N.  Y.  Times,  Apr.  30,  1888.]        C.  W  M 

WILSON,  AUGUSTA  JANE  EVANS  [See 
Evans,  Augusta  Jane,  1835-1909]. 

WILSON,  BIRD  (Jan.  8,  1777-Apr.  14,  1859), 
jurist,  Episcopal  clergyman  and  professor  of 
theology,  was  born  at  Carlisle,  Pa.,  the  son  of 
James  Wilson,  1742-1798  [q.vJ],  and  Rachel 
(Bird)  Wilson.  In  1789  he  entered  the  College 
of  Philadelphia  (united  in  1791  with  the  Univer- 
sity of  Pennsylvania),  graduating  in  1792.  He 
studied  law  under  Joseph  Thomas  of  Philadel- 
phia, and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1797.  After 
holding  a  position  under  the  commissioner  of 
bankrupt  law,  in  1802  he  was  appointed  presi- 
dent of  the  court  of  common  pleas  in  the  seventh 
circuit.  Only  one  of  his  decisions  was  ever  re- 
versed, and  in  that  case  an  important  new  docu- 
ment had  been  found.  He  edited  his  father's 
writings — The  Works  of  the  Honorable  James 
Wilson  (3  vols.,  1804) — and  an  American  edi- 
tion of  Matthew  Bacon's  A  New  Abridgment  of 
the  Law  (7  vols.,  181 1),  adding  some  American 
and  later  English  decisions.  Active  in  the  or- 
ganization of  St.  John's  Church,  Norristown,  he 


32O 


Wilson 


Wilson 


served  it  as  warden  and  as  deputy  to  the  dio- 
cesan convention. 

He  was  deeply  affected  when  called  on  to  pro- 
nounce the  death  sentence,  and  late  in  1817, 
partly  because  of  the  appearance  of  another  cap- 
ital case  on  the  docket  of  his  court,  he  resigned 
and  studied  for  the  ministry.  On  Mar.  12,  1819, 
Bishop  William  White,  who  had  probably  di- 
rected his  studies,  ordained  him  deacon,  and 
about  a  year  later,  priest.  Soon  after,  the  rector 
having  died,  he  was  called  to  St.  John's,  Norris- 
town,  and  St.  Thomas',  Whitemarsh.  His  par- 
ish ministry  was  successful,  but  short.  Elected 
in  1821  professor  of  systematic  divinity  in  the 
General  Theological  Seminary,  in  the  spring  of 
1822  he  took  up  his  duties  in  New  York.  In  1826, 
at  the  election  of  an  assistant  to  Bishop  White, 
Wilson  received  twenty-six  votes  out  of  fifty- 
four,  but  withdrew  from  the  contest.  He  re- 
mained canonically  resident  in  the  diocese  of 
Pennsylvania,  but  took  no  further  active  part  in 
its  affairs.  From  1829  to  1841  he  was  secretary 
of  the  House  of  Bishops.  When  White  died,  Wil- 
son, at  the  request  of  the  family  and  clergy,  wrote 
the  Bishop's  biography — Memoir  of  the  Life  of 
the  Rt.  Rev.  William  White  (1839),  a  readable 
and  accurate  account  of  an  important  career. 

In  1827  the  seminary  had  moved  to  Twentieth 
Street,  Wilson  taking  one  of  the  professors' 
houses.  With  Prof.  S.  H.  Turner  he  conducted 
services  for  that  then  suburban  neighborhood, 
and  out  of  them  grew  St.  Peter's  Church.  His 
theological  position  was,  like  White's,  in  the 
moderate  Anglican  tradition,  opposed  both  to 
high-church  extremes  and  to  Calvinism.  As 
dean  of  the  seminary,  an  office  then  held  by  the 
resident  professors  in  turn,  he  presided  in  1844- 
45  over  the  trial  of  several  tractarian  students 
accused  of  Roman  sympathies,  an  episode  that 
depressed  him  greatly.  In  1848,  feeling  himself 
neither  wanted  nor  useful,  he  sent  his  resigna- 
tion to  the  trustees,  but  it  was  rejected.  In  1850 
he  retired  as  professor  emeritus,  and  moved  to  a 
house  near  the  seminary.  The  last  years  of  his 
life  he  suffered  from  softening  of  the  brain. 

Wilson's  learning  and  teaching  ability  were 
held  in  high  esteem.  He  was  gentle  but  firm,  and 
his  theology,  like  his  law,  was  clear,  accurate, 
and  sympathetically  interpreted.  A  good  picture 
of  his  "old-fashioned  Episcopalianism"  may  be 
found  in  his  Address  Before  the  General  Theo- 
logical Seminary  (1823),  which  is  on  the  study 
of  theology,  in  a  sermon  preached  in  1826,  "The 
Practical  Importance  of  the  Doctrine  of  the 
Trinity"  (in  A  Contribution  to  the  Doctrine  of 
the  Atonement,  1865),  and  in  a  Sermon  in  the 


Chapel  of  the  Seminary  (1828),  which  discusses 
what  to  preach. 

[W.  W.  Bronson,  A  Memorial  of  the  Rev.  Bird  Wil- 
son (1864),  with  appendix  containing  lecture  notes  and 
two  sermons  ;  S.  H.  Turner,  Sermon  in  Commemoration 
of  the  Late  Bird  Wilson  (1859)  ;  J.  H.  Hopkins,  The 
Life  of  the  Late  Rt.  Rev.  J.  H.  Hopkins  (1873),  con- 
taining account  of  the  election  of  White's  assistant ; 
death  notice  in  A'.  Y.  Times,  Apr.  15,  1859.] 

E.R.H.Jr. 

WILSON,  ERNEST  HENRY  (Feb.  15, 1876- 
Oct.  15,  1930),  plant  collector,  botanist,  was  born 
at  Chipping  Campden,  Gloucestershire,  Eng- 
land, the  eldest  son  of  Henry  and  Annie  (Cur- 
tis) Wilson.  At  sixteen  he  entered  the  Birming- 
ham Botanic  Gardens  as  a  gardener,  at  the  same 
time  studying  botany  at  the  Birmingham  Tech- 
nical School.  Five  years  later  he  became  a  work- 
er and  student  at  the  Royal  Botanic  Gardens  at 
Kew,  and  in  October  1898  entered  the  Royal  Col- 
lege of  Science  at  South  Kensington  to  study 
botany  with  the  idea  of  teaching  it.  He  made  his 
first  plant-collecting  trip  in  1899,  when  he  was 
sent  to  China  by  the  well-known  nursery  firm 
of  James  Veitch  and  Sons  to  collect  plants  and 
seeds.  After  three  years,  most  of  which  he  spent 
in  Hupeh,  he  returned  to  England.  On  June  8, 
1902,  he  was  married  to  Ellen  Ganderton  of 
Edgbaston,  Warwickshire,  by  whom  he  had  one 
daughter.  In  January  1903  he  was  again  sent  by 
Veitch  to  China.  In  these  two  expeditions  he 
collected  two  thousand  seeds  and  plants.  In  1906 
he  served  as  botanical  assistant  at  the  Imperial 
Institute  in  London.  A  year  later  he  was  engaged 
by  Charles  Sprague  Sargent  [q.v.]  for  a  two- 
year  expedition  to  China  (1907-09)  as  a  col- 
lector of  plants,  especially  trees  and  shrubs,  for 
the  Arnold  Arboretum,  Harvard  University, 
and  in  1910  made  another  trip,  going  to  Hupeh 
and  Szechuan.  During  his  previous  trips  in 
China  he  had  traveled  chiefly  by  water;  the 
journey  of  19 10  was  a  difficult  one  overland, 
and  Wilson  had  the  misfortune  to  break  his  leg, 
which  remained  permanently  shortened.  It  was 
on  this  expedition  that  he  secured  the  beautiful 
Regal  Lily,  one  of  his  most  notable  plant  intro- 
ductions. His  three  other  trips  for  the  Arnold 
Arboretum  took  him  to  Japan  (1914-15),  to 
Formosa,  Korea,  and  Japan  (1917-19),  and 
tO  India,  Australia,  New  Zealand,  and  Africa 
(1920-22),  the  object  of  the  last  trip  being  to 
establish  closer  relations  between  the  Arboretum 
and  other  botanical  institutions.  He  introduced 
to  cultivation  more  than  a  thousand  species  of 
plants  (Rehder,  post,  p.  185),  many  of  them 
widely  grown.  Among  his  best  known  introduc- 
tions are  Buddleia  Daindii  magnified,  Kotkwitsia 
amabilis  or  Beauty  Bush,  and  Mains  thcifera  or 


I21 


Wilson 


Wilson 


Tea  Crab.  He  was  especially  interested  in  trees 
and  shrubs.  He  also  took  a  great  many  valuable 
photographs  and  collected  thousands  of  herba- 
rium specimens,  which  are  to  be  found  not  only 
in  the  Arnold  Arboretum  but  in  important  her- 
baria throughout  the  world  (Ibid.).  In  April 
1919  he  was  appointed  assistant  director  of  the 
Arnold  Arboretum,  and  in  1927  he  was  given  the 
title  of  keeper.  He  died  at  the  age  of  fifty-four, 
killed  with  his  wife  in  an  automobile  accident 
near  Worcester,  Mass. 

Besides  being  a  remarkably  skilful  collector, 
Wilson  was  a  prolific  and  entertaining  writer  on 
horticultural  subjects.  Among  his  scientific  pub- 
lications were  The  Conifers  and  Taxads  of  Japan 
(1916),  Plantae  Wilsonianae  (3  vols.,  1913-17), 
edited  by  C.  S.  Sargent,  A  Monograph  of  Aza- 
leas (1921),  written  with  Alfred  Rehder,  and 
The  Lilies  of  Eastern  Asia  (1925).  His  more 
popular  books  include  Aristocrats  of  the  Garden 
(1917),  Plant  Hunting  (2  vols.,  1927),  China — 
Mother  of  Gardens  (1929),  and  Aristocrats  of 
the  Trees  ( 1930) .  Wilson  was  a  member  of  many 
botanical  and  horticultural  organizations,  and 
was  the  recipient  of  a  number  of  medals  and  other 
awards  for  his  work  with  plants. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1930-31  ;  E.  I.  Farrington, 
Ernest  H.  Wilson,  Plant  Hunter  ( 1931)  ;  Alfred  Rehder, 
in  Jour.  Arnold  Arboretum,  Oct.  1930,  with  bibliog. ; 
Richardson  Wright,  in  House  and  Garden,  Jan.  1931  ; 
Leonard  Barron,  in  Country  Life,  Dec.  1930;  obituary 
in  Boston  Transcript,  Oct.   16,  1930.]  J.G.J. 

WILSON,  GEORGE  FRANCIS  (Dec.  7, 
1818-Jan.  19,  1883,  manufacturer,  inventor,  was 
the  eldest  son  of  Benjamin  and  Mercy  Wilson, 
and  was  born  on  his  father's  farm  at  Uxbridge, 
Mass.  He  was  a  lineal  descendant  of  Roger  Wil- 
son of  Scrooby,  England,  who  in  1608  went  to 
Leyden,  Holland,  with  Governor  Bradford  and 
other  Pilgrims,  and  whose  son,  John,  emigrated 
to  New  England  in  1651.  Wilson  remained  at 
home  throughout  his  early  youth,  helping  his  fa- 
ther and  attending  the  district  schools,  but  upon 
reaching  his  seventeenth  birthday  he  was  ap- 
prenticed to  Welcome  and  Darius  Farnum  at 
Waterford,  Mass.,  to  learn  the  wool-sorting  busi- 
ness. He  remained  three  years  and  not  only 
mastered  the  trade  but  also  became  thoroughly 
versed  in  all  the  mechanical  equipment  used. 
Feeling  the  need  of  greater  business  experience, 
he  spent  another  year  as  a  bookkeeper  in  Ux- 
bridge, and  in  1840,  using  his  savings,  entered 
the  academy  in  Shelburne  Falls,  Mass.  After 
his  graduation,  he  spent  several  years  teaching 
at  the  academy.  In  1844  he  took  his  bride  to 
Chicago,  111.,  where  he  organized  the  Chicago 
Academy  in  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  at 
the  corner  of  Clark  and  Washington  Streets.  In 


four  years  the  enrollment  was  increased  from 
three  to  two  hundred  and  twenty-five  scholars. 
For  some  reason  Wilson  gave  up  this  work  in 
1848,  returned  east  to  Providence,  R.  I.,  and  for 
the  next  six  years  was  variously  employed  in 
manufactures  thereabout.  In  1855,  however,  he 
entered  into  a  partnership  for  the  manufacture 
of  chemicals  with  Eben  N.  Horsford  \_q.v.],  at 
that  time  Rumford  Professor  of  Chemistry  at 
Harvard  College,  the  firm  name  being  George 
F.  Wilson  and  Company.  This  undertaking  was 
immediately  successful,  Horsford  determining 
what  products  were  to  be  made,  and  Wilson  de- 
veloping the  manufacturing  equipment  (much  of 
it  possessing  ingenious  mechanical  features)  for 
their  commercial  production.  Within  two  years 
it  became  necessary  to  build  a  new  and  larger 
plant,  at  East  Providence,  R.  I.  At  the  same  time 
the  firm  name  was  changed  to  the  Rumford 
Chemical  Company.  Thereafter  until  his  death 
Wilson  continued  at  its  head,  building  up  a  pros- 
perous and  extensive  business. 

Aside  from  the  many  and  varied  inventions 
which  he  devised  for  his  own  establishment,  he 
found  time  to  perfect  other  inventions,  among 
which  were  a  process  of  steel  manufacture,  a  re- 
volving paper-pulp  boiler,  and  several  improve- 
ments in  illuminating  apparatus  for  lighthouses. 
Because  of  his  aptitude  for  mechanical  science 
and  its  applications,  he  was  much  consulted  by 
others  for  the  solution  of  mechanical  problems. 
As  an  avocation  he  experimented  in  agriculture 
and  stock  breeding,  and  was  actively  interested 
in  scientific  education.  From  i860  to  1862  he 
represented  Providence  in  the  state  legislature, 
and  served  on  the  Providence  school  committee 
and  town  council  for  a  number  of  years.  At  his 
death  he  bequeathed  one  hundred  thousand  dol- 
lars to  Brown  University  and  fifty  thousand  dol- 
lars to  Dartmouth  College,  both  for  strictly  sci- 
entific purposes.  Wilson  was  married  in  1844 
to  Clarissa  Bartlett  of  Conway,  Mass.  (d.  1880). 
At  the  time  of  his  death  in  East  Providence, 
where  he  resided  after  1861,  he  was  survived  by 
five  children. 

[Proc.  R.  I.  Hist.  Soc.  (1884)  ;  graduate  records, 
Brown  Univ. ;  Patent  Office  records  ;  obituary  in  Prov- 
idence Daily  Jour.,  Jan.  22,   1883.]  C.  W.  M. 

WILSON,  HENRY  (Feb.  16,  1812-Nov.  22, 
1875),  United  States  senator,  vice-president, 
born  at  Farmington,  N.  H.,  and  named  Jeremiah 
Jones  Colbath,  was  one  of  the  many  children  of 
Winthrop  and  Abigail  (Witham)  Colbath.  The 
father  was  a  day-laborer  in  a  sawmill.  So  dire 
was  the  family's  poverty  that  soon  after  the  boy's 
tenth  birthday  he  was  bound  by  indenture  to 
work  for  a  neighboring  farmer ;  he  was  to  have 


322 


Wilson 


Wilson 


food  and  clothing,  and  one  month's  schooling 
each  winter.  For  more  than  ten  years  he  worked 
at  increasingly  heavy  farm  labor.  Two  neigh- 
bors lent  him  books  and  directed  his  reading.  By 
the  end  of  his  service  he  had  "inwardly  digested" 
nearly  a  thousand  volumes,  including  the  best  in 
English  and  American  history  and  biography. 
At  twenty-one  he  received  in  quittance  "six 
sheep  and  a  yoke  of  oxen,"  which  he  immediately 
sold  for  $85 — the  first  money  returns  for  his 
years  of  work.  At  this  period,  with  the  approval 
of  his  parents,  he  had  his  name  changed  by  act 
of  the  legislature  to  Henry  Wilson. 

After  some  weeks  of  unsuccessful  job-hunting 
in  neighboring  towns,  he  walked  more  than  a 
hundred  miles  to  Natick,  Mass.,  and  hired  him- 
self to  a  man  who  agreed,  in  return  for  five 
months'  labor,  to  teach  him  to  make  "brogans." 
In  a  few  weeks  he  "bought  his  time"  and  began 
to  work  for  himself.  For  several  years  he  drove 
himself  hard  at  the  shoemaker's  bench,  intent 
upon  getting  together  enough  money  to  begin 
the  study  of  law.  Meanwhile,  he  was  reading  in- 
cessantly and  developing  effectiveness  in  public 
speaking  by  taking  an  active  part  in  the  weekly 
meetings  of  the  Natick  Debating  Society.  To  re- 
gain his  health,  broken  by  overwork,  he  made  a 
trip  to  Virginia.  In  Washington  he  listened  to 
passionate  debates  over  slavery,  and  in  the  near- 
by slave  pen  watched  negro  families  separated 
and  fathers,  mothers,  and  children  sold  at  auction 
as  slaves.  Many  years  later  he  declared :  "I  left 
the  capital  of  my  country  with  the  unalterable 
resolution  to  give  all  that  I  had,  and  all  that  I 
hoped  to  have,  of  power,  to  the  cause  of  emanci- 
pation in  America"  (Nason  and  Russell,  post,  p. 
31).  With  health  restored,  he  turned  to  study; 
three  brief  terms  in  New  Hampshire  academies 
(at  Strafford,  Wolfborough,  and  Concord)  end- 
ed his  meager  schooling.  His  savings  exhausted, 
he  returned  to  Natick,  paid  off  his  debt  by  teach- 
ing district  school  in  the  winter  term,  and  then 
with  a  capital  of  a  very  few  dollars  started  to 
manufacture  shoes,  continuing  in  this  industry 
for  nearly  ten  years  and  at  times  employing  over 
a  hundred  workers.  He  dealt  with  them  as  man 
to  man,  and  won  their  entire  confidence  and  de- 
votion. He  was  moderately  successful  in  busi- 
ness, but  the  making  of  a  fortune  was  not  a  career 
that  attracted  him.  On  Oct.  28,  1840,  he  mar- 
ried Harriet  Malvina  Howe.  Their  only  son, 
Henry  Hamilton  Wilson  (d.  1866)  served  with 
distinction  in  the  Civil  War,  attaining  the  rank 
of  lieutenant-colonel  of  a  colored  regiment. 

In  1840  Wilson  supported  the  Whig  candidate, 
Harrison,  for  president,  believing  that  the  Demo- 
crats' financial  policy  had  injured  the  industrial 


interests  of  the  North  and  brought  misery  to  its 
wage-earners.  In  that  year  he  was  elected  to  the 
Massachusetts  House  of  Representatives,  and  for 
the  nextf  dozen  years  only  twice  did  he  fail  to 
win  a  seat  in  one  branch  or  the  other  of  the  leg- 
islature. In  1845  he  was  active  in  the  Concord 
convention  in  protest  against  the  extension  of 
slavery,  and  with  Whittier  was  chosen  to  present 
to  Congress  the  petition  of  65,000  Massachusetts 
citizens  against  the  annexation  of  Texas.  At 
the  Whig  national  convention  in  Philadelphia 
(June  1848)  when  General  Taylor  was  nomi- 
nated for  the  presidency  and  no  stand  taken  by 
the  party  as  to  the  Wilmot  Proviso,  Wilson  and 
Charles  Allen,  another  Massachusetts  delegate, 
headed  the  small  group  that  denounced  the 
Whigs'  action,  withdrew  from  the  convention 
hall,  and  called  the  convention  at  Buffalo  which 
launched  the  Free  Soil  party.  From  1848  to 
185 1  Wilson  edited  the  Boston  Republican,  the 
organ  of  that  party.  He  was  mainly  instrumental 
in  bringing  about  in  185 1  the  coalition — abhorred 
by  all  straight  party  men  of  that  day — which  re- 
sulted in  the  election  of  Charles  Sumner  to  the 
United  States  Senate.  In  185 1  and  1852  Wilson 
was  president  of  the  state  Senate.  In  the  latter 
year  he  served  as  chairman  of  the  Free  Soil 
national  convention.  Believing  that  the  rising 
American  (Know  Nothing)  party  might  be  lib- 
eralized so  as  to  become  an  important  force  for 
the  cause  of  freedom,  in  1854,  with  many  other 
anti-slavery  men,  he  joined  that  organization. 
No  act  of  his  life  drew  upon  him  so  much  criti- 
cism, and  he  soon  came  to  deplore  the  step  he  had 
taken.  He  loathed  the  intolerant  nativist  spirit 
of  the  Know  Nothings,  and  before  many  months 
had  passed  he  declared  that  if  the  American 
party  should  prove  "recreant  to  freedom"  he 
would  do  his  utmost  to  "shiver  it  to  atoms" 
(Nason  and  Russell,  p.  121).  Over  his  vehement 
protest  the  American  National  Council  at  Phila- 
delphia in  1855  adopted  a  platform  as  evasive  on 
the  slavery  issue  as  had  been  that  of  the  Whig 
convention  in  1848,  and  forthwith  Wilson  again 
led  anti-slavery  delegates  from  the  hall  in  a  re- 
volt which  dismembered  the  American  party  in 
its  first  attempt  to  control  national  politics. 

In  January  1855 — by  a  legislature  almost  en- 
tirely "American"  in  membership — Wilson  had 
already  been  elected  to  fill  the  vacancy  in  the  Sen- 
ate caused  by  the  resignation  of  Edward  Everett 
[<?.?'.].  In  his  very  first  speech  he  aligned  him- 
self with  those  who  favored  the  abolition  of 
slavery  "wherever  we  are  morally  or  legally  re- 
sponsible for  its  existence"  (i.e.  in  the  District 
of  Columbia  and  the  Territories),  and  the  repeal 
of  the  fugitive  slave  law,  declaring  his  firm  be- 


323 


Wilson 


Wilson 


lief  that,  if  the  federal  government  were  thus  re- 
lieved from  all  connection  with  and  responsibility 
for  the  existence  of  slavery,  "the  men  of  the 
South  who  are  opposed  to  the  existence  of  that 
institution,  would  get  rid  of  it  in  their  own  States 
at  no  distant  day"  (Congressional  Globe,  33 
Cong.,  2  Sess.,  p.  238).  He  was  outspoken  in 
the  debate  upon  the  struggle  in  Kansas.  Follow- 
ing Brooks's  assault  upon  Sumner,  Wilson  upon 
the  floor  of  the  Senate  characterized  that  act  as 
"brutal,  murderous,  and  cowardly"  (Ibid.,  34 
Cong.,  1  Sess.,  p.  1306).  This  brought  a  chal- 
lenge from  Brooks,  to  which  Wilson  instantly 
wrote  a  reply  declining  to  "make  any  qualifica- 
tion whatever  ...  in  regard  to  those  words,"  and 
adding:  "The  law  of  my  country  and  the  matured 
convictions  of  my  whole  life  alike  forbid  me  to 
meet  you  for  the  purpose  indicated  in  your  let- 
ter" (History  of  the  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Slave 
Pozuer,  II,  487).  In  many  states  Wilson  took  a 
most  active  part  in  the  campaign  for  the  election 
of  Lincoln.  While  peace  hung  in  the  balance,  he 
made  a  powerful  speech  against  the  Crittenden 
compromise  (Congressional  Globe,  36  Cong.,  2 
Sess.,  pp.  1088-94). 

With  the  outbreak  of  the  war  heavy  responsi- 
bilities at  once  devolved  upon  him.  For  nine 
years  he  had  been  a  member  of  the  Massachusetts 
state  militia,  rising  to  the  grade  of  brigadier- 
general.  In  the  Senate  he  had  served  for  sev- 
eral years  on  the  committee  on  military  affairs. 
To  its  chairmanship  he  now  brought  a  combina- 
tion of  long  military  and  legislative  experience 
unequaled  by  that  of  any  other  member  of  the 
Senate.  With  tremendous  energy  he  threw  him- 
self into  the  task  of  framing,  explaining,  and 
defending  legislative  measures  necessary  for  en- 
listing, organizing,  and  provisioning  a  vast  army. 
Gen.  Winfield  Scott  declared  that  in  that  short 
session  of  Congress  Wilson  had  done  more  work 
"than  all  the  chairmen  of  the  military  commit- 
tees had  done  for  the  last  twenty  years"  (Nason 
and  Russell,  p.  307).  At  the  end  of  the  session, 
he  returned  to  Massachusetts  and  within  forty 
days  recruited  nearly  2300  men.  Simon  Cam- 
eron, secretary  of  war,  wrote  to  Wilson,  Jan. 
27,  1862:  "No  man,  in  my  opinion,  in  the  whole 
country,  has  done  more  to  aid  the  war  depart- 
ment in  preparing  the  mighty  army  now  under 
arms  than  yourself"  (Ibid.,  p.  316).  He  con- 
stantly urged  Lincoln  to  proclaim  emancipation 
as  a  war  measure,  and  he  shaped  the  bills  which 
brought  freedom  to  scores  of  thousands  of  slaves 
in  the  border  states,  years  before  the  ratification 
of  the  Thirteenth  Amendment.  In  March '  1865 
he  reported  from  the  Senate  conference  com- 


mittee the  bill  for  the  establishment  of  the  Freed- 
men's  Bureau. 

He  was  a  bitter  opponent  of  Johnson's  recon- 
struction policy  and  attitude  toward  Congress. 
In  that  dark  era  Wilson  was  so  concerned  for 
the  welfare  of  the  freedmen  in  whose  cause  he 
had  long  been  fighting  that  he  could  not  appre- 
ciate the  realities  of  the  chaos  in  which  the 
South  had  been  left  by  the  war,  nor  the  sincerity 
and  self-sacrifice  with  which  many  of  the  South- 
ern leaders  were  grappling  with  the  problems  of 
reconstruction.  He  therefore  joined  with  ex- 
tremists in  Congress  in  imposing  tests  and  re- 
strictions which  in  the  retrospect  of  seventy 
years  seem  unnecessarily  harsh  and  unrelenting. 
As  a  result  of  long  tours  through  the  South  and 
West,  however,  his  attitude  soon  became  more 
conciliatory ;  he  conferred  frankly  with  pre-war 
Southern  leaders,  and  counseled  the  freedmen 
who  thronged  to  hear  him  to  learn  something, 
to  get  and  till  a  bit  of  land,  and  to  obey  the  law. 
He  favored  federal  legislation  in  aid  of  education 
and  homesteading  in  the  impoverished  Southern 
states.  In  1872  the  nomination  of  Wilson  for 
vice-president  strengthened  the  Republican  tick- 
et. He  proved  a  highly  efficient  and  acceptable 
presiding  officer,  though  ill  health  soon  made  his 
attendance  irregular.  In  November  1875  he  suf- 
fered a  paralytic  stroke  in  the  Capitol  and  was 
taken  to  the  Vice-President's  Room,  where 
twelve  days  later  he  died.  He  was  buried  in  Old 
Dell  Park  Cemetery,  Natick. 

Through  nearly  thirty  years  of  public  service 
Wilson  did  not  allow  personal  ambition  to  swerve 
him  from  the  unpopular  causes  to  which  he  had 
devoted  himself  from  the  beginning — the  free- 
ing of  the  slave,  and  the  gaining  for  the  work- 
ingman,  white  or  black,  a  position  of  opportunity 
and  of  dignity  such  as  befitted  the  citizen  of  a 
republic.  To  gain  these  ends  he  did  not  hesitate 
to  compromise  on  what  he  deemed  non-essentials, 
to  cut  loose  from  old  party  ties,  and  to  manipu- 
late new  coalitions  to  the  dismay  of  party  lead- 
ers who  denounced  him  as  a  shifty  politician. 
His  sympathies  were  always  with  the  workers 
from  whose  ranks  he  had  sprung,  and  in  his  ca- 
reer they  found  incentive  and  inspiration.  In 
his  own  state  he  was  the  champion  of  the  free 
public  school,  of  the  free  public  library,  of  ex- 
emption of  workers'  tools  and  household  furni- 
ture from  taxation,  and  of  the  removal  of  prop- 
erty tests  from  office-holding.  In  the  opinion  of 
Senator  G.  F.  Hoar  (post,  pp.  213,  216-17),  Wil- 
son was  "a  skilful,  adroit,  practiced  and  con- 
stant political  manager" — "the  most  skilful  po- 
litical organizer  in  the  country"  of  his  day.  No 
other  leader  of  that  period  could  sense  as  clearly 


.^4 


Wilson 


Wilson 


as  he  what  the  farmer,  the  mechanic,  and  the 
workingman  were  thinking  about,  and  he  "ad- 
dressed himself  always  to  their  best  and  highest 
thought."  Wilson  brought  together  much  valu- 
able material  in  the  following  books :  History  of 
the  Antislavery  Measures  of  the  Thirty-seventh 
and  Thirty-eighth  United  States  Congresses 
(1864)  ;  Military  Measures  of  the  United  States 
Congress,  1861-1865  (1866);  History  of  the 
Reconstruction  Measures  of  the  Thirty-ninth  and 
Fortieth  Congresses  (1868)  ;  and  History  of  the 
Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Slave  Power  in  America  (3 
vols.,  1872-77),  the  last  written  with  the  zeal 
and  the  bias  of  a  crusader,  but  without  over- 
emphasis upon  his  own  part  in  the  movement. 

[The  most  detailed  account  of  Wilson  is  Elias  Nason 
and  Thomas  Russell,  The  Life  and  Public  Services  of 
Henry  Wilson  (1876),  a  laudatory,  crudely  expanded 
revision  of  Nason's  campaign  biography  of  1872.  See, 
also,  Memorial  Addresses  on  the  Life  and  Character  of 
Henry  Wilson  .  .  .  Delivered  in  the  Senate  and  House 
of  Representatives  Jan.  21,  1876  (1876);  New  Eng. 
Hist,  and  Geneal.  Reg.,  July  1878  ;  G.  F.  Hoar,  Autobiog. 
of  Seventy  Years  (1903)  ;  Biog.  Dir.  Am.  Cong. 
(1928)  ;  Evening  Star  (Washington)  and  Boston  Tran- 
script, Nov.  22,  1875.]  G.  H.H. 

WILSON,  HENRY  LANE  (Nov.  3,  1857- 
Dec.  22,  1932) ,  diplomat,  was  born  at  Crawfords- 
ville,  Ind.,  the  son  of  James  and  Emma  (Inger- 
soll)  Wilson  and  the  descendant  of  a  well-to-do 
Scotch-Irish  family  that  emigrated  from  Lon- 
donderry to  western  Virginia  about  1730.  His 
father  was  a  representative  in  Congress  from 
Indiana,  1857-61,  and  an  officer  in  the  Civil  War, 
and  died  in  1867  while  serving  as  minister  to 
Venezuela.  The  boy  received  a  public  school 
education  and  graduated  from  Wabash  College 
in  Crawfordsville  in  1879.  He  studied  law  in 
the  office  of  President  Benjamin  Harrison  at 
Indianapolis  and  was  from  1882  to  1885  editor 
and  owner  of  the  Journal  of  Lafayette,  Ind.  He 
married  Alice  Vajan  of  Indiana  in  October  1884. 
They  had  three  sons.  The  next  eleven  years  he 
spent  in  Spokane,  Wash.,  practising  law  and  en- 
gaging in  banking  and  real  estate  operations. 
He  lost  virtually  everything  in  the  panic  of  1893. 
While  in  Washington  he  entered  politics,  suc- 
cessfully managing  the  campaign  of  his  brother, 
John  Lockwood  Wilson  [q.zf.],  for  the  federal 
Senate  in  1895  ar>d  representing  the  state  on  the 
committee  that  notified  William  McKinley  of  his 
nomination  for  president.  In  1889  President 
Harrison  appropriately  offered  him  the  appoint- 
ment as  minister  to  Venezuela,  but  he  declined 
it.  McKinley  appointed  him  on  June  9,  1897, 
minister  to  Chile,  and  he  served  with  ability  for 
seven  rather  uneventful  years,  declining  the  offer 
of  the  post  of  minister  to  Greece  in  1902,   He 


was  considered  as  having  been  instrumental  in 
averting  differences  between  Chile  and  Argen- 
tina in  1900  and  received  a  popular  demonstra- 
tion of  approval  at  Santiago.  Immediately  after 
the  termination  of  his  service  in  Chile  he  spent 
several  weeks,  at  the  request  of  President  Theo- 
dore Roosevelt,  in  ascertaining  political  feeling 
in  several  states  during  the  campaign  of  1904. 
In  response  to  his  request  for  a  European  post, 
he  was  appointed  minister  to  Belgium  on  Mar. 
8,  1905.  During  his  four  years  at  Brussels  he 
served  as  American  representative  at  a  confer- 
ence held  in  April  1908  "to  revise  the  arms  and 
ammunitions  regulations  of  the  General  Act  of 
Brussels  of  1890,"  and  he  represented  the  Presi- 
dent at  the  coronation  of  King  Albert  of  Bel- 
gium in  December  1909.  On  Dec.  21,  1909,  he 
was  appointed  ambassador  to  Mexico,  an  impor- 
tant and  turbulent  post.  During  the  period  of 
the  overthrow  of  the  Diaz  regime  and  the  revo- 
lutionary period  that  followed  he  was  a  vigorous 
defender  of  American  interests.  Although  his 
course  received  the  approval  of  President  Taft, 
he  was  quite  generally  believed  to  have  played 
an  improper  part  in  the  Huerta-Diaz  coup,  as  an 
aftermath  of  which  President  Madero  was  as- 
sassinated. He  urged  both  the  Taft  and  Wilson 
administrations  to  recognize  the  Huerta  gov- 
ernment, but  without  success.  There  was  con- 
siderable hostility  in  Mexico  towards  him,  and 
President  Wilson's  lack  of  confidence  in  the  am- 
bassador, whom  he  had  retained  in  office,  was 
evidenced  by  his  decision  to  send  John  Lind 
[q.v.~\  to  Mexico  as  a  special  commissioner.  In 
view  of  the  strained  situation  Wilson  tendered 
his  resignation  on  two  occasions,  but  it  was  not 
accepted  until  the  latter  part  of  August  1913,  to 
take  effect  Oct.  14,  1913. 

Although  in  practical  retirement  after  1913, 
he  was  by  no  means  inactive.  During  1915,  1916, 
and  1917  he  served  as  president  of  the  World 
Court  League,  the  Security  League,  and  the 
League  to  Enforce  Peace.  In  1923  President 
Coolidge  offered  him  the  appointment  as  am- 
bassador to  Turkey,  but  there  were  delays,  the 
appointment  was  never  made,  and  Wilson  ap- 
plied himself  to  recouping  financial  losses  suf- 
fered over  the  period  of  his  diplomatic  career. 
His  Diplomatic  Episodes  in  Mexico,  Belgium 
and  Chile  appeared  in  1927.  He  died  at  Indian- 
apolis. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1932-33;  N.  Y.  Times, 
Dec.  23,  1932;  Register  of  the  Department  of  State', 
1913:  R.  S.  Baker,  Woodrow  Wilson:  Life  and  Letters, 
vol.  IV  (1931)  ;  dates  of  birth  and  appointments  from 
records  of  state  department  and  his  son,  Warden  Mc- 
Kee  Wilson,  first  secretary  of  American  legation,  The 
HaSue.l  E.  W.  S. 


325 


Wils 


on 


WILSON,  HENRY  PARKE  CUSTIS  (Mar. 
5,  1827-Dec.  27,  1897),  surgeon,  pioneer  Mary- 
land gynecologist,  was  born  at  Workington, 
Somerset  County,  Md.,  the  son  of  Henry  Parke 
Custis  and  Susan  E.  (Savage)  Wilson.  A  pa- 
ternal ancestor,  Ephraim  Wilson,  emigrated  to 
America  from  Ireland  in  the  early  part  of  the 
eighteenth  century  and  settled  on  the  Eastern 
Shore  of  Maryland,  becoming  one  of  the  found- 
ers of  the  first  Presbyterian  Church  in  America. 
Wilson  was  proud  of  his  Parke  as  well  as  of  his 
Custis  ancestry,  the  latter  connecting  him  with 
the  Washington  and  Lee  families  of  Virginia. 
After  taking  the  degree  of  B.A.  at  the  College  of 
New  Jersey  (later  Princeton)  in  1848,  he  began 
to  study  medicine  in  Northampton  County,  Va., 
under  William  G.  Smith.  He  attended  one  course 
of  lectures  at  the  University  of  Virginia  and  one 
course  at  the  University  of  Maryland,  gradu- 
ating from  the  latter  in  1851  and  settling  in  Bal- 
timore to  practise.  There  he  worked  with  Rich- 
ard Henry  Thomas,  whom  he  accompanied  on  his 
daily  rounds  of  visits.  For  some  years  he  was  the 
only  gynecologist  in  the  city.  He  was  the  first 
in  the  state  to  remove  the  uterine  appendages  by 
abdominal  section  and  the  second  in  Maryland  to 
perform  a  successful  ovariotomy  (1866).  He 
was  said  to  be  the  second  in  the  world  to  re- 
move an  intra-uterine  tumor  filling  the  whole 
pelvis  by  cutting  it  away  in  pieces  (morcellation) 
after  other  methods  had  failed,  the  patient  re- 
covering. In  1880,  by  abdominal  section,  he  de- 
livered an  eight-pound  living  child  from  the  ab- 
dominal cavity,  a  living  child  having  previously 
been  delivered  from  the  uterus  per  znas  naturales 
(reported  in  American  Journal  of  Obstetrics, 
Oct.  1880).  He  also  devised  sundry  instruments 
for  use  in  gynecological  surgery.  His  writings 
dealt  exclusively  with  the  problems  of  his  spe- 
cialty. 

He  served  as  president  of  the  Medical  and 
Chirurgical  Faculty  of  Maryland  in  1880-81 
and  in  his  presidential  address  urged  the  con- 
struction of  a  fireproof  library  building  {Tran- 
sactions, 1881).  That  same  year  he  was  also 
president  of  the  Baltimore  Academy  of  Medicine. 
He  was  a  founder  of  the  Baltimore  Obstetrical 
and  Gynecological  Society  and  of  the  American 
Gynecological  Society,  a  member  of  the  British 
Medical  Association,  and  the  British  Gynecolog- 
ical Association,  and  an  honorary  fellow  of  the 
Edinburgh  Obstetrical  Society.  His  hospital 
services  included  those  of  surgeon  in  charge  to 
the  Baltimore  City  Almshouse  Infirmary  (1857- 
58),  and  consulting  surgeon  to  St.  Agnes  Hos- 
pital from  1879  and  to  the  Johns  Hopkins  Hos- 
pital from  1889.  He  was  a  co-founder  with  Wil- 


Wilson 

liam  T.  Howard  of  the  Hospital  for  the  Women 
of  Maryland  (1882),  serving  with  Howard  as 
visiting  gynecologist  until  his  death.  This  hos- 
pital was  modeled  after  the  Woman's  Hospital 
of  the  State  of  New  York  founded  by  James 
Marion  Sims  [q<v.~\,  and  like  it  made  no  provi- 
sion in  its  early  days  for  private  or  paying  pa- 
tients. 

In  1858  Wilson  married  Alicia  Brewer  Grif- 
fith, daughter  of  David  Griffith  of  Baltimore 
County,  who  with  five  children  survived  him. 
One  son  became  a  physician.  A  small  man,  rath- 
er stout,  alert,  careful  in  dress,  Wilson  was  noted 
for  his  courteous  manners,  personal  charm,  and 
open  hospitality.  He  was  an  elder  in  the  Presby- 
terian Church  until  his  death,  which  occurred 
in  Baltimore. 

[W.  B.  Atkinson,  Physicians  and  Surgeons  of  Amer- 
ica (1878)  ;  I.  A.  Watson,  Physicians  and  Surgeons 
of  America  (1896)  ;  B.  B.  Browne,  in  Trans.  Am.  Gyne- 
cological Soc,  vol.  XXIII  (1898)  ;  J.  R.  Quinan,  Medic. 
Annals  of  Baltimore  (1884)  ;  E.  F.  Cordell,  The  Medic. 
Annals  of  Md.  (1903)  ;  H.  A.  Kelly  and  W.  L.  Burrage, 
Am.  Medic.  Biogs.  (1920);  obituary  in  Sun  (Balti- 
more), Dec.  28,  1897;  personal  recollections,  and  those 
of  old  friends.]  jj  ^  j£ y 

WILSON,  JAMES  (Sept.  14,  1742-Aug.  21, 
1798),  congressman,  jurist,  speculator,  son  of 
William  and  Aleson  (Landale)  Wilson,  was 
born  at  Carskerdo,  near  St.  Andrews,  Scotland. 
He  entered  the  University  of  St.  Andrews  in 
November  1757,  and  probably  remained  there 
until  1759.  He  is  said  to  have  attended  the  Uni- 
versity of  Glasgow  some  time  between  1759  and 
I763,  going  from  there  to  the  University  of  Edin- 
burgh in  1763.  In  June  1765  he  left  the  Univer- 
sity of  Edinburgh,  probably  without  a  degree. 
That  month  he  began  the  study  of  accounting, 
but  for  some  reason  he  abandoned  it  at  once  and 
left  for  America,  arriving  in  New  York  in  the 
midst  of  the  Stamp  Act  disturbances.  Equipped 
with  a  much  better  education  than  most  immi- 
grants of  the  period  and  having  also  letters  of 
introduction  to  prominent  persons  in  Pennsyl- 
vania— among  them  Richard  Peters,  provincial 
secretary  and  trustee  of  the  College  of  Philadel- 
phia— he  secured  in  February  1766  a  position 
as  Latin  tutor  in  this  institution.  On  May  19 
his  petition  for  an  honorary  M.A.  degree  was 
granted. 

Although  he  retained  his  scholarly  interests 
throughout  life  Wilson  saw  that  advancement  in 
America  lay  not  in  some  struggling  academy,  but 
in  the  law.  He  thereupon  entered  the  office  of 
John  Dickinson  [q.v.]  and  began  poring  over 
Coke  and  the  recent  lectures  of  Blackstone.  He 
remained  in  Dickinson's  office  about  two  years, 
being  admitted  to  the  bar  in  November  1767,  but 
not  entering  upon  practice  at  that  time.    With 


326 


Wilson 

William  White  [q.v.~\,  one  of  his  earliest  friends, 
he  published  during  his  student  days  a  series  of 
Addisonian  essays  in  the  Pennsylvania  Chronicle 
called  "The  Visitant."  In  the  summer  of  1768 
he  began  practice  in  Reading,  in  agreeable  prox- 
imity to  Rachel  Bird  of  "Birdsboro,"  for  whom 
he  had  formed  an  attachment  in  Philadelphia. 
His  practice  among  the  conservative  German 
farmers  was  "very  far  from  being  contemptible" 
(Wilson  to  White,  c.  1770,  Historical  Society  of 
Pennsylvania),  but  increased  prospects,  to  the 
westward,  in  addition  to  some  obstacles  in  his 
suit  with  Miss  Bird,  induced  him  to  settle  in  the 
Scots-Irish  region  at  Carlisle.  Here  his  prac- 
tice increased  with  phenomenal  rapidity :  by  1774 
he  was  charged  with  nearly  half  of  the  cases  tried 
in  the  county  court  and  was  practising  in  seven 
other  counties.  He  purchased  a  home,  livestock, 
a  slave,  and,  on  Nov.  5,  1771,  married  Rachel 
Bird.  Most  of  his  practice  involved  land  disputes. 
By  1773  he  was  borrowing  capital  to  make  land 
purchases  and  was  infected  with  a  virus  of  spec- 
ulation that  he  never  shook  off.  Prospering  in 
law,  which  occasionally  took  him  into  New  Jer- 
sey and  New  York,  he  yet  found  energy  during 
six  years  of  this  early  period  to  lecture  on  Eng- 
lish literature  at  the  College  of  Philadelphia. 

On  July  12,  1774,  he  was  made  head  of  a  com- 
mittee of  correspondence  at  Carlisle  and  elected 
to  the  first  provincial  conference  at  Philadelphia. 
There  his  influence  was  such  that  he  was  nomi- 
nated, but  not  elected  to  the  legislature,  as  a  dele- 
gate to  the  First  Continental  Congress.  Immedi- 
ately he  began  revising  a  manuscript  entitled 
Considerations  on  the  Nature  and  Extent  of  the 
Legislative  Authority  of  the  British  Parliament. 
This  he  published  in  time  for  distribution  to 
members  of  the  Congress.  Beginning  this  study 
with  the  "exception  of  being  able  to  trace  some 
constitutional  line  between  those  cases  in  which 
we  ought,  and  those  in  which  we  ought  not,  to 
acknowledge  the  power  of  parliament  over  us" 
(Selected  Political  Essays,  p.  45),  Wilson  finally 
reached  the  conclusion  that  Parliament  had  no 
authority  over  the  colonies  in  any  instance. 
Only  a  few  had  taken  this  advanced  position  as 
early  as  1774  yet  a  careful  examination  of  Wil- 
son's original  manuscript  (never  adequately  ed- 
ited) shows  that  he  had  arrived  at  this  conclu- 
sion, and  defended  it  with  exceptionally  able  ar- 
guments, four  years  before  he  revised  and  pub- 
lished the  essay.  Ascribed  at  first  to  Franklin  by 
Rivington's  Nciv  York  Gazetteer  and  noticed  by 
Tucker  and  Mansfield  as  an  able  statement  of  the 
extreme  American  position,  the  pamphlet  was 
widely  read  in  America  and  England.  For  Amer- 
ica  its   significance   became   historic   with   the 


Wilson 

Declaration  of  Independence ;  but  with  its  pro- 
phetic phrase  stating  for  the  first  time  that  "all 
the  different  members  of  the  British  empire  are 

DISTINCT  STATES,  INDEPENDANT  OF  EACH  OTHER, 
BUT  CONNECTED  TOGETHER  UNDER  THE  SAME  SOV- 
EREIGN" (Selected  Political  Essays,  p.  81 ) ,  it  still 
has  meaning  as  one  of  the  ablest  arguments  for 
what  the  Britannic  Commonwealth  of  Nations 
has  become.  It  should  be  noted  that  in  1774 
Wilson  was  on  the  extreme  Whig  left :  thence- 
forward his  movement  to  the  right  was  steady 
and  uninterrupted. 

Wilson's  notable  speech  before  the  provincial 
conference  of  January  1775  (Ibid.,  pp.  85-101) 
reiterated  his  position  and  asserted  that  there 
could  be  such  a  thing  as  an  unconstitutional  act 
of  Parliament.  Presaging  the  distinctive  Ameri- 
can doctrine  of  judicial  review,  he  introduced  a 
resolution  declaring  the  Boston  Port  Act  un- 
constitutional, but  it  failed  of  adoption.  On 
May  3,  1775,  he  was  elected  colonel  of  the  4th 
battalion  of  Cumberland  County  associators, 
though  he  was  never  in  active  service,  and  three 
days  later  he  was  elected  to  the  Second  Conti- 
nental Congress.  He  was  assigned  to  various 
committees,  one  of  which  was  to  secure  the 
friendship  of  the  western  Indians.  In  August 
and  September  he  attended  an  unsuccessful  meet- 
ing with  them  at  Pittsburgh.  Early  in  1776  he 
prepared  an  address  to  the  inhabitants  of  the 
colonies  (W.  C.  Ford,  Journals  of  the  Conti- 
nental Congress,  vol.  IV,  1906,  pp.  134-46),  de- 
signed, as  he  declared  to  Madison,  "to  lead  the 
public  mind  into  the  idea  of  Independence"  (Ibid., 
p.  146  n.)  ;  but  soon  popular  sentiment  had 
moved  beyond  Wilson's  position  and  the  plan  to 
publish  the  address  was  abandoned.  On  the  ques- 
tion of  independence  he  was  cautiously  attentive 
to  the  wishes  of  his  constituents,  joining  with 
Dickinson,  Rutledge,  and  Livingston  on  June  8 
in  securing  a  three  weeks'  delay.  This  caused  a 
storm  of  abuse  to  break  about  him,  and  twenty- 
two  of  his  colleagues  in  Congress  felt  it  neces- 
sary to  issue  an  explanation  and  defense  of  his 
position  (manuscript  copy  in  Library  of  Con- 
gress). On  July  2  he  was  one  of  three  out  of 
seven  Pennsylvania  delegates  to  vote  for  inde- 
pendence. During  1776-77  most  of  his  time  was 
occupied  with  tasks  of  the  board  of  war  and  with 
his  quasi-judicial  duties  as  chairman  of  the 
standing  committee  on  appeals.  His  committee 
assignments,  which  he  discharged  industriously, 
were  particularly  burdensome.  He  was  one  of 
the  first  to  urge  relinquishment  of  the  western 
claims  of  the  states,  to  advocate  revenue  and  tax- 
ation powers  for  Congress,  to  try  to  strengthen 
the  national  government,  and  to  seek  represen- 


327 


Wilson 

tation  according  to  free  population,  with  its 
corollary  of  voting  by  individuals  in  Congress 
(E.  C.  Burnett,  Letters  of  Members  of  the  Con- 
inental  Congress,  II,  1923,  p.  515  n;  Walter 
Clark,  The  State  Records  of  North  Carolina,  XI, 
II,  237). 

Despite  his  espousal  of  the  democratic  princi- 
ple and  the  sovereignty  of  the  individual,  Wil- 
son so  bitterly  fought  the  constitution  of  Penn- 
sylvania of  1776,  a  product  of  the  democratic 
forces  of  the  frontier  and  immigration  (J.  P. 
Selsam,  The  Pennsylvania  Constitution  of  1776, 
1936,  passim),  that  even  his  close  friend  Arthur 
St.  Clair  [q.v.~]  thought  him  "perhaps  too  warm" 
(W.  B.  Reed,  Life  and  Correspondence  of  Jo- 
seph Reed,  1847,  II,  153).  This  opposition  to 
George  Bryan  [q.v.~\  and  his  party  made  Wil- 
son's place  in  Congress  increasingly  precarious. 
Early  in  1777,  sensing  his  approaching  removal, 
he  drew  up  plans  for  a  congressional  legal  office 
similar  to  that  of  the  British  solicitor  general  or 
the  French  avocat  general  (Burnett,  II,  215- 
17).  This  plan  he  forwarded  to  Robert  Morris 
\_q.v.~\,  hoping  that  Morris  would  secure  its 
adoption  and  urging  himself  as  a  candidate  for 
the  office.  Morris  gave  his  approval,  but  the 
plan  was  not  adopted.  On  Feb.  4,  1777,  Wilson's 
expected  removal  took  place,  but  the  difficulty  of 
finding  a  successor  caused  him  to  be  reinstated 
on  Feb.  22.  He  continued  his  opposition  to  the 
constitution  of  Pennsylvania,  "the  most  detesta- 
ble that  ever  was  formed"  (letter  to  Wayne,  c. 
1778,  Wayne  MSS.,  Historical  Society  of  Penn- 
sylvania), and  his  removal  from  Congress  on 
Sept.  14,  1777,  was  inevitable.  Because  of  the 
heat  of  political  feeling  in  Pennsylvania,  Wilson 
spent  the  winter  of  1777-78  in  Annapolis,  a  move 
which  was  subsequently  embarrassing  to  him  as 
an  office  holder  in  Pennsylvania  (Max  Farrand, 
The  Records  of  the  Federal  Convention,  191 1, 
II,  237). 

His  taking  up  residence  in  Philadelphia  in 
1778  was  indicative  of  changing  viewpoints :  once 
a  frontier  lawyer  dealing  in  land  suits,  he  now 
became  a  corporation  counsel ;  once  an  extreme 
Whig,  he  now  became  a  leader  of  the  Republican 
Society,  an  anti-Bryan  organization  of  conser- 
vatives ;  once  a  Presbyterian,  he  now  became  an 
Episcopalian,  the  friend  of  Morris,  Duer,  Bing- 
ham and  others  of  the  aristocracy.  By  acting  as 
counsel  for  Loyalists  and  by  his  interest  in  pri- 
vateering, land-jobbing  schemes,  and  various 
commercial  enterprises,  he  widened  the  breach 
between  himself  and  the  populace.  In  1779,  dur- 
ing a  period  of  food  shortage  and  high  prices, 
there  was  considerable  rioting  in  Philadelphia 
against  profiteers,  Loyalists,  and  their  sympa- 


Wilson 

thizers.  On  Oct.  4  a  handbill  appeared  calling 
upon  the  militia  to  "drive  oft  from  the  city  all 
disaffected  persons  and  those  who  supported 
them"  (Stan  V.  Henkels,  Catalogue  No.  694: 
Washington-Madison  Papers,  1892,  p.  239).  Af- 
ter securing  some  persons,  they  sought  Wilson 
"who  had  always  plead  for  such"  (Ibid.).  Find- 
ing civil  aid  dilatory,  Wilson  gathered  some  of 
his  friends,  barricaded  his  home,  and  defended 
himself  against  the  attack  of  the  militia.  A  few 
persons  were  killed  and  wounded,  but  Wilson  was 
rescued  by  the  timely  arrival  of  the  First  City 
Troop  and  President  Reed.  He  went  into  hiding 
for  a  few  days,  appearing  on  Oct.  19  to  post  a 
bond  of  £10,000.  The  legislature  on  March  13, 
1780,  passed  an  act  of  oblivion  for  all  concerned 
in  this  affair  of  "Fort  Wilson." 

With  the  return  of  the  conservatives  to  pow- 
er in  Pennsylvania  in  1782,  Wilson  was  again 
elected  to  Congress,  serving  also  in  1785-87. 
His  principal  contributions  in  Congress  at  this 
time  were  his  opposition  to  a  separate  peace 
treaty  with  England,  his  proposal  to  erect  states 
in  the  western  lands  (Apr.  9,  1783),  and  his 
successful  advocacy  of  the  general  revenue  plan 
of  Apr.  19,  1783  (The  Writings  of  James  Madi- 
son, ed.  by  Gaillard  Hunt,  vol.  I,  1900,  pp.  328- 
30).  On  the  second  of  these  measures  he  was 
charged  with  being  interested  in  the  large  land 
companies  (Merrill  Jensen,  "The  Cession  of  the 
Old  Northwest,"  Mississippi  Valley  Historical 
Review,  June  1936)  ;  and  on  the  third,  with  be- 
ing interested  in  the  payment  of  interest  on  the 
loans  of  the  Bank  of  North  America.  But  he 
chiefly  concerned  himself  in  the  decade  between 
1777  and  1787  with  his  multiplied  business  inter- 
ests, to  which  he  willingly  sacrificed  his  profes- 
sional practice.  In  June  1779  he  was  appointed 
avocat  general  by  the  French  government  for 
maritime  and  commercial  causes,  a  post  he  held 
until  1783.  In  1780  he  acted  as  legal  adviser  to 
Robert  Morris  in  the  formation  of  the  Bank  of 
Pennsylvania,  drawing  up  plans  for  this  private 
agency  for  purchasing  army  supplies  (Pennsyl- 
vania Gazette,  July  5,  1780),  and  in  1785  he 
published  his  Considerations  on  the  Power  to 
Incorporate  the  Bank  of  North  America,  an  able 
economic  and  constitutional  argument  in  which 
he  foreshadowed  Marshall's  doctrine  of  inherent 
sovereignty  (Selected  Political  Essays,  pp.  17- 
19).  In  November  and  December  1782  Wilson 
defended  Pennsylvania's  claims  against  the  char- 
ter pretensions  of  Connecticut  before  the  con- 
gressional commissioners  at  Trenton.  His  argu- 
ment, wrote  Joseph  Reed,  was  "both  laborious 
and  judicious,  he  has  taken  much  pains,  having 
the  success  of  Pennsylvania  much  at  heart,  both 


3 


28 


Wilson 


Wilson 


on  public  and  private  account"  (Reed,  II,  390). 
Wilson  had  invested  heavily  in  lands  within  the 
Connecticut  claim.  The  same  year  he  and  Mark 
Bird  purchased  the  Somerset  Mills  on  the  Dela- 
ware, including  a  rolling-  and  slitting-mill,  grist- 
mill, furnace,  and  sawmill,  for  which,  in  1785, 
he  sought  to  borrow  500,000  fl.  from  Dutch  capi- 
talists in  order  to  expand  the  business  (Jan.  16, 
1785,  Wilson  MSS.,  Historical  Society  of  Penn- 
sylvania). Two  months  later,  through  Van  Ber- 
kel,  the  Dutch  minister,  he  sought  to  become 
agent  for  a  gigantic  land  speculation  to  the  ex- 
tent of  about  2,000,000  fl.,  offering  to  subordi- 
nate his  law  practice  to  this  task ;  this  proposal 
did  not  materialize.  Wilson  was  also  interested 
at  this  time  in  various  western  land  companies, 
being  president  of  the  Illinois  and  Wabash  Com- 
pany. In  the  light  of  these  wide-flung  interests, 
Wain's  statement  that  "as  an  instructor  he  was 
almost  useless  to  those  who  were  under  his  direc- 
tion" (Sanderson,  post,  VI,  171-72),  is  plausible. 
Wilson's  greatest  achievement  in  public  life 
was  his  part  in  the  establishment  of  the  federal 
Constitution.  With  the  possible  exception  of 
James  Madison,  with  whom  he  was  in  agreement 
on  most  of  the  major  issues,  no  member  of  the 
convention  of  1787  was  better  versed  in  the  study 
of  political  economy,  none  grasped  more  firmly 
the  central  problem  of  dual  sovereignty,  and  none 
was  more  far-sighted  in  his  vision  of  the  future 
greatness  of  the  United  States.  James  Bryce 
thought  him  "one  of  the  deepest  thinkers  and 
most  exact  reasoners"  in  the  convention,  whose 
works  "display  an  amplitude  and  profundity  of 
view  in  matters  of  constitutional  theory  which 
place  him  in  the  front  rank  of  the  political  think- 
ers of  his  age"  {The  American  Commonwealth, 
1888,  I,  250  n.,  665  n. ;  see  Sanderson,  post,  VI, 
154,  for  a  contemporary  opinion  on  this  point). 
Wilson  kept  constantly  in  view  the  idea  that 
sovereignty  resided  in  the  people,  favoring  popu- 
lar election  of  the  president  and  of  members  of 
both  houses.  On  the  fundamental  problem  of 
sovereignty  he  clearly  stated  that  the  national 
government  was  not  "an  assemblage  of  States, 
but  of  individuals  for  certain  political  purposes" 
(Farrand,  I,  406).  He  strongly  opposed  the 
idea  of  equal  representation  in  the  Senate,  and 
perhaps  because  of  his  reserve  and  inelastic  opin- 
ions, was  not  facile  at  compromise.  He  was  a 
member  of  the  important  committee  of  detail, 
charged  with  preparing  the  draft  of  the  Consti- 
tution (Wilson's  draft  is  in  Historical  Society 
of  Pennsylvania).  Despite  his  statement  that 
there  were  "some  parts  of  it,  which  if  my  wish 
had  prevailed,  would  certainly  have  been  altered" 
{Selected   Political    Essays,    p.    159),    Wilson 


signed  the  Constitution  and  fought  for  its  adop- 
tion. 

Wilson  was  a  dominating  factor  in  the  Penn- 
sylvania ratifying  convention.  His  speech  be- 
fore that  body  was  widely  read  in  other  states, 
but  it  brought  about  renewed  attacks  upon  its 
author.  "James  de  Caledonia"  was  burned  in  ef- 
figy at  Carlisle  {Independent  Gazetteer,  Jan.  9, 
1788).  The  drafting  of  the  constitution  of  1790 
for  Pennsylvania  was  a  part  of  the  reactionary 
movement  following  the  Revolution,  and  Wilson 
was  in  every  sense  the  author  of  that  document. 
Modeled  precisely  on  the  federal  Constituiton 
(Selsam,  p.  259),  it  represents  the  climax  of  his 
fourteen-year  fight  against  the  democratic  con- 
stitution of  1776.  Wilson  had  sacrificed  his  pri- 
vate enterprises  during  the  three  years  that  he 
gave  to  constitution  making,  and  he  seems  to 
have  expected  some  high  office  in  the  new  federal 
government.  He  was  prominently  mentioned  as 
a  candidate  for  the  chief  justiceship  (  Pennsyl- 
vania Gazette,  Mar.  11,  1789),  and  even  went  so 
far  as  to  recommend  himself  to  Washington  for 
that  post  (Charles  Warren,  The  Supreme  Court 
in  United  States  History,  1922, 1,  33-34).  Wash- 
ington appointed  him  associate  justice  on  Sept. 
29,  1789. 

On  Aug.  17,  1789,  the  trustees  of  the  College 
of  Philadelphia,  of  whom  Wilson  was  one,  acted 
upon  the  petition  of  Charles  Smith  for  permis- 
sion to  give  a  course  in  law  by  appointing  Wil- 
son to  that  early  chair.  The  lectures  were  opened 
on  Dec.  15  before  a  distinguished  audience  in- 
cluding the  President  and  other  officers  of  the 
federal  and  state  governments.  Wilson  was  keen- 
ly aware  of  his  opportunity  to  lay  the  foundations 
of  an  American  system  of  jurisprudence.  In  his 
lectures,  therefore,  he  departed  from  the  Black- 
stonian  definition  of  law  as  the  rule  of  a  sover- 
eign superior  and,  discovering  the  residence  of 
sovereignty  in  the  individual,  substituted  there- 
for "the  consent  of  those  whose  obedience  the 
law  requires"  {Selected  Political  Essays,  p.  251). 
Upon  this  foundation  he  raised  his  able  apologia 
for  the  American  Revolution,  in  which  he  chal- 
lenged Blackstone's  denial  of  the  legal  right  of 
revolution.  In  his  lecture,  "Of  Man  as  a  Mem- 
ber of  the  Great  Commonwealth  of  Nations,"  he 
set  forth  clearly  the  implications  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States  for  judicial  settle- 
ment of  international  disputes  and  for  tlie  ad- 
ministration of  international  law.  Wilson's  hope 
of  becoming  the  American  Blackstone,  however, 
was  doomed  to  disappointment :  except  for  the 
first,  his  lectures  were  not  published  until  after 
his  death,  and  have  never  been  cited  in  courts 
and  law  schools  with  the  respect  accorded  the 


329 


Wilson 


Wilson 


dicta  of  the  Vinerian  lecturer.  Lacking  the  ju- 
dicial detachment  of  Kent  and  Story,  he  left  to 
them,  hy  his  consuming  interest  in  practical 
concerns,  the  establishment  of  the  bases  of  an 
American  jurisprudence. 

He  made,  however,  one  final  effort  to  estab- 
lish principles  for  judicial  and  legislative  in- 
terpretation of  the  federal  Constitution.  Having 
been  commissioned  to  make  a  digest  of  the  laws 
of  Pennsylvania,  a  task  he  entered  upon  with 
characteristic  energy,  he  recommended  himself 
to  Washington  in  order  that  "Principles  con- 
genial to  those  of  the  Constitution  ...  be  estab- 
lished and  ascertained,  in  complete  and  correct 
theory,  before  they  are  called  into  practical 
operation"  (Washington  Papers,  vol.  CXVI, 
Library  of  Congress).  This  visionary  project  to 
solve  for  all  time  the  great  problems  of  federal 
and  state  relations  Washington  referred  to  the 
attorney  general,  who  pointedly  urged  the  im- 
propriety of  "a  single  person,"  particularly  a 
judge,  determining  principles  for  future  guid- 
ance (Ibid.).  When  state  aid  for  the  Pennsyl- 
vania digest  was  withdrawn,  Wilson  continued 
it  as  a  private  venture,  but  did  not  live  to  com- 
plete it. 

Turning  from  these  public  interests,  he  plunged 
once  more  into  vast  land  speculations.  In  1792 
and  1793  he  involved  the  Holland  Land  Com- 
pany in  unwise  purchases  of  several  hundred 
thousand  acres  in  Pennsylvania  and  New  York. 
Early  in  1795  he  bought  a  large  interest  in  one 
of  the  ill-famed  Yazoo  companies  ( University 
of  Pennsylvania  Law  Review,  January  1908). 
Aside  from  these  connections,  perhaps  the  near- 
est approach  to  a  stain  on  his  judicial  gown  was 
his  effort  to  influence  enactment  of  land  legis- 
lation in  Pennsylvania  favorable  to  speculators 
(Wilson  MSS.,  1793)  and  his  disregard  of  the 
terms  of  a  Pennsylvania  statute  (P.  D.  Evans, 
The  Holland  Land  Company,  1924,  pp.  109-10). 
Almost  at  the  moment  the  bubble  burst,  Wilson 
conceived  one  of  the  most  comprehensive  schemes 
for  immigration  and  colonization  ever  projected 
in  America,  involving  vast  sums  of  European 
capital,  agencies  for  gathering  settlers  on  the 
Continent,  chartered  vessels  of  transport,  sta- 
tions for  debarkation,  and  methods  of  transport- 
ing settlers  to  western  lands  (MS.  draft,  Rush 
Papers,  Library  Company  of  Philadelphia).  But 
he  was  already  engulfed  in  his  far-flung  projects. 

Wilson's  judicial  determinations  were  few.  He 
was.  one  of  the  first  to  declare  an  act  of  Congress 
unconstitutional  and  the  only  justice  to  decline 
to  serve  as  a  pension  commissioner  (Max  Far- 
rand,  "The  First  Hayburn  Case,"  American  His- 
torical Reviezv,  Jan.  1908).   His  most  noted  de- 


cision was  that  in  Chisholm  vs.  Georgia  (2 
Dallas,  419),  in  which  he  answered  with  positive 
affirmation  the  important  question  whether  the 
people  of  the  United  States  formed  a  nation 
(Warren,  I,  95  ff.).  It  was  in  his  bank  opinion 
of  1784,  his  law  lectures,  and  his  part  in  the  con- 
stitutional convention  of  1787,  that  he  voiced  the 
theories  of  national  powers  to  which  Marshall 
gave  effective  application. 

A  widower  with  six  children — one  of  them 
Bird  Wilson  [q.v.~\ — after  the  death  of  his  wife 
in  1786,  Wilson  married  on  Sept.  19,  1793,  the 
nineteen-year-old  Hannah  Gray  of  Boston.  Their 
happiness  was  short-lived.  A  son  by  the  second 
marriage  died  in  infancy,  and  in  the  summer  of 
1797  he  moved  to  Burlington,  N.  J.,  to  avoid 
arrest  for  debt.  He  retained  his  place  on  the 
bench  amid  criticism  and  talk  of  impeachment 
(G.  J.  McRee,  Life  and  Correspondence  of  James 
Iredell,  1857,  II,  532).  Early  in  1798,  in 
acute  mental  distress,  he  arrived  at  Edenton,  N. 
C,  where  for  a  time  he  resided  at  the  home  of 
Judge  Iredell.  "I  have  been  hunted  .  .  .  like  a 
wild  beast,"  he  wrote;  his  powerful  faculties 
bent  under  the  strain,  and  he  had  lucid  moments 
only  at  intervals.  He  died  at  Edenton  of  a  "vio- 
lent nervous  fever" ;  the  report  of  Samuel  Wallis 
that  he  died  by  his  own  hand  (J.  F.  Meginness, 
Otzinachson,  1889,  p.  358)  is  refuted  by  more 
valid  testimony.  In  1906  his  remains  were  re- 
interred  in  Christ  Church,  Philadelphia. 

Two  outstanding  personal  characteristics  of 
James  Wilson  opened  the  whole  corpus  of  his 
learned  writings  to  the  charge  of  being  special 
pleading:  his  ambition  for  place  and  power  and 
his  avid  desire  for  wealth.  His  democracy  was 
that  of  the  study,  not  of  the  market-place  or  the 
hustings.  He  never  captured  popular  imagina- 
tion as  did  Jefferson ;  he  never  became  a  symbol 
as  did  Hamilton.  Yet  he  was  a  prophet  of  both 
democracy  and  nationalism. 

[Wilson  MSS.  (10  vols.),  Hist.  Soc.  of  Pa.;  R.  G. 
Adams,  Selected  Political  Essays  of  James  Wilson 
('930),  containing  bibliography  of  Wilson's  writings 
and  of  articles  on  him  ;  Bird  Wilson,  The  Works  of  the 
Honorable  James  Wilson  (3  vols.,  1804)  ;  J.  D.  An- 
drews, The  Works  of  James  Wilson  (2  vols.,  1896)  ; 
R.  G.  Adams'  Political  Ideas  of  the  American  Revo- 
lution (1922),  the  best  treatment  of  his  political  theo- 
ries ;  J.  B.  McMaster  and  F.  D.  Stone,  eds.,  Pennsyl- 
vania and  the  Federal  Constitution,  1787-1788  (1888)  ; 
John  Sanderson,  Biography  of  the  Signers  to  the  Dec- 
laration of  Independence,  vol.  VI  (1825),  by  Robert 
Wain,  Jr.  The  most  comprehensive  study  is  Burton  Alva 
Konkle's  biography,  together  with  5  vols,  of  letters 
and  writings,  as  yet  unpublished.  Through  Mr.  Konkle's 
kindness  the  author  was  permitted  to  use  this  extensive 
manuscript ;  but  in  fairness  to  him  it  must  be  stated 
that  he  disagrees  with  this  interpretation  of  Wilson's 
character  and   significance.]  J.  P.  B. 

WILSON,  JAMES  (Aug.  16,  1836-Aug.  26, 
1920),   agriculturist,    secretary   of   agriculture. 


33° 


Wilson 

was  born  in  Ayrshire,  Scotland,  the  eldest  son  of 
John  and  Jean  (McCosh)  Wilson,  who  emi- 
grated to  America  in  1851.  The  family  first  set- 
tled in  Connecticut,  removing-  in  1855  to  a  farm 
in  Tama  County,  Iowa.  James  attended  the  com- 
mon school  in  the  winter  and  also  Iowa  (now 
Grinnell)  College.  He  chose  farming  as  his  life 
work  and  early  became  a  leader  in  the  community, 
holding  various  township  offices  and  membership 
on  the  board  of  county  supervisors.  He  was  mar- 
ried May  7,  1863,  to  Esther  Wilbur  of  Buck- 
ingham, Iowa.  To  this  union  six  sons  and  two 
daughters  were  born. 

In  1867  he  was  elected  to  the  Iowa  legislature 
and,  reelected  in  1869  and  1871,  was  chosen 
speaker  during  his  third  term.  In  1872  he  was 
sent  to  Congress  as  the  Republican  representa- 
tive of  the  Fifth  District  and  was  returned  in 
1874.  After  the  expiration  of  his  second  term 
he  spent  five  years  on  his  farm.  In  March  1882 
he  was  appointed  a  member  of  the  state  railroad 
commission  by  Governor  Sherman,  only  to  re- 
sign soon  after  upon  being  again  elected  to  Con- 
gress. His  seat  was  contested  by  Benjamin  T. 
Frederick,  but  the  contest  was  not  settled  until 
the  last  day  of  the  session  when  Wilson,  by  a 
shrewd  parliamentary  move,  gave  up  his  seat  in 
favor  of  his  opponent  and  secured  favorable  ac- 
tion by  the  Democratic  House  on  a  bill  to  place 
U.  S.  Grant  on  the  retired  list.  During  his  three 
terms  in  Congress,  Wilson  was  a  member  of  the 
committee  on  agriculture.  He  was  an  expert 
parliamentarian,  serving  on  the  rules  committee 
in  the  Forty-third  Congress.  During  his  third 
term  he  was  given  the  sobriquet  of  "Tama  Jim" 
to  distinguish  him  from  James  Falconer  Wilson 
[q.v.]  of  Iowa,  "Jefferson  Jim,"  who  had  recent- 
ly been  elected  to  the  United  States  Senate.  He 
returned  home  at  the  close  of  his  congressional 
career  and  for  the  next  seven  years  engaged  in 
farming  and  in  writing  for  various  farm  jour- 
nals, notably  the  Iozva  Homestead.  In  1891  he 
was  appointed  professor  of  agriculture  and  head 
of  the  experiment  station  at  Iowa  State  College, 
where,  with  the  able  assistance  of  Charles  F.  Cur- 
tiss,  who  succeeded  him  as  dean  of  agriculture, 
he  placed  agricultural  instruction  on  a  scientific 
and  practical  basis. 

In  the  presidential  campaign  of  1896  the  first 
poll  indicated  that  Iowa  might  be  lost  to  the  Re- 
publicans ;  but  after  a  thoroughly  organized  and 
intensive  campaign  it  was  carried  for  McKinley 
by  a  majority  of  over  65,000  votes.  The  Iowa 
papers  now  presented  strong  claims  for  recog- 
nition in  the  cabinet  in  return  for  Iowa's  sup- 
port. Bitter  rivalry  arose  between  those  who 
supported  A.  B.  Cummins  [q.v.]  for  attorney- 


Wilson 

general,  and  those  who  wished  J.  A.  T.  Hull  to 
be  made  secretary  of  war.  Senator  Allison  re- 
quested the  chairman  of  the  state  Republican 
committee,  H.  G.  McMillan,  to  harmonize  the 
factions.  He  at  once  interviewed  Henry  Wal- 
lace [q.v.~l,  editor  of  IP'allaccs'  Fanner,  who 
urged  that  Wilson  be  suggested  for  the  post  of 
secretary  of  agriculture.  Cummins  and  Hull  re- 
tired from  the  field  in  the  interest  of  party  har- 
mony and  McKinley,  who  had  already  come  to 
hold  a  high  opinion  of  Wilson's  character  and 
ability,  appointed  him  to  that  position.  He  served 
as  secretary  of  agriculture  in  the  administrations 
of  McKinley,  Roosevelt,  and  Taft,  a  period  of 
sixteen  years.  Under  his  able  direction  and  per- 
sonal supervision  the  department  extended  its 
activities  into  many  fields :  experiment  stations 
were  established  in  all  parts  of  the  United  States  ; 
farm  demonstration  work  was  inaugurated  in 
the  South  ;  co-operative  extension  work  in  agri- 
culture and  home  economics  was  begun  ;  an  army 
of  experts  and  scientists  was  enlisted  to  obtain 
information  from  all  over  the  world  for  the  pro- 
motion of  agriculture.  The  whole  country  was 
aroused  to  the  problem  of  tuberculosis  in  cattle 
and  the  proper  care  and  handling  of  milk.  Legis- 
lation dealing  with  plant  and  animal  diseases, 
insect  pests,  forestry,  irrigation,  conservation, 
road  building,  and  agricultural  education  was 
enacted. 

Upon  his  retirement  from  the  cabinet  in  1913, 
Wilson  returned  to  his  home  in  Tama  County. 
In  June  of  the  same  year  Governor  Clarke  ap- 
pointed Wilson  and  Henry  Wallace  to  investi- 
gate and  report  on  agricultural  conditions  in 
Great  Britain.  The  last  years  of  his  life  were 
spent  in  retirement.  He  was  a  commanding  fig- 
ure, tall,  well-proportioned  and  erect,  and  was 
an  indefatigable  worker.  Schooled  in  the  pioneer 
philosophy  and  the  precepts  of  the  Presbyterian 
faith,  he  was  a  man  of  high  moral  principles. 
Keen  preception,  great  singleness  of  purpose, 
and  extraordinary  patience  were  his  dominant 
characteristics. 

[IVho's  Who  in  America,  1920-21  ;  Annals  of  Iowa, 
Jan.  1924;  Biog.  Dir.  Am.  Cong.  (1928)  ;  L.  H.  Pam- 
mel,  Prominent  Men  I  Have  Met  (1926)  ;  I..  S.  Ivans 
and  A.  E.  Winship,  Fifty  Famous  Farmers  (1924); 
Palimpsest,  Mar.  1923  ;  E.  V.  Wilcox,  Tama  Jim 
(1920);  Ann.  Report  of  the  Dept.  of  Agric.,  191 2 
(1913)  ;  Dcs  Moines  Register,  Aug.  27,  28,  1920,  Mar. 
5,  1933  I  N.  Y .  Times,  Aug.  28,  1920  ;  information  from 
a  son,  James  W.  Wilson  of  Brookings,  S.  D.] 

L.  B.  S— t. 

WILSON,  JAMES  FALCONER  (Oct.  19, 
i828-Apr.  22,  1895),  lawyer,  representative  in 
Congress,  United  States  senator,  popularly 
known  as  "Jefferson  Jim"  to  distinguish  him 
from  his   fellow   Iowan,   "Tama  Jim"    (James 


331 


Wilson 

Wilson  [q.v.],  secretary  of  agriculture  under 
McKinley,  Theodore  Roosevelt,  and  Taft),  was 
born  at  Newark,  Ohio.  His  father,  David  S. 
Wilson,  a  contractor  and  builder,  was  of  Scotch 
ancestry  and  a  native  of  Morgantown,  Va.  (now 
W.  Va.)  ;  his  mother  was  Kitty  Ann  (Bramble) 
of  Chillicothe,  Ohio.  Left  fatherless  at  ten, 
James  aided  in  the  support  of  the  mother  and 
two  younger  children  by  serving  as  apprentice 
to  a  harness  maker.  With  brief  intervals  of 
school  attendance  and  the  personal  instruction 
of  sympathetic  teachers  and  ministers  he  se- 
cured what  he  later  termed  a  "thorough  educa- 
tion." While  working  at  his  trade  he  began 
reading  law,  and,  completing  his  study  under  the 
direction  of  William  Burnham  Woods  [q.v.~\, 
later  a  justice  of  the  United  States  Supreme 
Court,  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1851.  On  May 
25,  1852,  he  married  Mary  Jewett,  and  the  couple 
went  to  Fairfield,  Iowa,  where  they  established 
their  home;  two  sons  and  a  daughter  were  born 
to  them. 

The  young  lawyer  soon  took  a  foremost  place 
on  the  local  circuit  but  was  drawn  more  and 
more  into  politics.  Editorials  for  the  local  or- 
gan gave  him  standing  and  offices  came  in  con- 
tinuous succession.  He  was  one  of  the  most  in- 
fluential delegates  in  the  constitutional  conven- 
tion of  1857,  and  the  same  year  was  appointed 
to  the  Des  Moines  River  improvement  commis- 
sion and  elected  to  the  state  House  of  Represen- 
tatives, where  he  served  as  chairman  of  the  ways 
and  means  committee.  Promoted  to  the  state 
Senate  in  1859,  he  aided  in  the  revision  of  the 
state  code,  published  in  i860,  and  in  the  special 
war  session  of  186 1  was  named  president  pro 
tempore. 

Elected  to  the  federal  House  of  Representa- 
tives to  fill  a  vacancy  in  December  1861,  he  was 
reelected  as  a  Republican  and  served  until  Mar. 
3,  1869.  In  the  days  of  war  and  reconstruction 
he  had  a  conspicuous  and  determining  part  in 
the  congressional  policies.  He  used  fully  his 
strategic  position  as  chairman  of  the  judiciary 
committee  to  forward  abolition  and  the  Union 
program.  War  measures  that  he  fathered  in- 
cluded the  article  prohibiting  the  use  of  troops 
in  the  return  of  fugitive  slaves,  enfranchisement 
of  negroes  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  the 
tax  on  state  bank  circulation ;  he  introduced  the 
original  resolution  for  an  abolition  Amendment. 
During  the  turmoil  of  Reconstruction  he  was  one 
of  the  ablest  leaders  among  the  legalistic  Radi- 
cals. On  every  possible  occasion  he  upheld  the 
constitutional  prerogatives  of  Congress.  He  in- 
troduced important  amendments  to  the  resolu- 
tion for  repudiation  of  the  Confederate  debt,  in- 


Wilson 

troduced  the  amendment  repealing  appellate  jur- 
isdiction of  the  Supreme  Court  under  the  Habeas 
Corpus  Act  of  1867,  gave  the  final  form  to  the 
Civil  Rights  Act,  and  served  on  the  conference 
committee  on  tenure  of  office.  He  voted  with  the 
minority  of  his  committee  against  the  original 
impeachment  charges  in  1867,  giving  an  elab- 
orate argument  that  was  sustained  by  the  House ; 
but  in  view  of  a  definite  case  of  wilful  violation 
of  statutes,  as  it  appeared  to  his  legalistic  mind, 
he  became  committed  to  the  President's  removal. 
His  selection  as  a  member  of  the  committee  to 
formulate  the  articles  and  as  a  trial  manager  was 
a  recognition  of  the  more  moderate  element  of 
the  Radical  wing.  His  service  at  the  trial  con- 
sisted in  constitutional  arguments,  most  notably 
on  the  responsibility  of  the  executive  to  abide  bv 
acts  of  Congress  regardless  of  his  opinion  as  to 
their  validity. 

In  1869  Grant  persuaded  Wilson  to  accept  the 
state  portfolio.  Misunderstandings  over  the  ac- 
tivities of  Elihu  B.  Washburne  [#.?'.],  to  whom 
the  office  had  been  granted  temporarily  to  pay 
another  personal  debt,  caused  Wilson  to  withdraw 
his  acceptance.  On  two  subsequent  occasions  the 
invitation  to  enter  the  Grant  official  family  was 
unavailingly  renewed.  While  by  no  means  in- 
different to  the  political  scene,  he  now  devoted 
himself  mainly  to  his  profession.  A  prominent 
interest  of  these  years  and  the  one  that  was  to 
bring  the  main  attack  upon  his  record  was  pro- 
motion of  the  Pacific  railroad.  In  Congress  he 
had  been  a  zealous  supporter  of  this  enterprise 
and  in  1868  had  shown  his  confidence  in  it  by 
profitable  though  moderate  speculation  in  the 
stock  of  the  construction  company.  For  six  years 
under  Grant  and  one  under  Hayes  he  was  a  gov- 
ernment director  of  the  road.  These  connections 
brought  him  rather  prominently  into  the  House 
investigations  of  1873.  In  tne  first  °f  these  he 
frankly  admitted  having  secured  stock  as  an  in- 
vestment and  regretted  that  he  was  unable  to  se- 
cure more.  Before  the  second,  he  emphatically 
denied  the  charge  by  an  ex-official  that  he  had 
received  a  check  for  $19,000  out  of  a  fund  for 
"special  legal  expenses,"  and  no  substantiating 
proof  that  he  had  was  offered.  The  resulting  at- 
tacks on  him  by  hostile  journals  apparently  did 
not  weaken  him  in  Iowa.  Probably  the  bulk  of 
his  constituents  agreed  with  his  view  that  his 
contribution  to  this  great  national  enterprise 
had  been  praiseworthy  and  public-spirited. 

While  mentioned  for  the  Senate  from  1866  on 
his  real  opportunity  did  not  come  until  1882, 
when  all  of  the  other  aspirants  withdrew ;  he  was 
reelected  in  1888  without  organized  opposition. 
In  brilliance  and  specific  achievement  his  sena- 


332 


Wilson 


Wilson 


torial  service  fell  far  below  that  which  he  had 
rendered  in  the  House.  He  was  laborious  on 
committees  and  helped  to  frame  the  original  In- 
terstate Commerce  Act  of  1887  and  other  meas- 
ures, but  he  was  clearly  in  the  rank  of  the  "elder 
statesmen."  His  health  was  steadily  failing;  he 
was  definitely  committed  to  retirement  at  the 
close  of  his  second  term,  and,  as  it  happened, 
died,  at  Fairfield,  Iowa,  within  a  few  weeks  of 
the  close  of  the  session.  There  was  lacking,  too, 
a  cause  to  which  he  could  devote  himself  as  he 
had  to  anti-slavery.  Prohibition  was  the  only 
substitute.  A  zealous  personal  teetotaler,  he  be- 
longed to  the  group  that  sought  to  commit  the 
Republican  party  to  temperance  reform.  In  1890 
he  secured  the  passage  of  the  Original  Package 
Act,  which  at  the  time  was  regarded  as  a  great 
triumph  for  state  control  of  the  liquor  traffic. 

[Debates,  Constitutional  Convention  of  Iowa  (1857)  ; 
Trial  of  Andrew  Johnson  (186S)  ;  House  Report  No.  77 
and  No.  78,  42  Cong.,  3  Sess. ;  Johnson  Brigham,  Iowa: 
Its  Hist.  (1915),  vol.  I;  Protrait  and  Biog.  Album  of 
Jefferson  and  Van  Buren  Counties,  Iowa  (1890);  E. 
H.  Stiles,  Recollections  and  Sketches  of  Notable  Law- 
yers and  Public  Men  of  Early  Iowa  (1916);  J.  G. 
Blaine,  Twenty  Years  of  Cong.  (2  vols.,  1884-86)  ; 
Biog.  Dir.  Am.  Cong.  (1928)  ;  Midland  Monthly,  July 
1895  ;  Fairfield  Ledger,  Apr.  24,  May  1,  8,  1895  ;  Iowa 
State  Reg.  (Des  Moines),  Apr.  23,  24,  1895.] 

E.  D.R. 

WILSON,  JAMES  GRANT  (Apr.  28,  1832- 
Feb.  1,  1914),  editor,  author,  and  soldier,  was 
born  in  Edinburgh,  the  son  of  William  Wilson 
[q.v.]  by  his  second  wife,  Jane  (Sibbald)  Wil- 
son. The  father  left  Scotland  in  December  1833 
and  settled  in  Poughkeepsie,  N.  Y.,  as  bookseller 
and  publisher.  There  the  son  received  his  edu- 
cation and  became  his  father's  partner.  After  a 
trip  to  Europe  in  1855,  he  moved  to  Chicago, 
where  he  edited  and  published  several  periodi- 
cals. The  Evangel  and  the  Chicago  Examiner 
(1857)  seem  to  have  been  failures  (cf.  Fleming, 
post,  p.  392)  ;  one  number  of  the  Northwestern 
Quarterly  Magazine  appeared  in  October  1858; 
the  monthly  Chicago  Record;  a  Journal,  De- 
voted to  the  Church,  to  Literature,  and  to  the 
Arts  lived  from  Apr.  1,  1857,  to  Mar.  15,  1862, 
when  it  passed  into  other  hands  and  became  the 
Northzvesfern  Ch  urch. 

On  Dec.  25,  1862,  Wilson  was  commissioned 
major  in  the  15th  Illinois  Cavalry,  and  on  Sept. 
14,  1863,  colonel  of  the  4th  United  States  Col- 
ored Cavalry.  He  took  part  in  various  move- 
ments in  the  Mississippi  Valley,  and  in  the  later 
years  of  the  war  served  as  military  agent  for 
New  York  state  in  Louisiana.  On  Mar.  13, 
1865,  he  wag  brevetted  brigadier-general  of  vol- 
unteers. Resigning  on  June  16,  1865,  he  there- 
after made  New  York  City  his  home.  On  Nov. 
3,  1869,  he  married  in  New  Brunswick,  N.  J., 


Jane  Emily  Searle  Cogswell.  They  had  one 
daughter,  who  married  Frank  Sylvester  Henry, 
and  from  whom  the  father  was  estranged  in 
later  years. 

His  writings  were  mainly  biographical.  Seven 
volumes  of  newspaper  clippings  in  the  New  York 
Public  Library  testify  to  his  care  in  preserving 
news  about  those  whose  careers  appealed  to  him. 
His  most  extensive  work  was  Applctons'  Cyclo- 
pedia of  American  Biography  (6  vols.,  1886- 
89;  revised,  with  supplementary  volume,  1898- 
99),  which  he  edited  jointly  with  John  Fiske 
[q.v.].  An  active  churchman  throughout  his  life, 
he  edited  The  Centennial  History  of  the  Protes- 
tant Episcopal  Church  in  the  Diocese  of  New 
York,  1785-1885  (1886).  In  1892-93  appeared 
The  Memorial  History  of  the  City  of  Netv  York, 
from  Its  First  Settlement  to  the  Year  1892,  in 
four  volumes.  He  also  edited  The  Presidents  of 
the  United  States,  by  John  Fiske  and  others, 
which  was  published  in  1894,  with  later  issues 
in  1898,  1902,  1914. 

His  interest  in  military  affairs  is  suggested  by 
his  Biographical  Sketches  of  Illinois  Officers  En- 
gaged in  the  War  against  the  Rebellion  of  1861 
(1862).  His  Life  and  Campaigns  of  Ulysses 
Simpson  Grant  appeared  in  1868,  and  a  revision 
of  the  same  under  a  slightly  different  title  in 
1885.  In  1874  he  published  Sketches  of  Illustri- 
ous Soldiers,  a  second  edition  of  which  appeared 
in  1880.  With  Titus  Munson  Coan  he  edited 
Personal  Recollections  of  the  War  of  the  Re- 
bellion :  Addresses  Delivered  Before  the  New 
York  Commandcry  of  the  Loyal  Legion  of  the 
United  States,  1883-1891  (1891).  In  1897  two 
studies  of  Grant  by  him  were  published — Gen- 
eral Grant,  in  the  Great  Commanders  Series 
edited  by  Wilson,  and  General  Grant's  Letters 
to  a  Friend.  He  also  furnished  a  life  of  Grant 
in  1904  for  the  Makers  of  American  History 
Series. 

From  his  father,  a  poet  as  well  as  business  man, 
he  acquired  a  fondness  for  literature.  In  1867 
he  published,  under  the  pseudonym  of  Allan 
Grant,  Love  in  Letters:  Illustrated  in  the  Cor- 
respondence of  Eminent  Persons,  which  he  re- 
vised and  issued  under  his  own  name  in  1895; 
also,  in  1867,  under  the  same  pseudonym,  Mr. 
Secretary  Pcpys;  with  Extracts  from  His  Diary. 
In  1869  appeared  his  Life  and  Letters  of  Fitz- 
Greene  Hallcck  and  The  Poetical  Writings  of 
Hallcck,  with  Extracts  from  Those  of  Drake.  In 
1876  he  wrote  the  memoir  of  the  author  in  Anne 
Grant's  Memoirs  of  an  American  Lady.  He  was 
the  author  of  a  two-volume  work  entitled  The 
Poets  and  Poetry  of  Scotland  from  the  Earliest 
to  the  Present  Time  (1876).  In  1877-78  he  add- 


333 


Wilson 

ed  a  sketch  of  Bryant  to  an  edition  of  Bryant's 
New  Library  of  Poetry  and  Song  and  in  1886 
issued  Bryant  and  His  Friends:  Some  Remi- 
niscences of  the  Knickerbocker  Writers.  His 
commencement  address  at  St.  Stephen's  College, 
Annandale,  was  puhlished  as  The  World's  Larg- 
est Libraries  (1894).  In  1902  he  provided  an 
introduction  to  Mrs.  Audubon's  Life  of  John 
James  Audubon,  the  Naturalist.  His  Thackeray 
in  the  United  States,  1852-53,  1855-56  appeared 
in  two  volumes  in  1904.  He  wrote  much  for  the 
periodical  press,  and  made  many  addresses  on 
characters  in  American  history  and  literature, 
most  of  which  appeared  also  as  reprints. 

Tall,  erect,  of  soldierly  bearing,  he  enjoyed 
speaking  or  presiding  at  public  meetings.  He 
was  a  life  member  of  the  New  York  Genealogical 
and  Biographical  Society  and  its  president,  1886- 
1900;  president  of  the  American  Ethnological 
Society,  1900-14 ;  president  of  the  American  Au- 
thors' Guild  (Society  of  American  Authors), 
1892-99.  After  the  death  of  his  first  wife  he 
married,  May  16,  1907,  Mary  (Heap)  Nichol- 
son, widow  of  James  W.  A.  Nicholson  [g.?\]. 
By  his  will  he  left  to  the  Metropolitan  Museum 
of  Art  in  New  York  City  his  collection  of  signed 
photographs  of  rulers  and  other  notables,  sleeve 
links  worn  by  Washington  and  by  Grant,  rings 
with  hair  from  Washington,  and  other  similar 
trinkets ;  the  legacy  was  declined  by  the  Museum, 
and  the  collection  went  to  the  New  York  Gene- 
alogical and  Biographical  Society.  In  1894  he 
was  knighted  by  the  Queen  Regent  of  Spain  for 
his  services  in  connection  with  the  erection  of  a 
statue  of  Columbus  in  New  York. 

[TV.  Y.  Gencal.  and  Biog.  Record,  July  1914;  Am. 
Anthropologist,  Jan.-Mar.  1914;  N.  Y.  Times,  Feb.  2, 
1914;  Who's  Who  in  America,  1912-13 ;  Who's  Who 
in  New  York  (City  and  State),  1914;  F.  B.  Heitman, 
Hist.  Reg.  and  Diet.  U.  S.  Army  (1903)  ;  H.  E.  Flem- 
ing, Magazines  of  a  Market-Metropolis  (1906)  ;  F.  W. 
Scott,  "Newspapers  and  Periodicals  of  111.,  1814-1879," 
III.  State  Hist.  Lib.  Colls.,  vol.  VI  (1910)  ;  Irving 
Garwood,  Am.  Periodicals  from  1850  to  i860  (1931)-] 

H.M.L. 

WILSON,  JAMES  HARRISON  (Sept.  2, 
1837-Feb.  23,  1925),  engineer,  cavalryman,  au- 
thor, was  born  near  Shawneetown,  111.,  the  fifth 
child  of  Harrison  and  Katharine  (Schneyder) 
Wilson.  His  father,  a  native  of  Virginia,  was 
related  to  the  Harrisons  of  the  James  River  dis- 
trict ;  his  family  had  emigrated  from  the  Shenan- 
doah Valley  to  Kentucky,  and  the  Schneyders, 
from  the  vicinity  of  Strasbourg,  Alsace,  to  In- 
diana, both  moving  later  to  southern  Illinois. 
James  H.  Wilson  attended  school  at  Shawnee- 
town, and  completed  one  academic  year  at  Mc- 
Kendree  College.  He  entered  the  United  States 
Military  Academy  July  1,   1855,  and  was  no- 


Wilscn 

tably  proficient  in  horsemanship,  rifle  practice, 
and  drill.  Graduating  sixth  among  forty-one  in 
the  class  of  i860,  he  was  commissioned  second 
lieutenant  of  topographical  engineers  and  as- 
signed to  duty  at  Fort  Vancouver  until  ordered 
East  in  the  summer  of  1861.  He  was  chief  topo- 
graphical engineer  with  Gen.  Thomas  W.  Sher- 
man on  the  Port  Royal  expedition  and  with  Gen. 
David  Hunter  took  part  in  the  reduction  of  Fort 
Pulaski.  Subsequently,  as  volunteer  aid  to  Mc- 
Clellan,  he  served  in  the  battles  of  South  Moun- 
tain and  Antietam. 

A  few  weeks  later  Wilson  joined  Grant's  head- 
quarters, and  early  in  1863  was  named  inspector- 
general,  Army  of  the  Tennessee,  with  duties  still 
mainly  in  the  engineers.  He  was  engaged  in  the 
action  at  Port  Gibson  and  the  capture  of  Jack- 
son, Miss.,  in  the  battles  of  Champion's  Hill  and 
Big  Black  Bridge,  and  in  the  siege  and  capture 
of  Vicksburg.  Late  in  September  1863  he  carried 
dispatches  to  the  telegraph  at  Cairo,  and  received 
War  Department  orders,  following  the  defeat  of 
Rosecrans  at  Chickamauga,  for  Grant  to  pro- 
ceed to  Chattanooga.  He  was  advanced,  Oct. 
31,  to  brigadier-general  of  volunteers — "the  only 
officer  ever  promoted  from  Grant's  regular  staff 
to  command  troops"  {Under  the  Old  Flag,  post, 

I,  267).  He  participated  in  the  battle  of  Mis- 
sionary Ridge,  was  chief  engineer  on  the  expe- 
dition for  the  relief  of  Knoxville,  and  in  January 
1864  was  appointed  chief  of  the  cavalry  bureau 
at  Washington. 

By  Grant's  request  at  the  opening  of  the  spring 
campaign,  Wilson  was  assigned  to  command  the 
third  division  in  Sheridan's  cavalry  corps,  Army 
of  the  Potomac.  He  led  the  advance  across  the 
Rapidan,  marched  through  the  Wilderness,  and 
during  that  battle  had  sharp  encounters  in  the 
more  open  country  beyond.  The  division  was  in 
the  combat  of  Yellow  Tavern,  covered  Grant's 
passage  to  the  Chickahominy,  formed  part  of 
Sheridan's  first  Richmond  expedition,  and  late 
in  June  fought  off  or  eluded  greater  numbers, 
mainly  of  Hampton's  cavalry.  After  a  few  days 
in  front  of  Petersburg,  Wilson  was  sent  to  Sheri- 
dan in  the  Shenandoah  Valley,  and  took  part  in 
the  battle  of  the  Opequon  (Winchester),  Sept. 
19.  In  October  he  was  appointed  chief  of  cavalry, 
Military  Division  of  the  Mississippi,  with  brevet 
rank  of  major-general,  on  a  practical  equality 
with  Sheridan  in  the  East.  The  statement,  "I  be- 
lieve Wilson  will  add  fifty  per  cent  to  the  effec- 
tiveness of  your  cavalry"  (Grant  to  Sherman, 
Oct.  4,  1864),  Wilson  considered  "the  greatest 
compliment  of  my  life"   (Under  the  Old  Flag, 

II,  4).  He  first  outfitted  Kilpatrick's  division 
for  the  march  to  the  sea,  and  then  consolidated 


334 


Wilson 


Wilson 


the  remaining  cavalry  and  mounted  infantry  into 
a  compact  corps  to  operate  against  Hood's  in- 
vasion of  Tennessee. 

Encountering  Forrest's  cavalry  at  Franklin, 
Nov.  30,  1864,  Wilson  drove  it  back  across  the 
Harpeth  River,  enabling  Schofield  to  repulse 
Hood  and  withdraw  to  Nashville,  where  Thomas, 
greatly  assisted  by  mass  formations  of  the  cav- 
alry, defeated  Hood  on  Dec.  15-16.  Wilson  es- 
tablished winter  cantonments  north  of  the  Ten- 
nessee and  had  17,000  men  in  the  saddle  for 
review  when  Thomas  came  down  from  Nashville. 
With  greater  numbers  present  and  better  equip- 
ment, he  defeated  Forrest  at  Ebenezer  Church, 
Apr.  1,  1865,  and  the  next  day  broke  through  and 
surmounted  the  fortifications  of  Selma,  Ala.; 
in  the  charge,  which  he  led  with  the  4th  Cav- 
alry, his  gelding,  "Sheridan,"  was  struck  down. 
Wilson  dispersed  the  defense,  demolished  or 
burned  the  ordnance  and  ammunition  bases,  and 
severed  railway  communications.  He  entered 
Montgomery  without  resistance,  took  Columbus, 
Ga.,  by  assault,  destroying  its  military  supplies 
and  shipyard  ;  on  Apr.  20  he  reached  Macon,  and 
there  ceased  hostilities,  but  kept  military  control. 
Detachments  from  his  command  intercepted  Jef- 
ferson Davis  and  brought  him  to  Macon. 

Gross  figures  for  maximum  numbers  of  cav- 
alry under  Sheridan  and  Wilson  in  the  spring  of 
1865  are  somewhat  in  Wilson's  favor.  He  was 
unsurpassed  in  the  cavalry  for  organizing  ability, 
administration,  and  steadiness ;  it  is  doubtful  if 
Sheridan,  Kilpatrick,  or  Custer  ever  really  ex- 
celled his  outstanding  exploit  at  Selma.  "Of  all 
the  Federal  expeditions  of  which  I  have  any 
knowledge,  his  was  the  best  conducted,"  said 
Richard  Taylor  (Destruction  and  Reconstruc- 
tion, 1879,  p.  220).  His  restraint,  tact,  and  good 
judgment  left  a  favorable  impression  upon  the 
people  of  Georgia.  In  the  army  reorganization 
after  the  war  he  was  appointed  lieutenant-colo- 
nel of  the  35th  Infantry,  July  28,  1866,  but  re- 
assigned to  the  engineers.  For  four  years  he 
superintended  navigation  improvements,  mainly 
on  the  Mississippi,  resigning  from  the  army  Dec. 
31,  1870,  to  engage  in  railway  construction  and 
management.  Settling  at  Wilmington,  Del.,  in 
1883,  he  gave  fifteen  years  to  various  business 
enterprises,  public  affairs,  travel,  and  writing. 

As  senior  major-general  in  civil  life  under  the 
retiring  age,  Wilson  volunteered  for  the  Spanish- 
American  War  and  was  designated  to  command 
the  VI  Corps,  which,  however,  was  not  organ- 
ized. In  July  1898  he  conducted  part  of  the  I 
Corps  to  Puerto  Rico,  and  was  appointed  mili- 
tary governor  of  the  city  and  province  of  Ponce ; 
while  marching  toward  the  interior  he  was  ap- 


prised of  the  protocol,  and  was  soon  ordered  back 
to  the  United  States.  He  prepared  the  I  Corps 
for  Cuba,  took  one  division  to  Matanzas,  and  in 
the  military  occupation  was  assigned  the  Ma- 
tanzas department  and  later  the  Santa  Clara  de- 
partment and  the  city  of  Cienfuegos.  Knowing 
something  of  China  from  nearly  a  year's  inves- 
tigation in  1885-86  of  possible  railway  develop- 
ments there,  he  was  appointed  second  in  com- 
mand to  Gen.  Adna  R.  Chaffee  \_q.v.~\  of  forces 
sent  to  cooperate  in  suppressing  the  Boxer  up- 
rising; he  reached  Peking  after  the  allies  had 
rescued  the  legations,  but  led  the  American- 
British  contingent  against  the  Boxers  at  the 
Eight  Temples.  Returning  to  the  United  States 
in  December  1900,  he  was  placed  by  special  act 
of  Congress  upon  the  retired  list  as  brigadier- 
general  in  the  regular  service.  On  Mar.  4,  1915, 
he  was  advanced  to  major-general,  a  rank  he  had 
received  twice  (1865  and  1898)  in  the  volun- 
teers. By  presidential  appointment  he  represent- 
ed the  army  at  the  coronation  of  King  Edward 
VII  in  1902.  He  never  held  political  or  civil 
office. 

Wilson  was  about  five  feet,  ten  inches  in 
height,  though  his  erect,  military  bearing  made 
him  appear  a  trifle  taller ;  he  was  somewhat  over- 
weight in  middle  and  later  life.  He  stood  and 
walked  like  a  cavalryman  who  never  forgot  that 
he  had  served  with  distinction  under  Grant,  Sher- 
man, Sheridan  and  Thomas,  and  as  an  independ- 
ent commander  had  led  the  longest  and  greatest 
single  cavalry  movement  in  the  Civil  War.  He 
was  a  striking  personification  of  the  "old  army" ; 
the  last  survivor  of  his  West  Point  class,  he  out- 
lived every  other  member  of  Grant's  military 
staff  and  all  other  Federal  corps  commanders. 
Bold  initiative,  an  adventurous  and  dauntless 
spirit,  aggressive  temper,  and  invariable  confi- 
dence were  his  predominant  characteristics.  He 
managed  widespread  and  diversified  interests 
with  ease,  dispatch,  and  efficiency.  Though  re- 
served, often  blunt,  and  sometimes  imperious, 
he  was  a  man  of  generous  nature,  on  rare  occa- 
sions sentimental  and  romantic.  Many  friend- 
ships, notably  with  John  A.  Rawlins  and  Emory 
Upton  [qq.z>.~\  were  broken  only  by  death.  He 
was  a  thorough  and  progressive  student  of  his- 
tory, with  a  long,  clear  view  and  considerable 
legal  knowledge ;  an  outspoken  but  fair  critic. 
Among  his  more  significant  publications  were  a 
number  of  military  biographies,  beginning  with 
The  Life  of  Ulysses  S.  Grant  (1868),  edited 
somewhat  by  Charles  A.  Dana,  and  including 
lives  of  Andrew  J.  Alexander  (1887),  William 
Farrar  Smith  ( 1904),  his  friend  John  A.  Rawlins 
(1916),    and   articles,   for   the   Association   of 


335 


Wilson 

Graduates  of  the  United  States  Military  Acad- 
emy, on  Philip  H.  Sheridan  (1889)  and  A.  Mc- 
Dowell McCook  (1904).  He  contributed  "The 
Union  Cavalry  in  the  Hood  Campaign"  to  Bat- 
tles and  Leaders  of  the  Civil  War  (vol.  IV, 
1888).  After  his  first  trip  to  China  he  published 
China;  Travels  and  Investigations  in  the  "Mid- 
dle Kingdom"  (1887),  of  which  a  third  edition 
was  issued  in  1901,  extended  to  include  an  ac- 
count of  the  Boxer  episode.  Long  personal  ac- 
quaintance and  war-time  association  formed  the 
basis  for  The  Life  of  Charles  A.  Dana  (1907), 
and  his  own  recollections  of  service  in  the  Civil 
War,  the  war  with  Spain,  and  the  Boxer  trouble 
for  the  two  colorful  volumes,  Under  the  Old  Flag 
(1912).  On  Jan.  3,  1866,  Wilson  married  Ella 
Andrews,  who  was  fatally  burned  at  Matanzas, 
Cuba,  Apr.  28,  1900;  three  daughters  were  born 
to  them.  He  died  in  Wilmington  and  his  inter- 
ment was  in  Old  Swedes  churchyard  there. 

1G.  W.  Cullum,  Biog.  Reg.  Officers  and  Grads.  U.  S. 
Mil.  Acad.  (3rd  ed.,  1891)  and  Supplements;  Sixty- 
second  Ann.  Report,  Asso.  Grads.  U.  S.  Mil.  Acad. 
( 1 93 1 )  ;  IV  ar  of  the  Rebellion  :  Official  Records  (Army)  ; 
memoirs  of  Grant,  Sherman,  and  Sheridan,  and  histories 
and  narratives  of  the  Army  of  the  Tennessee  ;  John 
Fiske,  The  Mississippi  Valley  in  the  Civil  War  (1900)  ; 
J.  A.  Wyeth,  Life  of  Gen.  Nathan  Bedford  Forrest 
( 1899)  ;  W.  F.  Scott,  The  Story  of  a  Cavalry  Regiment 
(1893);  E.  N.  Gilpin,  "The  Last  Campaign,"  Jour. 
U.  S.  Cavalry  Asso.,  Apr.  1908  ;  A.  R.  Chaffee,  "James 
Harrison  Wilson,  Cavalryman,"  Cavalry  Journal,  July 
1925  ;  Official  Army  Register,  1925  ;  N.  Y.  Times,  Feb. 
24,  1925  ;  Every  Evening  (Wilmington),  Feb.  23-26, 
1925  ;  Army  and  Navy  Jour.,  Feb.  28,  1925  ;  Who's 
Who  in  America,  1924-25  ;  correspondence  with  Wil- 
son's daughter,  Mary  Wilson  Thompson  ;  personal  ac- 
quaintance.] R.  B e. 

WILSON,  JOHN  (c.  1591-Aug.  7, 1667),  min- 
ister and  writer,  was  born  in  Windsor,  England. 
His  mother,  Isabel  Woodhall,  was  a  niece  of 
Archbishop  Grindal ;  his  father,  William,  was 
for  a  time  Grindal 's  chaplain  and,  from  1583  to 
1615,  canon  of  Windsor.  John  Wilson  studied  at 
Eton,  where  in  1601,  "though  the  smallest  boy  in 
the  school,"  he  won  approbation  by  a  Latin  speech 
which  he  delivered  before  the  Due  de  Biron  (H. 
C.  M.  Lyte,  A  History  of  Eton  College,  191 1, 
p.  186).  He  went  to  King's  College,  Cambridge, 
as  scholar  in  1605  and  three  years  later  was  pro- 
moted to  a  fellowship  which  would  have  taken 
care  of  him  for  life;  but  his  conversion  to  the 
Puritan  point  of  view  by  William  Ames,  and  his 
refusal  to  conform  in  chapel,  forced  him  to  re- 
sign in  1610,  just  after  taking  the  degree  of  B.  A. 
The  degree  of  M.A.  was  awarded  him  in  1613. 
He  was  admitted  to  the  Inner  Temple  in  1610, 
but  after  reading  law  for  a  year  or  two  he  began 
preaching,  and  served  as  chaplain  in  several 
"Honourable  and  Religious  Families,"  among 
them  that  of  Henry  Leigh.  In  1618  Wilson  be- 
came lecturer  at  Sudbury  in  Suffolk,  where  he 


Wilson 

seems  to  have  remained  until  1630,  despite  sun- 
dry suspensions  for  nonconformity.  He  sailed  in 
that  year  for  Massachusetts,  and  became  teacher 
of  the  First  Church  in  Boston,  when  it  was  first 
organized  at  Charlestown.  He  went  to  England 
in  1631,  returning  to  Boston  the  next  year  with 
his  wife,  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  John  Mansfield, 
whom  he  had  married  probably  before  May  161 5. 
After  another  trip  to  England  in  1634  and  1635, 
he  remained  in  Boston  at  the  First  Church  until 
his  death,  a  spokesman  of  orthodoxy  and  a  con- 
stant counsellor  of  the  magistrates.  He  was  one 
of  the  first  to  work  for  the  conversion  of  the  In- 
dians in  Massachusetts,  and  for  a  while  took  un- 
der his  protection  a  child  of  Sagamore  John,  a 
friendly  native  who  had  died  of  smallpox.  In 
1637  Wilson  went  as  chaplain  in  an  expedition 
against  the  Pequots,  and  his  services  were  later 
recognized  by  a  grant  of  land.  With  the  Rev. 
John  Cotton  [q.v.~\  he  was  at  odds  occasionally, 
especially  in  his  unflinching  and  outspoken  hos- 
tility to  the  Antinomians,  but  in  spite  of  their 
disagreements  the  two  men  shared  harmoniously 
the  pulpit  of  the  First  Church  from  1633  until 
Cotton's  death  in  1652. 

At  Sudbury  Wilson  wrote  a  long  poem  for 
children,  A  Song,  or,  Story,  for  the  Lasting  Re- 
membrance of  Divers  Famous  Works  (  London, 
1626),  reissued  in  Boston  in  1680  as  A  Song  of 
Deliverance.  It  is  said  that  he  wrote  enough 
other  verse  to  fill  "a  large  Folio,"  but  most  of 
this  was  not  printed  and  is  now  unknown.  His 
Latin  elegy  on  John  Harvard  was  printed  in 
Cotton  Mather's  Magnolia  (1702)  ;  his  lines  on 
Joseph  Brisco  were  published  in  a  broadside  in 
Boston  about  1657,  and  eight  anagrams  in  verse 
appeared  in  Thomas  Shepard's  The  Church- 
Membership  of  Children  (1663)  and  John  Nor- 
ton's Three  Choice  and  Profitable  Sermons 
(1664).  Ln  prose  he  contributed  prefatory  mat- 
ter to  Samuel  Whiting's  A  Discourse  of  the 
Last  Judgement  (1664),  Richard  Mather's  The 
Summe  of  Certain  Sermons  (1652),  and  John 
Higginson's  The  Cause  of  God  (1663).  One  of 
his  sermons  was  printed  as  A  Seasonable  Watch- 
word unto  Christians  (1677).  Two  other  publi- 
cations, The  Day  Breaking  .  .  .  of  the  Gospcll 
with  the  Indians  (1647)  and  Some  Helps  to 
Faith  (1625),  have  been  ascribed  to  him.  The 
former  may  be  his  (Proceedings  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Historical  Society,  2  ser.,  vol.  VI,  1891, 
pp.  392-95)  ;  the  latter  is  not. 

Wilson  was  celebrated  in  his  day  as  one  of  the 
most  influential  of  the  Massachusetts  divines,  and 
was  renowned  for  his  skill  in  making  anagrams 
and  writing  verse.  Today  he  is  less  interesting 
than  his  contemporaries,  John  Cotton  and  Rich- 


336 


Wilson 

ard  Mather  [q.v.~\,  perhaps  because  little  is  left 
by  which  to  judge  his  quality.  As  a  poet  he  has 
small  merit ;  his  work  is  pious  and  edificatory 
rather  than  artistic.  Yet  his  contemporaries,  in 
spite  of  his  fierce  opposition  to  the  Quakers  and 
the  unorthodox  in  general,  paint  an  appealing 
picture  of  him  as  a  man  famous  for  his  hospitality 
and  loved  as  well  as  respected.  In  Cotton  Ma- 
ther's words,  "great  zeal,  with  great  love  .  .  . 
joined  with  orthodoxy,  should  make  up  his  pour- 
traiture"  (Magnolia,  1853  ed.,  I,  312).  His 
daughter  Elizabeth  married  the  Rev.  Ezekiel 
Rogers ;  another,  Mary,  married  the  Rev.  Sam- 
uel Danforth ;  and  his  son,  John  Wilson,  became 
in  165 1  the  first  minister  of  Medfield. 

[For  biog.  sketches  see  Cotton  Mather,  Johannes  in 
Eercmo :  Memoirs  ( 1 695 ) ,  reprinted  in  Magnalia  Christi 
Americana  (1702),  bk.  Ill,  pt.  1  ;  J.  G.  Bartlett,  in 
New  England  Hist,  and  Gencal.  Reg.,  Jan.-Apr.  1907; 
A.  W.  M'Clure,  The  Lives  of  John  Wilson,  John  Norton 
and  John  Davenport  (1846)  ;  W.  B.  Sprague,  Annals  of 
the  Am.  Pulpit,  vol.  I  (1857),  pp.  12-15.  Some  errors 
and  omissions  in  these  are  corrected  in  K.  B.  Murdock, 
Handkerchiefs  from  Paul  (1927),  PP-  xli-liii,  which  has 
references  to  other  biog.  sources  and  contains  all  of 
Wilson's  published  verse,  as  well  as  three  previously 
unprinted  poems.  The  date  of  birth,  sometimes  given  as 
c.  Dec.  1588,  is  from  John  and  J.  A.  Venn,  Alumni  Can- 
tabrigienses,  pt.  I,  vol.  IV  (1927).]  K.  B.  M. 

WILSON,  JOHN  FLEMING  (Feb.  22, 1877- 
Mar.  5,  1922),  author,  son  of  the  Rev.  Joseph 
Rogers  and  Viola  Harriet  (Eaton)  Wilson,  was 
born  in  Erie,  Pa.  He  was  educated  at  Parsons 
College,  Iowa,  and  at  Princeton  University, 
where  he  received  the  degree  of  A.B.  in  1900. 
He  first  taught  for  two  years  in  Oregon  at  Port- 
land Academy,  of  which  his  father  was  then 
president.  After  doing  newspaper  work  in  Port- 
land and  editing  a  newspaper  at  Newport,  Ore., 
he  became  editor  of  the  weekly  San  Francisco 
Argonaut,  an  earthquake  edition  of  which  he 
published  at  San  Jose,  Cal.,  on  May  5,  1906,  and 
was  associated  with  the  Oregonian,  the  Pacific 
Monthly,  and  the  Advertiser  of  Honolulu.  From 
early  boyhood  he  had  spent  much  time  on  the 
water,  and  in  the  West,  after  having  qualified  as 
a  deck  officer,  he  worked  on  board  seagoing 
tugs,  with  pilots  in  the  Columbia  River,  in  dry 
docks,  and  for  a  time  on  board  ship  at  wireless 
telegraphy.  For  nearly  two  years  he  lived  on 
light  ships  and  in  the  Columbia  and  Tillamook 
lighthouses.  He  studied  steam  engineering  and 
other  technical  nautical  subjects,  at  one  time  set- 
ting himself  to  report  investigations  made  by 
courts  having  admiralty  jurisdiction.  Traveling 
extensively,  he  lived  for  a  time  in  Japan.  Dur- 
ing the  World  War  he  served  in  France  (i9T7- 
19)  in  the  7th  Battalion,  Canadian  Infantry. 

His  first  sea  story,  "When  Winds  Awake," 
appeared  in  Munscy's  Magazine  for  August  1900. 
This  was  followed  by  seven  stories  in  the  Over- 


Wilson 

land  Monthly  during  1902-03.  Not  a  prolific 
writer,  he  wrote  between  1906  and  1920  about 
one  hundred  short  stories.  These  were  published 
in  various  magazines  and  collected  in  Across  the 
Latitudes  (1911),  Tad  Sheldon,  Boy  Scout 
(1913),  Tad  Sheldon's  Fourth  of  July  (1913), 
and  Somewhere  at  Sea  and  Other  Tales  (1923), 
the  last  of  which  contains  his  best  work.  His 
full-length  novels  are  The  Land  Claimcrs  ( 191 1 ) , 
The  Man  Who  Came  Back  (1912),  which  was 
turned  into  a  play,  The  Princess  of  Sorry  Valley 
(1913),  The  Master  Key  (1915),  on  which  a 
photoplay  was  based,  and  Scouts  of  the  Desert 
(1920).  His  best  literary  work  grew  out  of  a 
thorough  and  intimate  knowledge  of  the  sea  and 
ships,  and  of  sailors,  whose  peculiar  psychology 
he  presents  with  remarkable  insight  and  fidelity. 
His  style  was  influenced  by  his  wide  reading  of 
the  classics. 

Wilson  is  described  as  "a  short,  slight  man 
with  keen  glance,  clean-shaven,  weather-beaten 
face,  and  muscles  of  steel"  (Blathwayt,  post,  p. 
xvii).  On  July  14,  1906,  he  married  Elena  Burt 
of  Newport,  Ore.,  from  whom  he  was  afterwards 
divorced.  There  were  no  children  by  her  or  by 
his  second  wife,  Alberta  Adele  Wilson.  On  Mar. 

5,  1922,  while  he  was  shaving,  his  bathrobe 
caught  fire  from  a  gas  heater,  and  he  was  burned 
to  death.  He  died  in  Santa  Monica  and  was  bur- 
ied three  days  later  at  Hemet,  Cal.  He  was  a 
member  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1920-21  ;  R.  H.  Davis,  and 
Raymond  Blathwayt,  in  Wilson's  Somewhere  at  Sea  and 
Other  Tales  (1923)  ;  Princeton  Alumni  Weekly,  Mar. 
29,  1922;  obituary  in  Chronicle  (San  Francisco),  Mar. 

6,  1922  ;  death  and  funeral  notices  in  Times  (Los  An- 
geles), Mar.  7,  8,  1922.]  C.L.L. 

WILSON,  JOHN  LEIGHTON  (Mar.  25, 
1809-July  13,  1886),  pioneer  Presbyterian  mis- 
sionary to  western  Africa,  was  the  son  of  Wil- 
liam and  Jane  E.  (James)  Wilson,  descendants 
of  the  Scotch-Irish  settlers  of  Williamsburg 
County,  S.  C.  He  was  born  and  died  near  Salem, 
S.  C,  in  his  father's  farmhouse,  the  first  in  that 
region  to  be  glazed  and  ceiled.  Beginning  his 
education  in  a  local  log  schoolhouse,  he  continued 
it  at  Springville,  and  in  Zion  Academy,  Winns- 
boro,  S.  C,  and  in  1827  entered  the  junior  class 
of  Union  College,  Schenectady,  N.  Y.,  gradu- 
ating in  1829.  A  winter  with  his  uncle,  the  Rev. 
Robert  W.  James,  a  founder  of  Columbia  (S.  C.) 
Seminary,  stimulated  his  interest  in  Africa,  to 
which  he  felt  that  slave-holding  America  owed 
a  debt  of  atonement.  His  religious  life  began  in 
a  series  of  meetings  at  Mount  Pleasant,  where 
he  taught  during  the  latter  half  of  1830,  and  in 
January  183 1  he  entered  Columbia  Seminary 
and  was  a  member  of  the  first  class  to  be  gradu- 


337 


Wilson 

ated  at  that  institution.  After  studying  Arabic 
at  Andover,  he  was  ordained,  in.  September  1833, 
by  the  Presbytery  of  Harmony,  S.  C,  and  soon 
after,  accompanied  by  a  classmate,  he  sailed  for 
western  Africa  on  an  exploring  tour  of  five 
months. 

Upon  his  return  he  married,  May  21,  1834, 
Jane  Elizabeth  Bayard,  and,  having  freed  her 
thirty  slaves,  took  them  at  their  personal  expense 
to  Liberia.  He  did  not  favor  universal  or  imme- 
diate emancipation,  and  the  fact  that  he  retained 
possession  of  two  negro  children  who  had  come 
to  him  through  entail  and  refused  to  leave  him, 
brought  such  violent  assault  from  abolitionists  as 
to  curtail  support  for  his  mission  at  Cape  Palmas. 
After  seven  years  there,  he  removed  the  mission 
to  the  Gabun.  It  was  in  his  house  that  Thomas 
S.  Savage  \_q.v.~\,  seeing  the  skull  of  a  gorilla, 
was  prompted  to  make  the  investigations  that  re- 
sulted in  the  publication  of  his  "Notice  of  the 
External  Characters  and  Habits  of  Troglodytes 
Gorilla,  a  New  Species  of  Orang  from  the  Ga- 
boon River"  {Boston  Journal  of  Natural  His- 
tory, December  1847).  Wilson  in  his  West  Af- 
rica (post)  records  the  earliest  investigation 
of  this  animal  in  its  natural  habitat.  Hating  the 
slave  trade,  next  to  the  rum  trade,  as  the  bane 
of  Africa,  he  published  a  pamphlet,  which  was 
widely  distributed  in  England  by  Lord  Palmer- 
ston,  showing  the  efficiency  of  the  British  fleet 
in  the  suppression  of  that  traffic.  During  nearly 
twenty  years  in  the  field,  he  gathered  much  in- 
formation in  thousands  of  miles  of  travel,  con- 
tributed to  the  Missionary  Herald,  treated  the 
sick,  founded  schools  and  churches,  and  compiled 
grammars  and  dictionaries  of  Grebo  and  M\  ~>ng- 
wee,  into  which  languages  he  translated  certain 
of  the  Gospels  and  tracts. 

Returning  to  America  in  1852,  he  was  elected 
a  secretary  of  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  at 
the  General  Assembly  of  1853.  For  the  next 
nine  years  he  lived  in  New  York,  where  he  edit- 
ed the  Home  and  Foreign  Record  and  published 
his  encyclopedic  work,  Western  Africa,  Its  His- 
tory, Conditions,  and  Prospects  (1856).  Upon 
the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War,  although  he  had 
avoided  all  part  in  politics,  he  resigned  his  posi- 
tion, and  on  the  day  before  travel  closed  returned 
to  the  South.  He  carried  on  evangelistic  work  in 
the  Confederate  army  and  served  for  a  time  as 
chaplain.  When  in  December  1861  the  Assem- 
bly of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  Confeder- 
ate States  of  America  (later  the  Presbyterian 
Church  in  the  United  States)  was  organized, 
Wilson  was  placed  in  charge  of  its  foreign  mis- 
sions and  from  1863  to  1872  he  also  had  charge 
of  its  home  missionary  projects.  During  Recon- 

33 


Wilson 

struction  he  did  much  to  sustain  the  life  of  the 
Southern  churches.  He  wrote  for  the  Southern 
Presbyterian  Rcz'iew  and  in  1866  founded  The 
Missionary,  which  he  edited  for  nearly  twenty 
years.  With  the  proceeds  from  the  sale  of  his 
wife's  lands  in  Georgia,  the  Wilsons  maintained 
a  girls'  school  in  the  old  homestead  at  Salem. 
Here  were  educated  girls  from  four  Southern 
states  who  paid  tuition  only  if  they  were  able.  He 
also  had  a  night  school  for  negroes.  More  than 
six  feet  in  height,  erect  and  strong,  wise  and 
kind,  he  was  further  aided  in  his  work  by  an 
unusual  understanding  of  the  negro  and  by  a 
marked  ability  for  finance. 

[H.  C.  Du  Bose,  Memoirs  of  Rev.  John  Leighton  Wil- 
son D.D.  (1895)  ;  Alfred  Nevin,  Encyc.  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church  (1884);  J.  DuPlessis,  The  Evangelisa- 
tion of  Pagan  Africa  (n.d.)  ;  W.  R.  Wheeler,  The  Wards 
of  God  in  an  African  Forest  (1931)  ;  H.  A.  White, 
Southern  Presbyterian  Leaders  (1911);  Missionary 
Herald,  Sept.  1886.]  A  K  G 

WILSON,  JOHN  LOCKWOOD  (Aug.  7, 
1850-Nov.  6,  1912),  lawyer,  senator,  and  pub- 
lisher, was  born  in  Crawfordsville,  Ind.,  of 
Scotch-Irish  stock,  son  of  Col.  James  and  Emma 
(Ingersoll)  Wilson  and  brother  of  Henry  Lane 
Wilson  \_q.v.~\.  His  father  served  in  the  Mexican 
War,  had  two  terms  in  Congress,  and  was  a  lieu- 
tenant-colonel of  volunteers  in  the  Civil  War. 
John  was  his  father's  messenger  during  the  Civil 
War  and  acted  in  the  same  capacity  in  1866-67 
when  his  father  was  minister  to  Venezuela.  Be- 
fore he  was  seventeen,  however,  his  father  died, 
and  thereafter  the  boy  supported  himself  by  odd 
jobs  and  by  employment  as  clerk  with  a  survey- 
ing crew.  He  graduated  from  Wabash  College 
in  1874,  studied  law  in  the  office  of  an  uncle,  and 
was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1877.  Two  years  later 
he  was  given  an  appointment  in  the  United  States 
pension  bureau,  but  soon  returned  to  the  law.  He 
was  elected  to  the  Indiana  legislature  in  1880. 
The  West  attracted  him,  and  in  1882  Presi- 
dent Arthur  appointed  him  receiver  of  the  fed- 
eral land  office  at  Colfax,  Washington  Territory. 
He  served  four  and  a  half  years,  during  which 
period  the  office  was  moved  to  Spokane.  In  1888 
he  was  a  delegate  to  the  Republican  National 
Convention  in  Chicago,  and  the  following  year, 
at  the  first  state  Republican  convention  of  Wash- 
ington, held  in  Walla  Walla  just  prior  to  the  ad- 
mission of  the  state,  he  was  nominated  as  repre- 
sentative-at-large  in  Congress,  and  in  1889  was 
elected.  He  was  twice  returned  as  the  sole  rep- 
resentative from  Washington,  and  in  1895,  while 
serving  his  third  term,  was  elected  United  States 
senator  to  complete  the  term  left  vacant  by  the 
failure  of  the  legislature  of  1893  to  elect  a  suc- 
cessor to  John  Beard  Allen.    Wilson  served  as 

8 


Wilson 

senator  until  the  expiration  of  this  term,  Mar.  3, 
1899. 

His  activities  in  Congress  resulted  in  a  vast 
amount  of  river  and  harbor  development  in  the 
Pacific  Northwest.  The  location  of  the  navy 
yard  on  Puget  Sound  was  due  to  his  efforts.  He 
is  credited  with  securing  the  establishment  of 
Fort  Lawton  at  Seattle  and  the  development  of 
Fort  George  Wright  at  Spokane.  He  sponsored 
a  lieu  land  bill  which  dissolved  the  troubles  aris- 
ing from  the  taking  of  lieu  land  by  the  Northern 
Pacific  Railroad  as  compensation  for  losses  in 
the  original  grant  and  confirmed  the  titles  of 
hundreds  of  farmers  who  had  developed  the  rich 
Palouse  region  and  were  in  danger  of  being  dis- 
possessed. He  introduced  and  secured  the  pas- 
sage of  a  bill,  in  the  Fifty-fifth  Congress,  creat- 
ing Rainier  National  Park.  He  was  interested 
in  the  promotion  of  trade  with  the  Orient  and 
early  recognized  the  needs  of  Alaska  and  urged 
them  in  Congress. 

At  the  close  of  his  term  in  the  Senate,  he  re- 
turned to  his  home  in  Spokane.  In  1899,  with  a 
loan  from  James  J.  Hill  [q.v.~\,  he  purchased  the 
controlling  interest  in  the  Seattle  Post-Intelli- 
gencer. He  removed  to  Seattle  in  1903  and  de- 
voted his  time  chiefly  to  the  management  of  the 
paper  until  a  few  months  before  his  death.  He 
died  of  heart  disease  at  the  New  Willard  Hotel, 
Washington,  D.  C,  when  he  was  about  to  start 
on  a  trip  around  the  world  with  his  wife,  Edna 
(Sweet),  whom  he  had  married  in  1883.  He 
was  survived  by  his  wife  and  a  daughter. 

[Jonathan  Edwards,  An  Illns.  Hist,  of  Spokane 
County,  .  .  .  Wash.  (1900)  ;  C.  A.  Snowden,  Hist,  of 
Wash.,  vol.  V  (191 1)  ;  Welford  Beaton,  The  City  That 
Made  Itself  (copr.  1914)  ;  Biog.  Dir.  Am.  Cong.  (1928)  ; 
Who's  Who  in  America,  1912-13  ;  Seattle  Post-Intelli- 
gencer, Nov.  7  and  n,  191 2,  Feb.  4,  1913  ;  JV.  Y.  Times, 
Nov.  7,  1912J  G.W.F. 

WILSON,  JOSEPH  MILLER  (June  20, 
1838-Nov.  24,  1902),  civil  engineer  and  archi- 
tect, was  born  at  Phoenixville,  Pa.,  one  of  three 
sons  of  William  Hasell  Wilson  [q.v.],  civil  en- 
gineer, and  Jane  (Miller)  Wilson.  He  received 
his  education  in  private  schools  and  in  the  Rens- 
selaer Polytechnic  Institute,  where  he  was  grad- 
uated with  the  degree  of  C.E.  in  1858.  After  a 
two-year  special  course  in  analytical  chemistry, 
he  entered  the  employ  of  the  Pennsylvania  Rail- 
road, serving  as  assistant  engineer  until  1863, 
when  he  became  resident  engineer  of  the  Middle 
Division.  In  1865  he  was  made  principal  assist- 
ant engineer  in  charge  of  bridges  for  the  entire 
road,  and  subsequently,  engineer  of  bridges  and 
buildings,  in  which  capacity  he  continued  until 
Jan.  1,  1886.  He  also  acted  as  engineer  of  bridges 
and  buildings  on  the  Philadelphia,  Wilmington 


Wilson 

&  Baltimore  Railroad.  In  1869,  as  a  reward  for 
ten  years'  service,  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad 
granted  him  and  his  assistant,  Henry  Pettit,  six 
months'  leave  of  absence  for  travel  in  Europe. 

In  1876,  with  his  elder  brother,  John  Allston 
Wilson,  and  Frederick  G.  Thorn,  he  organized 
the  firm  of  Wilson  Brothers  &  Company,  civil 
engineers  and  architects.  John  Allston  Wilson 
(Apr.  24,  1837-Jan.  19,  1896),  who  was  senior 
member  of  the  firm  from  its  formation  until  his 
death,  had  also  served  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad 
and  its  subsidiaries  in  various  capacities  from  as- 
sistant engineer  to  chief  engineer  from  1858 
until  1876.  He  was  especially  well  versed  in  mat- 
ters connected  with  railroad  law,  a  fact  which 
enabled  him  to  serve  as  an  expert  advisor  or 
witness  in  legal  cases.  In  1886  the  other  brother, 
Henry  W.  Wilson,  associated  himself  with  them. 
The  firm  members  were  engineers  and  architects 
for  the  shops  of  the  Northern  Central  Railway  at 
Baltimore  and  of  the  Allegheny  Valley  Railroad 
at  Verona,  Pa. ;  stations  and  shops  for  the  Ninth 
and  Third  Avenue  lines  of  the  New  York  Ele- 
vated and  the  New  York,  West  Shore  &  Buffalo 
Railroad,  and  stations  on  the  Central  Railroad  of 
New  Jersey,  the  Lehigh  Valley,  and  the  Phila- 
delphia &  Reading.  They  also  served  in  the  same 
capacity  in  connection  with  various  buildings 
in  Philadelphia,  including  the  Drexel  Institute, 
the  Presbyterian  Hospital,  and  the  Holmesburg 
Prison.  Among  the  structures  designed  and  built 
by  Joseph  M.  Wilson  were  the  Susquehanna  and 
Schuylkill  bridges,  the  original  Broad  Street  Sta- 
tion, Philadelphia,  and  the  Baltimore  &  Potomac 
Station  at  Washington.  For  the  design  and  con- 
struction of  the  main  exhibition  building  and 
machinery  hall  of  the  Centennial  Exhibition  at 
Philadelphia,  1876,  he  and  Henry  Pettit  were 
awarded  joint  medals  and  diplomas  by  the  Cen- 
tennial Commission. 

Wilson  was  chairman  of  the  board  of  expert 
engineers  on  the  Washington  aqueduct  tunnel 
and  reservoir  in  1888-89,  and  in  1888  served  on 
a  board  to  report  on  terminal  problems  at  Provi- 
dence, R.  I.  As  one  of  the  expert  engineers  he 
examined  and  reported  on  the  condition  of  the 
elevated  railroads  in  New  York  City;  also  on  the 
design  for  the  approaches  of  the  New  York  and 
Brooklyn  suspension  bridge.  In  1891  he  was 
consultant  to  the  board  of  rapid  transit  commis- 
sioners for  the  City  of  New  York.  As  consulting 
engineer  for  the  Philadelphia  &  Reading  Rail- 
way Company,  he  had  charge  of  all  work  on  the 
Pennsylvania  Avenue  subway  in  Philadelphia, 
and  the  work  of  improving  the  water  supply  of 
that  city  was  carried  out  in  accordance  with  his 
report  of  1899. 


339 


Wilson 

His  writings  on  scientific  and  engineering  sub- 
jects include  the  "Mechanical,"  the  "Scientific," 
and  the  "Historical"  chapters  for  the  Illustrated 
Catalogue  of  the  International  Exhibition  of 
1876 ;  historical  papers  on  the  International  Ex- 
hibition of  1876  in  Engineering  (London,  1875- 
76)  ;  "Bridge  over  the  Monongahela  River  at 
Port  Perry,  Pa."  (Minutes  of  the  Proceedings  of 
the  Institute  of  Civil  Engineers,  vol.  LX,  1880)  ; 
"On  American  Permanent  Way"  (Report  of  the 
British  Association  for  the  Advancement  of 
Science,  1884,  1885)  ;  "On  Specifications  for 
Strength  of  Iron  Bridges"  (Transactions,  Amer- 
ican Society  of  Civil  Engineers,  vol.  XV,  1886)  ; 
"The  Philadelphia  and  Reading  Terminal  Rail- 
way and  Station  in  Philadelphia"  (Ibid.,  vol. 
XXXIV,  1895);  "On  Schools;  With  Particu- 
lar Reference  to  Trade  Schools"  (Journal  of 
the  Franklin  Institute,  February-October  1890). 
The  Institution  of  Civil  Engineers,  London, 
awarded  him  the  Telford  Premium  in  1878  for 
his  description  of  the  Port  Perry  bridge.  On 
May  24,  1869,  he  married  Sarah  Dale  Pettit, 
daughter  of  Judge  Thomas  McKean  Pettit 
[q.v.~\  ;  they  had  two  children.  In  1874  Wilson 
was  elected  to  membership  in  the  American  Phil- 
osophical Society;  from  1887  to  1893  he  was 
president  of  the  Franklin  Institute. 

IBiog.  Record,  Officers  and  Grads.  Rensselaer  Poly- 
technic Inst.  (1887)  ;  Trans.  Am.  Soc.  Civil  Engineers, 
vol.  L  (1903)  ;  Who's  Who  in  America,  1901—02  ;  Min- 
utes of  Proc.  of  the  Institute  of  Civil  Engineers  (Lon- 
don), vol.  CLIII  (1903)  ;  Pub.  Ledger  (Phila.),  Nov. 
25,  1902.]  B.A.R. 

WILSON,  JOSHUA  LACY  (Sept.  22,  1774- 
Aug.  14,  1846),  Presbyterian  clergyman,  was 
born  in  Bedford  County,  Va.,  the  son  of  Henry 
Wright  Wilson,  a  physician,  grandson  of  Maj. 
Josiah  Wilson  who  was  in  Maryland  before 
1688.  Joshua's  mother,  Agnes  (Lacy)  Wilson, 
was  a  sister  of  the  Rev.  Drury  Lacy  [q.v.]  of 
Virginia.  When  the  boy  was  about  four  years 
old  his  father  died  and  his  mother  married  John 
Templin,  father  of  Rev.  Terah  Templin,  a  pio- 
neer Presbyterian  preacher  of  Kentucky.  In 
1 78 1  the  family  moved  to  Kentucky,  and  after 
the  death  of  his  stepfather  Joshua  bought  a  farm 
in  Jessamine  County,  then  a  part  of  Fayette 
County.  In  his  twenty-second  year  he  sold  this 
farm  for  money  to  attend  an  academy  at  Pisgah. 
Leaving  there  in  1796,  he  next  studied  under  Rev. 
William  Mahon  in  Mercer  County.  With  less 
than  three  years'  schooling,  he  began  teaching  in 
Frankfort,  but  gave  it  up  to  "read  divinity"  un- 
der Rev.  James  Vance,  near  Louisville.  He  was 
licensed  to  preach  by  the  Presbytery  of  Tran- 
sylvania on  Oct.  8,  1802.  His  first  charge  con- 
sisted of  the  churches  of  Bardstown  and  Big 


Wilson 

Spring,  over  which  he  was  installed  after  his  or- 
dination on  June  8,  1804.  On  Oct.  22,  1801,  he 
married  Sarah  B.  Mackay,  who  became  the 
mother  of  his  eight  children,  one  of  whom  was 
Samuel  Ramsay  Wilson  [q.v.]. 

Called  to  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  of 
Cincinnati  on  May  28,  1808,  Wilson  inaugurated 
a  ministry  there  that  continued  until  his  death. 
Over  six  feet  in  height,  reserved,  and  said  by 
some  to  resemble  Andrew  Jackson,  he  exhibited 
"great  energy  and  decision  of  character"  in  pro- 
moting the  moral  and  religious  welfare  of  the 
rising  city.  An  assiduous  student  himself,  he  as- 
sisted in  founding  Cincinnati  College  and  was 
professor  of  moral  philosophy  and  logic  there  for 
several  years.  He  was  the  first  chairman  (1828- 
30)  of  the  board  of  trustees  of  Lane  Theological 
Seminary.  He  fostered  Sunday  schools,  Bible 
societies,  and  libraries.  With  equal  conviction 
he  attacked  theatres,  dancing,  and  the  Masonic 
order.  His  theology  was  that  of  the  Old  School, 
and  his  defense  of  Calvinistic  doctrines  led  him 
into  many  controversies  both  within  and  without 
his  denomination. 

His  published  writings  consist  of  pamphlets 
and  newspaper  articles,  dealing  chiefly  with  po- 
lemical subjects.  In  181 1  he  replied  to  a  Method- 
ist pamphlet  by  writing  Episcopal  Methodism; 
or  Dragonism  Exhibited.  His  pen  was  employed 
against  the  deists,  the  New  Lights,  and  Roman 
Catholicism.  After  The  Pandect,  which  he  found- 
ed in  1828,  passed  out  of  his  hands  and  became 
the  New  School  Cincinnati  Journal,  he  estab- 
lished in  1831  the  Standard,  as  an  Old  School 
organ.  He  opposed  the  "New  England  theology" 
and  the  operation  of  the  "Plan  of  Union,"  and 
published  his  Four  Propositions  against  the 
Claims  of  the  American  Home  Missionary  So- 
ciety in  1831.  Believing  Lyman  Beecher  [q.v.] 
guilty  of  propagating  heresy,  he  prosecuted  him 
before  Presbytery  and  Synod.  He  assisted  in 
the  preparation  of  the  "Western  Memorial"  of 
1834  which  expressed  alarm  at  "the  prevalence 
of  unsound  doctrine  and  laxity  in  discipline" 
(quoted  by  Thompson,  post,  p.  no),  and  he  sub- 
sequently signed  the  "Act  and  Testimony"  of 
1835,  setting  forth  the  Old  School  view.  A  prom- 
inent member  of  the  Old  School  Convention  of 
x837,  he  became  moderator  of  the  Old  School 
General  Assembly  in  1839.  Though  handicapped 
by  bodily  disease,  he  remained  in  public  life  until 
a  few  weeks  before  his  death,  which  occurred  in 
Cincinnati. 

[The  Joshua  L.  Wilson  Papers,  Univ.  of  Chicago; 
R.  L.  Hightower,  Joshua  L.  Wilson,  Frontier  Contro- 
versialist (1934);  Autobiog.,  Correspondence,  Etc.,  of 
Lyman  Beecher  (1864),  ed.  by  Charles  Beecher;  Robert 
Davidson,    Hist,   of   the   Presbyterian   Church   in    the 


34° 


Wils 


on 


Wils 


on 


State  of  Ky.  (1847);  W.  B.  Sprague,  Annals  of  the 
Am.  Pulpit,  vol.  IV  (1858)  ;  R.  E.  Thompson,  A  Hist, 
of  the  Prcsbyt.  Churches  in  the  U.  S.  (1895)  ;  E.  D. 
Mansfield,  Memoirs  of  the  Life  and  Services  of  Daniel 
Drake,  M.D.  (1855)  ;  G.  N.  Mackenzie,  Colonial  Fam- 
ilies of  the  U.  S.,  vol.  II  (191 1 )  ;  Cincinnati  Morning 
Herald,  Aug.   15,  1846.]  R.  L.  H. 

WILSON,  MORTIMER  (Aug.  6,  1876-Jan. 

27,  1932),  composer,  conductor,  was  born  in 
Chariton,  Iowa,  the  son  of  Hess  John  Wilson  and 
his  wife,  Mary  Elizabeth  Harper.  The  elder 
Wilson  was  himself  a  musician,  the  son  of  an 
Iowa  farmer  of  Scotch-English  extraction.  Mor- 
timer was  musically  inclined  from  his  earliest 
years.  At  the  age  of  five  he  began  to  play  the  or- 
gan in  a  local  church.  On  one  occasion  he  broke 
open  his  father's  violin  and  cornet  cases,  and 
before  the  parent  returned  for  supper  the  lad 
had  taught  himself  to  play  all  the  tunes  he  knew 
on  both  instruments.  Then  followed  a  collection 
of  all  the  instruments  of  both  band  and  orches- 
tra. He  required  only  one  day  to  learn  the  in- 
tricacies of  fingering  each.  During  this  period 
he  composed  many  two-steps  and  marches  for  the 
neighborhood  orchestra  and  some  were  accepted 
by  a  Chicago  publisher,  but  before  they  were 
issued  Wilson  had  started  the  study  of  compo- 
sition, realized  that  his  work  was  immature,  and 
his  father  was  compelled  to  recover  the  pieces 
through  a  writ  of  replevin.  After  preliminary 
studies  in  Chariton,  Wilson  went  to  Chicago  in 
1894  for  further  instruction.  He  studied  violin 
with  S.  E.  Jacobson,  organ  with  Wilhelm 
Middleschulte,  and  theory  and  composition  with 
Frederic  G.  Gleason  [<?.?'.].  After  four  years  in 
Chicago  he  entered  the  Culver  Military  Acad- 
emy as  a  cadet,  and  arranged  to  pay  for  his  board 
and  tuition  by  organizing  and  directing  a  school 
band.  In  1901  he  went  to  Lincoln,  Nebr.,  to  head 
the  theoretical  courses  of  the  music  department 
of  the  University  of  Nebraska,  and  to  revive  and 
conduct  the  Lincoln  Symphony  Orchestra.  While 
in  Nebraska  he  wrote  two  textbooks  on  compo- 
sition, The  Rhetoric  of  Music  (1907),  and  Har- 
monic and  Melodic  Technical  Studies  (1907). 
In  1908  he  went  to  Leipzig,  where  for  two  years 
he  studied  composition  with  Max  Reger  and  con- 
ducting with  Hans  Sitt.  In  1912  he  accepted  an 
offer  to  conduct  the  symphony  orchestra  of  At- 
lanta, Ga.,  and  from  1913  to  1914  he  acted  as  di- 
rector of  the  Atlanta  Conservatory  of  Music. 
From  1915  to  1916  he  was  associated  with  the 
Brenau  Conservatory  of  Gainesville,  Ga.,  and 
from  19 1 7  to  1918  with  the  Walkin  Music  School 
in  New  York  City. 

Wilson  achieved  something  of  a  reputation  in 
the  field  of  arranging  and  writing  music  to  accom- 
pany motion  pictures,  and  he  was  commissioned 
by  Douglas  Fairbanks  to  write  original  scores 


to  accompany  performances  of  the  Thief  of  Bag- 
dad and  other  films  that  preceded  the  day  of 
sound  pictures.  As  a  composer  Wilson  acquired 
a  technique  and  resourcefulness  that  had  few 
equals  in  the  country.  He  was  definitely  of  the 
Reger  tradition,  with  a  fluency  and  inventive- 
ness in  counterpoint  that  enabled  him  to  develop 
his  musical  ideas  to  the  utmost.  His  dislike  for 
the  obvious  was  the  principal  obstacle  to  his 
success  as  a  composer  of  pieces  that  would  reach 
a  large  sale,  and  he  remained  principally  a  com- 
poser for  musicians  rather  than  a  writer  for  the 
general  public,  or  even  for  a  large  group  of 
music  lovers.  He  had  many  pupils  in  composi- 
tion, and  it  was  in  this  field  that  he  was  prob- 
ably most  distinguished.  His  compositions  in- 
clude five  symphonies,  and  "Country- Wedding," 
a  suite  for  orchestra  (manuscript),  and  many 
published  works :  a  trio,  "From  my  Youth" ;  two 
sonatas  for  violin  and  piano;  seven  organ  prel- 
udes ;  three  suites  for  piano,  "In  Georgia,"  "Suite 
Rustica,"  and  "By  the  Wayside" ;  a  suite  for  vio- 
lin and  piano,  "Suwannee  Sketches" ;  "Over- 
ture 1849"  (originally  composed  for  the  motion 
picture  The  Covered  Wagon)  ;  "New  Orleans," 
an  overture  for  orchestra  that  won  in  1920  a 
$500  prize  offered  by  the  Rivoli  and  the  Rialto 
Theatres,  New  York;  an  orchestral  fantasy,  "My 
Country" ;  and  numerous  short  pieces  and  songs. 
He  died  of  pneumonia  in  New  York  City.  On 
Nov.  23,  1904,  he  had  been  married  to  Hettie 
Lewis  of  Chariton,  who  with  a  son  survived  him. 
[Most  of  the  material  for  this  article  was  drawn 
from  information  supplied  the  author  by  Wilson  him- 
self. Consult  IVho's  Who  in  America,  1930-31  ;  Grove's 
Diet,  of  Music  and  Musicians,  Am.  Supp.  (1930)  ;  J. 
T.  Howard,  Our  Am.  Music  (1930)  ;  M.  M.  Hansford, 
tribute  in  Am.  Organist,  May  1932,  Pacific  Coast  Mu- 
sician, Jan.  30,  1932  ;  JV.  Y.  Times,  Jan.  28,  1932.] 

J.T.  H. 

WILSON,  PETER  (Nov.  23,  1746-Aug.  I, 
1825),  philologist  and  administrator,  was  born 
in  Ordiquhill,  Banff,  Scotland.  He  was  edu- 
cated at  the  University  of  Aberdeen,  where  he 
devoted  himself  to  the  humanistic  studies,  espe- 
cially Greek  and  Latin,  for  which  the  Scottish 
universities  have  long  been  famous.  In  1763  he 
emigrated  to  New  York  City,  and  presently 
gained  such  repute  as  a  teacher  that  he  was  ap- 
pointed principal  of  the  Hackensack  Academy 
in  New  Jersey.  His  success  in  this  post  was  so 
marked  that  in  1783  and  again  in  1786  the  trus- 
tees of  Queen's  (afterwards  Rutgers)  College  at 
New  Brunswick  tried  (but  in  vain)  to  add  him 
to  their  teaching  staff,  and,  still  later,  in  1792 
had  his  name  under  serious  consideration  for  the 
office  of  president.  During  the  Revolution  he 
represented  Bergen  County  in  the  New  Jersey 
Assembly  from  1777  to  1781,  and  served  with 


341 


Wilson 

such  distinction  that  at  the  close  of  the  war  in 
1783  he  was  selected  to  revise  and  codify  the 
laws  of  the  state.  In  1787  he  was  again  a  promi- 
nent member  of  the  legislature.  From  1789  to 
1792  he  was  professor  of  the  Greek  and  Latin 
languages  in  Columbia  College,  but  resigned  to 
accept  the  position  of  principal  of  Erasmus 
Hall  Academy  in  Flatbush,  Long  Island.  In  1797 
he  returned  to  Columbia  as  professor  of  the 
Greek  and  Latin  languages  and  of  Grecian  and 
Roman  antiquities,  a  chair  which  he  held  until 
his  retirement  with  a  pension  in  1820.  Although 
he  had  ceased  to  teach  at  Erasmus  Hall,  he  con- 
tinued until  1805  to  be  titular  head  of  the  school, 
and  the  trustees,  who  had  come  to  reply  upon  his 
scholarship,  deferred  to  his  judgment  in  all  mat- 
ters of  educational  policy.  In  July  1800  Dr.  Wil- 
liam Samuel  Johnson  [</.?'.]  resigned  the  presi- 
dency of  Columbia,  and  his  successor  was  not 
chosen  until  a  year  later.  In  the  interim  Wilson 
and  John  Kemp  [?.£>.]>  professor  of  mathematics, 
performed  the  duties  of  the  office.  Wilson  sur- 
vived his  retirement  five  years,  dying  in  New 
Barbadoes,  N.  J.  He  was  married  twice,  his 
second  wife  being  Catherine  Duryea  of  Bush- 
wick,  L.  I.,  by  whom  he  had  five  daughters  and 
two  sons  (New  York  Genealogical  and  Bio- 
graphical Record,  April  1880,  p.  69). 

Wilson  was  a  sound  scholar,  and  his  treatises 
and  editions,  though  few  in  number,  are  interest- 
ing monuments  of  the  transit  of  learning  from 
England  to  the  colonies.  In  the  preface  to  his 
Introduction  to  Greek  Prosody  .  .  .  with  an  Ap- 
pendix on  the  Metres  of  Horace,  Adapted  to  the 
Use  of  Beginners  (1811)  he  laments  that,  while 
engaged  upon  the  book,  he  had  not  been  able 
to  find  in  America  a  copy  of  Thomas  Gaisford's 
brilliant  edition  of  Hcphaestion  (London,  1810). 
This  quest  of  excellence  was  characteristic,  and 
is  evidenced  also  in  his  other  works :  an  edition, 
with  English  notes,  of  Sallust's  Catiline  and 
Jugurtha  (1808);  Rules  of  Latin  Prosody  for 
the  Use  of  Schools  (1810)  ;  the  first  American 
edition,  with  many  corrections  and  additions,  of 
Zacharias  Pearce's  Greek  text  of  Longinus  on 
the  Sublime,  with  a  Latin  Translation  and  Latin 
Notes  (1812);  Compendium  of  Greek  Prosody 
(1817)  ;  a  revision  of  the  treatise  of  Alexander 
Adam  (of  Edinburgh)  on  Roman  Antiquities 
(1819)  ;  and  the  Greek  text  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment (1822). 

He  was  a  member  of  the  Dutch  Reformed 
Church  and  stood  high  in  its  counsels ;  in  fact, 
he  was  so  eloquent  a  speaker  that  he  was  urged 
to  enter  its  ministry.  His  portrait,  which  hangs 
in  Faculty  House,  Columbia  University  (repro- 
duced in  Chronicles  of  Erasmus  Hall,  post,  p. 


Wilson 

52),  shows  a  man  of  noble  presence,  with  fine 
eyes  and  patrician  features,  the  face  of  a  scholar 
and  a  gentleman.  Brown  University  gave  him 
an  honorary  A.M.  in  1786  and  Union  College 
an  LL.D.  in  1798. 

[A  Hist,  of  Columbia  Univ.,  1754-1904  (1904); 
Chronicles  of  Erasmus  Hall  (1906)  ;  W.  H.  S.  Dem- 
arest,  A  Hist,  of  Rutgers  Coll.,  1766-1924  (1924); 
Mag.  of  the  Reformed  Dutch  Church,  July  1827  ;  New 
Brunswick  Rev.,  May  1854;  and  death  notice  in  N.  Y. 
Evening  Post,  Aug.  2,  1825.]  N.G.  M. 

WILSON,  ROBERT  BURNS  (Oct.  30, 1850- 
Mar.  31,  1916),  painter,  poet,  and  novelist,  was 
born  at  his  grandfather's  home  near  Washing- 
ton, Pa.,  the  son  of  Thomas  M.  and  Elizabeth 
(McLean)  Wilson.  His  father  was  an  architect 
and  builder  by  profession,  an  inventor  by  avoca- 
tion. From  both  parents  the  son  may  have  de- 
rived some  of  his  artistic  and  literary  abilities. 
His  mother  died  when  he  was  ten  years  old.  His 
early  education  came  through  the  schools  of 
Washington,  Pa.,  and  Wheeling.  Sometime  be- 
fore he  reached  his  majority  he  determined  to  be 
a  painter  and,  leaving  home,  attempted  to  make 
his  living  with  oils  and  crayon.  For  several 
months  he  traveled  with  the  Hagenbeck  circus 
in  order  to  study  the  anatomy  of  captive  lions  and 
tigers.  At  Pittsburgh  in  1871  he  met  another 
ambitious  young  painter,  John  W.  Alexander 
[q.v.~\,  with  whom  he  traveled  to  a  point  near 
Louisville,  Ky.  Wilson  spent  some  time  in 
Union  County  and  then  moved  to  Louisville, 
where  a  crayon  of  Henry  Watterson  [q.v.~\ 
brought  him  local  fame.  In  1875  ne  was  Per~ 
suaded  to  change  his  residence  to  Frankfort,  Ky. 
There  his  facility  with  colors,  his  gift  for  verse, 
his  stalwart  physique  and  handsome  face,  his 
buoyant  idealism  soon  made  him  a  social  fa- 
vorite. He  painted  indefatigably,  selling  can- 
vases only  when  necessity  prompted  him ;  he 
wrote  with  equal  industry ;  presently  his  repu- 
tation widened  to  more  than  local  scope.  In  1901 
he  married  in  New  York  City  Anne  Hendrick, 
eldest  daughter  of  W.  J.  Hendrick,  a  former  at- 
torney-general of  Kentucky.  After  the  birth  of 
their  only  child,  Anne  Elizabeth,  in  1902  at 
Frankfort,  the  Wilsons  made  their  home  in  New 
York,  where  the  painter  hoped  to  increase  his 
income  and  be  at  the  center  of  cultural  impulses. 
The  last  change  was  not  a  fortunate  one :  he  dis- 
liked the  colder  climate,  he  was  sensitive  to  a 
slackening  in  appreciation  of  his  work,  and  he 
knew  the  sting  of  poverty  accompanied  by  deep- 
ened responsibilities.  Some  of  his  paintings 
brought  good  sums ;  others  almost  nothing.  In 
New  York  his  moment  of  greatest  triumph  came, 
perhaps,  when  his  poem,  "Remember  the  Maine," 
in  the  New  York  Herald  of  Apr.  17,  1898,  sup- 


342 


Wilson 


Wilson 


plied  the  battlecry  for  the  war  with  Soain.  He 
died  in  St.  John's  Hospital,  Brooklyn,  and  is 
buried  in  the  cemetery  at  Frankfort.  He  was  sur- 
vived by  his  wife  and  daughter.  A  portrait  of 
him  and  three  of  his  best  landscapes  are  in  the 
possession  of  the  Kentucky  State  Historical  So- 
ciety. 

Wilson's  work  includes  portraits,  pictures  of 
animals,  Scriptural  subjects,  and  landscapes. 
Although  he  did  not  reach  the  highest  eminence 
in  any  of  these,  his  landscapes  are  the  best  and 
most  characteristic  of  his  productions.  They  fall 
somewhere  between  the  work  of  the  Hudson 
River  School  and  that  of  George  Inness  \_q.v.~], 
having  neither  the  chromo  qualities  of  the  first 
nor  the  poetic  connotations  of  the  second.  Like 
his  writings,  they  are  decidedly  sentimental, 
showing  a  fondness  for  blue  shadowings  and 
hazes  that  conceal  rugged  or  unpleasant  details. 
As  a  poet  he  belongs  to  the  fin  de  siecle  group 
of  Americans  that  romanticized  nature  and  man 
in  his  more  genteel  affections.  His  verses,  pub- 
lished in  the  leading  magazines,  were  collected 
in  Life  and  Love  (1887),  Chant  of  a  Woodland 
Spirit  (1894),  and  The  Shadows  of  the  Trees 
(1898).  His  one  novel,  Until  the  Day  Break 
(1900),  was  favorably  reviewed  for  its  style  and 
in  spite  of  its  narrative  defects ;  it  is  a  Gothic 
fiction  haunted  by  a  sense  of  doom  and  made  too 
deliberately  sensational.  A  man  of  indubitable 
talent,  Wilson  suffered  through  a  lack  of  sound 
critical  advice  from  his  friends. 

[Sources  include  information  from  Wilson's  daugh- 
ter, Anne  Elizabeth  Wilson  Blochin ;  Who's  Who  in 
America,  1901—02;  J.  W.  Townsend,  Ky.  in  Am.  Let- 
ters (2  vols.,  1913)  ;  C.  W.  Coleman,  in  Harper's  New 
Monthly  Mag.,  May  1887  ;  Mildred  L.  Rutherford,  The 
South  in  Hist,  and  Lit.  (1907)  ;  Ida  W.  Harrison,  in 
Lib.  of  Southern  Lit.  (1910),  vol.  XIII,  ed.  by  E.  A. 
Alderman  and  J.  C.  Harris  ;  obituaries  in  Am.  Art  Ann., 
1916,  Am.  Art  News,  Apr.  15,  1916,  and  N.  Y.  Times, 
Apr.  1,  1916.]  G.  C.K. 

WILSON,  SAMUEL  (Sept.  13,  1766-July  31, 

1854),  meat-packer,  whose  appellation,  "Uncle 
Sam,"  was  transferred  to  the  venerable  figure 
personifying  the  United  States  government,  was 
born  in  West  Cambridge  (now  Arlington), 
Mass.,  seventh  of  the  thirteen  children  of  Ed- 
ward and  Lucy  (Francis)  Wilson.  The  family 
name  was  originally  spelled  Willson.  About  1780 
the  family  moved  to  Mason,  N.  H.,  and  in  1789 
Samuel  and  his  brother  Ebenezer  set  out  on  foot 
for  Troy,  N.  Y.,  where  the  rest  of  Samuel  Wil- 
son's long  life  was  spent.  On  Jan.  3,  1797,  in 
Mason,  he  married  Betsey,  daughter  of  Capt. 
Benjamin  Mann.  In  Troy  he  engaged  in  several 
lines  of  business — making  brick,  building  houses, 
running  a  farm,  an  orchard,  a  nursery,  a  distil- 
lery, a  sloop  line  on  the  Hudson,  and  a  general 


store.  He  was  known  as  a  man  of  the  strictest 
integrity.  Genial  and  friendly,  he  came  to  be 
called  "Uncle  Sam"  Wilson  to  distinguish  him 
from  a  younger  man  of  the  same  name.  During 
the  War  of  1812,  Troy  was  an  important  center 
for  assembling  munitions  and  food  for  the  army. 
At  this  time,  Ebenezer  and  Samuel  Wilson  were 
prosperous  meat  packers,  advertising  that  they 
could  slaughter  and  salt  more  than  a  thousand 
head  of  cattle  a  week.  Among  their  customers 
was  Elbert  Anderson,  an  army  contractor,  who 
required  that  his  purchases  must  be  shipped  in 
oak  casks  branded  E  A  U  S.  An  ignorant  work- 
man asking  what  the  letters  stood  for  got  the  jest- 
ing reply:  "Why  for  Elbert  Anderson  and  Uncle 
Sam  here."  Many  of  the  soldiers  encamped  near 
Troy  who  knew  the  Wilsons  personally  referred 
to  their  beef  as  "Uncle  Sam's" ;  and  eventually 
in  the  army  and  elsewhere  the  term  personified 
the  government  itself. 

Samuel  Wilson  was  uncle  or  great-uncle  to 
over  a  hundred  persons,  but  left  few  direct  de- 
scendants. Large,  well  proportioned,  and  clean- 
shaven, in  appearance  he  did  not  resemble  the 
usual  caricatures  of  "Uncle  Sam."  Trojans  tes- 
tify that  he  was  fond  of  a  joke  and  that  he  quite 
enjoyed  being  reminded  of  his  connection  with 
the  famous  nickname.  He  died  in  Troy  and  was 
buried  in  Oakwood  Cemetery  there. 

[This  tale  does  not  rest  on  oral  tradition  alone.  El- 
bert Anderson  died  in  New  York  City  Apr.  17,  1830, 
and  a  few  days  later  the  "Uncle  Sam"  incident  was 
published  in  a  New  York  paper  by  one  who  said  he  was 
"an  eye  witness"  and  wished  to  put  on  record  for  the 
benefit  of  future  historians  in  this  personal  reminis- 
cence the  true  origin  of  the  nickname  (N.  Y.  Gazette, 
May  12,  1830).  For  data  concerning  Wilson  see  A.  J. 
Weise,  Hist,  of  the  City  of  Troy  (1876)  and  Troy's 
One  Hundred  Years,  1789-1889  (1891);  J.  B.  Hill, 
Hist,  of  the  Town  of  Mason,  N.  H.  (1858),  pp.  167. 
209;  Freeman  Hunt,  Am.  Anecdotes  (1830),  II,  18-20; 
N.  Y .  State  Hist.  Asso.  Quart.  Jour.,  Jan.  1929,  pp.  97- 
98;  Vital  Records  of  Arlington,  Mass.  (1904).] 

J.  F.  W— r. 

WILSON,  SAMUEL  GRAHAM  (Feb.  11, 
1858-July  2,  1916),  missionary  and  author,  was 
born  at  Indiana,  Pa.,  the  son  of  Andrew  Wilkins 
and  Anna  Graham  (Dick)  Wilson.  After  at- 
tending the  public  schools  of  Indiana  he  entered 
the  College  of  New  Jersey  (Princeton)  as  a 
sophomore  and  graduated  with  honors  in  1876, 
the  youngest  member  of  his  class.  During  the 
next  three  years  he  studied  theology  at  Western 
Theological  Seminary,  Allegheny,  then  spent  a 
postgraduate  year  at  Princeton,  working  in  both 
the  Theological  Seminary  and  the  College.  On 
July  1,  1S80,  he  was  ordained  at  Indiana,  Pa., 
by  the  Presbytery  of  Kittanning.  Having  been 
appointed  a  missionary  of  the  Board  of  Foreign 
Missions  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  Decem- 
ber 1879,  he  set  out  for  Persia  on  Sept.  9,  1880. 


343 


Wilson 


Wilson 


In  November  he  reached  Tabriz  and  began  the 
study  of  the  Armenian  and  Azeri  Turkish  lan- 
guages with  the  expectation  of  specializing  in 
the  work  of  translation.  Soon,  however,  he  was 
preaching  and  making  extensive  evangelical 
tours  which  kept  him  on  horseback  for  six  weeks 
each  year.  In  1882  he  was  appointed  principal 
of  a  small  boys'  school  in  Tabriz  and  found  his 
life  work  in  developing  it  in  enrolment,  in  fac- 
ulty, and  in  equipment.  After  the  addition  of 
theological  courses  in  1892  it  became  the  Memo- 
rial Training  and  Theological  School.  For  many 
years  Wilson  was  not  only  head  of  the  school  but 
also  treasurer  of  the  Mission.  While  on  furlough 
in  the  United  States  he  married,  Sept.  16,  1886, 
Annie  Dwight  Rhea  of  Lake  Forest,  111.,  daugh- 
ter of  Samuel  Audley  Rhea,  pioneer  missionary 
in  Persia. 

Wilson  translated  a  catechism  into  Armenian 
(1885),  a  church  history  and  an  arithmetic  text 
into  Azeri  Turkish.  His  valuable  Persian  Life 
and  Customs  (1895),  based  on  diaries  and  nu- 
merous contributions  to  newspapers  and  maga- 
zines, went  through  several  editions  and  was 
translated  into  German  and  Russian.  His  Per- 
sia: Western  Mission  (1896)  is  a  descriptive 
and  historical  sketch.  A  tale  of  Armenian  life, 
Mariam,  a  Romance  of  Persia  (1906),  was  first 
published  serially  in  the  Presbyterian  Banner 
and  enjoyed  a  considerable  popularity  in  Sunday 
school  circles,  in  November  1912,  while  in  the 
United  States,  he  was  seriously  injured  in  a  rail- 
road accident,  and  convalescence  detained  him 
until  the  World  War  made  return  to  Persia  im- 
possible. Devoting  himself  thenceforth  to  preach- 
ing, lecturing,  and  writing,  he  contributed  arti- 
cles to  The  Cyclopaedia  of  Temperance  and  Pro- 
hibition (1891),  the  Missionary  Review  of  the 
World,  the  Princeton  Theological  Review,  the 
Outlook,  and  the  North  American  Review.  A 
volume  on  Bahaism  and  Its  Claims  (1915)  was 
followed  by  Modem  Movements  among  Moslems 
(1916),  which  was  based  on  lectures  delivered 
at  Western  Theological  Seminary  on  the  Sever- 
ance Foundation.  Everything  he  wrote  reflected 
wide  reading  and  acute  observation  and  was  pre- 
sented in  a  clear  and  simple  style. 

In  November  1915  the  Mission  Board  at  length 
permitted  him  to  leave  for  Persia  as  chairman  of 
a  commission  sent  by  the  American  Committee 
for  Armenian  and  Syrian  Relief.  Traveling  via 
Norway,  Archangel,  and  Petrograd,  he  was  halt- 
ed at  Tiflis  and  remained  in  Russian  territory 
until  summer,  administering  relief  among  Ar- 
menian refugees  from  Turkey.  Unremitting  la- 
bor and  exposure  to  extremes  of  cold  left  him 
so  weakened  that  he  fell  an  easy  victim  to  typhoid 


fever  shortly  after  reaching  Tabriz  early  in  June 
1916.  His  wife  and  four  children  survived  him. 
A  man  of  unusual  energy  and  tact  as  well  as  or- 
ganizing and  administrative  ability,  he  was  re- 
spected by  Moslems  and  revered  by  Armenians 
as  a  martyr  to  their  cause. 

[Record  of  the  Class  of  '76  of  Princeton  College,  nos. 
1-10;  Who's  Who  in  America,  1916-17;  Princeton 
Alumni  Weekly,  Oct.  11,  1916;  N.  Y.  Herald,  July  16, 
19 16;  manuscript  records  of  Princeton  Univ.] 

W.  L.  W.,  Jr. 

WILSON,    SAMUEL    MOUNTFORD    (c. 

1823-June  4,  1892),  California  lawyer,  was  born 
at  Steubenville,  Ohio,  to  which  his  father,  Peter 
Wilson,  had  moved  from  Philadelphia.  His  moth- 
er's name  is  said  to  have  been  Frances  Stokeley. 
The  Wilson  family  was  of  English  origin  and 
had  been  established  in  America  since  the  sev- 
enteenth century.  Since  his  father  died  about 
1827,  Wilson  was  compelled  to  support  himself 
from  early  youth.  He  had  a  limited  formal  edu- 
cation at  the  Grove  Academy  in  his  native  town. 
At  about  thirteen  he  is  said  to  have  gone  to  Wis- 
consin with  an  elder  brother,  a  lieutenant  in  the 
United  States  army.  At  about  nineteen  he  re- 
turned to  Steubenville  to  study  law  in  the  office  of 
his  uncle,  Samuel  Stokeley,  a  member  of  Con- 
gress. He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  at  twenty- 
one,  and  soon  moved  to  Galena,  111.,  becoming  the 
law  partner  of  Col.  Joseph  P.  Hoge.  In  1853  the 
partners  moved  to  San  Francisco,  where  the  firm 
continued  until  1864.  Wilson  then  formed  a 
brief  partnership  with  his  brother,  David  S.  Wil- 
son, which  was  followed  by  a  partnership  with 
A.  P.  Crittenden,  lasting  until  the  latter's  death 
in  1870.  Four  years  later  he  formed  a  partner- 
ship with  his  son  Russell,  and  somewhat  later 
another  son  was  admitted  to  the  firm  of  Wilson 
and  Wilson. 

After  serving  out  an  unexpired  term  as  dis- 
trict attorney  in  Jo  Daviess  County,  111.,  Wilson 
refused  to  handle  criminal  cases,  and  throughout 
his  life  confined  himself  to  civil  practice.  Only 
twice  did  he  accept  political  offices,  and  both  of 
these  were  in  the  line  of  his  professional  work: 
in  1878-79  he  was  a  member  of  the  California 
constitutional  convention  where,  as  chairman  of 
the  judiciary  committee,  he  vigorously  opposed 
the  radical  demands  of  the  followers  of  Denis 
Kearney  [q.v.]  and  was  one  of  fourteen  mem- 
bers who  refused  to  sign  the  constitution  when 
completed  ;  in  1879  he  was  a  member  of  the  board 
of  freeholders  that  drafted  a  new  municipal 
charter  for  San  Francisco,  subsequently  reject- 
ed. He  refused  appointment  by  Gov.  H.  H. 
Haight  to  the  office  of  associate  justice  of  the 
California  supreme  court;  and  in  1885  is  said 
to  have  declined  appointment  by  President  Cleve- 


344 


Wilson 

land  as  minister  to  China  and  as  minister  to 
Spain.  Aside  from  his  strictly  legal  efforts,  his 
best  productions  were  the  orations  delivered  at 
the  laying  of  the  corner-stone  of  the  state  capi- 
tol  in  Sacramento  in  1861,  and  his  eulogy  of 
Samuel  J.  Tilden  in  1886. 

Perhaps  more  than  any  other  lawyer  of  his 
time,  Wilson  impressed  himself  upon  the  legal 
history  of  California,  where  at  the  time  of  his 
death  he  was  unanimously  conceded  to  be  at  the 
head  of  his  profession.  For  nearly  forty  years 
there  were  few  important  civil  cases  in  which  he 
did  not  serve  as  counsel ;  and  he  appeared  before 
the  United  States  Supreme  Court  more  frequent- 
ly than  any  other  member  of  the  California  bar 
during  his  lifetime.  He  bore  a  leading  part  in 
nearly  all  the  noted  cases  involving  California 
land  law,  especially  as  counsel  for  the  hydraulic 
mining  companies  in  their  great  contest  (1880- 
86)  with  the  farming  interests  upon  the  debris 
question  {People  of  California  vs.  Gold  Run 
Ditch  and  Mining  Company,  66  California  Re- 
ports, 138,  155).  He  also  acquired  a  great  repu- 
tation in  certain  will  cases,  notably  when  he  suc- 
cessfully defended  the  will  of  the  late  Senator 
Broderick  (21  Wallace,  503).  So  successful  was 
his  law  practice  that  he  left  an  estate  of  over  a 
million  dollars,  consisting  principally  of  real 
property  in  San  Francisco.  He  was  equally  suc- 
cessful in  trying  cases  before  a  jury  and  before 
a  court.  As  a  speaker  he  was  exceedingly  fluent, 
forcibly  persuasive,  simple  and  direct,  rarely  in- 
dulging in  ornamentation.  He  depended  upon 
complete  mastery  of  his  subject  and  clarity  of 
exposition  rather  than  upon  eloquence.  He  was 
of  medium  stature,  slightly  built,  and  of  com- 
manding and  masterful  presence,  though  simple 
in  his  tastes  and  dress,  and  free  from  haughti- 
ness and  affectation.  On  July  5,  1848,  he  married 
Emily  Josephine  Scott,  daughter  of  John  Scott, 
a  congressman  from  Missouri.  She  and  four  sons 
survived  him. 

[O.  T.  Shuck,  Bench  and  Bar  in  Cat.  (1889),  and 
Hist,  of  the  Bench  and  Bar  of  Col.  (1901)  ;  Memorial 
Commemorative  of  the  Life  and  Services  of  Samuel  M. 
Wilson  .  .  .  Bar  Asso.  of  San  Francisco,  Aug.  13, 
1892;  Debates  and  Proc.  Constitutional  Convention  of 
the  State  of  Cat.  (3  vols.,  1880-81)  ;  obituaries  in  Bull. 
(San  Francisco),  June  4,  1892,  and  San  Francisco 
Chronicle,  June  5,  1892.]  P.  0.  R. 

WILSON,  SAMUEL  RAMSAY  (June  4, 
1818-Mar.  3,  1886),  Presbyterian  clergyman, 
was  born  at  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  the  son  of  Joshua 
Lacy  Wilson  [q.v.~\  and  Sarah  (Mackay)  Wil- 
son. In  the  spring  of  1829  he  began  preparatory 
studies  at  Miami  University,  Oxford,  Ohio,  but 
later  transferred  to  Hanover  College,  Hanover, 
Ind.,  where  he  received  the  degree  of  A.B.  in 
1836.  The  next  year  he  entered  Princeton  Theo- 


Wilson 

logical  Seminary  and  graduated  in  1840.  He  was 
licensed  by  the  Presbytery  of  New  Brunswick 
on  Aug.  5,  1840,  and  began  his  ministerial  career 
as  a  colleague  of  his  father  at  the  First  Presby- 
terian Church,  Cincinnati.  After  his  ordination 
on  Apr.  26,  1842,  he  became  co-pastor  and  upon 
his  father's  death  in  1846  pastor,  remaining  as 
such  until  his  resignation  on  Mar.  2,  186 1. 

On  the  eve  of  the  Civil  War  he  declared  his 
sympathy  with  the  Southern  cause,  and  as  a  com- 
missioner of  the  Old  School  General  Assembly 
of  1 86 1  opposed  the  resolutions  introduced  by 
the  Rev.  Gardiner  Spring  [q.v.~\  which  acknowl- 
edged obligation  to  promote  and  perpetuate  the 
integrity  of  the  United  States.  In  the  same  year 
he  accepted  a  call  to  the  Grand  Street  Hater 
Fourth)  Presbyterian  Church,  New  York,  but 
resigned  because  of  ill  health  in  January  1863. 
Later  he  supplied  the  Mulberry  Presbyterian 
Church  of  Shelby  County,  Ky.,  for  fifteen  months, 
and  on  Mar.  12,  1865,  was  installed  as  pastor  of 
the  First  Presbyterian  Church,  Louisville.  As 
a  border-state  spokesman  he  opposed  the  recon- 
struction policy  of  the  majority  of  the  Old  School 
Presbyterian  Church.  Before  the  Assembly  of 
1865  he  pleaded  in  vain  for  the  "olive  branch" 
instead  of  the  resolutions,  later  termed  the  "Pitts- 
burgh Orders,"  which  stigmatized  secession  as 
a  crime.  The  following  summer  he  drew  up,  as 
the  protest  of  "a  little  band"  against  the  Assem- 
bly's subservience  to  the  federal  government's 
attitude  toward  the  South,  the  "Declaration  and 
Testimony"  which  was  adopted  by  the  Presby- 
tery of  Louisville.  One  of  Wilson's  most  brilliant 
speeches  was  delivered  before  the  Synod  of  Ken- 
tucky in  defense  of  this  document  and  of  the 
Presbytery  of  Louisville. 

Wilson  resigned  his  Louisville  church  Dec.  9, 
1879,  and  from  1880  to  1883  was  pastor  of  the 
Second  Presbyterian  Church  of  Madison,  Ind., 
but  subsequently  returned  to  Louisville,  where  he 
died.  He  was  married  three  times :  first,  Mar. 
25,  1841,  to  Nancy  Campbell  Johnston  of  Cin- 
cinnati, who  died  June  23,  1849;  second,  Jan.  29, 
1852  in  Franklin  County,  Ky.,  to  Mary  Cath- 
erine Bell,  who  died  Dec.  17,  1874;  third,  Jan. 
ir,  1876,  in  Louisville,  to  Annie  Maria  Steele 
who  died  Dec.  10,  1920.  By  his  first  marriage 
he  had  five  children ;  by  the  second,  seven ;  and 
by  the  third,  two.  Several  of  Wilson's  sermons 
and  addresses  were  published,  among  them  Dis- 
courscs  Delivered  at  the  Dedication  of  the  First 
Presbyterian  Church  (the  Church  of  the  Pio- 
neers) in  the  City  of  Cincinnati,  Sept.  21,  1S51 
(1851)  ;  The  Causes  and  Remedies  of  Impending 
National  Calamities  (i860)  ;  Reply  to  the  Attack 
of  Rev.  R.  J.  Breckinridge  upon  the  Louisville 


345 


Wilson 

Presbytery,  and  Defence  of  the  "Declaration  and 
Testimony"  Made  in  the  Synod  of  Kentucky 
(1865)  ;  A  Pan-Presbyterian  Letter  .  .  .  to  Pres- 
byterians both  North  and  South  ( 1875)  •  He  also 
edited  Hymns  of  the  Church  (1872),  and  was 
associated  with  various  religious  periodicals. 

[Biog.  Cat.  of  the  Princeton  Theological  Sem. 
(1933)  :  Joshua  L.  Wilson  Papers,  Univ.  of  Chicago; 
G.  N.  Mackenzie,  Colonial  Families  in  the  U.  S.  of 
America,  vol.  II  (191 1);  E.  L.  Warren,  The  Presby- 
terian Church  in  Louisville  (1896)  ;  E.  P.  Johnson,  A 
Hist,  of  Ky.  and  Kentuckians  (1912),  vol.  Ill;  S.  M. 
Wilson,  Hist,  of  Ky.  (1928),  vol.  II;  A  Memorable 
Hist.  Document ;  Its  Antecedents  and  Its  Outcome: 
The  "Declaration  and  Testimony"  Drawn  by  Rev.  S. 
R.  Wilson  (n.d.)  ;  Herald  and  Presbyter  (Cincinnati), 
Mar.  10,  1886;  Courier-lour.  (Louisville),  Mar.  4, 
1886;  information  as  to  certain  facts  from  Wilson's 
son,  Samuel  M.  Wilson,  Esq.,  Lexington,  Ky.] 

R.  L.  H. 

WILSON,  SAMUEL  THOMAS  (1761-May 
23,  1824),  Roman  Catholic  priest  and  provincial 
of  the  Order  of  St.  Dominic,  was  born  in  London 
of  parents  in  the  merchant  class.  In  1770  the 
child,  who  could  not  be  educated  as  a  Catholic 
in  England  because  of  the  penal  laws,  was  sent 
to  the  Dominican  College,  Holy  Cross,  in  anci- 
ent Bornhem,  Belgium.  A  pious  youth,  he  con- 
ducted himself  well.  In  1777  he  entered  the  Do- 
minican novitiate,  and  proceeded  to  the  College 
of  St.  Thomas  of  Aquin  in  Louvain  for  his  course 
in  theology.  Because  of  an  ordinance  of  Joseph 
II,  the  "sacristan  emperor"  of  Austria,  Wilson 
could  not  take  his  solemn  vows  until  he  was  in 
his  twenty-fifth  year  (Dec.  8,  1785).  A  year 
later  (June  10),  he  was  ordained  a  priest  of  the 
Order  of  Friar  Preachers  (Dominicans)  by 
Bishop  Ferdinand  M.  Lobkowitz  of  Ghent.  Re- 
puted a  good  scholar,  a  linguist,  and  a  doctor  of 
sacred  theology,  Wilson  taught  at  Holy  Cross 
and  was  vicar-provincial  of  the  community  in 
the  years  of  terror  under  the  French  Revolution- 
ists. Finally  the  blow  came,  and  the  faculty  of 
Bornhem,  including  Wilson,  fled  in  disguise  from 
the  Jacobins  via  Rotterdam  to  Carshalton  in 
Surrey,  England,  where  the  relaxation  of  the 
anti-Catholic  code  permitted  the  reestablishment 
of  the  refugee  college  (1794).  After  teaching 
there  a  year,  Wilson  was  ordered  back  to  Born- 
hem to  preserve  the  property.  Courageously  he 
heard  confessions  and  said  mass  in  the  homes  of 
friends,  conducted  the  college,  bought  its  build- 
ings at  auction  on  its  seizure  by  agents  of  the 
Directory,  and  held  on  despite  persecution  and 
imprisonment  until  Napoleon's  accession  brought 
partial  relief.  Discouraged  by  the  secularization 
of  the  institution  under  orders  from  the  papal 
legate  in  Paris,  the  Dominicans  turned  their  at- 
tention to  America. 

Edward  D.  Fenwick  [q.z>.]  and  Robert  Angier 


Wilson 

emigrated  in  1804,  and  Wilson  and  William 
Tuite  arrived  in  Maryland  the  following  year 
(Sept.  10).  By  the  end  of  the  year,  Wilson  was 
in  Kentucky  as  a  missionary  in  the  Cartwright's 
Creek  settlement,  where  he  also  conducted  a 
grammar  school  for  boys.  In  1807  he  was  named 
provincial,  and  in  this  capacity  was  responsible 
for  the  building  of  the  Church  of  St.  Rose  and 
the  College  of  St.  Thomas  Aquin  near  Spring- 
field. As  one  of  the  earliest  colleges  in  Kentucky, 
this  school  attracted  a  number  of  boys,  including 
Jefferson  Davis  \_q.v.~\,  but  Wilson  found  its 
financial  maintenance  on  the  primitive  frontier 
no  easy  task.  Honored  as  "the  shining  light  of 
his  diocese"  by  Bishop  Benedict  J.  Flaget  [q.v.~\, 
he  acted  as  co-consecrator  of  Bishop  John  B. 
David  [q.v.~\  and  Bishop  Fenwick,  thus  perform- 
ing a  function  quite  unusual  for  a  simple  priest. 
In  1822  he  founded  the  first  American  convent 
of  the  now  flourishing  Sisters  of  the  Third  Or- 
der of  St.  Dominic.  On  his  death  two  years  later, 
Wilson  was  generally  mourned  by  the  Catholics 
of  Kentucky  as  a  priest,  educator,  and  preacher, 
and  by  the  citizens  at  large  as  a  pioneer-builder 
of  the  state. 

[See  V.  F.  O'Daniel,  A  Light  of  the  Church  in  Ky., 
or  the  Life  of  the  Vy.  Rev.  Samuel  Thomas  Wilson, 
O.P.  (1932),  a  detailed  study,  with  a  complete  bibliog., 
and  The  Rt.  Rev.  Edzvard  D.  Fenwick  (1920)  ;  Ray- 
mond Palmer,  Obit.  Notices  of  the  Friar-Preachers  of 
the  English  Province  (1884);  B.  J.  Webb,  The  Cen- 
tenary of  Catholicity  in  Ky.  (1884);  R.  J.  Purcell, 
"Educ.  and  Irish  Teachers  in  Early  Ky.,"  Cath.  Educ. 
Rev.,  June  1936;  Mary  R.  Mattingly,  The  Cath. 
Church  on  the  Ky.  Frontier  (1936).]  R.  J.  P 

WILSON,  THEODORE  DELAVAN  (May 
11,  1840-June  29,  1896),  naval  constructor,  was 
born  in  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  the  son  of  Charles  Wil- 
son, a  shipwright,  and  Ann  Elizabeth  (Cock) 
Wilson.  After  attending  the  Brooklyn  public 
schools  he  was  employed  at  the  New  York  Navy 
Yard,  and  at  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War  had 
served  his  full  term  as  an  apprentice  shipwright. 
He  then  volunteered  for  the  army  and  became  a 
non-commissioned  officer  in  the  New  York  state 
militia,  but  upon  the  return  of  his  regiment  after 
three  months  at  the  front  he  joined  the  navy  as 
a  ship's  carpenter  on  Aug.  3,  1861,  and  served 
in  the  Cambridge,  North  Atlantic  Squadron,  un- 
til December  1863.  Thereafter  until  the  close  of 
the  war  he  had  duty  of  increasing  responsibility 
in  construction  and  repair  work  at  the  New  York 
Navy  Yard.  He  was  made  assistant  naval  con- 
structor on  May  17,  1866,  and  was  stationed  in 
charge  of  the  construction  department  at  the 
Pensacola  Navy  Yard  and  later  at  Philadelphia. 
In  1869  he  went  to  the  United  States  Naval 
Academy  as  an  instructor  in  ship  construction. 
Here  he  remained  four  vears,  aside  from  a  tour 


346 


Wilson 

of  European  yards  in  1870,  and  published  An 
Outline  of  Shipbuilding,  Theoretical  and  Prac- 
tical (1873),  in  part  a  compilation  from  various 
sources.  This  book  was  used  as  a  textbook  in 
the  Academy.  He  also  published  a  brief  pamphlet, 
The  Center  of  Gravity  of  the  U.  S.  Steamer 
Shawmut  (1874),  and  invented  in  1870  a  new 
type  of  air-port  and  in  1880  a  bolt  extractor. 

On  July  11,  1873,  he  was  promoted  to  the  rank 
of  naval  constructor.  After  several  years  at  the 
Portsmouth  Navy  Yard  he  served  on  the  first 
Naval  Advisory  Board,  created  in  188 1  to  for- 
mulate plans  for  the  new  steel  navy,  and  on 
Mar.  1,  1882,  he  was  made  chief  of  the  Bureau  of 
Construction  and  Repair.  In  this  highly  respon- 
sible post,  carrying  with  it  seniority  in  the  Con- 
struction Corps  and  rank  equivalent  to  com- 
modore, he  remained  during  the  next  eleven 
years,  a  period  in  which  the  navy  in  large  part 
was  transformed  from  wood  to  steel.  Innumerable 
problems  were  surmounted  which  arose  from  the 
undeveloped  state  of  the  American  steel  industry 
and  the  revolutionary  changes  in  design.  Under 
his  supervision  forty-five  ships  were  built  or 
laid  down,  including  most  of  the  new  "White 
Squadron,"  at  a  cost  of  $52,000,000.  In  the  words 
of  his  assistant  and  successor,  Philip  Hichborn 
[q.v.~\,  the  result  of  this  program  was  "a  monu- 
ment to  the  skill,  fidelity,  and  zeal  of  the  late 
Chief  of  Bureau  .  .  ."  (Report  of  the  Secretary 
of  the  Navy,  1893,  p.  357).  He  was  detached  on 
July  13,  1893,  but  for  some  time  before  had  been 
partly  relieved  because  of  ill  health.  A  review 
of  his  work  in  the  decade  preceding  is  given  in 
his  article,  "The  Steel  Ships  of  the  United  States 
Navy"  in  the  Transactions  of  the  Society  of 
Naval  Architects  and  Marine  Engineers  (vol.  I, 
1893,  p.  116,  with  an  additional  reference  in  vol. 
II,  1894,  p.  22).  He  was  made  first  vice-presi- 
dent of  this  society  at  its  organization  in  1893, 
and  he  was  also  the  first  American  member 
(1872)  of  the  British  Institution  of  Naval  Archi- 
tects. After  two  years'  leave  of  absence  he  was 
assigned  to  the  Boston  Navy  Yard,  where  he  died 
suddenly  from  heart  failure  while  supervising 
the  release  from  drydock  of  the  monitor  Passaic. 
He  was  married  prior  to  1867  to  Sarah  E.  Stults, 
and  had  two  daughters  and  two  sons,  one  of 
whom  became  a  surgeon  in  the  navy. 

[G.  W.  Cocks,  The  Cox  Family  tn  America  (1912)  ; 
Register  of  the  .  .  .  Navy  of  the  U.  S.  (1895)  ;  reports 
of  chief  of  Bureau  of  Construction  and  Repair,  in  Re- 
ports of  the  Sec.  of  the  Navy,  1882-93;  New-York 
Tribune,  June  30,  1896;  Army  and  Navy  Jour.,  July 
4,   1896;  other  information  from  family  sources.] 

A.W. 

WILSON,    THOMAS    WOODROW    [See 
Wilson,  Woodrow,  1856-1924]. 


Wilson 

WILSON,  WILLIAM  (Apr.  27,  1794-Apr. 
29,  1857),  jurist,  was  born  in  Loudoun  County, 
Va.  Left  fatherless  at  an  early  age,  he  and  his 
only  brother  worked  in  a  store  to  help  support 
their  mother.  William's  spare  time  was  spent 
reading,  and  at  eighteen  he  began  the  study  of 
law.  Brief  military  service  in  the  War  of  1812 
interrupted  his  preparation  for  the  bar,  but  in 
1817  he  felt  sufficiently  prepared  for  his  chosen 
profession  to  seek  a  location  in  the  West.  He  be- 
gan practice  in  White  County,  111.,  and  in  1818 
before  he  had  been  in  the  state  a  year,  received 
fifteen  votes  in  the  legislature  for  an  associate 
justiceship  of  the  newly  organized  supreme  court. 
This  number  was  barely  short  of  the  majority 
required  for  election,  but  when  the  first  vacancy 
on  the  court  occurred,  in  August  1819,  the  gov- 
ernor appointed  Wilson  to  the  place.  Upon  the 
expiration  of  his  term  as  associate  justice  in 
1824,  the  legislature  elected  him  to  the  chief  jus- 
ticeship. Thus  at  the  age  of  thirty  he  became 
the  third  chief  justice  of  the  supreme  court  of 
Illinois,  in  which  capacity  he  served  until  1848, 
when  after  twenty-nine  years  on  the  bench  he 
retired,  to  pass  the  remainder  of  his  life  on  his 
farm  in  White  County,  where  he  died. 

His  most  important  decision  was  probably  that 
given  in  1839  in  the  case  of  Field  vs.  The  State 
of  Illinois  ex  rel  McClcrnand  (2  Scammon,  79), 
in  which  the  power  of  the  governor  to  remove  a 
secretary  of  state  appointed  by  the  governor's 
predecessor  was  denied,  on  the  ground  that  the 
constitution  did  not  expressly  place  any  limita- 
tion upon  the  duration  of  the  term  of  office.  The 
case  was  argued  by  an  array  of  the  state's  fore- 
most legal  talent  and  attracted  wide  interest. 
Wilson's  opinion  is  a  forty-four  page  disserta- 
tion on  the  principles  of  state  constitutional  law. 
His  opinions  were  in  general  regarded  as  strong 
and  discriminating,  and  his  style  as  clear  and 
concise,  yet  his  custom  was  to  jot  down  his  ideas 
on  small  pieces  of  paper  and  leave  it  to  a  clerk  to 
put  them  into  readable  form.  Wilson  would  then 
revise  the  draft  to  suit  his  tastes.  A  Whig  in 
early  life,  he  became  a  Democrat  upon  the  or- 
ganization of  the  Republican  party,  but  he  was 
never  a  strong  partisan  nor  did  he  cultivate  the 
arts  of  the  politician. 

Wilson,  when  young,  was  described  by  a  con- 
temporary as  noble  looking ;  in  later  years  his 
voice  acquired  a  cracked  and  unnatural  quality, 
and  because  of  a  chronic  stomach  ailment  he  be- 
came a  laudanum  addict.  Throughout  his  life  he 
was  interested  in  agriculture  and  live  stock,  and 
upon  his  estate  in  White  County  he  bred  many 
horses,  cattle,  sheep,  and  swine  of  a  superior 
type.  A  noted  story  teller,  amiable  and  hospitable, 


347 


Wilson 

he  attracted  a  host  of  visitors  and  friends  to  his 
country  home.  He  married  Mary  S.  Davidson, 
a  native  of  Wheeling,  Va.,  in  April  1820,  and 
they  had  ten  children,  of  whom  four  sons  and 
two  daughters  survived  him. 

[Wilson's  opinions  are  found  in  the  first  9  vols,  of 
///.  Reports,  being  1  Breese  through  4  Gilman.  For 
biog.  data  see:  Hist,  of  White  County,  III.  (1883); 
Thomas  Ford,  A  Hist,  of  III.  (1854)  ;  Memoirs  of  Gus- 
tave  Koerner  (1909),  ed.  by  T.  J.  McCormack  ;  lour. 
III.  State  Hist.  Soc.,  Oct.  1918  ;  "The  Governors'  Let- 
ter-Books," ed.  by  E.  B.  Greene  and  C.  W.  Alvord, 
Colls.  III.  State  Hist.  Lib.,  vol.  IV  (1909)  I  Alexander 
Davidson  and  Bernard  Stuve,  A  Complete  Hist,  of  III. 
(1874)  ;  Newton  Bateman  and  Paul  Selby,  Hist.  Encyc. 
of  III.  and  Hist,  of  Sangamon  County  (1912),  II, 
595  ;  Memorial  Service  Feb.  8,  1915.  Circuit  Court  of 
Laurence  County,  III.  (1915),  on  occasion  of  presenta- 
tion of  portrait  to  County  by  Mrs.  Alice  Stuve  Jerrett, 
grand-daughter  of  William  Wilson;  Green  Bag,  May 
1891  ;  ///.  State  Jour.  (Springfield),  May  13,  1857.] 

G.W.G. 

WILSON,  WILLIAM  (Dec.  25,  1801-Aug. 
25,  i860),  bookseller,  publisher,  and  verse  writer, 
was  born  at  Crieff,  a  village  in  Perthshire,  Scot- 
land, of  lower  middle-class  parentage.  He  had 
no  schooling  except  from  his  mother,  left  a 
widow  in  extreme  poverty  when  he  was  only  five. 
He  began  to  work  for  a  farmer  at  the  age  of  seven 
and  was  apprenticed  very  young  to  a  cloth  dealer 
in  Glasgow.  Upright,  industrious,  and  mentally 
eager,  he  not  only  rose  in  business  but  educated 
himself  by  reading  and  writing  for  periodicals, 
and  developed  his  natural  aptitude  for  music  by 
attending  concerts  and  choral  groups.  When  he 
emigrated  to  America  (December  1833)  he  was 
already  known  in  literary  circles  in  Dundee  and 
Edinburgh  as  editor  of  the  Dundee  Literary  Olio, 
as  the  author  of  several  poems  signed  "Alpin"  or 
"Allan  Grant,"  which  had  appeared  in  Scotch 
magazines,  and  as  a  composer  of  songs.  In  the 
summer  of  1834  he  moved  to  Poughkeepsie, 
where  he  became  a  partner  of  Paraclete  Potter, 
whose  bindery  and  bookstore  was  already  locally 
famous  as  a  meeting  place  for  leading  citizens 
and  writers,  and  through  its  circulating  library 
as  a  center  of  culture.  In  1841  Wilson  took  over 
the  business,  to  which  he  added  publishing,  and 
worthily  continued  the  tradition  of  the  place. 
Several  of  his  poems  appeared  in  the  New  York 
Evening  Post,  the  Albion,  the  Knickerbocker 
Magazine,  and  the  Chicago  Record,  edited  by  his 
youngest  son,  James  Grant  Wilson  [q.v.~\.  In 
1836  he  was  one  of  the  founders  of  St.  Paul's 
Church,  Poughkeepsie,  where  he  was  long  a  ves- 
tryman. His  first  wife  was  Jane  M'Kenzie,  who 
died  in  1826,  leaving  him  with  four  children.  His 
second  wife  was  Jane  Sibbald.  The  steel  engrav- 
ing prefixed  to  his  Poems  shows  a  face  smooth- 
shaven  except  for  close  side  whiskers,  bright- 


Wilson 

eyed,    shrewd  yet  kind,   and  with   a  gleam  of 
quizzical  humor. 

His  poetry,  though  sincere  and  technically 
smooth,  is  without  originality,  its  language,  im- 
agery, and  meters  recalling  Thomson,  Young, 
Burns,  Cowper,  or  Scott.  Its  themes  are  the  love 
of  simple  country  life,  the  nostalgia  of  the  Scotch 
emigrant,  patriotism,  freedom,  sorrow  in  be- 
reavement, and  the  varied  experiences  of  the  re- 
ligious life.  The  two  best  known  poems  are  per- 
haps "The  Mitherless  Wean"  and  "Work  Is 
Prayer."  The  number  of  famous  names  on  the 
list  of  subscribers  to  the  three  posthumous  edi- 
tions of  his  Poems  (1869,  1875,  1881)  is  to  be 
accounted  for  partly  by  the  personal  friendship 
or  business  relations  of  himself  and  his  sons  with 
such  men  as  the  Chambers  brothers  of  Edinburgh 
and  the  popular  historian,  Benson  J.  Lossing 
[g.?1.],  partly  by  his  reputation  in  the  neighbor- 
hood as  a  self-made  man  who  had  risen  to  pros- 
perity and  influence  by  sheer  merit.  The  sale  of 
the  volumes  as  far  west  as  Montana  and  Colo- 
rado, and  southward  to  Arkansas  and  Texas  was 
an  effect  of  a  westward  exodus  of  Poughkeepsie 
citizens  beginning  in  the  1840's.  But  the  com- 
mendations quoted  in  the  advertisement  of  the 
third  edition  must  be  interpreted  as  indicating 
the  survival  in  America  as  late  as  1881  of  a  high- 
ly conservative  taste  in  literature,  with  standards 
derived  from  the  eighteenth  century. 

[In  addition  to  the  memoir  by  B.  J.  Lossing  in  Wil- 
son's Poems  (1869),  sources  include  obituaries  in  Tele- 
graph (Poughkeepsie),  Aug.  28,  i860,  and  Eagle 
(Poughkeepsie),  Sept.  1  ;  J.  H.  Smith,  Hist,  of  Dutchess 
County,  N.  Y.  (1882),  p.  383;  directories  and  other 
local  materials.]  A.  L.  R. 

WILSON,  WILLIAM  BAUCHOP  (Apr.  2, 
r862-May  25,  1934),  labor  leader,  congressman, 
first  secretary  of  labor,  was  born  in  Blantyre, 
Scotland,  the  son  of  Adam  and  Helen  Nelson 
(Bauchop)  Wilson.  In  1870  the  family  moved 
to  Arnot,  near  Williamsport,  Pa.,  and  Wilson 
began  his  career  as  a  miner  when  he  was  nine 
years  old.  He  had  little  formal  schooling  but 
read  extensively  and  at  fourteen  formed  a  boys' 
debating  club.  On  June  7,  1883,  he  married  Agnes 
Williamson ;  to  them  were  born  eleven  children. 
Wilson's  early  activities  as  a  labor  leader 
raised  obstacles  in  the  way  of  his  employment 
as  a  miner,  and  his  experiences  with  eviction, 
blacklisting,  injunctions,  and  even  imprisonment 
caused  him  to  seek  temporary  employment  at 
farming  and  other  callings,  but  intensified  his 
devotion  to  labor  unionism  and  the  improvement 
of  working-class  conditions  (Babson,  post,  pp. 
50-55).  From  1888  to  1890  he  was  president  of 
the  district  miners'  union ;  in  the  latter  year  he 
was  a  member  of  the  national  executive  board 


34S 


Wilson 

which  organized  the  United  Mine  Workers  of 
America,  of  which  he  was  secretary-treasurer 
from  1900  to  1908.  He  was  prominently  connect- 
ed with  the  coal  strikes  of  1899  and  1902. 

In  1891  he  was  appointed  a  member  of  a  Penn- 
sylvania commission  to  revise  and  codify  the 
state  laws  relating  to  the  mining  of  bituminous 
coal.  From  1907  to  1913  he  served  as  member 
of  Congress  from  Pennsylvania,  and  during  the 
last  two  years  was  chairman  of  the  House  com- 
mittee on  labor.  In  191 1  he  was  a  member  of  a 
special  congressional  committee  to  investigate 
the  system  of  "scientific  management"  of  labor 
developed  by  Frederick  Winslow  Taylor  [g.z>.]. 
Wilson  sponsored  an  investigation  of  safety  con- 
ditions in  mines  and  had  much  to  do  with  the 
subsequent  organization,  in  1910,  of  the  federal 
Bureau  of  Mines.  In  1912  he  secured  the  pas- 
sage of  the  Seamen's  Bill  for  the  protection  of 
seamen  in  the  merchant  marine.  Other  measures 
which  he  promoted  were  the  eight-hour  day  for 
public  employees,  anti-injunction  legislation, 
protection  of  the  products  of  free  labor  from  the 
competition  of  prison-made  goods,  the  establish- 
ment of  the  Children's  Bureau,  and  the  creation 
of  the  Department  of  Labor,  of  which  he  was 
made  the  first  head.  His  outstanding  work  as 
chairman  of  the  committee  on  labor  was  formal- 
ly recognized  by  his  congressional  colleagues, 
Mar.  3,  1913  (Congressional  Record,  62  Cong., 
3  Sess.,  p.  4804). 

As  secretary  of  labor  from  1913  to  1921  he  or- 
ganized the  new  department.  The  Bureau  of 
Labor,  which  had  been  created  in  1884,  became 
the  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.  This  agency  and 
the  Children's  Bureau  underwent  little  immediate 
change.  Wilson's  main  activities  were  a  thor- 
ough reorganization  of  the  Bureau  of  Immigra- 
tion and  Naturalization,  which  was  divided  into 
two  agencies ;  the  development  of  agencies  for 
the  mediation  and  adjustment  of  industrial  dis- 
putes ;  and  the  formation  of  the  United  States 
Employment  Service  to  handle  the  problems  of 
war-time  employment  and  transfer  of  workers. 
He  was  also  a  member  and  for  a  time  chairman 
of  the  federal  board  for  vocational  education, 
and  a  member  of  the  Council  of  National  De- 
fense. He  was  president  of  the  International 
Labor  Conference  of  1919.  In  1926  he  was  de- 
feated as  the  Democratic  candidate  for  United 
States  senator  from  Pennsylvania.  He  died  May 
25,  1934,  on  a  train  at  Savannah,  Ga.,  while  on 
his  way  to  Washington. 

In  personality,  Wilson  was  somewhat  austere 
but  kindly.  He  was  intensely  devoted  to  the  wel- 
fare of  labor  but  conciliatory,  especially  in  later 
years,  in  manner  and  methods.    His  most  sig- 


Wilson 

nificant  work  was  probably  in  the  promotion  of 
mediation  and  collective  bargaining. 

[R.  W.  Babson,  W.  B.  Wilson  and  the  Dcpt.  of  Labor 
(1919)  ;  Biog.  Dir.  Am.  Cong.  (1928) ';  Who's  Who  in 
America,  1932-33;  N.  Y.  Times,  May  26,  30,  1934; 
Chris  Evans,  Hist,  of  the  United  Mine  Workers  of 
America  (2  vols.,  n.d.)  ;  Minutes  of  the  Ann.  Conven- 
tions of  the  United  Mine  Workers,  1901-06,  and  Proc. 
of  the  Ann.  Conventions  of  the  United  Mine  Workers, 
1907,  1908;  Annual  Reports  of  the  Secretary  of  Labor, 
1913-21  ;  L.  L.  Lorwin,  The  Am.  Federation  of  Labor 
(IQ33)-I  W.  B— n. 

WILSON,  WILLIAM  DEXTER  (Feb.  28, 
1816-July  30,  1900),  clergyman,  educator,  the 
son  of  William  and  Rhoda  Lane  (Gould)  Wil- 
son, was  born  in  Stoddard,  N.  H.  He  obtained 
his  secondary  education  in  an  academy  at  Wal- 
pole,  N.  H.,  where  he  showed  such  ability  in 
mathematics  that  on  graduation  he  was  appoint- 
ed a  teacher  of  that  subject.  Soon  deciding,  how- 
ever, to  study  for  the  ministry,  he  entered  Har- 
vard Divinity  School,  from  which  he  was  grad- 
uated in  1838.  After  four  years  as  a  Unitarian 
preacher,  he  became  converted  to  trinitarian 
principles  and  joined  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church.  From  1842  to  1850  he  was  rector  of  a 
small  parish  in  Sherburne,  N.  Y.  On  Nov.  25, 
1846,  he  was  married  to  Susan  Whipple  Trow- 
bridge. In  1848  he  published  his  first  work,  The 
Church  Identified  by  a  Reference  to  the  History 
of  its  Origin,  Perpetuation,  and  Extension  into 
the  United  States  (republished  in  1866).  In 
1850,  taking  with  him  a  private  class  of  about 
ten  students,  he  became  an  instructor  in  moral 
and  intellectual  philosophy  in  Geneva  (later 
Hobart)  Divinity  School,  where  he  also  acted  as 
treasurer  for  the  associated  alumni  and,  in  the 
last  of  his  eighteen  years  there,  served  as  acting 
president.  During  this  period  he  published  An 
Explanation  of  the  Rubrics  in  the  Book  of  Com- 
mon Prayer  (1854),  An  Elementary  Treatise  on 
Logic  (1856),  and  an  interesting  pamphlet.  At- 
tainder of  Treason  and  Confiscation  of  the  Prop- 
erty of  Rebels  (1863),  which  was  an  open  letter 
to  Judge  Samuel  A.  Foot  together  with  Judge 
Foot's  reply,  both  writers  striving  to  prove  that 
there  were  no  constitutional  restrictions  on  con- 
fiscation in  such  cases. 

In  1868  he  was  called  to  the  chair  of  moral 
and  intellectual  philosophy  in  the  newly  founded 
Cornell  University,  where  for  another  eighteen 
years  he  was  the  sole  member  of  his  department. 
He  also  acted  as  registrar  and  had  much  to  do 
with  the  organization  and  administration  of  the 
university.  This  Cornell  period  was  one  of  great 
literary  productivity,  seeing  the  publication  of 
The  Closing  Scenes  of  the  Life  of  Christ,  a  Har- 
monised Combination  of  the  Gospels  (1869); 
Lectures  on  the  Psychology  of  Thought  and  Ac- 


349 


Wils 


on 


Wilson 


lion  ( 1 87 1 )  ;  Logic,  Theoretical  and  Practical 
(1872)  ;  Fancy  and  Philosophy,  an  Introduction 
to  the  Study  of  Metaphysics  (1872);  Positive 
and  Negative  Terms  in  Mathematics  (1875); 
First  Principles  of  Political  Economy  (1875)  > 
The  Influence  of  Language  on  Thought  ( 1879)  > 
Order  of  Instruction  in  Mathematics  (1876); 
Live  Questions  in  Psychology  and  Metaphysics 
(1877);  The  Foundations  of  Religious  Belief 
(1883).  In  addition  to  the  diversified  interests 
evidenced  by  these  works  Wilson  also  had  a  wide 
command  of  languages,  knowing  French,  Ger- 
man, Italian,  Greek,  Latin,  Arabic,  and  Syriac. 
In  1886  he  was  made  professor  emeritus  at  Cor- 
nell, and  in  the  following  year  he  became  dean 
of  St.  Andrew's  Divinity  School  in  Syracuse, 
N.  Y.,  where  he  continued  to  reside  until  his 
death.  His  last  works  were  The  Papal  Suprem- 
acy and  the  Provincial  System  Tested  by  the 
Holy  Scriptures  and  the  Canon  Lazv  of  the  An- 
cient Church  (1889),  and  Theories  of  Knowl- 
edge Historically  Considered  with  Special  Ref- 
erence to  Scepticism  and  Belief  (1889).  He  was 
not  an  original  thinker  in  any  field ;  his  philoso- 
phy was  merely  that  of  the  reigning  Scottish 
school,  and  his  political  economy  was  derived 
from  Mathew  Carey  [q.v.]  ;  but  he  was,  never- 
theless, an  important  cultural  influence  in  Ameri- 
can education. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1899- 1900  ;  W.  T.  Hewett, 
Cornell  Univ.:  a  Hist.  (3  vols.,  1905);  The  Ten-Year 
Book  of  Cornell  Univ.  (1878,  1888)  ;  Hobart  Coll.  Gen. 
Cat.  (1897)  ;  obituary  in  N.  Y.  Times,  July  31,  1900.] 

E.  S.  B. 
WILSON,  WILLIAM  HASELL  (Nov.  5, 
1811-Aug.  17,  1902),  civil  engineer,  was  born 
in  Charleston,  S.  C.  His  grandfather,  Lieut. 
John  Wilson,  a  Scottish  military  engineer,  served 
in  America  during  the  Revolution,  married  in 
Charleston,  and  took  his  bride  back  to  Scotland. 
After  his  death  in  1807  his  widow  took  her  four 
children  back  to  Charleston.  One  of  these,  John, 
graduated  from  the  University  of  Edinburgh  and 
on  his  return  to  Charleston  married  Eliza  Gibbes, 
daughter  of  William  Hasell  Gibbes  [q.v.].  John 
Wilson  had  charge  of  the  construction  of  forti- 
fications near  Charleston  during  the  War  of  1812. 
William  Hasell,  son  of  John  and  Eliza,  was 
fourth  in  line  of  descent  to  follow  the  engineer- 
ing profession,  and  his  three  sons,  John  A.,  Jo- 
seph Miller  [<?.?'.],  and  Henry  W.  Wilson,  also 
became  engineers. 

Educated  in  the  schools  of  Charleston  and 
Philadelphia,  William  Hasell  Wilson  began  his 
career  in  June  1827  as  a  volunteer  on  the  engi- 
neering corps  of  the  state  of  Pennsylvania,  or- 
ganized by  his  father,  surveying  for  a  canal  or 
railroad  between  Philadelphia  and  the  Susque- 


hanna River.  Until  1834  he  was  in  state  employ, 
serving  in  various  capacities  from  chainman  to 
principal  assistant  engineer  in  location,  grading, 
and  bridging  for  railroad  lines  west  of  Philadel- 
phia. As  principal  assistant  engineer  of  the  Phil- 
adelphia &  Reading  Railroad  from  1835  to  Au- 
gust 1836,  he  was  in  charge  of  construction  along 
the  Schuylkill  between  Pottstown  and  Bridge- 
port. This  division,  nineteen  miles  long,  in- 
volved much  heavy  work,  including  the  Black 
Rock  tunnel  and  a  bridge  over  the  Schuylkill 
River.  The  tunnel  was  driven  simultaneously 
from  both  ends  through  solid  rock,  and  so  ac- 
curate was  the  instrumental  work,  to  which  Wil- 
son gave  personal  attention,  that  when  it  was 
opened  through  its  entire  length  of  1,932  feet  the 
variation  in  alignment  and  grade  did  not  exceed 
one-tenth  of  a  foot.  From  1838  to  1857  he  en- 
gaged in  general  engineering  practice  and  in 
farming.  He  made  many  journeys  for  the  Penn- 
sylvania Railroad  in  connection  with  the  exten- 
sion of  its  line  from  Philadelphia  to  Pittsburgh, 
and  his  recommendations  resulted  in  the  consoli- 
dation of  several  smaller  lines  to  form  the  Pitts- 
burgh, Fort  Wayne  &  Chicago  Railway  Com- 
pany, which  provided  a  direct  route  between 
Pittsburgh  and  Chicago. 

Upon  the  purchase  in  August  1857  by  the 
Pennsylvania  Railroad  of  the  main  line  of  the 
old  "state  improvements,"  Wilson  was  appoint- 
ed resident  engineer  of  the  Philadelphia  &  Co- 
lumbia Railroad,  running  over  that  route.  The 
road  had  deteriorated  under  the  uncertainty  of 
state  control  and  required  rehabilitation  as  well 
as  enlargement  of  facilities.  In  the  following 
year,  the  line  from  Columbia  to  Mifflin,  fifty 
miles  west  of  Harrisburg,  was  added  to  Wilson's 
division,  and  in  1859  he  was  given  charge  of 
maintenance  of  way  as  well  as  new  construction 
over  the  entire  main  line  of  the  Pennsylvania  and 
its  branches,  between  Philadelphia  and  Pitts- 
burgh. After  1862  he  held  the  title  of  chief  engi- 
neer. He  also  constructed  the  works  of  the  Al- 
toona  Gas  Company  and  served  as  its  president 
from  1859  to  1 87 1.  In  January  1868,  since  the 
trackage  under  his  supervision  had  increased  to 
1 152  miles,  he  was  relieved  of  the  duties  of  main- 
tenance of  way  by  his  son,  John  A.  Wilson,  and 
during  the  next  six  years  gave  his  attention  ex- 
clusively to  construction.  For  the  Pennsylvania 
Railroad,  in  1869,  he  laid  out,  developed,  and 
assumed  the  general  management  of  Bryn  Mawr, 
nine  miles  from  Philadelphia — a  project  to  stim- 
ulate suburban  travel ;  he  continued  this  connec- 
tion until  1886.  In  1874,  relinquishing  his  posi- 
tion of  chief  engineer,  he  organized  the  real- 
estate  department  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad 


35° 


Wilson 


Wilson 


Company,  which  he  headed  for  ten  years.  From 
1884  until  his  death  he  was  president  and  direc- 
tor of  several  roads  leased  by  the  Pennsylvania. 

On  Apr.  26,  1836,  Wilson  married  Jane  Miller 
of  Delaware  County,  Pa.,  who  died  May  II,  1898, 
Besides  the  three  sons  already  mentioned  they 
had  four  daughters.  Wilson  wrote  Notes  on  the 
Internal  Improvements  of  Pennsylvania  (1879), 
A  Brief  Review  of  Railroad  History  from  the 
Earliest  Period  to  the  Year  1894  (1895),  and 
Reminiscences  of  a  Railroad  Engineer  (1896), 
as  well  as  various  professional  reports. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1901-02;  Wilson's  Remi- 
niscences, mentioned  above;  Public  Ledger  (Phila.), 
Aug.  18,  1902.]  B.A.  R. 

WILSON,  WILLIAM  LYNE  (May  3,  1843- 
Oct.  17,  1900),  educator,  cabinet  officer,  repre- 
sentative in  Congress,  was  born  at  Middleway, 
Jefferson  County,  Va.  (now  West  Va.),  the 
son  of  Benjamin  Wilson,  a  native  Virginian 
of  Scotch-Irish  ancestry,  and  Mary  Whiting 
(Lyne)  Wilson,  also  of  old  Virginia  family. 
His  father  died  before  William  was  four  years 
old,  but  the  family  was  left  with  moderate  means. 
Wilson's  early  life  was  spent  in  Charles  Town, 
the  county  seat,  where  he  attended  the  Charles 
Town  Academy.  He  showed  much  precocity, 
especially  in  public  speaking,  and  when  in  1858 
home  study  enabled  him  to  enter  the  junior  year 
of  Columbian  College  in  Washington,  D.  C,  at- 
tracted attention  by  his  brilliancy.  Upon  gradu- 
ation in  i860  he  was  offered  a  teaching  position 
in  the  college,  but  preferred  continuing  his  studies 
at  the  University  of  Virginia.  Here  the  Civil 
War  overtook  him,  and,  enlisting  in  1861  in  the 
12th  Virginia  Cavalry,  he  served  throughout  the 
conflict.  Until  the  spring  of  1863  he  fought  en- 
tirely in  the  Shenandoah  Valley,  but  later  was 
under  J.  E.  B.  Stuart  [q.v.~\  in  the  Army  of 
Northern  Virginia,  and  in  the  last  days  of  hos- 
tilities was  with  Lee  at  Appomattox.  In  Decem- 
ber 1862  he  was  captured  in  a  skirmish  near 
Harper's  Ferry,  but  immediately  exchanged.  A 
diary  kept  intermittently  during  his  service 
shows  that  he  was  a  brave  soldier,  devoted  to  his 
officers  and  especially  to  Turner  Ashby  [#.?'.], 
but  too  much  a  student  to  enjoy  warfare. 

After  the  war  the  offer  of  an  assistant  profes- 
sorship of  ancient  languages  at  the  struggling 
Columbian  College  was  renewed,  and  he  entered 
upon  his  duties  in  September  1865.  At  the  same 
time  he  enrolled  in  the  law  department.  He 
graduated  LL.B.  in  1867  and  was  admitted  to 
the  bar  in  1869,  but  the  test  oath  in  West  Vir- 
ginia and  the  general  poverty  of  the  South  de- 
terred him  from  practice,  and  he  remained  a 
teacher  until  1871.    Towards  the  end  his  small 


salary  ceased.  He  had  married  Nannine  Hunt- 
ington, (laughter  of  a  fellow  professor,  on  Aug. 
6,  1868,  and  the  first  of  his  six  children  had  ar- 
rived. In  1871  he  returned  to  Charles  Town  and, 
since  the  test  oath  had  been  abolished,  formed 
a  law  partnership  with  his  cousin,  George  W. 
Baylor.  In  the  next  dozen  years  of  practice  he 
not  only  made  a  modest  living  in  an  overcrowd- 
ed field  but  laid  the  foundations  of  his  political 
career.  Great  sociability,  geniality,  and  sympa- 
thy made  him  popular,  while  the  community  felt 
pride  in  his  learning  and  his  unimpeachable  hon- 
esty. He  spoke  frequently  and  wrote  on  political 
topics  for  the  local  press.  In  September  1882  the 
regents  of  West  Virginia  University  unanimous- 
ly elected  him  president  of  that  weak  and  faction- 
torn  institution,  and  in  the  same  fall  he  was 
chosen  to  Congress. 

He  was  able  to  begin  the  reorganization  of 
West  Virginia  University  before  resigning  in 
June  1883,  but  he  greatly  preferred  his  work  in 
Congress,  where  for  twelve  years  he  served  with 
enjoyment  and  growing  usefulness.  From  be- 
ginning to  end  his  most  important  labors  were 
bent  toward  tariff  reform.  Representing  a  state 
which  desired  protection  for  coal,  he  was  orig- 
inally expected  to  side  with  the  high-tariff  mi- 
nority in  the  Democratic  party,  but  when  the 
Morrison  Bill  was  introduced  in  1884  he  stood 
resolutely  by  his  reform  convictions.  To  him 
the  tariff  was  pernicious  in  building  up  an  exces- 
sive Treasury  surplus,  laying  heavy  burdens  on 
the  farmer  and  workman,  breeding  monopolies 
and  trusts,  and  fettering  normal  commercial 
processes  and  commercial  growth.  In  the  next 
Congress  he  supported  the  second  Morrison  Bill, 
in  1887  he  was  delighted  by  Cleveland's  tariff- 
reduction  message,  and  in  1888,  as  a  member  of 
the  ways  and  means  committee,  he  helped  frame 
the  Mills  Bill.  In  debate  on  this  measure  he 
first  reached  national  prominence  by  a  masterly 
speech,  May  3,  1888,  that  the  New  York  World 
characterized  as  an  "oasis  in  the  dreary  waste  of 
the  tariff  discussion" ;  while  in  floor  exchanges 
his  repartee  was  equal  to  Tom  Reed's.  He  was 
one  of  the  principal  opponents  of  the  McKinley 
Bill  in  1890.  Meanwhile,  his  pen  helped  him  be- 
come more  prominent.  In  July  and  August  1889 
he  wrote  a  series  of  articles  for  the  Baltimore 
Sun  on  "Trusts  and  Monopolies,"  and  two  years 
later  took  charge  of  a  tariff  reform  department 
in  the  St.  Louis  Republic.  He  became  head  of 
the  executive  committee  of  the  National  Asso- 
ciation of  Democratic  Clubs,  and  in  1892  was 
permanent  chairman  of  the  Democratic  National 
Convention.  He  was  too  amiable  to  make  an 
effective  presiding  officer,  but  his  opening  speech 


351 


Wilson 


Wilson 


was  a  brilliant  effort  (Letters  of  Richard  Wat- 
son Gilder,  191 6,  p.  230). 

Wilson  was  the  logical  chieftain  to  lead  the 
tariff  reform  battle  in  Congress  when  Cleveland 
came  to  power  in  1893.  Made  chairman  of  the 
ways  and  means  committee  on  Aug.  23,  he  led 
that  body  in  framing  the  so-called  Wilson  Bill, 
and  wrote  the  elaborate  report  with  which  it  was 
introduced  on  Dec.  19.  Its  chief  features — the 
free  admission  of  raw  materials  like  coal,  iron 
ore,  lumber,  and  wool,  a  conservative  reduction 
on  manufactured  articles,  and  the  substitution  of 
ad  valorem  for  specific  duties — represented  his 
idea  of  practicable  reform  and  disappointed  rad- 
icals like  Mills  and  Watterson.  Like  Cleveland, 
he  acquiesced  in  rather  than  earnestly  supported 
the  two  percent,  income  tax,  believing  it  just  but 
fearing  it  inexpedient.  He  delivered  carefully 
prepared  speeches  on  almost  every  important 
schedule,  with  special  attention  to  the  free  list. 
In  closing  the  debate,  on  Feb.  I,  1894,  he  made 
the  greatest  speech  of  his  career.  For  two  hours 
he  held  a  jaded  audience  enthralled;  he  ended 
amid  riotous  enthusiasm,  and  was  hoisted  in  tri- 
umph to  the  shoulders  of  Henry  St.  George 
Tucker  and  William  Jennings  Bryan  as  the  bill 
passed,  204  to  140.  It  was  his  last  victory,  how- 
ever; the  protectionist  Senate  so  mutilated  the 
bill  that  few  reform  elements  were  left;  when 
it  was  returned  with  some  six  hundred  amend- 
ments Wilson  was  unable  to  rally  his  following, 
and  the  House,  after  balking  for  nearly  a  month, 
ignobly  accepted  them. 

In  the  Republican  landslide  of  1894  Wilson 
lost  his  congressional  district ;  it  had  always  been 
closely  divided,  the  exploitation  of  lumber,  coal, 
and  oil  resources  had  built  up  many  small  indus- 
trial towns  with  Northern  and  negro  workmen, 
and  its  political  complexion  had  changed.  Presi- 
dent Cleveland  at  once  offered  him  the  post- 
master-generalship in  succession  to  Wilson  S. 
Bissell.  His  two  years  in  this  office  (Mar.  3, 
1895-Mar.  5,  1897)  were  marked  by  vigilant  and 
progressive  management  of  a  department  usually 
associated  with  political  spoils.  He  inaugurated 
the  rural  free  delivery,  made  numerous  minor 
improvements  in  the  postal  system,  effected  econ- 
omies, and  enlarged  the  classified  civil  service 
(see  New  York  Times,  May  11,  1896,  editorial). 
He  was  unable,  however,  to  obtain  congressional 
support  for  his  excellent  plan  of  districting  and 
consolidating  post  offices  where  they  were  too 
numerous.  A  stanch  believer  in  the  gold  stand- 
ard, he  gave  much  time  during  1895-96  to  efforts 
to  prevent  a  Democratic  stampede  to  the  free 
coinage  of  silver.  Just  before  the  Chicago  con- 
vention he  wrote  an  article  for  the  World,  wide- 


ly reprinted,  on  the  "fatality"  of  making  silver 
the  issue  and  thus  dividing  the  party.  After  the 
convention  he  condemned  Bryan  as  head  of  the 
forces  of  "repudiation,  socialism,  anarchy,  etc., 
temporarily  miscalled  by  the  grand  old  name 
Democracy"  (Diary,  July  10,  1896).  For  a  time 
he  was  discussed  as  nominee  of  the  Gold  Demo- 
crats, but  he  advised  the  selection  of  John  M. 
Palmer.  In  a  campaign  speech  for  Palmer  in 
his  home,  Charles  Town,  he  was  roundly  hissed ; 
his  diary  shows  deep  and  at  times  almost  hyster- 
ical feeling  on  the  issue. 

The  close  of  Cleveland's  administration  found 
Wilson  rusty  in  law  and  financially  embarrassed. 
He  therefore  gratefully  accepted  the  presidency 
of  Washington  and  Lee  University  at  Lexington, 
Va.,  which  offered  a  small  salary,  and,  as  he  put 
it,  "a  dignified  post  of  retirement."  In  the  four 
years  left  him  he  did  much  to  strengthen  the  in- 
stitution ;  he  occasionally  lectured  outside,  and 
his  weekly  talks  to  students  were  often  quoted  in 
the  press.  Always  a  small,  frail  man,  with  the 
appearance  of  a  poet  or  scholar,  he  contracted 
typhoid,  and  tuberculosis  followed.  Cleveland 
and  several  other  friends  proposed  to  raise  money 
to  send  him  to  Arizona  to  write  a  history  of  the 
second  Cleveland  administration,  but  his  disease 
progressed  too  fast,  and  death  came  suddenly.  In 
his  honor  Cleveland  and  others  raised  $100,000 
to  endow  a  chair  of  political  economy  at  Wash- 
ington and  Lee.  A  rare  spirit,  scholarly,  brilliant, 
and  devoted  to  duty,  he  had  ill  fitted  the  rough 
hurly-burly  of  politics,  but  had  nevertheless  made 
his  mark  in  parliamentary  history. 

[J.  A.  Quarles,  "William  Lyne  Wilson,"  Scwanee 
Rev.,  Jan.  1901  ;  W.  H.  Wilson,  "William  Lyne  Wil- 
son," Pubs.  Southern  Hist.  Asso.,  July  1901  ;  Times 
(Richmond,  Va.),  Oct.  18,  1900;  Appletons'  Ann.  Cyc. 
.  .  .  1900  (1901)  ;  Biog.  Dir.  Am.  Cong.  (1928)  ;  J.  A. 
Barnes,  John  G.  Carlisle,  Financial  Statesman  (1931)  ; 
Allan  Nevins,  Grover  Cleveland,  A  Study  in  Courage 
(1932)  and  Letters  of  Grover  Cleveland  (1933)  ;  O.  S. 
Straus,  Under  Four  Administrations  (1932)  ;  diaries 
of  William  L.  Wilson,  and  account  of  his  personality 
written  by  Newton  D.  Baker,  his  secretary  while  post- 
master-general in  the  possession  of  the  undersigned.] 

A.N. 

WILSON,  WOODROW  (Dec.  28,  1856- 
Feb.  3,  1924),  christened  Thomas  Woodrow, 
twenty-eighth  president  of  the  United  States, 
was  born  in  Staunton,  Va.  The  Scotch  strain 
was  predominant  in  his  ancestry.  His  mother, 
Janet  (called  Jessie)  Woodrow,  was  born  in  Car- 
lisle, England,  close  to  the  Scotch  border,  the 
daughter  of  a  Scotch  minister,  descended  from  a 
long  line  of  Presbyterians.  His  paternal  grand- 
father, James  Wilson,  a  genial,  vigorous  man  of 
affairs,  emigrated  from  Ulster.  Grandparents  on 
both  sides  came  to  the  United  States  in  the  early 


352 


Wilson 


Wilson 


nineteenth  century.  Joseph  Ruggles  Wilson,  his 
father,  himself  a  Presbyterian  minister,  was 
brought  up  in  Ohio.  Woodrow  Wilson's  imme- 
diate background  in  a  family  sense  was  that  of 
the  Middle  West;  in  a  literary  sense,  through 
his  father's  interests,  it  was  English.  Three  years 
before  his  birth  the  family  moved  to  Virginia, 
and  in  his  second  year  to  Augusta,  Ga.  His  boy- 
hood was  thus  of  the  South.  In  1870  his  father 
became  professor  in  the  theological  seminary  at 
Columbia,  S.  C,  and  pastor  of  the  First  Presby- 
terian Church.  Four  years  later  he  moved  to  a 
pastorate  in  Wilmington,  N.  C.  Woodrow  Wil- 
son's early  years  were  thus  colored  by  an  at- 
mosphere of  academic  interest  and  intense  piety. 
The  impressions  of  horror  produced  upon  him 
by  the  Civil  War  were  indelible.  With  an  early- 
maturing  mind  and  a  keen  delight  in  the  personal 
and  intellectual  companionship  of  his  father,  he 
lived  a  youth  largely  separated  from  those  of  his 
own  age  and  imbibed  his  learning  at  home.  He 
spent  a  year  (1873-74)  at  Davidson  College,  in 
North  Carolina,  and  in  the  autumn  of  1875  en- 
tered the  College  of  New  Jersey  (Princeton). 

As  an  undergraduate  he  was  a  leader  in  debat- 
ing, studied  the  art  of  public  speaking,  spent  long 
hours  over  the  lives  of  British  statesmen.  Dur- 
ing his  senior  year  he  wrote  an  outstanding 
essay,  published  in  the  International  Review  in 
August  1879,  entitled  "Cabinet  Government  in 
the  United  States."  His  serious  intellectual  in- 
terests did  not  lead  him  to  seek  high  marks  in 
his  classes.  At  graduation,  in  June  1879,  his  as- 
pirations turned  definitely  to  a  career  in  public 
life.  The  natural  path  to  it  seemed  to  be  the  law, 
and  he  entered  the  school  of  the  University  of 
Virginia,  where  he  was  less  interested  in  formal 
law  courses  than  in  British  and  American  po- 
litical history.  In  poor  health  he  returned  to 
Wilmington,  N.  C,  in  December  1880,  and  in 
1882  set  up  in  law  practice  with  Edward  Ireland 
Renick  in  Atlanta,  Ga.  The  venture  did  not 
prosper.  Wilson's  intensity  of  intellectual  inter- 
est in  large  political  problems,  his  unwillingness 
to  yield  political  convictions,  his  repugnance  to 
the  purely  commercial  practice  of  law,  all  unfitted 
him  for  success  in  the  Atlanta  courts.  In  the 
autumn  of  1883  he  gave  up  his  almost  clientless 
practice  and  entered  the  graduate  school  of  the 
Johns  Hopkins  University. 

He  thus  embarked  upon  a  career  for  which 
he  was  ideally  equipped  and  which  in  turn  was 
to  prepare  him  for  public  life.  At  Johns  Hop- 
kins under  the  training  of  Herbert  Baxter  Adams 
[q.v-1  he  found  his  creative  literary  powers  ac- 
tively stimulated.  He  rebelled  against  the  Ger- 
man methods  of  post-graduate  work  and  was  dis- 


inclined to  enter  upon  specialized  research.  A 
brilliant  development  of  his  favorite  theme  en- 
titled "Committee  or  Cabinet  Government"  (pub- 
lished in  Overland  Monthly,  Jan.  1884)  secured 
for  him  a  fellowship  in  the  history  department, 
and  in  January  1885  he  published  his  first,  per- 
haps his  most  important,  book,  Congressional 
Government,  a  clear,  beautifully  written  analysis 
of  American  legislative  practice  with  emphasis 
upon  the  evils  that  resulted  from  the  separation 
of  the  legislative  and  executive  branches  of  gov- 
ernment and  from  the  consequent  power  of  con- 
gressional committees.  With  this  as  his  thesis  in 
June  1886  he  was  awarded  the  Ph.D.  degree  by 
Johns  Hopkins. 

In  the  meantime  he  had  married  and  secured 
a  job.  His  marriage  to  Ellen  Louise  Axson  took 
place  on  June  24,  1885.  There  thus  came  into  his 
life  its  most  important  single  influence,  a  woman 
capable  of  enduring  the  economic  hardships  that 
go  with  the  life  of  a  young  teacher,  apprecia- 
tive of  his  capacity,  and  profoundly  sympathetic 
with  his  ideals.  Three  daughters  were  born  of 
this  happy  marriage :  Margaret  Wilson ;  Jessie 
Woodrow  Wilson  who  later  married  Francis  B. 
Sayre;  Eleanor  Randolph  Wilson  who  married 
William  Gibbs  McAdoo.  Ih  the  autumn  of  1885 
Wilson  began  to  teach  history  at  Bryn  Mawr 
College.  He  thus  secured  a  living,  although  a 
bare  one,  and  an  opportunity  to  write.  In  1888 
he  was  called  to  Wesleyan  University  as  pro- 
fessor of  history  and  political  economy,  and  for 
two  years  threw  himself  actively  into  faculty  and 
undergraduate  interests,  wrote  essays  and  book 
reviews,  and  published  a  comprehensive  text- 
book in  political  science,  The  State.  In  1890 
his  alma  mater  called  him  to  her  faculty  as  pro- 
fessor of  jurisprudence  and  political  economy. 

Wilson  came  to  the  Princeton  faculty  as  a 
young  man  not  yet  thirty-four,  only  eleven  years 
out  of  college.  He  cared  little  for  the  scholarly 
distinction  that  comes  from  intensive  research ; 
but  the  breadth  of  his  reading  and  the  verve  of 
his  intellectual  curiosity  guaranteed  his  influ- 
ence among  faculty  and  undergraduates.  Con- 
cerned not  merely  with  the  idea  but  with  its  ef- 
fective expression,  he  labored  incessantly  over 
the  art  of  literary  expression,  including  that  of 
epigrammatic  phrase.  By  rigid  self-criticism  he 
learned  to  eschew  the  florid  and  unnecessary.  "A 
man  who  wishes  to  make  himself  by  utterance  a 
force  in  the  world,"  he  wrote  to  a  friend  in  1897, 
"must — with  as  little  love  as  possible,  apply  crit- 
ical tests  to  himself"  ( Reid,  post,  p.  69).  Twenty 
years  later,  as  president  of  the  United  States, 
he  was  enabled,  by  this  devotion  to  the  art  of  ex- 
pression, in  his  own  phrase,  to  "wield  the  sword 


353 


Wilson 


Wilson 


of  penetrating  speech."  Distinguished  and  popu- 
lar in  the  lecture  hall,  a  leader  of  the  younger 
liberals  on  the  faculty,  he  was  chosen  in  1896  to 
make  the  principal  address  at  the  sesquicenten- 
nial  celebration  of  the  founding  of  the  College. 
His  experience  broadened  as  he  came  into  con- 
tact with  literary  circles  and  as  he  traveled 
through  the  West  on  lecture  tours.  His  confi- 
dence increased  as  he  perceived  that  he  could 
interest  and  dominate  audiences  of  a  more  gen- 
eral sort  than  those  of  the  classroom.  With  de- 
light he  discovered  that  his  professional  field 
permitted  him  to  develop  in  popular  terms  a  phi- 
losophy of  public  life.  On  June  9,  1902,  follow- 
ing the  resignation  of  Francis  Landey  Patton 
\q.v.~\,  he  was  unanimously  elected  president  of 
Princeton. 

As  professor,  Wilson  had  already  crystallized 
his  ideas  of  necessary  academic  reform  and  he 
welcomed  the  presidency  for  the  chance  it  gave 
to  put  them  into  effect.  He  was  dissatisfied  with 
the  Princeton  collegiate  routine.  His  conviction 
that  "the  object  of  a  University  is  simply  and 
entirely  intellectual"  (Reid,  p.  78)  found  little 
support  in  an  undergraduate  body  dominated  at 
the  time  by  social  and  athletic  ideals.  Nor  did 
Wilson  believe  that  the  Princeton  course  of 
study,  chiefly  characterized  by  the  lecture  sys- 
tem in  which  he  himself  so  greatly  excelled,  pro- 
vided adequate  intellectual  incentive.  "From 
childhood  up,"  his  eldest  daughter  wrote  (to  E. 
M.  House,  Aug.  19,  1934,  Yale  House  Collec- 
tion), "I  have  heard  him  talk  about  the  impor- 
tance of  developing  the  mind  by  using  it  rather 
than  stuffing  it,  that  the  only  value  of  books  was 
their  stimulating  power — otherwise  they  were 
worse  than  useless."  He  meditated  a  thorough 
revolution  in  Princeton's  attitude  toward  col- 
lege life  that  would  give  to  the  serious  scholar 
the  prestige  he  had  rightly  earned  and  reduce 
the  social  and  athletic  "side  shows"  to  a  subor- 
dinate place  (R.  S.  Baker,  Life,  II,  218). 

Structural  reorganization  he  believed  to  be  es- 
sential. The  principles  of  his  plan  were  em- 
bodied in  a  double  and  interlocking  scheme:  the 
Preceptorial  System  and  the  Quad  Plan.  The 
first  would  provide  opportunity  for  individual 
instruction ;  the  second  would  coordinate  the 
social  and  intellectual  life  of  the  college.  Strong- 
ly impressed  by  his  visits  to  Oxford  and  Cam- 
bridge he  realized  the  educational  value  of  small 
groups,  where  the  mind  of  the  instructor  could 
touch  directly  that  of  the  student,  and  where  he 
could  help  the  student  to  correlate  and  assimilate 
the  scattered  information  picked  up  in  formal 
courses  or  reading.  "He  said,"  wrote  his  daugh- 
ter, "that  there  ought  to  be  in  every  university  a 


professor  to  teach  the  relation  of  things.  .  .  .  The 
essence  of  the  cultured  mind  was  its  capacity 
for  relating  knowledge"  (to  E.  M.  House,  Aug. 
19,  1934,  Yale  House  Collection).  In  1905  he 
called  to  the  faculty  a  group  of  forty-seven  young 
scholars  whose  first  duty  should  be  individual 
supervision  of  the  students  and  the  development 
of  small  discussion  groups  for  the  interchange 
of  ideas.  The  principle  of  the  plan  was  sound — 
it  has  since  been  adopted  in  the  honors  courses 
and  tutorial  work  of  leading  colleges — and  it 
was  successfully  applied. 

Wilson  was  equally  insistent  that  if  the  schol- 
arly aspects  of  college  were  to  dominate  life  in 
Princeton,  they  could  not  be  divided  from  the 
social.  The  existing  undergraduate  organiza- 
tion of  clubs  was  of  a  purely  social  character 
and  because  of  their  exclusive  character  brought 
no  benefit  to  those  very  undergraduates  who  most 
needed  it.  In  1907  a  committee  of  the  trustees 
reported  that  the  tendencies  of  the  clubs  were 
such  that  "the  vital  life  of  the  place  will  be  out- 
side the  University  and  in  large  part  independent 
of  it"  (Reid,  p.  103).  Wilson's  plan,  again  mod- 
eled upon  English  university  organization,  was 
to  divide  the  university  into  colleges,  developing 
the  upper-class  clubs  themselves  into  colleges. 
"By  a  college  I  mean  not  merely  a  group  of  dor- 
mitories, but  an  eating  hall  as  well  with  all  its 
necessary  appointments  where  all  the  residents 
of  the  college  shall  take  their  meals  together.  I 
would  have  over  each  college  a  master  and  two 
or  three  resident  preceptors,  and  I  would  have 
these  resident  members  of  the  faculty  take  their 
meals  in  hall  with  the  undergraduates.  .  .  .  Each 
college  would  thus  form  a  unit  in  itself,  and 
largely  a  self-governing  unit"  (R.  S.  Baker, 
Life,  II,  221). 

The  Quad  Plan,  so-called  because  each  college 
was  planned  as  a  quadrangle  around  a  central 
court,  embodied  Wilson's  dislike  of  traditional 
privilege,  his  love  of  free  opportunity,  his  hope 
of  giving  to  the  preceptorial  system  a  social  en- 
vironment and  thus  facilitating  contacts  between 
cultured  and  immature  minds.  The  Western 
alumni  and  a  majority  of  the  faculty,  especially 
the  younger  members,  approved  it.  But  unlike 
the  preceptorial  system  it  touched  vested  inter- 
ests. Clubmen  of  the  alumni,  especially  in  the 
East,  protested  and  some  of  the  older  members 
of  the  faculty  wished  to  go  slowly.  The  board  of 
trustees,  realizing  the  intensity  of  feeling  in  the 
opposing  groups,  voted  to  request  the  President 
to  withdraw  his  proposal.  The  power  of  the 
clubs,  Wilson  bitterly  remarked,  proved  to  be 
greater  than  the  interest  of  the  University.  This 
was  merelv  another  indication  of  his  earlier  con- 


354 


Wilson 

viction  that  "the  side  shows  were  swallowing  up 
the  circus"  (R.  S.  Baker,  Life,  II,  218). 

Ironically  enough  this  academic  defeat  brought 
Wilson  before  the  American  public  and  helped 
to  open  his  path  to  politics.  He  was  presented  to 
the  country  as  the  champion  of  the  underprivi- 
leged, as  the  supporter  of  democratic  principles 
"so  hateful  to  the  old  order  at  Princeton,  to  the 
bosses  and  politicians  in  state  and  nation"  (Reid, 
p.  113).  Nor  has  that  defeat  dimmed  his  aca- 
demic prestige  in  the  light  of  history.  Twenty 
years  later,  Yale  and  Harvard  in  their  College 
and  House  plans  brought  to  realization  the  vision 
which  he  had  opened  up  to  the  Princeton  trus- 
tees. In  this,  as  in  his  preceptorial  system,  Wil- 
son proved  himself  the  educational  prophet,  ahead 
of  his  time. 

Another  setback  came  to  Wilson  in  the  devel- 
opment of  plans  for  the  Graduate  College.  This 
he  had  conceived  as  the  center  of  the  intellectual 
life  of  the  University,  to  be  placed  in  the  physical 
center.  Dean  West,  of  the  Graduate  College, 
preferred  a  more  distant  site  and  with  the  Wy- 
man  bequest  for  its  building,  he  himself  being 
an  executor,  persuaded  the  trustees  to  adopt  his 
policy.  Such  defeats  are  the  lot  of  a  college  pres- 
ident, but  Wilson  saw  in  them  a  blockade  to  the 
development  of  his  ideal  of  a  democratic  co- 
ordinated university.  His  disappointment  was 
intensified  by  the  growth  of  bitter  personal  feel- 
ing between  his  opponents  and  his  supporters. 
He  considered  the  possibility  of  resignation  and 
a  return  to  the  literary  life. 

At  this  juncture  fate  opened  to  him  an  oppor- 
tunity to  carry  on  the  struggle  for  democracy  in 
a  wider  field.  The  tide  of  political  discontent 
against  Republican  "standpatters"  was  running 
strong,  and  in  19 10  the  Democrats  were  seeking 
available  candidates  for  the  elections.  In  New 
Jersey  Col.  George  B.  M.  Harvey  [g.z\],  who  in 
1906  had  spoken  of  Wilson  for  president,  urged 
him  upon  the  state  organization  as  an  ideal  can- 
didate for  governor.  Here  was  a  man  who  "by 
utterance"  could  win  popular  support ;  a  man, 
furthermore,  who  because  of  his  fight  against 
privilege  in  a  university  could  be  dramatized  as 
the  champion  of  the  masses.  Doubtful  and  puz- 
zled, the  machine  leaders  of  New  Jersey  allowed 
themselves  to  be  persuaded  to  nominate  the 
Princeton  President.  Wilson  himself  hesitated 
as  this  vision  of  his  early  life  again  took  form. 
Finally  he  agreed,  stipulating  that  he  be  bound 
by  no  pledges  of  patronage.  On  Oct.  20,  1910, 
he  resigned  the  presidency  of  Princeton  and  on 
Nov.  8  was  elected  governor  of  New  Jersey. 

The  New  Jersey  governorship  proved  to  be 
but  a  brief  interlude  in  Wilson's  career,  as  he 


Wilson 

himself  had  regarded  it,  a  training  school  for  a 
larger  arena.  But  at  no  time  did  his  qualities  of 
leadership  find  clearer  expression.  Regarded  by 
the  machine  politicians  as  a  naive  theorist  and 
suspected  by  the  reformers  as  the  tool  of  the  ma- 
chine, he  speedily  disillusioned  both  groups.  The 
power  and  eloquence  of  his  acceptance  address 
and  his  campaign  speeches  provoked  the  enthu- 
siasm of  the  mass  of  voters.  The  first  trial  of 
strength  with  the  machine  left  him  triumphant. 
He  dared  to  fight  James  Smith,  Democratic  or- 
ganization leader,  in  his  contest  for  the  Senate, 
and  in  the  words  of  a  political  reporter  "licked 
the  gang  to  a  frazzle"  (R.  S.  Baker,  Life,  III, 
127).  Driving  forward  reform  measures  with 
vigor,  by  the  end  of  the  first  session  he  secured 
the  enactment  of  the  most  important  proposals 
of  his  campaign :  a  primary  election  law,  an  in- 
vigorated public  utilities  act,  a  corrupt  practices 
act,  an  employers'  liability  act. 

Within  a  brief  ten  months  New  Jersey  was 
studied  by  reformers  as  a  practical  example  of 
the  possibilities  of  reform,  and  Wilson  himself 
began  to  attract  the  attention  of  national  political 
leaders.  Of  these  none  was  more  sagacious  than 
Col.  E.  M.  House,  the  friend  and  adviser  of  suc- 
cessive governors  of  Texas.  Wilson  and  House 
first  met  in  the  autumn  of  1911,  became  friends 
immediately,  and  entered  upon  a  relationship  de- 
scribed by  Sir  Horace  Plunkett  as  "the  strang- 
est and  most  fruitful  personal  alliance  in  human 
history"  (House  Papers,  post,  I,  44).  House's 
liberal  humanitarianism  and  his  insistence  upon 
a  government  responding  to  the  needs  of  all 
classes  were  unshakable ;  he  and  Wilson  never 
differed  in  principle.  But  his  attitude  was  always 
tempered  by  his  sense  of  what  was  immediately 
attainable.  From  the  moment  he  met  Wilson, 
House  was  convinced  that  here  was  the  ideal 
president  of  the  United  States — a  man  of  cour- 
age and  imagination,  a  Democrat  untouched  by 
"Bryanesque  heresies,"  an  Eastern  reformer  of 
unmatched  eloquence  who  would  sacrifice  per- 
sonal success  to  principle.  He  set  himself  to 
work  for  the  nomination  of  the  New  Jersey  Gov- 
ernor, whose  formal  campaign  was  managed  by 
William  F.  McCombs.  House  exercised  his  in- 
fluence in  Texas  to  win  the  forty  votes  of  that 
state  in  the  nominating  convention.  Bryan,  who 
suspected  Wilson  of  being  the  tool  of  Harvey 
and  the  New  York  interests,  was  next  brought 
through  House  into  a  less  distrustful  attitude. 
In  the  meantime  Wilson's  reputation  as  a  force- 
ful and  eloquent  speaker  was  steadily  developed 
through  a  series  of  widely  delivered  addresses. 

At  the  Baltimore  convention  in  June  1912, 
Bryan's  influence  was  dominant.    Of  the  four 


355 


Wilson 


Wilson 


leading-  candidates.  Champ  Clark,  Oscar  W.  Un- 
derwood, Judson  Harmon  [qq.v.~\,  and  Wilson, 
he  favored  the  first.  But  he  was  primarily  in- 
terested in  pledging  the  convention  to  a  repudia- 
tion of  Tammany  Hall  as  offensive  to  all  liberals. 
Voting  reached  a  deadlock.  The  issue  was  de- 
cided by  Bryan  who  declared  that  he  would  sup- 
port no  one  who  was  supported  by  Tammany. 
Clark  equivocated.  Disregarding  the  advice  of 
McCombs,  Wilson  stated  flatly  that  he  would  not 
accept  the  nomination  if  it  depended  upon  the 
Tammany  vote.  Bryan,  already  half  won  to  Wil- 
son, released  the  Nebraska  delegates  from  their 
pledges  and  cast  his  own  vote  for  him.  From  that 
moment  the  tide  turned  in  Wilson's  favor.  On 
the  forty-sixth  ballot  he  was  nominated  by  the 
necessary  two-thirds  majority. 

In  1912,  because  of  the  personal  quarrel  be- 
tween Roosevelt  and  Taft  and  the  political  split 
between  Republican  progressives  and  conserva- 
tives, the  Democratic  nomination  was  tantamount 
to  election.  On  Nov.  5  Wilson  was  elected  presi- 
dent with  435  electoral  votes  as  against  88  for 
Roosevelt  and  8  for  Taft.  It  was  the  largest  elec- 
toral majority  in  the  history  of  the  American 
presidency  up  to  that  time,  although  it  represent- 
ed a  popular  minority.  Wilson  entered  the  White 
House  the  champion  of  what  he  called  the  "New 
Freedom,"  a  conservative  reformer,  eager  to  re- 
turn to  the  common  people  equality  of  privilege 
threatened  by  the  "interests"  of  industry,  finance, 
and  commerce.  Distrustful  of  radical  remedies 
such  as  the  recall  of  judicial  decisions,  he  had 
profound  confidence  in  the  Gladstonian  philoso- 
phy of  live  and  let  live,  and  believed  that  the 
first  essential  to  government  at  Washington  was 
to  render  it  sensitively  responsive  to  public  opin- 
ion. Such  principles  he  expounded  in  general 
terms  in  his  campaign  speeches,  a  series  of  mag- 
nificent  manifestoes  which  in  a  few  months  es- 
tablished him  as  the  unquestioned  leader  of  Amer- 
ican liberalism. 

The  most  serious  difficulty  faced  by  the  Presi- 
dent resulted  from  the  inexperience  of  Demo- 
cratic leaders  in  the  conduct  of  government,  for 
sixteen  years  had  passed  since  the  last  Demo- 
cratic administration.  The  cabinet  as  finally  se- 
lected proved  to  be  of  more  than  adequate  admin- 
istrative ability.  Bryan,  who  was  appointed  sec- 
retary of  state,  was  a  necessity  in  the  cabinet. 
For  sixteen  years  he  had  been  party  leader  and 
still  wielded  tremendous  influence  in  the  country 
and  in  Congress.  If  Wilson  was  to  lead  the  enor- 
mous Democratic  majority  successfully  through 
the  mazes  of  tariff  and  currency  reform,  he  need- 
ed Bryan's  political  influence  behind  him.  The 
new  President  was  determined  at  the  outset  to 


rectify  what  he  regarded  as  the  great  flaw  in 
the  American  form  of  government  by  establish- 
ing a  close  working  connection  between  the  ex- 
ecutive and  the  legislature.  On  Apr.  8,  1913,  he 
appeared  before  the  two  houses  of  Congress  to 
deliver  his  first  message,  thus  reviving  a  custom 
that  had  lapsed  since  Jefferson  discontinued  it 
and  one  that  gave  him  opportunity  to  exercise 
his  persuasive  rhetorical  powers.  Resolved  to 
push  through  fundamental  reforms  in  the  tariff 
and  in  banking,  he  utilized  the  large  Democratic 
majority  to  achieve  extraordinary  legislative  tri- 
umphs. Of  these,  the  most  important  were  the 
Underwood  Tariff  and  the  Federal  Reserve  Act. 
The  first,  providing  for  notably  lowered  tariff 
schedules  and  a  federal  income  tax,  was  passed 
in  October.  The  second,  designed  to  facilitate 
the  flow  of  capital  through  twelve  reserve  banks, 
under  the  direction  of  a  federal  board,  met  strong 
objections  from  conservative  bankers  and  rad- 
ical currency  reformers.  It  was  nevertheless 
passed  in  December.  The  third  major  aspect  of 
Wilson's  program  took  form  in  the  creation  of 
the  Federal  Trade  Commission  and  in  the  Clay- 
ton Anti-Trust  Act  designed  to  prevent  inter- 
locking directorates  and  declaring  that  labor 
organizations  should  not  "be  held  or  construed 
to  be  illegal  combinations  in  restraint  of  trade." 
These  bills  were  passed  in  the  early  autumn  of 
1914. 

The  principle  of  this  legislation,  in  Wilson's 
mind,  was  to  liberalize  the  industrial  system,  to 
eliminate  special  privilege,  "to  make  men  in  a 
small  way  of  business  as  free  to  succeed  as  men 
in  a  big  way  ...  to  destroy  monopoly  and  main- 
tain competition  as  the  only  effectual  instrument 
of  business  liberty"  (R.  S.  Baker,  Life,  IV, 
374).  He  had  to  meet  the  opposition  of  influen- 
tial industrialists  and  to  control  the  wilder  re- 
formers in  his  own  party.  Much  of  his  success 
was  due  to  the  fact  that  Congress  itself  was 
young,  political  patronage  only  partly  distrib- 
uted, and  as  a  consequence  the  Democratic  ma- 
jority, after  many  years  in  the  wilderness,  obe- 
dient to  party  discipline.  It  was  due  also  to  the 
readiness  of  public  opinion  to  respond  to  re- 
form measures,  for  the  spirit  of  progressiveness 
was  still  alive.  The  chief  factor  in  Wilson's  early 
legislative  success  was  his  own  genius  for  lead- 
ing public  opinion,  for  clarifying  the  larger  po- 
litical aspects  of  the  issues  involved,  and  his  ca- 
pacity for  building  in  the  country  a  fire  behind 
opposition.  For  a  year  and  a  half  he  was  irre- 
sistible. By  the  middle  of  1914,  however,  he  be- 
gan to  encounter  the  criticism  that  harassed  him 
at  Princeton  and  in  the  second  year  of  his  New 
Jersey  governorship:  that  he  was  too  restless 


356 


Wilson 


Wilson 


and  wanted  to  go  too  fast.  The  feeling  was  in- 
tensified by  the  industrial  depression  of  1913-14. 

Fate  was  in  an  ironical  mood  in  decreeing  that 
Wilson,  primarily  interested  in  the  domestic 
problems  that  touched  the  freedom  of  the  indi- 
vidual, should  be  forced  to  give  his  major  atten- 
tion to  international  affairs  just  as  he,  the  de- 
termined pacifist,  was  later  compelled  to  lead  his 
country  in  the  greatest  war  of  history.  Philo- 
sophically his  conception  of  foreign  policy  was 
akin  to  that  of  Gladstone.  He  was  opposed  in- 
tellectually and  temperamentally  to  an  imperial- 
ism fostered  by  private  commercial  interests, 
and  believed  intensely  in  the  political  wisdom 
and  moral  necessity  of  utilizing  the  national 
strength  in  foreign  affairs  with  careful  restraint. 
"It  is  a  very  perilous  thing,"  he  said  in  his  most 
important  early  speech  on  foreign  affairs,  at 
Mobile,  Oct.  27,  1913,  "to  determine  the  foreign 
policy  of  a  nation  in  the  terms  of  material  inter- 
est." And  he  added :  "I  want  to  take  this  occasion 
to  say  that  the  United  States  will  never  again 
seek  one  additional  foot  of  territory  by  conquest" 
( Baker  and  Dodd,  Public  Papers,  The  New  De- 
mocracy, post,  I,  67). 

Upon  such  a  policy  of  restraint  Wilson  hoped 
to  base  relations  with  Latin-America,  which  for 
the  first  sixteen  months  of  his  administration 
formed  the  most  important  aspect  of  American 
diplomacy.  He  set  for  himself  the  task  of  cre- 
ating an  atmosphere  of  good  will  and  of  elim- 
inating traditional  jealousy  of  the  North  Ameri- 
can Republic.  The  problem  was  made  more  diffi- 
cult by  conditions  in  Haiti,  Central  America,  and 
especially  in  Mexico,  where  revolution  produced 
political  chaos  and  threatened  American  invest- 
ments. The  Mexican  imbroglio  with  its  irritat- 
ing and  almost  explosive  consequences  harassed 
Wilson  for  three  years.  How  could  he  help  to 
restore  order  and  promote  justice?  The  simple 
method  of  supporting  General  Huerta,  who  had 
seized  power  through  the  assassination  of  his 
predecessor,  he  discarded  immediately.  "We  have 
no  sympathy  with  those  who  seek  to  seize  the 
power  of  government  to  advance  their  own  per- 
sonal interests"  (Mar.  12,  1913,  American  Jour- 
nal of  International  Law,  Apr.  1913,  p.  331).  He 
steadily  resisted  pressure  based  upon  the  doc- 
trine that  Huerta's  regime  promised  at  least  the 
restoration  of  order.  A  moral  issue  was  involved 
in  non-recognition.  In  the  meantime  he  would 
take  no  action  beyond  lifting,  in  February  1914, 
the  arms  embargo  put  on  in  1913.  "We  can  af- 
ford to  exercise  the  self-restraint  of  a  really  great 
nation  which  realizes  its  own  strength  and 
scorns  to  misuse  it"  (New  Democracy,  I,  49). 

Events  soon  tested  the  spirit  of  patience  in- 


herent in  this  policy  of  "watchful  waiting."  In 
April  1914,  following  the  arrest  of  American 
sailors  at  Tampico,  Admiral  Mayo  demanded 
an  apology  and  salute  which  Huerta  refused. 
On  Apr.  21,  American  marines  and  blue-jackets 
seized  the  terminal  facilities  at  Vera  Cruz  in 
order  to  prevent  the  landing  of  munitions  from 
a  German  ship.  American  lives  were  lost.  Wil- 
son himself,  the  determined  pacifist,  almost  de- 
spaired. "I  do  not  see  what  other  course  was 
open  to  us  or  how  we  could  have  avoided  taking 
such  steps  as  we  have  taken.  The  next  move  is 
for  Huerta.  It  depends  upon  him  how  far  this 
thing  shall  go.  I  sincerely  pray  God  it  may  not 
have  to  go  to  the  length  of  definite  war"  (R.  S. 
Baker,  Life,  IV,  332).  Fortunately  at  the  mo- 
ment of  deepest  gloom,  on  Apr.  25,  the  three  chief 
states  of  South  America,  Argentina,  Brazil,  and 
Chile,  offered  mediation.  The  proposal  was  im- 
mediately accepted.  As  Wilson  wrote  privately, 
it  presented  an  exit  from  a  blind  alley. 

The  results  of  the  mediation  conference  by  no 
means  cleared  the  Mexican  situation.  War  was 
averted  and  Huerta's  resignation  was  hastened. 
Disorder  continued,  however,  and  the  raids  of  the 
guerrilla  leader  Villa  even  threatened  the  Ameri- 
can border.  In  the  spring  of  1916  Wilson  was 
forced  to  dispatch  a  small  force  under  General 
Pershing  across  the  border  in  pursuit  of  Villa. 
A  clash  with  Carranza's  troops  at  Carrizal  in 
June  resulted  in  the  capture  of  American  cav- 
alrymen. The  national  guard  had  to  be  mobil- 
ized for  the  protection  of  the  border.  To  the  end 
of  his  administration  the  President  was  plagued 
by  Mexican  anarchy. 

Wilson's  cooperation  with  the  A.  B.  C.  Pow- 
ers had  the  advantage  of  creating  confidence  in 
him  among  the  South  American  countries,  thus 
enabling  him  to  undertake  a  comprehensive  Pan- 
American  policy  of  understanding  and  peace. 
In  the  autumn  of  19 14,  at  the  suggestion  of 
House,  he  sketched  the  essential  articles  of  an 
agreement  to  provide  for  international  security 
in  the  Western  Hemisphere.  The  first  article 
carried  the  essence  of  the  plan  and  forecasted 
clearly  the  later  Covenant  of  the  League  of 
Nations:  "Mutual  guaranties  of  political  inde- 
pendence under  republican  form  of  government 
and  mutual  guaranties  of  territorial  integrity" 
(House  Papers,  I,  209-10).  The  agreement  was 
actively  discussed  with  the  ambassadors  of  the 
A.  B.  C.  Powers,  who  at  first  hailed  it  with  en- 
thusiasm. It  was  destined,  however,  after  the 
entrance  of  the  United  States  into  the  World 
War,  to  be  merged  in  Wilson's  more  compre- 
hensive plan  for  a  world  organization  built  upon 
a  similar  model. 


\$7 


Wilson 


Wilson 


The  Mexican  problem  and  its  attendant  nego- 
tiations had  the  effect  of  bringing  Wilson  into 
close  diplomatic  relations  with  Great  Britain. 
British  interests  tended  to  support  Huerta  and 
a  direct  clash  with  the  British  Foreign  Office 
was  avoided  chiefly  because  of  the  restraint  dis- 
played by  the  foreign  secretary,  Sir  Edward 
Grey.  His  confidence  in  Wilson,  whose  Mexican 
policy  was  well  represented  at  St.  James's  by 
Ambassador  Page,  was  strengthened  by  the 
President's  successful  determination  to  secure 
repeal  of  the  Panama  Tolls  Act.  It  was  deepened, 
in  December  1913,  by  the  visit  of  Grey's  secre- 
tary, Sir  William  Tyrrell,  which  led  to  a  return 
visit  to  England  by  Colonel  House  in  the  spring 
of  1914.  Their  conversations  raised  the  possi- 
bility of  a  close  Anglo-American  understanding 
which,  in  the  mind  of  House,  could  be  developed 
by  the  inclusion  of  Germany  to  end  the  mutual 
distrust  of  Triple  Alliance  and  Triple  Entente 
and  assure  world  peace.  In  May  1914,  Wilson 
sent  House  to  Berlin  where  the  latter  laid  the 
suggestion  before  the  Kaiser  in  a  private  inter- 
view. The  British,  hoping  to  discover  a  method 
of  ending  the  naval  race  with  Germany,  expressed 
cordial  but  cautious  interest.  Events  moved  too 
fast,  and  the  outbreak  of  the  World  War  put  an 
end  to  the  plan. 

American  intervention  in  the  European  war 
was  dreamed  of  by  very  few  persons  during  the 
first  nine  months  of  the  struggle.  From  Wilson's 
private  papers  we  can  discover  that  he  shared 
the  general  prepossession  in  favor  of  the  Allies 
that  characterized  the  Eastern  states  and  equally 
that  he  was  determined  that  this  should  in  no 
way  affect  a  policy  of  complete  neutrality.  At 
the  very  beginning  of  the  war  he  warned  the  na- 
tion against  entertaining  any  feeling  of  parti- 
sanship ;  he  was  himself  so  far  successful  that  he 
was  brutally  abused  by  each  side  as  being  favor- 
able to  the  other.  But  the  problem  of  neutrality 
involved  a  good  deal  more  than  simply  minding 
one's  own  business.  Both  the  Allied  regulation 
of  neutral  maritime  trade  and  the  German  sub- 
marine campaign  infringed  American  rights  and 
interests.  Could  the  neutral  position  of  America 
be  adequately  protected  from  the  one  side  or  the 
other  without  endangering  the  principle  of  peace- 
able negotiation  to  which,  on  both  philosophical 
and  emotional  grounds,  he  had  dedicated  his 
policy? 

During  the  first  six  months  of  the  war  the 
issue  lay  almost  entirely  with  the  Allies,  who  re- 
fused to  accept  the  Declaration  of  London  as  a 
code  of  maritime  operations  without  modifica- 
tions that  denatured  it.  They  extended  the  con- 
traband lists,  brought  neutral  ships  into  harbor 


for  search,  detained  cargoes,  applied  the  doctrine 
of  continuous  voyage  to  conditional  contraband. 
On  Dec.  26,  1914,  the  United  States  issued  a  for- 
mal and  comprehensive  protest  against  Allied 
methods  of  maritime  control.  But  the  sharpness 
of  this  diplomatic  conflict  was  at  once  alleviated 
by  the  German  decree  of  Feb.  4,  1915,  declaring 
the  waters  around  the  British  Isles  a  war  zone, 
threatening  to  sink  all  belligerent  merchant  ships 
met  within  that  zone,  and  giving  warning  that 
neutral  ships  might  also  be  sunk. 

The  German  declaration  changed  the  whole 
character  of  relations  between  the  United  States 
and  Germany,  and  at  once  threw  the  quarrel 
with  the  Allies  into  the  background.  Wilson 
stressed  the  fact  that  the  submarine  warfare,  nec- 
essarily based  upon  the  method  of  sinking  with- 
out warning,  involved  the  blind  destruction  of 
neutral  property,  whether  contraband  or  not,  and 
perhaps  of  the  lives  of  non-combatants.  Without 
hesitation  he  drew  a  distinction  between  prop- 
erty and  lives,  between  interference  with  mate- 
rial rights  for  which  later  compensation  could 
be  made,  and  destruction  of  American  lives  for 
which  no  adequate  compensation  could  be  made. 
On  Feb.  10,  he  sent  to  Germany  a  warning  that 
laid  the  basis  of  his  whole  policy  toward  sub- 
marine warfare.  Destruction  of  an  American 
vessel  or  American  lives,  would,  he  stated,  be 
regarded  as  "an  indefensible  violation  of  neutral 
rights"  and  the  United  States  would  be  con- 
strained to  hold  the  German  Government  "to  a 
strict  accountability  for  such  acts"  (Foreign  Re- 
lations 1915  Supplement,  pp.  98-100). 

The  German  submarine  commanders  were  in- 
structed to  avoid  sinking  neutral  ships,  so  far 
as  possible.  But  the  series  of  dreaded  "accidents" 
began  to  appear.  On  May  7  the  Litsitania  was 
sunk  and  over  a  thousand  persons  drowned, 
among  them  128  Americans.  From  this  moment 
the  issue  was  finally  clarified  in  Wilson's  mind. 
The  Germans  must  not  use  the  submarine  against 
merchant  ships  except  according  to  recognized 
rules  of  warning,  with  due  provisions  for  the 
safety  of  passengers  and  crew.  The  firmness 
with  which  he  demanded  that  Germany  give  up 
the  "ruthless"  submarine  campaign  led  in  June 
to  the  resignation  of  Bryan,  who  saw  in  Wilson's 
insistence  upon  the  preservation  of  traditional 
neutral  rights  the  danger  of  war  with  Germany. 
The  patience  which  the  President  displayed 
aroused  bitter  resentment  on  the  American  sea- 
board, where,  as  the  submarine  campaign  con- 
tinued, popular  feeling  demanded  a  diplomatic 
rupture  with  Germany.  But  the  combination  of 
Wilson's  patience  and  firmness  finally  triumphed, 
at  least  temporarily.    Following  the  sinking  of 


358 


Wilson 


Wilson 


the  Arabic  in  August  19 15,  the  German  ambas- 
sador, Bernstorff,  announced  the  promise  of  his 
Government  that  "liners"  would  not  be  attacked 
without  warning.  In  the  spring  of  19 16  Wilson 
finally  drew  from  Berlin,  following  the  sinking 
of  the  Sussex,  the  more  comprehensive  agree- 
ment to  abandon  the  ruthless  submarine  warfare 
altogether. 

This  promise  was  extracted  by  the  definite 
threat  of  a  diplomatic  rupture.  Unless  Germany 
should  "effect  an  abandonment  of  its  present 
methods  of  submarine  warfare  against  passenger 
and  freight-carrying  vessels,  The  Government  of 
the  United  States  can  have  no  choice  but  to  sever 
diplomatic  relations  with  the  German  Empire 
altogether"  (Foreign  Relations  1916  Supple- 
ment, p.  234).  Such  a  rupture,  in  Bernstorff's 
opinion,  would  lead  inevitably  to  active  Ameri- 
can intervention.  There  was  no  longer  any  doubt 
in  Berlin,  Bernstorff  records,  "that  persistence 
.  .  .  would  bring  about  a  break  with  the  United 
States"  (Bernstorff,  post,  p.  213). 

In  meeting  what  he  regarded  as  a  series  of 
outrageous  affronts  by  Germany,  Wilson  never 
permitted  his  sense  of  responsibility  to  be  over- 
clouded by  natural  emotion.  "The  country  is  un- 
doubtedly back  of  me,"  he  wrote  privately  on 
Sept.  20,  1915,  "and  I  feel  myself  under  bonds 
to  it  to  show  patience  to  the  utmost.  My  chief 
puzzle  is  to  determine  where  patience  ceases  to 
be  a  virtue"  (to  House,  Yale  House  Collection). 
Always  he  held  to  the  double  principle  he  formu- 
lated at  the  moment  he  was  smarting  under  the 
news  of  the  sinking  of  the  Arabic:  "1.  The  people 
of  this  country  count  on  me  to  keep  them  out  of 
the  war ;  2.  It  would  be  a  calamity  to  the  world  at 
large  if  we  should  be  actively  drawn  into  the 
conflict  and  so  deprived  of  all  disinterested  in- 
fluence over  the  settlement"  (to  House,  Aug.  21, 
1915,  Yale  House  Collection). 

On  the  other  hand,  Wilson  made  it  clear  that 
whereas  the  trade  dispute  with  the  Allies  could 
form  a  subject  of  negotiation,  there  could  be  no 
compromise  with  Germany  over  the  unrestricted 
submarine  campaign.  He  yielded  no  legal  right 
to  the  Allies  and  by  his  protests  built  up  a  case 
for  damages ;  in  the  meantime  immediate  com- 
mercial interests  were  largely  protected  by  pri- 
vate arrangements  between  American  shippers 
and  the  British  government.  But  the  unrestricted 
use  of  the  submarine,  he  insisted,  struck  direct- 
ly at  basic  American  rights  in  a  way  that  pre- 
cluded later  compensation,  rights  which  if  once 
surrendered  could  not  be  regained.  The  sinking 
of  American  ships  and  the  drowning  of  Ameri- 
can citizens,  whether  passengers  or  sailors,  he 
regarded  as  an  attack  upon  national  sovereignty. 


The  right  of  Americans  to  travel  freely  on  the 
high  seas  he  would  not  yield.  "For  my  own 
part,"  he  wrote  to  Senator  Stone,  who  advocated 
an  evasion  of  the  issue,  "I  cannot  consent  to  any 
abridgement  of  the  rights  of  American  citizens 
in  any  respect.  .  .  .  We  covet  peace  and  shall 
preserve  it  at  any  cost  but  the  loss  of  honor.  .  .  . 
What  we  are  contending  for  in  this  matter  is  of 
the  very  essence  of  the  things  which  have  made 
America  a  sovereign  nation"  (Foreign  Relations 
1916  Supplement,  p.  177). 

There  was  thus  a  limit  to  Wilson's  patience. 
He  publicly  set  it  at  the  line  where  admitted 
neutral  rights  were  infringed  after  protracted 
warning,  and  he  made  it  a  point  of  national  self- 
respect  and  honor  to  defend  those  rights.  "I 
know  that  you  are  depending  upon  me  to  keep  this 
Nation  out  of  the  war,"  he  said  in  January  1916. 
"So  far  I  have  done  so  and  I  pledge  you  my  word 
that,  God  helping  me,  I  will  if  it  is  possible.  But 
you  have  laid  another  duty  upon  me.  You  have 
bidden  me  see  to  it  that  nothing  stains  or  im- 
pairs the  honor  of  the  United  States,  and  that  is 
a  matter  not  within  my  control ;  that  depends 
upon  what  others  do,  not  upon  what  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  does.  Therefore  there 
may  at  any  moment  come  a  time  when  I  cannot 
preserve  both  the  honor  and  the  peace  of  the 
United  States.  Do  not  exact  of  me  an  impossible 
and  contradictory  thing"  (Speech  of  Jan.  31, 
1916,  Nezv  Democracy,  II,  48). 

Wilson's  policy  toward  Germany  received 
striking  confirmation  from  Congress,  which 
voted  in  March  1916  to  table  the  Gore-McLemore 
resolutions  designed  to  warn  American  citizens 
not  to  travel  on  belligerent  ships.  He  received 
equal  support  for  his  ultimatum  to  Germany  fol- 
lowing the  sinking  of  the  Sussex.  Still  further 
confirmation  came  in  the  national  election  of 
1916.  During  the  summer  and  early  autumn  it 
was  clear  that  in  the  Northeast  the  Democrats 
must  expect  decided  defeats  at  the  polls,  partly 
because  of  dislike  of  Wilson's  reform  legislation, 
largely  because  after  Roosevelt's  desertion  of 
the  Progressives  normal  Republican  majorities 
would  control  the  election  in  those  regions.  In 
the  Middle  West  Wilson  was  strong,  chiefly  be- 
cause of  his  progressive  leadership.  German- 
Americans  were  on  the  whole  opposed  to  him,  but 
he  could  count  on  the  pacifist  vote.  "He  has  kept 
us  out  of  war,"  was  the  most  powerful  argument 
west  of  the  Mississippi.  The  result  of  the  elec- 
tion was  so  close  that  for  twelve  hours  it  was 
generally  conceded  that  the  Republican  candi- 
date, Charles  E.  Hughes,  had  been  elected.  Wil- 
son himself  went  to  bed  believing  that  his  term 
of  office  was  ended.    He  had  decided  to  resign 


359 


Wilson 

immediately,  after  appointing  Hughes  secretary 
of  state,  so  that,  following  the  vice-president's 
resignation,  Hughes  would  automatically  take  up 
the  presidential  office  without  having  to  wait 
until  the  following  March.  Only  when  the  re- 
turns from  the  West  came  in,  was  it  seen  that 
the  Republican  majorities  in  the  East  had  been 
wiped  out  and  that  Wilson  was  reelected  by  2.77 
votes  to  254  for  Hughes. 

Wilson's  victory  was  generally  ascribed  to  the 
pacifists.  He  lost  no  time  in  preparing  to  justify 
their  confidence  by  a  determined  move  for  peace. 
Since  the  early  autumn  of  1914  he  had  never 
ceased  to  explore  possible  avenues  of  mediation 
but  had  met  constant  rebuffs.  Each  side  counted 
on  peace  terms  that  precluded  negotiation.  In 
the  autumn  of  1915  the  President  approved  a 
plan  suggested  by  House,  whereby  mediation 
might  be  enforced  through  a  threat  to  join  the 
side  which  refused  it.  Another  trip  to  Berlin 
convinced  House  that  the  Germans  expected  im- 
possible terms.  In  London  he  received  more  en- 
couragement and  was  able  to  draft  with  Grey  a 
memorandum  promising  that  Wilson  would  call 
a  peace  conference,  setting  forth  certain  terms, 
and  indicating  that  if  Germany  refused  either 
the  conference  or  the  terms  the  United  States 
would  enter  the  war  to  stop  it.  Wilson  approved 
the  memorandum.  But  all  through  the  spring 
and  summer  the  Allies  refused  any  sign  of 
willingness  to  enter  a  conference. 

After  the  election,  Wilson  decided  to  issue  a 
public  call  to  the  belligerents.  He  had  received 
clear  intimation  from  Germany  that  unless  peace 
negotiations  were  started  the  submarine  war 
would  be  resumed.  The  Germans  without  wait- 
ing for  Wilson  issued  on  Dec.  12  a  statement  of 
their  willingness  to  enter  a  conference  but  in 
such  a  tone  as  to  discourage  any  hope  of  terms 
that  the  Allies  would  consider.  On  Dec.  18  Wil- 
son published  his  own  note,  requesting  the  bel- 
ligerents to  state  their  war  aims  :  "an  interchange 
of  views  would  clear  the  way  at  least  for  con- 
ference" (Foreign  Relations  1916  Supplement, 
pp.  98-99).  Neither  the  German  nor  the  Wilson 
suggestion  produced  any  effect  upon  the  Allies. 
The  Germans  immediately  began  to  plan  resump- 
tion of  unrestricted  submarine  warfare,  even 
though  realizing  that  it  would  array  the  United 
States  against  them. 

Conscious  of  the  danger,  Wilson  worked  des- 
perately to  stave  it  off  by  pushing  forward  his 
plans  for  a  peace  conference.  On  Jan.  4,  1917,  in 
reply  to  House's  suggestion  of  the  need  of  mili- 
tary preparation  "in  the  event  of  war,"  he  in- 
sisted :  "There  will  be  no  war.  This  country 
does  not  intend  to  become  involved  in  this  war. 


Wilson 

We  are  the  only  one  of  the  great  white  nations 
that  is  free  from  war  today,  and  it  would  be  a 
crime  against  civilization  for  us  to  go  in"  (House 
Papers,  II,  412).  Anxiously  he  urged  on  Bern- 
storff  the  need  of  securing  from  Germany  specific 
conditions  of  peace,  armed  with  which  he  might 
go  to  the  Allies.  On  Jan.  22,  1917,  he  delivered 
before  the  Senate  a  speech  designed  to  serve  as 
the  basis  for  a  negotiated  peace,  a  settlement  that 
would  leave  neither  the  one  side  nor  the  other 
crushed  and  revengeful,  "a  peace  without  vic- 
tory." 

Had  Germany  then  held  her  hand  it  is  possible 
that  Wilson  might  have  been  able  to  start  nego- 
tiations. The  Allies  were  nearing  the  end.  of 
their  financial  resources.  Given  a  little  time  the 
President  might  have  exercised  strong  pressure 
upon  them.  The  warning  given  to  American  in- 
vestors by  the  Federal  Reserve  Board  against 
Allied  short-term  credits,  in  the  preceding  No- 
vember, indicated  clearly  the  method  by  which 
pressure  could  be  applied.  But  whatever  chance 
of  negotiations  existed  was  spoiled  by  Germany. 
On  Jan.  9  the  decision  approving  the  resumption 
of  unrestricted  submarine  warfare  was  taken. 
On  Jan.  31  it  was  announced  to  the  United  States 
that  the  pledges  given  after  the  Sussex  ultimatum 
would  no  longer  be  observed.  Wilson  did  not 
hesitate.  His  hopes  of  peace  negotiations  sud- 
denly dashed,  he  decided  immediately  to  give  the 
German  Ambassador  his  passports.  "From  that 
time  henceforward,"  writes  Bernstorff,  " — there 
can  be  no  question  of  any  earlier  period,  because 
up  to  that  moment  he  had  been  in  constant  nego- 
tiation with  us — he  regarded  the  Imperial  Gov- 
ernment as  morally  condemned.  .  .  .  After  the 
31st  January,  1917,  Wilson  himself  was  a  differ- 
ent man.  Our  rejection  of  his  proposal  to  medi- 
ate, by  our  announcement  of  the  unrestricted 
U-boat  war,  which  was  to  him  utterly  incom- 
prehensible, turned  him  into  an  embittered  en- 
emv  of  the  Imperial  Government"  (Bernstorff, 

P- 385). 

Wilson  still  refused  to  believe  that  the  diplo- 
matic rupture  meant  war.  "Only  actual  overt 
acts"  would  persuade  him  that  the  Germans 
would  carry  their  threats  into  effect.  He  was 
willing  to  negotiate  everything  except  the  right 
to  sink  passenger  and  merchant  ships  without 
warning.  But  the  Germans  showed  no  sign  of 
weakening.  "If  Wilson  wants  war,"  wrote  the 
Kaiser,  "let  him  make  it,  and  let  him  then  have 
it"  (Official  German  Documents,  post,  II,  1336). 
Given  such  determination  on  each  side,  Ameri- 
can participation  became  merely  a  matter  of  time. 
Opinion  in  the  United  States  was  infuriated  by 
the  virtual   blockade   of   cargoes   in   American 


36c 


Wilson 


Wilson 


ports;  yet  more  by  the  publication  of  the  Zim- 
mermann  note  suggesting  a  German-Mexican- 
Japanese  alliance  and  the  Mexican  reconquest  of 
Texas,  New  Mexico,  and  Arizona.  Still  the 
President  waited.  He  was  not  going  to  be  forced 
into  war  by  any  material  interest  or  emotional 
wave. 

Finally,  on  Mar.  27,  following  the  sinking  of 
four  American  ships,  he  made  the  decision.  On 
the  eve  of  his  war  message  he  pondered  the  mis- 
ery that  would  come.  "For  nights,  he  said,  he'd 
been  lying  awake  going  over  the  whole  situation. 
.  .  .  He  said  he  couldn't  see  any  alternative,  that 
he  had  tried  every  way  he  knew  to  avoid  war  .  .  . 
had  considered  every  loophole  of  escape  and  as 
fast  as  they  were  discovered  Germany  deliberate- 
ly blocked  them  with  some  new  outrage  ...  it 
was  just  a  choice  of  evils"  (J.  L.  Heaton,  comp., 
Cobb  of  "the  World,"  1924,  pp.  268-70).  On 
Apr.  2,  1917,  he  appeared  before  Congress  to  ask 
a  declaration  that  a  state  of  war  existed  with 
Germany.  On  Apr.  6,  the  resolution  was  voted 
by  overwhelming  majorities. 

The  declaration  of  war  represented  the  all  but 
unanimous  sentiment  of  the  American  people. 
The  anti-German  feeling,  at  first  characteristic 
of  only  the  Atlantic  seaboard,  had  spread  west- 
ward, and  with  it  the  feeling  that  the  Allies  rep- 
resented the  cause  of  democracy  and  justice.  The 
intimate  financial  and  economic  relations  of  the 
United  States  with  Great  Britain  and  France 
combined  with  an  intellectual  sympathy  to  foster 
a  tendency  to  condone  Allied  infractions  of  neu- 
tral rights  and  to  condemn  as  barbarism  every 
German  infraction.  Pro-Ally  feeling  would  not 
have  been  sufficient  of  itself  to  bring  the  United 
States  into  the  war.  But  it  created  a  state  of 
mind  which  made  the  German  declaration  of  the 
submarine  war  zone,  followed  by  the  Zimmer- 
mann  telegram  and  the  sinking  of  American 
ships,  appear  to  Americans  as  a  direct  attack. 
Wilson  was  certainly  never  touched  by  any  com- 
mercial or  financial  interest.  Much  more  than 
the  average  American  he  was  determined  to 
avoid  war.  But  he  was  not  immune  from  the 
general  pressure  of  opinion  created  by  a  variety 
of  factors,  and  when  he  finally  asked  for  the  dec- 
laration of  war  he  shared  the  conviction  that  im- 
perial Germany  was  an  international  criminal. 

Once  in  the  war,  Wilson  was  determined  that 
the  full  strength  of  the  nation  should  be  con- 
centrated on  victory.  The  task  of  transforming 
a  non-military  industrial  population  of  one  hun- 
dred million  souls  into  a  belligerent  machine 
involved  one  of  the  most  wholesale  transforma- 
tions of  history.  There  had  been  little  prepara- 
tion.  For  this  the  President  must  bear  his  share 


of  responsibility,  for  he  had  been  slow  to  admit 
the  possibility  of  armed  intervention  by  the 
United  States.  By  the  end  of  1915  he  came  to 
the  belief  that  steps  should  be  taken  to  improve 
the  efficiency  and  size  of  the  military  establish- 
ment and  navy.  In  August  1916  he  approved  the 
creation  of  the  Council  of  National  Defense, 
charged  with  the  "coordination  of  industries  and 
resources  for  the  national  security  and  welfare." 
Preparation  for  war,  however,  had  not  gone  very 
far.  Wilson  perceived  the  possibility  of  Ameri- 
can participation,  as  his  speeches  and  private 
papers  of  1916  indicate;  but  at  no  time  until  the 
final  break  did  he  grasp  emotionally  its  immi- 
nence. 

But  with  the  declaration  of  war,  Wilson  recog- 
nized that  every  interest  must  be  subordinated 
to  the  attainment  of  victory.  His  leadership  was 
distinguished  in  two  respects.  First,  he  created 
a  national  consciousness  of  common  effort,  made 
the  people  feel  that  this  was  a  people's  war  and 
one  in  which  every  citizen  must  be  glad  to  make 
his  individual  sacrifice.  In  the  second  place,  the 
President,  having  selected  for  the  vital  military 
and  administrative  posts  the  men  to  carry 
through  the  technical  details  of  organization  and 
operation,  never  interfered  with  them  and  sup- 
ported them  unreservedly.  These  two  aspects  of 
Wilson's  leadership  made  it  possible  for  the  na- 
tion to  accept  the  emergency  measures,  very  dis- 
tasteful to  American  instincts  but  essential  to 
victory :  the  army  draft,  the  supervision  and  con- 
trol exercised  by  the  War  Industries  Board,  the 
food  and  fuel  control,  the  national  administration 
of  railways.  They  facilitated  the  national  re- 
sponse to  the  appeal  for  a  popular  financing  of 
the  war  effort  through  the  Liberty  Loans.  They 
guaranteed  to  the  military  and  administrative 
leaders  an  authority  which,  despite  many  mis- 
takes, finally  built  up  a  fighting  machine  capable 
of  coordinating  the  efforts  of  the  home  front 
with  those  of  the  fighting  front  in  France.  The 
steady  support  he  gave  to  the  secretary  of  war, 
Newton  D.  Baker,  enabled  him,  in  the  face  of 
sniping  criticism,  to  proceed  methodically  and 
with  ultimate  success  to  the  organization  of  a 
national  service  of  supply  that  met  the  needs  of 
an  overseas  force  which  finally  numbered  two 
million  men.  In  France,  General  Pershing  was 
guaranteed  the  full  authority  necessary  to  de- 
velop this  force  into  a  unified  army.  In  no  other 
war  ever  waged  by  the  United  States  was  the 
opportunity  for  dishonest  profit  so  largely 
eliminated  and  partisan  political  influence  so 
thoroughly  eradicated. 

Wilson  expressed  a  willingness  to  go  to  all 
lengths  to  achieve  effective  coordination  with 

361 


Wilson 


Wilson 


the  Allies  without  surrendering  the  independence 
of  American  policy.  He  insisted  that  the  United 
States  was  not  an  allied  but  an  "associated" 
power,  and  never  admitted  the  right  of  the  Eu- 
ropean associates  to  speak  for  America  in  mat- 
ters of  policy.  But  he  demanded  the  creation  of 
machinery  that  would  enable  the  United  States 
to  supply  the  necessities  of  those  associates  as 
rapidly  and  effectively  as  possible.  This  de- 
mand resulted  in  the  American  war  mission  of 
November  191 7  which  gave  strong  support  to 
the  plan  for  a  Supreme  War  Council,  and  in  com- 
bination with  the  British  and  French,  success- 
fully organized  the  various  boards  of  interallied 
coordination. 

The  President's  supreme  contribution  to  vic- 
tory lay  in  his  formulation  of  war  aims.  He  gave 
to  the  American  and  Allied  peoples  a  conscious- 
ness that  they  were  fighting  for  a  peace  worthy 
of  the  effort  and  sacrifice  ;  and  he  doubtless  weak- 
ened the  enemy's  "will  to  victory"  by  unfolding 
the  vision  of  a  new  world  organization  that  of- 
fered a  better  chance  of  ultimate  happiness  than 
any  German  triumph.  The  basis  of  permanent 
peace,  he  believed,  must  consist  in  the  confidence 
of  each  nation  that  it  would  not  be  attacked,  a 
confidence  which  could  be  achieved  only  through 
a  system  of  international  cooperation  for  se- 
curity. This  had  been  the  principle  of  his  Mobile 
speech  and  his  Pan-American  policy,  and  it  un- 
derlay the  House  mission  of  19 14.  Stimulated 
by  the  suggestions  of  Sir  Edward  Grey,  as  early 
as  Dec.  24,  191 5,  he  set  down  as  an  essential 
guarantee  "a  league  of  nations  to  secure  each 
nation  against  aggression  and  maintain  the  ab- 
solute freedom  of  the  seas"  (Yale  House  Collec- 
tion). Public  expression  of  such  a  program 
formed  the  culmination  of  the  speech  of  May  27, 
1916,  his  very  words  suggesting  at  once  an  ex- 
tension of  the  projected  Pan-American  Pact  to 
the  entire  world  and  forecasting  Article  X  of  the 
League  of  Nations  Convenant :  "a  virtual  guaran- 
tee of  territorial  integrity  and  political  inde- 
pendence" (New  Democracy,  II,  188). 

Thus  almost  a  year  before  American  partici- 
pation in  the  war,  Wilson  outlined  certain  prin- 
ciples which  would  justify  American  cooperation 
in  world  affairs.  He  elaborated  them  in  his  ad- 
dress to  the  Senate  of  Jan.  22,  1917,  when  he  set 
forth  the  terms  of  a  desirable  peace  upon  which 
the  belligerents  might  agree,  insisting  upon  the 
principle  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine  for  the  entire 
world,  and  demanding  a  concert  of  Powers  cap- 
able of  maintaining  international  tranquillity 
and  the  right  of  small  nations.  These  principles 
he  took  for  his  text  on  Apr.  2,  1917,  when  he 
asked  Congress  to  declare  that  a  state  of  war 


existed  with  Germany.  It  is  true  that  he  now  in- 
sisted upon  the  absolute  defeat  of  the  Imperial 
Government.  It  was  no  longer  to  be  a  "peace 
without  victory."  But  the  elevated  purpose  of 
the  war  and  the  final  utilization  of  victory  must 
not  be  forgotten  in  the  heat  of  the  struggle,  and 
the  ideals  of  peace  time  must  be  kept  alive. 

There  was  implicit  in  this  program  a  conflict 
with  the  several  war  aims  of  the  Allies,  at  least 
as  set  forth  in  the  various  secret  treaties  of  191 5 
and  1916.  Wilson  came  to  realize  the  fact.  Later 
he  testified  before  a  Senate  committee  that  "the 
whole  series  of  understandings  among  the  Allies 
was  first  disclosed"  to  him  at  the  Peace  Confer- 
ence. But  he  had  been  informed  of  the  most  im- 
portant of  them  by  Mr.  Balfour  in  April  1917, 
in  some  detail  (House  Papers,  III,  61).  This  he 
may  have  later  forgotten.  He  certainly  recog- 
nized their  general  tenor.  Writing  to  House  on 
July  21,  1917,  he  said:  "England  and  France 
have  not  the  same  views  with  regard  to  peace 
that  we  have  by  any  means.  When  the  war  is 
over  we  can  force  them  to  our  way  of  thinking, 
because  by  that  time  they  will  among  other 
things  be  financially  in  our  hands"  (Yale  House 
Collection). 

Avoidance  of  acute  difference  with  the  Allies 
was  achieved  during  the  summer  and  autumn  of 
1917  by  stressing  the  attack  upon  German  autoc- 
racy and  not  pressing  for  any  general  agreement 
upon  ultimate  war  aims.  Wilson's  hand,  how- 
ever, was  forced  by  the  Russian  Revolution  and 
the  insistent  public  demand  for  a  restatement  of 
war  aims.  Allied  leaders  found  it  impossible  to 
agree  upon  any  general  formula,  far  less  upon 
any  concrete  statement  of  terms.  House  re- 
turned to  the  United  States  to  tell  Wilson  that 
in  order  to  maintain  the  morale  of  liberal  and 
labor  forces  in  the  Allied  countries  he  must  make 
a  comprehensive  statement  himself.  On  Jan.  8, 
1918,  the  President  delivered  before  the  Congress 
the  speech  of  the  Fourteen  Points.  This  was  not 
designated  as  a  public  international  charter  but 
as  a  diplomatic  weapon,  to  meet  the  Bolshevik 
drive  for  peace  and  to  strengthen  the  morale 
of  the  Allied  liberals.  The  six  general  points  re- 
peated ideals  already  enunciated  by  Wilson: 
open  diplomacy,  freedom  of  the  seas,  removal  of 
trade  barriers,  reduction  of  armaments,  impar- 
tial adjustment  of  colonial  claims,  a  league  of 
nations.  The  eight  special  points,  dealing  with 
immediate  political  and  territorial  problems, 
were  not  so  far  apart  from  the  purposes  declared 
by  Lloyd  George  three  days  previously.  The 
address  was  of  particular  significance  in  Ameri- 
can policy  for  the  reason  that  for  the  first  time 
Wilson  regarded  territorial  terms  as  America's 


36: 


Wilson 


Wilson 


business  and  laid  down  territorial  conditions  as 
a  prerequisite  of  American  cooperation.  By  the 
speech  Wilson  committed  himself  not  merely  to 
full  participation  in  the  general  world  problem 
of  preserving  the  peace,  but  to  an  interest  in  the 
local  problems  peculiar  to  Europe  that  might 
disturb  the  peace. 

The  ultimate  significance  of  the  speech  of  the 
Fourteen  Points  lay  in  the  fact  that  when  the 
Germans  in  the  early  autumn  of  1918  recognized 
the  inevitability  of  defeat,  they  seized  upon  it  as 
a  general  basis  of  peace  negotiations.  In  the 
spring  of  that  year  after  the  imposition  of  the 
peace  of  Brest-Litovsk  upon  Russia  and  with 
the  peril  of  German  victory  in  France  imminent, 
the  President  refused  any  suggestion  of  com- 
promise. But  as  the  German  armies,  facing  dis- 
aster, began  their  retreat,  Wilson  hoped  to  hasten 
their  surrender  by  promising  Germany  protec- 
tion against  political  or  economic  annihilation 
and  the  just  treatment  to  which  every  nation  has 
a  claim.  To  him,  therefore,  the  Germans  turned 
in  early  October  as  to  a  savior  from  the  destruc- 
tiveness  of  Allied  wrath. 

Public  sentiment  in  the  United  States  was 
strongly  against  any  negotiation  with  the  Ger- 
mans. Among  the  Allied  leaders  there  was  irri- 
tation that  the  appeal  had  been  made  to  Wilson. 
It  is  reasonably  clear  that  if  it  had  been  made  to 
the  Allies  as  a  whole  it  would  have  been  refused 
forthwith.  The  Germans  would  then  have  gird- 
ed themselves  for  the  last-ditch  defense  planned 
by  Ludendorff  and  Prince  Max;  the  fighting 
would  have  continued,  in  the  words  of  Marshal 
Foch,  "maybe  three,  maybe  four  or  five  months. 
Who  knows?"  (House  Papers,  IV,  91).  By  his 
interchange  of  notes  with  the  Germans,  Wilson 
gave  the  demand  for  peace  in  Germany  an  op- 
portunity to  gain  force;  once  started  the  peace 
flood  could  not  be  stemmed.  Thus  on  Oct.  23,  he 
was  able  to  hand  to  the  Allies  Germany's  ac- 
ceptance of  an  armistice  ensuring  to  them  "the 
unrestricted  power  to  safeguard  and  enforce  the 
details  of  the  peace  to  which  the  German  Gov- 
ernment has  agreed"  (Foreign  Relations  1918 
Supplement,  no.  1,  vol.  I,  p.  382). 

There  were  complaints  at  the  time  that  Wil- 
son, by  his  handling  of  the  negotiations,  saved 
Germany  from  invasion  and  an  unconditional 
surrender.  Actually  what  Wilson  offered  the 
Allies  was  not  peace  but  merely  the  opportunity 
to  make  it.  They  were  still  free  to  refuse  if  they 
chose.  Naturally  they  accepted  the  opportunity. 
Wilson's  diplomacy  resulted  in  complete  victory 
and  also  saved  several  months'  fighting.  More 
serious  is  the  criticism  that  Wilson  lured  the 
Germans  into  peace  and  the  overthrow  of  the 


imperial  regime  by  the  promise  of  conditions 
which  he  did  not  intend  or  was  unable  to  make 
good.  It  is  a  favorite  German  theme.  It  will  not 
withstand  critical  analysis.  When  the  German 
government  proposed  the  Fourteen  Points  as  the 
basis  of  peace,  they  might  have  insisted  upon  a 
clarification,  reserving  specific  rights.  Prince 
Max  knew  and  stated  that  the  Fourteen  Points 
meant  that  Germany  would  doubtless  lose  impor- 
tant territory,  Alsace-Lorraine,  the  Polish  cor- 
ridor, the  colonies.  He  wished  to  send  to  Wilson 
a  memorandum  asking  for  definite  guarantees. 
But  he  was  not  allowed  to  make  any  reservations 
lest  the  negotiations  be  broken  off.  The  repre- 
sentative of  the  Supreme  Command,  Haeften, 
declared  that  "the  definition  of  the  Fourteen 
Points  would  endanger  the  whole  armistice  ac- 
tion" (The  Memoirs  of  Prince  Max  of  Baden, 
1928,  II,  39).  Germany,  with  her  armies  still  in 
the  field,  preferred  to  take  her  chance  on  the 
Fourteen  Points  undefined,  rather  than  lose  the 
chance  of  peace.  There  is  in  all  this  no  question 
of  being  "lured  into  a  trap." 

Wilson  had  also  to  carry  on  a  diplomatic  con- 
test with  the  Allies.  Until  the  armistice  nego- 
tiations they  had  not  taken  the  Fourteen  Points 
seriously.  Clemenceau  had  not  even  read  them. 
The  general  disposition  in  the  Supreme  War 
Council  was  to  assume  that  their  acceptance  or 
refusal  should  be  left  to  the  Peace  Conference. 
Colonel  House,  acting  as  Wilson's  representa- 
tive on  the  Council,  insisted  that  Allied  approval 
of  the  Fourteen  Points  must  be  a  condition  prec- 
edent to  any  armistice.  Otherwise  there  would 
be  no  guarantee  whatever  against  terms  totally 
inconsonant  with  the  whole  Wilsonian  program. 
The  Allied  leaders  for  a  time  refused  to  give  for- 
mal or  informal  approval  to  the  Fourteen  Points. 
House  responded  with  the  threat  that  lacking 
such  approval  Wilson  would  be  forced  to  tell 
Germany  that  the  Allies  refused  the  basic  con- 
ditions, and  would  then  ask  the  American  Con- 
gress whether  the  war  should  continue  in  order 
to  enforce  European  terms,  although  the  Ameri- 
can terms  had  been  accepted  by  Germany.  The 
threat  proved  sufficient.  The  Allies  accepted  the 
Fourteen  Points  and  later  speeches  of  Wilson  as 
the  basis  of  the  peace,  with  one  elucidation  defin- 
ing the  meaning  of  "restoration,"  and  one  reser- 
vation providing  for  later  discussion  of  "freedom 
of  the  seas."  Wilson  accepted  both,  and  by  his 
note  of  Nov.  5  transmitted  to  Germany  the  quali- 
fied acceptance  by  the  Allies  of  the  basic  con- 
ditions of  peace.  Thus  was  completed  the  so-called 
Pre-armistice  Agreement.  On  Nov.  11,  the  Ger- 
man and  Allied  delegates  signed  the  armistice. 

Wilson  was  at  the  height  of  his  influence.  The 


363 


Wilson 

quondam  college  professor  had  become  the  great- 
est single  personal  force  in  the  world.  He  had 
led  the  United  States  to  victory  in  the  greatest 
war  of  history.  He  had  imposed  his  will  upon 
defeated  and  triumphant  Europeans.  He  was 
hailed  as  savior  by  the  populations  of  Central 
Europe,  freed  from  Hapsburg  and  Hohenzollern 
rule ;  he  was  the  apostle  of  British  liberals, 
French  artisans,  and  Italian  peasants.  Allied 
leaders  confessed  their  recognition  of  his  power 
by  their  anxiety  as  to  how  he  might  use  it.  But 
the  difficulties  of  capitalizing  victory  were  far 
greater  than  those  involved  in  winning  it.  Dur- 
ing four  years  the  mind  of  the  world  had  been 
turned  to  war,  and  it  was  impossible  to  create  an 
atmosphere  favorable  to  permanent  peace.  The 
sense  of  common  interest  forced  by  the  danger  of 
a  German  victory  evaporated  when  the  danger 
disappeared.  The  political  ideals  of  Wilson  could 
not  easily  be  transplanted  to  Europe ;  when  ap- 
plied to  specific  problems  they  might  or  might 
not  prove  practicable ;  and  they  involved  prin- 
ciples which  were  bound  to  contradict  each  other. 
At  this  critical  moment  Wilson  made  three 
mistakes,  the  bearing  of  which  was  only  later 
perceived.  He  was  regarded  by  Europe  as  po- 
litically supreme  in  the  United  States,  and  the 
belief  accounted  for  much  of  his  influence 
abroad.  But  in  the  November  elections  he  pub- 
licly made  of  Democratic  success  at  the  polls  a 
question  of  personal  confidence,  asking  the  voters 
to  choose  Democrats  as  an  indication  of  personal 
trust.  He  thus  abdicated  his  national  leadership 
to  assume  the  role  of  party  leader.  Democratic 
defeats  in  that  election  gave  the  appearance  of 
a  national  repudiation,  and  threw  control  of  the 
Senate  foreign  relations  committee  into  the 
hands  of  his  personal  enemies.  A  second  mistake 
lay  in  his  choice  of  a  peace  commission.  No 
member  of  the  Commission  really  represented 
either  the  Republican  party  or  the  Senate.  Wil- 
son lost  thereby  the  chance  of  winning  support 
from  his  domestic  opponents  and  stimulated  par- 
tisan opposition.  His  supreme  mistake  lay  in  his 
decision  to  go  to  the  Peace  Conference  in  per- 
son. "He  was  the  God  on  the  Mountain,"  writes 
Colonel  House,  "and  his  decisions  regarding  in- 
ternational matters  were  practically  final.  When 
he  came  to  Europe  and  sat  in  conference  with  the 
Prime  Ministers  and  representatives  of  other 
states,  he  gradually  lost  his  place  as  first  citizen 
of  the  world"  (Seymour,  American  Diplomacy, 
post,  p.  399).  Apart  from  these  mistakes  Wilson 
faced  detailed  difficulties.  Delays  in  the  calling 
of  the  Conference,  resulting  from  domestic  po- 
litical problems  in  Europe,  permitted  the  cooling 
of  idealistic  aspirations  and  the  development  of 


Wilson 

national  particularism.  The  political  leaders, 
himself  included,  failed  to  realize  the  vital  im- 
portance of  a  definite  program  and  a  carefully 
studied  organization  of  the  Conference.  The 
American  commission  was  ill-organized,  Amer- 
ican delegates  on  the  various  commissions  re- 
ceived no  regular  instructions,  and  the  American 
program  was  never  considered  and  developed 
comprehensively. 

In  spite  of  errors  and  difficulties  Wilson 
achieved  his  main  triumph  at  the  very  beginning 
of  the  Conference  by  forcing  acceptance  of  the 
League  of  Nations  Covenant  as  an  integral  part 
of  the  treaty  of  peace.  He  was  equally  success- 
ful in  leading  the  commission  chosen  to  draft  the 
Covenant  through  a  series  of  meetings  which 
culminated  in  unanimous  approval  of  a  version, 
which  on  Feb.  14,  1919,  he  read  to  a  plenary 
session  of  the  Conference.  When  he  sailed  for 
the  United  States  on  the  15th  he  felt  that  his 
main  work  had  been  accomplished. 

He  returned  a  month  later  to  find  in  Paris  a 
definitely  unfavorable  atmosphere.  When  gen- 
eral principles  were  applied  to  specific  questions 
it  became  clear  that  many  of  the  Wilsonian 
ideals  were  impracticable.  It  was  not  so  much 
a  conflict  between  obvious  right  and  wrong  as 
between  contradictory  rights.  Above  all  the  dis- 
cussion hung  the  cloud  of  industrial  unrest  and 
social  revolution,  making  it  vitally  important 
that  decisions  should  be  rapidly  reached  and  un- 
certainty dispelled.  Was  it  not  better  to  make  an 
inconsistent  decision,  trusting  to  the  League  of 
Nations  to  rectify  it,  rather  than  to  leave  the 
world  in  chaos  ? 

To  discover  that  in  their  application  his  prin- 
ciples were  at  variance  with  each  other,  to  adjust 
himself  to  the  necessity  of  compromise,  produced 
in  Wilson  a  violent  nervous  shock.  It  was  the 
worse  because  of  a  severe  attack  of  influenza  that 
struck  him  during  the  most  important  of  the 
April  negotiations.  For  a  moment  he  considered 
the  advisability  of  deserting  the  Conference  and 
leaving  Europe  to  settle  her  own  problems.  He 
ordered  the  George  Washington  to  be  in  readi- 
ness to  take  him  home.  But  such  a  desertion 
would  do  nothing  to  improve  the  state  of  Eu- 
rope, quite  the  contrary,  and  would  mean  the  end 
of  the  League.  If  he  stayed  on  and  refused  to 
accept  compromise,  even  though  he  might  com- 
pel Clemenceau,  Orlando,  and  Lloyd  George  to 
accept  his  own  detailed  solutions,  it  would  mean 
the  overthrow  of  their  governments  and  the  ap- 
pearance at  the  Conference  of  more  bitter  re- 
actionaries. When  he  tried  an  appeal  to  the  peo- 
ple, over  the  heads  of  the  delegates,  as  in  his 
Fiume  appeal  to  Italy,  he  was  openly  rebuffed  by 


364 


Wilson 


Wilson 


Italian  public  opinion  and  the  unity  of  the  Con- 
ference shaken.  A  firm  stand  against  the  Japa- 
nese meant  their  departure  from  the  Conference ; 
and  who  was  to  enforce  the  decisions  of  the  Con- 
ference against  them  in  the  Far  East  ? 

Thus  Wilson  was  forced  to  agree  to  a  series  of 
compromises  which  left  liberals  disappointed 
and  Germans  bitter.  Yet  the  necessity  of  the 
compromises  is  apparent  from  the  fact  that  the 
nationalists  in  both  France  and  Italy  were  equal- 
ly disappointed.  The  Fourteen  Points  were  cer- 
tainly disfigured,  but  without  them  and  Wilson 
the  treaties  would  have  been  far  less  liberal. 
Wilson  agreed  that  Germans  must  pay  in  ad- 
dition to  direct  damages  the  cost  of  pensions,  but 
he  saved  them  from  total  war  costs.  At  the  price 
of  promising  American  aid  to  France  in  case  of 
German  aggression,  in  conjunction  with  Great 
Britain,  he  prevented  the  separation  of  the  Rhine 
lands  from  Germany.  He  prevented  the  annexa- 
tion of  the  Saar  by  France  and  made  possible  its 
ultimate  return  to  Germany.  He  forced  the  sys- 
tem of  mandates  for  the  German  colonies.  He 
extracted  from  Japan  the  informal  promise  to 
return  Shantung  to  China  {House  Papers,  IV, 
453,  455).  Above  all  he  secured  the  adoption  of 
the  League  of  Nations  Covenant,  with  its  pro- 
visions for  open  diplomacy  through  the  registra- 
tion of  ^treaties,  progressive  limitation  of  arma- 
ment, an  international  court,  and  the  avoidance 
of  war.  Wilson's  failures  did  not  lie  in  the  terms 
of  the  Versailles  Treaty,  which  was  destined 
never  to  be  applied  as  designed.  His  failure  came 
later  in  America  when  his  defeat  by  the  Senate 
removed  the  essential  basis  of  that  treaty. 

Neither  Wilson  himself  nor  those  Americans 
who  accompanied  him,  as  they  returned  after  the 
signing  of  the  Versailles  Treaty,  felt  that  he  had 
been  defeated.  They  believed,  rather,  that  in 
view  of  the  difficulties  of  the  situation  he  had 
accomplished  a  larger  part  of  his  program  than 
might  have  been  expected.  There  remained  only 
the  problem  of  winning  the  approval  of  the 
United  States  Senate.  Properly  handled  that 
problem  was  far  less  difficult  than  many  solved 
by  Wilson  in  Europe.  Public  opinion  generally 
favored  the  League  and  cared  little  about  the  de- 
tails of  the  treaties.  The  League  was  supported 
by  outstanding  public  figures  such  as  Taft  and 
Root.  In  the  Senate  itself  Wilson  could  count  on 
the  support  of  all  but  a  few  Democrats  and  on 
the  majority  of  the  Republicans.  His  chief 
opponent,  Senator  Lodge,  hoped  to  add  some 
amendments  or  reservations,  but  not  to  defeat  the 
Treaty  and  the  Covenant.  The  balance  of  power 
was  held  by  a  group  of  moderates,  led  by  Kellogg 
and   McCumber,   who  desired   "mild"   reserva- 


tions that  would  not  touch  the  significance  of  the 
Covenant.  A  few  conciliatory  gestures  by  the 
President  would  have  sufficed  to  win  the  two- 
thirds  vote  necessary  to  ratification. 

Wilson's  attitude  was  not  conciliatory.  He 
intimated  to  the  Senate  committee  on  foreign 
relations  that  he  would  permit  no  changes  in 
Covenant  or  Treaty.  As  opposition  developed, 
his  tone  became  more  unyielding.  The  issue 
shifted  from  the  merits  of  the  Covenant  to  the 
question  of  authority  between  President  and 
Senate,  even  to  a  personal  quarrel  between  Wil- 
son and  Lodge,  chairman  of  the  committee.  In 
the  hope  of  winning  popular  support  Wilson  set 
forth  on  Sept.  3,  on  a  country-wide  tour  in  the 
course  of  which  he  made  some  thirty  speeches.  It 
ended  suddenly.  On  Sept.  25,  at  Pueblo,  physical- 
ly and  emotionally  exhausted,  he  was  threatened 
with  a  complete  nervous  collapse,  and  he  was 
hastily  brought  back  to  Washington.  For  three 
days  he  seemed  not  so  ill,  but  on  the  morning  of 
Oct.  2  Dr.  Grayson,  hurriedly  called  to  the 
White  House,  found  Wilson  physically  helpless. 
"The  President  is  paralyzed"  (Hoover,  post,  p. 
101).  His  life  was  saved,  but  for  weeks  that  fol- 
lowed he  was  incapable  of  transacting  official 
business.  Nor  for  months  could  he  undertake 
any  effort,  physical  or  mental,  that  required 
initiative. 

Wilson's  illness  was  a  hammer-blow  of  fate. 
Had  he  died,  it  seems  certain  that  his  successor 
would  have  made  the  compromises  with  the  Sen- 
ate necessary  to  ratification  of  the  Covenant. 
Had  he  recovered  sufficiently  to  receive  the  ad- 
vice of  those  in  touch  with  political  realities,  it 
is  possible  that  he  might  himself  have  perceived 
the  necessity  of  compromise.  But  completely  iso- 
lated from  the  political  situation  he  could  do  no 
more  than  maintain  his  earlier  position :  the 
Covenant  must  be  ratified  without  essential 
changes ;  the  reservations  introduced  by  Senator 
Lodge,  in  his  opinion,  would  nullify  it.  The  sup- 
porters of  the  Covenant  were  divided  between 
those  who  stood  behind  Wilson  and  the  "mild 
reservationists."  It  was  impossible  to  find  a 
two-thirds  majority  for  any  resolution  of  rati- 
fication. 

'In  the  winter,  hope  for  the  Covenant  again 
appeared.  Viscount  Grey,  whose  eloquent  let- 
ters in  19 1 5  had  seriously  influenced  Wilson  in 
favor  of  a  League,  was  sent  to  the  United  States 
as  special  ambassador.  For  weeks  he  waited, 
hoping  for  an  interview  with  the  sick  President. 
This  was  denied  him.  But  on  his  return  to  Eng- 
land, he  published  a  letter  in  which  he  stated  that 
the  success  of  the  League  demanded  the  adher- 
ence of  the  United  States;  if  such  adherence 


365 


Wilson 


Wilson 


depended  upon  the  inclusion  of  the  Lodge  reser- 
vations in  the  act  of  ratification,  they  ought  to 
be  accepted  by  Europe.  It  was  a  suggestion  to 
Wilson  that,  in  the  circumstances,  compromise 
with  Lodge  was  wise.  The  suggestion  was  not 
followed.  When  the  Treaty  and  Covenant  were 
once  more  introduced  into  the  Senate,  Wilson 
maintained  his  objections  to  the  Lodge  reserva- 
tions. He  advised  his  supporters  to  vote  against 
the  resolution  of  ratification  in  company  with  the 
bitter-end  opponents  of  any  league  whatsoever. 
Even  so,  the  two-thirds  necessary  to  ratification 
lacked  only  seven  votes.  So  close  was  the  United 
States  to  entering  the  League.  Thus  ironically 
did  fate  ordain  that  the  nation  should  be  kept  out 
of  the  League  at  the  orders  of  the  man  who  had 
done  more  than  any  other  to  create  it. 

Wilson's  statesmanship  cannot  be  fairly  ad- 
judged on  the  basis  of  the  handling  of  the  Treaty 
in  the  Senate.  His  nervous  and  physical  col- 
lapse was  complete.  From  the  time  of  his  April 
illness  in  Paris  there  were  many  indications  of 
a  progressive  breakdown  certain  to  affect  his 
political  judgment  and  his  personal  dealings  with 
men.  After  October,  he  lived  in  a  sick-room, 
emerging  merely  for  simple  recreation  or  purely 
formal  tasks  which  taxed  his  strength  to  a  point 
that  left  no  opportunity  for  reasoned  considera- 
tion of  difficult  questions.  The  President  was 
thus  divorced  from  political  realities.  Even 
Colonel  House  was  excluded,  though  there  was 
no  personal  quarrel.  Wilson  may  have  known 
nothing  of  House's  letters  to  him  ;  they  remained 
unanswered.  "I  feel  that  had  not  illness  over- 
taken the  President,  all  would  have  been  well," 
wrote  Ike  Hoover,  who  had  watched  closely  the 
relations  between  the  two  men  since  Wilson  en- 
tered the  White  House.  "He  needed  Colonel 
House,  and  in  a  way,  fully  realized  the  fact.  But 
this  illness  changed  the  entire  aspect  of  things" 
(Hoover,  p.  95).  The  political  effects  of  the 
separation  were  tremendous. 

For  three  years  after  the  end  of  his  term  of 
office,  Wilson  led  a  retired  life  in  Washington. 
He  formed  a  law  partnership  with  Bainbridge 
Colby,  but  his  physical  condition  permitted  no 
active  work.  He  was  seen  in  public  on  few  oc- 
casions. The  reaction  against  the  idealism  of  his 
own  administration  which  followed  the  Repub- 
lican victory  of  1920,  left  him  wrapped  in  dig- 
nified silence.  His  mind  was  clear  and  reason- 
ably active  but  the  physical  machine  was  broken. 
Tired  out,  no  longer  able  to  influence  opinion  as 
prophet  of  higher  political  aspirations,  he  con- 
fessed that  he  was  "tired  of  swimming  upstream" 
(Ibid.,  p.  108).  On  Sunday,  Feb.  3,  1924,  he  died 
in  his  sleep. 


Wilson  was  propelled  into  public  affairs  by  his 
natural  qualities  and  his  sense  of  responsibility 
for  their  use.  By  taste  and  inheritance  he  was 
designed  for  a  circumscribed,  quiet  life,  and  he 
was  probably  happiest  while  still  a  college  pro- 
fessor. His  personal  feelings  lay  close  under  the 
skin.  He  was  always  dependent  upon  the  help 
and  encouragement  he  received  from  his  domes- 
tic circle ;  his  craving  for  feminine  sympathy  is 
revealed  in  his  correspondence  with  Mrs.  Reid 
and  Mrs.  Peck,  friends  from  whom  he  constantly 
sought  a  purely  intellectual  understanding.  His 
first  wife  died  in  the  midst  of  the  European  War 
crisis  of  August  1914.  He  was  married  for  a 
second  time,  on  Dec.  18,  1915,  to  Edith  Boiling 
Gait  who  survived  him. 

Qualified  by  personal  and  intellectual  gifts  for 
the  public  life,  he  never  capitalized  them  fully. 
Of  rather  more  than  middle  height,  carefully 
dressed,  erect,  with  square  features  and  powerful 
jaw,  eyes  that  shifted  suddenly  from  merriment 
to  severity,  in  appearance  he  was  impressive  and 
attractive.  To  those  who  worked  closely  with 
him  he  displayed  a  magnetism  of  personality — 
genial,  humorous,  considerate — and  an  expansive 
wealth  of  mental  quality;  and  from  them  he 
evoked  admiration  and  affection.  But  in  dealing 
with  men  whom  he  did  not  like  or  did  not  trust 
Wilson  would  not  call  such  advantages  to  his 
service.  He  was  equipped  by  intellectual  stature, 
by  oratorical  capacity,  and  by  sincerity  of  emo- 
tion to  lead  a  nation  or  the  world ;  but  he  was 
handicapped  in  meeting  the  simplest  problem  of 
political  tactics  because  he  carried  into  public 
life  the  attitude  of  a  private  citizen.  Simple  in 
his  pleasures,  naturally  averse  to  heterogeneous 
gatherings,  interested  in  people  because  of  what 
they  were  rather  than  because  of  what  they  could 
do  to  help  or  hinder,  he  refused  many  of  the  sac- 
rifices of  exacting  taste  demanded  by  the  rough 
game  of  politics. 

Wilson's  prejudices  were  strong,  often  ill- 
founded,  and  he  would  not  yield  them  to  political 
exigencies.  Because  of  them  he  alienated  im- 
portant leaders  in  the  world  of  business  and  of 
journalism.  At  the  close  of  his  public  career  he 
was  generally  pictured  in  the  public  mind  as  a 
self-willed  and  arbitrary  egoist,  and  the  picture 
doubtless  accounts  for  his  personal  unpopularity 
after  the  Peace  Conference.  Most  of  the  bitter 
criticism  was  entirely  undeserved.  In  the  sense 
that  he  was  always  acutely  interested  in  his  own 
reactions  to  life,  he  might  be  termed  an  egoist, 
although  the  term  would  be  entirely  misleading 
if  it  implied  selfishness,  for  no  one  was  more 
considerate  of  the  feelings  and  interests  of  those 
around  him.  But  he  matched  himself  constantly 


366 


Wilson 


Wilson 


against  his  duties  and  his  opportunities,  and  was 
unsparing  in  self-criticism.  Sharply  sensitive  to 
the  sympathies  and  advice  of  those  for  whom  he 
cared,  he  had  little  respect  for  the  arguments  of 
personal  or  political  enemies. 

As  lecturer  and  writer  Wilson  had  a  genius 
for  simplification,  for  the  clarification  of  the  com- 
plex and  the  explanation  of  the  relation  of  things. 
These  qualities  he  carried  into  his  political 
speeches  and  they  account  in  part,  at  least,  for 
the  effect  he  exercised  upon  men's  minds  through 
his  oratory ;  as  he  would  say,  "by  utterance."  He 
never  sought  the  favor  either  of  undergraduates 
or  the  public  by  condescending  to  cheapness  of 
tone.  But  he  labored  incessantly  to  manufacture 
the  phrase  that  would  make  the  idea  appealing. 
Popular  approval  he  regarded  as  the  ultimate 
test.  Without  it  lectures,  articles,  or  speeches 
were  in  vain,  and  policies,  however  justifiable, 
futile.  By  personal  taste  an  aristocrat,  he  put  his 
faith  in  the  common  man  and  accepted  the  demo- 
cratic verdict  as  final. 

The  public  force  of  Wilson's  speeches  resulted 
only  in  part  from  clarity  of  expression  and 
piquancy  of  phrase ;  they  were  equally  character- 
ized by  strong  and  effective  moral  fervor.  His 
religious  feeling  was  never  separated  from  any 
aspect  of  his  life ;  he  strove  consciously  to  meas- 
ure everything  by  spiritual  rather  than  material 
values.  Publicly  as  well  as  privately  he  was  not 
afraid  to  make  an  absolute  distinction  between 
right  and  wrong.  Many  of  his  speeches  are  po- 
litical sermons.  Not  a  few  of  his  listeners  and 
readers  were  irritated  by  the  apparent  dogma- 
tism with  which  he  laid  down  judgments,  and 
contended  that,  like  his  favorite  Gladstone,  he 
claimed  an  intimacy  with  the  designs  of  Provi- 
dence that  could  scarcely  be  justified.  But  for 
the  masses  there  was  a  strong  appeal  in  the  ob- 
vious sincerity  of  his  conviction  that  a  policy 
should  be  adjudged  according  to  its  morality, 
that  the  more  power  an  individual  or  a  nation 
possessed  the  greater  was  the  obligation  to  avoid 
wrongdoing. 

Wilson's  political  philosophy  was  simple.  He 
was  a  liberal  individualist,  insistent  upon  the 
right  of  unprivileged  persons  and  small  nations 
to  be  freed  from  the  control  of  more  powerful 
groups.  The  principles  of  the  New  Freedom  as 
applied  to  tariff  and  currency  reform  or  labor 
legislation,  and  the  doctrine  of  self-determina- 
tion for  oppressed  nationalities  spring  from  the 
same  source.  He  looked  upon  his  policies  as 
primarily  policies  of  emancipation.  He  had  a 
good  deal  of  eighteenth-century  confidence  in  the 
virtues  of  the  natural  man;  a  feeling  that  if  the 
latter-day    abuses    of   privilege   and    despotism 


could  be  wiped  out,  both  domestic  and  interna- 
tional problems  could  be  set  on  the  road  to  solu- 
tion. Nor  did  he  admit  any  real  contradiction 
between  the  idea  of  freedom  and  the  restraint  oi 
law,  between  national  self-determination  and  in- 
ternational  control.  Just  as  the  liberty  of  the 
individual  is  assured  by  the  Constitution,  so  the 
independence  of  nations  can  be  guaranteed  by  a 
"concert  of  free  peoples."  Thus  he  was  able  to 
speak  of  the  League  of  Nations  as  "a  disentan- 
gling alliance." 

The  extraordinary  success  of  his  program  up 
to  a  certain  point,  whether  domestic  or  inter- 
national, was  facilitated  by  the  threatened  bank- 
ruptcy of  the  industrial  system  and  the  com- 
pleted bankruptcy  of  the  diplomatic  system.  His 
legislation  of  1913-14  rode  on  the  wave  of  the 
1912  reform  movement.  His  plea  for  interna- 
tional security,  reflecting  plans  already  sponsored 
by  Roosevelt,  Taft,  Root,  and  Grey,  was  driven 
home  to  the  hearts  of  the  people  by  the  tragic 
lessons  of  the  World  War.  It  was  Wilson,  how- 
ever, who  by  his  qualities  and  not  merely  because 
of  his  office,  capitalized  the  opportunity  and  wak- 
ened the  world  to  a  great  vision.  He  was  not 
able  to  transform  the  dream  into  fact.  But  just 
as  it  is  certain  that  the  nations  will  pursue  the 
hope  of  establishing  an  international  organiza- 
tion for  the  guarantee  of  peace,  so  it  is  certain 
that  Wilson  will  remain  historically  the  eminent 
prophet  of  that  better  world. 

[No  general  manuscript  collection  of  Wilson  papers 
has  as  yet  been  made  available  to  the  student.  The  un- 
published correspondence  of  Wilson  and  House  in  the 
Sterling  Library  at  Yale  Univ.  is  open  to  qualified  schol- 
ars. The  most  important  edition  of  published  papers  is 
R.  S.  Baker  and  W.  E.  Dodd,  The  Public  Papers  of 
Woodrow  Wilson  (6  vols.,  1925-27)  :  College  and  State 
(2  vols.)  ;  The  New  Democracy  (2  vols.)  ;  War  and 
Peace  (2  vols.).  For  Wilson's  writings,  see  Harry 
Clemons,  An  Essay  towards  a  Bibliography  of  the  Pub- 
lished Writings  and  Addresses  of  Woodrow  Wilson, 
1875-1910  (1913),  continued  to  cover  later  writings  by 
G.  D.  Brown  (1917)  and  H.  S.  Leach  (1922).  The  most 
important  of  Wilson's  literary  works  are  :  Congressional 
Government,  A  Study  in  American  Politics  (1885); 
The  State:  Elements  of  Historical  and  Practical  Poli- 
tics (1889)  ;  Division  and  Reunion,  1829-1889  (1893)  ; 
An  Old  Master  and  Other  Political  Essays  (1893)  ;  Mere 
Literature  and  Other  Essays  (1896)  ;  George  Washing- 
ton (1896)  ;  A  Hist,  of  the  American  People  (5  vols., 
1902)  ;  Constitutional  Government  in  the  U.  S.  (1908). 
His  campaign  speeches  of  1912  are  included  in  The  Next' 
Freedom  (1913).  A  convenient  edition  of  his  general 
papers  is  Selected  Literary  and  Political  Papers  and 
Addresses  of  Woodrow  Wilson  (3  vols.,  1925-27). 

The  most  important  general  biography  thus  far  un- 
dertaken and  based  upon  original  sources  is  R.  S.  Baker, 
Woodrow  Wilson:  Life  and  Letters  (5  vols.,  1927-35). 
It  covers  Wilson's  career  through  191 5.  Other  volumes 
are  in  preparation.  It  is  distinctly  favorable  in  tone 
and  includes  many  personal  letters.  Memoirs  and  cor- 
respondence of  those  close  to  Wilson  are  :  I.  H.  Hoover, 
Forty-two  Years  in  the  White  House  (1034)  :  I'.  '". 
Houston,  Eight  Years  with  Wilson's  Cabinet  (  2  vols., 
1926)  ;  Mary  A.  Hulbert,  The  Story  of  Mrs.  Peel::  An 
Autobiography  (1933)  ;  E.  G.  Reid,  Woodrow  Wilson: 


267 


Wilson 


Wiltz 


The  Caricature,  The  Myth,  and  the  Man  (1934); 
Charles  Seymour,  ed.,  The  Intimate  Papers  of  Colonel 
House  (4  vols.,  1926-28)  ;  J.  P.  Tumulty,  Woodrow 
H'ilson  as  I  Know  Him  (1921 ).  Brief  personal  appreci- 
ations are :  E.  A.  Alderman,  Woodrow  Wilson :  Memo- 
rial Address  Delivered  before  the  Two  Houses  of  Con- 
gress (1924);  Robert  Bridges,  Woodrow  Wilson:  A 
Personal  Tribute  (1924).  General  brief  biographical 
studies  are :  J.  R.  Boiling,  Chronology  of  Woodrow 
Wilson  (1927);  George  Creel,  The  War,  The  World 
and  Wilson  (1920);  Josephus  Daniels,  The  Life  of 
Woodrow  Wilson  (1924)  ;  W.  E.  Dodd,  Woodrow  Wil- 
son and  His  Work  (1920)  ;  W.  B.  Hale,  Woodrow  Wil- 
son: The  Story  of  a  Style  (1920)  ;  David  Lawrence, 
The  True  Story  of  Woodrow  Wilson  (1924)  ;  Charles 
Seymour,  Woodrow  Wilson  and  the  World  War 
(1921);  Wells  Wells,  Wilson  the  Unknown  (1931); 
W.  A.  White,  Woodrow  Wilson ;  The  Man,  His  Times, 
and  His  Task  (1924).  No  seriously  critical  study  of 
Wilson  has  been  published  ;  for  unfriendly  contempo- 
rary interpretation  see  J.  M.  Beck,  The  Passing  of  the 
New  Freedom  (1920)  ;  Theodore  Roosevelt,  The  Foes 
of  Our  Own  Household  (191 7).  Contemporary  foreign 
estimates  are  found  in  British  Government,  Peace 
Handbooks,  Issued  by  the  Historical  Section  of  the 
Foreign  Office,  vol.  XXV  (1920),  "President  Wilson's 
Policy"  ;  William  Archer,  The  Peace  President  (1919)  ; 
H.  W.  Harris,  President  Wilson :  His  Problems  and 
His  Policy  (19 17)  ;  A.  M.  Low,  Woodrow  Wilson,  An 
Interpretation  (1918)  ;  Daniel  Halevy,  Le  President 
Wilson  (1918). 

Memoirs  and  biographies  covering  the  general  politi- 
cal problems  of  the  Wilson  administration  are  :  Fred- 
erick Palmer,  Newton  D.  Baker  (2  vols.,  193 1)  ;  J.  H. 
Bernstorff,  My  Three  Years  in  America  (1920)  ;  W.  J. 
and  M.  B.  Bryan,  The  Memoirs  of  William  lennings 
Bryan  (1925)  ;  Constantin  Dumba,  Memoirs  of  a  Dip- 
lomat (1932)  ;  J.  W.  Gerard,  My  Four  Years  in  Ger- 
many (1917)  ;  Samuel  Gompers,  Seventy  Years  of  Life 
and  Labor  (2  vols.,  1925)  ;  J.  J.  Jusserand,  Le  senti- 
ment amcricain  pendant  la  guerre  ( 1 93 r )  ;  H.  H. 
Kohlsaat,  From  McKinlcy  to  Harding  (1923)  ;  A.  W. 
Lane,  ed.,  The  Letters  of  Franklin  K.  Lane,  Personal 
and  Political  (1922)  ;  War  Memoirs  of  Robert  Lansing 
(1935)  ;  T.  R.  Marshall,  Recollections  (1925)  ;  W.  G. 
McAdoo,  Crozvded  Years  (19 13)  ;  Henry  Morgenthau, 
Ambassador  Morgenthau' s  Story  (1918);  B.  J.  Hen- 
drick,  The  Life  and  Letters  of  Walter  H.  Page  (3  vols., 
1922-25)  ;  T.  N.  Page,  Italy  and  the  World  War 
(1920)  ;  W.  C.  Redfield,  With  Congress  and  Cabinet 
(1924)  ;  Stephen  Gwynn,  ed.,  The  Letters  and  Friend- 
ships of  Sir  Cecil  Spring  Rice  (2  vols.,  igsg')  ;  Her- 
mann Hagedorn,  Leonard  Wood,  a  Biography  (2  vols., 
1931). 

Contrasting  estimates  of  Wilson's  administration  at 
Princeton  are  given  in  H.  J.  Ford,  Woodrow  Wilson, 
the  Man  and  His  Work  (1916),  favorable;  and  R.  E. 
Annin,  Woodrow  Wilson,  a  Character  Study  (1924), 
critical  ;  see  also  Bliss  Perry,  And  Gladly  Teach  (193s)- 
The  Princeton  phase  has  yet  to  be  studied  adequately. 
For  Wilson's  early  years  in  politics,  see  James  Kerney, 
The  Political  Education  of  Woodrow  Wilson  (1926), 
a  critical  but  friendly  appreciation.  W.  F.  McCombs, 
Making  Woodrow  Wilson  President  (1921)  is  marred 
by  the  author's  egotistic  bitterness  and  should  be  read 
in  conjunction  with  M.  F.  Lyons,  William  F.  McCombs 
the  President  Maker  (1022).  On  the  handling  of  social 
and  economic  reform  see  N.  D.  Baker,  How  Woodrow 
Wilson  Met  Domestic  Questions  (1926?)  ;  The  Demo- 
cratic Text-Book,  1912;  Herbert  Croly,  Progressive 
Democracy  (1914)  ;  P.  M.  Warburg,  The  Federal  Re- 
serve System  (2  vols.,  1930)  ;  Carter  Glass,  An  Adven- 
ture in  Constructive  Finance  (1927). 

For  Wilson's  foreign  policy  the  official  sources  are 
numerous.  The  correspondence  with  the  belligerent 
governments  is  found  in  U.  S.  Dept.  of  State,  Papers 
Relating  to  the  Foreiqn  Relations  of  the  United  States. 
Supplement,  The  World  War,  1014  (1928) — 1918 
(1933);  Supplement,  Russia,  iQiX  (3  vols.,  1031-32). 
A  convenient  edition  is  that  published  by  the  Dept.  of 
State,  Diplomatic  Correspondence  between  the  United 


States  and  Belligerent  Governments  Relating  to  Neu- 
tral Rights  and  Duties  (19 16).  See  also  Carlton  Sav- 
age, Policy  of  the  U.  S.  toward  Maritime  Commerce 
and  War,  vol.  II  (1936),  a  State  Dept.  publication  con- 
taining many  documents  ;  74  Cong.,  2  Sess.,  Hearings 
of  the  Special  Committee  to  Investigate  the  Munitions 
Industry.  The  most  important  details  of  Wilson's  policy 
can  only  be  studied  from  his  private  letters,  of  which 
those  to  Colonel  House  are  the  most  important.  For 
the  German  attitude  see  Carnegie  Endowment  for  In- 
ternational Peace,  Official  German  Documents  Relating 
to  the  World  War  (2  vols.,  1923)  ;  for  Wilson's  policy 
on  the  peace  settlement,  J.  B.  Scott,  ed.,  Official  State- 
ments of  War  Aims  and  Peace  Proposals  (1921).  A 
general  study  of  Wilson's  foreign  policy,  not  covering 
the  Peace  Conference,  is  Charles  Seymour,  American 
Diplomacy  during  the  World  War  (1934)  ;  see  also  his 
American  Neutrality,  1014-1017  (1935).  Walter  Mil- 
lis,  Road  to  War:  America,  1014—1917  (1935),  is  a 
journalistic  treatment,  appreciative  of  Wilson's  dif- 
ficulties and  critical  of  his  advisers.  A  brief  contempo- 
rary survey  for  the  years  of  neutrality  with  conveniently 
arranged  documents  is  E.  E.  Robinson  and  V.  J.  West, 
The  Foreign  Policy  of  Woodrow  Wilson  (1917). 

The  most  important  survey  of  Wilson  at  the  Peace 
Conference  is  R.  S.  Baker,  Woodrow  Wilson  and  World 
Settlement  (3  vols.,  1922),  marred  by  its  eulogistic  tone 
and  lack  of  appreciation  of  European  conditions  but 
containing  many  documents.  The  most  comprehensive 
collection  of  documents  is  included  in  D.  H.  Miller,  My 
Diary  at  the  Conference  of  Paris  (21  vols.,  n.d.).  Im- 
portant memoirs  and  studies  on  American  policy  at 
Paris  are:  B.  M.  Baruch,  The  Making  of  the  Repara- 
tion and  Economic  Sections  of  the  Treaty  (1920); 
Georges  Clemenceau,  Grandeur  and  Misery  of  Victory 
(1930)  ;  E.  M.  House  and  Charles  Seymour,  eds.,  What 
Really  Happened  at  Paris  (1921)  ;  Sisley  Huddleston, 
Peace-Making  at  Paris  (1919);  J.  M.  Keynes,  The 
Economic  Consequences  of  the  Peace  (1920),  brilliant- 
ly and  unreliably  critical  of  Wilson  ;  Robert  Lansing, 
The  Big  Four  and  Others  of  the  Peace  Conference 
(1921),  and  The  Peace  Negotiations,  a  Personal  Nar- 
rative (1921)  ;  Harold  Nicolson,  Peacemaking,  iQig 
(1933)  ;  G.  B.  Noble,  Policies  and  Opinions  at  Paris, 
1019  (1935)  ;  Andre  Tardieu,  The  Truth  About  the 
Treaty  (1921)  ;  H.  W.  V.  Temperley,  ed.,  A  Hist,  of 
the  Peace  Conference  of  Paris  (6  vols.,  1920-24)  ; 
Gabriel  Terrail,  Le  Combat  des  Trois  (1932);  C.  T. 
Thompson,  The  Peace  Conference  Day  by  Day  (1920). 
For  the  origins  of  the  League  of  Nations  see  D..  H. 
Miller,  The  Drafting  of  the  Covenant  (2  vols.,  1928). 
Wilson's  speeches  on  the  League  are  collected  in  Wood- 
row  Wilson's  Case  for  the  League  of  Nations  (1923). 
For  the  conflict  with  the  Senate  see  C.  A.  Berdahl,  The 
Policy  of  the  United  States  with  Respect  to  the  League 
of  Nations  (1932)  ;  H.  C.  Lodge,  The  Senate  and  the 
League  of  Nations  (1925);  Charles  Seymour,  La 
Politique  dc  Wilson  et  le  Senat  (19251-  For  the  closing 
months  of  the  Wilson  administration,  aside  from  I.  H. 
Hoover,  ante,  see  G.  S.  Viereck,  The  Strangest  Friend- 
ship in  Historv,  Woodrow  Wilson  and  Colonel  House 
(1932)  ;  Bainbridge  Colby,  The  Close  of  Woodrow  Wil- 
son's Administration  (1930V]  C.  S — r. 

WILTZ,  LOUIS  ALFRED  (Oct.  22,  1843- 
Oct.  16,  1881),  governor  of  Louisiana,  was  born 
at  New  Orleans,  the  son  of  J.  B.  Theophile  and 
Louise  Irene  (Villaneuva)  Wiltz.  He  attended 
public  school  until  the  age  of  fifteen,  when  he  be- 
gan work  for  a  commercial  establishment.  At 
the  age  of  eighteen  he  joined  a  New  Orleans 
artillery  company,  and  he  saw  active  service  in 
the  Confederate  army,  becoming  a  captain,  a 
prisoner  of  war,  and,  after  being  exchanged,  a 
provost  marshal.  In  1862  he  married  Michael, 
the  daughter  of  Charles  G.  Bienvenu,  a  planter 


368 


Wimar 


Wimar 


of  St.  Martinville.  They  had  seven  children. 
After  the  war  he  became  an  accountant  in  his 
uncle's  commission  house,  a  partner  in  1871,  and, 
with  the  failure  of  the  house  in  1873,  a  banker. 
His  activities  were  not  limited  to  commercial 
pursuits,  however,  as  he  became  a  Democratic 
political  factor  in  stormy  days,  when  Demo- 
cratic leadership  required  both  alertness  and 
even  physical  boldness.  He  was  a  member  of 
both  the  parish  and  the  state  central  committees 
of  his  party  and  was  elected  to  the  state  legisla- 
ture in  1868.  At  the  same  time  he  was  made  a 
member  of  the  New  Orleans  common  council  and 
a  school  director.  He  became  president  of  the 
city  board  of  aldermen.  He  was  defeated  in  the 
election  for  mayor  of  New  Orleans  in  1870,  elect- 
ed in  1872,  and  defeated  for  reelection  in  1874. 
As  mayor  he  endeavored  in  vain  to  straighten 
out  the  city  financial  chaos,  particularly  the  pol- 
icy of  issuing  temporary  obligations  or  certifi- 
cates against  anticipated  tax  receipts.  He  was 
interested  in  giving  effect  to  the  will  of  John 
McDonogh  [q.v.],  who  had  willed  property  to 
the  city  for  schools.  In  1874  he  issued  from  New 
Orleans  The  Great  Mississippi  Flood  of  1S74  .  .  . 
A  Circular  . . .  to  the  Mayors  of  American  Cities 
and  Towns  and  to  the  Philanthropic  throughout 
the  Republic.  .  .  . 

He  was  returned  to  the  legislature  in  1874  and 
was  the  successful  candidate  for  speaker  in  1875, 
supported  by  the  Democrats  who  acted  with  sur- 
prising speed  and  unity  against  the  "Radical" 
Republican  group  that  had  the  support  of  Gov. 
William  Pitt  Kellogg  [q.v.~\.  He  was  a  man  of 
force,  a  good  speaker,  and  able  to  preside  in  spite 
of  the  presence  of  police,  military  men,  pistols, 
and  gubernatorial  displeasure.  He  was  elected 
lieutenant-governor  in  1876  on  the  ticket  with 
Gov.  Francis  T.  Nicholls  [q.v.]  and  with  him 
took  office,  when  President  Hayes  withdrew  fed- 
eral troops  from  Louisiana.  In  1879  he  served  as 
president  of  the  state  constitutional  convention, 
and  in  the  same  year  he  was  elected  governor. 
He  died  in  office,  of  tuberculosis,  and  was  buried 
with  the  rites  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church. 

[Alcee  Fortier,  Louisiana  (1909),  vol.  II  ;  J.  S.  Ken- 
dall, Hist,  of  New  Orleans  (1922),  vol.  I  ;  Constitution 
of  the  State  of  Louisiana  .  .  .  1879  (1879)  ;  J.  H.  Ken- 
nard,  Argument ,  with  Statement  of  Facts  .  .  .  to  Show 
that  .  .  .  L.  A.  Wiltz  .  .  .  Was  Lawfully  Elected  .  .  . 
Speaker  (1875)  ;  Daily  Picayune  (New  Orleans),  Oct. 
16-18,  1881  ;  date  of  birth  from  statement  concerning 
record  of  the  board  of  health  in  New-Orleans  Times, 
Oct  18,  1881,  p.  8,  col.  4]  H.C.N. 

WIMAR,  CARL  (Feb.  19, 1828-Nov.  28, 1862), 
frontier  painter,  baptized  Karl  Ferdinand,  was 
born  in  Siegburg,  near  Bonn,  Germany,  the  son 
of  Ludwig  Gottfried  and  Elizabete  (Schmitz) 
Wimar.   At  the  age  of  fifteen  he  emigrated  with 


his  mother,  then  Mrs.  Mathias  Becker,  to  St. 
Louis,  Mo.,  where  his  stepfather  had  gone  in 
1839.  The  shy  boy  was  fascinated  by  the  west- 
ern life  and  soon  became  attached  to  the  Indians 
who  visited  the  bustling  trading  post.  His  ar- 
tistic talent,  manifested  at  school  in  Germany, 
began  to  develop  when  he  was  apprenticed  to  an 
ornamental  artist,  and  his  imaginative  decora- 
tions crossed  the  plains  on  covered  wagons,  on  the 
carriages  of  medicine  peddlers,  and  went  up  and 
down  the  Mississippi  on  steamboats.  In  1849  ne 
received  word  that  he  had  been  bequeathed  a 
sizeable  sum  by  a  cultured  Pole,  who  had  been 
impressed  by  the  boy's  ambition  when  as  a 
stricken  traveler  the  foreigner  was  cared  for  in 
the  Becker  home  in  St.  Louis.  This  enabled 
Wimar  to  go  in  1852  to  Diisseldorf  where  he 
studied  five  years,  first  under  Joseph  Fay  and 
then  with  Emanuel  Leutze  \_q.r.~].  To  this  so- 
journ abroad  belong  some  of  his  best-known 
paintings,  including  "The  Capture  of  Daniel 
Boone's  Daughter,"  one  of  a  series ;  "Attack  on 
an  Emigrant  Train,"  awarded  first  prize  at  the 
St.  Louis  fair  in  1869  and  shown  in  the  retro- 
spective exhibit  of  the  World's  Columbian  Ex- 
position in  1893 ;  and  "The  Captive  Charger," 
which,  after  many  years  in  private  hands  in  Lon- 
don, was  presented  in  1925  to  the  City  Art  Mu- 
seum, St.  Louis.  This  museum  possesses  also 
four  other  paintings  by  Wimar.  His  "Buffalo 
Hunt  by  Indians,"  painted  the  next  year  for 
Henry  T.  Blow,  won  praise  from  William  F. 
Cody  [qq.t'.~\  as  a  faithful  picturization  of  the 
hunts  held  by  certain  tribes.  This  work,  prob- 
ably Wimar's  best,  hangs  in  the  Jefferson  Memo- 
rial, Forest  Park,  St.  Louis. 

On  returning  from  Germany,  Wimar  found 
that  the  Indians  had  virtually  stopped  visiting 
St.  Louis.  More  anxious  than  ever  to  paint  them, 
he  made  at  least  three  trips  on  steamboats  of 
the  American  Fur  Company  to  trading  posts 
on  the  upper  Missouri  and  Yellowstone  Rivers. 
These  expeditions  brought  him  into  contact  with 
Crows,  Yanktons,  Brules,  Poncas,  and  Mandans, 
and  yielded  sketches  and  rude  photographs  from 
which  he  painted  in  winter.  Friendly  ways  won 
him  the  esteem  of  his  red-skinned  subjects,  who 
showered  him  with  costumes,  weapons,  imple- 
ments, and  trinkets  which  he  studied  minutely 
in  order  to  have  his  detail  exact.  He  painted 
fellow-townsmen  for  a  livelihood,  but  every  pos- 
sible free  moment  he  gave  to  depicting  the  life 
of  the  Indians  and  the  West. 

Wimar's  last  work  was  to  decorate  the  St. 
Louis  courthouse  with  four  historical  panels. 
For  this  work,  long  since  ruined  by  inexpert 
renovation,  he  and  his  half-brother,  August  H. 


369 


Wi  miner 


Wimmer 


Becker,  employed  at  the  instance  of  William 
Taussig  [qs:],  received  $1000.  Stricken  with 
"consumption,"  Wimar  had  to  be  lifted  to  the 
scaffold  as  the  project  neared  the  end,  and  upon 
its  completion  he  died.  He  was  thirty-five  years 
of  age.  His  widow,  previously  Anna  von  Sen- 
den  of  St.  Louis,  to  whom  he  had  been  married 
on  Mar.  7,  1861,  later  became  the  wife  of  Charles 
Schleiffarth.  An  only  child,  named  Winona,  died 
two  years  after  her  father.  His  high  cheek  bones, 
tanned  skin,  pigeon-toed,  shambling  gait,  trapper 
clothes,  and  long  black  hair  led  many  to  believe 
the  artist  himself  an  Indian.  Wimar  was  a  good 
draughtsman  and  vivid  colorist,  but  his  paint- 
ings, like  those  of  George  Catlin  [g.t'.j,  are  val- 
uable chiefly  as  historical  and  ethnological  rec- 
ords. "It  is  Wimar's  distinction  as  an  artist," 
said  the  Review  of  Reviews  a  half  century  after 
his  death  (Feb.  1909,  p.  262),  "that  he  early  ap- 
preciated and  made  pictorial  use  of  materials 
that  his  contemporary  artists  practically  ig- 
nored." 

[Parents  and  date  of  birth  from  baptismal  records 
in  Siegburg ;  information  from  Chas.  Reymershoffer 
and  L.  H.  Cannon  of  St.  Louis,  Mo. ;  W.  R.  Hodges, 
Carl  Wimar  (1908),  and  an  article  by  same  author,  Am. 
Art  Rev.,  Mar.  1881  ;  Arts  in  St.  Louis  (1864),  ed.  by 
W.  T.  Helmuth  ;  F.  C.  Shoemaker,  Missouri's  Hall  of 
Fame  (19 18)  ;  Wm.  Hyde,  H.  L.  Conard,  Encyc.  Hist, 
of  St.  Louis  (1899)  ;  Herman  ten  Kate,  "On  Paintings 
of  North  American  Indians  .  .  .,"  Anthropos,  Revue 
Internationale  (Vienna),  May-Aug.  191 1;  L.  M.  C. 
Kinealy,  biog.  article  in  Mirror  (St.  Louis),  Feb.  18, 
1909;  Mo.  Republican,  Sept.  20,  i860,  July  4,  Dec.  1, 
1862;  Daily  Mo.  Democrat,  St.  Louis  Daily  Union, 
Dec.  1,  1862;  Westliche  Post  (St.  Louis),  Sept.  29, 
1886;  St.  Louis  Globe-Democrat,  Nov.  20,  1887,  Mar. 
5,  1889;  St.  Louis  Republic,  Nov.  18,  1894,  Feb.  5, 
1905  ;  St.  Louis  Post-Dispatch,  Feb.  22,  1903.]       j  j)_ 

WIMMER,  BONIFACE  (Jan.  14,  1809-Dec. 
8,  1887),  Roman  Catholic  archabbot,  was  born 
at  Thalmassing,  Bavaria,  where  his  parents, 
Peter  Wimmer  and  Elizabeth  Lang,  kept  a  tav- 
ern and  tilled  a  small  farm.  The  boy,  who  was 
christened  Sebastian,  at  fourteen  entered  the 
Latin  school  at  Regensburg,  and  at  seventeen  the 
seminary  there  to  study  for  the  priesthood.  In 
1827  he  matriculated  at  the  University  of  Munich. 
After  two  years  he  decided  to  study  law  and  even 
thought  of  enlisting  in  the  Bavarian  army  of  vol- 
unteers in  the  war  for  Greek  independence,  when 
he  received  a  scholarship  at  the  Georgianum,  a 
boarding-school  for  divinity  students.  Resum- 
ing his  theological  studies,  he  was  ordained  priest 
at  Regensburg  on  Aug.  1,  1831.  On  Dec.  29, 
1833,  he  made  his  solemn  vows  as  a  Benedictine 
at  the  monastery  of  Metten,  taking  the  name  of 
Boniface.  For  the  next  twelve  years  he  held  vari- 
ous positions  as  pastor  of  Stephansposching, 
procurator  of  Scheyern,  and  professor  in  Metten, 
Augsburg,  and  Munich. 


As  early  as  1843  he  asked  permission  to  go  to 
the  United  States  to  minister  to  the  emigrant 
Catholic  Germans.  Among  other  things,  a  con- 
ference in  Munich  with  Peter  Henry  Lemke 
[q.v.~\,  pastor  of  Carrolltown,  Pa.,  ripened  his 
plan  of  founding  a  Benedictine  monastery  for 
that  purpose,  and  on  July  25,  1846,  he  left  Munich 
with  four  ecclesiastical  students  and  fourteen 
young  laymen.  Landing  in  New  York,  Sept.  16, 
he  went  first  to  Carrolltown,  where  he  had 
bought  a  farm  before  leaving  home.  When  he 
found  this  ill-suited,  he  accepted  the  offer  of 
Bishop  Michael  O'Connor  of  Pittsburgh  to  set- 
tle on  the  church-lands  of  St.  Vincent  in  West- 
moreland County,  Pa.  On  Oct.  24,  1846,  he  in- 
vested his  eighteen  companions  with  the  religious 
habit,  a  ceremony  which  marked  the  beginning 
of  the  Benedictine  Order  in  the  United  States. 
During  the  following  winter  the  community  suf- 
fered much  in  the  scattered  little  buildings,  but 
in  1847  new  arrivals  and  fresh  supplies  from 
home  increased  the  hope  for  success,  and  the  Su- 
perior petitioned  Rome  to  approve  the  foundation 
as  a  Benedictine  monastery.  In  1848  he  started 
a  college  and  seminary,  and  a  year  later  began  to 
build  a  more  spacious  cloister.  From  that  time 
to  the  end  of  his  life,  building  operations  rarely 
ceased  at  St.  Vincent.  He  also  took  over  the 
parish  at  St.  Vincent  and  whenever  possible 
made  missionary  tours  through  western  Penn- 
sylvania. In  a  trip  abroad  he  succeeded  in  pro- 
curing the  first  Benedictine  nuns  from  the  con- 
vent of  Eichstaett  (1852).  Three  years  later  he 
applied  to  Rome  to  raise  his  foundation  to  the 
rank  of  an  abbey;  on  Aug.  24,  1855,  Pope  Pius 
IX  granted  his  petition  and  appointed  him  the 
first  abbot.  At  that  time  the  monastery  had  al- 
most one  hundred  and  fifty  members. 

The  new  abbot  sent  men  to  Minnesota  (1856) 
to  found  a  priory  (now  St.  John  Abbey  and  Uni- 
versity), to  Kansas  (1857),  where  they  began 
St.  Benedict  Abbey  and  College  at  Atchison, 
and  to  San  Jose,  Tex.,  where  they  established  a 
foundation  given  up  during  the  Civil  War.  At 
about  the  same  time  other  houses  were  estab- 
lished at  Carrolltown  (1848),  St.  Marys  (1851), 
and  Johnstown,  Pa.  (1852),  Covington,  Ky. 
(1858),  Erie,  Pa.  (1859),  Chicago,  111.  (1861), 
Richmond,  Va.  (1867),  and  Pittsburgh,  Pa. 
(1868).  In  1870,  as  president  of  the  American- 
Cassinese  Congregation,  which  he  had  founded 
(1866),  Wimmer  attended  the  Vatican  Council 
in  Rome.  During  the  next  ten  years  he  began  a 
monastery  in  North  Carolina  (later  Belmont 
Abbey  and  College),  sent  missionaries  to  Ala- 
bama who  paved  the  way  for  St.  Bernard  Abbey 
and  College,  Cullman,  and  founded  an  agricul- 


370 


Winans 


Winans 


tural  school  for  negroes  on  Skidaway  Island, 
near  Savannah,  Ga.  This  last,  which  was  espe- 
cially dear  to  him,  did  not  prosper.  In  1883,  when 
Wimmer  celebrated  the  golden  jubilee  of  profes- 
sion, Pope  Leo  XIII  conferred  on  him  the  title 
of  archabbot  and  the  privilege  of  wearing  the 
cappa  magna  for  pontifical  functions.  At  that 
time  his  missionaries  were  in  twenty-five  states 
of  the  Union,  ministering  to  over  100,000  souls, 
especially  among  Germans,  Irish,  Italians,  In- 
dians, and  negroes.  During  the  last  period  of  his 
life  Wimmer  also  educated  boys  from  Bohemia  to 
become  missionaries  among  their  countrymen, 
and  in  1885  founded  a  priory  in  Chicago  (later 
St.  Procopius  Abbey,  Lisle,  111.).  In  1886  he 
sent  Fathers  to  Colorado  who  established  a  priory 
which  became  Holy  Cross  Abbey,  Canon  City. 
On  his  deathbed  he  gave  consent  to  a  foundation 
in  Ecuador,  South  America,  which  was  later  dis- 
continued. Of  middle  stature  and  robust  ex- 
terior, Wimmer  was  a  man  of  a  very  practical 
mind  and  marked  determination.  In  the  begin- 
ning of  his  career  he  had  to  oppose  an  exag- 
gerated asceticism  on  the  part  of  some  of  his 
followers  and  the  attempt  of  the  Ordinary  of  the 
diocese  to  limit  his  activities.  In  1858  a  religious 
charlatan  who  succeeded  in  entering  the  ranks  of 
his  monks  and  who  used  the  tendency  of  the 
prelate  towards  mysticism  for  his  personal  ad- 
vantage almost  disrupted  his  work  and  had  to  be 
expelled  (1862).  In  general,  the  abbot  believed 
that  missionary  activity  would  revive  the  former 
glory  of  his  order.  He  himself  never  considered 
earthly  gain,  and  the  poorer  the  petitioners,  the 
surer  they  were  of  obtaining  help. 

[Oswald  Moosmiiller,  St.  Vincenz  in  Pennsylvanien 
(1873),  and  Bonifas  Wimmer  (1891);  St.  Vincenz 
Gemeinde  and  Erzabtei  (1905)  and  St.  Vincent's 
(1905),  pamphlets  published  by  the  Archabbey  Press; 
IVissenschaftliche  Studicn  mid  Mitthcilungen  aus  dent 
Benedictiner-Ordcn  (1881),  vol.  I,  pp.  v-xiv,  vol.  II, 
PP-  35i~6i  ;  Gerard  Bridge,  Early  St.  Vincent  (1920); 
S.  J.  Wimmer,  in  Records  Am.  Cath.  Hist.  Soc,  vol. 
Ill  (1891);  Felix  Fellner,  Ibid.,  Dec.  1926,  pp.  299- 
301  ;  obituary  in  Studicn  und  Mitthcilungen  aus  dem 
Benedictiner — und  dem  Cistercicnser-Orden,  vol.  IX 
(1888)  ;  letters  of  Wimmer  in  St.  Vincent  archives.] 

F.F. 

WINANS,  ROSS  (Oct.  17,  1796-Apr.  11, 
1877),  inventor  and  mechanic,  was  sixth  in  de- 
scent from  Jan  Wynants,  who  came  to  America 
from  the  Netherlands  about  1662.  The  seventh 
child  of  William  and  Mary  Winans,  first  cousins, 
Ross  was  born  on  a  farm  in  Sussex  County,  N.  J. 
He  received  a  good  common-school  education  and 
while  on  a  journey  to  New  York  City  picked  up 
a  book  which  led  him  to  a  study  of  mechanical 
principles.  In  Baltimore  in  1828  to  sell  horses 
to  the  new  Baltimore  &  Ohio  Railroad  (Hunger- 
ford,  post,  I,  yy),  he  became  interested  in  the 


problems  of  the  new  system  of  transportation, 
and  devised  a  model  "rail  wagon,"  having  the 
"friction  wheel"  with  outside  bearings,  thus  set- 
ting, for  at  least  a  century,  the  distinctive  pattern 
for  railroad  wheels.  In  Winans'  model  car  in 
one  of  the  upper  rooms  of  the  Exchange,  the 
venerable  Charles  Carroll  [q.v.]  of  Carrollton, 
in  the  presence  of  most  of  the  prominent  men  of 
Baltimore,  was  drawn  along  a  track  on  the  floor 
by  a  ridiculously  small  weight  suspended  over  a 
pulley  by  twine.  Shortly  afterward,  when  George 
W.  Whistler,  Jonathan  Knight,  and  William  G. 
McNeill  [qq.v.]  were  sent  abroad  by  the  railroad 
company  to  study  the  railroad  system  of  England, 
Winans  went  also.  While  abroad  he  allowed  his 
patent  wheel  to  be  used  for  experimentation,  with 
the  result  that  he  was  ruthlessly  plundered  of  its 
most  valuable  feature. 

Upon  his  return  he  entered  the  service  of  the 
Baltimore  &  Ohio  as  engineer  (1829-30),  assist- 
ing Peter  Cooper  [q.v.~\  with  his  famous  Tom 
Thumb  engine.  As  a  member  of  the  firm  of  Gil- 
lingham  &  Winans,  about  1834  he  took  charge 
of  the  Mount  Clare  shops  of  the  railroad  com- 
pany, devoting  the  next  twenty-five  years  to  the 
improvement  of  railroad  machinery.  He  planned 
the  first  eight-wheel  car  ever  built  for  passenger 
purposes  and  is  credited  with  the  innovation  of 
mounting  a  car  on  two  four-wheeled  trucks.  In 
1842  he  constructed  a  locomotive  known  as  the 
Mud-Digger,  with  horizontal  boiler ;  it  was  put 
into  service  in  1844.  In  T848  he  produced  the 
heavy  and  powerful  "camelback"  locomotive, 
noted  for  power  on  steep  grades.  Unlike  most 
inventors,  Winans  was  eminently  practical ;  at 
his  shop  more  than  one  hundred  locomotives 
were  constructed  for  the  Baltimore  &  Ohio  com- 
pany during  the  period  when  the  "camelback" 
was  in  favor.  In  time,  however,  the  company 
decided  that  locomotives  of  less  weight  were 
more  economical  on  the  rails.  Numerous  pam- 
phlets and  bitter  newspaper  communications  to 
prove  the  superiority  of  his  "camelback"  proved 
unavailing  in  the  face  of  experience,  and  about 
i860  Winans  retired  from  locomotive  building. 
Meanwhile,  in  1843  be  had  been  invited,  doubt- 
less through  Whistler's  influence,  to  go  to  Russia 
to  furnish  rolling  stock  for  the  railroad  between 
Moscow  and  St.  Petersburg.  He  declined,  but 
sent  his  sons  Thomas  De  Kay  Winans  [q.v.] 
and  William  in  his  stead. 

During  the  Civil  War  his  sympathies  were 
with  the  Confederacy.  He  experimented  with  a 
steam  gun,  which  was  seized  by  the  Union  troops 
onthesuspicionthat  itwas  intended  for  the  South. 
As  a  member  of  the  Maryland  legislature  which 
met  in  Frederick  in  1861,  he  shared  in  the  mis- 

371 


Winans 

fortunes  of  that  body.  He  was  twice  arrested,  in 
May  and  September  1861,  and  twice  released  on 
parole. 

In  his  later  years  Winans  and  his  family  spent 
an  immense  sum  on  the  development  of  the 
"cigar-steamer,"  a  long,  narrow  vessel  which  left 
the  shape  of  its  hull  as  a  heritage  to  the  mod- 
ern ocean  liner.  He  was  much  interested  in 
projects  for  improving  Baltimore,  and  published 
numerous  pamphlets  on  problems  of  local  hy- 
giene and  water  supply.  He  also  wrote  several 
unorthodox  works  on  religious  subjects,  the  most 
significant  of  which  was  One  Religion:  Many 
Creeds  (1870).  He  erected,  as  a  philanthropy, 
more  than  a  hundred  houses  for  rental  at  mod- 
erate rates  to  working  people,  but  his  invest- 
ment of  over  $400,000  proved  ultimately  a  failure. 
He  married  twice :  first,  Jan.  22,  1820,  Julia  De 
Kay  of  New  Jersey,  who  died  in  1850  ;  second,  in 
1854,  Elizabeth  K.  West  of  Baltimore.  He  had 
four  sons  and  a  daughter,  Julia,  who  became  the 
wife  of  George  W.  Whistler,  Jr.,  half-brother  of 
the  artist  James  McNeill  Whistler  [q.v.~\. 

[Baltimore  American  and  Commercial  Advertiser, 
and  Sun  (Baltimore),  Apr.  12,  1877;  Baltimore  News, 
Apr.  12,  18,  191 1  ;  J.  T.  Scharf,  Hist,  of  Baltimore  City 
and  County  (1881)  ;  J.  E.  Semmes,  John  H.  B.  Latrobe 
and  His  Times  ( 19 1 7)  ;  Edward  Hungerford,  The  Story 
of  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad  (1928);  manu- 
script geneal.  in  the  possession  of  the  Md.  Hist.  Socv 
which  has  also  a  volume  of  Winans  pamphlets  thought 
to  be  complete  ;  Winans  MSS.  in  the  possession  of  Regi- 
nald Hutton,  Esq.,  a  descendant,  in  Baltimore,  consist- 
ing of  letters,  diaries,  account-books,  and  miscellaneous 
papers  bearing  on  numerous  patents  ;  Annual  Reports 
of  the  Baltimore  &  Ohio  Railroad.]  E.L. 

WINANS,  THOMAS  DE  KAY  (Dec.  6, 
1820-June  10,  1878),  engineer  and  inventor,  eld- 
est son  of  Ross  Winans  \_q.v.~\  and  Julia  (De 
Kay)  Winans,  was  born  at  Vernon,  N.  J.,  but 
was  taken  to  Baltimore  when  but  ten  years  old. 
Inheriting  his  father's  mechanical  tastes,  he  was 
apprenticed,  after  a  common-school  education, 
to  a  machinist,  under  whom  he  displayed  such 
skill  that  before  he  attained  his  majority  he  was 
intrusted  with  the  headship  of  a  department  in 
his  father's  establishment.  Indeed,  when  he  was 
scarcely  eighteen  years  old,  he  had  been  charged 
with  the  delivery  of  some  engines  for  the  Boston 
&  Albany  Railroad,  and  while  executing  this 
commission  is  said  to  have  first  met  George  W. 
Whistler  [q.v.'],  who  was  afterwards  called  to 
Russia  as  consulting  engineer  of  the  projected 
railroad  from  St.  Petersburg  to  Moscow.  In 
1843  Ross  Winans  declined  Whistler's  invita- 
tion to  take  charge  of  the  mechanical  department 
of  the  Russian  railroad,  but  sent  his  sons,  Thomas 
and  William,  to  St.  Petersburg  in  his  place,  com- 
missioning them  with  the  delivery  of  a  locomo- 
tive built  for  the  Russian  road. 


Winans 

With  Joseph  Harrison  [q.v.},  a  member  of  the 
Philadelphia  firm  of  Eastwick  &  Harrison,  loco- 
motive builders,  Thomas  Winans,  against  the 
competition  of  all  foreign  bidders,  secured  the 
contract  to  equip  the  Russian  railroad  in  five 
years  with  locomotives  and  other  rolling  stock. 
The  firm  of  Harrison,  Winans  &  Eastwick,  or- 
ganized for  the  Russian  enterprise,  established 
shops  at  Alexandrovsky,  near  St.  Petersburg,  and 
completed  their  contract  more  than  a  year  before 
the  time  agreed  upon.  One  contract  led  to  an- 
other, so  that  orders,  approximating  nearly  $2,- 
000,000,  which  included  all  the  cast  iron  for  the 
first  permanent  bridge  over  the  Neva  River  at 
St.  Petersburg,  were  added  to  the  original  award 
of  $5,000,000,  and  the  contemplated  visit  of  a 
few  months  was  prolonged  to  a  residence  of  five 
years.  In  Russia,  on  Aug.  23,  1847,  Winans 
married  Celeste  Revillon,  a  Russian  of  French 
and  Italian  descent.  They  had  four  children,  of 
whom  only  two  survived  their  father.  In  1851 
he  returned  to  America,  leaving  his  brother  to 
fulfill  the  remaining  contracts,  which  were 
completed  by  1862.  In  1866  the  firm,  including 
George  W.  Whistler,  Jr.,  now  Winans'  brother- 
in-law,  was  recalled  to  Russia  under  a  new  con- 
tract of  eight  years'  duration,  but  in  1868  the 
government  took  over  their  interests  by  the  pay- 
ment of  a  large  bonus. 

With  the  exception  of  visits  to  Europe,  Win- 
ans thenceforth  resided  in  Baltimore  at  "Alex- 
androffsky,"  the  house  he  had  begun  to  construct 
in  1853,  named  in  memory  of  his  Russian  experi- 
ence. To  a  country  residence  near  Baltimore  he 
gave  the  name  "Crimea."  On  but  two  occasions 
did  he  emerge  from  his  retirement :  upon  the 
completion  of  the  Baltimore  &  Ohio  Railroad  he 
consented  to  serve  as  a  director  in  order  to  lend 
it  the  benefit  of  his  skill  and  experience ;  and  at 
the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War  in  1861  he  estab- 
lished a  soup  station  opposite  his  home,  where 
four  thousand  persons  were  fed  daily.  Inven- 
tion remained  his  favorite  pastime,  and  for  many 
years  he  conducted  elaborate,  costly,  and  gen- 
erally successful  experiments  of  the  most  diverse 
kinds.  Particularly  noteworthy  was  the  cigar- 
shaped  hull  which  he  and  his  father  devised  in 
1859,  designed  for  high-speed  steamers  in  trans- 
Atlantic  service.  Among  other  products  of  his 
mechanical  genius  were  a  device  which  made  the 
organ  as  easy  of  touch  as  the  piano,  a  mode  of 
increasing  the  strength  and  volume  of  sound  on 
the  piano,  an  improvement  in  ventilation  which 
he  applied  at  "Alexandroffsky,"  glass  feeding 
vessels  for  fish,  adopted  by  the  Maryland  Fish 
Commission,  and  an  ingenious  use  of  the  undula- 
tion of  the  waves  to  pump  the  water  of  a  spring 


372 


Winans 

to  the  reservoir  at  the  top  of  his  villa  at  New- 
port, R.  I.  Compared  with  his  father's  practical 
inventions,  these  might  be  termed  the  divertisse- 
ments of  a  gentleman  of  leisure.  In  addition  to 
his  mechanical  gifts,  he  had  a  natural  skill  in 
clay-modeling.  He  died  at  Newport,  in  his  fifty- 
eighth  year. 

[Baltimore  American  and  Commercial  Advertiser, 
and  Sun  (Baltimore),  June  n,  1878;  J.  E.  Semmes, 
John  H.  B.  Latrobe  and  His  Times  (19 17)  ;  Joseph 
Harrison,  The  Iron  Worker  and  King  Solomon  (1869), 
with  memoir  and  appendix.]  j?  L. 

WINANS,  WILLIAM  (Nov.  3,  1788-Aug. 
31,  1857),  Methodist  clergyman,  was  born  on 
Chestnut  Ridge  in  the  Allegheny  Mountains  of 
western  Pennsylvania.  When  he  was  two  years 
old  his  father  died,  leaving  his  widow  with  five 
children  to  rear.  William  was  taught  to  read  and 
write  by  his  mother  and  an  older  brother,  and  as 
soon  as  he  was  strong  enough  began  to  work  in 
the  iron  foundries  near  his  home.  When  he  was 
sixteen  he  moved  with  his  mother  to  Clermont 
County,  Ohio.  She  was  a  devout  Methodist,  and 
after  they  moved  to  Ohio  Winans'  interest  in  re- 
ligion was  awakened ;  in  1807  he  became  a  Meth- 
odist class-leader  and  exhorter.  Feeling  called 
to  preach,  he  was  admitted  on  trial  into  the 
Western  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  Oct.  1,  1808.  For  two  years  he  served 
circuits  in  Kentucky  and  Indiana  but  in  1810 
volunteered  for  pioneer  work  in  the  Mississippi 
territory.  In  1812  he  was  ordained  deacon.  The 
following  year  he  was  assigned  to  New  Orleans, 
but  his  labors  there  were  hindered  by  the  mili- 
tary operations,  and  in  1814  he  returned  to  Mis- 
sissippi. He  was  ordained  elder  in  that  year  and 
became  a  member  of  the  Tennessee  Conference. 
In  order  to  recoup  his  physical  and  financial  re- 
sources he  settled,  after  his  marriage  in  1815  to 
Martha  DuBose,  and  for  five  years  taught  school 
in  Mississippi. 

Returning  to  the  itinerancy  in  1820,  he  was 
thereafter  the  outstanding  figure  in  Mississippi 
Methodism  until  his  death.  He  served  as  trustee 
of  Elizabeth  Female  Academy  and  Centenary 
College  and  in  1845  and  1849  acted  as  traveling 
agent  for  the  latter  institution.  Under  his  leader- 
ship the  first  Methodist  Church  in  New  Orleans 
was  erected.  In  1824  he  was  the  superintendent 
of  the  Choctaw  Mission  of  the  Mississippi  Con- 
ference. Although  he  had  no  formal  education, 
he  endeavored  after  he  entered  the  itinerancy  to 
read  daily  fifty  pages,  in  addition  to  portions  of 
the  Bible,  and  by  this  private  study  became  com- 
paratively learned,  and  an  able  debater.  In  1855 
he  published  a  volume  of  sermons  entitled  A 
Series  of  Discourses  on  Fundamental  Religious 
Subjects.  He  was  also  an  occasional  contributor 


Winchell 

to  secular  and  religious  periodicals.  Taking  an 
active  part  in  the  discussion  of  national  political 
issues,  he  was  an  ardent  Whig  and  was  once  a 
candidate  for  Congress.  During  the  presidential 
campaign  of  1844  he  opened  Clay  meetings  in 
Mississippi  with  prayer,  for  which  he  was  se- 
verely criticized  by  the  Democratic  newspapers. 
He  was  also  much  interested  in  the  work  of  the 
American  Colonization  Society. 

In  every  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  from  1824  to  1844,  inclusive, 
Winans  championed  the  status  quo  of  Methodist 
polity  and  doctrine.  He  fought  attempts  to  weak- 
en the  power  of  the  episcopacy  and  was  active  in 
opposing  abolitionist  tendencies.  With  other 
Southern  delegates  he  sponsored  the  resolution 
adopted  by  the  General  Conference  of  1836  which 
condemned  abolitionism,  and  he  even  contended 
that  the  Methodist  officials  should  be  slavehold- 
ers in  order  to  overcome  the  opposition  of  the 
slaveholding  class  to  Methodism  and  thereby 
give  the  Church  access  to  the  slaves.  At  the 
General  Conference  of  1844  he  delivered  the  first 
speech  in  defense  of  Bishop  J.  O.  Andrew  [q.v.] 
and  was  a  member  of  the  committee  that  drafted 
the  famous  "Plan  of  Separation"  for  the  division 
of  the  Church.  He  was  subsequently  a  delegate 
to  the  convention  held  at  Louisville,  Ky.,  in  May 
1845  that  organized  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South,  and  was  elected  to  the  General 
Conference  of  the  new  body  in  1846,  1850,  and 
1854.   He  died  in  Amite  County,  Miss. 

[Winans'  diary,  his  unpublished  autobiography,  and 
much  of  his  correspondence  are  in  the  possession  of  his 
grandson,  Hon.  William  A.  Dickson,  Centreville,  Miss. 
Rev.  M.  L.  Burton,  Gulfport,  Miss.,  also  has  some  of 
Winans'  unpublished  correspondence.  Brief  biog. 
sketches  are  in  J.  G.  Jones,  A  Complete  Hist,  of  Meth- 
odism as  Connected  with  the  Miss.  Conference  of  the 
M.  E.  Ch.  South  (2  vols.,  1908)  ;  C.  F.  Deems,  Annals 
of  Southern  Methodism  for  1855  (1856)  ;  Minutes  of 
the  Ann.  Conferences  of  the  M.  E.  Ch.  South,  1845-57 
(1859)  ;  Abel  Stevens,  Hist,  of  the  M.  E.  Ch.  in  the  U. 
S.  A.  (4  vols.,  1864-67).  See  also  J.  J.  Tigert,  A  Con- 
stitutional Hist,  of  Am.  Episcopal  Methodism  (1904)  ; 
L.  C.  Matlack,  The  Hist,  of  Am.  Slavery  and  Methodism 
from  1780  to  1849  (1849)  ;  Daily  Picayune  (New  Or- 
leans), Sept.  s,  1857.]  P.  N.G. 

WINCHELL,  ALEXANDER  (Dec.  31, 
1824-Feb.  19,  1891),  author,  teacher,  and  geolo- 
gist, son  of  Horace  and  Caroline  (McAllister) 
Winchell,  and  a  brother  of  Newton  Horace 
Winchell  \_q.v.~\,  was  born  in  the  town  of  North- 
east, Dutchess  County,  N.  Y.  He  was  a  descend- 
ant in  the  seventh  generation  of  Robert  Winchell, 
an  Englishman  who  settled  first  in  Dorchester 
in  1634  and  removed  to  Windsor,  Conn.,  in  1635  ; 
on  his  mother's  side  he  was  of  Scotch-Irish  an- 
cestry. His  first  inclinations  seem  to  have  been 
toward  mathematics  and  astronomy,  but  he  de- 
cided to   study  medicine  and  was   sent  to  the 


373 


WincheL 

Stockbridge  Academy  at  South  Lee,  Mass.,  for 
two  years.  Being  then  but  sixteen  and  too  young 
to  begin  his  medical  studies,  he  taught  school 
during  1841  and  1842.  He  found  the  profession 
agreeable,  abandoned  his  earlier  intentions,  and 
in  the  fall  of  1842  entered  Amenia  Seminary, 
Dutchess  County,  N.  Y.  He  matriculated  at 
Wesleyan  University,  Middletown,  Conn.,  in 
1844,  to  graduate  in  1847,  entering  almost  at 
once  upon  a  remarkably  diversified  career  of 
teaching,  lecturing,  and  writing.  He  first  es- 
sayed teaching  in  the  Pennington  Male  Seminary 
of  New  Jersey,  where  he  showed  his  fondness 
for  natural  history  by  studying  the  local  flora ; 
he  also  studied  languages  and  made  amateur  ex- 
periments in  electricity.  Returning  to  accept  the 
chair  of  natural  history  at  the  Amenia  Seminary, 
he  gave  his  first  public  geological  lectures  in 
1849.  In  1850  he  assumed  charge  of  an  academy 
at  Newbern,  Ala.,  but  resigned  the  following 
year  to  open  the  Mesopotamia  Female  Seminary 
at  Eutaw.  In  1853  he  accepted  the  presidency  of 
the  Masonic  University  at  Selma,  Ala.  Mean- 
while, he  made  extensive  natural  history  collec- 
tions, which  were  forwarded  in  part  to  the  Smith- 
sonian Institution  at  Washington  and  brought 
him  in  touch  with  Prof.  Spencer  Fullerton  Baird 
[q.v.~\  and  other  naturalists  of  his  day.  An  out- 
break of  yellow  fever  at  Selma  and  the  offer  of 
the  chair  of  physics  and  civil  engineering  at  the 
University  of  Michigan  took  him  in  the  fall  of 
1853  to  Ann  Arbor.  In  1855  he  was  given  the 
new  chair  of  geology,  zoology,  and  botany  at 
Michigan,  a  position  he  continued  to  hold  until 
1873.  During  this  time  he  wrote  profusely  for 
the  public  press,  lectured,  and  organized  and 
directed  a  short-lived  state  geological  survey 
(1859-61)  that  came  to  an  end  through  the  fail- 
ure of  the  legislature  to  make  the  necessary  ap- 
propriations. In  1869  a  reorganization  took  place 
and  Winchell  was  again  made  director,  but  he 
resigned  in  1871,  owing,  it  is  said,  to  the  hostility 
of  personal  enemies.  Disappointed  by  his  fail- 
ure, he  resigned  his  university  position  and  ac- 
cepted the  chancellorship  of  Syracuse  University 
(1872-74),  but,  finding  conditions  less  favorable 
than  he  had  been  led  to  expect,  he  resigned  there 
as  well.  After  an  unsuccessful  attempt  at  a  school 
of  geology  in  Syracuse,  and  a  professorship  of 
geology  and  zoology  at  Vanderbilt  University 
(1875-78),  he  returned  to  his  old  home  at  Ann 
Arbor  and  in  1879  was  unanimously  recalled  to 
the  chair  of  geology  and  paleontology  at  the  uni- 
versity, where  he  remained  until  his  death.  He 
was  chairman  of  the  committee  to  organize  the 
Geological  Society  of  America,  and  served  as 
president  in  1891. 


Winchell 

With  the  exception  of  the  brief  periods  with 
the  Michigan  survey,  and  two  years  in  a  study  of 
the  Archaean  problem  in  Minnesota,  Winchell's 
geological  work  was  of  an  intermittent  nature. 
The  most  important  result  of  his  Michigan  sur- 
vey, from  an  economic  standpoint,  was  the  locali- 
zation of  the  salt  beds  of  the  Saginaw  valley. 
His  reputation  rests  rather  on  his  success  as  a 
teacher,  public  lecturer,  and  writer  of  popular 
treatises  than  on  his  work  as  a  geologist.  He 
took  an  advanced  stand  on  the  subject  of  evolu- 
tion and  perhaps  on  the  whole  did  as  much  as 
any  one  man  in  America  to  reconcile  the  sup- 
posed conflict  between  science  and  religion.  He 
was  a  good  speaker  and  a  skilful  teacher,  though 
he  had  little  interest  in  any  but  the  ablest  of  his 
students.  The  books  for  which  he  was  best 
known  are  his  Sketches  of  Creation  (1870),  The 
Doctrine  of  Evolution  (1874),  Prcadamites 
(1880),  Sparks  from  a  Geologist's  Hammer 
(1881),  World  Life  (1883),  and  his  textbook, 
Geological  Studies  (1886).  Of  these  his  World 
Life,  which  covered  systematically  the  entire 
field  of  world  history,  shows  the  most  careful 
research  and  the  deepest  thought.  The  extreme 
diversity  and  profuseness  of  his  writings  is  in- 
dicated by  his  published  bibliography,  which 
consists  of  over  two  hundred  and  fifty  titles. 
Winchell  was  married  on  Dec.  5,  1849,  to  Julia 
F.  Lines  of  Utica,  N.  Y.  He  died  from  aortic 
stenosis,  a  disease  from  which  he  had  long  suf- 
fered. He  was  survived  by  his  wife  and  two  of 
their  six  children. 

[See  N.  H.  and  A.  N.  Winchell,  The  Winchell  Geneal. 
(1917)  ;  N.  H.  Winchell,  in  Am.  Geologist,  Feb.  1892, 
with  bibliog.,  a  somewhat  eulogistic  account ;  H.  L. 
Fairchild,  The  Geological  Soc.  of  America  (1932)  ;  List 
of  Books  and  Papers  Published  by  Prof.  Alexander 
Winchell  (1886)  ;  Am.  Jour,  of  Sci.,  Apr.  1891  ;  obitu- 
ary in  Detroit  Free  Press,  Feb.  20,  1891.  There  is  a 
large  coll.  of  Winchell  MSS.,  including  many  letters,  in 
the  possession  of  the  Minn.  Hist.  Soc]  G  P  M 

WINCHELL,  HORACE  VAUGHN  (Nov. 
1,  1865-July  28,  1923),  geologist,  mining  engi- 
neer, came  of  a  family  conspicuous  for  its  work 
in  geology.  He  was  born  at  Galesburg,  Mich., 
the  son  of  Newton  Horace  \_q.v.~\  and  Charlotte 
Sophia  (Imus)  Winchell,  both  of  old  New  Eng- 
land stock.  He  studied  at  the  University  of  Min- 
nesota and  the  University  of  Michigan,  and  was 
graduated  from  the  latter  in  1889.  Interested  in 
the  practical  application  of  economic  geology 
and  attracted  by  his  father  and  his  uncle,  Alex- 
ander Winchell  \_q.v.'],  to  a  study  of  the  iron-ore 
deposits  of  Minnesota,  he  worked  first  as  assistant 
state  geologist  of  Minnesota  and  then  for  the 
Minnesota  Mining  Company.  His  book,  The  Iron 
Ores  of  Minnesota  (1891),  which  he  wrote  with 
his  father,  became  a  standard  work  of  reference. 


374 


Winchell 


Winchell 


Before  the  first  production  of  ore  was  made  from 
the  great  Mesabi  range  in  1892,  young  Winchell 
had  prepared  reports  and  maps  of  it,  predicting 
its  coming  importance  and  explaining  correctly 
the  origin  of  the  ores,  but  those  interested  finan- 
cially refused  to  consider  his  predictions,  and 
geologists  disregarded  or  adopted  without  credit 
to  him  the  early  theories  which  he  advanced. 
The  panic  and  depression,  of  1893  ended  his  ex- 
plorations for  the  Minnesota  Iron  Company,  and 
he  established  a  laboratory  and  office  in  Minne- 
apolis with  F.  F.  Sharpless,  but  his  professional 
engagements  turned  him  toward  the  West.  In 
1898,  at  the  suggestion  of  David  W.  Brunton 
[q.v.~\,  he  went  to  Butte,  Mont.,  in  connection 
with  litigation  between  W.  A.  Clark  and  the 
Anaconda  Copper  Mining  Company.  This  was 
the  beginning  of  a  long  and  mutually  profitable 
engagement  of  his  services  by  the  Anaconda  in- 
terests. As  head  of  the  geological  department  of 
this  company,  he  served  in  the  famous  "apex 
law"  suits  against  Frederick  Augustus  Heinze 
[q.v.~\.  His  systematic  organization  of  geologi- 
cal data  and  close  studies  of  the  occurrence  of 
the  ore  set  a  mark  for  others  to  strive  for,  and 
encouraged  mining  companies  to  establish  geo- 
logical departments.  Some  of  the  results  of  his 
researches  could  not  be  published  at  that  time 
because  of  lawsuits  and  commercial  rivalry,  but 
later  geologists  recognized  his  pioneer  work  in 
the  explanation  of  the  origin  of  ore  deposits. 
For  two  years  (1906-08)  he  was  chief  geologist 
for  the  Great  Northern  Railway,  with  headquar- 
ters in  St.  Paul,  and  his  recommendations  led  to 
its  purchase  of  extensive  iron  and  coal  lands. 
Still  retaining  a  connection  with  the  Anaconda 
company,  he  broadened  his  general  consulting 
practice  in  1908  and  made  examinations  in'many 
parts  of  the  world.  In  particular,  he  testified  as 
an  expert  in  cases  of  mining  law  involving  appli- 
cation of  the  puzzling  "apex  law,"  on  which  he 
was  a  leading  authority.  While  reporting  in 
1917  on  mineral  properties  in  the  Caucasus  and 
elsewhere  in  Russia,  he  witnessed  the  Kerensky 
revolution.  He  was  elected  president  of  the 
American  Institute  of  Mining  and  Metallurgical 
Engineers  in  1919.  As  one  of  the  founders  of  the 
periodical,  Economic  Geology,  he  turned  over  to 
it  the  good-will  and  following  of  the  old  Ameri- 
can Geologist.  In  192 1  he  removed  from  Minne- 
apolis to  Los  Angeles.  A  generous  interest  in 
public  service  was  shown  by  his  earnest  attempts 
to  improve  the  tangled  laws  governing  prospect- 
ing and  mining ;  in  the  controversy  over  the 
Cunningham  coal  claims  in  Alaska  he  protested 
vigorously  against  the  government's  arbitrary 
cancellation  of  them. 


Winchell  had  a  ready  ability  in  expressing 
opinions  both  orally  and  in  print,  although  in 
personality  he  was  modest  and  generous.  His 
wide  interests  included  music,  natural  history, 
literature,  and  art.  After  his  death  his  valuable 
library  was  given  to  the  Engineering  Societies 
Library  ot  New  York  by  his  wife  and  the  Ana- 
conda company.  On  Jan.  15,  1890,  he  was  mar- 
ried to  his  cousin,  Ida  Belle  Winchell  of  Ann 
Arbor,  daughter  of  Prof.  Alexander  Winchell ; 
his  wife  survived  him. 

[The  best  source  is  T.  A.  Rickard,  Interviews  with 
Mining  Engineers  (1922).  See  also  Who's  Who  in 
America,  1922-23;  Engineering  and  Mining  Jour- 
Prcss,  May  27,  1922,  Aug.  4,  1923  ;  Mining  and  Metal- 
lurgy, Sept.  1923  ;  death  notices  in  Los  Angeles  Sunday 
Times  and  Minneapolis  Sunday  Tribune,  July  29,  1923.] 

P.B.M. 

WINCHELL,  NEWTON  HORACE  (Dec. 
I7f  1839-May  2,  1914),  geologist,  archaeologist, 
was  born  in  Northeast,  Dutchess  County,  N.  Y., 
the  son  of  Horace  and  Caroline  (McAllister) 
Winchell.  He  was  educated  in  the  public  schools 
of  his  native  town  and  the  academy  of  Salisbury, 
Conn.,  and  at  the  age  of  sixteen  began  teaching 
in  a  district  school  in  Northeast.  In  1858  he  en- 
tered the  University  of  Michigan,  where  his 
brother  Alexander  r^.z'.j  was  professor  of  geol- 
ogy, remaining  for  eight  years,  alternately  study- 
ing and  teaching  in  the  schools  of  the  vicinity. 
Two  years  previous  to  his  graduation  in  1866  he 
was  superintendent  of  public  schools  in  St.  Clair, 
Mich.,  and  for  the  first  three  years  after  gradu- 
ation, in  the  schools  of  Adrian,  Mich.  It  is  not 
strange,  considering  the  influence  of  his  brother, 
that  his  interest  and  studies  were  mainly  geologi- 
cal, though  he  was  also  devoted  to  botany  and 
archaeology.  He  served  as  assistant  to  his  broth- 
er on  the  Michigan  state  geological  survey 
( 1869-70)  and  in  1870-72  likewise  assisted  John 
Strong  Newberry  [q.v.]  on  the  survey  of  Ohio. 
In  1872  he  became  state  geologist  on  the  newly 
organized  survey  of  Minnesota,  holding  the  po- 
sition until  the  completion  of  the  work  in  1900. 
From  1874  to  1900  he  performed  also  the  duties 
of  professor  of  geology  in  the  University  of  Min- 
nesota. In  addition  to  serving  as  geologist  of  a 
military  exploring  expedition  to  the  Black  Hills 
under  William  Ludlow  \q.?'.~\  in  1874,  he  spent 
some  time  in  Paris  (1895-96,  1898)  in  special 
work  in  petrology. 

As  state  geologist,  Winchell  published  annual 
reports  for  each  year  from  1872  to  1894  inclusive, 
and  one  for  1895-98.  These  reports,  ranging 
from  pamphlets  to  volumes  of  five  hundred  pages 
or  more,  treated  many  important  features  of  the 
state  and  included  notes  on  ornithology,  entomol- 
ogy, and  botany.    In  addition,  there  were  ten 


375 


Winchester 

bulletins  on  special  subjects  and  six  quarto  vol- 
umes forming  tbe  final  reports.  These  covered 
the  general  geology  of  the  state,  with  mono- 
graphic treatises  on  the  great  iron-ore  deposits 
of  the  Vermilion  and  Mesabi  ranges  and  an  in- 
vestigation of  the  building-stone  resources  of  the 
state.  Winchell's  most  valuable  geological  stud- 
ies were  probably  those  on  the  recession  of  the 
falls  of  St.  Anthony  at  Minneapolis,  which  had 
occupied,  it  was  estimated,  a  period  of  some  eight 
thousand  years.  His  glacial  and  archaeological 
studies  led  him  to  the  conclusion  that  man  exist- 
ed on  the  American  continent  during  the  latter 
part  of  the  Ice  Age,  and  possibly  much  earlier. 
His  last  paper,  "The  Antiquity  of  Man  in  Amer- 
ica Compared  with  Europe,"  was  delivered  as  a 
lecture  before  the  Iowa  Academy  of  Sciences  on 
Apr.  24,  1914,  but  a  week  before  his  death.  This 
and  The  Aborigines  of  Minnesota  (1911)  con- 
stituted the  most  important  of  his  archaeological 
work. 

Winchell  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Min- 
nesota Academy  of  Sciences  and  of  the  Geologi- 
cal Society  of  America,  which  he  served  as  presi- 
dent in  1902,  and  a  member  of  numerous  other 
scientific  organizations,  some  of  them  foreign. 
He  was  a  founder  of  the  first  American  geologi- 
cal periodical,  the  American  Geologist,  which 
was  published  under  his  direction  and  editorship 
at  Minneapolis  for  a  number  of  years  (1888- 
1905).  His  work  throughout  was  characterized 
by  great  diligence  and  honesty  of  purpose,  if  not 
brilliance  of  accomplishment.  He  died  in  Min- 
neapolis, Minn.  He  was  married  on  Aug.  24, 
1864,  to  Charlotte  Sophia  Imus  of  Galesburg, 
Mich.,  by  whom  he  had  five  children.  His  two 
sons,  Horace  Vaughn  [q.v.~\  and  Alexander 
Newton,  also  became  geologists. 

[The  chief  source  is  the  memoir,  with  bibliog.,  by 
Warren  Upham  in  Bull.  Geological  Soc.  of  America, 
Mar.  1915.  See  also  Who's  Who  in  America,  1914-15  ; 
H.  F.  Bain,  in  Economic  Geology,  Jan.  1916;  Warren 
Upham,  Ibid.  ;  and  obituary  in  Minneapolis  Sunday 
Tribune,  May  3,  1914.  There  are  Winchell  MSS.  in 
the  colls,  of  the  Minn.  Hist.  Soc]  G.  P.M. 

WINCHESTER,  CALEB  THOMAS  (Jan. 
18,  1847-Mar.  24,  1920),  teacher  and  editor,  was 
born  in  Montville,  Conn.,  son  of  the  Rev.  George 
H.  and  Lucy  (Thomas)  Winchester,  and  a  de- 
scendant of  John  Winchester  who  came  to  Hing- 
ham,  Mass.,  in  1635.  Caleb's  father  and  grand- 
father were  both  Methodist  ministers.  He 
prepared  for  college  at  Wilbraham  Academy, 
Wilbraham,  Mass.,  and  in  1865  entered  Wesleyan 
University,  Middletown,  Conn.,  where  he  edited 
the  College  Argus,  and  with  three  classmates 
formed  a  quartet  which  developed  into  the  Uni- 
versity glee  club.   Graduating  with  the  degree  of 


Winchester 

A.B.  in  1869,  he  was  appointed  librarian  and 
served  in  that  capacity  until  1885.  On  Dec.  25, 
1872.  he  married  Julia  Stackpole  Smith  of  Mid- 
dletown, who  died  June  25,  1877,  and  on  Apr.  2, 
1880,  Alice  Goodwin  Smith. 

From  his  arrival  at  Wesleyan  as  a  freshman, 
he  knew  no  other  home".  In  1873  ne  was  made 
professor  of  rhetoric  and  English  literature,  and 
in  1890  Olin  Professor  of  English  Literature, 
which  position  he  held  until  his  death.  A  scholar 
and  a  student  of  distinction,  he  gained  world- 
wide recognition  as  an  authority  in  his  chosen 
field.  A  gifted  writer,  he  devoted  his  talents  to 
his  classroom  and  public  lectures  rather  than  to 
the  reading  public.  A  man  of  catholic  tastes  and 
varied  interests,  he  was  an  inspirational  force  to 
his  pupils.  If  he  destroyed  his  scholars'  xespect 
for  certain  inferior  forms  of  writing,  he  substi- 
tuted the  enjoyment  to  be  derived  from  appreci- 
ation of  the  truly  great. 

He  made  many  appearances  upon  public  lec- 
ture platforms  and  in  the  classrooms  of  other 
universities.  His  most  enduring  book  is  Some 
Principles  of  Literary  Criticism  (1899),  which 
was  reprinted  several  times  and  remains  a  stand- 
ard university  textbook.  Upon  its  publication  a 
reviewer  remarked :  "It  is  seldom  that  a  book  on 
the  method  of  an  art  is  anything  more  than  a  col- 
lection of  dry  formulae,  lacking  in  the  sap  of 
life."  This  author,  however,  "distinctly  adds  to 
the  books  which  promote  the  enjoyment  of  good 
literature.  The  secret  of  it  all  is,  of  course,  that 
Professor  Winchester  is  first  a  lover  of  literature 
for  its  own  sake,  and  afterwards  a  critical  ana- 
lyzer of  its  methods"  (Life,  Feb.  1,  1900,  p.  86). 
Other  books  of  which  he  was  the  author  include 
The  Life  of  John  Wesley  (1906),  A  Group  of 
English  Essayists  of  the  Early  Nineteenth  Cen- 
tury (1910),  and  William  Wordsworth:  How  to 
Know  Him  (1916).  His  editorial  work,  which 
was  extensive,  is  represented  in  such  publications 
as  Selected  Essays  of  Joseph  Addison  (1886, 
1890),  Five  Short  Courses  of  Reading  in  Eng- 
lish Literature  (1891, 1900,  191 1 ),  The  Sir  Roger 
de  Coverley  Papers  ( 1904),  and  A  Book  of  Eng- 
lish Essays  (1914).  He  was  also  one  of  the  edi- 
tors of  The  Methodist  Hymnal  (1905),  in  which 
a  hymn  by  him — "The  Lord  Our  God  Alone  is 
Strong" — appears.  He  was  the  author  of  nu- 
merous prayers  in  The  Chapel  Service  Book  for 
Schools  and  Colleges  (1920),  contributed  many 
articles,  chiefly  on  literary  subjects,  to  the  Meth- 
odist Review  and  Zion's  Herald,  and  did  much 
editing  of  material  published  by  Wesleyan  Uni- 
versity. At  his  death  he  was  survived  by  his  wife 
and  one  son. 

[A  Memorial  to  Caleb  Thomas  Winchester  (1921), 
ed.  by  G.  M.  Dutcher ;  F.  W.  Hotchkiss,  Winchester 


376 


Winchester 


Winchester 


Notes  (1912)  ;  Who's  Who  in  America,  1918-19;  Wes- 
leyan  Alumnus,  Apr.  1920  ;  N.  Y .  Times,  Mar.  25,  1920  ; 
Wcslcyan  Argus  (editorial),  Mar.  25,  1920;  Evening 
Post  (N.  Y.),  editorial,  Mar.  26,  1920  ;  Christian  Advo- 
cate (N.  Y.),  editorial,  Apr.  i,  1920;  Hartford  Cour- 
ant,  Mar.  25,  1920.]  W.  B.T.,Jr. 

WINCHESTER,  ELHANAN  (Sept. 30,1751- 
Apr.  18,  1797),  clergyman,  one  of  the  early  ex- 
ponents of  Universalism,  was  a  native  of  Brook- 
line,  Mass.,  the  son  of  Elhanan  and  Sarah  Win- 
chester. His  father  had  three  wives  and  fifteen 
children,  Elhanan  being  the  first  born.  He  was 
a  descendant  of  John  Winchester  who  emigrated 
to  Massachusetts  in  1635,  settling  in  Hingham, 
but  later  moving  to  Muddy  River  (Brookline), 
where  he  died  in  1694.  The  elder  Elhanan  was 
a  farmer  and  mechanic,  and  the  boy's  schooling 
was  limited.  He  had  an  unusual  mind,  however. 
One  Sunday  his  father  asked  him  to  note  from 
what  passage  in  the  Bible  the  minister  took  his 
text.  After  the  service  Elhanan  not  only  gave 
the  desired  information,  but  repeated  large  por- 
tions of  the  sermon  and  told  how  many  persons 
were  present  and  the  number  of  beams,  posts, 
braces,  rafters,  and  panes  of  glass  in  the  meet- 
ing house.  Endowed  with  the  type  of  mind  that 
made  this  feat  possible,  he  found  learning  easy, 
and  to  knowledge  of  English  subjects  he  added, 
as  time  went  on,  a  working  acquaintance  with 
Hebrew,  Greek,  and  French. 

In  1769  he  was  converted  and  joined  a  local 
church ;  on  Jan.  18  of  the  next  year  he  contracted 
his  first  marriage — four  more  were  to  follow ; 
soon  he  began  to  preach.  A  little  later  he  went 
to  Canterbury,  Conn.,  was  immersed,  and  asso- 
ciated himself  with  an  open-communion  Baptist 
church.  He  had  characteristics  as  a  speaker 
which,  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  his  min- 
istry, drew  large  audiences,  and  about  1771  his 
preaching  in  Rehoboth,  Mass.,  started  a  revival 
that  resulted  in  the  establishment  of  a  Baptist 
church,  of  which  he  was  ordained  pastor.  With- 
in a  year,  however,  he  had  become  a  close-com- 
munion Baptist  and  a  strict  Calvinist,  a  change 
in  attitude  that  caused  dissension  in  the  church 
and  his  withdrawal  from  it.  In  1774,  having  in 
the  meantime  preached  in  several  Massachusetts 
towns,  he  went  to  South  Carolina  and  took  charge 
of  a  Baptist  church  at  Welch  Neck,  on  the  Great 
Peedee  River,  where  he  remained  until  1780, 
when  he  became  pastor  of  the  Baptist  church  of 
Philadelphia.  His  ministry  in  Philadelphia  last- 
-d  seven  years ;  the  largest  church  building  in 
the  city  was  crowded  by  those  who  came  to  hear 
him  preach ;  and  he  won  the  regard  and  friend- 
ship of  such  notable  men  as  Benjamin  Rush  and 
John  Redman  [qq.v.~\.  Meanwhile,  his  reading 
and  study  had  led  him  to  accept  the  doctrine  of 


universal  restoration,  which  fact  disrupted  his 
church.  Though  the  majority  of  the  members 
sided  with  him,  both  pastor  and  adherents  were 
driven  out  by  the  orthodox  remnant.  Thereafter, 
Winchester  held  services  in  the  hall  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Pennsylvania. 

Feeling  called  to  proclaim  the  gospel  in  Eng- 
land he  left  Philadelphia  in  1787  for  London. 
Here,  too,  his  preaching  attracted  many,  and  he 
gathered  a  congregation  to  which  he  ministered 
in  the  chapel  in  Parliament  Court.  Among  those 
to  whom  he  became  warmly  attached  were 
Thomas  Belsham,  Joseph  Priestley,  and  John 
Wesley.  During  this  period,  also,  he  piiblished 
a  number  of  works  setting  forth  his  theological 
views,  which  were  widely  read  both  in  England 
and  America.  Among  them  were  The  Universal 
Restoration :  Exhibited  in  a  Series  of  Dialogues 
Between  a  Minister  and  His  Friend  (1788); 
The  Restitution  of  All  Things  .  .  .  Being  an  At- 
tempt to  Answer  the  Rev.  Dan  Taylor's  Asser- 
tion and  Re-Assertions  in  Favour  of  Endless 
Misery  (1790);  The  Three  Woe  Trumpets 
(T793)»  the  substance  of  two  discourses  deliv- 
ered in  Parliament,  Feb.  3  and  24.  1783;  The 
Face  of  Moses  Unveiled  by  the  Gospel,  or,  Evan- 
gelical Truths,  Discovered  in  the  Law  ( 1787)  ;  A 
Course  of  Lectures  on  the  Prophecies  That  Re- 
main to  be  Fulfilled  (3  vols.,  1789-90)  ;  The 
Process  and  Empire  of  Christ,  from  His  Birth  to 
the  End  of  the  Mediatorial  Kingdom;  a  Poem  in 
Twelve  Books  (1793).  For  two  years,  also,  he 
conducted  in  London  a  periodical  called  The 
Philadelphian  Magazine. 

In  May  1794,  when  at  the  height  of  his  influ- 
ence, Winchester  suddenly  left  England  for 
America.  His  family  life  had  been  fraught  with 
trouble.  His  first  wife,  Alice  Rogers,  died  in 
April  1776.  That  same  year  he  married  Sarah 
Peck  of  Rehoboth,  who  lived  only  a  few  months 
thereafter.  His  third  wife,  Sarah  Luke,  of  South 
Carolina,  whom  he  married  in  1778,  died  in  1779. 
Two  years  later  he  married  Mary  Morgan  of 
Philadelphia,  a  widow,  whose  career  was  cut 
short  a  year  and  nine  months  later.  Seven  chil- 
dren were  stillborn  and  one  other  lived  but  sev- 
enteen months.  After  the  death  of  his  fourth 
wife,  his  friends  advised  him  to  desist  from  fur- 
ther matrimonial  ventures,  but  believing  that  a 
minister,  in  order  to  avoid  reproach,  should  not 
remain  single,  he  married  another  widow,  Maria 
Knowles.  She  proved  subject  to  fits  of  temper 
in  which  she  committed  violent  assaults  upon  her 
husband.  It  was  after  one  of  these  that  Winches- 
ter left  England,  planning  to  make  provision  for 
her  support  in  America  and  then  return.  She 
followed  him,  however,  and  prevailed  upon  him 


377 


Winchester 

to  live  with  her  again ;  but  his  days  were  now 
numbered  and  within  two  years  he  died  of  tu- 
berculosis at  Hartford,  Conn.,  at  the  age  of  forty- 
five.  Meanwhile,  he  had  preached  in  various 
places  and  added  to  his  numerous  publications 
Ten  Letters  Addressed  to  Mr.  Paine;  Being  an 
Answer  to  His  First  Part  of  the  Age  of  Reason 
(1795)  and  A  Plain  Political  Catechism  (1796), 
the  latter,  an  exposition  of  the  evil  effects  of  infi- 
delity and  the  French  influence,  written,  it  is 
said,  at  the  suggestion  of  Timothy  Pickering. 
He  compiled  two  hymnals  and  in  1773  he  pub- 
lished A  New  Book  of  Poems  on  Several  Occa- 
sions. Intellectually  he  was  probably  the  ablest 
of  the  early  American  Universalists ;  he  intro- 
duced Scriptual  interpretation  among  them  ;  and 
his  influence  both  in  America  and  England  was 
extensive. 

[F.  W.  Hotchkiss,  Winchester  Notes  (1912)  ;  Wil- 
liam Vidler,  A  Sketch  of  the  Life  of  Elhanan  Winr 
Chester  (London,  1797)  ;  E.  M.  Stone,  Biog.  of  Rev. 
Elhanan  Winchester  (1836);  J.  E.  Hoar,  "Elhanan 
Winchester,  Preacher  and  Traveler,"  in  Pubs,  of  the 
Brooklinc  Hist.  Soc, no.  2  (1903)  ;  Hosea  Ballou,  "Dog- 
matic and  Religious  Hist,  of  Universalism  in  America," 
in  Universalist  Quart.,  Jan.  1849  ;  Richard  Eddy,  Uni- 
versalism in  America  (2  vols.,  1886)  and  "Hist,  of  Uni- 
versalism," in  A  Hist,  of  the  Unitarians  and  the  Uni- 
versalists in  the  U.  S.  (1894),  being  Vol.  X  of  the 
Am.  Ch.  Hist.  Ser. ;  F.  B.  Dexter,  The  Literary  Diary 
of  Ezra  Stiles  (1901),  II,  547,  III,  389.]        H.  E.  S 

WINCHESTER,  JAMES  (Feb.  6,  1752-July 
26,  1826),  soldier,  was  born  in  Carroll  County, 
Md.,  near  the  present  Westminster,  the  third 
child  of  William  Winchester,  who  came  from 
England  to  Maryland  about  1730,  and  of  Lydia 
(Richards)  Winchester,  daughter  of  Edward 
Richards  of  Baltimore  County,  Md.  James  and 
his  younger  brother  George  were  educated  by 
tutors  and  in  local  schools;  in  1776  they  enlisted 
in  the  Maryland  Battalion  of  the  Flying  Camp, 
for  service  in  the  Revolution,  and  both  were  pro- 
moted for  bravery  on  the  battlefield.  At  Staten 
Island,  Aug.  22,  1777,  James  was  wounded  and 
taken  prisoner,  being  held  for  a  year  before  he 
was  exchanged.  He  was  captured  again  at 
Charleston,  S.  C,  in  1780,  but  was  soon  released. 
James  as  captain  and  George  as  lieutenant  fought 
through  the  southern  campaign  under  General 
Greene,  were  present  at  Yorktown  in  1781,  and 
then  returned  to  Maryland. 

Together  they  moved  in  1785  to  Middle  Ten- 
nessee (then  the  Mero  District  of  North  Caro- 
lina) and  settled  on  a  large  tract  of  land.  George 
held  several  local  offices  and  ran  a  mill  before  he 
was  shot  and  scalped  by  Indians  near  the  town  of 
Gallatin,  July  9,  1794.  James  Winchester  served 
in  the  North  Carolina  convention  in  1788,  and 
successively  as  captain,  colonel,  and  brigadier- 
general  of  Mero  District,  becoming  famous  for 


Winchester 

his  Indian  campaigns.  When  Tennessee  was  ad- 
mitted to  statehood  in  1796,  he  was  elected  state 
senator,  and  speaker  of  the  Senate.  In  the  years 
that  followed  he  held  numerous  other  local  of- 
fices. Meanwhile,  through  farming,  milling,  and 
commercial  transactions  he  grew  wealthy,  and 
built  an  imposing  stone  house  on  his  plantation, 
"Cragfont."  Probably  in  1803  he  married  Susan 
Black,  for  in  November  of  that  year  he  had  the 
state  legislature  legitimatize  the  four  living  chil- 
dren of  their  common-law  union,  which  had  be- 
gun in  1792  (Acts  of  the  Tennessee  Legislature, 
1803,  Act  XXXVI,  pp.  82-83).  Fourteen  chil- 
dren were  born  to  them. 

When  war  with  England  began  in  18 12,  Win- 
chester was  appointed  a  brigadier-general  in  the 
United  States  Army,  and  placed  in  command  of 
the  Army  of  the  Northwest,  succeeding  William 
Henry  Harrison  [q.v.~\,  but  after  some  dispute  as 
to  seniority,  Harrison  was  commissioned  ma- 
jor-general and  given  the  complete  command.  In 
an  effort  to  protect  the  frontier,  Winchester 
moved  with  the  left  wing  from  Fort  Wayne  to 
Fort  Defiance,  defeated  one  body  of  British  and 
Indians,  and  constructed  Fort  Winchester.  Mov- 
ing on  to  Frenchtown,  on  the  River  Raisin  in 
southeastern  Michigan,  he  defeated  another 
British  force,  but  on  Jan.  22,  1813,  was  surprised 
by  a  force  of  some  2,000  men,  and  almost  his  en- 
tire army  was  killed  or  captured.  Winchester 
himself  was  imprisoned  in  Canada  for  over  a 
year.  After  exchange,  he  was  placed  in  com- 
mand of  the  Mobile  District.  Following  the  de- 
feat of  the  British  at  New  Orleans,  their  fleet 
stopped  off  Mobile  Harbor  and  on  Feb.  12,  1815, 
captured  Fort  Bowyer,  but  sailed  away  without 
attempting  to  take  Mobile.  When  news  of  peace 
arrived,  Winchester  resigned  and  returned  home. 

In  1816  Robert  B.  McAfee  [q.v.~\,  in  his  His- 
tory of  the  Late  War  in  the  Western  Country, 
accused  Winchester  of  gross  negligence  and  mil- 
itary incapacity  in  the  River  Raisin  campaign. 
Winchester  unsuccessfully  demanded  an  official 
inquiry,  and  wrote  a  defense  of  his  conduct  in 
which  he  attacked  General  Harrison  for  failing 
to  send  promised  reinforcements  (Historical  De- 
tails, Having  Relation  to  the  Campaign  of  the 
North-Western  Army,  under  Generals  Harrison 
and  Winchester,  during  the  Winter  of  1812-13 ; 
together  with  Some  Particulars  Relating  to  the 
Surrender  of  Fort  Bowyer,  1818;  unique  copy  in 
Hayes  Memorial  Library,  Fremont,  Ohio).  The 
quarrel  was  bitter,  but  it  seems  that  loose  or- 
ganization and  impassable  frontier  roads,  com- 
bined with  negligence  by  both  men,  caused  the 
defeat  and  massacre.  In  1819  Winchester  was 
appointed  commissioner  to  run  the  Chickasaw 


37 


78 


Winchester 

Boundary  Line  between  Tennessee  and  Mis- 
sissippi. It  was  his  last  official  position.  Through 
his  remaining  years  he  was  active,  intermittent- 
ly, in  business  ventures  and  in  the  founding  of 
Memphis,  Tenn.,  but  mainly  he  lived  in  ease  until 
he  died  and  was  buried  at  "Cragfont."  His  son 
Marcus  was  first  mayor  of  Memphis  ;  his  nephew, 
James  (1772-1806),  with  whom  the  General  has 
sometimes  been  confused,  was  a  federal  circuit 
court  judge  for  the  Maryland  district. 

[Sources  include:  J.  H.  DeWitt,  "General  James 
Winchester,"  Tcnn.  Hist.  Mag.,  June,  Sept.  1915; 
Winchester  Papers  in  Tenn.  Hist.  Soc.  Lib.,  Nashville  ; 
F.  W.  Hotchkiss,  Winchester  Notes  (1912).     See  also 

C.  E.  Slocum,  "The  Origin,  Description,  and  Service 
of  Fort  Winchester,"  Ohio  Archacol.  and  Hist.  Quart., 
Jan.  1 90 1  ;  F.  B.  Heitman,  Hist.  Reg.  of  Officers  of  the 
Continental  Army  (1914)  ;  B.  J.  Lossing,  The  Pictorial 
Field-Book  of  the  War  of  1812  (1868).]        E.  W.  P. 

WINCHESTER,  OLIVER  FISHER  (Nov. 
30,  1810-Dec.  11,  1880),  manufacturer,  was  born 
in  Boston,  Mass.,  the  son  of  Samuel  and  Hannah 
(Bates)  Winchester.  He  was  a  descendant  in 
the  fifth  generation  of  John  Winchester  who  was 
admitted  freeman  in  Brookline  in  1637.  His  boy- 
hood was  a  difficult  one,  for  the  early  death  of  his 
father  threw  Winchester  on  his  own  resources 
when  he  was  very  young,  and  by  the  time  he  was 
twenty  years  old  he  had  worked  on  farms  in  vari- 
ous parts  of  New  England,  learned  the  carpen- 
ter's and  joiner's  trades,  and  clerked  in  stores. 
Between  1830  and  1837  he  was  employed  in  con- 
struction work  in  Baltimore,  Md.,  and  then 
opened  a  men's  clothing  store  there,  a  feature  of 
which  was  the  manufacture  and  sale  of  shirts.  In 
1847  he  sold  this  business  to  engage  in  the  job- 
bing and  importing  business  with  John  M.  Davies 
in  New  York  City.  The  partners  also  began  the 
manufacture  of  shirts  by  a  new  method  invented 
and  patented  by  Winchester  on  Feb.  1,  1848,  and 
were  so  successful  that  about  1850  they  estab- 
lished a  new  factory  in  New  Haven,  Conn.  Win- 
chester took  entire  charge  and  in  five  years  ac- 
cumulated an  appreciable  fortune.  Meanwhile, 
he  had  become  a  heavy  stockholder  in  the  Vol- 
canic Repeating  Arms  Company  of  New  Haven 
and  through  his  stock  purchases  became  by  1856 
the  principal  owner.  In  1857  he  brought  about  its 
reorganization  as  the  New  Haven  Arms  Com- 
pany, with  himself  as  president.  The  company 
had  inherited  the  repeating-rifle  inventions  of 
Jennings,  Tyler  Henry,  and  Horace  Smith  and 

D.  B.  Wesson,  as  well  as  the  services  of  Henry 
as  superintendent  of  the  factory.  For  the  first 
few  years  Winchester  manufactured  repeating 
rifles  and  pistols,  and  gave  Henry  every  oppor- 
tunity to  experiment  on  the  improvement  of  both 
products,  as  well  as  of  ammunition.  The  result 
was  that  in  i860  he  began  the  production  of  a 


Winchevsky 

new  repeating  rifle,  using  a  new  rim-fire  copper 
cartridge,  which  came  to  be  known  as  the  Henry 
rifle.  Although  it  was  primarily  a  sporting  gun, 
it  was  privately  purchased  and  used  considerably 
during  the  Civil  War  by  entire  companies  and 
regiments  of  state  troops.  It  was  by  far  the  best 
military  rifle  of  the  time  but  was  not  adopted  by 
the  federal  government.  In  1866  Winchester  pur- 
chased the  patent  of  Nelson  King  for  loading  the 
magazine  through  the  gate  in  the  frame.  When 
this  invention  was  incorporated  in  the  Henry 
rifle,  a  new  firearm,  the  Winchester  rifle,  came 
into  existence.  Winchester  then  reorganized  the 
New  Haven  Arms  Company  as  the  Winchester 
Repeating  Arms  Company,  and  established  a  fac- 
tory at  Bridgeport,  Conn.  In  1870  he  erected  a 
permanent  plant  in  New  Haven.  From  its  first 
appearance  the  Winchester  rifle  was  very  popu- 
lar, and  Winchester  built  up  an  extremely  suc- 
cessful business,  augmenting  it  through  the  pur- 
chase of  the  patents  and  property  of  the  Ameri- 
can Repeating  Rifle  Company  in  1869  and  of  the 
Spencer  Repeating  Rifle  Company  in  1870.  In 
1876  he  purchased  the  invention  of  Benjamin 
B.  Hotchkiss  [q.r.~]  of  the  bolt-action  repeating 
rifle,  and  after  making  necessary  improvements 
added  this  to  the  products  of  his  company.  Final- 
ly, in  1879,  he  purchased  the  mechanism  invented 
by  John  M.  Browning  [q.vJ],  but  the  resulting 
Winchester  single-shot  rifle  incorporating  this 
invention  was  not  produced  until  several  years 
after  Winchester's  death. 

Winchester  served  as  councilman  in  New  Ha- 
ven in  1863,  and  the  following  year  was  presi- 
dential elector  at  large  for  Lincoln.  In  1866  he 
was  elected  lieutenant  governor  of  Connecticut 
on  the  ticket  with  Gov.  Joseph  R.  Hawley.  His 
philanthropies  were  many;  in  particular,  he  made 
generous  gifts  to  Yale  University.  He  married 
Jane  Ellen  Hope  of  Boston  on  Feb.  20,  1834,  and 
at  the  time  of  his  death  in  New  Haven  was  sur- 
vived by  his  widow  and  two  children. 

[Biog.  Encyc.  of  Conn,  and  R.  I.  (1881);  F.  W. 
Hotchkiss,  Winchester  Notes  (1912);  C.  W.  Sawyer, 
Firearms  in  Am.  Hist.,  vol.  Ill  (1920)  ;  Patent  Office 
records  ;  obituary  in  New  Haven  Evening  Reg.  Dec. 
11,1880.]  C.W.M. 

WINCHEVSKY,  MORRIS  (Aug.  9,  1856- 
Mar.  18,  1932),  poet,  essayist,  editor,  was  born 
in  Yanovo,  Lithuania,  son  of  Sissel  Novacho- 
vitch,  his  original  name  being  Lippe  Benzion 
Novachovitch.  In  later  years  he  adopted  the 
name  Leopold  Benedict  in  private  life,  but  was 
always  known  to  Yiddish  readers  as  Morris 
Winchevsky.  As  a  child  he  moved  with  his  fam- 
ily to  Kovno,  where  he  received  a  thorough  He- 
brew education  and  also  attended  the  Russian 
government  school.    In  1870  he  went  to  Wilna, 


379 


Winchevsky 

ostensibly  to  prepare  himself  for  entrance  into 
the  rabbinical  seminary,  but  instead  improved  his 
secular  education,  acquiring  also  a  good  knowl- 
edge of  German.  At  this  period  he  was  already 
composing  poems  in  Russian  and  Hebrew.  In- 
stead of  entering  the  seminary  he  accepted  a  po- 
sition in  a  commercial  firm  in  Kovno.  Sent  by 
his  firm  to  the  city  of  Oryol  (Central  Russia)  in 
1875,  he  became  acquainted  with  the  Russian 
radical  and  socialist  literature  of  the  time.  When 
in  1877  n's  firm  transferred  him  to  Konigsberg, 
Prussia,  he  began  to  take  an  active  part  in  so- 
cialist propaganda,  the  Russian- Jewish  student 
colony  and  the  growth  of  the  Socialist  party  there 
providing  a  fertile  field.  He  founded  a  Hebrew 
monthly,  Asefath  hakliamim,  as  a  supplement  to 
M.  L.  Rodkinson's  Ha-kol  for  the  dissemination 
of  views  on  social  questions.  His  Hebrew  writ- 
ings were  mostly  signed  even  in  later  years  under 
the  pen-name  Ben-Nez.  Upon  the  promulgation 
by  the  Prussian  government  in  1879  of  the  So- 
zialistcngcsctz  he  was  arrested  and  spent  several 
months  in  prison.  Expelled  from  Prussia,  he 
went  to  Denmark  but  was  again  arrested  in  Co- 
penhagen and  released  only  if  he  would  leave  the 
country.  After  a  brief  period  in  Paris,  he  went 
to  London. 

Joining  the  Communist  Workers'  Educational 
Society  in  London  which  had  been  founded  by 
Karl  Marx  and  Friedrich  Engels,  Winchevsky 
began  his  propagandist  work  among  the  immi- 
grant Jewish  masses  of  the  laboring  classes,  em- 
ploying Yiddish,  their  mother-tongue,  as  his 
medium.  Due  recognition  has  been  accorded  him 
as  the  pioneer  of  the  Yiddish  socialist  press  and 
literature.  In  1884  he  founded  the  first  Yiddish 
socialist  periodical,  Dcr  Polischcr  Yidel,  and  was 
also  the  author  of  the  first  brochure  on  socialism 
in  Yiddish,  entitled  Yehi  or  (1884).  He  was 
one  of  the  founders  and  the  chief  contributor  to 
the  Arbciter-Freimd.  In  1894  he  emigrated  to 
America  to  take  over  the  editorship  of  Emeth, 
a  weekly  family  paper  devoted  to  literature  and 
culture.  With  the  founding  of  the  Yiddish  daily, 
Forward,  in  1897,  he  became  its  most  represen- 
tative contributor.  He  was  also  associated  with 
many  other  periodicals  in  the  rapidly  growing 
Yiddish  socialist  press  in  the  United  States,  and 
was  at  one  time  editor  of  the  Yiddish  monthly, 
Zukunjt. 

He  also  occupies  a  high  place  in  Yiddish  litera- 
ture as  poet  and  writer.  Although  he  frequently 
depicts  Jewish  life  in  his  writings,  it  is  charac- 
teristic of  him  that  the  Jew  is  but  an  accident  of 
his  theme.  The  language  is  Yiddish ;  everything 
else  is  universal.  The  freeing  of  society  from  the 
yoke  of  oppression  is  the  burden  of  his  songs. 


Winder 

His  poems,  heartfelt,  touching,  with  a  true  lyric 
quality,  present  the  dark  and  sordid  aspects  of 
the  life  of  the  laborer.  His  socialistic  bias  is 
pronounced,  but  the  pictures  he  portrays  are  true 
to  life,  though  somewhat  cold  in  coloring.  As 
a  man  of  high  culture,  conversant  with  the  lit- 
eratures of  Russia,  France,  Germany,  England, 
and  America,  he  followed  closely  all  the  rules  of 
prosody  and  poetic  composition.  Many  of  his 
poems  of  labor  and  struggle  have  been  sung  and 
recited  not  only  in  England  and  America  but 
later  also  in  Soviet  Russia,  because  of  the  deep 
love  and  sympathy  they  display  for  the  worker 
and  the  exploited.  When  in  1924  he  traveled 
throughout  Russia  as  a  guest  of  the  Soviet  gov- 
ernment he  was  everywhere  acclaimed,  and  a  col- 
lection of  his  proletarian  poems,  Kamps-Gesan- 
gcn,  was  published  in  Minsk  in  his  honor.  He 
was  equally  effective  in  his  prose.  He  wrote 
dramas,  fables,  novels,  and  feuilletons.  His  Yid- 
dish style  is  smooth,  idiomatic,  and  carefully  bal- 
anced. Particularly  fascinating  were  his  epi- 
grams, his  philosophical  reflections,  and  the  sa- 
tirical sketches  which  he  ascribes  to  the  Meshu- 
gener  philosoph  (crazy  philosopher).  He  also 
translated  into  Yiddish  a  number  of  works  from 
European  authors,  including  Ibsen,  Korolenko, 
and  Victor  Hugo.  A  revised  edition  of  his  col- 
lected works  in  ten  volumes  was  published  in 
New  York,  1927-28,  under  the  editorship  of 
Kalman  Marmor. 

[Leo  Wiener,  The  Hist,  of  Yiddish  Lit.  (1899)  ; 
Evreyskaya  Encyc.  (Russian)  ;  Zalman  Reisen,  Lexi- 
con fun  dcr  Yiddisher  Literatur,  vol.  I  (Wilna,  1926)  ; 
Salomon  Wininger,  Grossc  Jiidische  National-Bio- 
graphie,  vol.  I  (1925)  ;  Kalman  Marmor,  biog.  in  vol. 
I  of  Winchevsky's  Gesamltc  Werk  (1927-28)  ;  obituary 
in  N.  Y.  Times,  Mar.  20,  1932.]  j  5 

WINDER,  JOHN  HENRY  (Feb.  21,  1800- 
Feb.  8,  1865),  Confederate  soldier,  the  son  of 
William  H.  Winder  \_q.v.~\  and  his  wife,  Ger- 
trude (Polk)  Winder,  was  born  in  Rewston, 
Somerset  County,  Md.  He  was  the  grand-nephew 
of  Levin  Winder  \_q.v.~\,  sometime  governor  of 
Maryland  and  a  descendant  of  John  Winder  of 
Cumberland,  England,  who  emigrated  to  Amer- 
ica about  1665.  He  was  graduated  from  the 
United  States  Military  Academy  at  West  Point 
in  1820,  assigned  to  service  with  the  artillery, 
and  later  served  as  instructor  of  tactics  at  the 
Academy  while  Jefferson  Davis  was  a  cadet.  He 
resigned  in  1823  for  a  period  of  four  years  but 
was  then  assigned  to  duty  in  Maine,  Florida,  and 
elsewhere,  and  was  brevetted  major  and  later 
lieutenant-colonel  for  his  conduct  in  the  Mexican 
War.  On  Nov.  22,  i860,  he  attained  the  regular 
rank  of  major  of  artillery  but  resigned  on  Apr. 
27,  1861,  because  of  Southern  sympathies. 


38< 


Winder 

On  July  8,  John  Beauchamp  Jones  [q.v.] 
wrote  from  Richmond,  "there  is  a  stout  gray- 
haired  old  man  here  from  Maryland  applying  to 
be  made  a  general"  (Diary,  post,  I,  59).  He  was 
appointed  brigadier-general  and  made  provost- 
marshal  and  commander  of  the  Northern  prisons 
in  Richmond.  In  this  thankless  position  he  soon 
received  severe  criticism.  During  the  next  few 
months  he  was  upbraided  for  issuing  passports 
through  the  lines  too  freely,  but  the  mistake  here 
lay  largely  with  Secretary  of  War  Benjamin. 
He  was  repeatedly  criticized  for  the  conduct  of 
Baltimore  "rowdies"  whom  he  employed  as  de- 
tectives and  assistants.  Among  the  distasteful 
tasks  to  which  he  was  assigned  were  the  return- 
ing of  stragglers,  absentees,  and  deserters  to 
their  commands,  the  guarding  of  prisoners  and 
assisting  with  their  exchange,  and  the  mainte- 
nance of  order  among  the  unruly  element  in  the 
war- swollen  population  of  the  Confederate  capi- 
tal. During  April  1862  he  fixed  prices  in  Rich- 
mond and  secured  some  little  temporary  relief. 
In  April  1864  he  was  reported  as  being  also  in 
charge  of  the  prison  at  Danville,  Va.,  and  a  few 
months  later,  most  of  the  enlisted  men  having 
been  removed  to  Andersonville  and  many  officers 
to  Macon,  he  was  put  in  command  of  all  the 
prisons  in  Alabama  and  Georgia.  On  Nov.  21, 
1864,  he  was  appointed  commissary-general  of 
prisoners  east  of  the  Mississippi.  Not  long  af- 
terwards he  died  in  Florence,  S.  C,  of  disease 
brought  on  by  the  fatigue  and  anxiety  occasioned 
by  his  duties.  Winder  was  twice  married :  first, 
in  1823,  to  Elizabeth,  the  daughter  of  Andrew 
Shepherd  of  Georgia ;  and  second,  to  Mrs.  Cath- 
erine A.  (Cox)  Eagle,  the  widow  of  Joseph 
Eagle,  a  planter  on  the  Cape  Fear  River. 

The  extent  of  Winder's  blame  for  the  suffer- 
ing and  death  in  the  Southern  prisons  is  still  in 
dispute.  He  was  described  by  one  escaped  North- 
ern prisoner  as  a  "regular  brute"  ( War  of  the 
Rebellion:  Official  Records,  XXXV,  pt.  2,  p. 
220),  and  was  accused  by  a  citizen  of  Greens- 
boro, N.  C,  of  venality  and  of  insulting  and 
profanely  abusing  private  citizens  brought  be- 
fore him  (Ibid.,  LI,  pt.  2,  pp.  815-16) .  On  the  oth- 
er hand,  instances  were  cited  of  his  kindness  to  in- 
dividual prisoners,  and  he  made  efforts  to  amelio- 
rate conditions  within  the  prisons,  coming  into 
conflict  with  the  commissiary-general,  Lucius  B. 
Northrop  [q.v.].  Winder  was  vigorously  de- 
fended by  Samuel  Cooper,  Jefferson  Davis,  and 
James  A.  Seddon  [qq.v.].  Davis  probably  ex- 
plained much  when  he  wrote  that  Winder  was 
"no  respector  of  persons"  (Rowland,  post,  p. 
495),  Seddon,  when  he  wrote  that  his  "manners 
and  mode  of  speech  were  perhaps  naturally  some- 


Winder 

what  abrupt  and  sharp,"  that  "his  military  bear- 
ing may  have  added  more  of  sternness  and  im- 
periousness"  (Ibid.,  p.  475).  His  task  was  ren- 
dered impossible  by  the  refusal  of  the  Northern 
government  to  continue  exchanges,  by  the  in- 
adequacy of  men,  clothing,  food,  and  medicines. 

[Information  from  the  Newberry  Library,  Chicago, 
111. ;  R.  W.  Johnson,  Winders  of  America  (privately 
printed,  1902)  ;  W.  H.  Polk,  Polk  Family  and  Kinsmen 
(1912)  ;  J.  T.  Scharf,  The  Chronicles  of  Baltimore 
(1874);  G.  W.  Cullum,  Biog.  Reg.  .  .  .  Officers  and 
Grads.  ...U.S.  Mil.  Acad.  (1891)  ;  W.  B.  Hesseltine, 
Civil  War  Prisons  (1930)  ;  War  of  the  Rebellion  Of- 
ficial Records  (Army),  see  index  ;  Report  on  Treatment 
of  Prisoners,  40  Cong.,  1  Sess.,  1868-69;  J.  B.  Jones, 
A  Rcbcll  War  Clerk's  Diary  (new  ed.,  1935.  2.  vols.)  ; 
Photographic  Hist,  of  the  Civil  War  (1911),  vol.  VII  ; 
Dunbar  Rowland,  Jefferson  Davis  Constitutionalist 
(1923),  vol.  VII.]  R.  D.  M. 

WINDER,  LEVIN  (Sept.  4,  1757-July  1, 
1819),  soldier  and  governor  of  Maryland,  was  a 
great-grandson  of  John  Winder,  who  emigrated 
from  Cumberland,  England,  to  Virginia  in  or 
before  the  year  1665,  soon  removed  to  the  East- 
ern Shore  of  Maryland,  became  an  influential 
landholder,  held  minor  civil  offices  in  Somerset 
County,  and  rose  to  the  military  rank  of  lieu- 
tenant-colonel. His  son  John  was  married  to 
Jean  Dashiel.  Their  son  William  was  married  to 
Esther  Gillis  and  Levin  Winder  was  born  to  them 
in  Somerset  County.  With  limited  educational 
equipment  young  Winder  was  preparing  for  the 
practice  of  law  when  the  outbreak  of  the  Revo- 
lutionary War  interfered  with  his  plans.  The 
Maryland  Convention  made  him,  Jan.  2,  1776,  a 
first  lieutenant  under  Nathaniel  Ramsay  [g.f.]. 
Before  the  year  was  out  he  was  a  captain  in  the 
4th  Regiment  of  the  Maryland  line.  He  was 
promoted  to  the  rank  of  major,  Apr.  17,  1777, 
and  to  that  of  lieutenant-colonel,  June  3,  1781. 
Retiring  from  the  service,  Nov.  15,  1783,  he  be- 
came engaged  in  agricultural  pursuits  near 
Princess  Anne  in  his  native  county. 

He  returned  to  public  life  as  a  representative 
of  Somerset  County  in  the  Maryland  House  of 
Delegates  in  November  1806,  and  served  three 
successive  terms  of  one  year  each.  For  the  last 
term  he  was  chosen  speaker  of  the  Federalist 
majority  while  the  governor  and  the  Senate  were 
democratic.  As  a  Federalist,  he  was  opposed  to 
the  declaration  of  war  against  Great  Britain  in 
1812,  and  when  the  violence  of  the  democratic 
mob  in  Baltimore  against  the  Federal  Republican 
and  Commercial  Gazette,  a  vitriolic  Federalist 
newspaper,  published  by  Alexander  Contee  Han- 
son [q.v.]  and  Jacob  Wagner,  had  reacted  in 
favor  of  the  Federalists,  he  was  elected  governor 
by  the  General  Assembly,  in  November  1812,  by 
a  majority  of  fifty-two  to  twenty-nine.  He  was 
reelected  in  1813  and  1814.  As  an  anti-war  gov- 


38 


Winder 


Winder 


ernor  Winder  was  concerned  chiefly  with  the 
protection  of  the  shores  of  Chesapeake  Bay  from 
the  enemy.  The  prizes  taken  by  the  fast  sailing 
"clipper"  ships  of  Baltimore,  serving  as  priva- 
teers, caused  that  city  to  be  a  particular  object 
for  attack.  The  federal  government  was  more 
disposed  to  use  its  scant  resources  for  the  pro- 
tection of  Virginia  and  other  Democratic  states 
than  for  that  of  Federalist  Maryland.  On  the 
approach  of  a  British  fleet  in  March  1813,  Win- 
der appealed  to  the  secretary  of  war  for  aid.  The 
response  was  evasive.  The  following  month, 
while  the  enemy  was  plundering  citizens  of  the 
state,  he  appealed  directly  to  President  Madison, 
but  the  response  was  no  more  favorable.  Con- 
vinced that  the  state  must  rely  almost  wholly  on 
its  own  resources,  he  called  a  special  session  of 
the  General  Assembly  in  May,  laid  before  it  his 
correspondence  with  the  federal  authorities,  and 
asked  for  such  action  as  the  exigencies  of  the 
situation  demanded.  The  Assembly  responded 
with  an  appropriation  of  one  hundred  thousand 
dollars  for  the  payment  of  militia,  an  appropri- 
ation of  $180,000  for  the  purchase  of  arms,  ord- 
nance, and  military  stores,  and  a  resolution 
authorizing  a  loan  of  $450,000.  With  these  re- 
sources Winder  rallied  the  patriotic  fervor  of  the 
citizens  of  Baltimore  and  so  directed  military 
operations  that  the  attacks  of  the  British  at  North 
Point  and  Fort  McHenry  were  frustrated.  Until 
the  close  of  the  war  only  small  losses  of  life  and 
property  were  sustained  elsewhere  in  the  state. 
The  year  following  the  expiration  of  his  third 
term  as  governor,  he  was  elected  to  a  seat  in  the 
state  Senate:  He  served  until  his  death  in  Bal- 
timore, leaving  a  widow,  formerly  Mary  Sloss, 
and  three  children. 

[R.  W.  Johnson,  Winders  of  America  (privately 
printed,  1902)  ;  Archives  of  Md.,  vol.  XVIII  (1900)  ; 
Votes  and  Proc.  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Delegates 
of  the  State  of  Md.,  1806-19  ;  Niles'  Weekly  Register, 
July  11,  Nov.  14,  1812;  J.  T.  Scharf,  Hist,  of  Md. 
(1879),  vol.  Ill;  H.  T.  Powell,  Tercentenary  Hist,  of 
Md.  (1925),  vol.  IV  ;  H.  E.  Buchholz,  Governors  of  Md. 
(1908)  ;  Baltimore  Patriot  and  Mercantile  Advertiser, 
July  3,  1819.]  N.D.M. 

WINDER,  WILLIAM  HENRY  (Feb.  18, 
1775-May  24,  1824),  lawyer  and  soldier,  was  the 
son  of  John  Winder  of  Somerset  County,  Md., 
and  a  descendant  of  another  John  Winder  who 
settled  in  that  county  about  1665.  He  was  edu- 
cated in  his  native  county  and  then  studied  law. 
In  1799  he  was  married  to  his  cousin  Gertrude, 
the  daughter  of  William  Polk  of  Somerset  Coun- 
ty. John  Henry  Winder  [q.v.~]  was  his  son.  In 
1802  he  moved  to  Baltimore  where  he  built  up 
an  extensive  law  practice.  In  March  1812  he 
was  appointed  lieutenant-colonel  of  infantry,  was 
promoted  to  the  rank  of  colonel  in  July,  served 


on  the  northern  frontier,  was  appointed  brigadier- 
general,  Mar.  12,  1813.  In  June  he  was  captured 
at  the  Stony  Creek  affair  and  released  on  parole, 
so  that  he  was  not  again  available  for  field  serv- 
ice for  a  year.  In  August  1814  he  commanded  at 
the  battle  of  Bladensburg.  Here  the  militia  stood 
their  ground  while  the  British  were  crossing  the 
river  and  all  the  casualties  were  at  first  on  the 
British  side ;  but  when  the  enemy  deployed  and 
attacked,  the  Americans — except  a  small  naval 
contingent  under  Joshua  Barney  [q.v.] — scat- 
tered over  the  countryside.  The  British  spent  the 
next  day  destroying  the  public  buildings  in  Wash- 
ington, and  some  private  ones  as  well,  and  with- 
drew to  the  coast  unmolested.  Winder  was  dis- 
charged from  the  army  on  June  15,  18 15,  and 
resumed  the  practice  of  law  in  Baltimore,  where 
he  died  nine  years  later.  One  of  the  most  emi- 
nent lawyers  of  his  time,  universally  respected 
in  his  own  community,  he  came  to  be  remembered 
only  for  his  brief  and  disastrous  military  career. 

As  to  the  responsibility  for  the  Bladensburg 
disgrace  there  has  been  endless  dispute.  Henry 
Adams  (post)  is  scathing  in  his  denunciation  of 
Winder's  incompetency.  On  the  other  hand,  a 
court  of  inquiry  presided  over  by  Winfield  Scott 
spoke  favorably  of  him.  Certainly  the  adminis- 
tration was  grossly  negligent  in  providing  for 
the  defense  of  the  city,  and  the  militia  were  near- 
ly useless  for  fighting  purposes ;  a  British  officer 
who  fought  against  them  (Gleig,  post,  p.  121), 
declared  that  "no  troops  could  behave  worse  than 
they  did."  Nevertheless,  some  of  them  were  ac- 
tive and  enterprising  young  men,  and  although 
they  could  not  have  stood  up  and  fought  against 
the  veteran  British  on  the  march,  they  could 
have  made  the  march  so  laborious  that  perhaps 
the  expedition  would  have  been  abandoned.  All 
this  would  have  been  a  lark  for  the  militiamen, 
but  Winder  gave  them  no  opportunity  to  enjoy 
it.  Again,  when  battle  was  joined  at  Bladens- 
burg, it  seems  that  the  troops  were  capable  of  a 
better  fight  if  they  had  been  properly  handled. 
Thus,  although  Winder  was  not  primarily  at 
fault  for  the  disaster,  he  must  take  some  part  of 
the  blame. 

[Henry  Adams,  Hist,  of  the  U.  S.  (Scribners  ed., 
1921,  vol.  VIII)  ;  J.  T.  Scharf,  Chronicles  of  Balti- 
more, (1874)  ;  J.  S.  Williams,  Hist,  of  the  Invasion  and 
Capture  of  Washington  (1857)  ;  G.  R.  Gleig,  A  Narra- 
tive of  the  Campaigns  of  the  British  Army  at  Washing- 
ton and  New  Orleans  (1818);  Spectator  (John  Arm- 
strong?), An  Enquiry  Respecting  the  Capture  of  Wash- 
ington (1816)  ;  R.  H.  Winder,  Remarks  [on  Spectator's 
pamphlet]  (1816)  ;  Report  of  the  Committee  Appointed 
.  .  .  to  Inquire  Into  the  Causes  .  .  .  of  the  Invasion  of  the 
City  of  Washington  (1814)  ;  E.  D.  Ingraham,  Sketch 
of  the  Events  which  Preceded  the  Capture  of  Washing- 
ton (1849);  Niles  Weekly  Register,  May  29,  1824; 
Baltimore  Patriot  and  Mercantile  Advertiser,  May  25, 


3^ 


Windom 

1824  ;  collection  of  about  500  letters  dealing  with  Winder's 
military  career,  Johns  Hopkins  University.]     f.  M.  S. 

WINDOM,  WILLIAM  (May  10,  1827-Jan. 
29,  1891),  representative  and  senator  from  Min- 
nesota, secretary  of  the  treasury,  was  the  son  of 
Hezekiah  and  Mercy  (Spencer)  Windom,  Quak- 
er offspring'  of  pioneer  settlers  in  Ohio.  Born  in 
Belmont  County,  in  that  state,  he  moved  with 
his  family  in  1837  to  Knox  County,  a  still  newer 
frontier.  The  boy  made  up  his  mind  to  become  a 
lawyer,  to  the  distress  of  his  parents,  who,  how- 
ever, aided  him  as  he  worked  his  way  through 
Martinsburg-  Academy  and  then  read  law  with 
Judge  R.  C.  Hurd  of  Mount  Vernon.  There, 
admitted  to  the  bar  at  the  age  of  twenty-three,  he 
began  practice,  entered  politics,  and  was  elected 
public  prosecutor  as  a  Whig. 

After  a  few  years  he  determined  to  try  his  for- 
tune in  Minnesota  Territory,  and  in  1855  settled 
in  Winona.  Becoming  a  member  of  the  firm  of 
Sargent,  Wilson  &  Windom,  he  practised  law, 
dabbled  in  real  estate,  and  was  elected  to  Con- 
gress as  a  Republican,  when  the  state  was  ad- 
mitted in  1858.  His  service  in  the  House  lasted 
until  1869.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Committee 
of  Thirty-Three,  a  supporter  and  friend  of  Lin- 
coln, and  in  the  contest  between  Johnson  and  the 
Radicals,  allied  himself  with  the  latter.  For  two 
terms  he  was  chairman  of  the  committee  on  In- 
dian affairs ;  he  headed  a  special  committee  to 
visit  the  Indian  tribes  in  1865  and  also  a  commit- 
tee to  investigate  the  conduct  of  the  Indian  com- 
missioner in  1867.  After  the  Sioux  outbreak  he 
was  one  of  the  signers  of  the  memorial  urging 
the  President  to  have  all  the  captured  Indians 
hanged.  While  generally  fair  in  his  attitude  to- 
wards Indians,  he  always  considered  the  Sioux 
beyond  the  pale. 

Windom  sought  a  senatorial  position  in  1865, 
but  it  was  not  until  1870  that  he  reached  the  Sen- 
ate, being  appointed  to  fill  the  vacancy  caused  by 
the  death  of  D.  S.  Norton.  In  the  following  ses- 
sion the  legislature  elected  another  for  the  re- 
maining weeks  of  Norton's  term,  but  chose  Win- 
dom for  the  full  term  from  1871  to  1877.  He  was 
reelected  in  1877,  resigned  in  1881  to  become 
secretary  of  the  treasury  (Mar.  8-Nov.  14),  and 
then,  after  Garfield's  death,  was  again  selected  to 
complete  his  own  term.  His  most  notable  service 
in  the  Senate  was  probably  his  chairmanship  of 
the  special  committee  on  transportation  routes 
to  the  seaboard,  which  submitted  a  two-volume 
report  (Senate  Report,  307,  43  Cong.,  1  Sess.) 
advocating  competitive  routes  under  govern- 
mental control,  development  of  waterways,  and 
the  establishment  of  a  bureau  to  collect  and  pub- 
lish facts.   Both  in  the  House  and  in  the  Senate 

3 


Windom 

he  urged  a  liberal  policy  towards  railroads,  and 
he  was  a  supporter  of  homestead  legislation.  A 
strong  nationalist,  he  declared,  Feb.  28,  1881, 
when  the  Panama  canal  project  was  being  pushed 
by  a  French  company,  that  "under  no  circum- 
stances [should]  a  foreign  government,  or  a 
company  chartered  by  a  foreign  government, 
have  control  over  an  isthmian  highway"  (Con- 
gressional Record,  46  Cong.,  3  Sess.,  p.  2212). 
From  1876  to  1881  he  was  chairman  of  the  com- 
mittee on  appropriations,  and  after  1881  chair- 
man of  the  committee  on  foreign  relations. 

In  the  Republican  National  Convention  of 
1880  Windom's  name  was  brought  forward  by 
the  Minnesota  delegation,  which  supported  him 
faithfully  until  the  stampede  to  Garfield.  As 
Garfield's  second  choice  for  secretary  of  the 
treasury,  opposed  vigorously  by  James  G.  Blaine 
for  the  place,  Windom  obtained  high  commen- 
dation for  his  successful  refunding  of  over  $600,- 
000,000  in  bonds  at  a  lower  interest  rate  and 
without  specific  legal  authorization.  The  secre- 
taryship made  no  real  break  in  his  senatorial 
career  and  he  confidently  expected  to  be  re- 
elected in  1883,  but  a  combination  of  circum- 
stances— notably  his  mistake  in  opposing  the  re- 
nomination  of  Mark  Hill  Dunnell  for  Congress, 
since  he  feared  Dunnell  had  an  eye  on  his  own 
seat,  dashed  his  hopes  ("Benjamin  Backnumber," 
in  the  Daily  News,  St.  Paul,  Jan.  23,  1921).  His 
chagrin  was  such  that  after  a  year's  vacation  in 
Europe  he  took  up  his  residence  in  the  East  and 
never  returned  to  Minnesota. 

For  six  years  Windom  was  out  of  office,  de- 
voting himself  to  the  law  and  his  considerable 
holdings  in  real  estate  and  railroad  securities.  In 
1889  he  was  again  called  to  the  treasury  de- 
partment and  held  the  secretaryship  until  his 
death,  which  occurred  suddenly  at  Delmonico's, 
New  York,  after  he  had  delivered  an  address  to 
the  New  York  Board  of  Trade  and  Transpor- 
tation. His  tenure  was  marked  by  no  especially 
significant  features,  although  an  unstable  eco- 
nomic situation,  aggravated  by  monetary  dis- 
turbance, made  his  position  both  important  and 
delicate. 

A  high-tariff  man  and  generally  an  advocate 
of  sound  money,  although  he  was  a  believer  in 
international  bimetalism  and  had  voted  for  the 
Bland-Allison  Act  of  1878,  Windom  stood  out 
from  the  rank  and  file  of  his  Western  contempo- 
raries and  hence,  for  the  most  part,  was  looked 
upon  as  safe  by  conservative  Eastern  Repub- 
licans. No  scandal  ever  attached  to  his  name  in 
a  period  when  too  many  of  his  contemporaries 
had  to  defend  reputations  not  altogether  invulner- 
able (C.  T.  Murray  in  Philadelphia  Times,  re- 

83 


Winebrenner 


Winebrenner 


printed  in  Daily  Pioneer  Press,  June  2,  1880). 
On  Aug.  20,  1856,  Windom  married  Ellen 
Towne  Hatch  of  Warwick,  Mass.,  who  survived 
him,  with  a  son  and  two  daughters. 

[W.  W.  Folwell,  A  Hist,  of  Minn.,  vols.  II,  III 
(1924-26);  G.  A.  Wright,  "William  Windom,  1827- 
1890"  (MS.),  Univ.  of  Wis.  thesis  in  Minn.  Hist.  Soc. ; 
Memorial  Tributes  to  the  Character  and  Public  Services 
of  William  Windom,  Together  with  His  Last  Address 
(1891);  C.  E.  Flandrau,  Encyc.  of  Biog.  of  Minn. 
(1900)  ;  W.  H.  C.  Folsom,  Fifty  Years  in  the  Northwest 
(1888)  ;  T.  C.  Smith,  The  Life  and  Letters  of  James 
Abram  Garfield  (1925),  vol.  II  ;  R.  P.  Herrick,  Windom 
the  Man  and  the  School  (1903)  ;  Biog.  Dir.  Am.  Cong. 
(1928);  N.  Y.  Times,  Jan.  30,  1891  ;  Daily  Pioneer 
Press  (St.  Paul),  Jan.  30-Feb.  1,  1891  ;  Washington 
Post,  Jan.  30-Feb.  3,   1891.]  L.  B.  S — e. 

WINEBRENNER,  JOHN  (Mar.  25,  1797- 
Sept.  12,  i860),  clergyman,  founder  of  the  Gen- 
eral Eldership  of  the  Churches  of  God  in  North 
America,  was  born  on  a  farm  near  Walkersville, 
Frederick  County,  Md.,  the  third  son  of  Philip 
and  Eve  (Barrick)  Winebrenner,  and  a  grand- 
son of  Johann  Christian  Weinbrenner,  who 
emigrated  from  the  Rhenish  Palatinate  to  Penn- 
sylvania in  1753  and  settled  ultimately  at  Hagers- 
town,  Md.  From  his  mother  he  inherited  a 
strain  of  Scottish  blood,  and  in  temper  and  ap- 
pearance he  was  more  Scotch  than  German.  Al- 
though he  dated  his  conversion  from  Easter 
Sunday,  Apr.  6,  1817,  his  ambition,  even  in  early 
boyhood,  was  set  on  the  ministry.  He  attended 
an  academy  at  Frederick;  entered  Dickinson 
College,  at  Carlisle,  Pa.,  shortly  before  it  closed 
its  doors  in  1816  for  a  few  years;  studied  theol- 
ogy for  three  years  in  Philadelphia  under  Samuel 
Helffenstein,  son  of  J.  C.  A.  Helffenstein  [q.v.~\ ; 
and,  having  been  elected  pastor  of  the  German 
Reformed  congregation  at  Harrisburg,  was  or- 
dained at  Hagerstown  on  Sept.  28,  1820,  by  the 
General  Synod  of  the  German  Reformed  Church. 
His  charge  included  four  rural  filials :  Middle- 
town,  Schupps,  and  Wenrichs  in  Dauphin  Coun- 
ty, and  Schneblys  (Salem)  in  Cumberland. 

His  work  began  auspiciously,  for  he  was  a 
man  of  real  ability,  but  within  two  years  the  ex- 
travagance of  his  revivalistic  methods  had  split 
his  congregations  into  irreconcilable  factions. 
His  conservative,  better  educated  parishioners 
would  not  tolerate  a  minister  who  demanded  total 
abstinence  from  them,  fraternized  with  Meth- 
odists, held  prayer  meetings  on  four  evenings  of 
the  week,  and  conducted  a  "protracted  meeting" 
until  four  o'clock  in  the  morning,  but  he  won 
followers,  and  many  of  them,  among  the  lowly. 
Excluded  from  his  Harrisburg  church,  he 
preached  in  the  market  place  or  wherever  he 
could  gather  a  crowd.  For  several  years  he 
lived  as  an  itinerant  evangelist,  conducting  camp- 
meetings  at  various  places  in  central  and  west- 


ern Pennsylvania  and  in  western  Maryland.  He 
preached  with  terrific  effect ;  when  he  leaned  out 
over  the  pulpit  and  shook  his  long  forefinger  at 
his  hearers,  the  more  impressionable  among  them 
would  have  fainting  fits.  In  1828  the  German 
Reformed  Synod  dropped  his  name  from  its  ros- 
ter. On  July  4,  1830,  Winebrenner  had  himself 
rebaptized ;  the  rite  was  performed  in  the  Sus- 
quehanna River  at  Harrisburg  by  a  young  dis- 
ciple, Jacob  Erb.  That  summer  he  and  his 
helpers  organized  themselves  as  the  General 
Eldership  of  the  Church  of  God.  The  sect  grew 
and  extended  its  activities  into  Ohio,  Indiana, 
and  the  Middle  West.  In  1845  tne  general  or- 
ganization changed  its  name  to  that  of  the  Gen- 
eral Eldership  of  the  Churches  of  God  in  North 
America.  In  1926  it  claimed  428  churches  and 
31,596  members. 

Its  founder  was  for  thirty  years  its  leader  and 
theologian,  but  his  leadership  was  often  dis- 
puted, and  even  as  a  theologian  he  did  not  always 
have  his  own  way.  He  disliked  the  idea  of  foot- 
washing  as  an  "ordinance,"  but  many  of  his  fol- 
lowers came  from  the  foot-washing  sects  and, 
arguing  from  his  own  principles  of  Biblical 
exegesis,  compelled  him  to  accept  it.  His  other 
teachings  were  a  medley  of  primitive  Methodist 
and  Baptist  doctrines.  He  continued  to  live  in 
Harrisburg  until  his  death  and  devoted  most  of 
his  time  to  the  general  work  of  the  sect.  He  ed- 
ited and  published  two  church  papers,  the  Gospel 
Publisher,  1835-40,  and  the  Church  Advocate, 
1846-57 ;  compiled  English  and  German  hymn 
books ;  and  issued  several  volumes  of  sermons 
and  doctrinal  disquisitions.  For  a  time,  in  his 
efforts  to  support  his  family,  he  was  proprietor 
of  a  drug  store.  He  also  sold  thousands  of  Chi- 
nese mulberry  trees  to  his  followers  on  the  theory 
that  they  would  then  grow  rich  by  raising  silk- 
worms, but  the  scheme  failed,  and  the  resulting 
scandal  died  hard.  Throughout  his  sphere  of  in- 
fluence Morns  multicaulis  became  a  fighting 
word.  He  was  married  twice:  on  Oct.  10,  1822, 
to  Charlotte  M.  Reutter  of  Harrisburg,  who  bore 
him  several  children  and  died  in  1834;  and  on 
Nov.  2,  1837,  to  Mary  Hamilton  Mitchell  of 
Harrisburg,  who,  with  their  four  children,  sur- 
vived him  for  many  years.  He  died  at  Harris- 
burg after  an  illness  of  two  years.  In  1868  the 
Churches  of  God  raised  a  monument  to  his  mem- 
ory in  the  Harrisburg  Cemetery. 

[George  Ross,  Biog.  of  Elder  John  Winebrenner 
(1880)  ;  C.  H.  Forney,  Hist,  of  the  Churches  of  Cod  in 
the  U.  S.  A.  (1914)  ;  article  by  Winebrenner  in  I.  D. 
Rupp,  He  Pasa  Ekklesia :  An  Original  Hist,  of  the  Re- 
ligious Denominations  at  Present  Existing  in  the  U.  S. 
(1844)  ;  T.  J.  C.  Williams  and  Folger  McKinsey,  Hist. 
of  Frederick  County,  Md.  (1910),  II,  708-09,  1341-42; 
Reg.  of  the  Members  of  the  Union  Philosophical  Soc. 
of  Dickinson  Coll.  (1850)  ;  Verhandlnngen  der  General- 


384 


Wines 

Synodc  dcr  Hochdcutschcn  Rcformirtcn  Kirche  in  den 
Vereinigten  Staaten,  1820-28.]  G.  H.  G. 

WINES,  ENOCH  COBB  (Feb.  17,  1806-Dec. 
10,  1879),  prison  reformer,  educator,  minister, 
was  born  in  Hanover,  N.  J.,  the  son  of  William 
Wines  and  his  first  wife,  Eleanor  Baldwin.  The 
family  shortly  moved  to  a  farm  at  Shoreham, 
Vt.  There  Enoch  prepared  himself  for  Middle- 
bury  College,  from  which  he  was  graduated  in 
1827.  He  abandoned  a  brief  experiment  with  a 
classical  school  in  Washington,  D.  C,  in  1829  to 
become  schoolmaster  of  midshipmen  on  the 
United  States  frigate  Constellation,  an  experi- 
ence that  provided  material  for  his  Two  Years 
and  a  Half  in  the  Navy  (2  vols.,  1832).  On  June 
14,  1832,  he  was  married  to  Emma  Stansbury, 
who  in  time  bore  him  seven  sons.  Purchasing 
the  Edgehill  Seminary  at  Princeton,  N.  J.,  in  the 
same  year,  he  conducted  a  boys'  school  on  the 
pattern  of  the  German  gymnasia.  Declining  for- 
tunes at  the  school  led  him  in  1839  to  try  an  in- 
structorship  at  the  People's  College  in  Phila- 
delphia, but  within  a  few  years  he  purchased 
another  classical  school  in  Burlington,  N.  J., 
which  likewise  failed  to  flourish.  During  this 
period  he  published  several  tracts  and  for  a  short 
time  edited  a  monthly  magazine,  the  American 
Journal  of  Education,  agitating  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  normal  schools,  and  describing  edu- 
cational developments  in  Prussia  and  elsewhere. 
In  the  late  forties  he  turned  to  the  study  of  theol- 
ogy and  produced  a  fat  volume  of  Commentaries 
on  the  Laws  of  the  Ancient  Hebrews  (1853),  in 
which  he  attempted  to  demonstrate  the  Biblical 
origin  of  the  essential  principles  of  civil  liberty 
and  popular  government.  In  1849  he  was  licensed 
to  preach  by  the  Congregationalists  and  filled 
successive  pulpits  at  Cornwall,  Vt.,  East  Hamp- 
ton on  Long  Island,  and  Washington,  Pa.  Dur- 
ing the  six  years  of  his  last  pastorate  ( 1853-59) 
he  likewise  filled  the  chair  of  ancient  languages 
at  Washington  College.  A  call  to  the  presidency 
of  the  newly  founded  City  University  of  St.  Louis 
took  him  west  in  1859,  but  the  outbreak  of  the 
Civil  War  closed  its  doors  in  1861. 

Returning  east,  he  accepted  the  secretaryship 
of  the  reviving  Prison  Association  of  New  York 
and  thus  at  the  age  of  fifty-six  entered  upon  his 
major  life  work.  His  energetic  appeals  to  local 
churches  and  to  the  city  and  state  authorities 
increased  the  revenues  of  the  society  from  an 
average  of  $2,349  during  its  first  thirteen  years 
to  $12,768  in  1863  and  made  possible  a  greatly 
expanded  program.  When  his  inspection  of  the 
state  prisons  revealed  desperate  overcrowding 
and  other  unsatisfactory  results  of  a  politically 
unstable  administration,  Wines  proposed  that  the 


Wines 

society  undertake  a  comprehensive  study  of  the 
problem  in  order  to  prepare  a  reasoned  program 
for  presentation  at  the  forthcoming  state  consti- 
tutional convention.  Accordingly  in  1865,  with 
Theodore  William  Dwight  [q.v.],  he  visited  all 
the  prisons  of  the  northern  states  and  prepared 
a  monumental  Report  on  the  Prisons  and  Re- 
formatories of  the  United  States  and  Canada 
(1867).  In  conclusion  the  authors  recommended 
the  creation  of  a  nonpartisan  board  of  commis- 
sioners whose  terms  should  be  staggered  over  a 
period  of  years  in  order  to  secure  a  permanent 
program  of  prison  development.  Although  the 
state  failed  to  adopt  the  necessary  constitutional 
changes,  this  document  and  succeeding  annual 
reports  by  Wines  greatly  stimulated  a  widespread 
movement  towards  prison  reform  and  encour- 
aged such  experimenters  as  Zebulon  Reed 
Brockway  [#.£>.]  at  Detroit.  Simultaneously  in 
1866  Wines  and  Franklin  Benjamin  Sanborn 
[q.v.]  gave  wide  publicity  in  America  to  the 
Irish-Crofton  system  of  graded  prisons  and 
ticket-of-leave  discharge,  ideas  which  shortly 
germinated  into  the  American  systems  of  parole 
and  indeterminate  sentence  and  the  young  men's 
reformatories.  Meanwhile  Wines  undertook  to 
organize  the  agitation  for  reform  by  calling  a 
national  convention  in  1870.  The  "Declaration 
of  Principles"  adopted  by  the  Cincinnati  Con- 
gress provided  a  sufficient  program  for  prison 
reformers  for  the  remainder  of  the  century. 
Wines  was  chosen  secretary  of  the  National 
Prison  Association  which  resulted  from  this  first 
gathering  and  remained  its  guiding  spirit  until 
1877,  when  it  was  temporarily  disbanded. 

Following  one  of  his  own  recommendations 
approved  at  Cincinnati,  he  secured  a  joint  reso- 
lution from  Congress  creating  a  special  United 
States  commissioner  empowered  to  invite  the 
countries  of  the  world  to  an  international  con- 
gress on  prison  reform.  When  in  1871  he  was 
appointed  to  the  position  he  visited  most  of  the 
countries  of  Europe,  studying  their  prison  meth- 
ods and  inviting  their  cooperation.  Largely  as  a 
result  of  his  efforts  twenty-two  nations  were  rep- 
resented at  the  first  International  Penitentiary 
Congress  at  London  in  1872,  from  which  sprang 
an  international  and  several  national  organiza- 
tions. Wines  was  chosen  honorary  president  of 
the  second  international  congress  when  it  con- 
vened at  Stockholm  in  1878.  Already  his  labors, 
characterized  by  sentiment,  optimism,  and  a 
rare  ability  for  organization,  had  coupled  his 
name  with  that  of  John  Howard.  Fortunately, 
before  his  death  in  the  following  year  he  had 
completed  his  final  work,  The  State  of  Prisons 
and  of  Child-Soring  Institutions  in  the  Civilised 


3»s 


Wines 

World  (1880).  He  died  in  Cambridge,  Mass. 
One  of  his  sons  was  Frederick  Howard  Wines 
[q.v.]. 

[The  chief  sources  are  Penal  and  Reformatory  Insti- 
tutions (4  vols.,  1910),  pub.  by  the  Russell  Sage  Foun- 
dation, and  letters  in  MS.  in  the  possession  of  William 
St.  John  Wines  of  Springfield,  111.  See  also  Am.  Jour, 
of  Educ,  Sept.  i860  ;  Cat.  of  the  Officers  and  Students 
of  Middlebury  Coll.  (1917)  ;  Blake  McKelvey,  "A  Hist, 
of  Am.  Prisons  from  1865  to  1910,"  thesis  in  Harvard 
Univ.  Lib.;  obituary  in  N.  Y.  Tribune,  Dec.  12,  1879.] 

B.M— y. 

WINES,  FREDERICK  HOWARD  (Apr.  9, 
1838-Jan.  31,  1912),  social  reformer,  was  born 
in  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  the  son  of  Enoch  Cobb 
Wines  [q.v.~\  and  Emma  (Stansbury)  Wines. 
He  was  a  descendant  of  Barnabas  Wines  who 
emigrated  from  Wales  and  was  a  freeman  in 
Watertown,  Mass.,  in  1635.  Graduating  at  the 
head  of  his  class  from  Washington  College  (later 
Washington  and  Jefferson)  in  1857,  he  entered 
Princeton  Theological  Seminary  but  was  forced 
by  an  infection  of  the  eyes  to  discontinue  his 
studies.  In  i860  in  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  he  secured  a 
license  to  preach  and  an  appointment  from  the 
American  Sunday  School  Union  to  missionary 
labors,  with  his  headquarters  in  the  frontier  town 
of  Springfield,  Mo.  In  1862  he  was  commis- 
sioned hospital  chaplain  in  charge  of  refugees  at 
Springfield.  In  1864  he  returned  to  Princeton, 
where  he  was  graduated  from  the  theological 
school  (1865).  He  was  ordained  by  the  presby- 
tery of  Sangamon  on  Oct.  29,  1865.  He  shortly 
received  a  call  to  the  First  Presbyterian  Church 
of  Springfield,  111.,  where  he  remained  until  1869. 
On  Mar.  21,  1865,  he  was  married  to  Mary 
Frances  Hackney  of  Springfield,  Mo.,  by  whom 
he  had  eight  children. 

The  organization  of  the  Illinois  state  board  of 
public  charities  in  1869  and  the  appointment  of 
Wines  as  its  secretary  enrolled  him  in  the  work 
to  which  he  was  to  devote  the  rest  of  his  life. 
Among  the  early  secretaries  of  such  boards  he 
enjoyed  the  longest  term  (1869-92,  1896-98) 
and  was  able  to  exert  an  influence  on  the  early 
development  of  eleemosynary  institutions  that 
was  rivalled  only  by  that  of  Franklin  Benjamin 
Sanborn,  William  Pryor  Letchworth  \_qq.vJ], 
and  H.  H.  Hart  of  Minnesota.  He  attended  most 
of  the  early  meetings  of  the  National  Prison  As- 
sociation and  eagerly  cooperated  in  its  revival  in 
1884,  serving  as  secretary  from  1887  to  1890.  In 
1878  he  was  the  Illinois  delegate  to  the  Interna- 
tional Penitentiary  Congress  at  Stockholm  and 
took  advantage  of  the  opportunity  to  visit  chari- 
table institutions  in  Europe,  establishing  connec- 
tions that  enabled  him  to  serve  as  an  importer  of 
new  ideas  for  the  rest  of  his  life.  Thus  from  his 
observations   in  England  he  brought  back  the 


Wing 

germ  of  the  plan  for  the  Kankakee  State  Hos- 
pital, the  first  institution  in  America  to  apply  the 
detached  ward,  or  cottage  system,  to  the  housing 
of  insane ;  he  cited  English  experience  when 
urging  the  elimination  of  chains  and  other  phy- 
sical restraints  in  the  care  of  defectives,  and  in 
the  early  eighties  he  was  among  the  first  to  urge 
the  development  in  America  of  "pathological  re- 
search" and  hydrotherapy.  He  was  one  of  the 
leading  spirits  in  the  move  to  separate  adminis- 
trators from  theorists  in  the  annual  Social  Sci- 
ence Congresses,  establishing  in  1878  the  Na- 
tional Conference  of  Charities  and  Corrections, 
over  whose  deliberations  he  presided  in  1883.  In 
1886  he  began  the  International  Record  of  Chari- 
ties and  Correction,  a  monthly  which  continued 
until  it  was  absorbed  (1888)  into  the  Charities 
Review.  During  the  administration  of  J.  P.  Alt- 
geld  [q.v.~\  he  was  relieved  from  responsibility 
in  Illinois  and  found  time  to  deliver  numerous 
addresses,  including  a  series  on  the  history  and 
philosophy  of  prison  reform  before  the  Lowell 
Institute  of  Boston.  Later  he  expanded  this  ma- 
terial into  his  volume,  Punishment  and  Reforma- 
tion ( 1895),  which  remained  for  many  years  the 
most  satisfactory  treatment  of  the  subject  in  Eng- 
lish. 

Wines  early  gave  attention  in  his  state  reports 
to  the  statistical  analysis  of  sociological  data,  and 
during  the  Tenth  Census  he  was  named  special 
adviser  in  the  preparation  of  the  report  on  The 
Defective,  Dependent  and  Delinquent  Classes  of 
the  Popidation  of  the  United  States  (1881).  In 
1897  he  was  appointed  assistant  director  of  the 
Twelfth  Census  and  was  given  major  responsi- 
bility for  the  preparation  of  the  Report  on  Crime, 
Pauperism  and  Benevolence  in  the  United  States 
(2  vols.,  1895-96).  Having  moved  to  Washing- 
ton in  1898,  he  continued  to  make  his  home  there 
and  in  Beaufort,  N.  C,  until  called  back  to  Illinois 
to  fill  the  post  of  statistician  under  the  newly 
established  board  of  control  in  1909.  There  he 
started  the  Institution  Quarterly  and  otherwise 
maintained  his  active  services  until  the  end.  He 
died  in  Springfield,  111. 

[F.  H.  Wines,  The  Descendants  of  John  Stansbury 
of  Leominster  (1895)  ;  E.  W.  Willcox,  Geneal.  Outline 
of  the  Wines  Family  (1908)  ;  Who's  Who  in  America, 
1910-11  ;  Biog.  and  Hist.  Cat.  of  Washington  and  Jef- 
ferson Coll.  (1902)  ;  Biog.  Cat.  of  the  Princeton  Theo- 
logical Seminary  (1933);  A.  S.  Bowen,  in  Institution 
Quart.,  Mar.  31,  1912  ;  H.  H.  Hart,  Ibid.,  Dec.  31, 
191 2;  obituary  in  ///.  State  Reg.  (Springfield),  Feb.  1, 
1912.]  B.M— y. 

WING,  JOSEPH  ELWYN  (Sept.  14,  1861- 
Sept.  10,  1915),  farmer,  agricultural  journalist, 
and  lecturer,  was  the  son  of  William  Harrington 
and  Jane  (Bullard)  Wing.  He  was  a  descendant 
of  Daniel  Wing  who  emigrated  to  Boston  in 


386 


Wing 

1632.  In  1637  the  family  settled  near  Sandwich 
on  Cape  Cod.  Wing  was  born  at  Hinsdale,  N. 
Y.,  and  at  the  age  of  six  went  to  Mechanicsburg, 
Champaign  County,  Ohio,  where  his  father 
bought  a  small,  infertile  farm.  He  was  educated 
in  the  district  school,  the  village  high  school,  and 
Elmira  Academy  in  New  York.  Except  for  a 
year  in  northern  Florida,  he  worked  on  his  fa- 
ther's farm  until  March  1886,  when  he  went  west. 
Not  liking  mining,  his  first  work  there,  he  be- 
came a  cowboy  on  the  Range  Valley  Ranch  on 
the  Green  River  in  Utah,  and  had  become  fore- 
man and  part  owner  before  he  returned  to  Ohio 
in  1889  to  manage  the  home  farm  in  cooperation 
with  his  two  brothers.  His  plan  for  making 
Woodland  Farm  profitable  included  the  raising 
of  sheep  and  of  alfalfa,  a  crop  then  little  known 
east  of  the  Mississippi.  Both  sheep  and  alfalfa 
proved  successful,  and  "Joe"  Wing,  or  "Alfalfa 
Joe,"  as  he  was  often  called,  began  to  advocate 
the  improvement  of  farm  lands  by  the  use  of  lime 
and  phosphates,  and  the  growing  of  sweet  clover, 
soy  beans,  and  other  legumes.  He  became  the 
first  strong  propagandist  for  alfalfa  in  the  cen- 
tral and  eastern  states,  was  largely  responsible 
for  its  prominence  there,  and  came  to  be  recog- 
nized as  an  authority  on  the  type  of  soil  suitable 
for  its  culture,  and  on  methods  of  seeding  and 
handling  the  crop.  His  Alfalfa  Farming  in  Amer- 
ica (1909)  became  the  standard  work  on  the 
subject. 

He  lectured  widely  on  subjects  connected  with 
farming  at  institutes  and  colleges,  and  soon  after 
returning  to  the  home  farm  began  to  write  for 
agricultural  papers,  including  the  Country  Gen- 
tleman and  the  Ohio  Cultivator.  In  1896  he  was 
invited  by  Alvin  H.  Sanders  to  write  for  the 
Breeder's  Gazette.  Two  years  later  he  joined  the 
Gazette  as  staff  correspondent  and  became  a  na- 
tional figure  in  agricultural  journalism.  Taking 
advantage  of  Wing's  love  of  the  road,  Sanders 
sent  him  throughout  the  United  States  and  over 
much  of  Europe  to  secure  material  for  his  ar- 
ticles. In  time  he  became  a  very  proficient  pho- 
tographer and  furnished  his  own  excellent  illus- 
trations. During  the  Taft  administration  he  was 
sent  to  South  America  and  Europe  by  the  tariff 
commission  to  study  methods  and  costs  of  wool 
production.  His  books  include  Sheep  Farming  in 
America  (1905),  Meadows  and  Pastures  (1911), 
and  In  Foreign  Fields  (1913).  While  success- 
fully practical,  he  was  at  the  same  time  a  dream- 
er, something  of  a  poet  at  heart,  and  a  lover  of 
natural  beauty.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Protes- 
tant Episcopal  Church.  On  Sept.  19,  1890,  he 
was  married  to  Florence  Staley,  by  whom  he  had 
three  sons.    He  died  in  his  fifty-fourth  year  at 


Wingate 


Marion,  Ohio,  after  a  lingering  illness  of  pel- 
lagra. 

[W.  E.  Ogilvie,  Pioneer  Agricultural  Journalists 
(1927)  ;  L.  S.  Ivins,  and  A.  E.  Winship,  Fifty  Famous 
Farmers  (1924);  Owl  (Wing  geneal.  mag.),  Sept. 
1902,  Sept.  1907,  June  1908,  Sept.  1909,  Mar.  1913, 
and  Dec.  1915;  A.  H.  Sanders,  Live  Stock  Markets, 
Aug.  24,  1933,  and  in  conversation  ;  Breeder's  Gazette, 
Sept.  23,  1915;  obituary  in  Ohio  State  Jour.  (Co- 
lumbus), Sept.  11,  1915  ;  correspondence  with  Mrs. 
Wing  and  Andrew  S.  Wing.]  R.  H.A. 

WINGATE,  PAINE  (May  14,  1739-Mar.  7, 
1838),  Congregational  clergyman,  legislator,  and 
jurist,  was  born  at  Amesbury,  Mass.  He  was  the 
sixth  of  the  twelve  children  of  the  Rev.  Paine 
and  Mary  (Balch)  Wingate,  and  a  descendant 
of  John  Wingate,  who  came  to  America  as  early 
as  1658  and  settled  at  Dover,  N.  H.  The  elder 
Paine  Wingate  was  graduated  at  Harvard  in 
1723  and  spent  a  long  life  as  pastor  at  Amesbury. 
His  son  was  graduated  at  Harvard  in  1759,  stud- 
ied theology,  and  on  Dec.  14,  1763,  was  ordained 
pastor  of  the  Congregational  Church  at  Hamp- 
ton Falls,  N.  H.  On  May  23,  1765,  he  married 
Eunice  Pickering  of  Salem,  Mass.,  a  sister  of 
Timothy  Pickering  \_q.v.~\.  Their  married  life  of 
more  than  seventy  years,  and  the  great  age  at- 
tained by  both,  Mrs.  Wingate  passing  the  cen- 
tury mark,  have  often  been  cited  as  examples  of 
family  longevity. 

The  Hampton  Falls  congregation  was  a  con- 
tentious body  and  after  a  series  of  disagreements 
with  it  involving  matters  of  church  policy  and 
theology,  Wingate  in  1771  offered  his  resigna- 
tion, which  was  to  take  effect  in  1776 ;  he  did  not, 
however,  perform  ministerial  duties  to  any  con- 
siderable extent  during  the  intervening  years. 
In  1776  he  moved  to  Stratham,  N.  H.,  and  took 
possession  of  a  farm  purchased  some  years  be- 
fore. Here  he  maintained  a  residence  for  the 
rest  of  his  life.  His  correspondence  with  his 
brother-in-law,  Timothy  Pickering,  shows  that  he 
shared  the  latter's  interest  in  agricultural  im- 
provements and  was  able  to  make  a  comfortable 
living  from  his  farm.  He  was  not  in  sympathy 
with  the  radical  party  in  the  early  years  of  the 
Revolution.  Nevertheless,  his  frequently  ex- 
pressed desire  for  reconciliation,  his  moderate 
attitude  at  the  provincial  congresses,  and  his  re- 
fusal to  sign  the  "Association  Test"  of  1776, 
while  producing  charges  of  "lukewarmness"  and 
"Toryism,"  do  not  appear  to  have  destroyed  pub- 
lic confidence  in  his  essential  integrity  and  pa- 
triotism. In  1 78 1  he  was  a  delegate  to  the  state 
constitutional  convention.  Two  years  later  he 
served  in  the  state  legislature  and  in  1787  was 
elected  to  the  last  Congress  under  the  Confed- 
eration. He  supported  the  proposed  Constitution 
and  after  its  ratification  was  chosen  senator  from 


387 


Wingfield 

New  Hampshire,  drawing  a  four-year  term  in 
the  subsequent  allotment.  On  conclusion  of  this 
service  he  was  elected  for  a  single  term  to  the 
federal  House  (Mar.  4,  1793-Mar.  3,  1795).  He 
was  active  in  committee  work  rather  than  in  de- 
bate, but  his  correspondence  throws  considerable 
light  on  the  processes  of  inaugurating  the  new 
government,  and  on  the  personalities  and  issues 
involved.  For  the  most  part  he  supported  Fed- 
eralist principles,  but  probably  reflected  the 
dominant  sentiment  of  New  Hampshire  when  he 
opposed  Hamilton's  funding  scheme.  In  later 
years  he  acquired  a  profound  distrust  for  "French 
principles"  which  would  have  qualified  him  for 
membership  in  the  Essex  Junto,  but  with  the 
Federalist  tide  running  strong  in  1794  he  was 
defeated,  apparently  as  less  dependable  than  party 
needs  required. 

He  served  another  term  (1795)  in  the  state 
legislature,  and  in  1798  became  judge  of  the  su- 
perior court,  retiring  on  reaching  the  age  of 
seventy  in  1809.  The  courts  had  not  yet  experi- 
enced the  salutary  influence  of  Jeremiah  Smith 
[qs\~\  and  other  jurists  learned  in  the  law,  and 
according  to  William  Plumer  (post),  who  prac- 
tised before  them,  the  judges  were  too  often  un- 
acquainted with  legal  principles  and  inclined  to 
decide  individual  cases  on  the  basis  of  abstract 
ideas  of  justice.  Wingate,  he  declares,  was  "pre- 
disposed to  sacrifice  law  to  equity,"  but  his  ideas 
of  equity  were  uncertain.  "Of  the  technicalities 
of  the  law,  its  form  and  modes  of  procedure  and 
the  principles  of  special  pleading  he  was  pro- 
foundly ignorant."  He  may  be  considered,  how- 
ever, to  have  performed  important  services  on 
the  bench  in  a  formative  period  when  popular 
confidence  in  the  courts  was  an  essential  barrier 
to  general  confusion.  After  his  retirement  he 
spent  his  remaining  years  on  his  Stratham  farm, 
where,  as  the  "last  survivor"  of  the  many  groups 
and  activities  with  which  he  had  been  associated, 
he  was  often  consulted  by  historians  and  antiquar- 
ians. He  had  five  children — two  sons  and  three 
daughters. 

[C.  E.  L.  Wingate,  Life  and  Letters  of  Paine  Win- 
gate  (2  vols.,  1930)  and  Paine  Wingate's  Letters  to  His 
Children  (copr.  1934)  ;  C.  H.  Bell,  The  Bench  and  Bar 
of  N.  H.  (1894)  ;  William  Plumer,  in  N.  H.  State  Pa- 
pers, vol.  XXI  (1892)  ;  Biog.  Dir.  Am.  Cong.  (1928)  ; 
Warren  Brown,  Hist,  of  the  Town  of  Hampton  Falls, 
N.  H.  (1900);  Boston  Daily  Advertiser,  Mar.  12, 
1838.]  W.A.  R. 

WINGFIELD,  EDWARD  MARIA  (fl.  1586- 
1613),  adventurer  and  first  president  of  the  Vir- 
ginia colony,  stemmed  from  a  family  long  noted 
for  distinguished  public  service.  His  grandfather 
was  Sir  Richard  Wingfield,  Lord  Deputy  of 
Calais  and  trusted  ambassador  of  Henry  VIII. 


Wingfield 


Thomas,  Sir  Richard's  second  son,  was  spon- 
sored by  Queen  Mary  and  acquired  consequently 
the  name  of  Maria,  which  survived  in  the  family 
for  several  generations.  Following  the  death  in 
1546  of  his  first  wife,  Thomas  married  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Kerrye  or  Kaye  family  of  Yorkshire, 
and  of  this  union  Edward  Maria,  of  Stoneley  in 
Huntingdonshire,  was  the  eldest  son  and  heir. 
There  seems  to  be  no  record  of  the  exact  date  of 
his  birth,  but  the  known  facts  regarding  his 
parentage  prove  that  he  was  past  middle  age 
when  he  sailed  for  Virginia  in  1606. 

He  was  at  that  time  an  experienced  soldier, 
having  served  with  others  of  his  family  in  Ire- 
land and  the  Netherlands  under  Queen  Elizabeth. 
As  early  as  1586  he  sought  in  return  for  this  serv- 
ice a  grant  of  3,000  acres  in  Limerick  and  4,000 
in  Munster.  He  was  one  of  the  first  to  become  in- 
terested in  the  establishment  of  the  Virginia  col- 
ony, and  together  with  Sir  Thomas  Gates  [q.v.], 
George  Somers,  and  Richard  Hakluyt  headed  the 
list  of  those  to  whom  the  Virginia  charter  was 
granted  on  Apr.  10,  1606.  Alone  of  this  group  he 
sailed  with  the  first  settlers.  On  the  night  of 
their  arrival  within  the  Virginia  capes,  Apr.  26, 
1607,  the  box  containing  their  sealed  orders  was 
opened,  and  soon  thereafter  the  council,  of  which 
Wingfield  was  a  member,  selected  him  as  presi- 
dent. 

The  infant  colony  was  from  the  first  torn  by 
faction  and  strife,  and  Wingfield  was  naturally 
the  chief  sufferer.  Ere  the  summer  was  out  sup- 
plies had  run  short  and  the  little  community  was 
wracked  by  severe  epidemics.  The  colonists,  dis- 
illusioned, gnawed  by  fear,  and  seized  with  sus- 
picion and  hatred,  filled  the  air  with  recrimina- 
tions. Wingfield  was  removed  from  office  on  Sept. 
10,  1607,  and  sent  home  the  following  spring  af- 
ter several  months  of  imprisonment.  He  arrived 
May  21,  1608. 

He  drafted  then  a  spirited  defense  of  himself 
entitled  "A  Discourse  of  Virginia."  While  there 
is  no  question  that  he  failed  to  rise  to  the  emer- 
gency in  Virginia,  this  document  discloses,  in 
conjunction  with  other  contemporary  accounts, 
the  pettiness  and  contradictory  nature  of  the 
charges  brought  against  him.  Most  revealing  of 
all  were  the  repeated  accusations  of  plans  to 
desert  the  colonists,  of  favoritism  in  the  distri- 
bution of  supplies,  and  of  having  lived  in  great 
plenty  and  style  while  the  settlers  were  dying  of 
starvation.  His  task  was  well-nigh  an  impos- 
sible one,  and  others  essaying  the  same  role 
fared  little  better.  Wingfield  offered  several  sug- 
gestions for  changes  in  the  management  of  the 
colony's  affairs,  and  probably  exercised  consid- 
erable influence  in  the  reorganization  which  ac- 


388 


Winkler 


Winlock 


companied  the  granting  of  the  second  charter  in 
1609.  In  this  instrument  he  was  named  as  a 
grantee,  and  with  an  adventure  of  £88  he  was 
one  of  the  larger  individual  investors  in  the  Lon- 
don Company.  He  is  known  to  have  been  living 
at  Stoneley  in  1613,  but  his  death  probably  oc- 
curred shortly  thereafter. 

Wingfield's  '"Discourse  of  Virginia,"  present- 
ing an  account  of  the  colony  from  June  1607  to 
his  departure  and  a  rather  able  refutation  of  the 
charges  against  him,  was  discovered  in  the  Lam- 
beth Library  by  Rev.  James  Anderson  and  first 
published  by  Charles  Deane  in  i860  (Transac- 
tions and  Collections  of  the  American  Antiquar- 
ian Society,  vol.  IV).  Its  chief  influence,  in 
addition  to  partially  redeeming  Wingfield's  rep- 
utation, was  to  excite  a  prolonged  and  heated 
dispute  regarding  the  trustworthiness  of  John 
Smith's  accounts  of  e"arly  American  history. 

[J.  A.  Doyle,  in  Diet.  Nat.  Biog. ;  Alexander  Brown, 
The  Genesis  of  the  U.  S.  (2  vols.,  1890)  ;  Lord  Powers- 
court,  Muniments  of  the  Ancient  Saxon  Family  of 
Wing  field  (1894)  ;  Edward  Arber,  Travels  and  Works 
of  Captain  John  Smith  (2  vols.,  19 10)  ;  George  Percy 
[g.v.],  Percy's  Discourse  of  Virginia  (Am.  Hist.  Leaf- 
lets, no.  36,  19:3),  also  pub.  in  Samuel  Purchas,  Hak- 
luytns  Posthumus,  or,  Purchas  His  Pilgrimes,  vol. 
XVIII  (1906);  Calendar  of  State  Papers,  Col.  Ser., 
1 574-1660  (i860)  ;  Susan  M.  Kingsbury,  The  Records 
of  the  Va.  Company  of  London,  vol.  Ill  (1933).] 

W.  F.  C. 

WINKLER,  EDWIN  THEODORE  (Nov. 
13,  1823-Nov.  10,  1883),  Baptist  clergyman,  ed- 
itor, and  writer,  was  born  in  Savannah,  Ga.,  the 
second  child  of  Shadrach  and  Jane  Wetzer 
Winkler.  He  was  prepared  for  college  at  Chat- 
ham Academy,  and  graduated  from  Brown  Uni- 
versity in  the  class  of  1843.  For  the  next  two 
years  he  was  a  student  in  the  Newton  Theologi- 
cal Institution.  He  then  returned  South  and  for 
a  brief  period  supplied  the  Baptist  church  in 
Columbus,  Ga.  In  1846  he  was  ordained  and  for 
a  year  edited  the  Christian  Index,  the  Baptist 
paper  of  Georgia.  From  1847  to  1849  he  was 
pastor  of  the  church  in  Albany,  Ga.,  and  from 
1849  to  1852  of  one  in  Gillisonville,  S.  C. 

The  separation  of  the  Southern  from  the 
Northern  Baptists  in  1845  had  led  to  the  organi- 
zation of  the  Southern  Baptist  Convention  and 
the  establishment  of  new  missionary  agencies.  A 
group  of  leading  ministers  and  laymen,  feeling 
that  the  Southern  Baptists  should  have  their  own 
publishing  agency,  formed  and  located  in  Charles- 
ton, S.  C,  the  Southern  Baptist  Publishing  So- 
ciety, and  in  1852  Winkler  became  its  executive 
secretary,  serving  for  two  years,  in  the  second  of 
which  he  edited  the  Southern  Baptist.  In  1854 
he  became  pastor  of  the  First  Baptist  Church  of 
Charleston.  During  the  Civil  War  he  served  as 
chaplain  in  the  Confederate  army.  Returning  to 


Charleston,  he  took  charge  of  Citadel  Square 
Baptist  Church,  and  continued  his  connection 
with  it  until  1872.  For  the  next  two  years  he  was 
pastor  of  the  Baptist  church  in  Marion,  Ala.,  at 
the  end  of  which  time  he  became  editor  of  the 
Alabama  Baptist ;  in  this  position  he  served  until 
his  death. 

For  ten  years  he  was  president  of  the  Home 
Missionary  Board  of  the  Southern  Baptist  Con- 
vention. Reared  in  the  South  and  educated  in 
the  North,  deeply  interested  in  the  moral  and 
spiritual  welfare  of  the  negroes,  he  was  diligent 
in  promoting  good  feeling  between  the  two  sec- 
tions of  the  country  and  between  the  white  and 
colored  races.  He  was  often  invited  North  to  de- 
liver addresses  upon  important  occasions.  In 
1857  he  prepared  a  catechism,  Notes  and  Ques- 
tions for  Oral  Instruction  of  Colored  People, 
that  was  widely  circulated  and  extensively  used, 
and  in  1871  he  delivered  a  sermon  before  the 
American  Baptist  Home  Mission  Society,  the 
missionary  agency  of  Northern  Baptists,  upon 
the  education  of  the  colored  ministry.  As  corre- 
sponding editor,  he  served  upon  the  staff  of  Bap- 
tist papers,  North  and  South.  Twice  he  was  in- 
vited to  accept  a  professorship  in  the  Southern 
Baptist  Theological  Seminary,  but  declined.  His 
scholarly  attainments  are  displayed  in  his  Com- 
mentary on  the  Epistle  of  James  (1888)  in  the 
American  Commentary  Series  edited  by  Alvah 
Hovey  [q.v\.  His  other  published  works  in- 
clude The  Spirit  of  Missions  ( 1853)  ;  The  Sacred 
Lute  (1855),  a  collection  of  popular  hymns; 
Rome,  Past,  Present  and  Future  (1877).  His 
writings  are  distinguished  by  scholarly  accuracy 
and  a  clear  and  forcible  style.  He  was  married 
and  had  children. 

[Hist.  Cat.  Brown  Univ.  (1905)  ;  William  Cathcart, 
The  Baptist  Encyc.  (1881)  ;  Ala.  Baptist,  1874-83  ;  B. 
F.  Riley,  A  Memorial  Hist,  of  the  Baptists  of  Ala. 
(1923);  Daily  Register  (Mobile),  Nov.  11,  1883; 
Standard  (Chicago),  Nov.  22,  1883.]         R.  W.  W r. 

WINLOCK,  JOSEPH  (Feb.  6,  1826-June  11, 
1875),  astronomer  and  mathematician,  was  born 
in  Shelby  County,  Ky.,  the  son  of  Fielding  and 
Nancy  (  Peyton)  Winlock.  He  came  of  a  notable 
Virginian  family.  His  grandfather,  Joseph  Win- 
lock,  was  an  officer  in  the  American  Revolution 
who  settled  in  Kentucky  before  it  became  a  state 
and  later  served  in  the  War  of  1812,  becoming  a 
brigadier-general.  Fielding  Winlock  was  a  law- 
yer who  received  a  part  of  his  training  in  the  of- 
fice of  Henry  Clay.  He  served  with  his  father  in 
the  War  of  1812  and  later  held  various  positions 
of  honor.  Joseph  Winlock  was  graduated  from 
Shelby  College,  Shelbyville,  Ky.,  in  1845,  an(l 
was  immediately  appointed  professor  of  mathe- 
matics and  astronomv  in  that  institution.   As  a 


3«9 


Winlock 


Winn 


result  of  meeting  Benjamin  Peirce  [q.v.]  in  May 
185 1  at  the  meeting  of  the  American  Association 
for  the  Advancement  of  Science  in  Cincinnati, 
he  went  to  Cambridge,  Mass.,  in  1852  to  take 
part  in  the  work  of  the  office  of  the  American 
Ephcmeris  and  Nautical  Almanac.  Among  the 
computers  for  the  Almanac  at  the  time  were 
Simon  Newcomb,  Truman  H.  Safford,  and  Maria 
Mitchell  [qq.v.].  In  1857  Winlock  was  called  to 
Washington,  D.  C,  as  professor  of  mathematics 
in  the  United  States  Naval  Observatory,  but  he 
soon  resigned  to  return  to  Cambridge  as  superin- 
tendent of  the  American  Ephemeris.  In  1859  he 
was  chosen  head  of  the  department  of  mathe- 
matics of  the  United  States  Naval  Academy. 
During  the  Civil  War,  however,  he  returned  to 
Cambridge  a  second  time  as  superintendent  of 
the  American  Ephcmeris.  In  February  1866  he 
became  the  third  director  of  the  Harvard  Col- 
lege observatory  and  Phillips  Professor  of  As- 
tronomy. Later  he  was  given  the  additional  title 
of  professor  of  geodesy.  He  held  these  positions 
until  his  death,  which  came  suddenly  and  unex- 
pectedly at  Cambridge  in  June  1875. 

With  a  rare  talent  in  mechanical  construction 
and  invention,  Winlock  directed  his  energies  at 
the  Harvard  observatory  both  to  the  improve- 
ment of  existing  equipment  and  to  the  acquisition 
of  new  instruments.  Before  buying  a  new  meri- 
dian circle,  for  which  he  raised  the  funds  among 
the  friends  of  the  observatory,  he  spent  four 
months  in  Europe,  visiting  the  principal  observa- 
tories and  making  himself  familiar  with  the  best 
instruments  for  obtaining  accurate  positions  of 
stars.  Although  his  interests  lay  especially  in  the 
astronomy  of  position,  he  championed  also  some 
of  the  earliest  spectroscopic  studies  of  stars, 
nebulae,  comets,  the  aurora,  and  especially  of  the 
sun  at  the  total  eclipses  of  1869  and  1870.  During 
his  administration,  the  time  service  was  perfected 
which  furnished  accurate  time  to  the  people  of 
Boston  and  its  vicinity.  He  has  been  described 
as  a  man  "of  few  words  but  of  much  thought,  of 
no  pretensions  but  of  great  performance,"  who 
revealed  to  those  who  worked  with  him  "unusual 
disinterestedness,  keen  appreciation,  and  a  de- 
lightfully serene  nature"  (Bailey,  post,  p.  242). 
On  Dec.  10,  1856,  he  was  married  at  Shelbyville, 
Ky.,  to  Mary  Isabella  Lane  of  Palmyra,  Mo.  (d. 
Feb.  19,  1912).  They  had  two  sons  and  four 
daughters. 

[Arthur  Searle,  "Hist.  Account,"  in  Annals  of  the 
Astronomical  Observatory  of  Harvard  Coll.,  vol.  VIII, 
pt.  I  (1876)  ;  D.  W.  Baker,  The  Hist,  of  the  Harvard 
Coll.  Observatory  (1890)  ;  S.  I.  Bailey,  Hist,  and  Work 
of  Harvard  Observatory  (1931)  ;  Proc.  Am.  Acad,  of 
Arts  and  Sciences,  vol.  XI  (1876)  ;  obituary  in  Boston 
Evening  Transcript,  June  11,  1875.]  M.  H. 


WINN,  RICHARD  (1750-Dec.  19,  1818), 
Revolutionary  soldier,  congressman,  although  he 
was  born  in  Fauquier  County,  Va.,  and  died  at 
Duck  River,  Tenn.,  is  identified  primarily  with 
South  Carolina,  where  he  spent  his  best  years 
and  made  his  reputation.  He  was  probably  a 
younger  son  of  Minor  and  Margaret  (O'Con- 
ner)  Winn  of  Fauquier ;  his  father  was  doubtless 
the  Minor  Winn,  who  in  1774  obtained  a  grant 
for  800  acres  on  Wateree  Creek,  near  the  present 
town  of  Winnsboro,  S.  C.  Richard,  however,  as 
a  deputy  surveyor,  had  purchased  lands  in  that 
neighborhood  as  early  as  1771.  At  the  opening 
of  the  Revolution,  he  was  commissioned,  June 
I7>  1775,  first  lieutenant  in  the  3rd  South  Caro- 
lina Regiment,  the  regiment  of  rangers  command- 
ed by  William  Thomson  [q.v.]  ;  four  months 
later  he  was  commissioned  a  justice  of  the  peace. 
In  1776,  he  took  part  in  the  battle  of  Fort  Moul- 
trie, and  the  following  year,  as  captain  in  com- 
mand, he  made  a  spectacular  defense  of  Fort 
Mcintosh,  Ga.  He  helped  defend  Charleston  in 
1780,  and  after  the  capitulation,  having  joined 
the  guerrillas  of  Thomas  Sumter  [q.v.]  as  ma- 
jor, he  was  wounded  at  Hanging  Rock.  He  also 
took  a  distinguished  part  in  the  skirmish  at  Fish- 
dam  Ford  and  in  the  battle  of  Blackstock.  In 
1782  he  represented  the  district  between  Broad 
and  Catawba  in  the  Jacksonborough  Assembly. 
Upon  the  resignation  of  Richard  Henderson 
[q.v.]  in  1783,  he  was  made  a  brigadier-general, 
and  in  1800  was  promoted  to  be  major-general  of 
militia. 

After  the  war,  in  1783  he  was  named  a  com- 
missioner to  lay  off  Camden  District  into  coun- 
ties, and  two  years  later  he  deeded  100  acres  on 
the  boundary  of  Winnsboro  to  the  Mount  Zion 
Society  for  the  education  of  youth,  an  organiza- 
tion of  which  he  had  been  a  member  since  1777. 
Elected  to  the  South  Carolina  legislature,  he  was 
named  in  1786  a  commissioner  to  buy  lands  for 
the  new  state  capital,  Columbia,  and  later  to  sell 
lots  therein.  In  1788  he  became  superintendent 
of  Indian  affairs  for  the  southern  district  and 
was  associated  with  Andrew  Pickens  [q.v.].  As 
lieutenant-governor  of  the  state,  he  served  with 
John  Drayton  [q.v.]  from  1800  to  1802.  His 
longest  public  service,  however,  was  in  Congress. 
Elected  as  a  Republican  ( Democrat)  to  the  Third 
Congress,  defeating  Sumter,  he  was  reelected  to 
the  Fourth,  and,  upon  the  resignation  of  Sumter, 
he  won  a  seat  in  the  Seventh  Congress,  serving 
1793-97  ar)d  1803-13.  In  1813  he  removed  to 
Duck  River,  Tenn.,  and  became  a  planter,  with 
mercantile  interests  in  addition.  He  died  five 
years  later  and  was  probably  buried  at  Duck 


390 


Winnemucca 

River.  By  his  wife,  Priscilla  McKinley,  he  had 
several  children. 

[D.  W.  and  E.  J.  Winn,  Ancestors  and  Descendants 
of  John  Quarlcs  Winn  .  .  .  (1932)  ;  Joseph  Johnson, 
Traditions  and  Reminiscences  Chiefly  of  the  Am.  Rev. 
in  the  South  (1851)  ;  Edward  McCrady,  The  Hist,  of 
S.  C.  in  the  Revolution  (2  vols.,  1901-02)  ;  F.  B.  Heit- 
man,  Hist.  Reg.  of  Officers  of  the  Continental  Army 
(1914)  ;  J.  L.  M.  Curry,  "Richard  Winn,"  Southern 
Hist.  Asso.  Pubs.,  July  1898;  Biog.  Dir.  Am.  Cong. 
(1928),  erroneous  in  certain  particulars;  The  Papers 
of  John  Steele  (1924),  ed.  by  H.  M.  Wagstaff  ;  The 
State  Records  of  N.  C.  (1895-96),  vol.  XXI.  1 

A.K.G. 

WINNEMUCCA,  SARAH  (c.  1844-Oct.  16, 
1891),  a  woman  of  the  Shoshonean  tribe  of 
Paviotsos,  commonly  called  Paiutes,  was  born 
near  Humboldt  Lake,  Nev.  Her  father  was  Win- 
nemucca, a  chief.  She  was  named  Tocmetone 
or  Thocmetony,  but  it  was  by  her  father's  name 
that  she  was  generally  known  among  the  whites, 
even  after  her  marriage,  when  she  became  Sarah 
Winnemucca  Hopkins.  Her  grandfather,  also 
Winnemucca,  called  by  Fremont  "Captain  True- 
kee,"  was  a  devoted  friend  of  the  whites  and  is 
siid  to  have  served  with  the  Pathfinder  during 
the  California  campaign  of  1846.  Sarah,  with 
her  mother  and  other  members  of  the  band,  was 
taken  by  him  to  California,  probably  about  1848, 
for  several  years,  and  in  i860  was  again  in  the 
state,  where  for  a  short  time  she  attended  a  con- 
vent school  in  San  Jose.  She  learned  to  speak 
and  write  English  readily  and  with  a  fair  degree 
of  correctness.  In  the  frequent  clashes  between 
her  people  and  the  whites  she  essayed  the  role  of 
peacemaker,  though  not  always  successfully.  In 
1868  she  began  to  act  as  an  interpreter  on  the 
reservation.  In  1876  she  taught  an  Indian  school 
on  the  Malheur  reservation  in  Oregon.  She  came 
to  the  attention  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard  during  the 
ferment  preceding  the  Bannock  War  of  1878, 
and,  with  a  sister-in-law,  served  as  his  "guide, 
messenger  and  interpreter"  till  the  close  of  the 
conflict,  performing  many  acts  of  conspicuous 
daring.  In  the  winter  of  1879-80  with  her  father 
she  went  to  Washington  to  intercede  for  her 
people,  who  had  been  arbitrarily  removed  to  the 
Yakima  reservation.  In  January  1880  she  was 
appointed  interpreter  at  the  Malheur  agency,  and 
during  a  part  of  188 1  she  taught  an  Indian  school 
at  Vancouver  Barracks,  Wash.  Later  in  the 
year  she  went  east  and  lectured  in  Boston  and 
elsewhere.  At  some  time  before  Jan.  9,  1882,  she 
was  married  to  Lieutenant  Hopkins.  In  1883  she 
published  Life  Among  the  Piutes:  Their  Wrongs 
and  Claims,  edited  by  Mary  Tyler  Peabody  Mann 
[q.z:].  Its  pointed  charges  of  corruption  in  the 
Indian  service  created  a  storm,  and  she  became 
the  target  for  a  great  deal  of  personal  abuse. 
With  money  obtained  on  her  lecture  tours  and 


Win  ship 

from  her  writings  a  tract  was  bought  near 
Lovelock,  Nev.,  where  she  conducted  a  school 
for  three  years.  On  the  death  of  her  husband, 
probably  about  1886,  she  abandoned  the  school 
and  went  to  live  with  a  sister  at  Monida,  Mont.r 
where  she  died. 

"The  Princess,"  as  she  was  sometimes  called, 
is  said  by  Howard  to  have  been  "sweet  and  hand- 
some" as  well  as  "very  quick  and  able"  (post,  p. 
234).  She  conversed  well,  carefully  selecting  her 
language,  but  her  writing  seems  to  have  re- 
quired considerable  emendation.  She  was 
shrewd,  intelligent,  and  notably  courageous.  In 
habits  and  customs  she  conformed  to  the  stand- 
ards of  white  civilization. 

[Life,  ante;  Handbook  of  Am.  Indians,  pt.  2  (1910) 
ed.  by  F.  W.  Hodge  ;  O.  O.  Howard,  Famous  Indian 
Chiefs  I  Have  Known  (1908)  ;  The  Hist,  of  Nevada 
(2  vols.,  1913),  ed.  by  S.  P.  Davis;  E.  P.  Peabody, 
Sarah  Winnemucca's  Practical  Solution  of  the  Indian 
Problem   (1886).]  W.J.G. 

WINSHIP,  ALBERT  EDWARD  (Feb.  24, 
1845-Feb.  17,  1933),  editor,  educational  lecturer, 
teacher,  clergyman,  was  born  in  West  Bridge- 
water,  Mass.,  the  son  of  Isaac  and  Drusilla 
(Lothrop)  Winship.  He  was  a  descendant  of 
Lieut.  Edward  Winship  who  settled  in  Cam- 
bridge in  1637.  Winship's  first  teacher  was  a 
young  girl  who  taught  a  class  of  children  in  her 
mother's  kitchen  in  his  native  village.  Later  he 
attended  the  East  Greenwich  Academy,  East 
Greenwich,  R.  I.  After  a  brief  service  with  the 
60th  Massachusetts  Volunteers  in  the  Civil  War, 
he  taught  a  country  school  at  Gorham,  Me. 
(1864-65),  served  as  principal  of  an  elementary 
school  in  Newton,  Mass.  (1865-68),  and  was  a 
student  and  instructor  in  the  State  Normal 
School  at  Bridgewater,  Mass.  (1868-71).  He 
then  established  himself  in  the  book  business  in 
Boston,  just  in  time  to  be  burned  out  by  the  Bos- 
ton fire  of  Nov.  9,  1872.  Although  he  had  been 
married  on  Aug.  24, 1870,  to  Ella  Rebecca  Parker 
of  Reading,  Mass.,  and  the  first  of  their  six  chil- 
dren had  been  born,  he  now  entered  the  Andover 
Theological  Seminary  (1872-75).  As  minister 
of  the  Prospect  Hill  Congregational  Church, 
Somervillej  Mass.  (1876-83),  he  organized  and 
taught  evening  classes  for  workers  in  the  pack- 
ing-house district,  which  were  among  the  earliest 
community  classes  in  adult  education  in  America 
(G.  F.  James,  Handbook  of  University  Exten- 
sion, 1893,  pp.  241-44).  During  this  period  Win- 
ship also  established  himself  as  a  popular  lec- 
turer and  contributor  to  the  press. 

The  national  educational  phase  of  Winship's 
work  began  with  his  appointment  in  1883  as  dis- 
trict secretary  of  the  New  West  Education  Com- 
mission,  one   of   the   national    societies   of   the 


391 


Winship 

Congregationalist  denomination,  which  had  estab- 
lished scores  of  schools  in  Utah,  Idaho,  Colorado, 
and  New  Mexico.  Though  his  work  had  to  do 
largely  with  finances,  he  also  interested  himself 
in  educational  progress.  In  March  1886  he  re- 
signed to  assume  the  editorship  of  the  Journal  of 
Education  (Boston).  For  the  next  forty-seven 
years  he  conducted  the  Journal,  contributing  edi- 
torials, articles,  news-notes,  book-reviews,  and 
regular  departments,  at  the  same  time  carrying 
on  the  unceasing  activity  as  educational  lecturer 
throughout  the  United  States  that  led  to  his  be- 
ing described  as  "the  circuit  rider  of  American 
education."  For  many  years  he  also  edited  the 
American  Teacher,  which  became  in  1896  the 
American  Primary  Teacher.  During  the  year 
1891,  in  addition  to  his  work  on  the  Journal  of 
Education,  he  served  as  editor-in-chief  of  the 
Boston  Traveller.  He  found  time  as  well  to  pro- 
duce a  number  of  books,  among  them  The  Shop 
(1889),  Horace  Mann:  the  Educator  (1896), 
Great  American  Educators  (1900),  Jukes-Ed- 
wards: a  Study  in  Education  and  Heredity 
(1900),  Danger  Signals  for  Teachers  (1919), 
Educational  Preparedness  ( 1919) ,  Fifty  Famous 
Farmers  (1924),  written  with  L.  S.  Ivins,  and 
Educational  History  (1929). 

During  all  these  years  he  was  observing  new 
movements  and  new  personalities  in  education, 
catching  their  significance  and  spreading  their 
educational  gospel  through  the  Journal.  Thou- 
sands of  struggling  teachers  got  their  first  en- 
couragement from  him,  and  hundreds  became 
state  or  national  figures  in  education  through  his 
publicizing  of  their  achievements,  which  other- 
wise might  have  gone  unnoticed.  He  was  the 
first  to  give  national  prominence  to  the  work  of 
Edward  J.  Tobin,  of  Cook  County,  111.,  in  rural 
education,  of  Cora  Wilson  Stewart  in  combatting 
illiteracy,  of  Josephine  Corliss  Preston,  and  of 
many  other  educational  pioneers.  A  man  who 
never  lost  touch  with  the  soil,  he  was  enthusiastic 
about  rural  education,  about  the  teaching  of  agri- 
culture in  rural  schools,  and  about  boys  and  girls 
who,  as  part  of  their  school  work,  raised  the 
biggest  squashes  or  the  plumpest  chickens.  Ac- 
tive in  the  life  of  Boston  and  New  England,  a 
New  Englander  in  every  fibre,  he  nevertheless 
was  devoid  of  any  trace  of  provincialism.  He 
was  a  thorough  believer  in  free,  public,  demo- 
cratic education,  and  the  growing  influence  of 
the  great  educational  foundations  caused  him 
real  concern  (see  "Standardization — Wise  and 
Otherwise,"  National  Education  Association, 
Journal  of  Proceedings,  1915)-  He  was  a  con" 
sistent  advocate  of  the  school  as  a  community 
center,  of  the  teaching  of  music  and  art  in  the 


Winslow 

schools,  and  of  health  work  and  physical  edu- 
cation. 

He  received  several  honorary  degrees,  served 
as  a  member  of  the  Massachusetts  State  Board 
of  Education  (1903-09),  as  president  of  the  Na- 
tional Educational  Press  Association  (1895) 
and  the  American  Institute  of  Instruction  ( 1896) , 
and  was  a  member  of  President  Hoover's  Ad- 
visory Commission  on  Illiteracy.  The  National 
Education  Association,  in  whose  upbuilding  he 
had  an  important  part,  paid  him  repeated  trib- 
utes, and  in  1932  elected  him  honorary  president 
for  life.  At  the  time  of  his  death  he  had  at- 
tended every  convention  but  one  of  the  Asso- 
ciation since  the  beginning  of  his  educational 
work.  His  portrait  in  oils,  by  Donna  Wilson 
Crabtree,  hangs  in  the  Washington  headquarters 
building  of  the  Association. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1932-33  ;  Who's  Who  in 
Am.  Educ,  1929-30  ;  J.  M.  Cattell,  Leaders  in  Educ. 
(1932)  ;  A.  E.  Winship,  in  Jour,  of  Educ.,  Sept.  13, 
1926;  Ibid.,  Jan.  3,  31,  1918;  Ninth  Yearbook  Educ. 
Press  Asso.  of  America,  1933  ;  J.  W.  Crabtree,  in  Nat. 
Educ.  Asso.  .  .  .  Proc.  vol.  LXXI  (1933),  and  What 
Counted  Most  (1935)  ;  W.  J.  Cooper,  in  School  Life, 
Mar.  1933;  editorial  in  N.  Y.  Times,  Feb.  18,  1933; 
obituary  in  Boston  Transcript,  Feb.  17,  1933;  letters 
from  Laurence  L.  Winship.]  jj  q  rj 

WINSLOW,  CAMERON  McRAE  (July  29, 
1854-Jan.  2,  1932),  naval  officer,  was  born  in 
Washington,  D.  C,  the  son  of  Francis  and  Mary 
Sophia  (Nelson)  Winslow,  and  a  descendant  of 
John  Winslow,  who  was  a  brother  of  Edward 
Winslow,  iS95-I655  [q.v.'].  He  was  also  a  de- 
scendant of  Edward  Winslow,  1669-1753  [q.i'.~\. 
His  father,  a  naval  commander,  was  a  cousin  of 
John  A.  Winslow  [q.v.'].  After  attending  school 
in  Roxbury,  Mass.,  his  home  after  his  father's 
death,  he  entered  the  United  States  Naval  Acad- 
emy on  a  presidential  appointment,  Sept.  20, 
1870,  and  was  graduated,  June  21,  1875.  His 
early  service  included  duty  in  the  Tennessee  on 
the  Asiatic  and  North  Atlantic  stations,  in  the 
coast  survey,  and  in  the  Kcarsarge  of  the  Euro- 
pean Squadron,  1885-87.  He  was  made  full 
lieutenant  in  1888,  and  after  two  years  at  the 
torpedo  station  at  Newport,  R.  I.,  he  command- 
ed the  torpedo  boat  Cushing,  1890-93.  During 
the  Spanish-American  War  he  was  in  the  cruiser 
Nashville,  and,  May  11,  1898,  commanded  four 
ship's  launches  in  a  cable-cutting  operation  at 
Cienfuegos,  Cuba.  Sections  were  cut  from  two 
cables,  despite  a  heavy  rifle  fire  from  the  shore 
in  which  two  men  were  killed  and  eleven  wound- 
ed. Winslow,  who  received  a  wound  in  the  hand, 
was  commended  by  the  executive  officer  of  the 
Nashville  for  "excellent  judgment  and  consum- 
mate coolness,"  and  was  advanced  five  numbers 


392 


Winslow 


Winslow 


(reports  of  Winslow  and  others,  appendix  to 
Report  of  the  Chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Navigation, 
1898,  p.  195  ff.).  In  an  article  which  he  wrote 
for  the  Century  Magazine,  March  1899,  Winslow 
somewhat  piously  ascribed  his  remarkable  suc- 
cess in  this  highly  dangerous  undertaking  to  "the 
protection  which  God  gives  to  those  who  fight  in 
a  righteous  cause"  (p.  717). 

He  served  in  1899  on  Rear  Admiral  W.  T. 
Sampson's  staff  in  the  cruiser  New  York,  and 
in  1900-01  in  charge  of  the  New  York  branch  of 
the  Hydrographic  Office.  He  was  then  for  a 
year  flag  lieutenant  of  Rear  Admiral  F.  J.  Hig- 
ginson  in  the  North  Atlantic  Squadron  and  in 
1902-05  at  the  Bureau  of  Navigation  and  an 
aide  to  President  Roosevelt.  During  the  Russo- 
Japanese  peace  negotiations  of  1905  he  com- 
manded the  yacht  Mayflower  when  the  president 
received  the  peace  commissioners  on  board,  Aug. 
5,  at  Oyster  Bay,  and  was  senior  officer  of  the 
vessels  which  conveyed  them  thence  to  Ports- 
mouth, N.  H.  After  commanding  the  Charleston 
in  1905-07,  and  the  battleship  New  Hampshire 
in  1908-09,  and  serving  as  naval  supervisor  of 
New  York  harbor,  he  was  promoted  to  the  rank 
of  rear  admiral,  Sept.  14,  1911,  and  in  1911-13 
he  commanded  successively  the  2nd,  3rd,  and  1st 
divisions  of  the  Atlantic  Fleet.  Three  months  at 
the  Naval  War  College,  Newport,  were  followed 
by  command  of  the  Special  Service  Squadron, 
April-September  1914,  during  friction  with 
Mexico.  His  flagship,  the  New  York,  was  sta- 
tioned with  the  main  fleet  at  Vera  Cruz.  After  a 
year  at  the  War  College  he  commanded  the  Pa- 
cific Fleet  from  September  1915  to  July  1916. 
Though  then  of  age  for  retirement,  he  was  re- 
tained in  active  duty  during  the  World  War 
period,  and  served  from  September  1917  to  Oc- 
tober ^i^as  inspector  of  naval  districts  on  the 
Atlantic  coast.  After  his  final  retirement  he 
lived  chiefly  in  Newport. 

As  indicated  by  his  frequent  selection  for  staff 
duty,  he  was  of  strong  personality  and  outstand- 
ing ability,  particularly  in  the  field  of  navigation 
and  ship  handling.  His  death  occurred  in  Bos- 
ton, and  his  burial  was  in  the  Winslow  family 
plot  at  Dunbarton,  N.  H.  He  was  married,  Sept. 
18,  1899,  to  Theodora,  daughter  of  Theodore 
Havemeyer,  of  Mahwah,  N.  J.,  and  had  three 
daughters  and  three  sons,  the  eldest  of  whom  be- 
came a  naval  officer. 

[Information  from  family  sources ;  Who's  Who  in 
America,  1930-31  ;  Service  Record,  Bureau  of  Navi- 
gation, Navy  Dept. ;  Arthur  Winslow.  Francis  Wins- 
low, His  Forebears  and  Life  (1935)  ;  E.  S.  Maclay,  A 
Hist,  of  the  U.  S.  Navy  (new  ed.,  1901),  vol.  Ill; 
Army  and  Navy  Jour.,  Jan.  16,  1932;  N.  Y.  Times 
Jan.  3,  1932.]  A  w> 


WINSLOW,  EDWARD  (Oct.  18,  1595-May 
8,  1655),  Pilgrim  father,  author,  was  born  at 
Droitwich,  Worcestershire,  England,  the  son  of 
Edward  and  Magdalene  (Ollyver  or  Oliver) 
Winslow,  people  of  some  property  and  education. 
He  himself  received  an  excellent  education 
(though  not  at  a  university)  and  had  early  social 
advantages  enjoyed  by  none  of  the  other  Pil- 
grims. Apparently  while  traveling  on  the  Con- 
tinent in  1617  he  came  to  know  of  John  Robin- 
son's Separatist  congregation  at  Leyden  and 
joined  them,  marrying  Elizabeth  Barker  there 
on  May  16,  1618.  He  earned  his  living  as  a  print- 
er, perhaps  employed  by  William  Brewster 
\_q.v.~\,  and  despite  his  youth  became  an  active 
member  of  the  community.  He  sailed  on  the 
Speedwell  in  1620,  trans-shipping  to  the  May- 
flower  when  the  former  turned  back.  With  him 
he  took  two  servants,  George  Soule  and  Elias 
Story,  and  he  purchased  £60  stock  in  the  venture. 
Three  of  his  brothers  later  reached  Plymouth. 

Winslow  aided  in  the  first  explorations  and 
was  one  of  the  small  band  who  landed  at  the  site 
of  Plymouth  on  Dec.  11/21,  1620.  He  was  chosen 
envoy  to  greet  Massasoit  ]_q.v.~]  when  that  chief 
appeared  at  the  settlement  in  the  spring  of  1621, 
and  made  the  colonists'  first  treaty  with  the  In- 
dian. In  July  he  was  principal  envoy  to  visit 
Massasoit  at  his  home  and  in  a  later  visit  prob- 
ably saved  Massasoit's  life.  Next  to  Myles 
Standish  Winslow  was  the  Pilgrims'  most  im- 
portant man  in  dealing  with  the  Indians  through- 
out his  career  in  America.  On  May  12,  1621,  his 
first  wife  having  died  in  March,  he  married  Su- 
sanna (Fuller)  White,  a  widow — the  first  mar- 
riage at  Plymouth.  In  1622  he  sent  back  to 
England  by  the  Fortune  four  narratives  of  ex- 
plorations and  dealings  with  the  Indians,  and 
Gov.  William  Bradford  [q.v.~\  sent  a  narrative 
of  the  voyage  and  the  first  year  of  the  colony. 
The  latter  was  retained  by  the  captain  of  a 
French  privateer  which  captured  the  Fortune. 
but  Winslow's  narratives  reached  London  and 
were  printed  by  George  Morton  [q.v.]  in  A  Re- 
lation or  Iournall  of  the  beginning  and  proceed- 
ings of  the  English  Plantation  sctlcd  at  Plimoth 
in  New  England  (  1622).  They  were  thus  the 
first  accounts  of  these  happenings  to  be  pub- 
lished which  had  been  written  in  America. 

In  the  fall  of  1623  he  went  to  England,  re- 
turning to  Plymouth  in  March  following,  bring- 
ing "3.  heifers  and  a  bull,  the  first  beginning  of 
any  catle  of  that  kind  in  ye  land"  (Bradford, 
post,  I,  353).  Later  in  1624  he  became  one  of 
the  five  assistants,  now  appointed  for  the  first 
time,  and  returned  to  England  to  negotiate  with 
the  merchants  with  whom  the  colonists  had  quar- 


393 


Winslow 


Winslow 


reled  before  sailing  in  1620.  Here  he  published 
a  narrative  of  the  years  1621-23,  Good  News 
from  New  England  or  a  True  Relation  of  Things 
Very  Remarkable  at  the  Plantation  of  Plymouth 
in  New  England  .  .  .  Written  by  E.  W.  (1624). 
This,  with  the  narratives  previously  mentioned, 
completes  the  only  contemporary  record  of  the 
first  years,  for  Bradford's  History  seems  not  to 
have  been  begun  before  1630.  While  in  London, 
in  a  dramatic  scene  before  the  Merchant  Adven- 
turers, Winslow  defended  the  Pilgrims  with 
such  success  from  accusations  sent  back  to  Eng- 
land by  John  Oldham  \_q.vJ]  and  John  Lyford 
that  he  was  able  to  establish  better  relations,  to 
borrow  money,  and  to  purchase  supplies.  His 
arrival  at  Plymouth  in  1625  at  the  moment  when 
Oldham  was  being  beaten  out  of  the  colony  is 
one  of  the  dramatic  scenes  in  Pilgrim  history. 

Winslow  was  one  of  the  "undertakers"  who 
in  1627  assumed  the  colony's  debts  in  return  for 
its  trading  privileges  and  he  became  the  most 
active  of  their  explorers  and  traders,  setting  up 
posts  in  Maine,  on  Cape  Ann,  on  Buzzard's  Bay, 
and  later  on  the  Connecticut  River.  This  trade 
was  in  large  measure  the  secret  of  Plymouth's 
commercial  success.  In  1629  Winslow  supersed- 
ed Isaac  Allerton  [#.?'.]  as  the  colony's  agent, 
and  in  its  interest  made  several  further  trips  to 
England.  He  was  largely  instrumental  in  se- 
curing a  grant  of  land  in  1630  from  the  Council 
for  New  England  and  defended  the  colonists  be- 
fore the  Privy  Council  in  1633  against  the 
charges  of  Christopher  Gardiner  [g.?\],  Ferdi- 
nando  Gorges,  and  others.  While  he  was  attempt- 
ing a  similar  mission  for  the  Massachusetts  col- 
ony in  1634,  however,  Archbishop  Laud  accused 
him  of  "teaching"  in  the  Pilgrim  church  and  of 
celebrating  marriages,  though  a  layman.  These 
charges  Winslow  admitted,  and  he  was  in  con- 
sequence thrown  into  prison  for  four  months. 

Always  active  in  the  administrative  and  judi- 
cial work  of  the  colony,  he  was  assistant  nearly 
every  year  from  1624  to  1646,  was  governor  in 
1633,  1636,  and  1644;  aided  in  organizing  the 
New  England  Confederation,  and  was  Plym- 
outh's representative.  He  played  an  important 
part  in  reorganizing  colonial  and  local  govern- 
ment in  1636  and  in  drafting  the  new  code  of 
laws,  and  resisted  valiantly  the  encroachments 
of  Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island,  and  Connecticut 
upon  Plymouth's  trading  posts.  In  1646  he  was 
induced  by  Winthrop,  much  against  the  wishes 
of  the  Pilgrims,  to  return  to  England  to  defend 
the  Massachusetts  Bay  Company  against  the 
charges  of  Samuel  Gorton  [#.?'.].  When  the 
latter  published  a  tract  stating  his  case  {Sim- 
plicities Defence  against  Seven-Headed  Policy, 


1646)  Winslow  replied  with  Hypocrisie  Un- 
masked by  the  True  Relation  of  the  Proceedings 
of  the  Govemour  and  Company  of  the  Massachu- 
setts against  Samuel  Gorton  .  .  .  (1646).  To  a 
tract  written  by  John  Child — Ncw-Englands 
Jonas  [Winslow?]  Cast  up  at  London  (1647) — 
he  retorted  with  New  Englands  Salamander  Dis- 
covercd  by  an  Irreligious  and  Scornfull  Pamphlet 
(1647).  In  1649  he  published  The  Glorious 
Progress  of  the  Gospel  among  the  Indians  in 
New  England,  which  led  to  the  founding  that 
year  of  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the 
Gospel  in  New  England,  of  which  he  was  one  of 
the  incorporators. 

These  and  other  activities  kept  him  occupied 
in  England,  and  he  never  returned  to  Plymouth. 
In  1654  Cromwell  appointed  him  chairman  of  a 
joint  English  and  Dutch  commission  to  assess 
damages  for  English  vessels  destroyed  by  the 
Dutch  in  neutral  Denmark.  At  the  end  of  that 
same  year  he  was  appointed  chief  of  three  com- 
missioners, with  Admirals  Venables  and  Penn, 
to  capture  the  Spanish  West  India  colonies. 
Failing  in  this  purpose,  the  fleet  seized  Jamaica, 
thus  beginning  the  British  possession  of  that 
island.  On  the  return  voyage  Winslow  died  of 
fever,  May  8,  1655,  and  was  buried  at  sea  with 
high  honors.  He  was  the  first  man  to  achieve 
success  in  England  after  receiving  his  training 
in  affairs  in  America.  He  is  the  only  Pilgrim  of 
whom  a  portrait  is  known;  his  was  painted  in 
London  in  1651. 

[Winslow's  own  writings  and  William  Bradford, 
Hist,  of  Plymouth  Plantation  (2  vols.,  1912),  ed.  by  W. 
C.  Ford,  are  the  chief  authorities  ;  Nathaniel  Morton, 
New-Englands  Mcmoriall  (1669),  was  partly  based  on 
Winslow's  papers,  now  lost ;  the  best  edition  of  Wins- 
low's  first  narratives  appears  in  Mourt's  Relation 
( 1865),  ed.  by  H.  M.  Dexter  ;  his  Good  News  from  New 
England  is  repr.  in  Alexander  Young,  Chronicles  of 
the  Pilgrim  Fathers  ( 1 84 1 ) ,  and  with  notes  in  Edward 
Arber,  The  Story  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  (1897)  ; 
Hypocrisie  Unmasked  was  reprinted  by  the  Club  for 
Colonial  Reprints,  Providence,  in  1916.  Some  letters 
of  Winslow's  are  in  Bradford's  Letter  Book,  in  Mass. 
Hist.  Soc.  Colls.,  I  ser.  Ill  (1794).  See  also  R.  G. 
Usher,  The  Pilgrims  and  Their  Hist.  (1918);  J.  A. 
Goodwin,  The  Pilgrim  Republic  (1888)  ;  D.  P.  and  F. 
K.  Holton,  Winslow  Memorial  (2  vols.,  1877-88)  ; 
Thomas  Birch,  A  Coll.  of  the  State  Papers  of  John 
Thurloe  (1742),  III,  249-52,  325;  C.  H.  Firth  and  R. 
S.  Rait,  Acts  and  Ordinances  of  the  Interregnum  (3 
vols.,  1911)  ;  Cal.  of  State  Papers,  Col.  Ser.,  1574-1600 
(i860).]  R.G.U. 

WINSLOW,  EDWARD  (Nov.  1,  1669-Dec. 
r,  1753),  silversmith,  was  born  in  Boston,  Mass., 
the  son  of  Edward  and  Elizabeth  (Hutchinson) 
Winslow.  His  mother  was  the  daughter  of  Capt. 
Edward  Hutchinson,  killed  in  King  Philip's 
War,  and  the  grand-daughter  of  Mistress  Anne 
Hutchinson  \_q.v.~\.  On  his  paternal  side  he  was 
the  grandson  of  John  Winslow  of  the  Fortune 
and  Mary  Chilton  of  the  Mayflower  company, 


394 


Winslow 


Winslow 


and  the  grandnephew  of  Gov.  Edward  Winslow 
[q.v.~\.  By  marriage,  also,  he  was  allied  with 
prominent  families.  His  first  wife  was  Hannah, 
the  daughter  of  the  Rev.  Joshua  Moody ;  the  sec- 
ond was  Elizabeth  Pemberton ;  and  the  third  was 
Susanna  (Furman)  Lyman.  Winslow  had  a 
long  record  of  public  service  in  Boston.  He  was 
appointed  constable  in  1699,  a  tithing-man  in 
1703,  a  surveyor  in  1705,  overseer  of  the  poor, 
1711-12,  and  selectman  in  1714.  In  1714  he  was 
also  appointed  captain  of  the  artillery  company. 
His  death  notice  in  the  Boston  Evening  Post, 
Dec.  3,  1753,  under  events  of  Dec.  1,  says: 
"about  9  o'clock,  after  a  long  Indisposition,  died 
Edward  Winslow,  Esq.,  who  had  just  entered 
the  85th  year  of  his  Age.  This  Gentleman  had 
formerly,  for  many  Years,  been  High  Sheriff  of 
the  County  of  Suffolk,  and  Colonel  of  the  Regi- 
ment of  Militia  in  this  Town;  but  by  Reason  of 
Age  and  Infirmities  of  Body,  laid  down  those 
Posts,  and  has  for  several  Years  past,  till  his 
Death,  been  a  Justice  of  the  Peace  and  of  the 
Quorum,  and  one  of  the  Justices  of  the  Inferior 
Court  of  Common  Pleas  for  the  County  of  Suf- 
folk, and  also  Treasurer  of  the  said  County." 

With  all  these  public  services  he  was  yet  able 
to  produce  a  quantity  of  fine  silverwork,  which 
for  historical  as  well  as  esthetic  reasons  is 
among  the  silver  most  valued  by  American  col- 
lectors. There  are  some  examples  in  the  Metro- 
politan Museum,  New  York.  There  were  other 
silversmiths  in  Winslow's  family.  His  cousin, 
Samuel  Vernon  [g.?'.],  his  sister's  nephew,  Wil- 
liam Pollard,  and  his  own  nephew,  William 
Moody,  were  members  of  his  trade,  and  the  last 
was  one  of  his  apprentices.  That  his  business 
was  lucrative  is  evidenced  by  the  estate  he  left, 
which  was  valued  at  £1,083.  His  marks  are  de- 
scribed as  "shaded  Roman  capitals,  fleur  de  lis 
below,  in  a  shaped  shield,  or  shaded  Roman  capi- 
tals in  a  rectangle,"  or  in  double  circles  (French, 
post,  p.  127). 

[See  Arthur  Winslow,  Francis  Winslow,  His  Fore- 
bears and  His  Life  (1935),  from  which  the  names  of 
Winslow's  wives  are  taken  ;  Report  of  the  Record  Com- 
missioners of  the  City  of  Boston  (1908),  p.  112,  for 
date  of  birth  ;  S.  G.  Drake,  Hist,  and  Antiquities  of 
Boston  (1856)  ;  F.  H.  Bigelow,  Hist.  Silver  of  the  Colo- 
nies and  Its  Makers  (1917)  ;  C.  L.  Avery,  Early  Am. 
Silver  (1930);  Hollis  French,  A  List  of  Early  Am. 
Silversmiths  and  Their  Marks  (1917)  ;  E.  A.  Jones, 
The  Old  Silver  of  Am.  Churches  (191 3)  ;  Metropolitan 
Museum,  cat.  of  the  Clearwater  Coll.]  K.A  K. 

WINSLOW,  EDWARD  FRANCIS  (Sept. 
28,  1837-Oct.  22,  1914),  soldier,  railroad  build- 
er, was  born  in  Augusta,  Me.,  the  son  of  Stephen 
and  Elizabeth  (Bass)  Winslow,  and  a  descendant 
of  Kenelm  Winslow  who  came  to  Plymouth, 
Mass.,  from   Droitwich,   England,   about    1629. 


When  Edward  was  about  nineteen  he  left  his  na- 
tive place  and  made  his  way  to  Mount  Pleasant, 
Iowa,  with  the  expectation  of  entering  the  bank- 
ing business.  Becoming  interested  in  railroad 
construction,  however,  he  associated  himself  with 
the  builders  of  the  St.  Louis,  Vandalia,  &  Terre 
Haute  Railroad. 

When  the  Civil  War  interrupted  this  enter- 
prise, Winslow,  in  August  1861,  recruited  at  Ot- 
tumwa,  Iowa,  Company  F,  4th  Iowa  Cavalry,  of 
which  he  became  captain.  The  regiment  was  mus- 
tered into  the  service  Nov.  3,  1861,  and,  after  be- 
ing equipped  in  St.  Louis,  was  sent  to  join  the 
Army  of  the  Southwest,  commanded  by  Gen. 
Samuel  R.  Curtis  [q.z>.~\.  Winslow's  first  engage- 
ment was  at  Little  Rock.  At  Helena  he  acted  as 
assistant  provost  marshal  of  the  district  of  eastern 
Arkansas,  and  received  his  majority  Jan.  3,  1863. 
In  April  his  regiment  was  attached  to  General 
Sherman's  XV  Army  Corps,  and  from  then  until 
after  the  investment  of  Vicksburg  was  the  only 
cavalry  regiment  in  Grant's  army.  On  May  12, 
1863,  Winslow  was  wounded  at  Fourteen-mile 
Creek.  He  was  appointed  colonel,  July  4,  1863, 
and  given  command  of  the  cavalry  forces  of  the 
XV  Corps,  with  the  rank  of  chief  of  cavalry.  His 
command  was  always  on  the  outer  lines  of  the 
army  at  Vicksburg.  In  February  1864  it  re- 
pulsed General  Polk,  advancing  from  Jackson, 
destroyed  the  Mobile  &  Ohio  Railroad,  and  took 
the  city  of  Jackson,  Miss.  In  April  1864  Wins- 
low was  given  command  of  a  brigade,  consisting 
of  the  3rd  and  4th  Iowa  and  the  10th  Missouri 
cavalry  regiments,  together  with  a  battery  of  four 
guns.  This  brigade  conducted  itself  with  dis- 
tinction at  the  battle  of  Brice's  Cross  Roads, 
June  10,  1864.  Winslow  was  then  given  com- 
mand of  the  Second  Division  of  the  Cavalry 
Corps  of  the  district  of  West  Tennessee.  He 
took  part  in  all  the  operations  against  General 
Price  and  was  brevetted  brigadier-general  of 
volunteers,  Dec.  12,  1864,  for  gallantry  in  action. 
His  brigade  took  activt  part  in  the  expedition 
against  Selma,  Montgomery,  Columbus,  and 
Macon  in  the  spring  of  1865,  and  alone  took  the 
city  of  Columbus  by  assault  against  a  superior 
force.  After  hostilities  ceased  he  was  in  com- 
mand of  the  Atlanta  military  district.  He  was 
honorably  discharged  on  Aug.  10,  1865. 

Returning  to  civil  life,  Winslow  resumed  con- 
struction work  on  the  St.  Louis,  Vandalia  & 
Terre  Haute  Railroad,  and  built  fifty  miles  of  it. 
In  1870,  with  Gen.  James  H.  Wilson  [q.r.],  he 
constructed  the  St.  Louis  &  South-Eastern  Rail- 
way. Under  appointment  from  President  Grant 
he  served  as  expert  inspector  of  the  Union  Pa- 
cific Railroad  upon  its  completion  and  acceptance 


395 


Winslow 


Winslow 


by  the  government.  From  July  1874  to  March 
1880  he  was  vice-president  and  general  manager 
of  the  Burlington,  Cedar  Rapids,  &  Northern. 
He  then  became  president  of  the  New  York,  On- 
tario &  Western  and  formed  an  association  to 
build  the  West  Shore  Railroad.  On  Nov.  1, 
1879,  he  became  vice-president  and  general  man- 
ager of  the  Manhattan  Elevated  Railway  in  New 
York  City.  Subsequently,  he  served  as  president 
of  the  St.  Louis  &  San  Francisco  Railway  Com- 
pany, and  vice-president  of  the  Atlantic  &  Pa- 
cific Railroad  Company.  Under  this  double 
responsibility  his  health  failed  and  he  was  com- 
pelled to  retire.  Later  he  made  his  home  in  Paris. 
On  Sept.  24,  i860,  he  married  Laura-Laseur 
Berry,  daughter  of  Rev.  Lucien  Berry  of  Greens- 
burg,  Ind. ;  they  had  no  children.  Winslow  died 
from  heart  disease  at  Canandaigua,  N.  Y. 

[D.  P.  and  F.  K.  Holton  :  IVinslow  Memorial  (2 
vols.,  1877-88)  ;  J.  H.  Wilson,  Under  the  Old  Flag 
(1912)  ;  W.  F.  Scott;  The  Story  of  a  Cavalry  Regi- 
ment (1893)  ;  Annals  of  Iozca,  Apr.  191 5  ;  F.  B.  Heit- 
man,  Hist.  Reg.  and  Diet.  U.  S.  Army  (1903)  ;  N.  Y. 
Times,  Oct.  24,  1914.]  P.D.J. 

WINSLOW,  HUBBARD  (Oct.  30,  1799- 
Aug.  13,  1864),  Congregational  clergyman, 
teacher,  and  writer,  was  born  in  Williston,  Vt., 
the  son  of  Nathaniel  Winslow  by  his  first  wife, 
Joanna  (Kellogg).  His  father  had  moved  to 
Vermont  from  Salisbury,  Conn.,  soon  after  the 
Revolution.  All  three  of  his  sons  entered  the 
ministry,  one  of  them  being  Miron  \_q.v.~\,  a 
noted  missionary.  Their  first  American  ancestor 
was  Kenelm  Winslow,  a  native  of  Droitwich, 
Worcestershire,  England,  who  was  admitted 
freeman  of  Plymouth  on  Jan.  1,  1632/3.  Hub- 
bard Winslow  was  brought  up  on  his  father's 
farm,  became  a  school  teacher  when  he  was 
seventeen,  and  at  the  age  of  twenty  went  to  Phil- 
lips Academy,  Andover,  Mass.,  to  prepare  for 
college.  In  1821  he  entered  Middlebury  College, 
but  the  next  year  transferred  to  Yale,  where  he 
was  graduated  in  1825.  Up  to  this  time  he  had 
been  known  as  Asher  H*.  Winslow,  but  he  now 
discarded  his  first  name.  He  began  his  theologi- 
cal studies  in  the  Yale  Divinity  School,  spent  the 
year  1826-27  at  Andover  Theological  Seminary, 
and,  returning  to  Yale,  completed  his  course  there 
in  1828. 

On  Dec.  4  of  that  year  he  was  ordained  pastor 
of  the  First  Congregational  Church  of  Dover, 
N.  H.,  in  which  capacity  he  served  until  1832. 
In  the  meantime,  he  was  married,  May  21,  1829, 
to  Susan  Ward  Cutler,  daughter  of  Joseph  and 
Phebe  (Ward)  Cutler  of  Boston.  Called  to  suc- 
ceed Lyman  Beecher  \_q.v.~\  as  pastor  of  the  Bow- 
doin  Street  Church,  Boston,  in  1832,  he  became 
one  of  the  popular  preachers  of  that  city,  his 


church  being  crowded  on  all  occasions.  A  high- 
strung,  nervous  person,  he  was  never  in  the  best 
of  health  and  in  1840  visited  Europe  for  recu- 
peration. Resigning  his  pastorate  in  1844,  he 
bought  an  estate  on  Beacon  Hill  and  established 
the  Mount  Vernon  School  for  Young  Ladies, 
which  he  conducted  until  1853.  The  next  nine 
years  of  his  life  were  taken  up  with  travel,  writ- 
ing, and  some  teaching  and  pastoral  work.  He 
was  in  charge  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church, 
Geneva,  N.  Y.,  from  1857  to  1859,  and  of  the 
Fiftieth  Street  Presbyterian  Church  of  Brooklyn 
from  1859  to  1861,  during  which  time  he  also 
taught  in  a  school  for  young  ladies  in  New  York, 
conducted  by  his  son-in-law.  Broken  in  health, 
he  retired  to  Williston,  Vt.,  in  1861,  where  he 
died  some  three  years  later. 

Winslow  became  widely  known  through  his 
writings.  He  was  a  frequent  contributor  to  peri- 
odicals and  while  in  Boston  edited,  1837-40,  with 
Jacob  Abbott  and  Nehemiah  Adams  [qq.v.],  the 
Religious  Magazine.  He  had  a  lucid  style  and 
the  ability  to  make  dry  subjects  interesting. 
Some  of  his  publications  had  extensive  circu- 
lation both  in  the  United  States  and  abroad.  Two 
of  his  books,  The  Young  Man's  Aid  to  Knowl- 
edge, Virtue,  and  Happiness  ( 1837)  and  Are  You 
a  Christian?  (2nd  edition,  copr.  1839),  were  ex- 
traordinarily popular,  many  thousands  of  copies 
being  printed.  Two  more  substantial  works 
which  he  prepared  later,  Elements  of  Intellectual 
Philosophy  (  1850)  and  Elements  of  Moral  Phi- 
losophy (1858),  also  went  through  a  number 
of  editions.  Among  his  other  publications  were 
Discourses  on  the  Nature,  Evidence,  and  Moral 
Value  of  the  Doctrine  of  the  Trinity  (1834), 
Christianity  Applied  to  Our  Civil  and  Social  Re- 
lations (1835),  The  Appropriate  Sphere  of 
Woman  (1837),  and  The  Christian  Doctrine 
(1844).  He  had  a  daughter  and  three  sons,  one 
of  whom  was  William  Copley  Winslow  [q.v.~\. 

[D.  P.  and  F.  K.  Holton,  IVinslow  Memorial,  vol.  II 
(1888)  ;  Gen.  Cat.  Yale  Divinity  School  (1922)  ;  Gen. 
Cat.  of  the  Theological  Sem.,  Andover,  Mass.,  1808- 
1908  (1908)  ;  Boston  Recorder,  Aug.  26,  1864.] 

H.E.  S. 

WINSLOW,  JOHN  (May  10,  1703-Apr.  17, 
1774),  colonial  soldier,  was  a  great-grandson  of 
Gov.  Edward  Winslow  [q.v.~\  of  the  Plymouth 
colony,  a  grandson  of  Gov.  Josiah  Winslow 
[q.v.],  and  the  second  son  of  Isaac  and  Sarah 
(Wensley)  Winslow.  He  was  born  in  Marsh- 
field,  Mass.  Both  his  brothers  attained  some 
fame :  Capt.  Josiah  fell  fighting  Indians  in  Maine 
in  1724,  and  Edward  died  a  Loyalist  in  Halifax. 
John  got  a  poor  education  and  could  never  write 
a  literate  letter  without  a  scribe's  aid.  By  his 
thirty-eighth  year  he  had  held  a  few  local  posts 


396 


Winslow 


Winslow 


in  Plymouth,  including  a  captaincy  of  militia. 

His  military  career  began  in  1740,  when  the 
Massachusetts  council  appointed*  him  captain  of 
a  company  in  the  West  Indian  expedition,  led 
by  Edward  Vernon  [q.v.],  and  he  was  subse- 
quently taken  into  British  pay  with  Gooch's 
American  regiment.  He  served  at  Cartagena  and 
in  1 74 1,  for  he  was  an  excellent  recruiting  of- 
ficer, returned  to  Massachusetts  for  reinforce- 
ments. After  Gooch's  was  reduced  he  was  given, 
in  1744,  a  company  in  Handasyd's  regiment,  from 
which  he  immediately  exchanged  into  Phillips's 
regiment  in  Nova  Scotia.  There  he  served  with- 
out distinction  until  1751,  when  he  exchanged 
with  George  Scott,  a  half-pay  captain  in  Shir- 
ley's reduced  regiment,  and  returned  home  to 
look  after  his  estates.  For  two  years  he  repre- 
sented Marshfield  in  the  General  Court.  In  1754 
Governor  Shirley  sent  him,  as  major-general,  to 
take  a  regiment  of  800  men  up  the  Kennebec 
River,  with  the  double  object  of  maintaining  the 
Indian  alliance  and  of  building  forts.  Winslow 
had  an  interest  of  his  own  in  the  region,  for  the 
long  dormant  Plymouth  colony  patent  there,  in 
which  he  had  connections,  had  lately  been  re- 
vived. He  built  Fort  Western  (now  Augusta) 
as  a  trading-post  for  the  proprietors,  and  Fort 
Halifax  (named  Winslow  in  1771).  His  men 
penetrated  far  enough  northwest  to  make  the 
route  seem  feasible  for  some  future  attack  on 
Quebec. 

The  next  year  Shirley  appointed  him  lieuten- 
ant-colonel of  one  and  commandant  of  both  the 
New  England  battalions  raised  under  British 
pay  for  the  reduction  of  French  forts  on 
Chignecto  Isthmus  in  conjunction  with  regulars. 
The  whole  force  was  under  Robert  Monckton 
\_q.v.~\.  The  vexed  question  of  rank  so  embittered 
relations  between  the  two  that  Monckton  failed 
to  give  Winslow  sufficient  credit  for  his  part  in 
the  capture  of  Forts  Beausejour  and  Gaspereau. 
When  Gov.  Charles  Lawrence  of  Nova  Scotia 
decided  upon  the  expulsion  of  the  French  in- 
habitants, the  brunt  of  carrying  out  the  task  fell 
upon  Winslow's  shoulders.  In  1756  Shirley 
brought  him  back  to  command  the  provincial 
army  raised  in  New  England  and  New  York  for 
the  reduction  of  Crown  Point,  but  his  best  ef- 
forts and  his  most  sentimental  hopes  could  not 
fit  that  ungainly  force  for  action  before  Aug.  22, 
and  then  Lord  Loudoun  [g.r.],  commander-in- 
chief,  refused  to  hazard  its  destruction.  Winslow 
remained  at  Lake  George  throughout  the  autumn, 
cooperating  wholeheartedly  with  the  British 
troops.  Except  for  a  brief  command  of  militia 
in  1757,  it  was  his  last  military  service.  He 
never  received  adequate  remuneration,   and  to 


the  end  of  his  life  put  in  fruitless  claims  to  the 
colonies  and  to  Great  Britain  for  pay  or  prefer- 
ment. Nevertheless,  after  his  death,  his  name 
remained  on  the  half-pay  lists,  presumably  for 
his  widow's  benefit,  until  1787. 

Winslow  represented  Marshfield  again  in  the 
General  Court  in  1757-58,  and  1761-65.  He 
found  a  place  on  a  few  minor  committees,  but 
was  instrumental  in  surveying  and  supervising 
the  Kennebec  River  development  and  was  a  com- 
missioner on  the  St.  Croix  boundary  in  1762. 
By  his  first  marriage,  in  1725,  to  Mary  Little, 
who  died  in  1744,  daughter  of  Isaac  Little  of 
Pembroke,  he  had  two  sons,  Pelham,  fort  major 
of  Castle  William  and  a  Loyalist,  and  Isaac,  who 
became  a  physician.  After  his  marriage  to 
Bethiah  (Barker)  Johnson  of  Hingham,  he 
moved  about  1766  to  that  town,  where  he  died. 

[See  Hist,  of  the  Town  of  Hingham,  Mass.  (1893), 
III,  331  ;  M.  W.  Bryant,  Gcneal.  of  Edward  Winslow 
of  the  Mayflower  .  .  .  (1915)  ;  E.  F.  Barker,  Barker 
Geneal.  (1927);  Records  of  the  Town  of  Plymouth, 
vol.  II  (1892)  ;  Acts  and  Resolves  .  .  .  of  the  Province 
of  the  Mass.  Bay  (17  vols.,  1869-1910)  ;  Me.  Hist.  Soc. 
Colls.,  1  ser.  IV  (1856),  VIII  (1881),  2  ser.  XII 
(1908),  XIII  (1909).  Winslow's  journal  in  Nova 
Scotia,  belonging  to  the  Mass.  Hist.  Soc,  is  printed 
in  Nova  Scotia  Hist.  Soc.  Colls.,  vols.  Ill,  IV  (1883- 
85).  His  account  of  the  Kennebec  expedition  is  in 
Military  Affairs  in  North  America,  1748-1765  (in  press, 
1936),  ed.  by  S.  M.  Pargellis  ;  his  memorial  for  prefer- 
ment to  Pitt  is  in  the  Chatham  Papers,  73,  Pub.  Record 
Office,  London  ;  see  also  Lorenzo  Sabine,  Biog.  Sketches 
of  Loyalists  of  the  Am.  Rev.  (1864),  II,  439-44  ;  C.  H. 
Lincoln,  Corres.  of  Wm.  Shirley  (1912);  and  S.  M. 
Pargellis,  Lord  Loudoun  in  North  America  (1933).] 

S.M.P. 

WINSLOW,  JOHN  ANCRUM  (Nov.  19, 
1811-Sept.  29,  1873),  naval  officer,  was  born  at 
Wilmington,  N.  C.  Though  his  mother,  Sara 
E.  (Ancrum)  Berry  Winslow,  was  related  to 
the  South  Carolina  Rhetts,  his  father,  Edward,  a 
descendant  of  John  Winslow,  brother  of  the  colo- 
nial governor,  was  but  recently  from  New  Eng- 
land. At  the  age  of  fourteen  the  son  was  sent  to 
Dorchester,  and  later  to  Dedham,  Mass.,  for  his 
preparatory  education.  His  liking  for  the  sea 
caused  Daniel  Webster  to  procure  Winslow  a 
midshipman's  warrant  before  he  had  passed  his 
sixteenth  year. 

In  the  junior  grades  his  service  was  varied 
but  typical.  He  had  his  share  of  shore  duty  be- 
tween long  cruises  to  distant  stations,  one  on  the 
Pacific,  one  to  Brazil,  and  one  to  the  Mediter- 
ranean. Prompt  action  in  Boston  harbor,  Oct. 
27,  1841,  in  connection  with  a  fire  in  the  hold 
of  a  Cunard  steamer,  brought  him  a  sword-knot 
and  a  pair  of  epaulettes — the  gift  of  Queen  Vic- 
toria ;  he  lost  them  however,  when  the  Missouri 
burned  at  Gibraltar,  Aug.  26,  1843.  He  also  lost, 
Dec.    16,    1846,   the  schooner  Morris,  his   first 


397 


Winslow 

command,  in  a  gale  while  blockading  Tampico, 
Mexico.  This  event  was  more  than  counterbal- 
anced by  the  reputation  for  gallantry  he  had  ac- 
quired the  previous  October  as  commander  of 
one  wing  of  a  landing  party  in  the  expedition 
against  Tabasco.  On  Sept.  14,  1855,  he  was  pro- 
moted to  the  rank  of  commander.  Notwithstand- 
ing his  successes,  his  marriage  to  his  cousin, 
Catherine  Amelia  Winslow  of  Boston,  Oct.  18, 
1837,  and  the  rapid  development  of  an  innate 
Episcopalian  piety  combined  to  generate  in  him  a 
loathing  of  the  sea  and  the  sinful  ways  of  those 
who  followed  it. 

At  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War  he  was  on 
shore  duty  at  Boston.  Having  become  a  rabid 
abolitionist,  he  had  for  once  the  satisfaction  of 
applying  for  and  receiving  service  afloat  from  a 
stern  sense  of  duty.  He  was  invalided  home,  De- 
cember 1861,  from  command  of  the  riverboat 
Benton,  when  the  link  of  a  breaking  tow  chain 
slashed  deep  into  his  forearm.  By  June  1862  he 
was  back  on  the  Mississippi,  but  he  had  missed 
the  joint  offensive  with  Grant  that  had  won  Ten- 
nessee for  the  Union.  An  attack  of  malaria,  the 
promotion  over  his  head  to  flotilla  commander 
of  D.  D.  Porter  [q.z'.~\,  a  battle-tested  officer,  his 
extreme  abolitionism,  and  the  humiliating  Fed- 
eral reverses  of  that  summer  made  Winslow  vo- 
ciferously critical  of  a  war  with  the  mere  political 
objective  of  saving  the  Union.  "Until  the  slaves 
are  manumitted  we  shall  do  nothing,  then  we 
shall  go  onward  to  fight  God's  battles  and  relieve 
thousands  of  His  praying  Christians"  (letter  to 
his  wife,  Sept.  4,  1862,  Ellicott,  post,  p.  88). 
Notwithstanding  his  promotion  to  captain  by 
seniority  in  July  1862,  Winslow  soon  found  him- 
self back  in  Massachusetts  "awaiting  orders." 
He  was  finally  sent  to  the  Kcarsarge,  a  third-class 
man-of-war  that  ordinarily  would  not  have  rated 
a  skipper  of  such  high  rank  and  service. 

Through  1863-64  he  patrolled  from  the  Azores 
to  the  English  Channel.  So  zealously  did  he  pur- 
sue his  duties  that  he  permanently  lost  the  sight 
of  a  long-inflamed  eye  because  he  would  not  put 
into  port  long  enough  for  a  specialist  to  treat  it. 
Even  so  he  missed  the  C.S.S.  Florida  at  Brest. 
While  watching  the  C.S.S.  Rappahannock,  at 
Calais,  he  received  word  that  Raphael  Semmes 
[g.z\],  with  whom  he  had  shared  a  stateroom 
aboard  the  old  Raritan,  was  at  Cherbourg  with 
his  notorious  Alabama.  In  hopes  of  restoring 
the  sagging  prestige  of  the  South  by  a  victory 
in  European  waters,  Semmes  offered  battle  on 
Sunday,  June  19,  1864.  It  was  characteristic  of 
Winslow  that  he  was  holding  a  religious  service 
for  the  men  off  duty  when  the  lookout  reported 
the  Alabama's  approach.    Nominally  the  oppos- 


Winslow 

ing  sloops-of-war  were  equal,  with  the  odds 
slightly  against  Winslow  because  all  his  officers, 
but  one,  were  volunteers  from  the  merchant 
marine.  Actually  the  long-undocked  Alabama  was 
slower  and  her  ammunition  badly  deteriorated 
by  her  long  tropical  cruises.  Her  destructive 
force  was  further  minimized  by  spare  chains 
that  Winslow  had  draped  (an  arrangement  Far- 
ragut  had  popularized  with  his  wooden  ships  at 
New  Orleans)  abeam  of  the  vital  parts  of  his 
ship.  Winslow's  victory  was  complete  and  all  the 
more  glorious  by  virtue  of  its  European  setting. 
All  the  high  ranking  Confederates,  it  is  true,  es- 
caped capture  by  being  picked  up  by  the  English 
yacht  Dccrhonnd,  but  there  is  reason  to  believe 
that  Winslow  at  the  moment  desired  it  so,  for 
they  would  have  certainly  been  unjustly  tried  for 
piracy.  Semmes's  subsequent  vindictive  state- 
ments to  the  British  public  concerning  the  battle, 
however,  led  Winslow  to  regret  their  freedom. 

Amid  wild  acclaim  in  the  United  States,  Wins- 
low was  promoted  to  commodore,  effective  the 
date  of  the  battle.  Until  the  end  of  the  war  the 
North  used  him  at  civic  functions  to  stimulate 
the  fervor  of  the  public.  Through  1866-67  ne 
commanded  the  Gulf  squadron.  Promoted  to 
rear  admiral,  Mar.  2,  1870,  he  took  command  of 
the  Pacific  fleet.  Because  of  ill  health  he  was 
ordered  home  to  be  retired,  Nov.  19,  1872,  but  by 
a  special  act  of  Congress  he  was  continued  on 
the  active  list.  He  died  at  Boston  Highlands, 
Mass.,  survived  by  his  wife,  two  sons,  and  a 
daughter. 

[D.  P.  and  F.  K.  Holton,  Winsloiv  Memorial,  vol.  I 
(1877);  War  of  the  Rebellion:  Official  Records 
(Navy)  ;  Personnel  Records,  Naval  Records  Office, 
Washington,  D.  C.  ;  J.  M.  Ellicott,  The  Life  of  John 
Ancrum  Winslow  (1902)  ;  Battles  and  Leaders  of  the 
Civil  War  (4  vols.,  1887-88)  ;  Raphael  Semmes,  Serv- 
ice Afloat  (1869,  1903);  W.  M.  Robinson,  The  Ala- 
bama-Kcarsargc  Battle  (1924),  reprinted  from  Essex 
Institute  Hist.  Colls.,  vol.  LX  (1924)  ;  A  Record  of  the 
Dedication  of  the  Statue  of  Rear  Admiral  John  Ancrum 
Winslow,  May  8,  1909  (1909)  ;  J.  D.  Hill,  Sea  Dogs  of 
the  Sixties  (1935)  ;  Army  and  Navy  Jour.  Oct.  4, 
1873  ;  Boston  Transcript,  Sept.  30,  1873.]  T.  D.  H. 

WINSLOW,  JOHN  BRADLEY  (Oct.  4, 
1851-July  13,  1920),  jurist,  was  born  at  Nunda, 
Livingston  County,  N.  Y.,  son  of  Horatio  Gates 
Winslow,  principal  of  Nunda  Academy,  and 
Emily  (Bradley)  Winslow.  Both  the  father  and 
mother  were  of  Puritan  stock.  When  John  was 
two  years  old,  ill  health  compelled  his  father  to 
give  up  teaching  and  lead  a  more  out-of-door  life. 
As  a  consequence  he  removed  first  to  the  state  of 
Ohio,  where  he  remained  for  two  years,  then  to 
Racine,  Wis.,  where  he  purchased  a  bookstore 
business  and  a  small  tract  of  land-  John  attended 
the  common  schools  and  was  graduated  at  Ra- 
cine College  in  187 1.   He  became  an  instructor 


398 


Winslow 

in  Greek  at  that  institution,  subsequently  studied 
in  the  law  office  of  E.  O.  Hand,  and  in  1874  en- 
tered the  law  school  of  the  University  of  Wis- 
consin, from  which  he  received  the  degree  of 
LL.B.  in  1875. 

He  practised  law  in  Racine  successfully  and 
in  April  1883  was  elected  circuit  judge  of  the  first 
judicial  circuit.  On  May  4,  1891,  he  was  appoint- 
ed a  justice  of  the  supreme  court  to  succeed 
David  Taylor,  deceased.  Although  a  member  of 
the  Democratic  party,  which  was  decidedly  in 
the  minority,  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  su- 
preme court  against  determined  opposition  from 
the  opposing  party.  He  was  thereafter  reelected 
three  times  without  opposition.  In  December 
1907  he  became  chief  justice  by  virtue  of  sen- 
iority. He  was  married,  Jan.  19,  1881,  to  Agnes 
Clancy,  and  was  survived  at  his  death  by  his 
wife,  two  sons,  and  four  daughters. 

Winslow  was  six  feet  one  inch  in  height  and 
though  of  slight  build  had  a  commanding  pres- 
ence. He  was  a  devout  member  of  the  Episcopal 
Church  and  for  many  years  a  lay  reader.  As  a 
judge,  both  at  the  circuit  and  on  the  supreme 
bench,  he  proved  an  excellent  administrator  as 
well  as  a  profound  student  of  jurisprudence.  His 
opinions  as  a  member  of  the  supreme  court  won 
him  a  national  reputation  and  on  more  than  one 
occasion  he  was  seriously  considered  for  appoint- 
ment to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States. 
He  combined  in  an  unusual  degree  analytical 
power  with  ability  to  express  himself  in  clear, 
forceful  language.  His  insight  into  the  social 
implications  of  the  functions  discharged  by  the 
judicial  department  of  the  government  was  un- 
usual. The  spirit  as  well  as  the  letter  of  the  law 
was  constantly  before  him.  The  character  of  his 
work  is  disclosed  in  such  opinions  as  those  ren- 
dered in  Nitnncmachervs.  State  (129  Wis.,  190) 
and  Income  Tax  Cases  (148  Wis.,  456).  His 
political  philosophy  regarding  the  importance  of 
parties  in  a  republican  government  is  embodied 
in  a  dissenting  opinion  in  State  ex  rel.  McGrael 
vs.  Phelps  (144  Wis.,  1,  at  p.  51).  His  greatest 
opinion,  Borgnis  vs.  Folk  Co.  (147  Wis.,  327), 
dealt  with  the  constitutionality  of  the  workmen's 
compensation  law  and  laid  the  foundation  for 
much  of  the  so-called  progressive  legislation  in 
Wisconsin  and  the  nation.  It  has  been  cited  many 
times  and  in  practically  every  jurisdiction  in  the 
country.  It  not  only  embodies  his  social  and 
legal  ideals  but  from  a  literary  standpoint  is  prob- 
ably his  most  finished  opinion. 

Winslow  won  and  held  not  only  the  confidence 
and  respect  of  the  people  of  his  state  but  their 
affection  as  well.  He  made  many  public  addresses 
and  was  often  called  upon  to  preside  at  impor- 


Winslow 

tant  public  meetings.  He  wrote  numerous  arti- 
cles for  law  magazines  and  was  the  author  of 
two  well-known  books — The  Story  of  a  Great 
Court  (1912),  a  history  of  the  supreme  court  of 
Wisconsin  from  1848  to  1880,  and  Winslow's 
Forms  of  Pleading  and  Practice  Under  the  Code 
(1906,  1915),  partially  annotated,  which  found  a 
place  in  the  leading  law  offices  of  all  the  code 
states. 

["In  Memoriam,"  174  Wis.  Reports,  xxxiii ;  The 
Wis.  Blue  Book,  19 19  ;  Proc.  State  Bar  Asso.  of  Wis., 
vol.  XIII  (1921)  ;  Jour.  Am.  Inst,  of  Criminal  Law  and 
Criminology,  Nov.  1920  ;  Jour.  Am.  Bar  Asso.,  Sept. 
1920;  Who's  Who  in  America,  1920-21;  Milwaukee 
Sentinel,  July  14,  1920;  personal  acquaintance.] 

M.B.R. 

WINSLOW,  JOHN  FLACK  (Nov.  10,  1810- 
Mar.  10,  1892),  industrialist,  was  born  in  Ben- 
nington, Vt,  the  fourth  child  of  Richard  and 
Mary  Corning  (Seymour)  Winslow.  His  father 
had  come  to  Vermont  from  Lyme,  Conn.,  and 
was  a  descendant  of  Kenelm  Winslow,  who  emi- 
grated to  America  about  1629.  When  John  was 
five  years  old  his  parents  moved  to  Albany,  N.  Y., 
where  the  boy  was  educated  at  select  schools  until 
he  was  seventeen.  He  then  entered  a  commer- 
cial house  in  Albany  as  a  clerk,  and  after  several 
years  there  secured  a  position  in  a  commission 
house  in  New  York,  where  he  remained  until  he 
was  twenty-one.  For  a  year  he  was  agent  for  his 
company  in  New  Orleans,  and  in  1832  returned 
North  and  secured  the  management  of  the  Bos- 
ton agency  of  the  New  Jersey  Iron  Company. 
In  the  two  years  that  he  held  this  position  he 
is  said  to  have  worked  diligently  and  mastered 
its  details.  At  all  events,  late  in  1833  he  went  into 
the  iron  industry  on  his  own  account  and  for 
four  years  engaged  successfully  in  the  produc- 
tion of  pig  iron  in  Bergen  and  Sussex  counties, 
N.  J.  In  1837  Erastus  Corning  [q.v.~\,  head  of 
an  extensive  hardware  enterprise  in  Albany,  un- 
dertook to  add  to  his  business  the  production  of 
iron.  Winslow,  upon  invitation,  joined  Corning 
in  this  venture,  and  the  ensuing  partnership  of 
Corning  &  Winslow  continued  under  various 
firm  names  for  upwards  of  thirty  years.  They 
controlled  both  the  Albany  and  the  Rensselaer 
iron  works,  which  under  their  direction  became 
the  largest  producers  of  railroad  and  other  iron 
in  the  United  States.  Winslow  made  Troy,  N.  Y., 
his  residence  during  this  thirty  years'  period.  In 
conducting  the  business  he  was  most  progressive 
and  showed  an  almost  uncanny  sense  of  what 
would  prove  successful  in  his  adoption  of  new 
processes.  It  was  Corning  and  Winslow,  for 
example,  who  delegated  Alexander  L.  Holley 
[q.v.~]  in  1863  to  purchase  in  England  the  Amer- 
ican rights  to  the  Bessemer  steel  process,  and 


399 


Winslow 


Winslow 


subsequently  to  design  and  build  at  Troy  a  Bes- 
semer steel  plant,  which,  put  into  operation  in 
1865,  was  the  first  plant  of  its  kind  in  America. 
Again  it  was  Winslow  who,  seeing  the  merits  of 
John  Ericsson's  design  of  iron-clad  war  vessels, 
appeared  in  1861,  in  company  with  John  A.  Gris- 
wold  [#.?'.]  of  Troy  and  C.  S.  Bushnell  of  New 
Haven,  Conn.,  before  President  Lincoln  and  the 
naval  board  and  secured  a  contract  for  the  con- 
struction of  one  vessel.  Winslow  risked  both 
reputation  and  money  in  manufacturing  the  ma- 
chinery and  iron  plating-  for  the  vessel  and  in 
financing  the  whole  undertaking,  but  the  brilliant 
success  of  the  Monitor  in  its  engagement  with 
the  Merrimac,  Mar.  9,  1862,  fully  vindicated  his 
faith. 

Throughout  his  residence  in  Troy  he  was  much 
interested  in  local  politics  and  in  social  and  be- 
nevolent enterprises.  From  1865  to  1868  he 
was  president  of  Rensselaer  Polytechnic  Insti- 
tute. In  1867  he  retired  from  active  business  and 
removed  from  Troy  to  Poughkeepsie,  where  he 
resided  until  his  death.  He  continued  his  interest 
in  public  affairs  and  in  addition  served  as  a  di- 
rector of  several  banks,  as  president  of  the  Pough- 
keepsie &  Eastern  Railroad,  and  as  president  of 
the  company  constructing  the  bridge  over  the 
Hudson  River.  He  was  twice  married :  first, 
Sept.  12,  1832,  to  Nancy  Beach  Jackson  of  Rock- 
away,  N.  J.;  second,  Sept.  5,  1867,  to  Harriet 
Wickes  of  Poughkeepsie,  by  whom  he  had  two 
children. 

[D.  P.  and  F.  K.  Holton,  Winslow  Memorial  (2 
vols.,  1877-88)  ;  H.  B.  Nason,  Biog.  Record,  Officers 
and  Grads.  of  the  Rensselaer  Polytechnic  Inst.  (1887)  ; 
F.  B.  Wheeler,  John  F.  Winslow,  LL.D.,  and  the  "Mon- 
itor" (1893);  Troy  Daily  Times,  Mar.  10,  1892; 
Poughkeepsie  Eagle,  Mar.  11,  1892.]  q  w.  M. 

WINSLOW,  JOSIAH  (c.  1629-Dec.  18, 
1680),  governor  of  Plymouth  Colony  from  1673 
to  1680,  was  the  first  native-born  governor  in 
America.  The  son  of  Edward  Winslow,  1595- 
1655  \_q.v.~],  and  Susanna  (Fuller)  White  Wins- 
low, he  grew  up  in  the  homes  of  the  Pilgrim 
leaders,  who  gave  him  an  excellent  education. 
His  father  soon  moved  from  Plymouth,  Josiah's 
birthplace,  to  Marshfield.  Josiah  studied  at  Har- 
vard College,  but  left  without  taking  a  degree 
(J.  L.  Sibley,  Biographical  Sketches  of  Gradu- 
ates of  Harvard  University,  vol.  I,  1873,  p.  16). 
In  Boston  he  met  and  courted  Penelope  Pelham, 
daughter  of  Herbert  Pelham,  treasurer  of  the 
college  and  assistant  governor  of  Massachusetts 
Bay,  and  married  her,  probably  in  1657 ;  this  was 
an  unusual  step,  for  the  Pilgrims  seldom  mar- 
ried outside  the  Pilgrim  church.  In  1651  Josiah 
Winslow  seems  to  have  been  in  London  with  his 
father  and  to  have  had  painted  the  portrait  which 


now  hangs  in  Pilgrim  Hall.  His  wife's  portrait, 
also  preserved,  can  hardly  have  been  painted  at 
the  same  time  and  it  may  be  that  hers  is  among 
the  first  portraits  painted  in  America.  Winslow's 
poem  on  the  death  of  Governor  William  Brad- 
ford, printed  in  Morton's  Mcmoriall  (post)  in 
1669,  is  one  of  the  earliest  written  in  America. 

Winslow  soon  became  known  as  a  military 
man  and  in  1652  commanded  the  militia  at 
Marshfield.  In  1657  he  was  chosen  assistant, 
serving  continuously  until  1673 ;  in  1658  he  be- 
came Plymouth  commissioner  for  the  United 
Colonies,  in  which  capacity  he  served  until  1672 ; 
and  in  1659  he  was  made  commander-in-chief' of 
the  Colony,  succeeding  Myles  Standish,  whose 
office  had  been  vacant  since  his  death  in  1656. 
He  captured  Alexander,  son  and  successor  of 
Massasoit  [g.£\],  in  1662,  thus  ending  for  years 
any  danger  from  an  Indian  uprising.  On  Sept.  5, 
1672,  he  was  one  of  the  six  signers  of  the  new 
Articles  of  Confederation  of  the  New  England 
Colonies,  which  he  had  probably  helped  to  frame. 

The  following  year  he  became  governor  of 
New  Plymouth.  One  of  his  earliest  measures  was 
the  establishment  in  1674  of  the  first  public  school 
at  Plymouth.  When  the  Indian  uprisings  began 
in  1675,  he  signed  the  declaration  of  war  and  is- 
sued a  famous  statement  denying  any  legitimate 
grievance  to  the  Indians  because  the  Pilgrims  had 
honestly  bought  their  land.  He  was  immediately 
elected  commander-in-chief  of  the  forces  of  the 
United  Colonies  and  so  became  the  first  native- 
born  commander  of  an  American  army.  Taking 
the  field  against  the  Narragansetts,  he  burned 
many  villages  and  won  a  decisive  battle  on  Dec. 
19,  1675,  though  at  the  cost  of  many  lives.  The 
colonial  losses  were  increased  by  exposure  dur- 
ing the  return  march,  undertaken  in  spite  of  ad- 
vice from  Capt.  Benjamin  Church  [g.?'.]  that  the 
troops  be  permitted  to  recuperate  in  the  cap- 
tured Narragansett  stronghold.  Illness  compelled 
Winslow  to  retire  from  active  command  in  Feb- 
ruary 1676,  at  which  time  he  put  Church,  the  real 
hero  of  the  war,  into  control  of  the  armies. 

There  is  reason  to  believe  that  Josiah  Wins- 
low was  more  liberal  and  tolerant  than  the  ear- 
lier Pilgrims.  His  statecraft  was  conspicuously 
shown  by  his  handling  of  Edward  Randolph 
[q.vJ],  the  English  investigator,  who  arrived  at 
Plymouth  in  1677  to  search  out  the  shortcomings 
of  the  colonists  and  departed  well  pleased,  even 
promising  to  secure  for  the  Pilgrims  the  char- 
ter from  the  Crown  which  their  fathers  had 
sought  so  long.  Winslow  was  negotiating  with 
the  authorities  in  London  to  this  end  when  he 
died.  Reputed  the  greatest  gentleman  and  most 
accomplished   citizen   of   Plymouth,   he   kept   a 


400 


Winslow 


Winslow 


much  greater  state  at  his  house,  "Careswell,"  in 
Marshfield  than  was  then  common  in  New  Eng- 
land, and  succeeded,  ably  aided  by  his  wife,  whose 
charm,  beauty,  and  social  graces  were  widely  ad- 
mired, in  establishing  a  new  social  life  in  the  Old 
Colony. 

[Records  of  the  Colony  of  New  Plymouth  (12  vols., 
1855-61),  including  the  records  of  the  Commissioners 
of  the  United  Colonies  ;  G.  M.  Bodge,  Soldiers  in  King 
Philip's  War  (3rd  ed.,  1906)  ;  Nathaniel  Morton,  New- 
England's  Memoriall  (1669;  6th  ed.,  1855);  M.  A. 
Thomas,  Memorials  of  Marshfield  (1854);  D.  P.  and 
F.  K.  Holton,  Winslow  Memorial,  vol.  I  (1877)  ;  R.  N. 
Toppan,  Edward  Randolph,  vols.  II— III  (1898-99); 
Cal.  of  State  Papers,  Col.  Ser.,  America  and  West  In- 
dies, 1675-1676  (1893)  and  1677-1680  (1896).] 

R.  G.  U. 

WINSLOW,  MIRON  (Dec.  11,  1789-Oct.  22, 
1864),  missionary,  was  born  in  Williston,  Vt., 
the  son  of  Nathaniel  and  Joanna  (Kellogg) 
Winslow,  a  brother  of  Hubbard  Winslow  \_q.v.~\, 
and  a  descendant  of  Kenelm  Winslow  who  came 
to  the  Plymouth  Colony  about  1629.  From  the 
age  of  fourteen  until  he  was  twenty-one  Miron 
served  as  clerk  in  a  village  store  and  then  was 
in  business  for  himself  for  two  years  in  Norwich, 
Conn.  In  181 1  he  united  with  the  Congregational 
Church  of  Norwich,  and  began  to  consider  the 
possibility  of  becoming  a  missionary.  He  had 
continued  his  studies  while  in  business  and  was 
able  to  enter  Middlebury  College  in  1813  with 
advanced  standing.  Graduating  in  1815,  he  pro- 
ceeded to  Andover  Theological  Seminary  in  Jan- 
uary of  the  following  year,  and  in  1818  received 
the  degree  of  B.D.,  and  an  honorary  degree  of 
A.M.  from  Yale.  While  engaged  in  his  profes- 
sional studies  he  traveled  during  vacations  col- 
lecting funds  for  foreign  missions,  and  wrote  A 
Sketch  of  Missions  (1819).  In  June  1818  he 
was  licensed  to  preach  by  the  Londonderry  Pres- 
bytery, East  Bradford,  Mass.,  and  on  Nov.  4, 
in  Salem,  Mass.,  he  and  Pliny  Fisk,  Levi  Spauld- 
ing  [q.v.~\,  and  Henry  Woodward,  were  or- 
dained as  missionaries.  On  Jan.  n,  1819,  in  Nor- 
wich, Conn.,  he  married  Harriet  Wadsworth 
Lathrop,  daughter  of  Charles  Lathrop.  Six  chil- 
dren were  born  of  this  union. 

On  June  8,  18 19,  Winslow  and  his  wife  sailed 
from  Boston  for  India  with  Spaulding,  Wood- 
ward, and  John  Scudder  [g.r.]  and  their  wives, 
arriving  at  Calcutta  on  Oct.  19,  and  at  Jaffna, 
Ceylon,  Feb.  18,  1820.  He  was  stationed  at 
Oodooville,  Ceylon,  from  July  1819  to  1833, 
working  among  the  Tamils  of  that  region  as 
preacher,  educator,  and  translator.  In  the  latter 
year  his  wife  died  and  he  spent  the  next  two 
years  in  America,  writing  during  the  time  A 
Memoir  of  Mrs.  Harriet  JVadsworth  Winslow, 
Combining  a  Sketch  of  the  Ceylon  Mission 
(1835).  Returning  to  the  East  in  1835,  accom- 


panied by  his  second  wife,  whom  he  married 
Apr.  23,  1835,  Catherine  (Waterbury),  widow 
of  Ezekiel  Carman,  he  arrived  at  Madras  on  Mar. 
22,  1836,  visited  Madura,  and  continued  on  to 
Ceylon.  Instructed  to  open  in  Madras  a  new  sta- 
tion, especially  for  printing  and  publication,  he 
removed  thither  in  August  1836  and  made  this 
city  his  residence  for  the  remainder  of  his  life, 
visiting  America  again  but  once  (1856-57).  He 
was  chosen  by  the  Madras  Bible  Society  to  serve 
on  its  committee  for  revising  the  Tamil  Bible,  an 
undertaking  upon  which  he  was  engaged  for 
many  years.  At  the  same  time  he  worked  on  the 
Comprehensive  Tamil  and  English  Dictionary 
of  High  and  Low  Tamil,  which  was  published  in 
1862.  This  monumental  work  had  been  begun  in 
T^33  by  a  Jaffna  missionary  of  the  Church  Mis- 
sionary Society  and  had  been  continued  by 
Levi  Spaulding  (Tamil)  and  Samuel  Hutchings 
(English-Tamil).  The  final  comprehensive  edi- 
tion by  Winslow,  containing  67,450  words  with 
definitions,  was  heralded  as  "a  noble  contribu- 
tion to  Oriental  Literature"  (Missionary  Her- 
ald, May  1863,  p.  132).  Winslow's  health  was 
poor  at  times,  and  he  had  at  last  to  withdraw 
from  service,  leaving  India  Aug.  29,  1864,  bound 
for  home.  His  journey,  however,  ended  at  Cape- 
town, South  Africa,  where  he  died  and  was 
buried.  His  second  wife  died  in  1837,  and  on 
Sept.  2,  1838,  he  married  Anna  Spiers,  who  died 
in  1843.  On  Mar.  12,  1845,  he  married  Mrs. 
Mary  W.  (Billings)  Dwight,  who  died  Apr.  20, 
1852,  and  on  May  20,  1857,  he  married  Ellen  Au- 
gusta Reed.  By  his  second  wife  he  had  one 
daughter,  and  by  his  third,  three  sons. 

[Elias  Loomis,  Memoirs  of  Am.  Missionaries  (1833)  ; 
Missionary  Herald,  May  1863,  Feb.,  Mar.  1865;  The 
Encyc.  of  Missions  (2nd  ed.,  1904),  which  is  in  error  as 
to  date  of  death  ;  Cat.  of  Officers  and  Students  of  Mid- 
dlebury Coll.  (1917)  ;  Gen.  Cat.  of  the  Theological  Sem., 
Andover,  Mass.  (1909)  ;  D.  P.  and  F.  K.  Holton,  Wins- 
low Memorial  (2  vols.,  1877-88).]  t  C  Ar r 

WINSLOW,  SIDNEY  WILMOT  (Sept.  20, 
1854-June  18,  1917),  manufacturer,  capitalist, 
was  born  in  Brewster,  Mass.,  the  son  of  Free- 
man and  Lucy  (Rogers)  Winslow,  and  a  de- 
scendant of  Kenelm  Winslow,  who  came  to 
Plymouth,  Mass.,  about  1629.  The  family  moved 
to  Salem,  and  there,  after  completing  his  educa- 
tion in  the  city  high  school,  Sidney  went  to  work 
in  a  small  shoe  factory  that  his  father  had  es- 
tablished. About  1883  he  and  some  associates 
started  the  Naumkeag  Buffing  Machine  Com- 
pany to  manufacture  machines  for  buffing  leather 
used  in  the  making  of  shoes.  Soon  they  secured 
control  of  the  Beverly  Gas  &  Electric  Company 
and  consolidated  it  with  other  companies  in  ad- 


4OI 


Winslow 


Winslow 


jacent  towns.  In  these  enterprises  Winslow  was 
the  moving  spirit. 

The  capital  and  credit  that  he  derived  from 
them  he  used  in  the  development  of  machinery 
for  the  manufacture  of  shoes,  and  in  1899,  with 
Gordon  McKay  [q.z'.~\  and  the  Goodyear  Com- 
pany, formed  the  United  Shoe  Machinery  Com- 
pany, of  which  he  became  the  president.  It  man- 
ufactured nearly  all  the  shoe  machinery  used  in 
the  United  States.  Some  of  its  machines  were 
leased,  and  in  the  lease  was  a  clause  forbidding 
the  lessor  to  use  any  other  make  of  machine. 
Competition  was  thus  rendered  extremely  diffi- 
cult, and  accordingly  the  United  States  govern- 
ment brought  suit  against  the  company  in  191 1, 
but  the  Supreme  Court  in  repeated  decisions  up  to 
1918  declared  in  the  company's  favor.  Congress 
then  enacted  legislation  making  it  illegal  to  en- 
gage in  interstate  commerce  if  machinery  was 
leased  on  condition  that  the  lessor  should  not  use 
machinery  of  a  competitor,  and  in  1922  the  Su- 
preme Court  ruled  the  so-called  "tying  clause" 
of  the  United  States  Shoe  Machinery  Company 
illegal. 

Winslow  was  dead  before  this  litigation  was 
over,  but  it  was  his  methods  that  were  on  trial. 
Whatever  may  be  said  against  his  methods  of 
dealing  with  competition,  he  made  valuable  con- 
tributions to  the  development  of  American  in- 
dustry. The  plant  of  the  United  Shoe  Machinery 
Company  in  Beverly,  Mass.,  became  a  model  one, 
providing  in  manifold  ways  for  the  health,  com- 
fort, education,  and  security  of  its  employees. 
Winslow  recognized  the  rights  of  workers  and 
furthered  harmonious  relations  between  them 
and  their  employers.  He  reduced  the  cost  of 
manufacture  by  eliminating  unnecessary  man- 
agement, and  constantly  added  features  making 
for  efficiency,  at  the  same  time  dispensing  with 
others  that  caused  delay  or  waste.  His  activities 
were  not  restricted  to  manufacturing,  for  he  took 
a  prominent  part  in  the  financial  affairs  of  New 
England,  and  he  was  one  of  the  principal  owners 
of  the  Boston  Herald  and  Boston  Traveller,  im- 
portant morning  and  evening  newspapers.  By 
investing  capital  and  participating  in  the  man- 
agement of  numerous  other  business  enterprises 
he  became  a  conspicuous  figure  in  the  economic 
affairs  of  the  nation.  On  Nov.  28,  1877,  he  mar- 
ried in  Peabody,  Mass.,  Georgiana  Buxton,  who 
died  in  1908;  four  children  survived  him.  He 
died  in  Beverly  after  a  short  illness. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1916-17  ;  Times  (Beverly), 
Evening  News  (Salem),  Boston  Transcript,  and  Bos- 
ton Herald,  June  19,  1917;  S.  A.  Eliot,  Biog.  Hist,  of 
Mass.,  vol.  X  (1918)  ;  J.  C.  Welliver,  "Sidney  W.  Wins- 
low, Czar  of  Footwear,"  Hampton's  Mag.,  Sept.  1910; 
Thomas  Dreier,  The  Story  of  Three  Partners  (n.d.), 


pub.  by  the  United  Shoe  Machinery  Company  ;  D.  P. 
and  F.  K.  Holton,  Winslow  Memorial,  vol.  I  (1877).] 

S.G. 

WINSLOW,  WILLIAM  COPLEY  (Jan.  13, 
1840-Feb.  2,  1925),  clergyman  of  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church,  archaeologist,  was  born  in 
Boston,  the  son  of  the  Rev.  Hubbard  Winslow 
\_q.v.~\,  a  Congregationalist  clergyman,  and  Su- 
san Ward  (Cutler).  After  preparation  at  the 
Boston  Latin  School,  he  entered  Hamilton  Col- 
lege, Clinton,  N.  Y.,  and  was  graduated  in  1862. 
His  theological  education  he  obtained  at  the 
General  Seminary  in  New  York  between  1862 
and  1865.  On  July  2  of  the  latter  year  he  was 
ordained  deacon  and  on  May  3,  1867,  priest,  by 
Bishop  Horatio  Potter  of  New  York.  Shortly 
after  his  ordination  he  spent  several  months  in 
Italy  studying  archaeology  and  ancient  sculp- 
ture. Upon  his  return  he  assumed  the  rectorship 
of  St.  George's  Church,  Lee,  Mass.  This  posi- 
tion, which  was  his  only  full  rectorship,  he  filled 
from  1867  to  1870.  From  1877  to  1882  he  was 
chaplain  of  St.  Luke's  Home  in  Boston. 

Winslow's  literary  work  began  while  he  was 
a  student  in  college.  In  i860  he  was  associated 
with  two  prominent  students  of  Yale  University 
in  founding  the  University  Quarterly  Review, 
which  was  published  for  one  year ;  while  a  senior 
he  was  co-editor  of  the  Hamiltonian.  After  his 
graduation  he  was  for  a  short  time  on  the  staff  of 
the  New  York  World  and  later  (1864-65),  with 
the  Rev.  Stephen  H.  Tyng  [q.v.~\  of  St.  George's 
Church,  New  York,  was  associate  editor  of 
Christian  Times.  Winslow's  deepest  interest, 
however,  was  in  archaeological  research.  In 
1880  his  studies  led  him  to  visit  the  monuments 
and  sites  of  Egypt  and  when  the  discovery  of 
Pithom  (Exodus  1:11)  was  announced,  he  be- 
gan a  correspondence  with  Sir  Erasmus  Wilson 
and  Amelia  B.  Edwards,  noted  English  Egyptian 
scholars,  which  led  to  his  founding  the  American 
Branch  of  the  Egypt  Exploration  Fund.  In  1883 
he  became  honorary  treasurer  of  this  Fund  for 
America ;  in  1885,  its  vice-president ;  and  in  1889, 
honorary  secretary.  For  probably  a  dozen  years 
after  he  founded  the  American  Branch  he  de- 
voted nearly  all  his  time  to  its  interests  and  to 
making  Egypt  known  to  the  American  people. 
During  the  years  1886-89,  as  a  result  of  Win- 
slow's enthusiasm,  the  Boston  Museum  was  en- 
riched with  a  notable  collection  of  Egyptian  mon- 
uments, which  included  the  statue  of  Rameses  II, 
the  gigantic  column  from  Bubastis,  the  head  of 
Hathor,  the  Hyksos  sphinx,  the  statue  of  a  son 
of  Rameses  II,  the  processional  from  Bubastis, 
and  the  palm-leaf  column  from  Ahnas ;  besides 
these,  among  the  precious  relics  obtained  from 


402 


Winsor 


W 


insor 


Abydos,  was  the  sard  and  gold  sceptre  of  King 
Khasekhemui  of  the  second  dynasty,  oldest  known 
sceptre  in  the  world,  which  was  placed  in  the 
Museum  in  1902.  Winslow  raised  a  great  amount 
of  money  for  Egyptian  exploration  and  also  per- 
suaded Amelia  B.  Edwards  to  make  her  brilliant 
American  lecture  tour. 

Winslow  was  honorary  fellow  of  the  Royal 
Archaeological  Institute,  corresponding  mem- 
ber of  the  British  Archaeological  Association, 
honorary  correspondent  of  the  Victoria  Insti- 
tute, honorary  fellow  of  the  Royal  Society  of 
Arts  and  Sciences,  and  fellow  of  the  Antiquarians 
of  Scotland.  He  was  on  the  honorary  rolls  of 
numerous  state  historical  societies  and  also  on 
those  of  the  Nova  Scotia  and  Quebec  societies, 
and  the  Montreal  Society  of  Natural  History. 
His  last  important  recognition  was  an  election  as 
honorary  fellow  of  the  Society  of  Oriental  Re- 
search at  Chicago  in  1917.  He  received  doctor- 
ates from  many  universities  both  in  America  and 
in  Europe.  He  married  twice:  first,  June  20, 
1867,  Harriet  Stillman  Hayward,  who  died  in 
September  1915;  second,  May  24,  1917,  Eliza- 
beth Bruce  Roelofson,  who  died  Jan.  12,  1923. 
One  daughter  by  his  first  wife  survived  him.  He 
died  at  his  home  on  Beacon  Street  in  Boston. 

[D.  P.  and  F.  K.  Holton,  Winslow  Memorial  (2  vols., 
1877-88)  ;  A.  E.  George,  Williayn  Copley  Winslow, 
D.D.,  A  Sketch  of  His  Life  and  Labors  in  Archaeology 
(1903)  ;  Who's  Who  in  America,  1924-25  ;  Americana, 
Oct.  1918;  Boston  Transcript,  Feb.  2,  1925.] 

A.W.H.E. 

WINSOR,  JUSTIN    (Jan.   2,   1831-Oct.   22, 

1897), historian,  librarian,  born  in  Boston,  Mass., 
was  a  descendant  of  Samuel  Winsor  who  was 
born  in  Duxbury,  Mass.,  in  1725.  Of  five  chil- 
dren of  Nathaniel  Winsor,  Jr.,  a  prosperous  mer- 
chant, and  Ann  Thomas  (Howland)  Winsor, 
only  Justin  and  one  sister  lived  to  maturity.  Af- 
ter a  short  term  at  a  boarding  school  in  Sand- 
wich, Justin  was  sent  to  the  Boston  Latin  School 
where  he  prepared  for  Harvard  College.  His  in- 
terest in  history  developed  early ;  even  as  a  boy 
he  attended  meetings  of  the  New-England  His- 
toric Genealogical  Society  and  began  to  collect 
material  for  his  first  book,  A  History  of  the  Town 
of  Duxbury,  which  was  published  in  1849  during 
his  freshman  year  at  Harvard.  Greatly  attracted 
by  letters,  he  had  visions  of  becoming  a  poet. 
He  studied  hard  and  read  widely  but  cared  little 
for  his  routine  college  work  and  finally  aban- 
doned it  in  his  senior  year  without  remaining  to 
take  his  degree,  which  was  given  to  him  fifteen 
years  later  as  of  the  class  of  1853.  In  October 
1852  he  went  to  Europe  and  spent  two  years, 
mainly  in  Paris  and  Heidelberg,  studying  French 
and    German.    Subsequently   he    also   mastered 


Dutch,  Spanish,  Portuguese,  and  Italian.  Before 
his  return  to  Boston  in  1854  he  had  determined 
to  become  a  man  of  letters.  On  Dec.  18,  1855,  he 
married  Caroline  T.  Barker,  taking  her  to  his 
father's  home  in  Blackstone  Square  where  they 
lived  for  many  years  as  part  of  a  united  family. 

From  1854  to  1868  Winsor  wrote  steadily  for 
periodicals,  turning  out  a  constant  stream  of  crit- 
icism, poetry,  comment,  and  fiction,  although  he 
produced  no  book.  Late  in  1866  he  was  appoint- 
ed a  trustee  of  the  Boston  Public  Library  and  the 
next  year  he  wrote  a  masterly  report  upon  it.  In 
1868,  when  the  superintendent  had  died  and  the 
assistant  was  dying,  Winsor  was  asked  to  take 
charge  temporarily,  but  he  proved  so  able  that 
after  a  few  weeks  he  was  urged  to  remain  per- 
manently, and  continued  as  librarian  for  some 
nine  years.  His  administration  was  notably  suc- 
cessful, but  occasional  conflicts  with  the  city  au- 
thorities and  an  intense  dislike  of  municipal  poli- 
tics made  him  glad  to  resign  his  position  in  Sep- 
tember 1877  to  become  librarian  at  Harvard  Col- 
lege in  succession  to  John  L.  Sibley  iq.v.~\.  Be- 
fore assuming  his  new  and  very  congenial  duties, 
he  went  to  London  to  attend  the  first  Interna- 
tional Conference  of  Librarians. 

Winsor's  most  important  service  in  his  library 
posts  was  probably  his  work  toward  liberalizing 
the  relations  between  libraries  and  their  users. 
In  spite  of  his  intense  interest  in  his  own  par- 
ticular institutions  and  his  bibliographical  and 
historical  activities,  he  found  time  for  aiding 
greatly  in  promoting  the  library  movement 
throughout  the  country.  He  was  one  of  the 
founders  of  the  Library  Journal  and  of  the  Amer- 
ican Library  Association,  of  which  body  he  was 
first  president,  1876-85,  and  president  again  in 
1897,  elected  especially  to  represent  the  Associa- 
tion at  the  international  meeting  in  England. 

It  is  likely  that  his  contacts  at  Harvard  great- 
ly stimulated  his  interest  in  historical  research. 
In  1880,  the  year  he  moved  to  Cambridge,  he 
published  The  Reader's  Handbook  of  the  Ameri- 
can Revolution  (copr.  1879),  which  after  a  half 
century  is  still  an  indispensable  bibliographical 
manual.  In  the  same  year  he  was  asked  to  edit 
a  history  of  Boston  on  a  very  large  scale.  In  this 
undertaking  he  displayed  not  only  his  extraor- 
dinary learning  but  an  exceptional  executive 
ability.  The  plan  of  the  work  was  mainly  his 
own,  but  he  had  seventy  contributing  authors. 
Agreeing  to  finish  the  task  in  two  years,  he 
brought  it  to  completion  in  twenty-three  months 
— The  Memorial  History  of  Boston  (4  vols., 
1880-81) — characterized  in  1897  by  Professor 
Edward  Channing  {post,  p.  198)  as  the  best 
work  of  its  class  produced  up  to  that  time  in  any 


40  3 


Winston 


Winston 


country.  The  success  thus  achieved  led  him  to 
undertake  a  yet  longer  work,  on  somewhat  simi- 
lar lines,  for  the  whole  country.  This  was  the 
Narrative  and  Critical  History  of  America  (8 
vols.,  1884-89).  The  work  was  made  up  of  nar- 
rative chapters,  largely  by  other  contributors,  and 
of  critical  bibliographical  essays  mainly  by  him- 
self. The  emphasis  depended  on  the  available 
cartographical  and  bibliographical  material  to 
be  described  and  consequently,  for  the  general 
reader,  the  work  offers  a  disappointing  lack  of 
proportion,  but  for  the  scholar  it  remains  one  of 
the  important  compilations,  especially  of  infor- 
mation concerning  continental  North  America 
up  to  the  ratification  of  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States.  The  Narrative  and  Critical  His- 
tory was  followed  by  four  volumes  from  his  own 
pen:  Christopher  Columbus  (1891),  Cartier 
to  Frontenac  (1894),  The  Mississippi  Basin 
(1895),  The  Wcstivard  Movement  (1897).  In 
all  of  these  works  Winsor's  interest  in  cartog- 
raphy played  a  promient  part.  Using  maps  at 
first  merely  as  an  aid  to  his  historical  studies,  he 
rapidly  became  the  leading  cartographer  in  the 
United  States,  and  through  his  study  of  maps 
solved  a  number  of  historical  problems  which 
had  previously  been  insoluble.  In  addition  to  his 
books,  he  published  an  enormous  number  of  arti- 
cles and  notes,  besides  official  reports.  He  died 
at  the  age  of  sixty-six.  His  only  child,  a  daugh- 
ter, had  died  two  years  earlier,  leaving  him  one 
grand-daughter. 

[H.  E.  Scudder,  in  Proc.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc,  2  ser.  XII 
(1899);  Edward  Charming,  in  Am.  Hist.  Rev.,  Jan. 
1898;  W.  C.  Lane,  in  Harvard  Graduates'  Mag.,  Dec. 
1897;  W.  C.  Lane  and  W.  H.  Tillinghast,  in  Library 
Journal,  Jan.  1898;  C.  R.  Markham,  in  Geog.  Jour., 
Jan.  1898  ;  C.  K.  Bolton,  in  New  Eng.  Hist,  and  Geneal. 
Reg.,  July  1 898  ;  Report  of  the  Harvard  Class  of  1853 
(1913)  ;  Boston  Daily  Advertiser,  Oct.  23,  1897.] 

J.T.A. 

WINSTON,  JOHN  ANTHONY  (Sept.  4. 
1812-Dec.  2i,  1871),  planter,  governor  of  Ala- 
bama, Confederate  soldier,  was  born  in  Madison 
County,  in  what  is  now  Alabama,  the  son  of  Wil- 
liam and  Mary  (Baker)  Winston.  His  grand- 
father was  said  to  be  Anthony  Winston  who  was 
born  in  Hanover  County,  Va.,  served  as  an  officer 
in  the  Revolutionary  Army,  and  removed  to 
Madison  County  in  1810.  The  boy  received  such 
education  as  private  schools  afforded  and  spent 
some  time  in  Cumberland  College,  now  the  Uni- 
versity of  Nashville,  at  Nashville,  Tenn.  In  1832 
he  married  Mary  Agnes  Walker.  In  1834  or 
1835,  he  bought  a  large  plantation  in  Sumter 
County,  Ala.,  and  became  a  planter.  He  followed 
this  occupation  successfully  for  ten  years  and 
then  opened  a  cotton  commission  house  in  Mo- 
bile. He  remained  in  this  business  until  his  death, 


although  he  never  surrendered  his  interest  in 
planting  and  owned  large  plantations  in  Ala- 
bama, Mississippi,  Arkansas,  and  Texas.  After 
his  first  wife's  death  in  1842,  he  married  a  second 
wife,  Mary  W.  Logwood,  from  whom  he  was  di- 
vorced by  act  of  the  legislature  in  1850. 

He  was  a  member  of  the  state  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives in  1840  and  again  in  1842.  In  1843  he 
was  elected  to  the  state  Senate  and  served  until 
1853,  as  president  of  that  body  for  two  terms, 
1845  to  1849.  He  was  a  leader  of  the  Southern- 
Rights  Democrats  in  the  state.  He  became  gov- 
ernor of  Alabama  in  1853  and,  reelected,  served 
until  1857,  the  first  person  born  in  the  state  to 
hold  that  office.  He  earned  the  title  of  the  "veto 
governor"  by  vetoing  some  thirty  bills  passed  by 
legislature,  most  of  them  to  grant  state  aid  to 
railroads,  since  he  regarded  this  as  a  business  for 
private  capital.  He  saved  the  state  of  Alabama 
from  the  burden  of  debt  with  which  other  states 
were  loaded  during  the  period.  He  had  a  ready 
tongue  and  a  keen  sarcastic  wit.  He  was  an  op- 
ponent dreaded  in  debate,  and  he  often  was  able 
to  drive  colleagues  into  support  of  his  position 
because  they  lacked  courage  to  defend  their  own. 
He  was  not  always  consistent  in  his  position.  In 
1848  at  the  Baltimore  convention  of  the  Demo- 
cratic party  he  led  his  colleagues  to  indorse  Cass 
and  to  accept  the  doctrine  of  popular  sovereignty 
in  defiance  of  instructions  given  the  delegation 
at  the  time  of  its  election.  He  broke  with  Yancey 
at  this  time,  and  much  of  his  later  political  action 
seems  to  have  been  determined  by  his  hostility  to 
that  leader.  In  i860  he  was  a  delegate  to  the 
Charleston  convention.  He  now  insisted  that  the 
delegation  must  obey  its  instructions  and  with- 
draw from  the  convention,  when  the  platform 
adopted  failed  to  give  adequate  protection  to 
Southern  rights.  He  took  this  position,  although 
he  himself  did  not  approve  of  the  instructions 
and  although  Yancey  was  willing  to  disregard 
them  and  reach  some  sort  of  a  compromise  with 
the  Northern  Democrats.  Upon  Winston,  there- 
fore, must  rest  responsibility  for  the  disruption 
of  the  Democratic  party  in  the  Union  and  in  the 
state  of  Alabama.  During  the  campaign,  he  sup- 
ported Douglas  as  the  only  candidate  who  could 
possibly  save  the  Union ;  and  he  denounced  the 
withdrawal  of  the  Alabama  delegation  from  the 
Charleston  convention  as  a  deliberate  plot  on  the 
part  of  Yancey  to  wreck  the  Union. 

At  the  election  of  Lincoln  he  threw  himself 
with  ardor  into  the  building  of  the  Confederacy. 
He  served  as  Alabama  commissioner  to  the  state 
of  Louisiana  and  was  colonel  of  the  8th  Alabama 
Infantry.  He  was  a  strict  disciplinarian  and  not 
popular  with  his  men.   He  served  in  the  Penin- 


4°4 


Winston 


Winter 


sular  campaign,  but  he  resigned  after  that  cam- 
paign. He  was  a  delegate  to  the  state  constitu- 
tional convention  of  1865,  and  he  was  elected  to 
the  United  States  Senate  for  the  term  1867  to 
1873,  but  he  refused  to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance 
and  was  denied  a  seat. 

[Willis  Brewer,  Alabama  (1872);  Wm.  Garrett, 
Reminiscences  of  Public  Men  in  Ala.  (1872)  ;  Trans. 
Ala.  Hist.  Soc,  vol.  IV  (1904)  ;  J.  W.  DuBose,  The  Life 
and  Times  of  Wm.  Lowndes  Yancey  (1892)  ;  Richard 
Taylor,  Destruction  and  Reconstruction  (1879)  ;  D.  L. 
Dumond,  The  Secession  Movement  (1931);  Mobile 
Daily  Register,  Dec.  22,  187 1.]  H.  F. 

WINSTON,  JOSEPH  (June  17,  1746-Apr. 
21,  1815),  Revolutionary  soldier,  public  official, 
was  born  in  Louisa  County,  Va.,  the  son  of  Sam- 
uel Winston  and  a  descendant  of  William  Win- 
ston, who  emigrated  to  America  about  the  mid- 
dle of  the  seventeenth  century.  Joseph  was  a 
cousin  of  Patrick  Henry,  his  grandfather,  James 
Winston,  being  a  brother  of  the  Virginia  ora- 
tor's grandfather,  Isaac  Winston  (Valentine 
Records,  Virginia  State  Library;  Genealogy  of 
the  Winston  Family,  Virginia  Historical  Soci- 
ety). At  seventeen,  young  Winston  volunteered 
under  Captain  Philips  as  a  ranger  to  fight  the 
Indians.  Captain  Philips  and  Capt.  George  Mof- 
fitt  united  forces,  but  on  Sept.  30,  1763,  were  am- 
bushed and  defeated  between  Fort  Young  and 
Fort  Dinwiddie.  Winston's  horse  was  shot  under 
him  and  he  received  two  wounds.  Concealing 
himself  in  the  underbrush,  while  the  Indians 
were  off  in  pursuit  of  fugitives  he  escaped  on  a 
comrade's  back  and  after  three  days,  during 
which  the  two  subsisted  upon  wild  roseberries, 
managed  to  reach  a  place  of  safety. 

About  1769  he  moved  to  Surry  County,  N.  C, 
where  his  career  was  an  uninterrupted  success. 
A  devoted  patriot,  he  was  a  member  of  the  Hills- 
boro  Convention,  Aug.  20,  1775,  which  took  steps 
to  organize  a  provincial  government.  In  Febru- 
ary 1776  he  went  on  an  expedition  against  the 
Scotch  Loyalists  assembled  at  Cross  Creek.  Ap- 
pointed major  of  militia,  Sept.  9,  1775,  he  served 
under  Rutherford  against  the  Cherokees,  July- 
September  1776,  and  also  as  the  ranger  of  Surry 
County.  The  year  following,  he  was  a  member 
of  the  House  of  Commons  and  a  commissioner 
to  treat  with  the  Cherokees.  In  1780  he  marched 
under  Col.  W.  L.  Davidson  [q.i\]  in  pursuit  of 
Bryan's  Loyalists,  and  participated  in  the  skir- 
mish on  New  River  and  at  Alamance.  At  the  bat- 
tle of  King's  Mountain,  Oct.  7,  1780,  Winston 
commanded  a  portion  of  the  right  wing  of  the 
patriot  army.  The  legislature  of  1781  voted  him 
"an  elegant  mounted  sword"  for  defeating  Major 
Ferguson  (Walter  Clark,  The  State  Records  of 
North  Carolina,  vol.  XVII,  1899,  p.  697).    In 


1800  he  was  a  presidential  elector,  voting  for 
Jefferson  and  Burr ;  twice  he  served  in  the  North 
Carolina  House  and  five  times  in  the  Senate ;  in 
1793-95  and  1803-07  he  was  a  member  of  Con- 
gress. From  1807  to  1813  he  was  a  trustee  of 
the  University  of  North  Carolina.  On  the  for- 
mation of  Stokes  County  he  became  a  lieutenant- 
colonel.  His  home  up  in  the  Blue  Ridge,  "within 
a  squirrel's  jump  of  heaven,"  was  the  center  of 
hospitality  in  his  community.  He  was  survived 
by  three  sons  born  at  a  single  birth.  An  impos- 
ing statue  was  erected  on  the  Guilford  battle 
ground  to  mark  his  final  resting  place,  his  body 
having  recently  been  reinterred  there  by  the 
Guilford  Battle  Ground  Association.  Winston 
(now  Winston-Salem),  N.  C,  was  named  for 
him. 

[L.  C.  Draper,  King's  Mountain  and  Its  Heroes 
(1881)  ;  W.  K.  Boyd,  "The  Battle  of  King's  Mountain," 
The  N.  C.  Booklet,  Apr.  1909;  J.  H.  Wheeler,  Hist. 
Sketches  of  N.C.  (1851)  ;  David  Schenck,  N.  C.  1780- 
81  (1889)  ;  Biog.  Dir.  Am.  Cong.  (1928)  ;  letters  and 
other  material  in  Lib.  of  Univ.  of  N.  C]  R.  \y  W n 

WINTER,  WILLIAM  (July  15,  1836-June 
30,  1917),  dramatic  critic  and  historian,  poet,  es- 
sayist, was  born  in  Gloucester,  Mass.,  son  of 
Capt.  Charles  and  Louisa  (Wharf)  Winter.  His 
boyhood  was  chiefly  spent  in  Boston,  however, 
where  he  attended  school.  He  was  graduated 
from  the  Harvard  Law  School  in  1857  and  was 
admitted  to  the  Suffolk  bar,  but  he  later  recorded 
that  he  "declined  his  first  case"  and  never  prac- 
tised this  profession.  His  heart  was  set  on  a 
literary  career.  In  1854,  when  only  eighteen,  he 
had  published  a  volume  of  poems  (Old  Friends, 
p.  133),  and  had  secured  sporadic  employment 
as  a  reviewer  on  the  Boston  Transcript.  That 
same  year  he  reviewed  a  volume  of  poems  by 
Thomas  Bailey  Aldrich  [q.Z'.],  and  the  two  pre- 
cocious youths  thus  became  acquainted  and  re- 
mained close  friends  all  their  lives.  About  this 
time  young  Winter  met  Longfellow,  who  en- 
couraged him  in  his  literary  ambitions,  and  set  a 
strong  stamp  on  his  mind  and  style.  For  a  brief 
time  Winter  took  the  stump  around  New  Eng- 
land in  the  anti-slavery  cause.  In  the  winter  of 
1856-60  he  left  Boston  to  try  his  fortunes  in 
New  York.  Of  the  conditions  of  "the  'Modern 
Athens'  "  of  that  time  he  wrote  late  in  life,  "I 
found  them  oppressive,  and  I  was  eager  to  make 
my  escape  from  them"  (Old  Friends,  p.  56). 
How  they  were  oppressive  he  does  not  record, 
but  at  that  time  literature  in  Boston  was  chiefly 
produced  by  "the  best  families,"  and  a  young 
writer  without  social  prestige  may  have  lacked 
congenial  society. 

In  New  York  Winter  found  precarious  em- 
ployment as  assistant  to  the  famous  "Bohemian," 


40S 


Winter 

Henry  Clapp,  Jr.,  in  editing  the  Saturday  Press, 
a  satirical  publication  rather  too  pungent  for 
popular  success  in  those  days.  He  also  found 
congenial  society  among  the  "Bohemians,"  a 
group  which  met  in  the  cellar  of  Pfaff's  cafe  on 
Broadway  near  Bleecker  Street,  and  numbered, 
among  others,  Walt  Whitman,  T.  B.  Aldrich, 
Fitz-James  O'Brien,  and  occasionally  Artemus 
Ward  [qq.Z'.~\.  For  Whitman,  Winter  had  little 
sympathy.  He  has  described  him  with  tart  sar- 
casm in  Old  Friends,  recording  as  well  that 
Whitman  characterized  him  as  "a  young  Long- 
fellow"— a  phrase  "that,  doubtless,  he  intended 
as  the  perfection  of  contemptuous  indifference" 
(Ibid.,  p.  140).  The  group  was,  mostly,  impe- 
cunious, but  full  of  talent  and  high  spirits,  and 
Winter's  later  records  of  it  are  perhaps  the  most 
accurate  that  exist.  Clapp's  paper  lasted  but  a 
year  or  two,  and  from  1861  to  1867  Winter 
served  as  dramatic  and  literary  critic  of  the 
Albion.  In  1865,  however,  he  secured  a  much 
more  solid  position  as  dramatic  critic  of  Horace 
Greeley's  Tribune.  He  continued  to  hold  this  post 
for  forty-four  years,  finally  resigning  in  1909. 
During  the  first  twenty-five  years  he  built  up  a 
nation-wide  reputation  both  as  dramatic  reviewer 
and  stage  historian,  at  the  same  time  writing 
much  poetry  and  several  books  of  essays.  But 
from  the  nineties  on,  his  reputation  as  critic  de- 
clined; with  modern  realism,  a  new  style  of 
drama  came  to  the  stage  with  which  Winter  was 
out  of  sympathy,  and  the  new  generation  of  thea- 
tre-goers turned  away  from  him. 

Meanwhile  he  had  begun  a  series  of  dramatic 
biographies,  histories,  and  critical  studies  which 
had  the  merit,  too  rare  in  such  books,  of  factual 
accuracy.  In  188 1  he  published  The  Jcffersons, 
a  study  of  four  generations  of  the  theatrical  fam- 
ily, ending  with  his  friend,  the  younger  Joseph 
Jefferson  [g.?'.].  It  was  followed  by  books  on 
two  of  his  other  intimate  friends  among  actors, 
Henry  Irving  ( 1885)  and  Life  and  Art  of  Edwin 
Booth  (1893),  and  by  Ada  Rehan:  a  Study 
( 1891 ),  and  a  series  called  Shadows  of  the  Stage 
(3  vols.,  1892-95).  Early  in  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury appeared  Other  Days  ( 1908) ,  a  book  of  the- 
atrical reminiscences,  Old  Friends  (1909),  liter- 
ary reminiscences,  The  Life  and  Art  of  Richard 
Mansfield  (2  vols.,  1910),  and  Shakespeare  on 
the  Stage  (2  vols.,  1911-15),  an  invaluable  de- 
pository of  the  "traditional"  interpretations  em- 
ployed by  actors  in  Shakespearian  roles,  a  num- 
ber of  whom  Winter  had  himself  observed.  His 
The  Wallet  of  Time  (2  vols.,  1913),  in  part  made 
up  of  his  more  recent  reviews  of  contemporary 
plays,  illustrates  the  kind  of  opposition  realistic 
c^ama  had  to  meet  at  his  hands ;  his  attacks  on 


Winter 

Ibsen  were  particularly  vitriolic.  His  final  work, 
The  Life  of  Dai'id  Bclasco  (2  vols.,  1918),  was 
completed  by  his  son  and  issued  posthumously. 
Taken  as  a  whole,  these  books  are  a  mine  of  ac- 
curate information  concerning  the  American 
stage  and  give  vivid  pictures  of  past  perform- 
ances. 

Two  of  Winter's  books  which  were  widely 
read  in  the  nineties  were  Gray  Days  and  Gold 
(1891)  and  Old  Shrines  and  Ivy  (1892),  essays 
chiefly  about  England  and  the  homes  and  haunts 
of  its  great  literary  figures.  The  Poems  of  Wil- 
liam Winter,  a  definitive  edition,  was  issued  in 
1909,  but  he  continued  to  write  verse  all  his  life, 
much  of  it  of  "occasional"  or  elegiac  nature.  In 
1876  he  read  the  poem,  "The  Voice  of  Silence," 
at  the  centennial  gathering  of  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac  at  Philadelphia;  he  read  a  poem  in 
Boston  at  the  dinner  given  for  Oliver  Wendell 
Holmes  on  his  seventieth  birthday;  and  he 
mourned  the  passing  of  player  after  player  in  ap- 
propriate stanzas,  so  that  he  was  sometimes  jocu- 
larly referred  to  by  his  colleagues  as  "weeping 
Willie."  He  was  also,  in  his  middle  years,  often 
called  on  as  a  speaker.  His  address,  The  Press 
and  the  Stage,  delivered  in  New  York,  Jan.  28, 
1889,  in  reply  to  attacks  on  newspaper  criticism 
by  Dion  Boucicault  [q.z'.~\,  is  interesting  and  val- 
uable. Unfortunately,  the  printed  edition  was 
limited  to  two  hundred  and  fifty  copies.  In  1903 
he  made  the  English  adaptation  of  Paul  Heyse's 
Mary  of  Magdala  for  Mrs.  Fiske,  and  had  earlier 
made  stage  adaptations  of  Shakespeare's  plays 
for  Booth  and  Augustin  Daly.  In  the  latter  years 
of  his  service  on  the  Tribune  his  reviews  of  con- 
temporary plays  were  so  contrary  to  current  taste 
that  they  ceased  to  be  useful  to  the  paper,  the 
public,  or  the  theatre.  After  his  retirement  from 
daily  journalism  in  1909,  he  wrote  reviews  for 
Harper's  Weekly  for  a  season  or  two,  and  worked 
on  his  historical  and  reminiscent  books.  He  died 
on  June  30,  1917. 

Both  Winter's  style  and  critical  attitude  were 
paradoxical.  He  was  a  sentimentalist,  and  a 
stanch  defender  of  art  for  morality's  sake ;  Vic- 
toria herself  could  not  have  been  more  rigid  in 
restricting  the  dramatist's  choice  of  subject. 
When  he  praised,  it  was  in  eighteenth-century 
periodic  sentences,  rich  with  sentimental  appeal. 
In  style  and  attitude  could  be  felt  the  influence 
of  his  early  adoration  of  Longfellow  and  an  edu- 
cation in  Old  World  models.  But  when  he  at- 
tacked, the  sentimentalist  turned  satirist,  and  his 
style  became  the  sardonic  weapon  of  Henry 
Clapp.  Realities  he  denied  the  dramatist  often 
furnished  his  vocabulary  of  invective.  Perhaps 
his  most  famous,  as  well  as  his  most  cruel,  phrase 


406 


Winthrop 


was  that  describing  two  popular  but  incompetent 
players  in  Romeo  and  Juliet,  who,  he  said,  "re- 
sembled nothing  so  much  as  a  pair  of  amorous 
grasshoppers  pursuing  their  stridulous  loves  in 
the  hollow  of  a  cabbage  leaf."  His  attacks  on 
Sir  Arthur  Pinero,  Henry  Arthur  Jones,  and 
especially  Ibsen  in  the  nineties  were  full  of  pun- 
gent wit  and  lively  phrase.  But  he  could  not 
grasp  what  these  men  were  really  after ;  he  could 
not  adjust  himself  to  the  change  from  romanti- 
cism to  realism  in  art.  That  was  his  tragedy,  and, 
as  his  influence  declined,  it  clouded  and  embit- 
tered his  later  years.  He  never  lost,  however, 
his  power  to  analyse  acting,  and  he  was  prob- 
ably the  best  judge  of  the  actor's  art  to  occupy 
a  critic's  seat  in  America.  Neither  did  he  lose 
a  certain  delight  in  combat  and  a  proud  faith  in 
the  dignity  of  the  stage.  For  many  years  he  made 
a  collection  of  clippings  detailing  the  moral 
lapses  of  clergymen,  and  when  some  minister  at- 
tacked the  theatre  or  its  people,  it  was  Winter's 
delight  to  get  out  his  clippings  and  compile  a 
column  or  more  of  ministerial  crimes  by  way  of 
retort.  And  he  was  never  intimidated  to  cease 
his  attacks  on  the  so-called  "Theatrical  Syndi- 
cate," which  he  termed  an  oiganization  of  vulgar 
and  ignorant  shopkeepers. 

On  Dec.  8,  i860,  Winter  married  Elizabeth 
Campbell,  a  novelist  of  Scotch  origin,  by  whom 
he  had  five  children.  Most  of  his  life  in  New 
York  he  lived  on  Staten  Island,  a  neighbor  to 
his  friend  George  William  Curtis  [q.v.~\,  with 
summers  spent  in  England  or  California.  He 
was  somewhat  short  in  stature,  had  finely  chis- 
elled features,  and  wore  always  a  moustache. 
Hair  and  moustache  grew  snow-white  with  the 
turn  of  the  century,  and  his  body  seemed  frail 
as  he  came  down  the  aisle  on  the  arm  of  his  son 
Jefferson.  To  his  younger  confreres  he  was  al- 
most a  ghost  from  a  different  age  of  art.  His 
handwriting  was  famous  for  its  illegibility — on 
a  paper,  too,  edited  by  Horace  Greeley.  And  as 
he  either  feared  or  despised  elevators,  he  wrote 
his  copy  after  the  theatre  standing  at  a  ledge  of 
the  ground  floor  counting-room,  and  sent  it  up- 
stairs by  an  office  boy. 

[In  addition  to  Winter's  books,  especially  Other 
Days  (1908),  Old  Friends  (1909),  and  The  Wallet  of 
Time  (2  vols.,  1913),  see  Who's  Who  in  America,  1916- 
17  ;  and  obituary  in  N.  Y.  Tribune,  July  i,  1917.I 

W.  P.  E. 

WINTHROP,  FITZ-JOHN  [See  Winthrop, 
John,  1639-1707]. 

WINTHROP,  JAMES  (Mar.  28,  1752-Sept. 
26,  1 82 1 ),  librarian  and  jurist,  was  a  son  of  Prof. 
John  Winthrop  \q.v.~\  of  Harvard  and  Rebecca 
(Townsend)  Winthrop.  He  was  graduated  from 


Winthrop 

Harvard  in  1769  and  a  year  later  took  over  the 
work  of  the  librarian,  to  whose  post  he  was  for- 
mally appointed  in  1772.  On  the  day  of  Bunker 
Hill  he  left  to  others  the  packing  of  the  college 
books  for  removal  to  safety,  and  went  into  the 
battle,  where  he  was  slightly  wounded.  For  a 
time  that  year  he  was  postmaster  of  Cambridge, 
but  he  laid  down  that  and  took  the  office  of  regis- 
ter of  probate  for  Middlesex.  When  Professor 
Winthrop  died  in  1779,  James  was  considered  for 
his  chair  of  mathematics  and  natural  philosophy, 
but  his  intemperate  manner  and  his  eccentrici- 
ties militated  against  him.  The  next  year  he  en- 
couraged the  students  in  the  revolution  which 
deposed  President  Samuel  Langdon  [5.?'.],  being 
motivated,  contemporaries  said,  by  spite.  In 
1787  the  Corporation  of  the  College  forced  him 
to  choose  between  the  library  and  the  probate 
office,  and  he  left  the  former. 

Winthrop  was  one  of  the  first  members  of  the 
American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences,  and 
in  its  Memoirs  (vol.  II,  pt.  I,  1793,  pp.  9-17)  he 
published  fallacious  solutions  of  the  problems  of 
trisecting  the  angle  and  duplicating  the  cube,  to 
the  great  mortification  of  the  other  members 
(Florian  Cajori,  The  Early  Mathematical  Sci- 
ences in  North  and  South  America,  1928,  pp.  21- 
22).  After  serving  as  a  volunteer  against  Shays 's 
rebels  he  was  considered  for  his  father's  profes- 
sorship when  it  again  fell  vacant,  but  encoun- 
tered public  opposition  (  Herald  of  Freedom, 
Boston,  Jan.  6,  1789).  In  1791  he  was  appointed 
judge  of  common  pleas  for  Middlesex,  and  in  the 
same  year  surveyed  for  a  proposed  Cape  Cod 
canal.  He  was  a  promoter  of  the  West  Boston 
Bridge  and  the  Middlesex  Canal,  and  a  founder 
of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society.  In  the 
Literary  Miscellany  he  published  some  articles 
on  ancient  history  containing  many  statements 
"which  seem  to  have  been  familiarly  known  to 
him,  but  which  were  not  known  before,  and  have 
not  been  confirmed  since"  (Sidney  Willard 
Memories  of  Youth  and  Manhood,  1855,  II,  140- 
41).  His  chief  literary  efforts,  however,  were 
directed  toward  the  interpretation  of  the  Biblical 
prophecies,  which  led  him  to  believe  that  the 
European  confederation  of  1810  marked  the  be- 
ginning of  a  world  union  to  be  under  a  Guardian 
of  the  Law  residing  at  Jerusalem.  Although  his 
learning  was  not  deep,  it  was  broad,  and  in  his 
old  age,  having  mastered  all  of  the  common  lan- 
guages, he  took  up  Russian  and  Chinese.  In  poli- 
tics he  was  a  rabid  Republican,  which,  in  con- 
junction with  his  past  experiences,  turned  him 
from  Federalist  Harvard  to  Allegheny  College, 
which  was  being  founded  by  his  friend  Timothy 
Alden  [q.v.].  He  became  an  overseer  of  the  new 


407 


Winthrop 


institution,  and  bequeathed  to  it  his  large  and 
valuable  library.  He  died  in  Cambridge,  unmar- 
ried, Sept.  26,  1821. 

[A.  C.  Potter  and  C.  K.  Bolton,  "The  Librarians  of 
Harvard  Coll.,"  Lib.  of  Harvard  Univ.,  Bibliog.  Con- 
tributions, no.  52  (1897),  pp.  30-31  ;  E.  A.  Smith,  Alle- 
gheny— A  Century  of  Educ.  (1916),  pp.  43-49;  Alden 
Bradford,  in  Colls.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc,  2  ser.,  vol.  X 
(1823);  E.  B.  Delabarre,  "Middle  Period  of  Dighton 
Rock  Hist.,"  Pubs.  Colonial  Soc.  of  Mass.,  vol.  XIX 
(19 1 8),  and  "Recent  Hist,  of  Dighton  Rock,"  Ibid., 
vol.  XX  (1920)  ;  Proc.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.,  1  ser.,  vol.  I 
(1879),  p.  338,  vol.  XII  (1873),  p.  69,  vol.  XIII  (1875), 
p.  229;  obituary  in  Columbian  Centinel,  Oct.  3,  1821.] 

C.K.  S. 

WINTHROP,  JOHN  (Jan.  12,  1587/88  o.s- 
Mar.  26,  1649),  first  governor  of  Massachusetts 
Bay,  came  of  a  Suffolk  family  of  good  social  po- 
sition. His  father,  Adam  Winthrop,  was  lord  of 
the  manor  of  Groton ;  he  was  a  lawyer  by  pro- 
fession and  for  some  years  auditor  of  St.  John's 
and  Trinity  colleges,  Cambridge.  His  first  wife, 
by  whom  he  had  four  daughters,  was  Alice,  sister 
of  Dr.  John  Still,  master  of  Trinity  College  and 
bishop  of  Bath  and  Wells ;  his  second  wife,  Anne 
Browne,  was  the  daughter  of  a  well-to-do  trades- 
man. John,  the  third  child  of  the  second  mar- 
riage, was  born  at  Edwardstone,  a  village  imme- 
diately adjoining  Groton,  in  Suffolk.  On  Dec. 
8,  1602,  he  was  admitted  to  Trinity  College, 
Cambridge,  where  he  matriculated  at  Easter, 
1603.  Although  throughout  his  life  he  was  char- 
acterized by  charm  and  a  cheerful  disposition,  he 
began  when  quite  young  to  discipline  himself  to 
Puritan  habits  of  living,  a  discipline  intensified 
after  a  severe  illness  in  early  adolescence.  When 
he  was  only  seventeen  he  left  Cambridge,  with- 
out taking  a  degree,  to  marry,  Apr.  16,  1605, 
Mary  Forth,  some  five  years  his  senior,  daughter 
and  heiress  of  John  Forth  of  Great  Stanbridge, 
Essex. 

Adopting  his  father's  profession  to  augment 
the  income  from  his  lands,  Winthrop  was  admit- 
ted at  Gray's  Inn,  Oct.  25,  1613,  and  eventually 
established  a  legal  practice  in  London.  His  wife 
died  June  26,  161 5,  having  borne  six  children, 
when  the  eldest,  John  [q.z'.~\,  later  governor  of 
Connecticut,  was  only  nine  years  old.  In  De- 
cember the  father  married  Thomasine  Clopton, 
daughter  of  William  Clopton  of  Castleins,  near 
Groton ;  she  died,  with  her  infant,  a  year  later. 
In  April  1618  Winthrop  married  Margaret, 
daughter  of  Sir  John  Tyndal  of  Great  Maple- 
stead,  Essex,  a  woman  remarkable  alike  for  mind 
and  character.  This  marriage,  which  lasted  until 
the  death  of  Margaret  Winthrop  in  1647,  was 
distinguished  by  exceptional  sympathy  and  un- 
derstanding. 

Since  1609  Winthrop  had  been  a  justice  of  the 


Winthrop 

peace  at  Groton;  about  1619  his  father  relin- 
quished to  him  the  lordship  of  the  manor.  His 
legal  practice  in  London  was  extensive  and  fairly 
lucrative ;  in  1626  he  was  appointed  one  of  the 
limited  number  of  attorneys  for  the  court  of 
wards  and  liveries ;  he  frequently  drafted  peti- 
tions to  be  presented  in  Parliament;  in  1628  he 
was  admitted  to  the  Inner  Temple.  For  some 
reason,  however,  by  1629  his  practice  seems  to 
have  waned  and  from  that  time  his  financial  af- 
fairs troubled  him  deeply.  He  was  a  man  of  high 
reputation  and  somewhat  expensive  connections, 
of  good  blood,  accustomed  to  liberal  hospitality 
and  an  ample  scale  of  living,  fond  of  books  and 
quiet  rather  than  of  the  conflicts  of  the  market 
place ;  he  had  a  position  in  the  county  to  main- 
tain, and  a  growing  family.  Of  gentle  disposi- 
tion and  deeply  religious,  he  watched  with  anxi- 
ety the  increasing  economic,  political,  and  reli- 
gious confusion  of  the  times.  A  Puritan  of  the 
type  of  Milton,  he  was  much  concerned  for  the 
future  of  both  religion  and  morals.  All  these  ele- 
ments in  a  complex  national  and  personal  situa- 
tion were  factors  influencing  his  decision  to  emi- 
grate to  the  New  World. 

In  1628  a  group  of  Puritans  had  obtained  from 
the  Council  for  New  England  a  grant  of  land  in 
eastern  Massachusetts,  and  John  Endecott  [g.z>.], 
with  some  fifty  settlers,  had  been  dispatched  to 
join  a  smaller  number  already  there.  Meanwhile, 
the  number  of  those  interested  in  such  an  enter- 
prise increased,  and  in  March  1629  Charles  I  is- 
sued a  charter  incorporating  the  Governor  and 
Company  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  in  New  Eng- 
land, with  a  grant  of  territory  of  approximately 
the  same  geographical  limits  as  the  earlier  grant 
from  the  Council  for  New  England.  Plans  for 
emigration  on  an  extensive  scale  were  then  be- 
gun. Winthrop  became  interested  in  this  com- 
pany and  after  carefully  writing  down  and  weigh- 
ing the  arguments  on  both  sides  of  the  proposi- 
tion, in  general  and  as  they  concerned  him  indi- 
vidually, resolved  in  spite  of  opposition  from 
friends  and  relatives  to  take  his  family  to  New 
England.  The  document  recording  his  "Reasons 
to  be  considered  for  iustifienge  the  undertakers 
of  the  intended  Plantation  in  New  England" 
(Life  and  Letters,  post,  I,  309-37)  has  been  pre- 
served. 

As  soon  as  his  interest  was  seriously  manifest- 
ed, he  was  rapidly  drawn  into  the  executive  work 
of  the  new  corporation.  It  was  decided  that  the 
colony  should  not  be  a  mere  plantation,  operated 
on  the  ground  by  settlers  working  for  the  profit 
of  a  mercantile  company  in  England,  but  a  set- 
tlement of  permanent  dwellers  in  America  work- 
ing for  themselves,  and  for  this  reason  the  mo- 


408 


Winthrop 

mentous  decision  was  made  to  transfer  the  legal 
company  with  its  General  Court  and  the  actual 
charter  itself  to  America.  The  effect  of  the  move, 
the  full  significance  of  which  may  not  have  been 
foreseen,  was  to  make  an  ordinary  mercantile 
charter  the  assumed  constitution  of  a  self-gov- 
erning community.  The  plan  necessitated  the 
choice  of  a  new  set  of  officers  from  among  those 
who  were  planning  to  emigrate,  and  at  the  meet- 
ing of  Oct.  20,  1629,  Winthrop  was  chosen  gov- 
ernor in  place  of  Matthew  Cradock,  who  re- 
mained behind.  There  is  ample  testimony  re- 
garding the  importance  attached  to  Winthrop's 
joining  the  company,  and  to  his  acceptance 
of  the  responsible  leadership  of  the  group  in 
America. 

On  Mar.  22,  1630,  Winthrop  embarked  at 
Southampton  in  the  Arbclla  with  three  of  his 
sons,  leaving  the  rest  of  his  family  to  follow  later. 
The  ship  did  not  get  under  way  until  Apr.  8,  and 
reached  Endecott's  settlement  at  Salem  on  June 
12.  At  Yarmouth,  before  the  voyage  began,  a 
paper  was  drawn  up  and  signed  by  Winthrop  and 
other  leaders  disclaiming  any  intention  of  with- 
drawing from  the  Church  of  England  (The 
Humble  Request  of  His  Majesties  Loyall  Sub- 
jects the  Governour  and  the  Company  Late  Gone 
for  New  England,  1630).  During  the  voyage 
Winthrop  wrote  out  a  description  of  what  he 
thought  the  colony  ought  to  be  and  of  the  means 
to  be  used  in  securing  the  desired  end  ("A  Modell 
of  Christian  Charity,"  Winthrop  Papers,  post, 
II,  282-95).  About  six  or  seven  hundred  per- 
sons took  passage  in  the  Arbclla  and  other  ves- 
sels of  the  little  fleet ;  two  or  three  hundred  more 
arrived  almost  simultaneously,  and  another  thou- 
sand soon  afterward.  These  numbers  and  the 
fact  that,  owing  to  the  transfer  of  the  charter 
and  company  organization  to  America,  the  entire 
management  was  local,  gave  Winthrop  a  posi- 
tion very  different  from  that  held  by  the  gov- 
ernors of  any  of  the  other  early  plantations. 

He  first  planned  to  settle  at  Charlestown  and 
built  the  frame  of  his  house  there,  but  soon  re- 
moved to  Boston,  which  seemed  to  offer  a  better 
site  for  the  center  of  government  and  the  town 
which  would  grow  up  about  it.  A  little  later  he 
built  a  summer  home  at  Mystic.  His  wife,  his 
son  John,  who  had  remained  in  England  to  sell 
the  estate  there,  and  all  but  one  of  the  other  chil- 
dren— Deane,  who  was  at  school — sailed  from 
England  in  the  Lion,  in  August  1631,  and  reached 
Boston  Nov.  4.  An  infant  daughter,  whom  Win- 
throp had  never  seen,  died  on  the  voyage.  A  son 
had  died  in  England  after  the  departure  of  his  fa- 
ther, and  another  in  New  England. 

The  term  of  governor  was  one  year,  and  Win- 


Winthrop 

throp  was  elected  in  1631,  1632,  and  1633.  The 
office  was  not  an  easy  one  and  the  earliest  years 
of  the  colony  were  full  of  anxiety  and  hard  work, 
but  there  was  no  untoward  incident  except  a 
brief  but  warm  quarrel  with  the  touchy  and  over- 
bearing deputy  governor,  Thomas  Dudley  \_q.v.~\. 
The  freemen  were  beginning  to  be  restive,  how- 
ever, and  in  April  1634,  at  the  spring  meeting  of 
the  General  Court,  requested  to  be  shown  the 
charter,  which  apparently  they  had  never  seen. 
They  then  found  that  under  its  provisions  the 
General  Court  was  the  only  body  entitled  to  legis- 
late, and  they  inquired  why  some  of  its  powers 
had  been  usurped  by  the  magistrates.  Winthrop 
answered  that  the  General  Court  had  become 
unwieldy  and  suggested  that  it  permanently  ab- 
rogate some  of  its  powers.  The  freemen,  how- 
ever, in  spite  of  the  Governor's  popularity,  re- 
fused to  invalidate  their  charter  privileges ;  and 
to  concentrate  authority  in  the  hands  of  the  lead- 
ers. In  September  1633  the  Rev.  John  Cotton 
[#.?'.]  had  arrived  at  Boston  and  he  at  once  be- 
came the  leading  clergyman  .in  the  colony.  Pol- 
itics and  religion  were  inextricably  mixed  in 
the  commonwealth,  and  Cotton  aspired  to  be  a 
leader  in  both.  At  the  meeting  of  the  General 
Court,  May  14,  1634,  he  preached  the  sermon 
and  propounded  the  doctrine  that  a  magistrate 
ought  to  be  reelected  continually  unless  there 
were  sufficient  reason  that  he  should  not,  and 
that  officials  had  a  vested  interest  in  their  offices 
similar  to  a  freehold.  The  answer  of  the  freemen 
(i.e.,  members  of  the  company,  who  alone  ex- 
ercised the  franchise)  to  this  extraordinary  doc- 
trine came  immediately :  Winthrop  was  turned 
out  of  office  and  Dudley  elected  in  his  stead.  At 
this  time,  in  response  to  a  request,  Winthrop 
submitted  his  accounts  since  his  first  election, 
and  they  showed  that  he  had  personally  ad- 
vanced considerable  sums  for  the  commonweal. 
In  December  1634  another  dispute  occurred : 
seven  men  were  to  be  chosen  to  divide  the  town 
lands  of  Boston ;  the  freemen  refused  to  elect  a 
certain  magistrate  to  the  committee,  feeling  that 
the  richer  men  would  hold  back  lands  and  not 
divide  them  among  the  poorer,  and  Winthrop 
refused  to  serve  under  the  circumstances.  At  a 
new  election  he  and  all  the  other  magistrates 
were  chosen.  As  one  of  the  results  of  the  work 
of  this  committee  Boston  Common  was  forever 
reserved  for  the  use  of  the  town. 

In  October  1635  Hugh  Peter  and  Henry  (af- 
terward Sir  Henry)  Vane  \qq.v.~]  arrived  in  the 
colony,  and  at  once  began  to  trouble  the  political 
waters.  As  one  result  of  their  investigation  into 
the  causes  of  dissension  in  Massachusetts,  Win- 
throp and  Dudley  were  asked  to  appear,  Jan.  18, 


409 


Winthrop 


1636,  before  a  meeting  of  a  group  of  self-ap- 
pointed investigators,  including  John  Cotton, 
Gov.  John  Haynes,  and  others.  Both  Winthrop 
and  Dudley  denied  that  there  was  now  any  trou- 
ble between  them,  but  Winthrop's  general  policy 
came  under  discussion  and  he  was  accused  of 
having  been  too  lenient  in  discipline  and  judicial 
decisions.  The  ministers  were  asked  to  consider 
the  matter  and  when  they  reported  next  morn- 
ing that  the  charge  was  just,  Winthrop,  who 
had  not  the  strength  to  stand  against  the  united 
clergy,  agreed  to  adopt  a  stricter  course  in  fu- 
ture. Thus  another  step  was  taken  toward  the 
theocracy  of  later  days.  In  accordance  with  the 
aristocratic  tendencies  of  the  leaders,  especially 
the  clergy,  a  plan  nowhere  provided  for  in  the 
charter  was  adopted  by  the  General  Court  in 
1636  whereby  certain  magistrates  should  be 
chosen  for  life  or  good  behavior.  Winthrop  and 
Dudley  unfortunately  allowed  themselves  to  be 
chosen  the  first  two  members  of  this  unconsti- 
tutional life  council,  which  was  opposed  to  the 
trend  of  public  opinion,  was  always  unpopular, 
and  lasted  only  a  few  years. 

About  this  time  the  Antinomian  controversy 
over  the  teachings  of  Mistress  Anne  Hutchinson 
[q.v.]  began  to  rock  the  colony,  and  in  this 
struggle  Winthrop,  then  deputy  governor,  took 
a  part.  At  the  May  election  in  1637  passion  ran 
so  high  that  the  court  was  held  at  Newton  in- 
stead of  in  Boston.  Vane,  who  had  been  gover- 
nor, was  defeated,  and  Winthrop  was  once  more 
elected  to  the  office.  The  General  Court  had 
passed  an  act  prohibiting  the  harboring  in  the 
colony  of  any  person  for  more  than  three  weeks 
without  permission  of  a  member  of  the  life  coun- 
cil or  of  two  magistrates.  Designed  especially 
to  prevent  increase  by  immigration  in  the  num- 
ber of  followers  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  this  meas- 
ure encountered  vigorous  opposition  which  called 
forth  from  Winthrop  "A  Defence  of  an  Order 
of  Court  Made  in  the  Year  1637"  in  which  he 
presented  the  best  arguments  in  favor  of  the  ex- 
clusive policy  so  long  pursued  by  Massachusetts. 
Vane  replied,  in  "A  Briefe  Answer  .  .  .,"  on  the 
side  of  freedom,  and  Winthrop  wrote  a  rejoinder 
(The  Hutchinson  Papers,  vol.  I,  1865,  pp.  79- 
113).  The  law  was  enforced  almost  at  once,  how- 
ever, and  a  number  of  newcomers  allied  to  the 
cause  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson  were  forced  to  leave 
the  colony  soon  after  arrival.  The  Antinomian 
controversy  had  now  come  to  a  head.  Winthrop, 
who  had  received  the  rebuke  of  the  clergy  for  his 
leniency,  had  gradually  grown  more  narrow  and 
severe.  When  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  sentenced  to 
banishment,  asked  the  reason  for  her  sentence, 
he   replied:   "Say  no  more;   the   Court  knows 


Winthrop 

wherefore  and  is  satisfied"  (Thomas  Hutchin- 
son, History  of  the  Province  of  Massachusetts- 
Bay,  vol.  II,  1767,  p.  520).  Winthrop  wrote  an 
account  of  the  whole  controversy  which  was  in- 
corporated by  Thomas  Welde  \_q.v.~\  in  A  Short 
Story  of  the  Rise,  Reign,  and  Ruine  of  the  An- 
tinomians  (1644). 

The  following  year,  governor  again,  Winthrop 
had  to  protect  the  charter  from  the  most  serious 
attack  yet  made  upon  it  in  England,  which  he 
did  in  an  able  letter  to  the  Lords  Commissioners 
for  Plantations.  In  1639  he  was  again  chosen 
governor,  though  there  was  some  murmuring 
that  there  was  danger  of  the  office  becoming  his 
for  life.  Toward  the  end  of  the  year  he  learned 
of  serious  financial  losses  in  England,  resulting 
from  the  dishonesty  of  his  agent  there,  and  for 
the  rest  of  his  life,  despite  generous  aid  from  his 
son  John,  he  was  heavily  handicapped  by  lack  of 
money.  Owing  partly  to  his  own  desire  to  retire 
and  partly  to  the  fear  of  a  life  tenure  already 
noted,  he  was  not  elected  governor  in  1640,  al- 
though he  still  held  office  as  a  member  of  the 
Court  of  Assistants. 

He  was  again  elected  to  the  chief  magistracy 
in  1642,  however.  During  this  term  there  oc- 
curred the  famous  controversy  over  the  negative 
voice.  In  a  lawsuit  between  one  Mistress  Sher- 
man and  Capt.  Robert  Keayne  over  the  owner- 
ship of  a  sow,  the  magistrates  and  the  deputies, 
always  up  till  then  sitting  as  one  house,  had  been 
unable  to  agree,  the  deputies  being  on  the  side  of 
the  poor  woman  and  the  magistrates — who  per- 
ceived the  legal  aspects  of  the  case — on  that  of 
the  rich  man.  The  more  democratic  element  in 
the  colony  objected  strenuously  to  what  they 
considered  the  blocking  of  justice  when  the  small 
number  of  magistrates  vetoed  the  action  of  the 
much  larger  number  of  deputies.  Winthrop  wrote 
a  treatise  appealing  to  English  precedents  and 
the  Old  Testament,  to  show  that  if  the  magis- 
trates could  not  veto  the  actions  of  the  deputies 
the  colony  would  be  a  democracy  and  that  "there 
was  no  such  Governm*.  in  Israel"  (Life  and  Let- 
ters, II,  430).  As  a  result  of  this  controversy,  in 
1644  the  negative  voice  of  the  magistrates  was 
insured  by  the  permanent  separation  of  magis- 
trates and  deputies,  who  afterward  sat  as  two 
houses. 

The  following  year  Winthrop,  still  governor, 
saw  realized  the  plan  which  he  had  advocated  as 
early  as  1637  °f  a  confederation  of  the  several 
New  England  colonies  for  certain  purposes, 
mainly  military.  He  was  at  the  head  of  the  Mas- 
sachusetts commissioners  for  framing  the  ar- 
ticles for  the  United  Colonies  and  was  the  first 
president    of    the    confederation    after    it    was 


410 


Winthrop 

formed.  A  less  happy  feature  of  that  year's  term 
of  office  was  the  D'Aulnay-La  Tour  affair, 
which  brought  upon  Winthrop  more,  and  more 
merited,  criticism  than  any  other  episode  of  his 
public  life.  Two  French  officials  in  Acadia,  La 
Tour  and  DAulnay,  had  been  engagei  in  an 
armed  controversy  with  which  Massachusetts 
was  not  concerned.  La  Tour  turned  up  at  Bos- 
ton and  received  from  the  Governor  official  per- 
mission to  hire  ships  and  men,  although  Win- 
throp had  not  obtained  the  opinion  of  the  General 
Court  but  had  consulted  only  a  few  of  the  mag- 
istrates and  deputies.  Since  the  matter  involved 
the  questions  of  neutrality  and  war,  it  should 
also  have  been  referred  to  the  newly  created  con- 
federation. The  commissioners  of  that  body  con- 
demned the  act  of  Massachusetts  in  the  next 
year,  and  the  colony  gave  DAulnay  compensa- 
tion— in  the  form  of  "a  very  fair  new  sedan, 
(worth  forty  or  fifty  pounds  where  it  was  made, 
but  of  no  use  to  us),  sent  by  the  Viceory  of 
Mexico  to  a  lady,  his  sister,  and  taken  in  the  West 
Indies  by  Captain  Cromwell,  and  by  him  given 
to  our  governor"  (  Winthrop's  Journal,  II,  285). 
In  1644  Endecott  was  elected  governor  and 
Winthrop  deputy  governor.  It  was  a  year  of 
much  earnest  discussion  in  the  colony  over  the 
principles  of  government,  and  Winthrop  wrote 
a  discourse  called  'Arbitrary  Government  De- 
scribed and  the  Governm*.  of  the  Massachusetts 
Vindicated  from  that  Aspersion"  (Life  and  Let- 
ters, II,  440-54),  which  was  circulated  in  man- 
uscript. It  created  a  stir  among  the  more  radical 
members  of  the  House  of  Deputies  and  was  even 
termed  a  seditious  libel.  In  spite  of  all  repres- 
sion, the  frontier  was  exerting  its  influence  in 
creating  a  democratic  atmosphere,  and  Winthrop 
was  losing  touch  with  his  people.  An  episode  in 
1645  did  much  to  restore  his  popularity,  however. 
Trouble  had  arisen  in  Hingham  over  the  election 
of  a  militia  officer ;  it  was  claimed  that  the  mag- 
istrates had  exceeded  their  powers,  and  Win- 
throp was  singled  out  for  impeachment,  but  at  the 
trial  he  was  wholly  vindicated  and  the  complain- 
ants were  fined.  After  the  verdict  he  made  a 
short  but  famous  speech  on  liberty,  defining  the 
two  kinds,  natural  and  civil,  and  the  nature  of 
the  office  of  the  people's  elected  representatives 
(Ibid.,  II,  339  ff.).  From  that  year  he  was  elect- 
ed governor  annually  until  his  death,  although 
the  contentions  over  Robert  Childe  and  Samuel 
Gorton  [qq.T'.~\,  in  1646  and  1647,  and  the  severe 
measures  taken  by  Winthrop  with  respect  to 
both  persons,  brought  about  an  active  opposition. 
On  June  14,  1647,  Margaret  Winthrop,  the 
mother  of  eight  of  his  children,  died,  and  in  De- 
cember he  married  a  fourth  wife,  Martha,  daugh- 


Winthrop 


ter  of  Capt.  William  Rainsborough,  R.N.,  and 
widow  of  Thomas  Coytmore  of  Boston.  One  son, 
who  died  in  early  childhood,  was  born  of  this 
marriage.  Winthrop  survived  his  third  wife 
less  than  two  years,  however,  dying  when  he 
was  only  sixty-one  years  old,  aged  by  hard  work, 
anxiety,  and  sorrow. 

Winthrop's  portrait  depicts  a  man  of  refine- 
ment and  sensitiveness  rather  than  of  aggressive 
strength  of  character.  His  letters  reveal  an  ex- 
tremely tender  and  affectionate  nature.  In  writ- 
ing he  had  an  excellent,  grave  and  measured 
style  of  English  prose,  and  although  it  was 
hastily  jotted  down  as  affairs  permitted,  his 
journal,  frequently  called  his  "History  of  New 
England,",  is  a  source  book  of  the  greatest  im- 
portance. In  government  he  had  no  faith  in 
democracy,  believing  that,  once  chosen,  repre- 
sentatives should  govern  according  to  their  own 
best  judgment.  He  was  modest  and  self-sac- 
rificing, and  his  integrity  was  always  beyond 
question. 

[The  first  two  volumes  of  Winthrop's  manuscript 
journal  were  published  in  1790  under  the  title  A  Jour- 
nal of  the  Transactions  and  Occurrences  in  the  Settle- 
ment of  Massachusetts  and  the  Other  New  England 
Colonies  from  the  Year  1630  to  1644  ;  later  the  third 
manuscript  volume  was  discovered,  and  was  published 
with  the  others  as  The  History  of  New  England  (2 
vols.,  1825-26;  rev.  ed.,  1853),  edited  by  James  Sav- 
age. The  most  useful  edition  is  Winthrop's  Journal  (2 
vols.,  1908),  edited  by  J.  K.  Hosmer.  Winthrop  cor- 
respondence is  found  in  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Colls.,  3  ser. 
IX-X  (1846-49),  4  ser.  VI-VII  (1863-65),  5  ser.  I, 
IV,  VIII  (1871-82),  6  ser.  Ill,  V  (1889-92);  Win- 
throp Papers,  a  new  and  complete  collection,  pub.  by 
the  Mass.  Hist.  Soc,  of  which  vols.  I  and  II  (1929-31) 
have  appeared.  The  standard  biography  is  R.  C.  Win- 
throp, Life  and  Letters  of  John  Winthrop  (2  vols., 
1864-67).  See  also  J.  H.  Twichell,  John  Winthrop 
(1891)  in  Makers  of  America  Series,  and  Some  Old 
Puritan  Love-Letters — John  and  Margaret  Winthrop 
(1893)  ;  G.  W.  Robinson,  John  Winthrop  as  Attorney: 
Extracts  from  the  Order  Books  of  the  Court  of  Wards 
and  Liveries,  1627— 1629  (1930);  E.  A.  J.  Johnson, 
"Economic  Ideas  of  John  Winthrop,"  New  Eng.  Quart., 
Apr.  1930  ;  Stanley  Gray,  "The  Political  Thought  of 
John  Winthrop,"  Ibid.,  Oct.  1930  ;  "Evidences  of  the 
Winthrops  of  Groton"  (4  pts.,  1894-96),  being  4  parts 
of  J.  J.  Muskett,  Suffolk  Manorial  Families,  vol.  I 
(1900)  ;  R.  C.  Winthrop,  A  Pedigree  of  the  Family  of 
Winthrop  (1874)  ;  John  and  J.  A.  Venn,  Alumni  Can- 
tabrigienses,  pt.  1,  vol.  IV  (1927);  S.  E.  Morison, 
Builders  of  the  Bay  Colony  (1930).  Sources  for  po- 
litical history  are  Records  of  the  Gov.  and  Company 
of  the  Mass.  Bay,  vols.  I-I1I  (1853-54),  ed.  by  N._  B. 
Shurtleff  ;  and  "Acts  of  the  Commissioners  of  the  United 
Colonies  of  New  England,"  in  Records  of  the  Colony 
of  New  Plymouth,  vol.  IX  (1859),  ed.  by  David  Pul- 
sifer.  C.  M.  Andrews,  The  Colonial  Period  of  Am. 
Hist.:  The  Settlements,  vol.  I  (1934),  is  especially 
good  for  the  English  background. 1  J.T.  A. 

WINTHROP,  JOHN  (Feb.  12,  1605/06 o.s.- 
Apr.  5,  1676),  colonial  governor  of  Connecticut, 
was  the  eldest  son  of  John  Winthrop  [<j.w.],  first 
governor  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  by  his  first  wife, 
Mary  Forth.  Eldest  of  the  six  children  of  the 
marriage,  he  was  born  at  the  manor  house  in 


.1  I 


Winthrop 


Groton,  Suffolk,  England,  when  his  father  was 
eighteen  years  old.  Before  the  boy  was  ten,  his 
mother  died.  He  was  sent  to  the  celebrated  Free 
Grammar  School  of  Bury  St.  Edmunds,  and  at 
sixteen  entered  Trinity  College,  Dublin,  living 
somewhat  under  the  supervision  of  his  uncle  by 
marriage,  Emanuel  Downing,  then  resident  in 
Ireland.  Subsequently  he  studied  law  in  London 
and  was  admitted  a  barrister  at  the  Inner  Tem- 
ple, Feb.  28,  1624/5.  He  soon  gave  up  the  law, 
however,  and  through  the  influence  of  Joshua 
Downing,  then  one  of  the  commissioners  of  the 
Royal  Navy,  secured  an  appointment  in  May 
1627  as  secretary  to  Captain  Best,  and  served 
with  the  fleet  which  was  dispatched  to  the  relief 
of  La  Rochelle.  Because  of  the  complete  failure 
of  the  expedition  he  had  no  hope  of  promotion, 
and  thought  for  a  time  of  going  to  New  England 
with  the  settlers  who  sailed  in  1628  under  John 
Endecott  [q.v.],  but  instead  started  on  an  ex- 
tensive tour  of  Europe.  After  fourteen  or  fifteen 
months — three  spent  at  Constantinople,  two  at 
Venice  and  Padua — and  visits  to  Leghorn  and 
Amsterdam  among  other  places,  he  returned  to 
London  and  found  that  his  father  had  resolved  to 
emigrate  to  New  England.  This  decision  met 
the  young  traveler's  favor :  all  countries,  he  said, 
had  come  to  seem  to  him  like  so  many  inns,  "and 
I  shall  call  that  my  country,  where  I  may  most 
glorify  God,  and  enjoy  the  presence  of  my  dear- 
est friends"  (Life  and  Letters  of  John  Winthrop, 

I,  307)- 

When  the  father  sailed  for  America  in  1630, 
the  son  remained  behind  in  England  to  settle 
many  business  affairs,  to  sell  the  family's  landed 
property,  and  to  look  after  his  stepmother  and 
several  of  his  brothers  and  sisters.  On  Feb.  8, 
1631,  he  married  his  cousin,  Martha  Fones,  and 
in  the  following  August  embarked  for  America 
with  all  the  other  members  of  the  family,  save 
one  younger  brother.  After  ten  weeks  at  sea, 
they  landed  at  Boston  on  Nov.  4.  In  March  fol- 
lowing he  was  elected  an  Assistant,  and  just  a 
year  later  was  the  leader  of  a  group  of  twelve 
men  who  founded  Ipswich.  He  remained  there 
until  after  the  death  of  his  wife  and  an  infant 
daughter  in  the  autumn  of  1634.  In  October  of 
that  year  he  sailed  for  England.  His  vessel  was 
driven  ashore  on  the  coast  of  Ireland  by  a  storm 
and  he  landed  at  Galway,  stopped  at  Dublin  on 
the  way  to  Scotland,  and  then  drove  to  London, 
visiting  influential  Puritans  on  the  way.  While 
he  was  in  England,  his  father's  friends  Lord  Say 
and  Sele  and  Lord  Brooke  undertook  to  start  a 
plantation  in  Connecticut,  making  young  Win- 
throp governor  and  agreeing  to  supply  him  with 
men,    money,    and    supplies.     His    commission, 


Winthrop 

issued  in  July  1635,  appointed  him  governor  for 
one  year  after  arrival  at  his  post.  He  set  sail 
with  his  second  wife,  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Ed- 
mund Reade  of  Wickford,  Essex,  and  stepdaugh- 
ter of  the  Rev.  Hugh  Peter  [q.r.],  who,  with 
Henry  Vane  [q.v.~\,  took  passage  in  the  same 
vessel,  reaching  Boston  on  Oct.  6,  1635. 

An  advance  party  was  at  once  sent  out  to 
prepare  for  the  Connecticut  settlement  by  build- 
ing a  fort  at  Saybrook,  the  defense  of  which  was 
soon  entrusted  to  Lion  Gardiner  [q.v.~\.  Winthrop 
followed  the  pioneers  in  March  1636.  In  the  au- 
tumn he  hastened  back  to  Boston,  after  the  birth 
of  his  daughter,  Elizabeth,  and  it  is  doubtful  that 
he  visited  Connecticut  again  during  his  year 
as  governor.  He  once  more  settled  at  Ipswich, 
where  he  was  chosen  lieutenant-colonel  of  the 
Essex  militia  and  one  of  the  prudential  men  of 
the  town.  By  the  autumn  of  1639  he  appears  to 
have  moved  to  Salem,  much  to  the  regret  of  the 
inhabitants  of  Ipswich,  of  whom  a  considerable 
number  claimed  in  a  petition  that  they  had  been 
induced  to  settle  there  only  on  condition  that 
Winthrop  would  remain  with  them  for  life. 

About  this  time,  the  elder  Winthrop  lost  a  con- 
siderable part  of  his  property  and  the  son  came  to 
his  assistance.  He  had  given  up  his  right  of  en- 
tail to  the  family  estates  in  England  in  order  to 
arrange  for  his  father's  emigration,  but  he  had  a 
moderate  fortune  of  his  own,  inherited  from  his 
mother.  His  father's  financial  difficulties,  how- 
ever, put  a  burden  upon  him  and  he  thereafter 
sought  to  give  more  time  to  his  personal  affairs. 
He  sold  some  of  his  landed  property,  the  General 
Court  made  him  a  grant  of  money,  and  he  also 
obtained  a  grant  of  Fisher's  Island  in  Long  Island 
Sound.  He  began  the  manufacture  of  salt  and 
tried  to  interest  English  capital  in  the  erection 
of  iron  works.  In  order  to  promote  his  various 
industrial  schemes,  he  sailed  again  for  England, 
Aug.  3.  1641,  and  was  gone  over  two  years.  With 
a  group  of  skilled  workmen  he  had  gathered  to- 
gether he  embarked  for  the  return  voyage  in 
May  1643  Dut  did  not  reach  Massachusetts  until 
autumn,  after  an  extraordinarily  long  trip. 

After  examining  favorable  sites  for  iron  works 
in  Maine,  New  Hampshire,  and  Massachusetts, 
he  set  up  a  furnace  at  Lynn  and  another  at  Brain- 
tree,  where  in  1644  the  General  Court  granted 
him  3,000  acres  for  the  encouragement  of  iron 
making.  In  the  same  year  he  was  given  leave  to 
found  a  settlement  in  the  Pequot  country  of  Con- 
necticut for  a  similar  purpose.  He  had  built  a 
house  on  Fisher's  Island,  to  which  place  he  took 
his  family,  and  at  the  same  time  was  building  a 
more  permanent  home  at  what  was  to  become 
New  London.    He  was  made  a  magistrate  for 


41  2 


Winthrop 

Pequot  (New  London)  in  1648  but  also  retained 
his  public  offices  in  Massachusetts,  and  made  fre- 
quent journeys  between  the  two  colonies.  After 
the  death  of  his  father  in  1649,  he  decided  to  re- 
main permanently  in  Connecticut,  declining  re- 
election as  an  Assistant  in  Massachusetts  after 
having  served  continuously  for  eighteen  years. 
In  1650  he  was  admitted  a  freeman  of  Connecti- 
cut and  in  May  1651  was  elected  an  Assistant. 
A  few  years  later  he  moved  to  New  Haven,  where 
he  again  undertook  to  develop  iron  works  and 
would  probably  soon  have  been  chosen  governor 
of  the  New  Haven  Colony  had  not  Connecticut 
acted  first,  electing  him  chief  executive  in  1657. 
His  consequent  removal  to  Hartford  marked  the 
permanent  attachment  of  his  interest  to  the  Con- 
necticut Colony. 

Since  the  Connecticut  laws  did  not  permit  two 
successive  gubernatorial  terms,  he  was  elected 
lieutenant-governor  in  1658,  but  after  that  the 
law  was  altered  and  from  1659  until  his  death  in 
1676,  he  was  annually  elected  governor.  The 
most  important  among  his  many  services  to  the 
colony  during  his  eighteen  years  as  its  head  was 
his  mission  to  England  in  1661-63  to  obtain  a 
charter.  Possessed  of  many  influential  friends 
and  a  winning  personality,  he  gained  the  favor 
of  the  king,  and  returned  to  New  England  with 
the  most  liberal  charter  that  had  yet  been 
granted  to  any  colony,  making  Connecticut  al- 
most an  independent  state  and  including  within 
its  new  boundaries  the  former  colony  of  New 
Haven.  This  provision  aroused  intense  oppo- 
sition in  New  Haven,  but  in  the  long  run  proved 
advantageous.  In  1664  Winthrop  was  present 
by  request  of  the  British  commander  at  the  sur- 
render of  New  Netherland. 

Winthrop  had  always  possessed  a  strongly  sci- 
entific mind  and  had  been  particularly  interested 
in  chemistry.  While  in  England  in  1663  he  was 
elected  a  member  of  the  Royal  Society — the  first 
member  resident  in  America — and  in  New  Eng- 
land his  knowledge  of  medicine  was  much  in 
demand.  He  was  ahead  of  his  period  in  that  his 
varied  interests  were  scientific  rather  than  theo- 
logical, and  also  in  that  he  believed  that  New 
England's  future  lay  in  manufacturing  and  com- 
merce rather  than  in  agriculture.  The  papers 
which  he  contributed  to  the  Royal  Society  and 
his  letters  to  scientific  friends  abroad  deal  with 
a  range  of  subjects  including  trade,  banking, 
new  methods  in  manufacture,  and  astronomy.  He 
predicted  the  discovery  of  a  fifth  satellite  to  Jupi- 
ter, although  the  instruments  of  his  time  were 
not  powerful  enough  to  confirm  his  theory.  In 
his  commercial  undertakings  he  was  not  success- 
ful.  Neither  his  iron,  lead,  nor  salt  works  pros- 


Winthrop 


pered,  and  a  number  of  his  mercantile  ventures 
brought  him  heavy  losses  because  of  the  hazards 
of  the  Dutch  War.  Though  at  his  death  he  left 
an  unusually  large  estate  in  land  in  Connecticut, 
Massachusetts,  and  New  York,  his  old  age  was 
harassed  by  continual  anxiety  over  his  business 
affairs.  He  twice  requested  to  be  relieved  of  the 
office  of  governor,  but  each  time  the  colony  re- 
fused, increasing  his  salary  from  time  to  time 
and  making  him  occasional  grants  of  land.  In 
1675,  at  the  outbreak  of  King  Philip's  War,  he 
asked  for  a  third  time  to  be  relieved  of  the  re- 
sponsibility of  office,  but  again  the  colony  de- 
clined. In  September  he  went  to  Boston  to  at- 
tend a  meeting  of  the  Commissioners  of  the 
United  Colonies ;  he  spent  the  winter  there,  and 
in  March  took  a  cold,  which  led  to  his  death  in 
April. 

Winthrop  was  undoubtedly  one  of  the  most 
engaging  New  Englanders  of  his  day,  and  prob- 
ably the  most  versatile.  Wherever  he  settled  and 
to  whatever  he  turned  his  hand,  it  was  with  the 
greatest  reluctance  that  his  temporary  associates 
would  let  him  go.  He  was  tolerant  and  kindly 
toward  some  of  the  same  persons  who  were  treat- 
ed harshly  in  Massachusetts,  such  as  Samuel 
Gorton,  John  Underbill,  the  Quakers,  and  Roger 
Williams.  The  last  named,  with  whom  Winthrop 
formed  a  lasting  friendship,  once  wrote  to  him : 
"You  have  always  been  noted  for  tendernes  to- 
ward mens  soules.  .  .  .  You  have  been  noted  for 
tendernes  toward  the  bodies  &  infirmities  of  poor 
mortalls"  (Massachusetts  Historical  Society 
Collections,  4  ser.  VI,  305).  Though  probably  a 
lesser  character  than  his  father,  he  was  certainly 
one  of  the  ablest  and  most  interesting  of  his  own 
generation. 

[T.  F.  Waters,  A  Sketch  of  the  Life  of  John  Winthrop 
the  Younger  (1899),  being  Ipswich  Hist.  Soc.  Pubs., 
vol.  VII  ;  F.  J.  Kingsbury,  "John  Winthrop,  Jr.,"  Proc. 
Am.  Antiq.  Soc,  n.s.  XII  (1899),  295-306  ;  S.  E.  Mori- 
son,  Builders  of  the  Bay  Colony  (1930)  ;  R.  C.  Win- 
throp, Life  and  Letters  of  John  Winthrop  (2  vols., 
1864-67)  ;  Records  of  the  Gov.  and  Company  of  the 
Mass.  Bay  (5  vols.,  in  6,  1853-54),  ed.  by  N.  B.  Shurt 
leff  ;  The  Public  Records  of  the  Colonv  of  Conn.,  vols. 
I— II  (1850-52),  ed.  by  J.  H.  Trumbull;  "Acts  of  the 
Commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies,"  Records  of  the 
Colony  of  New  Plymouth,  vols.  IX-X  (1859),  ed.  by 
David  Pulsifer;  Winthrop  Papers,  vols.  I,  II  (Mass. 
Hist.  Soc.,  1929-31);  correspondence  and  other  pa- 
pers in  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Colls,  (see  bihliog.  of  John 
Winthrop,  Sr.)  ;  correspondence  with  founders  of  Royal 
Soc,  Proc.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc,  1  ser.  XVI  ( 1879)  !  Thom- 
as Birch,  The  Hist,  of  the  Royal  Soc.  (4  vols.,  1756- 
57)  ;  Jour.  Chem.  Educ,  Mar.  1926,  Dec.  1928.] 

J.T.A. 

WINTHROP,  JOHN  (Mar.  14,  1638-Nov.  27 
1707),  soldier,  governor  of  Connecticut,  third 
of  the  name  in  America  and  usually  known  as 
Fitz-John  Winthrop  to  distinguish  him  from  his 
father  and  grandfather,  was  born  at  Ipswich, 


4*3 


Winthrop 


Winthrop 


Mass.,  the  son  of  the  second  John  Winthrop 
[q.r.~]  and  Elizabeth  (Reade)  Winthrop,  daugh- 
ter of  Edmund  Reade  of  Wickford,  County  Es- 
sex, England.  After  the  death  of  his  grandfather, 
the  first  governor  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Col- 
ony, when  the  boy  was  ten  years  old,  his  father 
removed  permanently  to  Connecticut,  where  he 
held  various  lesser  offices  and  was  governor  con- 
tinuously for  eighteen  years  before  his  death. 
Fitz-John  Winthrop  entered  Harvard  College 
but  discontinued  his  studies  before  obtaining  his 
degree  in  order  to  accept  a  commission  in  the 
Parliamentary  Army  in  England.  He  engaged 
in  military  campaigns  in  Scotland  and  entered 
London  with  General  Monk  at  the  time  of  the 
restoration  of  Charles  II  in  1660.  While  in  Lon- 
don after  the  Restoration,  he  was  elected  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Royal  Society.  In  1663  he  returned  to 
Connecticut  and  made  his  home  in  New  London. 
In  1 67 1  and  1678  he  was  sent  as  deputy  from  that 
town  to  the  Connecticut  General  Assembly.  He 
was  always  keenly  interested  in  military  affairs 
and  in  June  1672  was  appointed  chief  military 
officer  for  New  London  County.  The  next  year, 
when  the  Dutch  attacked  Southold,  Long  Island, 
Winthrop  was  sent  as  commander  of  the  Con- 
necticut troops  to  protect  the  town  and  forced 
the  Dutch  to  retreat  to  New  Amsterdam.  He 
served  also,  with  distinction,  in  the  Indian  wars 
of  1675-76. 

After  his  father's  death  in  1676  Winthrop 
spent  a  large  part  of  his  time  in  Boston.  He  was 
appointed  to  the  governor's  council  by  Joseph 
Dudley  [#.z\]  in  1686,  and  he  served  on  the 
council  of  Sir  Edmund  Andros  [q.z'.~]  at  the 
close  of  the  latter's  administration.  He  was  ac- 
cused of  plotting  to  overthrow  Andros,  but  the 
charge  cannot  be  proved.  After  Andros'  defeat 
Winthrop  returned  to  Connecticut  and  helped  to 
reestablish  the  government  under  the  Connecti- 
cut charter,  which  Andros  had  suspended.  For 
this  service  he  was  elected  one  of  the  Assistants 
of  the  governor  of  Connecticut  in  1689. 

In  the  following  year,  war  having  been  de- 
clared between  England  and  France,  he  was  ap- 
pointed major-general  and  commander  of  a  unit- 
ed force  of  approximately  850  men  from  New 
York  and  Connecticut  who  were  expected  to  in- 
vade Canada  and  capture  Montreal.  When  Win- 
throp arrived  at  a  point  150  miles  north  of  Al- 
bany, however,  he  found  that  his  Indian  allies 
were  afraid  to  advance  and  that  Gov.  Jacob  Leis- 
ler  [</.£'.]  of  New  York  had  not  supplied  the  pro- 
visions and  munitions  promised ;  he  therefore 
returned  to  Albany  and  abandoned  the  invasion. 
Leisler,  hoping  to  place  the  blame  for  the  failure 
on  Winthrop,  arrested  him  after  his  army  was 


on  the  far  side  of  the  Hudson  River  and  threat- 
ened to  court-martial  and  execute  him,  but  he 
was  rescued  by  some  of  the  Mohawk  Indians 
who  had  made  up  a  part  of  his  army.  He  re- 
turned to  Connecticut,  where  an  investigation  of 
his  conduct  by  the  Connecticut  General  Assem- 
bly freed  him  of  all  blame,  and  severely  con- 
demned Governor  Leisler.  Winthrop  was  grant- 
ed forty  pounds  by  the  Assembly  for  his  services. 

In  1693  the  legality  of  the  Connecticut  charter 
was  questioned  and  Winthrop  was  sent  to  Lon- 
don to  plead  for  confirmation  of  the  charter  by 
King  William.  He  was  successful  in  his  mis- 
sion, and  upon  his  return  to  Connecticut  was  re- 
warded by  a  grant  of  £300  by  the  General  As- 
sembly. Five  years  later,  when  Gov.  Robert 
Treat  [g.f.],  because  of  his  great  age,  refused  to 
continue  as  governor  of  Connecticut,  Winthrop 
was  elected  in  his  stead,  and  was  reelected  an- 
nually until  his  death,  in  Boston,  in  1707.  By  his 
wife,  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  George  Tongue,  he 
had  one  child,  a  daughter,  who  married  Col. 
John  Livingston  of  Albany  but  left  no  descend- 
ants. Fitz-John  Winthrop,  while  not  as  great  a 
figure  as  either  his  father  or  grandfather,  was 
like  them  an  able  administrator  and  a  man  of 
impeccable  integrity  in  public  and  private  life. 
He  was  greatly  beloved  by  the  people  of  Con- 
necticut. 

[R.  C.  Winthrop,  A  Short  Account  of  the  Winthrop 
Family  (1887)  ;  J.  C.  Frost,  Ancestors  of  Henry  Rogers 
Winthrop  and  His  Wife  Alice  Woodward  Babcock 
(1927)  ;  F.  C.  Norton,  The  Govs,  of  Conn.  (1905)  ;  F. 
M.  Caulkins,  Hist,  of  New  London,  Conn.  (1852)  ;  J. 
H.  Trumbull  and  C.  J.  Hoadly,  The  Public  Records  of 
the  Colony  of  Conn.,  vols.  II-V  (1852-70),  see  Index  ; 
Benjamin  Trumbull,  A  Complete  Hist,  of  Conn.  (1818)  ; 
E.  B.  O'Callaghan,  Docs.  Rel.  to  the  Col.  Hist,  of  the 
State  of  N.  Y.,  vols.  II  (1858),  III  (1853),  IV  (1854), 
and  vol.  XIV  (1883),  ed.  by  Berthold  Fernow.] 

R.M.H. 

WINTHROP,  JOHN  (Dec.  19,  1714-May  3, 
1779),  astronomer,  physicist,  and  mathematician, 
was  born  in  Boston,  one  of  the  sixteen  children 
of  Adam  and  Anne  (Wainwright)  Winthrop, 
and  a  descendant  of  John  Winthrop,  1587/88- 
1649  \_q.v.~\.  Several  of  his  forefathers  had  al- 
ready distinguished  themselves  in  the  affairs  of 
the  colony,  particularly  in  science.  His  great- 
granduncle,  John  Winthrop,  1606-1676  [q.v.~], 
known  as  the  first  industrial  chemist  in  America, 
became  the  first  fellow  of  the  Royal  Society  of 
London  (1663)  in  the  American  colonies.  A 
distant  cousin,  John  Winthrop,  a  fellow  of  the 
Royal  Society  in  1734,  became  well  known  as  a 
collector  of  minerals,  fossils,  and  other  geologi- 
cal specimens.  In  1728,  at  the  age  of  fourteen. 
John  Winthrop  was  graduated  from  the  Boston 
Latin  School  and  entered  Harvard  College,  from 
which  he  was  graduated  in  1732.   The  following 


414 


Winthrop 

six  years  he  spent  in  his  father's  home,  where 
he  became  absorbed  in  private  studies  and  laid 
the  foundation  for  his  future  scientific  career. 
In  1738,  at  the  age  of  twenty-four,  he  was  elected 
second  Hollis  professor  of  mathematics  and  natu- 
ral philosophy  at  Harvard  College,  succeeding 
Isaac  Greenwood  \_q.vJ\.  When  he  was  examined 
for  the  professorship  by  the  Overseers  of  the 
College  the  question  of  his  theological  adherence 
was  not  raised  for  fear  it  would  prove  too  broad 
for  Harvard  at  that  time.  He  not  only  carried  on 
instructions  but  also  gave  public  lectures  and 
demonstrations  in  physical  science.  His  research 
work,  mainly  in  the  field  of  astronomy,  was  car- 
ried out  over  a  period  of  forty  years,  during 
which  he  came  to  be  considered  one  of  the  out- 
standing scholars  in  the  country.  His  results 
were  all  published  in  the  Philosophical  Trans- 
actions of  the  Royal  Society,  and  brought  him 
considerable  recognition  in  England. 

His  first  work  was  a  series  of  sun-spot  observa- 
vations,  made  on  Apr.  19,  20,  21,  22,  1739.  These 
seem  to  be  the  first  set  of  observations  on  sun- 
spots  in  the  colony,  and  records  are  still  pre- 
served at  the  Harvard  Library.  Fully  aware  of 
the  importance  of  various  astronomical  prob- 
lems, Winthrop  was  kept  well  informed  by  the 
authorities  at  the  Royal  Observatory  at  Green- 
wich and  the  Royal  Society  of  London,  and  pur- 
sued his  studies  with  the  aid  of  his  own  splendid 
library.  His  next  undertaking  was  a  study  of 
the  transit  of  Mercury  over  the  sun,  on  Apr.  21, 
1740  ( see  Tran saction s,  vol.  XLII,  1742-43).  The 
next  two  communications  to  the  Society  were 
observations  on  the  transits  of  Mercury  on  Oct. 
25>  I743,  and  Nov.  9,  1769  (Ibid.,  vols.  LIX,  1769, 
LXI,  1 77 1,  pt.  1).  The  problem  of  these  transits 
was  the  question  of  exact  determination  of  longi- 
tude between  Cambridge  and  London,  as  well  as 
the  equation  of  time  and  the  study  of  the  New- 
tonian laws  of  gravitation.  Winthrop  established 
at  Harvard,  in  1746,  the  first  laboratory  of  ex- 
perimental physics  in  America  and  demonstrated 
with  a  series  of  lectures  the  laws  of  mechanics, 
light,  heat,  and  the  movements  of  celestial  bodies 
according  to  the  Newtonian  doctrines.  Count 
Rumford  as  a  young  man  attended  those  lectures, 
and  they  doubtless  contributed  to  his  own  dis- 
tinguished career  as  a  scientist  and  inventor. 
Winthrop's  other  publications  include  scientific 
papers  published  in  the  Philosophical  Transac- 
tions, volumes  LII,  LIV,  LVII,  LXIV,  1761-74, 
Relation  of  a  Voyage  from  Boston  to  Newfound- 
land, for  the  Observation  of  the  Transit  of  Venus 
(1761),  and  Two  Lectures  on  the  Parallax  and 
Distance  of  the  Sun  (1769). 

In  1 75 1  Winthrop's  next  progressive  step  as  a 


Winthrop 


scholar  was  to  introduce  to  the  mathematical 
curriculum  at  Harvard  College  the  elements  of 
fluxions,  now  known  as  differential  and  integral 
calculus.  This  marked  a  definite  beginning  of  an 
epoch  in  mathematical  study  in  the  United  States. 
In  1755  a  severe  earthquake  shook  New  England, 
and  a  study  of  this  phenomenon  was  made  by 
Winthrop.  His  conclusions  proved  that  he  was 
a  scientist  with  theories  more  modern  than  those 
for  which  he  was  given  credit  ( Transactions, 
vol.  L,  1757,  pt.  1).  In  April  1759,  he  delivered  a 
lecture  on  the  return  of  Halley's  comet  of  1682, 
which  was  the  first  predicted  return  of  a  comet. 
In  a  second  discourse  during  the  same  month, 
he  discussed  the  true  theory  of  comets  accord- 
ing to  the  work  of  Newton's  Principia,  and  also 
according  to  the  laws  formulated  by  Kepler,  with 
the  predictions  of  Halley  (Two  Lectures  on 
Comets,  Read  in  the  Chapel  of  Harvard-College , 
1759).  In  1 761,  with  great  foresight  and  dili- 
gence, he  made  preparations  to  observe  two 
events  of  great  astronomical  importance,  the 
transits  of  Venus  in  1761  and  1769  (see  Trans- 
actions, vols.  LIV,  1764,  LIX,  1769).  During 
the  transit  of  Venus  of  1761,  under  the  direction 
of  Winthrop,  Harvard  College  sent  the  first  as- 
tronomical expedition  to  St.  John's,  Newfound- 
land. The  principal  problem  of  this  transit  was 
the  study  of  the  parallax  of  the  sun.  Winthrop 
was  the  main  support  of  Franklin  in  his  theories 
and  conclusions  relative  to  his  experiments  in 
electricity.  He  also  carried  on  magnetic  and 
meteorological  observations  for  over  twenty 
years,  records  and  computations  of  which  are 
still  preserved.  In  addition  to  these  observations, 
studies  were  made  of  the  physical  appearance  of 
Venus  (Ibid.,  vol.  LX,  1770),  eclipses  of  Jupi- 
ter's satellites,  partial  solar  eclipses,  and  aberra- 
tion of  light. 

During  the  Revolution  Winthrop  was  an  ar- 
dent patriot  and  espoused  the  cause  of  the  colonies. 
He  was  a  counselor  and  friend  of  Washington, 
Franklin,  and  of  others  who  stood  high  in  the 
founding  of  the  new  republic.  In  his  own  field 
he  was  honored  as  few  others  of  his  period.  He 
was  America's  first  astronomer  and  Newtonian 
disciple.  The  Royal  Society  elected  him  as  a  fel- 
low in  1766  and  the  American  Philosophical  So- 
ciety enrolled  him  as  a  member  in  1769.  From 
the  University  of  Edinburgh  he  received  the  hon- 
orary degree  of  LL.D.  in  1771,  and  his  alma 
mater  conferred  the  same  degree  upon  him  in 
1773,  the  first  honorary  degree  of  doctor  of  laws 
conferred  by  Harvard  University.  Though  he 
had  no  active  part  in  the  undertaking,  the  found- 
ing of  the  American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sci- 
ences in  Boston  may  be  attributed  directly  to 


415 


Winthrop 


Winthrop's  interest  and  influence  (Brasch,  in 
Sir  Isaac  Newton,  post,  p.  334).  He  died  in 
Cambridge  at  the  age  of  sixty-five,  honored  as  a 
scholar,  scientist,  and  astronomer  who  passed 
away  in  the  fulness  of  his  fame.  He  lies  buried 
with  his  ancestors  in  the  old  King's  Chapel  bury- 
ing-ground,  Boston.  His  first  wife  was  Rebecca 
Townsend,  the  daughter  of  James  Townsend 
of  Boston,  and  the  step-daughter  of  Charles 
Chauncy,  1705-1787  [g.z/.].  Their  intention  to 
marry  was  recorded  on  July  1,  1746.  After  her 
death  in  1753,  he  was  married  to  Hannah  Fay- 
erweather,  the  widow  of  Farr  Tolman  (marriage 
intention  date,  Mar.  24,  1756).  She  survived 
him,  with  several  children  by  his  first  wife. 
James  Winthrop  [q.z'.]  was  his  son. 

[R.  C.  Winthrop,  Jr.,  A  Pedigree  of  the  Family  of 
Winthrop  (privately  printed,  1874)  ;  Boston  Marriage 
Records  from  1700  to  1751  (1898)  ;  Boston  Marriages 
from  1752  to  1809  (1903)  ;  "Correspondence  Between 
John  Adams  and  Prof.  John  Winthrop,"  Mass.  Hist. 
Soc.  Colls.,  5  ser.,  vol.  IV  (1878)  ;  F.  E.  Brasch,  arti- 
cles on  Winthrop  in  Pubs,  of  the  Astronomical  Soc.  of 
the  Pacific,  Aug.— Oct.  1916,  and  in  Sir  Isaac  Newton 
.  .  .  A  Bicentenary  Evaluation  of  His  Work  (1928)  ; 
Edward  Wigglesworth,  The  Hope  of  Immortality :  A 
Discourse  Occasioned  by  the  Death  of  .  .  .  John  Win- 
throp (1779)  ;  Boston  Gazette  and  Country  Jour.,  May 
Io,  I779-]  F.  E.  B. 

WINTHROP,  ROBERT  CHARLES  (May 
12,  1809-Nov.  16,  1894),  representative  and 
senator  from  Massachusetts,  was  born  on  Milk 
Street,  Boston,  in  the  house  of  his  great-uncle, 
James  Bowdoin,  1752-1811  \_q.v.~],  the  son  of 
Lieut.-Gov.  Thomas  Lindall  and  Elizabeth  (Tem- 
ple) Winthrop  and  the  descendant  of  John  Win- 
throp, 1 587-1 649  [q.v.~].  After  an  active  three 
years  at  Harvard  College  he  was  graduated  in 
1828,  studied  law  in  Daniel  Webster's  office,  and 
was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  183 1.  Somewhat  of  a 
dandy,  he  led  subscription  balls  and  used  unspent 
energy  in  the  state  militia.  He  married  on  Mar. 
12,  1832,  Eliza,  the  daughter  of  Francis  Blan- 
chard  of  Boston.  They  had  three  sons  and  a 
daughter.  Elected  to  the  General  Court  in  1834, 
he  served  as  speaker  for  three  out  of  his  six  years 
there.  He  was  handsome  and  eloquent,  with  the 
prestige  of  a  famous  family  to  aid  him.  Elected 
to  Congress,  he  served  from  Nov.  9,  1840,  to 
May  25,  1842,  when  he  resigned  to  be  with  his 
wife  until  she  died  on  June  14.  Reelected  he 
served  from  Nov.  29,  1842,  to  July  30,  1850,  as 
speaker  in  the  Thirtieth  Congress,  1847-49.  As 
speaker  he  antagonized  the  more  ardent  anti- 
slavery  men  and  in  1849  was  defeated  for  a  sec- 
ond term  by  Free-Soilers.  In  the  Senate,  to 
which  he  was  appointed  on  the  resignation  of 
Webster  in  1850,  he  faced  immediately  the  Fugi- 
tive Slave  Bill,  which  was  passed  over  his  rather 
reluctant  opposition.    He  had  promised  to  vote 


Winthrop 

for  "a  just,  practicable  and  constitutional  mode 
of  diminishing  or  mitigating  so  great  an  evil  as 
slavery."  At  home  he  was  defeated  in  1851  for 
the  Senate  by  Charles  Sumner,  an  advocate  of 
no  quarter  with  the  slavery  interests.  Whittier 
claimed  that  Winthrop  held  "in  his  hands  the 
destiny  of  the  North"  (S.  T.  Pickard,  Life  and 
Letters  of  John  Greenleaf  Whittier,  1894,  I, 
374),  but  he  was  forced  into  the  background  by 
men  better  fitted  for  the  rough  politics  that  must 
precede  a  civil  war. 

Defeated,  he  turned  to  history  and  education. 
On  Oct.  15,  1859,  he  married,  as  his  second  wife, 
Laura  (Derby)  Welles,  who  died  Apr.  26,  1861. 
He  held  aloof  from  the  newly  formed  Republican 
party,  an  outgrowth  of  the  dying  Whig  party, 
but  took  a  hand  in  the  Kansas  controversy  in 
1856,  suggesting  that  General  Scott  be  sent  there. 
His  plan  was  killed  by  the  Democrats.  In  the 
Fremont-Buchanan-Fillmore  fight  for  the  presi- 
dency he  opposed  Fremont  and  agreed  with  Fill- 
more that  the  candidate  would  be  elected  by  the 
"suffrages  of  one  part  of  the  Union  only  to  rule 
over  the  whole  United  States"  (Rhodes,  post,  II, 
204,  206).  In  the  McClellan-Lincoln  campaign 
of  1864  he  opposed  Lincoln's  reelection,  contend- 
ing that  McClellan  had  made  his  own  platform 
and  did  not  stand  on  the  declaration  that  the  war 
was  a  failure.  He  devoted  fully  half  of  his  long 
life  to  the  activities  of  a  scholarly  gentleman  of 
leisure.  His  addresses  on  great  occasions — espe- 
cially the  Oration  on  the  Hundredth  Anniversary 
of  the  Surrender  of  Lord  Cornwallis  (1881),  by 
invitation  of  both  houses  of  Congress — continue 
to  be  important  in  the  history  of  American  ora- 
tory. He  served  on  the  vestry  of  Trinity  Church 
in  Boston  for  sixty  years.  In  old  age,  wearing  a 
broadcloth  overcoat  with  velvet  collar  and  a 
cape,  tall,  bent  but  impressive,  he  went  regularly 
to  St.  Paul's  in  Brookline.  The  Peabody  Educa- 
tion Fund  gave  him,  as  chairman  of  the  board, 
an  opportunity  to  improve  education  in  the  South. 
A  member  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  So- 
ciety from  1839  to  1894  he  served  for  thirty  years 
as  president.  He  wrote  incessantly  for  its  publi- 
cations and  lent  hospitality  to  its  many  gather- 
ings. He  married  on  Nov.  15,  1865,  Adele,"  the 
widow  of  John  Eliot  Thayer  and  the  daughter  of 
his  friend,  Francis  Granger  [g.z1.].  She  died  in 
1892.  He  survived,  quoting  the  words  of  Keble, 
"Content  to  live,  but  not  afraid  to  die"  (Memoir, 
post,  p.  345). 

[R.  C.  Winthrop,  A  Memoir  of  Robert  C.  Winthrop 
(1897)  ;  Proc.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc,  2  ser.  vol.  IX  (1895), 
esp.  the  remarks  of  C.  F.  Adams,  pp.  234-41  ;  J.  F. 
Rhodes,  Hist,  of  the  U.  S.  from  the  Compromise  of 
1850,  vols.  I,  II  (1893),  vol.  IV  (1899)  ;  Index  to  Proc. 

l6 


Winthrop 

Mass.  Hist.  Soc,  1 884-1 907,  for  glimpse  of  his  amaz- 
ing activity;  N.  Y.  Tribune,  Nov.  17,  20,  1894.] 

C.K.  B. 

WINTHROP,  THEODORE  (Sept.  28,  1828- 
June  10,  1861),  author,  was  born  in  New  Haven, 
Conn.,  the  third  son  of  Francis  Bayard  Winthrop 
by  his  second  wife,  Elizabeth  Woolsey,  sister  to 
Presiden:  Theodore  Dwight  Woolsey  [q.v.~\  of 
Vale  and  niece  to  the  elder  Timothy  Dwight 
[q.v.'].  His  father,  merchant  of  New  York  and 
lawyer  of  New  Haven,  was  descended  from  John 
Winthrop,  1587-1649  [q.v.]  ;  his  mother,  related 
to  six  presidents  of  colleges,  was  great-grand- 
daughter of  Jonathan  Edwards  [q.v.].  Winthrop 
grew  up  in  New  Haven,  perusing  many  books  in 
his  father's  large  personal  library,  roaming 
through  the  surrounding  country,  and  listening 
to  sea  tales  at  thriving  city  wharves.  Educated 
at  an  old-fashioned  dame-school  and  specially 
prepared  by  Silas  French,  he  entered  Yale  in 
1843.  Dismissed  in  November  1844,  "for  break- 
ing Freshmen's  windows,"  he  loitered  through  a 
winter  with  a  half-brother  in  Marietta,  Ohio, 
reentered  Yale,  and  graduated  with  the  class  of 
1848,  having  divided  his  time  between  spasmodi- 
cally serious  study,  debating,  occasional  writing 
for  the  Yale  Literary  Magazine,  and  pulling  an 
oar  in  the  college  boat.  Next  year  he  studied 
"Logic  and  Language"  and  then  planned  to  study 
law  at  Harvard,  but  in  1849  ill  health  frustrated 
the  project.  For  relaxation  and  physical  recu- 
peration, he  traveled  in  Europe  for  a  year  and 
a  half. 

Thereafter  for  a  dozen  years  his  occupations 
were  intermittent  and  his  journeyings  many, 
while,  in  prose  and  verse,  in  extended  letters 
home,  and  in  extensive  entries  in  his  "journal," 
both  indited  in  a  manner  far  from  informal,  he 
acquired  the  facility  at  writing  that  led  him  to 
literature.  In  185 1  he  began  "a  new  life"  in  the 
New  York  office  of  the  Pacific  Mail  Steamship 
Company,  visited  Europe  again,  served  as  ticket 
seller  on  the  Panama  Railroad  (1853),  traveled 
to  San  Francisco  and  Oregon,  mounted  a  fresh 
horse  and  started  home  across  the  plains.  He 
went  to  Darien  with  Lieut.  Isaac  G.  Strain  [q.v.] 
late  in  1853,  studied  law  in  a  New  York  office, 
vacationed  at  Mount  Desert,  was  admitted  to  the 
bar  (1855),  traveled  the  Adirondack  and  Maine 
woods  with  Frederick  E.  Church  [q.v.],  the 
painter,  "stumped"  part  of  the  state  of  Maine 
for  Fremont  in  1856,  started  a  law  partnership 
in  St.  Louis,  fell  ill,  and  returned  to  New  York 
(1857)  to  let  law  give  way  permanently  to  liter- 
ature. His  initial  effort,  a  novel  called  Mr. 
Waddy's  Return,  written  in  1855,  lay  unpub- 
lished until  1904.  The  first  of  his  work  to  be  print- 


Winton 

ed  was  a  detailed  and  ornate  description  of  a 
picture  by  his  friend  Church,  A  Companion  to 
the  Heart  of  the  Andes  (1859).  On  Staten  Isl- 
and, he  spent  part  of  his  time  in  writing  and 
part,  says  George  William  Curtis,  "in  walking 
and  riding,  in  skating  and  running,"  leaping 
fences,  even  turning  somersaults  on  the  grass. 
In  186 1,  full  of  high  ideas,  he  enlisted  in  the  7th 
New  York  Regiment  which,  after  guarding 
Washington,  came  home  when  its  month  was  up. 
But  not  Winthrop.  He  accompanied  "Ben"  But- 
ler to  Fortress  Monroe  as  "military  secretary," 
participated  in  the  confused  engagement  at  Great 
Bethel  on  June  10,  1861,  and  there,  leading  the 
advance,  was  struck  by  a  bullet  and  fell  dead. 
His  life,  as  Curtis  said,  "suddenly  blazed  up  into 
a  clear,  bright  flame,  and  vanished"  (Cecil 
Dreeme,  post,  p.  5). 

To  James  Russell  Lowell  he  had  sent  war- 
time anecdotes  and  descriptions  which  appeared 
that  summer  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly  (June, 
July  1861).  Winthrop's  family  offered  his  un- 
published manuscripts  to  Ticknor  &  Fields,  who 
promptly  issued  three  novels :  Cecil  Dreeme 
(1861),  John  Brent  (1862),  Edivin  Brothertojt 
(1862).  Their  early  success  was  phenomenal. 
Two  volumes  of  personal  narratives  followed : 
The  Canoe  and  the  Saddle  ( 1863)  and  Life  in  the 
Open  Air  (1863).  Repeated  editions  by  suc- 
cessive publishers  testified  to  the  quality  of  Win- 
throp's writing  and  to  his  popularity  for  forty 
years.  However,  though  partly  a  pioneer  in  con- 
temporaneous "novels  of  locality,"  describing  the 
open  West  in  John  Brent  and  Washington 
Square  in  Cecil  Dreeme,  he  was  distinctively  of 
his  own  time  and  generation.  His  conspicuous 
death  brought  his  name  to  prominence,  and  for  a 
half  century  his  writings  maintained  his  fame,  but 
when  Mr.  Waddy's  Return  (1904)  appeared,  its 
editor  felt  that  it  needed  "thorough  revision  and 
intelligent  condensation,"  and  in  one  critic  it 
aroused  nothing  more  than  "the  Pandora-like 
feeling  that  used  to  accompany  the  opening  of  old 
trunks  in  the  twilight  garret"  (J.  B.  Kerfoot, 
Life,  Feb.  23,  1905,  p.  222). 

[See  biog.  sketch  by  G.  W.  Curtis  in  Cecil  Dreeme 
(1861)  ;  Laura  W.  Johnson,  The  Life  and  Poems  of 
Theodore  Winthrop  (1884);  Elbridge  Colby,  Bibliog. 
Notes  on  Theodore  Winthrop  (1917),  The  Plates  of  the 
Winthrop  Books  (19 18),  and  articles  in  Nation,  June 
29,  1916,  and  Yale  Alumni  Weekly,  Jan.  23,  1920;  N. 
Y.  Times,  June  13,  1861  ;  obituary  in  Applet  on' s  Ann. 
Cyc,  1861.  Winthrop's  MSS.  are  in  the  N.  Y.  Pub. 
Lib.]  E.  C— y. 

WINTON,  ALEXANDER  (June  20,  1860- 
June  21,  1932),  pioneer  automobile  manufac- 
turer, was  the  son  of  Alexander  and  Helen  (Fea) 
Winton,  and  was  born  in  Grangemouth,  Scot- 


417 


Winton 

land.  At  twenty,  after  obtaining  a  common-school 
education  in  his  native  town,  he  emigrated  to  the 
United  States  and  found  work  in  the  marine  en- 
gine department  of  the  Delamater  Iron  Works, 
New  York  City.  After  a  short  stay  there  he  ob- 
tained a  position  as  an  assistant  engineer  of  an 
ocean  steamship  and  continued  in  this  work  for 
more  than  three  years.  In  1884,  having  married 
meanwhile,  he  gave  up  the  sea  and  removed  to 
Cleveland,  Ohio,  where  he  began  a  bicycle-re- 
pair business.  In  the  succeeding  six  years  he 
built  up  a  reputation,  and  at  the  same  time  per- 
fected and  patented  a  number  of  improvements 
in  bicycle  mechanisms.  These  included  a  ball- 
bearing device  that  made  balls  run  on  flat  sur- 
faces, an  invisible  crank-shaft  fastening,  and  an 
invisible  handle-bar  clamp.  Rather  than  sell  these 
inventions  to  manufacturers,  in  1890  Winton  es- 
tablished the  Winton  Bicycle  Company  and  suc- 
cessfully pursued  the  business  of  manufacturing 
bicycles  for  more  than  ten  years.  While  thus 
engaged,  the  talk  of  "horseless  carriages"  reached 
him,  and  as  early  as  1893  he  began  giving  at- 
tention to  gasoline  engine  design  for  automotive 
use.  In  1895  he  built  a  gasoline  motor  bicycle 
and  in  September  1896  completed  his  first  gaso- 
line motor  car.  This  had  a  two-cyclinder  verti- 
cal engine  with  friction  clutch,  electric  ignition, 
carburetor,  regulator  to  control  the  engine  speed, 
engine  starter,  and  pneumatic  tires.  In  spite  of 
the  ridicule  of  his  banker  and  his  friends,  Win- 
ton proceeded  immediately  with  the  building  of 
a  second  and  improved  automobile.  In  March 
1897  he  formed  the  Winton  Motor  Carriage 
Company,  and  in  July  of  that  year  made  with  his 
new  car  the  first  reliability  run  in  the  history  of 
the  American  automobile — a  nine-day  trip  from 
Cleveland  to  New  York  by  a  circuitous  route, 
totalling  800  miles  in  78  hours  and  43  minutes 
actual  running  time.  Winton's  hopes  of  interest- 
ing capital  in  his  machine  by  this  test  of  endur- 
ance were  not  immediately  realized,  but  before 
the  year  was  out  he  had  sold  sufficient  stock  in 
his  company  to  proceed  with  the  construction  of 
four  cars.  The  first  of  these  was  completed  and 
sold,  Mar.  24,  1898,  for  a  thousand  dollars — the 
first  sale  in  America  of  a  gasoline  automobile 
made  according  to  set  manufacturing  schedules. 
Winton  repurchased  this  car  several  years  later, 
and  it  is  now  in  the  National  Museum  at  Wash- 
ington. He  sold  the  other  three  machines  soon 
after  the  first  and  had  sold  twenty-five  more  by 
the  end  of  the  year.  All  these  cars  were  con- 
structed in  accordance  with  his  general  motor 
vehicle  patent,  No.  610,466,  granted  to  him  on 
Sept.  6,  1898,  one  of  the  early  American  patents 
in  the  automotive  field. 

41 


Wirt 

Winton  was  one  of  the  most  energetic,  skilful, 
and  progressive  automobile  pioneers  in  the  United 
States.  He  designed,  built,  and  raced  automobiles 
both  in  the  United  States  and  abroad,  his  racer, 
"Bullet  No.  1,"  establishing  a  record  of  a  mile  in 
52.2  seconds  in  1902  at  Daytona  Beach,  Fla.  This 
was  the  first  time  the  beach  at  Daytona  was  used 
for  automobile  racing.  All  Winton's  automobiles 
after  1904  were  equipped  with  four-cylinder  en- 
gines and  all  after  1907  with  six-cylinder  engines. 
He  was  the  first  in  America  to  experiment  with 
straight  eight-cylinder  engines  (1906),  and  as 
early  as  1902  had  designed  external  and  internal 
brakes  on  the  same  brake-drum,  the  latter  but  one 
of  the  many  innovations  introduced  by  him  which 
have  become  common.  With  his  automobile  com- 
pany a  success,  Winton,  whose  greatest  interest 
lay  in  engine  design  and  experiment,  about  1912 
turned  his  attention  to  the  Diesel  engine.  That  year 
he  organized  the  Winton  Gas  Engine  and  Manu- 
facturing Company,  and  began  the  manufacture 
of  improved  Diesel  engines  for  marine,  indus- 
trial, municipal,  and  railroad  power  plants.  He 
also  organized  and  was  president  of  the  Electric 
Welding  Products  Company  and  of  the  Lindsay 
Wire  Weaving  Company,  both  in  Cleveland. 
With  all  these  activities,  he  continued  to  act  as 
president  of  the  automobile  company,  maintain- 
ing the  Winton  car  in  the  front  rank  of  Ameri- 
can automobiles  until  Feb.  11,  1924,  when  this 
business  was  completely  liquidated  in  favor  of 
the  Diesel  engine  business.  Several  years  before 
his  death  he  disposed  of  this  and  retired  from  all 
active  industrial  connections.  Winton  was  an 
active  member  of  a  number  of  technical  and  busi- 
ness associations,  and  was  greatly  interested  in 
yachting,  being  at  the  time  of  his  death  ex-com- 
modore of  the  Interlake  Yachting  Association.  He 
was  married  four  times:  first,  on  Jan.  18,  1883, 
to  Jeanie  Muir  MacGlashan  of  Scotland  (d. 
1903)  ;  second,  in  1906,  to  La  Belle  MacGlashan 
of  Scotland  (d.  1924)  ;  third,  in  1927,  to  Marion 
Campbell  at  Covington,  Ky.,  from  whom  he  was 
divorced  in  1930;  and  fourth,  on  Sept.  2,  1930, 
to  Mrs.  Mary  Ellen  Avery.  He  was  survived  by 
his  widow  and  seven  children  of  his  earlier  mar- 
riages. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1930—31  ;  J.  R.  Doolittle, 
The  Romance  of  the  Automobile  Industry  (1916)  ; 
Alexander  Winton,  "Get  a  Horse,"  Sat.  Evening  Post, 
Feb.  8,  1930  ;  E.  O.  Randall  and  D.  J.  Ryan,  Hist,  of 
Ohio  (1912),  vol.  V  ;  E.  M.  Avery,  A  Hist,  of  Cleveland 
and  Its  Environs  (1918),  vol.  Ill  ;  Trans.  Am.  Soc.  of 
Mechanical  Engineers,  vol.  LIV  (1932)  ;  obituaries  in 
Cleveland  Plain  Dealer  and  N.  Y.  Times,  June  23, 
1932  ;  records  of  U.  S.  Nat.  Museum.]  q  \^.  M. 

WIRT,  WILLIAM  (Nov.  8,  1772-Feb.  18, 
1834),  attorney  general  of  the  United  States, 
was  the  youngest  son  of  Jacob  and  Henrietta 

8 


Wirt 

Wirt.  Jacob  was  a  native  of  Switzerland,  his  wife 
of  German  origin.  They  supported  themselves  in 
a  simple  manner  as  tavern  keepers  in  the  quiet 
village  of  Bladensburg,  Md.  Here  William,  a 
curly-haired,  blue-eyed  boy  with  a  ready  smile 
and  a  vivid  imagination,  was  born  and  spent  his 
early  childhood.  When  the  rattle  of  stagecoach 
wheels  gave  way  to  the  tread  of  marching  men 
of  the  Revolution,  he  learned  to  beat  the  time  of 
the  martial  airs,  and  when  a  French  dancing 
master  came  to  town,  he  learned  the  minuet  and 
performed  for  the  amusement  of  the  villagers. 
But  life  was  not  all  play  for  William.  His  fa- 
ther died  when  he  was  two  years  of  age,  and  his 
mother  when  he  was  eight.  A  small  patri- 
mony, the  guardianship  of  his  uncle  Jasper,  and 
the  interest  of  Peter  Carnes,  a  lawyer  and  friend 
of  the  family,  made  it  possible  for  the  child  to 
receive  the  rudiments  of  an  education.  He  first 
attended  school  in  his  native  village.  At  seven 
years  of  age  he  was  sent  to  Georgetown,  and  then 
to  a  school  in  Charles  County,  Md.  In  1783  he 
was  entered  in  the  grammar  school  of  the  Rev. 
James  Hunt  of  Montgomery  County,  whose  in- 
fluence and  whose  library  were  important  fac- 
tors in  shaping  the  mind  of  the  child.  In  1787  the 
school  was  discontinued  and  William,  now  in  his 
fifteenth  year,  was  faced  with  the  necessity  of 
finding  means  of  self-support.  One  of  his  fellow 
students  in  Hunt's  school  was  Ninian  Edwards 
[9.7'.],  later  an  important  figure  in  the  history  of 
Illinois.  His  father,  Benjamin  Edwards,  now  in- 
vited Wirt  to  become  a  private  tutor  in  his  home. 
Wirt  accepted  the  offer,  remained  for  twenty 
pleasant  months,  and  turned  his  mind  to  the 
study  of  law.  Being  now  in  his  seventeenth  year 
and  in  poor  health,  he  decided  to  take  a  horse- 
back trip  to  Georgia  to  visit  his  old  benefactor 
Mr.  Carnes,  who,  meanwhile,  had  married  his 
sister  Elizabeth.  By  spring  his  health  was  re- 
stored and  he  returned  to  Maryland,  remaining 
for  a  short  while  at  Montgomery  Court  House. 
Here  he  entered  upon  the  study  of  law  with  Wil- 
liam P.  Hunt,  son  of  his  former  teacher.  After 
about  a  year  spent  in  this  manner,  he  heard  that 
there  was  an  opening  for  a  young  lawyer  in  Cul- 
peper  County,  Va.  Disposing  of  what  was  left 
of  his  small  inheritance  in  Maryland,  he  has- 
tened to  Virginia  where,  after  five  months,  he 
was  admitted  to  the  bar. 

His  original  equipment  consisted  of  a  rapid 
and  indistinct  enunciation,  a  considerable  degree 
of  shyness,  a  copy  of  Blackstone,  two  volumes  of 
Don  Quixote,  and  a  copy  of  Tristram  Shandy. 
His  reading  was  not  confined  to  law,  and  his 
genial  disposition  tempted  him  to  devote  more 
time  to  social  recreation  than  was  good  for  his 


Wirt 

work.  Nevertheless,  he  continued  for  one  or  two 
years  to  practise  in  Culpeper  with  increasing 
success.  He  made  many  friends  both  in  his  own 
county  and  in  neighboring  Albemarle.  Among 
the  latter  was  Dr.  George  Gilmer  of  "Pen  Park," 
whose  eldest  daughter  Mildred  was  married  to 
Wirt  on  May  28,  1795.  The  young  couple  took 
up  their  residence  at  Dr.  Gilmer's  estate.  Among 
the  charming  circle  which  centered  in  this  cul- 
tured home,  Wirt  became  especially  attached  to 
Francis  Walker  Gilmer  [q.v.],  youngest  son  of 
the  family,  and  to  the  junior  Dabney  Carr  \_q.vJ] 
of  the  neighboring  estate  of  "Dunlora."  Carr  and 
Wirt  rode  the  Virginia  circuit  together,  and  they 
remained  throughout  life  the  most  intimate  of 
friends.  Wirt  was  fond  of  pleasure  and  com- 
panionship and  the  revelries  of  Virginia  society 
sometimes  encouraged  him  to  a  degree  of  excess. 
Dr.  Gilmer  died  a  year  or  two  after  the  marriage 
of  his  daughter,  and  on  Sept.  17,  1799,  she  fol- 
lowed him  to  the  grave.  Thus  ended  the  happiest 
period  of  Wirt's  life,  but  the  friends  of  these 
years  were  never  supplanted  in  his  affections. 

He  now  transferred  his  residence  to  Richmond 
to  pursue  the  practice  of  his  profession  in  a  larger 
field.  He  was  immediately  elected  clerk  of  the 
House  of  Delegates  and  served  in  this  capacity 
during  three  sessions  of  the  Assembly.  In  May 
1800,  he  served  with  George  Hay  and  Philip 
Norborne  Nicholas  Yqq.v.']  as  counsel  for  James 
Thomson  Callender  [q.?'.]  in  his  famous  trial 
before  Judge  Samuel  Chase  under  the  Alien  and 
Sedition  Acts.  Thus  was  Wirt's  name  first 
brought  conspicuously  to  the  attention  of  the  pub- 
lic. In  1802  the  clerk  of  the  House  was  elected 
by  the  legislature  to  preside  over  one  of  the  three 
chancery  districts  into  which  the  state  had  just 
been  divided.  Acceptance  of  this  post  made  it 
necessary  that  Wirt  transfer  his  residence  to 
Williamsburg,  and  on  Sept.  7  of  the  same  year 
he  was  married  to  Elizabeth  Washington,  sec- 
ond daughter  of  Col.  Robert  Gamble  of  Rich- 
mond. This  event  proved  to  be  a  major  turning 
point  in  his  life.  Henceforth  he  devoted  more 
time  to  work  and  less  to  pleasure,  and  within  a 
few  months  he  decided,  for  financial  reasons,  to 
give  up  the  chancellorship  and  devote  himself 
once  more  to  the  practice  of  law.  At  first  he 
thought  of  going  to  Kentucky  for  this  purpose, 
but  his  friend  Littleton  W.  Tazewell  [<7.?\1  per- 
suaded him  to  come  to  Norfolk.  He  did  not,  how- 
ever, remove  his  residence  to  that  city  until  the 
beginning  of  1804. 

It  was  in  1803  that  Wirt  began  his  literary 
career  by  publishing  the  first  of  "The  Letters  of 
the  British  Spy"  in  the  Richmond  Argus.  They 
came  out  anonymously  and  were  supposed  to  be 


419 


Wirt 

the  contemporary  observations  of  an  English 
traveler  upon  Virginian  society  and  other  mis- 
cellaneous topics.  The  authorship  was  at  once 
recognized,  and  the  letters  had  an  enormous  pop- 
ularity, going  through  numerous  editions  within 
a  few  years.  The  work  was  the  product  of  a  keen 
and  restless  mind  wearied  of  the  constraints  of 
its  professional  activity  and  wishing  to  roam  at 
leisure  and  further  afield.  Wirt  was,  in  fact,  a 
scholar  by  avocation.  With  little  formal  educa- 
tion, he  mastered  the  Latin  classics  and  read 
much  of  theological  and  other  lore.  The  Letters 
of  the  British  Spy  ( 1803)  was  followed  by  an  in- 
conspicuous series  of  essays  entitled  The  Rain- 
bow ( 1804). 

In  1806  Wirt  removed  his  residence  back  to 
Richmond.  His  legal  reputation  had  been  grow- 
ing rapidly,  and  during  the  next  year  was  given 
a  sensational  stimulus  by  his  appearance  in  the 
prosecution  of  the  case  against  Aaron  Burr  (E. 
B.  Williston,  Eloquence  of  the  United  States, 
1827,  IV,  394-417).  The  increased  prestige  which 
the  Burr  trial  brought  Wirt  prompted  Jeffer- 
son to  propose  that  he  seek  a  seat  in  Congress 
{The  Writings  of  Thomas  Jefferson,  vol.  XI, 
1904,  p.  423) ,  but  he  declined  the  suggestion.  He 
did,  however,  take  an  active  part  in  supporting 
Madison's  campaign  for  the  presidency  and  pub- 
lished several  letters  in  his  behalf  in  the  Rich- 
mond Enquirer.  The  unexpected  sequel  to  this 
series  of  events  of  1808  was  his  election  to  the 
House  of  Delegates.  This  was  the  only  post  to 
which  he  was  ever  elected  by  the  people,  and  he 
retired  from  it  at  the  end  of  one  term.  He  did 
not  care  for  the  life  of  a  politician  He  was  am- 
bitious, however,  for  literary  fame,  and  in  1810 
started  the  publication  of  another  series  of  essays 
which  he  called  "The  Old  Bachelor."  Thirty- 
three  numbers  were  published,  the  last  appearing 
in  1813,  but,  though  they  had  a  degree  of  success 
and  went  through  several  editions  in  book  form, 
they  did  not  acquire  the  popularity  attained  by 
The  Letters  of  the  British  Spy.  In  18 14,  Wash- 
ington having  been  captured  by  the  British,  Wirt 
took  the  field  as  captain  of  artillery,  but  this  was 
only  a  measure  of  home  defense.  His  earlier 
dreams  of  military  glory  had  vanished.  His  one 
ambition  was  to  acquire  a  competency  and  re- 
tire to  the  country  to  live  a  life  of  literary  ease. 
This  dream,  however,  was  never  to  be  realized. 
In  1816  he  argued  his  first  case  before  the  Su- 
preme Court  of  the  United  States,  and  shortly 
thereafter  was  appointed  by  President  Madison 
as  United  States  attorney  for  the  district  of  Rich- 
mond. 

The  autumn  of  181 7  saw  the  consummation  of 
the  two  major  phases  of  Wirt's  career.    After 


Wirt 

twelve  years  of  laborious  and  oft-interrupted  ef- 
fort, he  now  published  his  Sketches  of  the  Life 
and  Character  of  Patrick  Henry  (1817).  This 
was  the  first  work  which  came  out  under  his  own 
name,  and  was  his  most  serious  literary  effort. 
His  material  was  acquired  largely  from  men  who 
had  known  Henry  and  it  was  presented  in  a  lau- 
datory and  ornate  manner.  The  biography  did 
not  exhibit  Wirt's  talents  at  their  best.  The  other 
consummation  was  his  appointment  by  President 
Monroe  to  the  attorney-generalship  of  the  United 
States,  which  post  he  held  for  twelve  consecutive 
years.  He  was  the  first  attorney  general  to  or- 
ganize the  work  of  the  office  and  to  make  a  sys- 
tematic practice  of  preserving  his  official  opin- 
ions so  that  they  might  serve  as  precedents  for 
his  successors  ("Opinions  of  the  Attorneys  Gen- 
eral of  the  United  States  from  the  Commence- 
ment of  the  Government  ...  to  the  1st  March, 
1841,"  26  Cong.,  2  Sess.,  House  Exec.  Doc.  No. 
123).  As  was  the  custom,  he  continued  his  pri- 
vate practice  and  was  much  engaged  in  the  Bal- 
timore courts.  In  1819  he  took  part  before  the 
Supreme  Court  in  the  cases  of  McCidloch  vs. 
Maryland  (4  Wheaton,  316)  and  the  Dartmouth 
College  case  (4  Wheaton,  518).  In  1824  he  was 
associated  with  Webster  in  the  case  of  Gibbons 
vs.  Ogden  (9  Wheaton,  1).  In  1826  he  was  ap- 
pointed president  of  the  University  of  Virginia 
and  professor  in  the  School  of  Law  {The  Writ- 
ings of  Thomas  Jefferson,  Vol.  XIX,  1903,  p. 
492),  but  declined  the  honor.  In  the  autumn  of 
this  year  a  service  in  memory  of  Thomas  Jeffer- 
son and  John  Adams  was  held  in  the  hall  of  the 
House  of  Representatives,  and  Wirt  delivered 
the  principal  address  (E.  B.  Williston,  Eloquence 
of  the  United  States,  1827,  V,  454-503). 

While  the  election  of  1824  was  in  progress, 
Wirt  took  no  part  in  the  contest.  When  John 
Quincy  Adams  became  president,  he  urged  the 
attorney  general  to  retain  his  post,  and  this 
Wirt  did.  When  Andrew  Jackson  succeeded 
Adams  in  1829,  Wirt  returned  to  private  life  and 
removed  his  residence  to  Baltimore  where  he 
continued  his  professional  activities  to  the  end 
of  his  life.  Having  cast  his  lot  with  the  opposi- 
tion to  Jackson,  Wirt  favored  Henry  Clay  for 
the  succession  in  1831  and  was  chosen  to  sit  for 
Baltimore  in  the  national  Whig  convention. 
Shortly  afterward  the  Anti-Masons  held  a  con- 
vention in  that  city  and  named  Wirt  as  their 
candidate  for  the  presidency.  Strangely  enough 
he  accepted  the  candidacy  in  the  belief  that,  since 
Anti-Masons  would  not  support  Clay,  he  might 
be  nominated  by  the  Whigs  and  thus  unite  both 
groups  against  Jackson.  But  the  Whigs  refused 
to  desert  Clay,  whereupon  Wirt  wished  to  with* 


420 


Wirt 


Wise 


draw  his  candidacy  but  could  not  do  so  without 
seeming  to  desert  those  who  had  nominated  him. 
Thus  he  was  an  unwilling  candidate  for  the  presi- 
dency in  1832.  As  far  as  Masonry  was  concerned, 
he  joined  the  order  in  his  youth,  had  had  little 
contact  with  it  in  later  years,  and  was  apparently 
not  greatly  concerned  over  this  issue  in  the  elec- 
tion, his  principal  object  being  to  unite  all  forces 
against  the  administration. 

Shortly  after  his  retirement  from  office,  Wirt 
attempted  to  establish  a  colony  of  German  immi- 
grants on  a  tract  of  land  which  he  owned  in 
Florida,  but  the  immigrants  decamped  and  the 
experiment  failed.  He  had  hoped  that  this  set- 
tlement would  serve  as  a  retreat  for  himself  and 
his  family  during  his  declining  years,  but  this 
was  not  to  be.  After  a  brief  illness  he  died  in 
Washington  of  erysipelas  on  Feb.  18,  1834.  The 
Supreme  Court  and  both  houses  of  Congress  ad- 
journed to  do  him  honor,  and  the  President  of 
the  United  States  and  the  highest  officers  of  the 
government  accompanied  his  body  to  its  tomb  in 
the  National  Cemetery.  He  had  twelve  children 
by  his  second  marriage,  of  whom  seven  or  eight 
lived  to  maturity  (Perry,  post,  p.  530). 

William  Wirt  was  an  unusual  figure  in  the 
annals  of  America.  His  generous  features  bore 
some  resemblance  to  those  of  the  poet  Goethe — 
ample  brow,  large  whimsical  mouth,  kindly 
twinkling  eyes,  and  a  shock  of  curly  hair.  He 
was  by  nature  endowed  with  a  vivid  imagination, 
a  keen  love  of  music  and  of  life,  and  an  ingenu- 
ous, playful  disposition.  He  was  never  fond  of 
work,  and  his  personal  charm  and  oratorical  gifts 
were  always  his  major  weapons.  His  early  style 
of  speaking  and  of  writing  was  ornate,  but,  later 
realizing  the  necessity  for  rigid,  logical  thinking, 
he  tried  to  correct  this  fault.  The  fact  that  his 
reputation  rests  largely  upon  his  opinions  as  at- 
torney general  shows  that  he  succeeded. 

[The  first  account  of  the  life  of  Wirt  was  written  by 
P.  H.  Cruse  and  published  with  the  tenth  edition  of  The 
Letters  of  the  British  Spy  (1832).  Making  use  of  this 
work  and  of  a  large  collection  of  correspondence,  J.  P. 
Kennedy  published  his  well-known  Memoirs  of  the  Life 
of  William  IVirt  (2  vols.,  1849;  new  and  revised  ed., 
2  vols.,  1850).  Though  many  other  briefer  notices  have 
appeared,  practically  nothing  of  importance  has  been 
added.  P.  W.  Gilmer,  Sketches,  Essays  and  Transla- 
tions (1828)  gives  a  florid  description  of  Wirt's  elo- 
quence. The  account  in  F.  W.  Thomas,  John  Randolph 
of  Roanoke  and  Other  Sketches  (1853),  was  written 
before  the  appearance  of  Kennedy's  biography.  Among 
more  recent  notices  are  H.  H.  Hagan,  in  Eight  Great 
American  Lawyers  (1923)  ;  H.  W.  Scott,  in  Distin- 
guished American  Lawyers  ( 1 89 1 )  ;  J.  H.  Hall,  in  W.  D. 
Lewis,  ed..  Great  American  Lawyers,  vol.  II  (1907); 
and  B.  F.  Perry,  in  Biographical  Sketches  of  Eminent 
American  Statesmen  (1887).  Selections  from  Wirt's 
writings  have  appeared  in  E.  C.  Stedman  and  E.  M. 
Hutchinson,  eds.,  A  Library  of  American  Literature 
(11  vols.,  1888-89)  ;  E.  A.  and  G.  L.  Duyckinck,  eds., 
Cyclopaedia  of  American  Literature  (2  vols.,  1855)  ; 
and  elsewhere.    In  addition  to  the  correspondence  pub- 


lished in  Kennedy's  work,  there  are  letters  in  N.  W. 
Edwards,  A  History  of  Illinois  from  1778  to  1833  and 
Life  and  Times  of  Ninian  Edwards  (1870)  ;  Reminis- 
cences of  Patrick  Henry  in  the  Letters  of  Thomas  Jef- 
ferson to  William  Wirt  (1911)  ;  and  in  other  collec- 
tions of  the  correspondence  of  Jefferson.  For  obituary 
see  Daily  National  Intelligencer,  Feb.  19-21,  1834.] 

T.  P.  A. 

WISE,  AARON  (May  2,  1844-Mar.  30,  1896), 
rabbi,  was  born  at  Erlau,  Hungary,  the  son  of 
Rabbi  Joseph  Hirsch  Weisz  and  Rachel  Theresa 
(Rosenfeld)  Weisz.  His  family  had  been  repre- 
sented in  the  rabbinate  for  over  two  hundred 
years,  Wise  being  the  sixth  in  direct  succession 
to  hold  rabbinical  office.  His  earliest  Hebrew 
education  was  directed  by  his  father.  Later  he 
studied  in  Talmudical  schools  of  Hungary,  and 
especially  under  Israel  Hildesheimer  at  the  Jew- 
ish Seminary  of  Eisenstadt,  where  he  received 
the  degree  of  rabbi  (1867).  He  then  attended 
the  universities  of  Berlin,  Leipzig,  and  Halle, 
and  received  from  the  latter  the  degree  of  Ph.D., 
his  thesis  dealing  with  angelology  and  demonol- 
ogy  in  rabbinic  writing.  For  several  years  he 
served  as  superintendent  of  schools  in  his  native 
town.  In  1870  he  married  Sabine  de  Fischer 
Farkashazy,  daughter  of  Moritz  de  Fischer  Far- 
kashazy,  the  industrialist.  He  was  for  a  time 
identified  with  the  extreme  orthodox  party  in 
Hungary,  acting  as  secretary  of  the  organization 
Shomre  Ha-Dath  (Observers  of  the  Law),  and 
editing  a  Judeo-German  weekly  in  its  support. 
In  1874  he  emigrated  to  the  United  States,  and 
became  rabbi  of  congregation  Beth  Elohim  in 
Brooklyn.  In  March  1875  he  was  called  to  the 
pulpit  of  Temple  Rodeph  Sholom  of  New  York, 
and  served  it  for  the  rest  of  his  life.  When  he 
came  to  the  pulpit  of  Rodeph  Sholom,  the  younger 
members  of  this  orthodox  congregation  showed 
a  decided  leaning  towards  reform.  The  older 
members,  on  the  other  hand,  were  averse  to 
changes.  Wise  steered  a  middle  course,  modern- 
izing the  temple  services  in  some  ways  while  re- 
taining many  of  the  old  time-honored  customs 
and  ritual  practices.  He  gave  a  prominent  place 
to  the  study  of  Hebrew  in  the  religious  school  of 
the  congregation,  and  made  it  the  cornerstone  of 
the  curriculum  at  a  time  when  many  were  rele- 
gating Hebrew  to  the  background  or  omitting  it 
altogether.  He  edited  a  new  prayer-book,  The 
Temple  Sendee  (1891),  for  the  congregation, 
and  instituted  Sabbath  eve  services  at  eight 
o'clock  instead  of  at  sundown.  Under  his  minis- 
try, his  congregation  became  conservatively  re- 
formed in  character  and  grew  to  be  one  of  the 
influential  Jewish  congregations  in  New  York 
City. 

A  profound  Hebrew  scholar  and  a  man  of  wide 
culture,  he  assisted  Bernard  Fischer  in  his  revi- 


421 


Wise 


Wise 


sion  of  Johann  Buxtorf's  Hebrew  lexicon.  He 
was  a  member  of  the  Society  of  German  Oriental 
Scholars  (Deutsche  Morgenl'dndische  Gelehrten- 
Gescllschaft).  He  contributed  to  the  yearbook  of 
the  Jewish  Ministers'  Association  of  America 
and  to  other  periodicals,  and  was  for  some  time 
editor  of  the  Jewish  Herald  of  New  York  and  of 
the  Boston  Hebreiv  Observer.  Besides  his  revi- 
sion of  the  prayer-book  he  also  wrote  Beth 
Aharon,  a  handbook  for  religious  schools.  He 
was  closely  identified  with  the  charitable  organi- 
zations and  activities  of  his  community.  In  1891 
he  founded  the  sisterhood  of  his  temple,  which 
subsequently  established  the  Aaron  Wise  Indus- 
trial School  in  his  memory.  He  gave  liberally  of 
his  time  and  energy  to  the  Hebrew  free  schools 
maintained  by  his  congregation  as  an  offset  to 
Christian  missionary  activities  which  were  then 
actively  directed  towards  the  proselytizing  of  the 
Jewish  youth.  He  was  well  known  for  his  per- 
sonal charities.  He  was  one  of  the  founders  of 
the  Jewish  Theological  Seminary  of  New  York 
in  1886.  He  was  a  preacher  of  eloquence,  force- 
fulness,  and  sincerity.  His  humanity,  good  na- 
ture, ready  wit,  and  engaging  personality  made 
him  especially  beloved  in  his  congregation  and 
popular  in  the  community  at  large.  He  died  in 
New  York.  He  was  survived  by  his  widow,  three 
sons,  and  three  daughters,  one  of  his  sons,  Ste- 
phen Samuel  Wise  (b.  1872)  following  the  rab- 
binical traditions  of  the  family. 

[Sources  include  Isaac  Markens,  The  Hebrews  in 
America  (1888)  ;  Hist,  of  the  Congregation  Rodcph 
Sholom  of  N.  Y.,  1842-1892  (1892);  Jewish  Encyc.; 
Am  Hebrew  (N.  Y.)  and  Jewish  Messenger  (N.  Y.), 
Apr.  3.  1896;  N.  Y.  Herald,  Mar.  31,  1896;  World 
(N.  Y.)  and  N.  Y.  Daily  Tribune,  Mar.  31,  Apr.  3, 
1896;  information  from  Dr.  Stephen  S.  Wise.] 

D.deS.P. 

WISE,    DANIEL    (Jan.    10,    1813-Dec.    19, 

1898),  Methodist  Episcopal  clergyman,  editor, 
writer,  was  born  in  Portsmouth,  Hampshire, 
England,  the  son  of  Daniel  and  Mary  Wise.  His 
formal  education  was  received  in  the  grammar 
school  of  Portsmouth,  and  in  a  classical  school  of 
which  officials  of  Christ  Church,  Oxford,  were 
the  patrons.  After  leaving  school  he  was  ap- 
prenticed to  a  grocer,  but  soon  opened  an  acad- 
emy in  Portsmouth. 

In  1833  he  emigrated  to  the  United  States  and 
went  to  Grafton  County,  N.  H.,  where  he  taught 
school.  Having  been  converted  under  Methodist 
influences  in  England,  in  1834,  at  Lisbon,  N.  H., 
he  was  made  a  local  preacher  by  the  quarterly 
conference  of  the  Landaff  Circuit.  His  gifts  as 
a  writer  and  speaker  were  at  once  recognized  and 
in  addition  to  preaching  he  lectured  frequently, 
especially  in  behalf  of  the  anti-slavery  cause. 
Removing  to  Massachusetts  in  1837,  he  supplied 


churches  at  Hingham  and  Quincy  and  was  em- 
ployed by  anti-slavery  societies.  Always  literary 
in  his  tastes,  he  also  edited  the  Sunday  School 
Messenger  ( 1838-44),  said  to  have  been  the  first 
Methodist  publication  of  its  kind,  and  the  Ladies' 
Pearl  ( 1840-43) ,  a  monthly  magazine  for  the  edi- 
fication of  women.  In  1840  he  was  received  into 
the  New  England  Conference  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  on  trial,  but  was  not  ordained 
elder  until  1843.  Meanwhile,  he  served  churches 
in  Ipswich,  Lowell,  and  Springfield.  When  in 
1843  a  considerable  number  of  Methodists  with- 
drew from  the  Church  and  formed  the  Wesleyan 
Connection,  a  non-episcopal  and  anti-slavery  de- 
nomination, Wise  was  inclined  to  join  them,  and 
in  1844  was  without  pastoral  charge.  Finally  de- 
ciding to  remain  in  the  Methodist  Episcopal  fold, 
he  became,  in  1845,  a  member  of  the  Providence 
Conference.  During  the  next  twelve  years  he 
was  pastor  at  Nantucket,  Mass.,  Hope  Street 
Church,  Providence,  R.  I.,  and  Fall  River  and 
New  Bedford,  Mass. 

His  literary  abilities  and  his  reputation  as  a 
keen  controversialist  led  to  his  appointment  in 
1852  as  editor  of  Zion's  Herald.  Through  this 
publication  he  gave  strong  support 'to  those  who 
favored  the  exclusion  of  all  slaveholders  from 
the  Methodist  Church.  In  1856  the  General  Con- 
ference elected  him  corresponding  secretary  of 
the  Sunday  School  Union  and  editor  of  its  pub- 
lications. This  position  he  occupied  for  sixteen 
years,  after  i860  also  serving  the  Tract  Society 
in  the  same  capacities.  A  partial  failure  of  voice 
compelled  him  to  curtail  public  speaking  and 
after  1872  he  made  his  home  in  Englewood,  N.  J., 
and  devoted  himself  principally  to  writing.  For 
a  few  months  in  1887-88  he  was  editor  of  the 
Methodist  Reznew. 

His  books,  published  over  a  long  period,  were 
numerous  and  included  religious  works,  biog- 
raphies, and  stories  for  young  people,  many  of 
the  last  named  appearing  under  the  pseudonyms 
Lawrence  Lancewood  and  Francis  Forrester. 
Among  his  earlier  productions  were  The  Path  of 
Life :  or,  Sketches  of  the  Way  to  Glory  and  Im- 
mortality (1848)  ;  The  Young  Lady's  Counsellor 
(1852),  outlining  the  sphere  and  duties  of  young 
women  and  the  dangers  that  beset  them;  and 
Popular  Objections  to  Methodism,  Considered 
and  Answered  (1856).  His  biographical  writ- 
ings include  Uncrowned  Kings  (1875),  stories 
of  men  who  rose  from  obscurity  to  renown ; 
Heroic  Methodists  of  the  Olden  Times  (1882)  ; 
and  a  series  of  brief  sketches  of  English  and 
American  literary  figures,  including  among 
others,  Spenser,  Shakespeare,  Milton,  Addison, 
Carlyle,  Wordsworth,  Longfellow,  and  Irving. 


422 


Wise 

These  sketches  all  appeared  in  1883.  Wise  was 
most  widely  known  perhaps  for  his  tales  for 
young  people,  written  with  a  moral  and  religious 
purpose.  Their  character  is  suggested  by  such 
titles  as  Dick  Duncan:  The  Story  of  a  Boy  Who 
Loved  Mischief  (i860);  Jessie  Carlton:  The 
Story  of  a  Girl  Who  Fought  with  Little  Impulse 
the  Wizard  (1861);  and  Stephen  and  His 
Tempter  (1873).  Many  of  these  tales  appeared 
under  the  serial  titles  "Glen  Morris  Stories," 
"The  Lindendale  Stories,"  and  "The  Windwood 
Cliff  Series."  In  August  1836  Wise  was  mar- 
ried in  New  York  to  Sarah  Ann  Hill.  He  died  in 
Englewood,  survived  by  two  daughters. 

[Year  Book  of  the  New  England  Southern  Annual 
Conference,  1899  ;  Zion's  Herald,  Dec.  28,  1898  ;  Chris- 
tian Advocate  (N.  Y.),  Dec.  29,  1898;  Sun  (N.  Y.), 
Dec.  20,  1898.]  H.E.  S. 

WISE,  HENRY  ALEXANDER  (Dec.  3, 
1806-Sept.  12,  1876),  congressman,  governor  of 
Virginia,  Confederate  general,  was  born  at 
Drummondtown  (Accomac  Court  House),  Va. 
He  was  of  mixed  English  and  Scotch  descent, 
and  his  paternal  ancestors  had  been  prominent 
citizens  of  the  Eastern  Shore  of  Virginia  since 
the  first  John  Wise  arrived  from  Devonshire, 
England,  in  1635.  Henry's  father  was  Maj.  John 
Wise,  a  Washingtonian  Federalist  who  served 
in  the  Virginia  House  of  Delegates  from  1791  to 
1802  and  was  speaker  from  1794  to  1799.  Major 
Wise  was  married  twice,  the  second  time  to  Sarah 
Corbin  Cropper,  daughter  of  Gen.  John  Cropper 
of  Accomac  County,  an  ardent  Revolutionary  pa- 
triot. Sarah  was  "a  handsome  blonde  of  a  high- 
strung  nervous  temperament,  and  a  temper  of 
her  own"  (Barton  Wise,  post,  p.  8) — character- 
istics that  reappeared  in  her  son,  Henry. 

Left  an  orphan  at  an  early  age,  Henry  lived 
a  free  country  life.  After  preparation  by  private 
tutors  and  at  a  classical  school  in  Accomac  Coun- 
ty he  was  sent  to  Washington  College,  Washing- 
ton, Pa.,  and  was  graduated  with  honors  in  1825. 
Later  he  attended  for  two  years  the  law  school 
of  Judge  Henry  St.  George  Tucker  [q.v.~\  of 
Winchester,  Va.,  an  expounder  of  the  old  Vir- 
ginia doctrine  of  state  rights.  In  1828  Wise 
opened  a  law  office  in  Nashville,  Tenn.,  and  on 
Oct.  8  married  Ann  Eliza  Jennings,  daughter  of 
a  Presbyterian  minister.  Two  years  later  he  re- 
turned to  Accomac  County  and  resumed  there 
his  legal  practice. 

In  1833  he  ran  for  Congress  as  a  Jackson  Dem- 
ocrat and,  although  his  district  was  largely  Nul- 
lificationist,  made  a  vigorous  speaking  tour  and 
won  a  notable  personal  triumph.  Strong  words 
used  in  the  campaign,  however,  led  to  a  duel  with 
his  opponent,  Richard  Coke  [q.z'.~\  and  Coke  was 


Wise 

slightly  wounded.  Wise  was  continued  in  Con- 
gress until  his  resignation  in  1844.  Despite  his 
youth,  he  soon  made  a  reputation  as  a  debater  and 
speaker  ol  the  "old-fashioned  florid,  denuncia- 
tory type."  A  tactless  and  unduly  aggressive  de- 
fender of  Southern  rights,  he  became  the  chief 
antagonist  of  John  Quincy  Adams  [q.z\~\  in  his 
effort  to  repeal  the  "Gag  Law"  against  anti-slav- 
ery petitions.  Breaking  with  Jackson  on  the 
bank  question,  with  sixteen  other  members  of 
Congress,  the  "Awkward  Squad,"  he  went  over 
to  the  heterogeneous  Whig  party.  He  later  vig- 
orously opposed  Van  Buren,  ran  in  1840  as  a 
Whig  elector,  and  made  a  strenuous  canvass  for 
the  successful  Harrison-Tyler  ticket. 

In  1837  the  house  occupied  by  his  family  in 
Drummondtown  was  set  on  fire  by  an  incendiary, 
and  his  wife's  consequent  dread  and  anxiety 
caused  her  to  give  birth  prematurely  to  a  child 
and  brought  on  the  illness  from  which  she  died.~ 
The  next  year  he  became  involved  as  a  second  in 
a  duel  between  two  congressmen,  W.  J.  Graves 
and  Jonathan  Cilley,  but  the  opprobium  he  re- 
ceived was  partly  undeserved.  In  November  1840 
he  was  married  to  Sarah  Sergeant  of  Philadel- 
phia, daughter  of  John  Sergeant,  1 779-1852 
[q.v.1. 

Wise  had  been  partly  responsible  for  the  nomi- 
nation of  Tyler  as  vice-president  in  1840,  and 
after  the  death  of  Harrison  became  President 
Tyler's  close  friend  and  the  leader  of  the  Tyler 
adherents  in  Congress.  He  declined  the  navy 
portfolio  in  Tyler's  cabinet  and  his  appointment 
as  minister  to  France  (1843)  was  rejected  by  the 
Senate.  Grateful  to  George  McDuffie  and  John 
C.  Calhoun  [qq.?:~\  for  their  friendship  in  the 
latter  connection  and  anxious  to  obtain  as  suc- 
cessor to  A.  P.  Upshur  [q.v.~\  a  secretary  of  state 
in  favor  of  the  annexation  of  Texas,  Wise,  in  a 
typical  "spirit  of  rashness,"  exceeded  his  author- 
ity from  Tyler  by  offering  Calhoun,  through  Mc- 
Duffie, the  appointment  to  the  office.  Tyler  was 
pained  and  indignant  but  promptly  ratified  Wise's 
offer  (Tyler,  post,  II,  293-94)  and  thus  alienated 
the  Benton  faction.  Shortly  before,  Jan.  19,  1844, 
Tyler  had  appointed  Wise  minister  to  Brazil. 
Here  he  manifested  active  opposition  to  the  slave 
trade.  In  1847  he  returned  to  Accomac  County 
and  resumed  his  legal  practice. 

Though  an  outspoken  defender  of  slavery, 
Wise  was  in  many  respects  liberal  and  progres- 
sive. This  attitude  was  now  shown  successively 
in  his  connection  with  the  Virginia  constitutional 
convention  of  1850-51,  in  his  opposition  to  the 
Know-Nothing  movement,  and  in  some  of  his  ac- 
tions as  governor  of  Virginia.  For  many  dec- 
ades the  western  part  of  the  state  had  complained 


423 


Wise 

of  unfair  domination  by  the  eastern  part,  and  be- 
fore 1850  there  had  even  been  threats  of  separa- 
tion. At  the  same  time  Wise  was  characterizing 
his  own  eastern  district  as  "old,  moss-grown,  and 
slip-shod"  and  in  speeches  to  the  people  was 
pleading'  with  them  to  awaken.  Moreover,  as 
early  as  1837,  while  praising  the  many  fine  quali- 
ties of  the  Southern  people,  he  had  condemned 
their  undue  admiration  for  "old  things  and  ways" 
and  declared  many  were  "too  metaphysical  and 
likely,  as  Mr.  Letcher  used  to  say  of  old  Virginia, 
to  die  of  an  abstraction"  (Barton  Wise,  post, 
p.  142). 

Seeking  election  as  a  delegate  to  the  constitu- 
tional convention,  Wise  spoke  courageously  in 
favor  of  the  white  basis  of  representation.  He 
was  the  only  white-basis  delegate  elected  east  of 
the  Blue  Ridge ;  he  won  great  popularity  in  the 
western  counties,  but  an  eastern  organ,  the  Rich- 
mond Whig  (June  4,  1850),  branded  him  as  a 
modern  Jack  Cade.  On  the  convention  floor  he 
was  one  of  the  most  important  figures  and  played 
a  prominent  part  in  securing  the  compromise 
suffrage  and  taxation  reforms.  During  the  con- 
ventions he  lost  his  second  wife,  a  pious  North- 
ern lady  never  wholly  reconciled  to  slavery  even 
in  the  benevolent  form  displayed  on  her  hus- 
band's plantation.  In  November  1853  he  married 
Mary  Elizabeth  Lyons,  sister  of  James  Lyons,  a 
prominent  Richmond  lawyer. 

Wise  was  a  delegate  to  the  Democratic  con- 
vention of  1852  and  played  an  important  part  in 
transferring  the  support  of  the  Virginia  delega- 
tion to  Franklin  Pierce,  thus  helping  to  secure 
his  nomination.  In  1854  he  was  nominated  by  a 
combination  of  Tidewater  and  Trans-Allegheny 
delegates  as  Democratic  candidate  for  governor 
of  Virginia.  The  ensuing  campaign  against  the 
Know-Nothing  candidate  was  one  of  "the  most 
exciting  in  the  history  of  the  state.  Wise  stumped 
the  state  to  the  Ohio  border ;  a  person  present 
when  one  of  his  speeches  was  delivered  wrote 
that  it  required  about  three  hours  and  a  half  and 
"for  argument,  wit,  satire,  and  lofty  eloquence" 
he  never  heard  it  surpassed  (Goode,  post,  p.  34). 
He  not  only  condemned  the  Know-Nothings  for 
their  secrecy  and  intolerance  but  declared  they 
bore  an  Abolitionist  taint.  He  also  dwelt  on  his 
favorite  topics  of  public  improvements  and  in- 
dustrial development  of  the  state.  He  was  elect- 
ed governor  by  a  majority  of  10,180  and  broke 
the  force  of  the  Know-Nothing  wave  in  the 
South.  It  must  be  remembered,  however,  that  the 
Catholic  issue  was  unimportant.  Wise  was  gov- 
ernor from  1856  to  i860.  He  continued  to  advo- 
cate internal  improvements,  advanced  a  scheme 
for  state  insurance  of  life  and  property,  and  en- 


Wise 

deavored  to  reorganize  and  improve  the  arma- 
ment of  the  state  militia ;  but  as  governor  he  is 
best  known  for  his  very  active  if  somewhat  ex- 
cited role  in  quelling  the  John  Brown  raid.  Tt 
has  been  argued  that  he  should  have  given  more 
heed  to  the  evidence  of  John  Brown's  insanity, 
but  this  view  fails  to  appreciate  sufficiently  the 
prevailing  state  of  mind. 

Following  his  triumph  over  the  Know-Noth- 
ings, Wise  was  considered  as  a  possible  candi- 
date for  the  presidency.  His  influence  did  much 
to  hold  the  Virginia  delegation  to  Buchanan  in 
the  Democratic  convention  of  1856,  and  he  doubt- 
less hoped  to  be  the  second  choice  in  case  of  Bu- 
chanan's defeat.  He  thus  became  largely  respon- 
sible for  Buchanan's  nomination  and  was  hailed 
by  Robert  Tyler  [q.Z'.],  then  of  Pennsylvania,  a 
Buchanan  manager,  as  "the  Warwick  of  the 
hour"  (Auchampaugh  manuscript,  post,  quoting 
Tyler  letter).  Wise  was  disappointed,  however, 
in  the  amount  of  influence  he  obtained  over  Bu- 
chanan. 

A  delegate  to  the  Virginia  convention  of  1861, 
Wise  favored  "fighting  in  the  union" — uphold- 
ing Southern  rights,  by  force  if  necessary,  with- 
out secession — but  yielded  to  the  demand  for  se- 
cession and  became  a  fiery  advocate  of  the  South- 
ern Confederacy.  Although  past  middle  age  and 
without  military  training,  he  volunteered  for 
service  and  in  May  1861  was  made  brigadier- 
general.  This  appointment  was  largely  political 
but  added  strength  in  the  western  part  of  Vir- 
ginia. Wise  raised  a  legion  in  that  section ; 
served  there  and  at  Roanoke  Island,  N.  C,  where 
his  son,  Capt.  O.  Jennings  Wise,  formerly  editor 
of  the  Richmond  Enquirer,  was  mortally  wound- 
ed ;  and  later  served  on  the  South  Carolina  coast, 
in  the  defense  of  Richmond  and  Petersburg,  and 
in  the  retreat  to  Appomattox.  As  a  general  he 
was  too  independent  and  outspoken  to  fit  well 
into  the  Davis  military  administration,  but  dis- 
played his  usual  aggressive  courage.  On  the  day 
following  the  battle  of  Sailor's  Creek,  Apr.  6, 
1865,  Gen.  Robert  E.  Lee  promoted  Wise  to  the 
rank  of  major-general.  Gen.  Fitzhugh  Lee,  in 
his  final  report,  declared  that  "the  disheartening 
surrounding  influences"  during  the  retreat  to 
Appomattox  had  no  effect  upon  Wise,  and  that 
his  spirit  was  as  unconquerable  as  four  years 
before. 

After  the  war  he  practised  law  in  Richmond, 
most  of  the  time  with  his  son  John  S.  Wise 
[q.v.'].  Though  without  sympathy  for  the  Radi- 
cal party  in  the  state,  he  opposed  the  method  of 
rehabilitation  devised  by  the  Conservative  or- 
ganization. He  would  never  ask  for  amnesty  for 
himself,  but  urged  the  young  Virginians  to  make 


424 


Wise 


Wise 


the  best  of  the  new  conditions.  A  man  of  tall, 
very  lean  appearance  and  piercing  eyes,  an  invet- 
erate chewer  and  swearer,  rough  but  warm- 
hearted, of  great  ability,  though  lacking  in  mod- 
eration and  judgment,  he  was  one  of  the  last  of 
the  great  individualists  in  Virginia  history.  He 
wrote  Seven  Decades  of  the  Union  ( 1872),  most- 
ly a  review  and  eulogy  of  the  life  of  President 
Tyler.  He  died  in  Richmond,  survived  by  his 
wife,  two  sons,  and  three  daughters. 

[J.  C.  Wise,  Col.  John  Wise  of  England  and  Va. 
(1918);  Barton  Wise,  The  Life  of  Henry  A.  Wise 
(1899)  ;  J.  S.  Wise,  The  End  of  an  Era  (1899)  ;  L.  G. 
Tyler,  The  Letters  and  Times  of  the  Tylers  (2  vols., 
1884-85);  War  of  the  Rebellion:  Official  Records 
{Army)  ;  State  Executive  Documents,  Va.  State  Lib.  ; 
J.  P.  Hambleton,  A  Biog.  Sketch  of  Henry  A.  Wise 
(1856);  Biog.  Dir.  Am.  Cong.  (1928);  John  Goode, 
Recollections  of  a  Lifetime  (1906)  ;  C.  H.  Ambler,  Sec- 
tionalism in  Va.  (1910)  ;  J.  C.  McGregor,  The  Disrup- 
tion of  Va.  (1922)  ;  Mrs.  A.  G.  Beach,  in  Ohio  Archae- 
ological and  Hist.  Quart.,  Oct.  1930  ;  H.  T.  Shanks,  The 
Secession  Movement  in  Va.  (1934);  P.  G.  Aucham- 
paugh,  Robert  Tyler:  Southern  Rights  Champion 
(1934);  Clement  Eaton,  in  Miss.  Valley  Hist.  Rev., 
Mar.  1935  ;  MSS.  of  C.  L.  Eaton  and  P.  G.  Aucham- 
paugh,  containing  copies  of.  Wise's  letters  ;  Dispatch 
(Richmond),  Sept.  13,  1876;  information  from  L.  G. 
Tyler  and  other  Virginians.]  R  D.  M. 

WISE,  HENRY  AUGUSTUS  (May  24, 1819- 
Apr.  2,  1869),  naval  officer,  author,  was  born  at 
the  navy  yard  in  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  the  second  son 
of  Capt.  George  Stewart  Wise  of  the  United 
States  Navy  and  Catherine  (Stansberry)  Wise, 
member  of  a  prominent  Delaware  family.  He 
was  a  descendant  of  John  Wise  who  settled  in 
Virginia  in  the  first  half  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury. After  his  father's  death  about  1824,  Wise 
was  taken  to  Craney  Island  near  Norfolk,  Va., 
where  he  was  reared  in  the  home  of  his  grand- 
father, George  Douglas  Wise.  In  1834,  at  fif- 
teen, he  was  appointed  midshipman  by  his  kins- 
man and  guardian.  Henry  Alexander  Wise  [q.v.~] , 
receiving  his  training,  as  was  customary  at  the 
time,  on  shipboard.  During  the  Mexican  War 
he  served  on  the  razee  Independent  and  partici- 
pated in  naval  operations  in  the  Gulf  of  Cali- 
fornia. He  once  carried  important  dispatches 
through  the  hostile  lines  from  Mazatlan  to  Mex- 
ico City,  a  feat  which  he  was  able  to  perform  be- 
cause of  his  somewhat  dark  coloring  and  his  fa- 
miliarity with  the  language  of  the  country.  His 
experiences  during  the  war  are  described  in  Los 
Gringos,  or  an  Inside  View  of  Mexico  and  Cali- 
fornia, with  Wanderings  in  Pern,  Chili,  and 
Polynesia  (1849).  A  later  book,  Tales  for  the 
Marines  (1855),  tells  much  of  his  early  life  in 
the  navy.  In  1849  Wise  was  stationed  in  Califor- 
nia at  what  later  became  the  San  Francisco  navy 
yard.  Meantime  he  had  been  promoted  through 
the  grades ;  in  1840  he  was  made  a  passed  mid- 
shipman, in  1846  a  master,  and  in  1847  a  lieu- 


tenant. During  the  next  two  decades  he  contin- 
ued to  find  some  time  for  his  writing  and  pub- 
lished Scampaz'ias  from  Gibel-Tarck  to  Stani- 
boul  ( 1857) ,  The  Story  of  the  Gray  African  Par- 
rot (i860),  which  was  a  book  for  children,  and 
Captain  Brand,  of  the  "Centipede"  (1864),  be- 
sides making  regular  contributions  to  scientific 
journals.  His  books,  which  were  all  written  in  a 
popular  manner,  were  published  under  the  pseu- 
donym of  Harry  Gringo.  Wise  also  became  rec- 
ognized as  an  authority  on  ordnance.  While  in 
France  recuperating  from  a  serious  injury,  he 
was  ordered  to  investigate  secretly  the  new 
Krupp  discoveries.  In  i860  he  was  sent  to  Japan 
as  a  member  of  the  United  States  Japanese  Com- 
mission. 

Upon  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War,  he  was 
subjected  to  a  severe  mental  ordeal.  He  had  a 
strong  traditional  attachment  to  Virginia,  but 
he  had  spent  most  of  his  life  in  the  navy,  and  his 
mother  and  his  wife  were  Northern  women.  He 
decided  it  was  his  duty  to  remain  in  the  Union 
navy  and,  by  a  cruel  order,  was  soon  sent  to 
Portsmouth,  near  his  early  home,  Craney  Island, 
to  burn  the  Gosport  navy  yard.  He  carried  out 
the  order  and  later  burned  the  Cumberland.  On 
July  16,  1862,  he  was  promoted  commander  and 
on  July  26  was  made  assistant  in  the  bureau  of 
ordnance,  "abandoned"  by  its  chief  and  principal 
clerks  at  the  outbreak  of  the  war.  In  the  respon- 
sible work  of  its  administration  Wise's  ability  as 
a  writer  and  his  knowledge  of  ordnance  problems 
proved  almost  invaluable,  and  his  unceasing  la- 
bor during  these  difficult  times  was  thought  to 
have  brought  on  the  disease  of  which  he  died 
(Army  and  Navy  Journal,  May  1,  1869).  On 
June  25,  1863,  he  was  appointed  acting  chief  of 
bureau ;  on  Aug.  25,  1864,  chief  of  bureau,  and 
on  Dec.  29,  1866,  captain.  In  1868  he  resigned 
the  bureau  position  and  was  given  a  leave  of  ab- 
sence. He  died  the  following  year  in  Naples, 
Italy.  On  Aug.  20,  1850,  he  had  been  married  to 
Charlotte  Brooks  Everett,  daughter  of  Edward 
Everett  [q.v.~\,  who  with  their  four  children  sur- 
vived him. 

His  service  record  shows  numerous  leaves  of 
absence,  the  result  in  most  cases  of  delicate 
health.  During  these  periods  he  traveled  and 
collected  material  for  his  writing.  Secretary  Gid- 
eon Welles  [<7.r'.],  no  gentle  critic,  described  him 
as  "pretty  sagacious,  but  mentally  timid,  though 
not,  I  apprehend,  wanting  in  physical  courage" 
(Diary,  post.  III,  123),  and  Admiral  David 
Dixon  Porter  [g.fc\]  praised  his  "indomitable 
energy"  as  chief  of  the  bureau  of  ordnance. 

[Sources  include  J.  C.  Wise,  Col.  John  Wise  .  .  . 
His  Ancestors  and  Descendants  (1918)  ;  War  of  the 
Rebellion:  Official  Records  (Navy);  E.  W.  Callahan, 


42  5 


Wise 

List  of  Officers  of  the  Navy  of  the  U.S....  1775-1900 
(1901)  ;  Diary  of  Gideon  Welles  (3  vols.,  191 1)  ;  Army 
and  Navy  Jour.,  May  1,  July  3,  1869  ;  N.  Y.  Daily  Trib- 
une, Apr.  12,  1869,  containing  extracts  from  Wise's 
testimony  before  the  Joint  Cong.  Committee  on  ord- 
nance, with  the  partisan  criticism  of  the  Tribune's  cor- 
respondent ;  information  from  Navy  Dept.  ;  N .  Y . 
Times,  June  23,  1869.  The  dates  of  birth  and  marriage 
are  from  Wise's  daughter.  There  is  correspondence  in 
MS.  with  Henry  Alexander  Wise  in  the  Lib.  of  Cong.] 

R.  D.M. 

WISE,  ISAAC  MAYER  (Mar.  29,  1819-Mar. 
26,  1900),  rabbi,  was  born  in  Steingrub,  Bohe- 
mia, the  son  of  Leo  and  Regina  (Weis)  Weis. 
Until  he  was  nine  the  boy  attended  his  father's 
private  Hebrew  day  school.  He  then  went  to 
live  with  his  grandfather,  Dr.  Isaiah  Weis,  a 
physician  in  the  town  of  Durmaul.  He  became  a 
pupil  in  the  Jewish  day  school  there  and  also  re- 
ceived private  instruction  from  his  grandfather, 
a  man  learned  in  Hebrew  lore.  At  twelve,  when 
his  grandfather  died,  he  was  thrown  upon  his 
own  resources,  the  father's  limited  means  making 
it  impossible  for  him  to  do  anything  for  the  boy. 
Though  so  young,  he  had  already  decided  upon 
the  rabbinate  as  his  career.  He  therefore  jour- 
neyed to  Prague,  one  of  the  chief  centers  of 
Jewish  learning  in  Europe,  where  he  attended 
several  rabbinical  schools,  notably  that  conduct- 
ed by  Rabbi  Samuel  Freund,  a  great  Talmudist. 
In  1835  he  entered  the  most  famous  rabbinical 
school  in  Bohemia,  that  of  Rabbi  Aaron  Korn- 
feld  in  Jenikau.  Two  years  later  the  government 
issued  a  decree  to  the  effect  that  any  candidate 
for  the  rabbinate  must  pursue  certain  studies  at 
the  gymnasium  and  the  university  before  he 
would  be  permitted  to  enter  the  active  ministry. 
Young  Weis  therefore  returned  to  Prague,  where 
he  attended  the  gymnasium  and  studied  at  the 
university  for  two  years,  and  later  went  to  the 
University  of  Vienna  for  one  year.  When  he 
was  twenty-three  he  appeared  before  a  rab- 
binical court,  or  Beth  Din,  composed  of  three  fa- 
mous rabbis,  Solomon  Judah  Rappaport,  Samuel 
Freund,  and  Ephraim  Loeb  Teweles,  who  con- 
ferred on  him  the  title  of  rabbi.  On  Oct.  26, 
1843,  ne  was  elected  rabbi  of  the  congregation  in 
the  town  of  Radnitz,  Bohemia.  He  was  married 
on  May  26,  1844,  to  Therese  Bloch  (d.  1874), 
daughter  of  a  Jewish  merchant  in  the  neighbor- 
ing town  of  Grafenried,  by  whom  he  had  ten 
children.  The  restrictions  and  inhibitions  then 
still  in  force  against  the  Jews  in  Bohemia  and  in 
the  conduct  of  the  rabbinical  office  fretted  him, 
and  he  had  several  unpleasant  encounters  with 
governmental  functionaries.  Becoming  infected 
with  the  American  fever,  as  he  expressed  it  many 
years  later,  he  departed  from  Radnitz  in  May 
1846  and  arrived  in  New  York,  July  23.  It  was 
probably  about  this  time  that  he  changed  the 


Wise 

spelling  of  his  name.  Through  the  aid  of  Max 
Lilienthal  \_q.v.~],  to  whom  he  had  a  letter  of  in- 
troduction, he  was  enabled  to  gain  a  foothold  in 
his  profession.  In  September  1846  he  was  elect- 
ed rabbi  of  the  Jewish  congregation  of  Albany, 
N.  Y.  He  espoused  the  cause  of  liberal  Judaism 
from  the  start.  He  remained  in  Albany  until 
1854,  when  he  was  elected  rabbi  of  the  Bene 
Yeshurun  congregation  of  Cincinnati.  He  offi- 
ciated there  until  the  time  of  his  death  in  1900. 

After  a  few  months  in  Cincinnati  he  began 
publishing  a  weekly  newspaper,  the  Israelite 
(later  the  American  Israelite).  Appalled  by  the 
religious  disorganization  among  the  Jews  in  the 
United  States,  he  devoted  his  unusual  talent  for 
organization  first  towards  urging  a  union  of  the 
congregations  of  the  country,  second  towards  es- 
tablishing a  theological  seminary,  and  third  to- 
wards founding  a  rabbinical  conference.  As  early 
as  1848  he  had  issued  an  appeal  for  a  union  of 
the  congregations,  the  first  document  of  the  kind 
to  appear  in  the  United  States.  This  document, 
entitled  "To  the  Ministers  and  Other  Israelites," 
is  remarkable  in  that  the  young  enthusiast  laid 
down  in  it  the  program  which  guided  his  activity 
for  the  next  quarter  century.  In  July  1873  the 
Union  of  American  Hebrew  Congregations  was 
organized,  which  from  very  small  beginnings  at- 
tained country-wide  proportions.  The  second  of 
his  great  projects  was  realized  with  the  founding 
on  Oct.  3,  1875,  of  the  Hebrew  Union  College, 
an  institution  for  the  education  of  rabbis.  At  this 
time  all  the  rabbis  in  the  country  were  foreign- 
born  and  had  been  educated  in  European  schools. 
Wise  felt  that  Israel  in  the  United  States  was 
orphaned  so  long  as  the  congregations  were  not 
shepherded  by  men  of  American  training  and 
filled  with  the  American  spirit.  He  served  as 
president  of  the  Hebrew  Union  College  until  his 
death  twenty-five  years  later.  When  on  July  11, 
1883,  he  conferred  the  degree  of  rabbi  on  the 
four  young  men  who  constituted  the  first  class  of 
rabbis  to  be  ordained  in  the  United  States,  one  of 
the  dreams  of  his  life  was  fulfilled.  He  now  ap- 
plied himself  with  fervor  to  the  consummation  of 
the  third  article  in  his  program — the  founding  of 
a  rabbinical  organization.  This  was  achieved 
when  in  July  1889,  in  Detroit,  the  Central  Con- 
ference of  American  Rabbis,  at  present  (1936) 
the  largest  rabbinical  organization  in  the  world, 
was  organized.  Wise  served  as  president  of  this 
organization  during  the  remaining  eleven  years 
of  his  life. 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that  Wise  was  in  his 
day  the  foremost  figure  in  Jewish  religious  life 
in  the  United  States.  His  life  work  consisted  in 
the  welding  of  the  spirit  of  Judaism  with  the  free 


426 


Wise 


Wise 


spirit  of  America,  and  he  was  one  of  the  latter- 
day  prophets  of  the  universalistic  interpretation 
of  Judaism.  During  his  lifetime,  reactionary 
forces  seemed  now  and  then  to  gain  the  upper 
hand,  but  Wise  never  lost  faith  in  the  ultimate 
triumph  of  the  liberal  religious  principle,  and  his 
elasticity  and  youthfulness  of  spirit  never  for- 
sook him.  When  at  the  age  of  eighty-one  the 
end  came,  the  visions  of  his  youth  had  been  real- 
ized, and  great  institutions  in  American  Judaism 
had  arisen  as  he  had  planned  them.  The  Union 
of  American  Hebrew  Congregations,  the  He- 
brew Union  College,  and  the  Central  Conference 
of  American  Rabbis  constitute  his  triple  memo- 
rial. A  very  prolific  writer,  besides  his  editorial 
writings  in  the  Israelite  Wise  published  many 
books  and  pamphlets.  Chief  among  these  may 
be  mentioned  History  of  the  Israelitish  Nation 
from  Abraham  to  the  Present  Time  (1854),  The 
Cosmic  God  (1876),  History  of  the  Hebrews' 
Second  Commonwealth  (1880),  and  Pronaos  to 
Holy  Writ  (1891).  His  Reminiscences  were 
published  in  1901.  After  the  death  of  his  first 
wife  he  was  married  on  Apr.  25,  1876,  to  Selma 
Boudi  of  New  York,  by  whom  he  had  four  chil- 
dren. At  the  time  of  his  death  in  Cincinnati  he 
was  survived  by  his  wife,  five  daughters,  and 
six  sons. 

[In  addition  to  Wise's  Reminiscences  (1901),  trans- 
lated from  the  German  by  David  Philipson,  see  the  biog. 
by  David  Philipson  and  Louis  Grossman  in  Selected 
Writings  of  Isaac  M.  Wise  (1900)  ;  David  Philipson, 
Isaac  M.  Wise  (1933),  being  Jewish  Tract,  No.  22; 
M.  B.  May,  Isaac  Mayer  Wise  (1916)  ;  J.  R.  Marcus, 
The  Americanization  of  Isaac  Mayer  Wise  (privately 
printed,  1931)  ;  A.  S.  Oko,  A  Tentative  Bibliog.  of  Dr. 
Isaac  Wise  (1917)  ;  Cincinnati  Enquirer,  Mar.  26,  27, 
1900.]  D.  P. 

WISE,  JOHN  (August  1652-Apr.  8,  1725), 
Congregational  clergyman,  born  at  Roxbury, 
Mass.,  and  baptized  Aug.  15,  1652,  was  the  fifth 
son  of  Joseph  and  Mary  (Thompson)  Wise.  He 
attended  the  free  school  at  Roxbury  and  gradu- 
ated from  Harvard  in  1673.  Having  studied  the- 
ology, he  preached  at  Branford,  Conn.,  1675/76, 
declining,  however,  a  call  to  that  parish.  While 
at  Branford  he  served  as  chaplain  of  forces  act- 
ing against  the  Narragansett  Indians.  In  1677/ 
78  he  preached  at  Hatfield,  Mass.,  and  in  1680 
was  called  to  Chebacco,  a  newly  organized  par- 
ish of  Ipswich.  He  was  the  minister  of  that 
church  until  his  death,  although  for  some  reason 
his  ordination  was  delayed  until  Aug.  12,  1683. 
Throughout  his  life  he  was  active  and  influen- 
tial in  both  civil  and  ecclesiastical  affairs. 

When  Gov.  Edmund  Andros  \_q.v.~]  attempted 
to  raise  money  by  a  province  tax,  Wise  led  his 
townsmen  to  resist — one  of  the  notable  cases  of 
resistance  in  colonial  times — and  in  consequence 


in  October  1687  was  seized  and  tried  by  a  court 
presided  over  by  Joseph  Dudley  \_q.v.~\.  Wise 
was  found  guilty,  find  £50  and  costs,  deprived  of 
his  ministerial  function,  and  put  under  bonds  of 
£1,000  to  keep  the  peace  {The  Andros  Tracts, 
edited  by  W.  H.  Whitmore,  vol.  I,  1868,  pp.  82, 
85-86;  Edward  Randolph,  edited  by  R.  N.  Top- 
pan,  vol.  IV,  1899,  pp.  171-82).  On  Nov.  24, 
Andros  reversed  the  judgment  in  so  far  as  to 
allow  Wise  to  resume  his  functions  as  minister 
to  his  church  (Proceedings  of  the  Massachu- 
setts Historical  Society,  vol.  XII,  1873,  p.  109). 
After  Andros  was  deposed,  Wise  was  chosen 
by  his  town  one  of  the  two  representatives  to 
go  to  Boston  and  help  reorganize  the  former 
legislature.  He  also  brought  suit  against  Dud- 
ley for  refusing  him  the  privilege  of  habeas  cor- 
pus and  is  said  to  have  recovered  damages.  In 
1690  he  was  appointed  by  the  General  Court 
chaplain  of  the  expedition  against  Quebec  and 
wrote  an  account  of  it,  which  was  published  in 
1902  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  Massachusetts 
Historical  Society  (2  ser.  vol.  XV). 

Partly  as  a  result  of  the  Brattle  Street  Church 
episode  in  1 699-1 700,  when  despite  the  oppo- 
sition of  most  of  the  clergy  an  independent  con- 
gregation chose  and  installed  Benjamin  Colman 
[q.v.~\  as  its  pastor,  the  Mathers  and  others  in- 
itiated a  movement  to  establish  associations  of 
clergy  that  were  intended  to  exercise  functions 
hitherto  exercised  by  the  individual  churches. 
In  November  1705  Increase  Mather  published  a 
pamphlet,  Questions  and  Proposals,  in  which 
the  plan  was  set  forth.  Wise  saw  in  the  new 
movement  the  beginning  of  a  reactionary  revo- 
lution. He  allowed  it  to  run  its  course  for  a 
while  but  in  1710  published  The  Churches  Quar- 
rel Espoused,  an  extremely  able  pamphlet  which 
gave  the  death  blow  to  the  movement.  He  fol- 
lowed this  in  1717  with  A  Vindication  of  the 
Government  of  New-England  Churches,  in 
which  he  considered  the  fundamental  ideas  of 
civil  as  well  as  religious  government.  Wise  had 
been  called  "the  first  great  American  democrat" 
(Tyler,  post,  p.  115).  He  was  an  extremely 
forceful  and  brilliant  writer,  perhaps  the  most 
so  of  any  American  in  the  colonial  period.  No 
one  else  equaled  him  in  "the  union  of  great 
breadth  and  power  of  thought  with  great  splen- 
dor of  style ;  and  he  stands  almost  alone  among 
our  early  writers  for  the  blending  of  a  racy  and 
dainty  humor  with  impassioned  earnestness" 
{Ibid.,  p.  114).  In  1772  his  two  pamphlets  were 
reprinted  as  sources  for  language  and  argu- 
ments in  the  controversy  then  raging.  They 
were  reprinted  again  in  i860.  His  writings  were 
remarkable  expositions  of  the  ionizations  of  gov- 


4-27 


Wise 

eminent  from  the  democratic  point  of  view, 
written  so  attractively  and  powerfully  as  to  be 
veritable  trumpet  blasts  of  liberty.  In  1721  he 
published  A  Word  of  Comfort  to  a  Melancholy 
Country,  a  pamphlet  in  support  of  paper  money, 
a  favorite  project  of  the  democratic  movement. 
With  others  he  presented  a  remonstrance  against 
the  sentence  of  one  of  the  witchcraft  victims,  and 
was  a  signer  of  the  petition  in  1703  to  the  Gen- 
eral Court  asking  it  to  reverse  the  convictions. 
He  is  said  to  have  been  "of  towering  height,  of 
great  muscular  power,  stately  and  graceful  in 
shape  and  movement;  in  his  advancing  years  of 
an  aspect  most  venerable"  (Ibid.,  p.  104).  He 
married  on  or  before  Dec.  5,  1678,  Abigail, 
daughter  of  Thomas  Gardner  of  Roxbury  or 
Brookline,  who  survived  him  and  by  whom  he 
had  seven  children. 

[John  White,  The  Gospel  Treasure  in  Earthen  Ves- 
sels, A  Funeral  Sermon  on  .  .  .  the  Death  of  .  .  .  John 
Wise  (1725)  ;  J.  L.  Sibley,  Biog.  Sketches  of  Grads. 
of  Harvard  Univ.,  vol.  II  (1881);  W.  B.  Sprague, 
Annals  of  the  Am.  Pulpit,  vol.  I  (1857)  ;  The  Cam- 
bridge Hist,  of  Am.  Lit.,  vol.  I  (191 7),  which  contains 
bibliog. ;  M.  C.  Tyler,  A  Hist,  of  Am.  Lit.  During  the 
Colonial  Time  (1897),  vol.  II;  H.  M.  Dexter,  The 
Congregationalism  of  the  Last  Three  Hundred  Years 
(1880);  A.  McF.  Davis,  Colonial  Currency  Reprints, 
vols.  I  (1910),  II  (1911)  ;  V.  L.  Parrington,  The  Colo- 
nial Mind  (1927).]  J.T.A. 

WISE,  JOHN  (Feb.  24,  1808-Sept.  29,  1879), 
balloonist,  was  born  in  Lancaster,  Pa.,  the  birth- 
place of  his  father  and  mother,  of  German  and 
English  descent.  He  was  educated  in  the  local 
schools  and  graduated  from  the  Lancaster  high 
school.  At  fourteen  he  read  a  German  newspa- 
per account  of  a  balloon  voyage  to  Italy  and  de- 
veloped a  definite  desire  to  study  aerostatics  in 
practical  fashion.  He  began  his  experiments 
with  paper  parachutes.  Later,  with  a  parachute 
made  of  four  ox-bladders,  he  dropped  a  cat  thir- 
ty feet  from  a  housetop  without  injury  to  the 
animal.  He  then  experimented  with  hot-air  pa- 
per balloons  of  the  Montgolfier  type.  Watching 
the  ascension  of  one  of  these  balloons,  he  was 
seized  with  the  desire  to  experience  "the  sub- 
lime feeling  of  sailing  in  air,"  as  he  put  it.  Be- 
fore this  desire  was  satisfied,  however,  he  served 
an  apprenticeship  of  four  and  a  half  years  as 
cabinetmaker  and  then  worked  until  1835  as  a 
pianoforte  maker.  All  this  experience  was  to 
serve  him  in  good  stead  when  he  met  with  me- 
chanical difficulties  in  the  making  of  his  balloons. 
Wise's  first  ascent  was  made  in  Philadelphia 
in  1835  in  a  balloon  of  his  own  design,  which  he 
built  before  he  had  ever  seen  a  balloon  or  an  as- 
cension. From  then  on  he  devoted  his  life  en- 
tirely to  aerostatics,  not  as  an  adventurer  but  as 
a.  scientific  pioneer  in  ballooning.   He  developed 

A2 


Wise 

a  balloon  varnish  superior  to  those  in  use  at  the 
time  and  attempted  to  simplify  the  construction 
of  balloons  by  cementing  the  seams,  an  idea 
which  did  not  prove  practicable.  He  constantly 
studied  meteorological  conditions  and  the  ef- 
fects of  storms.  As  a  result  of  these  studies,  he 
came  to  believe  that  a  steady  wind  blew  from 
west  to  east  at  an  altitude  of  two  to  three  miles 
which  could  be  used  to  advantage  by  balloonists. 
During  one  of  his  ascents  in  a  thunder-storm, 
the  balloon  rose  so  rapidly  as  a  result  of  drop- 
ping ballast  that  the  gas  expanded  faster  than  it 
could  escape  through  the  neck  of  the  balloon  and 
the  balloon  burst.  The  bag  flared  out,  however, 
and  acted  as  a  parachute,  permitting  a  safe  de- 
scent. As  a  result  of  this  accident,  Wise  de- 
veloped a  rip  panel,  and  demonstrated  several 
times  that  a  forced  descent  might  be  made  quick- 
ly by  pulling  the  rip  cord  and  using  the  balloon 
as  a  parachute.  He  also  had  to  his  credit  one  of 
the  first  definite  proposals  in  aeronautical  tac- 
tics, which  was  a  plan  to  capture  the  city  of 
Vera  Cruz  by  dropping  bombs  from  a  balloon 
attached  to  a  warship  by  a  five-mile  cable. 

He  believed  that  a  trip  to  Europe  could  be 
made  by  a  balloon  if  it  could  stay  in  the  air  for 
fifty  hours,  utilizing  the  supposedly  steady  wind 
from  west  to  east.  To  test  this  idea  a  voyage 
from  St.  Louis  to  New  York  was  projected.  The 
balloon  ascended  on  July  1,  1859,  with  Wise, 
three  passengers,  and  a  bag  of  mail,  but  it  was 
caught  in  a  storm  over  Lake  Ontario,  the  heavy 
mail  bag  had  to  be  thrown  overboard,  and  the 
balloon  finally  came  to  earth  near  Henderson,  N. 
Y.  In  this  trip  Wise  set  a  distance  record  of  804 
miles  which  was  not  surpassed  until  the  year 
1900.  When  two  petitions  to  Congress  (1843, 
1851)  for  a  grant  of  money  to  construct  a  bal- 
loon and  make  a  trip  to  Europe  were  rejected, 
he  finally  came  to  an  agreement  with  the  Daily 
Illustrated  Graphic  of  New  York  for  the  con- 
struction of  a  balloon  to  make  the  voyage.  The 
balloon,  completed  in  1873,  was  160  feet  high, 
including  the  car  and  lifeboat  slung  underneath, 
and  had  a  total  lift  of  14,000  pounds.  Wise  quar- 
reled with  his  backers,  however,  and  the  balloon 
started  on  its  flight  to  Europe  with  only  Wash- 
ington H.  Donaldson,  aeronaut,  George  A.  Lunt, 
navigator,  and  Alfred  Ford,  newspaper  corre- 
spondent. It  crashed  at  New  Canaan,  Conn.  On 
Sept.  29,  1879,  while  attempting  another  long 
voyage  in  a  balloon  called  the  "Pathfinder," 
Wise  and  his  companion  were  drowned  in  Lake 
Michigan.  Wise  had  a  son,  Charles  E.  Wise,  of 
Philadelphia,  also  an  aeronaut. 

Wise's  demonstrations  regarding  the  safety 
of  balloons,  his  invention  of  the  rip  panel,  and 

8 


Wise 


Wise 


his  long-distance  record  of  804  miles  definitely 
establish  his  right  to  being  considered  the  first 
American  aeronaut  of  any  consequence.  His 
writings,  A  System  of  Aeronautics  (1850)  and 
Through  the  Air  (1873),  Slve  evidence  of  an 
original,  searching,  and  impartial  mind. 

[See  "The  Longest  Voyage,"  Aeronautics,  Jan. 
1894 ;  "Wise  upon  Henson,''  Aeronautical  Ann. 
(1895)  ;  F.  S.  Lahm,  in  Flying,  Jan.  1913;  St.  Louis 
Globe-Democrat,  Sept.  29-Oct.  7,  and  Oct.  15,  19,  25, 
and  26,  1879.]  A.K. 

WISE,  JOHN  SERGEANT  (Dec.  27,  1846- 
May  12,  1913),  lawyer,  politician,  author,  was 
born  in  Rio  de  Janeiro,  Brazil,  the  son  of  Henry 
Alexander  Wise  \_q.v.~]  and  Sarah  (Sergeant), 
the  daughter  of  John  Sergeant,  1779-1852  [q.v.], 
and  sister-in-law  of  Gen.  George  Gordon  Meade 
[q.v.].  The  elder  Wise  returned  in  1847  to  his 
home  on  the  Eastern  Shore  of  Virginia,  and 
John  lived  with  him  here  and  in  the  guberna- 
torial mansion  in  Richmond.  After  preparation 
in  private  schools,  he  entered  the  Virginia  Mili- 
tary Institute  in  1862  and  remained  two  years. 
On  May  15,  1864,  he  fought  bravely  with  the 
cadets  at  New  Market,  Va.,  receiving  a  slight 
wound  (see  his  Memorial  Address  .  .  .  at  New 
Market,  Va.,  1898),  and  shortly  afterwards  was 
commissioned  drill  master  with  the  rank  of  sec- 
ond lieutenant  in  the  Confederate  army.  He 
served  in  Virginia  until  the  end  of  the  war  and 
was  the  bearer  of  the  first  news  that  reached 
Jefferson  Davis  at  Danville,  Va.,  of  the  impend- 
ing surrender  of  Lee's  army,  experiences  he 
described  in  The  End  of  the  Era  (1899). 

In  1865  he  entered  the  University  of  Virginia, 
where  he  was  awarded  a  debater's  medal  and 
was  graduated  in  law  in  1867.  In  his  novel  The 
Lion's  Skin  (1905)  he  gives  a  valuable  picture 
of  life  at  the  University  in  the  Reconstruction 
period.  Before  he  was  twenty-one,  he  had  be- 
gun the  practice  of  law  in  Richmond,  Va.,  and 
on  Nov.  3,  1869,  he  married  Evelyn  Beverly 
Douglas  of  Nashville,  Tenn.,  daughter  of  Hugh 
Douglas,  a  Tennessee  Unionist.  Continuing  his 
interest  in  military  affairs,  he  was  captain  of  the 
Richmond  Blues  from  1878  to  1882  and  restored 
its  old,  distinctive  uniform ;  he  also  served  on 
the  board  of  visitors  of  the  Virginia  Military 
Institute. 

In  1873  he  began  the  political  career  which 
won  him  such  unenviable  notoriety.  He  accused 
the  state  Conservative  party  of  corruption  and 
became  a  leader  of  a  so-called  reform  group  in 
Richmond  politics.  After  declining  in  1878  a 
nomination  for  Congress  in  favor  of  Gen.  Joseph 
E.  Johnston  [q.v.],  he  ran  unsuccessfully  in  1880 
as  a  Readjuster,  but  in  1882,  as  the  Republican 


and  Coalition  candidate,  defeated  the  formidable 
"Parson"  John  E.  Massey  for  congressman-at- 
large.  His  affiliation  with  the  Republican  party 
and  his  tactless  political  utterances  won  him  the 
hatred  of  many  Virginians,  and  he  received  sev- 
eral challenges  to  duels.  Undoubtedly  he  was 
more  liberal  than  many  of  his  opponents  and 
more  willing  to  adjust  himself  to  new  political 
conditions,  but  the  impression  remains  that  he 
was  a  political  opportunist.  He  became  a  leader 
in  the  political  machine  of  William  Mahone 
[q.v.].  In  1882  he  had  been  appointed  federal 
district  attorney  but  resigned  after  his  election 
to  Congress.  The  Republican  candidate  for  gov- 
ernor in  1885,  he  was  defeated  by  Fitzhugh  Lee 
[q.v.],  but  contended  that  the  Democrats  won  by 
improper  methods.  At  that  period  even  respect- 
able people  in  the  South  were  willing  to  employ 
or  condone  methods,  ordinarily  questionable,  in 
order  to  control  the  ignorant  negro  vote. 

In  1888,  seeking  better  business  opportunity 
and  a  more  friendly  scene,  he  removed  from 
Virginia  to  New  York  City.  Early  in  his  pro- 
fessional career  he  had  been  appointed  counsel 
for  the  company  which  built  the  first  electric 
street  railway  in  Richmond  and  had  thus  come 
into  contact  with  Northern  capitalists  who  were 
developing  the  infant  electrical  industry.  He  now 
became  leading  counsel  in  important  litigation 
between  street  railway  and  other  companies, 
and  an  international  authority  on  law  as  applied 
to  problems  in  the  field  of  electricity.  About  six 
years  before  his  death  he  became  practically  an 
invalid  and  returned  to  Northampton  County, 
Va.,  where  he  lived  "surrounded  by  his  books, 
his  dogs,  and  his  memories." 

Wise  was  a  man  of  unusual  abilities.  He  was 
a  most  attractive  speaker  and  raconteur,  an  ex- 
cellent sportsman,  and  a  gifted  writer.  In  view 
of  his  extreme  frankness,  his  political  vagaries, 
and  his  real  charm  and  power  as  a  writer,  it  is  a 
misfortune  that  he  could  not  afford  to  devote 
more  time  to  literature.  Besides  the  books  men- 
tioned above,  he  wrote  Diomcd;  The  Life,  Trav- 
els, and  Observations  of  a  Dog  (1897),  and 
Recollections  of  Thirteen  Presidents  (1906). 
He  died  at  the  summer  residence  of  Henry  A. 
Wise,  near  Princess  Anne,  Md.,  survived  by  his 
wife  and  seven  children,  and  was  buried  in 
Richmond. 

[Information  from  Wise's  family  and  contempo- 
raries; Times-Dispatch  (Richmond,  May  13,  1913)  ; 
Biog.  Dir.  Am.  Cong.  (1928)  ;  C.  C.  Pearson,  The  Re- 
adjustor  Movement  in  Va.  (1917);  Wm.  Couper,  The 
V.  M.  I.  New  Market  Cadets  (1933);  N.  M.  Blake, 
William  Mahone  of  Va.  (1935)  ;  J.  C.  Wise,  Col.  Joint 
Wise  of  England  and  Va.;  His  Ancestors  and  Descend- 
ants (1918)  ;  Who's  Who  in  America,  1912— 13.] 

R.  D.  M. 


429 


Wise 


Wislizenus 


WISE,  THOMAS  ALFRED  (Mar.  23,  1865- 
Mar.  21,  1928),  actor,  known  as  Tom  Wise,  was 
born  in  Faversham,  England,  son  of  Daniel  and 
Harriet  (Potts)  Wise.  His  father  was  a  sea 
captain,  who  died  before  Tom's  birth.  His  widow 
emigrated  to  America  three  years  later,  and  Tom 
was  reared  in  California,  earning  his  own  liv- 
ing, he  later  declared,  from  the  time  he  was  nine. 
He  began  to  act  at  eighteen,  picking  up  what 
jobs  he  could  on  the  coast,  in  variety  shows. 
On  Aug.  27,  1883,  while  he  was  traveling  with 
"Ingham's  Combination  Troupe"  (seven  people), 
the  coach  which  carried  them  rolled  down  an 
embankment  in  the  mountains.  In  1885  William 
Gillette  saw  him  act  in  San  Francisco,  and 
brought  him  east  in  The  Private  Secretary,  but 
he  got  no  nearer  Broadway  than  the  Grand  Opera 
House  on  Eighth  Avenue.  He  did  not  reach 
Broadway  till  1888,  when  he  appeared  there  in 
Lost  in  New  York.  From  that  time,  he  was  a 
familiar  figure  in  the  New  York  theatre,  filling 
a  niche  of  his  own,  in  farce-comedy  especially. 
During  the  nineties  he  was  often  seen  in  the 
farces  of  George  Broadhurst,  and  in  1899  ap- 
peared in  The  Wrong  Mr.  Wright  in  London. 
Among  the  plays  he  acted  in  during  this  decade 
were  Gloriana  (1892),  On  the  Mississippi 
(1894),  The  War  of  Wealth,  The  House  That 
Jack  Built,  and  Are  You  a  Mason ?  In  1901  he 
acted  with  Arnold  Daly  at  Wallack's  Theatre. 
The  appearances  with  Daly  were  followed  by 
Vivian's  Papas  (1903),  Mrs.  Temple's  Telegram 
and  The  Prince  Chap  (1905),  and  The  Little 
Cherub  (1906),  with  Hattie  Williams.  In  1907 
he  was  in  a  musical  comedy  called  The  Lady 
from  Lane's,  and  the  following  season  in  Miss 
Hook  of  Holland.  In  1908  he  appeared  as  co- 
star  with  Douglas  Fairbanks  in  a  play  written  by 
himself  and  Harrison  Rhodes,  A  Gentleman 
from  Mississippi,  a  political  comedy.  He  then 
wrote,  again  with  Rhodes,  and  acted  in  a  play 
called  An  Old  New  Yorker  (1911).  In  the  same 
year  he  and  Rhodes  wrote  and  produced  a  play 
called  The  Greatest  Show  on  Earth,  which  was 
followed  by  a  revival  of  Lights  0'  London.  In 
the  autumn  of  191 1  he  acted  with  John  Barry- 
more  in  Uncle  Sam,  in  1912  in  Captain  Whit- 
taker's  Place,  by  Joseph  Lincoln,  in  1913  in  The 
Silver  Wedding,  and  in  1914  in  Edward  Shel- 
don's dramatization  of  The  Song  of  Songs.  In 
1916  he  was  back  in  a  more  congenial  play,  tak- 
ing the  place  of  James  K.  Hackett  [q.v .]  as  Fal- 
staff  in  The  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor,  when 
Hackett,  who  had  produced  the  play  with  elab- 
orate sets  by  Joseph  Urban  [q.v.~\,  fell  ill.  After 
co-starring  with  William  Courtenay  in  1917  in 
Lee  Dodd's  Comedy,  Pals  First,  in  September 


1918  he  realized  an  ambition  to  impersonate  P. 
T.  Barnum,  in  a  play  called  Mr.  Barnum,  writ- 
ten by  himself  and  Harrison  Rhodes.  Later  ap- 
pearances were  in  Cappy  Ricks  (1919),  as  Sir 
Oliver  in  the  Players'  Club  revival  of  The  School 
for  Scandal  (June  1923),  as  Sir  Anthony  in  The 
Rivals,  with  Mrs.  Fiske  ( 1924-25) ,  in  The  Ador- 
able Liar  ( 1 926  ) ,  and  with  Eleanor  Painter  in  The 
Nightingale  (1927).  His  later  years  were  made 
difficult  by  illness.  He  made  his  last  appearance 
in  Chicago,  in  Behold  This  Dreamer,  on  Oct.  31, 
1927.  He  died  in  New  York,  Mar.  21,  1928. 
Wise  was  one  of  the  players  most  energetic  in 
organizing  the  Actors'  Society,  for  mutual  pro- 
tection, and  was  its  president  in  1908-10;  the 
society  later  became  the  Actors'  Equity  Asso- 
ciation and  won  a  famous  strike  for  better  con- 
ditions. He  was  at  all  times  devoted  to  the  bet- 
terment of  his  profession  and  the  welfare  of  his 
fellow  players,  with  whom  he  was  a  great  favor- 
ite. He  married  Gertrude  Whitty,  an  English- 
born  actress,  on  Nov.  11,  1895. 

Wise  was  a  fat  man,  with  a  fat  man's  voice 
and  the  traditional  fat  man's  amiability.  It 
doomed  him,  of  course,  to  "character"  roles,  and 
more  or  less  to  roles  expressive  of  unctuous 
good  nature.  "It's  a  Tom  Wise  part"  became  a 
common  saying  on  Broadway  when  a  play  was 
being  cast  which  contained  such  a  role.  Such 
parts,  of  course,  occurred  frequently  in  farcical 
comedies,  but  Wise  was  a  thoroughly  competent 
character  actor,  and  his  own  attempts  at  dra- 
matic authorship  were  prompted  by  a  desire  to 
create  roles  for  himself  of  higher  caliber.  He 
chose  P.  T.  Barnum,  no  doubt,  because  of  his 
close  physical  resemblance  to  the  great  showman, 
and  he  created  the  resemblance  with  the  very 
minimum  of  facial  make-up.  But  he  was  not  so 
skilful  a  dramatist  as  he  was  actor,  and  his  own 
plays  never  quite  realized  his  ambitions,  though 
A  Gentleman  from  Mississippi,  in  which  Wise 
enacted  a  genial  but  shrewd  politician,  was  a  con- 
siderable popular  success.  His  Falstaff  was  rich- 
ly comic  and  unctuous ;  could  he  have  played  it 
in  Henry  IV  instead  of  The  Merry  Wives,  it 
might  have  been  his  best  memorial. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1926-27;  Burns  Mantle 
and  G.  P.  Sherwood,  The  Best  Plays  of  1909-1919 
(1933)  ;  Harvard  Coll.  Lib.,  Theatre  Coll.;  obituaries 
in  N.  Y.  Times  and  N.  Y.  Herald  Tribune,  Mar.  22, 
1928.]  W.  P.  E. 

WISLIZENUS,    FREDERICK    ADOLPH 

(May  21,  1810-Sept.  22,  1889),  traveler,  author, 
physician,  was  born  at  Konigsee,  Schwarzburg- 
Rudolstadt,  Germany.  Both  his  father,  a  pastor 
in  the  evangelical  state  church,  and  his  mother, 
whose  maiden  name  was  Hoffmann,  died  during 
an  epidemic  following  the  retreat  of  Napoleon's 


43° 


Wislizenus 


Wisner 


army  from  Moscow.  The  three  children  of  the 
union  were  adopted  by  the  mother's  brother  and 
his  wife,  who  reared  them  with  devoted  care. 
A.dolph  attended  the  gymnasium  of  Rudolstadt, 
the  capital,  later  studying  the  natural  sciences  at 
the  University  of  Jena  and  at  Gottingen  and 
Tubingen.  He  became  deeply  stirred  by  the  po- 
litical unrest  of  the  time,  and  after  taking  part 
in  an  abortive  uprising  of  students  at  Frankfurt- 
am-Main,  Apr.  3,  1833,  ne  f^d  to  Switzerland. 
At  Zurich  he  continued  his  studies,  later  spend- 
ing some  time  in  the  Paris  hospitals.  In  1835  he 
arrived  in  New  York,  and  in  the  following  year 
he  began  practice  as  a  country  physician  at  Mas- 
coutah,  St.  Clair  County,  111.  A  yearning  to  see 
the  Far  West  prompted  him,  in  April  1839,  to 
ascend  the  Missouri  to  Westport,  where  he  joined 
a  fur-trading  party  for  the  mountains.  From  the 
trappers'  rendezvous  on  Green  River  he  went  on 
to  Fort  Hall,  in  the  present  Idaho,  intending  to 
reach  the  Pacific  Coast.  He  altered  his  course, 
however,  and  with  a  few  companions  returned 
by  way  of  Brown's  Hole,  the  Laramie  plains,  the 
Arkansas  River,  and  the  Santa  Fe  Trail  to  St. 
Louis.  In  the  following  year  he  published  in  that 
city  Ein  Ausflug  nach  den  Felsen-Gebirgen  im 
Jahre  1839,  afterwards  translated  by  his  son 
and  issued  as  A  Journey  to  the  Rocky  Mountains 
in  the  Year  1839  (1912).  For  the  six  years  fol- 
lowing his  return  he  practised  medicine  in  St. 
Louis  in  partnership  with  Dr.  George  Engel- 
mann  [q.v.J. 

In  the  spring  of  1846,  resolved  on  another  ad- 
venture, he  provided  himself  with  a  scientific 
outfit  and  joined  the  trading  caravan  of  Albert 
Speyer  for  Santa  Fe  and  Chihuahua.  The  cara- 
van, supposed  to  be  carrying  arms  for  the  Mex- 
ican government,  was  pursued  by  a  detachment 
of  Stephen  Watts  Kearny's  army,  but  was  not 
overtaken.  From  Santa  Fe  it  moved  on  south- 
ward, Wislizenus  closely  observing  the  fauna, 
flora,  and  geology  of  the  region,  and  collecting 
specimens.  At  Chihuahua  he  had  a  perilous  ex- 
perience with  an  anti-American  mob,  and  with 
some  companions  was  sent  under  guard  into  the 
mountains.  The  arrival  of  Alexander  W.  Doni- 
phan's regiment  in  March  1847  restored  the 
prisoners  to  freedom,  and  Wislizenus,  joining 
the  command  as  a  surgeon,  returned  by  way  of 
the  Rio  Grande,  the  Gulf,  and  the  Mississippi  to 
his  home.  His  account  of  the  journey  was  sub- 
mitted to  the  Senate  by  Thomas  H.  Benton,  and 
appeared  in  1848  as  Memoir  of  a  Tour  to  North- 
ern Mexico  (being  Senate  Miscellaneous  Docu- 
ment 26,  30  Cong.,  1  Sess.).  The  earlier  narra- 
tive, despite  some  amusing  slips  in  the  use  of 
proper  names  and  in  references  to  the  various 


Indian  bands  encountered,  remains  a  classic  of 
the  late  trapper  period ;  and  the  later  one,  which 
was  praised  by  Alexander  von  Humboldt,  gives 
for  most  of  the  region  traversed  the  earliest  rec- 
ord of  scientific  observation.  A  German  trans- 
lation of  the  later  narrative  was  published  in 
1850  in  Brunswick. 

Wislizenus  did  heroic  duty  throughout  the 
cholera  epidemic  of  1848-49  in  St.  Louis.  In 
1850  he  sailed  for  Europe,  and  at  Constantinople, 
on  July  23,  he  was  married  to  Lucy  Crane,  sis- 
ter of  the  wife  of  George  P.  Marsh,  then  the 
American  minister  to  Turkey.  On  again  reach- 
ing the  United  States,  he  voyaged  to  California 
to  choose  a  home.  Dissatisfied,  he  returned,  and 
with  his  wife  and  infant  son,  whom  he  had  left 
in  New  England,  settled  in  St.  Louis  in  1852. 
He  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Missouri  His- 
torical Society  and  also  of  the  Academy  of  Sci- 
ence of  St.  Louis,  to  the  Transactions  of  which 
he  was  a  frequent  contributor.  He  became  deep- 
ly interested  in  atmospheric  electricity  and  re- 
corded many  observations  of  his  experiments. 
Failing  eyesight  resulted,  some  years  before  his 
death,  in  total  blindness.  He  died  at  his  home. 

[Wislizenus'  given  name  often  appears  simply  as 
Adolphus  or  Adolph.  In  addition  to  his  son's  memoir 
in  A  Jour,  to  the  Rocky  Mountains  .  .  .  1839  (1912), 
see  death  notice  and  obituary  in  St.  Louis  Republic, 
Sept.  24,  25,  1889.  from  which  the  date  of  death  is 
taken  ;  and  Down  the  Sante  Fe  Trail  .  .  .  the  Diary  of 
Susan  Shelby  Magoffin  (1926),  ed.  by  Stella  M. 
Drumm.]  W.J.G. 

WISNER,  HENRY  (1720-Mar.  4,  1790), 
member  of  the  Continental  Congress,  powder 
manufacturer,  was  the  eldest  son  of  Hendrick 
Wisner,  who  came  to  America  with  his  father, 
Johannes  in  1714,  from  Switzerland,  settled  on 
Long  Island,  and  later  with  his  wife,  Mary  Shaw 
of  New  England,  moved  to  Goshen,  Orange 
County,  N.  Y.,  where  Henry  was  born.  Like  his 
father,  Henry  engaged  in  farming  in  Goshen, 
which  always  remained  his  home.  Although  he 
received  but  little  formal  schooling,  he  early  rose 
to  leadership  in  his  local  community  and  from 
T759  to  1769  represented  Orange  County  in  the 
New  York  Colonial  Assembly.  In  1774  he  was 
chosen  to  represent  it  in  the  First  Continental 
Congress,  where  he  signed  the  non-importation 
agreement.  He  was  a  member  of  the  New  York 
Provincial  Congress  (1775-77),  and  in  April 
1775  was  selected  by  that  body  one  of  the  colony's 
delegates  to  the  Second  Continental  Congress,  of 
which  he  was  a  member  from  May  1775  to  May 
1777.  He  strongly  favored  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  and  was  present  when  it  was 
adopted,  but  together  with  the  other  members  of 
the  New  York  delegation  he  was  under  instruc- 


431 


Wisner 

tions  not  to  vote.  He  was  one  of  the  committee  of 
the  New  York  Provincial  Congress  which  drafted 
the  first  constitution  for  the  state,  and  after  its 
adoption  he  sat  in  the  first  five  sessions  of  the 
Senate,  from  1777  to  1782. 

Early  in  the  Revolutionary  War  on  the  urgent 
request  of  Washington  and  the  Continental  Con- 
gress, New  York  took  measures  to  encourage 
through  the  promise  of  loans  and  bounties  the 
manufacture  of  powder  and  firearms  for  the 
Continental  Army.  Wisner  was  then  operating 
in  Ulster  County  one  of  the  two  powdermills  in 
the  colony.  With  the  zeal  that  marked  all  his 
undertakings  he  immediately  increased  its  output 
and  erected  two  more  mills  in  Orange  County, 
meanwhile  conducting  experiments  to  improve 
the  quality  of  the  powder  and  teaching  others 
his  methods.  He  served  on  committees  to  de- 
termine means  for  securing  saltpeter,  sulphur 
lead,  and  gunflints ;  to  keep  open  and  in  repair 
the  roads  leading  through  the  Highland  passes  to 
the  Hudson  so  that  supplies  might  reach  the 
army ;  and  to  establish  military  post  offices  for  the 
conveyance  of  intelligence  between  Albany  and 
headquarters  at  Fishkill.  He  often  advanced 
money  of  his  own  to  purchase  needed  supplies. 
He  enjoyed  the  confidence  of  Gen.  George  Clin- 
;on,  and  though  he  sometimes  acted  contrary  to 
Drders,  he  not  only  was  upheld  by  the  officers  and 
oy  the  Provincial  Congress,  but  was  commended 
for  his  foresight,  good  judgment,  and  quick  ac- 
tion. 

Wisner  rendered  valuable  service  in  1776  in 
expediting  the  laying  of  the  first  chain  designed 
to  obstruct  the  passage  of  the  British  up  the 
Hudson  River.  After  the  taking  of  Forts  Mont- 
gomery, Clinton,  and  Constitution  by  Sir  Henry 
Clinton  in  October  1777,  new  defenses  had  to  be 
planned,  and  in  January  1778  Wisner  was  ap- 
pointed by  the  New  York  Provincial  Convention 
one  of  a  committee  of  eight  to  confer  with  Gen- 
eral Putnam,  with  the  result  that  a  second  chain 
was  thrown  across  the  Hudson,  this  time  at  West 
Point,  and  new  fortifications  were  erected  which 
proved  effectual.  At  the  close  of  the  war,  Wis- 
ner probably  returned  to  his  farm,  but  in  1788  he 
was  a  member  of  the  New  York  convention 
called  to  act  on  the  federal  Constitution.  He  cast 
his  vote  against  it  because  he  feared  the  delega- 
tion of  so  much  power  to  the  central  govern- 
ment. He  was  twice  married:  first,  about  1739, 
to  Sarah  (or  Mary)  Norton,  and  second,  in 
April  1769,  to  Sarah  (Cornell)  Waters;  he  had 
five  children. 

[G.  F.  Wisner,  The  IVisncrs  in  America  (copr. 
1918)  ;  Public  Papers  of  George  Clinton,  vols.  I-VII 
(1899-1904);  Jours,  of  the  N.  Y.  Provincial  Cong. 
(1842)  ;  Calendar  of  Hist.  Manuscripts  Relating  to  the 


Wistar 

War  of  the  Revolution  in  the  Office  of  the  Secretary 
of  State,  Albany,  N.  Y.  (1868)  ;  E.  M.  Ruttenber,  Ob- 
structions to  the  Navigation  of  Hudson's  River  .  .  . 
Original  Documents  Relating  to  the  Subject  (i860); 
E.  C.  Burnett,  Letters  of  Members  of  the  Continental 
Cong.,  vols.  I,  II  (1921,  1923);  Franklin  Burdge,  A 
Memorial  of  Henry  Wisner  (1878)  and  A  Second  Me- 
morial of  Henry  Wisner  (1898).]  E.L.J. 

WISTAR,  CASPAR  (Feb.  3,  1696-Mar.  21, 
1752),  manufacturer  of  glass,  was  born  in  Wald- 
Hilsbach,  Baden,  near  Heidelberg,  the  son  of 
Johannes  Caspar  and  Anna  Catharina  Wiister. 
His  father  was  huntsman  to  Carl  Theodore  of 
Bavaria.  Coming  of  age,  Caspar  emigrated  to 
America,  his  ship  reaching  port  at  Philadelphia, 
Sept.  16,  1717.  Though  he  lacked  capital,  he 
saved  enough  to  undertake  successfully  the  man- 
ufacture of  brass  buttons,  advertised  as  "warrant- 
ed to  last  seven  years."  In  1725  he  joined  the 
Society  of  Friends,  and  on  May  25,  1726,  he  mar- 
ried Catharine  Jansen,  daughter  of  a  prominent 
Quaker  family.  They  had  three  sons  and  four 
daughters. 

Some  years  later  Wistar  began  the  making  of 
window  and  bottle  glass.  In  1738  he  purchased 
for  this  purpose  large  pine-wooded  tracts  of  land 
in  Salem  County,  West  Jersey,  a  location  that 
offered  abundant  fuelage,  an  ample  supply  of 
silica,  and  adequate  water  transport  facilities. 
He  had  sent  across  the  sea  for  four  experienced 
Belgian  glass-blowers,  and  on  July  30,  1740,  the 
glass-house  was  "brought  to  perfection  so  as  to 
make  glass."  This  proved  to  be  one  of  the  earliest 
successful  cooperative  undertakings  in  the  coun- 
try. Wistar  furnished  all  the  materials  for  glass- 
making,  and  the  workmen  received  one-third  of 
the  profits.  Other  glass  workers,  natives  of  Bel- 
gium, Germany,  and  Portugal,  sailed  from  Hol- 
land for  "Wistarberg"  in  1748.  Though  it  is 
credited  with  being  the  first  flint-glass  works  in 
America,  no  advertisements  are  known  which  in- 
dicate that  flint  glass  was  manufactured  at  Wis- 
tarberg either  during  these  earlier  periods  or 
later.  When  Wistar  died,  he  stipulated  by  will 
that  his  son  Richard  should  supervise  the  glass 
factory.  Although  Richard  used  every  resource 
to  avert  catastrophe,  the  American  Revolution 
and  the  economic  depression  that  preceded  it 
caused  the  failure  of  the  Wistar  works.  Richard 
died  in  1791 ;  the  furnace  fires  were  soon  drawn, 
and  an  industry  whose  influence  was  to  extend 
through  the  years  was  no  more. 

The  Wistarberg  output  is  controversial ;  the 
volume  is  controversial ;  the  quality  of  the  glass 
manufactured  is  controversial.  The  factory  be- 
gan with  the  making  of  coarse  green  bottle- 
glass  ;  it  may  have  ended  with  flint  glass.  The 
thing  that  counts,  however,  is  what  came  to  be 
known  as  "the  Wistar  technique  and  tradition," 


432 


Wistar 


Wistar 


one  of  the  two  most  vital  influences  in  early 
American  glass  production.  A  highway  "with 
stage"  was  constructed  from  Philadelphia  "to 
the  doors  of  the  Glass  House"  at  Allowaystown. 
Fashion  flocked.  Fashion  carried  away  splendid 
off-hand  blown  pitchers,  vases,  bowls — mementos 
of  the  occasion.  The  foreign-born  blowers  also 
fashioned  fanciful  wares  for  their  brides,  for 
neighbors,  for  a  "personage."  In  so  doing  they 
created  Hispano-Germanic-American  forms  and 
ornamentations  which  speak  of  Cadalso  and 
Thuringia,  of  Spanish  frivolity,  Dutch  sturdi- 
ness.  Wistar  glass  is  a  satisfying  utilitarian 
ware,  decoratively  pleasing,  free  in  line,  bold  in 
execution,  yet  marked  by  a  delicacy  of  wave  and 
curve,  of  finial  and  handle.  Despite  its  expansive, 
bulbous  forms,  the  Wistar  technique  as  manifest 
in  pitchers  is  neither  unbalanced  nor  incongru- 
ous. The  uneven  crimped  foot  remains  sturdy, 
the  mouth  is  ample  and  pours  without  dripping, 
the  handles  are  made  for  human  hands.  Even 
with  super-imposed  decoration  about  the  body, 
plastically  applied  threads  encircling  the  neck, 
crimpings  at  the  base  of  the  handle,  there  is  no 
appearance  of  over-elaboration.  After  the  Revo- 
lution, Wistar's  workmen  established  other  glass 
industries,  both  locally  and  at  distant  points  in 
New  York  State  and  the  Middle  West,  and  there 
carried  on  the  tradition  in  isolated  places,  creat- 
ing new  manifestations  of  beauty  and  bequeath- 
ing to  America  fundamental  designs  in  glass- 
making. 

[R.  W.  Davids,  The  Wistar  Family  (1896);  A 
Sketch  of  the  Life  of  Caspar  Wister,  M.D.  (1891)  ;  F. 
W.  Hunter,  Stiegcl  Glass  (1914)  ;  Rhea  M.  Knittle, 
Early  Am.  Glass  (1927)  ;  J.  D.  Weeks,  Report  on  the 
Manufacture  of  Glass  (1883);  Thomas  Cushing  and 
C.  E.  Sheppard,  Hist,  of  the  Counties  of  Gloucester, 
Salem,  and  Cumberland,  N.  J.  (1883)  ;  records  in  MS. 
in  colls,  of  the  Hist.  Soc.  of  Pa.  ;  R.  M.  Reifstahl,  in 
Internat.  Studio,  Apr.  1923  ;  Esther  Singleton,  in  Anti- 
quarian, Feb.  1924;  G.  S.  McKearin,  in  Country  Life, 
Sept.  1924,  and  in  Antiques,  Oct.  1926;  Malcolm 
Vaughn,  in  Internat.  Studio,  July  1926;  Hazel  E. 
Cummin,  in  House  Beautiful,  Oct.   1929.]      R.  M.  K. 

WISTAR,  CASPAR   (Sept.  13,  1761-Jan.  22, 

1818),  physician,  was  born  in  Philadelphia,  Pa., 
the  son  of  Richard  and  Sarah  (Wyatt)  Wistar, 
and  a  grandson  of  Caspar  Wistar  [q.z>.],  glass 
manufacturer.  He  attended  the  Penn  Charter 
School  and  began  his  medical  studies  under  Dr. 
John  Redman  [q.z1.].  He  attended  the  courses 
at  the  medical  school  at  the  time  of  the  separa- 
tion of  the  College  of  Philadelphia  and  the  newly 
created  University  of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania, 
receiving  the  degree  of  B.M.  from  the  latter  in 
1782.  The  following  year  he  went  abroad  and, 
after  studying  for  a  year  in  London,  went  to 
Edinburgh  University,  where  he  received  the 
degree  of  M.D.  in  1786.  In  Edinburgh  he  served 


two  terms  as  president  of  the  Royal  Medical  So- 
ciety, a  student  organization,  and  assisted  in 
founding  a  natural  history  society.  His  graduat- 
ing thesis,  De  Animo  Demisto,  was  dedicated  to 
Benjamin  Franklin  and  Dr.  William  Cullen.  Af- 
ter a  tour  of  the  Continent  he  returned  to  Phila- 
delphia in  1787.  The  College  of  Physicians  of 
Philadelphia  had  been  organized  in  January  1787, 
and  it  is  a  token  of  the  esteem  in  which  young 
Wistar  was  held  that  he  was  elected  a  junior 
Fellow  in  April,  only  a  few  months  after  his  re- 
turn. In  1789  he  succeeded  Benjamin  Rush  [q.?\] 
as  professor  of  chemistry  in  the  medical  school 
of  the  College  of  Philadelphia.  When  the  Uni- 
versity of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania  and  the  Col- 
lege of  Philadelphia  were  united  in  1792  as  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania,  he  was  made  adjunct 
professor  to  William  Shippen  [(7.7'.],  professor 
of  anatomy,  surgery,  and  midwifery.  Separate 
chairs  of  surgery  and  midwifery  were  later  given 
to  Philip  Syng  Physick  and  Thomas  Chalkley 
James  [qq.r.].  On  Shippen's  death  in  1808, 
Wistar  succeeded  him  as  full  professor  of  an- 
atomy and  midwifery,  and  from  1810  until  his 
death  continued  as  professor  of  anatomy.  In  181 1 
he  published  his  System  of  Anatomy,  the  first 
American  textbook  on  that  subject.  His  chief 
achievement  as  a  practical  anatomist  was  the 
elucidation  of  the  correct  anatomical  relations 
between  the  ethmoid  and  sphenoid  bones.  Wis- 
tar's other  writings  are  all  comprised  in  his 
Eulogium  on  Doctor  William  Shippen  (1818) 
and  a  half-dozen  communications  to  the  Ameri- 
can Philosophical  Society  (Transactions,  III, 
1793  ;  IV,  1799,  n.s.,  I,  1818). 

His  other  activities  were  varied.  He  was  one 
of  the  physicians  to  the  Philadelphia  Dispensary 
and  a  member  of  the  staff  of  the  Pennsylvania 
Hospital  (1793-1810),  served  valiantly  during 
the  yellow  fever  epidemic  of  1793,  and  in  1809 
founded  a  society  for  the  promotion  of  vaccina- 
tion. In  1787  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the 
American  Philosophical  Society,  and  throughout 
his  life  it  was  a  predominating  interest  with  him. 
He  was  elected  curator  in  1793  and  vice-presi- 
dent in  1795,  and  from  1815  to  1818,  succeeding 
Thomas  Jefferson,  he  served  as  president  of  the 
Society.  On  Sunday  evenings  (later  on  Satur- 
day) Wistar  kept  open  house  for  the  members 
of  the  Society  and  visiting  scientists  in  his  large 
mansion  at  the  corner  of  Fourth  and  Prune  (now 
De  Lancey)  Streets.  The  house  is  still  standing 
(1936)  and  is  lived  in  by  some  of  Wistar's  col- 
lateral descendants.  After  his  death  a  group  was 
organized  to  perpetuate  these  "Wistar  Parties," 
and  from  1818  until  1864  the  "Wistar  Associa- 
tion," composed  of  from  eight  to  twenty-four 


433 


Wistar 

members  chosen  from  the  membership  of  the 
American  Philosophical  Society,  entertained  in 
succession  at  their  homes  during  the  months 
from  December  to  May.  In  1886  the  Wistar  As- 
sociation was  reorganized,  and  its  parties  have 
continued  a  feature  of  social  life  in  Philadelphia. 
Wistar  had  an  extensive  correspondence  with 
foreign  scientific  men,  including  Humboldt,  Cu- 
vier,  and  Sommering.  The  Abbe  Correa  da 
Serra,  Portuguese  minister  to  the  United  States, 
was  a  frequent  visitor  at  his  house.  In  1818 
Thomas  Nuttall  [q.v.~\  named  for  him  the  beau- 
tiful plant  Wistaria. 

Wistar  was  married  twice.  By  his  first  wife, 
Isabella  Marshall,  daughter  of  Christopher  Mar- 
shall, whom  he  married  on  May  15,  1788,  he  had 
no  issue.  By  his  second  wife,  Elizabeth  Mifflin, 
whom  he  married  on  Nov.  28,  1798,  he  had  two 
sons  and  a  daughter.  His  children  left  no  de- 
scendants. For  some  years  before  his  death  he 
suffered  from  heart  disease,  with  severe  attacks 
of  angina  pectoris.  He  died  on  Jan.  22,  1818. 
Even  the  ill-natured  and  caustic  Charles  Cald- 
well [q.z'.~\  writes  of  Wistar's  genial  and  gener- 
ous disposition.  Though  he  criticizes  him  for 
unpunctuality  in  keeping  professional  engage- 
ments and  speaks  disparagingly  of  his  ability  as 
a  lecturer  in  his  early  years,  he  regarded  Wistar 
as  infinitely  superior  in  scholarship  to  any  of  his 
professional  colleagues  and  says  that  in  his  later 
life  he  excelled  in  lecturing.  After  his  death  Wis- 
tar's family  presented  his  large  anatomical  col- 
lection to  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  for  an 
anatomical  museum.  This  was  added  to  very  ma- 
terially by  William  Edmonds  Horner  [q.v.~\  and 
other  successors  of  Wistar,  and  for  many  years 
was  known  as  the  Wistar  and  Horner  Museum. 
In  1892  it  was  taken  over  by  the  Wistar  Institute 
of  Anatomy  and  Biology,  which  was  founded  and 
generously  endowed  by  Wistar's  great-nephew, 
Isaac  Jones  Wistar  (1827-1905). 

[See  William  Tilghman,  An  Eulogium  in  Commemo- 
ration of  Dr.  Caspar  Wistar  (1818),  with  notes  in  MS. 
in  the  lib.  of  the  Coll.  of  Physicians  of  Phila.  ;  Charles 
Caldwell,  An  Eulogium  on  Caspar  Wistar,  M.D. 
(1818)  ;  David  Hosack,  Tribute  to  the  Memory  of  the 
Late  Caspar  Wistar,  M.D.  (1818)  ;  Joseph  Carson,  Hist, 
of  the  Medic.  Dept.  of  the  Univ.  of  Pa.  (1869)  ;  W.  S. 
W.  Ruschenberger,  An  Account  of  .  .  .  the  Coll.  of 
Physicians  of  Phila.  (1887)  ;  Autobiog.  of  Isaac  Jones 
Wistar  (2  vols.,  1914)  ;  H.  A.  Kelly,  Some  Am.  Medic. 
Botanists  (1914),  which  contains  material  supplied  by 
Dr.  T.  J.  Wistar,  Wistar's  grand-nephew  ;  W.  S.  Mid- 
dleton,  in  Annals  of  Medic.  Hist.  (1922),  vol.  IV  ;  death 
notice  and  obituary  in  Poulson's  Am.  Daily  Advertiser, 
Jan.  23,  24,  1 81 8.  See  also  R.  W.  Davids,  The  Wistar 
Family  (1896);  J.  R.  Tyson,  Sketch  of  the  Wistar 
Party  of  Phila.  (1898);  and  H.  L.  Carson,  The  Cen- 
tenary of  the  Wistar  Party  (1918).  The  Coll.  of  Physi- 
cians of  Phila.  has  a  number  of  Wistar's  lecture  noter 
books  in  MS.,  as  well  as  a  copy  by  S.  B.  Waugh  of  the 
portrait  of  Wistar  by  Bass  Otis.]  p  r  p_ 


Wister 

WISTER,  SARAH  (July  20,  1761-Apr.  21, 
1804),  diarist,  was  descended  from  pure  German 
stock  on  her  father's  side  and  from  pure  Welsh 
on  her  mother's.  The  family  name,  originally 
Wuster,  took  the  Anglicized  forms,  of  Wister  and 
Wistar  in  the  two  branches  of  the  family.  John 
Wuster,  born  near  Heidelberg,  had  joined  his 
brother,  Caspar  Wistar  [q.v.],  in  Philadelphia, 
Pa.,  in  1727  and  made  a  considerable  fortune  as 
a  wine  merchant,  much  of  which  was  invested  in 
real  estate.  His  son,  Daniel  Wister,  was  the  fa- 
ther of  Sally.  Her  mother  was  Lowry  Jones, 
whose  great-grandfather,  Dr.  Edward  Jones,  had 
been  a  founder  of  the  Welsh  colony  in  Merion 
and  Haverford  townships  and  had  married  a 
daughter  of  Dr.  Thomas  Wynne,  speaker  of  the 
first  Pennsylvania  Assembly. 

The  birthplace  of  Sally  Wister  was  the  fine 
residence  built  by  her  grandfather  Wister  on 
High  Street.  She  attended  the  school  kept  by 
the  well-known  Quaker,  Anthony  Benezet  [q.v.]. 
There  among  her  intimate  friends  were  Deborah 
Norris,  Anna  and  Peggy  Rawle,  Sally  Burge, 
and  other  girls  from  the  best  families,  who  were 
later  to  be  notable  women  of  the  city.  After  she 
completed  her  elementary  studies  she  must  have 
had  some  training  in  literature  and  the  classics, 
for  her  writing  shows  acquaintance  with  Latin 
and  French  and  a  cultivated  taste  for  reading. 
She  frequently  quotes  poetry  and  was  happy  to 
receive  a  "charming  collection"  of  books  that 
included  Fielding's  Joseph  Andrews.  It  is  pos- 
sible that  she  also  learned  needlework  at  school, 
for  Capt.  Alexander  S.  Dandridge  complimented 
her  on  her  skill  in  making  a  sampler.  After  the 
outbreak  of  the  Revolution,  when  the  British 
were  threatening  Philadelphia,  Daniel  Wister 
moved  his  family  to  the  Foulke  farm,  on  the  Wis- 
sahickon,  some  fifteen  miles  away.  There  Sally 
kept  up  a  correspondence  with  Deborah  Norris 
until  the  British  entered  Germantown.  On  that 
day,  Sept.  25,  1777,  she  began  "a  sort  of  journal 
of  the  time,"  as  she  says,  a  record  of  everyday 
events  and  experiences,  intended  as  communica- 
tions to  her  "saucy  Debbie,"  though  they  never 
reached  the  latter  until  many  years  later.  After 
Sally's  death  her  brother,  Charles  J.  Wister,  lent 
the  manuscript  to  the  distinguished  mistress  of 
Stenton.  The  journal  is  one  of  the  most  inter- 
esting of  its  kind.  Its  author  was  a  vivacious  girl 
of  sixteen,  with  a  sense  of  humor  and  an  eye  for 
the  dramatic,  who  gives  a  naive  yet  faithful  ac- 
count of  her  impressions.  It  is  thus  valuable  not 
only  as  a  commentary  on  the  history  and  the  so- 
cial conditions  of  the  time  but  as  a  human  docu- 
ment.  The  journal  was  continued  until  June  20, 


434 


Withers 

1778,  shortly  before  the  family  returned  to  Phil- 
adelphia. 

Sally  Wister  developed  into  a  fine  type  of  wom- 
an. Occasionally  she  wrote  verse,  some  of  which 
was  published  in  the  Port  Folio.  After  the  death 
of  her  grandfather  the  family  moved  to  Grumble- 
thorpe,  his  country  house  in  Germantown,  where 
she  spent  the  remainder  of  her  life.  As  the  years 
passed  she  became  deeply  religious  and  devoted- 
ly attached  to  her  charming  mother,  whom  she 
survived  only  a  few  months. 

[The  biog.  sketch  in  Sally  Wistcr's  Jour.,  A  True 
Narrative,  Being  a  Quaker  Maiden's  Account  of  Her 
Experiences  with  Officers  of  the  Continental  Army, 
177 7-1778  (!902),  ed.  by  A.  C.  Myers,  is  the  best  ac- 
count of  Sally  Wister's  life.  See  also  J.  W.  Jordan, 
Colonial  Families  of  Phila.  (ign),  vol.  I  ;  A  Memoir  of 
Charles  J.  Wister  (1866)  ;  H.  M.  Jenkins,  Hist.  Colls. 
Relating  to  Gwyncdd  (1897)  ;  J.  T.  Scharf  and  Thomp- 
son Westcott,  Hist,  of  Phila.  (1884),  vol.  II  ;  and  W.  S. 
W.  Ruschenberger,  A  Sketch  of  the  Life  of  Caspar  Wis- 
ter, M.D.  (1891).]  A.L.L. 

WITHERS,  FREDERICK  CLARKE  (Feb. 
4,  1828-Jan.  7,  1901),  architect,  was  born  in 
Shepton  Mallet,  Somersetshire,  England,  the  son 
of  John  Alexander  and  Maria  (Jewell)  Withers. 
After  completing  his  school  education  at  King 
Edward's  School,  Sherborne,  he  entered  the  Lon- 
don office  of  Thomas  Henry  Wyatt,  where  he  re- 
ceived his  architectural  training,  in  company 
with  his  brother,  Robert  J.  Withers,  who,  stay- 
ing in  England,  later  became  a  Fellow  of  the 
Royal  Institute  of  British  Architects.  In  1853 
Frederick  emigrated  to  America,  one  of  a  num- 
ber of  young  English  architects  attracted  about 
the  same  time  by  the  opportunities  offered  in  an 
expanding  young  country.  In  America  he  seems 
to  have  been  in  close  touch  at  an  early  period 
with  his  compatriots,  Calvert  Vaux  [g.t'.]  and 
Jacob  Wray  Mould.  After  practising  for  some 
time  in  Newburgh,  N.  Y.,  where  Vaux  was  liv- 
ing and  working  as  a  partner  of  Andrew  Jackson 
Downing  [q.v.~\,  he  followed  Vaux  to  New  York 
and  eventually  became  ( 1864)  a  partner  of  Vaux 
and  Olmsted,  working  with  them  especially  on 
the  architectural  treatment  of  Central  Park. 
(Drawings  in  the  New  York  Park  Department 
show  Vaux  and  Withers  associated  as  early  as 
i860.)  Mould  was  also  working  with  them, 
Withers  and  Vaux  on  the  larger  elements,  and 
Mould  on  details  and  decoration.  Soon  after, 
the  Civil  War  began,  Withers  enlisted  and  served 
with  a  volunteer  engineer  regiment.  In  1862  he 
was  invalided  home  and  resumed  practice,  with 
Vaux  until  1871,  later  alone.  In  1856  he  married 
Emily  A.  deWint  (d.  1863),  a  relative  of  Down- 
ing's  wife,  and  on  Aug.  4,  1864,  Beulah  Alice 
Higbee  (d.  1888).  He  had  eleven  children, 
three  by  his   first  wife;   eight  by  his   second. 


Witherspoon 


During  Withers'  later  life  he  resided  at  Yonkers, 
where  he  died. 

Withers  enjoyed  a  high  reputation  during  his 
lifetime  and  had  a  wide  practice,  chiefly  in  the 
designing  of  institutions  and  churches.  For  some 
time  he  was  architect  of  the  Department  of  Char- 
ities and  the  Department  of  Correction  in  New 
York  City,  for  which  he  designed  the  Jefferson 
Market  Police  Court  and  Prison  and  the  Chapel 
of  the  Good  Shepherd  on  Welfare  Island.  He 
was  also  the  architect  of  the  Hudson  River  Asy- 
lum, Poughkeepsie,  and  the  Columbia  Institute 
for  the  Deaf  and  Dumb,  Washington,  D.  C. 
(1867).  He  is,  however,  best  known  as  a  church 
architect.  Among  his  churches  important  exam- 
ples are  the  First  Presbyterian  Church,  New- 
burgh, N.  Y.  (1857),  St.  Michael's,  German- 
town,  Pa.  (1858),  the  Dutch  Reformed  Church, 
Fishkill-on-Hudson  (1859),  St.  Paul's,  New- 
burgh, N.  Y.  (1864),  the  First  Presbyterian, 
Highland  Falls,  N.  Y.  (1868),  the  Episcopal 
Church,  Matteawan,  N.  Y.  (1869),  Calvary  Epis- 
copal Church,  Summit,  N.  J.  (1872),  and  St. 
Thomas',  Hanover,  N.  Y.  (1874).  He  was  also 
the  architect  of  the  Astor  memorial  reredos  and 
chancel  fittings  of  Trinity  Church,  New  York. 
In  1866  Vaux,  Olmsted,  and  Withers  won  the 
competition  for-  a  proposed  memorial  chapel  at 
Yale,  but  the  building  was  never  erected.  With- 
ers was  the  author  of  Church  Architecture: 
Plans,  Elevations,  and  Views  of  Twenty-One 
Churches  and  Two  School  Houses  (1873). 

Withers'  work  stands  half-way  between  the 
archaeological  Gothic  Revival  of  the  elder  Rich- 
ard Upjohn  [q.z:]  and  the  mannerisms  of  the  de- 
veloped Victorian  Gothic  of  such  men  as  Russell 
Sturgis  tq.v.~\.  He  used  the  horizontal  banding 
and  polychrome  masonry  of  the  latter  style  with 
discretion  and  restraint,  but  always  seemed  to  be 
searching  for  a  new,  modern,  and  personal,  rather 
than  a  merely  archaeological  expression  of  gen- 
erally Gothic  ideals.  His  work  was  especially 
valuable  in  keeping  up  the  standard  of  church 
architecture  during  a  period  when  American 
taste  was  in  a  woefully  chaotic  state. 

[Sources    include    Who's    Who    in    America,    1899- 

1900  ;  C.  D.  Higby,  Edward  Higby  and  His  Descend- 
ants (1897)  ;  N.  Y.  city  directories;  Biog.  Dir.  of  the 
State  of  N.  Y.  (1900)  ;  £lie  Brault,  Let  Architcctes  par 
leurs  CEitvres  (Paris,  3  vols.,  1892-93)  ;  Am.  Art  Ann., 
'9°3  I  Papers  Read  at  the  Royal  Inst,  of  British  Archi- 
tects .  .  .  1866-67  (1867)  ;  Am.  Architect  and  Building 
News,  Jan.  19,  1901  ;  obituary  in  TV.  V.  Times,  Jan.  8, 

190 1  :  information  from  Margaret  Withers  of  Washing- 
ton, D.  C,  Withers'  daughter.]  T.  F.  H. 

WITHERSPOON,  JOHN  (Feb.  5,  1723- 
Nov.  15,  1794),  Presbyterian  clergyman,  signer 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  president  of 
the  College  of  New  Jersey,  was  the  son  of  the 


435 


Witherspoon 


Rev.  James  and  Anne  (Walker)  Witherspoon. 
He  was  born  at  Yester,  near  Edinburgh,  Scot- 
land. Though  he  was  not  a  direct  descendant  of 
John  Knox,  as  alleged,  the  family  tree  is  sprin- 
kled with  Calvinist  dominies.  He  attended  the 
ancient  Haddington  Grammar  School  and  at  the 
age  of  thirteen  matriculated  at  the  University  of 
Edinburgh,  where  he  remained  for  seven  years, 
taking  the  degree  of  master  of  arts  in  1739  and 
the  divinity  degree  in  1743.  He  was  licensed  to 
preach  by  the  Haddington  Presbytery,  Sept.  6, 
1743,  and  in  January  1745  received  a  call  to  Beith 
in  Ayrshire,  where  he  was  ordained  Apr.  11.  On 
Sept.  2,  1748,  he  married  Elizabeth  Montgomery, 
by  whom  he  had  ten  children,  five  of  whom  died 
in  childhood.  In  1757  he  became  pastor  of  the 
congregation  in  the  flourishing  town  of  Paisley. 

His  Scottish  ministry  lasted  until  1768.  Early 
allying  himself  with  the  Popular  Party,  he  be- 
came one  of  its  leaders.  This  faction  was  con- 
servative, striving  to  maintain  a  purity  of  doc- 
trine that  was  distasteful  to  many  of  the  clergy. 
For  twenty  years  Witherspoon  attacked  the  Mod- 
erates for  their  apparent  willingness  to  sacrifice 
the  great  dogmas  of  the  Church  for  a  dubious 
humanism  in  science  and  letters.  It  was  his  con- 
viction that  sermons  should  be  more  than  expo- 
sitions of  morality,  ^and  in  his  diatribe  Ecclesias- 
tical Characteristics  (1753),  which  quickly  ran 
through  seven  editions,  he  excoriated  the  spir- 
itual vacillation  of  the  "paganized  Christian  di- 
vines" of  his  day.  In  1757,  enraged  by  the  ap- 
pearance of  a  play  written  by  a  churchman,  he 
published  A  Serious  Enquiry  into  the  Nature  and 
Effects  of  the  Stage,  in  which  he  declared  the 
drama  to  be  an  unlawful  recreation  because  it 
agitates  the  passions  too  violently  and  therefore 
is  not  recreative  in  effect.  In  brief,  he  was  re- 
enacting  the  old  story  of  a  sterner  generation 
waging  a  losing  fight  against  the  more  comfort- 
able philosophy  of  a  more  cultured  age  (Collins, 
post,  I,  29).  In  one  respect,  however,  the  Popu- 
lar Party  was  completely  identified  with  the  peo- 
ple, namely,  in  its  solicitude  for  "the  right  of 
personal  conscience."  The  General  Assembly  in 
the  interest  of  more  efficient  church  organization 
insisted  upon  obedience  to  the  ecclesiastical  au- 
thorities in  the  appointment  of  ministers.  With- 
erspoon, in  defending  the  traditional  rights  of  the 
people  in  choosing  their  own  ministers,  emerged 
as  the  champion  of  popular  rights. 

The  fight  between  the  factions  was  long  and 
bitter.  Witherspoon  was  ever  on  the  offensive, 
confounding  his  enemies  in  a  stream  of  published 
satires  and  invectives.  These  were  read  eagerly 
both  at  home  and  abroad  by  those  of  the  Calvin- 
ist persuasion.  In  1759  as  moderator  of  the  Synod 


Witherspoon 

of  Glasgow  and  Ayr  he  delivered  the  last  of  his 
great  doctrinal  sermons,  The  Trial  of  Religious 
Truth  by  Its  Moral  Influence,  in  which  he  stout- 
ly maintained  all  the  orthodox  points,  painted  a 
gloomy  picture  of  the  religious  decadence  of  the 
country,  and  condemned  in  no  uncertain  terms 
the  weakness  and  intellectual  dishonesty  of  the 
ministry  whereby  "an  unsubstantial  theory  of 
virtue"  was  being  preached  instead  of  "the  great 
and  operative  views  of  the  Gospel"  (Collins,  I, 
55 ).  In  1768,  after  having  refused  calls  to  Rot- 
terdam and  Dublin,  he  left  Paisley  to  assume  the 
presidency  of  the  College  of  New  Jersey.  He  had 
originally  been  elected  in  November  1766,  but 
had  declined  at  that  time  out  of  deference  to  the 
wishes  of  his  wife.  He  had  fought  a  gallant 
fight,  and  though  retreating  he  was  in  reality 
leaving  a  stage  which  he  had  outgrown.  In  1764 
the  University  of  St.  Andrews  had  conferred 
upon  him  the  degree  of  D.D.  in  recognition  of 
his  signal  abilities  and  leadership. 

Witherspoon's  American  career  reveals  many 
activities,  political,  religious,  and  educational. 
In  accepting  the  call  to  New  Jersey  he  undertook 
considerably  more  than  an  educational  mission. 
The  Presbyterian  Church  in  America  at  that  time 
was  divided  in  counsel.  Happily,  Witherspoon, 
the  choice  of  the  New  Side  school,  held  views 
that  were  welcome  to  those  of  the  Old  Side.  His 
leadership,  apparent  from  the  start,  gave  the 
church  the  necessary  drive  it  needed  to  extend 
itself  in  a  new  country.  The  factional  schism 
was  healed,  the  organization  was  strengthened,  a 
close  association  was  established  with  the  Con- 
gregationalists,  and  the  Presbyterian  Church, 
revitalized  by  the  Scotch-Irish  influx,  grew  rap- 
idly. By  1776  it  was  strongly  entrenched  in  the 
Middle  Colonies  and  on  the  frontier  where  it  en- 
joyed for  a  brief  span  almost  a  monopoly  of  the 
religious  activity.  With  this  growth  Wither- 
spoon was  intimately  identified.  His  unrivaled 
position  in  American  ecclesiastical  circles  was 
based  upon  a  perfect  familiarity  with  the  historic 
principles,  discipline,  and  forms  of  Presbyterian- 
ism.  During  the  closing  years  of  his  life  he  could 
boast  that  a  decided  majority  of  the  members  of 
the  General  Assembly  had  been  his  own  students. 

Though  not  a  profound  scholar,  Witherspoon 
was  an  able  college  president.  During  the  period 
1768-76  the  College  of  New  Jersey  took  on  a 
new  lease  of  life.  The  endowment,  the  faculty, 
and  the  student  body  steadily  increased.  The 
Revolution,  however,  precluded  a  continuance  of 
growth  for  many  years.  The  student  body  was 
dispersed,  the  college  could  not  be  used  for  edu- 
cational purposes,  and  its  President  was  less  and 
less  in  residence.    Witherspoon  introduced  into 


436 


Witherspoon 

Princeton  the  study  of  philosophy,  French,  his- 
tory, and  oratory,  and  he  insisted  upon  a  mastery 
of  the  English  language.  It  was  his  conviction 
that  an  education  should  fit  a  man  for  public  use- 
fulness. Book  learning  for  its  own  sake  did  not 
greatly  appeal  to  him,  for  were  there  not  many 
learned  in  various  subjects  "whom  yet  we  reckon 
greatly  inferior  to  more  ignorant  persons  in 
clear,  sound  common  sense?"  (Works,  post,  IV, 
17).  Nor  did  he  place  a  high  value  upon  acquis- 
itive scholarship.  "The  person  who  addicts  him- 
self to  any  one  of  these  studies  .  .  .  cannot  be  a 
man  of  extensive  knowledge  ;  and  it  is  but  seldom 
that  he  can  be  a  man  of  a  liberal  or  noble  turn 
of  mind,  because  his  time  is  consumed  by  the 
particularities,  and  his  mind  narrowed  by  attend- 
ing to  one  particular  art"  (Ibid.,  p.  18).  As  in 
Scotland,  Witherspoon  had  little  patience  with 
any  credo  that  smacked  of  intellectual  imagery 
or  subtlety.  He  decried  Berkeleyanism,  so  popu- 
lar in  many  American  circles,  and  exterminated 
it  at  Princeton.  He  stood  four-square  upon  doc- 
trines empirical  and  to  him  America  owes,  for 
what  it  is  worth,  the  philosophy  of  "common 
sense"  that  permeated  its  thinking  for  so  long. 

Witherspoon  had  disapproved  of  ministers 
participating  in  politics,  and  this  fact,  possibly, 
delayed  his  appearance  upon  the  political  stage. 
It  was  not  until  1774  that  he  manifested  more 
than  a  casual  interest  in  the  controversy  with 
the  mother  country.  His  opening  activities  were 
unheralded ;  he  was  merely  making  common 
cause  with  his  neighbors.  He  was  a  county  dele- 
gate, acting  upon  committees  of  correspondence 
and  serving  at  provincial  conventions.  During 
the  winter  of  1775-76,  as  chairman  of  his  county 
delegation,  he  was  concerned  principally  in  bring- 
ing New  Jersey  into  line  with  the  other  colonies. 
He  was  conspicuous  only  in  the  movement  lead- 
ing to  the  imprisonment  of  the  royalist  governor, 
William  Franklin  [q.v.].  On  June  22,  1776,  he 
was  chosen  as  a  delegate  to  the  Continental  Con- 
gress. This  appointment  prevented  him,  th  iugh 
the  contrary  is  alleged,  from  sitting  on  the  com- 
mittee that  drafted  and  secured  the  adoption  of 
the  state  constitution  (Collins,  I,  215).  He  ar- 
rived in  Philadelphia  at  the  time  when  Congress 
was  on  the  point  of  adopting  a  resolution  of  inde- 
pendence and  drafting  the  Declaration.  Though 
he  did  not  carry  the  Declaration  by  a  dramatic 
"nick  of  time"  speech  on  July  4,  as  extravagant 
admirers  have  claimed,  it  is  known  that  he  per- 
formed on  July  2  the  equally  valuable  service  of 
urging  advance  where  others  would  delay,  assur- 
ing Congress  that  the  country  "had  been  for  some 
time  past  loud  in  its  demand  for  the  proposed 
declaration"  and  stating  that  in  his  judgment  "it 


Witherspoon 

was  not  only  ripe  for  the  measure  but  in  danger 
of  rotting  for  the  want  of  it"  (Ibid.,  I,  217-21). 

Witherspoon  had  a  clearer  comprehension  of 
the  controversy  between  the  colonies  and  the 
mother  country  than  most.  In  the  summer  of 
1774,  in  an  essay,  unpublished  at  the  time,  he  laid 
out  a  course  of  action  that  was  identical  with  the 
one  followed  by  Congress :  "To  profess  loyalty 
to  the  King  and  our  'backwardness'  to  break  con- 
nection with  Great  Britain  unless  forced  thereto ; 
To  declare  the  firm  resolve  never  to  submit  to 
the  claims  of  Great  Britain,  but  deliberately  to 
prefer  war  with  all  its  horrors,  and  even  exter- 
mination, to  slavery;  To  resolve  union  and  to 
pursue  the  same  measures  until  American  liberty 
is  settled  on  a  solid  basis  .  .  ."  (Works,  IV,  214- 
15).  Witherspoon's  writings  had  a  wide  influence 
in  Great  Britain  as  well  as  at  home.  A  sermon 
delivered  at  Princeton  in  May  1776,  Dominion 
of  Providence  over  the  Passions  of  Men,  was 
the  first  of  a  steady  stream  of  opinions  and  ar- 
guments that  came  from  his  pen.  In  resolving 
in  terse  phrases  the  controversy  with  Great  Brit- 
ain he  was  unexcelled.  "It  is  proper  to  observe 
that  the  British  settlements,"  he  wrote,  "have 
been  improved  in  a  proportion  far  beyond  the  set- 
tlements of  other  European  nations.  To  what 
can  this  be  ascribed  ?  Not  to  the  climate  ;  not  to 
the  people,  for  they  are  a  mixture  of  all  nations. 
It  must,  therefore,  be  resolved  singly  into  the  de- 
gree of  British  liberty  which  they  brought  from 
home,  and  which  pervaded  more  or  less  their  sev- 
eral constitutions"  (Ibid.,  II,  441).  "Is  there  a 
probable  prospect  of  reconciliation  on  constitu- 
tional principles  ?  Will  anybody  show  that  Great 
Britain  can  be  sufficiently  sure  of  our  depend 
ence,  and  yet  be  sure  of  our  liberties  ?"  (Ibid., 
IV,  320). 

Witherspoon  served  in  Congress  with  some  in- 
termissions from  June  1776  until  November 
1782.  He  was  appointed  to  more  than  one  hun- 
dred committees  and  was  a  member  of  two  stand- 
ing committees  of  supreme  importance — the 
board  of  war  and  the  committee  on  secret  corre- 
spondence or  foreign  affairs.  He  took  an  active 
part  in  the  debates  on  the  Articles  of  Confedera- 
tion ;  assisted  in  organizing  the  executive  depart- 
ments ;  shared  in  the  formation  of  the  new  gov- 
ernment's foreign  alliances ;  and  played  a  lead- 
ing part  in  drawing  up  the  instructions  of  the 
American  peace  commissioners.  He  fought 
against  the  flood  of  paper  money,  and  opposed 
the  issuance  of  bonds  without  provision  for  their 
amortization.  "No  business  can  be  done,  some 
say,  because  money  is  scarce,"  he  wrote.  "It  may 
be  said,  with  more  truth,  money  is  scarce,  be- 
cause little  business  is  done"  (Essay  on  Money, 


437 


Witherspoon 


1786,  p.  58).  Witherspoon's  ability  to  execute 
the  manifold  tasks  set  before  him,  and  his  all- 
enduring  patience  and  high  courage  in  the  face 
of  recklessness  and  despair  are  the  qualities  that 
give  him  rank  among  the  leaders  of  the  Ameri- 
can Revolution. 

He  spent  his  last  years,  from  1782  to  1794,  in 
endeavoring  to  rebuild  the  college.  During  his 
lifetime,  however,  the  institution  at  Princeton 
never  fully  recovered  from  the  effects  of  the 
Revolution.  He  did  not  as  he  wished  spend  his 
remaining  days  in  otio  cum  dignitate,  for  he  could 
never  refuse  a  call  to  service.  In  1783  he  re- 
turned to  the  state  legislature,  and  again  in  1789. 
In  1787  he  was  a  member  of  the  New  Jersey  rati- 
fying convention.  From  1785  to  1789  he  was  en- 
gaged in  the  plan  of  organizing  the  Presbyterian 
Church  along  national  lines.  The  catechisms, 
confessions  of  faith,  directory  of  worship,  and 
the  form  of  government  and  discipline  were 
largely  bis  work.  He  was  moderator  of  the 
first  General  Assembly,  meeting  in  May  1789. 
His  last  years  were  sad  and  difficult,  owing  to 
the  forlorn  condition  of  the  college  exchequer, 
the  depleted  state  of  his  purse,  and  the  death  of 
his  wife.  On  May  30,  1791,  he  married  Ann  Dill, 
widow  of  Dr.  Armstrong  Dill.  He  was  at  that 
time  sixty-eight  and  his  bride  twenty-four,  and 
the  marriage  caused  considerable  comment ;  two 
daughters  were  born  of  the  union,  one  of  whom 
died  in  infancy.  Blind  the  last  two  years  of  his 
life,  Witherspoon  died  on  his  farm,  at  "Tuscu- 
lum,"  at  the  age  of  seventy-one,  and  was  buried  in 
the  President's  Lot  at  Princeton.  In  1800-01  The 
Works  of  Joint  Witherspoon,  in  four  volumes, 
appeared,  and  a  nine-volume  edition  of  his  works 
was  published  in  Edinburgh  in  181 5.  In  an  arti- 
cle in  the  Pennsylvania  Journal  in  1781  he  point- 
ed out  the  divergence  of  the  language  spoken  in 
America  from  that  in  England,  and  coined  the 
term  "Americanism." 

[The  most  scholarly  biography  and  one  containing  a 
complete  bibliog.  is  V.  L.  Collins,  President  Wither- 
spoon (2  vols.,  1925).  For  a  shorter,  less  critical  ac- 
count see  W.  B.  Sprague,  Annals  of  the  Am.  Pulpit, 
vol.  Ill  (1858).  For  his  administration  of  Princeton, 
John  Maclean's  Hist,  of  the  Coll.  of  N.  J.  (1877)  is 
authoritative.  The  principal  manuscript  source  is  Ash- 
bel  Green's  sketch  of  Witherspoon's  life,  preserved  in 
the  N.  J.  Hist.  Soc.  Lib.,  Newark.  See  also  D.  W. 
Woods,  John  Witherspoon  (1906)  and  I.  W.  Riley, 
Am.  Philosophy:  The  Early  Schools  (1907).] 

J.  E.  P. 

WITHERSPOON,  JOHN  ALEXANDER 

(Sept.  13,  1864 — Apr.  26,  1929),  physician  and 
medical  educator,  was  born  at  Columbia,  Maury 
County,  Tenn.,  the  son  of  John  McDowell  and 
Mary  (Hanks)  Witherspoon.  His  father  was  a 
farmer,  lawyer,  and  judge  of  the  county  court. 
His  great-grandfather,  in  the  paternal  line,  was 


Witherspoon 

an  officer  in  the  Revolutionary  army  and  a 
nephew  of  John  Witherspoon  \_q.v.~\,  a  signer  of 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  and  early  presi- 
dent of  the  College  of  New  Jersey.  John  Alex- 
ander received  his  academic  education  in  the 
schools  of  Maury  County  and  at  Austin  College, 
Sherman,  Tex.  He  studied  medicine  for  two 
years  in  the  office  of  a  physician  at  Columbia, 
Tenn.,  before  entering  the  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania school  of  medicine,  where  he  received 
the  degree  of  M.D.  in  1887.  In  later  years  he 
carried  on  further  study  in  New  York,  as  well  as 
in  Germany,  France,  England,  and  Scotland. 
Upon  graduation  he  began  the  practice  of  medi- 
cine in  his  home  town.  On  Nov.  8,  1888,  he  was 
married  to  Cornelia  Dixon  of  Ashwood,  Tenn. 
In  1889  he  joined  the  faculty  of  the  medical  de- 
partment of  the  University  of  Tennessee,  Nash- 
ville, as  professor  of  physiology,  and  two  years 
later  became  professor  of  medicine.  He  acted 
also,  for  a  brief  period  (1892-93),  as  professor 
of  obstetrics  and  gynecology  in  the  University  of 
the  South  at  Sewanee,  Tenn.  In  1895  he  assisted 
in  the  reorganization  of  the  medical  department 
of  Vanderbilt  University,  Nashville,  Tenn.,  go- 
ing abroad  to  study  the  medical  schools  of  Eu- 
rope and  to  buy  supplies  for  the  new  department. 
Upon  his  return  he  became  professor  of  medi- 
cine and  clinical  medicine,  in  which  capacity  he 
served  until  his  death. 

Witherspoon's  greatest  contribution  to  medi- 
cal science  in  the  South  was  made  through  his 
work  at  Vanderbilt.  In  addition  to  his  class- 
room lectures,  he  worked  untiringly  to  raise  the 
standards  of  medical  education.  He  served  on 
the  council  on  medical  education  of  the  Ameri- 
can Medical  Association  (1904-13)  and  was  ac- 
tive in  the  Association  of  American  Medical  Col- 
leges, of  which  he  was  president  in  1909.  He  as- 
sisted in  the  founding  of  the  Southern  Medical 
Journal  (1908),  was  editor-in-chief  during  the 
first  two  years  of  its  existence,  and  was  an  asso- 
ciate editor  from  191 1  to  191 5.  Over  a  period  of 
thirty-two  years,  beginning  in  1894,  he  contrib- 
uted articles  to  various  professional  publications, 
including  not  only  the  Journal  of  the  American 
Medical  Association,  the  Southern  Medical  Jour- 
nal, and  the  Southern  Practitioner,  but  journals 
of  the  state  associations  of  Tennessee,  Texas, 
Illinois,  and  Wisconsin,  as  well  as  those  of  Louis- 
ville, Cincinnati,  and  Detroit.  These  articles 
dealt  not  only  with  the  subject  of  medical  educa- 
tion and  its  standards  but  with  a  variety  of  dis- 
eases and  their  treatment. 

Throughout  the  period  of  his  connection  with 
Vanderbilt  University,  Witherspoon  engaged  in 
private  practice  in  Nashville.    He  was  also  ac- 


438 


Witthaus 

tive  in  city,  state,  regional,  and  national  medical 
associations.  In  addition  to  being  a  member  of 
the  American  College  of  Physicians,  he  was  at 
various  times  president  of  the  Nashville  Acad- 
emy of  Medicine,  the  Tennessee  State  Medical 
Association,  the  Southern  Medical  Association, 
and  the  Mississippi  Valley  Medical  Association. 
In  1912  he  became  president  of  the  American 
Medical  Association,  which  he  represented  at  the 
International  Medical  Congress  in  London,  and 
subsequently  served  as  a  member  of  the  House 
of  Delegates  of  that  body  for  eight  years.  His 
personality  and  his  ability  as  a  speaker  won  him 
prominence  outside  his  profession  as  well :  in 
1909  he  represented  the  American  government  at 
the  dedication  of  the  statue  of  George  Washing- 
ton in  Budapest. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1928-29  ;  lour.  Am.  Medic. 
Asso.,  June  15,  1912,  May  4,  1929;  Southern  Practi- 
tioner, July  1912;  P.  M.  Hamer,  The  Centennial  Hist, 
of  the  Tenn.  State  Medic.  Asso.  (1930)  J  J-  T.  Moore 
and  A.  P.  Foster,  Tenn.,  the  Volunteer  State  (1923), 
vol.  II  ;  obituaries  in  Nashville  Tennessean,  Apr.  26, 
1929]  D.M.R. 

WITTHAUS,  RUDOLPH  AUGUST  (Aug. 
30,  1846-Dec.  19,  1915),  chemist  and  toxicolo- 
gist,  was  born  in  New  York  City,  the  son  of  Ru- 
dolph A.  Witthaus  and  Marie  Antoinette  (Dun- 
bar) Witthaus.  He  was  brought  up  in  New  York 
and  attended  the  schools  there,  and  in  1867  re- 
ceived the  degree  of  A.B.  from  Columbia  Uni- 
versity. The  following  two  years  he  spent  abroad, 
studying  at  the  Sorbonne  and  the  College  de 
France.  On  his  return  to  America  he  entered  the 
College  of  Medicine  of  the  University  of  the  City 
of  New  York  and  was  graduated  M.D.  in  1875. 
While  in  college,  he  had  been  allowed  to  convert 
a  stable  of  his  father's  into  a  laboratory  where 
he  amused  himself  with  chemical  experiments, 
and  when  financial  reverses  forced  him  to  earn 
his  living,  he  turned  to  the  subject  which  had  al- 
ways fascinated  him.  He  was  associate  professor 
of  chemistry  and  physiology  at  the  University 
of  the  City  of  New  York  (1876-78),  where  he 
was  later  professor  of  physiological  chemistry 
( 1882-86),  and  professor  of  chemistry  and  phys- 
ics (1886-98).  Other  appointments  included  the 
positions  of  professor  of  chemistry  and  toxicol- 
ogy, University  of  Vermont  (1878-1900),  and 
professor  of  chemistry  and  toxicology,  Univer- 
sity of  Buffalo  (1882-88).  In  1898  he  became 
professor  of  chemistry  and  physics  at  Cornell 
University,  where  he  retired  in  191 1  as  professor 
emeritus. 

Witthaus  won  world-wide  eminence  in  the  field 
of  legal  medicine,  and  testified  in  some  of  the 
most  notable  murder  trials  in  the  United  States. 
He  found  time  to  write  many  articles  on  toxicol- 


Woerner 

ogy  and  chemistry,  and  was  the  author  of  a  num- 
ber of  important  books.  Among  his  books,  most 
of  which  went  through  a  number  of  editions,  are 
Essentials  of  Chemistry,  Inorganic  and  Organic 
(1879),  General  Medical  Chemistry  for  the  Use 
of  Practitioners  of  Medicine  (1881),  Medical 
Students'  Manual  of  Chemistry  (1883),  and  A 
Laboratory  Guide  in  Urinalysis  and  Toxicology 
(1886).  What  may  be  regarded  as  his  greatest 
achievement  was  Medical  Jurisprudence,  Foren- 
sic Medicine  and  Toxicology  (4  vols.,  1894-96), 
which  he  edited  with  T.  C.  Becker.  The  fourth 
volume,  on  toxicology,  was  the  work  of  Witthaus 
alone.  A  second  edition  was  printed  in  1906-11. 
Valuable  articles  by  Witthaus  on  different  types 
of  poisoning  appeared  in  A.  H.  Buck's  A  Refer- 
ence Handbook  of  the  Medical  Sciences  (9  vols., 
1885-93).  He  belonged  to  chemical  societies  in 
Berlin  and  Paris,  and  was  fellow  of  the  Ameri- 
can Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences  and  of  th<" 
New  York  Academy  of  Medicine. 

A  man  of  broad  culture  and  wide  learning, 
quiet  and  uncommunicative,  Witthaus  devoted 
his  entire  life  to  his  work  and  his  books.  Much 
of  his  time  in  later  years  was  spent  poring  over 
his  own  books  and  cataloguing  them,  and  few 
days  went  by  in  which  he  missed  his  hours  of 
study  at  the  library  of  the  New  York  Academy 
of  Medicine,  where  his  own  fine  library  was  de- 
posited at  his  death.  His  friends  were  few.  He 
was  extremely  cynical  and  so  often  irascible  that 
it  was  difficult  to  get  along  with  him.  He  was  a 
man  of  small  stature,  lean  as  well  as  short,  of 
sandy  complexion.  His  portrait,  painted  by  Fag- 
nani,  was  left  to  Jennie  Cowan  of  New  York.  He 
was  married,  Feb.  23,  1882,  in  the  Church  of  the 
Transfiguration,  New  York,  to  Bly-Ella  Faus- 
tina (Coles)  Ranney,  daughter  of  Edward  O. 
Coles  of  New  York,  from  whom  he  was  later  sep- 
arated. His  death  in  191 5  followed  a  long  illness. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1914-15;  Medic.  Record, 
Dec.  25,  1915  ;  Jour.  Am.  Medic.  Asso.,  Jan.  8,  1916; 
Science,  Apr.  14,  1916;  H.  A.  Kelly  and  W.  L.  Bur- 
rage,  Am.  Medic.  Biogs.  (1920);  obituary  in  N.  V. 
Times,  Dec.  21,  1915  ;  account  of  will  in  N.  Y.  Herald, 
Dec.  23,  1915-]  G.L.A. 

WOERNER,   JOHN   GABRIEL    (Apr.   28. 

1826-Jan.  20,  1900),  probate  judge,  author, 
was  born  in  Mohringen,  Wiirttemberg,  Germany, 
the  youngest  of  fourteen  children  of  Elizabeth 
(Ulmer)  and  Christian  Woerner,  a  poor  but 
well-born  carpenter.  When  he  was  seven,  his 
parents  emigrated  to  Philadelphia,  where  the  boy 
worked  in  a  bakery.  In  1837  the  family  removed 
to  St.  Louis.  There  he  added  two  years  at  a  Ger- 
man school  to  his  scant  education.  After  three 
years,  1841-44,  in  country  stores  in  the  Missouri 
Ozarks,  where  he  came  in  contact  with  the  self- 


439 


Woerner 

reliance  of  the  frontier,  lie  became  printer's  devil 
on  the  St.  Louis  Tribune,  an  influential  German 
daily,  which  he  served  successively  as  pressman, 
shop  foreman,  and  editor.  Although  he  had  be- 
come an  American  citizen  on  July  12,  1847,  his 
sympathy  with  the  revolutionists  took  him  to 
Germany  in  1848.  He  did  not  participate  but  re- 
ported the  insurrection  for  several  American 
newspapers,  including  the  New  York  Herald  and 
his  own.  Returning  to  St.  Louis  after  two  years, 
he  purchased  the  Tribune  and,  changing  its  poli- 
tics from  Whig  to  Democratic,  threw  it  behind 
Thomas  H.  Benton  [q.v.~].  In  1852  he  sold  the 
newspaper,  began  to  study  law,  and,  on  Nov.  16, 
married  Emilie,  the  daughter  of  Friedrich  Plass, 
and  a  native  of  East  Friesland,  Hanover,  Ger- 
many. The  next  year  he  became  court  clerk. 
Successively  he  was  clerk  for  the  St.  Louis  al- 
dermen, 1856,  city  attorney,  1857-58,  and  coun- 
cilman, 1861-64.  Denied  a  seat  in  the  Missouri 
Senate  in  1863  following  a  contest  in  that  body, 
he  was  reelected  in  1866,  allowed  to  take  his  seat, 
and  became  an  outstanding  legislator  in  spite  of 
belonging  to  a  negligible  Democratic  minority. 
Missouri's  railroad  policy  for  many  years  was  in- 
fluenced by  a  committee  report  that  he  prepared 
(Scharf,  post,  I,  695).  An  uncompromising  sup- 
porter of  Lincoln  and  a  lieutenant-colonel  in  the 
state  militia  during  the  Civil  War,  he  opposed 
what  he  regarded  as  unjust  Reconstruction  meas- 
ures ;  in  the  legislature  he  worked  against  ratifi- 
cation of  the  Fifteenth  Amendment. 

As  probate  judge  of  St.  Louis  for  six  terms, 
1870-94  inclusive,  he  accomplished  his  most  im- 
portant work.  Scrupulously  honest  and  constant- 
ly seeking  to  improve  estate  laws,  he  became 
widely  known  as  an  authority  on  probate  judica- 
ture (Missouri  Historical  Review,  July  1921,  pp. 
601-2,  610).  His  two-volume  Treatise  -on  the 
American  Law  of  Administration  (1889)  was  a 
pioneer  work,  as  was  its  complement,  A  Treatise 
on  the  American  Laau  of  Guardianship  (1897). 
Reforms  he  proposed  to  conserve  estates  against 
numerous  fees  and  expenses,  brought  him  na- 
tional notice.  Chief  among  his  non-legal  writings 
was  Die  Sclavin  (1891),  an  abolitionist  drama, 
which  began  a  popular  career  on  the  German 
stage  of  the  Middle  West  in  1874  in  St.  Louis. 
In  his  last  year  he  published  a  novel  of  Missouri 
before  the  Civil  War,  with  characters  from  life 
and  a  philosophical  tone,  The  Rebel's  Daughter : 
a  Story  of  Love,  Politics  and  War  ( 1899) .  Asso- 
ciated with  Carl  Schurz,  Henry  C.  Brokmeyer, 
William  T.  Harris,  Joseph  Keppler,  Emil  Pree- 
torius  and  George  Engelmann  [qq.v.'],  he  was 
a  participant  coworker  in  the  St.  Louis  Move- 
ment in  philosophy  and  education.   He  was  also 


Woffurd 

a  founder  of  the  St.  Louis  Philosophical  Soci- 
ety. He  played  several  musical  instruments, 
composed  for  the  piano,  studied  languages,  read 
voluminously,  and  devised  chess  problems.  His 
wife  died  in  1898  survived  by  four  of  their  five 
children.   He  died  at  home  of  paralysis. 

[W.  F.  Woerner,  /.  Gabriel  Woerner  (1912)  ;  A.  J. 
D.  Stewart,  The  Hist,  of  the  Bench  and  Bar  of  Mo. 
(1898)  ;  W.  B.  Stevens,  Centennial  Hist,  of  Mo.  (1921), 
vol.  IV ;  J.  T.  Scharf,  Hist,  of  St.  Louis  City  and 
County  (1883),  vol.  I  ;  H.  L.  Conard,  Encyc.  of  the 
Hist,  of  Mo.  (1901),  vol.  VI;  Mo.  Hist.  Rev.,  Oct. 
1920,  p.  116,  Jan.  1931,  p.  213,  July  1931,  pp.  613- 
15  ;  Mo.  Hist.  Soc.  Colls.,  vol.  V  (1928),  pp.  265-66; 
St.  Louis  Post-Dispatch,  Jan.  21,   1900.]  I.  D. 

WOFFORD,  WILLIAM  TATUM  (June  28, 
1823-May  22,  1884),  planter,  legislator,  soldier, 
son  of  William  Hollingsworth  and  Nancy  M. 
(Tatum)  Wofford,  was  born  in  Habersham 
County,  Ga.  His  ancestors,  coming  from  Cum- 
berland, England,  settled  first  in  Pennsylvania, 
but  soon  removed  to  Spartanburg,  S.  C. ;  his 
grandfather  established  iron  works  near  that 
place  and  served  as  a  colonel  in  the  American 
Revolution.  William  H.  Wofford,  who  settled 
in  Georgia  in  1789,  died  shortly  after  his  son's 
birth,  and  the  boy  was  reared  by  his  mother,  a 
native  of  Virginia.  He  attended  a  local  school 
and  the  Gwinnett  County  Manual  Labor  School, 
studied  law  in  Athens,  Ga.,  and  in  1846  began 
practice  in  Cassville.  During  the  Mexican  War 
he  served  as  a  captain  of  volunteer  cavalry  under 
General  Scott. 

During  the  decade  of  the  fifties  Wofford  at- 
tained distinction  at  the  bar,  developed  a  pros- 
perous plantation,  served  in  the  legislature,  1849- 
53,  and  as  clerk  of  the  lower  house,  1853-54.  In 
1852,  with  the  assistance  of  John  W.  Burke,  ed- 
itor of  the  Athens  Banner,  he  established  the 
Cassville  Standard,  a  Democratic  weekly.  He 
was  a  delegate  to  the  Southern  Commercial  Con- 
vention of  1857  at  Knoxville,  Tenn.,  and  to  that 
of  1858  at  Montgomery,  Ala.  A  firm  anti-seces- 
sionist, he  carried  his  county  with  him  and,  as 
a  member  of  the  state  convention  of  1861,  voted 
against  the  secession  resolution. 

After  Georgia  had  withdrawn  from  the  union, 
however,  Wofford  loyally  offered  his  services  to 
his  state,  and  was  commissioned  colonel  of  the 
18th  Georgia  Regiment.  After  brief  service  in 
North  Carolina,  he  was  attached  to  Hood's 
brigade  and  took  part  in  the  campaigns  around 
Richmond  in  1862.  After  Hood's  promotion 
Wofford  commanded  the  brigade  at  Second 
Manassas  (Bull  Run),  South  Mountain,  and 
Sharpsburg,  and  was  commended  by  Hood  for 
"gallant  conduct"  and  "conspicuous  bravery." 
He  served  under  Brig.-Gen.  Thomas  R.  R.  Cobb 
and,  after  Cobb's  death  at  Fredericksburg,  was 


440 


Wofford 

promoted,  Jan.  19,  1863,  to  the  rank  of  brigadier- 
general.  He  led  the  brigade  at  Chancellorsville 
and  rendered  valuable  service  under  Longstreet 
at  Gettysburg.  Against  the  wishes  of  Lee,  who 
considered  him  one  of  the  best  brigadier-gen- 
erals in  the  division,  Wofford  was  sent  with 
Longstreet  to  East  Tennessee,  where  he  led  the 
unsuccessful  assault  on  Knoxville.  He  was  then 
attached  to  Kershaw's  division,  and  saw  service 
in  the  desperate  campaigns  of  1864  around  Rich- 
mond and  Petersburg,  and  in  the  Shenandoah 
Valley.  Twice,  at  Spotsylvania  and  in  the  Wil- 
derness, he  was  wounded.  Placed  in  command  of 
the  Department  of  Northern  Georgia,  Jan.  20, 
1865,  at  the  request  of  Governor  Brown,  he 
raised  some  7,000  troops  and  defended  that  region 
against  the  turbulent  and  lawless  element  which 
infested  it.  He  surrendered  to  Gen.  H.  M.  Judah 
at  Resaca,  Ga.,  on  May  2,  1865. 

The  war  being  over,  Wofford  devoted  his  en- 
ergy and  means  to  the  care  of  the  starving  and 
the  economic,  industrial,  and  educational  re- 
habilitation of  his  devastated  section  of  the  state. 
Elected  to  Congress  in  1865,  he  was  refused  his 
seat  by  the  Radical  Republicans,  but  through  the 
aid  of  Judge  Kelly  of  Pennsylvania  obtained 
much-needed  food  and  supplies  for  his  district. 
He  was  instrumental  in  organizing  the  Carters- 
ville  &  Van  Wert  and  the  Atlanta  &  Blue  Ridge 
railroads,  served  as  a  trustee  of  the  Cherokee 
Baptist  College  at  Cassville  and  the  Cassville 
Female  College,  and  gave  land  and  money  with 
which  to  establish  the  Wofford  Academy.  In 
1877  he  was  an  influential  member  of  the  state 
constitutional  convention.  He  worked  effective- 
ly for  the  payment  of  the  state  debt,  the  broaden- 
ing of  the  suffrage,  the  development  of  an  edu- 
cational program,  and  the  maintenance  of  a  state 
penitentiary  instead  of  the  leasing  of  convicts. 

Wofford  married  Julia  A.  Dwight  of  Spring 
Place,  Ga.,  in  1859  and  to  this  union  were  born 
six  children,  three  of  whom  died  in  infancy.  Af- 
ter the  death  of  his  wife  in  1878,  he  married,  in 
1880,  Margaret  Langdon  of  Atlanta.  Gentle,  yet 
firm  in  all  his  convictions,  he  was  beloved  by  his 
people  and  idolized  by  his  soldiers.  He  died  at 
his  home  near  Cass  Station,  and  was  buried  in 
the  Cassville  Cemetery. 

[I.  W.  Avery,  The  Hist,  of  the  State  of  Ga.  (1881)  ; 
A.  D.  Candler,  The  Confed.  Records  of  .  .  .  Ga.,  vols. 
Ill,  IV  (iqio)  ;  A.  D.  Candler  and  C.  A.  Evans.  Georgia 
(1906),  vol.  Ill;  Convention  Sketches:  Brief  Biogs. 
(1877);  C.  A.  Evans,  Confed.  Mil.  Hist.  (1899),  vol. 
VI  ;  Jour,  of  the  Constitutional  Convention  of  .  .  .  Ga. 
(1877)  ;  Jour.  .  .  .  of  the  Convention  of  the  People  of 
Ga.  (i860  ;  W.  J.  Northen,  Men  of  Mark  in  Ga.,  vol. 
Ill  (ion)  ;  C.  E.  Jones,  Ga.  in  the  War  (1909)  ;  War 
of  the  Rebellion:  Official  Records  (Army);  Atlanta 
Constitution,  May  24,  1884.]  F  M  C 


Wolcott 

WOLCOTT,  EDWARD  OLIVER  (Mar.  26, 

1848-Mar.  1,  1905),  United  States  senator  and 
politician,  was  born  in  Longmeadow,  Mass.,  the 
third  son  of  the  eleven  children  of  Samuel  and 
Harriet  A.  (Pope)  Wolcott,  and  a  descendant  of 
Henry  Wolcott  who  settled  in  Windsor,  Conn., 
in  1636.  His  father  was  a  Congregational  min- 
ister. The  family  moved  to  Chicago  (1859)  and 
then  to  Cleveland  ( 1862),  where  Edward  attend- 
ed the  Central  High  School.  He  served  as  a 
very  youthful  private  during  the  final  months  of 
the  Civil  War.  In  1866  he  entered  Yale  College 
but  left  to  enter  business  and  then  to  study  ( 1870- 
71)  in  the  Harvard  Law  School,  from  which  he 
received  the  degree  of  LL.B.  in  1875.  His  broth- 
er, Henry,  had  moved  to  Colorado,  and  in  Sep- 
tember 1871  Edward  joined  him  in  Blackhawk. 
He  taught  school  there  for  a  short  time  and  then 
went  to  the  thriving  town  of  Georgetown,  where 
he  began  the  practice  of  law.  He  remained  more 
or  less  active  in  his  profession  during  the  re- 
mainder of  his  life.  Joel  F.  Vaile  (1888)  and 
Charles  W.  Waterman  (1902)  became  his  part- 
ners, and  the  firm  prospered  in  the  service  of  the 
Denver  and  Rio  Grande  Railroad  and  of  other 
corporations. 

Though  a  successful  lawyer,  Wolcott  owes  his 
place  in  Colorado's  history  to  his  ability  as  a 
conservative  leader  of  the  local  Republican  party. 
His  political  career  opened  in  Georgetown.  In 
1876  he  was  elected  district  attorney  and  town 
attorney,  and  promptly  made  a  name  for  himself 
as  an  energetic  and  eloquent  public  prosecutor. 
Two  years  later  he  was  elected  to  the  Colorado 
Senate,  where  he  served  from  1879  to  1882.  He 
moved  to  Denver  in  1879.  His  rise  to  eminence 
was  rapid.  At  first  a  supporter  of  Nathaniel  P. 
Hill  [q.v.~\  in  his  struggle  with  Henry  M.  Teller 
[q.v.~\  and  others  for  the  control  of  the  party  and 
its  patronage,  he  later  joined  the  ranks  of  the 
Teller  faction.  Recognized  as  a  party  leader,  he 
"forced  his  own  election  to  the  United  States 
Senate"  in  1889  (Dawson,  post,  I,  147)  ;  he  was 
reelected  in  1895,  but  failed  in  190 1  and  again 
in  1902-03.  His  activities  were  normally  along 
party  lines.  He  worked  with  Matthew  S.  Quay 
and  other  Republican  leaders  for  the  furtherance 
of  party  measures.  On  the  other  hand,  since  he 
came  from  a  metal  mining  state,  he  was  in  his 
earlier  years  an  ardent  advocate  of  the  free  coin- 
age of  silver.  As  such,  he  opposed  the  repeal  of 
the  Sherman  Act  in  1803.  After  the  repeal  he 
modified  his  ideas  about  silver  and  thought  to 
gain  relief  for  the  mining  states  through  inter- 
national bi-metallism.  He  proposed  1  [895)  and 
was  later  (189;)  made  chairman  of  the  unsuc- 
cessful   commission    which    sought    to    interest 


441 


Wolcott 

France  and  Great  Britain  in  the  matter.  In  1896, 
when  Bryan  and  the  Democrats  espoused  the 
cause  of  free  silver,  he  refused  to  desert  his 
party  as  Teller  had  done.  By  this  refusal  he 
alienated  many  of  his  friends  and  lost  any  chance 
of  reelection  to  the  Senate.  His  most  notable 
activities  in  that  body,  aside  from  his  advocacy 
of  silver,  were  his  opposition  to  the  Federal 
Election  Bill  in  1890  and  to  President  Cleve- 
land's Venezuelan  message. 

Wolcott  was  a  large  man,  always  very  care- 
fully dressed.  His  manner  towards  strangers 
and  enemies  was  often  arrogant,  towards  friends 
often  free.  He  was  a  "high  liver,"  lavish  in  the 
expenditure  of  money,  thoughtless  in  giving.  His 
marriage  to  Frances  (Metcalfe)  Bass  on  May 
14,  1 89 1,  ended  in  divorce  in  1900.  He  died  in 
Monte  Carlo  while  in  search  of  health  and  di- 
version. His  body  lies  in  Woodlawn  Cemetery, 
New  York. 

[T.  F.  Dawson,  Life  and  Character  of  Edzvard  Oliver 
Wolcott  (2  vols.,  191 1,  privately  printed)  is  an  au- 
thorized biog.,  subject  to  the  defects  of  such  biogs.  See 
also  Who's  Who  in  America,  1903-05  ;  The  Biog.  Rec- 
ord of  the  Class  of  1870,  Yale  Coll.  1870-1911  (n.d.)  ; 
Biog.  Dir.  of  the  Am.  Cong.  (1928)  ;  Samuel  Wolcott, 
Memorial  of  Henry  Wolcott  (1881)  ;  obituary  in  Rocky 
Mountain  News  (Denver),  Mar.  2,  1905.] 

J.  F.  W— d. 

WOLCOTT,  OLIVER  (Nov.  20,  1726-Dec. 
i»  I797).  signer  of  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence, governor  of  Connecticut,  was  born  in 
Windsor,  Conn.,  the  youngest  son  of  Roger 
[q.v.~\  and  Sarah  (Drake)  Wolcott.  He  was 
graduated  at  Yale  in  1747,  having  led  his  class 
for  four  years.  Before  he  left  college,  Governor 
Clinton  of  New  York  commissioned  him  (Jan. 
21,  1747)  to  raise  and  serve  as  captain  of  a  com- 
pany in  connection  with  the  ill-fated  expedition 
to  Canada.  Subsequently  he  studied  medicine 
with  his  brother,  intending  to  practise  in  Goshen ; 
but  when  the  county  was  organized  in  1751,  he 
moved  to  Litchfield,  where  his  father  owned 
property,  and  became  its  first  sheriff,  an  office 
he  held  for  twenty  years.  Henceforth  he  devoted 
himself  to  a  legal  and  public  career.  Four  times 
chosen  as  deputy  for  Litchfield  (1764,  1767, 
1768,  and  1770),  he  was  elected  assistant  in  1771 
and  reelected  annually  until  1786;  he  was  judge 
of  the  court  of  probate  for  Litchfield  (1772-81) 
and  judge  of  the  county  courts  in  and  for  Litch- 
field (1774-78).  He  became  a  major  in  the  mili- 
tia in  1771,  a  colonel  in  1774.  On  Jan.  21,  1755, 
he  married  Laura,  daughter  of  Capt.  Daniel  and 
Lois  (Cornwall)  Collins  of  Guilford,  by  whom 
he  had  five  children,  among  whom  was  Oliver 

Throughout  the  Revolution  Wolcott  played  a 
varied  part.    In  April  1775  the  Assembly  sent 


Wolcott 

him  to  Boston  to  interview  General  Gage  (C.  E. 
Carter,  The  Correspondence  of  General  Thomas 
Gage,  vol.  I,  1931,  p.  398),  and  appointed  him  a 
commissary  to  supply  stores  and  provisions  for 
the  troops.  In  July  the  Continental  Congress 
named  him  one  of  the  commissioners  of  Indian 
affairs  for  the  northern  department.  He  met  rep- 
resentatives of  the  Six  Nations  at  Albany  that 
year,  and  helped  settle  the  Wyoming  Valley  and 
the  New  York- Vermont  boundary  questions.  To 
judge  from  later  remarks,  he  supported  the  war 
in  order  to  ensure  the  continuance  of  the  Con- 
necticut brand  of  civil  and  religious  liberty.  As  a 
"Republican  of  the  Old  School,"  whose  "ideas 
of  government  .  .  .  were  derived  from  the  purest 
sources"  (Oliver  Wolcott,  Jr.,  post,  p.  76),  he 
abhorred  the  appearance  of  fanatic  democracy 
among  a  people  whose  morals  and  virtues  he  be- 
lieved to  be  rapidly  declining. 

Wolcott  was  first  elected  a  delegate  to  the 
Continental  Congress  in  October  1775,  and  ex- 
cept in  1779,  when  he  was  not  chosen,  attended 
from  three  to  six  months  every  winter  or  spring 
until  1783.  He  participated  in  the  early  agitation 
over  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  but  left 
Philadelphia  because  of  illness  the  end  of  June, 
and  his  substitute,  William  Williams,  signed  in 
his  stead.  After  he  returned,  Oct.  1,  1776,  he  was 
permitted  to  sign  also.  On  his  journey  north  in 
July  he  carried  off  from  New  York  to  Litchfield 
the  leaden  equestrian  statue  of  George  III  for 
the  ladies  to  melt  into  bullets  (Oliver  Wolcott 
Papers,  Connecticut  Historical  Society).  His 
committee  service  in  Congress  was  comparatively 
unimportant,  but  he  gained  some  reputation  as 
a  man  who  spoke  his  mind.  He  was,  for  instance, 
one  of  a  minority  of  four  against  inflicting  the 
death  penalty  on  Americans  who,  in  the  vicin- 
ity of  American  headquarters,  aided  the  enemy 
(Journals  of  the  Continental  Congress,  X,  205). 
The  caustic  Thomas  Rodney  characterized  him 
thus :  "a  man  of  Integrity,  is  very  candid  in  De- 
bate and  open  to  Conviction  and  does  not  want 
abilities ;  but  does  not  appear  to  be  possessed  of 
much  political  knowledge"   (Burnett,  post,  VI, 

19). 

During  the  summers  Wolcott's  time  was  oc- 
cupied with  active  military  affairs.  In  August 
1776  he  commanded  as  brigadier-general  the 
fourteen  militia  regiments  sent  to  New  York  to 
reinforce  General  Putnam  on  the  Hudson  River. 
In  December  he  was  put  in  command  of  the  6th 
Militia  Brigade  in  northwestern  Connecticut.  On 
his  own  responsibility,  in  September  1777,  he  led 
a  force  of  three  or  four  hundred  volunteers  from 
his  brigade  to  join  Gates's  army  against  Bur- 
goyne.    As   a  major-general   in   1779,   he   had 


442 


Wolcott 


Wolcott 


the  task  of  defending-  the  Connecticut  seacoast 
against  Tryon's  raids.  In  May  1780  he  was  add- 
ed to  the  council  of  safety,  the  state  executive 
committee  for  the  prosecution  of  the  war. 

After  the  treaty  of  peace  was  signed,  Wolcott 
resigned  from  the  Congress  to  devote  himself  to 
domestic  affairs,  and  though  he  served  as  com- 
missioner at  the  Treaty  of  Fort  Stanwix  in  1784 
to  make  peace  with  the  Six  Nations,  he  resigned 
from  that  post  too  in  1785.  Without  a  popular 
majority  in  the  state  elections  of  1787,  he  was 
chosen  lieutenant-governor  by  the  legislature.  A 
member  of  the  state  convention  which  accepted 
the  Constitution,  he  admired  in  it  the  safeguards 
against  faction.  In  1789  he  helped  conclude  a 
treaty  with  the  Wyandottes,  extinguishing  their 
title  to  the  Western  Reserve.  He  was  presi- 
dent of  the  Connecticut  Society  of  Arts  and  Sci- 
ences, and  the  recipient  of  an  honorary  degree 
from  Yale.  On  Samuel  Huntington's  death  in 
January  1796,  he  succeeded  to  the  governorship, 
and  was  elected  to  that  office  in  May.  A  presi- 
dential elector  in  1797,  he  cast  his  vote  for  Adams 
and  Pinckney.  He  died  in  office  after  two  un- 
eventful years  as  governor,  and  was  buried  in 
Litchfield. 

In  person  Wolcott  was  tall,  erect,  dark-com- 
plexioned, dignified,  with  urbane  manners.  The 
eulogies  stress  his  strength  of  will  coupled  with 
toleration  and  moderation,  his  integrity  and  deep 
Puritan  faith,  his  incessant  activity,  and  his  un- 
wavering opposition  to  the  "specious  sophistry 
of  new  political  theories." 

[Oliver  Wolcott,  Jr.,  in  John  Sanderson,  Biog.  of  the 
Signers  to  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  vol.  Ill 
(1823)  ;  Samuel  Wolcott,  Memorial  of  Henry  Wolcott 
(1881)  ;  F.  B.  Dexter,  Biog.  Sketches  Grads.  Yale  Coll., 
vol.  II  (1896)  ;  A.  C.  White,  The  Hist,  of  the  Town  of 
Litchfield  (1920)  ;  F.  B.  Dexter,  The  Literary  Diary  of 
Ezra  Stiles  (1901)  ;  Azel  Backus,  A  Sermon  Delivered 
at  the  Funeral  of  .  .  .  Oliver  Wolcott  (n.d.)  ;  H.  P. 
Johnston,  The  Record  of  Conn.  Men  in  the  .  .  .  Revo- 
lution (1889)  ;  E.  C.  Burnett,  Letters  of  Members  of 
the  Continental  Cong.  (7  vols.,  1921-34)  ;  Oliver  Wol- 
cott Papers,  in  the  Conn.  Hist.  Soc,  Hartford  ;  George 
Gibbs,  Memoirs  of  the  Administrations  of  Washington 
and  John  Adams  .  .  .  from  the  Papers  of  Oliver  Wolcott 
(2  vols.,  1846)  ;  Conn.  Jour.  (New  Haven),  Dec.  7, 
1797-]  S.M.  P. 

WOLCOTT,  OLIVER  (Jan.  11,  1760-June  1, 
I833),  secretary  of  the  treasury,  governor  of 
Connecticut,  was  born  at  Litchfield,  Conn.,  the 
eldest  son  of  Oliver  Wolcott,  1 726-1 797  [q.v.~\ 
and  Laura  (Collins)  Wolcott  of  that  place.  Af- 
ter being  tutored  by  his  mother  he  entered  the 
town  grammar  school  to  prepare  for  Yale  Col- 
lege, and  immediately  after  his  graduation  in 
1778  commenced  the  study  of  law  under  Tapping 
Reeve  [q.v.].  His  participation  in  the  military 
events  of  the  Revolution  was  limited  to  volunteer 


service  during  two  minor  campaigns  in  1777  and 
1779.  Declining  a  commission  as  ensign,  he  ac- 
cepted an  appointment  in  the  quartermaster's  de- 
partment and  supervised  the  safekeeping  and 
conveyance  of  army  stores  and  ordnance  at 
Litchfield.  When  he  came  of  age  he  was  at  once 
admitted  to  the  bar,  and  shortly  thereafter  re- 
moved to  Hartford,  where  diligence  as  a  clerk 
in  the  office  of  the  committee  of  the  pay-table, 
coupled  perhaps  with  his  family's  influence,  led 
to  his  appointment  in  January  1782  to  the  com- 
mittee itself.  In  May  1784  he  was  appointed  a 
commissioner,  in  concert  with  Oliver  Ellsworth 
\_q.v.~\,  to  adjust  and  settle  the  accounts  and 
claims  of  Connecticut  against  the  United  States. 
In  May  1788  he  was  selected  to  fill  the  new  office 
of  comptroller  of  public  accounts,  and  reor- 
ganized the  financial  affairs  of  the  state  in  a  man- 
ner which  met  with  the  approval  of  the  Assembly. 
During  this  period  of  his  career  he  acquired  self- 
confidence  and  formed  practical  habits  of  intense 
and  persevering  application  to  business  which 
served  him  well  in  later  life.  On  June  1,  1785, 
he  married  Elizabeth  Stoughton ;  they  had  five 
sons — three  of  whom  died  in  infancy — and  two 
daughters. 

In  September  1789,  with  the  strong  support 
of  the  Connecticut  delegation,  Wolcott  was  ap- 
pointed auditor  of  the  new  federal  Treasury, 
assuming  his  post  early  in  November.  Secretary 
Hamilton  left  most  of  the  routine  elaboration  of 
departmental  forms  and  methods  to  his  subordi- 
nates, and  Wolcott  was  incessantly  and  labori- 
ously employed.  His  "rare  merit"  and  distin- 
guished conduct  induced  President  Washington, 
upon  Hamilton's  recommendation,  to  appoint  him 
comptroller  in  June  1791.  When  the  Bank  of 
the  United  States  was  organized  in  the  autumn 
of  that  year  he  was  instrumental  in  devising  a 
plan  for  the  establishment  of  branches,  which 
the  stockholders  adopted.  It  would  appear  that 
the  presidency  of  the  bank  was  offered  to  him, 
but  was  declined.  Wolcott  served  quietly  and 
efficiently  as  comptroller.  He  never  wavered  in 
his  loyalty  to  Hamilton,  and  their  close  official 
contact  was  supplemented  by  a  lasting  private 
friendship.  When  Hamilton  resigned  Wolcott 
was  appointed  by  President  Washington  to  suc- 
ceed him  (Feb.  2,  1795). 

Though  he  brought  little  political  strength  to 
the  cabinet,  Wolcott  impressed  Washington  with 
his  ability  and  integrity  and  won  the  President's 
unfeigned  esteem  and  affection.  On  larger  ques- 
tions of  fiscal  policy  he  constantly  sought  and 
received  Hamilton's  advice.  The  mounting  ex- 
penditures of  the  federal  government,  the  extreme 
fluctuations  and  wild  speculations  in  American 


443 


Wolcott 

foreign  commerce,  and  the  increasing  demorali- 
zation of  the  European  money-markets,  especial- 
ly that  of  Amsterdam,  created  grave  problems 
for  the  Treasury.  To  add  to  Wolcott's  difficulties 
the  Republican  majority  in  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives during  the  Fourth  Congress  (1795- 
97),  under  the  leadership  of  Albert  Gallatin 
[<7.r.],  sought  to  wrest  the  initiative  in  financial 
matters  from  the  department.  Congressional  dis- 
inclination to  levy  adequate  additional  taxes  or 
to  confer  satisfactory  borrowing  power  obliged 
Wolcott  and  the  other  commissioners  of  the 
sinking  fund  in  1796-97  to  sell  a  considerable 
portion  of  the  government's  stock  in  the  Bank 
of  the  United  States  in  order  to  reimburse  some 
of  the  overdue  temporary  loans  by  which  that 
institution  had  crippled  itself.  Under  Gallatin's 
relentless  pressure  the  House  of  Representatives 
veered  steadily  in  the  direction  of  specific  rather 
than  blanket  appropriations,  thereby  curtailing 
the  quasi-independence  in  apportioning  govern- 
mental funds  which  Hamilton  had  so  cavalierly 
employed.  Pressure  upon  the  Treasury  was 
eased  when  the  French  crisis  induced  Congress 
to  impose  direct  taxes  along  lines  mapped  out  by 
Wolcott  and  in  1798  a  five  million  dollar  loan  at 
eight  percent,  interest  was  floated. 

In  the  meantime,  Wolcott  was  becoming  in- 
volved in  a  labyrinth  of  political  intrigue  which 
left  a  lasting  shadow  upon  his  reputation. 
Throughout  the  years  1797- 1800  he  enjoyed  the 
confidence  of  President  John  Adams  [q.v.~\,  but 
his  deeper  loyalty,  not  to  say  subservience,  to 
Alexander  Hamilton,  led  him  to  cooperate  with 
Pickering  and  McHenry  in  promoting  Hamil- 
ton's wishes  rather  than  those  of  the  chief  ex- 
ecutive. When  Adams  finally  reconstructed  his 
cabinet,  in  1800,  Wolcott  escaped  the  purge; 
Adams  liked  and  trusted  him.  Wolcott,  how- 
ever, most  reprehensibly  collaborated  in  the  prep- 
aration of  Hamilton's  indiscreet  circular  letter 
attacking  the  political  character  of  the  President. 
When  the  Hamiltonian  effort  to  elect  Thomas 
Pinckney  over  the  head  of  Adams  collapsed, 
Wolcott  finally  proffered  his  resignation  (Nov. 
8,  1800,  effective  Dec.  31).  Adams  accepted  it 
with  "reluctance  and  regret."  Upon  Wolcott's 
invitation  the  House  of  Representatives  appoint- 
ed a  committee  to  investigate  the  treasury  depart- 
ment, which  reported  (Jan.  28,  1801)  that  "the 
financial  concerns  of  the  country  have  been  left 
by  the  late  Secretary  in  a  state  of  good  order 
and  prosperity"  (Gibbs,  post,  II,  476).  Repub- 
lican newspapers,  however,  were  raising  a  storm 
of  malicious  criticism  regarding  his  alleged  coun- 
tenancing of  defalcations  in  the  public  accounts 
and  his  alleged  incendiary  responsibility  for  fires 


Wolcott 

in  the  war  office  (Nov.  8,  1800)  and  the  treasury 
building  (Jan.  20,  1801). 

When  Wolcott  left  Washington  early  in  Feb- 
ruary 1 80 1,  his  whole  property  consisted  of  a 
small  farm  in  Connecticut  and  a  few  hundred 
dollars  in  cash.  Quite  unexpectedly  President 
Adams  appointed  him  judge  for  the  second  cir- 
cuit— Vermont,  Connecticut,  and  New  York — 
under  the  new  Circuit  Court  Act  of  Feb.  13, 
1801,  but  he  had  barely  accustomed,  himself  to 
his  new  duties  when  the  Republican  Congress, 
by  repealing  the  Circuit  Court  Act    (Mar.  8, 

1802)  swept  away  his  office.  Simultaneously 
with  this  blow,  he  suffered  the  indignity  of  hav- 
ing the  rectitude  and  efficiency  of  his  late  treas- 
ury administration  impugned  by  a  House  com- 
mittee report  (Apr.  29,  1802).  To  these  charges 
he  replied  convincingly  in  a  strong  pamphlet  en- 
titled An  Address  to  the  People  of  the  United 
States  (1802). 

Burdened  with  the  support  of  a  family,  "sati- 
ated" with  public  employment,  unwilling  to  con- 
fine himself  to  a  small  farm  in  Litchfield,  Wol- 
cott was  urged  by  Hamilton  to  remove  to  New 
York  and  establish  himself  in  business.  Through 
Hamilton's    intervention    he    entered    (Feb.    3, 

1803)  into  an  extremely  liberal  agreement  with 
James  Watson,  Moses  Rogers,  Archibald  Gracie, 
and  William  Woolsey  of  New  York  City  for  the 
formation  of  a  commission  and  agency  firm  to 
be  known  as  Oliver  Wolcott  &  Company.  His 
four  partners  each  advanced  $15,000  capital,  Wol- 
cott none  at  all ;  but  he  was  to  be  the  managing 
partner  at  a  salary  of  $3,000  a  year  and  one-fifth 
of  the  profits.  In  1804  the  company  made  its  first 
venture  in  the  China  trade  and  after  the  partner- 
ship was  amicably  dissolved  at  Wolcott's  sug- 
gestion in  April  1805,  he  concentrated  his  main 
energies  in  that  field. 

In  1810-11  he  was  elected  to  the  main  board 
of  directors  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States 
and  after  the  charter  lapsed  (Mar.  4,  181 1)  he 
played  a  prominent  role  in  the  launching  of  the 
Bank  of  America  chartered  by  the  New  York 
legislature  in  1812,  serving  as  president  until  he 
was  ousted  in  April  1814  by  a  "secret  cabal"  for 
political  reasons  (Wolcott  to  Tobias  Lear,  May 
n,  1814;  Wolcott  Papers,  post).  This  event 
proved  to  be  a  turning  point  in  his  career.  Al- 
though he  had  been  a  firm  Federalist,  bitterly 
resentful  of  "perfidious  Virginians"  when  he 
first  moved  to  New  York,  his  political  principles 
underwent  a  steady  modification,  leading  some 
of  his  erstwhile  friends  to  suspect  his  sanity 
(Timothy  Pickering  to  James  McHenry,  Mar. 
17, 1810,  B.  C.  Steiner,  The  Life  arid  Correspond- 
ence of  James  McHenry,  1907,  p.  556).   During 


444 


Wolcott 

the  closing  years  of  the  War  of  1812  he  became 
a  "War  Federalist,"  and  his  outspoken  defense 
of  the  war  during  the  critcial  year  18 14  attract- 
ed the  favorable  attention  of  Connecticut  Repub- 
licans, who  had  so  long  and  so  unsuccessfully 
striven  to  subvert  the  Federalist  oligarchy  which 
ruled  "the  land  of  steady  habits." 

Winding  up  his  business  in  New  York  during 
the  summer  of  181 5,  Wolcott  returned  to  Litch- 
field, Conn.,  and  set  himself  up  as  a  gentleman 
farmer.  For  several  years  he  assisted  in  promot- 
ing manufacturing  enterprises  in  his  home  state. 
When  a  coalition  of  opposition  elements  in  Con- 
necticut formed  the  Toleration  Party,  Feb.  21, 
1816,  he  was  chosen  as  candidate  for  governor 
in  competition  with  the  Federalist  incumbent, 
John  Cotton  Smith  \_q.v.~\.  Defeated  in  April 
1816,  he  was  elected  by  a  narrow  margin  in  1817 
and  the  political  revolution  in  the  state  got  un- 
der way.  As  governor  Wolcott  pursued  a  tactful 
policy  of  moderation,  cooperation,  and  compro- 
mise. Charged  with  political  apostasy,  he  nev- 
ertheless proved  "an  ideal  man  to  work  out  the 
state's  transition"  (Purcell,  post,  p.  334).  After 
Federalist  control  of  the  aristocratic  council  was 
finally  overthrown  and  Wolcott  was  reelected 
virtually  without  opposition  (April  1818),  a  con- 
stitutional convention  was  held  (Aug.  26-Sept. 
16,  1818),  over  which  he  presided.  The  new 
constitution  which  he  was  influential  in  drafting 
separated  church  and  state,  guaranteed  complete 
freedom  of  conscience,  separated  the  powers  of 
government,  and  established  a  somewhat  more 
influential  executive  and  an  independent  judici- 
ary. Proving  himself  both  able  and  popular, 
Wolcott  was  reelected  governor  year  after  year. 
His  social  and  economic  views  were,  neverthe- 
less, too  progressive  for  the  period.  His  expert 
views  on  taxation  were  reflected  in  compre- 
hensive and  constructive  readjustments  in  1819, 
but  his  efforts  to  promote  state  aid  for  agricul- 
ture and  industry,  to  maintain  an  efficient  public- 
school  system,  to  secure  a  mechanics'  lien  law,  to 
foster  internal  improvements,  and  to  regulate 
the  banking  system  more  rigidly  came  to  naught. 
Finally  the  aging  executive  was  eliminated  from 
the  ticket  by  the  Republican  caucus  in  1826  and 
though  he  ran  as  an  independent  in  the  election 
of  April  1827,  he  was  defeated  by  a  small  mar- 
gin by  the  machine  candidate,  Gideon  Tomlin- 
son.  This  final  repudiation  of  Wolcott  by  the 
state  he  had  served  so  well  was  doubtless  influ- 
ential in  his  subsequent  removal  to  New  York 
City,  where  he  remained  until  his  death. 

[Oliver  Wolcott  Papers  in  the  Conn.  Hist.  Soc. ;  Let- 
ter Book  of  Oliver  Wolcott  &  Company,  1803-05,  and 
of  Oliver  Wolcott,  1805-08,  N.  Y.  Pub.  Lib.;  Account 
Books,  1803-15,  N.  Y.  Hist.  Soc;  scattered  important 


Wolcott 

original  letters  in  Hamilton  Papers,  Lib.  of  Cong.,  in 
Rufus  King  Papers,  N.  Y.  Hist.  Soc,  and  in  Jeremiah 
Wadsworth  Papers,  Conn.  Hist.  Soc.  Consult  also 
George  Gibbs,  Memoirs  of  the  Administrations  of 
Washington  and  John  Adams,  Edited  from  the  Papers 
of  Oliver  Wolcott  (2  vols.,  1846)  ;  C.  G.  Bowers,  Jef- 
ferson and  Hamilton  (1925)  ;  and  the  published  writ- 
ings of  Hamilton,  Washington,  Adams,  Rufus  King, 
George  Cabot,  and  James  McHenry.  For  Connecticut 
politics  see  R.  J.  Purcell,  Connecticut  in  Transition, 
i775-i8i8  (1918)  and  J.  M.  Morse,  A  Neglected  Period 
of  Connecticut's  History,  1818-1850  (1933).  Other 
sources  include,  F.  B.  Dexter,  Biog.  Sketches  Grads. 
Yale  Coll.,  vol.  IV  (1907)  ;  Samuel  Wolcott,  Memorial 
of  Henry  Wolcott  (1881)  ;  New-York  American,  June 
3.  1833]  J.O.W. 

WOLCOTT,  ROGER  (Jan.  4,  1679-May  17, 
1767),  colonial  governor,  was  the  son  of  Simon 
and  Martha  (Pitkin)  Wolcott  of  Windsor,  Conn., 
and  a  grandson  of  Henry  Wolcott  who  settled 
in  Windsor  in  1636.  Roger  never  attended  school 
and  was  eleven  years  old  before  his  mother,  who 
had  been  educated  in  London,  taught  him  to  read 
and  write.  Four  years  later  he  was  apprenticed 
to  a  clothier,  whom  he  left  in  1699  to  set  up  a 
successful  business  of  his  own.  On  Dec.  3,  1702, 
he  married  Sarah  Drake — who  was  to  bear  him 
fifteen  children  before  her  death  in  January 
1748 — and  with  her  moved  across  the  river  to 
South  Windsor.  "In  a  few  years  my  buildings 
were  up  and  my  farm  made  profitable,"  he  wrote 
later  (Autobiography  in  Memorial,  post,  p.  85). 
Through  the  aid  of  borrowed  books,  a  retentive 
memory,  and  clear  judgment,  he  also  laid  the 
foundations  of  an  extensive  knowledge  of  litera- 
ture, history,  and  even  the  Newtonian  philosophy. 
As  a  selectman  for  Windsor  in  1707,  Wolcott 
modestly  began  his  long  public  career.  Two  years 
later  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  and  elected  a 
deputy  to  the  Assembly.  He  was  clerk  of  the 
lower  house  in  1710  and  171 1,  named  a  justice 
of  the  peace  in  1710,  and  in  171 1  served  as  com- 
missary of  Connecticut  stores  in  Hovenden 
Walker's  abortive  expedition  against  Quebec.  In 
May  1714  the  freemen  elected  him  assistant,  and 
barring  two  years,  1718  and  1719,  re-chose  him 
annually  until  he  became  deputy-governor  in 
1 741.  He  filled  that  post  until  1750,  when  he  was 
elected  governor.  During  these  years  he  served 
on  numerous  and  important  committees,  includ- 
ing those  which  considered  boundary  questions, 
the  revision  of  laws,  Indian  affairs,  bills  of  credit, 
and  the  Mohegan  Indian  and  Lechmere  cases. 
He  became  judge  of  the  Hartford  County  court 
in  1721,  of  the  superior  court  in  1732,  and  in 
1741,  chief  justice.  In  the  military  organization 
of  the  colony  he  steadily  advanced  from  a  cap- 
taincy in  1722  to  be  colonel  of  the  1st  Regiment 
in  1739.  Both  Governor  Shirley  of  Massachu- 
setts and  Governor  Law  of  Connecticut  commis- 
sioned him,  a  man  of  sixty-seven,  as  major-gen- 


445 


Wolcott 

eral  in  1745,  second  in  command  on  the  expedition 
which  took  Louisbourg.  His  journal  on  the 
siege  gives  six  reasons  why  that  victory  was 
gained  through  God's  providence ;  "but  humanly 
speaking,"  he  says,  "it  was  because  our  soldiers 
were  freeholders  and  freeholders'  sons,  while  the 
men  within  the  walls  were  mercenary  troops." 

Wolcott  served  ably  as  governor  until  1754. 
In  the  May  election  that  year  Thomas  Fitch 
\q.z>.~\  overwhelmingly  defeated  him.  The  report 
spread  that  as  governor  he  had  been  negligent 
in  guarding  the  treasure  of  a  disabled  Spanish 
snow  and  that  the  colony  would  have  to  stand  the 
loss.  The  old  man  felt  his  defeat  keenly  as,  "a 
discarded  favorite,"  of  whom  no  one  "took  any 
more  notice  than  of  a  common  porter"  (Autobi- 
ography, p.  88).  By  1755  he  was  exonerated  and 
lost  the  election  by  only  200  votes.  The  rest  of 
his  life  he  spent  on  his  farm,  in  his  spare  time 
reading  church  history,  for  all  his  life  he  had 
"made  the  Bible  his  test." 

To  Wolcott  belongs  the  honor  of  writing  the 
first  volume  of  verse  published  in  Connecticut, 
Poetical  Meditations,  Being  the  Improvement  of 
Some  Vacant  Hours  (1725),  in  which  the  long- 
est poem,  a  heroic  narrative  of  the  Pequot  War, 
is  "A  Brief  Account  of  the  Agency  of'  the  Hon. 
John  Winthrop  in  the  Court  of  King  Charles  the 
Second."  His  prose  was  far  better.  In  a  pam- 
phlet, A  Letter  to  the  Reverend  Mr.  Noah  Ho- 
bart:  The  New  English  Congregational  Churches 
Arc,  and  Always  Have  Been,  Consociated 
Churches  (1761),  and  again  in  "A  Letter  to  the 
Freemen  of  Connecticut"  {Connecticut  Gazette, 
Mar.  28,  1761),  he  wrote  with  a  directness  and 
idiom  rare  in  his  day,  and  with  a  sturdy  natural 
wisdom  that  explains  the  veneration  in  which  he 
was  held.  He  could  see  the  universal  history  of 
Christianity  in  the  church  controversy  at  Wal- 
lingford,  Conn.,  over  the  installation  of  the  Rev. 
James  Dana  [q.v.~\  in  1758,  maintained  that  a 
mixed  church  government  of  laity  and  clergy 
was  healthiest,  and  discerned  the  connection  be- 
tween religious  and  political  self-government. 
He  believed  that  only  through  the  virtues  of  in- 
dustry, frugality,  and  temperance  could  the  dis- 
tress of  Connecticut,  and  of  America  in  general, 
be  relieved.  Oliver  Wolcott,  1726-1797  [q.i'.~], 
was  his  son. 

[The  best  account  of  Wolcott's  life  is  the  sketch  in 
"The  Wolcott  Papers,"  Conn.  Hist.  Soc.  Colls.,  vol. 
XVI  (1016),  ed.  by  A.  C.  Bates.  Additional  papers,  in- 
cluding Wolcott's  autobiography,  are  in  Samuel  Wol- 
cott, Memorial  of  Henry  Wolcott  (1881).  Wolcott's 
"Memoir  for  the  History  of  Connecticut,"  written  in 
1759  to  President  Clap  of  Yale,  is  in  Conn.  Hist.  Soc. 
Colls.,  vol.  Ill  (1895),  and  the  "Journal  of  Roger  Wol- 
cott at  the  Siege  of  Louisbourg,"  in  vol.  I  (i860).  See 
also  Joseph  Perry,  The  Character  of  Moses  Illustrated 


Wolf 

and  Improved  (n.d.),  and  Conn.  Courant  (Hartford), 
July  27,  1767.1  S.M.P. 

WOLF,  GEORGE  (Aug.  12,  1777-Mar.  11, 
1840),  congressman  from  Pennsylvania,  gover- 
nor, was  born  in  Northampton  County,  Pa.,  the 
son  of  George  and  Mary  Margaret  Wolf.  His 
father  emigrated  in  1751  from  Alsace,  Germany, 
to  Northampton  County,  where  he  established 
himself  on  a  farm  in  Allen  Township.  The  boy 
obtained  his  education  in  a  classical  school  near 
home.  After  completing  his  course  he  worked 
for  a  time  on  his  father's  farm  and  later  acted  as 
principal  of  the  local  academy.  He  was  clerk  in 
the  prothonotary's  office  in  Easton,  and,  with  his 
regular  duties,  he  read  law  in  the  office  of  John 
Ross,  a  lawyer  of  that  county  and  later  a  judge 
of  the  state  supreme  court.  At  the  age  of  twenty- 
one,  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar,  and,  opening  an 
office  in  Easton,  he  soon  built  up  a  lucrative 
legal  practice.  On  June  5,  1798,  he  married  Mary 
Erb.  They  had  nine  children.  The  following  year 
he  entered  politics  as  an  adherent  of  the  Repub- 
lican-Democratic party  in  the  state  and  was  ap- 
pointed postmaster  of  Easton  in  1801.  Later  he 
served  for  a  time  as  clerk  of  the  orphans'  court 
of  Northampton  County.  He  was  a  member  of 
the  lower  house  of  the  state  legislature  in  1814. 
After  his  defeat  for  the  state  Senate  in  the  next 
election,  he  devoted  his  time  to  his  legal  practice. 
Elected  to  the  federal  House  of  Representatives 
and  reelected  three  times,  he  served  from  Dec.  9, 
1824,  until  he  resigned  in  1829,  before  the  Twen- 
ty-first Congress  convened.  In  Congress  he  was 
an  ardent  supporter  of  the  protective  tariff  and 
other  measures  designed  to  foster  American  in- 
dustry. In  1829  he  was  elected  governor  on  the 
Democratic  ticket  and  resigned  his  seat  in  Con- 
gress. To  this  office  he  was  reelected  in  1832. 
The  period  of  his  governorship  of  six  years  was 
one  of  great  activity  and  intensity  of  feeling  in 
Pennsylvania,  as  in  the  nation  as  a  whole.  At 
the  outset,  party  organizations  were  being  dis- 
rupted by  the  anti-masonic  movement,  and  the 
state  was  in  the  midst  of  its  elaborate  and  ex- 
pensive program  of  internal  improvements,  which 
through  mismanagement  had  brought  it  to  the 
verge  of  bankruptcy.  He  soon  reestablished  the 
credit  of  the  state  through  the  practice  of  econ- 
omy, the  reorganization  of  the  financial  system 
of  the  state,  and  the  institution  of  new  taxes.  Act- 
ing on  his  recommendation,  the  legislature  in 
1830  appointed  a  commission  to  revise  the  statute 
law  of  the  state,  a  revision  that  was  badly 
needed,  since  no  revision  of  any  consequence  had 
been  made  for  more  than  a  century.  The  most 
enduring  achievement  of  his  administration  was 
the  passage  of  the  free  public  school  act  in  1834. 


446 


Wolf 


Wolf 


This,  the  main  objective  of  his  policy,  he  advo- 
cated in  public  addresses  and  in  messages  to  the 
legislature  with  such  fervor  and  logic  that  the 
public  gradually  came  to  its  support.  Although 
an  admirer  of  President  Jackson  and  a  stanch 
upholder  of  his  policy  with  reference  to  the  nulli- 
fication proceedings  of  South  Carolina  in  1832, 
he  disapproved  of  the  President's  attitude  toward 
the  Second  United  States  Bank,  and  he  signed  a 
resolution  of  the  legislature  instructing  the  con- 
gressmen from  Pennsylvania  to  labor  for  the 
renewal  of  the  bank  charter.  This  action  was 
partly  responsible  for  the  disruption  of  the  Demo- 
cratic party  in  the  state  and  Wolf's  defeat  for  a 
third  term  in  1835.  In  1836  President  Jackson 
appointed  him  to  the  newly  created  post  of  comp- 
troller of  the  treasury.  Two  years  later  he  re- 
signed from  this  office  to  accept  the  collectorship 
of  customs  at  the  port  of  Philadelphia,  a  position 
he  held  until  his  death. 

[C.  A.  Beck,  Kith  and  Kin  of  George  Wolf  (1930)  ; 
Pa.  Archives,  4  ser.,  vol.  V  (1900)  ;  VV.  C.  Armor,  Lives 
of  the  Governors  of  Pa.  (1872)  ;  H.  J.  Steele,  "The 
Life  and  Public  Service  of  Governor  George  Wolf," 
Proc.  Pa.  German  Soc,  vol.  XXXIX  (1930).] 

A.E.  M. 

WOLF,  HENRY  (Aug.  3,  1852-Mar.  18, 
1916),  wood  engraver,  was  born  in  Eckwer- 
sheim,  Alsace,  the  son  of  Simon  and  Pauline 
(Ettinger)  Wolf.  At  fifteen  he  left  home  and 
obtained  employment  in  a  machine  shop  in  Stras- 
bourg. There  a  wood  engraver,  Jacques  Levy, 
encouraged  his  artistic  efforts  and  later  took  him 
into  his  shop.  In  November  1871  Wolf  arrived 
in  America  and  almost  immediately  found  work 
in  Albany.  Two  years  later  he  went  to  New 
York,  to  remain  there  until  the  end  of  his  life. 
In  1873  he  entered  the  evening  art  school  of  Coo- 
per Union  and  worked  in  the  life  class  for  two 
years.  At  the  same  time  he  worked  at  wood  en- 
graving in  the  art  department  of  Harper  Broth- 
ers under  Frederick  Juengling  [q.z>.].  In  a  note 
book,  neatly  and  accurately  kept,  he  recorded  all 
the  blocks  he  cut  (789)  between  1877  and  the 
year  of  his  death.  The  earliest  of  these  were  for 
Scribncr's  Monthly  and  St.  Nicholas.  At  first 
and  for  some  years  young  Wolf  from  time  to 
time  produced  blocks  for  other  engravers,  notably 
Smithwick  and  French,  and  Juengling.  Among 
these  were  illustrations  for  Appleton's  school 
readers.  But  it  also  happily  fell  to  his  lot  to  en- 
grave the  works  of  some  of  the  leading  illustra- 
tors of  the  day,  such  as  Howard  Pyle,  Edwin  A. 
Abbey,  Joseph  Pennell,  A.  B.  Frost  [qq.v.~], 
Mary  Hallock  Foote,  Reginald  Birch,  and  oth- 
ers. A  commission  received  in  1879  to  engrave 
the  illustrations  for  William  Mackay  Laffan's 
articles  on  the  Tile  Club,  for  Scribncr's,  brought 


him  into  close  association  with  some  of  the  fore- 
most painters,  and  the  following  year  he  en- 
graved his  first  reproductions  of  paintings — 
works  by  Walter  Shirlaw,  George  Inness,  John 
Singer  Sargent  [qq.i:],  and  others — as  illustra- 
tions for  William  C.  Brownell's  "The  Younger 
Painters  of  America"  (Scribncr's  Monthly,  May, 
July  1880).  Similar  commissions  followed,  and 
Wolf's  skill  increased  until  he  became  preemi- 
nent in  the  reproduction  of  paintings  by  contem- 
porary American  artists  through  the  medium 
of  wood  engraving.  Before  half-tone  photo-en- 
graving came  into  use  about  1880,  wood  engrav- 
ing was  chiefly  a  black  line  process,  but  through 
this  invention  the  white  line  became  supreme, 
and  the  rendition  of  tones  and  textures  possible. 
Wolf  was  quick  to  master  the  new  medium  and 
to  realize  its  adaptability.  Only  one  other — Tim- 
othy Cole — ever  carried  it  to  such  perfection  as 
he,  and  thereby  Wolf  made  a  unique  and  dis- 
tinguished contribution  to  the  art  of  the  world. 

He  began  doing  book  illustrations  in  1882,  en- 
graving blocks  for  J.  B.  Lippincott  and  other 
publishers.  In  a  portfolio  issued  by  the  Society 
of  American  Wood  Engravers  in  1887  he  was 
represented  by  cuts  of  a  landscape  painted  by 
Robert  S.  Gifrbrd  and  "New  England  Peddler" 
by  Jonathan  Eastman  Johnson.  A  decade  later 
he  made,  by  way  of  experiment,  a  number  of 
original  blocks — landscapes  of  subtle  and  sensi- 
tive character  but  without  significant  merit. 
About  this  time  he  also  began  publishing  some 
of  his  blocks  himself,  issuing  them  in  limited 
editions  as  collectors'  items.  This  led  to  orders 
for  blocks  from  collectors.  George  A.  Hearn, 
William  T.  Evans,  Richard  Canfield,  Charles  L. 
Freer,  and  others  commissioned  him  to  engrave 
for  them  portraits  of  themselves  by  distinguished 
painters  or  other  canvases  in  their  collections. 
Among  the  blocks  that  he  published  privately 
are  Whistler's  portraits  of  his  mother  and  of 
Thomas  Carlyle,  which  are  by  some  considered 
his  masterpieces.  Of  equal  merit,  however,  is 
his  engraving  of  his  own  portrait  painted  by  Irv- 
ing R.  Wiles,  published  in  Harper's  Monthly 
Magazine,  January  1906.  For  the  Century  Maga- 
zine (beginning  April  1898)  he  engraved  a  se- 
ries of  portraits  of  women  painted  by  Gilbert 
Stuart.  His  work  covered,  in  fact,  a  broad  field, 
including  fashion  books  and  illustrations  for 
juvenile  books,  magazines,  novels,  and  art  pub- 
lications. In  1908  he  was  elected  a  full  member 
of  the  National  Academy  of  Design.  He  was 
also  a  member  of  the  International  Society  of 
Sculptors,  Painters,  and  Gravers,  London,  and 
the  Union  Internationale  des  Beaux  Arts  et  des 
Lettres,  Paris.    He  received  honorable  mention 


447 


Wolf 


Wolf 


at  the  Paris  Salon  (1888)  and  at  the  Exposition 
Universelle,  Paris  (1889),  silver  medals  at  Paris 
( 1900)  and  Rouen  ( 1903),  and  a  grand  medal  of 
honor  at  the  Louisiana  Purchase  Exposition,  St. 
Louis  (1904).  His  engravings  are  to  be  found 
in  the  permanent  collections  of  the  Metropolitan 
Museum ;  the  New  York  Public  Library ;  the 
Library  of  Congress ;  the  Carnegie  Institute, 
Pittsburgh;  the  Albright  Gallery,  Buffalo;  the 
municipal  gallery,  Strasbourg;  and  the  Victoria 
and  Albert  Museum,  London. 

He  was  married  on  Sept.  25,  1875,  to  Rose 
Massee,  daughter  of  Hermann  Massee,  merchant 
of  Hamburg,  Germany.  Of  their  two  sons,  one 
became  an  artist.  Throughout  his  life  Wolf  en- 
joyed robust  health.  His  chief  recreation  was 
walking.  He  had  an  exceedingly  courteous, 
genial  manner,  and  his  life  throughout  was  un- 
commonly successful  and  happy.  He  died  in  New 
York  City,  survived  by  his  wife  and  sons. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1914-15  ;  R.  C.  Smith, 
Life  and  Works  of  Henry  Wolf  (1927),  with  cat.  and 
bibliog. ;  C.  H.  Caffin,  in  Harper's  Mag.,  June  1916; 
Frank  Weitenkampf,  Am.  Graphic  Art  (1924)  ;  Acad- 
emy Notes  (Buffalo),  Apr.  1906;  obituary  in  N.  Y. 
Times,  Mar.  20,  1916;  personal  acquaintance.] 

L.M. 

WOLF,  INNOCENT  WILLIAM  (Apr.  13, 
1843-Oct.  14,  1922),  Roman  Catholic  abbot,  was 
born  at  Schmidheim,  Rhenish  Prussia.  His  par- 
ents, John  Wolf,  a  school  teacher,  and  Gertrude 
(Molitor)  Wolf,  had  nine  children,  of  whom 
William  was  the  youngest.  In  1851  the  family 
emigrated  to  Brighton,  Wis.,  where  the  father 
bought  a  farm  and  also  instructed  the  children  of 
the  parish.  Three  years  later,  following  two  of 
his  brothers,  William  went  to  St.  Vincent  Col- 
lege, Latrobe,  Pa.,  where  he  took  an  academic 
course.  In  i860  he  decided  to  enter  the  Benedic- 
tine Order  at  St.  Vincent  Abbey,  and  on  July 
11,  1861,  he  pronounced  his  religious  vows  and 
took  Saint  Innocent  as  his  patron  saint.  After 
his  philosophical  and  theological  studies  he  was 
ordained  priest,  May  26,  1866.  Because  of  his 
extraordinary  talents,  Abbot  Boniface  Wimmer 
\_q.v.~]  sent  him  to  Rome  in  1867  to  take  a  post- 
graduate course  in  the  sacred  sciences.  He  stud- 
ied at  the  Sapienza,  where  he  received  the  degree 
of  doctor  of  divinity,  and  in  1870  returned  to  St. 
Vincent  College  to  teach  theology.  During  the 
next  years  he  held  also  the  office  of  master  of 
novices,  treasurer  of  the  abbey,  and  finally  prior 
of  the  monastery. 

While  traveling  in  the  West  for  his  health,  Fa- 
ther Innocent  was  elected  first  abbot  of  St.  Bene- 
dict, Atchison,  Kan.  (Sept.  29,  1876),  a  monas- 
tery which  had  been  founded  from  St.  Vincent 
in  1857.    At  that  time  the  monastery  had  only 


eleven  priests,  who  conducted  a  college  of  fifty- 
three  students  and  administered  a  parish  with 
several  missions.  The  institution  was  heavily  in 
debt,  especially  on  account  of  the  large  church 
which  had  been  built  there.  Abbot  Innocent  at 
once  took  a  very  active  part  in  reducing  the  finan- 
cial burden  and  shared  in  all  the  work  of  his  sub- 
jects, performing  manual  labor  in  the  fields, 
teaching  in  the  classroom,  and  serving  on  the 
altar  and  in  the  pulpit  as  a  churchman.  Gradual- 
ly a  group  of  stately  buildings  arose  around  the 
large  church  and  indicated  in  some  measure  the 
interior  growth  of  the  institution.  Later  (1910) 
even  these  became  inadequate  to  the  needs  of  the 
community  and  college,  and  it  was  decided  to 
build  an  entirely  new  group  of  buildings  on  a 
neighboring  hill  overlooking  the  Missouri  val- 
ley. In  1918  the  college  was  accredited  by  the 
Catholic  Educational  Association,  and  in  the 
following  year  it  became  affiliated  with  the  Uni- 
versity of  Kansas.  In  1919  a  preparatory  depart- 
ment, Maur  Hill  Preparatory  School,  was  estab- 
lished. After  carrying  the  burden  of  his  office 
forty-four  years,  the  Abbot  was  granted  a  co- 
adjutor (1921)  and  gradually  retired  from  the 
government  of  the  monastery.  He  died  a  year 
later.  At  that  time  St.  Benedict  Abbey  had  grown 
to  ninety-seven  members,  its  college  and  semi- 
nary were  equal  to  the  best  in  the  Middle  West, 
and  its  missionary  activities  extended  to  seven- 
teen parishes  in  three  states. 

During  all  this  time  Abbot  Innocent  continued 
his  favorite  studies  in  the  liturgy  of  the  Church. 
He  often  assisted  writers  on  this  subject  and  be- 
came the  chief  contributor  to  the  Ceremoniale 
Monastiatm  which  was  published  by  the  abbey 
student  press  in  1907.  His  administrative  quali- 
ties were  of  such  a  high  order  that  at  the  death 
of  Archabbot  Wimmer  in  1887  he  was  chosen  as 
his  successor,  but  he  declined  the  honor.  He 
served  as  president  of  the  American  Cassinese 
Congregation  (1890-93, 1899-1902),  and  in  1916, 
on  the  occasion  of  his  golden  sacerdotal  jubilee, 
Pope  Benedict  XV  honored  him  by  granting  him 
the  cappa  magna  for  pontifical  functions.  On 
that  occasion  the  whole  town  also  feted  its  illus- 
trious churchman.  Abbot  Innocent  was  of  small 
stature,  with  a  long,  flowing  reddish  beard.  At 
first  sight  he  seemed  severe  and  taciturn ;  he 
knew  this  only  too  well  and  referred  to  himself 
at  times  as  "an  innocent  wolf."  He  was  always 
kind  toward  those  who  were  in  difficulties  or  in 
need,  and  he  became  a  counsellor  for  many 
priests  and  prelates  in  the  Middle  West.  His  aim 
of  bringing  about  a  greater  centralization  of 
power  in  the  Benedictine  Order  was  not  shared 
by  the  majority  of  his  confreres. 


448 


Wolf 

["St.  Benedict's  from  1856  to  1932,"  MS.  in  St.  Ben- 
edict's archives  ;  letters  of  Abbot  Innocent  in  St.  Vin- 
cent archives;  Abbey  Student,  Oct.  1916,  Nov.  1922; 
and  obituary  in  Kansas  City  Star,  Oct.  15,  1922.] 

F.F. 

WOLF,  SIMON  (Oct.  28,  1836-June  4,  1923), 
lawyer,  publicist,  communal  worker,  was  born 
in  Bavaria,  the  son  of  Levi  Wolf  and  Amalia  Ul- 
man.  As  a  lad  of  twelve  he  migrated  in  1848  to 
the  United  States,  where  several  uncles  had  al- 
ready settled.  He  entered  his  uncle's  business  at 
(Jhrichsville,  Ohio,  but  a  commercial  career  did 
not  attract  him  and  he  took  up  the  study  of  law, 
graduating  with  honors  from  Ohio  Law  College 
in  Cleveland,  1861.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar 
at  Mt.  Vernon,  Ohio,  the  same  year.  After  prac- 
tising law  for  a  year  at  New  Philadelphia,  Ohio, 
he  moved  to  Washington,  D.  C,  where  he  lived 
until  his  death.  On  Aug.  2,  1857,  he  was  mar- 
ried to  Caroline  Hahn.  They  had  six  children. 
After  her  death,  he  was  married,  on  Nov.  3, 
1892,  to  Amy  Lichtenstein.  In  1869  he  was  ap- 
pointed recorder  for  the  District  of  Columbia, 
and  from  1878  to  1881  he  was  civil  judge.  In 
1881  President  Garfield  appointed  him  United 
States  consul  general  in  Egypt,  but  after  a  year 
he  resigned  because  of  illness  in  his  family. 

In  addition  to  his  official  duties,  he  gave  his 
time  freely  to  many  local  philanthropic  and  cul- 
tural institutions,  regardless  of  their  sectarian 
character.  An  able  lecturer,  an  eloquent  speaker, 
and  a  lover  of  his  fellowmen,  he  was  always  at 
the  front  of  any  fight  which  involved  issues  where 
human  or  civic  rights  were  at  stake.  As  an  ora- 
tor he  was  in  demand  for  national  political  cam- 
paigns for  many  years.  His  reputation,  how- 
ever, rested  largely  upon  his  vigorous  champion- 
ship of  the  civic  and  religious  rights  of  his  per- 
secuted coreligionists,  the  Jews  of  eastern  Eu- 
rope, and  the  influence  which  he  wielded  with 
the  administration  in  Washington  on  their  be- 
half. For  more  than  half  a  century  he  was  in 
close  contact  with  the  most  influential  men  in  po- 
litical life  and  enjoyed  the  personal  acquaintance 
of  every  president  beginning  with  Abraham  Lin- 
coln. When  persecution  of  the  Jews  of  Rumania 
became  acute  during  Grant's  administration  he 
was  the  leading  advocate  of  the  appointment  of 
Benjamin  F.  Peixotto  [q.f.]  as  consul  to  Bu- 
charest, with  a  view  to  devising  plans  for  amel- 
iorating their  condition.  He  was  one  of  the  lead- 
ing factors  in  inducing  President  Roosevelt  to 
forward  a  petition  to  Russia  after  the  Kishineff 
massacre  in  1903.  His  advice  was  sought  during 
President  Taft's  administration  in  connection 
with  the  abrogation  of  the  Russian  treaty,  and 
he  interested  President  Wilson  in  plans  for  the 
protection  of  the  Jewish  religious  minorities  in 


Wolfe 

the  peace  treaties  at  the  close  of  the  World  War. 
He  was  active  within  the  Independent  Order 
B'nai  B'rith,  which  he  joined  in  1865.  For  many 
years  he  served  this  organization  as  a  member 
of  the  executive  committee,  and  was  president  in 
1904-05.  He  was  the  founder  of  the  Hebrew 
Orphan's  Home  in  Atlanta,  Ga.,  and  its  lifelong 
president.  Upon  his  motion  the  Board  of  Dele- 
gates of  American  Israelites  was  merged  in  1878 
with  the  Union  of  American  Hebrew  Congrega- 
tions, and  he  was  for  many  years  the  chairman 
of  the  Board  of  Delegates  on  Civil  Rights  of 
that  body.  Through  his  inspiration  the  B'nai 
B'rith  raised  funds  for  the  presentation  of  the 
statue  "Religious  Liberty,"  by  Moses  J.  Ezekiel 
[q.z1.],  to  Fairmount  Park,  Philadelphia.  His 
services  were  also  given  to  the  Masons  of  the 
United  States,  to  the  Order  Kesher  shel  Barzel, 
and  to  the  Red  Cross  Association. 

In  the  midst  of  an  active  life,  Wolf  found  time 
for  literary  work.  In  addition  to  numerous  pa- 
pers and  articles  for  the  periodical  press,  he  was 
the  author  of  The  Influence  of  the  Jezvs  on  the 
Progress  of  the  Jf'orld  (1888)  ;  The  American 
Jew  as  Patriot,  Soldier  and  Citizen  (1895); 
Mordecai  Manuel  Noah  (1897)  ;  an  autobiogra- 
phy, Presidents  I  Have  Known  from  1860  to  1918 
(1918)  ;  and,  in  conjunction  with  Max  J.  Kohler, 
Jewish  Disabilities  in  the  Balkan  States  (1916). 
After  his  death  the  Council  of  the  Union  of 
American  Hebrew  Congregations  published  as  a 
memorial  volume  Selected  Addresses  and  Papers 
of  Simon  Wolf  (1926). 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1922-23;  Jewish  Encyc. 
(new  ed.,  1925),  vol.  XII  ;  Am.  Hebrew,  Oct.  20,  27, 
1916;  June  8,  1923  ;  The  Jewish  Tribune  and  the  He- 
brew Standard,  June  8,  1923  ;  Jahrbiich  der  dcutsch- 
amcrikanischen  historischen  Gescllschaft  von  Illinois 
(Dcutsch-Am.  Geschichtsbldttcr),  vol.  XIV  (1915),  p. 
386  ;  biographical  sketch  by  Max  J.  Kohler  in  Am.  Jew- 
ish Year  Book  for  5685,  1924-25  ;  Evening  Star  (Wash- 
ington, D.  C),  June  5,  1923.]  j  5 

WOLFE,  CATHARINE  LORILLARD 

(March  1828-Apr.  4,  1887),  philanthropist,  art 
patron,  was  a  daughter  of  John  David  \_q.vJ\  and 
Dorothea  Ann  (Lorillard)  Wolfe  of  New  York 
City.  From  childhood  her  environment  was  such 
as  ample  wealth  provided  for  a  nineteenth-cen- 
tury American  home.  She  became  a  leader  in 
New  York  society  and  enjoyed  the  advantages 
of  travel.  As  she  grew  older  she  took  part  in 
some  of  her  father's  philanthropic  activities, 
chiefly  under  church  auspices.  When  she  had 
reached  middle  age  the  death  of  her  father  made 
her  heiress  of  both  the  Wolfe  and  the  Lorillard 
millions,  and  it  was  then  estimated  that  she  was 
the  richest  unmarried  woman  in  tin-  world,  al- 
though it  is  doubtful  whether  her  entire  estate 
ever  greatly  exceeded  $12,000,000.    Continuing 


449 


Wolfe 

her  father's  gifts  to  various  causes  and  adding 
projects  of  her  own,  she  dispensed  at  first  $100,- 
ooo  a  year,  but  later  more  than  doubled  that  aver- 
age. In  the  fifteen  years  1872-87  she  gave  away 
more  than  $4,000,000.  For  the  building  of  schools 
and  churches,  especially  in  the  West  and  South 
and  in  some  instances  in  foreign  lands,  she  gave 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars.  Grace  Church 
in  New  York  received  from  her  large  building 
funds,  besides  an  endowment  of  $350,000,  and 
for  the  diocese  of  New  York  she  provided  a  cen- 
tral building.  St.  Luke's  Hospital,  the  Italian 
mission  in  Mulberry  Street,  and  the  newsboys' 
lodging-house  at  East  Broadway  and  Gouver- 
neur  Street  were  also  among  the  recipients  of 
her  bounty.  At  the  time  of  her  death  she 
was  called  the  "most  munificent  benefactor  of 
the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church"  (Churchman, 
N.  Y.,  Apr.  9,  1887,  p.  398). 

Her  gifts  for  secular  objects,  less  numerous 
than  those  for  religion,  were  still  significant. 
Her  contribution  to  the  Union  College  endow- 
ment of  $50,000  and  her  outfitting  of  the  Baby- 
lonian archaeological  expedition  of  1884  under 
Dr.  William  Hayes  Ward  [q.v.~\  both  indicated 
a  broadening  of  interest.  About  1873  she  had 
commissioned  a  cousin,  John  Wolfe,  who  was 
an  art  connoisseur,  to  collect  a  gallery  of  paint- 
ings for  her  Madison  Avenue  house  in  New  York. 
This  collection,  one  of  the  most  noteworthy  in 
America,  was  many  years  in  forming.  It  con- 
sisted chiefly  of  the  works  of  nineteenth-century 
European  artists,  and  comprised  a  hundred  and 
twenty  oils  and  twenty-two  water  colors.  In  1887 
it  was  valued  at  $500,000.  In  her  will  she  be- 
queathed the  entire  collection  with  an  endowment 
of  $200,000,  to  the  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art. 
A  contemporary  art  critic  characterized  this  gift 
as  "probably  the  largest  bequest  ever  made  to 
Art  by  a  woman"  (Walter  Rowlands,  in  Art 
Journal,  London,  1889,  p.  12).  The  donor  died 
of  Bright's  disease  in  her  New  York  home,  leav- 
ing no  relatives  nearer  than  cousins. 

[W.  W.  Spoaner,  Hist.  Families  of  America  (1907), 
pp.  282-83,  with  portrait ;  Frances  E.  Willard  and 
Mary  A.  Livermore,  A  Woman  of  the  Century  (1893)  ; 
W.  R.  Huntington,  in  Churchman  (N.  Y.),  Apr.  16, 
1887  ;  obituary,  Ibid.,  Apr.  9,  1887  ;  N.  Y.  Tribune,  Apr. 
5,  1887,  Apr.  7  (editorial),  Apr.  9  (editorial  and  will), 
APr-  l7~l  W.  B.S. 

WOLFE,  HARRY  KIRKE  (Nov.  10,  1858- 
July  30,  1918),  psychologist,  educator,  was  born 
in  Bloomington,  111.,  of  ancestors  prominent  in 
Virginia  and  Kentucky.  His  parents  were  Jacob 
Vance  and  Ellen  B.  Wolfe.  His  father,  a  gradu- 
ate of  Indiana  University,  served  for  fifteen  years 
as  high  school  principal,  lawyer,  and  legislator 
in  Indiana,  and  then  in  1871  settled  on  a  farm  in 


Wolfe 

Nebraska,  near  Lincoln.  There  the  parents  main- 
tained a  cultured  home,  reared  and  educated  a 
large  family,  and  supported  educational  and  po- 
litical institutions.  Harry  Kirke,  the  eldest  son, 
took  the  degree  of  A.B.  at  the  University  of  Ne- 
braska in  1880.  He  then  went  in  1883  to  the  Uni- 
versity of  Berlin  to  win  a  doctorate  in  the  clas- 
sics. The  next  year,  however,  he  transferred  to 
the  University  of  Leipzig,  and  became  one  of  the 
early  American  students  in  psychology  with  Wil- 
helm  Wundt.  In  1886  he  received  the  degree  of 
Ph.D.  at  Leipzig  and  returned  to  Nebraska  as  a 
high  school  teacher.  In  1888  he  went  to  a  school 
position  in  San  Luis  Obispo,  Cal.  There  he  mar- 
ried (Dec.  19,  1888)  Katherine  H.  Brandt  of 
Philadelphia,  Pa.  Wolfe  returned  to  the  Uni- 
versity of  Nebraska  in  1889,  commissioned  to 
organize  work  in  philosophy  and  psychology.  At 
first  designated  lecturer,  he  became  in  1890  asso- 
ciate professor  and  in  1891  professor  and  head  of 
department.  He  at  once  began  to  prepare  a  lab- 
oratory for  experimental  psychology,  one  of  the 
earliest  to  be  established  in  America.  The  work 
was  immediately  successful.  In  a  half  dozen 
years  he  had  sent  forward  into  eastern  graduate 
schools  such  men  as  Walter  B.  Pillsbury,  Madi- 
son Bentley,  Hartley  Alexander,  and  several 
others  of  professional  note,  while  students  were 
crowding  his  classrooms  and  laboratories. 

In  the  spring  of  1897  certain  administrative 
problems  hung  over  the  University  of  Nebraska. 
The  effort  of  Wolfe  to  bear  some  hand  in  their 
solution  proved  unfortunate,  and  resulted  in  ac- 
tion by  the  Board  of  Regents  (Mar.  29,  1897)  to 
discontinue  his  services.  It  seems  clear  that  both 
sides  to  that  controversy  used  less  than  sound 
judgment.  But  its  effects  upon  the  professional 
career  of  Wolfe  were  disastrous.  He  was  indeed 
offered  other  posts  in  psychology.  But  hoping 
still  and  always  to  serve  the  people  of  the  West, 
he  rejected  offers  from  distant  universities  and 
threw  himself  rather  into  the  work  of  moderniz- 
ing the  secondary  schools.  From  1897  to  1901 
he  was  superintendent  of  schools  in  South 
Omaha,  and  from  1902  to  1905  principal  of  the 
Lincoln  High  School.  In  1905  he  went  to  the 
University  of  Montana  as  professor  of  philoso- 
phy and  education,  but  returned  to  the  Univer- 
sity of  Nebraska  in  1906  as  professor  of  educa- 
tional psychology.  Three  years  later  he  was 
shifted  back  to  his  old  position  and  became  pro- 
fessor of  philosophy,  his  own  portion  of  the  work 
lying  then,  however,  entirely  in  psychology.  But 
his  sudden  death  from  angina  pectoris  came  too 
soon  to  permit  his  new  career  in  pure  science  to 
attain  its  full  fruition.  His  publications  are  to 
be  found  in  Wundt's  Philosophische  Studicn,  Bd. 


45° 


Wolfe 

III  (1886);  University  Studies  (Nebraska), 
July  1890;  Psychological  Review,  July  1895, 
January  1898;  North-Western  Journal  of  Edu- 
cation, July  1896 ;  American  Journal  of  Psychol- 
ogy, January  1898;  Nebraska  Teacher,  1912-14; 
Mid-West  Quarterly,  July  1918.  Much. assem- 
bled psychological  material  remained  unpublished 
at  his  death. 

Wolfe  possessed  a  personality  of  *"are  attrac- 
tiveness and  had  a  peculiar  genius  for  teaching. 
Under  his  inspiration  the  new  psychology,  with 
the  educational  and  social  program  suggested  by 
it,  carried  a  marked  stimulation.  Yet  his  domi- 
nant interest  was  essentially  ethical — a  passion 
for  human  welfare,  to  be  advanced  by  sound  and 
educated  thinking  and  acting.  This  also  fostered 
his  lifelong  interest  in  philosophy,  in  which  he 
resembled  his  own  teacher,  Wundt. 

[Source-  include  Who's  Who  in  America,  1916-17; 
Portrait  and  Biog.  Album  of  Lancaster  County,  Neb. 
(1888);  J.  M.  Cattell,  Am.  Men  of  Sci.  (1910  ed.)  ; 
Univ.  Jour.  (Lincoln,  Neb.),  Oct.  1918;  obituary  ar- 
ticle in  Science,  Sept.  27,  1918;  official  records  of  the 
University  of  Nebraska.]  E.  L.  H. 

WOLFE,  JOHN  DAVID  (July  24,  1792-May 
17,  1872),  merchant  and  philanthropist,  was  born 
in  New  York  City,  a  son  of  David  and  Catherine 
(Forbes)  Wolfe.  His  grandfather,  John  David 
Wolfe,  had  emigrated  from  Saxony  early  in  the 
eighteenth  century.  David  Wolfe  and  a  brother 
were  partners  in  a  hardware  business  at  the  cor- 
ner of  Maiden  Lane  and  Gold  Street.  In  1816 
the  boy  succeeded  to  his  father's  half-interest  in 
the  hardware  store,  his  partner  at  first  being  a 
cousin,  who  later  withdrew  from  the  firm,  which 
was  thereafter  styled  Wolfe  &  Bishop.  The 
business  prospered,  and  long  before  he  was  fifty 
Wolfe  was  rated  among  New  York's  wealthy 
merchants.  To  add  to  his  resources  he  made  for- 
tunate investments  in  city  real  estate.  Weather- 
ing the  financial  panic  and  depression  of  1837,  he 
found  himself  five  years  later  in  so  secure  a  po- 
sition that  he  thought  he  might  safely  retire  from 
business.  That,  however,  did  not  mean  for  him 
a  cessation  of  activity.  The  thirty  years  of  life 
that  remained  were  crowded  with  varied  forms 
of  effort. 

For  two  decades  before  the  Civil  War  and  for 
seven  years  after  its  close  he  ranked  among  those 
laymen  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in 
America  who  were  distinguished  for  faith  and 
works  as  well  as  for  gifts  to  the  church  treasury. 
Beginning  as  a  vestryman  of  Trinity  Church,  in 
his  later  years,  to  the  day  of  his  death,  he  served 
as  senior  warden  of  Grace  Church.  With  few 
exceptions,  his  most  important  benefactions  were 
for   distinctively   religious   objects.     In   a   time 


Wolfskill 

when  frontier  conditions  generally  prevailed 
west  of  the  Missouri  River  he  was  one  of  a  small 
group  of  wealthy  Eastern  men  interested  in 
church  institutions  in  that  new  country.  He 
founded,  under  church  auspices,  a  High  School 
for  Girls  and  Wolfe  Hall  at  Denver,  before  Colo- 
rado had  been  admitted  to  statehood,  and  gener- 
ously supported  a  diocesan  school  for  girls  at 
Topeka,  Kan.  He  provided  a  building  for  the 
theological  seminary  connected  with  Kenyon 
College,  Gambier,  Ohio.  The  dioceses  of  Kan- 
sas, Nebraska,  Colorado,  Iowa,  Utah,  Nevada, 
and  Oregon  all  received  liberal  grants  from  him, 
especially  for  educational  uses.  He  prepared  and 
circulated  at  his  own  expense  a  "Mission  Serv- 
ice," containing  excerpts  from  the  Book  of  Com- 
mon Prayer.  This  was  translated  into  four  lan- 
guages. He  carried  forward  the  work  begun  by 
William  Augustus  Muhlenberg  [q.v.]  at  St. 
Johnsland  on  Long  Island,  including  a  home  for 
crippled  and  destitute  children  and  a  home  for 
aged  and  destitute  men.  He  also  built  a  cottage 
for  the  Sheltering  Arms  charity  in  New  York 
City.  He  took  an  important  part  in  promoting 
the  Home  for  Incurables  at  Fordham,  St.  Luke's 
Hospital,  and  other  metropolitan  institutions. 
He  was  president  of  the  American  Museum  of 
Natural  History  and  of  the  Working  Women's 
Protective  Union.  His  time  was  chiefly  spent  in 
mastering  the  details  of  every  cause  to  which 
he  gave  support  and  in  seeking  to  make  his  aid 
and  that  of  others  more  effective.  He  married 
Dorothea  Ann,  the  daughter  of  Peter  Lorillard 
and  the  aunt  of  Pierre  Lorillard  [q.v.~\.  She  died 
in  1866.  A  daughter,  Catharine  Lorillard  Wolfe 
[q.v.]  survived  him  and  carried  forward  many 
of  his  philanthropic  activities. 

[E.  A.  Duyckinck,  Memorial  of  John  David  Wolfe 
.  .  .  Read  before  the  N.  Y.  Hist.  Soc.,  June  4,  1872 
(1872)  ;  H.  C.  Potter,  A  Good  Man's  Burial.  Sermon 
.  .  .  May  26,  1872  (1872)  ;  Jour.  Proc.  14th  Ann.  Con- 
vention of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  .  .  . 
Kan.  (1873),  pp.  41-43;  National  Mag.:  A  Monthly 
Jour,  of  Am.  Hist.,  July-Aug.  1893  ;  N.  Y .  Gcncal.  and 
Biog.  Record,  Apr.  1877,  p.  89.]  W.  B.  S. 

WOLFSKILL,  WILLIAM  (Mar.  20,  1798- 
Oct.  3,  1866),  trapper,  California  pioneer,  of 
German-Irish  ancestry,  was  born  near  Rich- 
mond, Madison  County,  Ky.  In  1809  the  family 
moved  to  the  Missouri  frontier,  settling  in  the 
future  Howard  County.  Six  years  later  the  boy 
went  back  to  Kentucky  to  attend  school.  Re- 
turning to  Missouri,  he  left  Franklin  in  May 
1822,  with  the  second  Santa  Fe  expedition  of 
William  Becknell  [q.v.].  In  1823  he  trapped 
the  Rio  Grande,  and  in  1824  was  with  the  first 
party  of  American  whites  known  to  have  entered 
southern  Utah.    He  went  home  in  1825,  but  in 


AV 


Wolfsohn 


Wolfsohn 


the  following  spring,  with  Ewing  Young  [q.v.~\, 
returned  to  the  Southwest,  trapping  the  Gila 
country  and  engaging  in  several  fights  with  the 
Indians.  He  was  again  in  Missouri  at  the  end  of 
1827,  and  in  the  spring  of  1828  left  for  New  Mex- 
ico with  a  trading  caravan.  He  became  a  Cath- 
olic and  a  Mexican  citizen  in  1830. 

From  Taos,  at  the  end  of  September  1830,  he 
set  out  as  the  leader  of  a  trapping  party,  which 
included  George  Yount  [q.v.~\,  and  which  opened 
a  new  route,  approximating  what  became  known 
as  the  western  part  of  the  Spanish  Trail,  to  Cali- 
fornia. Arriving  at  Los  Angeles  in  February 
1831,  the  company  dissolved.  Wolfskill  for  a 
time  engaged  in  hunting  the  sea-otter,  and  at 
San  Pedro  put  together  the  schooner  Refugio, 
one  of  the  first  vessels  constructed  on  the  coast. 
In  1832  he  settled  in  Los  Angeles  as  a  carpenter. 
Four  years  later  he  acquired  some  land  east  of 
the  village,  and  in  1838  began  to  develop  it  as  a 
vineyard.  In  January  1841  he  married  Mag- 
dalena  Lugo  of  Santa  Barbara.  In  the  same  year 
he  planted  an  orange  grove,  the  first  in  the  re- 
gion except  that  belonging  to  the  San  Gabriel 
Mission.  He  also  obtained  a  large  grant  in  the 
Sacramento  Valley,  on  which  he  established  John 
Reid  Wolfskill,  one  of  his  four  brothers,  all  of 
whom  settled  in  California. 

Wolfskill  became  wealthy  and  influential.  In 
1844  he  was  chosen  a  regidor  (councilman)  of 
the  village.  Abstaining  from  politics,  he  devoted 
himself  to  his  fields.  He  introduced  the  persim- 
mon and  the  Italian  chestnut,  brought  in  im- 
proved machinery,  and  was  the  first  to  ship  or- 
anges commercially.  Just  before  his  death  he  be- 
gan the  erection  of  a  substantial  business  build- 
ing in  Los  Angeles.  He  died  at  his  ranch,  sur- 
vived by  four  children.  He  remained  a  Catholic 
to  the  end,  and  left,  says  Bancroft  (post,  V,  779) 
"an  enviable  reputation  as  an  honest,  enterpris- 
ing generous,  unassuming,  intelligent  man."  He 
was  essentially  a  pioneer,  breaking  new  ground 
in  each  of  the  several  activities  in  which  he  en- 
gaged. 

[H.  D.  Barrows,  "William  Wolfskill,  The  Pioneer," 
in  Ann.  Pub.  of  the  Hist.  Soc.  of  So.  Cal.,  vol.  V, 
pt.  3  (1903)  ;  H.  H.  Bancroft,  Hist  of  Cal.,  vols.  Ill— 
V  (1885-86)  ;  C.  L.  Camp,  "The  Chronicles  of  George 
C.  Yount,"  Cal.  Hist.  Soc.  Quart.,  Apr.  1923  ;  J.  J. 
Hill,  "Ewing  Young  in  the  Fur  Trade  of  the  Far  South- 
west, 1 822-1 834,"  Quart,  of  the  Ore.  Hist.  Soc.,  Mar. 
x923-]  W.J.G. 

WOLFSOHN,  CARL  (Dec.  14,  1834-July  30, 
1907),  musician,  was  born  in  Alzey,  Hesse,  Ger- 
many, the  son  of  Benjamin  and  Sara  (Belmont) 
Wolfsohn.  His  father  was  a  physician  who  was 
fond  of  music,  his  mother  a  pianist.  Carl  showed 
musical  talent  very  early.  He  began  to  take  piano 


lessons  at  the  age  of  seven  and  was  soon  placed 
under  the  guidance  of  Aloys  Schmitt  at  Frank- 
fort, with  whom  he  studied  two  years.  Here  he 
made  his  debut  as  a  pianist  in  December  1848  in 
the  Beethoven  piano  quintet.  He  then  studied 
two  years  with  Vincenz  Lachner,  made  success- 
ful concert  tours  through  Rhenish  Bavaria,  and 
went  to  London,  where  he  lived  two  years  before 
coming  to  America  in  1854.  He  settled  in  Phila- 
delphia, and  for  nearly  twenty  years  wielded  a 
wide  influence  through  his  varied  activities  as 
pianist,  teacher,  and  conductor.  During  this  pe- 
riod he  gave  annual  series  of  chamber-music  con- 
certs and  for  two  seasons  gave  symphony  con- 
certs with  a  Philadelphia  orchestra. 

In  1863  ne  attracted  nation-wide  attention  by 
presenting  all  of  the  Beethoven  piano  sonatas  in 
a  series  of  recitals,  first  in  Philadelphia,  then  in 
Steinway  Hall,  New  York  City.  The  series  was 
repeated  the  following  year  in  both  cities  with 
notable  success.  Soon  after  this  he  gave  the  en- 
tire piano  works  of  Schumann,  then  of  Chopin, 
in  a  similar  series  of  concerts.  In  1869  he  found- 
ed the  Beethoven  Society,  and  four  years  later 
was  induced  to  remove  to  Chicago  to  conduct 
there  a  similar  society  organized  especially  for 
him.  Its  first  concert  took  place  on  Jan,  15, 
1874,  and  the  society  soon  attained  an  active 
membership  of  about  two  hundred.  This  was  the 
first  important  choral  organization  for  mixed 
voices  in  Chicago.  Its  semi-social  character 
made  it  a  strong  cultural  influence.  Wolfsohn 
directed  its  activities  until  1884,  when,  because 
of  other  enterprises,  interest  waned  and  it  was 
disbanded.  In  the  three  annual  concerts  of  the 
society  he  introduced  to  Chicago  such  works  as 
Beethoven's  Mass  in  C  and  Choral  Fantasia, 
Bruch's  Odysseus,  and  Gade's  Crusaders.  In 
addition  he  gave  monthly  chamber-music  and 
piano  recitals.  In  the  spring  of  1874  he  repeated 
the  series  of  ten  Beethoven  sonata  recitals,  in 
the  next  spring  the  piano  works  of  Schumann, 
and  in  1876  those  of  Chopin.  He  was  a  prodi- 
gious worker,  and  his  untiring  energy  and  en- 
thusiasm led  him  in  1877  to  plan  a  series  of  his- 
torical recitals  covering  the  whole  literature  of 
the  piano.  The  public,  however,  became  rather 
surfeited  with  piano  music,  interest  lagged,  and 
after  the  fifteenth  recital  the  project  was  aban- 
doned. 

Wolfsohn  wrought  valiantly  in  the  army  of 
devoted  pioneers  who  laid  the  foundations  of 
musical  life  in  America.  Beethoven  was  his 
musical  idol,  yet  after  the  age  of  sixty  he  took 
up  the  study  of  Brahms,  who  was  then  just  be- 
ginning to  be  known  in  America,  and  played 
publicly  nearly  all  of  his  piano  works.   He  was 


4.^2 


Wolle 

also  one  of  the  earliest  in  America  to  espouse 
the  cause  of  Wagner's  music.  From  1856  on  he 
was  closely  associated  with  Theodore  Thomas 
[q.v.J  in  chamber-music  in  Philadelphia  and 
Chicago  and  on  tour.  The  trio  evenings  of  Wolf- 
sohn,  Thomas,  and  Kammerer  ('cellist)  were 
notable  events  in  Chicago.  He  was  essentially  a 
pianist,  but,  while  he  possessed  an  adequate  tech- 
nique, he  played  from  the  standpoint  of  the  mu- 
sical scholar  rather  than  the  virtuoso.  He  had 
singularly  broad  musical  sympathies.  Through 
his  performances  and  his  unflagging  zeal  he  did 
much  to  raise  the  standards  of  chamber-music 
and  piano-playing  both  in  Philadelphia  and  Chi- 
cago. He  had  a  wide  and  influential  following 
as  a  teacher  of  piano,  but  for  conscientious  rea- 
sons never  gave  more  than  four  lessons  a  day. 
His  most  famous  pupil  was  undoubtedly  Fannie 
Bloomfield  Zeisler  [q.v.~].  Wolfsohn  was  thin 
and  wiry  in  appearance,  high-strung,  wholly  un- 
commercial in  all  his  artistic  ventures,  the  soul 
of  honesty,  intolerant  of  pretense  and  sham.  He 
was  never  married.  He  died  at  Deal  Beach,  N.  J., 
following  a  surgical  operation,  and  his  ashes  re- 
pose in  the  French  Pond  Crematory. 

[Personal  data  from  Mrs.  Theodora  Sturkow-Ryder, 
Chicago,  and  his  niece,  Miss  Amelia  Meyenberg,  New 
York  City  ;  Grove's  Diet,  of  Music  and  Musicians,  Am. 
Supp.  (1930)  ;  W.  S.  B.  Mathews,  A  Hundred  Years 
of  Music  in  America  (1889);  G.  P.  Upton,  Musical 
Memories  (1908)  ;  Florence  French,  Music  and  Musi- 
cians in  Chicago  (1899)  ;  F.  C.  Bennett,  Hist,  of  Music 
and  Art  in  III.  (1904);  Music,  June  1897;  Chicago 
Daily  Tribune,  Aug.  1,   1907.]  F.  L.  G.  C. 

WOLLE,  JOHN  FREDERICK  (Apr.  4, 
1863-Jan.  12,  1933),  organist,  composer,  and 
conductor  of  the  Bach  Choir,  was  born  in  Beth- 
lehem, Pa.,  which  has  been,  since  its  founding  in 
1742,  the  headquarters  of  the  Moravian  Church 
in  North  America  and  a  center  of  musical  and 
educational  activities.  His  ancestry  was  German 
and  Swiss,  and  included  numerous  musicians. 
His  father,  the  Rev.  Francis  Wolle  (1817-1893) , 
clergyman,  educator  and  naturalist,  served  for 
twenty  years  as  principal  of  the  Moravian  Sem- 
inary in  Bethlehem,  one  of  the  earliest  boarding 
schools  for  girls  in  the  United  States.  His  moth- 
er was  Elizabeth  (Weiss)  Wolle.  Wolle  was 
educated  in  the  Moravian  Parochial  School, 
where  for  a  time  after  graduation  (1879-80)  he 
taught  mathematics.  Without  any  special  in- 
struction he  learned  to  play  the  organ  as  a  boy. 
His  first  formal  lessons  were  taken  when  he  was 
twenty,  under  David  Duffle  Wood  [g.v.].  Going 
to  Germany  in  1884,  he  studied  for  a  year  under 
the  celebrated  Josef  Rheinberger  at  Munich. 
Wolle's  career  as  an  organist  included  twenty 
years  (1885-1905)  as  organist  of  the  Moravian 


Wolle 

Church,  Bethlehem,  and  eighteen  years  (1887- 
1905)  as  organist  of  Lehigh  University.  He  gave 
recitals  at  the  Chicago  world's  fair  in  1893,  at 
the  Louisiana  Purchase  Exposition  in  St.  Louis 
in  1904,  and  later  in  many  churches  throughout 
the  East.  He  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the 
American  Guild  of  Organists.  On  July  21,  1886, 
he  married  Jennie  C.  Stryker.  In  his  earlier 
years  he  wrote  hymn  tunes,  songs,  pieces  for 
piano  and  organ,  chorus  and  orchestral  selec- 
tions, and  he  also  made  transcriptions  for  organ 
of  Wagner  and  of  Bach  compositions. 

The  work  that  brought  Wolle  fame  was  his 
founding  and  conducting  of  the  Bethlehem  Bach 
Choir,  which  Henry  T.  Finck  [q.v.~\  termed  "the 
best  choir  in  the  United  States"  (Evening  Post, 
New  York,  May  29,  1916).  His  inspiration  for 
it  came,  as  he  used  to  relate,  one  spring  day  in 
1885  when,  in  Munich,  he  heard  a  large  chorus 
sing  the  St.  John  Passion.  To  him  the  singing 
was  a  summons  to  devote  his  life  to  interpreting 
the  music  of  Bach.  Returning  to  Bethlehem, 
Wolle  won  over  the  115  singers  of  the  Choral 
Union  so  that  they  followed  him  in  rendering  the 
St.  John  Passion  for  the  first  time  in  the  United 
States.  His  singers  did  not  follow  him  in  his 
project  of  producing  Bach's  Mass  in  B-minor.  It 
was  not  until  1898  that,  upon  the  initiative  of 
Ruth  Porter  Doster,  a  body  of  singers  presented 
themselves  for  Wolle's  direction  and  the  Bach 
Choir  was  organized.  They  gave  the  first  com- 
plete American  rendition  of  the  B-minor  mass  on 
Mar.  27,  1900.  It  was  so  successful  that  a  more 
ambitious  festival  was  planned  for  1901.  Of  this 
second  festival  H.  E.  Krehbiel  wrote  that  Wolle's 
singers  "accomplished  miracles"  (New  York 
Tribune,  May  25,  1901,  p.  9),  and  W.  J.  Hender- 
son reported  that  the  performance  was  one  in 
which  "the  sublimity  of  the  music  was  perfectly 
disclosed"  (New  York  Times,  May  25,  1901). 
Six  Bach  festivals  were  held  in  the  Moravian 
Church  in  the  years  1900,  1901,  1903,  and  1905. 
Then  Wolle  was  called  to  the  chair  of  music  in 
the  University  of  California  and  there  served  six 
years  (1905-11).  At  Berkeley  he  conducted  a 
chorus  of  citizens  and  students  who  in  1909  and 
19 10  sang  the  B-minor  mass  and  the  St.  Matthew 
Passion.  After  the  reorganization  of  the  Bach 
Choir  in  Bethlehem  in  191 1,  Wolle  conducted 
Bach  festivals  at  Lehigh  University  from  1912  to 
1932.  The  choir  of  from  250  to  300  voices  sang 
occasionally  in  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Wash- 
ington, and  other  Eastern  cities,  but  there  were 
no  extended  concert  tours.  Instead,  music  lovers 
from  all  parts  of  the  United  States  and  from  for- 
eign countries  made  pilgrimages  to  Bethlehem 
each  May  for  the  two-day  program  of  Bach's 


453 


Wood 


Wood 


music,  in  which  the  B-minor  mass  was  the  sec- 
ond-day fixture  and  magnet.  In  the  ivy-clad 
stone  church  on  the  university  campus  they 
heard  the  singing  of  Bach's  oratorios  and  can- 
tatas not  as  a  concert  but  as  a  religious  service 
with  no  applause,  the  congregation  joining  in 
the  chorales.  The  accompaniment  was  given  by 
players  of  the  Philadelphia  Symphony  Orches- 
tra and  by  T.  Edger  Shields,  organist. 

The  slender,  vibrant  Wolle  who,  without 
baton,  conducted  these  festivals  in  fulfillment  of 
his  youthful  dreams  is  credited  with  these,  among 
other,  achievements :  he  established  a  record  for 
first  productions  of  Bach's  compositions  in  Amer- 
ica; he  devised  a  unique  system  of  instruction  by 
which  the  singers  began  their  study  of  a  difficult 
Bach  chorus  by  learning  the  final  measures  first 
of  all ;  he  developed  an  interpretation  of  Bach 
which  emphasized  the  religious  spirit,  the  emo- 
tionalism, the  humanity  of  Bach  ;  he  demonstrat- 
ed the  possibilities  of  community  singing  by 
building  his  choir,  year  after  year,  from  men  and 
women  of  a  relatively  local  area  and,  by  his  lead- 
ership, arousing  a  devotion  of  which  it  was  said : 
"These  singers,  forgetful  of  self,  sing  out  of 
worshipping  hearts  to  the  glory  of  God."  Wolle 
died  in  Bethlehem,  survived  by  his  wife  and  a 
daughter.  Following  his  funeral  in  January 
1933,  the  members  of  the  Bach  Choir  gathered 
about  his  grave  and  hummed  the  chorale,  "World 
Farewell."  In  May  1933  they  sang  the  B-minor 
mass  as  a  memorial  service. 

[Raymond  Walters,  The  Bethlehem  Bach  Choir 
(1923)  ;  Who's  Who  in  America,  1932-33  ;  obituary  in 
N.  Y.  Times,  Jan.  13,  1933]  R.  W. 

WOOD,  ABRAHAM  (fl.  1638-1680),  soldier, 
explorer,  landowner,  was  one  of  the  most  inter- 
esting and  important  figures  in  the  history  of 
early  colonial  Virginia.  His  early  life  is  obscure. 
It  is  possible  that  he  was  the  Abraham  Wood 
who  came  to  Virginia  in  1620  as  an  indentured 
servant  in  the  Margaret  and  John  and  who  as 
late  as  1625  was  in  the  service  of  Capt.  Samuel 
Mathews  on  his  plantation  near  Jamestown.  In 
May  1638  Wood  is  found  patenting  four  hundred 
acres  in  Charles  City  County,  and  the  following 
year  two  hundred  acres  in  Henrico  County.  By 
successive  patents  he  became  one  of  the  great 
landowners  of  the  colony.  In  1644  he  became  a 
member  of  the  House  of  Burgesses  for  Henrico 
County  and  served  in  that  capacity  for  two  years. 
He  sat  for  Charles  City  County  in  1654  and  1656. 
He  became  a  member  of  the  Council  in  the  spring 
of  1658  during  the  period  of  the  provisional  gov- 
ernment and  served  on  it  for  at  least  twenty-two 
years.  In  1676  he  was  appointed  a  member  of  the 
special   commission   of   oyer  and  terminer   for 


Virginia  to  settle  the  affairs  of  the  colony  after 
Bacon's  Rebellion. 

He  began  his  military  career  in  1646  as  a  cap- 
tain of  militia  at  Fort  Henry.  In  1656  he  became 
colonel  of  the  Charles  City  and  Henrico  regi- 
ment, the  group  of  the  militia  most  actively  en- 
gaged in  Indian  fighting.  He  was  later  made  a 
major-general  and  for  a  decade  ranked  with  the 
governor  as  one  of  the  chief  military  figures  of 
the  colony.  In  1646  he  undertook  to  maintain  a 
fort  and  garrison  at  Fort  Henry  (now  Peters- 
burg) and  in  return  was  granted  the  fort  with 
its  buildings,  six  hundred  acres  of  land,  and 
other  privileges.  This  became  both  the  residence 
and  the  business  headquarters  from  which  he 
traded  and  sent  his  agents  on  expeditions  into  the 
western  country.  He  himself  accompanied  Ed- 
ward Bland  on  his  expedition  to  Occoneechee 
Island  in  1650.  The  story  that  Wood  or  his 
agents  during  the  following  decade  reached  the 
Mississippi  River  is  unproved  and  improbable 
(Alvord  and  Bidgood,  post,  pp.  52-55).  In  Sep- 
tember 1671  Wood  sent  out  a  small  party  under 
Capt.  Thomas  Batts  with  a  commission  "for  the 
finding  out  of  the  ebbing  and  flowing  of  the 
Waters  on  the  other  side  of  the  Mountains  in 
order  to  the  discovery  of  the  South  Sea."  This 
expedition  achieved  the  first  recorded  passage 
of  the  Appalachian  mountains.  The  next  party 
sent  out  by  Wood  in  April  1673  under  James 
Needham  [q.v.~\  traced  the  trail  to  the  present 
site  of  Tennessee  and  opened  the  trade  with  the 
distant  Cherokee  Indians.  Because  of  the  oppo- 
sition of  the  Occaneechi  Indians  they  were 
forced  to  return  to  Fort  Henry ;  they  again  start- 
ed out  on  May  17.  Having  successfully  reached 
the  Cherokees,  Needham  came  back  to  Fort 
Henry  in  September  1673.  He  was  murdered  the 
following  year  while  making  a  second  journey  to 
the  Cherokees.  Bacon's  Rebellion  temporarily 
interrupted  the  explorations  of  the  western  coun- 
try. So  active  had  Wood  been  in  this  movement 
that  prior  to  1676  "the  history  of  westward  ex- 
pansion during  the  period  is  almost  a  biography 
of  this  remarkable  man"  (Ibid.,  p.  34).  His  last 
recorded  public  service  was  in  March  1680  when 
he  was  conducting  negotiations  with  the  threat- 
ening confederacy  of  hostile  Indians.  It  is 
thought  that  he  died  shortly  after  this  time. 

[W.  N.  Sainsbury,  Calendar  of  State  Papers,  Colo- 
nial Ser.,  America  and  West  Indies,  1660-1674  (1889), 
and  Calendar  .  .  .  167 5-1676  (1893)  ;  W.  H.  Hening, 
Statutes  at  Large  .  .  .  of  Va.  .  .  .  from  1619  (Richmond, 
1819-23)  ;  C.  W.  Alvord  and  Lee  Bidgood,  The  First 
Explorations  of  the  Trans- Allegheny  Region  by  the 
Virginians,  1650-1674  (1912).]  F.  M. 

WOOD,  DAVID  DUFFLE  (Mar.  2,  1838- 
Mar.  27,  1910),  organist,  was  born  in  Pittsburgh, 


454 


Wood 

Pa.  His  father  was  Jonathan  Humphrey  Wood, 
the  eldest  son  of  Abinah  Wood,  a  shipbuilder  of 
Pittsburgh,  and  his  mother  was  Wilhelmina  I. 
Jones.  David,  the  third  son  of  their  marriage, 
was  born  in  a  log  cabin  on  the  outskirts  of  the 
city.  When  but  a  few  months  of  age  he  lost  the 
sight  of  one  eye  through  an  inflammation  caused 
by  a  cold.  Two  years  later  his  other  eye  was 
injured  during  a  romp  with  his  sister,  and  a  sub- 
sequent attack  of  scarlet  fever  so  aggravated  the 
injury  that  he  became  permanently  blind.  When 
he  was  not  yet  five  years  of  age  his  parents  en- 
tered him  as  a  pupil  in  the  Pennsylvania  Institu- 
tion for  the  Instruction  of  the  Blind  at  Philadel- 
phia, where  he  remained  until  he  was  graduated 
in  1856.  He  studied  music  under  Wilhelm  Schna- 
bel  and  Ernst  Pfeiffer,  a  German  who  had  come 
to  America  as  a  member  of  the  Germania  Orches- 
tra. Aside  from  the  elementary  instruction  he 
gained  from  these  teachers  during  his  boyhood, 
he  was  self-taught  in  the  art  he  later  followed 
as  a  profession. 

In  the  years  1854  and  1855  Wood  was  a  "pu- 
pil teacher"  in  music  at  the  school,  and  following 
his  graduation  filled  positions  as  organist  in 
small  churches  for  about  six  years.  In  1862  he 
returned  to  the  Institution  as  an  assistant  teach- 
er of  music,  and  three  years  later  became  one  of 
the  two  principal  assistants  to  the  instructor  of 
music.  In  1887  he  was  made  the  principal  in- 
structor, and  he  held  that  position  until  his  death. 
He  was  appointed  organist  of  St.  Stephen's 
Church,  Philadelphia,  in  1864,  and  in  1870  the 
duties  of  choir-master  were  added  to  his  post. 
He  served  St.  Stephen's  for  the  rest  of  his  life, 
and  from  the  years  1884  to  1909  he  also  played 
the  organ  at  the  evening  services  at  the  Baptist 
Temple.  In  addition  to  his  teaching  at  the  Insti- 
tution he  was  for  thirty  years  instructor  of  organ 
at  the  Philadelphia  Musical  Academy,  and  had 
many  private  pupils.  He  was  a  founder  of  the 
American  Guild  of  Organists. 

In  learning  new  music  Wood  engaged  a  pri- 
vate secretary  to  describe  the  pieces  from  the 
printed  page.  She  would  read  first  the  notes  for 
the  right  hand,  and  then  for  the  left.  This  was  all 
that  was  necessary  for  memorizing  an  entire 
piece.  It  is  said  that  his  sense  of  sound  was  so 
remarkably  acute  that  he  would  frequently  call 
his  pupils  to  task  for  wrong  fingering.  Wood  was 
particularly  esteemed  as  an  interpreter  of  the 
works  of  Bach,  and  he  was  the  owner  of  the  first 
complete  set  of  Bach's  organ  works  brought  to 
Philadelphia  (1884).  His  A  Dictionary  of  Mu- 
sical Terms,  for  the  Use  of  the  Blind  was  pub- 
lished in  1869.  As  a  composer  Wood  wrote  a 
number  of  anthems  which  were  published  post- 


Wood 

humously.  One  of  his  songs,  "I've  Brought  Thee 
an  Ivy  Leaf,"  achieved  popularity  in  the  United 
States  and  in  England.  He  was  twice  married : 
first  to  Rachel  Laird,  a  fellow  pupil  at  the  Insti- 
tution, on  Oct.  16,  1856 ;  and  then  to  Alice  Bur- 
dette,  of  Philadelphia,  on  July  14,  1898.  When 
he  died  in  Philadelphia  at  the  age  of  seventy-two, 
he  was  survived  by  his  second  wife  and  a  young 
daughter. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1908-09  ;  David  D.  Wood, 
pamphlet,  issued  by  the  Pennsylvania  Institution  for 
the  Instruction  of  the  Blind  ;  Grove's  Diet,  of  Music 
and  Musicians,  Am.  Supp.  (1930)  ;  New  Music  Rev., 
Aug.  1910  ;  Musical  America,  Apr.  2,  1910;  Foyer, 
Apr.  1914;  Diapason,  Mar.  1,  1935;  Public  Ledger 
(Philadelphia),  Mar.  28,  1910.]  T  T  H 

WOOD,  EDWARD  STICKNEY  (Apr.  28, 
1846-July  11,  1905),  physician  and  chemist,  was 
born  in  Cambridge,  Mass.,  the  son  of  Alfred 
and  Laura  (Stickney)  Wood.  Both  the  Wood 
and  the  Stickney  families  were  among  the  first 
settlers  of  Essex  County,  Mass.,  in  the  early  sev- 
enteenth century.  Son  of  a  local  grocer,  Wood 
prepared  for  college  in  the  Cambridge  schools 
and  was  graduated  from  Harvard  College  in  the 
class  of  1867.  During  the  course  he  decided  on 
medicine  as  a  profession  and  showed  a  particu- 
lar preference  for  chemistry.  After  serving  as  a 
house  pupil  at  both  the  United  States  Marine 
Hospital  in  Chelsea  and  the  Massachusetts  Gen- 
eral Hospital  in  Boston,  he  received  the  degree 
of  M.D.  from  the  Harvard  Medical  School  in 
1871.  His  appointment  to  fill  a  vacancy  in  the 
department  of  chemistry  at  the  Medical  School, 
created  by  the  resignation  of  James  Clarke  White 
[q.v.],  turned  Wood  toward  biological  chemis- 
try. He  first  spent  six  months  in  study  in  Berlin 
and  Vienna.  Upon  his  return  he  began  to  lec- 
ture to  the  students  at  the  Harvard  Medical 
School,  being  one  of  the  first  in  the  United  States 
to  offer  a  systematic  course  in  medical  chemis- 
try. Appointed  to  a  full  professorship  in  1876, 
he  continued  as  such  until  his  death  in  Pocasset, 
Mass.,  in  1905.  During  this  time  he  acted  also 
as  chemist  to  the  Massachusetts  General  Hos- 
pital, Boston. 

Besides  his  teaching  and  hospital  work,  Wood 
was  active  in  many  allied  branches  of  his  subject. 
He  served  on  sanitary  commissions  for  both  the 
city  of  Boston  and  the  state  of  Massachusetts, 
reporting  on  the  local  water  supply  and  the  facili- 
ties for  gas  lighting  in  Boston.  For  a  number  of 
years  he  was  a  member  of  the  commission  which 
revised  the  1880  issue  of  the  United  States  Phar- 
macopoeia. His  articles  on  arsenical  poisoning 
and  blood  stains  were  notable  contributions  to 
those  subjects.  He  revised  K.  T.  L.  Neubauer 
and  Julius  Vogel's  A  Guide  to  the  Qualitative 


455 


Wood 

and  Quantitative  Analysis  of  the  Urine  (1879), 
and  contributed  a  number  of  articles  to  Francis 
Wharton  and  C.  J.  Stille's  Medical  Jurisprudence 
(4  vols.,  1882-84),  and  to  R.  A.  Witthaus  and 
T.  C.  Becker's  Medical  Jurisprudence  (4  vols., 
1894-96).  As  a  legal  expert  in  chemistry,  he 
was  considered  without  a  peer  in  the  United 
States,  and  it  was  in  the  capacity  of  an  expert 
witness  in  murder  trials  that  he  was  best  known 
to  the  public  of  his  time.  He  was  just  and  fair, 
unshaken  by  the  art  or  skill  of  cross-examination. 
He  has  been  described  as  "calm,  unruffled,  un- 
concerned as  to  the  effect  his  testimony  might 
have  upon  the  jury"  (Lincoln,  post,  p.  26).  A 
man  of  the  highest  character,  he  was  often  willing 
to  help  the  opposing  counsel,  so  confident  was  he 
of  the  finality  of  his  results.  His  most  notable 
case  was  the  Higgins-Marston  murder  trial  in 
Denver,  Colo.,  in  1878.  Wood  was  a  member  of 
the  Massachusetts  Medical  Society,  the  Amer- 
ican Pharmaceutical  Association,  the  American 
Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences,  and  other  scien- 
tific bodies.  He  married,  first,  Irene  Eldridge 
Hills  (Dec.  26,  1872),  who  died  in  1881,  leaving 
a  daughter ;  and,  second,  Elizabeth  A.  Richard- 
son (Dec.  24,  1883),  who  survived  him  without 
children. 

[F.  H.  Lincoln,  Harvard  Grads'.  Mag.,  Sept.  1905  ; 
Harvard  Coll.  Class  of  1867,  Secretary's  Report  (1907)  ; 
Boston  Transcript,  July  12  and  15,  1905  ;  J-  C.  Warren, 
Proc.  Am.  Acad,  of  Arts  and  Sci.,  Dec.  1916;  Boston 
Medic,  and  Surgical  Jour.,  July  20,  1905.  and  FeD-  8i 
1906.]  H.R.V. 

WOOD,  FERNANDO  (June  14,  1812-Feb. 
14,  1881),  congressman,  mayor  of  New  York, 
son  of  Benjamin  and  Rebecca  (Lehman)  Wood, 
was  born  in  Philadelphia,  Pa.  He  traced  his 
descent  from  Henry  Wood,  a  Quaker,  of  New- 
port, R.  I.,  who  in  1682  bought  a  large  farm  near 
the  site  of  Camden,  N.  J.  His  father  failed  in 
business,  spent  several  years  in  the  West,  and 
about  1822  became  a  tobacconist  in  New  York 
City.  Young  Fernando  attended  a  private  school 
until  he  was  thirteen,  when  he  became  a  broker's 
messenger.  In  his  early  manhood  he  was  a  deal- 
er in  wine  and  cigars,  clerk,  auctioneer,  ship 
chandler  and  grocer;  and  twice  after  business 
failures  he  worked  as  a  cigarmaker.  Entering 
politics  in  1834,  he  became  chairman  of  the  young 
men's  committee  of  Tammany  Hall  ( 1839-40) 
and  member  of  Congress  (1841-43),  where  he 
urged  the  adoption  of  the  floating  drydock  and 
helped  Morse  get  an  appropriation  for  his  tele- 
graph. He  was  dispatch  agent  for  the  state  de- 
partment (1844-47),  meanwhile  engaging  in 
business  as  a  ship  chandler  and  merchant.  At  the 
beginning  of  the  gold  rush  he  sent  a  ship  to  Cali- 


Wood 

fornia,  making  large  profits  which  he  invested  in 
New  York  and  San  Francisco  real  estate. 

He  had  meanwhile  become  one  of  the  three  or 
four  leaders  of  Tammany  Hall.  In  1850  he  was 
defeated  for  the  mayoralty  through  allegations 
of  fraud  made  in  a  lawsuit  by  his  partner  in  the 
California  enterprise.  He  was  elected  mayor  in 
1854  and  reelected  in  1856  with  the  support  of 
many  reputable  bankers  and  merchants.  He  was 
influential  in  creating  Central  Park  {Sixteenth 
Annual  Report,  1911,  of  the  American  Scenic  and 
Historic  Preservation  Society),  recommended 
the  establishment  of  a  municipal  university  and 
a  free  academy  for  young  women,  and  received 
the  thanks  of  temperance  societies  for  enforcing 
the  liquor  laws.  But  graft  permeated  many  de- 
partments of  the  city  government.  The  Republi- 
can legislature  shortened  his  second  term  by  half, 
created  the  metropolitan  police  force  under  a 
state  board,  and  transferred  numerous  municipal 
functions  to  other  authorities,  thus,  by  confusion 
and  conflict  of  jurisdictions,  making  possible  the 
progressively  greater  corruption  which  reached 
its  culmination  under  William  Marcy  Tweed 
\_q.vJ\.  Believing  the  acts  to  be  unconstitutional, 
Wood  resisted  their  enforcement.  When  fifty 
metropolitan  policemen  attempted  to  arrest  him 
at  City  Hall  the  municipal  police  clubbed  them 
off  until  a  regiment  of  militia  intervened.  In  dis- 
pensing patronage  he  neglected  other  Democratic 
leaders,  and  they  ousted  him  from  Tammany 
Hall  and  defeated  his  reelection. 

Already  widely  known,  Wood  was  on  friendly 
terms  with  President  Buchanan  and  several 
Southern  Democrats.  He  made  a  large  loan  to 
Stephen  A.  Douglas  in  1858  to  finance  his  sena- 
torial campaign  against  Lincoln.  Failing  to  re- 
gain control  of  Tammany  Hall,  Wood  organized 
his  personal  following — business  men,  mechanics, 
immigrants,  and  stevedores — as  Mozart  Hall.  In 
obedience  to  a  single  will  it  surpassed  any  previ- 
ous political  organization  in  the  city.  It  secured 
his  third  election  as  mayor  in  1859  and  enabled 
him  to  appear  at  the  National  Democratic  Con- 
vention of  i860  at  the  head  of  a  contesting  dele- 
gation with  pro-Southern  leanings.  His  power 
was  further  increased  when  his  younger  brother, 
Benjamin  (1820-1900),  who  had  benefited  from 
municipal  contracts,  purchased  the  Daily  News 
in  i860  and  became  a  Congressman  (1861-65). 
In  his  annual  message,  Jan.  7,  1861,  after  ex- 
pressing the  opinion  that  the  Union  would  short- 
ly be  dissolved,  Wood  proposed  that  New  York 
should  "disrupt  the  bands"  which  subjected  it  to 
up-state  tyranny  and  become  a  free  city  with  a 
nominal  duty  on  imports.  After  the  outbreak  of 
war  he  recommended  to  the  council  the  appro- 


456 


Wood 


Wood 


priation  of  $1,000,000  to  equip  Union  regiments. 
He  was  defeated  for  reelection  by  a  Republican 
with  reform  support.  As  the  war  dragged  on  he 
reversed  his  attitude,  denouncing  the  war  in  bit- 
ter terms  and  advocating  peace  by  conciliation. 
Early  in  1863  he  joined  with  Clement  L.  Val- 
landigham  \_q.v.~\  in  organizing  the  peace  Demo- 
crats. 

Wood  was  a  member  of  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, 1863-65,  and  1867-81.  In  1864  he 
urged  that  the  additional  taxes  on  whiskey  should 
be  collected  from  speculators  who  had  engrossed 
the  existing  supply  as  well  as  from  distillers. 
Reflecting  faithfully  the  dominant  banking  and 
mercantile  interests  of  New  York,  he  insisted, 
often  in  opposition  to  his  own  party,  upon  a 
sound  currency  and  a  tariff  for  revenue  only.  He 
spoke  often,  denouncing  Republican  reconstruc- 
tion measures,  and  exposing  graft  and  admin- 
istrative incompetence.  Bold  and  outspoken, 
though  always  courteous,  he  early  won  recog- 
nition as  a  minority  spokesman.  The  Democrats 
gave  him  their  complimentary  votes  for  speaker 
in  1873,  but  when  they  controlled  the  House  two 
years  later  they  passed  him  by.  After  1877  he 
was  majority  floor  leader  and  chairman  of  the 
ways  and  means  committee.  He  presented  a  com- 
prehensive tariff  bill  in  1878  which  would  have 
reduced  the  duties  and  corrected  many  anomalies 
in  the  hodgepodge  of  tariff  acts  of  the  Civil  War 
period  {Congressional  Record,  45  Cong.,  2  Sess., 
pp.  2035,  2393-2402).  It  failed  of  enactment  be- 
cause of  defections  from  his  own  party.  In  1880 
he  introduced  a  bill  for  the  refunding  of  the  na- 
tional debt,  which  was  modified  in  committee  and 
passed  the  House  in  January  1881  (Ibid.,  46 
Cong.,  2  Sess.,  pp.  281,  989,  3  Sess.,  pp.  772-73)- 

Wood  had  an  almost  uncanny  aptitude  for  es- 
timating the  course  of  public  opinion  and  a  genius 
for  political  organization.  In  gaining  and  keep- 
ing power  he  was  audacious,  ruthless,  and  re- 
sourceful. His  engaging  manners  won  friends 
easily,  but  he  also  made  bitter  enemies  who  took 
pains  to  present  his  character  unfavorably.  He 
was  married  three  times :  to  a  Miss  Taylor  in 
1832;  to  Ann  Dole  Richardson  on  Apr.  23,  1841, 
who  died  Dec.  9,  1859;  and  to  Alice  Fenner 
Mills  on  Dec.  2,  i860.  He  died  at  Hot  Springs, 
Ark.,  survived  by  his  widow  and  eleven  of  his 
sixteen  children. 

[Sources  include  A  Model  Mayor  (1855)  ;  X.  D. 
MacLeod,  Biog.  of  Hon.  Fernando  Wood,  Mayor  of  the 
City  of  N.  Y.  (1856),  eulogistic  in  tone;  Abijah  In- 
graham,  A  Biog.  of  Fernando  Wood,  a  Hist,  of  the 
Forgeries,  Perjuries  and  Other  Crimes  of  Our  "Model" 
Mayor  (1856)  ;  A  Condensed  Biog.  of  Fernando  Wood 
(1866),  bitterly  hostile;  S.  D.  Brummer,  Political  Hist, 
of  N.  Y.  State  during  the  Period  of  the  Civil  War 
(iqii)  ;  I.  N.  P.  Stokes,  The  Iconography  of  Manhat- 
tan Island,  1498-1009,  vol.  Ill  (1918)  ;  J.  A.  Scoville, 


The  Old  Merchants  of  N.  Y.  City,  vol.  II  (1863)  ;  Gus- 
tavus  Myers,  The  Hist,  of  Tammany  Hall  (1901)  ;  M. 
R.  Werner,  Tammany  Hall  (1928);  D.  T.  Lynch, 
"Boss''  Tweed  (1927)  ;  E.  C.  Kirkland,  The  Peacemak- 
ers of  1864  (1927)  ;  Docs,  of  the  Board  of  Aldermen 
of  the  City  of  N.  Y '.,  1855-63  ;  Biog.  Dir.  Am.  Cong., 
1774-1927  (1928)  ;  Memorial  Addresses  on  the  Life  and 
Character  of  Fernando  Wood  (1882);  46  Cong.,  3 
Sess.  ;  obituary  sketches  in  N.  Y.  Times,  N.  Y.  Herald, 
World  (N.  Y.),  and  N.  Y.  Tribune,  Feb.  15,  1881  ;  in- 
formation from  Wood's  son,  Henry  A.  Wise  Wood.  A 
biog.  by  Don  Seitz,  "Fernando  Wood,  Democrat,"  exists 
in  MS-I  E.  C.  S. 

WOOD,  GEORGE  (January  1789-Mar.  17, 
i860),  lawyer,  was  regarded  by  contemporaries 
as  the  leader  of  the  New  York  bar  and  the  great- 
est lawyer  New  Jersey  had  produced.  Surpris- 
ingly little  is  known  of  his  early  life.  He  was 
born  of  Quaker  parents  at  Chesterfield,  Burling- 
ton County,  N.  J.  In  1805  he  entered  the  College 
of  New  Jersey  (later  Princeton)  with  a  year's 
advanced  standing  and  was  graduated  in  1808. 
He  then  studied  law  under  Richard  Stockton, 
1764-1828  [q.z'.l,  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in 
1812,  and  began  his  practice  at  New  Brunswick. 
Within  a  few  years  his  reputation  surpassed  that 
of  his  tutor.  He  appeared  more  frequently  than 
any  other  New  Jersey  lawyer  before  the  Su- 
preme Court  of  the  United  States.  The  law  of 
New  Jersey  owes  to  his  practice  many  important 
principles,  particularly  on  the  subject  of  chari- 
table devises,  which  had  been  practically  unde- 
veloped. A  leading  case  in  Hendrickson  vs.  Sliot- 
zuell  (reported  in  full  with  arguments  of  counsel 
as  The  Society  of  Friends  Vindicated,  1832),  in 
which  he  represented  the  Orthodox  Friends  in 
their  controversy  over  property  with  the  "Hick- 
sites." 

In  1831  he  moved  to  New  York  City,  where 
his  earlier  successes  were  continued.  He  repre- 
sented the  Presbyterian,  Dutch,  and  Methodist 
Episcopal  churches  in  cases  involving  property, 
was  counsel  for  the  city  in  boundary  cases,  and 
appeared  in  the  Lorillard  will  case  involving  the 
disposition  of  $3,000,000.  Perhaps  his  most  im- 
portant case  in  this  period  was  Martin  vs.  Wad- 
dell  ( 16  Peters,  367,  or  41  United  States,  367) ,  in 
which  he  gave  a  clear  exposition  of  the  law  con- 
cerning the  right  of  the  sovereign  to  lands  under 
water.  His  practice  indicates  that  other  lawyers 
were  in  the  habit  of  bringing  their  desperate 
cases  to  him.  He  was  accustomed  to  leave  the 
search  for  prior  decisions  to  junior  counsel  while 
he  concentrated  on  the  principles  involved.  His 
preparation  was  always  thorough,  his  knowl- 
edge profound,  and  his  memory  accurate.  Often 
he  went  from  court  to  court  carrying  the  most 
intricate  details  of  cases  in  his  mind,  with  only 
a  few  penciled  notes  to  guide  him.  He  is  de- 
scribed as  having  "the  art  of  thinking  while  he 


457 


Wood 

spoke,  and  thinking  as  he  would  were  he  writ- 
ing" (William  M.  Evarts,  in  New  York  Times, 
Mar.  22,  i860,  p.  2).  When  he  finished  the  pre- 
liminary statement  of  a  case  he  had  already  by 
implication  argued  it  fully.  He  was  not  an  ora- 
tor, but  relied  upon  his  power  of  clear,  direct, 
and  comprehensive  statement. 

He  took  little  part  in  politics.  His  preferences 
were  known  to  be  with  the  Federalists,  then  with 
the  Whigs,  and  toward  the  close  of  his  life  with 
those  who  wished  at  all  costs  to  preserve  the 
Union.  He  once  declined  to  become  a  candidate 
for  governor  of  New  Jersey.  In  Tyler's  admin- 
istration his  friends  strongly  urged  his  appoint- 
ment to  a  vacant  justiceship  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States.  In  1850  he  presided 
over  a  Union-saving  meeting  at  Castle  Garden 
which  approved  the  passage  of  the  slavery  com- 
promise, and  in  1852  he  urged  the  nomination 
of  Webster  for  the  presidency.  Personally  he 
was  dignified,  unostentatious,  and  modest  to  the 
point  of  self-effacement.  He  was  survived  by  his 
widow,  two  sons,  and  several  daughters. 

[L.  Q.  C.  Elmer,  The  Constitution  .  .  .  of  N.  J. 
(1872)  ;  L.  O.  Hall,  in  Green  Bag,  July  1899,  with  por- 
trait ;  Charles  Edwards,  Pleasantries  about  Courts  and 
Lawyers  (1867)  ;  Hist,  of  the  Bench  and  Bar  of  N.  Y ., 
vol.  I  (1897),  ed.  by  David  McAdam  ;  The  Diary  of 
Philip  Hone  (2  vols.,  1927),  ed.  by  Allan  Nevins  ;  obitu- 
aries in  N.  Y.  Tribune  and  N.  Y.  Herald,  Mar.  20, 
l86°-]  E.G.  S. 

WOOD,  GEORGE  BACON  (Mar.  12,  1797- 
Mar.  30,  1879),  physician,  was  born  at  Green- 
wich, N.  J.,  the  son  of  Richard  and  Elizabeth 
(Bacon)  Wood.  His  father  was  a  prosperous 
Quaker  farmer,  a  descendant  of  Richard  Wood 
who  emigrated  from  England  to  Philadelphia  in 
1682.  Wood  was  graduated  from  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania  with  the  degree  of  A.B.  in  1815. 
Shortly  thereafter  he  began  to  "read  medicine" 
with  Dr.  Joseph  Parrish  [q.v.~\,  and  then  en- 
tered the  medical  department  of  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania,  from  which  he  received  the  de- 
gree of  M.D.  in  1818.  Almost  at  once  he  entered 
upon  a  remarkable  career  as  practitioner,  edu- 
cator, and  author  in  which  he  became  a  leader  of 
the  medical  profession  not  only  in  the  city  of 
Philadelphia,  where  he  made  his  home,  but 
throughout  America.  In  1822  he  was  made  pro- 
fessor of  chemistry  in  the  Philadelphia  College 
of  Pharmacy,  and  in  183 1  professor  of  materia 
medica.  Resigning  from  the  College  of  Pharmacy 
in  1835,  he  became  professor  of  materia  medica 
and  pharmacy  in  the  University  of  Pennsylvania, 
and  in  1850  professor  of  the  theory  and  practice 
of  medicine.  He  retired  in  i860  as  professor 
emeritus.  From  1835  to  1859  he  was  an  attend- 
ing physician  to  the  Pennsylvania  Hospital.   He 


Wood 

was  elected  president  of  the  College  of  Physicians 
of  Philadelphia  in  1848  and  continued  in  that 
position  until  his  death  in  1879,  his  administra- 
tion the  longest  in  the  history  of  the  organization. 
He  also  served  one  year  (1855-56)  as  president 
of  the  American  Medical  Association.  For  ten 
years  (1850-60)  he  was  chairman  of  the  na- 
tional committee  for  the  revision  of  the  United 
States  pharmacopeia,  and  for  twenty  years 
(1859-79)  he  was  president  of  the  American 
Philosophical  Society.  From  1863  until  his  death 
he  was  a  trustee  of  the  University  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  from  1874  the  first  and  only  president 
of  the  board  of  managers  of  the  university  hos- 
pital. 

On  Apr.  2,  1823,  he  married  Caroline  Hahn, 
who  died  during  the  sixties,  only  daughter  of 
Peter  Hahn.  As  she  was  not  a  Quaker,  he  mar- 
ried "out  of  meeting,"  which  resulted  in  separat- 
ing him  from  the  Society  of  Friends.  They  had 
no  children.  Wood  died,  as  he  had  lived,  in  Phila- 
delphia, Mar.  30,  1879,  aged  eighty-two  years. 

In  addition  to  his  collections  of  specimens, 
charts,  and  models  (on  which  he  had  spent  some 
$20,000),  and  all  his  medicinal  plants,  with  $5,- 
000  for  the  establishment  of  a  botanical  garden 
and  conservatory,  Wood  left  to  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania  $50,000  to  maintain  a  department 
auxiliary  to  medicine  which  he  had  founded  and 
himself  maintained  at  a  personal  expenditure  of 
$2,500  annually  from  1865  to  1879.  To  the  uni- 
versity hospital  he  left  $75,000  to  establish  the 
Peter  Hahn  ward.  From  1866  until  his  death  he 
had  made  an  annual  contribution  of  $500  to  the 
College  of  Physicians,  on  condition  that  the 
library  should  be  open  daily ;  his  bequest  of  $10,- 
000  was  designed  to  constitute  a  permanent  fund 
for  this  purpose.  At  the  time  of  his  death  he  also 
cancelled  a  mortgage  of  $5,000  which  he  held  on 
the  building  of  the  College  of  Physicians,  and 
gave  to  it  all  the  medical  books  in  his  library, 
copies  of  which  were  not  already  in  its  posses- 
sion. He  was  a  man  of  great  personal  charm  and 
power,  vigorous,  dominating,  quick-tempered. 
He  was  an  indefatigable  student  and  a  volumi- 
nous writer,  frequently  working  until  four  o'clock 
in  the  morning.  Together  with  his  intimate 
friend,  Dr.  Franklin  Bache  [q.v.],  he  compiled 
a  monumental  work,  The  Dispensatory  of  the 
United  States  (1833),  which  went  through  many 
editions,  greatly  supplemented  and  enlarged.  He 
also  wrote  a  Treatise  on  the  Practice  of  Medi- 
cine (1847),  which  ran  through  a  number  of  edi- 
tions ;  a  Treatise  on  Therapeutics  and  Phar- 
macology, or  Materia  Medica  (1856);  a  long 
list  of  papers,  lectures,  addresses,  and  syllabi ; 
and  The  History  of  the  University  of  Pennsyl- 


458 


Wood 


Wood 


vania  (1834).  Although  he  probably  made  no 
discoveries  and  added  nothing  to  the  general  sum 
of  medical  lore,  his  life  and  work  had  great 
usefulness.  His  aristocratic  disposition  may  be 
judged  from  his  remark  to  his  nephew,  Horatio 
Charles  Wood  [q.z1.],  "Horatio,  I  would  have 
thee  know  that  I  never  have  and  never  will  de- 
mean myself  by  riding  in  a  street  car ;  when  I 
ride,  I  ride  in  my  carriage"  (Transactions  of  the 
Philadelphia  College  of  Physicians,  1920,  post, 
p.  202). 

[Univ.  of  Pa.  Biog.  Cat.  Matriculates  of  the  Coll. 
(1894)  ;  Joseph  Carson,  A  Hist,  of  the  Medic.  Dept.  of 
the  Univ.  of  Pa  (1869)  ;  Universities  and  Their  Sons: 
Univ.  of  Pa.  (1901),  ed.  by  J.  L.  Chamberlain  ;  Boston 
Medic,  and  Surgical  Jour.,  Oct.  24,  1849,  p.  236  ;  W.  S. 
W.  Ruschenberger,  in  Am.  Jour.  Medic.  Sci.,  Oct. 
1879;  Medic.  Record,  Apr.  5,  1879,  p.  335;  William 
Hunt,  in  Phila.  Medic.  Times,  Apr.  26,  1879;  Henry 
Hartshorne,  in  Proc.  Am.Philos.  Soc,  vol.  XIX  (1881)  ; 
S.  Littell,  in  Trans.  Coll.  Physicians  of  Phila.,  3  ser. 
vol.  V  (1881);  H.  C.  Wood,  Ibid.,  3  ser.  vol.  XLII 
(1920)  ;  obituary  in  Pub.  Ledger  (Phila.),  Mar.  31, 
1879  J  Wood  family  records.]  J,  M. 

WOOD,  HORATIO  CHARLES  (Jan.  13. 
1841-Jan.  3,  1920),  physician,  teacher,  was  born 
in  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  the  son  of  Horatio  Curtis 
and  Elizabeth  Head  (Bacon)  Wood,  and  a  de- 
scendant in  the  sixth  generation  of  Richard 
Wood,  Quaker,  who  emigrated  from  England  to  t 
Philadelphia  in  1682  and  later  settled  in  New 
Jersey.  His  education  was  begun  when  he  was 
three  years  old ;  at  four  he  was  sent  to  boarding 
school  at  Westtown,  where  he  was  the  smallest 
boy  among  two  hundred  pupils,  and  where  he 
said  he  received  "valuable  lessons  in  physical 
tenacity  and  endurance  of  punishment  without 
flinching"  (De  Schweinitz,  Transactions  of  the 
College  of  Physicians,  posf,  p.  156).  From  there 
he  went  to  the  Friends'  Select  School  in  Phila- 
delphia. At  an  early  age  he  developed  a  passion 
for  natural  science  and  haunted  the  Academy  of 
Natural  Sciences,  where  Joseph  Leidy  [q.z'.~\ 
took  an  interest  in  him.  In  1861,  when  he  was 
but  twenty  years  old,  the  Academy  published  the 
first  of  his  papers,  "Contributions  to  the  Car- 
boniferous Flora  of  the  United  States,"  and  a 
"Catalogue  of  Carboniferous  Plants  in  the  Mu- 
seum of  the  Academy"  (Proceedings  .  .  .  1860, 
vol.  XII,  1861).  In  1862  he  was  graduated  from 
the  medical  department  of  the  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania with  the  degree  of  M.D.,  continuing  his 
studies  as  resident  physician  at  Blockley  and  the 
Pennsylvania  Hospitals.  From  the  latter  he  en- 
tered the  United  States  army  in  the  midst  of  the 
Civil  War.  He  returned  to  Philadelphia  at  the 
close  of  the  war.  On  May  10,  1866,  he  mar- 
ried Elizabeth,  daughter  of  James  Longacre.  A 
daughter  and  three  sons,  two  of  whom  became 
physicians,  were  the  offspring  of  this  marriage. 


Wood  began  his  teaching  career  as  a  "quiz-mas- 
ter" in  the  practice  of  medicine,  therapeutics,  and 
chemistry  at  the  University  of  Pennsylvania. 
From  1866  to  1876  he  was  professor  of  botany. 
Soon  he  became  devoted  to  the  study  of  nervous 
diseases,  and  by  1873  had  earned  a  lectureship 
on  nervous  diseases  and  by  1876  a  clinical  pro- 
fessorship, which  he  held  until  1901.  From  1876 
to  1906  he  was  also  professor  of  materia  medica, 
pharmacy,  and  general  therapeutics. 

Wood  was  a  man  of  great  physical  and  mental 
activity,  and  of  unusual  industry.  His  work 
embraces  four  separate  fields :  natural  science 
(botany  and  entomology)  ;  experimental  phar- 
macology, physiology,  and  pathology ;  medical 
jurisprudence;  and  nervous  diseases  and  related 
subjects.  His  scientific  bibliography  includes  al- 
most three  hundred  papers,  and  six  books  :  Ther- 
mic Fever  and  Sun-stroke  (1872),  A  Treatise 
on  Therapeutics  (1874),  Brainwork  and  Over- 
work ( 1880) ,  Nervous  Diseases  and  Their  Diag- 
nosis (1887),  Syphilis  of  the  Nervous  System 
(1889),  and  The  Practice  of  Medicine  (1897), 
written  with  R.  H.  Fitz.  In  addition,  with  J.  P. 
Remington  and  S.  P.  Sadtler,  he  revised  The 
Dispensatory  of  the  United  States,  written  by  his 
uncle,  George  Bacon  Wood  [q.v.~\,  from  the  fif- 
teenth to  the  eighteenth  edition.  He  was  at  one 
time  a  collector  for  the  Smithsonian  Institution, 
and  was  a  member  of  its  expeditions  to  the  Ba- 
hama Islands  and  into  the  Mexican  Desert.  His 
reputation  as  an  entomologist  may  be  judged  by 
the  fact  that  J.  L.  R.  Agassiz  [q.v.~]  entrusted 
to  him  the  specimens  of  Myriapoda  that  he  had 
collected  on  his  expedition  to  Brazil  in  1866.  His 
publications  brought  him  the  Boylston  prize,  the 
Warren  prize,  and  the  special  prize  awarded  by 
the  Philosophical  Society  of  Philadelphia.  Wood 
served  on  the  medical  staff  of  the  Philadelphia 
Hospital  (Blockley)  from  1870  to  1883,  and  on 
the  neurological  staff  from  1883  to  1888.  He  was 
president  of  the  College  of  Physicians  of  Phila- 
delphia (1902-04)  and  of  the  Neurological  So- 
ciety (1883),  and  editor  of  ATezv  Remedies 
(1870-73),  the  Medical  Times  (1873-80),  and 
the  Therapeutic  Gazette  (1884-1900).  Though 
Alfred  Stille  [q.v.~]  preceded  him  as  the  author  of 
a  work  on  therapeutics,  Wood's  writing  took  and 
kept  the  field.  Stille's  therapeutics  was  based 
upon  experience,  Wood's  upon  experiment,  and 
the  latter  ushered  in  a  new  era.  Wood  died  in 
Philadelphia. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1918-19  ;  Guy  Hinsdale,  in 
International  Clinics.  12  ser.  vol.  IV  (1903);  Henry 
Beates,  Jr.,  in  Am.  Jour,  of  Pharmacy,  Aug.  1905; 
George  de  Schweinitz,  in  Alumni  Reg.  of  the  Univ.  of 
!'<*.,  vol.  XI,  1906-07,  p.  196;  H.  A.  Hare,  in  Thera- 
peutic Gazette,  May  15,  1920;  H.  C.  Wood,  "Remi- 
niscences," Trans.  Coll.  of  Physicians  of  Phila.,  3  ser. 


459 


Wood 

vol.  XLII  (1920)  ;  G.  E.  de  Schvveinitz,  H.  A.  Hare, 
C.  K.  Mills,  and  F.  X.  Dercum,  Ibid.;  obituary  in  Pub. 
Ledger  (Phila.),  Jan.  5,  1920.]  J.  M. 

WOOD,  JAMES  (July  12,  1799-Apr.  7,  1867), 
Presbyterian  clergyman  and  educator,  the  son  of 
Jonathan  and  Susanna  (Kellogg)  Wood,  was 
born  at  Greenfield,  N.  Y.,  near  Saratoga.  Hav- 
ing studied  at  three  academies,  earning  his  ex- 
penses meanwhile  by  teaching  district  school,  he 
graduated  from  Union  College,  Schenectady,  N. 
Y.,  in  1822.  For  a  year  he  taught  in  Lawrence- 
ville,  N.  J.,  and  then  took  the  last  two  years  of 
the  course  in  Princeton  Theological  Seminary, 
graduating  in  1825.  After  a  year  in  charge  of 
churches  at  Wilkes-Barre  and  Kingston,  Pa.,  he 
was  ordained  by  the  Presbytery  of  Albany  on 
Sept.  5,  1826.  During  the  next  eight  years  he 
was  pastor  of  the  churches  at  Amsterdam  and 
Veddersburg,  N.  Y.  From  1834  to  1839  he  was 
an  agent  of  the  Presbyterian  board  of  education 
for  Virginia  and  North  Carolina,  and  then  for 
the  West  and  Southwest. 

In  the  controversy  which  caused  the  division 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  1837  he  was  a 
strong  adherent  of  the  conservative  or  Old  School 
party.  He  published  in  1837  a  pamphlet,  Facts 
and  Observations  Concerning  the  Organization 
and  State  of  the  Churches  in  the  Three  Synods 
of  Western  New-York  and  the  Synod  of  West- 
ern Reserve.  These  synods  were  exscinded  from 
the  Church  by  the  General  Assembly  of  1837, 
and  became  the  nucleus  of  the  New  School 
Church.  Wood's  pamphlet  upheld  the  charges  of 
irregularity  in  organization  and  unsoundness  in 
doctrine  which  were  thought  to  justify  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly's  action.  He  continued  the  con- 
troversy in  1838  in  Old  and  New  Theology:  or, 
An  Exhibition  of  Those  Differences  with  Re- 
gard to  Scripture  Doctrines  Which  Have  Re- 
cently Agitated  and  Now  Diinded  the  Presby- 
terian Church.  This  book,  of  which  enlarged 
editions  were  published  in  1845,  1853,  and  1855, 
reveals  a  keen  disputant  and  a  rigid  conservative. 

In  1839  Wood  was  appointed  professor  in  the 
theological  department  of  Hanover  College,  a 
young  institution  at  Hanover,  Ind.  A  year  later 
this  department  was  moved  to  New  Albany,  Ind., 
and  named  New  Albany  Theological  Seminary 
(later  McCormick  Theological  Seminary  and 
now  the  Presbyterian  Theological  Seminary, 
Chicago).  Wood  served  the  seminary  until  1851, 
being  one  of  two  professors,  and  for  part  of  this 
time  sole  professor.  By  indefatigable  activity  he 
secured  considerable  increase  in  the  seminary's 
funds.  In  his  relations  with  the  students  he 
showed  the  friendliness  and  practical  helpfulness 
which  always  characterized  him.    He  left  New 


Wood 

Albany  to  work  again  for  the  board  of  education, 
as  general  agent  for  the  West  and  Southwest 
from  185 1  to  1854,  and  as  associate  correspond- 
ing secretary,  living  in  Philadelphia,  for  the  fol- 
lowing five  years.  In  1859  he  became  president 
of  Hanover  College  and  was  soon  facing  the 
grave  difficulties  caused  by  the  Civil  War.  The 
college's  large  constituency  in  Kentucky  and 
Tennessee  was  cut  off,  many  students  entered 
the  armies,  and  serious  indebtedness  was  in- 
curred. As  to  the  strength  and  wisdom  of  Wood's 
administration  there  was  controversy  both  in  the 
college  and  in  the  synod,  but  it  was  realized  later 
that  he  had  averted  temporary  if  not  permanent 
discontinuance  of  the  institution.  Besides  teach- 
ing a  variety  of  subjects,  he  maintained  and  even 
increased  the  college's  property.  He  kept  the 
faculty  together  in  spite  of  heavy  burdens,  and 
held  the  loyalty  of  the  students.  During  his 
presidency,  in  1864,  he  was  moderator  of  the 
General  Assembly  of  the  Old  School  Presby- 
terian Church.  In  1866  he  became  the  first  presi- 
dent of  Van  Rensselaer  Institute,  at  Hightstown, 
N.  J.,  where  he  died  in  his  first  year  of  service. 
He  was  married  on  Oct.  3,  1826,  to  Janetta  Pruyn 
of  Milton,  N.  Y.  He  wrote  many  tracts  and  ar- 
ticles in  religious  periodicals  and  a  Memoir  of 
Sylvester  Scovcl,  D.D.,  Late  President  of  Han- 
over College,  which  appeared  in  1851. 

[Biog.  Cat.  of  the  Princeton  Theological  Sem.,  1815- 
1932  (1933);  reports  of  the  board  of  education  in 
Minutes  of  the  Gen.  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  in  the  U.  S.  A.,  1851-52,  1855-59;  L.  J.  Hal- 
sey,  A  Hist,  of  McCormick  Theological  Sem.  (1893)  ; 
W.  A.  Millis,  The  Hist,  of  Hanover  Coll.  (1927)  ;  Al- 
fred Nevin,  Encyc.  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the 
U.  S.  A.  (1884)  ;  biog.  material  by  his  son,  Rev.  E.  P. 
Wood  (1877),  in  Princeton  Theological  Sem.  Lib.] 

R.H.N. 

WOOD,  JAMES  (Nov.  12,  1839-Dec.  19, 
x925)>  Quaker  leader,  farmer,  was  born  at  Mount 
Kisco,  N.  Y.,  the  son  of  Stephen  and  Phoebe 
(Underhill)  Wood.  After  attending  Reynolds 
Academy  at  Bedford,  N.  Y.,  and  Westtown 
School  at  Westtown,  Pa.,  he  entered  Haverford 
College,  where  he  studied  for  three  years  (1854- 
57),  leaving  at  the  end  of  his  junior  year.  He 
continued  to  be  a  student  throughout  his  life, 
with  wide  interests  in  many  fields,  especially  in 
all  branches  of  agriculture,  and  in  history  and 
anthropology.  He  was  married  on  June  6,  1866, 
to  Emily  Hollingsworth  Morris  of  Philadelphia 
(d.  1916).  They  had  three  children.  Wood  be- 
came widely  known  as  an  expert  farmer,  horti- 
culturist, and  sheep-raiser  on  his  extensive  farm 
near  Mount  Kisco,  and  he  was  the  author  of 
many  papers  on  agriculture  and  kindred  subjects. 
He  was  president  of  the  Bedford  Farmers'  Club 
and  was  sought  for  throughout  the  state  as  a  lec- 


460 


Wood 


Wood 


turer  on  agricultural  subjects.  He  traveled  ex- 
tensively in  Europe  and  on  the  American  conti- 
nent. He  lectured  frequently  on  historical  and 
archeological  subjects,  wrote  many  historical 
brochures  on  local  historical  topics,  and  was 
president  of  the  Westchester  County  Historical 
Society  from  1885  to  1896.  He  took  an  important 
part  in  the  founding  of  the  New  York  State  Re- 
formatory for  Women  at  Bedford,  and  was  presi- 
dent of  its  board  of  managers  from  1900  to  1916, 
during  which  period  he  was  recognized  as  a  lead- 
er on  prison  reform  and  on  methods  of  correction. 

He  was  descended  from  a  long  line  of  Quaker 
ancestors  in  both  branches  of  his  family,  and  his 
major  life-interest  was  in  the  spiritual  concerns 
and  the  public  work  of  the  Society  of  Friends. 
He  was  a  student  of  Quaker  history,  and  a  recog- 
nized interpreter  of  Quaker  ideals  and  polity. 
He  was  presiding  clerk  of  the  New  York  Yearly 
Meeting  of  Friends  for  more  than  a  generation 
(188 5-1925).  He  presided  over  the  general  con- 
ference of  Friends  held  in  Richmond,  Ind.,  in 
1887,  and  he  was  clerk  of  the  Five  Years  Meet- 
ing in  1907.  He  was  chairman  of  the  committee 
which  drafted  the  uniform  discipline  now  in  use 
(1936)  in  most  of  the  American  meetings.  In 
1893  he  was  chosen  to  present  the  views  and 
ideals  of  the  Society  of  Friends  at  the  parlia- 
ment of  religions  held  at  the  time  of  the  Colum- 
bian Exposition  in  Chicago.  His  address  was 
published  under  the  title,  "Our  Church  and  Its 
Mission"  (World's  Congress  of  Religions,  1894). 
In  1898  he  wrote  a  pamphlet  on  The  Distinguish- 
ing Doctrines  of  the  Religious  Society  of  Friends, 
which  had  a  wide  circulation.  On  the  two-hun- 
dredth anniversary  of  the  New  York  Yearly 
Meeting  of  Friends  he  prepared  an  historical 
review  of  the  two  centuries  of  Quakerism  in  that 
state.  He  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Ameri- 
can Friend. 

His  services  to  higher  education  in  America 
were  extensive  and  important.  He  was  an  influ- 
ential manager  of  Haverford  College  from  1885 
until  his  death.  He  was  elected  a  trustee  of  Bryn 
Mawr  College  in  1887  and  served  several  terms 
as  president  of  the  board  before  his  resignation 
in  1918.  He  also  gave  much  time  and  thought  to 
the  promotion  of  the  circulation  and  study  of  the 
Bible.  He  was  chairman  of  the  Westchester 
County  Bible  Society  from  1893  until  his  death, 
and  president  of  the  American  Bible  Society 
from  191 1  to  1919.  He  died  at  Mount  Kisco,  sur- 
vived by  a  son  and  a  daughter. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1924-25;  Biog.  Cat.  Ma- 
triculates of  Haverford  Coll.  (1922)  ;  J.  T.  Scharf,  Hist 
of  Westchester  County,  N.  Y.  (1886),  vol.  I  ;  Proc.  .  .  . 
Gen.  Conference  of  Friends,  .  .  .  Richmond,  Ind. 
(1887)  ;  Proc.  of  the  Five  Years  Meeting,  1902,  1907; 


R.  M.  Jones,  in  Am.  Friend,  Dec.  31,  1925;  obituary 
in  N.  Y.  Times,  Dec.  20,  1925.]  R.M.J. 

WOOD,  JAMES  FREDERICK  (Apr.  27, 
1813-June  20,  1883),  Roman  Catholic  prelate, 
was  born  in  the  old  Mifflin  house  in  Philadelphia, 
Pa.,  in  which  his  father,  James  Wood,  an  Eng- 
lish immigrant,  conducted  business  as  an  auc- 
tioneer and  importer.  James  attended  the  school 
of  St.  Mary  de  Crypt,  Mr.  Sanderson's  private 
school,  and  probably  some  English  academy,  for 
the  family  appears  to  have  sojourned  in  England 
for  some  time.  At  all  events,  the  Wood  family 
settled  in  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  in  1827,  and  the 
youth  became  a  clerk  in  the  local  branch  of  the 
Second  National  Bank.  In  1833  he  was  paying 
teller  and  in  1836  cashier  of  the  Franklin  Bank 
of  Cincinnati.  Received  into  the  Catholic  Church 
in  1836  by  Bishop  John  B.  Purcell  [q.z'.~\.  Wood 
was  sent  in  1837  to  the  Irish  College  in  Rome. 
He  then  continued  in  the  College  of  the  Propa- 
ganda, specializing  in  higher  theological  studies 
and  canon  law  while  serving  as  a  prefect  of  dis- 
cipline. After  his  ordination  to  the  priesthood 
by  Cardinal  Fransoni  (Mar.  25,  1844),  Father 
Wood  returned  to  his  diocese  and  became  an  as- 
sistant at  the  cathedral  (1844)  and  later  rector 
of  St.  Patrick's  Church,  Cincinnati  (1854).  As 
early  as  1848,  he  was  third  on  the  list  of  nomi- 
nees for  the  vacant  see  of  Louisville.  Appointed 
titular  bishop  of  Antigonia  and  coadjutor  to 
Bishop  J.  N.  Neumann  \_q.v.~\  of  Philadelphia, 
Wood  was  consecrated  by  Bishop  Purcell,  Apr. 
26,  1857. 

Bishop  Wood  was  unusually  active,  for  he  took 
over  the  financial  administration  of  the  diocese 
and  the  management  of  the  "Bishop's  Bank," 
which  had  been  under  the  care  of  M.  A.  Frenaye. 
Obliged  to  carry  the  burdens  of  the  office  with- 
out the  authority,  the  coadjutor  was  not  happy 
until  he  succeeded  to  the  diocese  in  i860.  As  a 
convert,  he  was  rather  rigorous,  over-zealous, 
and  probably  unsympathetic  to  the  Irish.  A 
bitter  foe  of  secret  societies,  he  condemned  the 
Fenians,  excommunicated  Catholics  who  be- 
longed to  the  criminal  Mollie  Maguires,  and 
reprobated  all  Irish  political  movements  in  the 
United  States,  although  he  dispatched  at  least 
$60,000  for  Irish  famine  relief  in  1880-83.  Dur- 
ing the  Civil  War  he  responded  wholeheartedly 
to  Gov.  Andrew  G.  Curtin's  request  for  nursing 
nuns  and  military  chaplains.  By  1864  he  had 
completed  the  cathedral.  A  year  later  he  pur- 
chased a  site  in  Overbrook  for  the  Seminary  of 
St.  Charles  Borromeo,  which  was  removed  from 
the  city  in  1871  (A.  J.  Schulte,  Historical  Sketch 
of  the  Philadelphia  Theological  Seminary  of  St. 
Charles  Borromeo.  1905).  An  accessible,  demo- 


461 


Wood 


Wood 


cratic,  charitable  man,  Wood  founded  the  Catho- 
lic Home  for  Destitute  Girls  and  a  house  of  the 
Good  Shepherd,  and  introduced  the  Little  Sis- 
ters of  the  Poor  into  the  diocese.  As  a  stout  ex- 
ponent of  Catholic  education,  he  brought  in  the 
Sisters  of  the  Holy  Child,  of  Third  Order  of  St. 
Francis,  and  of  Mercy,  established  the  Sister 
Servants  of  the  Immaculate  Heart,  and  trebled 
the  number  of  parochial  schools.  An  ardent  pa- 
tron of  the  American  College  in  Rome,  he  served 
as  treasurer  of  its  board  and  in  this  capacity  in- 
sisted that  its  funds  be  kept  in  America. 

In  1867  he  petitioned  successfully  to  have  the 
diocese  of  Harrisburg  and  Scranton  carved  out 
of  the  diocese  of  Philadelphia,  and  saw  two  of 
his  priests,  Jeremiah  Shanahan  and  William 
O'Hara,  appointed  to  the  new  sees.  An  assistant 
at  the  pontifical  throne  (1862),  he  sent  large  do- 
nations to  Rome,  attended  the  ceremonies  com- 
memorative of  the  martyrdom  of  SS.  Peter  and 
Paul  (1867),  voted  for  the  promulgation  of  the 
doctrine  of  papal  infallibility  (although  because 
of  ill  health  he  left  the  Vatican  Council  before  the 
final  vote),  called  a  meeting  of  protest  against 
the  spoliation  of  the  Papal  States,  and  attended 
the  golden  anniversary  services  of  Pius  IX  as  a 
bishop.  On  Feb.  12,  1875,  Philadelphia  was 
made  a  metropolitan  see  with  Wood  as  its  first 
archbishop.  In  the  local  controversy  over  the 
opening  of  the  Centennial  Exhibition  on  Sun- 
days, he  took  the  liberal  view  that  the  Sabbath 
should  be  a  day  of  recreation  for  working  classes. 
Active  almost  to  the  end  of  his  life  in  provincial 
councils  and  diocesan  visitations,  he  always  ab- 
stained from  politics.  Respected  by  Protestants, 
he  won  the  good  will  of  his  people  and  the  re- 
spect of  the  two  hundred  and  fifty  priests  who 
labored  under  his  strict  rule. 

[R.  H.  Clarke,  Lives  of  the  Deceased  Bishops  of  the 
Cath.  Ch.  in  the  U.  S.,  vol.  Ill  (1888),  pp.  533-47  ; 
Calh.  Encyc. ;  J.  L.  J.  Kirlin,  Catholicity  in  Phila. 
(1909);  Wood's  pastoral  letters,  esp.  those  of  1865, 
1867,  1875  ;  F.  E.  Tourscher,  The  Kenrick-Frenaye 
Correspondence  (1920)  ;  Records  Am.  Cath.  Hist.  Soc. 
(1884),  passim;  Am.  Cath.  Hist.  Researches  (1884), 
passim ;  N.  Y.  Freeman's  Journal,  June  30,  July  7, 
1883  ;  obituary  in  Press  (Phila.),  June  21,  1883.] 

R.J.  P. 

WOOD,  JAMES  J.  (Mar.  25,  1856-Apr.  19, 
1928),  engineer,  inventor,  son  of  Paul  H.  and 
Elizabeth  ( Shine)  Wood,  was  born  at  Kinsale, 
County  Cork,  Ireland.  In  1864,  when  he  was 
eight  years  old,  he  came  to  America  with  his 
parents  and  settled  in  Connecticut,  where  he  be- 
gan his  schooling.  At  eleven  years  of  age,  how- 
ever, he  went  to  work  for  the  Branford  (Conn.) 
Lock  Company.  He  continued  his  schooling  as 
best  he  could  and  when  the  family  moved  to 
Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  he  was  able  to  enter  the  Brook- 


lyn evening  high  school,  from  which  he  grad- 
uated in  1876.  During  the  day  he  worked  for  the 
Brady  Manufacturing  Company,  and  the  me- 
chanical experience  he  gained,  coupled  with  that 
which  he  had  received  earlier  in  Connecticut, 
enabled  him  to  complete  in  two  years  with  only 
night  attendance  the  course  in  mechanical  engi- 
neering and  drafting  at  the  Collegiate  and  Poly- 
technic Institute,  Brooklyn. 

By  this  time  Wood  was  superintendent  of  the 
Brady  Company,  which  organization  was  en- 
gaged at  the  time  in  making  castings  and  parts 
for  the  electric  dynamo  machines  invented  by 
James  B.  Fuller  of  the  Fuller  Electric  Company 
and  by  Hiram  S.  Maxim  [q.v.~\  of  the  United 
States  Electric  Lighting  Company.  This  work 
aroused  in  Wood  a  keen  interest  in  electric  light- 
ing and  in  1879,  after  much  study  and  experi- 
ment, he  designed  and  built  an  arc-light  dynamo 
of  his  own,  patented  Oct.  19,  1880.  This  machine 
was  so  efficient  that  the  Fuller  Electric  Company 
in  1880  gave  up  the  manufacture  of  Fuller's 
dynamo  in  favor  of  Wood's,  taking  Wood  into 
partnership  and  reorganizing  the  company  as 
the  Fuller- Wood  Company.  This  dynamo  was 
the  first  of  a  long  series  of  inventions  made  by 
Wood  in  the  succeeding  forty-eight  years  which 
brought  him  about  240  patents,  chiefly  in  the 
electrical  field.  After  five  years  with  the  Fuller- 
Wood  Company  he  became  a  consulting  engi- 
neer, his  chief  client  being  the  Thomson-Hous- 
ton Company,  and  when  this  concern,  in  the 
early  1890's,  joined  the  group  of  organizations 
which  together  became  the  General  Electric  Com- 
pany, Wood  was  retained  as  factory  manager 
and  chief  engineer,  later  becoming  consulting 
engineer  of  the  Fort  Wayne  Works,  Fort  Wayne, 
Ind.,  where  he  continued  until  his  death. 

While  the  major  portion  of  his  inventions 
were  devised  after  his  removal  to  Fort  Wayne, 
he  had  made  a  number  in  the  five-year  period 
(1885-90)  during  which  he  was  a  resident  of 
New  York.  One  of  the  most  notable  of  these 
was  a  dynamo  and  arc-lighting  system  for  flood 
lighting,  which  was  first  successfully  used  to 
light  the  Statue  of  Liberty  in  New  York  Harbor 
in  1885.  He  also  manufactured  a  Brayton  type 
of  internal  combustion  engine,  which  was  in- 
stalled in  the  first  Holland  submarine,  and  de- 
signed the  machines  for  constructing  the  main 
cables  used  on  the  original  Brooklyn  Bridge. 
When  he  went  to  Fort  Wayne,  his  dynamo  and 
arc  lamp  were  already  in  extensive  use  under  the 
name  of  the  Wood  arc-lighting  system,  but  in 
the  course  of  the  succeeding  years  he  added  ac- 
cessory equipment  to  the  system,  inventing 
meters,  switches,  coils,  and  other  devices.    Be- 


462 


Wood 

tween  1900  and  19 18  his  inventions  centered 
about  alternating  current  generators,  motors, 
transformers,  enclosed  alternating  current  arc 
lamps,  circuit  breakers,  and  numerous  small  mo- 
tor applications  such  as  vibrators  and  fans. 

Wood  had  few  outside  interests  and  was  little 
known  except  in  the  electrical  industry.  In  recog- 
nition of  his  valuable  contributions  in  his  chosen 
field  he  was  made  a  Fellow  of  the  American  In- 
stitute of  Electrical  Engineers.  On  Jan.  20,  1916, 
he  married  Nellie  B.  Scott  of  New  Hampshire, 
Ohio,  and  at  the  time  of  his  death,  in  Asheville, 
N.  C,  where  he  had  gone  for  his  health,  he  was 
survived  by  his  widow  and  three  children. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1928-29;  Jour.  Am.  Insti- 
tute Electrical  Engineers,  May  1928  ;  Electrical  World, 
Apr.  28,  1928;  N.  Y.  Times,  Apr.  21,  1928;  Patent 
Office  records.]  C.  W.  M. 

WOOD,  JAMES   RUSHMORE    (Sept.    14, 

1813-May  4, 1882), surgeon,  was  born  to  a  Quak- 
er couple,  Elkanah  and  Mary  (Rushmore)  Wood, 
at  Mamaroneck,  N.  Y.  His  father,  a  miller, 
moved  to  New  York  City  to  conduct  a  leather 
shop,  and  here  the  son  received  a  meager  ele- 
mentary education  in  a  Quaker  school.  He  be- 
gan his  medical  studies  in  the  private  classes  of 
Dr.  David  L.  Rogers,  then  took  courses  at  the 
College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons  of  New  York 
and  at  the  Vermont  Academy  of  Medicine  at 
Castleton,  where  he  was  graduated  in  1834.  Af- 
ter a  period  of  service  as  demonstrator  of  anat- 
omy at  the  latter  school  he  returned  to  New 
York  in  1837  to  practise  medicine  on  the  Bowery, 
later  moving  over  to  Broadway. 

He  early  centered  his  interest  on  operative 
surgery  and  secured  a  place  upon  the  staff  of  the 
city  almshouse,  out  of  which  he  and  two  asso- 
ciates created  Bellevue  Hospital  in  1847,  becom- 
ing its  medical  board.  From  that  time  to  his 
death  he  was  a  moving  spirit  in  the  institution, 
with  its  growth  becoming  known  as  the  master 
surgeon  of  the  greatest  hospital  in  the  United 
States.  He  did  much  for  the  improvement  of  the 
hospital  service,  introducing  in  1869  the  first 
hospital  ambulance  service  in  any  city  (Surgery, 
Gynecology,  and  Obstetrics,  post,  p.  443). 
Through  his  efforts  Bellevue  opened  on  May  1, 
1873,  the  first  training  school  for  nurses  in  the 
United  States.  In  1856,  with  other  members 
of  the  hospital  staff,  he  organized  the  Bellevue 
Hospital  Medical  College,  in  which  he  was  at 
once  appointed  professor  of  operative  surgery 
and  surgical  pathology. 

As  an  operating  surgeon  his  speed  and  dex- 
terity were  the  marvel  of  a  time  when  these  were 
the  prime  requisites  of  surgery,  since  the  use  of 
anesthetics  was  then  but  beginning.    These,  to- 


Wood 

gether  with  sound  after-treatment  by  rest,  clean- 
liness, and  free  drainage  of  operative  wounds 
gave  him  unusually  good  results.  He  was  a  bold 
and  radical  operator.  He  treated  by  ligation 
aneurism  of  practically  all  of  the  larger  arteries, 
including  the  common  carotid  and  the  external 
iliac,  with  great  success.  He  is  credited  with  be- 
ing one  of  the  first  to  cure  aneurism  by  pressure. 
He  did  notable  work  in  the  surgery  of  nerves. 
He  removed  Meckel's  ganglion  successfully  four 
successive  times,  an  operation  seldom  performed. 
He  achieved  an  international  reputation  for  bone 
surgery,  particularly  for  the  periosteal  repro- 
duction of  bone.  He  produced  the  practical  re- 
generation of  the  lower  jaw  after  its  entire  re- 
moval for  phosphorous  necrosis.  He  had  notably 
successful  results  in  the  resection  of  the  knee 
joint.  He  perfected  an  instrument,  called  a  bi- 
sector, for  rapid  operation  for  vesical  calculus. 
In  the  role  of  instructor,  whether  in  classroom 
or  clinic,  he  was  inclined  to  the  theatrical.  His 
entries  into  the  amphitheatre  were  timed  for  ef- 
fect, and  he  was  wont  to  make  his  appearance  in 
a  black  gown  with  a  red  rose  or  carnation  pinned 
over  his  heart.  Applause  was  expected.  While 
he  was  an  able  teacher,  the  handicap  of  his  poor 
early  education  was  always  apparent,  particular- 
ly in  his  frequent  misapplication  of  Latin  phrases. 
From  the  beginning  of  his  connection  with  Belle- 
vue he  collected  post-mortem  material,  which 
grew  into  the  Wood  Museum,  one  of  the  richest 
collections  of  pathological  material  in  the  world. 
He  was  chiefly  instrumental  in  the  passage  of 
the  act  by  the  state  legislature  granting  for 
anatomical  dissection  the  unclaimed  bodies  of  all 
vagrants. 

His  writings  were  mainly  case  reports  in  jour- 
nal articles,  his  most  notable  paper  being  "Early 
History  of  the  Operation  of  Ligature  of  the 
Primitive  Carotid  Artery"  (New  York  Journal 
of  Medicine,  July  1857),  with  a  wealth  of  de- 
tailed case  reports.  He  was  a  member  of  the 
New  York  Academy  of  Medicine  and  of  the  New 
York  and  Massachusetts  state  medical  societies, 
and  was  twice  president  of  the  New  York  Patho- 
logical Society.  He  was  still  at  the  height  of  his 
professional  career  when  he  died  in  New  York. 
He  was  married  in  1853  to  Emma  Rowe,  daugh- 
ter of  James  Rowe,  a  New  York  merchant. 

[See  Boston  Medic,  and  Surgic.  Jour.,  May  11,  1882 
Medico-Legal  Jour.,  Sept.  1883  ;  Medic.  Record,  May 
13,  1882;  Medic,  and  Surgic.  Reporter,  Jan.  7,  1865 
pp.  197-200  ;  N.  Y.  Medic.  Jour.,  Jan.  12,  1884  ;  Trans 
Medic.  Soc.  of  the  State  of  N.  Y.  (1885)  ;  Surgery 
Gynecology,  and  Obstetrics,  Mar.  1929,  which  is  author- 
ity for  date  of  birth  given  above  ;  H.  A.  Kelly  and  W.  L 
Burrage,  Am.  Medic.  Biogs.  (1920):  N.  Y.  Tribune 
May  5,  1882.  Year  of  birth  is  frequently  given  as  1816.I 

J.M.P. 


^3 


Wood 

WOOD,  JETHRO  (Mar.  16,  1774-Sept.  18, 
1834),  inventor,  was  the  son  of  John  and  Dinah 
(Hussey  or  Starbuck)  Wood.  His  birthplace 
may  have  been  Dartmouth,  Bristol  County, 
Mass.,  the  early  home  of  the  family,  though  the 
vital  records  of  that  town  contain  no  mention  of 
his  birth.  At  an  unknown  date,  sometime  before 
1783,  the  family,  which  was  in  moderate  circum- 
stances, moved  to  White  Creek,  Washington 
County,  N.  Y.,  where  it  is  possible  Jethro  was 
born.  Here,  Jan.  1,  1793,  he  married  Sylvia 
Howland.  Some  seven  years  later  he  moved 
with  his  family  to  Cayuga  County,  New  York, 
establishing  his  residence  on  a  farm  near  Poplar 
Ridge,  where  he  lived  until  his  death.  He  was  a 
member  of  the  Society  of  Friends  but  did  not 
have  the  usual  sober  mien  of  this  sect. 

Wood's  claim  to  fame  rests  upon  his  invention 
of  improvements  on  the  plow.  His  first  patent 
on  a  cast-iron  plow  was  issued  on  July  1,  1814. 
Detailed  information  regarding  it  has  disap- 
peared, but  it  seems  not  to  have  been  highly  re- 
garded by  others  or  satisfactory  to  the  inventor. 
He  had  difficulty  in  manufacturing  and  in  induc- 
ing his  neighbors  to  use  a  cast-iron  plow,  which 
they  thought  would  poison  their  land.  He  con- 
tinued to  improve  his  original  invention  and  on 
Sept.  1,  1819,  received  a  patent  for  the  plow  for 
which  he  is  so  well  known.  It  was  made  by  oth- 
ers without  Wood's  leave  and  he  and  his  heirs 
waged  a  continual  fight  against  infringers.  His 
patent  was  extended  for  an  additional  period  of 
fourteen  years  and  near  the  close  of  this  term 
the  infringement  fight  was  finally  won  but  to  lit- 
tle avail.  A  congressional  committee  which  in- 
vestigated the  question  of  a  further  extension  of 
the  patent  found  that  Wood  and  his  family  had 
received  $8,595  from  his  plow  but  had  expended 
most  of  it  in  costs  and  charges.  A  bill  for  a 
further  extension  of  the  patent  was  passed  by 
the  Senate  but  was  defeated  in  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives. Later  the  state  of  New  York  ap- 
propriated $2,000  for  his  heirs. 

Wood  has  frequently  been  referred  to  as  the 
inventor  of  the  cast-iron  plow,  but  cast-iron  had 
been  used  in  the  Norfolk  plow  in  1721  and  by 
1791  plows  with  interchangeable  moldboards, 
landsides,  and  shares  of  cast-iron  were  known 
and  in  use  in  Great  Britain.  In  the  United  States 
cast-iron  shares  were  made  as  early  as  1794  and 
Newbold's  patent  for  a  cast-iron  plow  made  in 
one  piece  was  issued  in  1797.  Peacock's  plow  of 
1807  was  made  in  three  pieces,  with  the  mold- 
board  and  landside  of  cast  iron.  That  of  Ste- 
phen McCormick  [q.v.],  1819,  with  its  cast- 
iron  moldboard  antedated  Wood's  second  inven- 
tion.    Wood's    improvement   over   the   existing 


Wood 

models  lay  largely  in  the  shape  of  the  parts,  par- 
ticularly the  moldboard.  He  vaguely  described 
this  as  a  kind  of  "piano-curvilinear  figure"  of 
peculiar  shape  in  which  diverging  lines  from 
front  to  rear  and  at  least  one  transverse  line  were 
straight.  The  importance  of  longitudinal  and 
transverse  straight  lines  had  been  emphasized  by 
Small,  Pickering,  and  Thomas  Jefferson.  The 
peculiar  virtue  of  Wood's  plow  lay  in  the  shape 
resulting  from  the  extended  use  of  longitudina1 
straight  lines  and  the  combination  of  good  bal- 
ance, strength,  light  draft,  interchangeability  of 
parts,  the  use  of  cast-iron,  and  the  cheapness  of 
manufacture.  His  design  and  principles  of  con- 
struction were  copied  throughout  the  North,  as 
were  those  of  Stephen  McCormick  in  the  South. 
For  what  he  did  to  perfect  the  cast-iron  plow  and 
to  bring  it  into  extended  use,  he  deserves  much 
credit. 

[Frank  Gilbert,  Jethro  Wood,  Inventor  of  the  Mod- 
ern Plow  (1882)  ;  A  List  of  Patents  Granted  by  the  U. 
S.  for  Inventions  and  Designs  from  Apr.  10,  1790  to 
Dec.  31,  1836  (1872)  ;  Plough  Boy  (Albany),  Sept.  16, 
1820;  Am.  Agriculturist,  Apr.  1848;  Scientific  Ameri- 
can, Mar.  17,  1877;  E.  H..  Knight,  Am.  Mechanical 
Diet.,  vol.  II  (1877);  J.  R.  Passmore,  The  English 
Plough  (1930)  ;  E.  G.  Storke,  Hist,  of  Cayuga  County, 
N.  Y.  (1879)  ;  Cong.  Globe,  29  Cong.,  1  Sess.,  pp.  291, 
1028  ;  30  Cong.,  1  Sess.,  pp.  248-49,  264,  271  ;  31  Cong., 
1  Sess.,  pp.  1504-05,  1711-14,  and  App.,  pp.  1208-09; 
N.  Y.  Session  Laws,  1868,  II,  1618  ;  Cyrenus  Wheeler, 
"The  Inventors  and  Inventions  of  Cayuga  County, 
N.  Y.,"  Cayuga  County  Hist.  Soc.  Colls.,  no.  2  (1882)  ; 
Emily  Howland,  "Early  Hist,  of  Friends  in  Cayuga 
County,  N.  Y.,"  Ibid. ;  William  and  Solomon  Drown, 
Compendium  of  Agriculture  (1824).]  R  H  A 

WOOD,  JOHN  (c.  1775-May  15,  1822),  po- 
litical pamphleteer  and  map-maker,  was  born  in 
Scotland,  had  educational  connections  in  Edin- 
burgh, lived  in  Switzerland  at  the  time  of  the 
French  invasion  in  1798,  and  on  his  return  to 
Scotland  published  in  1799  A  General  View  of 
the  History  of  Switzerland.  He  emigrated  to  the 
United  States  about  1800  and  was  recommended 
to  Aaron  Burr  [q.z>.~\  as  a  teacher  of  languages 
and  mathematics.  He  was  for  a  time  a  tutor  of 
Burr's  precocious  daughter,  Theodosia  [g.v.], 
and  became  useful  to  Burr  as  a  facile  writer  will- 
ing to  support  his  political  program.  Wood  pub- 
lished in  Philadelphia  in  1801  A  Letter  to  Alex- 
ander Addison,  Esq.  .  .  .  in  Anszver  to  His  Rise 
and  Progress  of  Rci'olution.  With  the  tone  of 
bitter  invective  and  personal  abuse  characteristic 
of  many  of  the  impassioned  journalists  of  the 
period,  he  prepared  The  History  of  the  Admin- 
istration of  John  Adams  for  publication  in  1802. 
It  contained  an  ill-digested  assortment  of  party 
diatribes  from  the  partisan  press  and  party  hack 
writers,  and  some  compositions  from  Wood's 
pen.  Burr  decided  it  would  be  more  dangerous 
than  helpful  to  his  party  and  undertook  to  sup- 
press it  by  buying  up  the  edition.    After  much 


464 


Wood 

altercation  Burr  failed  to  pay  the  sum  agreed 
upon,  and  the  volume  was  published  with  the 
added  zest  given  in  the  title,  The  Suppressed  His- 
tory (1802).  This  incident  gave  birth  to  a  suc- 
cession of  charges  and  countercharges  between 
the  Burr  and  Clinton  factions  in  New  York, 
articulate  through  the  pamphlets  of  their  respec- 
tive spokesmen,  John  Wood  and  James  Cheetham 
[q.v.~\. 

In  the  winter  of  1805-06  Wood  went  to  Ken- 
tucky, "an  elderly  looking  man,  of  middle  size, 
and  ordinary  dress,  with  a  Godfrey's  quadrant 
stringed  to  his  shoulder,  a  knapsack  on  his  back" 
(Marshall,  post,  II,  375 ).  He  began  with  asso- 
ciates the  publication  in  Frankfort  of  the  West- 
ern World,  a  weekly  of  Republican  faith  that  in 
July  started  a  series  of  tales  of  the  plans  of 
James  Wilkinson,  Harry  Innes  [qq.v.~\,  and  oth- 
ers with  the  agents  of  Spain.  Wood  later  assert- 
ed that  only  the  first  of  these  was  published  with 
his  approval  and  that,  when  he  failed  to  prevent 
the  publication  of  the  others,  he  withdrew  from 
the  paper  (Temple  Bodley,  Reprints  of  Lift  ell's 
Political  Transactions  in  and  Concerning  Ken- 
tucky, 1926,  pp.  xcvi-xcvii,  being  Filson  Club 
Publications,  no.  31).  He  seems  to  have  returned 
to  the  East  after  a  brief  season  in  Kentucky  and 
published  in  1807  at  Alexandria,  Va.,  A  Full 
Statement  of  the  Trial  and  Acquittal  of  Aaron 
Burr.  He  settled  in  Richmond,  where  he  es- 
chewed politics  for  his  mathematical  and  scien- 
tific interests,  winning  a  certain  esteem  in  that 
city  while  he  acquired  the  reputation  of  being  an 
eccentric  person.  He  published  in  Richmond  in 
1809  A  New  Theory  of  the  Diurnal  Rotation  of 
the  Earth.  When  the  Virginia  legislature  in 
1816-17  provided  for  an  accurate  chart  of  each 
county  of  the  state  and  a  general  map  of  the 
state,  Thomas  Jefferson  recommended  Wood  to 
Gov.  W.  C.  Nicholas  [q.v.~\  as  a  man  fit  and 
ready  to  undertake  the  survey  and  map-making, 
speaking  in  high  praise  of  his  mathematical 
abilities  (A.  A.  Lipscomb  and  A.  E.  Bergh,  The 
Writings  of  Thomas  Jefferson,  vol.  XIV,  1904, 
pp.  455-56).  In  1819  Wood  signed  a  contract 
with  the  state  to  execute  and  deliver  in  five  years 
a  map  of  each  county  and  a  general  map  of  the 
state.  By  February  1822  he  had  returned  maps 
of  all  the  counties  except  six,  and  at  his  death  in 
May  1822  it  was  believed  that  he  had  completed 
a  fifth  part  of  the  general  map.  While  Wood  had 
received  $33,000  on  this  project,  which  he  had 
expected  to  finish  in  a  few  months,  on  his  death 
the  completion  of  the  work  was  turned  over  to 
Herman  Boye,  who  constructed  the  so-called 
nine-sheet  map  of  Virginia,  published  in  1827. 
The  verdict  of  a  careful  student  of  Virginia  car- 


Wood 

tography  on  Wood's  map-making  is  that  "the 
county  charts  which  he  constructed  .  .  .  prob- 
ably indicate  as  careful  execution  and  fidelity 
to  facts,  as  was  possible,  under  the  difficult  cir- 
cumstances attending  such  a  large  survey  at  that 
time"  (Swem,  post,  pp.  102-03). 

[See  E.  G.  Swem,  "Maps  Retating  to  Va.,  Bull.  Va. 
State  Lib.,  vol.  VII  (1914)  ;  Humphrey  Marshall,  The 
Hist,  of  Ky.  (2  vols.,  1824)  ;  A.  J.  Beveridge,  The  Life 
of  John  Marshall  (4  vols.,  1916-19)  ;  Justin  Winsor, 
Narrative  and  Crit.  Hist,  of  America,  vol.  VII  (1888), 
PP-  334-45  ;  letters  of  James  Cheetham  to  Thomas  Jef- 
ferson, Proc.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.,  3  ser.,  vol.  I  (1908), 
PP-  5I-58;  obit,  notices  in  Richmond  Enquirer,  May 
17,  21,  1822.  Thirty-two  of  the  county  maps  executed 
by  Wood  are  in  the  Va.  State  Lib.]  M.H.W. 

WOOD,  JOHN  TAYLOR  (Aug.  13,  1830- 
July  19,  1904),  naval  officer,  was  born  at  Fort 
Snelling,  Minn.,  then  in  Iowa  Territory.  His 
father,  Robert  Crooke  Wood  was  an  army  sur- 
geon and  from  1862  to  1865  assistant  surgeon- 
general.  His  mother  was  Anne  Mackall  (Tay- 
lor), daughter  of  Gen.  Zachary  Taylor  and  a  sis- 
ter of  Jefferson  Davis'  first  wife.  Wood  en- 
tered the  Naval  School  at  Annapolis  in  June 
1847  for  a  brief  preparatory  course.  After  serv- 
ing on  the  frigate  Brandywine  (Brazil  station) 
and  the  ship  of  the  line  Ohio  in  the  Pacific  Ocean 
during  the  Mexican  War,  he  was  warranted  a 
midshipman  to  rank  from  Apr.  7,  1847.  He  re- 
entered the  school,  July  1,  1850,  for  five  months' 
instruction  and  then,  ordered  to  the  sloop-of-war 
Gcrmantown,  saw  service  on  the  African  coast. 
He  returnd  to  the  renamed  Naval  Academy  Oct. 
1,  1852,  and  was  graduated  June  10,  1853,  rank- 
ing second  in  his  class.  He  served  successively 
on  the  sloop-of-war  Cumberland  in  the  Mediter- 
ranean, as  assistant  commandant  at  the  Acad- 
emy, on  the  frigate  Wabash,  the  flagship  of  the 
Mediterranean  Squadron,  and  as  assistant  in- 
structor of  naval  tactics  and  nautical  gunnery  at 
the  Academy.  He  was  warranted  a  master  on 
Sept.  15,  1855,  and  was  later  promoted  lieutenant 
to  date  from  Sept.  16,  1855.  He  tendered  his  res- 
ignation on  Apr.  21,  1861,  but  was  dismissed  as 
of  Apr.  2,  1 86 1,  though  he  was  actually  on  duty 
at  the  Academy  for  several  days  after  Apr.  21. 
The  date  of  his  dismissal  was  not  corrected  in  the 
printed  records  of  the  Navy  Department  until 
1931  (Register  of  Officers  of  the  Confederate 
States  Navy,  Government  Printing  Office,  1931). 
After  residing  on  his  farm  in  Maryland  for  a 
time  he  was  commissioned,  as  of  Oct.  4,  1861,  a 
lieutenant  in  the  Confederate  navy  from  Loui- 
siana. 

Following  a  tour  of  duty  in  the  naval  shore 
batteries  at  Evansport,  Potomac  River,  he  served 
on  the  ironclad  Virginia  (Merrimack),  partici- 
pating in  the  victory  at  Hampton  Roads,  Mar. 


465 


Wood 

8-9,  1862,  in  the  rout  of  the  Monitor  and  consorts 
on  Apr.  11  and  May  8,  1862,  and  in  the  repulse 
of  the  enemy  at  Drewry's  Bluff,  Va.,  May  15, 
1862.  In  October  1862  he  conducted  the  first  of 
his  famous  midnight  expeditions,  capturing  and 
burning  the  schooner  Frances  Elmor  off  Bluff 
Point  on  the  Potomac  River,  and  the  ship  Allc- 
ghanian  in  Chesapeake  Bay.  He  was  appointed 
naval  aide-de-camp  to  President  Davis  Jan.  26, 
1863 — appointment  confirmed  Feb.  9 — with  the 
statutory  rank  and  pay  of  colonel  of  cavalry.  In 
this  capacity  he  made  frequent  inspections  of 
naval  defenses  and  ship  constructions,  and  served 
as  liaison  officer  between  the  army  and  the  navy. 
His  adventurous  spirit  was  not  content  with 
staff  duty,  however,  and  in  August  1863  he  or- 
ganized another  expedition  in  the  Chesapeake, 
which  resulted  in  the  capture  of  the  United  States 
war  schooners  Satellite  and  Reliance  (after  se- 
vere hand-to-hand  fighting)  and  the  transport 
schooners  Golden  Rod,  Coquette  and  T%vo  Broth- 
ers. For  this  exploit  he  received  the  thanks  of 
Congress  and  promotion  to  commander.  In  a 
third  boat  expedition  in  February  1864  he  cap- 
tured and  destroyed  the  Federal  gunboat  Under- 
writer at  New  Bern,  N.  C.  In  April  1864  he  par- 
ticipated in  the  successful  siege  of  Plymouth, 
N.  C,  and  in  August  commanded  the  steam  sloop 
Tallahassee  on  a  raid  extending  from  Wilming- 
ton to  Halifax,  Nova  Scotia,  and  back,  during 
which  he  captured  thirty-three  vessels,  destroyed 
twenty-six  vessels  and  released  five  on  ransom 
bond  and  two  without  bond.  For  this  exploit  he 
was  given  a  captaincy  (Feb.  10,  1865).  He  was 
with  President  Davis  in  the  retreat  from  Rich- 
mond, April-May  1865,  but  managed  to  escape 
through  Florida  to  Cuba.  He  enjoyed  the  special 
confidence  of  General  Lee  and  of  the  entire  navy, 
and  his  brilliant  accomplishments  compelled  the 
praise  of  the  enemy  (see  Official  Records,  post, 
1  ser.  IX,  589).  He  was  modest  in  deportment 
but  executed  his  boldly  conceived  plans  with 
skill  and  daring. 

After  the  war  he  settled  in  Halifax,  where  he 
engaged  in  shipping  and  marine  insurance,  and 
there  died.  On  Nov.  26,  1856,  he  married  Lola 
Mackubin,  daughter  of  George  and  Eleanor  Mac- 
kubin  of  Annapolis,  Md. ;  eleven  children  were 
born  of  this  union. 

[Unpublished  archives,  Naval  Records  and  Library, 
Washington;  War  of  the  Rebellion:  Official  Records 
{Army),  1,  2,  3  ser. ;  (Navy),  1,  2  ser.  ;  R.  U.  Johnson 
and  C.  C.  Buell,  Battles  and  Leaders  of  the  Civil  War 
(4  vols.,  1887-88)  ;  Century  Magazine,  Mar.  1885,  Nov. 
1893,  July  1898;  W.  D.  Harville,  "The  Confederate 
Service  of  John  Taylor  Wood"  (unpub.  thesis,  South- 
ern Methodist  Univ.,  Dallas,  Tex.,  1935)  ;  Jour,  of  the 
Cong,  of  the  Confederate  States  (1904-05);  private 
papers  of  Miss  Lola  M.  Wood,  Maddox  (St.  Mary's 
County),  Md. ;  U.  S.  Naval  Academy  Graduates'  Asso- 


Wood 

elation,  1925,  pp.  18-19;  Morning  Chronicle  (Halifax, 
N.  S.),  July  20,  1904.]  W.M.R.Jr. 

WOOD,  JOSEPH  (c.  1778-r.  1832),  minia- 
turist, portrait  painter,  was  born  in  Clarkstown, 
Orange  County,  N.  Y.,  the  son  of  a  respectable 
farmer  who  was  also  sheriff  of  the  county.  Wish- 
ing his  son  to  follow  his  own  calling,  the  father 
frowned  upon  his  artistic  tendencies.  Finally,  at 
the  age  of  fifteen,  Joseph  ran  away  to  New  York, 
hoping  to  become  a  landscape  painter  and  to  find 
a  position  that  would  help  him  improve  his  draw- 
ing. In  both  objectives  he  was  bitterly  disap- 
pointed, and  spent  several  friendless  years  vari- 
ously working  and  playing  the  violin  for  a  live- 
lihood. One  day  he  saw  some  miniatures  in  a  sil- 
versmith's window  on  Broadway  and,  persuad- 
ing the  proprietor  to  accept  him  as  apprentice, 
was  finally  allowed  to  examine  and  copy  one  of 
the  miniatures.  For  several  years  he  worked  as 
a  silversmith,  but  about  1804,  having  made  the 
acquaintance  of  another  young  artist,  John  Wes- 
ley Jarvis  [q.v.~],  Wood  went  into  partnership 
with  him.  The  two  young  men  started  a  flour- 
ishing business  in  eglomise  silhouettes,  some- 
times taking  in  as  much  as  a  hundred  dollars  a 
day.  William  Dunlap  [q.v.~\,  who  visited  the 
two  young  men,  describes  them  as  artists  who 
"indulged  in  the  excitements,  and  experienced 
the  perplexities  of  mysterious  marriages ;  and  it 
is  probable  that  these  perplexities  kept  both  poor, 
and  confined  them  to  the  society  of  young  men, 
instead  of  that  respectable  communion  with  la- 
dies, and  the  refined  circles  of  the  city,  which 
Malbone  enjoyed"  (post,  II,  214).  These  "mys- 
teries and  perplexities"  are  also  cited  as  possible 
causes  of  the  none-too-friendly  dissolution  of  the 
Wood- Jarvis  partnership  about  1809.  Through 
Jarvis,  Wood  met  Edward  Greene  Malbone 
[q.v.~\,  one  of  the  foremost  American  miniatur- 
ists of  the  day,  and  received  instruction  from  him 
in  the  art  of  the  miniature  from  the  preparation 
of  the  ivory  to  the  finishing  of  the  picture.  Mal- 
bone also  rendered  Wood  considerable  assistance 
and  was  his  friend  so  long  as  he  lived. 

Wood  maintained  a  studio  in  New  York  until 
1812  or  1813,  having  set  up  for  himself  after  the 
break  with  Jarvis,  but  moved  to  Philadelphia  and 
exhibited  regularly  at  the  Pennsylvania  Acad- 
emy of  the  Fine  Arts  until  1817.  By  1827  he  was 
established  in  Washington,  and  it  is  possible  that 
he  painted  also  in  Baltimore.  He  was  a  prolific 
worker,  turning  out  innumerable  portraits  and 
miniatures  as  well  as  pencil  sketches  and  silhou- 
ettes. Among  his  oils  are  a  cabinet-size  painting 
of  Andrew  Jackson  and  a  portrait  of  Henry  Clay. 
A  miniature  of  Jackson  by  Wood  was  engraved 
in  1824  by  James  B.  Longacre,  while  his  por- 


466 


Wood 


Wood 


trait  of  Clay  was  lithographed  m  1825  by  Albert 
Newsam.  He  also  painted  a  miniature  of  John 
Greene  Proud.  A  watercolor  portrait  of  an  un- 
known man  is  inscribed  on  the  reverse,  "present- 
ed to  Edith  McPherson  by  Mrs.  Abby  Wood, 
1839."  Whether  or  not  the  Mrs.  Wood  thus 
mentioned  was  his  widow  is  unknown.  In  his 
later  years,  whether  through  dissipation  or  other 
adversity,  Wood  slipped  into  a  state  of  poverty, 
in  which  he  died  H  Washington  about  1832  at 
the  age  of  fifty-four  (Ibid.,  II,  230).  Nathaniel 
Rogers,  who  became  his  pupil  in  181 1  and  was 
his  paid  helper  for  several  years,  is  said  to  have 
befriended  him  and  his  children  in  their  adversity 
(Ibid.,  Ill,  17). 

[See  "Sketch  of  the  Life  of  Mr.  Joseph  Wood, "Port- 
Folio  (Phila.),  Jan.  181 1  ;  William  Dunlap,  A  Hist,  of 
the  Rise  and  Progress  of  the  Arts  of  Design  in  the  U .  S. 
(3  vols.,  1918),  ed.  by  F.  W.  Bayley  and  C.  E.  Good- 
speed;  Theodore  Bolton,  Early  Am.  Portrait  Draughts- 
men in  Crayons  (1923),  and  Early  Am.  Portrait  Paint- 
ers in  Miniature  (1921),  both  of  which  give  an  incor- 
rect date  of  death  ;  H.  B.  Wehle  and  Theodore  Bolton, 
Am.  Miniatures,  1730-1850  (1927).]  D.  G. 

WOOD,  LEONARD  (Oct.  9,  1860-Aug.  7, 
1927),  soldier,  pro-consul,  was  born  at  Winches- 
ter, N.  H.  He  was  the  first  of  three  children  of 
Charles  Jewett  and  Caroline  (Hagar)  Wood, 
both  of  whom  came  from  deep-rooted  New  Eng- 
land stock.  Wood  spent  his  youth  at  the  seashore 
village  of  Pocasset,  Mass.,  where  his  father  had 
sought  surroundings  favorable  to  the  cure  of  an 
illness  (malaria)  contracted  during  Civil  War 
service.  The  boy  led  a  frugal,  outdoor  life,  going 
to  the  district  school,  being  tutored  for  two  years 
by  Miss  Jessie  Haskell,  who  greatly  influenced 
his  character,  and  attending  Pierce  Academy, 
Middleboro.  In  1880  his  father  died;  and  Leon- 
ard, who  had  decided  to  adopt  his  profession,  en- 
tered Harvard  Medical  School.  Despite  finan- 
cial handicaps,  he  completed  the  course  credit- 
ably, and  after  a  short  and  stormy  interneship 
at  Boston  City  Hospital  received  his  M.D.  in 
1884.  He  tried  private  practice  in  Boston,  found 
<t  unattractive  and  unremunerative,  and  decided 
to  seek  commission  in  the  Army  Medical  Corps. 
No  immediate  vacancies  existed,  but  he  was  of- 
fered an  interim  appointment  as  contract  surgeon 
and  was  ordered  to  report  to  Arizona.  There  he 
was  instantly  plunged  into  the  operations  against 
the  Apaches  of  Geronimo  [q.v.~\,  culminating, 
after  long  marches,  indescribable  hardships,  and 
occasional  small  engagements,  in  the  chief's  sur- 
render. Wood  had  done  duty  as  physician,  com- 
mander of  troops,  and  hostage.  His  courage,  en- 
durance, and  leadership  won  enthusiastic  official 
commendation. 

There  ensued  for  Wood  a  period  of  routine 
military  duty  in  California  and  the  East,  where 


he  soon  acquired  a  reputation  as  a  capable  physi 
cian  and  as  an  athlete.  He  had  been  regularly 
commissioned  in  1886  and  in  1891  he  was  pro- 
moted captain,  assistant  surgeon.  On  Nov.  18, 
1890,  he  had  married  Louisa  A.  Condit  Smith  of 
Washington,  D.  C.  To  them  came  in  time  three 
children,  two  sons  and  a  daughter.  In  1895  ne 
was  transferred  to  Washington.  Soon  President 
and  Mrs.  McKinley  became  his  patients.  In  June 
1897  he  met  Theodore  Roosevelt  and  the  two  men 
were  instantly  drawn  together.  The  necessity 
and  morality  of  war  with  Spain  stood  high  among 
the  convictions  which  united  them.  When  war 
was  precipitated  they  combined  forces  to  organ- 
ize the  1st  United  States  Volunteer  Cavalry,  bet- 
ter known  as  the  "Rough  Riders,"  of  whom 
Wood,  by  virtue  of  his  practical  experience,  took 
command  as  colonel.  The  regiment  was  recruit- 
ed at  San  Antonio,  Tex.,  trained  and  disciplined 
a  few  weeks,  and  slightly  more  than  half  of  it 
was  forced  through  the  confusion  at  Tampa  into 
the  Cuban  expedition.  Wood  led  the  regiment  in 
the  first  clash,  Las  Guasimas,  June  24,  1898.  He 
succeeded  to  the  command  of  a  cavalry  brigade 
for  the  fighting  around  San  Juan  Hill  a  week 
later.  After  the  surrender  of  Santiago  he  was 
appointed  military  governor  of  that  city.  The 
town  was  notoriously  filthy  and  disease-ridden. 
In  addition  he  found  it  starving  from  the  siege. 
The  Cubans  were  hostile  toward  their  late  ene- 
mies, the  Spaniards,  and  suspicious  of  American 
intentions.  Wood  brought  them  food,  order,  jus- 
tice, sanitation,  and  public  works.  So  markedly 
successful  was  he  that,  in  October  1898,  he  was 
given  charge  of  the  entire  province  of  Santiago. 
He  applied  the  policies  developed  in  the  city  to 
the  larger  area  with  such  success  that,  in  Decem- 
ber 1899,  he  was  appointed  military  governor  of 
Cuba,  in  succession  to  Maj.-Gen.  John  R.  Brooke 
[q.v.~\. 

At  this  juncture,  when  Leonard  Wood  was 
about  to  become  a  national  and  international 
figure,  his  traits  and  character  were  fully  devel- 
oped. Physically  he  was  a  giant,  enduring  and  of 
relentless  energy.  Mentally  he  was  equally  ener- 
getic and  his  capacity  for  work  seemed  endless. 
He  was  shrewd,  with  a  keen  insight  into  human 
nature.  His  patriotism  was  strongly  nationalis- 
tic. He  felt  that,  for  both  Cuba  and  the  Philip- 
pines, the  happiest  destiny  would  be  permanent 
inclusion  in  the  United  States ;  but  his  honesty 
demanded  that  this  come  about  through  their 
own  volition.  He  appreciated  wealth,  but  did  not 
regard  it  as  important.  He  was  exceedingly  am- 
bitious. His  singleness  of  purpose  and  sheer  joy 
in  conflict  gave  him  great  powers  of  accomplish- 
ment and  assured  him  enemies  and  endless  con- 


467 


Wood 

;roversy.  His  ability,  sincerity,  and  charm  of 
manner  bound  men  as  individuals  to  him.  He 
was  never  a  felicitous  speaker,  but  these  same 
qualities  enabled  him  to  appear  before  gather- 
ings with  great  effect. 

As  military  governor  of  Cuba  his  term  lasted 
until  May  20,  1902.  In  this  period  the  affairs  of 
the  island  were  thoroughly  stabilized  and  or- 
ganized. Educational,  police,  and  fiscal  systems 
were  established.  The  administration  of  justice 
was  modernized  and  made  effective.  The  rela- 
tions of  church  and  state  were  composed.  Rail- 
-oads  were  chartered  and  regulated.  Great  ad- 
vances were  made  in  sanitation,  and  it  was  dur- 
ing Wood's  administration  that  Walter  Reed 
iq.vJ]  made  his  epochal  investigations  into  the 
transmission  of  yellow  fever.  Agriculture  and 
Commerce  made  encouraging  progress.  An  elec- 
toral system  was  set  up ;  and  finally  the  transmis- 
sion of  the  government  to  duly  chosen  Cuban  of- 
ficials was  smoothly  effected.  The  integrity  of 
Wood's  administration  was  as  high  as  its  effi- 
ciency. This  task  was  his  most  complete  and 
clean-cut  achievement.  A  generation  after  his 
departure,  his  was  probably  the  American  name 
most  honored  and  respected  by  the  Cubans.  Upon 
his  death  Cuba  voted  his  widow  a  pension  in  ad- 
vance of  similar  action  by  the  United  States 
Congress. 

For  Wood  a  short  stay  in  the  United  States 
and  a  visit  to  Europe  followed.  He  attended  the 
German  grand  maneuvers,  first  sensed  the  inter- 
national tensions  that  preceded  the  World  War, 
and  had  his  attention  directed  to  the  problems  of 
citizen  armies  and  compulsory  military  service. 
In  1903  he  was  sent  to  the  Philippines  as  gov- 
ernor of  the  Moro  Province,  consisting  of  Min- 
danao and  adjacent  islands.  Though  on  a  smaller 
scale,  his  problems  were  similar  in  scope  to  those 
in  Cuba ;  but  here  he  dealt  with  a  semi-savage 
people  and  a  primitive  civilization.  By  reason, 
persuasion,  and  fighting  he  pacified  the  province, 
inaugurated  reforms,  and  brought  about  a  rela- 
tively high  degree  of  prosperity,  though  he  has 
been  criticized  for  his  ruthlessness  in  stamping 
out  Moro  institutions   (Buell,  post,  p.  112). 

On  Aug.  8,  1903,  he  was  promoted  major-gen- 
eral in  the  regular  army.  His  responsibilities  in 
Cuba  and  the  vicissitudes  of  army  reorganiza- 
tion had  brought  him  already  two  temporary 
appointments  as  brigadier-general  and  two  more 
as  major-general,  all  of  volunteers.  On  Feb. 
4,  1901,  he  had  been  promoted  brigadier-general 
in  the  regular  army.  This  advancement,  involv- 
ing his  elevation  from  a  captaincy  in  a  staff 
corps  had  aroused  serious  resentment  in  the  serv- 
ice. When,  as  senior  brigadier-general,  his  name 


Wood 

came  up  for  promotion  to  major-general,  this 
personal  opposition  was  reenforced  by  enemies 
of  his  Cuban  days  acting  through  "Mark"  Hanna 
(58  Cong.,  2  Sess.,  Senate  Executive  Document 
C.  Nomination  of  Leonard  Wood  to  be  Major- 
General.  Hearings  Before  the  Committee  on 
Military  Affairs,  1904).  On  Hanna's  death  the 
fight  collapsed,  and  feeling  in  the  army  against 
Wood  on  this  account  diminished  rapidly  there- 
after. 

From  Mindanao  Wood  went  in  1906  to  com- 
mand the  Philippine  division  of  the  army  for  two 
years  and  then  returned  to  the  United  States.  In 
1910  he  served  as  special  ambassador  to  the  Ar- 
gentine Republic  at  its  independence  centennial. 
In  the  spring  of  1910  he  was  appointed  chief  of 
staff  of  the  army  for  a  four  year  term,  which  be- 
gan July  16.  His  first  problem  was  the  subor- 
dination of  the  various  bureaus  of  the  War  De- 
partment to  the  military  hierarchy  developed  by 
the  creation  of  a  General  Staff  in  1903.  Out  of 
this  grew  an  epic  internecine  and  personal  feud 
in  the  War  Department  between  the  Chief  of 
Staff  and  the  Adjutant  General.  It  resulted  in 
the  retirement  of  the  latter  and  the  substantial 
achievement  of  Wood's  aims.  He  sought  also 
to  organize  the  far-scattered  regular  army  into  a 
coherent  force.  In  this,  though  aided  by  the  ne- 
cessity of  concentrating  troops  on  the  Mexican 
border,  he  was  only  partially  successful.  He  gave 
close  attention  to  the  provision  of  war  material. 
He  saw  the  necessity  of  building  up  reserves  of 
trained  man-power  and,  as  a  step  in  this  direc- 
tion, initiated  civilian  training  camps  in  1913. 

In  1914  he  was  reassigned  to  the  Department 
of  the  East  and  engaged  in  the  preparedness 
movement,  with  the  Plattsburg  training  camps 
as  its  focus  and  some  form  of  universal  military 
service  as  his  own  ideal.  His  activities  frequent- 
ly contravened  the  desires  of  the  Wilson  admin- 
istration, brought  him  censure,  and  built  up  in 
Washington  a  distrust  of  his  subordination.  This 
situation  was  aggravated  by  his  close  association 
with  Theodore  Roosevelt.  When  the  United 
States  entered  the  World  War,  although  senior 
officer  of  the  army,  he  was  passed  over  as  the 
commander  of  the  expeditionary  force  in  favor 
of  Maj.-Gen.  John  J.  Pershing.  This  decision 
on  the  part  of  the  administration  was  obviously 
legitimate,  and  there  flowed  from  it  almost  neces- 
sarily the  implication  that  there  was  no  appro- 
priate subordinate  position  for  Wood  in  France. 
Unfortunately,  after  training  the  89th  Division 
at  Camp  Funston,  Kansas,  Wood  was  summarily 
and  spectacularly  relieved  from  its  command  on 
the  eve  of  embarkation.  The  treatment  accorded 
him  became  automatically  one  of  the  rallying 


1 


468 


Wood 

points  of  critics  of  the  conduct  of  the  war ;  and 
the  net  cumulative  effect  was  to  confirm  his  ex- 
clusion from  any  outstanding  participation  in  the 
war  effort  at  home.  He  had  made  major  contri- 
butions to  American  military  success,  but  they 
were  those  of  the  peace  years  :  the  popularization 
of  conscription  and  the  successful  demonstrations 
of  officers'  training  camps. 

In  1916  Wood  had  been  a  receptive  candidate 
for  the  Republican  nomination  for  the  presidency, 
and  following  the  war  he  openly  sought  his 
party's  indorsement  for  the  office.  His  activity 
in  the  preparedness  agitation  had  made  him  wide- 
ly known.  His  nationalism  struck  a  popular 
chord ;  and  many  regarded  him  as  Woodrow  Wil- 
son's victim  and  Theodore  Roosevelt's  heir.  On 
the  other  hand,  his  strenuousness  and  his  loose 
affiliation  with  the  Republican  organization  were 
repugnant  to  the  party  hierarchy;  and  on  the 
first  count  there  was  reflected  accurately  the 
sentiment  of  a  country  drifting  in  the  backwash 
of  the  war.  He  came  to  the  Chicago  convention 
of  1920  with  the  largest  single  following  of  dele- 
gates, and  developed  a  balloting  strength  in  ex- 
cess of  300;  but  his  supporters  were  outmaneu- 
vered  on  and  off  the  convention  floor.  Follow- 
ing the  inauguration,  President  Harding  ap- 
pointed Wood,  with  W.  Cameron  Forbes,  a  mem- 
ber of  a  special  mission  to  the  Philippine  Islands. 
Almost  simultaneously  Wood  was  offered  and  ac- 
cepted the  provostship  of  the  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania, subject  to  the  demands  of  his  Philippine 
mission. 

This  academic  post  he  was  destined  never  to 
fill ;  upon  the  conclusion  of  the  commission's  in- 
vestigations, Wood  remained  in  the  Far  East  as 
governor  general  of  the  Philippines.  His  pri- 
mary objectives  were  three :  to  restore  the  eco- 
nomic stability  of  the  Islands,  to  inaugurate  ad- 
ministrative reforms,  and  to  reinvest  the  gov- 
ernor general  and  his  administration  with  a  fuller 
measure  of  executive  power.  In  all  these  under- 
takings he  was  successful,  despite  strenuous 
and  vociferous  local  opposition.  Numerous  com- 
plaints were  lodged  against  him  in  Washington 
by  the  parliamentary  and  independence  groups 
of  Filipinos,  but  he  was  sustained  by  the  Presi- 
dent and  the  Secretary  of  War.  In  1924  he  helped 
to  block  American  legislation  for  Philippine  in- 
dependence. 

By  1927  Wood's  health  had  deteriorated  seri- 
ously in  the  tropics.  He  had  been  troubled  in 
particular  by  the  recurrence  of  a  tumor  in  his 
skull,  the  result  of  an  accident  at  Santiago,  Cuba, 
which  pressed  on  his  brain,  inducing  paralysis  of 
the  left  side  of  his  body.  He  returned  to  the 
United  States  for  a  third  surgical  treatment  of 


Wood 

this  affliction,  and  on  Aug.  7,  1927,  died  as  a  re- 
sult of  the  operation.  Wood  was  awarded  the 
Congressional  Medal  of  Honor  for  his  services 
in  the  Apache  campaign  and  received  the  Dis- 
tinguished Service  Medal  after  the  World  War. 
He  was  decorated  by  four  foreign  governments 
and  held  numerous  honorary  degrees.  He  was 
the  author  of  Our  Military  History.  Its  Facts 
and  Fallacies  (1916),  of  numerous  articles,  bear- 
ing chiefly  on  preparedness,  and,  with  W.  Cam- 
eron Forbes,  of  the  Report  of  the  Special  Mis- 
sion to  the  Philippines  (1921). 

[Hermann  Hagedorn,  Leonard  Wood  (2  vols.,  1931) 
is  the  authorized  biography  and  lists  most  of  the  impor- 
tant articles  about  him.  During  his  presidential  candi- 
dacy four  uncritical  biographies  appeared  :  J.  H.  Sears, 
The  Career  of  Leonard  Wood  (1919);  E.  F.  Wood, 
Leonard  Wood,  Conservator  of  Americanism  (1920); 
W.  H.  Hobbs,  Leonard  Wood,  Administrator,  Soldier 
and  Citizen  (1920)  ;  and  J.  G.  Holme,  The  Life  of  Leon- 
ard Wood  (1920).  More  critical  comments,  along  with 
some  praise,  are  in  R.  L.  Buell,  "The  Last  Proconsul," 
New  Republic,  Dec.  9,  1931  ;  M.  L.  Quezon  and  Camilo 
Osias,  Governor-General  Wood  and  the  Filipino  Cause 
(1924)  ;  C.  A.  Thompson,  Conditions  in  the  Philippine 
Islands  (1926);  Carleton  Beals,  The  Crime  of  Cuba 
(1933).  See  also  N.  Y.  Times,  Aug.  7,  1927;  Army 
and  Navy  Journal,  Aug.  13,  1927  ;  Johnson  Hagood, 
"General  Wood  as  I  Knew  Him,"  Saturday  Evening 
Post,  Oct.  22,  Dec.  17,  1932.  The  Wood  Papers  are 
deposited  in  the  Lib.  of  Cong.]  T.T.B. 

WOOD,  MARY  ELIZABETH  (Aug.  22, 
1861-May  1,  1931),  librarian  in  China,  was  of 
English  ancestry,  and  both  of  her  parents,  Ed- 
ward Farmer  and  Mary  Jane  (Humphrey) 
Wood,  came  of  New  England  stock.  She  was 
born  near  Batavia  in  the  township  of  Elba,  N.  Y., 
where  she  attended  private  and  public  schools. 
From  childhood  she  had  a  sympathetic  interest 
in  people,  and  in  later  years  her  recollections  of 
Batavia  neighbors  were  as  illuminating  as  pages 
of  David  Haritm.  Starting  with  the  old-fash- 
ioned qualification  of  being  "a  great  reader,"  she 
grew  up  to  become  librarian  of  the  Batavia  li- 
brary. Later  she  took  library  courses  at  Pratt 
Institute  and  at  Simmons  College.  That,  how- 
ever, was  after  her  first  journey  to  China.  This 
journey,  in  1899,  was  planned  as  a  visit  to  her 
brother,  a  missionary.  But  the  need  for  teachers 
at  Boone  College  in  Wuchang  induced  her  to  pro- 
long her  visit  and,  in  1904,  to  accept  appointment 
under  the  American  Church  Mission.  The  li- 
brary at  Boone  was  a  tiny  affair,  little  used. 
Elizabeth  Wood,  well-nigh  single-handed,  un- 
dertook an  arduous  campaign  for  a  building  and 
an  adequate  supply  of  books.  The  building — her 
"Ebenezer" — was  erected  in  1910.  Then,  as  she 
said,  she  moved  on  "to  Ur  of  the  Chaldees." 
Traveling  libraries  were  organized.  Young  Chi- 
nese were  sent  to  the  United  States  for  library 
training.  Lecture  tours  were  arranged  for  them 
on  their  return.  To  meet  the  need  for  less  expen- 


469 


Wood 


Wood 


sive  training,  a  library  school  was  started  in 
1920.  China  was  ripe  for  modern  library  devel- 
opment, and  the  Chinese  response  was  enthusi- 
astic. 

Acting  on  the  suggestion  of  an  influential 
graduate  of  Boone,  in  1923  Elizabeth  Wood 
journeyed  to  Peking  (later  Peiping)  to  propose 
a  nationwide  movement.  Chinese  leaders  united 
in  a  petition  to  the  United  States  that  an  unas- 
signed  portion  (about  $6,000,000)  of  the  Boxer 
indemnity  be  remitted  for  public-library  develop- 
ment. She  followed  the  petition  to  Washington 
(1924),  and  personally  interviewed  in  its  behalf 
over  five  hundred  senators  and  congressmen. 
Old-fashioned  in  dress  but  of  impressive  person- 
ality, she  became  one  of  the  notable  figures  at 
the  Capitol.  Her  understanding  of  people,  her 
tireless  persistence,  and  her  obvious  unselfish- 
ness made  her  the  most  potent  influence  in  the 
passage  of  the  bill.  In  one  respect  the  bill  fell 
short  of  complete  success ;  "educational  and 
other  cultural  activities"  were  named,  not  libra- 
ries. The  administration  of  the  fund  was  en- 
trusted to  the  China  Foundation,  a  Sino-Amer- 
ican  board.  To  secure  expert  testimony,  Eliza- 
beth Wood  persuaded  the  American  Library  As- 
sociation to  send  Dr.  A.  E.  Bostwick  of  St.  Louis 
as  its  representative  to  China.  His  tour,  ar- 
ranged by  the  Chinese  Association  for  the  Ad- 
vancement of  Education,  achieved  official  and 
popular  prominence.  Coincident  with  the  tour 
came  the  organization  of  the  Library  Associa- 
tion of  China.  As  a  result,  a  portion  of  the  fund 
was  allotted  to  establish  the  Metropolitan  Li- 
brary in  Peking,  and  a  modest  grant  was  made 
to  the  Boone  Library  School. 

Elizabeth  Wood's  remaining  days  were  devot- 
ed to  raising  an  endowment  for  the  school.  In 
1927  she  spent  several  months  in  Washington 
working  towards  the  cancellation  of  China's  "un- 
equal treaties."  Her  efforts  in  behalf  of  the  Chi- 
nese people,  which  had  ranged  from  securing 
shelters  for  'rikisha  coolies  and  books  for  sol- 
diers to  cooperation  with  educational  leaders  and 
progressive  officials,  were  bringing  to  her  un- 
usual expressions  of  Chinese  approval  in  a  pe- 
riod of  anti-foreign  feeling ;  and  an  elaborate 
triple  anniversary  in  honor  of  her  coming  to 
China,  of  the  building  of  the  Boone  Library,  and 
of  the  founding  of  the  library  school  was  about 
to  be  celebrated  when  she  died  in  Wuchang  on 
May  1,  1931. 

[In  addition  to  The  Boxer  Indemnity  and  the  Lib. 
Movement  in  China  (n.d.)  and  China's  First  Lib. 
School:  The  Boone  Lib.  (n.d.),  pamphlets  compiled  by 
Mary  E.  Wood  with  the  collaboration  of  Samuel  Tsu- 
Yung  Seng  and  Thomas  Chin-Sen  Hu,  sources  include 
Hankow  Herald,   May   2,    1931  ;   Hankow  Newsletter, 


May-June  1931,  with  an  art.  by  the  Rt.  Rev.  L.  H.  Root, 
Bishop  of  Hankow  ;  A.  E.  Bostwick,  in  Libraries,  June 
1 93 1  ;  Libraries  in  China  (1929)  ;  Marion  D.  Wood,  in 
Lib.  Jour.,  June  1,  1931;  Boone  Lib.  Central  China 
Coll.  .  .  .  Triple  Anniversary  Celebration,  May  16,  1930  ; 
obituary  in  N.  Y.  Times,  May  2,  1931  ;  unpub.  material 
supplied  by  the  Am.  Church  Mission,  several  friends, 
and  Mary  E.  Wood's  brother,  the  Rev.  Robert  E.  Wood 
of   St.  Michael's  Church,  Wuchang.]  H.  CI s. 

WOOD,  REUBEN  (c.  1792-Oct.  1,  1864), 
jurist,  governor  of  Ohio,  was  born  in  Middle- 
town,  Rutland  County,  Vt.,  the  eldest  son  of  the 
Rev.  Nathaniel  Wood,  formerly  a  chaplain  in 
the  Continental  Army.  Reuben  received  his  early 
education  at  home  but  at  the  age  of  fifteen  went 
across  the  Canadian  border  to  reside  with  an 
uncle.  He  studied  the  classics  with  a  Catholic 
priest  and  began  to  read  law  with  an  attorney, 
but  was  forced  to  flee  from  Canada  at  the  out- 
break of  the  War  of  1812  to  escape  forced  mili- 
tary service,  and  landed  at  Sacketts  Harbor, 
N.  Y.,  after  a  hazardous  crossing  of  Lake  On- 
tario in  a  small  boat.  For  a  brief  period  he  did 
military  service  and  then  studied  law  with  Gen. 
Jonas  Clark  of  Middletown,  Vt. 

Wood  moved  to  Cleveland,  Ohio,  in  1818,  the 
third  lawyer  to  appear  in  that  village  of  six  hun- 
dred inhabitants.  He  was  successful  as  a  jury 
lawyer,  but  was  soon  drawn  into  politics,  being 
elected  to  the  state  Senate  in  1825,  and  serving 
three  terms  (1825-30).  In  January  1830  the  leg- 
islature elected  him  president  judge  of  the  third 
common  pleas  circuit,  a  position  he  held  until 
February  1833,  when,  chosen  by  the  Assembly, 
he  began  a  service  of  fourteen  years  on  the  Ohio 
supreme  court.  A  Whig  majority  refused  him  a 
third  term  in  1847,  but  his  services  were  recog- 
nized by  the  Democratic  party  in  1850,  when  it 
made  him  its  candidate  for  governor.  He  was 
elected  by  a  plurality  ovei  William  Johnston, 
Whig,  and  Edward  Smith,  Free  Soiler.  In  his 
inaugural  he  showed  his  anti-slavery  leanings  by 
criticizing  the  newly  enacted  federal  Fugitive 
Slave  Law,  though  he  did  not  countenance  nulli- 
fication or  violence.  His  first  term  was  reduced 
to  one  year  by  the  state  constitution  of  185 1, 
which  changed  gubernatorial  elections  to  odd- 
numbered  years.  He  was  easily  reelected  over 
Samuel  F.  Vinton,  Whig,  and  Samuel  Lewis, 
Free  Soiler.  In  this  campaign,  Salmon  P.  Chase 
[g.?'.],  then  United  States  senator,  left  the  Free 
Soil  party  and  supported  Wood. 

His  second  term  was  marked  by  much  signifi- 
cant legislation  to  carry  out  provisions  of  the 
new  constitution,  but  the  lack  of  a  veto  power 
limited  the  governor's  influence  over  the  legisla- 
ture. The  general  anti-bank,  hard  money  posi- 
tion of  his  party  had  his  approval,  though  he  was 
not  regarded  as  an  extremist.    At  the  National 


470 


Wood 

Democratic  Convention  of  1852,  he  was  a  possi- 
bility for  the  presidential  nomination,  but  the 
presence  of  factions  in  the  Ohio  delegation  de- 
stroyed whatever  chances  he  had.  In  July  1853 
Wood  resigned  as  governor  to  become  American 
consul  at  Valparaiso,  Chile,  a  minor  but  suppos- 
edly lucrative  post.  Though  he  was  soon  acting 
American  minister,  he  was  dissatisfied  and  re- 
turned to  Ohio  in  1855  to  resume  his  law  prac- 
tice in  Cleveland,  and  presently  to  retire  to  his 
farm,  "Evergreen  Place,"  Rockport.  In  the  party 
split  of  i860,  Wood,  a  supporter  of  the  Buchanan 
administration,  presided  over  a  bolting  state  con- 
vention to  name  a  Breckinridge  electoral  ticket 
in  opposition  to  the  regular  Douglas  ticket.  He 
became  a  Union  man  at  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil 
War,  however,  and  had  been  chosen  to  preside 
over  a  great  Union  mass  meeting  in  the  campaign 
for  the  reelection  of  Lincoln  when  his  death  oc- 
curred. 

Wood's  tall,  lean  frame  gained  him  the  sobri- 
quet, "the  old  Cuyahoga  chief."  His  love  of  fun 
and  practical  jokes  and  his  Yankee  wit  added  to 
his  popularity,  though  he  was  rather  blunt  of 
speech  and  at  times  somewhat  tactless.  He  was 
married  in  1816  to  Mary  Rice,  daughter  of  Tru- 
man Rice  of  Clarendon,  Vt.,  and  was  survived 
by  his  wife  and  two  daughters. 

[Wood's  judicial  opinions  are  in  6-15  Ohio  Reports  ; 
his  papers  as  governor,  in  the  Ohio  Archaeological  and 
Hist.  Soc.  Lib.  The  events  of  his  administration  are 
covered  in  C.  B.  Galbreath,  Hist,  of  Ohio  (1925),  II, 
542-50.  His  part  in  the  politics  of  the  1850's  may  be 
found  in  E.  H.  Roseboom,  "Ohio  in  the  1850's,"  unpub- 
lished doctoral  dissertation,  Harvard,  1932.  A  biog. 
sketch  by  his  grandson,  N.  H.  Merwin,  is  in  manu- 
script in  the  Western  Reserve  Hist.  Soc.  Lib.,  Cleve- 
land. Brief  accounts  of  his  life  are  in  Harvey  Rice, 
Pioneers  of  the  Western  Reserve  (1883),  and  "West- 
ern Reserve  Jurists,"  Mag.  of  Western  Hist.,  June 
1885;  S.  P.  Orth,  A  Hist,  of  Cleveland,  Ohio  (1910), 
vol.  I  ;  J.  F.  Brennan,  A  Biog.  Cyc.  and  Portrait  Gal- 
lery of  .  .  .  Ohio  (1879)  ;  Cleveland  Herald,  Oct.  3, 
1864;  Daily  Ohio  State  lour.  (Columbus),  Oct.  5, 
1864.  See  also  E.  B.  Kinkead,  "A  Sketch  of  the  Su- 
preme Court  of  Ohio,"  Green  Bag,  May  1895.] 

E.H.R. 

WOOD,  SAMUEL  (July  17,  1760-May  5, 
1844),  book  publisher,  was  born  on  his  father's 
five-acre  farm  in  the  town  of  Oyster  Bay,  Long 
Island,  the  only  child  of  Samuel  and  Freelove 
(Wright)  Wood,  and  a  descendant  in  the  fifth 
generation  of  John  Wood  who  emigrated  to 
Pennsylvania  in  1678  from  England.  After  his 
father's  untimely  death  at  twenty-seven,  the 
boy's  name  was  changed  from  William  to  Sam- 
uel, and  his  baptism  is  so  recorded  in  St.  George's 
Church,  Hempstead,  Dec.  25,  1762.  He  grew  up 
in  poor  circumstances,  but  he  early  developed  a 
thirst  for  knowledge  and  a  love  of  reading.  He 
joined  the  Society  of  Friends  in  early  life,  and 
became  an  active  and  influential  member.    He 


Wood 

married,  Aug.  8,  1782,  in  Westbury  Meeting, 
Mary  Searing  of  Searingtown,  L.  I.,  by  whom 
he  had  thirteen  children.  From  1787  to  1803  he 
taught  in  schools  in  Manhasset,  L.  I.,  Clinton, 
Hibernia  Mills,  and  New  Rochelle,  all  in  New 
York  State.  In  1804  he  opened  a  small  store  in 
New  York  City  for  the  sale  of  stationery  and 
books,  mostly  second-hand.  Concerned  about  the 
lack  of  attractive  books  for  children,  he  soon 
began  a  remarkable  series  of  little  books,  mostly 
unbound,  of  sixteen  to  twenty-eight  pages,  not 
over  four  inches  high.  His  earliest  known  im- 
print is  on  The  Young  Child's  A  B  C,  or  First 
Book,  printed  by  J.  C.  Tottcn,  for  Samuel  Wood 
(1806),  illustrated  with  woodcuts  by  Alexander 
Anderson  [q.v.].  All  later  books  were  printed 
on  his  own  press.  By  18 15  Wood  had  produced  a 
large  number,  among  them  Devout  Meditations 
(1807),  The  Animal  Economy  (1808),  and  Po- 
etic Tales  for  Children  (1814).  Besides  selling 
all  he  could,  it  was  his  habit  to  carry  his  pock- 
ets filled  with  books  to  give  out  to  children 
who  might  otherwise  not  get  them.  He  wrote  a 
few  of  the  early  books  he  published,  and  amend- 
ed some  English  ones  to  suit  American  condi- 
tions. 

In  181 5  he  took  into  partnership  two  of  his 
sons,  Samuel  S.  and  John,  under  the  firm  name  of 
Samuel  Wood  and  Sons.  Samuel  S.  Wood  went 
to  Baltimore  and  maintained  a  branch  house 
there  for  several  years.  The  business  developed 
into  a  large  house  of  general  publishing  and  sale, 
wholesale  and  retail,  of  books  and  stationery.  In 
18 1 7  Samuel  Wood  and  Sons  occupied  a  new 
building,  and  another  son,  William  Wood  (1797- 
1877),  was  admitted  to  the  firm.  Thus  was 
founded  the  publishing  house  of  Samuel  Wood 
and  Sons,  which,  with  the  single  exception  of  the 
Methodist  Book  Concern,  was  the  oldest  pub- 
lishing house  in  New  York  City  and  existed  128 
years.  William  Wood  had  become  especially  in- 
terested in  medicine  and  medical  books,  prob- 
ably from  association  with  his  brother  Isaac 
(  1793-1868),  a  prominent  New  York  physician, 
and  eventually  the  firm  became  the  largest  pub- 
lishers of  medical  books  in  America.  It  was  Wil- 
liam who  posted  on  the  bulletin  board  of  the 
Commercial  Advertiser,  Nov.  3,  1820,  a  notice  to 
merchants'  clerks  and  apprentices,  "disposed  to 
form  a  Mercantile  Library."  Out  of  this  effort 
grew  the  library  of  50,000  volumes  which  served 
a  great  need  for  nearly  a  century,  until  the  es- 
tablishment of  the  New  York  Public  Library 
rendered  it  no  longer  necessary.  After  Samuel 
Wood's  retirement  in  1836,  the  business  was 
continued  as  Samuel  S.  and  William  Wood  until 
1861,  under  William  Wood's  name  until  1863, 


471 


Wood 

and  from  that  time  until  1932  as  William  Wood 
&  Company. 

Immersed  in  business,  Samuel  Wood  still 
found  time  for  the  relief  and  betterment  of  the 
poor,  the  sick,  the  unfortunate,  and  after  his 
retirement  he  gave  all  his  time  to  charitable 
work.  He  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Society 
for  the  Prevention  of  Pauperism  (1817),  out  of 
which  grew  the  House  of  Refuge,  the  first  state 
aid  for  unfortunate  children,  and  was  one  of  the 
prime  movers  in  the  establishment  of  the  New 
York  Institution  for  the  Blind  (1831),  the  first 
institution  of  its  kind  in  America.  He  was  also 
a  member  of  the  Manumission  Society,  the  Soci- 
ety of  the  New  York  Hospital,  and  the  Public 
School  Society,  the  last  of  which  he  served  as 
trustee  for  twenty  years.  Stricken  with  paralysis, 
he  lingered  on  a  few  years,  dying  in  his  eighty- 
fourth  year.  He  was  buried  in  the  quiet  cemetery 
of  the  Quakers  in  Prospect  Park,  Brooklyn. 

[Sources  include  Arnold  Wood,  John  Wood  of  Attcr- 
cliffe,  Yorkshire  .  .  .  and  His  Descendants  (1903); 
W.  C.  Wood,  One  Hundred  Years  of  Publishing,  1804- 
1904  (1904)  ;  W.  H.  S.  Wood,  Friends  of  the  City  of 
N.  Y.  (1904)  ;  W.  O.  Bourne,  Hist,  of  the  Pub.  School 
Soc.  of  the  City  of  N.  Y.  (1870)  ;  J.  H.  Manning.  Cen- 
tury of  Am.  Savings  Banks  (1917)  ;  records  of  N.  Y. 
Monthly  Meeting  and  of  Westbury  Monthly  Meeting 
of  the  Religious  Soc.  of  Friends,  MSS.  in  Friends'  Rec- 
ord Room,  N.  Y.  City  ;  minutes  of  the  N.  Y.  Asso.  for 
the  Educ.  of  Colored  Male  Adults,  MSS.  ;  minutes  of 
the  Manumission  Soc,  MSS.]  T  q    Tr_ 

WOOD,  SARAH  SAYWARD  BARRELL 
KEATING  (Oct.  1,  1759-Jan.  6,  1855),  earli- 
est fiction  writer  of  the  state  of  Maine,  was  born 
in  York,  Me.,  at  the  home  of  her  grandfather, 
Judge  Jonathan  Sayward,  wealthy  Loyalist  trad- 
er and  representative  of  York  County  in  the 
Massachusetts  General  Court.  His  daughter 
Sarah  married  Nathaniel  Barrell  of  Portsmouth, 
N.  H.,  member  of  a  prominent  Boston  mercan- 
tile family,  who  was  serving  as  lieutenant  in 
Wolfe's  army  at  Quebec  when  his  daughter  was 
born.  Sarah  Barrell  was  brought  up  in  her 
grandfather's  home,  in  the  society  of  influen- 
tial and  cultivated  relatives  and  friends.  On 
Nov.  23,  1778,  she  married  Richard  Keating,  a 
clerk  of  Judge  Sayward's,  described  as  "easy  in 
manners,  well  informed,  of  excellent  good  sense, 
a  social  good  neighbor"  (sketch  in  MS.  by  Mrs. 
Wood).  The  young  couple  lived  happily  together, 
in  the  house  given  them  as  Judge  Sayward's  wed- 
ding present.  Here  their  three  children  were 
born,  the  last  of  them  four  months  after  the  un- 
timely death  of  Mr.  Keating,  June  23,  1783. 
During  the  twenty-one  years  of  her  widowhood 
at  York,  Mrs.  Keating  wrote  and  published  four 
novels,  besides  probably  contributing  anony- 
mously to  the  Massachusetts  Magazine  and  other 
periodicals.  Her  first  novel,  Julia  and  the  Illu- 


Wood 

minated  Baron  (Portsmouth,  1800),  has  refer- 
ence to  the  supposed  subversive  activities  of  the 
secret  society,  the  Illuminati,  in  France.  It  has 
the  distinction  of  being  perhaps  the  most  thor- 
oughgoing example  in  American  literature  of  the 
Gothic  romance  of  the  Radcliffe  type.  Her  sec- 
ond book,  Dorval:  or  the  Speculator,  is  disap- 
pointing because  the  promised  "wholly  Ameri- 
can" work,  satirizing  the  contemporary  furor 
over  land  speculation,  is  weakened  by  the  point- 
less, rambling,  and  improbable  narrative.  These 
were  followed  by  Amelia,  or  the  Influence  of 
Virtue,  an  Old  Man's  Story  (1802),  which  ap- 
peared, like  the  others,  anonymously  at  Ports- 
mouth, and  by  Ferdinand  and  Elmira:  a  Russian 
Story  (Baltimore,  1804),  a  highly  fanciful  tale 
of  tangled  loves,  mistaken  identity,  and  over- 
worked coincidence. 

On  Oct.  28,  1804,  Mrs.  Keating  married  Gen. 
Abiel  Wood,  a  wealthy  widower  of  Wiscasset, 
where  she  lived  in  considerable  style  until  some 
years  after  his  death  in  181 1.  Thereafter  until 
1830  she  lived  near  her  son,  Capt.  Richard  Keat- 
ing, in  Portland.  There  she  published  the  first 
volume  of  Tales  of  the  Night  (1827),  containing 
two  long  narratives,  "Storms  and  Sunshine;  or 
the  House  on  the  Hill,"  a  story  of  domestic  mis- 
fortunes succeeded  by  returning  prosperity,  and 
"The  Hermitage,"  in  which  faithful  love  is  re- 
warded by  union  after  an  intervening  marriage. 
No  second  volume  appeared,  and  Mrs.  Wood  is 
said,  after  the  appearance  of  Scott's  novels,  to 
have  destroyed  much  of  her  own  manuscript  in 
self-disparagement.  At  Portland  Madam  Wood, 
as  she  was  usually  called,  was  somewhat  of  a  ce- 
lebrity because  of  her  literary  reputation,  her 
keen  mind,  and  her  distinctive  costume.  She  is 
described  as  wearing  customarily  a  "high  tur- 
ban or  cap  .  .  .  and  when  she  went  out  ...  a 
plain  black  bonnet  so  far  forward  as  to  nearly 
hide  her  features"  (Goold,  post,  p.  406).  For 
three  years  after  1830  she  lived  in  New  York  City 
with  her  son,  Captain  Keating.  In  the  summer 
after  his  tragic  death  in  January  1833,  when  his 
ship  was  crushed  in  the  night  by  floating  ice  in 
New  York  Harbor,  she  returned  to  Maine  to  live 
with  a  granddaughter  at  Kennebunk.  In  her  last 
years  she  wrote  several  interesting  reminiscent 
sketches  for  friends  and  descendants.  She  died 
at  Kennebunk. 

[The  fullest  biog.  account  is  that  of  William  Goold 
in  Colls,  and  Proc.  Me.  Hist.  Soc,  2  ser.,  vol.  I  (1890). 
See  also  H.  E.  Dunnack,  The  Me.  Book  (1920)  ;  C.  E. 
Banks,  Hist,  of  York,  Me.  (1931),  vol.  I,  pp.  37s,  389- 
401  ;  C.  A.  Sayward,  The  Sayward  Family  (1890)  ;  W. 
D.  Spencer,  Me.  Immortals  (1932),  pp.  313-16;  the 
Abiel  Wood  coll.  of  MSS.  in  the  possession  of  Mrs. 
Richmond  White,  at  Wiscasset ;  and  death  notice  in 
Eastern  Argus  (Portland,  Me.),  Jan.  9,  1855.  The 
Me.   State  Lib.  has  the  most  nearly  complete  coll.   of 


472 


Wood 


Wood 


Mrs.  Wood's  published  works;  some  of  her  MS.  is  in 
the  poss.  of   descendants  in   Kennebunk.]  M.E. 

WOOD,  THOMAS  (Aug.  22,  1813-Nov.  21, 
1880),  surgeon,  was  born  in  Smithfield,  Jeffer- 
son County,  Ohio,  the  son  of  Nathan  and  Mar- 
garet Wood,  members  of  Quaker  families  long 
resident  in  West  Chester,  Pa.  Since  his  father, 
a  poor  farmer,  could  give  him  few  advantages, 
he  was  largely  self-educated.  He  began  the  study 
of  medicine  with  Dr.  W.  S.  Bates  of  Smithfieldj 
entered  the  medical  department  of  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania  in  1838,  and  received  his  medi- 
cal degree  the  following  year,  with  a  graduation 
thesis  entitled  "Hydrated  Peroxide  of  Iron." 
Following  graduation  he  received  an  appoint- 
ment to  the  Friends'  Asylum  for  the  Insane  near 
Philadelphia.  In  1842  he  returned  to  Smithfield 
and  established  himself  for  practice.  After  a 
year  of  study  abroad  (1844)  he  settled  in  Cin- 
cinnati, Ohio,  where  he  spent  the  rest  of  his  life 
in  highly  successful  practice.  The  year  follow- 
ing his  arrival  he  was  appointed  professor  of 
anatomy  and  physiology  in  the  Ohio  College  of 
Dental  Surgery,  a  position  that  he  held  for  a 
number  of  years.  In  1853  he  was  appointed 
demonstrator  of  anatomy  at  the  Medical  College 
of  Ohio,  later  becoming  in  turn  professor  of 
anatomy  and  professor  of  surgical  anatomy. 
Though  a  thorough  master  of  his  subjects,  he 
had  but  mediocre  success  as  an  instructor.  He 
was  an  exceedingly  modest  and  unassuming  man, 
with  a  mild,  gentle  manner  and  soft  low  voice 
which  further  impaired  his  usefulness  as  a  teach- 
er. He  was  nevertheless  highly  regarded  for  his 
undoubted  ability.  As  an  aid  in  his  school  work 
he  wrote  A  Compendium  of  Anatomy,  Designed 
to  Accompany  the  Anatomical  Chart  (n.d.).  This 
and  a  few  case  reports  in  journal  articles  con- 
stituted his  entire  literary  output.  He  was  owner 
and  co-editor  of  the  Western  Lancet  of  Cincin- 
nati from  1853  to  1857. 

Though  he  practised  general  medicine  and  was 
an  accomplished  internist,  it  is  for  his  surgical 
abilities  that  he  deserves  remembrance.  He  was 
a  highly  successful  and  daring  operator,  particu- 
larly skilful  in  diseases  of  women,  with  a  record 
of  having  performed  all  the  major  operations  of 
the  surgery  of  his  day.  Had  he  been  a  less  mod- 
est man,  and  had  he  given  to  the  medical  profes- 
sion a  worthy  current  account  of  his  work,  he 
undoubtedly  would  have  attained  a  reputation  as 
one  of  the  country's  greatest  surgeons.  For  years 
he  headed  the  surgical  staff  of  the  Commercial 
(later  the  Cincinnati)  Hospital.  After  the  bat- 
tle of  Thiloh  he  rendered  surgical  service  to  the 
wounded  upon  the  field  and  in  the  Cincinnati 
hospitals  to  which  they  were  transferred.    He 


was  a  member  of  the  American  Medical  Asso- 
ciation and  of  the  Cincinnati  Academy  of  Medi- 
cine. In  addition  to  his  strictly  professional  in- 
terests, he  was  well  informed  in  the  natural  sci- 
ences, taking  a  special  interest  in  the  study  of 
geology  and  entomology,  in  both  of  which  he 
made  extensive  collections.  He  was  an  able 
microscopist,  though  it  is  not  recorded  that  he 
made  any  use  of  the  microscope  in  his  medical 
work.  Of  an  inventive  turn  of  mind,  he  devised 
several  instruments  to  aid  in  geometrical  calcu- 
lations. He  is  also  credited  with  the  authorship 
of  much  unpublished  poetry. 

He  was  chief  surgeon  for  the  Cincinnati,  Ham- 
ilton and  Dayton  railroad,  and  it  was  in  the  serv- 
ice of  this  road  that  he  met  his  death.  While 
dressing  the  infected  wounds  of  victims  of  a 
railroad  accident,  he  contracted  a  septicaemia 
that  resulted  fatally.  On  Mar.  14,  1843,  he  mar- 
ried Emily  A.  Miller  at  Mount  Pleasant,  Ohio. 
In  1855  he  married  Elizabeth  J.  Reiff  of  Phila- 
delphia, and  following  her  death  in  1871  he  mar- 
ried, on  July  27,  1876,  Carrie  C.  Fels  of  Cincin- 
nati. Two  sons  followed  him  in  the  choice  of 
medicine  as  a  career. 

[Cincinnati  Lancet  and  Clinic,  Nov.  27,  1880;  Cin- 
cinnati Medic.  News,  Dec.  1880;  H.  A.  Kelly  and  W. 
L.  Burrage,  Am.  Medic.  Biogs.  (1920);  obituaries  in 
Cincinnati  Enquirer  and  Cincinnati  Commerical,  Nov. 

22,  1880.]  j  m  p_ 

WOOD,  THOMAS  BOND  (Mar.  17,  1844- 
Dec.  18,  1922),  missionary  and  educator,  was 
born  at  Lafayette,  Ind.,  the  son  of  the  Rev. 
Aaron  Wood,  an  eminent  clergyman  of  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church,  and  Maria  (Hitt) 
Wood,  daughter  of  a  rich  land-  and  slave-owner. 
He  received  the  degree  of  A.B.  from  Indiana 
Asbury  University  (later  De  Pauw)  in  1863  and 
from  Wesleyan  University,  Middletown,  Conn., 
in  1864.  From  1864  to  1867  he  taught  German 
and  natural  science  in  Wesleyan  Academy,  Wil- 
braham,  Mass.,  where  he  met  and  married  (July 

23,  1867)  the  teacher  of  music,  Ellen  Dow  of 
Westfield,  Mass.  He  entered  the  New  England 
Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
(1865),  was  ordained  deacon  (1867)  and  elder 
(1868),  and  was  transferred  to  the  North-West 
Indiana  Conference  (1868).  After  serving  two 
years  as  president  of  Valparaiso  College,  Val- 
paraiso, Ind.  (1867-69),  he  was  appointed  by 
the  missionary  society  of  his  church  to  work  in 
Argentina. 

For  more  than  forty  years  he  devoted  himself 
to  the  work  in  South  America.  From  1870  to 
1877  he  was  at  Rosario  de  Santa  Fe,  where  he 
preached  in  English  and  Spanish,  German  and 
Portuguese,  and  established  a  Protestant  school 
for  boys  and  the  first  work  of  the  Women's  For- 


473 


Wood 


Wood 


eign  Missionary  Society  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church.  He  also  served  as  chairman  of 
the  board  of  examiners  of  city  schools,  as  mem- 
ber for  a  time  of  the  city  government,  as  pro- 
fessor of  physics  and  astronomy  in  the  national 
college  (1875-77),  as  president  of  the  national 
educational  commission  of  Argentina,  and  as 
United  States  consul  (1873-78).  He  was  ad- 
mitted to  the  practice  of  law  in  the  Argentine 
federal  court  in  1875.  From  1877  to  1881  he  was 
at  Montevideo,  Uruguay,  where  he  started  and 
edited  El  Evangelista,  the  first  Spanish  evan- 
gelical weekly  in  the  world,  wrote  Breves  In- 
formaciones  (1881),  a  handbook  of  Methodism, 
and  was  joint  editor  of  the  first  Spanish  hymn 
and  tune  book  used  in  Protestant  services  ( 1881 ) . 

He  was  superintendent  of  the  missions  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  South  America 
for  eight  years  (1879-87)  and  in  1881  was  a 
delegate  to  the  first  Methodist  Ecumenical  Con- 
ference in  London.  From  London  he  was  sent  to 
Mexico  and  then  returned  to  the  United  States 
(1882-84).  On  returning  to  Uruguay  he  con- 
tracted a  fever  which  necessitated  a  removal  into 
the  country  district  occupied  by  Waldensians, 
where  he  established  and  had  charge  of  the  first 
Protestant  school  south  of  the  United  States 
legalized  to  grant  the  degree  of  A.B.  (1887-89). 
In  1889  he  founded  the  Methodist  Theological 
Seminary  in  Buenos  Aires  and  continued  as  its 
president  until  189 1.  During  these  years  he 
labored  incessantly  to  remove  the  ban  on  religious 
liberty  at  that  time  written  into  every  consti- 
tution south  of  the  Rio  Grande,  and  in  1891  he 
removed  to  Peru,  the  center  of  the  struggle. 
There  for  twenty-two  years  (1891-1913),  with 
indomitable  courage  and  masterful  will,  in  the 
face  of  persecution,  reviling,  and  personal  dan- 
ger, he  championed  religious  liberty  (including 
civil  marriage),  the  spread  of  popular  education, 
and  social  reform. 

He  was  not  only  superintendent  of  all  Meth- 
odist work  in  Peru,  Ecuador,  and  Bolivia  ( 1891- 
r9°5)>  establishing  the  South  America  Confer- 
ence (1893),  the  Western  South  America  Con- 
ference (1898),  the  Andes  Conference  (1905), 
and  the  North  Andes  Mission  (1910),  but  he 
also  took  on  numerous  other  responsibilities.  He 
was  founder  and  president  of  the  Technical 
School  of  Commerce  in  Lima  (1899)  ;  he  estab- 
lished normal  schools  in  Ecuador  for  the  gov- 
ernment, and  was  sent  by  the  president  to  the 
United  States  to  secure  teachers  for  them 
(1900);  and  he  became  president  of  the  theo- 
logical seminary  in  Lima.  Between  1903  and 
1906  he  founded  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
in  Panama  in  English  and  Spanish,  started  the 


Young  Men's  Christian  Association  and  the 
University  Club  for  Americans  and  school  work 
for  the  natives  in  the  Canal  Zone,  and  acted  as 
United  States  chaplain  there  (1905-06).  From 
1907  to  1913  he  was  again  superintendent  of  the 
North  Andes  Mission ;  president  of  the  theo- 
logical seminary  in  Lima ;  founder,  with  his 
daughter,  of  the  Lima  High  School  for  girls ; 
and  superintendent  of  public  schools  in  the  city 
of  Callao.  It  was  overwork  in  translating  the 
Gospel  of  St.  John  into  the  language  of  the 
Quichua  Indians  that  resulted  in  the  complete 
nervous  breakdown  from  which  he  never  re- 
covered. He  returned  to  the  United  States  in 
1913,  and  was  retired  in  1915. 

Wood  had  numerous  avocations.  An  amateur 
astronomer,  he  made  charts  of  the  southern  con- 
stellations and  cooperated  with  astronomers  at 
the  Cordoba  (Argentina)  observatory  in  impor- 
tant astronomical  work  and  discoveries ;  he  was 
a  singer  of  unusual  range,  power,  and  training ; 
he  played  several  musical  instruments,  and  drew 
and  lettered  with  artistic  talent.  He  never  asked 
or  took  a  vacation  in  forty-two  years,  but  found 
recreation  in  his  tasks  and  in  pacing  the  wide 
flat  roofs  and  studying  the  skies.  He  has  been 
well  called  a  "Pan-American  Christian."  His 
last  years  were  spent  in  Tacoma,  Wash.,  where 
he  died,  survived  by  his  wife  and  four  children. 

[Alumni  Record  of  Wesleyan  Univ.,  Middletown, 
Conn.  (1883)  ;  Alumnal  Record  De  Pauw  Univ.  (1915)  ; 
H.  C.  Stuntz,  South  Am.  Neighbors  (1916)  ;  W.  S. 
Robertson.  Hispanic-American  Relations  with  the  U.  S. 
(1923);  Christian  Advocate  (N.  Y.),  Dec.  28,  1922; 
Pacific  Christian  Advocate,  Feb.  27,  1930;  obituary  in 
Tacoma  Daily  Ledger,  Dec.  19,  1922;  files  and  reports 
of  the  Bd.  of  Foreign  Missions,  M.  E.  Church  ;  family 
records.]  O.M.  B. 

WOOD,  THOMAS  JOHN  (Sept.  25,  1823- 
Feb.  25,  1906),  soldier,  was  born  in  Munford- 
ville,  Ky.,  the  son  of  Col.  George  T.  and  Eliza- 
beth (Helm)  Wood.  After  a  country  schooling, 
he  entered  the  United  States  Military  Academy 
at  West  Point  in  1841.  His  first  roommate  was 
Ulysses  S.  Grant.  Following  his  graduation  in 
1845  he  gave  up  his  graduation  leave  to  join 
General  Taylor's  staff  at  Palo  Alto.  During  this 
campaign  he  brought  Taylor's  guns  opportunely 
into  action  with  ox-teams,  and  distinguished 
himself  at  Buena  Vista  by  penetrating  the  Mexi- 
can lines  in  a  brilliant  reconnaissance.  Though 
commissioned  in  the  engineers,  Wood,  craving 
activity,  transferred  on  Oct.  19,  1846,  into  the 
2nd  Dragoons.  In  that  regiment  and  with  the 
1st,  4th,  and  2nd  Cavalry  he  rose  through  grades 
to  colonel  on  Nov.  12,  1861.  Almost  continuous- 
ly on  the  frontier,  he  participated  in  Indian  cam- 
paigns, the  Kansas  border  troubles,  and  Colonei 
Johnston's  expedition  to  Utah.  Enjoying  a  well- 


474 


Wood 

earned  leave,  he  toured  Europe  in  1859-60,  and 
news  of  secession  reached  him  in  Egypt  in  Jan- 
uary 1 86 1. 

He  returned  home  and  within  six  months  had 
mustered  40,000  Indiana  troops  into  Federal 
service  at  Indianapolis.  Here  he  met,  and  on 
Nov.  29,  1861,  was  married  to  Caroline  E.  Greer, 
daughter  of  James  A.  and  Caroline  (King) 
Greer  of  Dayton,  Ohio.  Appointed  brigadier- 
general  of  volunteers  on  Oct.  n,  he  was  given 
an  Indiana  brigade,  and,  in  the  spring  of  1862, 
a  division.  At  Stone's  River  his  brigades  alone 
retained  their  position  throughout  the  battle,  and 
on  Dec.  31,  1862,  although  he  was  wounded,  he 
refused  to  quit  the  field  until  night  ended  the 
fighting.  The  next  year  at  Chickamauga,  the  re- 
moval of  his  division  from  the  line  on  Sept.  20 
permitted  the  Confederates  to  break  through  and 
demoralized  the  Union  right.  A  bitter  contro- 
versy concerning  responsibility  for  this  disaster 
ensued  between  Rosecrans  and  Wood  (War  of 
the  Rebellion:  Official  Records,  Army,  1  ser., 
vol.  XXX,  part  1,  1902),  but  the  latter  retained 
his  command  and  the  implicit  confidence  of 
Rosecrans'  successor,  General  Thomas. 

On  Nov.  25,  in  the  brilliant  capture  of  Mis- 
sionary Ridge,  his  troops  were  the  first  to  over- 
run the  main  Confederate  defenses.  The  Atlanta 
campaign  afforded  him  play  for  his  tactical  as 
well  as  his  fighting  abilities.  At  Lovejoy's  Sta- 
tion, Sept.  2,  1864,  he  was  again  badly  hurt,  but 
declined  a  sick  leave.  His  shattered  leg  wrapped 
in  a  buffalo  robe,  he  continued  commanding  his 
troops,  and  General  Sherman  declared  that  his 
example  of  fortitude  was  worth  20,000  men  to 
the  army  (Annual  Reunion,  post,  p.  119).  Thus 
he  endured  the  last  Tennessee  campaign,  and 
taking  command  of  the  IV  Corps  in  December 
he  conducted  the  infantry  pursuit  of  Hood's 
broken  army  after  Nashville.  Tardily  appointed 
major-general  of  volunteers  on  Jan.  27,  1865, 
immediately  after  the  war,  he  won  the  gratitude 
of  Mississippians  by  his  humane  military  admin- 
istration of  their  state.  Owing  to  his  injuries, 
he  was  retired  as  major-general,  United  States 
Army,  June  9,  1868.  He  passed  his  later  years  at 
Dayton,  Ohio,  where  he  was  conspicuously  active 
in  veteran  organizations.  He  assisted  in  marking 
the  battle  lines  at  Chickamauga.  He  was  appoint- 
ed to  the  Board  of  Visitors  at  West  Point  in 
1895  and  lived  to  become  the  last  survivor  of  the 
class  of  1845. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1906-07;  G.  W.  Cullum, 
Biog.  Reg.  ...U.S.  Mil.  Acad.  (1891)  ;  Ann.  Reunion, 
Asso.  of  Grads.  U.  S.  Mil.  Acad.,  1906;  War  of  the 
Rebellion:  Official  Records  (Army),  see  index  volume; 
Battles  and  Leaders  of  the  Civil  War  (1887-88),  vols. 
I,  III,  IV;  M.  F.  Steele,  Am.  Campaigns,  vol.  I 
(1909)  ;  T.  B.  Van  Home,  Hist,  of  the  Army  of  the 


Wood 

Cumberland  (2  vols.,  1875),  and  The  Lift  of  Maj.-Gen. 
G.  H.  Thomas  (1882)  ;  Memoirs  of  Gen.  W.  T.  Sher- 
man (2nd  ed  ,  1886),  vol.  I  ;  Personal  Memoirs  of  U.  S. 
Grant,  vol.  II  (1886);  Ohio  State  Jour.  (Columbus), 
Feb.  26,  1906.]  J.  M.H. 

WOOD,  WALTER  ABBOTT  (Oct.  23, 1815- 
Jan.  15,  1892),  manufacturer  of  agricultural  im- 
plements, inventor,  was  born  in  Mason,  Hills- 
boro  County,  N.  H.,  the  second  son  of  Aaron 
and  Rebecca  (Wright)  Wood,  and  a  descendant 
of  Jeremiah  Wood  who  was  in  America  by  1709. 
In  18 16  Aaron  Wood  moved  to  Rensselaerville, 
near  Albany,  N.  Y.,  and  engaged  in  the  construc- 
tion of  plows  and  wagons.  There  Walter  at- 
tended public  school  and  assisted  his  father  in 
the  shop,  acquiring  great  skill  in  the  handling  of 
tools.  About  1835  he  went  to  Hoosick  Falls,  N. 
Y.,  and  for  four  years  worked  as  a  blacksmith 
for  Parsons  &  Wilder,  where  he  was  considered 
the  best  workman  in  the  establishment.  About 
1840  he  went  to  Nashville,  Tenn.,  to  work  in  a 
carriage  factory.  Returning  to  Hoosick  Falls  in 
the  late  forties,  he  formed  a  partnership  with 
John  White  for  the  manufacture  of  plows,  but  in 
the  fall  of  1852  he  severed  this  connection  and, 
with  J.  Russell  Parsons,  founded  the  firm  of 
Wood  &  Parsons,  to  build  mowing  and  reaping 
machines  under  the  John  H.  Manny  patents. 
This  partnership  was  dissolved  a  year  later,  and 
Wood  continued  in  the  business  alone.  In  1855 
he  purchased  the  Tremont  Cotton  Mills,  convert- 
ing it  into  a  mower  and  reaper  factory.  Through- 
out the  fifties  he  introduced  numerous  changes 
and  improvements  in  the  Manny  machines,  some 
of  which  were  patented,  so  that  by  i860  the 
Wood  mowers  and  reapers  had  become  marked- 
ly different  from  the  original  machines.  Only 
two  machines  were  sold  in  1852,  but  thereafter 
the  business  grew  rapidly.  It  was  incorporated 
in  1865  under  the  title  of  the  Walter  A.  Wood 
Mowing  and  Reaping  Machine  Company,  with 
Wood  as  president.  By  1865  sales  had  increased 
to  8,500  annually;  in  1891  they  reached  90,000. 
Fire  destroyed  the  factory  in  i860  and  again  in 
1870,  but  each  time  Wood  ordered  it  rebuilt  on 
a  larger  scale.  The  chief  machines  made  by 
Wood  were  a  mower,  a  combined  mower  and 
hand-rake  reaper,  self-rake  reapers  of  the  chain- 
rake  and  reel-rake  types,  the  Sylvanus  D.  Locke 
wire  binder,  and  the  H.  A.  and  W.  M.  Holmes 
twine  binder.  Of  these  implements  the  mower 
and  the  two  binders  were  perhaps  the  most  fa- 
mous. 

In  the  course  of  his  career  Wood  took  out  some 
forty  patents  for  various  improvements  in  mow- 
ing and  reaping  machines.  He  introduced  his 
machines  into  Europe  in  1856  and  in  time  built 
up  an  extensive  foreign  business.   He  won  more 


475 


Wood 


Wood 


than  1,200  prizes  in  agricultural  society  exhi- 
bitions in  the  United  States,  in  foreign  coun- 
tries, and  at  world's  fairs  between  1855  and  1892. 
In  connection  with  the  Paris  Universal  Expo- 
sition of  1867  he  was  made  a  chevalier  of  the 
Legion  of  Honor,  and  in  1878  an  officer  in  the 
order ;  at  Vienna  in  1873  he  was  decorated  with 
the  Imperial  Order  of  Franz  Josef.  He  served 
as  Republican  representative  in  Congress  from 
March  1879  to  March  1883.  A  member  of  St. 
Mark's  Episcopal  Church,  he  gave  liberally  to 
charities  and  was  a  generous  patron  of  Hoosick 
Falls,  which  owed  much  of  its  prosperity  to  his 
factory.  He  was  noted  for  his  democratic  rela- 
tions with  his  employees.  He  was  married  twice : 
in  1842  to  Bessie  A.  Parsons  (d.  1866),  and  on 
Sept.  2,  1868,  to  Elizabeth  Warren  Nichols  (or 
Nicholls).  There  were  two  children  by  each 
marriage.  Wood  died  at  Hoosick  Falls. 

[See  G.  B.  Anderson,  Landmarks  of.  Rensselaer 
County,  N.  Y.  (1897);  W.  S.  Wood,  Descendants  of 
the  Brothers  Jeremiah  and  John  Wood  (1885),  which 
gives  the  name  of  Wood's  first  wife  as  Betsey  ;  cata- 
logues of  the  Walter  A.  Wood  Mowing  and  Reaping 
Machine  Co.,  1867— 1900;  In  Memoriam — Walter  A. 
Wood  (privately  printed,  1893)  ;  Farm  Implement  News 
(Chicago),  Jan.  21,  1892,  July  20,  1893;  obit,  note  in 
Albany  Evening  Jour.,  Jan.  16,  1892.]  H.  A.  K r. 

WOOD,  WILLIAM  (fl.  1629-1635),  author, 
emigrated  from  England  to  Massachusetts  in 
1629,  and  probably  settled  in  Lynn,  where  one 
of  his  name  was  made  a  freeman  in  1631.  The 
dedication  of  his  one  book  to  Sir  William  Ar- 
myne  of  Lincolnshire  suggests  that  he  came 
from  that  county,  as  did  so  many  other  early 
New  Englanders.  Possibly  he  had  been  at  Cam- 
bridge University,  where  several  William  Woods 
are  recorded  at  dates  which  would  have  been 
possible  for  him  (J.  G.  Bartlett,  "University 
Alumni  Founders  of  New  England,"  Publica- 
tions of  the  Colonial  Society  of  Massachusetts, 
vol.  XXV,  1924,  pp.  20-21).  He  left  the  colony 
on  Aug.  15,  1633,  and  on  July  7,  1634,  his  book, 
New  Englands  Prospect,  was  entered  in  the  Sta- 
tioners' Register  in  London.  On  Sept.  3,  the 
General  Court  of  Massachusetts  Bay  voted  to 
send  letters  of  thanks  to  various  benefactors 
to  "this  plantacon" — among  them  "Mr.  Wood" 
(N.  B.  Shurtleff,  Records  of  the  Governor  and 
Company  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay,  vol.  I,  1853, 
p.  128).  Presumably  this  was  in  recognition  of 
Wood's  book,  the  best  description  of  Massachu- 
setts Bay  which  had  appeared.  In  it  the  author 
speaks  of  his  intention  to  return  to  New  Eng- 
land. Possibly  he  did.  A  William  Wood  came 
over  in  September  1635,  and  is  described  as  a 
husbandman,  twenty-seven  years  old.  Whether 
this  was  the  author  is  doubtful,  and  even  if  it 
was,  his  later  career  is  uncertain.   One  William 


Wood  was  chosen  representative  from  Lynn  in 
1636,  and  in  the  next  year  went  to  Sandwich 
(Frederick  Freeman,  The  History  of  Cape  Cod, 
vol.  I,  1858,  pp.  127-28).  This  may  have  been 
the  writer  of  New  Englands  Prospect,  but  there 
is  no  secure  evidence,  since  another  William 
Wood  was  granted  land  in  Salem  in  1638  {Essex 
Institute  Historical  Collections,  vol.  IX,  1869, 
p.  70).  Still  another  appeared  in  Concord  in 
1638  and  died  in  that  town  in  1671  (C.  W. 
Holmes,  A  Genealogy  of  the  Lineal  Descendants 
of  William  Wood,  1901,  pp.  9,  259).  The  Wil- 
liam Wood  who  went  to  Sandwich  was  there  in 
1643,  and  town  clerk  in  1649,  but  the  case  is 
complicated  by  the  fact  that  in  1639  another  Wil- 
liam Wood  seems  to  have  died  in  Sandwich 
(Freeman,  op.  cit.,  vol.  II,  1862,  pp.  44,  169). 

Wood's  New  Englands  Prospect  is  an  account 
of  New  England  as  its  author  saw  it  from  1629 
to  1633.  The  first  part  is  given  to  a  description 
of  the  country  and  its  settlements ;  the  second,  to 
Wood's  observations  on  the  Indians.  The  book 
is  clearly  the  work  of  a  man  with  some  literary 
training,  and  some  background  of  reading.  It 
offers  rich  material  for  the  historian,  and  is 
unusual  among  books  of  its  type  for  real  vigor 
of  style  and  relatively  polished  form.  It  was 
sufficiently  popular  to  have  London  editions  in 
1634,  1635,  and  1639.  In  1764  it  was  reprinted 
in  Boston  with  a  preface,  ascribed  either  to 
James  Otis,  or,  more  probably,  to  Nathaniel 
Rogers  (Proceedings  of  the  Massachusetts  His- 
torical Society,  1  ser.,  vol.  VI,  1863,  pp.  250, 
334-37).  Alexander  Young's  Chronicles  of  the 
First  Planters  of  the  Colony  of  Massachusetts 
Bay  (1846)  contains  a  partial  reprint;  complete 
editions  were  issued  in  1865  (edited  by  Charles 
Deane  for  the  Prince  Society)  and  in  1898  (ed- 
ited by  E.  M.  Boynton). 

[See  also  J.  B.  Felt,  Annals  of  Salem,  I  (1845),  516  ; 
Alonzo  Lewis  and  J.  R.  Newhall,  Hist,  of  Lynn  (1865), 
pp.  113,  165,  169;  Lemuel  Shattuck,  A  Hist,  of  the 
Town  of  Concord  (1835),  pp.  371,  388  ;  C.  H.  Wailcott, 
Concord  in  the  Colonial  Period  (1884),  pp.  37,  72,  73. 
For  criticism  of  Wood's  book,  see  M.  C.  Tyler,  A  Hist. 
of  Am.  Lit.,  1607-1765  (1878),  I,  170-79.]    k.  g  m. 

WOOD,  WILLIAM  BURKE  (May  26,  1779- 
Sept.  23,  1861),  actor,  theatrical  manager,  was 
born  in  Montreal,  the  son  of  a  New  York  gold- 
smith who  had  gone  to  Canada  before  the  Brit- 
ish occupation  of  New  York  and  returned  about 
1784.  His  mother  was  Thomizen  English.  Af- 
ter a  brief  private  schooling  liberally  supple- 
mented from  his  earliest  years  by  frequent  visits 
to  the  theatres,  he  was  apprenticed  clerk  in  a 
counting-house  at  twelve,  passed  a  year  in  the 
West  Indies  for  his  health,  returned  and  was 
jailed  for  debt  in  Philadelphia,  and  in  1798,  poor, 


476 


Wood 


Wood 


emaciated,  ill-equipped  for  serious  dramatic  work 
but  inspired  with  vague  notions  of  his  talent, 
journeyed  alone  to  Annapolis,  Md.,  and  obtained 
a  place  in  the  company  of  Thomas  Wignell 
[q.v.~\,  an  old  family  friend,  making  his  debut 
there  on  June  26  as  George  Barnwell.  It  was  a 
bad  start,  as  Wood  himself  relates ;  nor  was  the 
sickly  youth  successful  in  his  other  tragic  roles 
that  season.  Not  until  a  second  sojourn  in 
Jamaica  had  restored  his  powers  and  he  came 
back  to  play  Dick  Dowlas  in  The  Hcir-at-Law 
did  he  find  his  true  dramatic  forte,  genteel  com- 
edy. Henceforth,  acting  at  Washington,  Balti- 
more, Philadelphia,  and  in  summer  at  Alexandria, 
where  Wignell's  famous  company  filled  regular 
engagements,  Wood  grew  steadily  in  skill  and 
public  favor.  Before  his  twenty-third  year  he 
was  treasurer  of  the  company's  Chestnut  Street 
Theatre  in  Philadelphia,  its  headquarters ;  and 
when  Wignell  died  in  February  1803,  leaving 
the  control  and  the  property  to  his  widow  and 
Alexander  Reinagle,  the  musician,  Wood  be- 
came assistant  to  the  acting  manager,  William 
Warren  [q.v.~],  and  was  dispatched  to  England 
in  search  of  new  actors.  Returning  from  this 
profitable  tour  of  the  British  theatres,  Wood  mar- 
ried on  Jan.  30,  1804,  Juliana  Westray,  a  favorite 
actress  of  the  company,  and  began  his  long  col- 
laboration with  Warren  which  made  their  fame. 
The  company  prospered,  and  Wood,  upon  whom 
fell  the  actual  duties  of  managing,  was  not  re- 
luctant when  in  1809,  Reinagle  dying,  one  or  two 
Philadelphia  friends  furnished  him  the  means  to 
buy  from  Warren  an  equal  share  in  the  com- 
pany's property  and  management.  Following  a 
debut  at  the  Park  Theatre  in  New  York,  Sept. 
12,  1810,  as  De  Valmont  in  The  Foundling  of  the 
Forest,  then  his  best  role,  Wood  joined  his  for- 
mer chief  in  the  autumn  of  1810. 

The  new  partnership  endured  for  sixteen  years, 
raising  the  theatres  under  its  control,  particu- 
larly the  Chestnut  Street  (the  "Old  Drury"  of 
Philadelphia),  to  international  eminence,  despite 
the  gravest  obstacles.  With  numerous  English 
players  in  the  company  and  still  more  English 
plays  in  the  repertory,  it  managed  to  steer  a  safe 
path  through  the  dangerous  years  of  the  War  of 
1812  and  the  subsequent  economic  depression. 
When  in  April  1820,  while  the  troupe  was  away 
at  Baltimore,  its  splendid  gas-lit  Chestnut  Street 
Theatre  burned  to  the  ground  uninsured,  carry- 
ing with  it  the  precious  scenery,  machinery, 
wardrobe,  library,  music,  lights,  and  all,  the  part- 
ners leased  the  Olympic  in  Walnut  Street  and 
went  on  playing  until  a  second  "Old  Drury" 
could  be  reared  and  opened  in  1822.  By  a  ju- 
dicious management  it  preserved  the  organiza- 


tion amid  the  hazards  of  the  costly  starring  sys- 
tem, yet  brought  nearly  every  actor  of  note  to  its 
boards,  including,  for  his  first  American  appear- 
ance, the  youthful  Edwin  Forrest  [q.v.].  The 
permanent  company,  which,  besides  Warren  and 
the  Woods,  included  Joseph  Jefferson,  Blissett, 
Bernard,  Harwood,  Francis,  Bray,  Burke,  the 
Barretts,  the  Duffs,  and  others,  introduced  also, 
in  the  face  of  growing  rivalry  in  New  York,  a 
very  large  proportion  of  new  plays,  some  of  them 
composed  at  Wood's  suggestion  and  for  particu- 
lar members,  while  still  keeping  fresh  a  popular 
taste  for  the  European  dramas  of  tradition.  Such 
systematic  success  could  only  result  from  a  re- 
markable discipline  of  all  the  actors  and  a  rare 
coordination  in  the  management.  "Warren  and 
I,"  says  Wood,  "seemed  to  be  very  happily  adapt- 
ed as  counterparts  or  correlatives  of  one  another ; 
for  while  he  had  great  abilities  and  judgment  in 
laying  out  a  campaign  and  viewing  the  season  in 
a  sort  of  abstract  way,  I  found  myself  always 
able  to  execute,  which  he  was  never  inclined  to 
do,  the  details  incident  to  his  general  scheme" 
(Personal  Re  collections,  p.  326) .  They  had,  how- 
ever, never  been  very  warm  friends ;  and  when 
in  1825  Wood  saw  their  unanimity  waning,  he 
offered  to  buy  out  his  partner,  who  was  sur- 
prised, incredulous,  unwilling.  At  length,  fric- 
tion increasing,  they  signed  separation  papers, 
leaving  the  sole  management  to  the  tired  and 
corpulent  Warren. 

For  two  dull  seasons  Wood  went  on  acting  at 
the  Chestnut,  then  in  the  autumn  of  1828  under- 
took the  management  of  the  new  Arch  Street 
Theatre.  Despite  good  houses,  difficulties  with 
the  trustees  and  the  inefficient  company  caused 
his  resignation  within  three  months ;  and  early 
in  1829  he  and  his  wife  joined  the  forces  at  the 
Walnut  Street.  There  Wood  remained  to  enjoy 
a  ripening  prosperity  and  renown  until  Nov.  18, 
1846,  when,  the  only  survivor  of  the  original 
Philadelphia  company,  he  took  a  final  benefit  be- 
fore a  most  distinguished  audience  as  Sergeant 
Austerlitz  in  the  appropriate  drama,  The  Maid 
of  Croissy,  or  The  Last  of  the  Old  Guard.  In 
1855  Wood  published  his  Personal  Recollections 
of  the  Stage,  a  full  and  indispensable  if  slightly 
egoistic  account  of  his  associations  over  forty 
years.  He  died,  Sept.  23,  1861. 

[In  addition  to  Wood's  Personal  Recollections 
(1855),  see  T.  A.  Brown,  Hist,  of  the  Am.  Stage,  1733- 
1870  (1870)  ;  hist,  of  the  Phila.  stage,  in  Phila.  Sunday 
Despatch,  beginning  May  7,  1854,  collected  in  bound 
vols,  in  the  Univ.  of  Pa.  lib.  ;  R.  D.  James,  Old  Drurj 
of  Phila.  (1932),  which  contains  the  text  of  Wood's 
manuscript  diary  or  daily  account  book  ;  Arthur  Horn- 
blow,  A  Hist,  of  the  Theatre  in  America  (2  vols.,  1919)  ; 
William  Dunlap,  A  Hist,  of  the  Am.  Theatre  (1832)  ; 
The  Warren  Family  (privately  printed,  1893)  ;  F.  C. 
Wemyss,  Twenty-Six  Years  of  the  Life  of  an  Actor 


A77 


Wood 

and  Manager  (2  vols.,  1847)  ;  notice  of  Wood's  fare- 
well in  Sat.  Courier  (Phila.),  Nov.  28,  1846;  death 
notice  in  Phila.  Inquirer,  Sept.  25,  1861  ;  and  Wood's 
original  costume  designer's  notes  (autograph)  and  au- 
tograph letters  in  Theatre  Coll.,  Harvard  College  lib.] 

M.B. 

WOOD,  WILLIAM  ROBERT  (Jan.  5,  1861- 
Mar.  7,  1933),  congressman,  was  born  at  Ox- 
ford, Ind.,  the  son  of  Robert  and  Matilda  (Hick- 
man) Wood.  He  received  his  early  education  in 
the  local  public  schools  and  after  learning  the 
trade  of  harness  maker  decided  to  study  law.  In 
1882  he  obtained  the  degree  of  LL.B.  from  the 
University  of  Michigan  and  began  the  practice 
of  law  at  Lafayette,  Ind.  He  was  a  partner  suc- 
cessively of  Judge  W.  DeWitt  Wallace  (1882- 
84),  of  Capt.  W.  H.  Bryan  (1884-91),  and  of  J. 
Frank  Hanly  (1897-1904),  thereafter  practising 
alone.  On  May  16,  1883,  he  married  Mary  Eliza- 
beth Geiger,  who  died  in  1924.  In  1890  he  en- 
tered public  life  as  prosecuting  attorney  for 
Tippecanoe  County,  being  returned  to  office  in 
1892.  Elected  state  senator  in  1896,  he  served  in 
the  Indiana  legislature  for  eighteen  years ;  he 
was  twice  president  pro  tempore  of  the  Senate 
and  Republican  floor  leader  for  four  sessions.  In 

191 5  he  took  his  seat  in  the  national  House  of 
Representatives  as  a  member  of  the  Sixty-fourth 
Congress. 

Entering  the  House  with  a  long  legislative  ex- 
perience behind  him,  he  advanced  rapidly  and 
quickly  attracted  attention,  becoming  known  as 
one  of  the  most  active  Republican  critics  of  the 
Wilson  administration.  On  Dec.  22,  1916,  he 
presented  the  resolution  which  resulted  in  the 
long  and  much-publicized  investigation  of  the 
alleged  leak  in  the  news  concerning  Wilson's 
peace  note  to  Germany.  As  chairman  of  the  Re- 
publican national  congressional  committee,  from 
1920  until  his  retirement  from  public  life,  he 
played  an  important  part  in  framing  Republican 
policies  and  mapping  party  strategy.  He  was  a 
loyal  party  man,  but  on  occasion  independent, 
both  of  thought  and  action.  He  was  a  delegate  to 
the  Republican  National  Convention  in  1912, 
1916,  1920,  and  1924,  and  at  the  convention  of 

1916  placed  Charles  W.  Fairbanks  in  nomina- 
tion for  the  presidency.  In  the  campaign  of  1928, 
he  was  in  charge  of  the  Western  speakers  bureau 
at  Chicago. 

Though  the  House  had  abler  orators,  Wood 
could  speak  effectively  from  the  floor  and  was 
usually  in  the  thick  of  the  battle.  As  chairman  of 
the  powerful  appropriations  committee  in  the 
Seventy-first  Congress  he  was  among  the  most 
influential  of  the  House  leaders.  His  political 
philosophy,  essentially  rural,  included  suspicion 
of  the  "money  power."   Economy  and  retrench- 


Woodberry 

ment  had  few  more  aggressive  champions  during 
a  period  of  steady  expansion  in  the  size  and  cost 
of  the  federal  government,  though  he  was  active 
in  building  up  the  merchant  marine,  strongly 
urging  federal  loans  to  shipbuilders.  Wood  was  a 
lawmaker  of  the  old  school,  one  who  had  reached 
the  top  by  hard  work  and  conscientious  applica- 
tion to  his  duties  rather  than  by  intellectual  bril- 
liancy and  the  conception  of  new  legislative  ideas. 
His  background  linked  him  to  the  earlier  period 
of  American  life,  when  business  was  individual 
and  when  money  was  made  not  so  much  by  spec- 
ulation and  by  combining  corporations  and  sell- 
ing stock  to  the  public  as  by  a  careful  accumula- 
tion of  the  pennies.  This  explains  perhaps  his 
assaults  on  Wall  Street.  He  had  little  use  for  the 
direct  primary,  which  he  predicted  would  even- 
tually lead  to  the  destruction  of  representative 
government.  The  social  life  of  the  capital  had 
no  amenities  for  him,  and  golf,  the  pastime  of  so 
many  of  his  colleagues,  he  regarded  as  an  "old 
man's  game" ;  his  favorite  diversion  was  fishing. 
Wood  was  defeated  for  reelection  in  1932  and 
died  in  New  York  City,  as  he  was  preparing  to 
embark  on  a  Mediterranean  cruise,  four  days  af- 
ter his  retirement  from  public  office. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1932-33  ;  Biog.  Dir.  Am. 
Cong.  (1928)  ;  "The  Perfect  Congressman,"  by  "the 
Gentleman  at  the  Keyhole,"  Colliers,  Oct.  31,  193 1  ;  R. 
P.  DeHart,  Past  and  Present  of  Tippecanoe  County, 
Ind.  (1909),  vol.  II  ;  N.  Y.  Times,  Mar.  8,  1933  ;  Eve- 
ning Star  (Washington),  Mar.  7,  1933.]       O.  M.  Jr. 

WOODBERRY,   GEORGE   EDWARD 

(May  12,  1855-Jan.  2,  1930),  poet,  critic,  and 
teacher,  was  born  in  Beverly,  Mass.,  the  son  of 
Henry  Elliott  and  Sarah  Dane  (Tuck)  Wood- 
berry.  He  was  descended  from  colonial  New 
England  stock  on  both  sides ;  his  first  American 
ancestor,  John  Woodberry,  settled  in  Salem  in 
1626  and  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  settle- 
ment at  Beverly.  Many  of  his  forebears  were 
sea-captains  and  sailors,  and  his  own  poetic  pre- 
occupation with  the  sea  and  his  taste  for  wander- 
ing in  strange  places  show  that  he  was  of  their 
blood.  He  was  educated  at  Phillips  Exeter  Acad- 
emy, Exeter,  N.  H.,  to  which  he  remained  deeply 
attached  all  his  life,  and  at  Harvard  College, 
which  he  entered  with  the  class  of  1876,  though 
on  account  of  illness  and  poverty  he  was  unable 
to  graduate  until  1877.  There,  he  tells  us,  Henry 
Adams  formed  his  mind  on  the  intellectual  and 
Charles  Eliot  Norton  on  the  esthetic  side  (Se- 
lected Letters,  p.  207).  From  Adams  he  ac- 
quired a  certain  individual  attitude  toward  his- 
tory, and  from  Norton  a  lifelong  devotion  to  the 
culture  of  the  Mediterranean  world,  but  many 
other  influences  played  upon  him  at  the  time.  We 
catch  a  glimpse  of  him  cataloguing  the  library  of 


478 


Woodberry 

James  Russell  Lowell  (C.  E.  Norton,  ed.,  Letters 
of  James  Russell  Lowell,  1894,  II,  180),  and  he 
was  present  at  Emerson's  last  lecture.  He  was 
even  then  somewhat  of  a  "character"  in  the  New 
England  sense ;  the  college  authorities  refused  to 
permit  him  to  deliver  his  class  oration  on  "The 
Relation  of  Pallas  Athene  to  Athens,"  and  it 
was  printed  privately ;  and  President  Eliot,  in  a 
letter  of  the  period,  while  strongly  commending 
his  high  moral  character,  deprecated  the  alto- 
gether too  vigorous  manner  in  which  the  young 
Woodberry  expressed  his  personal  opinions.  He 
was,  and  remained,  a  representative  of  New 
England  Transcendentalism  on  its  more  or  less 
rebellious  side,  and  Emerson,  Wendell  Phillips, 
and  the  drum-beats  of  the  Civil  War  reverberate 
throughout  his  life. 

From  1877  to  1878  and  again  from  1880  to 
1882  he  was  professor  of  English  in  the  Univer- 
sity of  Nebraska ;  and  this  brief  experience  of 
western  life  left  a  deep  impression  on  him,  in 
the  way  peculiar  to  his  genius  (see  especially 
"The  Ride,"  in  Heart  of  Man).  He  had  begun 
his  literary  career  in  his  undergraduate  days  as 
an  editor  of  the  Harvard  Advocate ;  he  had  been 
contributing  to  the  Atlantic  Monthly  since  1876 
and  to  the  Nation  since  1878,  and  he  now  became 
a  constant  contributor  to  both  until  1891.  For  a 
year,  in  1888,  he  was  literary  editor  of  the  Boston 
Post.  His  first  book,  A  History  of  Wood-En- 
graving (1883),  was  hardly  more  than  a  higher 
form  of  hack-work.  It  was  followed  two  years 
later  by  his  life  of  Edgar  Allan  Poe,  which  at- 
tracted attention  and  dissent  because  of  the  cold 
impartiality  with  which  the  defects  of  Poe  were 
analyzed  in  all  their  detail.  Woodberry  did  not 
like  Poe,  but  he  endeavored  to  be  scrupulously 
fair ;  and  certainly  no  lover  of  Poe  has  brought 
to  light  more  material  for  the  study  of  Poe's  life 
and  genius,  both  in  this  work  and  elsewhere,  cul- 
minating in  the  two-volume  Life  of  Edgar  Allan 
Poe  twenty-four  years  later.  In  1890  he  pub- 
lished The  North  Shore  Watch  and  Other  Poems 
and  Studies  in  Letters  and  Life,  and  these  estab- 
lished his  reputation  as  a  poet  and  as  a  critic. 
The  title-poem  of  the  former  was  an  elegy  on  the 
death  of  a  friend,  sincerely  and  even  passionately 
felt,  though  full  of  echoes  of  Shelley  and  other 
masters  of  the  elegiac  form ;  and  throughout  the 
volume,  which  contained  the  fine  philosophic 
poem  "Agathon"  and  the  well-known  sonnets 
"At  Gibraltar,"  the  Platonic  tradition  of  Euro- 
pean poetry  mingles  with  a  deep  American  pa- 
triotism. The  Studies  in  Letters  and  Life,  large- 
ly made  up  of  his  Atlantic  and  Nation  articles, 
emphasized  the  relation  between  literature  and 
the  imaginative  and  other  experience  that  had 


Woodberry 

produced  it,  and  exhibited  his  characteristic  com- 
bination of  a  virile  idealism  with  a  certain  femi- 
nine sensibility. 

In  1891,  upon  the  recommendation  of  Lowell 
and  Norton,  he  Was  appointed  professor  of  lit- 
erature in  Columbia  University,  a  title  that  was 
changed  to  professor  of  comparative  literature  in 
1900.  The  thirteen  years  at  Columbia  were  the 
fullest  and  richest  in  his  life.  He  was  brilliantly 
successful  as  a  teacher.  He  attracted  around  him 
all  the  most  alert  elements  in  undergraduate  life, 
athletes  as  well  as  scholars,  and  not  only  aroused 
in  them  a  new  interest  in  literature,  but  gave 
them  a  new  point  of  view  with  which  to  interpret 
it  and  the  life  of  which  it  was  an  expression.  He 
had  a  special  gift  of  friendship  with  the  young, 
and  a  quietly  persuasive  way  of  encouraging 
their  youthful  idealisms.  The  boyish  aggressive- 
ness to  which  President  Eliot  had  referred  had 
long  been  superseded  by  a  gentleness  of  demeanor 
almost  wistful,  but  his  students  recognized  the 
core  of  obstinacy  and  strength  beneath  it,  and 
"manly"  and  "manliness"  were  words  that  often 
appeared  in  their  tributes  to  him.  Under  his 
guidance  the  undergraduate  society  of  King's 
Crown  was  formed ;  a  new  undergraduate  peri- 
odical, the  Momingside,  was  founded,  and  a  vol- 
ume of  Columbia  Verse  published.  Later  he  built 
up  a  graduate  department  which  transformed 
the  methods  of  higher  instruction  in  literature 
and  left  a  deep  mark  on  university  teaching  in 
this  field  throughout  the  country;  the  series  of 
Columbia  University  Studies  in  Comparative 
Literature  in  which  his  students'  work  appeared 
represented  an  important  academic  departure  in 
that  the  studies  were  not  the  dry  bones  usually 
associated  with  doctoral  dissertations  but,  at 
least  in  intention,  real  books  both  in  form  and  in 
content. 

During  this  period  Woodberry  published  two 
volumes  of  verse  {Wild  Eden,  1899;  Poems, 
I9°3).  two  volumes  of  essays  {Heart  of  Man, 
1899;  Makers  of  Literature,  1900),  a  biography 
{Nathaniel  Hawthorne,  1902),  and  a  brief  his- 
tory of  American  literature  (America  in  Litera- 
ture, 1903,  translated  into  French  in  1909).  In 
Wild  Eden  is  some  of  his  most  charming  verse, 
with  a  new  note  of  lyric  intensity ;  much  of  it  is 
reminiscent  of  Shelley,  but  with  Woodberry 's 
own  New  England  overtones.  His  America  in 
Literature  is  characterized  by  a  certain  detached 
insight,  but  it  exhibits  a  narrowness  of  sym- 
pathy which  brushes  aside  the  racier  writers  like 
Walt  Whitman,  Thoreau,  Mark  Twain,  and  Her- 
man Melville ;  and  this  is  equally  true  of  his  later 
article  on  "American  Literature"  in  the  eleventh 
edition  of  the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica.    The 


479 


Woodberry 

biography  of  Hawthorne  is  written  with  a  subtle 
perception  of  the  character  of  that  shy  genius, 
and  represents  Woodberry's  high-water  mark  as 
a  biographer.  His  Heart  of  Man  contains  strik- 
ing essays  on  "Democracy"  and  "A  New  De- 
fence of  Poetry,"  and  is  perhaps  his  most  char- 
acteristic book.  It  is  an  interpretation  of  the 
imaginative  elements  common  to  poetry,  religion, 
and  politics ;  and  the  impression  it  made  on  Wil- 
liam James  {Letters,  1920,  II,  89)  represents  in 
a  measure  a  final  judgment  on  Woodberry's  lit- 
erary work :  "The  essays  are  grave  and  noble  in 
the  extreme.  I  hail  another  American  author. 
They  can't  be  popular,"  because  they  lack  "that 
which  our  generation  seems  to  need,  the  sudden 
word,  the  unmediated  transition,  the  flash  of  per- 
ception that  makes  reasonings  unnecessary.  Poor 
Woodberry,  so  high,  so  true,  so  good,  so  original 
in  his  total  make-up,  and  yet  so  unoriginal  if  you 
take  him  spotwise — and  therefore  so  ineffective." 

Woodberry's  very  success  as  a  teacher,  as  well 
as  his  informal  and  somewhat  unacademic  mode 
of  life,  the  reticences  of  a  New  England  "charac- 
ter," and  other  causes,  led  to  jealousy  and  con- 
troversy ;  and  suddenly,  for  reasons  still  obscure, 
he  resigned  his  chair  early  in  1904  while  on  a 
year's  leave  of  absence.  The  rest  of  his  life  was 
of  a  wholly  different  pattern.  Part  of  it  was  spent 
as  a  sort  of  itinerant  teacher,  lecturing  for  long- 
er or  shorter  periods  at  various  colleges  and  uni- 
versities— at  Amherst  during  the  spring  term  of 
1905,  at  Cornell  for  one  month  in  1907  and  three 
months  in  1908,  at  Wisconsin  during  the  second 
semester  of  1913-14,  at  California  during  the 
summer  session  of  1918 — and  at  all  these  insti- 
tutions he  left  behind  him  friends  and  disciples. 
Part  of  the  time  was  spent  in  lonely  wandering 
in  his  favorite  Mediterranean  world,  where  he 
made  friends  with  one  or  two  writers  like  the 
Neapolitan  dialect  poet  Salvatore  di  Giacomo  but 
mostly  with  peasants  and  all  sorts  of  simple  folk ; 
out  of  this  came  the  book  on  North  Africa  and 
the  Desert  ( 1914)  as  well  as  a  number  of  poems. 
But  most  of  the  time  was  spent  in  Beverly,  writ- 
ing or  dreaming  in  the  house  occupied  for  gen- 
erations by  his  ancestors  ;  and  his  later  years  were 
lightened  by  the  friendship  and  help  of  a  few 
friends  and  former  students.  The  Woodberry 
Society  was  organized  in  191 1,  and  printed  sev- 
eral of  his  writings  privately.  He  received  vari- 
ous academic  distinctions,  and  he  was  a  member 
of  the  American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Letters, 
Fellow  of  the  American  Academy  of  Arts  and 
Sciences,  and  Honorary  Fellow  of  the  Royal  So- 
ciety of  Literature  of  England. 

His  retirement  from  Columbia  was  immediate- 
ly followed  by  the  publication  of  a  number  of 


Woodberry 

works  largely  based  on  his  academic  and  other 
lectures  {The  Torch,  1905;  The  Appreciation  of 
Literature,  1907;  Great  Writers,  lectures  de- 
livered at  the  Johns  Hopkins  University,  1907; 
The  Inspiration  of  Poetry,  1910),  as  well  as  one 
of  his  most  important  biographies  (Ralph  Waldo 
Emerson,  in  English  Men  of  Letters  Series,  1907) 
and  several  volumes  of  verse.  A  series  of  lec- 
tures on  Race  Power  in  Literature  delivered  be- 
fore the  Lowell  Institute  of  Boston  in  1903,  The 
Torch  is  probably  the  fullest  expression  of  his 
philosophy  of  literature,  and  exhibits  the  deep 
sense  of  race  and  tradition  which  was  fundamen- 
tal in  his  thought;  but  it  should  be  borne  in  mind 
that  for  Woodberry  "race"  represented  not  so 
much  an  ethnic  entity  as  a  spiritual  quality  of 
mind  made  up  of  imaginative  memories  and  ex- 
periences. During  the  last  fifteen  years  of  his  life 
he  added  little  of  importance  except  a  series  of 
sonnets.  Ideal  Passion  (1917),  steeped  in  the 
atmosphere  of  the  Mediterranean  and  containing 
some  of  his  finest  and  most  mature  verse,  and 
The  Roamer  and  Other  Poems  (1920),  in  which 
most  of  his  poetry  is  collected.  Besides  the  work 
already  enumerated,  he  edited  a  considerable 
number  of  books,  including  The  Complete  Po- 
etical Works  of  Percy  Bysshe  Shelley  (1892) 
and,  with  E.  C.  Stedman,  The  Works  of  Edgar 
Allan  Poc  ( 10  vols.,  1894-95). 

Woodberry  began  as  a  "character"  and  ended 
as  one,  but  the  nature  of  the  character  changed 
under  the  stress  of  life.  The  desire  for  privacy, 
always  strong  in  him,  in  his  last  years  became  a 
passion.  The  realities  of  American  life  clashed 
with  his  democratic  dreams,  but  the  old  toughness 
that  had  enabled  him  to  cope  with  the  clash  or  to 
rise  above  it  had  dwindled  away.  The  feeling 
that  he  was  out  of  touch  with  life,  that  he  had 
been  passed  by,  and  perhaps  some  tormenting 
inner  problem,  produced  in  him  an  increasing 
but  quite  unjustified  sense  of  failure.  His  lec- 
ture on  Wendell  Phillips  (  1912)  had  been  a 
noble  protest  against  all  the  injustices  and  de- 
teriorations of  American  life ;  and  in  the  previ- 
ous year  (A  Scholar's  Testament,  post,  pp.  7- 
11)  he  had  expressed,  without  a  trace  of  his 
usual  reserve,  some  of  his  most  militant  doubts 
and  convictions.  But  after  the  World  War  he 
became  more  and  more  melancholy  and  resigned, 
and  the  rebellious  side  of  the  old  Transcendental- 
ism faded  away.  He  died  in  the  Beverly  Hos- 
pital on  Jan.  2,  1930. 

Woodberry  thought  of  himself  essentially  as  a 
poet,  and  his  verse  is  often  pure  and  delicate,  but 
echoes  of  the  great  literature  of  England,  Italy, 
and  Greece  form  the  undertone  of  all  his  music. 
If  he  lacked  what  he  liked  to  call  "poetic  energy" 


48< 


Woodbridge 

and  belonged,  as  he  said  of  Poe,  "to  the  men  of 
culture  instead  of  those  of  originally  perfect  pow- 
er," it  should  be  remembered  that  his  self-se- 
lected models  were  the  great  "literary"  poets  such 
as  Spenser,  Milton,  Shelley,  and  Tennyson,  or 
the  poets  of  Italy,  where  all  poets  are  in  a  sense 
"literary" ;  and  his  special  note  of  subdued  lyrical 
eloquence,  though  alien  to  the  conversational 
standard  imposed  on  American  poetry  by  the 
generation  that  followed  him,  is  not  without  its 
own  individual  flavor.  As  a  critic  he  occupies  a 
position  of  no  mean  importance.  Some  of  his  es- 
says (like  that  on  Virgil  and  others)  are  liter- 
ary masterpieces ;  the  first  two  lectures  of  The 
Torch  hold  their  place  side  by  side  with  the  best 
that  has  been  written  of  man's  imaginative  life 
by  any  American.  In  his  best  critical  work  there 
is  a  subtle  intuition  of  the  emotional  experi- 
ence that  produced  the  work  of  literature  and  a 
deep  sense  of  its  relation  to  the  spiritual  back- 
ground of  western  man.  His  prose  style  at  its 
best  is,  as  William  James  said,  "grave  and  noble 
in  the  extreme,"  but  at  its  worst,  as  in  the  study 
of  Swinburne,  sinks  into  a  wordy  grandiloquence. 
As  a  teacher  he  deserves  to  rank  with  the  most 
inspiring  that  the  country  has  produced.  His 
intellectual  life  might  be  summed  up  by  saying 
that  it  was  a  frustrated  effort  to  effect  a  marriage 
of  New  England  individualism  with  the  Platonic 
and  Catholic  tradition  of  Europe. 

[There  is  no  adequate  account  of  Woodberry's  life. 
Bibliogs.  of  his  writings  are  included  in  L.  V.  Ledoux, 
George  Edward  Woodberry :  A  Study  of  His  Poetry 
(1917)  and  in  George  Edward  Woodberry  .  .  .  An  Ap- 
preciation by  John  Erskine  (1930).  His  coll.  essays 
were  published  in  six  vols,  in  1920—21,  and  a  vol.  of 
Selected  Poems,  ed.  by  three  of  his  former  students,  in 
1933.  He  was  a  charming  and  indefatigable  letter- 
writer,  and  information  in  regard  to  his  later  life  can 
be  gleaned  from  his  Selected  Letters  (1933),  with  an 
introduction  by  Walter  de  la  Mare,  and  A  Scholar's 
Testament :  Two  Letters  from  George  Edward  Wood- 
berry to  J.  E.  Spingarn  (Amenia,  N.  Y.,  1931),  the 
latter  containing  one  of  the  really  notable  letters  of 
Am.  lit.  See  also  Who's  Who  in  America,  1928-29; 
and  obituary  in  N.  Y.  Times,  Jan.  3,  1930.  The  Poetry 
Room  endowed  in  his  honor  in  the  Harvard  Univ.  Lib. 
contains  about  1,500  letters  written  to  him  and  about 
30  written  by  him,  as  well  as  other  interesting  memo- 
rials ;  numerous  presentation  copies  of  books  received 
by  him  are  contained  in  the  lib.  of  Phillips  Exeter 
Acad.]  J.E.S. 

WOODBRIDGE,  JOHN  (1613-Mar.  17, 
1695),  colonial  magistrate,  clergyman,  and  au- 
thor, was  the  eldest  son  of  John  Woodbridge, 
minister  at  Stanton,  Wiltshire,  England,  and 
Sarah  (Parker)  Woodbridge,  and  the  grandson 
of  Robert  Parker,  the  famous  Puritan  divine. 
He  was  trained  for  the  ministry  at  Oxford, 
whence  the  oath  of  conformity  drove  him  with- 
out a  degree,  and  in  the  spring  of  1634  he  emi- 
grated to  New  England  with  his  uncle,  Thomas 
Parker  [q.v.~\,  settling  at  Newbury,  Mass.,  where 


Woodbridge 


Parker  was  ordained  pastor.  Woodbridge  was 
chosen  by  the  Newbury  settlers  as  their  first 
town  clerk  (1636-38),  as  selectman  (1636),  as 
deputy  to  the  General  Court  (1637-38,  1640- 
41),  and  in  1638  and  1641  by  appointment  of  the 
General  Court  he  was  commissioner  for  small 
causes  at  Newbury.  About  1639  he  married 
Mercy,  daughter  of  Gov.  Thomas  Dudley  [q.v.] , 
and  in  1640-41,  with  his  brother-in-law,  Simon 
Bradstreet  [q.z>.],  was  a  leading  spirit  in  the  set- 
tlement of  Andover,  securing  a  patent  from  the 
Indians  and  helping  to  extinguish  conflicting 
claims  to  the  site. 

Gradually,  however,  he  inclined  to  the  min- 
istry and  in  1643,  upon  the  advice  of  Parker  and 
Dudley,  he  deserted  civil  and  agrarian  pursuits 
to  serve  for  two  years  as  schoolmaster  in  Boston. 
On  Oct.  24,  1645,  he  was  ordained  first  pastor  of 
the  church  at  Andover,  where  he  remained  until 
1647,  when  friends  persuaded  him  to  return  to 
England.  There  he  served  as  minister  of  An- 
dover, Hampshire,  1648-50,  and  of  Barford  St. 
Martin,  Wiltshire,  1652-62.  Well  known  to  In- 
dependent leaders,  he  was  chaplain  to  the  parlia- 
mentary commissioners  who  treated  with  the 
King  at  the  Isle  of  Wight  in  1648  and  assistant 
to  the  Wiltshire  Committee  in  1657.  Ejected  from 
his  parish  in  1662,  he  taught  school  at  Newbury, 
Berks,  until  the  Bartholomew  Act  necessitated 
his  departure.  He  returned  to  Massachusetts 
in  the  following  year,  and  soon  was  settled  as 
assistant  to  his  aged  uncle,  still  pastor  at  New- 
bury. 

Within  two  years  dissensions  arose  which 
eventually  forced  Woodbridge  to  retire  from  the 
ministry.  One  Edward  Woodman  created  fac- 
tions at  Newbury  by  alleging  that  Parker  abused 
his  pastoral  authority  to  "sett  up  a  Prelacy  & 
have  more  power  than  the  Pope"  and  that  Wood- 
bridge  was  an  "Intruder,  brought  in  by  Craft  & 
subtilty  &  so  kept  in"  (quoted  by  Coffin,  post,  p. 
74).  Although  the  Woodman  party  were  repeat- 
edly censured  by  civil  and  ecclesiastical  authori- 
ties, they  persisted  in  irregular  proceedings. 
Through  their  machinations  Woodbridge  was 
dismissed  from  his  ministry,  May  21,  1670,  but 
he  stayed  to  support  Parker  until  an  investigating 
committee  of  the  General  Court,  on  May  15,  1672, 
requested  him  "not  to  impose  himselfe  or  his 
ministry  (however  otherwise  desirable)  vpon" 
the  Newbury  church. 

From  "Coclcstial  Dealings,"  he  thereupon 
turned  to  "Mundane  affairs,"  in  which  his  ex- 
ertions were  more  acceptable.  In  England  he  had 
become  a  friend  of  William  Potter,  with  whom 
he  had  discussed  plans  to  expand  credit  and 
facilitate  commerce  by  establishing  a  "Bank  of 

481 


Woodbridge 


Money."  Seeing  the  financial  straits  of  New 
England  when  he  returned  in  1663,  he  revived  the 
schemes,  interested  merchants,  and  in  1667-68 
presented  to  the  Council  a  concrete  proposal 
(Davis,  post,  pp.  1 12-14,  1 16-18)  to  erect  a 
bank  of  deposit  and  issue  with  land  and  com- 
modities as  collateral.  He  experimented  with  the 
plan  in  March  1671  and  later  with  such  success 
that  a  decade  afterwards  (September  1681)  a 
group  of  merchants  joined  the  enterprise,  issued 
bills,  "and  had  rational  Grounds  to  conclude, 
that  it  would  work  it  self  up  into  Credit,  with  dis- 
creet men."  To  advertise  the  scheme  and  to  si- 
lence objectors  Woodbridge  published  in  March 
1681/82  Scverals  Relating  to  the  Fund  .  .  .,  the 
first  American  tract  on  currency  and  banking 
extant  (A.  M.  Davis,  Colonial  Currency  Reprints 
1682-1754,  4  vols.,  1910,  I,  3-8,  109-18).  The 
outcome  of  the  plan  is  not  recorded,  but  it  did  not 
impoverish  its  author,  for  Woodbridge  reaped 
"remarkable  blessings  of  God  upon  his  own 
private  estate"  (Mather,  post,  I,  543). 

In  his  later  years,  he  was  again  appointed 
Newbury's  commissioner  for  small  causes  ( 1677- 
79,  1681,  1690),  and  elected  assistant  in  1683-84. 
His  contemporaries  generally  revered  him  as  an 
honorable  and  judicious  magistrate,  a  great 
scholar,  and  a  pattern  of  goodness.  Yearning 
constantly  after  spiritual  affairs,  he  devoted  more 
than  half  of  his  long  life  to  material  matters.  His 
advanced  monetary  theories  illustrate  the  rapid 
transfer  of  ideas  from  Old  England  to  New  in 
the  seventeenth  century;  his  experimentation 
foreshadowed  the  Massachusetts  land  banks.  His 
wife  preceded  him  to  the  grave,  July  1,  1691, 
leaving  him,  besides  one  who  had  died  in  infancy, 
eleven  children. 

[Louis  Mitchell,  The  Woodbridge  Record  (1883); 
Col.  Soc.  of  Mass.  Pubs.,  vol.  VIII  (1906)  ;  Joshua 
Coffin,  A  Sketch  of  the  Hist,  of  Newbury  (1845)  ;  J. 
J.  Currier,  Hist,  of  Newbury  (1902)  ;  Mass.  Hist.  Soc. 
Colls.,  5  ser.  I  (1871),  317-19,  V  (1878),  400;  Proc. 
Am.  Antiq.  Soc,  n.s.,  Ill  (1885),  XV  (1904)  ;  A.  M. 
Davis,  Currency  and  Banking  in  .  .  .  Mass.  Bay  (2 
vols.,  1901)  ;  W.  B.  Weeden,  Econ.  and  Social  Hist,  of 
New  England  (2  vols.,  1890)  ;  Records  of  the  Gov.  and 
Company  of  the  Mass.  Bay  (5  vols.,  1853-54)  ;  Cotton 
Mather,  Magnolia  Christi  Americana  (1702;  ed.  of 
1820)  ;  W.  B.  Sprague,  Annals  Am.  Pulpit,  vol.  I 
(1857)  ;  Edmund  Calamy,  The  Nonconformist's  Memo- 
rial (1775),  ed.  by  Samuel  Palmer;  A.  G.  Matthews, 
Calamy  Revised  (1934).]  R.  P.  S. 

WOODBRIDGE,  SAMUEL  MERRILL 

(Apr.  5,  1810-June  24,  1905),  clergyman  of  the 
Reformed  Church  in  America,  professor,  theo- 
logian, was  born  at  Greenfield,  Mass.  For  many 
generations  in  America  and  in  England  there 
had  been  at  least  one  ordained  minister  in  his 
family:  John  Woodbridge,  born  in  1493,  was  a 
follower  of  Wycliffe ;  in  the  fifth  generation 
from  him,  John  Woodbridge  \q.v.~\,  student  at 


Woodbridge 

Oxford  until  he  refused  to  take  the  oath  of  con- 
formity, was  the  first  of  the  name  to  hold  a  pas- 
toral charge  in  New  England.  In  the  fifth  gen- 
eration from  this  divine  was  Rev.  Sylvester 
Woodbridge,  who  married  Elizabeth  Gould. 
Samuel  Merrill  Woodbridge  was  their  son.  He 
graduated  from  the  University  of  the  City  of 
New  York  in  1838  and  from  the  New  Brunswick 
Theological  Seminary  in  1841,  having  mean- 
while joined  the  Dutch  Reformed  Church  (Re- 
formed Church  in  America).  Licensed  by  the 
Classis  of  New  York  and  ordained  by  the  Classis 
of  Long  Island,  he  became  pastor  of  the  church 
of  South  Brooklyn,  which  he  served  from  1841 
to  1850.  Subsequently  he  was  pastor  of  the  Sec- 
ond Church  of  Coxsackie,  N.  Y.,  1850-53,  and 
the  Second  Church  of  New  Brunswick,  N.  J., 
from  1853  to  1857,  when  he  was  appointed  by  the 
General  Synod  of  the  Reformed  Church  to  the 
professorship  of  ecclesiastical  history  and  church 
government  in  the  Theological  Seminary  at  New 
Brunswick.  In  this  office  he  remained  for  forty- 
four  years,  resigning  in  1901 ;  he  was  then  made 
professor  emeritus. 

For  the  first  eight  years  of  his  professorship 
he  taught  pastoral  theology  in  addition  to  church 
history,  and  also  served  at  Rutgers  College  on 
the  adjoining  campus  as  professor  of  metaphysics 
and  mental  philosophy,  1857-64.  At  times  dur- 
ing his  long  service,  when  occasion  arose,  he  was 
professor  of  theology  pro  tern.  From  1883  to 
1888  he  was  dean  of  the  seminary,  and  from  1888 
to  1901,  president  of  the  faculty.  In  his  earlier 
ministry  Woodbridge  was  an  eloquent  and  pow- 
erful preacher ;  congregations  crowded  to  hear 
him.  To  the  last  he  was  impressive  in  thought 
and  in  all  public  address ;  his  venerable  appear- 
ance and  solemn  voice  made  him  seem  in  the 
pulpit  and  in  the  class  room  a  very  prophet  of 
God.  He  was  firmly  devoted  to  the  traditional 
Reformed  theology,  a  champion  of  its  great  points 
of  doctrine  and  of  the  authority  of  the  Scriptures. 
Though  uncompromising  as  to  principles,  he  was 
kindly  and  generous  and  not  without  a  sense  of 
humor.  He  published  an  Analysis  of  Theology 
(1872-73;  2nd  ed.,  1882),  a  Manual  of  Church 
History  (1895),  an<3  an  Outline  of  Church  Gov- 
ernment (1896),  as  well  as  occasional  sermons, 
articles,  and  addresses.  By  his  first  wife,  Caro- 
line Bergen,  whom  he  married  in  February  1845, 
he  had  one  daughter;  the  mother  died  in  1861, 
and  on  Dec.  20,  1866,  he  married  Anna  Whit- 
taker  Dayton,  by  whom  he  had  two  daughters. 
He  died  in  New  Brunswick,  N.  J.,  at  the  age  of 
eighty-six. 

[Louis  Mitchell,  The  Woodbridge  Record  (1883)  ;  E. 
T.  Corwin,  A  Manual  of  the  Reformed  Church  in 
America  ( 1902)  ;  Minutes  of  the  General  Synod,  R.C.A., 


482 


Woodbridge 

1905  ;  S.  D.  Clark,  The  New  England  Ministry  Sixty 
Years  Ago:  The  Memoir  of  Rev.  John  Woodbridge 
(1877)  ;  Fortieth  Anniversary  of  Samuel  M.  Wood- 
bridge  (New  Brunswick  Seminary,  1897)  ;  Biog.  Rec- 
ord Theol.  Sent.  New  Brunswick,  1884— ion  (1912)  ; 
Newark  Evening  News,  June  24,  1905.]   W  H  S  D 

WOODBRIDGE,  WILLIAM  (Aug.  20, 
1780-Oct.  20,  1861),  governor  of  Michigan, 
United  States  senator,  was  born  in  Norwich, 
Conn.,  the  son  of  Dudley  Woodbridge,  a  minute- 
man,  and  Lucy  (Backus)  Woodbridge.  He  was  a 
descendant  in  the  sixth  generation  of  John  Wood- 
bridge  [q.v.~\  who  settled  in  Newbury,  Mass.,  in 
1634.  When  the  family  in  1789  moved  to  Mari- 
etta, in  the  Northwest  Territory,  William  and 
a  brother  were  left  behind  to  complete  their 
schooling.  In  1797  William  chose  instead  of  his 
father's  alma  mater,  Yale  College,  the  famous 
law  school  of  Tapping  Reeve  [q.v.~\  at  Litchfield, 
Conn.  After  about  three  years  there  he  rejoined 
his  father's  family.  His  educational  training  also 
included  about  a  year's  study  of  French  among 
the  settlers  at  Gallipolis  and  several  years  in  a 
Marietta  law  office.  In  this  law  office  he  met 
Lewis  Cass  [q.v.],  whose  friendship  played  an 
important  part  in  determining  his  career.  In 
1806  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  Ohio,  and  on 
June  29  of  that  year  he  married  Juliana,  daugh- 
ter of  John  Trumbull  [q.v.~\,  the  poet.  His  long 
career  of  office-holding  began  with  eight  years  of 
service  in  Ohio  as  assemblyman,  county  prose- 
cuting attorney,  and  state  senator.  No  doubt  in- 
fluenced by  his  vigorous  advocacy  of  the  War  of 
1812  and  by  the  strong  recommendation  of  Cass, 
President  Madison  in  1814  appointed  Wood- 
bridge  secretary  of  the  Michigan  Territory  and 
collector  of  customs  at  Detroit  (confirmed,  Oct. 
5,  1814).  Woodbridge  was  an  energetic  official: 
largely  because  of  his  initiative,  Congress  in 
1819  granted  Michigan  the  right  to  representa- 
tion by  delegate  even  though  it  continued  in  the 
first  stage  of  organization  prescribed  by  the 
Ordinance  of  1787.  Chosen  Michigan's  first  ter- 
ritorial delegate,  Woodbridge  was  an  ardent  and 
effective  advocate  of  the  confirmation  of  old  land 
titles,  of  government  roads  and  exploratory  ex- 
peditions, of  Michigan's  claims  in  the  boundary 
dispute  with  Ohio.  He  declined  to  serve  a  sec- 
ond term  as  delegate,  but  continued  in  the  sec- 
retaryship until  Michigan  entered  the  second 
stage  of  territorial  government  in  1824.  Except 
for  a  four-year  term  as  territorial  judge  ( 1828- 
32),  he  held  no  office  during  the  next  ten  years. 
The  movement  for  statehood  prompted  his  return 
to  the  public  scene.  He  was  a  delegate  to  the  con- 
stitutional convention  of  1835  and  a  state  sena- 
tor in  1838-39.  The  exuberance  of  the  first  state 
administration  and  the  effects  of  the  panic  of 


Woodbridge 

1837  brought  a  widespread  demand  for  a  change 
from  Democratic  control ;  in  1839  Woodbridge, 
now  the  recognized  Whig  leader  of  the  state,  re- 
ceived his  party's  nomination  for  governor  on  a 
platform  of  "Woodbridge  and  Reform,"  and 
won  the  election.  The  new  governor's  messages 
to  the  legislature  reveal  a  comprehensive  pro- 
gram of  rehabilitation  of  the  state,  including  re- 
vision of  taxes,  stricter  banking  and  currency 
regulation,  drastic  retrenchment  in  plans  for  in- 
ternal improvements.  He  pushed  vigorously  the 
claims  of  the  young  state  against  the  federal  gov- 
ernment in  matters  of  public  domain,  land  grants, 
appropriations  for  internal  improvements.  Ex- 
pressing his  program  in  terms  of  general  policy 
rather  than  in  a  prescription  of  specific  remedies, 
Woodbridge  appears  more  the  special  advocate 
pleading  constitutional  principles  than  the  prac- 
tical administrator ;  yet  during  his  fourteen 
months  as  governor,  appreciable  progress  was 
made  in  his  program.  In  February  1841  a  fac- 
tion of  Whigs  in  the  legislature,  dissatisfied  with 
the  caucus  nominee  for  United  States  senator, 
enlisted  the  aid  of  the  Democrats  and  elected 
Woodbridge.  Woodbridge's  career  in  the  Senate 
(March  1841-March  1847)  was  not  undistin- 
guished. His  reports  as  chairman  of  the  commit- 
tee on  public  lands  were  praised  by  leading  states- 
men of  both  parties ;  he  sponsored  several  suc- 
cessful measures  for  internal  improvements ; 
and,  according  to  Webster,  he  suggested  an  im- 
portant provision  in  the  Webster-Ashburton 
treaty  {Congressional  Globe,  29  Cong.,  1  Sess., 
App.  p.  536).  He  chose  not  to  stand  for  reelec- 
tion. The  remaining  years  of  his  life  were  spent 
in  retirement  on  his  farm  on  the  outskirts  of  De- 
troit. He  died  in  Detroit,  survived  by  a  daughter 
and  three  sons. 

Woodbridge's  career  exemplifies  admirably 
the  mutually  contradictory  characteristics  so 
often  developed  when  a  natural  conservative 
comes  to  spend  a  lifetime  in  a  frontier  commu- 
nity. Aristocratic  in  temperament,  versatile  in 
interests,  cultivated  in  tastes,  happiest  when  en- 
joying his  large  library  and  conversation  with 
his  more  learned  friends,  his  intimate  knowledge 
of  frontier  conditions  and  needs  made  him  a  de- 
termined fighter  for  the  rights  of  the  people  and 
for  the  advancement  of  the  adolescent  state.  He 
was  enthusiastic  in  the  cause  of  public  schools, 
and  one  of  the  most  valuable  friends  of  the  youth- 
ful University  of  Michigan.  Although  he  lacked 
the  arts  of  the  successful  politician,  he  won  the 
confidence  of  the  people  as  a  man  of  integrity  and 
abundant  common  sense. 

[In  addition  to  Messages  of  the  Governors  of  Mich., 
vol.  I  (1925),  ed.  by  G.  N.  Fuller,  an  important  source, 
see  The  Woodbridge  Record  (1883);   M.  K.  Talcott. 


483 


Woodbridge 


Wood  bridge 


Gencal.  of  the  Woodbridge  Family  (n.d.).  reprinted 
from  New  Eng.  Hist,  and  Geneal.  Reg.,  July  1878; 
Charles  Lanman,  The  Life  of  William  Woodbridge 
(1867),  brief  and  uncritical;  F.  B.  Streeter,  Political 
Parties  in  Mich.,  1837-1860  (1018)  ;  J.  V.  Campbell, 
Outlines  of  the  Political  Hist,  of  Mich.  (1876)  ;  Silas 
Farmer,  Hist,  of  Detroit  and  Wayne  County  (1890), 
vol.  II;  Biog.  Dir.  Am.  Cong.  (1928);  and  obituary 
in  Detroit  Free  Press,  Oct.  2.2,  1861.  Most  of  Wood- 
bridge's  papers  are  in  the  Burton  Hist.  Coll.  of  the  De- 
troit Pub.  Lib.  A  few  have  been  published  in  Mich. 
Pioneer  and  Hist.  Colls.,  vols.  XXXIII  (1902)  and 
XXXVII  (1909-10).  The  Woodbridge-Gallaher  Coll. 
of  the  Ohio  State  Archaeological  and  Hist.  Soc.  is  of 
some  importance  for  the  earlier  years.  The  Woodbridge 
materials  are  being  edited  by  Dr.  M.  M.  Quaife.] 

L.  G.  V-V. 

WOODBRIDGE,  WILLIAM  CHANNING 

(Dec.  18,  1794-Nov.  9,  1845),  educator,  son  of 
the  Rev.  William  Woodbridge  by  his  second  wife 
Ann  (or  Nancy)  Channing,  was  born  in  Med- 
ford,  Mass.  He  was  a  descendant  of  the  Rev. 
Timothy  Woodbridge  of  Hartford,  Conn.,  who 
was  born  in  England  and  came  to  America  with 
his  father,  the  Rev.  John  Woodbridge  \_q.v.], 
when  the  latter  returned  to  Massachusetts  in 
1663  after  an  absence  of  sixteen  years.  On  the 
Channing  side,  he  was  a  grandson  of  John,  and 
a  cousin  of  William  Ellery  Channing,  1780-1842 
[q.v.~].  The  elder  William  Woodbridge  (1755- 
1836)  was  a  clergyman  and  teacher  of  note:  he 
was  the  first  preceptor  of  Phillips  Academy, 
Exeter,  later  conducted  several  other  schools, 
being  especially  interested  in  the  education  of 
young  women,  and  published  two  or  three  text- 
books. Apparently  he  paid  more  attention  to  his 
son's  mind  than  he  did  to  his  physical  condition, 
for  under  his  father's  preparation  the  boy  was 
able  to  enter  Yale  College  in  his  fourteenth  year, 
the  youngest  in  his  class,  but  for  much  of  his  life 
was  a  semi-invalid.  After  graduating  in  181 1, 
he  spent  nearly  a  year  in  further  study  at  Phil- 
adelphia, where  his  father  then  resided. 

He  began  his  teaching  career  in  1812  as  prin- 
cipal of  the  academy  in  Burlington,  N.  J.,  but  in 
1814  returned  to  New  Haven,  where  he  attended 
lectures  in  the  sciences  and  studied  theology  un- 
der the  elder  Timothy  Dwight  \_q.v.~\.  When 
Dwight  died  in  1817,  Woodbridge  entered  Prince- 
ton Theological  Seminary.  Shortly,  however,  he 
was  asked  to  become  an  instructor  in  the  asylum 
for  the  deaf  and  dumb  recently  established  in 
Hartford,  Conn.,  by  Thomas  H.  Gallaudet  \_q.v.~]. 
Relinquishing  an  early  formed  purpose  to  become 
a  foreign  missionary,  he  accepted  this  call  to 
serve  the  unfortunate  at  home  and  became  con- 
nected with  the  asylum  in  December  1817.  He 
was  licensed  to  preach,  however,  by  the  Congre- 
gational ministers  of  Hartford  North  Associa- 
tion, Feb.  3,  1819,  and  from  time  to  time  supplied 
Connecticut  churches.    The  preceding  year  he 


had  declined  a  financially  attractive  call  to  the 
College  of  William  and  Mary  as  professor  of 
chemistry.  By  1820  the  condition  of  his  health 
was  such  that  he  relinquished  his  position  at 
Hartford  and  in  October  went  to  southern  Eu- 
rope. 

One  of  his  duties  had  been  the  teaching  of 
geography,  a  subject  which  then  received  but  lit- 
tle attention  in  the  public  schools.  He  had  de- 
vised a  system  of  instruction,  and  while  abroad 
he  gathered  geographical  information  for  text- 
books he  was  preparing.  After  his  return  to 
Hartford,  in  July  1821,  he  spent  the  next  three 
years  chiefly  on  work  connected  with  their  com- 
pletion and  publication.  In  182 1  he  issued  Rudi- 
ments of  Geography,  on  a  New  Plan,  Designed 
to  Assist  the  Memory  by  Comparison  and  Clas- 
sification; this  went  through  many  editions.  In 
1824  appeared  his  Universal  Geography,  Ancient 
and  Modern,  to  which  Emma  Willard  [q.v.~\,  who 
had  originated  a  similar  method  of  teaching  the 
subject  in  her  Troy  (N.  Y.)  Female  Seminary, 
contributed  the  section  on  ancient  geography. 
These  textbooks  produced  a  revolution  in  the 
method  of  presenting  geographical  facts  in  the 
schools. 

The  condition  of  his  health  caused  Wood- 
bridge  to  go  to  Europe  again  in  1824.  He  re- 
mained abroad  five  years,  during  which  time  he 
studied  the  educational  systems  of  Switzerland 
and  Germany,  spending  some  time  at  Hofwyl,  on 
invitation  of  Philipp  von  Fellenberg,  the  great 
educational  reformer.  Returning  to  the  United 
States  in  1829,  he  was  physically  unable  to  un- 
dertake teaching  duties  but  in  183 1  purchased 
the  American  Journal  of  Education,  first  edited 
by  William  Russell  [<?.?'.],  the  title  of  which 
he  changed  to  American  Annals  of  Education 
and  Instruction.  Settling  in  Boston,  he  devoted 
his  time  and  no  little  money  to  this  publication 
for  several  years.  On  Nov.  27,  1832,  he  married 
Lucy  Ann  Reed  of  Marblehead,  Mass.,  who  had 
been  a  teacher  in  the  school  of  Catharine  Beecher 
[q.v.~\  in  Hartford.  The  scope  of  the  Annals  under 
Woodbridge's  management  was  broad.  It  gave 
much  attention  to  the  education  of  teachers,  ag- 
riculturists and  mechanics,  and  defectives,  and 
made  a  specialty  of  information  regarding  for- 
eign educators  and  their  methods.  Woodbridge 
himself  contributed  "Sketches  of  the  Fellenberg 
Institution  at  Hofwyl,  in  a  Series  of  Letters  to  a 
Friend"  (January  1831-December  1832).  His 
name  appears  as  editor  through  1837,  but  in  Oc- 
tober of  the  preceding  year  his  health  again  com- 
pelled him  to  go  to  Europe.  His  wife  died  in 
Frankfort,  Germany,  in  1840,  and  in  October 
1841  he  returned.  He  lived  but  four  years  longer, 


484. 


Woodbury 

spending  three  winters  in  Santa  Cruz,  West  In- 
dies, and  dying  in  Boston  in  his  fifty-first  year. 

Although  physically  handicapped,  he  did  much 
for  the  advancement  of  education  in  a  compara- 
tively short  lifetime.  To  this  cause  he  contributed 
a  large  share  of  his  income.  He  helped  awaken 
the  public  to  a  recognition  of  the  importance  of 
normal  schools ;  he  was  a  pioneer  in  advocating 
the  teaching  of  physiology  and  music  in  the  com- 
mon schools ;  he  recommended  the  use  of  the 
Bible  as  a  literary  classic  ;  and  he  was  one  of  the 
early  American  expounders  of  the  Pestalozzian 
system. 

[Louis  Mitchell,  The  Woodbridge  Record  (1883)  ; 
F.  B.  Dexter,  Biog.  Sketches  Grads.  Yale  Coll.,  vol.  VI 
(1912);  W.  A.  Alcott,  in  Am.  Jour,  of  Educ,  June 
1858,  and  in  Henry  Barnard,  Educ.  Biog.:  Memoirs  of 
Teachers,  Educators,  and  Promoters  and  Benefactors  of 
Educ.  (1859)  ;  F.  L.  Mott,  A  Hist,  of  Am.  Mags.,  1741- 
1850  (1930)  ;  Boston  Daily  Advertiser,  Nov.  11,  1845.] 

H.E.  S. 
WOODBURY,  CHARLES  JEPTHA  HILL 
(May  4,  i8s;-Mar.  20,  1916),  industrial  engi- 
neer, expert  on  fire  prevention,  was  born  in  Lynn, 
Mass.,  the  son  of  Jeptha  Porter  Woodbury  and 
Mary  Adams  (Hill)  and  eighth  in  direct  descent 
from  John  Woodbury  of  Somersetshire,  Eng- 
land, who  came  to  Gloucester,  Mass.,  in  1623. 
He  was  a  lifelong  resident  of  Lynn.  He  married 
there,  Nov.  26,  1878,  Maria  H.  Brown,  daughter 
of  Joseph  G.  Brown,  and  there  he  died.  His  wife 
and  three  daughters  survived  him. 

Woodbury  prepared  at  the  Lynn  High  School 
for  the  regular  course  at  Harvard,  but  family 
circumstances  compelled  him  to  seek  a  practical 
rather  than  a  cultural  training,  and  accordingly 
he  entered  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Tech- 
nology, graduating  with  the  degree  of  C.E.  in 
1873.  He  never,  however,  lost  his  predilection 
for  history,  literature,  and  art.  By  nature  a  seri- 
ous worker,  he  spent  his  vacations  in  the  City 
Engineer's  Office  of  Lynn  and  thus  made  an  early 
start  in  his  professional  career.  Soon  after  grad- 
uation he  took  a  position  as  superintendent  of  a 
mill  at  Rockport  on  Cape  Ann.  In  1878  he  be- 
came engineer  and  later  vice-president  of  the 
Boston  Manufacturers  Mutual  Fire  Insurance 
Company.  While  in  this  position  he  conducted 
investigations  into  lubricating  oils,  the  principles 
of  mill  construction,  and  automatic  sprinklers. 
He  also  devised  improved  methods  of  inspection 
and  reporting  and  invented  many  improvements 
in  electric  lighting  and  wiring  for  the  purpose  of 
fire  prevention.  From  1894  to  1907  he  was  as- 
sistant engineer  of  the  American  Telephone  & 
Telegraph  Company  with  supervision  of  fire 
prevention  and  insurance  for  their  properties 
throughout  the  country.  From  1894  until  his 
death  in  1916  he  was  also  secretary  of  the  Na- 


Woodbury 

tional  Association  of  Cotton  Manufacturers,  with 
whom  the  fire  hazard  was  a  specially  serious  mat- 
ter. After  1907  he  engaged  in  private  practice  as 
a  consulting  engineer,  and  during  his  entire  ca- 
reer wrote  and  lectured  extensively  on  technical, 
commercial,  and  insurance  subjects. 

Woodbury  was  an  active  member  of  many 
scientific  organizations,  including  the  Ameri- 
can Society  for  the  Advancement  of  Science, 
the  American  Society  of  Civil  Engineers,  the 
American  Society  of  Mechanical  Engineers,  and 
the  American  Institute  of  Electrical  Engineers. 
From  1913  until  his  death  he  was  president  of 
the  Lynn  Historical  Society.  He  received  nu- 
merous honors :  several  honorary  degrees,  the 
Alsatian  Medal  of  the  Societe  Industrielle  de 
Mulhouse  (1893)  for  his  work  on  mill  construc- 
tion— the  first  instance  of  its  award  to  an  Amer- 
ican, the  John  Scott  Medal  of  the  Franklin  In- 
stitute (1885)  for  his  formulation  of  the  insur- 
ance rules  of  electric  lighting,  and  the  medal  of 
the  National  Association  of  Cotton  Manufac- 
turers (1910)  for  his  Bibliography  of  the  Cotton 
Manufacture  (2  vols.,  1909-10). 

Woodbury  was  a  man  of  rugged  frame  and 
robust  physique,  capable  of  long-sustained  ef- 
fort and  daily  accomplishing  an  extraordinary 
amount  of  work.  He  was  of  commanding  pres- 
ence, authoritative  in  his  knowledge  of  the  sub- 
jects in  which  he  specialized  and  in  his  manner 
toward  those  with  whom  he  worked,  yet  genial 
and  cooperative  and  invariably  winning  their 
loyalty.  He  left  his  mark  as  an  avid  seeker  for 
facts  and  as  a  forceful  executive  in  securing  the 
adoption  of  improved  methods  ;  industry  is  indebt- 
ed to  him  for  the  greater  safety  and  efficiency  in 
working  conditions  that  resulted  from  his  labors. 

[Pamphlets  and  papers  in  the  Engineering  Societies 
Library,  N.  Y.  City  ;  papers  in  the  American  Telephone 
Historical  Library,  N.  Y.  City ;  papers  in  possession 
of  the  Woodbury  family  ;  Register  of  the  Lynn  Hist. 
Soc,  no.  20  (1916)  ;  Jour.  Am.  Soc.  Mcch.  Engineers, 
Apr.  1916 ;  Who's  Who  in  America,  1916-17  ;  Lynn 
Item  and  Lynn  News,  Mar.  20,  191 6  ;  Boston  Transcript, 
Mar.  20,  1916;  Boston  Herald,  Mar.  21,  1916.] 

W.C.L. 
WOODBURY,  DANIEL  PHINEAS  (Dec. 
16,  1812-Aug.  15,  1864),  soldier  and  engineer, 
the  son  of  Daniel  and  Rhapsima  (Messenger) 
Woodbury,  was  born  in  New  London,  Merri- 
mack County,  N.  H.,  and  received  his  early  edu- 
cation at  Hopkinton  Academy,  in  the  same  coun- 
ty. He  then  entered  Dartmouth  College,  but  left 
in  1832  upon  his  appointment  as  a  cadet  at  the 
United  States  Military  Academy.  He  was  grad- 
uated in  1836  and  commissioned  second  lieuten- 
ant in  the  3rd  Artillery,  but  was  transferred  soon 
afterwards  to  the  engineers.  For  some  years  he 
was  employed  on  the  construction  of  the  Cum- 


485 


Woodbury 


Woodbury 


berland  road  in  Ohio,  then  in  the  construction 
and  repair  of  fortifications  in  Boston  and  Ports- 
mouth harbors,  and  in  the  War  Department  in 
Washington.  From  1847  to  1850  he  was  en- 
gaged in  building  Fort  Kearny,  on  the  Missouri 
River,  and  Fort  Laramie,  which  later  developed 
into  the  city  of  Laramie,  Wyo.  These  were  two 
of  the  military  posts  established  to  guard  the 
route  to  Oregon.  Later  he  served  in  North  Caro- 
lina and  Florida,  where  among  other  duties  he 
supervised  the  construction  of  Fort  Jefferson  in 
the  Tortugas  and  Fort  Taylor  at  Key  West. 
Both  of  these  fortifications  were  regarded  as  of 
immense  importance  for  the  maintenance  of  naval 
control  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  they  after- 
wards came  within  Woodbury's  command  during 
the  Civil  War.  He  was  promoted  first  lieutenant 
in  1838  and  captain  in  1853. 

At  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War  he  was  sta- 
tioned in  Washington,  D.  C,  the  early  defenses 
of  which  he  had  a  share  in  planning.  He  helped 
to  make  the  reconnaissance  on  which  McDowell's 
orders  for  the  battle  of  Bull  Run  were  based,  and 
personally  conducted  Hunter's  and  Heintzel- 
man's  troops  on  their  march  to  turn  the  Confed- 
erate left  flank.  Commenting  on  the  causes  of  the 
defeat,  in  his  official  report,  he  remarked :  "An 
old  soldier  feels  safe  in  the  ranks,  unsafe  out  of 
the  ranks,  and  the  greater  the  danger  the  more 
pertinaciously  he  clings  to  his  place.  The  volun- 
teer of  three  months  never  attains  this  instinct 
of  discipline.  Under  danger,  and  even  under 
mere  excitement,  he  flies  away  from  his  ranks, 
and  looks  for  safety  in  dispersion"  ( Official  Rec- 
ords, post,  II,  Part  I,  344).  Woodbury  was  pro- 
moted major  of  engineers  in  August  1861,  ap- 
pointed lieutenant-colonel  in  the  volunteer  army 
in  September,  and  on  Mar.  19,  1862,  was  com- 
missioned brigadier-general  of  volunteers.  In 
the  Peninsular  Campaign  he  commanded  the  en- 
gineer brigade  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  con- 
structing the  siege  works  before  Yorktown  and 
the  immense  system  of  roads  and  bridges  neces- 
sary for  the  army's  passage  over  the  Chickahom- 
iny  River  and  through  the  White  Oak  Swamp. 
He  was  in  the  defenses  of  Washington  through 
the  autumn  of  1862,  returning  to  the  field  before 
the  battle  of  Fredericksburg,  where  he  was  re- 
sponsible for  the  throwing  of  the  pontoon  bridges 
over  the  Rappahannock  by  which  the  army 
crossed  to  the  attack  and  retreated  after  the  bat- 
tle. In  March  1863  he  was  assigned  to  command 
the  district  including  Tortugas  and  Key  West. 
He  died  at  the  latter  place  of  yellow  fever. 

Woodbury  was  the  author  of  two  engineering 
treatises:  Sustaining  Walls  (1845;  2nd  ed., 
1854),  and  Elements  of  Stability  in  the  W ell- 


Proportioned  Arch  (1858).  On  Dec.  12,  1845, 
he  was  married,  at  Southville,  N.  C,  to  Catha- 
rine Rachel  Childs,  the  daughter  of  Thomas 
Childs  [q.v.].  She  and  their  four  children  sur- 
vived him. 

[Elias  Child,  Geneal.  of  the  Child,  Childs  and  Childc 
Families  ( 1881 )  ;  M.  B.  Lord,  Hist,  of  the  Town  of  New 
London,  N.  H.  (1899)  ;  G.  W.  Cullum,  Biog.  Reg.  .  .  . 
U.  S.  Mil.  Acad.  (1891)  ;  War  of  the  Rebellion  :  Official 
Records  (Army),  see  index  volume;  Army  and  Navy 
Jour.,  Sept.  3,  1864.]  T.M.S. 

WOODBURY,  HELEN  LAURA  SUM- 
NER (Mar.  12,  1876-Mar.  10,  1933),  social 
economist,  author,  was  born  in  Sheboygan,  Wis., 
a  descendant  of  William  Sumner,  who  came  to 
America  in  1636  and  settled  in  Dorchester, 
Mass.  Her  father  was  George  True  Sumner, 
later  a  district  judge  in  Colorado;  her  mother, 
Katharine  Eudora  (Marsh)  Sumner,  grand- 
daughter of  Jerome  Luther  Marsh,  pioneer  ed- 
itor of  newspapers  in  Wisconsin  and  in  Colo- 
rado. When  Helen  was  five  years  old,  the  fam- 
ily moved  to  Durango,  Colo.,  where,  except  for 
six  months'  homesteading  on  a  ranch  in  the 
Montezuma  Valley,  they  lived  for  eight  years, 
and  then  settled  in  Denver.  From  the  East  Den- 
ver High  School  she  went  to  Wellesley  College 
where  she  received  the  degree  of  bachelor  of  arts 
in  1898.  Her  college  life  was  interrupted  by  a 
year  at  home,  but  she  completed  the  four  years' 
work  in  three. 

As  an  undergraduate  she  exhibited  a  lively  in- 
terest in  political  and  economic  questions  and  a 
vigorous  reaction  against  injustice  and  special 
privilege.  During  the  McKinley-Bryan  cam- 
paign (1896)  she  tried  her  hand  at  a  novelette 
upholding  free  silver,  which  was  published  under 
the  title  The  White  Slave:  or  the  Cross  of  Gold 
(copyrighted  1896).  The  strikes  in  Colorado  led 
by  the  Western  Federation  of  Miners  made  a 
deep  impression  on  her  and  when  she  went  to 
the  University  of  Wisconsin  in  1902  for  gradu- 
ate study  she  was  a  strong  believer  in  the  rights 
of  labor.  She  was  secretary  to  Prof.  Richard  T. 
Ely  for  a  time  and  then  became  an  honorary 
fellow  in  political  economy  and  an  active  col- 
laborator in  John  R.  Commons'  American  Bu- 
reau of  Industrial  Research. 

Her  name  first  appeared  as  an  author  on  labor 
subjects  with  the  publication  in  1905  of  the  wide- 
ly known  college  textbook,  Labor  Problems,  on 
which  she  collaborated  with  Prof.  Thomas  S. 
Adams.  In  1906  she  returned  to  Denver  for  a 
year  to  make  a  special  study  of  equal  suffrage 
in  Colorado  for  the  Collegiate  Equal  Suffrage 
League  of  New  York  State.  The  results  were 
published  in  Equal  Suffrage  (1909).  Her  next 
work,  based  on  exhaustive  study  of  widely  scat- 


486 


Woodbury 

tered  original  sources,  was  an  authoritative  his- 
tory of  American  labor  in  the  late  1820's  and  the 
years  immediately  following.  It  was  accepted  as 
a  dissertation  for  the  degree  of  Ph.D.  at  Wis- 
consin in  1908  and  became  generally  available 
under  the  title,  "Citizenship,  1827-1833,"  as  a 
section  of  the  History  of  Labour  in  the  United 
States  (1918)  by  John  R.  Commons  and  others. 
She  was  also  an  associate  editor  of  A  Documen- 
tary History  of  American  Industrial  Society, 
edited  by  Commons  and  published  in  1910-11. 
A  second  original  historical  contribution,  a  pio- 
neer in  its  field,  was  her  "History  of  Women  in 
Industry  in  the  United  States,"  published  in 
1910  by  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Sta- 
tistics as  volume  IX  of  its  Report  on  Condition  of 
Woman  and  Child  Wage-earners  in  the  United 
States. 

In  Colorado  she  had  joined  the  Socialist  party, 
and  she  was  one  of  several  who  organized  a  So- 
cialist group  at  the  University  of  Wisconsin. 
She  was  an  early  member  of  the  Intercollegiate 
Socialist  Society  and  for  many  years  before  her 
death,  a  member  of  the  national  council  of  its  suc- 
cessor, the  League  for  Industrial  Democracy.  In 
1910,  when  abroad  studying  the  industrial  courts 
in  Germany,  France,  and  Switzerland,  she  was 
a  listener  at  the  Copenhagen  Congress  of  the 
Socialist  International.  She  always  believed  in 
the  ideal  of  production  for  use  and  not  for  profit, 
but  she  abandoned  Marxism  as  inapplicable  to 
the  American  economy  and  turned  instead  to 
James  MacKaye's  socialist  theories. 

Appointed  in  1913  as  industrial  expert  in  the 
newly  organized  United  States  Children's  Bu- 
reau, she  directed  a  series  of  studies  on  the  ad- 
ministration of  child  labor  (employment  certifi- 
cate) laws,  prepared  by  the  bureau  staff.  The 
painstaking  factual  reports,  to  which  she  gave 
detailed  oversight,  were  the  basis  for  an  ana- 
lytical study  by  her,  Standards  Applicable  to  the 
Administration  of  Employment  Certificate  Sys- 
tems, published  by  the  bureau  in  1924.  After  two 
years  as  industrial  expert,  she  was  appointed  as- 
sistant chief  of  the  Children's  Bureau.  Heavy 
administrative  work  was  interfering  with  the  re- 
search work  in  which  she  was  most  interested 
and  in  June  1918  she  became  director  of  investi- 
gations, a  position  which  she  held  until  her  mar- 
riage, Nov.  25,  19 1 8,  to  Robert  Morse  Wood- 
bury. Although  she  then  resigned  from  the  reg- 
ular staff,  she  continued  to  work  with  the  bu- 
reau until  1924.  From  1924  to  1926  she  was  on 
the  staff  of  the  Institute  of  Economics,  engaged 
in  formulating  a  program  for  adequate  statistics 
in  the  field  of  labor.  Subsequently,  until  Decem- 
ber 1928,  she  was  associated  with  the  Encyclo- 


Woodbury 

pedia  of  the  Social  Sciences,  to  which  she  was  a 
contributor.  She  also  contributed  to  the  Diction- 
ary of  American  Biography. 

Simple,  without  conceit,  she  did  not  permit  her 
serious  scholarly  interests  to  chill  her  warm  hu- 
man interest  nor  her  quick  liveliness.  She  was 
one  of  the  first  in  the  American  academic  world 
to  study  and  analyze  labor  problems.  She  always 
questioned  the  possibility  of  solving  them  in  a 
capitalist  world,  but  she  turned  more  and  more  to 
social  legislation  and  did  pioneering  work  in  the 
technique  of  its  administration.  She  died  at  her 
home  in  New  York  City. 

[W.  S.  Appleton,  Record  of  the  Descendants  of  Wil- 
liam Sumner  of  Dorchester,  Mass.  (1879)  ;  Who's  Who 
in  America,  1932-33  ;  S.  S.  E.  Gilson,  in  Welleslcy 
Mag.,  June  1933  ;  N.  Y.  Times  and  N.  Y.  Herald-Trib- 
une, Mar.  12,  1933  ;  information  furnished  by  her  fam- 
ily; personal  acquaintance.]  A. R. 

WOODBURY,  ISAAC  BAKER  (Oct.  23, 
1819-Oct.  26,  1858),  composer,  was  born  in 
Beverly,  Mass.,  the  son  of  Isaac  Woodberry 
(spelled  thus  in  Vital  Records,  post)  and  his  wife, 
Nancy  (Baker).  As  a  youth  he  was  appren- 
ticed to  a  blacksmith  and  spent  his  spare  time  in 
music  study.  At  the  age  of  thirteen  he  went  to 
Boston,  where  he  continued  his  studies  in  music 
and  learned  to  play  the  violin.  Six  years  later  he 
went  abroad  for  study  in  London  and  Paris.  He 
returned  in  1839  to  Boston,  where  he  taught  mu- 
sic for  six  years.  Later  he  joined  the  Bay  State 
Glee  Club,  an  organization  which  gave  concerts 
in  various  parts  of  New  England.  On  reaching 
Bellows  Falls,  Vt.,  he  was  persuaded  to  live 
there  for  a  time  to  organize  and  conduct  the  New 
Hampshire  and  Vermont  Musical  Association. 
He  went  to  New  York,  where  for  a  few  years 
prior  to  185 1  he  directed  the  music  at  the  Rut- 
gers Street  Church.  He  also  became  editor  of 
the  American  Monthly  Musical  Review.  Ill 
health  made  it  necessary  for  him  to  leave  New 
York  in  185 1,  and  he  again  went  to  Europe. 
While  abroad  he  purchased  new  music  by  for- 
eign composers  for  the  Review  and  for  the  music 
books  he  compiled  and  edited.  Upon  his  return 
to  the  United  States  he  determined  to  spend  his 
winters  in  the  South  for  the  sake  of  his  health. 
He  started  from  New  York  in  the  fall  of  1858. 
On  reaching  Charleston,  S.  C,  he  fell  ill  and, 
three  days  after  his  arrival,  died.  He  left  a  widow 
and  six  children. 

It  was  principally  as  an  editor  that  Woodbury 
was  important,  although  many  of  his  original 
compositions  were  published.  One  of  his  early 
songs,  "He  Doeth  All  Things  Well,  or  My  Sis- 
ter," was  published  in  Boston  in  1844.  A  song 
that  had  considerable  vogue  for  a  number  of 
years  was  "The  Indian's  Lament"  (1846),  with 


487 


Woodbury 


the  much-quoted  first  line:  "Let  me  go  to  my 
home  in  the  far  distant  West."  Among  the  music 
books  he  compiled  and  edited  were  the  Boston 
Musical  Education  Society's  Collections  (1842) 
and  the  Choral  ( 1845),  both  in  collaboration  with 
Benjamin  F.  Baker  \_q.v.~]  ;  the  Dulcimer  ( 1850)  ; 
the  Lute  of  Zion  (1853);  and  the  Cythara 
( 1854) .  These  works  proved  highly  popular,  and 
on  one  occasion  the  publishers  advertised  that 
Dulcimer,  a  "live  music  book,"  had  sold  "125,000 
Copies  in  Two  Seasons"  (Dzvight's  Journal  of 
Music,  Jan.  22,  1853).  For  use  in  the  South, 
Woodbury  compiled  the  Casket  (1855),  pub- 
lished by  the  Southern  Baptist  Society,  as  well 
as  the  Harp  of  the  South  (1853).  He  also  wrote 
several  educational  treatises,  principally  the  Self- 
Instructor  in  Musical  Composition  and  Thorough 
Bass,  .  .  .  with  a  Translation  of  Schneider's  .  .  . 
Arranging  for  the  Work  on  Full  Orchestra  and 
Military  Band,  originally  issued  in  1844.  Wood- 
bury's music,  at  the  time  of  his  death,  is  said  to 
have  been  "sung  by  more  worshippers  in  the 
sanctuary  than  the  music  of  any  other  man" 
(Metcalf,  post,  pp.  282-83).  Woodbury  was  of 
gentle  disposition,  and  "had  a  beautiful  voice  and 
sang  in  various  styles,  but  excelled  in  the  ballad 
and  descriptive  music"  (Ibid.). 

[Vital  Records  of  Beverly,  Mass.,  vol.  I  (1906)  ; 
F.  J.  Metcalf,  Am.  Writers  and  Compilers  of  Sacred 
Music  (1925)  ;  J.  T.  Howard,  Our  Am.  Music  (1930)  ; 
W.  S.  B.  Mathews,  One  Hundred  Years  of  Music  in 
America  (1889);  Nathan  Crosby,  Ann.  Obit.  Notices 
(1859)-]  J.T.H. 

WOODBURY,  LEVI  (Dec.  22,  1789-Sept.  4, 
1851),  senator,  cabinet  officer,  associate  justice 
of  the  Supreme  Court,  was  born  in  Francestown, 
N.  H.,  the  second  of  ten  children  of  Peter  and 
Mary  (Woodbury)  Woodbury.  He  was  a  de- 
scendant of  John  Woodbury,  who  emigrated 
from  Somersetshire,  England,  to  Massachusetts 
in  1623.  Levi  attended  the  village  school,  Atkin- 
son Academy,  and  Dartmouth  College,  where  he 
graduated  with  honors  in  1809.  He  studied  law 
with  Judge  Jeremiah  Smith,  1759-1842  [q.v.], 
also  in  the  Litchfield  (Conn.)  Law  School,  and  in 
Boston.  After  his  admittance  to  the  bar  in  1812, 
he  practised  in  Francestown  and  Portsmouth, 
popularized  himself  as  a  logical  speaker  in  de- 
fense of  President  Madison  in  the  War  of  1812, 
wrote  the  Hillsborough  resolves,  and  was  clerk 
of  the  state  Senate  in  1816.  In  June  1819  he  mar- 
ried Elizabeth  Williams  Clapp,  the  daughter  of 
Asa  Clapp  and  Elizabeth  Wendell  Quincy,  and 
removed  to  Portsmouth,  where  their  home  was  a 
popular  meeting-place  for  his  political  friends. 
There  were  four  daughters  and  a  son.  In  1817 
his  erstwhile  boarding-house  friend,  Gov.  Wil- 
liam Plumer  \_q.vJ],  appointed  him  associate  jus- 


Woodbury 

tice  of  the  state  superior  court,  a  position  which 
he  held  until  he  was  elected  governor  in  1823  by 
the  "Young  America"  faction  of  the  Democracy 
and  the  Federalists.  He  recommended  in  his 
message  as  governor  more  education  for  females, 
soil  surveys,  diversified  crops  scientifically  se- 
lected, wool  production,  exhibits  of  useful  inven- 
tions, county  lectures  on  agriculture  and  me- 
chanics, which  were  advanced  projects  for  his 
day  ( Writings,  post,  I,  464  ff.) .  Because  of  party 
factions,  he  was  defeated  for  a  second  term,  but 
was  elected  to  the  legislature  (1825),  where,  as 
speaker  of  the  House,  he  was  chosen  United 
States  senator  (1825-31).  A  representative  of 
the  commercial  interests  of  New  England,  and 
often  known  as  the  "Rock  of  New  England  De- 
mocracy," he  served  on  such  important  commit- 
tees as  commerce,  navy,  and  agriculture,  where 
he  used  his  influence  as  an  isolationist  and  as  a 
supporter  of  a  mildly  protective  tariff.  He  advo- 
cated the  annexation  of  Texas,  even  at  the  ex- 
pense of  war  (June  4,  1844,  Writings,  I,  355), 
and  the  occupation  of  Oregon.  He  declined  re- 
election, but  his  friends  in  Portsmouth  chose 
him  without  his  consent  for  the  state  Senate  in 
1 83 1.  In  May,  however,  he  was  appointed  sec- 
retary of  the  navy.  In  this  office  he  reformed 
rules  of  conduct  and  procedure,  and  left  an  ex- 
panded navy  when  he  retired  in  June  1834. 

As  early  as  1829,  he  was  an  opponent  of  the 
policy  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States.  He 
charged  its  officers  with  political  favoritism,  but 
was  willing  to  continue  its  existence  if  its  board 
of  directors  were  equally  divided  between  the 
two  major  political  parties.  Failing  in  effecting 
such  a  plan,  he,  as  secretary  of  the  navy,  finally 
agreed  with  President  Jackson  that  the  deposits 
of  the  government  in  the  Bank  should  be  re- 
moved to  certain  selected  banks.  When  the  Sen- 
ate refused  to  confirm  the  recess  appointment  of 
Roger  B.  Taney  \_q.v.~\  as  secretary  of  the  treas- 
ury, Jackson  appointed  and  the  senate  accepted 
Woodbury  in  his  stead  (June  27,  1834).  His 
calm  determination,  scholarship,  and  logic  were 
what  Jackson  needed  to  substantiate  the  attacks 
of  F.  P.  Blair  and  Amos  Kendall  [qq.r.~\  on  the 
Bank  in  the  Globe.  Beginning  in  January  1835, 
he  refused  to  receive  the  Bank's  drafts  in  pay- 
ment of  debts  owed  to  the  United  States,  cen- 
sured it  for  retaining  the  dividends  of  the  United 
States  in  the  French  indemnity  case,  and  assumed 
a  rather  harsh  attitude  in  disposing  of  the  stock 
owned  by  the  United  States  (Catterall,  post,  pp. 
299-301,  372-75).  He  favored  the  independent 
treasury,  maintaining  that  the  government  need- 
ed no  banks  to  care  for  its  funds,  and  that  Con- 
gress had  no  constitutional  power  to  recharter 


488 


Woodbury 

the  Bank.  He  warned  the  country  against  infla- 
tion (1836),  attempted  to  popularize  the  use  of 
hard  money,  begged  his  friends  in  Congress  to 
use  the  government's  unprecedented  surplus  in 
the  treasury  for  public  works  (1835-36),  espe- 
cially the  construction  of  fortresses  and  roads  on 
the  frontiers,  and  the  purchase  of  sound  state 
bonds  to  form  a  provident  fund  looking  toward 
the  reduction  of  the  tariff  and  a  probable  early 
decrease  in  the  federal  revenues.  He  stanchly 
opposed  the  division  of  the  surplus  among  the 
states  and  predicted  that  through  unbridled  use 
of  those  funds  undue  inflation  would  result. 
When  the  deposit  banks  began  to  suspend  specie 
payments  because  of  the  severe  panic  of  1837,  he 
perfected  a  scheme  by  which  public  holders  of 
federal  warrants  and  drafts  drawn  on  federal  de- 
posits did  not  lose  because  of  depreciated  paper 
money.  Federal  contracts  and  sound  state  banks 
were  benefited  greatly  by  his  policy.  In  the  midst 
of  his  troubles  with  the  currency  he  was  offered 
but  declined  the  office  of  chief  justice  of  New 
Hampshire.  Retiring  from  office  with  Van  Bu- 
ren,  Woodbury  was  elected  to  the  United  States 
Senate  ( 1841 ),  where  he  defended  his  fiscal  poli- 
cies and  supported  Democratic  measures.  He 
spoke  at  length  for  the  veto  power  of  the  presi- 
dent, claiming  that  without  it  the  executive  would 
be  a  "mere  pageant"  (1842).  He  loyally  sup- 
ported Polk  in  1844,  though  he  had  little  faith  in 
Polk  and  his  Southern  friends. 

In  1845  he  declined  an  appointment  as  minis- 
ter to  Great  Britain,  but  President  Polk  nomi- 
nated him  an  associate  justice  of  the  Supreme 
Court  on  Sept.  20,  1845,  during  a  recess  of  the 
Senate ;  he  was  confirmed  on  Jan.  3,  1846.  The 
docket  was  crowded  with  cases  after  1846.  He 
concurred  in  a  decision  upholding  the  constitu- 
tionality of  state  prohibitionist  legislation  (5 
Howard,  617)  ;  in  Jones  vs.  Van  Zandt  (5  How- 
ard, 215)  he  gave  the  opinion  of  the  Court  that 
slavery  was  "a  political  question,  settled  by  each 
state  for  itself."  He  dissented  in  Luther  vs.  Bor- 
den (7  Howard,  i,  47),  and  in  the  Passenger 
Cases  (7  Howard,  283,  518),  involving  the  con- 
stitutionality of  the  passenger  tax  statutes  of 
New  York  and  Massachusetts.  His  dissenting 
opinion  in  the  case  of  Waring  vs.  Clarke  (5 
Howard,  441),  denying  that  admiralty  jurisdic- 
tion extended  within  the  body  of  a  country,  even 
on  tidal  waters,  is  also  noteworthy.  His  reason- 
ing was  "cogent  and  accurate,  but  not  concise" 
(quoted  in  Warren,  Supreme  Court,  post,  II, 
203).  Because  of  his  record  as  statesman  and 
jurist  he  was  considered  as  a  Democratic  presi- 
dential nominee  in  1848,  and,  had  he  lived,  he 
might  have  been  a  strong  candidate  in  1852,  al- 


Woodford 

though  the  Free-Soil  wing  would  have  accepted 
him  reluctantly.  In  1851  he  died  in  Portsmouth, 
N.  H. 

As  a  man  Woodbury  was  calm,  self-possessed, 
and  courageous,  temperate  in  habits,  a  puritan 
in  morals,  an  indefatigable  worker.  He  was  a 
conservative  in  politics — a  party  man  and  a 
strict-constructionist;  slavery,  for  instance,  he 
thought  was  wrong,  but  the  laws  upholding  it 
must  be  obeyed  until  duly  repealed.  In  other 
ways  he  was  more  progressive ;  he  believed  in 
systematic  physical  education  as  a  supplement  to 
mental  training ;  he  advocated  free  public  schools 
and  normal  training  for  teachers,  the  establish- 
ment of  lyceums,  institutes,  and  museums  for 
adult  education,  and  the  production  of  simpli- 
fied literature  on  science,  philosophy,  and  history 
for  popular  use.  Confident  of  the  intelligence  and 
enterprise  of  his  countrymen,  he  looked  forward 
to  free  lecture  halls,  Sunday  libraries,  cheaper 
newspapers,  prison  reform  and  poor  relief,  and 
above  all,  democratic  government  run  by  an  edu- 
cated people. 

[Sources  include  Woodbury  MSS.,  Blair  MSS.,  Van 
Buren  MSS.,  in  MSS.  Div.,  and  "Scrapbook  of  News- 
papers ...  on  the  Life  of  Judge  Woodbury"  in  Rare 
Book  Room,  Lib.  of  Cong.  ;  Treat  MSS.,  in  Lib.  of  Mo. 
Hist.  Soc,  St.  Louis  ;  and  Writings  of  Levi  Woodbury, 
LL.D.  (3  vols.,  1852).  Woodbury's  opinions  in  the 
state  court  appear  in  1-2  N.  H.  Reports  ;  his  reports  as 
sec.  of  the  navy  in  Am.  State  Papers  .  .  .  Naval  Affairs, 
vol.  IV  (1861)  ;  opinions  in  U.  S.  circuit  court,  in  C.  L. 
Woodbury  and  George  Minot,  Reports  of  Cases  .  .  . 
First  Circuit  (3  vols.,  1847-52)  ;  and  in  Supreme  Court, 
in  4-1 1  Howard.  For  biography  see:  C.  L.  Woodbury, 
Geneal.  Sketches  of  the  Woodbury  Family  (1904), 
"Levi  Woodbury,"  in  Memorial  Biogs.  of  the  New  Eng. 
Hist.  Geneal.  Soc,  vol.  I  (1880),  "Memoir  of  Hon. 
Levi  Woodbury,"  in  New  Eng.  Hist,  and  Geneal.  Reg., 
Jan.  1894  ;  William  Cranch,  "Sketches  of  Alumni  .  .  .," 
Ibid.,  Jan.  1847;  Robert  Rantoul,  Eulogy  on  the  Hon. 
Levi  Woodbury  (1852)  ;  "Proc.  in  Relation  to  the  death 
of  Judge  Woodbury,"  12  Howard,  iii ;  U.  S.  Mag.  and 
Dcm.  Rev.,  July  1838,  Mar.  1843;  D.  H.  Hurd,  Hist. 
of  Rockingham  and  Strafford  Counties,  N.  H.  (1882)  ; 
C.  H.  Bell,  The  Bench  and  Bar  of  N.  H.  (1894).  See 
also  Charles  Warren,  A  Hist,  of  the  Am.  Bar  (1911) 
and  The  Supreme  Court  iji  U.  S.  Hist.  (2  vols.,  1928)  ; 
R.  C.  H.  Catterall,  The  Second  Bank  of  the  U.  S. 
(1903)  ;  W.  E.  Smith,  The  Francis  Preston  Blair  Fam- 
ily in  Politics  (1933)  ;  N.  H.  Patriot  and  State  Gazette 
(Concord,  N.  H.),   Sept.   10,    1 85 1 .]  W.  E.  S h. 

WOODFORD,  STEWART  LYNDON 

(Sept.  3,  1835-Feb.  14,  1913),  soldier,  diplomat, 
was  born  in  New  York  City,  the  son  of  Josiah 
Curtis  and  Susan  (Terry)  Woodford  and  the 
descendant  of  Thomas  Woodford,  a  native  of 
Lincolnshire,  England,  who  emigrated  to  Amer- 
ica in  1690.  The  boy  went  to  Columbia  College, 
now  Columbia  University,  a  year,  then  trans- 
ferred to  Yale  College  for  a  year,  and  returned 
to  Columbia  and  was  graduated  in  1854.  He 
studied  law  in  the  offices  of  Brown,  Hall  & 
Vanderpoel  and  in  1857  was  admitted  to  the  bar 
and  began  practice  in  New  York  City.   On  Oct 


489 


Woodford 


Woodford 


TS»  J857,  he  was  married  to  Julia  Evelyn  Capen 
of  New  York,  who  died  in  1899.  He  was  a  dele- 
gate to  the  convention  that  nominated  Lincoln 
and,  following  Lincoln's  election,  was  given  the 
honor  of  carrying  to  Washington  the  electoral 
vote  of  his  state.  In  1861  he  was  made  assistant 
federal  district  attorney  for  New  York  but  soon 
resigned  to  enlist  as  a  private  in  Company  H  of 
the  127th  New  York  Volunteers.  His  company 
elected  him  captain,  and,  when  the  regiment  was 
ordered  to  the  front,  he  was  commissioned  lieu- 
tenant-colonel. He  took  part  in  the  defense  of 
Washington  and  was  at  Suffolk,  Va.,  when  it 
was  besieged  by  Longstreet.  On  the  surrender 
of  Charleston,  he  became  the  first  military  gov- 
ernor of  that  city.  In  May  1865  he  was  brevetted 
brigadier-general  of  volunteers,  and  he  resigned 
in  August. 

A  man  of  distinguished  and  ingratiating  ap- 
pearance, he  continued  to  take  an  active  part  in 
politics.  From  1867  to  1869  he  was  lieutenant- 
governor  of  New  York  and  in  1870  ran  for  the 
governorship  on  the  Republican  ticket  but  lost. 
Elected  to  Congress,  he  served  from  Mar.  4, 
1873,  until  he  resigned  on  July  1,  1874.  He  par- 
ticipated in  the  important  debates  on  the  resump- 
tion of  specie  payments.  In  October  1875  he 
took  part  in  Joint  Discussions  between  Gen. 
Thomas  Ezving  of  Ohio  and  Goz\  Stewart  L. 
Woodford  .  .  .  on  the  Finance  Question  .  .  .  at 
Circleville,  Wilmington,  Tiffin,  and  Columbus, 
Ohio  (1876).  At  the  Republican  National  Con- 
vention of  1876  he  nominated  Roscoe  Conkling 
for  the  presidency  and  was  himself  put  in  nomi- 
nation for  the  vice-presidency.  In  January  1877 
he  was  appointed  federal  district  attorney  for 
the  southern  district  of  New  York,  an  office  he 
held  until  1883.  In  1896  he  became  a  member  of 
a  committee  that  drafted  the  charter  for  Greater 
New  York  and  in  that  year  was  permanent 
chairman  of  the  Republican  state  convention. 
The  next  year  McKinley  named  him  minister  to 
Spain.  As  minister  at  Madrid,  he  pursued  a 
course  designed  at  once  to  bring  about  better- 
ment in  conditions  in  Cuba,  then  in  revolt  against 
Spain,  and  also  to  prevent  war  between  the 
United  States  and  Spain  over  Cuba.  Through 
the  exercise  of  patience  and  an  unsuspected  skill 
in  negotiation  he  was  successful  in  bringing  the 
Spanish  government  to  acceptance  of  the  de- 
mands of  President  McKinley.  However,  owing 
to  no  fault  of  his  own,  his  work  was  unsuccess- 
ful. In  1898  he  returned  to  the  practice  of  law 
in  New  York  City,  where  he  was  also  a  director 
and  general  counsel  for  the  Metropolitan  Life 
Insurance  Company,  trustee  of  the  Franklin 
Trust  Company,  and  of  the  Citv  Savings  Bank 


of  Brooklyn,  as  well  as  of  numerous  other  or- 
ganizations. In  1909  he  was  president  of  the 
Hudson-Fulton  Celebration  Commission  and  af- 
terwards made  a  tour  of  courtesy  to  the  Euro- 
pean countries  that  had  been  represented  at  the 
celebration.  He  died  in  New  York,  survived  by 
a  daughter  and  by  his  widow,  Isabel  (Hanson) 
Woodford,  whom  he  married  on  Sept.  26,  1900. 

[Some  papers  and  "Recortes  Periodisticos  de  los 
Diarios  de  Madrid,"  10  vols,  of  clippings  from  Madrid 
newspapers  during  Woodford's  ministry,  1897-98,  in 
Lib.  of  Cong.;  Bulletin  of  Yale  Univ.:  Obituary  Rec- 
ord of  Yale  Grads.,  1912-13  (1913);  Walter  Millis, 
The  Martial  Spirit  (1931)  ;  Who's  Who  in  America, 
1903-05;  TV.  Y.  Times  and  Sun  (N.  Y.),  Feb.  15, 
l9l3-~\  W.E.  S— a. 

WOODFORD,  WILLIAM  (Oct.  6,  1734- 
Nov.  13,  1780),  Revolutionary  soldier,  was  born 
in  Caroline  County,  Va.  His  father,  Maj.  Wil- 
liam Woodford,  was  an  Englishman  who  emi- 
grated to  Virginia  in  the  latter  part  of  the  seven- 
teenth century ;  his  mother,  Anne  Cocke,  daugh- 
ter of  Dr.  William  Cocke,  secretary  of  the  col- 
ony. William  enjoyed  the  educational  advantages 
customary  among  young  men  of  his  class  in  Vir- 
ginia. He  served  as  a  commissioned  officer  of 
the  provincial  forces  during  the  French  and  In- 
dian War  and  as  justice  of  the  peace  of  Caroline 
County.  On  June  26,  1762,  he  married  Mary, 
daughter  of  Col.  John  Thornton;  two  children 
were  born  to  them. 

On  Jan.  1,  1774,  he  was  elected  a  member  of 
the  committee  of  correspondence  of  Caroline 
County,  and  on  Dec.  8,  a  member  of  the  commit- 
tee to  enforce  the  "Association."  From  July  17 
to  Aug.  9,  1775,  he  sat  as  alternate  to  Edmund 
Pendleton  \_q.v.~\  in  the  Virginia  Convention.  On 
Aug.  5  he  was  appointed  colonel  of  the  3rd  Regi- 
ment, and  on  Oct.  25  his  troops  repulsed  an  at- 
tempt on  the  part  of  Governor  Dunmore's  men 
to  burn  Hampton.  Shortly  thereafter  he  was 
directed  by  the  Virginia  committee  of  safety  to 
proceed  with  his  regiment  and  the  Culpeper 
militia  to  the  vicinity  of  Norfolk  for  the  purpose 
of  keeping  Dunmore's  movements  under  obser- 
vation. The  order  meant  "the  passing  over  in 
favor  of  a  subordinate  commander  of  Patrick 
Henry,  colonel  of  the  1st  Regiment  and  ranking 
officer  of  the  Virginia  forces"  (H.  J.  Eckenrode, 
The  Revolution  in  Virginia,  1916,  p.  75).  As  a 
consequence,  a  warm  dispute  arose  between 
Henry  and  Woodford  regarding  the  scope  of 
their  respective  commands.  On  Dec.  9  Woodford 
defeated  more  than  three  hundred  Loyalists,  con- 
victs, and  negro  slaves,  and  two  hundred  British 
regulars  at  Great  Bridge,  thereby  compelling 
Dunmore  to  evacuate  Norfolk  and  take  refuge 
on  board  ship.  In  the  meantime  two  hundred 
North  Carolina  troops  under  Col.  Robert  Howe 


490 


Woodhouse 

[q.v.]  had  arrived.  Although  Howe  outranked 
Woodford,  the  two  officers  exercised  joint  com- 
mand over  their  combined  forces  during  the  sub- 
sequent operations  about  Norfolk. 

Upon  the  recommendation  of  the  Virginia 
Convention,  the  Continental  Congress  on  Feb.  13, 
1776,  appointed  Woodford  colonel  of  the  2nd 
Virginia  Regiment.  On  Feb.  21,  1777,  he  was 
promoted  to  the  rank  of  brigadier-general.  He 
fought  at  Brandywine  (where  he  was  wounded), 
at  Germantown,  and  at  Monmouth,  and  shared 
the  sufferings  of  the  patriots  at  Valley  Forge.  In 
1778  and  1779  he  was  with  the  Continental 
army  in  New  Jersey.  On  Dec.  13,  1779,  Wash- 
ington ordered  him  to  proceed  with  a  detach- 
ment of  seven  hundred  men  to  the  aid  of  Charles- 
ton, S.  C,  then  besieged  by  the  British.  Going 
from  Morristown,  N.  J.,  to  the  Elk  River,  Wood- 
ford journeyed  by  water  to  Williamsburg,  Va., 
and  thence  overland  to  Charleston,  where  he  ar- 
rived on  Apr.  17,  1780,  having  made  a  march 
of  five  hundred  miles  in  twenty-eight  days.  Upon 
the  capture  of  the  town  by  Sir  Henry  Clinton  on 
May  12,  1780,  Woodford  was  made  prisoner.  He 
was  taken  to  New  York,  where  he  died  and  was 
buried  in  Old  Trinity  Church  Yard.  In  1789 
Woodford  County,  Ky.,  was  named  in  his  honor. 

[Valuable  data  from  public  and  private  archives  sup- 
plied by  Miss  Catesby  Woodford  Willis  of  Fredericks- 
burg, Va.,  a  descendant  of  Gen.  Woodford,  who  is  pre- 
paring a  biog.  Published  sources  include  Royal  Gazette 
(N.  Y.),  Nov.  15,  1780;  Peter  Force,  Am.  Archives,  4 
ser.  Ill  (1840),  IV  (1843),  VI  (1846)  ;  R.  R.  Howi- 
son,  A  Hist,  of  Va.,  vol.  II  (1848)  ;  W.  C.  Ford,  The 
Writings  of  George  Washington,  vols.  Ill  (1889),  V, 
VI  (1890),  and  Jours,  of  the  Continental  Congress; 
F.  B.  Heitman,  Hist.  Reg.  of  Officers  of  the  Continental 
Army  (1914)  ;  "The  Letters  of  Col.  William  Woodford 
to  Edmund  Pendleton,"  Richmond  College  Papers,  vol. 
I  (1915)  ;  E.  C.  Burnett,  Letters  of  Members  of  the 
Continental  Congress,  vols.  I-III  (1921—  26),  V  (1931); 
H.  R.  Mcllwaine,  Justices  of  the  Peace  of  Colonial  Vir- 
ginia (1922)  ;  B.  P.  Willis,  Daily  Star  (Fredericks- 
burg), Apr.  11,  1922;  Marshall  Wingfield,  A  Hist,  of 
Caroline  County,  Va.  (1924)  ;  L.  G.  Tyler,  in  Tyler's 
Quart.  Hist,  and  Geneal.  Mag..  July,  Oct.  1930,  Jan., 
Apr.  193 1  ;  J.  C.  Fitzpatrick,  The  Writings  of  George 
Washington,  vols.  I-XI  (1931-34);  J.  W.  Jordan  in 
Pa.  Mag.  of  Hist,  and  Biog.,  Jan.  1900.]  jr  g  q 

WOODHOUSE,  JAMES  (Nov.  17,  1770- 
June  4,  1809),  chemist,  physician,  was  born  in 
Philadelphia,  Pa.,  the  second  son  of  William 
Woodhouse,  an  officer  in  the  army  of  the  Young 
Pretender,  and  his  wife,  Anne  Martin,  daughter 
of  Dr.  William  Martin  of  Edinburgh.  Immediate- 
ly after  their  marriage  (1766)  the  parents  went 
from  Alnwick,  England,  to  Philadelphia,  where 
the  father  began  business  as  a  bookseller  and  sta- 
tioner. No  records  in  regard  to  other  children 
of  this  worthy  couple  have  been  discovered. 
James  Woodhouse  began  his  academic  life  in  the 
University  of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania  (later 
the  University  of  Pennsylvania)  in  his  fourteenth 


Woodhouse 

year  (1784),  receiving  the  degree  of  B.A.  in 
1787,  and  that  of  M.A.  in  1790.  Placing  himself 
under  the  supervision  and  preceptorship  of  Ben- 
jamin Rush  \_q.v.~],  he  became  a  student  of  medi- 
cine and  in  1792  received  the  degree  of  M.D.  upon 
the  presentation  of  an  inaugural  dissertation,  "On 
the  Chemical  and  Medicinal  Properties  of  the 
Persimmon  Tree  and  the  Analysis  of  Astringent 
Vegetables."  This  contribution  met  with  general 
acclaim  and  very  probably  caused  Woodhouse  to 
abandon  medicine  for  chemistry,  for  in  the  same 
year  he  founded  the  Chemical  Society  of  Phila- 
delphia, one  of  the  earliest  chemical  societies  in 
the  world.  It  was  an  international  organization, 
of  which  for  seventeen  years  Woodhouse  was 
senior  president.  On  his  assumption  of  the  chair 
of  chemistry  in  the  University  of  Pennsylvania 
in  1795,  Woodhouse  entered  upon  a  career  of  re- 
search which  continued  through  a  period  of  four- 
teen years  with  remarkable  consequences.  It  was 
there,  by  devotion  and  unusual  skill,  accompanied 
with  inexhaustible  patience,  that  he  gave  the 
most  convincing  arguments  against  the  doctrine 
of  phlogiston ;  frequently  his  demonstrations 
were  made  in  the  presence  of  Joseph  Priestley 
[q.v.],  believer  in  the  phlogiston  theory,  who  was 
a  regular  visitor  to  Woodhouse's  small  but  fa- 
mous laboratory.  There,  too,  he  liberated  by 
original  methods  the  metal  potassium  (1808) 
and  performed  elaborate  experiments  on  nitrous 
oxide  gas,  confirming  its  anaesthetic  properties 
(1806).  He  executed  all  the  chemical  analytical 
work  (1798)  necessary  to  establish  the  basaltic 
nature  of  certain  important  rock  formations,  and 
exhibited  attractive  experiments  on  the  conduct 
of  metals  toward  nitric  acid.  Besides  these  re- 
sults he  engaged  in  profound  studies  on  the  chem- 
istry and  production  of  white  starch,  superior  to 
Polish  starch  ;  the  industrial  purification  of  cam- 
phor (1804)  ;  the  demonstration  of  the  superior- 
ity of  anthracite  coal  over  bituminous  coal  for 
industrial  purposes  (1808);  and  conducted  an 
extended  series  of  trials  on  bread-making. 

Woodhouse's  contributions  to  American  chem- 
istry were  noteworthy  in  several  ways.  He  was 
a  pioneer  in  plant  chemistry,  in  the  development 
of  chemical  analysis,  in  the  elaboration  of  indus- 
trial processes,  and  in  the  use  of  laboratory  meth- 
ods of  instruction  in  chemistry.  His  The  Young 
Chemist's  Pocket  Companion  (1797)  was  prob- 
ably the  first  published  guide  in  chemical  experi- 
ment for  students,  and  able  students  of  the  sci- 
ence, among  them  Robert  Hare  and  the  elder 
Benjamin  Silliman  [qq.z'.],  were  attracted  to  his 
laboratory.  He  issued  an  attractive  edition  of 
James  Parkinson's  The  Chemical  Pocket-book 
(1802),  and  revised  Samuel  Parkes's  A  Chymi- 


491 


Woodhull 

cal  Catechism  (1807)  and  J.  A.  C.  Chaptal  de 
Chanteloup's  celebrated  Elements  of  Chemistry 
(2  vols.,  1807),  all  of  which  he  annotated  co- 
piously. He  died  of  apoplexy  at  the;  early  age  of 
thirty-eight.   He  was  unmarried. 

[See  E.  F.  Smith,  James  Woodhouse,  a  Pioneer  in 
Chemistry  ( 1918)  ;  Joseph  Carson,  A  Hist,  of  the  Medic. 
Dept.  of  the  Univ.  of  Pa.  (i860)  ;  J.  L.  Chamberlain, 
Universities  and  Their  Sons :  Univ.  of  Pa.,  vol.  I  (1901), 
p.  302,  which  gives  the  names  of  Woodhouse's  parents 
as  John  and  Sarah  (Robinson)  Woodhouse;  death  no- 
tice in  Poulson's  Am.  Daily  Advertiser  (Phila.),  June 
6,  1809.]  E  -p  g 

WOODHULL,    ALFRED    ALEXANDER 

(Apr.  13,  1837-Oct.  18,  1921),  military  surgeon, 
was  born  at  Princeton,  N.  J.,  the  son  of  Dr.  Al- 
fred Alexander  and  Anna  Maria  (Salomons) 
Woodhull.  He  was  a  descendant  of  Richard 
Woodhull,  who  emigrated  from  Northampton, 
England,  to  Long  Island,  probably  in  1648,  and 
also  of  John  Witherspoon  [q.v.~\,  signer  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence.  Woodhull  pre- 
pared at  Lawrenceville  School  for  the  College 
of  New  Jersey,  where  he  received  the  degree  of 
A.B.  in  1856  and  that  of  A.M.  in  1859,  the  latter 
coincident  with  his  graduation  from  the  medical 
department  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania. 
During  the  two  years  following  his  graduation 
he  practised  medicine,  first  at  Leavenworth  and 
later  at  Eudora,  Kan. 

With  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War  he  was 
active  in  the  recruitment  of  a  troop  of  mounted 
rifles  for  the  Kansas  militia,  in  which  he  was 
commissioned  a  lieutenant.  Before  the  unit  was 
mustered  into  the  Federal  service,  he  received, 
Sept.  19,  1861,  an  appointment  to  the  medical 
corps  of  the  regular  army.  He  served  through- 
out the  war  on  various  field  and  hospital  duties. 
His  most  important  assignment  was  to  the  Army 
of  the  James  as  medical  inspector  (1864-65). 
He  received  the  brevet  of  lieutenant-colonel  for 
faithful  and  meritorious  service  in  March  1865. 
At  the  close  of  the  war  he  was  assigned  to  the 
Army  Medical  Museum  in  Washington,  where 
he  prepared  the  "Surgical  Section"  of  the  Cata- 
logue of  the  United  States  Army  Medical  Mu- 
seum (1866),  an  important  volume  supplemen- 
tary to  the  Medical  and  Surgical  History  of  the 
War  of  the  Rebellion.  Important  details,  follow- 
ing a  long  tour  of  duty  in  the  office  of  the  surgeon- 
general,  included  the  position  of  instructor  in 
military  hygiene  at  the  Infantry  and  Cavalry 
School  at  Fort  Leavenworth,  Kan.  (1886-90) 
and  command  of  the  Army  and  Navy  Hospital  at 
Hot  Springs,  Ark.  (1892-95).  In  1895  he  was 
detailed  as  medical  inspector  of  the  department 
of  the  Colorado,  and  in  1899  he  became  chief  sur- 
geon of  the  department  of  the  Pacific  at  Manila. 
He  was  retired  in  1901  and  in  1904  he  was  ad- 


Woodhull 

vanced  to  the  grade  of  brigadier-general  on  the 
retired  list.  After  his  retirement  he  returned  to 
Princeton,  where  for  five  years  (1902-07)  he 
was  lecturer  on  personal  hygiene  and  general 
sanitation  at  the  university.  He  continued  his 
residence  in  Princeton  to  the  time  of  his  death. 
For  fifty  years  Woodhull  was  an  industrious 
contributor  to  medical  literature.  In  1868  he  pub- 
lished A  Medical  Report  upon  the  Uniform  and 
Clothing  of  the  Soldiers  of  the  United  States 
Army.  He  contributed  several  papers  on  the 
pharmacology  and  clinical  use  of  ipecacuanha 
(1875-76),  advocating  the  use  of  the  drug  in 
the  treatment  of  dysentery,  a  practice  since  gen- 
erally accepted.  He  was  awarded  the  gold  medal 
of  the  Military  Service  Institution  for  his  paper 
on  "The  Enlisted  Soldier,"  which  was  published 
in  its  Journal  for  March  1887 ;  in  1907  he  re- 
ceived the  Seaman  prize  for  an  article  on  the 
scope  of  instruction  in  hygiene  and  sanitation  for 
military  and  naval  service  schools,  published  in 
the  same  Journal,  March-April  1908.  In  1891  he 
was  sent  to  England  to  make  a  study  of  the  medi- 
cal service  of  the  British  Army,  upon  which  he 
published  a  report  in  1894.  He  wrote  Provisional 
Manual  for  Exercise  of  Company  Bearers  and 
Hospital  Corps  (1889),  ar>d  Notes  on  Military 
Hygiene  for  Officers  of  the  Line,  which  went 
through  four  editions  (1898-1909).  He  supple- 
mented his  lectures  at  Princeton  by  writing  Per- 
sonal Hygiene:  Designed  for  Undergraduates 
(1906).  His  non-medical  writings  included  a 
Quarter  Century  Report  of  the  Class  of  1856  of 
the  College  of  New  Jersey  (1881)  and  The  Bat- 
tle of  Princeton  (1913),  a  tactical  study  of  that 
engagement.  He  was  one  of  the  early  members 
(1894)  of  the  Association  of  Military  Surgeons. 
He  had  a  strong  sense  of  personal  dignity,  which 
somewhat  masked  a  disposition  essentially  kind. 
His  mind  was  a  storehouse  of  the  most  accurate 
medico-military  knowledge,  especially  in  regard 
to  the  Civil  War.  He  was  married  on  Dec.  15, 
1868,  to  Margaret,  daughter  of  Elias  Ellicott  of 
Baltimore,  Md.,  who  survived  him. 

[M.  G.  Woodhull  and  F.  B.  Stevens,  Woodhull  Gen- 
eal.  (1904)  ;  Who's  Who  in  America,  1920-21  ;  Military 
Surgeon,  Dec.  1921  ;  I.  A.  Watson,  Physicians  and 
Surgeons  of  America  (1896)  ;  Jour.  Am.  Medic.  Asso., 
Nov.  s,  1921  ;  State  Gazette  (Trenton,  N.  J.),  Oct.  19, 
!92I.]  J.M.P. 

WOODHULL,  NATHANIEL  (Dec.  30, 
1722-Sept.  20,  1776),  president  of  the  New  York 
Provincial  Congress  and  brigadier-general  in  the 
Revolution,  was  the  son  of  Nathaniel  Woodhull 
and  Sarah  (Smith),  daughter  of  the  second  Rich- 
ard Smith  of  the  "Bull"  Smith  family  of  Smith- 
town.  The  Woodhulls  had  been  identified  with 
Long  Island  ever  since  the  earliest  of  them,  Rich- 


492 


Woodhull 


Woodhull 


ard  Woodhull,  emigrated  to  America  from  Eng- 
land about  1648.  Nathaniel's  parents  occupied 
the  ancestral  estate  at  St.  George's  Manor,  Mas- 
tic. Here  he  was  born,  and,  as  the  eldest  son, 
was  prepared  in  the  English  fashion  to  succeed 
his  father.  He  early  entered  military  service, 
however,  and  by  1758  had  the  rank  of  major. 
He  served  under  General  Abercromby  in  the 
campaign  against  Crown  Point  and  Ticonderoga, 
and  under  General  Bradstreet  at  the  reduction 
of  Fort  Frontenac  (Kingston).  In  1760,  as  colo- 
nel of  the  3rd  Regiment  of  New  York  Provin- 
cials, he  took  part  in  the  invasion  of  Canada  di- 
rected by  General  Amherst.  His  journal  of  this 
expedition  was  published  in  the  Historical  Mag- 
azine (New  York)  for  September  1861. 

During  the  period  of  peace  that  followed, 
Woodhull  had  time  for  farming  and  for  partici- 
pation in  the  affairs  of  his  local  community.  He 
married  in  1761  Ruth  Floyd,  sister  of  William 
Floyd  [q.v.~\,  signer  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence. Objections  to  England's  mode  of  tax- 
ing the  colonies  was  voiced  formally  in  the  New 
York  Assembly  in  1768,  and  in  the  election  fol- 
lowing its  dissolution,  Suffolk  County  showed  its 
approval  of  such  objection  by  choosing  Wood- 
hull  one  of  its  two  representatives  in  the  new 
Assembly.  For  six  years,  1769-75,  he  continued 
there,  protesting  against  what  he  believed  was 
arbitrary  interference  by  the  Crown  in  colonial 
affairs.  He  represented  Suffolk  also  in  the  con- 
vention which  chose  delegates  to  the  First  Con- 
tinental Congress,  and  in  the  New  York  Pro- 
vincial Congress  which  in  May  1775  assumed 
control  of  the  colony  and  reorganized  the  mili- 
tia, putting  Suffolk  and  Queens  counties  under 
Woodhull's  charge.  In  October  1775  he  was 
made  brigadier-general.  When  word  came  in 
August  1776  that  the  British  had  landed  on  Long 
Island  and  were  threatening  New  York  from 
Brooklyn,  he  was  not  in  attendance  at  the  Pro- 
vincial Congress,  of  which  he  had  been  elected 
president  the  year  before,  but  was  absent  on 
leave  at  Mastic.  He  was  ordered  to  Jamaica  to 
command  his  militia  in  the  removal  of  stock  and 
other  supplies  that  might  be  useful  to  the  enemy 
to  the  eastern  end  of  the  island  and  in  furnishing 
protection  to  the  inhabitants.  With  scarcely  a 
hundred  militiamen — two  regiments  ordered  to 
reinforce  him  failed  to  arrive — he  succeeded  in 
driving  a  large  quantity  of  stock  out  of  the  ene- 
my's reach.  The  disastrous  outcome  of  the  battle 
of  Long  Island  on  Aug.  27,  however,  cut  him  off 
entirely  from  the  rest  of  the  army,  and  in  this 
desperate  situation,  he  retired  to  his  headquar- 
ters at  Jamaica  to  await  fresh  orders,  which  he 
confidently  expected.    Repeated  appeals  to  the 


Provincial  Congress  and  to  Washington  in  his 
behalf  met  with  no  practical  response.  Commit- 
tees were  dispatched  to  aid  him  with  "advice" ; 
Connecticut  was  asked  to  send  troops,  but  none 
came.  There  are  various  versions  of  his  capture 
near  Jamaica  by  a  detachment  of  British  dra- 
goons, but  it  seems  in  keeping  with  his  soldierly 
character  to  suppose  that  he  did  not  yield  his 
sword  without  a  fight  and  that  he  was  wounded 
in  his  attempt  to  escape  from  his  captors.  His 
subsequent  ill  treatment  which  resulted  in  his 
death  within  a  few  weeks  raised  him  to  the  rank 
of  hero  and  martyr.  He  was  buried  at  Mastic. 
He  was  survived  by  his  wife  and  a  daughter. 

[M.  G.  Woodhull  and  F.  B.  Stevens,  Woodhull  Gen- 
cal.  (1904)  ;  Jour,  of  the  Votes  and  Proc.  of  the  Gen. 
Assembly  of  the  Colony  of  N.  Y .,  from  1766  to  1776 
Inclusive  (1820)  ;  Jours,  of  the  Provincial  Cong.  .  .  . 
of  the  State  of  N.  Y.  (1842)  ;  L.  R.  Marsh,  An  Oration 
on  the  Life,  Character,  and  Pub.  Services  of  Gen.  Na- 
thaniel Woodhull  (1848)  ;  Thomas  Jones,  Hist,  of  N.  Y. 
during  the  Revolutionary  War  (1879),  ed.  by  E.  F. 
de  Lancey ;  Calendar  of  Hist.  MSS.  Relating  to  the 
Revolutionary  War  in  the  Office  of  the  Secretary  of 
State,  Albany,  N.  Y.  (1868),  I,  134.]  E.L.J. 

WOODHULL,  VICTORIA  CLAFLIN 

(Sept.  23,  1838-June  10,  1927),  reformer,  was 
born  in  Homer,  Ohio,  the  daughter  of  Reuben 
Buckman  and  Roxanna  (Hummel)  Claflin.  She 
was  one  of  ten  children,  of  whom  another  daugh- 
ter, Tennessee  Celeste  (1846-1923),  also  be- 
came well  known.  Their  parents  were  poor  and 
eccentric.  The  father  was  compelled  to  leave 
Homer  under  suspicion  of  arson  while  Victoria 
was  yet  a  child,  and  the  citizens  gave  a  benefit 
to  help  the  rest  of  the  family  out  of  town.  The 
mother  became  a  fanatic  on  the  subjects  of  spir- 
itualism and  mesmerism.  Victoria  asserted  in 
after  years  that  she  herself  had  begun  to  have 
visions  at  the  age  of  three,  and  that  Demosthenes, 
whom  she  claimed  as  a  familiar  spirit,  had  first 
appeared  to  her  when  she  was  ten.  The  family 
moved  about  from  town  to  town  in  Ohio,  and 
presently  Victoria  and  Tennessee  began  giving 
spiritualistic  exhibitions.  In  1853,  before  she  was 
sixteen,  Victoria  married  Dr.  Canning  Wood- 
hull  (by  whom  she  had  two  children),  but  did 
not  cease  her  career  as  a  charlatan.  The  Claflin 
family  traveled  for  a  time  as  a  medicine  and  for- 
tune-telling show,  selling  an  Elixir  of  Life,  with 
Tennessee's  portrait  on  the  bottle,  while  her 
brother  Hebern  posed  as  a  cancer  doctor.  Vic- 
toria and  Tennessee  thereafter  worked  together 
as  clairvoyants,  making  long  stays  in  Cincinnati, 
Chicago,  and  elsewhere.  In  1864  Victoria  di- 
vorced Woodhull  and  began  traveling  with  a  Col. 
James  H.  Blood,  whom  she  was  supposed  to  have 
married  in  1866. 

In  1868  the  two  sisters  went  to  New  York. 


493 


Woodhull 


Woodin 


taking  several  members  of  the  Claflin  family 
with  them.  Tennessee  had  married  one  John 
Bartels,  but  never  used  his  name,  preferring  to 
sign  herself  as  "Tennie  C.  Claflin."  The  two 
reached  the  ear  of  the  elder  Cornelius  Vander- 
bilt  [g.T'.]  through  his  interest  in  spiritualism; 
they  opened  a  stock  brokerage  office  in  the  finan- 
cial district,  and  through  Vanderbilt's  advice 
made  considerable  profits  in  the  stock  market. 
Victoria  became  interested  in  a  socialistic  cult, 
the  Pantarchy,  one  of  whose  tenets  was  free  love, 
which  was  headed  by  Stephen  Pearl  Andrews 
[q.v.~\.  In  1870  the  sisters  launched  Woodhull  and 
Claflin's  JVcckly,  which  advocated  equal  rights 
for  women,  a  single  standard  of  morality  and 
free  love,  and  campaigned  against  prostitution 
and  abortion.  Blood  and  Andrews  wrote  most 
of  the  material,  though  a  great  deal  of  it  voiced 
Mrs.  Woodhull's  own  views.  The  Weekly  also 
proposed  her  as  president  of  the  United  States. 
In  January  1871  she  appeared  before  the  ju- 
diciary committee  of  the  national  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives and  pleaded  for  woman's  suffrage. 
She  began  giving  lectures  on  that  and  other  sub- 
jects, and  proved  to  be  a  magnetic  and  compelling 
speaker.  The  Equal  Rights  party  nominated  her 
for  the  presidency  in  1872,  and  she  went  to  the 
polls  and  made  a  futile  attempt  to  vote.  Among 
her  published  lectures  and  pamphlets  are  Ori- 
gin, Tendencies  and  Principles  of  Government 
(1871),  Stirpiculture,  or  the  Scientific  Propa- 
gation of  the  Human  Race  ( 1888) ,  Humanitarian 
Money  (1892),  and,  with  her  sister,  The  Human 
Body  the  Temple  of  God  (1890).  Theodore 
Tilton  [q.z\~\,  a  young  reporter  on  the  Independ- 
ent, became  interested  in  Mrs.  Woodhull,  and  she 
later  described  publicly  a  liaison  with  him  last- 
ing, as  she  said,  six  months.  Angered  by  the  at- 
tacks of  the  sisters  of  Henry  Ward  Beecher 
\_q.vJ]  upon  them,  the  Claflin  sisters  precipitated 
the  greatest  sensation  of  the  period  by  publish- 
ing in  the  Weekly,  Nov.  2,  1872,  the  story  of  the 
alleged  intimacy  of  the  eminent  clergyman  with 
the  wife  of  Tilton.  They  were  arrested  for  utter- 
ing an  obscene  publication  and  spent  two  periods 
in  jail,  but  were  acquitted.  In  1876  Victoria  ob- 
tained a  divorce  from  Blood.  When  in  January 
1877  Cornelius  Vanderbilt  died,  some  of  his  chil- 
dren brought  suit  to  annul  his  will ;  during  the 
trial  the  sisters  sailed  for  England,  and  it  was 
whispered  that  Vanderbilt  money  had  paid  them 
to  go. 

In  the  following  December,  after  a  lecture  by 
Mrs.  Woodhull  at  St.  James's  Hall,  London,  one 
of  her  hearers,  John  Biddulph  Martin,  one  of  a 
wealthy  English  banking  family,  offered  her  mar- 
riage and  was  accepted,  but  his  family  objected 


so  strongly  that  it  was  six  years  before  the  wed- 
ding took  place  (Oct.  31,  1883).  In  1885  Ten- 
nessee married  Francis  Cook,  later  a  baronet 
and  also  owner  of  a  Portuguese  estate  which 
brought  him  the  title  of  Viscount  de  Montserrat. 
Both  sisters  became  noted  for  charitable  works, 
and  in  their  latter  years  were  received  by  not  a 
few  of  the  socially  elect  in  England.  Victoria 
continued  lecturing  and  writing.  In  July  1892 
she  began  issuing  a  magazine,  the  Humanitarian, 
with  her  daughter,  Zulu  Maud  Woodhull,  as  as- 
sociate editor.  She  and  her  sister  made  several 
trips  to  America,  stirring  up  a  sensation  on  al- 
most every  occasion.  Lady  Cook  died  in  1923, 
and  Mrs.  Martin  four  years  later. 

[Sources  include  Who's  Who  in  America,  1926-27 
(see  Victoria  Martin)  ;  Emanie  N.  Sachs,  "The  Ter- 
rible Siren"  (1928)  ;  Leon  Oliver,  The  Great  Sensation 
— Hist,  of  the  Bcccher-Tilton-Woodhull  Scandal 
(1873)  ;  G.  S.  Darewin,  Synopsis  of  the  Lives  of  Vic- 
toria C.  Woodhull  and  Tennessee  Claflin  (London, 
1 89 1 )  ;  M.  F.  Darwin,  One  Moral  Standard  for  All:  Ex- 
tracts from  the  Lives  of  Victoria  Woodhull  .  .  .  and 
Tennessee  Claflin  (1895)  ;  Madeleine  Legge,  Two  Noble 
Women  (1893);  Henry  Clews,  Fifty  Years  in  Wall 
Street  (1908);  records  of  Tilton- Beecher  trial,  City 
Court,  Brooklyn,  Jan.-June  1875  ;  H.  G.  Clark,  The 
Thunderbolt  (1873);  Theodore  Tilton,  Golden  Age 
Tracts,  No.  3,  Victoria  C.  Woodhull  (1871);  obituary 
of  Tennessee  Claflin  in  AT.  Y.  Times,  Jan.  20,  1923  ; 
obituary  of  Victoria  Woodhull,  Ibid.,  June  11,  1927.] 

A.F.  H. 

WOODIN,  WILLIAM  HARTMAN  (May 
27,  1868-May  3,  1934),  secretary  of  the  treasury, 
was  born  at  Berwick,  Pa.,  the  son  of  Clemuel 
Ricketts  and  Mary  Louise  (Dickerman)  Wood- 
in. Since  1835,  when  his  grandfather  established 
a  foundry  at  Berwick,  the  family  had  been  en- 
gaged in  the  production  of  iron.  William  was 
educated  at  the  Woodbridge  School  in  New  York 
City  and  the  School  of  Mines  of  Columbia  Uni- 
versity, where  he  was  a  member  of  the  class  of 
1890  but  did  not  graduate.  He  entered  his  fa- 
ther's plant  as  a  molder  and  cleaner  of  castings, 
became  general  superintendent  in  1892,  and  in 
1899  president  of  the  Jackson  &  Woodin  Man- 
ufacturing Company  at  Berwick.  Resigning  that 
post  within  the  year  to  enter  the  employ  of  the 
American  Car  &  Foundry  Company  as  district 
manager,  he  was  made  a  director  in  1902  and 
president  in  1916.  For  many  years  he  was  chair- 
man of  the  board  of  the  American  Locomotive 
Company,  and  he  served  as  an  officer  or  director 
of  a  number  of  other  enterprises. 

A  fellow  trustee  of  the  Warm  Springs  Founda- 
tion, he  was  a  close  personal  friend  of  Franklin 
Delano  Roosevelt,  and  though  previously  a  Re- 
publican, he  gave  Roosevelt  his  active  support  in 
the  presidential  campaign  of  1932,  after  the  elec- 
tion becoming  one  of  the  inner  circle  of  Roose- 
velt's advisers.   He  served  as  treasurer  of  a  spe- 


494 


Woodin 


Woodrow 


cial  finance  committee  which  raised  $1,000,000 
to  pay  off  the  $793,000  debt  and  the  obligations 
of  the  Democratic  National  Committee,  and  on 
Feb.  21,  1933,  his  selection  as  secretary  of  the 
treasury  in  Roosevelt's  cabinet  was  announced. 

Woodin  entered  upon  his  duties  as  secretary 
of  the  treasury  at  one  of  the  most  critical  mo- 
ments in  the  nation's  history.  The  financial  sys- 
tem of  the  country,  weakened  by  huge  with- 
drawals of  deposits,  increasing  lack  of  confidence, 
and  the  effect  of  the  depression  which  began  in 
1929,  was  perilously  near  collapse.  Woodin's 
task  was  both  to  restore  confidence  and  to  carry 
out  Roosevelt's  financial  and  monetary  policies, 
which  involved  a  sharp  break,  at  many  points, 
from  those  of  his  predecessors.  To  this  double 
assignment  he  addressed  himself  with  great  en- 
ergy and  unbounded  devotion  to  his  chief.  Though 
he  belonged  to  the  conservative  school  that  viewed 
with  mistrust  some  of  the  financial  policies  of 
the  Roosevelt  Administration,  his  personal  re- 
lations with  the  President  remained  as  warm  as 
ever.  Throughout  the  financial  crisis  Woodin 
supervised  most  efficiently  the  promulgation  of 
the  new  banking  regulations  and  the  final  warn- 
ings to  the  hoarders  of  gold.  In  November  1933 
he  issued  a  statement  affirming  his  faith  in  the 
"New  Deal"  and  his  loyalty  to  his  chief.  Roose- 
velt, on  his  part,  stood  by  Woodin  when  demands 
for  his  resignation  were  made  by  members  of 
Congress  after  his  name  had  appeared  on  a  list 
of  preferred  customers  of  J.  P.  Morgan  &  Com- 
pany, made  public  as  a  result  of  an  investigation 
by  the  Senate  Banking  Committee.  Under  the 
strain  of  his  responsibilities,  however,  Woodin's 
health  gave  way ;  on  Oct.  31  he  tendered  his  resig- 
nation, which  was  not  accepted,  but  shortly  af- 
terward, at  the  insistence  of  the  President,  he 
took  an  indefinite  leave  of  absence,  going  to 
Arizona  in  the  hope  of  conquering  a  throat  in- 
fection by  a  change  of  climate.  On  Dec.  13,  1933, 
he  again  tendered  his  resignation,  which  the 
President  finally  accepted  on  Dec.  20,  making 
public  its  acceptance  on  Jan.  1,  1934.  Woodin 
died  in  New  York  in  the  following  May. 

An  unusual  combination  of  business  man  and 
artist,  Woodin  was  exceedingly  fond  of  music 
and  although  he  had  little  theoretical  knowledge 
became  an  amateur  composer  of  some  note.  His 
favorite  instrument  was  the  guitar  and  his  com- 
positions included  suites,  songs,  and  waltzes. 
Some  of  his  children's  pieces  were  published  as 
Raggedy  Ann's  Sunny  Songs,  in  December  1930 ; 
other  works  were  "A  Norwegian  Rhapsody" 
(fi.tude,  August  1934),  "The  Fire  Chief"  (copr. 
1933),  and  the  "Franklin  Delano  Roosevelt 
March,"    played   at   his    friend's    inauguration. 


Woodin  was  also  a  numismatist  and  a  collector 
of  Cruikshank's  drawings.  He  married  Annie 
Jessup  of  Montrose,  Pa.,  on  Oct.  9,  1889,  and 
was  survived  by  his  wife,  three  daughters,  and 
a  son. 

[Charles  Miller  and  John  Chapman,  "Woodin  Notes  : 
Avocations  of  a  Financier,"  Saturday  Evening  Post, 
Oct.  14,  1933  ;  "Composer  Enters  the  Roosevelt  Cabi- 
net," Musician,  Mar.  1933;  Clinton  Gilbert,  "Lucky 
Woodin,"  Collier's,  Apr.  29,  1933  ;  Who's  Who  in 
America,  1932-33;  £tude,  Aug.  1934;  N.  Y.  Times, 
Feb.  22,  1933,  May  4,  1934-]  O.M.Jr. 

WOODROW,  JAMES  (May  30,  1828-Jan. 
17,  1907),  Presbyterian  clergyman,  uncle  of 
Woodrow  Wilson  [q.z\],  was  born  in  Carlisle, 
England,  son  of  the  Rev.  Thomas  and  Marion 
(Williamson)  Woodrow.  In  1837  his  family 
settled  in  Chillicothe,  Ohio,  and  in  1849  James 
was  graduated  with  highest  honors  from  Jeffer- 
son College,  Canonsburg,  Pa.  In  1853,  after  sev- 
eral years  of  teaching  in  Alabama  academies  he 
became  professor  of  natural  science  at  Oglethorpe 
University,  Milledgeville,  Ga.  He  was  granted 
an  immediate  leave  of  absence  for  graduate  study 
at  Harvard  under  Louis  Agassiz  [q.v.]  and  at 
Heidelberg,  where  in  1856  he  took  the  degree  of 
Ph.D.,  smnma  cum  laudc.  Rejecting  an  offer  to 
lecture  at  Heidelberg  he  returned  to  Oglethorpe, 
where  he  taught  until  1861.  On  Aug.  4,  1857,  he 
married  Felie  S.  Baker,  daughter  of  a  clergy- 
man, and  on  Apr.  8,  i860,  he  was  ordained  to  the 
Presbyterian  ministry. 

In  1859  there  was  created  at  the  Presbyterian 
Seminary,  Columbia,  S.  C,  a  "Professorship  of 
Natural  Science  in  Connexion  with  Revelation" 
whose  purpose  was  "to  evince  the  harmony  of 
science  with  the  records  of  our  faith,  and  to  re- 
fute the  objections  of  infidel  scientists"  (quoted 
in  Dr.  James  Woodrow,  post,  p.  13).  Somewhat 
"oppressed  with  a  sense  of  responsibility  and 
self-distrust"  (Ibid.),  Woodrow  accepted  the 
chair  in  1861  at  the  behest  of  the  Synods  of  South 
Carolina,  Georgia,  and  Alabama.  He  rose  rapid- 
ly to  a  position  of  distinction  in  the  service  of  his 
church  and  his  community.  During  the  Civil  War 
he  was  chief  of  the  Confederate  chemical  labora- 
tory at  Columbia;  from  1861  to  1872  he  was 
treasurer  of  foreign  missions  of  the  Southern 
General  Assembly;  from  1861  to  1885  he  was  ed- 
itor of  the  Southern  Presbyterian  Review,  a  quar- 
terly ;  and  from  1865  to  1893  he  was  the  pub- 
lisher of  the  weekly  Southern  Presbyterian. 
Although  he  continued  to  hold  his  professorship 
in  the  theological  seminary  until  1886,  he  be- 
came associated  with  the  University  of  South 
Carolina  as  professor  of  science  in  1869,  subse- 
quently becoming  dean  of  the  school  of  liberal 
arts  and  sciences  and  finally  president,  1891-97. 


495 


Woodrow 

He  succeeded  in  maintaining  the  reputation  of 
the  college  during  the  agrarian  ascendency  of 
Benjamin  R.  Tillman  [q.v.~\. 

Woodrow  became  a  figure  of  nation-wide  in- 
terest in  1884  upon  the  publication  of  his  address, 
Evolution,  delivered  before  the  Alumni  Asso- 
ciation of  the  Columbia  Theological  Seminary 
on  May  7  of  that  year.  Denying  that  there  is 
any  essential  conflict  between  the  Bible  and  sci- 
ence, he  maintained  that  an  understanding  of  the 
theory  of  evolution  would  lead  not  to  doubt  but 
to  a  more  profound  reverence  for  God's  plan  of 
creation  (Evolution,  pp.  29,  30),  and  insisted 
that  "The  Bible  does  not  teach  science ;  and  to 
take  its  language  in  a  scientific  sense  is  grossly 
to  pervert  its  meaning"  (Ibid.,  p.  6).  These  ut- 
terances made  him  the  storm  center  of  a  contro- 
versy in  the  Southern  church  that  lasted  until 
1888.  He  was  charged  with  teaching  and  pro- 
mulgating opinions  of  a  dangerous  tendency,  cal- 
culated to  unsettle  the  mind  of  the  Church  re- 
specting the  accuracy  and  authority  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures  as  an  infallible  rule  of  faith  (Record 
and  Evidence,  post,  p.  1).  His  assertion  that  the 
body  of  Adam  was  probably  the  product  of  evo- 
lution from  the  body  of  some  lower  animal  was 
the  specific  tenet  that  aroused  most  ire  among 
his  opponents  (Ibid.).  What  Woodrow  had  ar- 
gued was  that  the  verse :  "The  Lord  God  formed 
man  of  the  dust  of  the  ground  .  .  ."  was  not  in- 
consistent with  the  belief  that  man  was  the  de- 
scendant of  other  "organised"  beings.  "The  nar- 
rative," he  wrote,  "does  not  intend  to  distinguish 
in  accordance  with  chemical  notions  different 
kinds  of  matter,  .  .  .  but  merely  to  refer  in  a 
general  incidental  way  to  previously  existing 
matter,  without  intending  or  attempting  to  de- 
scribe its  exact  nature"  (Evolution,  pp.  16,  17). 

Woodrow  courageously  defended  his  views  be- 
fore the  several  synods  responsible  for  the  wel- 
fare of  the  Seminary  and,  on  appeal,  before  sev- 
eral meetings  of  the  General  Assembly.  His 
speech  before  the  Synod  of  South  Carolina  in 
1884  is  one  of  the  most  enlightened  expositions 
in  the  ecclesiastical  history  of  the  South  (South- 
ern Presbyterian  Review,  January  1885,  pp.  I— 
65).  In  the  end,  however,  he  was  removed  from 
his  chair,  and  the  General  Assembly  sustained 
the  admonition  of  the  responsible  synods.  Al- 
though his  fight  did  not,  unfortunately,  settle  the 
conflict  of  religion  and  science  in  the  South,  the 
cause  of  truth  was  greatly  advanced.  Woodrow's 
dismissal  was  not  held  to  affect  his  good  stand- 
ing in  the  church,  and  thereafter  on  several  oc- 
casions he  served  as  commissioner  to  the  General 
Assembly  and  in  1901  was  moderator  of  the 
Synod  of  South  Carolina.  He  received  honorary 


Woodruff 

degrees  from  three  Southern  colleges  as  well  as 
from  his  alma  mater  and  was  a  member  of  many 
scientific  societies  at  home  and  abroad.  He  died 
in  his  seventy-ninth  year  and  was  buried  in  Elm- 
wood  Cemetery,  Columbia.  His  wife  and  three 
daughters  survived  him. 

[Dr.  James  Woodrow  as  Seen  by  His  Friends  (1909), 
ed.  by  Marion  W.  Woodrow,  contains  a  good  brief 
biography  by  Dr.  J.  W.  Flynn.  This  large  volume  con- 
tains inter  alia  many  of  the  sermons  and  the  writings 
of  Dr.  Woodrow.  Official  sources  are  Record  and  Evi- 
dence in  the  Case  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the 
U.  S.  versus  James  Woodrow  (1888),  which  includes 
the  essay  Evolution  and  Woodrow's  speech  before  the 
Synod  of  S.  C. ;  Complaint  of  James  Woodrow  versus 
The  Synod  of  Ga.  (1888)  ;  and  The  Minutes  of  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly  (Southern),  1884-88.  See  also  E.  L. 
Green,  A  Hist,  of  the  Univ.  of  S.  C.  ( 1916)  ;  Who's  Who 
in  America,  1906-07;  The  State  (Columbia,  S.  C), 
Jan.  18,  1907.  The  Central  Presbyterian,  the  South- 
western Presbyterian,  and  similar  periodicals  reflect 
varying  opinions  concerning  the  evolution  controversy.] 

J.E.P. 

WOODRUFF,  CHARLES  EDWARD  (Oct. 
2,  1860-June  13,  1915),  ethnologist,  army  medi- 
cal officer,  was  born  in  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  the  son 
of  David  Stratton  and  Mary  Jane  (Remster) 
Woodruff.  After  graduation  from  the  Central 
High  School,  Philadelphia,  in  1879,  he  attended 
the  United  States  Naval  Academy  for  three  years 
but  did  not  graduate.  He  taught  mathematics  in 
the  high  school  at  Reading,  Pa.,  for  one  year  and 
then  entered  Jefferson  Medical  College,  where 
he  was  given  his  medical  degree  in  1886.  He  im- 
mediately entered  the  medical  corps  of  the  United 
States  navy  as  an  assistant  surgeon,  but  after 
one  year  he  transferred  to  the  army,  with  the 
grade  of  first  lieutenant  and  assistant  surgeon. 
Routine  post  duty  occupied  his  time  until  the 
Spanish-American  War,  when  he  went  to  the 
Philippine  Islands  as  brigade  surgeon  under  Ma- 
jor-General Wesley  Merritt  [q.v.~]  in  the  first 
expeditionary  force.  In  1902  the  Philippine  in- 
surrection took  him  back  to  the  Islands,  where 
he  served  as  brigade  surgeon  of  the  4th  Brigade. 
It  was  during  this  tour  of  duty  that  he  collected 
the  material  for  his  first  book,  The  Effects  of 
Tropical  Light  on  White  Men  (1905),  in  which 
he  held  that  the  deleterious  effects  of  tropical 
residence  upon  white  men  were  due  to  the  influ- 
ence of  the  actinic  or  chemical  rays  of  the  sun. 
He  believed  in  the  greater  resistance  of  the 
brunette  type  to  these  rays  and  in  their  better 
adaptability  to  tropical  life,  and  advocated  the 
wearing  of  clothing  containing  orange  or  red 
color  for  protection.  Though  his  views  were  sup- 
ported by  a  wealth  of  practical  experience  and 
by  ingenious  argumentation,  they  have  been 
largely  exploded  by  research  showing  sunlight 
to  be  relatively  less  important  than  the  combi- 
nation of  heat  and  humidity  in  the  physiological 


496 


Woodruff 


Woodruff 


changes  caused  by  a  hot  climate.  The  theme  of 
the  first  book  was  expanded  in  Medical  Ethnology 
(  1 9 1 5 ) .  His  most  important  book  is  The  Ex- 
pansion of  Races  (1909),  called  by  enthusiastic 
admirers  the  most  outstanding  contribution  to 
the  literature  of  anthropology  since  Darwin's 
Origin  of  Species.  It  is  an  absorbingly  interest- 
ing collection  of  anthropological  and  ethnologi- 
cal material,  to  which  he  endeavored  to  give  in- 
terpretation. He  was  the  author  of  over  seventy 
journal  articles,  mainly  on  military  medicine,  but 
embracing  a  wide  variety  of  other  topics.  Note- 
worthy among  these  are  "An  Anthropological 
Study  of  the  Small  Brain  of  Civilized  Man  and 
Its  Evolution"  (American  Journal  of  Insanity, 
July  1901)  and  "Evolution  of  Modern  Numerals 
from  Ancient  Tally  Marks"  (American  Mathe- 
matical Quarterly,  Aug.-Sept.  1909).  He  con- 
tributed the  article  on  medical  ethnology  to  the 
third  edition  of  A  Reference  Handbook  of  the 
Medical  Sciences  (1914),  edited  by  T.  L.  Sted- 
man.  His  writings  have  the  quality  of  holding 
the  interest.  They  are  clear  and  simple  in  style, 
and  lucid  in  argument.  They  show,  however,  the 
lack  of  that  judicial  attitude  of  mind  necessary 
to  the  research  worker  in  any  field. 

Woodruff  was  of  distinguished  appearance 
and  manner.  He  was  an  excellent  public  speaker 
and  conversationalist,  and  he  had  the  gift  of  bind- 
ing his  associates  to  him  with  affectionate  re- 
gard. Despite  impaired  health  he  went  again  to 
duty  in  the  Philippine  Islands  in  1910.  Though 
himself  of  a  pronounced  brunette  type,  he  re- 
turned in  such  physical  condition  that  he  was 
retired  from  active  service  in  1913  with  the  grade 
of  lieutenant-colonel.  In  1914  he  became  asso- 
ciate editor  of  American  Medicine,  to  which  he 
had  for  years  been  a  regular  contributor.  A  long 
period  of  semi-invalidism  from  arteriosclerosis 
ended  with  his  death  at  his  home  in  New 
Rochelle,  N.  Y.  He  was  married  at  Washing- 
ton, D.  C,  on  Dec.  22,  1886,  to  Stella  M.  Caul- 
field  of  that  city,  who,  with  two  sons,  survived 
him. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  19 14-15  ;  Am.  Medicine, 
June  1915;  Trans.  Am.  Therapeutic  Soc.  (1917),  with 
portrait;  Lancet  Clinic,  June  26,  191 5;  N.  Y.  Medic. 
Jour.,  June  19,  1915  ;  Medic.  Record  (N.  Y.),  June  19, 
1915;  H.  A.  Kelly  and  W.  L.  Burrage,  Am.  Medic. 
Riogs.  (1920)  ;  obituary  and  editorial  in  N.  Y.  Times, 
June  15,  1915.]  J.M.P. 

WOODRUFF,    THEODORE    TUTTLE 

(Apr.  8,  1811-May  2,  1892),  inventor,  manu- 
facturer, is  believed  to  have  been  the  son  of 
Simeon  and  Roxanna  (Turtle)  Woodruff,  who 
in  1800  had  moved  from  Litchfield,  Conn.,  to 
Burrville,  a  hamlet  outside  of  Watertown,  N.  Y. 
There  young  Woodruff  was  born.   Until  he  was 


sixteen  years  old  he  worked  on  his  father's  farm 
and  attended  the  district  schools.  He  was  then 
apprenticed  to  a  wagon-maker  in  Watertown, 
and  three  years  later  entered  a  local  foundry  and 
machine  works  as  a  pattern-maker.  He  remained 
there  for  many  years,  becoming  an  expert  crafts- 
man and  something  of  an  inventor.  He  is  said  to 
have  been  ridiculed  by  older  craftsmen  for  his 
schemes,  among  them  one  advanced  shortly  after 
the  coming  of  the  railroad  in  the  1830's  for  the 
construction  of  sleeping-cars  for  trains.  Though 
he  had  no  opportunity  at  the  time  to  develop  the 
idea,  in  the  course  of  subsequent  years  as  a  jour- 
neyman he  gained  experience  in  the  building  of 
railroad  cars  in  various  places  and  eventually 
became  master  car-builder  for  the  Terre  Haute 
and  Alton  Railroad  at  Alton,  111.  On  Dec.  2, 
1856,  he  received  two  patents  (No.  16,159  and 
No.  16,160)  for  a  railway-car  seat  and  couch. 
With  capital  furnished  by  three  friends  a  sleep- 
ing-car was  built  in  1857  under  Woodruff's  di- 
rection by  T.  W.  Watson  and  Company  of 
Springfield,  Mass.  It  contained  twelve  sleeping 
sections,  six  on  each  side  of  the  car.  With  some 
difficulty  Woodruff  secured  the  consent  of  the 
New  York  Central  Railroad  to  demonstrate  his 
car  on  the  night  express  between  New  York  and 
Buffalo.  Obliged  to  pay  full  fare  for  himself,  he 
personally  managed  it,  charging  fifty  cents  a 
passenger.  After  some  months  he  transferred  it 
to  Pittsburgh,  Pa.,  where  he  successfully  demon- 
strated it  to  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad. 

Assured  of  the  purchase  of  additional  cars  by 
this  company,  Woodruff  was  joined  late  in  1858 
by  his  brother,  Col.  Jonah  Woodruff,  and  the  two 
began  on  a  small  scale  the  manufacture  of  sleep- 
ing cars  in  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  under  the  firm 
name  of  T.  T.  Woodruff  and  Company.  On  May 
31,  1859,  and  Jan.  24,  i860,  Woodruff  obtained 
two  additional  patents  for  improvements  of  his 
car  seat  and  couch.  About  1862,  with  the  reor- 
ganization of  the  business  as  a  stock  company 
under  the  title  of  the  Central  Transportation 
Company,  he  sold  out  his  interest  and  retired  to 
Mansfield,  Ohio,  where  he  engaged  in  banking 
for  eight  years.  Returning  to  Philadelphia,  he 
established  a  general  foundry  business  known  as 
the  Norris  Iron  Company  at  Norristown,  Pa., 
and  resumed  his  inventive  work,  patenting  on 
May  14,  1872,  a  process  and  the  apparatus  for 
the  manufacture  of  indigo  and  on  Nov.  5,  1872,  a 
coffee  hulling  machine.  The  cost  of  exploiting 
these  devices,  however,  coupled  with  the  finan- 
cial depression  of  the  period,  brought  Woodruff's 
business  career  to  an  end  in  bankruptcy  in  1875. 
Thereafter,  until  his  death  when  he  was  struck 
by  an  express  train  at  Gloucester,  N.  J.,  he  con- 


497 


Woodruff 

tinued  with  invention  on  a  small  scale  in  the 
hope  of  recouping  his  losses.  Among  his  later 
patents  were  those  for  a  steam  plow,  an  im- 
proved surveyor's  compass,  and  a  method  of  ship 
propulsion  by  the  use  of  screw  propellers  at  the 
sides  of  the  vessel.  He  was  survived  by  a  daugh- 
ter and  was  buried  in  Watertown. 

[J.  A.  Haddock,  The  Growth  of  a  Century  .  .  .  Hist, 
of  Jefferson  County,  N.  Y.  (1895)  ;  The  Manufactories 
and  Manufacturers  of  Pa.  of  the  Nineteenth  Century 
(1875);  Joseph  Husband,  The  Story  of  the  Pullman 
Car  (1917);  accounts  of  death  in  Phila.  Record  and 
Pub.  Ledger  (Phila.),  May  3,  4,  5,  1892  ;  Patent  Office 
records  ;  information  on  the  Woodruff  family  from  the 
Roswell  P.  Flower  Memorial  Lib.,  Watertown,  N.  Y.] 

C.  W.M. 

WOODRUFF,  TIMOTHY  LESTER  (Aug. 
4,  1858-Oct.  12,  1913),  merchant,  lieutenant-gov- 
ernor of  New  York,  was  born  in  New  Haven, 
Conn.,  the  son  of  John  and  Jane  (Lester)  Wood- 
ruff. His  father  was  a  clockmaker  with  little 
education  but  with  considerable  ability  for  prac- 
tical politics  and  was  a  member  of  Congress, 
x855-57  and  1859-61.  Timothy  was  orphaned  by 
the  death  of  his  mother,  when  he  was  two  years 
old  and  of  his  father  eight  years  later.  The  family 
estate  was  sufficient  to  provide  a  good  education 
for  him.  He  was  prepared  for  college  at  Phillips 
Exeter  Academy  and  entered  Yale  College  in 
1875.  He  was  obliged  to  repeat  his  junior  year 
and  left  college  in  1879.  1°  J889  he  received  the 
M.A.  degree  and  was  enrolled  as  a  graduate  with 
his  class.  Subsequently  he  took  a  commercial 
course  at  Eastman's  National  Business  College 
in  Poughkeepsie.  On  Apr.  13,  1880,  he  married 
Cora,  the  daughter  of  Harvey  G.  Eastman  [<?.?'.]. 
She  died  on  Mar.  28,  1904.  In  1881  he  removed 
to  Brooklyn  and  obtained  employment  as  a  clerk 
in  the  warehousing  division  of  Nash  &  Whiton, 
salt  and  provision  merchants.  He  advanced  rap- 
idly to  a  leading  position  in  the  firm,  which  he 
reorganized  as  the  Worcester  Salt  Company. 
Meanwhile  he  had  developed  a  warehousing  and 
wharfage  business  of  his  own.  At  a  favorable 
opportunity  he  sold  it  and  invested  the  proceeds  in 
a  diversified  group  of  companies,  the  most  impor- 
tant being  the  Smith-Premier  Typewriting  Com- 
pany, in  which  he  had  a  controlling  interest.  Be- 
fore the  close  of  the  century  he  was  also  president 
of  the  Provident  Life  Assurance  Co.,  of  the  Mal- 
tine  Manufacturing  Company,  and  a  director  of 
the  Pneumo-Electric  Company  at  Syracuse,  of 
a  paper  mill  on  the  upper  Hudson,  and  of  two 
banks.  With  few  exceptions  the  distribution  of 
his  investments  remained  unchanged  at  his  death. 
His  political  career  began  when  he  joined  a 
Republican  club  on  first  moving  to  Brooklyn. 
His  work  in  the  organization  attracted  the  at- 
tention of  Thomas  C.  Piatt  [q.v.~\  who  made  him 


Woodruff 

a  member  of  his  board  of  strategy.  As  park  com- 
missioner of  Brooklyn  in  1895,  he  gained  great 
popularity  by  advocating  the  construction  of 
good  roads  and  bicycle  paths.  The  next  year  he 
was  elected  lieutenant-governor  for  the  first  of 
three  successive  terms.  He  acquired  control  of 
the  Kings  County  organization  by  1897,  healed 
factional  rifts,  and  made  it  the  chief  stronghold 
of  the  Republican  party  in  the  metropolitan  area. 
His  rule  over  it,  maintained  chiefly  by  his  per- 
sonal popularity,  was  benevolently  autocratic.  In 
1900  he  was  a  candidate  for  the  vice-presidential 
nomination,  which  was  given  to  Roosevelt.  His 
ambition  to  be  governor  was  disappointed  in 
1904,  when  Piatt  lost  control  of  the  organization 
to  Benjamin  B.  Odell  [<?.t\].  When  Roosevelt's 
friends  defeated  Odell  two  years  later,  Woodruff 
became  chairman  of  the  state  executive  commit- 
tee. He  conducted  the  gubernatorial  campaign 
for  Charles  E.  Hughes  acceptably,  but  opposed 
him  after  the  election  on  many  matters  of  policy. 
He  was  ousted  from  the  chairmanship  after  con- 
siderable difficulty  and  delay.  In  1912  he  joined 
the  Progressive  party.  While  speaking  at  a 
fusion  rally  in  the  interest  of  John  Purroy 
Mitchell's  candidacy  for  mayor  he  was  stricken 
with  apoplexy  and  died  a  few  days  later.  Though 
not  of  the  first  rank,  he  had  uncommon  gifts  for 
political  leadership  and  organization,  and  in  more 
fortunate  circumstances  he  might  have  had  an 
opportunity  to  demonstrate  his  capacity  for  pub- 
lic administration.  He  was  survived  by  his  son 
by  his  first  wife  and  by  his  second  wife,  Isabel 
(Morrison)  Woodruff,  to  whom  he  was  married 
on  Apr.  24,  1905. 

[Obituary  Record  of  Yale  Graduates,  1913-14 
(1914)  ;  Who's  Who  in  America,  1912-13  ;  Autobiog.  of 
Thomas  Collier  Piatt  (1910)  ;  C.  W.  Thompson,  Party 
Leaders  of  the  Time  (1906)  ;  Current  Literature,  Sept. 
1912;  TV.  Y.  Tribune  and  N.  Y.  Times,  Oct.  13,  1913.] 

E.  C.  S. 

WOODRUFF,  WILFORD  (Mar.  1,  1807- 
Sept.  2,  1898),  fourth  president  of  the  Utah 
branch  of  the  Mormon  Church,  was  born  in 
Farmington,  now  Avon,  Hartford  County,  Conn., 
the  son  of  Aphek  and  Beulah  (Thompson) 
Woodruff.  His  mother  died  in  1808,  and  he  and 
his  two  brothers  were  brought  up  by  their  step- 
mother. He  had  little  schooling,  and  as  he  grew 
to  manhood  he  combined  farming  with  learning 
the  trade  of  miller  from  his  father.  Although  of 
a  mystical  religious  nature  and  in  spite  of  rather 
frequent  exposure  to  religious  revivals,  he  did 
not  join  any  denomination  until  in  December 
1833,  a  year  after  he  and  his  brother  Azmon  had 
settled  in  Richland,  Oswego  County,  N.  Y.  Then 
he  was  converted  to  Mormonism.  On  hearing  of 
the  new  gospel  of  Joseph  Smith  [q.v."],  so  the 


498 


Woodruff 


Woodruff 


account  runs,  he  "immediately  received  a  testi- 
mony of  the  genuineness"  of  the  "message"  (Jen- 
son,  post,  p.  20).  He  was  baptized  two  days  later, 
ordained  a  teacher,  and  was  soon  active  convert- 
ing others  in  the  community.  In  April  1834,  un- 
der the  stimulation  of  Parley  P.  Pratt  [q.v.~\,  he 
removed  to  Kirtland,  Ohio,  where  he  first  met 
the  Prophet  Smith  himself.  Shortly  thereafter 
Smith  dispatched  him  and  others  to  succor  the 
distressed  Mormons  in  Missouri,  and,  from  this 
time  till  his  death  over  sixty  years  later,  he 
dedicated  his  life  to  his  new-found  faith.  He 
rose  rapidly  in  official  favor  and  on  Apr.  26,  1839, 
under  the  shadow  of  the  enforced  exodus  of 
the  Mormons  from  Missouri,  he  was  ordained 
an  apostle  by  Brigham  Young  [q.v.]  and  thus 
took  his  place  in  the  highest  counsels  of  his 
church. 

During  the  period  of  Mormon  residence  in 
Nauvoo,  111.,  he  served  as  member  of  the  city 
council,  was  a  chaplain  in  the  Nauvoo  Legion 
(the  Mormon  military  organization),  and  busi- 
ness manager  of  the  official  Mormon  periodical, 
the  Times  and  Seasons.  Early  in  the  summer  of 
1844,  with  others  he  left  Illinois  to  combine 
proselyting  with  the  curious  and  somewhat  pre- 
posterous political  campaign  in  support  of  the 
candidacy  of  Joseph  Smith  for  the  presidency  of 
the  United  States.  Upon  hearing  of  Smith's  as- 
sassination, he  returned  to  Nauvoo,  where  he 
strongly  supported  Brigham  Young  and  the 
"Twelve  Apostles"  as  the  proper  successors  to 
Smith.  In  1846  he  assisted  in  the  removal  jf  the 
Saints  from  Illinois  and  was  in  the  first  co  pany 
of  pioneers  to  enter  the  valley  of  the  Grer  Salt 
Lake  on  July  24,  1847.  Aside  from  his  m.^sion- 
ary  travels,  the  rest  of  his  life  was  spent  in  build- 
ing up  the  Mormon  communities  in  Utah.  For 
twenty-one  years  he  served  in  the  territorial  leg- 
islature. He  helped  to  stimulate  scientific  horti- 
culture and  irrigation,  for,  when  not  occupied 
with  his  official  duties,  he  gave  his  active  atten- 
tion to  well-planned  farming.  In  1880,  when 
John  Taylor  [q.7'.~\  became  president  of  the  Mor- 
mon Church,  Woodruff  replaced  him  as  presi- 
dent of  the  quorum  of  the  "Twelve  Apostles," 
thus  becoming  second  in  command,  and  on  Apr. 
7,  1889,  he  succeeded  to  the  presidency.  At  the 
elaborate  celebration  in  July  1897  to  commemo- 
rate the  half-century  of  Mormon  settlement  in 
Utah  he  took  an  active  part,  though  advanced  in 
years.  The  next  year  his  health  failed  rapidly, 
and  he  removed  to  California  in  the  hope  of  im- 
proving his  condition.  He  died  in  San  Francisco 
and  was  buried  in  Salt  Lake  City. 

He  was  one  of  the  most  effective  proselyters 
of  his  faith.  In  the  years  1834  to  1836  he  had  his 


first  missionary  experience  in  Arkansas  and  Ten- 
nessee. In  1837  he  assisted  in  opening  up  Mor- 
mon activities  in  Maine  and  elsewhere  in  New 
England.  While  the  main  body  of  the  church  was 
establishing  itself  in  western  Illinois,  he  and  sev- 
eral of  his  fellow  apostles  were  having  signal 
success  in  converting  thousands  of  persons  in 
Great  Britain  to  Mormonism.  Again  in  1844, 
after  his  friend  Brigham  Young  was  in  the  sad- 
dle in  Nauvoo  as  Smith's  successor,  Woodruff 
and  other  apostles  were  sent  to  Great  Britain  to 
make  sure  that  the  large  body  of  British  converts 
should  follow  Young  and  the  apostles  rather  than 
James  J.  Strang  and  Sidney  Rigdon  [qq.i:],  the 
other  chief  contenders  for  Smith's  prophetic  role. 
So,  too,  when  the  exodus  from  Illinois  was  im- 
perative, he  traveled  throughout  the  Atlantic  sea- 
board states  to  strengthen  the  Mormon  mission- 
ary work  there.  For  years  he  kept  a  detailed 
journal  of  his  life,  and  he  delighted  in  a  quanti- 
tative rehearsal  of  his  accomplishments.  Thus  he 
naively  records  that  "from  the  beginning  of  my 
ministry  in  1834  until  the  close  of  1895  I  have 
traveled  in  all  172,369  miles;  held  7,655  meet- 
ings; preached  3,526  discourses;  organized  51 
branches  of  the  Church  and  7~  preaching  places ; 
my  journeys  cover  England,  Scotland,  Wales, 
and  23  states  and  5  territories  of  the  Union" 
(Cowley,  post,  p.  vi).  His  interest  in  chroni- 
cling the  events  of  his  time  led  to  his  being  made 
assistant  church  historian  in  1856,  and  in  1875 
he  became  official  historian  and  recorder  of  his 
denomination.  His  journals,  in  fact,  have  proved 
invaluable  to  all  interpreters  of  Mormonism. 

He  was  married  to  Phebe  Carter  on  Apr.  13, 
1837,  but  like  most  other  leaders  of  Mormonism 
he  was  converted  to  plural  marriage  by  the 
Prophet  Smith,  and  he  took  four  additional  wives. 
His  five  wives  bore  him  a  total  of  thirty-three 
children,  twenty  of  whom  survived  him.  Follow- 
ing the  enactment  of  the  Edmunds-Tucker  law 
against  polygamy  in  1882,  like  other  prominent 
Mormons  he  was  forced  into  voluntary  exile  to 
avoid  arrest.  In  September  1890,  finding  that 
the  prosecution  of  other  Mormons  for  infraction 
of  the  anti-polygamy  statute  had  become  more 
and  more  effective  and  was  disintegrating  the 
morale  of  his  followers,  he  issued  his  famous 
"Manifesto"  in  which,  speaking  for  his  church, 
the  practice  of  plural  wifery  was  officially  aban- 
doned. He  was  essentially  a  mystic,  completely 
earnest  and  sincere  in  his  religion.  He  firmly 
believed  in  the  divine  guidance  of  his  life.  He 
states  in  his  journals  that  "my  life  abounds  in 
incidents  which  to  me  surely  indicate  the  direct 
interposition  of  God  whom  I  firmly  believe  has 
guided  my  every  step.  On  27  distinct  occasions  I 


499 


Woodruff 

have  been  saved  from  dangers  which  threatened 

my  life"  (Cowley,  post,  p.  vi). 

[M.  F.  Cowley,  Wilford  Woodruff  .  .  .  History  of 
His  Life  and  Labors  as  Recorded  in  His  Daily  Journals, 
2nd  ed.,  (1916);  Andrew  Jenson,  Latter-day  Saint 
Biographical  Encyc,  vol.  I  (1901);  Dcseret  Evening 
News  (Salt  Lake  City),  Sept.  2,  1898;  Salt  Lake  Trib- 
une, Sept.  3,  1898.]  K  Y 

WOODRUFF,  WILLIAM  EDWARD  (Dec. 
24,  1795-June  19,  1885),  newspaper  publisher, 
editor,  was  born  at  Fireplace,  Long  Island,  the 
son  of  Nathaniel  and  Hannah  (Clark)  Wood- 
ruff. After  the  death  of  his  father,  he  served  an 
apprenticeship  as  printer  on  the  Long  Island  Star 
(1808-15).  He  enlisted  for  the  War  of  1812  but 
saw  no  active  service.  Deciding  to  go  west,  but 
with  no  particular  goal  in  view,  he  went  to 
Louisville,  Ky.,  then  to  St.  Louis,  and  Memphis. 
Buying  a  small  printing-press,  he  loaded  it  on  a 
couple  of  pirogues  that  he  lashed  together,  and, 
with  a  man  to  help,  poled  or  punted  his  way  to 
the  mouth  of  the  Arkansas  River,  and  on  Oct.  30, 
1819,  landed  at  Arkansas  Post.  Twenty  days 
later,  on  Nov.  20,  the  first  number  of  the  Arkansas 
Gazette  appeared.  The  staff  was  himself,  the  of- 
fice and  shop  his  one-room  log  cabin;  subscrip- 
tions paid  in  advance  there  were  none.  The  sheet, 
which  was  eighteen  inches  square,  was  neat  in 
typographical  arrangement,  well-written,  and 
carefully  punctuated.  Such  was  the  beginning  of 
the  newspaper  that  has  run  without  intermission, 
except  during  the  Civil  War  and  while  the  office 
was  being  removed  to  Little  Rock  in  1821,  to  the 
present  day  (1936),  first  as  a  weekly,  afterwards 
as  a  daily  and  weekly.  Until  1830  it  was  the  only 
newspaper  published  in  the  Territory  of  Ar- 
kansas. Its  policy  was  always  strongly  Demo- 
cratic. In  1838  Woodruff  sold  his  newspaper 
property,  but  in  1841  it  fell  into  his  hands,  and 
he  took  up  his  old  task  until  1843,  when  he  again 
sold  out.  Three  years  later  he  established  the 
Arkansas  Democrat,  and  in  i860  he  combined 
the  two  papers,  using  the  title  Arkansas  Gazette 
and  Democrat,  though  the  latter  name  was  soon 
dropped.  The  last  issue  under  his  management 
appeared  in  March  1853,  when  he  sold  his  inter- 
est and  retired  to  private  life.  He  died  in  Little 
Rock,  leaving  three  sons  and  five  daughters.  He 
had  been  married  on  Nov.  14,  1827,  to  Jane  Eliza 
Mills. 

Editorials  from  Woodruff's  pen,  the  record  of 
his  life,  and  the  testimony  of  those  who  knew  him 
show  him  to  have  been  a  man  of  the  highest  kind 
of  honesty,  and  downright  and  thorough  sin- 
cerity. Somewhat  slightly  built,  he  did  not  give 
the  impression  of  one  likely  to  adventure  into 
frontier  life.  Yet  he  did  not  lack  spirit  and  cour- 
age.  On  one  occasion,  in  territorial  times  when 


Woods 

organized  law  was  weak,  a  border  braggadocio 
took  exception  to  something  Woodruff  had  pub- 
lished and  entered  his  office,  threatening  alarm- 
ing things.  One  course  only  was  left  to  the  ed- 
itor, and,  taking  that  course,  repugnant  though 
it  was  to  him,  in  self-defence,  he  shot  and  killed 
the  man.  Both  public  and  legal  opinion  found 
Woodruff  well  justified.  As  commentator  on  pub- 
lic affairs  he  judged  calmly,  reasoned  pertinent- 
ly, saw  clearly,  and  pronounced  seasonably.  He 
wrote  gracefully  and  eloquently,  avoided  person- 
alities, and  was  generally  regarded  as  one  whose 
intellectual  cultivation  gave  him  superiority  over 
other  men. 

[Fay  Hempstead,  Hist.  Rev.  of  Ark.,  vol.  I  (191 1)  ; 
Ark.  and  Its  People,  A  Hist.,  vol.  Ill  (1930),  ed.  by  D. 
Y.  Thomas  ;  obituary  in  Daily  Ark.  Gazette,  June  20, 
1885  ;  information  from  Jane  Georgeine  Woodruff. 
Woodruff's  daughter.]  C  J  F 

WOODS,  ALVA  (Aug.  13, 1794-Sept.  6, 1887), 
college  president,  Baptist  minister,  was  born  in 
Shoreham,  Vt.,  and  was  the  eldest  of  six  chil- 
dren of  Abel  and  Mary  (Smith)  Woods.  His 
father  was  a  Baptist  clergyman,  a  half-brother 
of  Leonard  Woods,  1774-1854  [q.v.].  Abel 
Woods's  father  was  one  of  the  early  settlers  or 
Princeton,  Mass.,  and  taught  the  first  public 
school  in  that  town.  Alva  Woods  received  his 
early  education  in  the  public  schools  of  Shoreham 
and  at  Phillips  Academy,  Andover,  Mass.,  where 
he  was  fitted  for  college.  He  entered  Harvard 
College  in  the  fall  of  1813  and  was  graduated 
with  honors  four  years  later.  He  followed  this 
with  ;  course  in  the  Andover  Theological  Semi- 
nary 1817-21).  Ordained  a  minister  of  the 
Bapti  Church  on  Oct.  28,  182 1,  he  accepted  a 
positim  as  professor  of  mathematics,  natural 
philosophy,  and  ecclesiastical  history  at  Colum- 
bian College  (later  George  Washington  Uni- 
versity), Washington,  D.  C,  but  before  begin- 
ning his  teaching  duties  he  was  sent  as  an  agent 
to  the  Atlantic  states  and  Great  Britain  to  col- 
lect funds,  books,  and  apparatus  for  the  college. 
While  abroad  he  spent  some  time  attending  lec- 
tures at  Oxford,  Cambridge,  Edinburgh,  and 
Glasgow,  returning  to  his  college  duties  in 
November  1823.  After  a  year's  teaching  at  Co- 
lumbian College  he  was  chosen  professor  of 
mathematics  and  natural  philosophy  in  Brown 
University.  In  February  1828  he  became  presi- 
dent of  Transylvania  University  at  Lexington, 
Ky.  He  remained  in  this  position  until  March 
183 1,  and  there  is  some  indication  that  his  tenure 
was  not  altogether  comfortable  either  to  himself 
or  to  the  trustees  of  the  university  (Letters  of 
Rebecca  Gratz,  1929,  p.  215,  ed.  by  David  Philip- 
son).  The  destruction  of  the  main  building  of 
Transylvania  by  fire  in  May  1829  so  crippled  the 


500 


Woods 

usefulness  of  that  institution  for  the  time  being 
that  Woods  felt  free  to  accept  the  offer  of  the 
presidency  of  the  newly  established  University 
of  Alabama.  He  moved  his  family  to  Tusca- 
loosa in  March  1831  and  on  Apr.  12,  183 1,  was 
inaugurated  as  president  (T.  M.  Owens,  History 
of  Alabama  and  Dictionary  of  Alabama  Biog- 
raphy, 1921,  vol.  II,  p.  1358).  He  remained  presi- 
dent of  the  university  until  December  1837.  Wil- 
liam Russell  Smith  [g.v.]i  fourth  president  of 
the  university,  says  in  his  Reminiscences  of  a 
Long  Life  (1889)  that  Woods  was  not  a  success 
as  president  and  that  his  life  in  that  position  was 
a  life  of  storms.  It  may  be  assumed  that  much  of 
Woods's  unpopularity  in  Alabama  was  due  to  his 
dislike  of  slavery ;  he  had  been  chosen  president 
on  the  recommendation  of  James  G.  Birney 
[q.v.],  the  noted  abolitionist  (Jesse  Macy,  The 
Anti-Slavery  Crusade,  1929,  p.  35).  In  July 
1837, 'in  the  midst  of  student  rioting  and  rebel- 
lion, he  tendered  his  resignation  for  the  ostensible 
reason  that  his  health  was  impaired  and  that  he 
wished  to  educate  his  son  in  the  free  states. 

Refusing  the  presidency  of  three  western  col- 
leges and  a  professorship  in  a  theological  insti- 
tution, Woods  removed  to  Providence,  R.  I., 
where  he  gave  his  attention  to  preparing  his  son 
for  Brown  University.  He  was  financially  inde- 
pendent, and  gave  his  services  gratuitously  for  a 
number  of  years  as  chaplain  for  the  prisoners  in 
the  various  state  institutions.  He  was  a  trustee 
of  Brown  University  (1843-59)  ar>d  of  Newton 
Theological  Institution,  Newton  Center,  Mass., 
after  1853.  In  1868  his  Literary  and  Theological 
Addresses  was  printed  in  Providence  in  an  edi- 
tion of  fifty  copies.  Woods  was  married,  Dec. 
10,  1823,  to  Almira  Marshall  (d.  1863),  eldest 
daughter  of  Josiah  and  Priscilla  Marshall  of  Bos- 
ton, Mass.  He  had  two  children,  of  whom  the 
elder  survived  him.  He  died  in  Providence. 

[The  chief  source  is  the  biog.  sketch  in  Woods's  Liter- 
ary and  Theological  Addresses  (1868),  of  which  there 
are  copies  in  the  libraries  of  Transylvania  Coll.  and  the 
Univ.  of  Ala.  See  also  Harvard  Univ.,  Quinquennial 
Cat.  (1925)  ;  F.  E.  Blake,  Hist,  of  the  Town  of  Prince- 
ton .  .  .  Mass.  (1915),  vol.  II  ;  Biog.  Cat.  .  .  .  Phillips 
Acad.,  Andover  (1903);  Gen.  Cat.  Theological  Semi- 
nary, Andover,  Mass.,  1808-1008  (n.d.)  ;  Robert  and 
Johanna  Peter,  Transylvania  Univ.  (1896),  being  Fil- 
son  Club  Pub.,  no.  11  ;  A.  F.  Lewis,  Hist,  of  Higher 
Edac.  in  Ky.  (1899)  ;  obituary  in  Providence  Daily 
Jour.,  Sept.  7,  1887.  Information  has  been  supplied  by 
Mrs.  C.  F.  Norton,  librarian  of  Transylvania  Coll.,  and 
by  Alice  S.  Wyman,  librarian  of  the  Univ.  of  Ala.] 

R.S.C. 

WOODS,  CHARLES  ROBERT  (Feb.  19, 
1827-Feb.  26,  1885),  soldier,  was  born  at  New- 
ark, Ohio.  He  was  a  descendant  of  a  family  that 
originated  in  Ulster  and  settled  successively  in 
Virginia  and  Kentucky.  His  father.  Ezekiel  S. 
Woods,  moved  in  18 t8  from  Kentucky  to  Ohio, 


Woods 

where  he  engaged  in  farming  and  in  general 
merchandising.    His  mother  was  Sarah  Judith 

(Burnham)  Woods  of  Zanesville,  Ohio.  He 
spent  his  boyhood  on  the  farm,  for  a  time  was 
apprenticed  to  a  cooper,  and  received  only  a  com- 
mon education  from  a  tutor.  In  1848  he  was 
appointed  a  cadet  at  the  United  States  Military 
Academy  at  West  Point,  and  he  was  graduated 
in  1852  as  a  second  lieutenant,  1st  Infantry.  He 
then  served  three  years  in  Texas,  four  more  in 
Washington,  and  was  engaged  in  minor  Indian 
warfare.  In  i860  he  returned  to  his  home  and 
was  married  to  Cecilia  Impey.  He  commanded 
the  expedition  of  200  men  on  the  Star  of  the 
West,  in  a  futile  attempt  to  relieve  Fort  Sumter 
at  the  beginning  of  the  Civil  War.  He  served  in 
the  Shenandoah  Valley  and  in  West  Virginia 
during  the  early  part  of  the  war,  and  in  No- 
vember 1861  was  appointed  colonel  of  the  76th 
Ohio  Infantry,  organized  in  his  home  town. 
This  regiment  he  led  at  the  capture  of  Fort 
Donelson  in  February  1862,  and  later  at  Shiloh. 
Assigned  to  command  a  brigade,  he  participated 
in  the  advance  on  Corinth,  and  in  expeditions 
along  the  Mississippi  River.  His  attacks  at  Milli- 
ken's  Bend  and  at  Island  No.  65  resulted  in  the 
destruction  of  much  enemy  property.  For  serving 
gallantly  in  the  subsequent  Vicksburg  campaign, 
he  was  appointed  a  brigadier-general  of  volun- 
teers in  August  1863. 

Renewing  his  expeditions  in  the  Mississippi 
Valley,  he  destroyed  the  Confederate  transport 
Fairplay,  and  large  stocks  of  stores,  and  in  the 
autumn  marched  east  to  take  part  in  the  Chat- 
tanooga campaign.  His  brigade  constructed  a 
bridge  over  Lookout  Creek,  and  led  the  assault 
that  captured  Lookout  Mountain.  He  served 
throughout  the  Atlanta  campaign  in  1864  and 
played  a  prominent  part  at  Resaca  and  at  At- 
lanta, where  after  his  flank  had  been  turned  he 
faced  about,  rolled  back  the  enemy,  and  retook 
guns  previously  lost.  He  participated  in  Sher- 
man's march  to  the  sea  and  the  subsequent  ad- 
vance north  through  the  Carol inas.  For  these 
services  he  was  brevetted  major-general.  He 
was  then  employed  in  reconstruction  duty  in  the 
South  until  he  was  mustered  out  of  the  volun- 
teer service  in  September  1866.  He  rejoined  the 
regular  armv  as  a  colonel  of  infantry  and  served 
mostly  in  the  West.  He  led  an  expedition  against 
Indians  in  Kansas  in  1870,  and  in  the  Kit  Carson 
fight.  Tn  1871  his  health  declined,  and  he  was 
retired  for  disability  three  years  later.  He  re- 
turned to  Ohio  to  engage  in  farming  and  gar- 
dening on  his  estate,  "Woodside,"  until  his 
death.  He  was  of  great  physical  strength,  and 
was  widelv  esteemed  both  as  a  soldier  and  as  a 


50I 


Woods 

citizen.   He  was  a  brother  of  William  Burnham 

Woods  [q.v.]. 

[R.  H.  Burnham,  The  Burnham  Family  (1869)  ;  G. 
W.  Cullum,  Biog.  Reg.  .  .  .  U.  S.  Mil.  Acad.  (1891)  ; 
War  of  the  Rebellion:  Official  Records  {Army),  see 
index  volume  ;  Battles  and  Leaders  of  the  Civil  War 
(1887-88),  vols.  I,  III,  IV;  Weekly  Advocate  (Newark, 
Ohio),  Mar.  5,  9,  1885.]  c  H.  L. 

WOODS,  LEONARD  (June  19,  1774-Aug. 
24,  1854),  Congregational  clergyman,  professor 
of  theology,  was  born  in  Princeton,  Mass.,  a  son 
of  Samuel  and  Abigail  (Whitney)  Underwood 
Woods.  He  was  a  descendant  of  Samuel  Woods 
who  came  to  New  England  soon  after  1700  and 
settled  in  Chelmsford,  Mass.  Leonard  displayed 
mental  precocity  at  an  early  age  and  developed 
a  great  fondness  for  reading.  Overcoming  the 
opposition  of  his  father,  who  wished  him  to  be- 
come a  farmer,  he  began  preparation  for  college 
and  with  only  three  months'  systematic  instruc- 
tion, at  Leicester  Academy,  matriculated  at  Har- 
vard, where  he  was  graduated  with  first  honors 
in  1796.  Deciding  to  enter  the  ministry,  he  pur- 
sued a  course  of  theological  study,  in  part  private- 
ly and  in  part  with  Dr.  Charles  Backus  of  Somers, 
Conn.  Late  in  1798  he  was  ordained  pastor  of 
the  church  at  Newbury  (now  West  Newbury, 
Mass.),  his  only  charge. 

At  that  time  a  schism  seemed  imminent  in  the 
orthodox  Congregationalism  of  Massachusetts, 
with  the  Hopkinsians,  or  extreme  Calvinists,  on 
the  one  side,  and  the  Old  Calvinists  of  more  mod- 
erate views  on  the  other.  Between  these  parties 
Woods  was  destined  to  play  the  part  of  mediator. 
He  became  a  contributor  to  the  Hopkinsian  Mas- 
sachusetts Missionary  Magazine  in  1803  and  also 
to  the  Old  Calvinist  Panoplist  in  1805,  and  his 
irenic  efforts  led  to  the  consolidation  of  the  two 
publications  in  1808.  In  like  manner  the  Hop- 
kinsian Massachusetts  Missionary  Society  of 
1799  and  the  Old  Calvinist  Massachusetts  Gen- 
eral Association  of  1803  owed  their  union  to  his 
conciliatory  spirit.  The  Hopkinsians  had  pro- 
jected a  theological  seminary  at  Newbury,  and 
the  Old  Calvinists,  one  at  Andover,  and  each 
party  had  settled  on  Woods  as  its  professor  of 
theology.  His  wise  measures  contributed  largely 
to  the  consolidation  of  the  two  foundations  at 
Andover,  where,  at  the  opening  of  the  Seminary 
in  1808,  he  became  the  first  professor  of  theology, 
and  so  continued  for  thirty-eight  years. 

In  his  theological  opinions  Woods  never 
swerved  from  the  moderate  Calvinism  of  his 
earlier  maturity.  While  not  brilliant,  his  teach- 
ing was  thoughtful  and  solid :  he  was  courteous 
and  patient  and  had  a  genuine  interest  in  his 
students.  While  not  by  nature  a  controversial- 
ist, he  nevertheless  participated  in  the  famous 


Woods 

"Wood'n  Ware  Controversy"  (1820-22)  with 
Prof.  Henry  Ware,  1764-1845  [q.v.],  of  Cam- 
bridge, a  pamphlet  war  over  certain  doctrines  of 
Calvinism.  Of  a  polemic  character,  also,  are  his 
Letters  to  Nathaniel  W .  Taylor  (1830)  and  An 
Examination  of  the  Doctrine  of  Perfection  as 
Held  by  Rev.  Asa  Mohan  . .  .  and  Others  (1841). 

In  addition  to  numerous  pamphlets,  he  was  the 
author  of  the  following  books :  Lectures  on  In- 
fant Baptism  (1828)  ;  Lectures  on  the  Inspira- 
tion of  the  Scriptures  (1829);  "Letters  to 
Young  Ministers"  in  The  Spirit  of  the  Pilgrims, 
February-July  1832;  An  Essay  on  Native  De- 
pravity (1835)  ;  Lectures  on  Church  Government 
( 1844)  ;  Lectures  on  Swedenborgianisin  ( 1846)  ; 
Theology  of  the  Puritans  (1851).  Some  of  the 
foregoing  material  is  also  included  in  The  Works 
of  Leonard  Woods,  D.D.  (5  vols.,  1850-51). 
His  last  years  were  devoted  to  the  writing  of  his 
History  of  the  Andover  Theological  Seminary, 
which  was  first  published  by  his  grandson  in  1885. 

Woods  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Ameri- 
can Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Mis- 
sions in  1810,  and  was  a  member  of  its  prudential 
committee  from  18 19  to  1844.  He  was  a  founder 
of  the  American  Tract  Society  in  1814,  the  Edu- 
cation Society  in  1815,  and  the  American  Tem- 
perance Society  in  1826.  His  first  wife  was  Abi- 
gail Wheeler,  whom  he  married  Oct.  8,  1799, 
and  by  whom  he  had  four  sons,  one  of  whom  was 
Leonard  [q.v.],  and  six  daughters.  After  her 
death  in  1846  he  married  the  widow  of  Dr.  Ansel 
Ives  of  New  York,  who  survived  him.  He  died 
in  Andover. 

[E.  A.  Lawrence,  A  Discourse  Delivered  at  the 
Funeral  of  Rev.  Leonard  Woods  (1854),  and  "Leonard 
Woods,"  Congregational  Quart.,  Apr.  1859;  W.  B. 
Sprague,  Annals  of  the  Am.  Pulpit,  vol.  II  (1857)  ; 
Williston  Walker,  Ten  New  England  Leaders  (1901)  ; 
F.  E.  Blake,  Hist,  of  the  Town  of  Princeton  .  .  .  Mass. 
(1915),  vol.  II;  H.  K.  Rowe,  Hist,  of  Andover  Theo- 
logical Sem.  (1933)  ;  Congregationalist,  Sept.  8,  1854; 
Boston  Transcript,  Aug.  25,  1854.]  F.  T.  P. 

WOODS,  LEONARD  vNov.  24,  1807-Dec. 
24,  1878),  college  president  and  clergyman,  was 
born  in  Newbury,  Mass.  His  father,  Leonard 
[q.v.],  was  an  influential  member  of  the  early 
faculty  of  Andover  Theological  Seminary ;  his 
mother,  Abigail  Wheeler,  was  a  woman  of 
marked  character  and  ability.  Upon  graduating 
from  Phillips  Academy,  Andover,  Leonard  en- 
tered Dartmouth,  but  after  less  than  one  term 
removed  to  Union  College,  Schenectady,  N.  Y., 
where  he  was  graduated  with  the  degree  of 
bachelor  of  arts  at  the  head  of  his  class  in  1827. 
His  feats  in  the  composition  of  Greek  iambics 
and  hexameters  were  regarded  as  remarkable. 
Prof.  Charles  Carroll  Everett  [q.v.]  pictures  him 
in  college  (post,  p.  7)  as  of  light,  spare  form,  of 


502 


Woods 

almost  feminine  softness  of  feature  allied  with 
manly  firmness,  resolution  and  capacity  for  rather 
uncommon  muscular  performances.  Upon  his 
graduation  President  Eliphalet  Nott  [q.v.~\  pre- 
dicted that  he  might  become  a  distinguished 
linguist  or  mathematician  or  a  man  of  general 
literature  (Everett,  p.  9). 

He  chose  to  enter  the  ministry,  however,  go- 
ing to  Andover  Theological  Seminary,  where  he 
completed  his  course  in  1830.  The  next  two  years 
he  spent  as  Abbot  Resident  at  Andover,  living 
the  life  of  a  scholarly  recluse  and  devoting  ten 
hours  a  day  to  his  books.  In  addition  to  giving 
some  instruction,  he  prepared  Lectures  on  Chris- 
tian Theology  (2  vols.,  1831-33),  a  translation 
of  the  work  of  G.  C.  Knapp.  This  achievement 
gave  him  a  considerable  reputation  as  a  scholar 
and  as  a  theologian.  In  1830  he  was  licensed  to 
preach  by  the  Londonderry  Presbytery,  and  in 
1833  was  ordained  by  the  Third  Presbytery  of 
New  York,  having  preached  acceptably  at  the 
Laight  Street  Church.  For  the  next  three  years 
he  was  editor  of  the  Literary  and  Theological 
Review  in  New  York  City,  but  was  called  in 
1836  to  the  chair  of  Biblical  literature  at  the 
Bangor  (Me.)  Theological  Seminary. 

In  1839,  before  he  reached  the  age  of  thirty- 
two,  he  was  chosen  the  fourth  president  of  Bow- 
doin  College,  in  which  position  he  remained  for 
twenty-seven  years — the  longest  administration 
in  the  history  of  Bowdoin,  except  that  of  Wil- 
liam De  Witt  Hyde  [q.v.].  He  brought  to  the 
office  an  excellent  theological  training,  sound  if 
not  brilliant  scholarship,  an  impressive  reputa- 
tion as  a  university  preacher,  and  a  character 
that  soon  inspired  affection  and  respect.  During 
the  long  term  of  his  presidency  he  strove  to  sub- 
stitute personal  influence  for  the  more  formal 
college  discipline  of  the  day.  He  relied  very 
largely  on  the  honor  of  the  young  men  under  his 
charge  and  often  made  a  deep  impression  upon 
the  students  by  his  own  attitude  and  character. 
At  one  time,  for  example,  he  had  certain  intem- 
perate students  join  with  him  in  a  pledge  of  total 
abstinence  for  the  remainder  of  their  course.  He 
was  an  excellent  teacher,  employing  the  recita- 
tion and  not  the  lecture  method.  He  was  largely 
responsible  for  the  planning  and  erection  of  King 
Chapel.  He  was  likewise  instrumental  in  win- 
ning for  the  college  the  reversionary  interest  in 
the  estate  of  James  Bowdoin,  displaying  in  the 
long  drawn  out  litigation  remarkable  legal  learn- 
ing and  acumen.  In  1840  he  traveled  abroad,  re- 
ceiving impressions  that  much  influenced  his  ad- 
ministration. At  Oxford  he  met  Stanley  and 
Newman  and  other  leaders  of  the  Oxford  move- 
ment, writing  "Dr.  Pusey  has  treated  me  as  a 


Woods 

brother"  (Park,  post,  p.  44).  In  Paris  he  dined 
with  Louis  Philippe,  where  it  is  recorded  "he 
interested  the  king,  and  charmed  the  queen,  and 
captivated  the  princesses"  (Ibid.,  p.  45).  He 
spent  some  hours  at  the  Vatican  with  Pope  Greg- 
ory XVI,  conversing  in  Latin  and  winning  the 
Pope's  admiration  both  for  his  scholarship  and 
his  charm. 

Toward  the  close  of  his  administration  his 
popularity  suffered  from  the  fact  that,  an  ex- 
treme pacifist,  he  was  not  in  sympathy  during 
the  Civil  War  with  the  cause  of  the  North.  In 
1865,  however,  he  presided  with  his  usual  grace 
at  Commencement,  when  he  conferred  the  degree 
of  doctor  of  laws  upon  General  Grant.  The  next 
year  he  resigned,  partly  because  both  his  attitude 
toward  the  war  and  his  stand  against  sectarian 
influences  in  education  were  unpopular,  and  part- 
ly because  of  impairment  of  health.  In  1867  he 
went  abroad  and  engaged  in  historical  studies 
on  the  early  history  of  Maine.  Returning  to 
Brunswick,  he  continued  his  researches  until  on 
Aug.  8,  1873,  n's  library,  the  apple  of  his  eye, 
was  destroyed  by  a  disastrous  fire  with  the  loss 
not  only  of  books  but  of  precious  manuscripts. 
This  experience  broke  his  health  and  spirit,  and 
for  the  rest  of  his  life  he  was  an  invalid.  He  died 
in  Boston  and  was  buried  in  Andover. 

Woods  never  married.  His  life  was  that  of  the 
scholar  and  divine  who,  though  he  was  called  to 
an  administrative  post,  seemed  to  have  been  an 
idealist  and  to  have  preserved  the  independence 
of  one  who  always  lived  somewhat  apart  from 
the  world.  His  personality  was  more  potent  than 
his  written  words.  His  mind  has  well  been  de- 
scribed as  that  of  the  best  type  of  English  church- 
man. He  was  catholic  in  his  tastes  and  studies, 
but  the  center  of  all  his  hopes  and  interests  was 
in  religion.  His  motto  was  "First,  that  what  is 
true  is  useful,  and,  secondly,  that  it  ought  to  be 
uttered  whether  it  is  useful  or  not." 

[Nehemiah  Cleaveland  and  A.  S.  Packard,  Hist,  of 
Bowdoin  College  (1882)  ;  L.  C.  Hatch,  The  Hist,  of 
Bowdoin  College  (1927);  E.  A.  Park,  The  Life  and 
Character  of  Leonard  Woods,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (1880); 
C.  C.  Everett,  Leonard  Woods,  A  Discourse  (1879); 
Union  Alumni  Mo.,  Jan.  1916;  Gen.  Cat.  of  the  Theo- 
logical Son.,  Andoi'er,  Mass.,  1808—1908  (n.d.)  ;  Bos- 
ton Transcript,  Dec.  26,  1878.]  K.  C.  M.  S. 

WOODS,  ROBERT  ARCHEY  (Dec.  9, 1865- 
Feb.  18,  1925),  settlement  worker,  sociologist, 
and  reformer,  was  born  in  the  East  Liberty  sec- 
tion of  Pittsburgh,  Pa.  He  was  of  Scotch-Irish 
stock,  the  fourth  of  five  children  of  Robert 
Woods,  an  emigrant  from  Londonderry,  Ireland, 
and  Mary  Ann  (Hall)  Woods,  whose  parents  had 
emigrated  from  Belfast.  Prepared  in  the  public 
schools  of  Pittsburgh,  Woods  entered  Amherst 


5°3 


Woods 


Woods 


College,  where  he  came  under  the  influence  of 
Charles  E.  Garman  [g.i'.J ,  professor  of  philos- 
ophy. He  was  graduated  in  1886,  and  then  went 
to  Andover  Theological  Seminary.  Uncomfort- 
able about  Scotch  Presbyterian  dogma,  here  he 
flung  himself  wholeheartedly  into  Dr.  William 
Jewett  Tucker's  courses  in  social  economics,  the 
first  to  be  offered  in  a  theological  seminary.  He 
read  voluminously  on  social  questions,  visited 
New  York  and  Boston  to  meet  leaders  of  labor 
unions  and  to  study  reform  movements,  and  wrote 
on  social  topics  for  religious  and  secular  papers. 
He  spent  part  of  one  summer  assisting  the  chap- 
lain of  Concord  Reformatory.  In  1890  Dr.  Tuck- 
er [<7.z>.]  sent  him  to  England  to  study  reform 
movements.  He  resided  in  Toynbee  Hall  during 
part  of  1890-91,  and  was  deeply  influenced  by 
the  founder  of  settlement  work,  the  Rev.  Samuel 
A.  Barnett. 

During  the  latter  half  of  1891  Woods  lectured 
at  Andover,  published  his  book,  English  Social 
Movements  (1891),  and  in  December  was  placed 
by  Dr.  Tucker  in  charge  of  opening  Andover 
House  in  Boston,  the  first  "settlement"  in  that 
city  and  the  fifth  in  the  United  States.  Under 
Woods,  who  was  its  head  until  his  death,  Ando- 
ver House  (renamed  South  End  House  in  1895) 
became  one  of  the  most  important  laboratories  in 
social  science  in  the  United  States.  His  book, 
The  City  Wilderness,  published  in  1898,  was  the 
first  thorough-going  study  of  a  depressed  area  in 
an  American  city,  based  on  the  method  of  Charles 
Booth's  monumental  Life  and  Labour  of  the  Peo- 
ple of  London  (9  vols.,  1892-97).  It  was  fol- 
lowed by  a  companion  study  of  the  north  and  west 
ends  of  Boston,  Americans  in  Process  (1902). 
These  studies  laid  the  foundation  of  Woods's  out- 
standing contribution  to  sociology  and  social 
work — the  concept  that  the  neighborhood  or  vil- 
lage is  the  primary  community  unit,  and  that 
towns,  cities,  metropolitan  areas,  the  nation  it- 
self, are  "federations"  of  neighborhoods.  He 
called  his  collected  essays  and  papers,  published 
in  1923,  Neighborhood  in  Nation-Building. 

Woods  located  the  buildings  of  South  End 
House  in  three  highly  individualized  neighbor- 
hoods. He  set  up  fellowships  for  study  and  social 
research  at  Amherst  and  Dartmouth  colleges, 
Harvard  and  Brown  universities,  to  attract  and 
prepare  men  for  service  in  the  field  of  social  work. 
He  lectured  on  social  ethics  at  Andover  Theo- 
logical Seminary,  1890-95,  and  at  the  Episco- 
pal Theological  School,  Cambridge,  1896-1914. 
Though  he  distrusted  private  ease,  he  toiled  in 
season  and  out  to  secure  public  advantages  such 
as  parks,  playgrounds,  gymnasiums,  schools,  li- 
braries, museums,  and  concerts.   He  believed  in 


and  strove  for  public  licensing  of  occupations 
with  physical  or  moral  hazards,  was  a  leader  in 
the  state  and  national  prohibition  movement, 
urged  public  supervision  and  discipline  of  all 
forms  of  individual  indulgence  and  excess,  and 
ceaselessly  advocated  governmental  commissions 
to  supervise  and  review  the  activities  of  public 
service  corporations.  His  influence  was  most 
important  in  maintaining  the  intellectual  integ- 
rity of  the  settlement  movement  against  its  be- 
setting sin  of  sentimentality.  He  spared  neither 
himself  nor  anyone  else  in  the  search  for  reali- 
ties. He  organized  the  settlements  of  Boston 
into  a  federation  and  brought  about  the  organi- 
zation of  the  National  Federation  of  Settlements 
in  191 1,  serving  as  its  secretary  until  1923  and 
then  as  president  until  his  death.  The  recreation 
and  the  neighborhood  planning  movements  had 
the  way  prepared  for  them  by  Woods's  ideas. 
With  Albert  J.  Kennedy  he  wrote  Handbook 
of  Settlements  (1911),  Young  Working  Girls 
(1913),  and  the  authoritative  text  on  the  history 
and  accomplishment  of  settlements  in  the  United 
States,  The  Settlement  Horizon  (1922).  His 
last  publication  of  any  consequence  was  in  differ- 
ent vein :  a  campaign  biography,  The  Prepara- 
tion of  Calvin  Coolidge  (1924). 

Woods  married  Eleanor  Howard  Bush  in 
Cambridge,  Mass.,  Sept.  18,  1902.  In  person  he 
was  a  little  over  six  feet  tall,  massive  in  build, 
with  finely  modeled  aquiline  features.  Calm,  af- 
fable, soft-spoken,  kindly,  reserved  to  the  point 
of  diffidence,  there  was  that  about  him  which 
made  the  tough-minded  hesitate  to  stir  him.  His 
deep-seated  mysticism  was  held  in  check  by  loy- 
alty to  objective  facts.  He  had  a  sensory  equip- 
ment of  unusual  delicacy  which  he  distrusted 
more  than  he  enjoyed.  Seeking  a  fine  result,  he 
stripped  off  all  that  was  extraneous :  alcohol,  tea 
and  coffee,  tobacco,  sexual  passion,  luxuries  of 
any  kind,  he  looked  upon  as  hindrances  to  self- 
fulfillment,  hence  fundamentally  anti-social.  The 
aspect  of  beauty  which  stirred  him  most  was  the 
generous  and  heroic  movement  of  the  soul. 

[Eleanor  H.  Woods,  Robert  A.  Woods  (1929)  ;  Am- 
herst Coll.  Biog.  Record  (1927)  ;  Who's  Who  in  Amer- 
ica, 1924—25  ;  Boston  Transcript ,  Feb.  19,  1925  ;  per- 
sonal acquaintance.]  A.T.K. 

WOODS,  WILLIAM  ALLEN  (May  16, 
i837-June29, 1901),  jurist,  was  born  in  Marshall 
County,  near  Farmington,  Tenn.,  the  youngest  of 
three  children  of  Allen  Newton  Woods  and  his 
wife,  who  was  a  daughter  of  William  D.  Ewing. 
His  father,  a  theological  student,  died  at  the  age 
of  twenty-six,  when  young  Woods  was  but  a 
month  old.  Both  of  his  grandfathers  were  well- 
to-do  slave-owning  farmers  of  Scotch-Irish  de- 


5°4 


Woods 

scent,  but  his  father  was  a  strong  abolitionist. 
When  he  was  seven  years  old,  his  mother  married 
Capt.  John  Miller,  also  an  abolitionist,  who  in 
1847  moved  to  Davis  County,  Iowa,  with  his  wife 
and  her  children.  The  death  of  his  stepfather 
shortly  thereafter  put  Woods  to  work  on  his 
mother's  farm  at  the  age  of  ten.  During  the  next 
few  years  his  desire  to  earn  money  for  an  edu- 
cation carried  him  through  a  gamut  of  occupa- 
tions from  field  and  forest  to  brick  yard,  sawmill, 
grist  mill,  and  finally  to  a  clerkship  in  the  village 
store.  Meanwhile  he  attended  the  local  school  for 
several  months  each  year,  in  his  sixteenth  year 
becoming  a  student  in  the  Troy  Academy  and  a 
year  later  a  teacher  in  the  same  school.  In  the 
fall  of  1855  he  was  sufficiently  prepared  to  enter 
Wabash  College  at  Crawfordsville,  Ind.  Gradu- 
ating from  the  classical  department  in  1859,  he 
immediately  became  a  tutor  in  the  college,  and 
in  the  fall  of  i860  became  a  teacher  at  Marion, 
Ind.  The  attention  of  his  students  was  diverted 
by  the  opening  events  of  the  Civil  War,  however, 
and  his  school  completely  dissolved  after  the  first 
battle  of  Bull  Run. 

An  ardent  believer  in  the  Union  cause,  Woods 
immediately  enlisted,  but  an  injured  foot  disabled 
him  for  service.  After  his  graduation  from  college 
he  had  privately  studied  law.  A  military  career 
now  being  denied  him,  he  definitely  chose  the  law 
as  his  profession  and  in  1861  was  admitted  to  the 
bar  at  Marion,  Ind.  One  year  later  he  removed 
to  Goshen  and  opened  an  office.  Following  two 
years  in  the  state  legislature  (1867-69),  where 
he  served  on  the  judiciary  committee,  he  was 
elected,  in  1873  and  again  in  1878,  judge  of  the 
thirty-fourth  judicial  circuit  of  Indiana.  In  1880 
he  was  elected  to  the  supreme  court  of  the  state, 
but  had  served  only  two  years  when,  upon  the 
appointment  of  President  Arthur,  he  became 
judge  of  the  United  States  district  court  for 
Indiana.  After  serving  in  this  capacity  until 
Mar.  17,  1892,  he  was  appointed  by  President 
Harrison  as  judge  of  the  seventh  United  States 
circuit  court,  a  position  he  held  until  his  death, 
rounding  out  a  judicial  career  of  twenty-eight 
years  in  four  different  courts.  After  he  became 
a  federal  judge  he  made  his  home  in  Indianapolis. 

The  most  widely  known  case  in  which  Woods 
served  as  judge  was  United  States  vs.  Debs  (64 
Federal  Reporter,  724),  in  which  he  granted  an 
injunction  against  strikers  interfering  with  trains 
carrying  the  United  States  mails,  and  then  for 
violation  of  the  injunction  ordered  the  imprison- 
ment of  Eugene  Debs  fq.v.~\  for  a  term  of  six 
months.  In  this  action  Woods  was  sustained  by 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  (158 
United  States,  564).  Criticism  of  the  opinion  ran 


Woods 

so  high  that  Woods  felt  called  upon  to  write  an 
article  in  defense  of  the  power  of  the  federal 
courts  to  imprison  for  a  contempt  of  the  kind 
committed  by  Debs  ("Injunction  in  the  Federal 
Courts,"  Yale  Law  Journal,  April  1897). 

Woods  was  of  large  frame  and  of  impressive 
appearance,  and  was  fearless  in  the  expression  of 
his  opinions.  Inclined  somewhat  to  combative- 
ness,  he  was  ever  ready  to  meet  an  opponent  in 
debate.  His  judicial  opinions,  though  not  weight- 
ed with  citations  of  authorities,  were  clear  and 
forceful.  In  political  faith  he  was  a  Republican 
and  in  religion  a  Presbyterian.  On  Dec.  6,  1870, 
he  was  married  to  Mata  A.  Newton  of  Des 
Moines,  Iowa,  by  whom  he  had  a  son  and  a 
daughter.  He  died  at  Indianapolis. 

{Who's  Who  in  America,  1899-1900;  G.  I.  Reed, 
Encyc.  of  Biog.  of  Ind.,  vol.  I  (1895)  ;  C.  W.  Taylor, 
Biog.  Sketches  .  .  .  of  the  Bench  and  Bar  of  Ind.  (1895)  ; 
Will  Cumbach  and  J.  B.  Maynard,  Men  of  Progress, 
Ind.  (1899)  ;  Commemorative  Biog.  Record  of  Promi- 
nent .  .  .  Men  of  Indianapolis  (1908)  ;  Chicago  Legal 
News,  July  6,  Oct.  5,  1901  ;  W.  W.  Thornton,  "The 
Supreme  Court  of  Ind.,"  Green  Bag,  June  1892  ;  Report 
of  the  Sixth  Ann.  Meeting  State  Bar  Asso.  of  Ind. 
(1902)  ;  obituaries  in  Indianapolis  News  and  Indian- 
apolis Jour.,  June  29,  1901.]  G.  W.  G. 

WOODS,  WILLIAM  BURNHAM  (Aug.  3, 
1824-May  14,  1887),  jurist,  brother  of  Charles 
Robert  Woods  [g.T'.],  was  born  in  Newark,  Lick- 
ing County,  Ohio.  His  father,  Ezekiel  S.  Woods, 
a  native  of  Kentucky,  was  a  farmer  and  mer- 
chant of  Scotch-Irish  extraction ;  his  mother, 
Sarah  Judith  (Burnham)  Woods,  was  of  New 
England  stock.  After  three  years  at  Western  Re- 
serve College,  Hudson,  Ohio,  Woods  transferred 
to  Yale,  where  he  graduated  with  honor  in  1845. 
Returning  to  Newark,  he  began  the  study  of  law 
in  the  office  of  S.  D.  King,  an  able  attorney  with 
a  large  practice.  After  admission  to  the  bar  in 
1847,  he  formed  a  partnership  with  his  preceptor 
which  continued  until  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil 
War.  In  1856  he  was  elected  mayor  of  Newark 
and  in  1857,  being  elected  as  a  Democrat  to  the 
General  Assembly  of  Ohio,  was  chosen  speaker 
of  the  House.  Two  years  later  he  was  returned 
and  became  the  leader  of  his  party,  now  the 
minority.  He  was  bitterly  opposed  to  President 
Lincoln  and  his  policies  and  even  after  the  firing 
upon  Fort  Sumter  counseled  delay  in  passing  the 
"million  dollar  loan"  bill  designed  to  put  the 
state  in  position  to  defend  itself  and  to  carry  out 
the  requests  of  the  President.  Very  soon,  how- 
ever, he  committed  himself  completely  to  the 
cause  of  the  Union  and  his  eloquent  speech  de- 
claring his  intention  to  stand  by  the  government 
and  urging  the  unanimous  passage  of  the  bill 
marks  the  change  in  the  policy  of  the  Democratic 
party  in  Ohio.    He  also  successfully  urged  the 


5°  5 


Woods 


Woodward 


passage  of  a  bill  exempting  the  property  of  vol- 
unteers from  execution  for  debt  during  their 
service  at  the  front. 

In  February  1862  he  entered  military  service 
as  lieutenant-colonel  of  the  76th  Ohio  Infantry, 
and  during  the  war,  except  for  three  months,  was 
constantly  in  the  field,  taking  part  in  the  battles 
of  Shiloh,  Chickasaw,  Bayou  Ridge,  Arkansas 
Post  (where  he  was  slightly  wounded),  Jones- 
ville,  Lovejoy  Station,  and  Danville.  He  was 
also  at  the  sieges  of  Vicksburg  and  Jackson  and 
participated  in  Sherman's  march  to  the  sea. 
When  he  was  mustered  out,  Feb.  17,  1866,  he 
was  a  brigadier-general  and  a  brevet  major-gen- 
eral. 

After  the  war  he  settled  in  Alabama,  taking  up 
the  practice  of  law  first  in  Mobile  and  then  in 
Montgomery,  where  he  also  engaged  in  cotton 
planting  near  by.  He  was  now  an  ardent  Repub- 
lican and  as  such  was  active  in  the  reconstruc- 
tion program  of  the  government,  being  elected  in 
1868  as  chancellor  of  the  middle  chancery  divi- 
sion of  Alabama.  Appointed  by  President  Grant, 
in  1869,  a  judge  of  the  United  States  circuit  court 
for  the  fifth  circuit,  which  included  Georgia  and 
the  Gulf  states,  he  moved  to  Atlanta,  where  he 
lived  for  eleven  years.  Because  of  the  disorgani- 
zation of  the  state  courts  in  these  states  the  work 
of  the  federal  courts  was  unusually  heavy  and 
difficult.  Woods's  opinions  as  circuit  judge  were 
reported  by  himself  in  the  four  volumes  ( 1875— 
83)  of  Woods's  Reports  of  the  fifth  circuit. 

In  1880,  upon  the  resignation  of  William 
Strong  [q.v.~\  from  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States,  it  seemed  generally  agreed  that 
his  successor  should  come  from  the  South.  "The 
proper  South  is  now  without  any  representative 
on  the  bench,"  said  the  Albany  Law  Journal; 
"She  certainly  ought  to  have  one,  if  not  two" 
(Dec.  n,  1880).  Accordingly,  Woods  was  ap- 
pointed by  President  Hayes  and  in  Dec.  21,  1880, 
was  commissioned  as  an  associate  justice  of  the 
United  States  Supreme  Court.  His  service  on 
this  bench  was  only  a  little  over  six  years  but 
during  that  time  he  wrote  218  opinions.  During 
his  tenure  of  office  the  Supreme  Court  was  de- 
termining the  question  of  the  civil  rights  of  the 
negro  under  the  new  amendments  to  the  Consti- 
tution. Woods  wrote  the  opinion  in  U.  S.  vs. 
Harris  (106  U.  S.,  629)  which  finally  determined 
that  the  protection  of  these  rights  was  not  to  be 
found  in  federal  statutes  or  by  indictments  in 
the  federal  courts.  He  also  wrote  the  opinion  in 
Presser  vs.  Illinois  (116  U.  S.,  252)  which  defi- 
nitely decided  that  the  Bill  of  Rights  to  the  fed- 
eral Constitution  including  the  second  amend- 
ment in  regard  to  the  right  to  keep  and  bear 


arms,  was  a  limitation  on  the  power  of  the  fed- 
eral government  only  and  in  no  way  applied  to 
the  states.  Many  of  his  opinions  were  in  patent 
and  equity  cases  involving  intricate  details  and 
a  mass  of  testimony,  and  in  these  cases  he  showed 
an  unusual  ability  in  analyzing  the  complicated 
record.  His  opinions,  never  lengthy,  were  co- 
gent and  free  from  all  display  of  rhetoric. 

Woods  died  in  Washington,  D.  C,  survived 
by  his  wife,  Anne  E.  Warner  of  Newark,  Ohio, 
whom  he  had  married  June  21,  1855,  and  by  a 
son  and  a  daughter. 

[Woods's  opinions  appear  in  103-119  U.  S.  Reports. 
For  biog.  data  see  :  "In  Memoriam,"  123  U.  S.  Reports, 
761  ;  Am.  Law  Rev.,  Feb.  1881  ;  H.  L.  Carson,  The 
Hist,  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  U.  S.  (1902),  II, 
480  ;  N.  N.  Hill,  Hist,  of  Licking  County,  Ohio  (1881)  ; 
Obit.  Record  Grads.  Yale  Univ.,  1880-90  (1890)  ; 
R.  H.  Burnham,  The  Burnham  Family  (1869)  ;  F.  B. 
Heitman,  Hist.  Reg.  and  Diet.  U.  S.  Army  (1903), 
vol.  I  ;  Washington  Law  Reporter,  June  8,  1887  ;  Wash- 
ington Post,  May  15,  1887.]  A  H  T 

WOODWARD,  AUGUSTUS  BREVOORT 

(1774-June  12,  1827),  jurist,  political  philoso- 
pher, the  son  of  John  Woodward,  a  shopkeeper, 
and  his  wife,  Ann  Silvester,  was  born  in  New 
York  City  and  christened  Nov.  6,  1774.  He  was 
named  Elias  Brevoort  for  his  mother's  uncle  by 
marriage,  but  he  later  exchanged  Elias  for  Au- 
gustus, occasionally  using  both  names.  At  fif- 
teen he  entered  Columbia  College,  graduating  in 
the  class  of  1793.  His  family  had  moved  to  Phil- 
adelphia, and  he  spent  a  short  time  there  as  an 
employee  in  the  Treasury  Department.  In  1795, 
while  living  in  Rockbridge  County,  Va.,  he  met 
Thomas  Jefferson,  whose  admirer  and  friend  he 
became.  After  a  short  residence  in  Greenbrier 
County,  now  in  West  Virginia,  he  received  a 
legacy  of  £150  under  the  will  of  Elias  Brevoort, 
and  in  1797  went  to  Georgetown,  D.  C,  where  he 
engaged  in  the  practice  of  law  and  speculated  in 
real  estate. 

In  addition  to  conducting  a  satisfactory  law 
practice,  he  gave  considerable  time  to  scientific 
conjecture  and  civic  affairs.  In  1801  he  pub- 
lished his  first  book,  Considerations  on  the  Sub- 
stance of  the  Snn,  and  in  that  and  the  following 
year  took  an  active  part  in  obtaining  the  incor- 
poration of  the  City  of  Washington,  being  elect- 
ed a  member  of  its  first  council.  During  the  years 
1801-03  he  published  under  the  pseudonym  Epa- 
minondas  a  series  of  eight  pamphlets  with  the 
title  Considerations  on  the  Government  of  the 
Territory  of  Columbia.  He  was  employed  by 
Oliver  Pollock  \_q.v.~\  to  present  his  claim  to  Con- 
gress, and  published  his  argument,  A  Rcpresen' 
tation  of  the  Case  of  Oliver  Pollock,  in  1803. 
with  a  Supplement  to  the  Representation  in  the 
same  year;  they  were  reprinted  together  in  1806. 


506 


Woodward 


Woodward 


In  February  1805  President  Jefferson  appoint- 
ed Woodward  one  of  the  three  judges  of  the  new 
Territory  of  Michigan  and  he  removed  to  De- 
troit in  June.  For  that  city,  which  had  recently 
been  destroyed  by  fire,  he  prepared  a  new  plan 
based  upon  the  plan  of  the  city  of  Washington ; 
this  plan  was  adopted,  though  later  greatly  modi- 
fied, and  the  main  street  at  right  angles  to  the 
Detroit  River  was  named  Woodward  Avenue. 
The  governor  and  the  three  judges  formed  the 
legislature  of  the  territory,  but  it  was  Woodward 
who  compiled  its  early  laws,  The  Laws  of  Michi- 
gan (1806),  known  as  "The  Woodward  Code." 
At  the  request  of  citizens  of  Detroit  he  passed 
the  winter  of  1805-06  in  Washington,  obtaining 
needed  legislation  regarding  the  title  of  lands  in 
Michigan.  In  1809  he  published  Considerations 
on  the  Executive  Government  of  the  United 
States  of  America  and  in  181 1,  in  the  Philadel- 
phia Aurora,  a  series  of  articles  relating  to  the 
establishment  of  a  department  of  domestic  af- 
fairs in  the  national  government. 

Woodward  was  the  dominant  figure  in  the 
court  and  legislative  body  of  Michigan  and  was 
often  in  opposition  to  the  governor,  William  Hull 
[q.v.].  After  the  surrender  of  Detroit  in  1812  he 
was  the  only  federal  official  who  stayed  in  the 
city,  but  in  February  1813  he  went  to  Washing- 
ton, where  he  remained  until  the  fall  of  1814. 
While  there  he  completed  a  book  which  had  been 
in  preparation  for  several  years,  A  System  of 
Universal  Science,  published  in  1816.  An  elab- 
orate attempt  at  a  classification  of  knowledge  and 
the  nomenclature  of  its  divisions,  it  contained  the 
idea  which  was  expanded  in  1817  in  an  act  drawn 
by  Woodward  and  passed  by  the  governor 
and  judges  creating  the  "Catholepistemiad,  or 
University,  of  Michigania."  To  this  institution 
which  began  at  once  to  function  in  a  small  way 
upon  the  appointment  of  its  faculty — the  Rev. 
John  Monteith  and  the  Rev.  Gabriel  Richard 
[q.v.~\,  the  corporate  existence  of  the  University 
of  Michigan  has  been  traced  by  judicial  decision. 

A  law  passed  by  Congress  in  1823  provided 
that  the  terms  of  the  judges  of  Michigan  should 
expire  Feb.  1,  1824.  President  Monroe  expected 
to  reappoint  Woodward,  but  at  the  last  moment 
was  dissuaded  by  false  testimony  relating  to  his 
character  and  habits  and  did  not  make  the  ap- 
pointment ;  Monroe  soon  became  satisfied  that 
he  had  been  misled,  however,  and  when  a  va- 
cancy occurred  in  a  federal  court  in  Florida,  ap- 
pointed Woodward  to  that  position  in  August 
1824.  Here  he  served  until  his  death,  at  Talla- 
hassee, less  than  three  years  later. 

In  1825  he  collected  and  published  under  the 
title  The  Presidency  of  the  United  States  a  se- 


ries of  articles  criticizing  the  Cabinet  system 
which  had  appeared  in  the  National  Journal  of 
Washington.  In  Florida  as  well  as  in  Detroit  he 
was  active  in  encouraging  movements  for  intel- 
lectual and  social  improvement.  He  was  inter- 
ested in  real  estate  in  Washington,  in  Detroit, 
and  in  Tallahassee ;  as  part  owner  of  the  land 
covered  by  the  present  city  of  Ypsilanti,  Mich., 
he  was  responsible  for  its  name. 

Wroodward  never  married.  He  was  a  man  of 
strong  character,  interested  in  many  things,  a 
thorough  lawyer,  positive  and  independent  in  his 
views,  regardless  of  popularity,  somewhat  eccen- 
tric, and  occasionally  arbitrary.  His  philosophic 
and  political  ideas  were  at  times  visionary,  but 
his  plan  for  the  "University  of  Michigania," 
though  ridiculously  pedantic  in  some  respects, 
indicates  an  advanced  notion  of  the  duty  of  the 
state  toward  education. 

TWoodward  MSS.  in  Burton  Hist.  Coll.,  Detroit 
Pub.  Lib.  ;  Mich.  Pioneer  and  Hist.  Colls.,  vols.  VIII 
(1886),  XII  (1887),  XXIX  (1001)  ;  Mich.  Hist.  Mag., 
Oct.  1925  ;  Charles  Moore,  Governor,  Judge,  and  Priest ; 
Detroit  1805-18 15  (1891),  and  "Augustus  Brevoort 
Woodward,"  in  Records  of  the  Columbia  Hist.  Soc, 
vol.  IV  (1901)  ;  B.  A.  Hinsdale,  Hist,  of  the  Univ.  of 
Mich.  (1906);  Daily  Nat.  Intelligencer  (Washington, 
D.  C.J.July  7>  1827.]  W.L.J— s. 

WOODWARD,  CALVIN  MILTON  (Aug. 
25»  I83"-Jan.  12,  1914),  educator,  was  born  near 
Fitchburg,  Mass.  Great-great-grandson  of  John 
Woodward  who  settled  at  Westminster,  Mass., 
in  1751,  he  was  sixth  among  eleven  children  of 
Isaac  Burnapp  Woodward,  Unitarian  farmer  and 
bricklayer,  and  Eliza  Wetherbee,  his  wife.  The 
boy  attended  the  common  schools  and  supported 
himself  in  Harvard  College,  where  he  was  gradu- 
ated in  i860  with  distinction.  In  1862-63  he  was 
a  captain  in  the  48th  Massachusetts  Volunteers, 
but  except  for  this  period  spent  the  Civil  War 
years  as  principal  of  the  Brown  High  School  in 
Newburyport,  Mass.,  where  he  married  Fanny 
Stone  Balch,  Sept.  30,  1863.  In  1865  he  became 
vice-principal  and  teacher  of  mathematics  in  the 
academy  of  the  newly  organized  Washington 
University,  St.  Louis,  Mo.  In  1869  he  was  made 
professor  of  geometry  in  the  university  and  the 
next  year  dean  of  the  polytechnic  school  and 
Thayer  Professor  of  Mathematics  and  Applied 
Mechanics.  He  served  as  dean  until  1896,  and 
when  the  school  of  engineering  and  architecture 
was  reorganized  in  1901,  he  returned  to  the 
dean's  office.  This  post  he  distinguished  until 
his  retirement  in  1910. 

As  originator  and  director  from  its  organiza- 
tion of  the  St.  Louis  Manual  Training  School, 
opened  in  1880  under  the  auspices  of  Washington 
University,  he  accomplished  his  most  important 
work.   A  large  institution  for  general  education 


5°7 


Woodward 

on  a  new  and  definite  plan,  admitting  boys  as 
young  as  fourteen,  this  school  became  a  leading 
educational  experiment  of  the  time  and  was  the 
model  for  similar  schools  quickly  established  in 
other  cities.  Woodward  declared  the  essential 
feature  of  manual  training  to  be  "systematic 
study  of  tools,  processes  and  materials"  (Report 
of  the  Commissioner  of  Education,  .  .  .  1903, 
1905,  I,  1019),  and  urged  its  adoption  not  only 
to  aid  those  inclined  to  industrial  life,  but  as  a 
means  of  assisting  all  boys  to  discover  their  "in- 
born capacities  and  aptitudes  whether  in  the  di- 
rection of  literature,  science,  engineering  or  the 
practical  arts"  (Ibid.,  pp.  1019-20).  For  girls 
he  advocated  domestic  science  as  manual  train- 
ing's counterpart. 

Woodward's  community  was  large.  In  1886 
on  invitation  from  the  Royal  Commissioner  of 
Education  for  the  United  Kingdom  he  delivered 
a  series  of  lectures  on  manual  education  in  Man- 
chester. He  was  a  member  of  the  St.  Louis 
board  of  education  from  1877  to  1879  and  from 
1897  to  his  death  (president,  1899-1900  and 
1903-04),  and  of  the  board  of  curators  of  the 
University  of  Missouri  from  1891  to  1897  (presi- 
dent, 1894-97).  He  was  president  of  the  Amer- 
ican Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Sci- 
ence, 1905-06,  of  the  St.  Louis  Academy  of 
Science,  1907-08,  and  of  the  North  Central  As- 
sociation of  Colleges  and  Secondary  Schools, 
1909-10.  His  publications  include :  A  History  of 
the  St.  Louis  Bridge  (1881 ),  The  Manual  Train- 
ing School  (1887),  Manual  Training  in  Educa- 
tion (1890),  What  Shall  We  Do  With  Our 
Boys?  (1898),  Rational  and  Applied  Mechanics 
(1912),  "The  Change  of  Front  in  Education" 
(Proceedings  of  the  American  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  Science,  vol.  L,  1901),  "Lines 
of  Progress  in  Engineering"  (Ibid.,  vol.  LIV, 
1904),  "The  Science  of  Education"  (Ibid.,  vol. 
LVII,  1907),  "The  Rise  and  Progress  of  Manual 
Training"  ( Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Edu- 
cation, 1893-94,  1896,  vol.  I),  "At  What  Age  Do 
Pupils  Withdraw  from  the  Public  Schools?" 
(Ibid.,  1894-95,  1896,  vol.  II),  "Manual,  Indus- 
trial and  Technical  Education  in  the  United 
States"  (Ibid.,  1903,  vol.  I)  and  numerous  arti- 
cles in  periodicals. 

Survived  by  his  widow  and  three  daughters 
from  among  their  nine  children,  Woodward  died 
at  his  home,  two  days  after  being  seized  by  paraly. 
sis.  He  was  buried  in  Oak  Hill  Cemetery,  Kirk- 
wood,  Mo.  The  day  he  was  stricken  he  had  spent 
soliciting  funds  for  a  manual  training  school  for 
negro  boys.  In  equipment,  love  for  his  work,  and 
kindling  enthusiasm  he  approximated  the  ideal 
teacher. 


5 


Woodward 

[W.  S.  Heywood,  Hist,  of  Westminster,  Mass. 
(1893)  ;  Who's  Who  in  America,  1914-15  ;  Wm.  Hyde 
and  H.  L.  Conard,  Encyc.  of  the  Hist,  of  St.  Louis 
(1899),  vol.  IV  ;  Jour,  of  the  Asso.  of  Engineering  So- 
cieties, Mar.  1914;  L.  F.  Anderson,  Hist,  of  Manual 
and  Indus.  School  Educ.  (1926)  ;  C.  P.  Coates,  Hist,  of 
the  Manual  Training  School  of  Washington  Univ.  (U. 
S.  Bureau  of  Educ.,  1923),  "The  Veering  Winds,"  In- 
dustrial Arts  Mag.,  Sept.  1926,  and  "A  Semi-Centen- 
nial  Tribute  to  the  Memory  of  Calvin  Woodward,"  In- 
dustrial Education,  Oct.  1926;  C.  A.  Bennett,  "Fifty 
Years  Ago,"  Ibid.,  June  1929  ;  St.  Louis  Post-Dispatch, 
Jan.  12,  1 91 4,  and  St.  Louis  Republic,  Mar.  10,  1910, 
Jan.  12,  13,  1914  ;  information  from  Woodward's  daugh- 
ter, Mrs.  Fanny  Woodward  Mabley,  of  Webster  Groves, 
Mo.]  LD. 

WOODWARD,  HENRY  (c.  1646-c.  1686), 
surgeon,  first  English  settler  in  South  Carolina 
and  pioneer  of  English  expansion  in  the  lower 
South,  was  perhaps  a  native  of  Barbados ;  he 
may  have  been  related  to  Thomas  Woodward, 
surveyor  of  Albemarle  County,  N.  C,  in  1665. 
As  a  youth  he  joined  the  Carolina  settlement  be- 
gun in  1664  near  Cape  Fear.  In  1666  he  accom- 
panied Robert  Sandford,  secretary  of  Clarendon 
County,  on  his  voyage  of  exploration  to  Port 
Royal.  There  he  volunteered  to  remain  among 
the  Indians  to  learn  their  language,  and  was 
given  "formall  possession  of  the  whole  Country 
to  hold  as  Tennant  att  Will"  of  the  Lords  Pro- 
prietors of  Carolina  (Collections,  post,  p.  79), 
but  the  Spaniards  shortly  appeared  and  carried 
him  off  to  Florida.  He  lived  for  a  time  with  the 
parish  priest  of  St.  Augustine,  professed  Cathol- 
icism, was  made  official  surgeon,  and  acquired 
important  information  concerning  the  affairs  of 
the  Spaniards,  as  he  had  earlier  of  the  Indians 
on  the  northern  Florida  border.  In  1668  he  es- 
caped with  the  buccaneer  Robert  Searles  when 
the  latter  raided  St.  Augustine.  For  a  time  he 
sailed  the  Caribbean  as  surgeon  of  a  privateer, 
hoping  to  return  to  England  with  his  report. 
Shipwrecked  at  Nevis  in  August  1669,  he  took 
passage  with  the  Carolina  fleet  of  1669-70,  to  be- 
come, as  interpreter  and  Indian  agent,  the  most 
useful  servant  of  the  Proprietors  in  South  Caro- 
lina. 

Woodward's  unique  services  in  exploration 
and  Indian  diplomacy  began  in  1670  with  his 
journey  inland  to  "Chufytachyqj"  (Cofitach- 
ique?)  on  the  Santee.  He  was  early  instructed 
by  Lord  Ashley,  later  Earl  of  Shaftesbury,  to 
make  private  searches  for  gold  and  silver ;  and  in 
1671  he  undertook  a  secret  mission  by  land  to 
Virginia.  In  1674  Shaftesbury  made  him  his 
agent  in  opening  the  interior  Indian  trade,  and 
in  1677  h's  deputy.  In  the  fall  of  1674  Wood- 
ward traveled  alone  to  the  town  of  the  warlike 
Westo  on  the  Savannah  River,  subsequently  de- 
scribing his  journey  in  "A  Faithful  Relation  of 
My  Westoe  Voiage"   (Salley,  post).    The  alli- 

08 


Woodward 

ance  he  then  formed  was  for  several  years  the 
cornerstone  of  Carolina  Indian  relations ;  with 
arms  supplied  by  Woodward  the  Westo  began 
their  destructive  raids  against  the  Spanish  mis- 
sions in  Guale  (coastal  Georgia).  In  1680-81, 
however,  the  South  Carolina  planters,  jealous  of 
the  monopoly  established  by  the  Proprietors  in 
1677  over  the  inland  trade,  attacked  the  Westo 
and  expelled  the  remnant  of  the  tribe  from  the 
province,  and  Woodward  was  in  disgrace.  In 
1682  he  went  to  England  and  secured  pardon  and 
reinstatement.  There  he  also  obtained  from  the 
Proprietors  an  extraordinary  commission  to  ex- 
plore the  interior  beyond  the  Savannah  River. 

It  would  seem  that  Woodward  had  already  es- 
tablished some  sort  of  relations  with  the  Lower 
Creeks,  perhaps  as  early  as  1675.  He  now  pressed 
the  trading  frontier  of  Carolina  rapidly  west- 
ward to  their  towns  on  the  middle  Chattahoo- 
chee. Lord  Cardross  at  Stuart's  Town  (Port 
Royal)  had  hoped  to  engross  the  Creek  trade, 
and  he  arrested  Woodward  at  Yamacraw  in  the 
spring  of  1685;  but  by  summer  Woodward  had 
led  a  dozen  Charles  Town  traders  to  the  Kasihta 
and  Coweta  towns.  There  he  precipitated  a 
sharp  conflict  with  Franciscan  missionaries  and 
Spanish  soldiers  from  Apalache.  The  issue  was 
at  first  doubtful ;  but  by  1686,  when  Woodward, 
ill,  made  the  dangerous  journey  back  to  Charles 
Town  in  a  litter,  followed  by  150  Indian  burden- 
ers  laden  with  peltry,  he  had  laid  a  firm  founda- 
tion for  the  English  alliance  with  the  Lower 
Creeks.  Woodward  apparently  never  returned 
to  the  West,  and  probably  died  shortly  after  his 
greatest  adventure. 

After  the  death  of  his  wife,  Margaret,  he  mar- 
ried a  widow,  Mrs.  Mary  Browne,  daughter  of  a 
leading  Carolina  planter,  Col.  John  Godfrey. 
Among  his  numerous  distinguished  descendants 
were  Robert  Y.  Hayne  and  the  poet  Paul  Hamil- 
ton Hayne  [qq.v.~\. 

[J.  W.  Barnwell,  "Dr.  Henry  Woodward,  the  First 
English  Settler  in  S.  C,  and  Some  of  His  Descendants," 
5".  C.  Hist,  and  Gcncal.  Mag.,  Jan.,  July  1907  ;  S.  C. 
Hist.  Soc.  Colls.,  vol.  V  (1897)  ;  Woodward's  "Faith- 
full  Relation"  in  Narratives  of  Early  Carolina  (1911), 
ed.  by  A.  S.  Salley,  Jr.  ;  Cal.  of  State  Papers,  Colonial 
Ser.,  America  and  West  Indies,  1669-88  (1889-99); 
H.  E.  Bolton  and  Mary  Ross,  The  Debatable  Land 
(1925);  V.  W.  Crane,  The  Southern  Frontier,  1670— 
1732  (1928),  with  references  therein.]  V  W  C 

WOODWARD,  JOSEPH  JANVIER  (Oct. 
30,  1833-Aug.  17,  1884),  army  medical  officer, 
was  born  in  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  the  son  of  Joseph 
Janiver  and  Elizabeth  Graham  (Cox)  Wood- 
ward. He  was  a  brother  of  Annie  Aubertine 
Woodward  Moore  r^.T'.].  After  graduation  from 
the  Central  High  School,  Philadelphia,  he  en- 
tered the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  where  he 


Woodward 

received  the  degree  of  M.D.  in  1853.  He  began 
practice  in  Philadelphia,  and  associated  himself 
with  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  as  demon- 
strator in  operative  surgery  and  clinical  surgical 
assistant.  Later  he  was  placed  in  charge  of  the 
surgical  clinic  of  the  school  dispensary.  With 
the  onset  of  the  Civil  War  he  entered  the  medical 
corps  of  the  army  as  an  assistant  surgeon  in  June 
1861.  He  participated  in  the  first  battle  of  Bull 
Run  as  surgeon  of  an  artillery  regiment  and  took 
part  in  all  the  engagements  of  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac  until  May  1862,  when  he  was  assigned 
to  the  office  of  the  surgeon  general  in  Washing- 
ton. Here,  in  addition  to  the  duty  of  planning 
hospital  construction,  he  was  surgical  operator 
for  major  cases  in  the  Judiciary  Square  and 
Church  military  hospitals,  and  had  charge  of 
medical  records.  When  the  Army  Medical  Mu- 
seum was  established,  he  became  assistant  to 
John  Hill  Brinton  [q.v.~\,  the  curator.  In  1869 
he  was  put  in  charge  of  the  preparation  of  the 
medical  section  of  the  Medical  and  Surgical  His- 
tory of  the  War  of  the  Rebellion,  for  which 
George  Alexander  Otis  \_q.v.~]  prepared  the  sur- 
gical section.  This  monumental  work  appeared 
in  six  volumes  (1870-88),  the  first  two  under 
Woodward's  name.  For  careful  and  painstaking 
research  in  the  literature  of  the  subjects  covered 
they  are  unsurpassed.  On  June  26,  1876,  he  be- 
came a  major. 

While  practising  in  Philadelphia  Woodward 
had  developed  an  interest  in  pathological  histol- 
ogy and  microscopy,  and  in  the  museum  he  was 
assigned  to  work  of  a  similar  character.  He  soon 
began  experimentation  with  the  new  science  of 
photo-micrography,  which  he  was  one  of  the 
first  to  apply  to  the  uses  of  pathology  and  in 
which  he  attained  an  international  reputation. 
The  results  of  his  earlier  experiments  are  re- 
corded in  a  paper  "On  Photomicrography  with 
the  Highest  Powers,  as  Practiced  in  the  Army 
Medical  Museum"  {American  Journal  of  Sci- 
ence and  Arts,  Sept.  1866).  He  was  instrumental 
in  developing  many  improvements  in  the  photo- 
micrographic  camera  and  its  lighting.  The  re- 
sults of  his  later  observations  are  covered  by  nu- 
merous journal  articles  and  a  series  of  letters  to 
the  surgeon  general,  notable  among  the  latter 
the  Report  on  the  Magnesium  and  Electric 
Lights  as  Applied  to  Photo-micrography  ( 1870) 
and  the  Report  on  the  O.vy-Calcium  Light  as  .  I  Im- 
plied to  Photo-micrography  (1870).  Other  writ- 
ings include  The  Hospital  Steward's  Manual 
(1862)  and  the  medical  section  of  the  Catalogue 
of  the  United  States  Army  Medical  Museum 
(1866-67).  He  is  credited  with  the  authorship 
of  Ada.  a  Tale,  published  in  1852  under  the  pseu- 


5°9 


Woodward 

donym  of  Janvier.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Na- 
tional Academy  of  Sciences,  the  Association  for 
the  Advancement  of  Science,  and  the  Washing- 
ton Philosophic  Society,  and  the  first  army  of- 
ficer to  hold  the  presidency  of  the  American  Med- 
ical Association  (1881).  He  was  in  constant  at- 
tendance upon  President  Garfield  during  the  long 
weeks  that  intervened  between  the  shooting  and 
his  death  in  September  1881.  Woodward  was  of 
a  sensitive,  highstrung  organization,  and  the 
confinement,  anxiety,  and  labor  incident  to  this 
duty  proved  too  much  for  a  mind  and  body  al- 
ready overstrained  by  incessant  work.  His  Offi- 
cial Record  of  the  Post-Mortem  Examination  of 
the  Body  of  Pres.  James  A.  Garfield  (1881)  is 
practically  his  last  writing.  The  last  several 
years  of  his  life  were  spent  on  sick  leave,  the 
earlier  part  in  Switzerland.  An  ever-deepening 
melancholia  was  terminated  by  his  death  in  a 
sanitarium  at  Wawa,  Pa.,  from  injury  due  to  a 
fall. 

Woodward  was  twice  married.  A  son  of  the 
first  marriage,  Janvier  Woodward,  became  an 
officer  in  the  navy.  His  second  wife,  who  sur- 
vived him,  was  Blanche  Wendell  of  Washing- 
ton, D.  C. 

[J.  M.  Toner,  Jour.  Am.  Medic.  Asso.,  Aug.  1884; 
J.  S.  Billings,  in  Nat.  Acad,  of  Sci.,  Biog.  Memoirs, 
vol.  II  (1886)  ;  G.  V.  Henry,  Military  Record  of  Civil- 
ian Appointments  in  the  U.  S.  Army  ;  J.  C.  Hemmeter, 
in  Military  Surgeon,  June  1923  ;  Medic.  News,  Aug. 
30,  1884;  D.  S.  Lamb,  A  Hist,  of  the  Army  Medic. 
Museum,  1862-1917  (n.d.)  ;  F.  B.  Heitman,  Hist.  Reg. 
...U.S.  Army  (1903)  ;  obituary,  War  Dept.,  Surgeon 
(Beneral's  Office,  1884  ;  obituary  in  Press  (Phila.),  Aug. 
19,  1844;  War  Dept.  records.]  J.  M.  P. 

WOODWARD,  ROBERT  SIMPSON  (July 
21,  1849-June  29,  1924),  engineer,  mathematical 
physicist,  administrator,  was  born  at  Rochester, 
Mich.,  the  son  of  Lysander  Woodward,  an  enter- 
prising, public-spirited,  and  progressive  farmer, 
and  of  Peninah  A.  (Simpson)  Woodward,  of 
New  England  stock.  He  graduated  with  the  de- 
gree of  C.E.  from  the  University  of  Michigan  in 
1872  and  immediately  entered  the  United  States 
Lake  Survey  to  spend  some  ten  years  in  triangu- 
lation  along  the  Great  Lakes ;  the  two  years  fol- 
lowing this  period,  1882-84,  he  spent  with  the 
federal  commission  appointed  to  observe  the  tran- 
sit of  Venus. 

In  1884  he  was  appointed  astronomer  on  the 
United  States  Geological  Survey  and,  shortly 
thereafter,  its  chief  geographer.  At  that  time 
the  Geological  Survey  was  comparatively  new, 
but  its  members — including  G.  K.  Gilbert,  Clar- 
ence King,  and  Thomas  C.  Chamberlin  [qq-z>.~\— 
were  enthusiastic  and  eager  for  accomplishment. 
The  atmosphere  stimulated  original  work  and 
during  the  next  decade   Woodward   wrote  his 


Woodward 

most  important  scientific  papers.  These  contri- 
butions were  of  a  geophysical  nature,  having  in 
part  to  do  with  the  deformation  of  the  earth's 
surface  as  the  result  of  the  removal  or  addition 
of  load  over  a  large  area  and  in  part  with  the  sec- 
ular cooling  of  the  earth.  He  also  studied  the  field 
methods  for  topographic  mapping  and  for  pri- 
mary and  secondary  triangulation  and  put  them 
on  a  practical  engineering  basis.  The  years 
1890-93  he  spent  with  the  Coast  and  Geodetic 
Survey,  working  on  the  problem  of  base-line 
measurement  in  primary  triangulation.  He  de- 
veloped the  iced-bar  apparatus  for  measuring 
base-lines  and  for  calibrating  steel  tapes  and  was 
the  first  to  prove  that  base-lines  could  be  meas- 
ured with  sufficient  accuracy  by  means  of  long 
steel  tapes.  This  work  was  of  fundamental  im- 
portance to  geodesy  and  resulted  in  the  saving 
of  much  expense  and  time  in  field  work ;  also  it 
placed  the  primary  triangulation  work  of  the 
Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  on  a  higher  plane 
than  had  previously  been  possible.  In  1893 
Woodward  was  appointed  professor  of  mechan- 
ics and  mathematical  physics  at  Columbia  Uni- 
versity ;  shortly  thereafter  he  became  dean  of  its 
College  of  Pure  Science.  Here  he  spent  twelve 
years  as  teacher  and  administrator  and  was  re- 
markably successful  in  both  fields.  In  1904  he 
was  chosen  president  of  the  Carnegie  Institution 
of  Washington,  in  which  post  he  served  through 
1920.  The  earlier  years  were  a  critical  period 
for  the  Institution,  which  needed  his  mature 
judgment  and  experience  to  discriminate  between 
worth-while  projects  and  the  far  greater  number 
of  suggested  projects  of  doubtful  promise.  His 
common  sense  and  sense  of  humor,  however,  en- 
abled him  to  meet  the  problems  that  confronted 
him  and  his  sane  and  kindly  attitude  bred  con- 
fidence that  he  would  handle  fairly  each  proposal 
submitted. 

Woodward  was  awarded  many  honors ;  he  was 
a  member  of  the  National  Academy  of  Sciences 
and  served  as  president  of  the  American  Asso- 
ciation for  the  Advancement  of  Science  (1900), 
the  American  Mathematical  Society  (1898- 
1900),  the  New  York  Academy  of  Sciences 
( 1900-01 ) ,  the  Washington  Academy  of  Sciences 
(1915).  From  1884  to  1924  he  was  one  of  the 
editors  of  Science,  and  in  1888-89,  of  the  Annals 
of  Mathematics.  With  Mansfield  Merriman,  he 
edited  Higher  Mathematics  (1896),  a  college 
textbook,  to  which  he  himself  contributed  the 
chapter  on  probability  and  the  theory  of  errors. 
He  was  the  author  of  more  than  a  hundred  pa- 
pers, published  in  various  scientific  journals. 

Woodward  married,  in  1876,  Martha  Gretton 
Bond,  who  with  three  sons  survived  him.  Simple 


5IO 


Woodward 

and  friendly  in  manner,  he  won  and  kept  the  af- 
fection of  those  who  knew  him  and  his  home  was 
a  center  of  hospitality.  He  died  in  Washington, 
D.  C,  in  his  seventy-fifth  year. 

[F.  E.  Wright,  memoir  with  full  list  of  writings,  in 
Bull.  Geol.  Soc.  of  America,  vol.  XXXVII  (10-26)  ; 
Who's  Who  in  America,  1924-25;  Science,  July  11, 
1924  ;  Evening  Star  (Washington),  June  30,  1924.] 

F.  E.  W— t. 

WOODWARD,  SAMUEL  BAYARD  (Jan. 
10,  1787-Jan.  3,  1850),  pioneer  expert  on  mental 
diseases,  was  born  in  Torrington,  Conn.,  the  son 
of  Polly  (Griswold)  and  Dr.  Samuel  Woodward, 
and  a  descendant  of  Dr.  Henry  Woodward  who 
eimgrated  from  England  in  1635  and  settled  in 
Dorchester  and  later  in  Northampton,  Mass.  The 
boy  received  his  early  education  in  the  district 
school  of  Torrington  and  in  his  father's  office. 
He  began  the  practice  of  medicine  at  twenty-one 
under  a  license  from  the  medical  board  of  his 
county.  Later  he  received  an  honorary  degree  of 
M.D.  from  Yale.  In  1810  he  went  to  Wethers- 
field,  Conn.,  where  he  established  a  practice  that 
made  him  the  sole  physician  of  3,000  persons  for 
twenty  years.  In  1815  he  married  Maria  Porter 
of  Hadley.  They  had  eleven  children,  eight  of 
whom  survived  their  father. 

Instrumental  in  founding  the  Connecticut  Re- 
treat for  the  Insane  in  Hartford  (1824),  Wood- 
ward traveled  all  over  the  state  collecting  funds 
for  its  establishment  and  was  offered  the  position 
of  superintendent,  but  urged  instead  the  appoint- 
ment of  his  friend,  Dr.  Eli  Todd  [q.v.~\,  whose 
ideals  of  love  and  kindness  in  the  treatment  of 
the  insane  were  similar  to  his  own.  He  refused 
the  position  again  in  1834,  although  he  was  one 
of  the  medical  visitors  of  the  institution  as  long 
as  he  remained  in  the  vicinity.  From  1827  until 
1832  he  was  resident  physician  at  the  state 
prison,  and  instituted  many  humane  methods  in 
the  treatment  of  prisoners.  He  was  one  of  the 
medical  examiners  of  the  Yale  medical  school 
for  several  years  and  was  offered  a  position  on 
the  faculty,  which  he  declined.  It  was  his  hope  to 
establish  an  asylum  for  inebriates,  but  that  dream 
was  never  realized.  He  was  elected  to  the  Con- 
necticut Senate  on  the  Democratic  ticket  in  1830, 
but  refused  all  later  offers  of  political  office.  In 
1832  the  first  board  of  trustees  of  the  Massachu- 
setts State  Lunatic  Asylum  at  Worcester  ap- 
pointed him  superintendent,  and  he  remained 
there  until  1846,  winning  a  notable  reputation. 
Before  his  time  there  had  been  no  adequate  ac- 
commodations for  the  relief  or  custodial  care  of 
the  insane,  and  his  success  in  meeting  the  prob- 
lem, like  that  of  Todd  in  Hartford,  caused  na- 
tion-wide comment.   His  publications  were  con- 


Woodworth 

fined  chiefly  to  his  reports,  of  which  the  Massa- 
chusetts legislature  alone  ordered  3,000  each 
year,  but  he  also  wrote  several  books,  essays,  and 
lyceum  lectures.  He  was  the  founder  and  first 
president  of  the  Association  of  Medical  Superin- 
tendents of  American  Institutions  for  the  Insane 
(later  the  American  Psychiatric  Association), 
and  urged  the  establishment  by  Dr.  Samuel  Grid- 
ley  Howe  [q.v.]  of  what  later  became  the  Massa- 
chusetts School  for  Idiotic  and  Feeble-minded 
Youth.  He  was  of  great  aid  to  other  states  in 
passing  laws  for  the  feeble-minded,  and  his  serv- 
ices were  always  in  demand  as  an  expert  court 
witness  in  cases  involving  mental  disorders. 

Woodward  was  six  feet,  two  and  one-half 
inches  tall,  weighed  260  pounds  in  his  prime,  and 
possessed  great  physical  and  mental  energy  and 
forcefulness.  One  of  his  contemporaries  wrote 
of  him  that  though  he  was  "very  civil  and  ac- 
cessible to  all,  he  seemed  born  to  command" 
(Chandler,  post,  p.  133).  In  1846,  in  broken 
health,  he  retired  to  Northampton,  where  he  died, 
Jan.  3,  1850. 

[Sources  include  S.  A.  Fisk,  in  Boston  Medic,  and 
Surgical  Jour.,  Jan.  16,  1850  ;  George  Chandler,  in  Am. 
Jour,  of  Insanity,  Oct.  1851  ;  H.  A.  Kelly  and  W.  L. 
Burrage,  Am.  Medic.  Biogs.  (1920),  which  gives  the 
place  of  birth  as  Torringford ;  unpub.  notes  of  Dr. 
Henry  Barnard  in  the  archives  of  the  Neuro- Psychiatric 
Institute,  Hartford,  Conn.  ;  Woodward's  reports  on  the 
Mass.  State  Lunatic  Asylum,  Worcester ;  obituary  in 
Worcester  Palladium,  Jan.  9,  1850.]  q  q  jj. 

WOODWORTH,  JAY  BACKUS  (Jan.  2, 
1865-Aug.  4,  1925),  geologist,  born  at  Newfield, 
N.  Y.,  was  the  only  child  of  the  Rev.  Allen  Beach 
Woodworth  and  Amanda  (Smith)  Woodworth. 
The  son  inherited  a  special  love  for  nature,  but 
his  concentration  on  the  earth  sciences  was  de- 
layed until  his  twenty-fifth  year.  After  attend- 
ing various  grammar  schools  he  graduated  from 
the  high  school  at  Newark,  N.  J.,  and  then  went 
into  the  service  of  the  New  York  Life  Insurance 
Company  and  later  became  an  assistant  manager 
in  the  Edison  Illuminating  Company  of  Boston, 
Mass.  In  1890  he  entered  the  Lawrence  Scien- 
tific School  of  Harvard  University,  and,  under 
the  inspiration  of  Nathaniel  S.  Shaler  \q.vJ\, 
began  technical  training  for  his  life  work.  At 
Harvard  in  1894  he  won  the  degree  of  B.A.  with 
honors.  In  1893  he  was  appointed  instructor  in 
geology.  In  1901  he  became  assistant  professor 
and  in  1912  associate  professor  of  geology,  a  po- 
sition he  held  until  his  death.  On  Sept.  21,  1891, 
he  was  married  to  Genevieve  Downs,  who  died 
in  1911. 

Woodworth  was  steadily  active  in  advancing 
geological  science.  His  first  publications  were 
concerned  with  the  glaciology  of  New  England, 
a  subject  which  he  studied  intensively  and  fruit- 


5" 


Woodworth 

fully  throughout  his  professional  life.  For  many 
years  he  cooperated  with  his  senior  colleague, 
Shaler,  and  in  1896  they  published  "The  Glacial 
Brick  Clays  of  Rhode  Island  and  Southeastern 
Massachusetts"  under  the  United  States  Geo- 
logical Survey  {Seventeenth  Annual  Report, 
1896),  in  which  Woodworth  was  listed  as  as- 
sistant geologist  for  fifteen  years.  Three  years 
later  they  published  joint  memoirs  on  "The 
Geology  of  the  Narragansett  Basin"  (United 
States  Geological  Survey,  Monograph  No.  33, 
1899),  and  a  report  on  "The  Geology  of  the 
Richmond  Basin,  Virginia"  ( United  States  Geo- 
logical Survey,  Nineteenth  Annual  Report, 
1899).  In  1902  Woodworth  independently  pub- 
lished a  Survey  report  on  the  Atlantic  coast 
Triassic  coal  field.  Among  the  many  other  pro- 
ducts of  his  researches  were  important  papers  on 
the  Pleistocene  geology  of  parts  of  New  York 
State  (New  York  State  Museum,  Bulletin  48, 
1901,  and  Bulletin  83,  1905),  and  a  report  on  a 
Shaler  Memorial  expedition  to  Brazil  and  Chile 
(Bulletin  of  the  Museum  of  Comparative  Zo- 
ology, vol.  LVI,  1912).  Woodworth  was  alive 
to  the  value  of  seismological  studies  in  relation 
to  geology  and  was  a  pioneer  in  this  vast  field  of 
research.  In  1908  he  established  at  Harvard  one 
of  the  first  seismological  stations  in  America, 
and  from  that  time  until  the  end  of  his  life  was 
the  unsalaried  director  and  observer  of  this  sta- 
tion. His  records  of  the  passage  of  earthquake 
waves  of  local  and  distant  origin  through  his  sta- 
tion were  sent  for  comparative  study  to  seismo- 
logical stations  elsewhere.  The  record  of  his 
efficient  work  was  a  leading  reason  for  the  im- 
provement in  1933  of  the  Harvard  station,  which 
is  now  (1936)  one  of  the  best  equipped  in  the 
world. 

During  the  thirty-two  years  thousands  of 
Harvard  students  were  taught  by  Woodworth 
the  principles  of  geology.  By  both  temperament 
and  scholarship  he  was  equipped  to  cover  the 
broad  subject.  In  addition,  he  had  much  to  do 
with  the  training  of  professional  geologists  at 
his  university.  When  the  United  States  entered 
the  World  War,  Woodworth  took  service  as  in- 
structor in  the  Reserve  Officers  Training  Corps 
and  also  acted  as  chairman  of  a  committee  of  the 
National  Research  Council  on  the  use  of  seismo- 
graphs in  war.  He  was  a  member  of  many  scien- 
tific societies.  He  died  in  Cambridge,  survived 
by  his  one  child,  a  daughter. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1924-25  ;  W.  A.  Wood- 
worth,  Descendants  of  Walter  W oodworth  of  Scituatc, 
Mass.  (1898I:  Arthur  Keith,  in  Bull.  Gcol.  Soc.  of 
America,  vol.  XXXVII  (1926),  with  bibliog.  ;  W.  M. 
Davis  and  R.  A.  Daly,  "Geology  and  Geography,"  in 
The  Development  of  Harvard  Univ.  (1930),  ed.  by  S. 
E.  Morison  ;  R.  W.  Sayles,  in  Harvard  Grads.'  Mag., 


Woodworth 

Mar.  1926;  J.  M.  Cattell  and  D.  R.  Brimhall,  Am.  Men 
of  Set.  (3rd  ed.,  1921)  ;  obituary  in  Boston  Transcript, 
Aug.  5.  T925.]  R.A.D. 

WOODWORTH,  SAMUEL  (Jan.  13,  1784- 
Dec.  9,  1842),  playwright,  poet,  and  journalist, 
was  born  in  Scituate,  Mass.,  the  son  of  Benjamin 
Woodworth,  a  Revolutionary  soldier,  and  Abi- 
gail (Bryant)  Woodworth,  and  a  descendant  of 
Walter  Woodworth,  freeman  of  Scituate  in  1640. 
Because  his  family  was  poor  and  the  educational 
advantages  of  Scituate  were  meager,  young 
Woodworth  had  but  a  desultory  schooling.  About 
1800,  determining  to  learn  the  printer's  trade,  he 
went  to  Boston,  where  he  served  with  Benjamin 
Russell  [q.v.~\  an  apprenticeship  that  lasted  until 
1806.  During  this  time  he  frequently  published 
verses  in  the  newspapers,  and  in  1805-06  edited 
a  juvenile  paper  called  the  Fly,  in  which  John 
Howard  Payne  [q.v.~\  seems  to  have  had  a  part. 
Because  of  financial  difficulties  he  was  obliged, 
probably  in  1807,  to  leave  his  native  state.  He 
settled  in  New  Haven,  Conn.,  where  he  started 
in  1808  the  Bellcs-Lcttrcs  Repository,  a  weekly 
periodical  which  lasted  less  than  two  months. 
Expressing  his  bitterness  towards  Connecticut 
in  a  satirical  poem  called  New-Haven,  he  set 
forth  for  Baltimore,  where  he  also  stayed  but  a 
brief  time.  He  proceeded  in  1809  to  New  York, 
which  now  became  his  permanent  home.  He  at 
once  entered  the  printing  business,  and  on  Sept. 
23, 1810,  married  Lydia  Reeder  (New-York  Eve- 
ning Post,  Sept.  24,  1810),  by  whom  he  had  a 
large  family. 

Nominally  a  printer,  Woodworth  engaged  in 
countless  journalistic  and  literary  pursuits  as  a 
means  of  adding  to  his  slender  income.  His  long 
journalistic  career  started  with  the  publication 
of  the  War  (1812-14),  a  weekly  chronicle  of 
America's  struggle  with  Great  Britain.  In  1817 
he  became  the  editor  of  a  newspaper  called  the 
Republican  Chronicle,  but  the  following  year  he 
retired  from  the  editorship.  The  next  year  (1819) 
he  established  the  Ladies'  Literary  Cabinet,  but 
in  1820  withdrew  as  editor  for  "want  of  patron- 
age." For  a  few  months  in  1821,  he  published  a 
magazine  in  miniature  form  entitled  Wood- 
worth's  Literary  Casket.  But  this  failing,  he  be- 
came editor  in  1823  of  the  New  York  Mirror, 
which  his  friend,  George  P.  Morris  [g.T'.J,  had 
just  founded.  Though  this  periodical  continued 
for  many  years,  Woodworth  himself,  for  some 
unknown  reason,  severed  his  connection  with  it  at 
the  close  of  the  first  year.  Three  years  later 
(1827)  he  made  one  further  journalistic  venture 
in  the  Parthenon,  which  had  but  a  brief  run. 
During  these  years  of  experimentation  he  also 
published   two    Swedenborgian   magazines,   the 


512 


Woodworth 


Wool 


Halcyon  Luminary  (1812-13)  and  the  New- 
Jerusalem  Missionary  (1823-24). 

To  these  periodicals  and  to  the  press  at  large 
Woodworth  was  a  frequent  contributor  of  poetry 
over  the  signature  "Selim."  Three  early  poems — 
New-Haven  (1809),  Beasts  at  Law  (1811), 
Quarter-Day  (1812) — were  bitter  social  satires. 
His  later  work,  collected  by  his  son  in  1861,  re- 
veals great  productivity,  but  little  artistic  merit. 
He  could  write  with  equal  ease  a  patriotic  ode,  a 
religious  effusion,  a  sentimental  ballad,  or  a  bit 
of  vers  de  societe.  Yet  little  has  survived  save 
"The  Bucket"  ("The  Old  Oaken  Bucket")  and 
"The  Hunters  of  Kentucky."  In  1816  he  also 
published  a  novel,  The  Champions  of  Freedom, 
the  scenes  of  which  were  drawn  from  the  War  of 
1812.  In  the  field  of  the  drama,  however,  he 
made  a  slightly  greater  contribution  to  American 
literature.  Although  his  first  play,  The  Deed  of 
Gift  (1822),  was  a  somewhat  feeble  comic  opera 
on  a  domestic  theme,  and  his  second,  La  Fayette 
(1824),  was  of  no  lasting  importance,  his  third 
attempt,  The  Forest  Rose  (1825),  was  "one  of 
the  longest-lived  American  plays  before  the  Civil 
War"  (Coad,  post,  p.  166).  The  success  of  this 
play  was  due  chiefly  to  his  creation  of  the  Yankee 
character,  Jonathan  Ploughboy.  His  The  Wid- 
ow's Son  (1825),  a  significant  though  somewhat 
less  popular  drama,  was  a  domestic  tragedy  laid 
in  New  York  during  the  Revolutionary  period. 
"The  Cannibals,"  "Blue  Laws,"  and  "The  Found- 
ling of  the  Sea"  were  plays  produced  in  1833, 
but  never  published.  Another  drama,  King's 
Bridge  Cottage  (1826),  "written  by  a  Gentle- 
man of  N.  York,"  has  sometimes  been  attributed 
to  him. 

In  spite  of  every  effort  to  eke  out  an  existence, 
he  was  repeatedly  reduced  to  poverty.  In  1828 
and  1829  special  theatrical  benefits  were  given  to 
relieve  his  "pecuniary  misfortunes."  Finally  in 
February  1837  an  attack  of  apoplexy,  resulting 
in  paralysis,  incapacitated  him  for  further  work. 
Friends  again  came  forward ;  benefit  perform- 
ances were  given ;  and  he  lingered  on  in  his 
crippled  state  until  1842.  Though  his  works 
sometimes  reveal  a  certain  asperity  of  character, 
the  result,  in  part,  of  his  failures  fully  to  adjust 
himself  to  the  world  of  action,  yet  he  was  in  the 
main  amiable,  and  had  a  reputation  for  great 
honesty.  In  religion  he  was  an  ardent  Sweden- 
borgian. 

[Sources  include  preface  to  The  Poems,  Odes,  Songs 
.  .  .  of  Samuel  Woodworth  (1818)  ;  memoir  by  G.  P. 
Morris,  in  The  Poetical  Works  of  Samuel  Woodtvorth 
(2  vols.,  1861)  ;  E.  A.  and  G.  L.  Duyckinck,  Cyc.  of 
Am.  Lit.  (1855),  II,  70-71;  Critic,  Jan.  24,  Mar.  7, 
1829;  N.  Y.  Mirror,  Mar.  1,  1828,  July  29,  Oct.  28, 
Nov.  ii,  and  Dec.  2,  1837,  and  Dec.  17,  1842  (obitu- 
ary) ;  Evening  Post  (N.  Y.),  Nov.  2,  1837;  Autograph 
Album  (N.  Y.),  Apr.  1934  ;  A.  H.  Quinn,  A  Hist,  of  the 


Am.  Drama  from  the  Beginning  to  the  Civil  War 
(1923)  ;  O.  S.  Coad,  in  Sewanee  Rev.,  Apr.  1919;  in- 
formation furnished  by  Kendall  B.  Taft,  who  is  pre- 
paring a  biog.  of  Woodworth.  For  family  hist.,  see 
Samuel  Deane,  Hist,  of  Scituate,  Mass.  (1831),  and 
Vital  Records  of  Scituate,  Mass.  (1909),  I,  418,  II, 
333.  For  a  fairly  complete  bibliog.,  see  P.  K.  Foley, 
Am.  Authors  (1897).  Important  Woodworth  MSS.  are 
in  the  N.  Y.  Pub.  Lib.  and  the  colls,  of  the  Hist.  Soc.  of 
Pa-1  N.F.A. 

WOOL,  JOHN  ELLIS  (Feb.  29,  1784-Nov. 
10,  1869),  soldier,  was  born  in  Newburgh,  N.  Y. 
He  was  only  four  years  old  at  the  death  of  his 
father,  who  had  been  a  soldier  under  General 
Wayne  in  the  storming  of  Stony  Point.  The 
mother  may  have  died  also  about  this  time,  for 
the  child  was  removed  to  Troy  to  live  with  his 
grandfather,  James  Wool,  of  Schaghticoke,  N.  Y. 
His  formal  education  was  limited  to  that  of  a 
country  school,  and  at  the  age  of  twelve  he  en- 
tered the  store  of  a  Troy  merchant  and  remained 
with  him  six  years.  During  the  next  decade  he 
worked  at  various  places  and  was  largely  his 
own  schoolmaster ;  he  spent  one  year  reading 
law  in  the  office  of  John  Russell,  an  eminent  law- 
yer. When  the  War  of  1812  broke  out,  he  raised 
and  headed  a  company  of  volunteers  in  Troy,  and 
on  Apr.  14,  1812,  he  was  commissioned  a  cap- 
tain in  the  13th  Infantry.  He  was  severely 
wounded  at  the  battle  of  Queenstown,  and  was 
promoted  a  major  in  the  29th  Infantry  on  Apr. 
13,  1813.  For  gallant  conduct  in  the  battle  of 
Plattsburg  he  was  brevetted  a  lieutenant-colonel 
on  Sept.  n,  1814.  He  was  made  colonel  and 
inspector-general  of  the  army  on  Apr.  29,  18 16, 
and  maintained  this  grade  for  more  than  a  quar- 
ter of  a  century.  Concurrently  he  nominally  had 
the  grade  for  several  years  of  lieutenant-colonel 
of  the  6th  Infantry,  and  from  Apr.  29,  1826,  the 
brevet  rank  of  brigadier-general  for  ten  years  of 
faithful  service  in  one  grade. 

In  1832  he  was  sent  by  the  government  to  visit 
the  military  establishments  of  Europe  for  the 
benefit  of  the  army,  and  in  1836  he  personally 
aided  Winfield  Scott  [q.v.~\  in  the  delicate  mis- 
sion of  transferring  the  Cherokee  nation  west- 
ward. On  June  25,  1841,  he  was  made  a  full- 
fledged  brigadier-general,  his  rank  at  the  open- 
ing of  the  Mexican  War.  On  May  15,  1846,  he 
was  ordered  to  Washington,  D.  C,  whence  he 
was  sent  to  Cincinnati  to  receive  the  disor- 
ganized volunteers  of  Kentucky,  Tennessee, 
Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  and  Mississippi.  Work- 
ing and  traveling  incessantly,  without  a  proper 
staff,  he  prepared  and  mustered-in  12,000  vol- 
unteers in  six  weeks.  On  Aug.  14  he  arrived  in 
San  Antonio  to  take  over  his  new  command  for 
the  intended  march  through  Chihuahua.  Imme- 
diately he  set  about  obtaining  information  on  the 


513 


Wool 

surrounding  country,  disciplining  and  training 
his  dispirited  and  unsoldierly  force  of  1,400  men, 
and  collecting  supplies,  so  that  he  was  able  to 
start  on  Sept.  26.  After  traversing  900  miles  of 
thick,  unbroken,  hostile  country,  he  arrived  in 
Saltillo  on  Dec.  22,  even  though  his  command 
had  been  rendered  immobile  for  twenty-seven 
days  by  Taylor's  unfortunate  armistice.  But 
Wool  took  advantage  of  this  delay  to  drill  and 
discipline  his  men  in  the  wilderness.  When  or- 
ders were  received  to  proceed,  he  was  on  his  way 
in  two  hours.  Throughout  the  march,  the  men 
had  been  forced  to  level  hills,  fill  ravines,  con- 
struct bridges,  scale  mountains,  and  make  roads, 
but  because  of  Wool's  watchfulness  and  pre- 
paredness there  was  little  ill-health  and  no  blood- 
shed. For  sheer  audacity  and  control,  his  march 
ranks  with  that  of  Xenophon.  His  celerity  and 
efficiency  were  largely  responsible  for  the  victory 
of  Buena  Vista.  It  was  he  who  selected  the  fine 
position  at  La  Angostura  and  who  held  the  Mex- 
icans while  Taylor  went  back  to  Saltillo.  He 
was  voted  a  sword  and  thanks  by  the  Congress 
"for  his  distinguished  services  in  the  War  with 
Mexico  and  especially  for  the  skill,  enterprise 
and  courage"  at  Buena  Vista.  He  was  also  bre- 
vetted  a  major-general,  and  was  presented  with 
a  sword  by  the  State  of  New  York. 

From  1848  to  1853  he  commanded  the  East- 
ern Military  Division,  and  from  1854  to  1857  the 
Department  of  the  Pacific,  where  in  1856,  by  ac- 
tive campaign,  he  suppressed  Indian  disturbances 
in  Washington  and  Oregon.  From  then  on  he 
commanded  the  Department  of  the  East.  At  the 
opening  of  the  Civil  War  he  saved  Fortress  Mon- 
roe by  timely  reinforcements  and  was  after- 
wards in  command  of  the  Department  of  Vir- 
ginia. On  May  16,  1862,  he  was  regularly  made  a 
major-general,  and  was  successively  in  command 
of  the  Middle  Military  Department  and  the  De- 
partment of  the  East  until  July  1863.  Because 
of  age  and  infirmity  he  was  retired  from  active 
service  on  Aug.  1,  1863.  He  died  at  the  age  of 
eighty-five  in  Troy,  N.  Y.,  was  given  a  large 
military  funeral,  and  was  buried  in  Oakwood 
Cemetery.  Although  Wool  was  a  rigid  disciplin- 
arian and  was  superior  in  organizing  ability,  he 
had  great  personal  benignity.  He  left  a  bequest 
of  $15,000  to  Rensselaer  Polytechnic  Institute. 
In  Troy  a  seventy-five-foot  monument  on  which 
is  an  inscription  by  William  Cullen  Bryant,  was 
erected  to  his  memory  and  that  of  his  wife,  Sarah 
Moulton,  to  whom  he  had  been  married  on  Sept. 
27,  1810.   She  survived  him  only  four  years. 

[H.  W.  Moulton,  Moulton  Annals  (1906);  A.  J. 
Weise,  Troy's  One  Hundred  Years  (1891);  Francis 
Baylies,  A  Narrative  of  Maj.  Gen.  Wool's  Campaign  in 
Mexico  ( 1851)  ;  J.  H.  Smith,  The  War  with  Mexico  (2 


Woolf 

vols.,  1919)  ;  W.  H.  Powell,  List  of  Officers  of  the  Army 
of  the  U.  S.,  1779  to  1900  (1900)  ;  U.  S.  Mag.  and 
Democratic  Rev.,  Nov.  1851  ;  F.  B.  Heitman,  Hist.  Reg. 
U.  S.  Army  (1903)  ;  John  Frost,  Am.  Generals  (1848)  ; 
L.  B.  Cannon,  Personal  Reminiscences  of  the  Rebellion 
('895)  ;  Troy  Daily  Times,  Nov.  10,  1869.] 

W.A.G. 
WOOLF,  BENJAMIN  EDWARD  (Feb.  16, 
1836-Feb.  7,  1901),  composer  and  music  critic, 
was  born  in  London,  where  his  father,  Edward 
Woolf,  was  a  musician,  painter,  and  literary 
man.  His  mother  was  Sarah  (Michaels)  Woolf. 
In  1839  the  family  emigrated  to  New  York,  where 
Edward  Woolf  conducted  orchestras  and  aided 
in  founding  Judy,  a  comic  periodical  for  which 
he  drew  many  sketches.  There  were  four  boys 
in  the  family,  of  whom  M.  A.  Woolf  became  a 
well-known  caricaturist ;  Solomon  W.  Woolf,  a 
mathematician;  Albert  E.  Woolf,  an  artist,  in- 
ventor, and  chemist.  Benjamin  was  trained  in 
music  and  drawing  by  his  father,  and  in  academic 
subjects  in  the  New  York  public  schools.  In 
1859  he  joined  the  orchestra  of  the  Boston  Mu- 
seum, then  conducted  by  Julius  Eichberg  [q.v.~\, 
for  whose  operetta,  The  Doctor  of  Alcantara,  he 
wrote  the  libretto.  The  success  of  this  piece  led 
Woolf  to  turn  to  writing  plays  and  light  operas, 
among  which  were  The  Mighty  Dollar,  Off  to 
the  War,  and  more  than  sixty  other  pieces,  most 
of  them  now  forgotten  but  very  popular  in  their 
day.  The  operetta,  Pounce  &  Co.,  or  Capital  vs. 
Labor  (1882),  for  which  Woolf  wrote  both  the 
words  and  the  music,  was  an  especially  effective 
hit.  During  his  years  of  intensive  composing 
Woolf  lived  mostly  in  Boston,  though  for  two 
seasons  (1864-66)  he  conducted  the  orchestra 
of  the  Chestnut  Street  Theatre,  Philadelphia. 
For  a  short  time  he  was  similarly  engaged  at 
New  Orleans.  He  was  married  on  Apr.  15,  1867, 
to  Josephine  Orton,  actress,  of  the  Boston  Mu- 
seum Stock  Company. 

In  1870  he  became  a  member  of  the  staff  of 
the  Boston  Globe.  A  year  later  he  had  an  invita- 
tion from  Col.  Henry  J.  Parker,  Boston  pub- 
lisher, to  join  the  editorial  staff  of  the  Saturday 
Evening  Gazette,  then  a  prosperous  and  influ- 
ential publication.  Although  the  Gazette  articles 
were  unsigned,  Woolf 's  hand  is  easily  recognized 
in  the  reviews  of  music  and  the  drama  during 
many  years.  On  Parker's  death  in  1892  he  be- 
came publisher  and  editor,  but  the  fortunes  of 
this  weekly  journal  were  waning.  Leaving  the 
Gazette,  he  became  music  critic  of  the  Boston 
Herald,  and  for  it  he  wrote  reviews  notable  for 
their  clarity  and  severity.  Henry  M.  Dunham 
\_q.v.~\  says  of  him  in  recalling  the  reactions  of 
the  younger  musicians  of  the  eighties  and  nine- 
ties  toward   criticism :   "We   disliked   him   ex- 


SH 


Woolley 

tremely  because  of  his  rough  and  uncompromis- 
ing style.  He  had  almost  no  concession  to  offer 
for  anyone's  shortcomings,  and  on  that  very  ac- 
count what  he  had  to  say  carried  additional 
weight  with  the  artist  he  was  criticising"  (The 
Life  of  a  Musician,  1931,  p.  220).  Philip  Hale, 
on  the  contrary,  long  a  distinguished  music  critic, 
praised  Woolf's  causticity  as  employed  solely 
against  "incompetence,  shams,  humbugs,  snobs 
and  snobbery  in  art,"  and  stated  that  when  Woolf 
began  to  write  for  the  Gazette  music  criticism  in 
Boston  was  mere  "honey  daubing"  of  local  fa- 
vorites (Musical  Courier,  post,  p.  29).  This 
critic,  according  to  Hale's  recollection,  was 
never  severe  towards  really  promising  begin- 
ners, to  whom  he  gave  personal.advice  and  often 
financial  aid.  Woolf  continued  to  do  creative  as 
well  as  critical  writing.  His  last  important  piece 
was  Westward  Ho,  produced  at  the  Boston  Mu- 
seum in  1894.  Essentially  a  hard-working  jour- 
nalist, living  unobtrusively  at  Brookline,  he  died 
suddenly,  to  be  almost  as  quickly  forgotten. 

[Sources  include  The  Am.  Hist,  and  Encyc.  of  Music, 
vol.  II  (1908),  ed.  by  W.  L.  Hubbard;  Philip  Hale,  in 
Musical  Courier,  Feb.  13,  1901,  and  in  Boston  Morning 
Jour.,  Feb.  8,  1901  ;  Boston  Daily  Globe,  Feb.  8,  1901  ; 
information  from  Woolf's  nephew,  S.  J.  Woolf  of  New 
York  City.  There  is  a  nearly  complete  file  of  the  Sat. 
Evening  Gazette  in  the  Boston  Pub.  Lib.]       F.  W.  C. 

WOOLLEY,  CELIA  PARKER  (June  14, 
1848-Mar.  9,  19 18),  settlement  worker,  clergy- 
man, author,  was  born  at  Toledo,  Ohio,  the 
daughter  of  Marcellus  Harris  and  Harriet  Maria 
(Sage)  Parker.  The  family  moved  to  Coldwater, 
Mich.,  and  Celia  spent  her  girlhood  there,  grad- 
uating from  its  "female"  seminary.  On  Dec.  29, 
1868,  she  married  Jefferson  H.  Woolley,  a  young 
dentist.  In  1876  the  couple  removed  to  Chicago, 
and  Celia  Woolley  at  once  became  interested  and 
active  in  the  literary  and  civic  life  of  the  city. 
She  had  already  begun  to  write,  and  for  some 
years  her  intellectual  life  expressed  itself  chief- 
ly through  poems,  hymns,  and  stories.  Being  the 
child  of  religious  liberals  and  concerned  from 
early  years  with  religion,  she  at  length  decided 
to  study  for  the  ministry,  and  at  forty-six  was 
ordained  into  the  Unitarian  fellowship  (Oct.  21, 
1894)  in  Geneva,  111.  She  served  as  pastor  of  the 
Unitarian  Church  at  Geneva  from  1893  to  1896. 
She  then  accepted  the  pastorate  of  the  Inde- 
pendent Liberal  Church  in  Chicago  but  resigned 
two  years  later  to  spend  in  lecturing  and  writing 
the  time  she  could  spare  from  wifely  duties. 
Moreover,  she  apparently  felt  that  she  had  not 
yet  found  the  vehicle  of  expression  that  would 
enable  her  to  make  her  most  effective  contribu- 
tion to  society.  She  now  more  and  more  became 
interested  in  social  service  work,  and  in  1904 


Woolley 

established  Frederick  Douglass  Center,  a  settle- 
ment on  the  south  side  of  Chicago,  for  work 
among  negroes.  Accompanied  by  her  husband, 
she  took  up  residence  there  and,  surrounded  by 
the  colored  people,  to  whom  she  unselfishly  gave 
her  time  and  energy,  lived  there  the  remaining 
fourteen  years  of  her  life,  earnestly  trying  by 
this  sincere  gesture  to  improve  relations  between 
the  races.  Instead  of  ostracism,  this  altruistic 
expression  brought  forth  sympathy  and  respect 
as  well  as  gratifying  cooperation  from  many 
quarters.  Her  position  of  influence  in  Chicago's 
cultural  and  social  service  circles  was  enhanced 
rather  than  lessened.  She  was  active  in  woman's 
club  work,  being  for  years  a  member  of  the  Fort- 
nightly Club  (Chicago)  and  of  the  Chicago 
Woman's  Club  (president,  1888-90),  and  she 
was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Religious  Fellow- 
ship League  and  of  the  Chicago  Political  Equality 
League.  Her  books  include  hove  and  Theology 
(1887),  A  Girl  Graduate  (1889),  Roger  Hunt 
(1892),  and  The  Western  Slope  ( 1903).  In  1884 
she  became  a  member  of  the  editorial  staff  of 
Unity,  a  religious  weekly  of  Chicago,  edited  by 
Jenkin  Lloyd  Jones  \_q.v.~],  maintaining  connec- 
tion with  the  magazine  in  one  capacity  or  an- 
other to  the  end  of  her  life. 

Mrs.  Woolley  was  a  reformer  who  won  by 
clear  intellect  and  fine  womanly  qualities  rather 
than  by  aggressiveness.  She  possessed  high  or- 
ganizing ability  and  brought  to  her  negro  settle- 
ment help  from  many  influential  people  of  Chi- 
cago. A  friend  has  remarked  that  the  negroes 
never  thoroughly  understood  her,  or  she  them, 
but  mutual  respect  developed.  Under  the  name 
of  the  Urban  League,  the  settlement  still  func- 
tions (1936).  Mrs.  Woolley  was  tall,  slender, 
graceful,  with  the  clear  English  type  of  face,  and 
not  without  a  certain  beauty.  She  died  at  Fred- 
erick Douglass  Center,  survived  by  her  husband, 
and  was  buried  in  Oakwoods  Cemetery,  Chicago. 
She  had  no  children.  A  memorial  service  was 
held  at  Abraham  Lincoln  Center  (Chicago)  on 
Apr.  7,  1918. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1916-17  ;  Unity,  Apr.  18, 
1918  (memorial  number)  ;  Christian  Register,  May  2, 
1918;  Unitarian  Yearbook,  1918-19;  obituaries  in  Chi- 
cago Tribune,  Mar.  10,  and  Chicago  Herald,  Mar.  11, 
1918;  information  from  the  Rev.  Dr.  Rowena  Morse 
Mann,  Chicago,  and  Mrs.  Frances  B.  Wheeler,  Geneva, 
I"]  G.B.U. 

WOOLLEY,  JOHN  GRANVILLE  (Feb.  15. 
1850-Aug.  13,  1922),  prohibitionist,  was  born  at 
Collinsville,  Ohio,  the  son  of  Edwin  C.  and  Eliza- 
beth (Hunter)  Woolley.  He  attended  small- 
town schools  and  Ohio  Wesleyan  University, 
where  he  graduated  in  1871,  then  enrolled  in  the 
law  school  of  the  University  of  Michigan  and 


5*5 


Woollev 

graduated  in  1873.  On  July  26,  1873,  ne  mar- 
ried Mary  Veronica  Gerhardt  of  Delaware,  Ohio. 
By  her  he  had  three  sons. 

In  1875,  Woolley  was  elected  city  attorney  of 
Paris,  111.,  but  finding  the  town  too  small  for 
his  ambitions  he  removed  to  Minneapolis,  Minn., 
where  he  practised  law  with  great  success  and  in 
1 88 1  was  elected  prosecuting  attorney.  He  had 
become  addicted  to  alcohol,  however,  and,  hoping 
that  by  making  a  fresh  start  elsewhere  he  could 
master  his  appetite  for  drink,  he  resigned  his  of- 
fice and  moved  to  New  York.  About  the  same 
time,  1885-86,  he  was  admitted  to  practice  be- 
fore the  United  States  Supreme  Court.  In  New 
York  his  hopes  for  self-reform  came  to  naught, 
and  he  continued  in  his  old  ways,  to  the  great 
damage  of  his  health  and  his  work.  He  was  "on 
the  verge  of  suicide"  (W.  E.  Johnson)  in  1888 
when,  in  his  own  words,  he  "became  a  Chrisitan 
and  a  party  Prohibitionist  at  the  same  instant" 
(Standard  Encyclopedia  of  the  Alcohol  Problem, 
p.  2909). 

This  was  a  turning  point  in  his  life.  Thereaf- 
ter he  eschewed  drink  and  dedicated  himself  to 
driving  it  from  the  lives  of  others.  He  gave 
himself  without  stint  to  the  cause  of  prohibition 
and  before  long  attained  a  position  of  world 
leadership  in  the  movement.  In  1892-93,  under 
the  patronage  of  Lady  Somerset,  English  pro- 
hibitionist, he  traveled  up  and  down  the  British 
Isles,  speaking  almost  every  day  for  seven 
months  to  audiences  which  crowded  the  biggest 
halls.  In  1901  and  again  in  1905,  he  made  tours 
abroad.  In  New  Zealand  he  gave  vigor  to  the 
local  prohibition  movement  through  more  than 
thirty  (Johnson)  lectures  delivered  before  great 
audiences.  In  Hawaii  he  established  a  branch  of 
the  Anti-Saloon  League,  of  which  he  was  made 
superintendent  in  1907. 

In  1898,  at  Chicago,  Woolley  and  an  asso- 
ciate began  the  publication  of  a  prohibition  peri- 
odical called  the  Lever.  Its  modest  success  led 
him  the  following  year  to  purchase  the  Nezv  York 
Voice,  which  he  combined  with  the  Lever  under 
the  name  New  Voice,  with  headquarters  in  New 
York.  This  periodical  he  edited  until  the  end  of 
1906.  In  1900  he  was  nominated  for  the  presi- 
dency of  the  United  States  by  the  Prohibition 
party  and  in  the  election  received  209,936  votes. 
He  continued  his  prohibition  activities  until  1921, 
when  failing  health  caused  his  retirement,  but 
the  death  of  his  wife  shortly  thereafter  left  him 
so  lonely  that  when  the  World  League  against 
Alcohol  asked  him  to  survey  the  drink  problem 
in  Europe,  he  accepted.  While  in  Spain  on  this 
assignment  he  died.  His  body  was  returned  to 
Paris,  111.,  for  burial. 


Woolman 

Woolley's  literary  works  were  ephemeral  and 
superficial  but  were  admired  and  widely  read  by 
prohibitionists.  The  most  important  of  his  books, 
all  of  them  dealing  with  prohibition  and  consist- 
ing for  the  most  part  of  reprints  of  his  editorials 
and  speeches,  are:  Seed  (1893)  ;  The  Christian 
Citizen  (1900)  ;  A  Lion  Hunter  (1900)  ;  Tem- 
perance Progress  of  the  Century  (1903),  with 
W.  E.  Johnson;  South  Sea  Letters  (1906),  with 
his  wife ;  and  Civic  Sermons  (8  vols.,  191 1 ) .  He 
projected  the  Standard  Encyclopedia  of  the  Al- 
cohol Problem  (6  vols.,  1925-30),  later  com- 
pleted by  the  American  Issue  Publishing  Com- 
pany of  Westerville,  Ohio. 

Woolley's  appearance  suggested  a  personality 
genial  and  tolerant,  pleasing  and  sympathetic — 
in  harmony  with  the  kindliness  and  gentleness 
which  infused  his  writings  and  lectures.  By  his 
friend  W.  E.  Johnson  he  was  compared  to  Wen- 
dell Phillips  in  his  power  over  his  audiences. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1922-23  ;  N.  Y.  Times, 
Aug.  14,  1922;  Standard  Encyc.  of  the  Alcohol  Prob- 
lem, vol.  VI  (1930)  ;  letters  from  William  E.  ("Pussy- 
foot") Johnson.]  W.  E.  S a. 

WOOLMAN,  JOHN  (Oct.  19,  1720-Oct.  7, 
I772)>  Quaker  leader  and  advocate  of  the  abo- 
lition of  slavery,  was  born  at  Ancocas  (later 
Rancocas)  in  the  province  of  West  Jersey.  He 
was  one  of  thirteen  children  of  Samuel  and  Eliza- 
beth (Burr)  Woolman.  Contrary  to  legend, 
Woolman's  forbears  were  men  of  substance ;  his 
grandfather,  who  had  emigrated  to  Burlington 
from  Gloucestershire  in  1678,  was  a  Proprietor 
of  West  Jersey,  and  his  father  in  1739  was  a 
candidate  for  the  provincial  assembly.  John 
Woolman's  formal  education  ended  with  that  af- 
forded by  the  neighborhood  Quaker  school,  but 
he  improved  his  mind  by  wide  reading.  After 
serving  a  tailor's  apprenticeship  he  set  up  shop 
in  Mount  Holly,  and  on  Oct.  18,  1749,  he  mar- 
ried Sarah  Ellis  of  Chesterfield.  His  worldly  af- 
fairs prospered  to  such  an  extent  that  he  felt 
constrained  to  curtail  them.  "I  saw  that  a  hum- 
ble man,"  he  wrote,  "with  the  Blessing  of  the 
Lord,  might  live  on  a  little,  and  that  where  the 
heart  was  set  on  greatness,  success  in  business 
did  not  satisfie  the  craving;  but  that  comonly 
with  an  increase  of  wealth,  the  desire  for  wealth 
increased"  (Journal,  post,  164).  In  addition  to 
his  trade  he  was  much  employed  with  such  mat- 
ters as  surveying,  conveyancing,  executing  bills 
of  sale,  and  drawing  wills.  From  time  to  time  he 
taught  school,  publishing  a  primer  that  ran 
through  sveral  editions.  At  the  time  of  his  death 
he  was  the  owner  of  several  hundred  acres,  in- 
cluding a  fine  orchard. 

As  a  youth  he  was  profoundly  religious,  with 


Cl6 


Woolman 

leanings  toward  mysticism,  and  it  was  his  other- 
worldliness  in  thought  and  deed  that  was  to  dis- 
tinguish him.  At  the  age  of  twenty-three  he  felt 
himself  called  to  the  Quaker  ministry,  and  forth- 
with embarked  upon  a  series  of  journeys  that  ex- 
tended through  thirty  years  and  led  him  from 
North  Carolina  to  New  Hampshire  and  from  the 
northern  frontier  of  Pennsylvania  to  Yorkshire, 
in  England.  Though  he  was  active  with  other 
leading  Quakers  in  opposing  conscription  and 
taxation  for  military  supplies,  and  in  Indian  con- 
version, his  ministry  revolved  principally  about 
the  question  of  slavery.  His  experience  in  ex- 
ecuting bills  of  sale  for  slaves  early  convinced 
him  that  slave-keeping  was  inconsistent  with 
Christianity  (Ibid.,  161).  In  1746  he  visited 
Virginia  to  view  with  his  own  eyes  the  conse- 
quences of  "holding  fellow  men  in  property."  "I 
saw  in  these  Southern  Provinces,"  he  wrote,  "so 
many  Vices  and  Corruptions  increased  by  this 
trade  and  this  way  of  life,  that  it  appeared  to  me 
as  a  dark  gloominess  hanging  over  the  Land,  and 
though  now  many  willingly  run  into  it,  yet  in 
future  the  Consequence  will  be  grievous  to  pos- 
terity. I  express  it  as  it  hath  appeared  to  me,  not 
at  once,  nor  twice,  but  as  a  matter  fixed  on  my 
mind"  (Ibid.,  167).  Year  in  and  year  out  Wool- 
man,  traveling  on  foot,  went  from  place  to  place 
arousing  sleepy  consciences  against  "reaping  the 
unrighteous  profits  of  that  iniquitous  practice  of 
dealing  in  Negroes."  He  visited  especially  the 
slave-trade  centers,  such  as  Perth  Amboy  and 
Newport.  From  his  hatred  of  slavery  rose  many 
of  the  singularities  that  colored  the  last  years  of 
his  life.  Sugar,  for  example,  was  objectionable 
to  him  because  it  was  the  product  of  slave  labor. 

Little  was  achieved  by  Woolman  during  the 
years  of  his  ministry.  New  Jersey  did,  however, 
in  1769  impose  a  high  duty  upon  imported  slaves, 
and  in  1776  the  Philadelphia  Yearly  Meeting  dis- 
owned those  members  who  refused  to  manumit 
their  slaves.  Yet  Woolman's  teachings  left  a 
permanent  imprint  upon  all  thinking  opponents 
of  slavery,  both  in  America  and  in  Great  Britain. 
His  writings  upon  the  subject,  especially  his 
Journal  (1774)  and  his  essay,  Some  Considera- 
tions on  the  Keeping  of  Negroes  (1754),  served 
to  perpetuate  his  views.  He  was  interested,  too, 
in  the  social  amelioration  of  the  poor,  the  land- 
less, and  those  who  were  compelled  to  labor  un- 
der unjust  conditions.  Indeed,  his  essay,  A  Plea 
for  the  Poor  ( 1763) ,  was  republished  as  a  Fabian 
Society  tract  in  1897.  Woolman  died  of  the 
smallpox  at  York,  England,  while  laboring 
among  the  poor. 

Woolman's  fame  is  greater  in  England  than 
in  America.    His  Journal,  acclaimed  by  Ellery 


Woolsey 


Channing  as  "the  sweetest  and  purest  autobi- 
ography in  the  language"  (quoted  by  Whittier, 
post,  p.  2),  has  gone  through  more  than  forty 
editions.  It  enjoys  a  high  esteem — among  lit- 
erary men  because  of  the  simplicity  of  its  style, 
and  among  a  wider  audience  for  the  revelation  of 
the  schone  Seele  that  it  embodies.  "If  the  world 
could  take  John  Woolman  for  an  example  in  re- 
ligion and  politics  .  .  .,"  wrote  G.  M.  Trevelyan, 
"we  should  be  doing  better  than  we  are  in  the 
solution  of  the  problems  of  our  own  day.  Our 
modern  conscience-prickers  often  are  either  too 
'clever'  or  too  violent  .  .  .  'Get  the  writings  of 
John  Woolman  by  heart,'  said  Charles  Lamb — 
sound  advice  not  only  for  lovers  of  good  books 
but  for  would-be  reformers  . .  .  Woolman  was  not 
a  bigwig  in  his  own  day,  and  he  will  never  be  a 
bigwig  in  history.  But  if  there  be  a  'perfect  wit- 
ness of  all-judging  Jove,'  he  may  expect  his 
meed  of  much  fame  in  heaven.  And  if  there  be 
no  such  witness,  we  need  not  concern  ourselves. 
He  was  not  working  for  'fame'  either  here  or 
there"  (post,  139,  142).  Few  will  quarrel  with 
the  dictum  that  the  honor  of  making  the  first 
modern  formulation  of  an  explicit  purpose  to 
procure  the  abolition  of  slavery  "belongs  to  the 
Quakers,  and  in  particular  to  that  Apostle  of 
Human  Freedom,  John  Woolman"  (A.  N.  White- 
head, Adventures  of  Ideas,  1933,  p.  29). 

[The  definitive  edition  of  Woolman's  writings  is 
The  Jour,  and  Essays  of  John  Woolman  (1922),  ed.  by 
A.  M.  Gunmere,  which  contains  an  admirable  biog.  and 
a  complete  bibliog.  See  also  The  Diet,  of  Nat.  Biog., 
which  contains  some  errors  ;  J.  G.  Whittier,  intro.  to 
the  1 87 1  ed.  of  the  Jour.  ;  and  G.  M.  Trevelyan,  Clio,  a 
Muse,  and  Other  Essays  (1913).]  T.E.  P. 

WOOLSEY,    MELANCTHON    TAYLOR 

(June  5,  1780-May  19,  1838),  naval  officer,  was 
born  in  New  York  State,  the  son  of  Col.  Me- 
lancthon  Lloyd  Woolsey,  an  army  officer  in  the 
Revolution  and  subsequently  for  many  years 
collector  of  revenue  at  Plattsburg,  N.  Y.  His 
mother,  Alida  (Livingston)  Woolsey,  was  the 
daughter  of  a  clergyman  and  a  sister  of  John 
Henry  Livingston  [q.v.~\.  After  beginning  the 
study  of  law  young  Woolsey,  desirous  of  a  more 
active  life,  entered  the  navy  as  a  midshipman  on 
Apr.  9,  1800.  His  first  sea  duty  was  in  the  West 
Indies  on  board  the  Adams  during  the  last  year 
of  the  naval  war  with  France,  an  active  service 
that  proved  a  good  school  for  the  young  mid- 
shipman. He  participated  in  the  war  with  the 
Barbary  corsairs  in  the  squadron  of  Commodores 
Dale  and  Morris  (1802-03)  and  the  squadron  of 
Commodore  Barron  and  Rodgers  ( 1804-07),  re- 
turning home  as  a  lieutenant  of  the  Constitution, 
a  grade  to  which  he  was  promoted  in  1804,  al- 
though his  permanent  rank  dated  from  1807.   In 


5*7 


Woolsey 

1808  he  began  a  service  on  the  Great  Lakes  that 
was  to  last  more  than  seventeen  years.  Dele- 
gating his  duties  on  Lake  Champlain  to  a  sub- 
ordinate officer,  he  established  his  headquarters 
at  Oswego  on  Lake  Ontario  and  constructed 
there  the  Oneida,  with  the  aid  of  Henry  Eckford 
[q.v.]. 

On  July  19,  1812,  the  British  squadron  made  its 
appearance  off  Sacketts  Harbor,  whither  Wool- 
sey had  moved  his  headquarters.  Failing  to  reach 
the  open  lake  with  the  Oneida,  he  anchored  her 
near  the  shore,  unloaded  all  her  guns  on  her 
shore  side,  and  placed  them  in  a  battery  on  the 
bank.  Declining  the  British  summons  to  sur- 
render, he  fought  a  superior  force  for  two  hours 
until  it  withdrew,  leaving  him  victorious.  In 
November,  now  next  in  command  under  Isaac 
Chauncey  [q.v.],  he  participated  with  his  ship 
in  the  attack  on  Kingston,  and  in  May  and  July 
1813  in  the  joint  army  and  naval  operation 
against  York.  Commissioned  master  command- 
ant on  July  1813,  he  was  placed  in  command  of 
the  Sylph,  a  larger  and  swifter  ship,  and  took 
part  in  the  subsequent  operations  of  Chauncey. 
In  May  1814  the  important  duty  of  convoying 
some  heavy  guns  from  Oswego  to  Sacketts  Har- 
bor fell  to  him.  He  ran  his  vessels  up  a  creek 
and,  reenforced  by  some  Indians,  militia,  and 
light  artillery,  by  a  successful  ambush  he  cap- 
tured or  destroyed  the  whole  of  a  British  force 
sent  to  intercept  him. 

He  was  promoted  captain  from  Apr.  27,  1816. 
In  time  the  Sacketts  Harbor  naval  station  de- 
creased in  importance  and  was  no  longer  worthy 
of  an  officer  of  high  rank.  In  1825  he  was  placed 
in  command  of  the  Constellation  and  until  the 
following  year  was  employed  in  the  suppression 
of  piracy  in  the  West  Indies.  He  then  received 
the  command  of  the  Pensacola  navy  yard,  where 
he  remained  until  1830.  In  1832-34  he  com- 
manded the  Brazil  Squadron,  hoisting  the  flag 
of  a  commodore.  This  was  his  last  service  afloat 
or  ashore.  He  died  at  Utica,  N.  Y.,  while  on 
waiting  orders.  His  wife,  Susan  Cornelia  (Tred- 
well)  Woolsey,  to  whom  he  had  been  married  at 
Poughkeepsie,  N.  Y.,  on  Nov.  3,  1817,  and  their 
seven  children  survived  him.  A  son,  Melancthon 
Brooks  Woolsey,  1817-74,  entered  the  navy  and 
rose  to  the  rank  of  commodore. 

[Records  of  Officers,  Bureau  of  Navigation,  1798- 
1840;  Veterans  Administration,  War  of  1812  Records; 
U.  S.  Navy  Reg.,  1814-38  ;  M.  L.  Woolsey,  Letters  of 
Melancthon  Taylor  Woolsey  (1927),  and  Melancthon 
Lloyd  Woolsey  (1929)  ;  C.  j.  Peterson,  Hist,  of  the  U. 
S.  Navy  (1852)  ;  R.  W.  Heeser,  Statistical  and  Chron. 
Hist,  of  U.  S.  Navy,  vol.  II  (1909)  ;  Niles"  Nat.  Reg.. 
June  2,  1838  ;  Theodore  Roosevelt,  Naval  War  of  1812 
(Putnam,  1910)  ;  J.  F.  Cooper,  in  Graham's  Mag.,  Jan. 
1845  ;  Morning  Herald  (New  York),  May  22,  1838.] 

C.  O.  P. 


Woolsey 

WOOLSEY,  SARAH  CHAUNCY  (Jan.  29, 
1835-Apr.  9,  1905),  author,  was  born  in  Cleve- 
land, Ohio,  the  eldest  child  of  John  Mumford 
and  Jane  (Andrews)  Woolsey.  Her  father  was 
a  brother  of  the  tenth  president  of  Yale  College, 
Theodore  Dwight  Woolsey  [q.v.'],  a  nephew  of 
the  eighth,  Timothy  Dwight,  1752-1817  [q.v.] 
and  the  uncle  of  the  twelfth,  Timothy  Dwight, 
1828-1916  [q.v.].  She  grew  up  in  an  attractive 
home  on  Euclid  Avenue  in  Cleveland,  surround- 
ed by  an  atmosphere  of  modest  wealth  and  leisure. 
Always  vigorous,  with  a  great  gusto  for  life,  she 
enjoyed  almost  equally  the  many  books  the  house 
afforded  and  the  acres  of  garden  and  woodland 
that  enclosed  it.  As  a  student,  first  in  private 
schools  in  Cleveland,  later  in  Mrs.  Hubbard's 
Boarding  School  in  Hanover,  N.  H.,  she  was 
outstanding  in  her  classes,  delighting  especially 
in  history  and  literature.  About  1855  the  family 
removed  to  New  Haven,  Conn.,  and  this  city  be- 
came her  home  for  almost  twenty  years.  During 
the  Civil  War  she  devoted  herself  with  charac- 
teristic energy  to  hospital  work  and  helped  to 
organize  the  nursing  service.  After  her  father's 
death  in  1870,  she  spent  two  years  abroad,  chief- 
ly in  Italy,  with  her  mother  and  sisters.  Upon 
their  return  they  built  a  charming  house  in  New- 
port, R.  I.  There  she  lived  for  the  rest  of  her 
life,  except  for  summers  spent  at  Northeast  Har- 
bor, Me.,  at  Onteora  Park  in  the  Catskills,  and 
occasional  visits  to  Europe. 

Although  she  had  amused  herself  from  child- 
hood by  writing  little  tales  and  poems,  she  pub- 
lished nothing  until  after  the  Civil  War.  Then 
books,  poems,  and  magazine  articles,  signed 
"Susan  Coolidge,"  rapidly  made  her  well  known. 
She  contributed  to  many  of  the  best  known  peri- 
odicals in  America  from  1870  to  1900.  She  was 
the  author  of  three  volumes  of  poetry :  Verses 
(1880)  ;  A  Few  More  Verses  (1889)  ;  and  Last 
Verses  (1906),  printed  after  her  death  with  a 
memoir  by  her  sister.  She  edited  the  Autobiog- 
raphy and  Correspondence  of  Mrs.  Delany  (2 
vols.,  1879),  The  Diary  and  Letters  of  Frances 
Burney,  Madame  d'Arblay  (2  vols.,  1880),  and 
Letters  of  Jane  Austen  (1892),  wrote  a  Short 
History  of  the  City  of  Philadelphia  ( 1887) ,  made 
occasional  translations  from  the  French,  and 
acted  as  consulting  reader  for  her  publishers, 
Roberts  Brothers.  But  she  was  known  chiefly  as 
a  popular  writer  of  stories  for  young  people. 
Her  first  book  for  girls,  The  New-Year's  Bar- 
gain, appeared  in  1871,  and  from  then  until  1890 
she  produced  a  new  volume  almost  yearly.  Her 
tales  were  lively  in  tone,  sensible,  wholesome, 
and  pleasingly  moral.  Among  the  best  known 
were:  What  Katy  Did  (1872),  What  Katy  Did 

18 


Woolsey 

At  School  (1873),  Mischief's  Thanksgiving 
(1874),  Nine  Little  Goslings  ( 1875),  For  Sum- 
mer Afternoons  (1876),  Eyebright  (1879),  A 
Guernsey  Lily  (1880),  Cross  Patch  (1881),  A 
Round  Dozen  (1883),  A  Little  Country  Girl 
(1885),  What  Katy  Did  Next  (1886),  Clover 
(1888),  Just  Sixteen  (1889),  In  the  High  Val- 
ley (1891),  The  Barberry  Bush  (1893),  Not 
Quite  Eighteen  (1894),  An  Old  Convent  School 
in  Paris  and  Other  Papers  (1895).  Her  vivid 
personality  and  many-sided  interests  endeared 
her  to  friends  and  relatives.  She  wrote  easily, 
talked  well,  was  fond  of  games  of  all  sorts, 
sketched,  painted,  and  took  an  active  part  in  the 
religious  and  social  life  about  her.  She  was  a 
notable  addition  to  any  group  because  of  her 
stimulating  wit,  her  wide  knowledge  of  books, 
and  her  ability  to  share  with  others  her  abound- 
ing zest  for  living. 

[Intro,  to  Last  Verses,  ante,  G.  Van  R.  Wickham, 
The  Pioneer  Families  of  Cleveland  (1914)  ;  Outlook, 
Apr.  15,  1905  ;  clippings  and  list  of  books  from  Little, 
Brown  &  Co. ;  information  from  the  family.] 

B.M.  S. 
WOOLSEY,  THEODORE  DWIGHT  (Oct. 
31,  1801-July  1,  1889),  scholar,  educator,  presi- 
dent of  Yale  College,  was  born  in  New  York 
City,  where  his  father,  William  Walton  Wool- 
sey, was  a  prosperous  hardware  merchant.  He 
was  a  descendant  of  George  Woolsey  who  came 
to  New  England  by  the  way  of  Holland  about 
1623,  went  to  New  Amsterdam,  and  finally  set- 
tled on  Long  Island.  Theodore's  mother,  Eliza- 
beth, was  a  sister  of  the  elder  Timothy  Dwight 
\_q.v.~],  and  a  grand-daughter  of  Jonathan  Ed- 
wards [q.v.^.  The  Woolsey  family  moved  to 
New  Haven  in  1808  for  the  education  of  two 
older  sons,  and  Theodore  attended  the  Hopkins 
Grammar  School  there,  and,  after  the  family's 
return  to  New  York,  a  school  in  Hartford,  where 
he  lived  with  his  uncle  Theodore  Dwight,  1764- 
1846  [q.7\].  Finishing  his  preparation  for  col- 
lege in  Greenfield  Hill,  Conn.,  Woolsey  entered 
Yale  toward  the  close  of  his  fifteenth  year  and 
graduated  as  valedictorian  of  his  class  in  1820. 
After  studying  law  for  a  brief  period  in  the  of- 
fice of  Charles  Chauncey  of  Philadelphia,  his 
step-mother's  brother — Woolsey's  mother  died 
in  1813 — he  entered  Princeton  Theological  Semi- 
nary, where  he  remained  until  1823,  when  he  re- 
turned to  Yale  as  tutor  and  there  completed  his 
theological  studies. 

He  was  licensed  to  preach,  but  being  extreme- 
ly conscientious  and  subject  to  periods  of  acute 
consciousness  of  sin  and  moral  responsibility  that 
depressed  him  at  intervals  all  his  life,  he  serious- 
ly doubted  his  fitness  to  undertake  the  work  of 
the  ministry;  furthermore,  his  tastes  were  pre- 


Woolsey 

eminently  those  of  the  scholar.  Accordingly,  in 
May  1827  he  went  abroad  for  further  study.  The 
first  winter  he  spent  in  Paris,  where  he  did 
work  in  Arabic;  he  then  moved  on  to  Germany, 
where  he  attended  lectures  at  Leipzig,  Bonn,  and 
Berlin,  devoting  himself  principally  to  the  Greek 
language  and  literature ;  he  visited  England,  and 
spent  some  months  in  Pome.  His  social  advan- 
tages were  numerous,  and  travel  and  personal 
contacts  made  him,  he  confessed,  more  and  more 
a  cosmopolite.  "One  thing,  however,"  he  wrote 
his  father,  "remains  in  my  mind  unchanged,  and 
that  is  an  utter  repugnance  and  a  fixed  decision 
not  to  engage  in  the  work  of  the  ministry.  ...  I 
have  endeavored  to  gain  a  minute  and  thorough 
knowledge  of  the  Greek  language,  and  to  lay  a 
foundation  for  an  acquaintance  such  as  few  in 
America  possess  with  classical  literature,  in  or- 
der to  teach  it"  (T.  S.  Woolsey,  post,  p.  636). 

With  this  ambition  possessing  him,  he  ac- 
cepted in  183 1  the  professorship  of  the  Greek  lan- 
guage and  literature  in  Yale  College.  His  career 
was  to  be  a  much  broader  and  more  varied  one 
than  he  planned,  for  his  interests  and  intellectual 
resources  were  too  many  and  diverse  to  permit 
of  his  being  confined  within  the  comparatively 
narrow  limits  he  had  set.  For  the  next  fifteen 
years,  however,  he  devoted  himself  chiefly  to  the 
Greek  classics.  To  many  whom  he  taught  he  be- 
came their  ideal  of  the  scholar,  while  to  the  teach- 
ing equipment  in  his  field  he  contributed  a  num- 
ber of  textbooks,  whose  thoroughness,  accuracy, 
and  literary  appreciation  brought  them  into  ex- 
tensive use.  They  included  The  Alcestis  of 
Euripides  (1834),  The  Antigone  of  Sophocles 
O835),  The  Prometheus  of  JEschylus  (1837), 
The  Elcctra  of  Sopliocles  (1837),  and  The  Gor- 
gias  of  Plato,  Chiefly  According  to  Stallbaum's 
Text  with  Notes  (1842).  "As  a  disciplinarian 
he  was  strict,  but  yet  always  just.  He  was  quick 
in  temper,  in  decision,  and  in  action,  and  was 
ready  to  sustain  the  authority  of  the  College  gov- 
ernment at  all  times"  (Dwight,  Memorial  Ad- 
dress, post,  p.  14).  In  1846  he  was  called  to  the 
presidency  of  the  college.  At  first  he  declined, 
doubtful  of  his  fitness  and  still  hesitating  to  be 
ordained  to  the  ministry,  but  was  finally  per- 
suaded to  accept,  and  on  Oct.  21,  1846,  was  both 
inducted  into  office  and  ordained.  During  the 
twenty-five  years  of  his  incumbency  the  college 
made  greater  progress  than  in  any  similar  period 
of  time  theretofore :  improvements  were  effected 
in  the  method  of  education ;  the  faculty  was  en- 
larged and  strengthened;  the  curriculum  was 
enriched ;  the  requirements  for  promotion  and 
for  degrees  were  made  more  exacting;  new 
buildings  were  erected ;  the  endowment  was  in- 


5*9 


Woolsey 


creased;  and  in  1871,  by  act  of  the  Connecticut 
General  Assembly,  alumni  representation  in  the 
corporation  was  made  possible. 

When  he  reached  the  age  of  seventy  he  re- 
signed the  presidency  but  until  1885  served  as 
a  member  of  the  corporation.  At  the  beginning 
of  his  administration  he  had  relinquished  the 
teaching  of  Greek  and  commenced  giving  in- 
struction in  history,  political  science,  and  inter- 
national law.  In  the  last  two  subjects  he  became 
a  recognized  authority  at  home  and  abroad.  His 
Introduction  to  the  Study  of  International  Law, 
Designed  as  an  Aid  in  Teaching  and  in  Histori- 
cal Studies,  which  first  appeared  in  i860,  went 
through  several  subsequent  editions  both  in  the 
United  States  and  in  England.  Another  major 
work  was  his  Political  Science:  or,  The  State 
Theoretically  and  Practically  Considered  ( 1878), 
which,  while  severely  criticized  as  unscientific  in 
treatment  and  based  upon  theological  assump- 
tions, was  commended  for  its  historical  informa- 
tion and  practical  discussion  of  political  ques- 
tions (see  North  American  Review,  January- 
February,  1878).  Two  less  ambitious  treatises 
were  his  Essay  on  Divorce  and  Divorce  Legisla- 
tion (1869),  much  of  which  had  appeared  in 
articles  published  in  the  New  Englander,  and 
Communism  and  Socialism  (1880),  a  reprint  of 
articles  contributed  to  the  Independent,  New 
York,  of  which  Woolsey  was  one  of  the  founders. 
Both  works  are  largely  historical  but  contain 
many  practical  observations  and  implications. 
Among  his  other  publications  were  The  Religion 
of  the  Present  and  of  the  Future  (1871),  a  col- 
lection of  sermons,  and  Helpful  Thoughts  for 
Young  Men  (1874)  ;  he  edited,  also,  the  third 
edition  of  On  Civil  Liberty  and  S  elf -Government 
(1874)  by  Francis  Lieber  [q.v.~\,  and  the  second 
edition  of  Lieber's  Manual  of  Political  Ethics 
(2  vols.,  1875).  In  his  later  years  he  again  made 
valuable  use  of  his  classical  knowledge  as  chair- 
man of  the  New  Testament  company  of  the  Amer- 
ican committee  for  revision  of  the  English  ver- 
sion of  the  Bible. 

Woolsey  was  tall  but  somewhat  bent,  and  of 
slender,  wiry  frame.  His  scholarly  countenance 
was  enlivened  by  eyes  of  remarkable  brightness 
and  penetration.  The  surroundings  and  experi- 
ences of  his  youth  had  made  him  in  many  ways 
a  man  of  the  world  and  freed  him  from  certain 
Puritan  inhibitions ;  he  had,  however,  a  strong 
sense  of  moral  and  religious  responsibility.  His 
knowledge  was  extensive  and  accurate  and  he 
set  high  standards  of  scholarship,  but  as  a  teach- 
er he  had  little  personal  magnetism.  His  dignity 
and  reserve  tended  to  keep  people  at  a  distance. 
Honest  and  thorough  himself,  he  despised  super- 


Woolsey 

ficiality  and  pretense.  As  an  administrator  he 
displayed  strong  convictions  and  will,  but  was  » 
clear-visioned  and  of  sound  judgment.  Woolsey 
Hall  at  Yale  was  named  in  his  honor,  and  nu- 
merous other  memorials  to  his  character  and 
services  have  been  established  there.  He  was 
twice  married :  first,  Sept.  5,  1833,  to  Elizabeth 
Martha  Salisbury,  who  died  Nov.  3,  1852;  sec- 
ond, Sept.  6,  1854,  to  Sarah  Sears  Prichard.  By 
his  first  wife  he  had  nine  children,  one  of  whom 
was  Theodore  Salisbury  Woolsey  \_q.v.]  ;  and 
by  the  second,  four. 

[Family  Records  .  .  .  of  the  Ancestry  of  My  Father 
and  Mother,  Charles  William  Woolsey  and  Jane  Eliza 
Woolsey  (copr.  1900)  ;  B.  W.  Dwight,  The  Hist,  of  the 
Descendants  of  John  Dwight  of  Dedham,  Mass.  (1874)  > 
T.  S.  Woolsey,  "Theodore  Dwight  Woolsey,"  Yale 
Rev.,  Jan.,  Apr.,  July  1912;  F.  B.  Dexter,  Sketch  of 
the  Hist,  of  Yale  Univ.  (1887);  G.  P.  Fisher,  "The 
Academic  Career  of  Ex-President  Woolsey,"  Century 
Mag.,  Sept.  1882;  Timothy  Dwight,  Theodore  Dwight 
Woolsey,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Memorial  Address  (1890),  and 
Memories  of  Yale  I^ife  and  Men  (1903)  ;  A.  P.  Stokes, 
Memorials  of  Eminent  Yale  Men,  vol.  I  (1914)  ;  Morn- 
ing Journal  and  Courier  (New  Haven),  July  2,  1889.] 

H.E.  S. 

WOOLSEY,  THEODORE  SALISBURY 

(Oct.  22,  1852-Apr.  24,  1929),  jurist,  educator, 
and  publicist,  was  born  in  New  Haven,  Conn., 
the  son  of  Theodore  Dwight  Woolsey  [q.v.], 
then  president  of  Yale  College,  and  Elizabeth 
Martha  (Salisbury)  Woolsey.  He  entered  Yale 
College  at  the  age  of  fifteen.  As  a  youth  he  was 
frail ;  perhaps  it  was  this  that  caused  him  during 
his  student  days  to  live  in  the  relative  seclusion 
of  his  father's  home  rather  than  in  the  college 
dormitory,  and  it  may  have  confirmed  his  dispo- 
sition, so  noticeable  throughout  life,  to  keep  him- 
self in  the  background,  though  his  ability  and 
personality  peculiarly  fitted  him  to  occupy  po- 
sitions of  prominence.  Upon  graduation  in  1872, 
he  immediately  entered  the  Yale  Law  School, 
where  he  studied  without  interruption,  save  for 
the  grand  tour  of  Europe  during  the  years  1873- 
75,  until  he  received  the  degree  of  LL.B.  in  1876, 
having  won  a  prize  for  a  dissertation  on  the  civil 
law.  He  was  married  on  Dec.  22,  1877,  to  Annie 
Gardner  Salisbury  of  Boston,  by  whom  he  had 
two  sons.  In  the  same  year  he  was  appointed 
instructor  in  public  law  in  Yale  College,  and  in 
1878,  despite  his  extreme  youth,  he  was  called  to 
be  professor  of  international  law  in  the  Yale  Law 
School.  This  position  he  occupied  until  his  re- 
tirement in  191 1,  save  for  a  four-year  period 
(1886-90)  of  residence  in  California  in  the  hope 
of  bettering  his  wife's  health.  He  served  as  act- 
ing dean  of  the  Yale  Law  School  from  1901  to 
1903. 

Beginning  his  career  at  a  time  when  in  the 
United  States  international  law  had  little  inter- 


520 


Woolsey 

est  even  for  lawyers,  he  worked  persistently  and 
effectively  to  bring  the  American  public  to  an 
awareness  of  the  deep  significance  of  interna- 
tional relationships  and  the  importance  of  in- 
ternational law.  He  prepared  for  publication  J. 
N.  Pomeroy's  Lectures  on  International  Law  in 
Time  of  Peace  (1886),  published  a  much  en- 
larged edition  of  his  father's  famous  Introduction 
to  the  Study  of  International  Law  (6th  ed., 
1891),  and  prepared  a  series  of  articles  relating 
to  international  law  for  Johnson's  Universal  Cy- 
clopedia (8  vols.,  1893-97).  In  J912  ne  published 
in  the  Yale  Review  (Jan.,  Apr.,  July)  the  first 
two  chapters  of  a  life  of  his  father,  written  with 
a  vivid  charm  that  fills  the  reader  with  regret 
that  the  biography  was  never  completed.  Other 
articles  of  general  appeal  appeared  in  popular 
magazines,  but  his  chief  activity  lay  in  discussing 
in  public  addresses,  and  in  articles  published  in 
professional  and  scientific  journals,  problems 
arising  in  connection  with  current  events  in  in- 
ternational relations.  In  1898  seventeen  of  these 
essays  and  addresses  were  collected  in  book  form 
as  America's  Foreign  Policy.  These  essays, 
while  often  sharply  critical  of  the  foreign  poli- 
cies adopted  by  the  American  governmer.t,  were 
yet  characterized  by  ripe  learning,  an  1  a  rare 
breadth  and  sanity  of  vision.  Woolsey's  views 
now  stand,  almost  without  exception,  justified 
by  the  events  of  the  intervening  forty  years.  In 
1910,  as  a  member  of  the  American  Bar  Associa- 
tion's committee  on  international  law,  he  pre- 
pared a  luminous  report  on  pending  international 
questions.  He  was  early  associated  with  the  ac- 
tivities of  the  American  Society  of  International 
Law,  made  contributions  to  the  pages  of  its  Jour- 
nal, and  for  many  years  served  upon  its  editorial 
board.  In  1921  he  was  elected  an  associate  of  the 
Institut  de  Droit  International  at  Paris. 

Conquering  the  frailty  of  his  youth,  Woolsey 
became  a  keen  sportsman  and  hunter  of  big  game, 
and  was  an  extensive  traveler.  He  became  much 
interested  in  old  silver  and  the  iron  work  of 
colonial  American  smiths,  and  wrote  charmingly 
of  his  collections  (see  Harper's  New  Monthly 
Magazine,  Sept.  1896).  He  served  on  the  New 
Haven  board  of  common  council  ( 1880-81 ),  and 
on  the  board  of  park  commissioners  (1914-28), 
securing  legislation  that  provided  for  New  Ha- 
ven a  system  of  public  parks  administration  that 
is  admirable  for  its  efficiency  and  freedom  from 
political  interference.  He  was  an  active  member 
of  the  board  of  directors  of  the  New  Haven  Bank 
from  1899  to  the  time  of  his  death.  Tn  his  will 
he  left  to  Yale  University  his  books  on  interna- 
tional law,  and  also  a  handsome  bequest  to  be 
used  in  maintaining  and  enlarging  the  collection 


Woolson 

of  works  on  international  law,  diplomatic  his- 
tory, and  kindred  printed  and  written  materials. 
He  died  in  New  Haven. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1928-29;  C.  C.  Hyde,  in 
Am.  Jour.  Internal.  Law,  July  1929;  Obit.  Record 
Grads.  Yale  Univ.,  1928-29  ;  Grads.  Yale  Law  School 
(191 1)  ;  N.  G.  Osborn,  Men  of  Mark  in  Conn.,  vol.  II 
( 1906),  pp.  279-80  ;  Am.  Law  School  Rev.,  Mar.  1930  ; 
obituary  in  N.  Y.  Times,  Apr.  25,  1929.]  vy  r  y 

WOOLSON,  ABBA  LOUISA  GOOLD 

(Apr.  30,  1838-Feb.  6,  1921),  author,  lecturer, 
teacher,  was  born  in  Windham,  Me.,  the  second 
child  of  William  and  Nabby  Tukey  (Clark) 
Goold.  She  was  educated  at  the  Portland  High 
School  for  Girls.  In  the  year  of  her  graduation 
(1856)  she  married  the  principal  of  the  school, 
Moses  Woolson,  a  native  of  Concord,  N.  H., 
seventeen  years  her  senior.  They  lived  in  Port- 
land until  1862,  when  they  moved  to  Concord.  In 
1868  they  went  to  live  in  Boston.  Mrs.  Woolson's 
married  life  was  spent  in  travel,  lecturing,  teach- 
ing, and  literary  and  social  activity.  She  was  at 
one  time  professor  of  belles-lettres  at  the  Mount 
Auburn  Ladies'  Institute  in  Cincinnati,  Ohio, 
"lady-principal"  of  the  high  school  in  Haverhill, 
Mass.,  and  an  assistant  in  the  high  school  in 
Concord,  N.  H.  She  lectured  on  English  litera- 
ture in  important  eastern  cities,  as  well  as  on  the 
Pacific  coast  during  a  visit  to  California.  She 
visited  Europe  in  1883-84  and  in  1891-92,  and 
lectured  upon  her  return  on  "Historic  Cities  of 
Spain."  She  was  a  frequent  contributor  to  Bos- 
ton periodicals,  where  she  employed  the  tech- 
nique of  the  informal  essay  with  considerable 
skill  and  charm,  and  published  two  volumes 
of  collected  sketches,  Browsing  among  Books 
(1881),  and  George  Eliot  and  Her  Heroines 
(1886).  She  served  in  1886  as  official  poetess  at 
the  centennial  celebration  in  Portland,  Me.,  and 
again  in  1888  at  the  dedication  of  the  Fowler  Li- 
brary in  Concord,  N.  H. 

She  contributed  to  the  Boston  Journal  a  series 
of  essays  which  in  1873  she  collected  into  one 
volume,  Woman  in  American  Society.  John 
Greenleaf  Whittier,  a  personal  friend,  wrote  the 
foreword,  referring  to  the  articles  as  "gracefully 
written,  yet  with  a  certain  robust  strength, — wise, 
timely,  and  suggestive,  .  .  .  the  well-considered 
words  of  a  clear-sighted,  healthful-minded  wom- 
an." The  book  has  real  charm,  and  intrinsic  as 
well  as  historical  interest ;  it  is  the  mild  and  hu- 
morous protest  of  an  intelligent  woman  against 
the  social,  economic,  and  intellectual  bondage  of 
her  sex.  In  the  essays  on  physical  education  for 
women  and  dress  reform  she  is  slightly  radical 
but  not  militantly  feministic.  Not  in  sympathy 
with  the  eccentricities  of  the  Bloomer  movement, 
she  proposed  a  costume  that  should  not  sacrifice 


521 


Woolson 

its  femininity,  but  should  be  both  more  beautiful 
and  more  practical  than  the  heavy,  awkward, 
confining  fashions  of  her  day.  Her  interest  in 
this  subject  led  to  her  association  with  a  group 
of  four  women  physicians  in  a  series  of  lectures 
given  at  Boston  and  surrounding  towns ;  these 
she  later  edited  as  Dress-Reform:  a  Series  of 
Lectures  Delivered  in  Boston,  on  Dress  As  It 
Affects  the  Health  of  Women  (1874).  She  was 
founder  and  first  president  of  the  Castilian  Club 
of  Boston,  and  a  member  of  the  Massachusetts 
Society  for  the  University  Education  of  Women, 
and  of  the  Moral  Education  Society  of  Massa- 
chusetts, serving  terms  as  president  of  each.  Af- 
ter the  death  of  her  husband  in  1896  she  engaged 
much  less  in  public  activity.  In  summer  she  lived 
on  the  family  farm  at  Windham,  Me.,  and  in 
winter  at  a  Boston  hotel.  Her  last  publication 
was  a  small  volume  of  verse,  With  Garlands 
Green  (1915),  privately  printed  at  Cambridge, 
Mass.   She  died  in  Maine. 

[The  most  important  source  is  a  Goold  family  MS. 
by  Nathan  Goold  in  the  Colls,  of  the  Me.  Hist.  Soc. 
See  also  Who's  Who  in  America,  1906-07;  Frances  E. 
Willard  and  Mary  A.  Livermore,  A  Woman  of  the  Cen- 
tury (1893);  obituary  in  Boston  Transcript,  Feb.  7, 
'92I-1  J.H.B. 

WOOLSON,   CONSTANCE   FENIMORE 

(March  1840-Jan.  24,  1894),  author,  was  born 
at  Claremont,  N.  H.,  the  youngest  of  the  six 
daughters  of  Charles  Jarvis  and  Hannah  Cooper 
(Pomeroy)  Woolson.  Her  father  was  a  descend- 
ant of  Thomas  Woolson  who  settled  in  Cam- 
bridge, Mass.,  before  1660;  her  mother  was  a 
niece  of  James  Fenimore  Cooper  [9.?'.].  Soon 
after  Constance's  birth  the  Woolsons  removed 
from  Claremont  to  Cleveland,  Ohio,  where  the 
father  established  himself  successfully  in  busi- 
ness. There  Constance  attended  Miss  Hayden's 
School  and  the  Cleveland  Seminary-  As  a  young 
girl  she  accompanied  her  father  on  long  drives 
through  Ohio  and  Wisconsin,  and  on  trips  to  the 
family  cottage  at  Mackinac  Island,  and  in  this 
way  acquired  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  lake 
region.  At  eighteen  she  was  graduated  from 
Madame  Chegary's  School  in  New  York  City 
at  the  head  of  her  class.  Except  for  a  time  during 
the  Civil  War  when  she  was  in  charge  of  a  post 
office  in  one  of  the  sanitary  fairs,  she  lived  a  life 
of  leisure  in  Cleveland  until  1869,  the  year  of  her 
father's  death.  She  had  already  published  Two 
Women  (1862),  a  poem,  and  now  financial  con- 
siderations led  her  to  turn  to  writing  as  a  pro- 
fession. The  work  of  her  first  five  years  of  au- 
thorship, at  a  time  when  interest  in  regional  lit- 
erature had  been  aroused  by  the  work  of  Bret 
Harte,  was  concerned  very  largely  with  her  ex- 
periences in  the  lake  region.    She  contributed 

5 


Woolson 

stories,  poems,  and  travel  sketches  to  Harper's, 
the  Galaxy,  Lippincott's,  the  Atlantic  Monthly, 
and  other  leading  magazines.  In  1873  she  pub- 
lished, under  the  name  of  Anne  March,  a  remi- 
niscence of  her  early  life  in  Cleveland  called  The 
Old  Stone  House.  But  the  nine  tales  in  the  col- 
lection Castle  Nowhere :  Lake  Country  Sketches 
(1875)  easily  constitute  the  choicest  products  of 
these  first  years.  During  the  early  seventies, 
with  her  mother  and  widowed  sister,  she  traveled 
extensively  up  and  down  the  Atlantic  seaboard 
between  Cooperstown,  N.  Y.,  and  St.  Augustine, 
Fla.  From  1873  until  the  death  of  her  mother  in 
1879  she  lived  chiefly  in  the  Carolinas  and  in 
Florida.  St.  Augustine  became  the  focal  point 
of  her  writings  on  the  South  and  the  chief  rival 
of  Mackinac  Island  in  her  affections.  There  she 
wrote  for  the  magazines  many  stories  and 
sketches  of  southern  life  during  the  reconstruc- 
tion period,  the  best  of  which  were  reprinted  in 
Rodman  the  Keeper:  Southern  Sketches  (1880). 
Between  1877  and  1879  she  wrote  a  number  of 
able  critical  articles  for  the  "Contributors'  Club" 
of  the  Atlantic  Monthly.  In  1879  she  sailed  for 
Europe,  where  she  spent  the  remaining  fourteen 
years  c  *  her  life.  She  made  a  tour  of  England  and 
France,  and  then  settled,  so  far  as  she  can  be 
said  to  have  settled  anywhere,  in  Florence,  but 
during  the  intervals  of  her  arduous  literary  work 
she  traveled  extensively.  After  a  visit  to  Egypt 
in  1890,  she  lived  in  England,  principally  at  Ox- 
ford, until  the  spring  of  1893,  when  she  returned 
to  Italy.  She  spent  the  last  months  of  her  life  in 
several  of  the  old  palaces  that  line  the  Grand 
Canal  in  Venice.  Her  death  occurred  on  Jan. 
24,  1894,  after  a  serious  illness,  and  was  reported 
at  the  time  as  suicide.  She  was  buried  in  the 
Protestant  Cemetery  at  Rome. 

During  the  sojourn  in  Europe  she  published 
all  five  of  her  novels,  two  collections  of  short 
stories,  a  travel  volume,  and  a  considerable  num- 
ber of  stories,  poems,  and  sketches  that  appeared 
only  in  American  periodicals.  Her  first  novel, 
Anne  (1883),  completed  before  she  left  America, 
is  in  its  best  portions  a  tale  of  Mackinac  Island. 
With  one  exception  her  other  novels  are  likewise 
narratives  in  which  the  regional  setting  is  impor- 
tant:  East  Angels  (1886)  is  laid  in  St.  Augus- 
tine, Jupiter  Lights  (1889)  in  southern  Georgia 
and  the  northern  lake  region,  and  Horace  Chase 
(1894)  in  North  Carolina  and  Florida.  Her 
shortest  and  in  many  respects  her  best  novel,  For 
the  Major  (1883),  is  a  comparatively  unlocalized 
account  of  village  life  in  the  eastern  Appalach- 
ians. The  posthumous  collections  of  European 
stories,  The  Front  Yard  (1895)  and  Dorothy 
(1896),  are  accounts  of  Americans  projected,  in 


22 


Woolworth 


Woolworth 


the  manner  of  her  friend  Henry  James  [g.^.], 
against  the  background  of  an  older  civilization. 
Though  he  suggests  a  certain  weakness  in  her 
"predilection  for  cases  of  heroic  sacrifice"  and 
her  "delicate  manipulation  of  the  real"  for  the 
sake  of  glamor,  James  himself  offers  her  praise 
for  her  minutely  careful  observation,  her  skill  in 
"evoking  a  local  tone"  (especially  in  East  An- 
gels) and  her  "general  attitude  of  watching  life, 
waiting  upon  it  and  trying  to  catch  it  in  the  fact" 
(post).  Her  work  is  frequently  overlooked  by 
contemporary  American  readers,  but  there  is  an 
unobtrusive  artistry  about  many  of  her  novels 
and  short  stories,  and  a  desire  to  present  life  in 
certain  restricted  circles  with  verisimilitude,  that 
should  insure  her  a  lasting  audience  among  the 
discriminating. 

[The  date  of  birth  is  frequently  given  wrongly  as 
Mar.  5,  1848.  The  chief  biog.  sources  are  three  books 
by  Constance  Woolson's  niece,  Clare  Benedict :  Voices 
out  of  the  Past  (1929),  from  which  the  date  of  birth  is 
deduced  (p.  164),  Constance  Fenimore  Woolson  (1930), 
and  The  Benedicts  Abroad  (1930),  all  privately  printed 
See  also  J.  D.  Kern,  Constance  Fenimore  Woolson 
(1934),  with  bibliog.  ;  Henry  James,  Partial  Portraits 
(1888);  F.  L.  Pattee,  The  Development  of  the  Am. 
Short  Story  (1923);  Harper's  Weekly,  Feb.  3,  io, 
1894;  N.  Y.  Times,  Jan.  25,  1894  (death  notice)  and 
Jan.  26  (denial  of  suicide).]  J.D.  K. 

WOOLWORTH,   FRANK   WINFIELD 

(Apr.  13,  1852-Aug.  8,  1919),  merchant,  son  of 
John  Hubbell  and  Fanny  (McBrier)  Woolworth, 
was  born  on  a  farm  at  Rodman,  Jefferson  Coun- 
ty, N.  Y.  In  boyhood  he  attended  country  schools 
at  Greatbend,  N.  Y.,  did  farm  work,  and  in  his 
teens  had  two  brief  terms  in  a  business  college 
at  Watertown,  the  county  seat.  There  was  in  his 
youth  no  augury  of  his  future  great  success.  In 
fact,  although  his  favorite  boyhood  game  was 
"playing  store,"  although  a  mercantile  career 
was  the  only  course  he  craved,  yet  he  seemed  de- 
plorably inept  at  it  and  was  a  long  time  in  finding 
himself.  At  nineteen,  for  the  sake  of  experience, 
he  took  a  place  as  clerk  in  a  village  grocery  store, 
receiving  no  wages  for  two  years.  At  twenty- 
one  he  was  taken  on  six-months'  trial  at  a  store 
in  Watertown,  receiving  no  salary  for  the  first 
three  months,  and  after  that  $3.50  a  week,  which 
was  just  what  he  paid  for  board  and  lodging.  In 
the  course  of  two  years  his  pay  advanced  to  $6 
weekly,  out  of  which  he  supported  himself  and 
saved  a  little  money.  In  1875  a  "ninety-nine  cent 
store"  appeared  in  Watertown  and  did  a  large 
business.  Here  Woolworth  got  his  first  inkling 
of  the  notion  of  selling  a  large  array  of  articles 
at  one  fixed  price.  A  Watertown  man  decided  to 
try  the  ninety-nine  cent  plan  in  Port  Huron, 
Mich.,  and  took  Woolworth  along  as  clerk  at  $10 
a  week ;  but  he  was  such  a  poor  salesman  that  his 
salary  was  soon  cut  to  $8.50.    Discouraged,  he 


fell  ill  and  went  back  to  his  father's  farm  to  re- 
cuperate. He  married  Jennie  Creighton  of  Wa- 
tertown on  June  11,  1876.  A  year  later  his  old 
firm,  Moore  &  Smith,  took  him  back  again  as 
clerk.  In  1878  he  heard  for  the  first  time  of  a 
store's  having  a  counter  on  which  nothing  but 
five-cent  goods  was  sold.  He  induced  his  own 
employers  to  try  the  scheme,  and  it  proved  a 
startling  success. 

Woolworth  now  persuaded  W.  H.  Moore  to 
back  him  to  the  extent  of  three  hundred  dollars 
in  a  five-cent  store  in  Utica,  but  the  venture  was 
a  failure  and  was  closed  in  three  months.  He 
came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  variety  of  goods 
had  not  been  large  enough  and — again  with 
Moore's  help — opened  a  store  in  Lancaster,  Pa. 
(June  1879),  which  was  a  paying  venture.  The 
addition  of  a  line  of  ten-cent  goods  was  the  final 
move  that  insured  success.  Calling  his  brother, 
C.  S.  Woolworth,  and  his  cousin,  Seymour  H. 
Knox,  into  service  with  him,  he  presently  began 
launching  other  stores,  as  funds  permitted.  Those 
in  Philadelphia,  Harrisburg,  and  York,  Pa.,  and 
Newark,  N.  J.,  were  at  first  unproductive  be- 
cause Woolworth  had  not  studied  the  locations 
for  them  with  sufficient  care.  But  others  in  Buf- 
falo, Erie,  Scranton,  and  elsewhere  were  suc- 
cessful. Two  other  men,  F.  M.  Kirby  and  Earl 
P.  Charlton,  also  became  partners.  After  a  few 
years  Woolworth  sold  his  interest  in  the  Buffalo 
and  Erie  stores  to  Knox,  and  thus  began  the  S.  H. 
Knox  &  Company  chain  of  five-  and  ten-cent 
stores.  The  other  partners,  including  C.  S. 
Woolworth,  also  started  chains  of  their  own,  but 
all  remained  friendly  and  in  general  avoided  tres- 
passing on  each  other's  territory.  In  19 12  the 
four  chains — Knox,  Kirby,  Charlton,  and  C.  S. 
Woolworth — were  all  absorbed  by  the  F.  W. 
Woolworth  Company,  as  were  two  stores  be- 
longing to  W.  H.  Moore,  Woolworth 's  early  em- 
ployer. More  and  more  the  Woolworth  stores 
began  having  goods  manufactured  especially  for 
them,  sometimes  taking  the  entire  output  of  a 
factory  on  a  year's  contract.  To  add  more  arti- 
cles to  his  line,  to  sell  things  at  five  and  ten  cents 
which  had  never  sold  for  so  little  before,  was 
Woolworth's  constant  aim,  and  a  key  to  his  suc- 
cess. In  fulfilment  of  a  boyhood  dream,  he  erect- 
ed the  Woolworth  Building,  792  feet  high,  in 
New  York  City  (completed  in  1913),  which  was 
for  some  years  the  world's  tallest  building  and  a 
wonder  to  tourists.  At  his  death  in  1919  his 
company  owned  more  than  a  thousand  stores  in 
the  United  States  and  Canada ;  its  volume  of 
business  in  1918  was  $107,000,000.  Woolworth's 
own  fortune  was  estimated  at  $65,000,000.  He 
was  survived  by  his  wife  and  two  daughters. 


523 


Wooster 

[C.  R.  Woolworth,  The  Descendants  of  Richard  and 
Hannah  Higgins  Woolworth  (1893)  ;  R.  A.  Oakes,  Gcn- 
eal.  and  Family  Hist,  of  the  County  of  Jefferson,  N.  Y. 
(1905),  vol.  I  ;  Who's  Who  in  America,  1918-19  ;  For- 
tieth Anniversary  Souvenir,  F.  W.  Woolworth  Co., 
1879-1010;  The  Master  Builders  (1913)  ;  G.  A.  Nich- 
ols, Printers'  Ink,  Apr.  17,  1919;  McBridc's  Mag., 
Dec.  1915  ;  Everybody's  Mag.,  Oct.  1917  ;  Outlook,  Apr. 
30,  1919;  Bankers'  Mag.,  May  1919;  Lit.  Digest,  May 
3,  1919,  and  Jan.  8,  1921  ;  obituary  in  TV.  Y.  TitneSj 
Apr.  9,  1919.]  A.  F.  H. 

WOOSTER,  CHARLES  WHITING  (1780- 
1848),  commander  in  chief  of  the  Chilean  navy, 
was  born  in  New  Haven,  Conn.,  the  son  of 
Thomas  and  Lydia  (Sheldon)  Wooster,  and  the 
grandson  of  David  Wooster  [q.v.}  who  was  one 
of  the  eight  brigadier-generals  named  by  the 
Continental  Congress  in  1776.  Charles  Wooster 
was  also  a  descendant  of  President  Thomas  Clap 
[q.v.}  of  Yale  College.  At  the  age  of  eleven  he 
went  to  sea,  and  at  twenty-one  he  commanded 
the  ship  Fair  American.  He  married  Frances 
Stebbins,  who  died  in  1816;  their  son  was  born 
in  1810.  During  the  War  of  1812  Wooster  com- 
manded the  privateer  Saratoga  and  captured 
twenty-two  British  vessels — including  the  letter- 
of-marque  Rachel,  after  a  celebrated  naval  action 
off  La  Guayra,  Venezuela  (Niles'  Weekly  Reg- 
ister, Jan.  13,  1813).  In  1814  a  battalion  of  Sea 
Fencibles  was  raised  for  the  defense  of  New 
York  Harbor  and  Wooster  was  made  captain 
and  then  major  in  this  force. 

After  the  war  he  returned  to  service  in  the 
United  States  merchant  marine  until  Jose 
Miguel  Carrera  and  Manuel  Hermenegildo  de 
Aguirre  interested  him  in  the  Chilean  struggle 
for  independence  from  Spain.  On  Oct.  8,  1817, 
he  was  commissioned  captain  in  the  Chilean  navy 
by  the  dictator,  Bernardo  O'Higgins,  and  soon 
afterward  sailed  from  New  York  in  command 
of  the  armed  bark  Columbus,  which  he  stated 
that  he  had  bought  and  outfitted  personally.  On 
Feb.  4,  1818,  he  reached  Buenos  Aires,  and  on 
Apr.  25  arrived  at  his  destination,  Valparaiso, 
with  his  cargo  of  munitions  of  war.  Here  the 
Columbus  was  formally  transferred  to  the  Chilean 
government,  being  renamed  Araucano.  On  Oct. 
28,  1818,  Wooster  commanded  the  Chilean  man- 
of-war  Lautaro  which  bottled  up  the  Spanish 
warship  Maria  Isabel  in  Talcahuano  harbor,  and 
he  was  himself  the  first  to  board  her.  Exactly 
a  month  later  Lord  Cochrane  arrived  in  Chile 
as  commander  in  chief  of  the  Chilean  navy.  As 
a  result  of  differences  between  them,  Wooster 
retired  from  the  navy  in  January  1810,  devoting 
himself  to  whaling  thereafter  until  he  reentered 
the  service  in  March  1822  as  chief  of  the  Chilean 
naval  forces.  On  Nov.  27,  1825,  he  sailed  from 
Valparaiso  to  attack  the  last  stronghold  of  the 
Spaniards  in  Chile — the  Island  of  Chiloe,  which 


Wooster 

he  successfully  assaulted  in  cooperation  with  the 
land  forces  under  General  Freire  on  Jan.  11, 
1826.  "Wooster,  like  an  aroused  lion,  rose  above 
the  fire  and  death  which  were  on  all  sides  of  him 
and  concentrated  all  the  enemy's  fire  on  one 
place,"  wrote  President  Vicuna  of  Chile  (Chan- 
dler, post,  p.  127),  who  commissioned  Wooster 
rear  admiral  in  the  Chilean  navy  on  Nov.  4,  J829. 
Toward  the  end  of  1835,  after  numerous  differ- 
ences with  the  government,  Wooster  left  Chile, 
with  a  pension,  and  returned  to  the  United 
States  after  eighteen  years'  absence.  He  died  at 
San  Francisco,  Cal.,  in  1848,  in  great  poverty. 

[David  Wooster,  Geneal.  of  the  Woosters  in  America. 
(1885);  George  Coggeshall,  Hist,  of  the  Am.  Priva- 
teers (1856)  ;  Pub.  Papers  of  Daniel  D.  Tompkins  (3 
vols.,  1898-1902)  ;  C.  L.  Chandler,  Inter- American 
Acquaintances  (2nd  ed.,  1917),  with  bibliog.,  and  "Ad- 
miral Charles  Whiting  Wooster  in  Chile,"  Ann.  Report 
Am.  Hist.  Asso.  .  .  .  1016,  vol.  I  (1919)  ;  Narciso  Dem- 
adryl,  Galeria  Nacional  .  .  .  de  Chile  (1854);  Luis 
Uribe  Orrego,  Nuestra  Marina  Militar  (19 10)  ;  Mani- 
festo que  da  en  su  despedida  de  Chile  el  Contra-AImi- 
rante  D.  C.  W.  Wooster  (1836).]  C  L  C 

WOOSTER,  DAVID  (Mar.  2,  1711-May  2, 
l777),  Revolutionary  brigadier-general,  was 
born  in  the  part  of  Stratford,  Conn.,  that  became 
Huntington,  the  seventh  child  of  Mary  (Walker) 
and  Abraham  Wooster,  by  trade  a  mason.  He 
graduated  from  Yale  College  in  1738,  a  class- 
mate of  Phineas  Lyman  [q.v.}.  Three  years  later 
the  colony  appointed  him  lieutenant,  and  the  next 
year  captain,  of  the  sloop  Defence,  an  armed  ves- 
sel for  the  protection  of  the  coast.  He  was  at 
Louisburg  in  1745  as  a  captain  of  Connecticut 
troops,  and  on  July  4  he  sailed  for  France  with 
prisoners  of  war  for  exchange.  Capitalizing  the 
excitement  in  London  over  Louisburg's  sur- 
render, he  returned  a  captain  in  Sir  William 
Pepperrell's  new  British  regiment  of  foot.  In 
March  1746  he  married  Mary,  the  daughter  of 
Thomas  Clap  [q.v.},  the  president  of  Yale  Col- 
lege. They  had  four  children.  He  served  with 
Pepperrell's  regiment  till  its  reduction  on  half- 
pay  and  returned  to  New  Haven,  bought  the 
old  Wooster  place,  and  set  up  as  merchant. 
There  also,  in  1750,  he  organized  Hiram  Lodge, 
one  of  the  first  lodges  of  Free  Masons  in  the 
colony,  of  which  he  was  first  master.  During  the 
Seven  Years'  War  he  acted  as  colonel  of  a  Con- 
necticut regiment  in  all  campaigns  but  those  of 
1755  and  1757.  He  was  at  Ticonderoga  in  1758 
and  with  Amherst  in  later  campaigns.  In  1757 
he  represented  New  Haven  in  the  Assembly.  At 
the  end  of  the  war  he  went  back  to  his  business 
and  in  1763  became  collector  of  customs  in  New 
Haven. 

In  April  1775  the  Connecticut  Assembly  ap- 
pointed him  major-general  of  six  regiments,  and 
colonel  of  the  1st  Regiment.  The  next  month,  on 


524 


Wootassite 

the  request  of  the  New  York  council,  he  was  or- 
dered to  New  York,  where  throughout  the  sum- 
mer he  commanded  Connecticut  troops  at  Har- 
lem and  on  Long  Island.  The  Continental  Con- 
gress named  him  in  June  on  its  list  of  brigadier- 
generals,  the  only  general  officer  in  the  colonies 
not  raised  to  full  continental  rank.  Piqued  that 
his  long  military  record  should  not  raise  him 
above  younger  men,  he  quarrelled  with  Philip 
Schuyler  in  northern  New  York,  where  he  was 
ordered  in  September,  and  later  with  Arnold  at 
Quebec.  He  was  present  with  Connecticut  troops 
at  Montgomery's  siege  and  capture  of  St.  Johns, 
and  at  Montreal.  He  was  left  in  command  there, 
when  Montgomery  went  on  to  attack  Quebec, 
and  on  the  latter's  death  he  became  the  ranking 
officer  in  Canada.  He  was  not  a  success ;  he  was 
tactless,  hearty  rather  than  firm  with  his  undis- 
ciplined troops  who  adored  him,  at  times  brutal 
towards  the  civilian  population  of  Montreal.  "A 
general  ...  of  a  hayfield"  (Smith,  post,  II,  230), 
dull  and  uninspired,  garrulous  about  his  thirty 
years  of  service,  he  showed  incapacities  that  Silas 
Deane  (Connecticut  Historical  Society  Collec- 
tions, II,  1870,  288)  had  suspected  two  years  be- 
fore, and  with  which  Washington  was  in  guard- 
ed agreement.  In  April  he  assumed  command  of 
the  forlorn  American  army  before  Quebec  until 
superseded  by  Thomas.  The  next  month  the  con- 
gressional commissioners  reported  him  totally 
unfit  to  command.  Congress  recalled  him,  but 
subsequently  acquitted  him  of  incapacity  and  per- 
mitted him  to  continue  as  brigadier-general  with- 
out employment.  Reappointed  major-general  of 
Connecticut  militia  in  the  autumn  of  1776,  he 
served  on  the  borders,  mostly  at  Westchester, 
during  the  winter.  During  Tryon's  raid  on  Dan- 
bury  in  April  1777,  with  troops  from  New  Haven, 
he  stationed  himself  in  the  British  rear  at  Ridge- 
field,  while  Arnold  and  Silliman  attempted  to  in- 
tercept the  enemy  in  front.  In  a  brief  action  on 
April  27,  as  he  was  rallying  his  men,  he  received 
a  mortal  wound.  He  left  two  children.  Congress 
voted  him  a  monument  in  June,  as  a  defender  of 
American  liberties,  but  it  was  never  erected.  The 
present  monument  at  Danbury  was  set  up  in  1854 
by  the  Masons. 

[H.  C.  Deming,  An  Oration  upon  the  Life  and  Serv- 
ices of  Gen.  David  Woostcr  (1854);  F.  B.  Dexter, 
Biog.  Sketches  of  the  Grads.  of  Yale  College,  vol.  I 
(1885)  ;  J.  R.  Case,  An  Account  of  Tryon's  Raid  on 
Danbury  in  April  1777  (1927)  ;  A.  P.  Stokes,  Memorials 
of  Eminent  Yale  Men  (2  vols.,  1914)  ;  J.  H.  Smith,  Our 
Struggle  for  the  Fourteenth  Colony  (2  vols.,  1907),  un- 
sparing in  criticism  ;  some  letters  and  papers  in  Lib.  of 
ConS-]  S.M.P. 

WOOTASSITE    [See    Outacity,    fl.    1756- 

1777]. 


Wootton 

WOOTTON,  RICHENS  LACY  (May  6, 
1816-Aug.  21,  1893),  trapper, pioneer  settler,  was 
born  in  Mecklenburg  County,  Va.  In  1823  his 
father,  David  C.  Wootton,  moved  with  his  family 
to  Christian  County,  Ky.  In  the  summer  of  1836 
young  Wootton  journeyed  to  Independence,  Mo., 
and  thence  by  wagon-train  to  Bent's  Fort.  For 
the  next  four  years  his  trading  and  trapping 
journeys  carried  him  to  almost  every  section  of 
the  Western  fur  country.  In  1840  he  was  for  a 
time  a  hunter  for  the  fort,  and  in  the  following 
year,  on  the  site  of  the  present  Pueblo,  Colo., 
started  a  ranch  for  the  rearing  of  buffalo  calves. 
Three  years  later  he  was  actively  engaged  in 
trading  among  the  Indians.  In  February  1847  he 
took  part  in  suppressing  the  insurrection  in  Taos. 
He  next  joined  Col.  A.  W.  Doniphan  [q.v.],  at 
El  Paso  del  Norte,  to  serve  as  a  scout  on  the 
Chihuahua  expedition.  He  was  in  the  battle  of 
Sacramento  (Feb.  28,  1847),  and  immediately 
thereafter  returned  with  dispatches  to  Santa  Fe. 
At  Taos  he  established  himself  in  business,  but 
in  the  following  year  guided  Col.  Edward  Newby 
in  his  Navajo  campaign.  About  1850  he  married 
Dolores,  the  daughter  of  Manuel  Le  Fevre,  a 
French-Canadian  pioneer ;  she  died  in  1856  and 
some  years  later  he  remarried. 

In  1852,  with  twenty-two  helpers,  Wootton 
drove  a  flock  of  nearly  9,000  sheep  to  California, 
a  feat  antedating  by  a  year  the  famous  Carson- 
Maxwell  drive.  He  next  engaged  in  freighting. 
Chance  brought  him  to  the  new  settlement  of 
Denver  in  the  winter  of  1858-59.  In  1862  he 
moved  south  to  a  point  near  Pueblo,  where  he 
started  farming,  only  to  be  washed  out  by  the 
great  floods  of  1864.  In  the  following  year,  in 
partnership  with  George  C.  McBride,  he  began 
the  enterprise  for  which  he  is  perhaps  best 
known.  Over  the  roughest  portion  of  the  moun- 
tain division  of  the  Santa  Fe  Trail,  a  stretch  of 
twenty-seven  miles  from  Trinidad,  Colo.,  across 
Raton  Pass  and  down  to  the  Canadian  River,  he 
built  a  substantial  road,  and  near  the  crest  erect- 
ed a  residence  and  an  inn  and  set  up  a  tollgate. 
The  road  was  opened  in  1866  and  proved  highly 
profitable,  but  in  1879  it  was  paralleled  by  the 
Atchison,  Topeka  &  Santa  Fe  Railroad,  and  the 
collection  of  tolls  was  discontinued.  Wootton 
remained  there,  however,  until  1891,  when  his 
residence  was  destroyed  by  fire.  He  then  settled 
near  Trinidad,  where  two  years  later  he  died, 
survived  by  his  second  wife  and  three  children. 

Wootton,  known  familiarly  as  "Uncle  Dick," 
was  above  medium  height  and  strongly  built, 
with  a  large,  roundish  head  and  a  jovial  face 
which  he  shaved  smooth,  though  he  wore  his  hair 
somewhat   long.    His   manner  was  kindly   and 


525 


Worcester 


Worcester 


genial,  and  he  was  notably  generous  and  helpful. 
Few,  if  any,  of  the  frontiersmen  had  so  varied 
a  career.  He  had  many  combats  with  the  sav- 
ages, and  as  an  Indian  fighter  he  was,  according 
to  Inman  (post),  second  only  to  Carson. 

[H.  L.  Conard,  "Uncle  Dick"  Wootton  (1890),  large- 
ly an  autobiog.  ;  Hist,  of  N.  Mex.  (1907),  I,  102-08; 
Bess  McKinnan,  "The  Toll  Road  over  Raton  Pass," 
N.  Mex.  Hist.  Rev.,  Jan.  1927  ;  Portr.  and  Biog.  Record 
of  the  State  of  Col.  (1899);  Henry  Inman,  The  Old 
Santa  Fe  Trail  (1897);  G.  D.  Bradley,  Winning  the 
Southwest  (1912)  ;  Denver  Republican,  Aug.  23,  1893.] 

W.J.G. 

WORCESTER,  EDWIN  DEAN  (Nov.  19, 
1828-June  13,  1904),  railroad  official,  born  in 
Albany,  N.  Y.,  was  the  son  of  Eldad  and  Sarah 
(Chickering)  Worcester  and  a  descendant  of 
William  Worcester  who  had  emigrated  from 
England  and  settled  in  Salisbury,  Mass.,  by  1640. 
Eldad  Worcester  was  a  lawyer  and  Edwin  as  a 
boy  spent  much  time  in  his  father's  office  copy- 
ing law  papers.  When  he  was  fifteen  his  formal 
schooling  was  ended  by  the  death  of  his  father. 
His  early  business  activities  included  a  clerk- 
ship in  his  uncle's  grocery  store  and  later  in  the 
law  office  of  Rufus  W.  Peckham  [q.z'.~\.  He  en- 
gaged in  trading  of  various  kinds,  including  the 
handling  of  country  produce  over  the  newly 
opened  railroad  to  Boston,  and  for  a  time  in  1848 
was  connected  with  the  Ransom  Stove  Works. 
In  1852  he  entered  his  brother's  law  office  in 
Albany,  but  was  also  employed  occasionally  in 
the  Albany  City  Bank,  of  which  Erastus  Corn- 
ing [q.v.~\  was  president,  and  in  the  Commercial 
Bank  of  Albany.  Deeply  interested  in  law  and 
in  accounting,  he  spent  much  time  in  private 
study  and  lost  no  opportunity  to  enlarge  his  in- 
formation and  experience. 

In  1853  the  ten  railroad  companies  whose  lines 
extended  from  Albany  to  Buffalo  were  consoli- 
dated into  the  New  York  Central  Railroad,  and 
Worcester  was  called  in  by  Corning  to  assist  in 
solving  the  many  problems  of  accounting  and 
procedure  that  arose  in  connection  with  the  proj- 
ect. He  was  made  chief  accountant  but  soon  be- 
came treasurer  and  held  this  position  through 
the  troublous  times  occasioned  by  the  panic  of 
1857  and  the  Civil  War.  In  1867  Cornelius  Van- 
derbilt,  1794-1877  [q.v.~\,  took  active  control  of 
the  company,  and  thereafter  Worcester  was 
closely  associated  with  him.  He  played  an  im- 
portant part  in  effecting  the  consolidation  of  the 
New  York  Central  and  the  Hudson  River  rail- 
roads in  1869  and  shortly  afterward  became  sec- 
retary of  the  enlarged  system  with  wide  and  un- 
defined powers.  This  position  he  retained  until 
his  death.  Because  he  had  been  on  the  ground 
from  the  beginning,  his  experience,  combined 

5 


with  his  trained  competence,  made  his  services 
in  constant  demand  in  the  development  of  a  great 
system.  In  the  lease  of  the  Harlem  Railroad  and 
in  the  reorganization  of  the  Lake  Shore  he  was 
an  active  participant  and  he  became  treasurer  of 
the  Lake  Shore  in  1873.  In  that  year  he  appeared 
before  the  Senate  Committee  on  Transportation 
Routes  to  the  Seaboard,  which  was  the  first  im- 
portant federal  investigation  of  the  railroad  in- 
dustry. His  intimate  knowledge  of  railroad  de- 
velopment made  him  an  ideal  witness  for  the 
roads  and  he  discussed  the  various  railroad  prob- 
lems, such  as  rate  practices,  competition,  finance, 
capitalization  and  consolidation,  with  expert  fa- 
miliarity. He  negotiated  the  terms  under  which 
the  first  exclusive  "fast  mail"  train  was  operated 
between  New  York  and  Chicago.  After  the  death 
of  Commodore  Vanderbilt,  Worcester  main- 
tained the  same  close  relations  with  his  son,  Wil- 
liam H.  [q.v.~],  and  when  the  latter  took  over  the 
Michigan  Central  Railroad  in  1878  Worcester 
was  made  secretary  of  that  company.  In  1883 
he  added  the  vice-presidency  of  the  Lake  Shore 
and  of  the  Michigan  Central  to  his  other  func- 
tions. He  was  also  in  demand  as  a  director  of 
subsidiary  lines.  When  he  died,  in  New  York 
City,  he  had  been  an  important  official  of  the  New 
York  Central  system  for  more  than  fifty  years. 

On  Apr.  30,  1855,  Worcester  married  Mary 
Abigail  Low  of  Albany,  who  survived  him,  with 
their  daughter  and  four  of  their  six  sons. 

[Railroad  Gazette,  June  17,  1904,  general  news  sec- 
tion ;  Thirty-fifth  Ann.  Report  of  the  .  .  .  N.  Y .  Cen- 
tral and  Hudson  Rwer  Railroad  Company  (1904); 
"Report  of  the  Select  Committee  on  Transportation 
Routes  to  the  Seaboard,"  Senate  Report  307,  pt.  2,  43 
Cong.,  1  Sess.  (1874)  ;  S.  A.  Worcester,  The  Descend- 
ants of  Rev.  William  Worcester  (19 14)  ;  Who's  Who  in 
America,  1903-05;  N.  Y.  Times,  June  14,  1904.] 

F.H.D. 

WORCESTER,  JOSEPH  EMERSON  (Aug. 
24,  1784-Oct.  27,  1865),  lexicographer,  geog- 
rapher, historian,  was  born  in  Bedford,  N.  H.,  a 
nephew  of  Noah  and  Samuel  Worcester  [qq.v.] 
and  the  second  son  of  Jesse  and  Sarah  (Parker) 
Worcester.  He  was  one  of  fifteen  children,  four- 
teen of  whom,  like  their  father,  taught  at  one 
time  or  another  in  the  public  schools.  Joseph 
spent  his  youth  on  the  family  farm  in  Hollis, 
N.  H.  The  local  public  schools  offered  meager 
opportunities  for  education,  but,  according  to 
his  brother  Samuel,  Joseph  studied  at  home 
"with  that  quiet  and  unwearied  perseverance 
and  resolute  energy,  which  were  marked  traits 
of  his  character  through  his  whole  life"  (Granite 
Monthly,  post,  p.  247).  At  the  age  of  twenty-one 
he  entered  Phillips  Academy,  Andover,  Mass., 
and  at  twenty-five,  the  sophomore  class  at  Yale 
College,  graduating  in  181 1. 

26 


Worcester 

For  five  years  following  his  graduation  he 
taught  in  Salem,  Mass.,  where  Nathaniel  Haw- 
thorne was  one  of  his  students.  In  1819,  after 
two  years  spent  in  Andover,  he  settled  perma- 
nently in  Cambridge.  While  teaching  at  Salem, 
Worcester  prepared  his  first  work,  A  Geograph- 
ical Dictionary,  or  Universal  Gazetteer,  Ancient 
and  Modern,  published  in  1817.  It  was  followed 
in  1818  by  A  Gazetteer  of  the  United  States,  in 
1819  by  Elements  of  Geography,  in  1823  by 
Sketches  of  the  Earth  and  Its  Inhabitants,  and 
in  1826  by  Elements  of  History,  Ancient  and 
Modern.  All  of  these  works  were  extensively 
used  as  textbooks. 

In  1828  appeared  the  first  of  his  long  series  of 
dictionaries,  an  edition  of  Johnson's  English  Dic- 
tionary, .  .  .  with  Walker's  Pronouncing  Dic- 
tionary, Combined.  The  following  year  he  pre- 
pared an  abridgment  of  Webster's  large  dic- 
tionary of  1828,  and  in  1830  his  own  Comprehen- 
sive Pronouncing  and  Explanatory  Dictionary  of 
the  English  Language  appeared.  This  volume 
contained  what  may  be  called  Worcester's  one 
permanent  contribution  to  lexicography  and  the 
English  language  in  America,  the  idea  of  a  sound 
intermediate  between  the  a  of  hat  and  that  of 
father.  This  sound,  which  has  since  come  to  be 
known  as  the  "compromise  vowel,"  offered  an 
escape  to  those  who  were  too  timid  to  use,  in  such 
words  as  fast,  grass,  and  dance,  the  then  fashion- 
able vowel  of  hat,  and  were  ashamed  of  the  vowel 
of  father,  which,  as  Worcester  said,  seemed  "to 
border  on  vulgarism." 

Worcester's  1830  dictionary  evoked  from  Noah 
Webster  [q.v.~\  a  rather  ill-natured  charge  of 
plagiarism.  This  attack  was  the  first  move  in  a 
half-century  long  battle  for  supremacy  between 
the  two  great  rival  series  of  dictionaries,  a  battle 
which  degenerated  later  into  the  graceless  and 
petty  commercial  strife  between  the  rival  pub- 
lishers known  as  the  "War  of  the  Dictionaries." 
This  was  at  its  height  in  i860,  when  the  publi- 
cation of  the  Worcester  Quarto  had  followed 
close  on  the  1859  Webster,  though  there  was  an 
active  exchange  of  hostilities  earlier  when  the 
1846  Worcester  and  the  Goodrich  Webster  had 
almost  coincided.  Worcester's  main  personal 
contribution  to  the  fight,  after  his  refutation  of 
Webster's  charges  in  1830,  was  the  publication 
in  1853  of  a  pamphlet  entitled  A  Gross  Literary 
Fraud  Exposed,  a  bitter  and  indignant  denial  of 
the  statement  on  the  title  page  of  the  London  edi- 
tion of  his  Universal  Dictionary  that  it  was 
"compiled  from  the  materials  of  Noah  Webster." 

After  the  publication  of  his  Comprehensive  . .  . 
Dictionary  in  1830  Worcester  spent  seven  or 
eight  months  in  Europe,  where  he  collected  books 


Worcester 

on  philology  and  lexicography.  A  manuscript 
journal  of  this  trip  was  preserved  among  his  pa- 
pers. On  his  return  in  183 1  he  assumed  his 
eleven-year  editorship  of  The  American  Almanac 
and  Repository  of  Useful  Knowledge.  When  he 
was  fifty-seven  years  old,  he  married,  June  29, 
1841,  Amy  Elizabeth  McKean,  who  at  that  time 
was  forty.  The  daughter  of  Prof.  Joseph  Mc- 
Kean of  Harvard,  she  proved  a  "ready  and  help- 
ful assistant"  in  her  husband's  labors. 

While  A  Universal  and  Critical  Dictionary  of 
the  English  Language  (1846) — next  to  the  i860 
Quarto,  Worcester's  most  important  work — was 
passing  through  the  press,  he  suffered  from  cat- 
aract. After  a  series  of  operations  his  left  eye 
was  saved,  but  the  right  became  entirely  blind. 
In  spite  of  this  handicap,  the  work  on  the  dic- 
tionaries went  on.  Enlarged  and  improved  edi- 
tions of  the  Comprehensive  appeared  in  1847  and 
1849.  In  1855  it  appeared  with  the  title  A  Pro- 
nouncing, Explanatory,  and  Synonymous  Dic- 
tionary of  the  English  Language,  with  the  dis- 
crimination of  synonyms  made  an  important  and 
distinguishing  feature.  It  also  listed,  for  the  first 
time  in  an  English  dictionary,  Christian  names 
of  men  and  women  with  their  etymological  sig- 
nifications. In  i860,  when  Worcester  was  sev- 
enty-six, appeared  the  most  elaborate  and  im- 
portant of  all  his  works,  the  illustrated  Quarto, 
A  Dictionary  of  the  English  Language.  Among 
its  new  features  were  a  historical  sketch  of  dic- 
tionaries and  an  improved  treatment  of  syn- 
onyms. The  illustrations  were  hailed  by  many 
critics  as  an  original  feature,  but  the  idea  had 
been  used  before  him  in  Bailey's  Dictionary  and 
Blount's  Glossographia.  Worcester's  work  did 
not  end  with  the  publication  of  his  Quarto.  For 
the  remaining  five  years  of  his  life,  he  made 
daily  annotations  for  a  future  revision.  He  died 
in  Cambridge,  Oct.  27,  1865. 

Lacking  the  fiery  and  at  times  evangelical  zeal 
of  his  great  and  successful  rival,  Noah  Webster, 
Worcester  was  distinguished  for  practical  com- 
mon sense,  sound  judgment,  and  enormous  in- 
dustry. Both  men  were  diligent,  but  in  tempera- 
ment and  attitude  contrasted  sharply.  Worces- 
ter, a  conservative,  held  more  closely  to  British 
usage,  especially  that  of  Johnson  and  Walker, 
while  Webster,  in  the  words  of  H.  E.  Scudder, 
"walked  about  the  Jericho  of  English  lexicog- 
raphy, blowing  his  trumpet  of  destruction" 
(Noah  JVebstcr,  1881,  p.  290).  Webster's  pref- 
erence for  a  local  and  somewhat  provincial  usage, 
and  especially  his  innovations  in  spelling,  aroused 
violent  opposition,  most  of  all  in  the  literary  cir- 
cles of  Boston,  where,  as  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes 
genially  reported,  "literary  men  .  .  .  are  by  spe- 


5*7 


Worcester 


Worcester 


cial  statute  allowed  to  be  sworn  [on  Worcester's 
Dictionary]  in  place  of  the  Bible"  (Works,  vol. 
Ill,  1892,  p.  8).  Reviewing  the  i860  edition,  Ed- 
ward Everett  Hale  stated  that  only  two  books 
would  be  necessary  in  establishing  a  new  civ- 
ilization, "Shakespeare  and  this  dictionary" 
(Christian  Examiner,  May  i860,  p.  365). 
Though  Webster  had  a  much  wider  circulation, 
Worcester  was  in  general  preferred  by  the  fas- 
tidious, and,  in  i860,  there  was  much  justifica- 
tion for  such  a  preference  (Atlantic  Monthly, 
May  i860).  The  supremacy  of  Webster  was  not 
established  until  after  1864,  when  Webster's  .  .  . 
Unabridged,  the  work  of  many  competent  hands, 
appeared.  Although  Worcester  has  long  been 
forgotten  by  the  general  public,  he  continued  to 
have  some  devoted  followers  well  into  the  twen- 
tieth century.  During  his  lifetime  his  achieve- 
ments were  recognized  by  election  to  the  Massa- 
chusetts Historical  Society,  the  American  Acad- 
emy, the  Oriental  Society,  and  the  Royal  Geo- 
graphical Societ  yof  London. 

[Sarah  A.  Worcester,  The  Descendants  of  Rev.  Wil- 
liam Worcester  (1914)  ;  Ezra  Abbott,  in  Proc.  Am. 
Acad,  of  Arts  and  Sciences,  vol.  VII  (1868)  ;  S.  A.  Al- 
libone,  A  Critical  Diet,  of  English  Lit.  and  British  and 
Am.  Authors  (1871),  vol.  Ill;  F.  B.  Dexter,  Biog. 
Sketches  Grads.  Yale  Coll.,  vol.  VI  (1912)  ;  G.  S.  Hil- 
lard,  biog.  sketch  in  Worcester's  A  Diet,  of  the  English 
Language  (Phila.,  1878,  and  other  editions)  ;  William 
Newell,  memoir,  in  Proc.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.,  vol.  XVIII 
(1881)  ;  A.  P.  Stokes,  Memorials  of  Eminent  Yale  Men 
(2  vols.,  1914)  ;  S.  T.  Worcester,  "Joseph  E.  Worces- 
ter, LL.D.,"  in  Granite  Monthly,  Apr.  1880,  and  Hist,  of 
the  Town  of  Hollis,  N.  H.  (1879)  ;  G.  P.  Krapp,  The 
English  Language  in  America  (2  vols.,  1925)  ;  M.  M. 
Mathews,  A  Survey  of  English  Dictionaries  (1933); 
S.  A.  Steger,  Am.  Dictionaries  (1913)  ;  pamphlets  and 
advertisements  of  the  rival  publishers,  G.  &  C.  Merriam 
(Webster)  and  Jenks,  Hickling,  &  Swan  and  successors 
(Worcester),  particularly  in  the  years  1854  and  i860; 
contemporary  reviews  of  Worcester's  and  Webster's 
dictionaries  as  listed  in  A.  G.  Kennedy,  A  Bibliog.  of 
Writings  on  the  English  Language  (1927)  ;  Boston 
Transcript,  Oct.  27,   1865.]  M.L.  H. 

WORCESTER,  NOAH  (Nov.  25,  1758-Oct. 
31,  1837),  clergyman,  editor,  "Friend  of  Peace," 
was  born  in  Hollis,  N.  H.,  and  was  the  eldest  of 
five  brothers,  four  of  whom,  Noah,  Leonard, 
Thomas,  and  Samuel  \_q.v.~\,  entered  the  minis- 
try. They  were  the  sons  of  Noah  Worcester  by 
his  first  wife,  Lydia  (Taylor),  grandsons  of 
Francis  Worcester,  a  Congregational  clergyman, 
and  descendants  of  Rev.  William  Worcester,  who 
emigrated  from  England  and  was  the  first  pastor 
of  the  church  at  Salisbury,  Mass.,  established  in 
1638.  The  elder  Noah  commanded  a  company 
at  the  beginning  of  the  Revolution,  was  a  justice 
of  the  peace  for  forty  years,  and  a  member  of 
the  convention  that  framed  the  constitution  of 
New  Hampshire.  Young  Noah  received  a  little 
schooling  each  winter  until  he  was  sixteen,  when 
he  became  a  fifer  in  the  Revolutionary  War,  serv- 

5 


ing  for  eleven  months  and  barely  escaping  cap- 
ture at  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill.  Again,  in  1777, 
he  was  a  fifer  for  two  months,  taking  part  in  the 
battle  of  Bennington.  Meanwhile,  he  had  become 
a  teacher — at  the  Plymouth,  N.  H.,  village  school 
— and  for  some  years  united  teaching  with  farm- 
ing. In  Plymouth  he  met  Hannah  Brown,  born 
in  Newburyport,  Mass.,  whom  he  married  on  his 
twenty-first  birthday.  In  1782  they  removed  to 
Thornton,  N.  H. 

During  the  first  five  years  of  his  residence 
there  he  served  as  selectman,  town  clerk,  justice 
of  the  peace,  and  representative  in  the  state  leg- 
islature. He  was  also  a  farmer,  teacher,  and 
shoemaker.  All  the  while  he  was  educating  him- 
self, and  had  become  interested  in  religious  sub- 
jects. In  1816,  at  the  suggestion  of  the  minister 
in  a  neighboring  town,  he  applied  successfully  for 
a  license  to  preach.  Late  that  same  year  his  own 
pastor  recommended  him  as  his  successor,  and 
on  Oct.  18,  1787,  he  was  ordained  minister  of 
the  Congregational  church  at  Thornton,  a  po- 
sition which  he  held  for  some  twenty-two  years. 
In  November  1797  his  wife  died,  leaving  him 
with  eight  children,  and  in  May  1798  he  married 
Hannah  Huntington,  a  native  of  Norwich,  Conn. 
When  the  New  Hampshire  Missionary  Society 
was  formed  in  1802,  he  became  its  first  mission- 
ary and  traveled  the  northern  part  of  the  state  in 
its  interests  as  well  as  ministering  to  his  own  par- 
ish. Because  of  the  illness  of  his  brother  Thomas, 
pastor  at  Salisbury,  N.  H.,  he  left  Thornton  in 
February  1810  and  for  the  next  three  years  was 
associated  with  him  in  caring  for  the  Salisbury 
church. 

For  some  time  he  had  been  making  a  thorough 
study  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  and  in  1810 
he  published  Bible  News  of  the  Father,  Son,  and 
Holy  Spirit,  in  a  Series  of  Letters,  setting  forth 
conclusions  which  were  essentially  Unitarian. 
The  Hopkinton  Association  of  Ministers,  to 
which  he  belonged,  passed  a  vote  condemning 
the  book.  This  action  caused  him  to  write  A  Re- 
spectful Address  to  the  Trinitarian  Clergy  Re- 
lating to  Their  Manner  of  Treating  Opponents 
(1812)  and  several  other  pamphlets.  The  book 
found  favor  with  theological  liberals,  however, 
and  in  18 13  Worcester  was  asked  to  become  the 
first  editor  of  the  Christian  Disciple  (later  the 
Christian  Examiner),  a  monthly  periodical  pro- 
jected by  a  group  of  Unitarians  which  included 
Channing  and  Lowell.  He  accepted  the  position, 
removing  to  Brighton,  Mass.,  and  for  five  years 
conducted  the  paper  successfully,  writing  much 
of  its  contents  himself. 

By  nature  he  was  gentle  and  irenic ;  contro- 
versy was  repugnant  to  him  ;  and  in  time  he  came 

28 


Worcester 


Worcester 


to  regard  war,  whether  offensive  or  defensive,  as 
unjustifiable,  accepting  the  doctrine  of  non-re- 
sistance as  applied  both  to  individuals  and  na- 
tions, and  believing  that  love  is  the  surest  weapon 
for  subduing  all  foes.  The  last  part  of  his  life 
was  devoted  to  the  promotion  of  peace,  and  to 
this  cause  he  made  his  most  important  and  last- 
ing contribution.  In  1814  he  published  A  Solemn 
Review  of  the  Custom  of  War,  which,  translated 
into  various  languages,  was  circulated  through- 
out the  world.  It  gave  impetus  to  the  founding 
of  peace  societies,  among  them  the  Massachu- 
setts Peace  Society,  formed  in  181 5,  of  which  he 
became  secretary.  At  the  close  of  1818  he  turned 
over  the  editorship  of  the  Christian  Disciple  to 
the  younger  Henry  Ware  [q.v.],  and  the  follow- 
ing year  established  The  Friend  of  Peace,  which 
he  conducted  until  1828. 

At  the  age  of  seventy  he  severed  his  official 
connections  and  spent  his  last  years  in  study  and 
writing,  publishing  The  Atoning  Sacrifice,  a  Dis- 
play of  Love — Not  of  Wrath  ( 1829) ,  which  went 
through  several  editions ;  Causes  and  Evils  of 
Contentions  Unveiled  in  Letters  to  Christians 
(1831)  ;  and  Last  Thoughts  on  Important  Sub- 
jects (1833).  In  addition  to  the  works  already 
mentioned  he  published  a  number  of  sermons  and 
pamphlets.  He  died  and  was  buried  at  Brighton, 
Mass.,  but  his  body  was  later  removed  to  Mount 
Auburn  Cemetery,  Cambridge. 

[S.  A.  Worcester,  The  Descendants  of  Rev.  William 
Worcester  (1914)  ;  Henry  Ware,  Jr.,  Memoirs  of  the 
Rev.  Noah  Worcester,  D.D.  (1844);  W.  E.  Channing, 
A  Tribute  to  the  Memory  of  the  Rev.  Noah  Worcester, 
D.D.  (1837)  ;  W.  B.  Sprague,  Annals  of  the  Am.  Uni- 
tarian Pulpit  (1865);  William  Ware,  Am.  Unitarian 
Biog.,  vol.  I  (1850)  ;  S.  A.  Eliot,  Heralds  of  a  Liberal 
Faith,  vol.  II  (1910)  ;  Christian  Examiner,  Jan.  1838.] 

H.E.S. 

WORCESTER,  SAMUEL  (Nov.  1,  1770- 
June  7,  1821),  Congregational  clergyman,  was 
born  in  Hollis,  N.  H.,  the  son  of  Noah  and  Lydia 
(Taylor)  Worcester,  and  a  younger  brother  of 
Noah  Worcester  [q.v.~\.  As  a  boy  he  worked  on 
his  father's  farm,  attending  school  winters,  and 
at  the  age  of  seventeen  became  himself  a  teacher 
of  district  schools.  He  felt  that  he  was  not  "made 
for  a  farmer,"  and  in  spite  of  violent  opposition 
from  his  father,  he  determined  to  fit  himself  for 
a  profession.  Accordingly,  in  his  twenty-first 
year,  giving  his  father  a  promissory  note  for  the 
value  of  his  services  during  the  remainder  of  his 
minority,  he  went  to  the  New  Ipswich  Academy 
for  further  preparation  and  in  the  spring  of  1792 
entered  Dartmouth  College.  Here,  although 
compelled  to  absent  himself  winters  to  earn  mon- 
ey by  teaching,  he  distinguished  himself  as  a 
scholar,  graduating  as  valedictorian  in  1795.  He 
then  pursued   studies   in  theology,   first,   under 


Rev.  Samuel  Austin  [q.v.]  of  Worcester,  Mass. ; 
and  later,  while  teaching  in  Hollis  and  at  the 
New  Ipswich  Academy.  On  Sept.  27,  1797,  he 
was  ordained  pastor  of  the  Congregational 
Church  of  Fitchburg,  Mass.,  and  on  Oct.  20,  he 
married  Zervia,  daughter  of  Dr.  Jonathan  Fox 
of  Hollis,  by  whom  he  had  eleven  children. 

His  first  pastorate  lasted  but  five  years  and 
gave  rise  to  serious  dissensions.  Worcester  was 
an  inflexible  Hopkinsian  Calvinist.  This  fact 
brought  him  into  conflict  with  Universalists  and 
other  liberals  in  his  parish,  and  prompted  him  in 
1800  to  deliver  and  publish  a  series  of  six  ser- 
mons on  eternal  judgment.  Although  his  church 
supported  him  loyally,  disaffected  members  of 
the  parish  employed  all  possible  measures  to 
force  his  resignation,  and  finally  on  Aug.  29, 

1802,  an  ecclesiastical  council  dissolved  the  pas- 
toral relation.  Receiving  a  call  from  the  Taber- 
nacle Church,  Salem,  in  November  of  the  same 
year,  he  accepted  it  after  some  months  of  hesi- 
tation and  was  installed  as  its  pastor  on  Apr.  20, 

1803.  His  ministry  here  was  successful  and  hap- 
py. In  1804  he  was  chosen  professor  of  theology 
in  Dartmouth  College,  but,  on  the  advice  of  an 
ecclesiastical  council,  he  declined  the  office.  He 
became  involved  in  181 5  in  a  famous  controversy 
with  William  Ellery  Channing,  1780-1842  [q.v.']. 
In  June  of  that  year  the  Panoplist  published  a 
review  attributed  to  Jeremiah  Evarts  [#.z/.],  of 
American  Unitarianism;  or  a  Brief  History  of 
the  Progress  and  Present  State  of  the  Unitarian 
Churches  in  America,  a  pamphlet  containing 
portions  of  Thomas  Belsham's  biography  of  Rev. 
Theophilus  Lindsley,  a  leader  of  English  Uni- 
tarians. Channing  in  a  published  letter  ad- 
dressed to  Rev.  Samuel  C.  Thacher  [q.v.~\  took 
emphatic  exception  to  the  characterization  of 
American  Unitarians  in  this  review.  Worcester 
replied  in  A  Letter  to  the  Rev.  William  E.  Chan- 
ning .  .  .  (181 5),  and  an  exchange  of  pamphlets 
followed  during  which  Worcester  wrote  a  sec- 
ond and  a  third  letter,  both  published  in  1815. 
The  controversy  contributed  no  little  to  the  grow- 
ing separation  in  name  and  in  fact  of  the  liberal 
and  orthodox  factions  in  the  Congregational 
body. 

Worcester  was  active  in  the  inauguration  and 
forwarding  of  missionary  activities.  In  1799, 
while  still  in  Fitchburg,  he  had  been  associated 
with  the  forming  of  the  Massachusetts  Mission- 
ary Society.  In  1803  he  became  one  of  a  group 
of  clergyman  which  began  the  publication  of  the 
Massachusetts  Missionary  Magazine,  to  which 
he  contributed,  as  he  did  also  to  the  Panoplist, 
with  which  the  Magazine  was  merged  in  1808. 
He  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  American 


529 


Worcester 

Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Missions, 
in  1810,  and  became  its  first  corresponding  sec- 
retary. To  the  furthering  of  its  expanding  en- 
terprises he  devoted  much  time  and  energy.  He 
was  also  prominent  in  organized  efforts  to  com- 
bat intemperance.  His  duties  as  corresponding 
secretary  for  the  American  Board  became  so 
heavy  that  in  1819  Rev.  Elias  Cornelius  was 
made  associate  pastor  of  the  Tabernacle  Church. 
In  January  1821  Worcester  went  South  for  the 
benefit  of  his  health  and  to  visit  missionary  sta- 
tions. His  health  did  not  improve,  however,  and 
he  died  at  Brainerd,  Tenn.,  in  June.  In  1844  his 
body  was  removed  to  Harmony  Grove  Cemetery, 
Salem,  Mass.  More  than  thirty  of  his  sermons 
and  addresses  were  published ;  a  collection  of 
these,  Sermons  on  Various  Subjects,  appeared 
in  1823.  To  provide  orthodox  churches  with  a 
suitable  hymnal,  he  also  issued  in  18 15  Christian 
Psalmody,  an  abridgment  of  Watts's  psalms  and 
hymns,  with  select  hymns  from  other  authors 
and  select  harmony. 

[S.  A.  Worcester,  The  Descendants  of  Rev.  William 
Worcester  (1914);  S.  M.  Worcester,  The  Life  and 
Labors  of  Rev.  Samuel  Worcester,  D.D.  (2  vols., 
1852)  ;  W.  B.  Sprague,  Annals  of  the  Am.  Pulpit,  vol. 
II  (1857)  ;  Missionary  Herald,  successor  to  the  Panop- 
list,  July,  Aug.  1821.]  H.  E.  S. 

WORCESTER,  SAMUEL  AUSTIN  (Jan. 
19,  1798-Apr.  20,  1859),  missionary  and  trans- 
lator, was  born  at  Worcester,  Mass.,  the  descend- 
ant of  William  Worcester  who  emigrated  from 
England  to  Salisbury,  Mass.,  before  1640,  the 
cousin  of  Joseph  Emerson  Worcester  \_q.v.'],  and 
the  nephew  of  Noah  and  Samuel  Worcester 
[q.v.~\.  The  son  of  the  Rev.  Leonard  and  Eliza- 
beth (Hopkins)  Worcester,  he  was  reared  at 
Peacham,  Vt.,  where  his  father  taught  him  to 
farm  and  to  set  type.  In  1819  he  graduated  from 
the  University  of  Vermont,  of  which  his  uncle, 
Samuel  Austin  [q.v.],  was  president.  He  grad- 
uated from  the  Theological  Seminary  at  Andover 
in  1823.  On  July  19,  1825,  he  married  Ann  Orr 
of  Bedford,  N.  H.,  who  died  on  May  23,  1840. 
Their  daughter  Ann  Eliza  married  William 
Schenck  Robertson  \_q.v.~\  and  became  the  moth- 
er of  Alice  Mary  Roberston  [q.v.~\.  He  was  or- 
dained a  minister  in  Park  Street  Congregational 
Church  at  Boston,  on  Aug.  25,  1825,  and  de- 
parted almost  immediately  for  Brainard  Mission 
in  the  Cherokee  Country  of  eastern  Tennessee, 
where  he  remained  as  supervising  missionary 
for  two  years.  Under  his  supervision  in  1827 
types  were  made  in  Boston  for  the  Cherokee 
alphabet,  invented  by  Sequoyah  [q.z*.~\.  He  soon 
afterward  went  to  New  Echota,  Ga.,  where  he 
served  as  missionary,  translating  portions  of  the 
Bible  from  Greek  to  Cherokee.    These  together 


Worcester 

with  many  tracts  and  other  religious  works  he 
printed  on  the  press  of  the  Cherokee  Phoenix, 
the  Cherokee  newspaper  which  he  had  helped 
establish,  and  to  which  he  was  a  frequent  con- 
tributor. In  183 1  he  was  arrested  by  officers  of 
the  state  of  Georgia  and  in  September  1831  was 
sentenced  to  four  years  imprisonment  for  viola- 
tion of  a  Georgia  statute  forbidding  white  per- 
sons to  live  in  the  Indian  country  without  taking 
an  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  state  and  obtaining  a 
license  to  reside  among  the  Indians.  His  case 
was  appealed  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States,  which  decided  in  1832  that  the  act  of  the 
Georgia  legislature  was  unconstitutional  (6 
Peters,  59"),  but  Worcester  was  not  released 
from  prison  until  Jan.  14,  1833. 

Soon  after  his  release  from  prison  he  trans- 
ferred his  activities  to  the  Cherokee  living  west 
of  the  Mississippi  River  in  what  is  now  Okla- 
homa. He  reached  their  country  in  May  1835 
and  after  a  short  stay  at  Dwight  Mission  re- 
moved to  Park  Hill  and  began  the  work  of  estab- 
lishing the  Park  Hill  Mission.  His  task  of  erect- 
ing and  equipping  the  new  buildings  was  no 
doubt  made  easier  by  the  fact  that  he  had  learned 
carpentry  and  the  cabinet  maker's  trade,  while 
in  the  Georgia  penitentiary.  In  time  the  mission 
grew  to  be  the  largest  and  most  important  insti- 
tution of  its  kind  in  the  Indian  Territory.  The 
buildings  included  not  only  the  church  and 
school  but  also  a  boarding  hall,  gristmill,  homes 
for  the  teachers  and  missionaries,  and  a  book 
bindery  and  printing  office,  where  he  set  up  what 
was,  doubtless,  the  first  printing  press  in  the 
Indian  Territory.  On  this  he  printed  in  the 
Cherokee  language  thousands  of  copies  of  por- 
tions of  the  Bible,  together  with  hymn  books, 
tracts,  a  primer,  and  the  Cherokee  Almanac  that 
was  issued  annually  from  1838  to  1861.  Religious 
material  was  printed  not  only  for  the  Cherokee 
but  also  at  times  for  the  Creeks  and  Choctaw. 
He  was  for  many  years  secretary  of  the  Cher- 
okee temperance  society,  which  numbered  more 
than  fifteen  hundred  Cherokee  among  its  mem- 
bers. He  also  organized  in  1841  the  Cherokee 
Bible  society,  which  before  his  death  had  dis- 
tributed among  these  Indians  more  than  five 
thousand  copies  of  the  portions  of  the  Bible  he 
had  translated  and  printed  in  the  Cherokee  lan- 
guage. Unlike  many  of  the  earlier  missionaries 
he  was  quick  to  see  the  possibilities  of  the  Chero- 
kee written  language  invented  by  Sequoyah  and 
earnestly  urged  the  Cherokee  to  learn  and  to  use 
it.  On  Apr.  3,  1841,  he  married,  as  his  second 
wife,  Erminia  Nash,  who  had  been  born  at  Cum- 
mington,  Mass.  She  died  at  Fort  Gibson,  Indian 
Territory,  on  May  5,  1872.   He  was  buried  be- 


53° 


Worden 

side  the  body  of  his  first  wife  in  the  little  Worces- 
ter Cemetery  a  short  distance  southwest  of  Park 
Hill. 

[Letters  among  missionary  letters,  Andover-Harvard 
Theological  Lib.,  Cambridge,  Mass.,  in  Alice  Robertson 
Coll.,  Tulsa  Univ.,  Tulsa,  Okla. ;  letters  and  copies  in 
possession  of  Okla.  Hist.  Soc.  ;  Althea  Bass,  Cherokee 
Messenger  (1936)  ;  R.  S.  Walker,  Torchlights  to  the 
Cherokees  (1931);  S.  A.  Worcester,  The  Descendants 
of  Rev.  Wm.  Worcester  (1914).]  E.  E.  D. 

WORDEN,  JOHN  LORIMER  (Mar.  12, 
1818-Oct.  18,  1897),  naval  officer,  was  born  at 
Westchester  County,  N.  Y.  He  was  the  son 
of  Ananias  and  Harriet  (Graham)  Worden  and 
the  great-grandson  of  Surgeon  Andrew  Graham, 
who  was  on  the  Connecticut  Committee  of  Pub- 
lic Safety  in  the  Revolution.  He  was  appointed 
midshipman  on  Jan.  10,  1834,  and  after  three 
years  in  the  Brazil  Squadron  and  seven  months 
at  the  Philadelphia  Naval  School  was  made 
passed  midshipman,  July  16,  1840.  In  1840-42 
he  was  in  the  Pacific  Squadron,  and  in  1844-46 
at  the  Naval  Observatory.  During  and  after  the 
Mexican  War  he  served  in  the  storeship  South- 
ampton and  other  vessels  on  the  west  coast.  Duty 
at  the  Naval  Observatory  (1850-52)  and  cruises 
in  the  Mediterranean  and  Home  Squadrons  oc- 
cupied most  of  the  next  decade.  Stationed  in 
Washington  just  before  the  Civil  War,  he  was 
sent  south,  on  Apr.  7,  1861,  with  secret  orders 
to  the  squadron  at  Pensacola  for  the  reinforce- 
ment of  Fort  Pickens.  After  delivering  his  mes- 
sage he  was  arrested  on  his  return  journey  near 
Montgomery,  Ala.,  and  held  prisoner  until  his 
exchange  seven  months  later. 

Though  hardly  recovered  from  illness  due  to 
his  confinement,  he  reported,  Jan.  16,  1862,  to 
command  Ericsson's  new  ironclad  Monitor,  then 
building  at  Greenpoint,  L.  I.  After  supervising 
her  completion  he  commanded  her  on  her  rough 
passage  down  the  coast.  Disaster  was  constantly 
threatened  by  leaks,  foul  air,  defective  steering 
gear,  and  other  faults  of  experimental  construc- 
tion. Worden  later  declared  that  the  difficulties 
then  overcome  were  as  great  as  those  of  the  sub- 
sequent battle  (see  Schley,  post,  p.  106).  Reach- 
ing Hampton  Roads  about  9  p.m.  Mar.  8,  all 
hands  spent  a  disturbed  night  in  preparation  for 
meeting  the  Mcrrimac  next  day.  In  the  battle, 
vital  for  the  maintenance  of  the  Northern  block- 
ade and  revolutionary  in  its  influence  on  naval 
design,  Worden  had  his  station  in  the  pilot  house, 
forward  of  the  turret.  After  three  hours  of 
fighting  he  was  wounded  in  the  face  and  nearly 
blinded  by  a  shell  exploding  just  oustide.  The 
command  was  taken  over  by  his  first  officer, 
Samuel  D.  Greene  [q.v^],  but  when  the  Monitor 
returned  after  temporary  withdrawal  the  Mcrri- 


Work 

mac  had  also  withdrawn.  For  his  resolute  con- 
duct of  the  action,  and  in  the  general  relief  at  its 
outcome,  Worden  at  once  gained  national  re- 
nown. The  devotion  of  his  ship's  company  is 
demonstrated  in  the  exclamation,  "How  I  love 
and  venerate  that  man,"  used  by  his  young  lieu- 
tenant, Greene,  in  a  letter  to  the  latter's  mother 
(Proceedings  of  the  United  States  Naval  Insti- 
tute, November  1923,  p.  1845).  Congress  gave 
him  a  special  vote  of  thanks  and  advanced  him 
from  commander  to  captain  on  Feb.  3,  1863. 
From  October  1862  to  April  1863  he  command- 
ed the  monitor  Mont  auk  in  the  South  Atlantic 
Blockading  Squadron,  engaging  on  Jan.  27  in 
a  four-hour  action  with  Fort  McAllister  which 
served  chiefly  as  a  favorable  test  of  the  monitor 
type,  and  a  month  later  destroying,  by  five  well- 
placed  shots,  the  Confederate  cruiser  Nashville 
under  the  guns  of  this  fort.  His  vessel  was  struck 
fourteen  times  on  Apr.  7  in  the  general  monitor 
attack  on  Charleston. 

Detached  shortly  afterwards,  he  was  subse- 
quently engaged  in  ironclad  construction  work 
at  New  York  till  after  the  close  of  the  war.  He 
was  made  commodore,  May  26,  1868;  rear  ad- 
miral, Nov.  20,  1872;  and  was  superintendent  of 
the  Naval  Academy  (1869-74).  From  1875  to 
1877  he  commanded  the  European  Squadron, 
which  visited  many  ports  of  northern  Europe 
and  was  in  the  eastern  Mediterranean  during 
the  Russo-Turkish  War.  Thereafter  he  was  a 
member  of  the  Examining  Board  and  President 
of  the  Retiring  Board  until  his  voluntary  retire- 
ment on  Dec.  23,  1886,  when  Congress  awarded 
him  for  life  the  full  sea  pay  of  his  grade.  His 
home  continued  to  be  in  Washington,  D.  C, 
where  he  died  of  pneumonia.  His  funeral  was  at 
St.  John's  Episcopal  Church,  Washington,  and 
his  interment  at  Pawling,  N.  Y.  He  was  mar- 
ried to  Olivia  Taffey,  and  she  and  their  four  chil- 
dren survived  him. 

[Two  letter-books  (Personnel  Files)  and  official  re- 
ports (Captains'  Letters),  Navy  Dept.  Library;  J.  T. 
Headley,  Farragut  and  Our  Naval  Commanders  (1867)  ; 
War  of  the  Rebellion:  Official  Records  (Navy),  see 
index  volume  ;  L.  H.  Cornish,  Nat.  Reg.  of  the  Soc.  of 
the  So"s  of  the  Am.  Revolution  (1902)  ;  W.  S.  Schley, 
Forty-Five  Years  under  the  Flag  (1904);  Army  and 
Navy  Jour.,  Oct.  23,  1897;  Washington  Post,  Oct.  19, 
'897-]  A.W. 

WORK,  HENRY  CLAY  (Oct.  1,  1832-June 
8,  1884),  song-writer,  was  born  in  Middletown, 
Conn.,  the  son  of  Alanson  and  Aurelia  Work, 
and  a  descendant  of  Joseph  Work  who  emigrated 
to  Connecticut  from  Ireland  in  1720.  His  father 
was  a  militant  abolitionist,  who,  in  order  to  help 
in  the  cause  of  freeing  runaway  slaves,  moved 
his  family  to  Quincy,  111.,  when  Henry  was  three 
years  of  age.   In  Illinois  and  Missouri  he  aided 


S31 


Work 

about  four  thousand  slaves  to  escape  by  main- 
taining his  home  as  one  of  the  "stations"  of  the 
Underground  Railroad.  His  efforts  were  re- 
warded with  imprisonment,  and  upon  his  release 
in  1845  the  family  returned  to  Middletown. 
Henry  Work  received  a  common-school  educa- 
tion in  Middletown  and  later  in  Hartford,  where 
he  became  an  apprentice  in  the  printing  shop  of 
Elihu  Greer.  In  a  room  above  the  print  shop 
Work  found  an  old  melodeon  ;  he  practiced  on  it, 
studied  harmony,  and  began  writing  a  few  songs 
to  sing  to  his  friends.  In  1854  he  went  to  Chi- 
cago to  ply  his  trade  as  printer,  but  he  continued 
to  write  songs.  His  success  was  at  first  indif- 
ferent, but  when  "We're  Coming,  Sister  Mary" 
(composed  for  the  Christy  Minstrels)  was  pub- 
lished, it  achieved  wide  circulation  and  brought 
the  author  a  substantial  return.  In  1864  he  wrote 
his  famous  temperance  song,  "Come  Home,  Fa- 
ther." This  was  tremendously  successful,  and, 
as  a  "story-song,"  was  thoroughly  in  keeping 
with  the  taste  of  the  period.  For  years  it  was 
sung  in  the  play,  "Ten  Nights  in  a  Barroom." 
The  opening  lines  of  Work's  long  "serio-comic" 
poem,  The  Upshot  Family  ( 1868),  are  typical  of 
his  other  efforts  in  rhyme : 

"Far  up  in  Vermont, 

Where  the  hills  are  so  steep 
That  the  farmers  use  ladders 
To  pasture  their  sheep  .  .  ." 

Work's  publisher,  George  F.  Root  [q.v.~],  of 
the  firm  of  Root  &  Cady,  persuaded  him  to  try 
his  hand  at  writing  Civil  War  songs.  Because 
of  his  abolitionist  background  Work  willingly 
lent  his  talents  to  the  Northern  cause  and  con- 
tributed "Kingdom  Coming"  (1861),  "Babylon 
is  Fallen!"  (1863),  "Wake  Nicodemus"  (1864), 
"Marching  through  Georgia"  ( 1865 ) ,  and  a  num- 
ber of  other  highly  partisan  songs.  Following 
the  success  of  "Kingdom  Coming,"  Root  & 
Cady  offered  Work  a  contract  as  a  song-writer 
for  the  firm,  and  he  was  able  to  abandon  his  work 
as  a  printer.  He  maintained  his  headquarters  in 
Chicago  until  the  great  fire  of  1871,  when  the 
firm  of  Root  &  Cady  was  ruined  financially  and 
the  plates  of  all  his  songs  were  destroyed.  For 
a  time  he  lived  in  Philadelphia  and  then  moved 
to  Vineland,  N.  J.,  where  he  had  joined  his 
brother  and  an  uncle  in  purchasing  one  hundred 
and  fifty  acres  of  land  for  speculative  purposes. 
The  venture  was  not  succesful.  By  1875  Root  & 
Cady  was  reestablished,  and  Work  returned  to 
Chicago,  where  he  resumed  his  career  as  song- 
writer, with  even  more  financial  success  than  be- 
fore. The  song  "Grandfather's  Clock,"  pub- 
lished after  the  .Civil  War,  is  said  to  have  sold 


Work 

over  800,000  copies,  and  to  have  brought  the  com- 
poser $4,000  in  royalties.  The  exact  number  of 
Work's  published  songs  is  not  known,  although 
the  records  of  his  family  show  a  list  of  seventy- 
three  (Work,  post).  He  died  in  Hartford,  Conn., 
while  visiting  his  mother,  and  was  buried  in  the 
Spring  Grove  Cemetery  beside  his  wife,  who 
had  preceded  him  in  death  about  a  year.  They 
had  been  married  in  Chicago  between  i860  and 
1864.  Her  mental  illness  in  her  last  years  was 
the  burden  of  Work's  sorrow  before  his  death. 
Two  of  their  three  children  had  died  in  Chicago. 

[B.  Q.  Work,  Songs  of  Henry  Clay  Work  (privately 
printed,  n.d.)  ;  George  Birdseye,  "America's  Song  Com- 
posers," Potter's  Am.  Monthly,  Apr.  1879;  W.  S.  B. 
Mathews,  One  Hundred  Years  of  Music  in  America 
(1889)  ;  J.  T.  Howard,  Our  Am.  Music  (1930)  ;  Henry 
Asbury,  Reminiscences  of  Quincy,  III.  (1882);  Hart- 
ford Courant,  June  9,  1884;  information  from  Mrs.  B. 
H.  Work  of  Glastonbury,  Conn.]  J  T  H 

WORK,  MILTON  COOPER  (Sept.  15, 
1864- June  27,  1934),  auction  and  contract  bridge 
expert,  lawyer,  was  born  in  Philadelphia,  Pa., 
the  son  of  Robert  D.  and  Anna  K.  (Whiteman) 
Work.  His  parents  were  both  enthusiastic  play- 
ers of  whist,  the  popular  card  game  of  that  day, 
and  he  himself  was  quite  skilful  before  he  became 
a  student  at  the  University  of  Pennsylvania. 
While  still  in  college,  he  arranged  what  was 
probably  the  first  duplicate  contest  held  in  the 
United  States.  He  was  catcher  on  his  college 
nine,  manager  of  the  football  team,  and  a  player 
of  cricket,  then  very  popular.  Upon  his  grad- 
uation from  the  University  of  Pennsylvania 
(B.A.,  1884;  LL.B.,  1887),  he  set  out  upon  a 
career  which  brought  him  note  as  a  lawyer  in 
Philadelphia.  After  an  injury  at  golf  he  gave 
more  and  more  attention  to  the  study  of  cards  as 
an  avocation.  As  early  as  1895  he  brought  out  a 
short  book  called  Whist  of  To-day ;  his  first  book 
on  bridge,  Auction  Developments,  was  published 
in  1913.  When  the  United  States  entered  the 
World  War,  he  abandoned  his  law  practice  and 
spent  his  time  giving  lectures  and  bridge  demon- 
strations throughout  the  country  in  behalf  of  the 
Red  Cross.  After  that  his  popularity  as  a  bridge 
expert  was  assured.  His  advice  was  so  clear 
that  his  books  and  articles,  of  which  he  pub- 
lished many,  won  a  larger  number  of  readers 
during  the  ensuing  years  than  those  of  any  other 
expert.  Soon  bridge  teachers  in  every  part  of 
the  country  looked  to  him  for  tutelage.  His  ac- 
tivity in  the  famous  radio  bridge  games  of  1925 
to  1930,  during  most  of  the  time  in  conjunction 
with  Wilbur  C.  Whitehead  [q.v.~\,  and  his  work 
with  Whitehead  as  an  editor  of  the  Auction 
Bridge  Magazine  had  a  tremendous  influence  in 
increasing  the  number  of  bridge  players. 


S32 


Workman 

Many  of  the  phases  th rough  which  the  game 
passed,  from  whist  to  contract,  were  influenced 
profoundly  by  Work's  clear-thinking,  orderly, 
legal  mind.  A  member  of  practically  every  im- 
portant committee,  he  drafted  many  rules  and 
frequently  served  as  chairman  of  the  committee 
in  charge.  After  the  advent  of  contract,  he  was 
in  the  forefront  of  those  with  bidding  systems 
to  offer  to  the  rank  and  file  of  players.  His  own 
system  underwent  many  changes  until  he  be- 
came a  participant  in  the  movement  of  1931-32 
to  bring  about  a  universal  system  of  bidding. 
Later  he  carried  forward  with  successive  re- 
visions of  his  own  method,  which  was  always 
distinguished  by  the  "artificial  two-club  game- 
demand"  bid  he  had  developed.  Always  a  mem- 
ber of  many  bridge  clubs,  he  did  not  sponsor  one 
of  his  own  until  after  the  advent  of  contract, 
when  he  built  the  Barclay  Club  of  Philadelphia 
to  a  position  of  prominence  both  socially  and  in 
the  world  of  bridge.  He  was  president  of  the 
United  States  Bridge  Association,  formed  a  few 
years  before  his  death,  and  during  his  last  few 
years  he  returned  successfully  to  tournament 
competition. 

A  man  of  great  height,  dominant  bearing,  and 
patrician  appearance,  he  was  impressive  on  a 
speaker's  platform.  His  voice,  with  an  unusual 
measured  emphasis,  was  known  to  millions  who 
had  heard  him  in  person  or  "on  the  air."  He  was 
the  most  tireless  worker  of  his  time  in  bridge. 
Though  he  was  reputed  to  have  made  a  fortune 
out  of  bridge,  he  left  no  great  amount  of  money 
at  his  death,  and  he  preferred  to  think  of  himself 
as  a  popularizer  of  the  game  who  brought  its 
pleasures  to  more  people  than  anyone  else.  Work 
was  married  twice :  first  to  Millicent  Dreka,  from 
whom  he  was  divorced;  second,  to  Margaret 
(Hazelhurst)  Patton,  who  survived  him. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  i932~33  ;  Univ.  of  Pa., 
Biog.  Cat.  of  Matriculates  (1894)  ;  N.  Y.  Times,  June 
27,  1934  (obituary),  June  28,  July  13  (will)  ;  obituary 
in  Evening  Bull.  (Phila.),  June  27,  1934  ;  long  personal 
acquaintance.]  S.  B. 

WORKMAN,  FANNY  BULLOCK  (Jan.  8, 
1850- Jan.  22,  1925),  explorer  and  writer,  was 
born  in  Worcester,  Mass.,  the  daughter  of  Alex- 
ander Hamilton  Bullock,  a  governor  of  Massa- 
chusetts, and  Elvira  (Hazard)  Bullock.  She  was 
a  grand-daughter  of  Augustus  George  Hazard 
[q.t'.~\.  She  was  educated  at  Miss  Graham's  Fin- 
ishing School  in  New  York  City  and  was  taken 
abroad,  where  she  attended  schools  in  Paris  and 
Dresden.  She  returned  to  Worcester  in  the 
spring  of  1879  and  two  years  later  (June  16, 
1881)  married  Dr.  William  Hunter  Workman, 
a  prominent  physician.  There  was  one  daughter, 
who  later  became   a  geologist.    Tn    1886   Mrs. 


Workman 

Workman  and  her  husband  visited  Norway, 
Sweden,  and  Germany.  Three  years  later  ill 
health  forced  Dr.  Workman  to  resign  his  prac- 
tice. The  following  nine  years  the  Workmans 
spent  largely  in  Germany,  with  visits  to  southern 
Europe,  northern  Africa,  Egypt,  Palestine,  and 
Greece.  Subsequent  travels  carried  them — fre- 
quently on  bicycles — through  India,  Ceylon, 
Java,  Sumatra,  and  Cochin-China.  Mrs.  Work- 
man's career  as  an  explorer  began  in  1899,  when, 
with  her  husband,  she  made  her  first  trip  to  the 
Himalayas.  On  subsequent  expeditions  to  the 
Himalayas  and  to  the  Karakoram  (or  Mustagh) 
Range,  she  achieved  the  world  mountaineering 
record  for  women  (1906).  She  made  numerous 
first  ascents,  climbed  a  number  of  peaks  with 
elevations  of  over  20,000  feet,  crossed  and 
explored  glaciers,  discovered  watersheds,  and 
mapped  previously  unsurveyed  territory.  The 
titles  of  the  books  in  which  she  and  her  husband 
collaborated  give  a  roughly  chronological  ac- 
count of  their  expeditions :  Algerian  Memories 
(1895),  Sketches  Awheel  in  Modem  Iberia 
(1897),  In  the  Ice  World  of  Himalaya  (1900), 
Through  Town  and  Jungle  (1904),  which  dealt 
with  India,  Icc-Bound  Heights  of  the  Mustagh 
( 1908) ,  Peaks  and  Glaciers  of  Nun  Kun  ( 1909) , 
The  Call  of  the  Snowy  Hispar  (1910),  Two 
Summers  in  the  Ice  Wilds  of  Eastern  Karakoram 
(1917).  These  books  are  of  permanent  value  to 
geographers  studying  the  regions  which  they 
explored.  The  unsettled  nomenclature  of  the 
Himalayas  and  Karakorams,  however,  necessi- 
tates some  care  in  the  use  of  the  names  given  by 
the  Workmans.  The  scholarly  background  of  the 
writers  enabled  them  to  treat  with  historical 
perspective  the  inhabited  countries  they  studied, 
but  their  comments  on  the  inhabitants  and  their 
art  forms  do  not  show  the  sociological  under- 
standing for  which  later  writers  have  striven. 
In  addition  to  these  books,  Mrs.  Workman  wrote 
a  number  of  articles  for  such  magazines  as  Har- 
per's, Putnam's,  and  the  Independent.  Both  books 
and  articles  are  illustrated  with  excellent  photo- 
graphs. 

An  accomplished  linguist,  Mrs.  Workman  lec- 
tured before  learned  societies  both  in  Europe 
and  in  America,  and  was  the  first  American  wom- 
an to  lecture  before  the  Sorbonne  of  Paris.  Her 
accomplishments  were  recognized  by  many  hon- 
ors. She  was  an  officier  de  I'instruction  publiquc 
of  France  (1904),  the  recipient  of  the  highest 
medals  of  ten  European  geographic  societies,  a 
fellow  both  of  the  Royal  Geographical  and  the 
Royal  Scottish  Geographical  societies,  and  a 
member  of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society.  She  was 
a  student  of  literature  and  art,  and  an  ardent 


533 


Wormeley 

Wagnerite,  attending  the  Wagner  festivals  at 
Bayreuth  for  five  seasons.  During  the  World 
War  she  lived  in  France.  She  died  at  Cannes. 
After  cremation  at  Marseilles,  her  ashes  were 
brought  to  the  Rural  Cemetery  at  Worcester. 

[Sources  include  Who's  Who  in  America,  1918-19; 
A.  W.  Tarbell,  in  New  England  Mag.,  Dec.  1905,  with 
photograph  ;  Fanny  B.  Workman,  in  Nat.  Geographic 
Mag.,  Nov.  1902;  correspondence  with  Dr.  W.  H. 
Workman,  who  supplied  the  date  of  death  and  other  in- 
formation, Chandler  Bullock  (a  nephew),  G.  T.  Rich- 
ardson of  the  Worcester  Evening  Post,  G.  F.  Booth  of 
the  Worcester  Telegram  and  Gazette,  and  Dr.  C.  S. 
Brigham  of  the  Am.  Antiquarian  Soc.  ;  obituary  in  N .  Y. 
Times,  Jan.  27,  1925.  The  date  of  birth  is  from  Wor- 
cester records.]  E  W  H 

WORMELEY,  KATHARINE  PRESCOTT 

(Jan.  14,  1830-Aug.  4,  1908),  author,  philan- 
thropist, was  born  in  Ipswich,  England,  the  sec- 
ond of  three  daughters  of  Ralph  Randolph  and 
Caroline  (Preble)  Wormeley,  and  sister  of  Mary 
Elizabeth  Wormeley  Latimer  [q.z>.~\.  Her  father 
was  a  rear-admiral  in  the  British  navy.  When 
Katharine  was  about  eighteen,  the  family  settled 
in  the  United  States,  where  she  spent  the  re- 
mainder of  her  life.  Before  leaving  Europe  she 
saw  much  of  the  best  English  and  French  society, 
and  met  Thackeray  when  he  was  awaiting  the 
verdict  of  the  reading  public  on  Vanity  Fair.  She 
was  in  Paris  at  the  time  of  the  second  funeral  of 
Napoleon,  and  describes  it  vividly  in  "Napo- 
leon's Return  from  St.  Helena"  {Putnam's 
Monthly,  July  1908).  During  the  Civil  War  she 
participated  in  relief  measures  for  Union  soldiers, 
and  later  was  superintendent  of  a  hospital  for 
convalescent  soldiers  at  Portsmouth  Grove,  R.  I. 
She  wrote  a  sketch  of  the  purposes  and  work  of 
the  United  States  Sanitary  Commission,  com- 
piled from  documents  and  private  papers  (1863). 
Her  The  Other  Side  of  War  (1889)  consists  of 
letters  from  the  headquarters  of  the  United  States 
Sanitary  Commission  during  the  Peninsular  cam- 
paign in  Virginia  in  1862.  She  lived  many  years 
in  Newport,  R.  I.,  where  she  took  an  active  part 
in  public  affairs,  especially  those  relating  to  sani- 
tation, charitable  organizations,  work  of  women 
and  girls  and  their  instruction  in  domestic  sci- 
ence. She  founded  the  Girls'  Industrial  School 
at  Newport  and  carried  its  expense  for  three 
years,  after  which  it  was  taken  over  by  the  pub- 
lic school  system. 

She  is  best  known  for  her  translations  of  the 
works  of  noted  French  writers,  particularly  Bal- 
zac, to  which  she  devoted  herself  from  the  early 
eighties  to  the  end  of  her  life.  She  also  wrote  A 
Memoir  of  Honore  de  Balzac  (1892).  Some  of 
her  chief  translations  are  The  Works  of  Balzac 
(1899-),  Paul  Bourget's  Pastels  of  Men  (1891, 
1892),  several  works  of  Alexandre  Dumas  ( 1894- 


Wormeley  —  Wormley 

1902),  a  number  of  the  plays  of  Moliere  (1894- 
97),  The  Works  of  Alphonse  Dandct  (1898- 
1900)  ;  Memoirs  of  the  Due  de  Saint-Simon 
(1899)  ;  Letters  of  Mile,  de  Lespinasse  (1901)  ; 
Diary  ond  Correspondence  of  Count  Axel  Fer- 
sen  (1902)  ;  and  Sainte-Beuve's  Portraits  of  the 
Eighteenth  Century  (1905).  It  is  said  that  she 
"had  so  wrapped  herself  up  in  the  work  of  trans- 
lating the  Comcdie  Humaine  that  she  apparently 
came  to  look  upon  its  author  as  a  personal  charge" 
(  Bookman,  post,  p.  479),  and  rose  vehemently  to 
his  defense  when  someone  expressed  an  opinion 
which  she  considered  derogatory.  The  same  sym- 
pathy and  understanding  which  prompted  her 
philanthropic  work  aided  her  success  in  the  lit- 
erary field.  She  was  an  accomplished  French 
scholar  and  understood  French  culture,  so  that 
in  her  translations  she  was  never  enslaved  to  her 
text,  but  conveyed  spirit  as  well  as  actual  mean- 
ing. 

She  spent  the  last  years  of  her  life  in  Jackson, 
N.  H,  where  she  died  after  a  short  illness  re- 
sulting from  a  fall  on  the  steps  of  her  house.  Her 
remains,  after  cremation,  were  buried  in  New- 
port, R.  I.,  beside  the  grave  of  her  father. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1908-09;  Frances  E.  Wil- 
lard  and  Mary  A.  Livermore,  A  Woman  of  the  Century 
(1893)  ;  Sara  A.  Shafer,  in  Dial,  Feb.  1,  1904;  Book- 
man, Jan.  1908;  obituaries  in  Dial,  Aug.  16,  1908,  and 
Newport  Mercury  (Newport,  R.  I.),  Aug.  8,  1908; 
private  information.]  S  G  B 

WORMELEY,  MARY  ELIZABETH  [See 
Latimer,  Mary  Elizabeth  Wormeley,  1822- 
1904]. 

WORMLEY,  JAMES  (Jan.  16,  1819-Oct. 
18,  1884),  steward,  caterer,  and  hotel  keeper,  was 
born  in  Washington,  D.  C,  of  negro  parentage. 
Until  his  parents  settled  in  Washington  in  1814 
they  had  lived  with  a  wealthy  family  of  Virginia 
but  had  never  been  held  as  slaves.  The  father, 
Pere  Leigh  Wormley,  had  straight  black  hair, 
and  the  children  in  the  family  were  said  to  have 
grown  up  thinking  they  were  of  Indian  blood. 
The  mother  was  fair-skinned  and  was  known  lo- 
cally for  her  beauty  and  kindly  character.  At  an 
early  age  James  Wormley  became  a  hack-driver 
for  his  father,  who  kept  a  livery  stable  in  the  ho- 
tel section  of  Washington.  Later  he  drove  his 
own  hack.  His  integrity,  industry,  and  straight- 
forward manner  won  the  interest  and  confidence 
of  his  patrons,  and  he  soon  secured  most  of  the 
trade  of  the  two  chief  hotels,  the  National  and 
Willard's.  These  early  patrons  included  many 
of  the  leading  public  men  of  the  day,  not  a  few  of 
whom  remained  his  lifelong  friends  and  benefac- 
tors. About  1841  he  married  Anna  Thompson  of 
Norfolk,  Va.,  by  whom  he  had  three  sons  and  a 


534 


Wormley 

daughter.  While  still  a  young  man  he  went  West, 
visiting  California  during  the  gold  rush  of  1849 
and  for  a  time  working  as  a  steward  on  a  Mis- 
sissippi River  steamboat.  He  also  served  in  a 
similar  capacity  on  naval  vessels  at  sea,  return- 
ing to  Washington  to  become  steward  for  the 
Metropolitan  Club  when  its  first  clubhouse  was 
opened. 

His  success  in  this  venture  encouraged  him  to 
undertake  an  independent  business,  and  shortly 
before  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War  he  opened 
a  hotel  and  catering  establishment  on  I  Street 
near  Fifteenth,  while  his  wife  ran  a  thriving  con- 
fectionery store  next  door.  Wormley's  business 
prospered,  and  in  1871  he  moved  into  larger  and 
improved  quarters  at  the  corner  of  H  and  Fif- 
teenth streets,  the  property  on  I  Street  becoming 
an  annex  to  the  new  hotel.  His  establishment 
maintained  a  high  standard  of  service  and  its 
cuisine  had  a  national  reputation.  For  more  than 
two  decades  Wormley's  Hotel,  as  it  was  known, 
was  the  temporary  home  of  nationally  and  inter- 
nationally famous  men,  and  its  parlors  were  the 
scene  of  many  distinguished  social  gatherings. 
Wormley  was  equally  successful  as  a  caterer.  In 
1868  he  accompanied  Reverdy  Johnson  [q.v.~\  to 
London  to  act  as  steward  at  the  American  lega- 
tion and  assure  the  successful  entertainment  of 
the  British  statesmen.  While  abroad  he  visited 
Paris. 

His  industry,  ability,  and  business  acumen 
brought  him  a  considerable  fortune  and  at  the 
time  of  his  death,  which  occurred  in  Boston,  he 
was  said  to  have  been  worth  a  hundred  thousand 
dollars.  Throughout  his  life  he  maintained  the 
strictest  business  integrity.  In  his  later  years  he 
enjoyed  the  friendship  and  patronage  of  many 
distinguished  and  influential  men,  but  he  never 
made  political  use  of  the  confidence  placed  in 
him  nor  allowed  others  to  do  so.  He  spent  his 
life  in  serving  others,  but  he  was  never  servile  in 
manner  and  exacted  the  same  respect  which  he 
accorded.  He  was  intensely  interested  in  the 
problems  and  welfare  of  the  negro  and  was  in  cor- 
respondence with  Charles  Sumner  \_q.v.~\  and 
other  friends  and  benefactors  of  his  race.  His 
three  sons  aided  him  in  his  business,  but  his 
grandchildren  were  educated  and  trained  to  serve 
their  people. 

\ Evening  Star  (Washington),  Oct.  17,  18,  20,  25 
(editorial),  1884;  Washington  Post,  Oct.  18,  20,  1884; 
Jour,  of  Negro  Hist.,  Apr.  1935,  Jan.  1936;  Boyd's  Di- 
rectory of  the  District  of  Columbia,  1871,  1872;  in- 
formation from  two  granddaughters,  the  Misses  Joseph- 
ine and  Imogene  Wormley.]  V.  L.  S. 

WORMLEY,  THEODORE  GEORGE  (Apr. 
1,  i82(y-Jan.  3,  1897),  physician,  toxicologist, 
was  born  at  Wormleysburg,  Pa.,  the  son  of  David 


Wormley 

and  Isabella  Wormley.  The  family  was  of  Dutch 
origin,  the  original  immigrants  having  come  to 
America  about  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury. His  father  died  when  Wormley  was  an 
infant,  and  he  was  reared  by  his  mother,  to  whom 
he  may  have  been  chiefly  indebted  for  his  love  of 
nature  and  delight  in  music.  After  three  years 
(1842-45)  at  Dickinson  College,  Carlisle,  Pa., 
he  began  to  study  medicine,  in  the  old-fashioned 
way,  under  a  "preceptor,"  Dr.  John  J.  Meyers, 
with  whom  he  spent  two  years.  He  then  entered 
the  Philadelphia  College  of  Medicine,  from  which 
he  was  graduated  with  the  degree  of  M.D.  in 
1849.  He  began  the  practice  of  medicine  in  Car- 
lisle, Pa.,  but  soon  moved  to  Chillicothe,  Ohio, 
and  then  to  Columbus,  where  he  remained  twen- 
ty-seven years.  In  Columbus  he  met  and  mar- 
ried Ann  Eliza  Gill,  daughter  of  John  Loriman 
and  Mary  Waters  Gill.  For  many  years  he  served 
as  professor  of  toxicology  at  Capitol  University, 
Columbus  (1852-63),  and  at  Starling  Medical 
College  (1852-77).  In  1867  he  published  The 
Micro-chemistry  of  Poisons,  a  work  of  such  merit 
that  it  immediately  became  the  classic  writing 
upon  the  subject.  The  beautiful  illustrations  for 
the  first  edition  were  drawn  by  Mrs.  Wormley. 
When  it  was  found  that  the  cost  of  engraving 
them  on  steel  would  be  such  as  to  prohibit  publi- 
cation, she  actually  learned  the  art  of  steel-en- 
graving so  as  to  reproduce  them.  The  added  il- 
lustrations for  editions  that  appeared  after  Mrs. 
Wormley's  death  were  drawn  by  one  of  her 
daughters.  In  Ohio  Wormley  was  state  gas  com- 
missioner (1867-75),  chemist  to  the  state  geo- 
logical survey  (1869-74),  and  editor  of  the  Ohio 
Medical  and  Surgical  Journal  (1862-64).  Dur- 
ing the  Civil  War  he  served  on  a  relief  commis- 
sion to  provide  stores  and  surgical  assistance  for 
the  armies  in  the  field.  In  1874  he  was  one  of 
the  vice-presidents  of  the  centennial  of  chemis- 
try, and  in  1876  he  delivered  an  address  on  medi- 
cal chemistry  and  toxicology  before  the  interna- 
tional medical  congress  held  in  Philadelphia.  In 
1877  he  accepted  the  chair  of  chemistry  and  toxi- 
cology in  the  medical  department  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Pennsylvania.  This  he  held  until  his 
death,  which  was  caused  by  Bright's  disease. 

Wormley  was  a  most  punctilious  man  and  a 
true  scientist,  with  whom,  "in  searching  for  the 
truth,  time  and  labor  ceased  ...  to  be  factors" 
(Smith,  post,  p.  278).  He  was  always  at  work 
before  nine  and  continued  after  five,  longer  hours 
than  most  of  his  colleagues.  His  lectures,  deliv- 
ered from  carefully  prepared  notes,  were  without 
ornament  or  embellishment,  and  would  have  been 
dull  had  it  not  been  for  the  numerous,  well-con- 
ducted experiments  by  which  they  were  illus- 


535 


Worth 

trated.  Wormley  knew  and  loved  flowers,  and 
was  expert  in  his  knowledge  of  fishes — a  new 
and  brilliantly  colored  one,  Ethcostoma  iris,  he 
named.  He  also  played  well  upon  the  flute,  bugle, 
and  French  horn,  and  transcribed  concerted 
pieces  that  he  and  a  group  of  music-loving  friends 
played.  He  had  many  acquaintances  but  few  in- 
timate friends,  being  too  reserved,  self-contained, 
and  preoccupied. 

[John  Aslihurst,  Trans.  College  of  Physicians  of 
Phila.,  vol.  XIX  (1897);  E.  F.  Smith,  in  Jour.  Am. 
Chemical  Soc,  Apr.  1897  ;  J.  L.  Chamberlain,  ed.,  Uni- 
versities and  Their  Sons:  Univ.  of  Pa.,  vol.  I  (1901)  ; 
H.  A.  Kelly  and  W.  L.  Burrage,  Am.  Medic.  Biogs. 
( 1920)  ;  obituary  in  Pub.  Ledger  (Phila.),  Jan.  4,  1897  ; 
personal  recollections.]  j  y[ 

WORTH,  JONATHAN  (Nov.  18,  1802-Sept. 
5,  1869),  governor  of  North  Carolina,  was  a  na- 
tive of  Guilford  County,  N.  C.  He  was  the  eldest 
son  of  Dr.  David  and  Eunice  (Gardner)  Worth, 
and  through  his  father  traced  his  ancestry  back 
to  early  settlers  of  Massachusetts  ;  one  branch  of 
the  family,  many  of  them  Quakers,  moved  to 
North  Carolina  from  Nantucket  before  the  Revo- 
lution. Worth  went  to  the  neighborhood  old- 
field  schools  and  to  Caldwell  Institute  in  Greens- 
boro, and  then  studied  law  under  Archibald  D. 
Murphey  [q.i'.],  whose  niece  and  ward,  Martitia 
Daniel,  he  married  on  Oct.  20,  1824.  In  the  same 
year  he  began  practice  at  Asheboro.  He  was  shy 
and  retiring  and  made  slow  progress,  but  in  1830 
he  was  elected  to  the  House  of  Commons  and, 
reelected  for  a  second  term,  gained  a  confidence 
in  himself  that  ended  his  difficulties.  In  addition 
to  his  practice  he  engaged  in  numerous  business 
enterprises,  operating  several  plantations  and  a 
turpentine  tract  and  furthering  the  building  of 
railroads  and  plank  roads. 

In  the  legislature  of  1831  he  took  the  lead  in 
formulating  the  protest  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons against  nullification,  but  he  was  a  bitter 
opponent  of  the  Jackson  administration,  and  be- 
came an  enthusiastic  and  partisan  Whig.  He 
was  an  unsuccessful  candidate  for  Congress  in 
1841  and  again  in  1845.  For  a  number  of  years 
he  was  clerk  and  master  in  equity  in  Randolph 
County,  but  in  1858  he  returned  to  the  legisla- 
ture, where  he  served  two  terms  in  the  Senate 
and  one  in  the  Commons.  In  i860  he  actively  op- 
posed the  secession  movement  in  the  legislature, 
voting  against  the  bill  to  submit  the  question  of  a 
convention  to  the  voters,  against  all  the  bills  for 
military  preparation,  and,  after  the  call  for  troops, 
against  the  call  of  a  convention.  Resolved  to  have 
no  part  in  secession,  he  refused  to  be  a  candidate 
for  the  convention,  but  his  mind  was  definitely 
made  up  to  support  the  South  and  he  did  so  in 
all  sincerity.   In  1862  he  was  elected  state  treas- 


Worth 

urer.and  in  handling  an  almost  impossible  task 
displayed  financial  capacity  of  a  high  order. 
Though  he  hated  the  war,  he  took  no  part  in  the 
peace  movement,  but,  foreseeing  the  outcome, 
was  happy  when  peace  finally  came.  The  pro- 
visional governor,  W.  W.  Holden  [q.v.~\,  con- 
tinued him  as  treasurer,  but  he  resigned  in  the 
autumn  of  1865  to  accept  nomination  for  gov- 
ernor from  a  group  of  old  Union  men  who  dis- 
trusted Holden.  Worth  was  elected,  and  was 
reelected  in  1866,  serving  until  1868  when,  con- 
gressional reconstruction  having  taken  place,  he 
was  removed  by  order  of  General  Canby,  com- 
manding the  second  military  district. 

Throughout  his  term  of  office  he  gave  Presi- 
dent Johnson  and  his  policy  whole-hearted  sup- 
port. His  position  was  one  requiring  the  sound- 
est judgment  and  the  greatest  care  and  tact.  Un- 
friendly elements  had  to  be  reconciled,  a  faction 
bitterly  hostile  to  the  Governor — and  to  every 
one  opposed  to  their  ideas — had  to  be  watched,  a 
suspicious  administration  in  Washington  had  to 
be  reassured,  and  a  watchful  and  hostile  North 
had  to  be  satisfied.  All  of  these  ends  but  the  last 
he  accomplished,  and  that  was  beyond  the  power 
of  any  Southern  man  mindful  of  the  people  he 
represented.  Worth,  unlike  most  of  his  support- 
ers, favored  the  ratification  of  the  new  constitu- 
tion submitted  in  1866,  but  he  strongly  opposed 
the  ratification  of  the  Fourteenth  Amendment. 
Though  bitter  in  his  hatred  of  congressional  re- 
construction, he  established  friendly  relations 
with  Gen.  Daniel  E.  Sickles,  who  first  command- 
ed the  second  district,  and  was  thus  able  in  many 
respects  to  mitigate  the  harshness  of  military 
rule.  After  his  removal  from  the  governorship 
in  1868  his  health  failed  rapidly,  and  he  died  in 
Raleigh  the  following  year. 

Worth  possessed  no  touch  of  brilliance,  but 
was  heavily  endowed  with  practical  sense  and  ac- 
quired from  study,  reflection,  and  experience  un- 
usually sound  judgment  and  a  genius  for  taking 
good  advice,  which,  combined  with  integrity,  won 
him  widespread  confidence.  Given  to  seriousness, 
he  was,  nevertheless,  a  very  human  person.  He 
was  the  father  of  eight  children. 

[The  Correspondence  of  Jonathan  Worth  (2  vols., 
1909),  ed.  by  J.  G.  deR.  Hamilton;  S.  A.  Ashe,  Biog. 
Hist,  of  N.  C,  vol.  Ill  (1905)  ;  J.  G.  deR.  Hamilton, 
Reconstruction  in  N.  C.  (1914)  ;  Daily  Standard  (Ra- 
leigh, N.  C.),  Sept.  7,  1869,  which  gives  day  of  death  as 
Sept.  6.]  J.G.deR.  H. 

WORTH,  WILLIAM  JENKINS  (Mar.  r, 
1794-May  7,  1849),  soldier,  was  born  in  Hudson, 
Columbia  County,  N.  Y.,  of  Quaker  parents.  His 
father  was  Thomas  Worth,  a  seaman,  one  of  the 
original  proprietors  of  Hudson,  and  his  mother 
was  a  daughter  of  Marshall  Jenkins.  He  was  re- 


536 


Worth 


Worthen 


lated  to  John  Worth  Edmonds  [<7 .?'.].  After  a 
common  school  education,  he  entered  a  store  in 
Hudson,  but  removed  shortly  to  Albany,  where 
he  continued  his  mercantile  pursuits  until  the 
opening  of  the  War  of  1812,  when  he  applied 
for  a  commission  in  the  army.  He  was  appointed 
first  lieutenant,  23d  Infantry,  Mar.  19,  1813.  Af- 
ter he  had  served  as  private  secretary  in  the  offi- 
cial family  of  Gen.  Morgan  Lewis,  he  was  se- 
lected by  Gen.  Winfield  Scott  [qq.v.~\  as  aide-de- 
camp. At  Chippewa  and  Lundy's  Lane  his  zeal 
and  intrepidity  were  eulogized  by  Scott  in  his  re- 
port of  the  battles.  At  Lundy's  Lane  he  was  so 
severely  wounded  that  for  a  time  it  was  felt  he 
would  die.  As  it  was,  he  was  confined  to  his  bed 
for  a  year  and  lamed  for  life.  He  was  brevetted 
a  captain  for  his  work  at  Chippewa  and  a  major 
for  Niagara.  Though  somewhat  crippled,  he  re- 
mained in  the  army  after  the  war,  serving  both 
in  the  1st  Artillery  and  in  the  Ordnance  Depart- 
ment. From  1820  to  1828  he  was  commandant  of 
cadets  at  the  United  States  Military  Academy, 
although  he  was  not  a  graduate  of  the  Academy. 
On  July  25,  1824,  he  was  brevetted  a  lieutenant- 
colonel  for  ten  years  of  faithful  service  in  one 
grade.  He  became  colonel  of  the  8th  Infantry, 
July  7,  1838,  and  as  such  commanded  in  Florida 
at  the  battle  of  Palaklaklaha,  where  the  Seminoles 
were  disastrously  defeated.  For  "gallantry  and 
highly  distinguished  services"  in  that  engage- 
ment he  was  brevetted  a  brigadier-general  by 
President  Polk. 

When  the  war  with  Mexico  was  brewing 
Worth  was  ordered  to  join  Zachary  Taylor  in 
the  Army  of  Occupation.  Here  he  was  second  in 
command  until  David  E.  Twiggs  \_q.v.~\  appeared. 
With  Twiggs  he  took  part  in  an  acrimonious  and 
unfortunate  controversy  over  rank.  He  fought 
well  in  the  battles  of  Palo  Alto  and  Resaca  de  la 
Palma,  and  was  the  first  to  plant  the  flag  on  the 
Rio  Grande.  At  Monterey,  where  the  weather 
buffeted  him  and  he  was  left  to  his  fate  by  Tay- 
lor on  Independence  Hill,  he  so  successfully 
stormed  the  heights  and  the  town  that  a  large  part 
of  the  victory  should  be  credited  to  him.  He  was 
rewarded,  Sept.  23,  1846,  by  a  brevet  of  major- 
general  and  by  a  resolution  of  Congress,  Mar.  2, 
1847,  presenting  him  with  a  sword.  Shortly  after 
that  battle  he  was  transferred  south  with  Scott's 
victorious  army,  where  he  took  part  in  all  the  en- 
gagements from  Vera  Cruz  to  Mexico  City.  At 
Cerro  Gordo  he  showed  energy  and  efficiency, 
and  diligently  pursued  the  flying  Mexicans  after 
the  battle.  At  Churubusco,  Chapultepec,  and 
Mexico  City,  he  again  showed  himself  to  be  an 
indomitable  force  upon  the  field. 

A  certain  deficiency  in  temperament  and  char- 


acter which  displayed  itself  most  noticeably  off 
the  battlefield  caused  Worth's  reputation  to  suf- 
fer. He  was  narrow  and  self-centered ;  at  Vera 
Cruz  the  suggestion  that  he  might  be  president 
was  his  undoing.  His  governorship  of  Puebla 
was  fraught  with  unsound  decisions,  harassment 
of  the  soldiers,  and  a  disregard  of  the  native  pop- 
ulation. When  mildly  called  to  account,  his  am- 
bition took  refuge  in  hostility  to  Scott.  Toward 
the  end  of  the  expedition,  he  found  opportunity 
to  enter  into  a  cabal  with  Pillow  and  Duncan 
against  Scott,  who  had  given  him  his  start  and 
treated  him  with  every  consideration.  His  letters 
caused  articles  to  be  written  in  the  newspapers 
in  the  states ;  the  purport  untruthfully  credited 
the  triumvirate  and  discredited  Scott  with  ridi- 
cule and  contempt  (  W.  R.  Benjamin's  and  Mrs. 
K.  S.  Hubbell's  collections  of  Worth's  letters). 
When  called  upon  for  an  explanation,  he  became 
truculent,  defiant  and  insulting,  so  that  Scott  had 
to  place  him  in  arrest.  Worth's  failings  robbed 
him  of  the  full  glory  of  his  attainments  in  cam- 
paign, but  as  a  leader  in  battle  few  have  surpassed 
him.  His  proud,  resolute,  commanding  mien  un- 
der fire  and  his  promptness  and  decision  in  giving 
orders  inspired  his  subordinates  with  confidence. 
After  the  war  he  was  placed  by  Scott  in  com- 
mand of  the  Department  of  Texas,  where  he  was 
seized  by  cholera  and  prematurely  died.  He  had 
been  married,  on  Sept.  18,  1818,  to  Margaret 
Stafford  of  Albany,  N.  Y.,  who,  with  their  three 
daughters  and  a  son,  survived  him. 

[H.  M.  Benedict,  A  Contribution  to  the  Gcneal.  of 
the  Stafford  Family  (1870)  ;  W.  F.  Scarborough,  "Wil- 
liam Jenkins  Worth — Soldier,"  Americana,  July  19.39  ; 
A.  R.  Bradbury,  Hist,  of  the  City  of  Hudson,  N.  Y. 
(1908)  ;  Fernando  Wood,  Address  .  .  .  at  the  Funeral 
Ceremonies  .  .  .  of  Maj.-Gcn.  Worth  (1857)  ;  W.  H. 
Powell,  List  of  Officers  of  the  Army  .  .  .  7779  to  1900 
(1900)  ;  W.  A.  Ganoe.  Hist,  of  the  U.  S.  Army  (1924)  ; 
J.  H.  Smith,  War  With  Mexico  (2  vols.,  1919)  ;  New 
Orleans  Weekly  Delta,  Sept.  10,  1847,  May  21,  1849.] 

W.A.G. 

WORTHEN,  AMOS  HENRY  (Oct.  31, 
1813-May  6,  1888),  geologist,  was  born  at  Brad- 
ford, Vt,  the  son  of  Thomas  Worthen,  an  en- 
terprising farmer,  and  Susannah  (Adams)  Wor- 
then, who  is  said  to  have  been  a  direct  descend- 
ant of  Henry  Adams,  the  founder  of  the  distin- 
guished Adams  family  in  America.  He  was  edu- 
cated at  Bradford  Academy.  On  Jan.  14,  1834, 
he  was  married  to  Sarah  B.  Kimball  of  Warren, 
N.  H.,  by  whom  he  had  seven  children.  Of  these, 
the  sole  daughter  died  in  infancy,  but  the  six 
sons  all  reached  manhood.  In  August  1834  Wor- 
then moved  to  Kentucky,  but  before  the  year  was 
out  he  was  teaching  school  in  Cuniminsville, 
Ohio.  In  June  1836  he  moved  to  Warsaw,  111., 
and  there,  with  his  wife's  brothers,  he  entered 


537 


Worthen 

the  dry-goods  business.  In  1842  he  moved  to 
Boston,  probably  because  of  the  business  depres- 
sion in  Warsaw  engendered  by  Mormon  difficul- 
ties in  the  county. 

In  Illinois  he  had  been  greatly  attracted  by  the 
geode  beds  and  other  geological  features  in  the 
Warsaw  area.  When  he  went  east,  he  took  with 
him  several  barrels  of  the  geodes ;  but  instead  of 
selling  them  at  the  fancy  prices  they  then  com- 
manded, he  traded  them  for  a  cabinet  of  sea-shells 
that  he  realized  at  once  were  related  to  forms 
preserved  in  the  shales  and  limestones  of  his 
adopted  state.  In  attempting  to  learn  more  about 
these  fossils,  he  stumbled  onto  Dr.  Gideon  Man- 
tell's  The  Medals  of  Creation  and  The  Wonders 
of  Geology,  and  his  study  of  these  books  crys- 
tallized in  him  the  desire  to  become  a  scientist. 
When  he  returned  to  Warsaw  in  July  1844,  he 
became  more  and  more  engrossed  in  geology,  and 
at  last  he  retired  from  business,  though  with 
financial  loss.  In  the  meantime,  his  collections 
had  grown  apace,  and  he  was  becoming  well 
known  to  eastern  scientists.  Many  of  his  speci- 
mens were  borrowed  by  James  Hall  [<?.?;.]  of 
Albany  and  were  described  in  the  latter's  ac- 
count of  the  paleontology  of  Iowa. 

After  the  establishment  of  a  geological  survey 
of  Illinois,  Worthen  found  sporadic  employment 
under  the  direction  of  J.  G.  Norwood,  but  it  was 
not  until  1855  that  he  began  his  first  active  geo- 
logical duties,  under  Hall  on  the  Iowa  survey. 
Meanwhile  the  Illinois  survey  work  had  lan- 
guished. When  in  1858  Worthen  was  appointed 
state  geologist,  there  were  turned  over  to  him  a 
single  report  on  the  lead  mines  of  Hardin  Coun- 
ty and  a  few  field  notes.  With  his  own  great 
energy  and  a  great  deal  of  enthusiasm  on  the  part 
of  some  of  the  ablest  specialists  of  his  day,  whom 
he  was  sagacious  enough  to  hire,  he  soon  turned 
a  moribund  bureau  into  an  organization  seething 
with  activity.  During  his  term  of  office  he  pub- 
lished seven  large  volumes  of  the  Geological  Sur- 
vey of  Illinois  (8  vols.,  1866-90),  and  had  the 
material  for  the  eighth  ready  for  the  press  at  the 
time  of  his  death.  Considering  that  the  geolog- 
ical work  of  the  state  was  completed,  he  intended 
to  resign  when  the  last  volume  was  printed. 
Judged  by  later  standards  the  work  had  scarcely 
begun,  but  every  county  in  the  state  had  been 
considered  in  the  reports,  and  the  state's  major 
mineral  resources  had  been  outlined.  A  much 
more  lasting  contribution  to  science  made  in 
Worthen's  publications  was  the  description  of 
1626  species  of  fossils,  comprising  1073  inver- 
tebrate animals,  297  vertebrates,  and  256  plants. 
Nearly  1500  of  these  were  described  for  the 
first  time  in  these  volumes,  and  all  were  beauti- 


Worthen 

fully  illustrated.  Although  Worthen's  hand  is 
seen  in  every  page  of  these  publications,  his  nu- 
merous able  assistants  also  contributed  heavily 
to  the  scientific  papers.  Worthen  himself  was 
chiefly  interested  in  the  classification  of  the  Low- 
er Carboniferous  strata,  and  he  is  still  regarded 
by  many  as  the  pioneer  in  this  important  strati- 
graphic  work.  Worthen  was  always  affable,  but 
even  up  to  the  last  he  had  an  unceasing  ambition 
to  carve  out  a  real  scientific  career  for  himself; 
thus  he  had  little  time  for  the  less  serious  things 
in  life.  Although  he  set  no  great  store  by  such 
honors,  he  was  elected  to  a  number  of  European 
as  well  as  American  honorary  societies,  among 
them  the  American  Philosophical  Society  and 
the  National  Academy  of  Sciences. 

[N.  W.  Bliss,  in  Geological  Survey  of  III.,  vol.  VIII 
(1890);  C.  A.  White,  Ibid.,  with  full  bibliog.,  and 
memoir  in  Nat.  Acad,  of  Sci.  Biog.  Memoirs,  vol.  Ill 
(1895);  E.  O.  Ulrich,  in  Am.  Geologist,  Aug.  1888.] 

C.C. 
WORTHEN,  WILLIAM  EZRA  (Mar.  14, 
1819-Apr.  2,  1897),  civil  engineer,  son  of  Ezra 
and  Mary  (Currier)  Worthen,  was  born  at 
Amesbury,  Mass.  His  father  was  one  of  the 
projectors  of  the  city  of  Lowell,  Mass.,  and  was 
made  the  first  superintendent  of  the  Merrimack 
Mills  there  in  1822.  William  was  prepared  for 
college  in  Boston,  and  graduated  at  Harvard  in 
1838.  He  began  his  professional  career  as  an  as- 
sistant in  the  office  of  the  younger  Loammi  Bald- 
win [q.v.~\  upon  water-supply  and  hydraulic  work 
in  Lowell  and  Boston,  then  in  similar  capacity 
was  associated  with  James  B.  Francis  [q.v.],  an- 
other well-known  engineer.  In  1840-42,  he  was 
engaged  under  George  W.  Whistler  [q.v.~\  upon 
the  Albany  &  West  Stockbridge  Railroad,  with 
seven  miles  of  road  in  his  charge.  Returning  to 
Lowell  with  Francis,  he  designed  and  built  many 
dams  and  mills  and  carried  on  other  hydraulic 
work  in  eastern  Massachusetts  and  southern  New 
Hampshire. 

After  a  visit  to  Europe,  he  settled  in  New 
York  in  1849,  engaging  in  building  and  mill  con- 
struction. He  also  built  the  dam  across  the  Mo- 
hawk River  at  Cohoes,  N.  Y.,  and  the  floating 
docks  for  the  Jersey  City  depots  of  the  Erie  Rail- 
way. He  was  widely  known  as  an  expert  upon 
pumping  machinery,  and  was  called  upon  both 
to  design  and  to  test  such  machinery  in  New 
York,  Cincinnati,  and  St.  Louis.  He  also  se- 
lected pumping  engines  for  Boston  and  tested 
large  pumping  units  at  Brooklyn,  Lawrence, 
Philadelphia,  Milwaukee,  and  other  cities.  He 
had  much  practice  in  the  measurement  of  flow 
of  water  in  canals,  reporting  upon  this  subject 
for  Paterson,  Trenton,  Passaic,  Indianapolis, 
and  other  places.    In  addition  to  his  consulting 


538 


Worthington 

practice,  he  served  for  a  time  as  engineer  of  the 
New  York  &  New  Haven  Railroad,  of  which  he 
was  made  vice-president  in  1854.  From  1866  to 
1869  he  was  sanitary  engineer  to  the  New  York 
Metropolitan  Board  of  Health,  and  served  on  a 
number  of  engineering  boards  in  connection 
with  various  municipal  projects.  In  Brooklyn 
he  reported  upon  an  extensive  addition  to  the 
sewer  system.  With  James  B.  Francis  and  The- 
odore S.  Ellis,  in  1874  he  served  .upon  a  commit- 
tee to  report  upon  the  failure  of  Mill  River  dam, 
at  Williamsburg,  Mass.  (Transactions  of  the 
American  Society  of  Civil  Engineers,  vol.  Ill, 
1874,  pp.  118-22).  In  1890-91  he  was  chief  engi- 
neer of  the  Chicago  Main  Drainage  Canal. 

Worthen  was  the  editor  of  Appleton's  Cyclo- 
pedia of  Drawing  (1857,  many  later  editions), 
and  the  author  of  First  Lessons  in  Mechanics 
(1862)  and  Rudimentary  Drawing,  for  the  use 
of  Schools  (1864),  as  well  as  a  number  of  pro- 
fessional papers  read  before  the  American  So- 
ciety of  Civil  Engineers  and  published  in  its 
Transactions.  He  was  president  of  that  society 
in  1887  and  was  made  an  honorary  member  in 
1893.  He  married  Margaret  Hobbs  of  Boston, 
who  survived  him,  but  they  left  no  children. 

[Trans.  Am.  Soc.  Civil  Engineers,  vol.  XL  (1898)  ; 
G.  P.  Brown,  Drainage  Channel  and  Waterway  (  1894), 
for  Worthen's  connection  with  the  Chicago  Drainage 
Canal;  N.  Y.  Times,  Apr.  3,  1897.]  H.  K.  B. 

WORTHINGTON,    HENRY    ROSSITER 

(Dec.  17,  1817-Dec.  17,  1880),  engineer,  inven- 
tor, was  the  eldest  child  of  Asa  and  Frances 
(Meadowcraft)  Worthington,  and  was  born  in 
New  York  City.  He  was  a  descendant  in  the 
sixth  generation  of  Nicholas  Worthington  who 
emigrated  from  England  about  1650  and  settled 
in  Connecticut.  After  being  educated  in  the  pub- 
lic schools  of  his  native  city,  Worthington,  who 
had  shown  early  a  decided  bent  for  things  me- 
chanical, sought  employment  that  enabled  him 
to  become  a  hydraulic  engineer  while  still  a  very 
young  man.  He  concentrated  his  attention  on 
the  problems  of  city  water  supply,  became  thor- 
oughly familiar  with  steam  engines  and  me- 
chanical pumps,  and  engaged  in  experiments  in- 
tended to  improve  these  machines.  Canal  navi- 
gation interested  him,  too,  and  it  was  in  this 
connection  that  he  made  his  first  invention.  As 
early  as  1840  he  had  an  experimental  steam  canal- 
boat  in  operation  which  was  fairly  successful  ex- 
cept that  when  the  boat  was  stopped  it  became 
necessary  to  resort  to  a  hand  pump  to  keep  the 
steam  boiler  supplied  with  water.  To  overcome 
this  deficiency  he  invented  an  independent  feed- 
ing pump  which  was  automatic  in  its  action  and 
was  controlled  by  the  water  level  within  the 
steam  boiler  (patent,  Sept.  7,  1840). 


Worthington 

After  pursuing  his  canal  navigation  experi- 
ments for  four  or  five  more  years  and  obtaining 
a  patent  on  Feb-  2,  1844,  for  an  improvement  in 
the  mode  of  propelling  canal  boats,  he  turned  his 
attention  again  to  pumping  machinery  and  per- 
fected a  series  of  inventions  between  1845  ar>d 
1855  which  made  him  the  first  proposer  and  con- 
structor of  the  direct  steam  pump  (patent  No. 
13,370).  In  1859,  after  establishing  a  pump- 
manufacturing  plant  in  New  York,  he  perfected 
his  duplex  steam  feed  pump  (patent  No.  24,838) 
and  in  the  following  year  built  the  first  water- 
works engine  of  this  kind.  In  the  duplex  sys- 
tem one  engine  actuated  the  steam  valves  of 
the  other,  and  a  pause  of  the  pistons  at  the  end  of 
the  stroke  permitted  the  water-valves  to  seat 
themselves  quietly  and  preserve  a  uniform  water 
pressure.  A  distinct  improvement  on  the  Cor- 
nish engines  used  at  the  time,  Worthington's 
pump  embodied  one  of  the  most  ingenious  ad- 
vances in  engineering  in  the  nineteenth  century 
and  its  principle  was  widely  applied.  Because  of 
their  reliability  and  low  operating  cost,  these 
pumps  were  greatly  used  thereafter  in  America 
for  waterworks  and  for  pumping  oil  through 
long  pipe  lines  in  the  oil  fields ;  they  are  still 
used  (1936)  for  boiler  feeding,  tank  and  ballast 
pumping,  and  for  hydraulic-press  work.  Wor- 
thington also  originated  a  pumping  engine  that 
used  no  flywheel  to  carry  the  piston  past  the 
dead  point  at  the  end  of  the  stroke.  He  devised, 
too,  a  number  of  instruments  of  precision,  as 
well  as  machine  tools  which  in  themselves  enti- 
tled him  to  a  high  place  in  his  profession.  In  ad- 
dition to  directing  his  pump-manufacturing  plant, 
which  employed  over  two  hundred  men,  he  was 
president  of  the  Nason  Manufacturing  Company 
in  New  York.  He  was  a  founder  of  the  Ameri- 
can Society  of  Mechanical  Engineers  and  a  mem- 
ber of  other  technical  societies.  On  Sept.  24, 
1839,  he  married  Laura  I.  Newton  of  Alexan- 
dria, Va.,  and  at  the  time  of  his  death  he  was 
survived  by  his  widow,  two  sons,  and  two  daugh- 
ters (New  York  Times,  post). 

[George  Worthington,  Gencal.  of  the  Worthington 
family  (1894)  ;  Trans.  Am.  Soc.  Mech.  Engineers,  vol. 
II  ( 1 88 1 )  ;  Am.  Machinist,  Jan.  8,  1881  ;  Sci.  American, 
June  26,  1923;  G.  F.  Westcott,  Sci.  Museum,  South 
Kensington,  Handbook  of  the  Colls.  Illustrating  Pump- 
ing Machinery  (2  pts.,  1932-33)  ;  obituary  in  N.  Y. 
Times,  Dec.   18,   1880;  Patent  Office  records.] 

C.W.M. 

WORTHINGTON,  JOHN  (Nov.  24,  1719- 
Apr.  25,  1800),  lawyer,  was  born  in  Springfield, 
Mass.,  the  son  of  John  and  Mary  ( Pratt)  Wor- 
thington and  the  grandson  of  Nicholas  Wor- 
thington who  emigrated  from  England  to  Say- 
brook,   Conn.,  about   1650.    He  was  graduated 


539 


Worthington 


Worthington 


from  Yale  College  in  1740  and  remained  to  study 
theology.  From  1742  to  1743  he  was  a  tutor  at 
Yale,  leaving  to  study  law  under  Phineas  Lyman 
[q.v.~\  of  Suffield,  Conn.,  then  part  of  Massachu- 
setts. He  began  to  practise  law  at  Springfield  in 
1744,  where  with  Joseph  Hawley  [<j.r.]  of  North- 
ampton he  did  much  to  raise  the  standing  of  the 
bar  in  that  part  of  the  province.  For  many  years 
he  was  the  king's  attorney,  or  public  prosecutor, 
in  western  Massachusetts.  When  the  French  and 
Indian  War  broke  out  he  took  an  active  part  in 
the  raising  and  provisioning  of  troops.  He  was 
colonel  of  one  of  the  Hampshire  regiments,  a 
post  he  held  until  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution. 
On  Jan.  10,  1759,  he  married  Hannah,  the  daugh- 
ter of  the  Rev.  Samuel  Hopkins  of  West  Spring- 
field. She  died  on  Nov.  25,  1766,  leaving  four 
daughters,  one  of  whom  married  Jonathan  Bliss 
and  another  Fisher  Ames  [qq.v.~\.  On  Dec.  7, 
1768,  he  married  Mary  Stoddard,  the  daughter 
of  Col.  John  Stoddard  of  Northampton.  Grad- 
ually he  became  a  man  of  considerable  wealth,  to 
a  large  extent  through  land  speculation.  One  of 
his  ventures  resulted  in  the  settlement  in  1768  of 
the  town  of  Worthington,  Mass.,  which  was 
named  for  him. 

Meanwhile  he  had  become  the  political  dicta- 
tor of  Springfield ;  he  was  regularly  a  member 
of  the  board  of  selectmen  and  moderator  of  the 
town  meetings.  For  many  years  high  sheriff  of 
Hampshire  County,  he  had  great  influence  in 
the  county's  affairs.  He  represented  Springfield 
at  the  Massachusetts  General  Court  almost  con- 
tinuously from  1747  to  1774,  an  able  legislator 
who  grew  steadily  more  conservative  as  the  prov- 
ince moved  towards  revolution.  He  attended  the 
Albany  Congress  in  1754  and  a  decade  later  fa- 
vored the  calling  of  the  Stamp  Act  Congress,  al- 
though he  declined  to  be  a  delegate  to  its  meet- 
ings at  New  York  in  October  1765.  From  1767 
to  1769  he  was  a  member  of  the  governor's  coun- 
cil but  was  not  reelected  in  1769,  apparently  be- 
cause he  supported  the  governor  in  the  quarrel 
with  the  House  of  Representatives.  In  1774  he 
was  appointed  a  mandamus  councillor,  but  a  mob 
forced  him  to  recant  his  Loyalism.  His  political 
influence  at  an  end,  he  planned  to  emigrate  to 
Nova  Scotia,  but  friends  prevailed  upon  him  to 
remain  in  Massachusetts.  Gradually  he  became 
reconciled  to  the  separation  from  Great  Britain, 
contributed  funds  for  the  army  and  by  1778  was 
again  active  in  Springfield  politics.  He  served 
on  the  commission  that  settled  the  Massachu- 
setts-Connecticut boundary  in  1791.  Through- 
out his  declining  years  he  was  interested  in  local 
affairs  and  was  one  of  the  incorporators  of  the 
company  that  began  the  building  of  canals  around 


the  falls  of  the  Connecticut  River  in  the  last 
decade  of  the  century. 

[George  Bliss,  An  Address  .  .  .  at  Springfield  .  .  . 
1828  (1828)  ;  F.  B.  Dexter,  Biog.  Sketches  of  the  Grads. 
of  Yale  College,  vol.  I  (1885)  ;  M.  A.  Green,  Spring- 
field, 1636-1886  (1888)  ;  J.  G.  Holland,  Hist,  of  West- 
ern Mass.  (1855),  vol.  I;  Lorenzo  Sabine,  Biog. 
Sketches  of  Loyalists  of  the  Am.  Rev.  (1864),  vol.  II  ; 
Emory  Washburn,  Judicial  Hist,  of  Mass.  (1840)  ; 
George  Worthington,  The  Geneal.  of  the  Worthington 
Family  (1894).]  E.F.B. 

WORTHINGTON,  THOMAS  (July  16, 
I773-June  20,  1827),  governor  of  Ohio,  senator, 
was  born  near  Charleston,  Va.  (now  in  W.  Va.), 
the  son  of  Robert  and  Margaret  (Matthews) 
Worthington  and  the  descendant  of  Robert  Wor- 
thington, an  English  emigrant  who  settled  in 
Maryland  about  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth 
century.  Upon  the  death  of  his  father,  he  was 
cared  for  by  his  elder  brothers  and  by  William 
Darke  [g.t*.],  a  friend  of  his  father.  His  educa- 
tion was  not  systematic,  but  his  writings  indicate 
better  training  than  was  usual  on  the  frontier. 
He  went  to  sea  on  a  Scotch  merchantman  in 
1791  and  spent  two  years  in  travel.  Upon  his  re- 
turn to  the  Virginia  frontier  he  studied  survey- 
ing, and  in  1796  his  calling  took  him  to  Chilli- 
cothe,  Ohio.  In  association  with  Duncan  Mc- 
Arthur  [q.v.~\  he  engaged  in  the  purchase  of  Vir- 
ginia military  land  warrants,  locating  his  hold- 
ings largely  in  the  neighborhood  of  Chillicothe. 
On  Dec.  13,  1796,  he  married  Eleanor  Van 
Swearingen,  and  in  the  spring  of  1798  he  re- 
moved, together  with  his  brother-in-law,  Edward 
Tiffin  [(7.7'.],  to  Chillicothe.  Worthington  was 
well-to-do,  partly  through  his  wife's  inheritance, 
and  was  able  to  set  up  the  establishment  of  a 
country  gentleman  after  the  Virginia  fashion. 
His  whole  life  was  marked  by  his  piety.  Although 
an  active  Methodist,  he  exemplified  Quaker 
humanitarianism.  The  portrait  by  Rembrandt 
Peale  in  the  state  capitol  at  Columbus  shows  him 
as  distinguished  in  appearance,  six  feet  in  height, 
with  ruddy  complexion,  dark  eyes,  and  sandy 
hair.  Throughout  his  life  he  interested  himself 
in  the  management  of  his  large  farm  and  his 
mills. 

He  and  Tiffin,  working  in  complete  harmony, 
soon  became  dominant  figures  in  Ohio  politics. 
Worthington  was  a  member  of  the  territorial 
House  of  Representatives  from  1799  to  1803.  In 
1800  he  was  appointed  register  of  public  lands, 
in  charge  of  sales,  at  Chillicothe.  He  was  one 
of  the  leaders  of  the  "Chillicothe  Junto,"  which 
accomplished  the  triumph  of  Jeffersonianism  in 
Ohio  and  the  admission  of  the  state  to  the  Union. 
In  the  interest  of  statehood  he  made  a  trip  to 
Washington  in  1801,  where  he  gained  the  es- 
teem of  the  new  administration.    He  was  an  in- 


540 


Wovoka 

fluential  member  of  the  convention  that  drafted 
the  first  state  constitution  in  1802.  He  was  a 
representative  to  the  first  General  Assembly  in 
1803  and  again  sat  in  that  body  the  session  of 
1807-08.  Tiffin  became  the  first  governor  of  the 
state,  and  Worthington  one  of  the  first  federal 
senators.  He  served  from  1803  to  1807,  was  re- 
elected in  1810,  and  resigned  December  1814  to 
become  governor  of  Ohio.  As  senator,  his  coun- 
sel had  considerable  weight,  especially  in  matters 
concerning  the  public  lands  and  the  Indian  fron- 
tier. He  voted  against  the  declaration  of  war 
with  Great  Britain,  because  he  felt  the  country 
was  unprepared  and  because  he  had  conscientious 
scruples  against  war.  This  vote  did  not  prevent 
his  election  as  governor  in  1814.  He  was  reelect- 
ed in  1816-  As  state  executive  he  was  able  to 
accomplish  little,  because  the  governors  were  al- 
most powerless  under  the  first  state  constitution, 
but  his  messages  to  the  legislature  were  remark- 
able for  suggested  social  reforms,  such  as  the  reg- 
ulation of  saloons,  better  treatment  of  paupers 
and  convicts,  and  the  regulation  of  the  sale  of 
lands  for  taxes.  He  was  responsible  for  the 
founding  of  the  state  library.  During  his  incum- 
bency he  was  instrumental  in  the  establishment 
of  a  branch  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  at 
Chillicothe,  which  affected  his  later  political  ca- 
reer adversely.  Upon  his  retirement  from  the 
governorship  he  became  active  in  the  promotion 
of  better  agricultural  methods,  in  a  state-support- 
ed school  system,  and  in  the  Ohio  canal  system. 
He  served  in  the  state  House  of  Representatives 
in  1821-23  and  again  for  the  session  of  1824-25. 
He  was  distressed  in  his  latter  years  by  business 
reverses  suffered  in  the  depression  of  1819.  He 
died  in  New  York  City  after  a  lingering  illness, 
survived  by  his  widow  and  a  large  family.  Sarah 
Worthington  King  Peter  \_q.v.~\  was  his  daughter. 

[Worthington  papers  in  State  Lib.,  Columbus,  Ohio, 
and  Lib.  of  Cong.  ;  McArthur  Papers,  Lib.  of  Cong. ; 
A.  B.  Sears,  "The  Public  Career  of  Thomas  Worthing- 
ton," unpublished  doctoral  dissertation,  Ohio  State 
University,  Columbus,  1932  ;  Sarah  W.  K.  Peter,  Pri- 
vate Memoir  of  Thomas  Worthington  (1882);  F.  T. 
Cole,  "Thomas  Worthington,"  Ohio  Arch,  and  Hist. 
Pubs.,  vol.  XII  (1903);  Scioto  Gazette  (Chillicothe), 
July  s,  1827.]  W.  T.  U. 

WOVOKA  (c.  1856-October  1032),  Indian 
mystic  and  originator  of  the  Ghost  Dance  reli- 
gion, was  born  near  Walker  Lake  in  what  is  now 
Esmeralda  County,  Nev.  He  was  a  full-blood 
Indian,  said  to  be  the  son  of  Tavibo,  a  religious 
leader,  either  a  preacher  or  a  dreamer,  and  a 
member  of  the  Paviotso  or  Paiute  tribe  living  in 
an  isolated  valley  of  sage  prairie,  bounded  by 
vast,  ice-crowned  sierras,  the  breeder  of  a  long 
line  of  religious  teachers  and  prophets.  Like 
most  of  his  tribe,  Wovoka  made  a  satisfactory 


Wragg 


adjustment  to  the  white  settlers  and  earned  a 
good  living  on  the  ranch  of  a  white  man,  David 
Wilson,  from  whom  he  received  the  nickname  by 
which  he  was  usually  known  among  the  whites, 
Jack  Wilson.  He  also  acquired  an  inadequate 
knowledge  of  the  English  language  and  some  no- 
tion of  the  white  man's  theology.  Until  he  was 
about  thirty  he  lived  obscurely  in  his  valley,  in- 
dustrious and  dependable.  Then  he  had  some 
kind  of  a  spiritual  experience,  possibly  a  trance 
associated  with  illness  and  the  primitive  excite- 
ment of  the  tribe  during  an  eclipse  of  the  sun  on 
Jan.  1,  1889,  or  possibly  one  of  the  many  varie- 
ties of  mystic  contemplation  that  baffle  the  ex- 
planations of  a  workaday  world.  Out  of  this  he 
evolved  a  philosophy  and  the  Ghost  Dance  that 
swept  the  Indian  country  and  became  important 
in  the  white  man's  political  economy  in  the  Mes- 
siah agitation  of  1890.  The  Ghost  Dance  was  an 
indefinable  and  varying  mixture  of  mysticism, 
hypnotism,  primitive  superstition  and  a  lost  peo- 
ple's yearning  after  happiness.  The  teaching  of 
Wovoka  was  simple,  with  the  same  simplicity 
that  is  noticeable  in  great  religions ;  and  it  was 
founded  on  the  doctrine,  common  among  many 
peoples  in  the  grip  of  adversity,  that  the  time  was 
now  at  hand  for  a  renewal  of  an  old  worn-out 
world.  He  taught  that  from  Heaven  he  had  a 
direct  message  to  his  people,  to  do  right,  to  love 
one  another  and  all  men,  to  live  at  peace  with 
the  world,  and  to  pray  and  hope  for  a  day  of  re- 
union, in  a  state  of  everlasting  happiness,  for  all 
Indians,  the  quick  and  the  dead. 

At  first  he  assigned  a  definite  time  for  transla- 
tion into  a  state  of  bliss,  most  particularly  in  the 
year  1891 ;  but,  as  the  changing  seasons  of  that 
designated  year  lengthened  past  the  appointed 
time,  he  was  forced  to  shift  his  teaching  to  a 
vague  belief  in  some  future  better  life,  to  be 
awaited  with  pious  hope  and  to  be  anticipated 
and  perhaps  hastened  by  participation  in  the  mys- 
teries of  the  dance.  After  the  excitement  of  the 
Ghost  Dance  had  passed,  he  gradually  sank  back 
to  the  obscurity  from  which  he  had  come  and 
died  all  but  unnoticed  by  his  white  brethren. 

[Files  of  the  Adj. -Gen.  Office,  War  Dept,  and  of  the 
Office  of  Indian  Affairs,  Department  of  the  Interior; 
James  Mooney,  "The  Ghost-Dance  Religion,"  Four- 
teenth Annual  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  pt. 
2  (1896)  ;  Evening  Star  (Washington,  D.  C),  Oct.  5, 
!932]  K.  E.C. 

WRAGG,  WILLIAM  (1714-Sept.  2,  1777), 
colonial  official,  Loyalist  leader,  the  eldest  child 
and  only  son  of  Samuel  and  Marie  (DuBose) 
Wragg,  was  born  in  South  Carolina,  probably  in 
Charlestown.  His  father,  a  wealthy  Charlestown 
merchant,  who  served  in  the  provincial  Assembly 
after  1712  and  in  the  Council  from  1717  until  his 


541 


Wragg 


death,  was  given  a  barony,  variously  known  as 
the  "Signiory  of  St.  Giles,"  the  Ashley  Barony, 
and  the  Wragg  Barony,  for  his  services  in  bring- 
ing emigrants  to  the  colony. 

When  William  was  four  years  old  his  fa- 
ther sailed  with  him  for  England.  Just  outside 
Charlestown  harbor  they  were  captured  by 
Blackbeard,  the  pirate,  who  held  them  until  he 
was  furnished  with  a  store  of  drugs  from  Charles- 
town.  Released,  they  continued  the  voyage,  and 
Wragg  remained  in  England  until  he  was  grown. 
According  to  tradition,  he  was  educated  at  one 
of  the  older  public  schools  and  at  one  of  the  uni- 
versities, and  finally  at  the  Middle  Temple,  to 
which  he  was  admitted  in  1725.  He  was  called 
to  the  bar  Nov.  23,  1733. 

Returning  to  South  Carolina  he  lived  the  life 
of  a  country  gentleman.  He  inherited  the  barony 
from  his  father  and  also  acquired  a  great  prop- 
erty by  the  will  of  John  Skene,  who  died  in  1768. 
He  owned  more  than  two  hundred  negroes  and 
at  the  opening  of  the  Revolution  was  one  of  the 
richest  men  in  the  province.  His  wealth,  his  edu- 
cation, his  social  position,  his  strong  character, 
and  his  unfailing  courage,  all  contributed  to  make 
him  a  notable  figure.  A  contemporary  said  of 
him,  "he  would  have  been  a  real  ornament  to 
Sparta  or  Rome  in  their  most  virtuous  days" 
(quoted  in  Jones,  post,  p.  221).  He  was  made  a 
member  of  the  council  in  1753  and  a  justice  of  the 
peace  in  1756,  and  was  a  member  of  the  Assem- 
bly from  1763  to  1768  when,  although  he  was  re- 
elected, he  refused  to  qualify.  On  Aug.  10,  1769, 
he  was  again  placed  on  the  council. 

In  his  public  career  he  was  consistently  a  sup- 
porter of  the  governor  and  the  Crown.  Alone  in 
the  Assembly  in  1766  he  voted  against  approving 
the  action  of  the  Stamp  Act  Congress,  and  when 
in  1769  he  was  published  as  a  non-subscriber  to 
the  non-importation  agreement,  he  defended  his 
action  in  a  powerful  protest  entitled,  "Reasons 
for  not  Concurring  in  the  Non-Importation  Res- 
olution" (South  Carolina  Gazette,  Sept.  4,  1769, 
quoted  by  McCrady,  post,  655-56).  When  a 
resolution  to  erect  a  statue  to  William  Pitt  was 
under  discussion,  he  suggested  that  one  of  George 
III  be  substituted. 

As  a  result  of  his  loyalty,  soon  after  this  epi- 
sode he  was  appointed  chief  justice,  though  he 
had  never  practised  law.  He  returned  the  com- 
mission, however,  in  order  that  no  man  might 
say  that  "the  hope  of  preferment  had  influenced 
his  preceding  conduct,"  a  "proof  of  his  disinter- 
estedness and  delicacy"  that  his  people  admired 
(Ramsay,  post).  With  the  approach  of  the  Rev- 
olution, Wragg  never  wavered  in  his  loyalty  to 
Great  Britain.  When  he  refused  to  sign  the  non- 


Wraxall 

importation  agreement  and  frankly  expressed  hrs 
belief  that  the  work  of  the  Continental  Congress 
constituted  rebellion,  he  was  ordered  not  to  leave 
his  barony.  Continuing  his  refusal  to  conform, 
and  claiming  his  right  to  liberty  of  speech  and 
belief,  he  was  banished  in  1777,  and  sailed  in  the 
Commerce  for  Amsterdam.  On  Sept.  2,  his  ves- 
sel was  wrecked  off  the  coast  of  Holland  and  he 
lost  his  life — according  to  one  account,  in  saving 
the  life  of  his  infant  son;  according  to  another, 
in  giving  aid  to  the  crew.  A  tablet  to  his  mem- 
ory, the  first  to  be  erected  to  an  American,  was 
later  placed  in  Westminster  Abbey. 

Wragg  was  twice  married ;  first,  in  England, 
to  Mary  Wood,  who  died  Dec.  22,  1767,  and  sec- 
ond, on  Feb.  5,  1769,  to  his  cousin,  Henrietta 
Wragg  of  Charlestown,  who  survived  him.  A 
daughter  of  the  first  marriage  married  John 
Mathews  \_q.v.~\  ;  a  daughter  of  the  second,  Wil- 
liam Loughton  Smith  [q.i'.~\. 

[E.  A.  Jones,  Am.  Members  of  the  Inns  of  Court 
(1924)  ;  Edward  McCrady,  The  Hist,  of  S.  C.  under  the 
Royal  Govt.,  1719-1776  (1899)  ;  6".  C.  Gazette,  Dec.  6, 
1780;  5".  C.  Hist,  and  Geneal.  Mag.,  Apr.  1910,  Oct. 
1916,  July  191 8;  David  Ramsay,  The  Hist,  of  S.  C. 
(1809),  II,  532-38.]  J.G.deR.H. 

WRAXALL,  PETER  (d.  July  10,  1759),  sol- 
dier and  secretary  for  Indian  affairs  in  the  prov- 
ince of  New  York,  was  the  son  of  John  Wraxall, 
a  resident  of  Bristol  in  England,  and  belonged 
to  a  family  which  appears  to  have  enjoyed  good 
social  and  political  connections.  From  scattered 
allusions  it  may  be  inferred  that  Peter  Wraxall, 
having  been  born  in  England,  probably  spent 
some  time  in  Holland  and  before  coming  to 
America  had  been  in  Jamaica.  A  residence  in 
Holland  would  help  to  account  for  the  familiarity 
with  the  Dutch  language  which  was  a  valuable 
asset  to  him  in  connection  with  his  activities  in 
New  York. 

Wraxall's  name  appears  upon  the  muster  rolls 
of  New  York  in  1746 — the  first  reliable  evidence 
of  his  presence  in  the  province.  He  apparently 
commanded  a  company  of  Long  Island  militia 
raised  for  an  expedition  against  Canada,  but  did 
not  get  beyond  Albany.  In  1747  he  went  to  Eng- 
land on  personal  business  and  did  not  return  to 
New  York  until  May  1752.  While  in  England 
he  secured  the  King's  appointment  to  the  offices 
of  secretary  and  agent  for  Indian  affairs  in  New 
York,  and  town  clerk,  clerk  of  the  peace,  and 
clerk  of  the  common  pleas  in  the  county  and  city 
of  Albany,  the  commissions  being  dated  Nov.  15, 
1750.  Shortly  after  returning  to  New  York,  he 
entered  upon  his  duties  as  secretary  for  Indian 
affairs,  but  in  the  meantime,  Governor  Clinton 
had  appointed  another  person  to  the  offices  of 
town  clerk,  etc.,  and  he  never  assumed  the  duties 


542 


Wraxall 

of  this  position.  As  secretary  for  Indian  affairs, 
Wraxall  attended  councils  and  kept  a  record  of 
proceedings.  In  1754  he  was  chosen  secretary  to 
the  Albany  Congress,  which  probably  brought 
him  prominently  to  the  attention  of  William 
Johnson  [q.v.].  Shortly  before  the  Congress,  he 
had  forwarded  to  Lord  Halifax  "An  Abridgment 
of  the  Records  of  Indian  Affairs  .  .  .  transacted 
in  the  Colony  of  New  York  from  the  year  1678 
to  the  year  1751"  (see  Mcllwain,  post).  This 
compilation,  including  his  own  comments,  was 
an  arraignment  of  the  Albany  fur  traders  and 
of  the  Albany  commissioners  in  charge  of  In- 
dian affairs,  whom  he  accused  of  playing  into 
the  hands  of  the  French.  There  is  reason  to 
think  that  this  document  was  influential  in  help- 
ing to  secure  for  Johnson  his  subsequent  ap- 
pointment as  superintendent  of  Indian  affairs. 

Early  in  1755,  Johnson  secured  permission 
from  General  Braddock  to  attach  Wraxall  to 
himself  in  his  capacity  as  secretary  for  Indian 
affairs.  Wraxall  accompanied  Johnson  on  his 
Crown  Point  expedition  and  was  present  at  the 
battle  of  Lake  George,  Sept.  8,  1755.  Wraxall 
had  in  the  meantime  been  commissioned  captain 
in  the  New  York  forces  and  on  this  expedition 
served  Johnson  not  only  as  secretary  but  also 
as  aide-de-camp  and  judge  advocate,  being  en- 
trusted by  his  superior  with  various  important 
administrative  and  political  matters.  He  sub- 
sequently saw  little  active  military  service,  but 
he  continued  to  serve  Johnson  as  secretary  until 
his  own  death.  Johnson  valued  his  services  in 
the  field  of  Indian  affairs  very  highly,  observing 
that  he  had  "a  peculiar  Turn  that  way."  In  the 
winter  of  1755-56,  he  prepared  a  memorandum 
entitled  "Some  Thoughts  upon  the  British  In- 
dian Interest  in  North  America,  more  particu- 
larly as  it  relates  to  the  Northern  Confederacy 
commonly  called  the  Six  Nations"  (Documents, 
post,  VII,  15-31),  which  has  been  characterized 
as  "unquestionably  the  ablest  and  best  paper  on 
the  Indian  question  written  during  this  earlier 
period"  (C.  W.  Alvord,  in  Historical  Collections 
.  .  .  Michigan  Pioneer  and  Historical  Society, 
vol.  XXXVI,  1908,  p.  26). 

Wraxall  was  married  on  Dec.  9,  1756,  to  Eliza- 
beth Stillwell.  He  resided  during  the  last  year 
or  two  of  his  life  in  New  York  City,  where  he 
died.  His  great  service  to  the  colonies  consisted 
in  helping  to  check  the  French  power  among  the 
Indians  during  the  period  from  1752  to  1759. 
Had  he  survived  the  French  and  Indian  War  he 
would  unquestionably  have  found  wider  fields  of 
usefulness  in  the  realm  of  Indian  affairs  as  sub- 
sequently administered  by  his  friend  and  patron, 
Sir  William  Johnson. 


Wright 


[By  far  the  best  account  of  Wraxall  appears  in  C.  H. 
Mcllwain's   editorial    introduction   to   An    Abridgment 

of  the  Indian  Affairs  .  .  .  Transacted  in  the  Colony  of 
N.  Y.  (1915)  ;  see  also  D.  J.  Pratt,  "Biographical  No- 
tice of  Peter  Wraxall,"  in  Proc.  Albany  Inst.,  vol.  I 
(1873)  ;  E.  B.  O'Callaghan,  Docs.  Rcl.  to  the  Colonial 
Hist,  of  the  State  of  N.  Y '.,  vols.  VI,  VII  (1855,  1856), 
and  The  Doc.  Hist,  of  the  State  of  N.  Y .,  vol.  II 
(1850);  James  Sullivan,  The  Papers  of  Sir  William 
Johnson,  vols.  I— III  (1921-22)  ;  Joel  Munsell,  The  An- 
nals of  Albany,  vol.  X  (1859)  ;  Wraxall's  will  and  no- 
tice of  his  death  in  N.  Y.  Hist.  Soc.  Colls.,  Pub.  Fund 
Ser.,  vol.  XXIX  (1897)  ;  J.  E.  Stillwell,  The  Hist,  of 
Capt.  Richard  Stillwell  (1930).  The  date  of  Wraxall's 
death  is  given  as  July  11  by  two  contemporaries  (Docs., 
ante,  VII,  433,  and  Stillwell,  ante,  p.  57,  but  the  N.  Y. 
Mercury  of  July  23,  1759,  states  that  he  died  July  10 
and  was  buried  July  11.]  W.  E.  S s. 

WRIGHT,  BENJAMIN  (Oct.  10,  1770-Aug. 
24,  1842),  senior  engineer  of  the  Erie  Canal, 
was  born  in  Wethersfield,  Conn.,  the  son  of 
Ebenezer  and  Grace  (Butler)  Wright  and  a  de- 
scendant of  Thomas  Wright,  an  early  settler  of 
Wethersfield.  Having  a  talent  for  mathematics, 
he  studied  surveying,  and  knowing  that  there 
was  opportunity  for  those  "capable  of  surveying 
and  preparing  title  deeds"  in  the  new  settlements 
of  the  Mohawk  Valley  in  New  York,  he  per- 
suaded his  father,  a  small  farmer,  to  move  with 
his  family  to  Fort  Stanwix,  now  Rome,  N.  Y.,  in 
1789.  From  this  new  home,  then  a  frontier  set- 
tlement, he  carried  out  land  surveys  (1792-96) 
said  to  have  totaled  more  than  500,000  acres  in 
Oneida  and  Oswego  counties. 

As  this  area  developed  into  one  of  the  impor- 
tant agricultural  sections  of  the  state,  Wright 
became  interested  in  the  problem  of  transporting 
surplus  products  to  a  market.  Since  roads  were 
then  little  better  than  trails  and  there  seemed  to 
be  little  hope  of  permanently  improving  them,  he 
turned  his  attention  to  canals.  In  1792  the  West- 
ern Inland  Lock  Navigation  Company  had  been 
formed  and  had  completed  some  pioneer  con- 
struction, near  Little  Falls  on  the  Mohawk,  un- 
der an  English  engineer,  William  Weston  [q.v.~\. 
After  Weston's  return  to  England,  Wright  be- 
came interested  in  the  further  projects  of  this 
company  and  made  surveys  for  them  in  accord- 
ance with  ambitious  plans  which  for  financial 
reasons  could  not  be  carried  out.  During  this 
same  period,  Wright  acted  as  agent  of  the  pro- 
prietors of  the  newly  opened  lands,  for  whom 
many  of  his  earlier  surveys  had  been  made.  He 
thus  became  a  leading  member  of  the  community, 
was  repeatedly  elected  to  the  state  legislature, 
and  in  1813  was  appointed  a  county  judge. 

In  181 1  he  made  an  examination  of  a  canal 
route  from  Rome  on  the  Mohawk  to  Waterford 
on  the  Hudson,  for  the  state  canal  commission- 
ers. In  1816,  upon  the  more  effective  organiza- 
tion of  the  Canal  Board,  the  work  of  construe- 


543 


Wright 


Wright 


tion  was  entrusted  to  Wright  and  to  James  Ged- 
des  [q.z>.],  another  local  surveyor- judge-engi- 
neer. Finally,  following  a  law  enacted  in  1816, 
the  Erie  project  was  actually  launched ;  Geddes 
was  appointed  to  have  charge  of  the  western  sec- 
tion, Wright  of  the  middle,  and  Charles  C. 
Broadhead  of  the  eastern.  The  first  ground  was 
hroken  July  4,  1817,  at  Rome.  As  the  construc- 
tion of  the  canal  progressed,  another  capable 
engineer,  David  Thomas,  took  over  the  work  on 
the  western  section,  Geddes  turned  to  the  prob- 
lems of  the  Champlain  Canal,  and  Wright,  hav- 
ing completed  the  middle  section,  became  re- 
sponsible for  the  difficult  eastern  division.  A 
part  of  the  canal  was  opened  for  service  in  1820, 
and  the  great  work  was  completed  in  1825. 

In  addition  to  his  abilities  as  a  surveyor,  and 
his  practical  knowledge  of  construction,  Wright 
appears  to  have  been  a  most  able  executive.  He 
gathered  around  him  a  remarkable  group  of 
young  men,  all  of  whom  afterwards  occupied  im- 
portant positions  in  the  engineering  field.  Can- 
vass White  [q.v.~\,  who  died  early,  was  his  chief 
dependence  for  the  design  of  locks  and  also  con- 
tributed the  important  discovery  that  hydraulic 
cement  could  be  produced  from  a  deposit  near 
the  line  of  the  canal.  John  B.  Jervis  [g.f.],  an- 
other assistant,  lived  to  become  the  foremost 
American  civil  engineer  of  pre-Civil  War  days. 
David  Stanhope  Bates  had  charge  of  the  difficult 
crossing  at  the  Irondequoit  Valley  and  also  of 
the  Rochester  aqueduct.  Nathan  S.  Roberts 
[q.v.~\  was  in  charge  from  Lockport  to  Lake  Erie. 
The  Erie  Canal  was  thus  the  great  American 
engineering  school  of  the  early  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, and  Wright,  as  the  presiding  genius  of  the 
undertaking,  has  fairly  been  called  the  "Father 
of  American  Engineering." 

The  success  of  the  Erie  Canal  awakened  a 
spirit  of  internal  improvement  in  all  the  states  of 
the  then  small  Union.  Wright  acted  as  consult- 
ing engineer  on  a  number  of  canal  projects  dur- 
ing the  last  years  of  the  Erie  work — the  Farm- 
ington  Canal  in  Connecticut,  the  Blackstone 
Canal  in  Rhode  Island,  and  the  Chesapeake  & 
Delaware  Canal.  In  1825  he  became  consulting 
engineer  for  the  Delaware  &  Hudson  Canal, 
which  bold  undertaking  was  completed  by  his 
associate  Jervis.  Resigning  as  chief  engineer  of 
the  Erie  in  1827,  Wright  was  chief  engineer  of 
the  Chesapeake  &  Ohio  Canal  from  1828  to  1831 
and  of  fhe  St.  Lawrence  Canal  in  1833.  He  was 
also  consulting  engineer  for  the  Welland  Canal, 
for  surveys  for  the  New  York  &  Erie  Railroad, 
for  the  Harlem  Railroad  in  New  York,  and  for 
railroads  in  Virginia,  Illinois,  and  even  Cuba. 

On  Sept.  2J,  1798,  Wright  married  Philomela 


Waterman,  daughter  of  Simeon  Waterman  of 
Plymouth,  Conn.  They  had  nine  children,  eight 
of  whom  survived  their  parents ;  one  son,  Ben- 
H.  Wright,  was  also  a  civil  engineer  and  carried 
out  some  of  the  later  projects  on  which  his  dis- 
tinguished father  had  made  reports.  Wright  died 
in  New  York  City  in  his  seventy-second  year. 
Jervis  (post,  p.  42),  writing  many  years  later, 
remarked  that  while  Wright  probably  drew  no 
plans  for  the  Erie  Canal  he  was  a  "sagacious 
critic"  of  plans  drawn  by  others  and  excelled 
them  all  in  the  vital  element  of  practical  judg- 
ment. 

[C.  B.  Stuart,  Lives  and  Works  of  Civil  and  Military 
Engineers  of  America  (1871);  J.  B.  Jervis,  "Memoir 
of  Am.  Engineering,"  Trans.  Am.  Soc.  Civil  Engineers, 
vol.  VI  (1878)  ;  New  Eng.  Hist,  and  Geneal.  Reg.,  July 
1866  ;  Curtis  Wright,  Geneal.  and  Biog.  Notices  of  De- 
scendants of  Sir  John  Wright  (1015)  ;  N.  E.  Whitford, 
Hist,  of  the  Canal  System  of  the  State  of  N.  Y.  (2 
vols.,  1906)  ;  Buffalo  Hist.  Soc.  Pubs.,  vol.  II  (1880)  ; 
N.  Y.  Tribune,  Aug.  25,  1842.]  J  K  F. 

WRIGHT,  CARROLL  DAVIDSON  (July 
25,  1840-Feb.  20,  1909),  statistician,  social  econ- 
omist, public  official,  was  born  at  Dunbarton,  N. 
H.,  the  third  of  seven  children  of  Nathan  R.  and 
Eliza  (Clark)  Wright.  His  father  was  a  Uni- 
versalist  minister,  and  moved  frequently  from 
one  charge  to  another.  The  boy  grew  up  prin- 
cipally in  Washington,  N.  H.,  attending  the  pub- 
lic schools  and  academy  of  that  place  and  work- 
ing on  his  father's  farm.  After  further  study  in 
academies  at  Reading,  Mass.,  Alstead,  N.  H., 
and  Chester,  Vt.,  he  began  reading  law  in  i860 
with  William  P.  Wheeler,  of  Keene,  N.  H.,  at 
the  same  time  teaching  in  country  schools.  He 
continued  his  law  study  in  Dedham  and  Boston 
until  September  1862,  when  he  enlisted  as  a 
private  in  the  14th  New  Hampshire  Volunteers. 
He  was  rapidly  promoted,  had  responsible  as- 
signments in  and  near  Washington,  D.  C,  was 
later  given  staff  duty  under  Sheridan  in  the 
Shenandoah  campaign,  and  eventually  became 
colonel  of  his  regiment.  Returning  to  the  law, 
he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  New  Hampshire 
in  October  1865,  and  to  that  of  Massachusetts 
two  years  later.  He  settled  in  Reading,  Mass., 
and  married,  Jan.  1,  1867,  Caroline  E.  Harnden, 
daughter  of  Sylvester  Harnden  of  that  town. 
Two  daughters  were  born  to  them.  Wright  had 
an  excellent  practice  in  Boston  in  patent  cases. 
He  was  twice  elected  to  the  Massachusetts  Sen- 
ate from  the  Reading  district  (1871,  1872),  in 
his  second  term  greatly  improving  the  militia 
system  of  the  state. 

The  turning  point  in  his  career  was  his  ap- 
pointment by  Gov.  William  B.  Washburn  as 
chief  of  the  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Statistics 
of  Labor  in  1873.   This  bureau,  established  four 


544 


Wright 

years  earlier,  was  the  first  in  the  United  States, 
but  had  been  involved  in  controversy  and  came 
near  being  abolished.  Wright  remained  at  its 
head  from  1873  to  1888,  fifteen  years  of  critical 
economic  development  of  Massachusetts  and  the 
United  States.  His  work  of  gathering  labor  sta- 
tistics in  the  chief  industrial  state  provoked  criti- 
cism from  all  sides.  The  mere  fact  of  official 
inquiry  was  resented  by  bumptious  employers, 
and  they  feared  that  the  Bureau  was  set  up  to 
further  the  aims  of  labor ;  the  workers,  on  the 
other  hand,  found  fault  because  Wright  did  not 
make  himself  their  inveterate  partisan.  From 
the  beginning,  encouraged  by  Gen.  Francis  A. 
Walker  [<?.t\],  he  resolved  that  his  official  sta- 
tistics should  be  gathered  and  published  with  an 
eye  solely  to  full  and  frank  exposition.  He  held 
to  this  policy  throughout  his  long  career,  and 
especially  by  means  of  the  National  Convention 
of  Chiefs  and  Commissioners  of  Bureaus  of  Sta- 
tistics of  Labor,  which  he  organized  in  1883  and 
of  which  he  was  president  for  practically  twenty 
years,  he  impressed  this  purpose  upon  the  rapid- 
ly increasing  number  of  officials  who  were  com- 
ing into  the  field.  Without  his  example  in  pre- 
cept and  practice  many  of  his  colleagues — poorly 
trained  political  appointees — would  have  brought 
the  new  state  bureaus  into  prompt  discredit. 

The  variety  of  Wright's  investigations,  made 
as  often  as  possible  upon  the  ground,  was  great, 
ranging  through  rates  of  wages,  cost  of  living, 
strikes,  and  lockouts,  to  pauperism,  crime,  di- 
vorce, illiteracy,  housing,  and  labor  legislation. 
Soon  he  had  won  the  confidence  of  those  who 
were  suspicious  or  acrimonious  at  the  start,  be- 
ing reappointed  by  succeeding  governors  with- 
out question.  In  lectures  in  Boston  and  else- 
where, and  in  an  essay  on  The  Relation  of  Po- 
litical Economy  to  the  Labor  Question  (1882), 
he  revealed  a  social  philosophy  from  which  he 
did  not  depart.  Despite  his  occupation  of  fact- 
finding, his  thinking  owed  much  more  to  ethics 
than  to  economic  analysis.  Noted  for  his  tact, 
cordiality,  and  kindness,  he  was  passionately  de- 
voted to  harmony  and  constantly  exerted  himself 
for  reconciliation  between  capital  and  labor.  He 
desired  concessions  by  both  sides,  cooperation  to 
be  maintained  through  sincere  industry  of  the 
workers,  and  abundant  tolerance  and  welfare 
facilities  extended  by  employers  conscious  of 
their  social  responsibility.  The  notion  of  abiding 
class  cleavage  was  anathema  to  him. 

The  establishment  of  the  United  States  Bu- 
reau of  Labor  in  the  Interior  Department  was 
due  not  a  little  to  Wright's  influence;  he  became 
the  first  commissioner  by  appointment  of  Presi- 
dent Arthur  in  1885,  relinquishing  his  Massa- 


Wright 


chusetts  post  three  years  later.  During  the 
twenty  years  of  his  commissionership  his  good 
influence  upon  labor  bureaus  of  the  states  and  of 
foreign  governments  was  broadened  and  con- 
firmed. He  was  chairman  of  the  commission 
which  investigated  the  causes  of  the  Pullman 
strike  of  1894,  was  recorder  of  the  commission 
which  inquired  into  the  anthracite  strike  of  1902, 
and  probably  determined  the  findings  and  recom- 
mendations of  both  reports.  He  was  called  upon 
to  complete  the  Eleventh  Census.  He  was  hon- 
orary professor  of  social  economics  in  the  Catho- 
lic University  at  Washington,  1895-1904,  pro- 
fessor of  statistics  and  social  economics  at 
Columbian  (later  George  Washington)  Univer- 
sity after  1900,  and  planned  and  supervised  the 
first  volumes  of  the  series  of  studies  on  the  eco- 
nomic history  of  the  United  States  financed  by 
the  Carnegie  Institution.  Among  his  publica- 
tions may  be  mentioned  particularly  The  Indus- 
trial Evolution  of  the  United  States  (1895); 
Outline  of  Practical  Sociology  (1899)  >  ar>d  his 
presidential  address  in  Quarterly  Publications 
of  the  American  Statistical  Association,  March 
1908.  He  was  president  of  the  American  Statis- 
tical Association  from  1897  to  his  death,  and  re- 
ceived honors  from  foreign  governments,  among 
others  the  Cross  of  the  French  Legion  of  Honor. 
In  1902  he  was  chosen  the  first  president  of  Clark 
College,  Worcester,  Mass.,  and  in  1905  he  re- 
signed from  the  Bureau  of  Labor.  He  died  four 
years  later  in  Worcester,  after  a  lingering  illness, 
and  was  buried  at  Reading. 

[H.  G.  Wadlin,  "Carroll  Davidson  Wright,  a  Me- 
morial," in  Commonwealth  of  Mass.,  Fortieth  Ann.  Re- 
port on  the  Statistics  of  Labor,  igog  (191 1),  S.  N.  D. 
North,  "The  Life  and  Work  of  Carroll  Davidson 
Wright,"  with  full  bibliog.,  Quart.  Pubs.  Am.  Statisti- 
cal Asso.,  June  1909  ;  R.  H.  I.  Palgrave,  Palgravc's 
Diet,  of  Political  Economy,  ed.  by  Henry  Higgs,  III 
(1926),  809-11  ;  Who's  Who  in  America,  1908-09;  A 
Memorial  of  the  Great  Rebellion ;  Being  a  Hist,  of  the 
Fourteenth  Rcgt.  of  N.  H.  Vols.  (1882);  Springfield 
Daily  Republican,  Feb.  21,  1909.]  g  j^ ] 

WRIGHT,  CHARLES  (Oct.  29,  1811-Aug. 
11,  1885),  botanical  explorer,  born  in  Wethers- 
field,  Conn.,  was  the  son  of  James  and  Mary 
(Goodrich)  Wright,  and  a  descendant  of  Thom- 
as Wright  who  emigrated  from  England  in  1635 
and  later  settled  in  Wethersfield.  After  attend- 
ing the  Wethersfield  grammar  school,  he  entered 
Yale  College,  from  which  he  graduated,  with 
Phi  Beta  Kappa  honors,  in  1835.  Interested  in 
botany  from  early  youth,  he  cultivated  his  fa- 
vorite science  during  his  college  days ;  he  seems 
never  to  have  had  a  teacher  in  the  subject.  Al- 
most immediately  after  his  graduation  from 
Yale,  he  accepted  a  position  as  tutor  to  the  chil- 
dren of  a  wealthy  planter  at  Natchez,  Miss.,  a 


545 


Wright 


position  lost  a  year  later  as  the  result  of  the  ruin 
of  his  employer  in  the  financial  stringencies  of 
1836-37.  Like  many  others  Wright  fled  to  Texas 
from  the  panic  of  1837.  From  1837  to  1845  he 
followed  the  practice  of  surveying  and  of  teach- 
ing school  at  various  places  in  eastern  Texas, 
and  explored  the  hitherto  unknown  botany  of 
that  region.  A  collection  of  dried  plants  he  sent 
to  Prof.  Asa  Gray  [g.T'.]  of  Harvard  College  in 
the  spring  of  1844  opened  a  correspondence  des- 
tined to  have  important  results  for  American 
botany.  He  moved  in  1845  from  eastern  to  cen- 
tral Texas,  and  taught  school  for  a  number  of 
years  there,  for  one  year  at  the  short-lived 
Rutersville  College,  and  for  longer  periods  as 
private  tutor  or  schoolmaster.  He  continued, 
meanwhile,  his  botanical  study  and  correspond- 
ence with  Gray.  In  the  summer  of  1849,  he  ac- 
companied a  battalion  of  United  States  troops 
from  San  Antonio  to  El  Paso,  collecting  plants 
all  the  way.  The  collections  proved  to  be  rich 
in  new  species ;  many  of  these  were  published  in 
Part  I  of  Gray's  "Plantce  Wrightiance"  {Smith- 
sonian Contributions  to  Knowledge,  vol.  Ill, 
1852).  After  another  year  of  teaching  in  central 
Texas,  Wright  was  associated,  from  the  spring 
of  1851  to  the  summer  of  1852,  with  the  United 
States  and  Mexican  boundary  survey  as  botanist. 
His  extensive  collections,  made  this  time  largely 
in  New  Mexico  and  Arizona,  were  studied  by 
Gray,  and  the  new  species  described  in  Part  II 
of  the  " Plant cb  Wrightiance"  (Ibid.,  vol.  V, 
1853),  and  in  the  Botany  of  the  Mexican  Bound- 
ary Survey  (1859).  In  the  summer  of  1852 
Wright  left  Texas  never  to  return. 

He  received  appointment,  shortly,  as  botanist 
to  the  North  Pacific  Exploring  and  Surveying 
Expedition  under  John  Rodgers  (1812-1882) 
and  Cadwalader  Ringgold  [qq.v.~],  and  accom- 
panied the  expedition  from  June  1853  to  the 
spring  of  1856.  He  made  notable  collections  of 
plants  at  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  Hongkong,  the 
Loo  Choo  Islands,  and  in  Japan.  Returning  to 
America  in  the  fall  of  1856,  he  began  the  botani- 
cal exploration  of  the  isle  of  Cuba,  a  task  that 
continued,  with  interruptions,  until  July  1867. 
His  Cuban  collections,  with  their  numerous  new 
species  in  all  classes  of  plants,  were  described  in 
various  works  by  A.  H.  R.  Grisebach,  W.  S. 
Sullivant, D.C.Eaton, P.  F.  Muller,  M.  J.  Berke- 
ley, and  M.  A.  Curtis.  With  the  completion  of 
this  notable  work  Wright's  active  career  as  an 
explorer  may  be  said  to  have  come  to  an  end. 
During  Gray's  absence  in  Europe  in  1868, 
Wright  acted  as  curator  of  the  herbarium  at 
Cambridge,  and  for  six  months  during  the  win- 
ter of  1875-76  he  was  librarian  of  the  Bussey 


Wright 

Institution.  The  last  ten  years  of  Wright's  life 
were  spent  in  quiet  retirement  at  Wethersfield. 
In  this  locality  he  collected  so  assiduously  that 
it  is  now  extremely  difficult  for  botanists  to  col- 
lect plant  species  not  previously  reported  by 
him.  He  died  of  heart  failure  at  Wethersfield. 
He  never  married. 

Daniel  Cady  Eaton  [q.v.]  described  Wright 
as  "almost  without  an  equal"  as  a  collector  and 
observer  of  plants  (Thatcher,  post,  pp.  180-81), 
and  Gray  considered  that  his  services  to  botany 
and  the  botanists  of  his  generation  could  not  be 
overestimated.  Wright  was  a  "person  of  low 
stature  and  well-knit  frame,  hardy  rather  than 
strong,  scrupulously  temperate,  a  man  of  simple 
ways,  always  modest  and  unpretending,  but  di- 
rect and  downright  in  expression,  most  amiable, 
trusty  and  religious"  (Gray,  post,  p.  17). 

[J.  B.  Standish,  "Wright  Family  in  Wethersfield, 
Conn.,"  MS.  in  the  possession  of  the  author;  Curtis 
Wright,  Gcneal.  and  Biog.  Notices  of  Descendants  of 
Sir  John  Wright  (1915)  ;  T.  A.  Thatcher,  Biog.  and 
Hist.  Record  of  the  Class  of  183$  in  Yale  Coll.  (1881)  ; 
Obit.  Record  Grads.  Yale  Coll.  (1886)  ;  S.  W.  Geiser, 
in  Southwest  Review,  Spring  1930,  with  portrait,  and 
in  Field  &  Laboratory,  Nov.  1935  ;  Asa  Gray,  in  Am. 
Jour.  Sci.,  3  ser.,  vol.  XXXI  (1886)  ;  E.  O.  Wooton, 
in  Bull.  Torrcy  Botanical  Club,  vol.  XXXIII  (1906)  ; 
Gray- Wright  corres.,  MSS.  in  lib.  of  the  Gray  Her- 
barium, Cambridge,  Mass.  ;  Wright-Engelmann  corres., 
MSS.  in  lib.  of  the  Mo.  Botanical  Garden;  obituary  in 
Hartford  Courant,  Aug.  13,  1885.]  S  W  G. 

WRIGHT,  CHARLES  BARSTOW  (Jan.  8, 
1822-Mar.  24,  1898),  financier  and  railroad 
president,  was  born  in  Wysox,  Bradford  County, 
Pa.,  the  son  of  Rufus  Wright.  His  father,  a  cur- 
rier by  trade,  had  moved  from  the  Connecticut 
Valley  in  1814  and  erected  in  his  new  home  on 
the  upper  Susquehanna  the  first  tannery  in  that 
region.  In  1830  he  settled  in  Athens,  Pa.,  where 
Charles  attended  the  Athens  Academy  until  he 
was  fifteen.  Taking  a  job  as  clerk  in  a  general 
store  at  Leraysville,  he  was  in  four  years  a  part- 
ner in  the  enterprise.  In  1843  he  was  commis- 
sioned to  investigate  the  land  holdings  of  a 
group  of  eastern  capitalists  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Chicago,  and  his  three-year  sojourn  in  that 
section,  during  which  he  acquired  the  interests 
of  his  principals  and  engaged  extensively  in 
transactions  in  land,  laid  the  foundation  of  a 
considerable  fortune.  Returning  to  Erie,  Pa.,  he 
entered  a  banking  co-partnership  which  founded 
a  branch  house  in  Philadelphia  in  1855.  He  be- 
came interested  in  the  financing  and  construction 
of  railroads,  and  took  an  active  part  in  the  build- 
ing of  the  Philadelphia  and  Erie  railroad.  Upon 
the  discovery  of  petroleum  in  western  Penn- 
sylvania, he  formed  a  syndicate  to  construct  a 
railroad  to  Oil  City,  Pa.,  which  with  its  later 
additions  proved  very  profitable.   Meanwhile  he 


546 


Wright 

had  removed  to  Philadelphia  and  had  come  into 
close  business  relations  with  Jay  Cooke  [q.v.~\. 

In  1870  he  entered  the  directorate  of  the 
Northern  Pacific  Railroad  to  represent  Cooke's 
$5,000,000  syndicate,  the  first  money  raised  for 
the  construction  of  the  road,  and  from  this  time 
for  nearly  a  decade  he  devoted  his  attention  al- 
most exclusively  to  this  enterprise.  More  than 
once,  in  the  financial  crisis  that  followed,  Wright 
used  his  individual  credit  to  rescue  the  road  from 
its  difficulties.  In  1872  he  visited  the  west  coast 
as  a  member  of  a  committee  to  choose  a  terminal 
point  on  Puget  Sound.  On  his  return  he  was 
made  chairman  of  the  finance  committee  and 
early  in  1873  was  prevailed  upon  to  accept  a 
vice-presidency  with  headquarters  in  New  York. 
At  this  time  the  road  was  in  a  desperate  condi- 
tion. Five  hundred  miles  had  been  constructed, 
and  the  Missouri  River  had  been  reached  at  Bis- 
marck, N.  D.,  but  the  railroad's  bonded  debt  was 
over  thirty  millions,  and  there  was  a  floating  debt 
of  five  and  a  half  millions.  In  1874  Wright  was 
made  president,  and  in  April  1875  tne  entire 
property  was  placed  in  the  receiver's  hands.  A 
reorganization  was  effected  in  six  months  by  the 
conversion  of  the  bonds  into  preferred  stock.  In 
the  accomplishment  of  this  remarkably  speedy 
and  adequate  reconstruction  Wright  played  a 
dominating  part.  But  the  road  had  no  funds  with 
which  to  continue  building,  and  its  floating  debt 
was  pressing.  Wright  had  to  quiet  creditors  and 
secure  a  breathing  spell,  use  the  assets  that  the 
company  possessed  for  its  best  interests,  and 
operate  the  five  hundred  miles  of  road  through  a 
country  just  being  opened  to  settlement.  At  the 
close  of  1876  the  road  had  paid  expenses  and 
showed  a  small  surplus.  Further  aid  from  Con- 
gress was  sought.  When  that  failed,  construction 
had  to  depend  upon  the  road's  own  credit.  A 
short  line  to  Puget  Sound  was  built,  and  in  1877 
the  problem  of  direct  connection  with  St.  Paul 
was  solved  by  securing  an  expiring  charter  and 
raising  the  money  for  construction.  Early  in 
1879  work  was  renewed  through  the  road's  own 
resources  on  the  main  line  west  of  Bismarck.  In 
May  1879  Wright  resigned  the  presidency  on  ac- 
count of  his  health.  Although  the  financial  diffi- 
culties of  the  road  were  not  over,  much  had  been 
done  to  put  it  on  a  sound  basis,  and  further  build- 
ing seemed  assured.  After  a  short  stay  in  Europe 
Wright  again  accepted  the  chairmanship  of  the 
finance  committee  and  became  responsible  for 
securing  the  necessary  funds  to  complete  the  gap 
between  the  eastern  and  western  sections.  He 
severed  his  connection  with  the  railroad  in  1893, 
and  for  the  rest  of  his  life  confined  himself  to 
his  banking  interests  in  Philadelphia.  He  had  an 


Wright 


abiding  faith  in  the  Northwest  and  its  develop- 
ment, and  had  many  investments  in  the  territory 
that  the  Northern  Pacific  was  opening.  His  bene- 
factions in  Tacoma  included  the  founding  of  the 
Annie  Wright  Seminary  for  Young  Ladies. 

He  was  twice  married.  His  second  wife,  by 
whom  he  had  two  sons  and  two  daughters,  was 
Susan  Townsend  of  Sandusky,  Ohio.  He  died 
in  Philadelphia. 

[Railroad  Gazette,  April  1,  1898;  Henry  Hall,  ed., 
America's  Successful  Men  of  Affairs,  vol.  II  (1896)  ; 
E.  V.  Smalley,  Hist,  of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad 
(1883);  obituary  in  Pub.  Ledger  (Phila.),  Mar.  25, 
1898;  information  from  W.  T.  Wright,  Wright's  son.] 

F.H.D.    . 

WRIGHT,  CHAUNCEY  (Sept.  20,  1830- 
Sept.  12,  1875),  philosopher,  one  of  nine  chil- 
dren of  Ansel  and  Elizabeth  Boleyn  (or  Bullen) 
Wright,  was  born  in  Northampton,  Mass.,  where 
his  family  had  lived  ever  since  the  first  Ameri- 
can ancestor  had  settled  there  in  1654,  Samuel 
Wright,  who  had  come  to  Boston  from  England 
in  1630.  Chauncey  Wright's  grandfather  had 
been  a  Revolutionary  soldier ;  his  father  was  a 
deputy  sheriff  and  successful  dealer  in  "West  In- 
dia Goods  and  Groceries."  As  a  boy,  Chauncey 
was  reserved,  much  given  to  solitude,  and  in- 
clined to  melancholy.  In  1848  he  entered  Har- 
vard College,  where  he  was  a  laborious  rather 
than  brilliant  student.  Little  interested  in  litera- 
ture or  languages,  he  concentrated  his  attention 
on  mathematics,  natural  science,  and  philosophy. 
Immediately  upon  graduation  in  1852  he  be- 
came one  of  the  computers  for  the  newly  estab- 
lished Ayjterican  Ephcmeris  and  Nautical  Al- 
manac, for  which  he  devised  new  methods  of  cal- 
culation. From  1863  to  1870  he  was  recording 
secretary  of  the  American  Academy  of  Arts  and 
Sciences,  editing  the  annual  volume  of  proceed- 
ings. He  lived  quietly  as  a  bachelor  in  Cam- 
bridge, lodging  in  the  house  known  as  "The  Vil- 
lage Blacksmith's,"  contributing  occasionally  to 
the  Mathematical  Monthly,  and  in  1864  begin- 
ning the  publication  of  a  notable  series  of  philo- 
sophical essays  in  the  North  American  Review, 
then  edited  by  Charles  Eliot  Norton.  In  1870  he 
delivered  a  course  of  University  Lectures  in 
Harvard  College  on  the  principles  of  psychology- 
After  this,  he  produced  a  number  of  important 
philosophical  essays  during  the  brief  span  of 
years  that  remained  to  him.  His  article  on  "The 
Uses  and  Origin  of  the  Arrangements  of  Leaves 
in  Plants"  (Memoirs  of  the  American  Academy 
of  Arts  and  Sciences,  n.s.,  vol.  IX,  pt.  II,  1873), 
advancing  an  evolutionary  explanation,  received 
the  especial  commendation  of  Darwin,  and  his 
reply,  entitled  "The  Genesis  of  Species"  (North 
American  Review,  July   1871),  to  St.   George 


547 


Wright 

Mivart's  attack  on  Darwinism  was  republished 
in  England  at  Darwin's  instance.  A  thorough- 
going naturalist,  in  his  most  valuable  article, 
"Evolution  of  Self-Consciousness,"  he  antici- 
pated philosophic  trends  of  a  quarter-century 
later  in  his  instrumentalist  conception  of  men- 
tal activities.  Deeply  influenced  by  Hamilton, 
Mill,  and  Herbert  Spencer,  though  keenly  crit- 
ical of  the  latter's  metaphysics,  he  was  one  of  the 
first  to  introduce  to  America  the  methods  of  Brit- 
ish empiricism.  In  1874  he  became  a  regular 
member  of  the  Harvard  faculty  as  instructor  in 
mathematical  physics  but  had  taught  for  only  a 
year  when  his  untimely  death  occurred.  Almost 
utterly  devoid  of  personal  ambition,  he  wrote  too 
little  to  secure  any  popular  recognition,  and  as  a 
forerunner  of  William  James  he  was  quickly  for- 
gotten, his  work  being  completely  overshadowed 
by  the  enormous  productivity  of  his  successor  in 
the  same  school  of  thought.  He  was  ranked,  how- 
ever, by  Charles  Eliot  Norton  "among  the  as 
yet  few  great  thinkers  of  America,"  and  he  cer- 
tainly brought  to  philosophy  one  of  the  most 
trenchant  and  creative  minds  that  America  had 
yet  produced. 

[The  best  of  Wright's  essays  were  collected  in  Philo- 
sophical Discussions  (1877),  containing  a  long  biog. 
sketch  by  Charles  Eliot  Norton.  See  also  Letters  of 
Chauncey  Wright  (Cambridge,  1878),  ed.  by  J.  B. 
Thayer  with  running  biog.  comments  ;  John  Fiske,  Dar- 
winism and  Other  Essays  (1879)  ;  and  death  notice  in 
Boston   Transcript,  Sept.   14,   1875.]  E.  S.  B. 

WRIGHT,  ELIZUR  (Feb.  12,  1804-Nov.  21, 
1885),  reformer,  actuary,  was  born  at  South 
Canaan,  Conn.,  probably  a  descendant  of  Thomas 
Wright,  an  early  settler  of  Wethersfield.  His 
father,  also  Elizur  Wright,  mathematician  of 
parts  and  graduate  of  Yale,  was,  like  his  fore- 
bears, a  farmer  and  teacher;  and  his  mother, 
Clarissa  Richards,  came  from  a  long  line  of  New 
England  sea-captains.  In  1810  the  family  moved 
to  Tallmadge,  Ohio,  in  the  Western  Reserve, 
where  the  father  cleared  a  farm  and  founded  an 
academy.  Here  young  Elizur  prepared  for  col- 
lege. He  worked  his  way  through  Yale,  gradu- 
ating with  distinction  in  mathematics  in  1826. 
During  the  following  year,  as  master  of  Groton 
Academy,  he  fell  in  love  with  one  of  his  pupils, 
Susan  Clark,  whom  he  married  Sept.  13,  1829. 
A  professorship  in  the  newly  founded  Western 
Reserve  College,  then  located  at  Hudson,  called 
him  back  to  Ohio. 

In  1832,  the  genius  of  anti-slavery  evangelism, 
Theodore  Weld  [q.v.~\,  visited  Hudson  and  moved 
not  only  Wright  but  also  his  colleague,  Beriah 
Green  [_q.v."],  and  the  president,  George  Storrs, 
to  agitate  immediate  abolition  in  the  Western  Re- 
serve.  Amid  rising  hostility,  Storrs  was  struck 


Wright 

down  with  tuberculosis,  Green  accepted  the  presi- 
dency of  Oneida  Institute,  and  Wright  resigned. 
Through  Weld,  he  was  appointed  secretary  to  the 
New  York  Anti-Slavery  Society,  and,  after  its 
organization  in  December  1833,  corresponding 
secretary  of  the  American  Anti-Slavery  Society. 
In  this  capacity  he  edited  the  Quarterly  Anti- 
Slavery  Magazine  (1835-37)  and  the  society's 
tracts,  wrote  its  reports,  and  supervised  the 
agents  in  the  field.  While  his  powers  were  ex- 
ceeded by  others  in  the  movement,  his  devotion 
was  unsurpassed ;  and  during  the  crucial  years 
of  the  agitation,  1834-38,  he  was  indispensable. 
In  1839,  when  various  controversies  began  to  di- 
vide the  movement,  Wright  resigned  to  become 
editor  of  the  Massachusetts  Abolitionist,  organ 
of  the  conservative  opponents  of  William  Lloyd 
Garrison  [q.v.~\.  Here  he  advocated  third-party 
action  by  abolitionists  so  vigorously  that  he  was 
dropped  at  the  end  of  the  year. 

For  a  time,  Wright  and  his  growing  family 
approached  actual  want.  With  characteristic 
courage,  he  published  Fables  of  La  Fontaine  (2 
vols.,  1841),  a  translation  made  for  his  children, 
and  sold  the  books  from  door  to  door  at  home 
and  then  in  England.  Upon  his  return  in  1846  he 
started  a  newspaper  in  Boston,  the  Weekly 
Chronotype,  in  which  he  tilted  against  the  pro- 
tective tariff,  slavery,  and  life  insurance  com- 
panies. Like  its  editor,  the  paper  was  too  indi- 
vidualistic to  represent  organized  reform,  but 
its  success  was  such  that  in  1850  it  was  pur- 
chased by  the  Weekly  Commonwealth,  organ  of 
the  Free  Soil  party,  with  Wright  as  editor.  Un- 
able to  conform  to  party  discipline,  he  was  dis- 
missed in  1852,  though  at  the  time  he  was  de- 
fendant in  the  Shadrach  case,  one  of  the  most 
famous  of  the  fugitive-slave  trials. 

Meanwhile,  several  life  insurance  companies, 
stirred  to  self-examination  by  Wright's  strictures 
upon  their  methods,  employed  him  to  prepare  ta- 
bles which  would  show  total  reserves  required  for 
safety.  These  tables  enabled  life  insurance  com- 
panies for  the  first  time  to  formulate  reserve  poli- 
cies which  were  exactly  adapted  to  their  obliga- 
tions. Aware,  however,  that  many  companies 
were  interested  primarily  in  profits  and  salaries, 
in  1853  Wright  began  lobbying  in  the  Massachu- 
setts legislature  for  a  law  to  force  all  companies 
doing  business  in  the  state  to  maintain  adequate 
reserves.  His  lobby  was  a  one-man  affair,  and  it 
was  not  until  1858  that  his  effort  was  rewarded 
by  legislation  (Acts  and  Resolves  .  .  .  of  Massa- 
chusetts, 1858,  ch.  177).  Its  passage  forced  large 
companies  everywhere  to  conform  their  reserve 
policies  to  the  law  in  order  to  do  business  in 
Massachusetts  and  to  compete  with  Massachu- 


548 


Wright 

setts  companies  outside  the  state.  Wright,  being 
the  only  one  who  understood  the  intricacies  of 
the  new  statute,  was  appointed  commissioner. of 
insurance  to  see  to  its  enforcement.  Through  his 
annual  reports,  in  which  unsound  companies  and 
dishonest  practices  were  pilloried,  he  secured  an 
extraordinary  degree  of  conformity  to  sound  in- 
surance practice  throughout  the  nation.  Though 
the  title  often  applied  to  him,  "father  of  life  in- 
surance," misstates  his  censor's  function,  his  ef- 
forts probably  had  more  to  do  with  the  develop- 
ment of  sound  standards  for  life  insurance  than 
those  of  any  other  man  in  its  history. 

In  his  annual  reports,  Wright  maintained  that 
the  reserves  of  life  insurance  companies  belonged 
in  justice  to  their  policy  holders,  and  in  1861, 
against  the  united  opposition  of  the  insurance 
companies,  he  secured  the  passage  of  the  famous 
non-forfeiture  law  (Acts  and  Resolves,  1861, 
ch.  186),  by  which  companies  were  forbidden  to 
appropriate  reserves  to  their  own  use.  This  tri- 
umph roused  such  hostility  that  Wright  was 
ousted  in  1866  by  legislation  abolishing  his  of- 
fice. He  was  immediately  retained  as  actuary  by 
several  companies,  at  a  high  salary  for  his  day, 
and  continued  his  "lobby  for  the  widow  and  or- 
phan." After  thirteen  years  more  of  unremitting 
effort,  in  1880  he  secured  legislation  which  com- 
pelled insurance  companies  to  pay  policy  holders 
in  cash  the  full  value  of  lapsed  policies  (Ibid., 
1880,  ch.  232).  In  order  to  retain  their  business, 
companies  outside  the  state  promptly  conformed 
their  practice  to  the  Massachusetts  law.  Mean- 
while, as  a  private  citizen  Wright  continued  to 
publish  his  findings  of  fraud,  theft,  perjury,  and 
bribery  in  insurance  company  practice,  especially 
in  New  York ;  though  it  was  not  until  1905,  a 
generation  later,  that  the  state  of  New  York  was 
moved  to  action  against  these  practices.  In  his 
last  years  he  worked  successfully  for  a  great  park 
for  Boston  on  Middlesex  Fells,  for  conservation 
in  the  West,  and  for  other  reforms.  In  the  midst 
of  these  activities,  he  died. 

Elizur  and  Susan  Wright  had  eighteen  chil- 
dren, of  whom  six  died  in  infancy.  Of  their  de- 
scendants, many  have  achieved  high  distinction 
in  various  forms  of  public  service. 

TP.  G.  Wright,  "Life  of  Elizur  Wright"  (MS.),  in 
the  possession  of  Prof.  Quincy  Wright,  Univ.  of  Chi- 
cago ;  F.  P.  Stearns,  Cambridge  Sketches  (1905)  ;  Let- 
ters of  Theodore  Dwight  Weld,  Angelina  Grimke  Weld, 
and  Sarah  Grimke  (2  vols.,  1034),  ed.  by  G.  H.  Barnes 
and  D.  L.  Duinond  :  H.  R.  Stiles,  The  Hist  of  Ancient 
Wethcrsficld  (1904),  vol.  II;  Curtis  Wright,  Geneal. 
.  .  .  of  Descendants  of  Sir  John  Wright  (1915)  ;  F.  B. 
Dexter,  Biog.  Sketches  Grads.  Yale  Coll.,  vol.  IV 
(1907)  ;  Ohio  Observer,  1832-34;  Minutes  of  the  Ex- 
ecutive Committee,  American  Anti-Slavery  Society, 
l835-40  (MS.),  Boston  Pub.  Lib.:  Mass.  Abolitionist, 
1839-40:  Weekly  Chronotype,  1846-50;  B.  J.  Hen- 
drick,  "The  Story  of  Life  Insurance,"  McClure's  Mag., 


Wright 

June  1906;  The  "Bible  of  Life  Insurance"  (1932),  re- 
printing Mass.  Reports  on  Life  Insurance  1859-1865 
(1865),  together  with  biog.  sketch  of  Wright;  Ellen 
Wright,  Elizur  Wright's  Appeals  for  the  Middlesex 
Fells  (1893);  Boston  Transcript,  Nov.  23,  24,  1885; 
Wright's  many  pamphlets  and  books.]  q  jj  g 

WRIGHT,  FRANCES  (Sept.  6,  1795-Dec. 
13,  1852),  reformer,  free  thinker,  was  born  in 
Dundee,  Scotland,  the  daughter  of  James  Wright, 
a  man  of  means  and  radical  opinions  who  pro- 
moted the  circulation  of  Thomas  Paine's  Rights 
of  Man  in  his  environment.  Her  mother,  who 
was  part  English,  was  a  daughter  of  Duncan 
Campbell,  an  army  officer.  Both  parents  died 
when  Frances  was  barely  two  and  a  half  years 
old,  leaving  to  the  child  the  heritage  of  an  in- 
quiring mind  and  a  large  fortune.  She  was 
brought  up  and  educated  by  conventional  rela- 
tives of  her  mother  in  London,  but  was  a  diffi- 
cult and  rebellious  child  and  as  soon  as  her  legal 
status  permitted  turned  her  back  on  London  and 
returned  to  Scotland.  She  had  had  good  masters, 
however,  and  she  now  directed  her  fine  abilities 
toward  liberal  studies.  At  eighteen  she  wrote  a 
sketch  purporting  to  be  the  story  of  a  young  dis- 
ciple of  Epicurus  (published  in  1822  under  the 
title,  A  Few  Days  in  Athens),  which  contained 
the  well-worked-out  materialistic  philosophy  that 
she  followed  throughout  life.  When  her  guar- 
dians suggested  that  to  complete  her  education 
she  should  make  the  grand  tour  of  Europe,  she 
declared  that  rather  than  gaze  on  the  political  op- 
pressions of  the  post-Napoleonic  era  she  would 
prefer  to  travel  in  free  America. 

Accordingly  Frances  Wright  and  her  younger 
sister,  Camilla,  arrived  in  New  York  for  the 
first  time  in  1818.  The  next  two  years  were  for 
her  years  of  cultivation  and  adventure.  She  fre- 
quented the  intellectual  society  of  New  York,  had 
a  play  produced  anonymously — Altorf,  a  story 
of  the  Swiss  struggle  for  independence,  produced 
at  the  Park  Theatre  in  1819  and  published  the 
same  year — and  made  a  thorough  tour  of  the 
Northern  and  Eastern  states.  With  materials 
for  a  book  on  her  travels,  she  returned  to  England 
in  1820  and  the  following  year  published  Views 
of  Society  and  Manners  in  America  (1821). 

It  was  this  book,  written  in  a  tone  of  apprecia- 
tion unusual  among  European  authors,  that  led 
to  her  friendship  with  General  Lafayette.  Her 
next  visit  to  the  United  States  was  timed  to  co- 
incide with  his.  She  arrived  in  New  York  in 
September  1824  and  with  her  sister  accompanied 
Lafayette  during  most  of  his  triumphal  tour 
through  the  states,  sharing  in  the  vast  celebra- 
tions prepared  to  receive  him.  With  Lafayette, 
she  visited  Thomas  Jefferson  and  James  Madi- 
son and  discussed  with  them  the  problem  of  negro 


540 


Wright 


Wright 


slavery.  The  plan  of  emancipation  which  she 
evolved,  influenced  somewhat  by  the  ideas  of 
Robert  Owen,  was  presented  to  them  and  had 
their  approval.  Investing  a  large  part  of  her  for- 
tune in  land  in  western  Tennessee — a  tract  which 
she  called  Nashoba — she  there  launched  her  ex- 
periment in  emancipation.  She  calculated  that 
slaves  working  on  the  land  would  earn  their  free- 
dom in  about  five  years,  and  she  proposed  then 
to  colonize  them.  Her  plan,  though  attended  by 
incidental  troubles  and  disasters,  was  actually 
carried  out.  She  purchased  slaves  in  the  fall  of 
1825  and  colonized  them  in  Haiti  in  the  summer 
of  1830.  Meanwhile,  socialist  recruits  within 
the  colony  had  introduced  the  idea  of  free  unions 
as  opposed  to  marriage,  an  innovation  which  had 
threatened  to  wreck  the  experiment  soon  after  its 
beginning.  Frances  Wright,  who  had  visited 
Europe  to  restore  her  health,  defended  her  col- 
leagues in  principle  at  least,  and  this  attitude  of 
hers  made  the  name  "Fanny  Wright"  anathema 
to  the  public. 

Between  1828,  when  she  joined  Robert  Dale 
Owen  [#.?'.]  in  editing  the  New  Harmony  Ga- 
zette, and  1830,  Frances  Wright  caused  a  fur- 
ther shock  to  public  sensibilities  by  appearing  on 
the  platform  as  a  lecturer.  She  attacked  religion, 
the  influence  of  the  churches  in  politics,  and  the 
existing  system  of  education  based  on  authority ; 
and  defended  equal  rights  for  women  and  the  re- 
placement of  the  legal  obligation  of  marriage  by 
a  union  based  on  moral  obligation  only.  This  last 
doctrine,  of  course,  aroused  the  most  opposition. 
The  rationalistic  reforms  she  proposed,  however, 
anti-conventional  as  they  were,  were  considered 
less  of  a  reproach  to  her  than  her  "unfeminine" 
action  in  appearing  as  a  public  speaker.  The 
daily  newspapers  were  immoderate  in  their  con- 
demnation, and  she  was  several  times  nearly 
mobbed. 

She  published  Course  of  Popular  Lectures  in 
1829  (2nd  ed.,  1931 ;  vol.  II,  1836).  In  1829  she 
settled  in  New  York  and  began,  Jan.  28,  to  pub- 
lish the  Free  Enquirer,  virtually  the  New  Har- 
mony Gazette  under  a  new  name.  Robert  Dale 
Owen  soon  relieved  her  of  most  of  the  editorial 
work,  enabling  her  to  extend  her  lecture  tours. 
Occupying,  with  her  sister,  an  estate  on  the  East 
River  near  the  farm  later  owned  by  Horace 
Greeley,  she  became  the  leader  of  the  free-think- 
ing movement  in  New  York,  which,  after  a  pe- 
riod of  inactivity  following  the  French  Revolu- 
tion, had  reawakened.  This  group  advocated  as 
a  fundamental  reform  free  education  maintained 
and  controlled  by  the  state  and  urged  the  working 
class  to  organize  politically;  they  formed  an  As- 
sociation for  the  Protection  of  Industry  and  for 


the  Promotion  of  National  Education  and  joined 
the  Workingmen's  Party,  which,  however,  short- 
ly disintegrated  because  the  working  men  were 
indifferent  to  the  educational  aims  and  hostile  to 
the  "infidelity"  of  their  Free  Enquirer  allies 

A  trip  abroad  followed  this  episode,  during 
which  Camilla  died,  Feb.  8,  1831,  and  on  July  22 
Frances  Wright  married  William  Phiquepal 
D'Arusmont,  a  Frenchman  who  had  been  one  of 
her  co-workers  at  New  Harmony  and  in  New 
York.  The  marriage,  of  which  one  daughter  was 
born,  was  terminated  by  divorce. 

Returning  to  the  United  States  with  her  hus- 
band in  1835,  she  continued  writing  and  lectur- 
ing, taking  up  for  public  discussion  such  modern 
causes  as  birth  control,  the  emancipation  of  wom- 
an, and  the  more  equal  distribution  of  property. 
Though  she  had  no  sympathy  with  Garrisonian 
abolitionism  she  urged  gradual  emancipation  of 
the  slaves  and  colonization  of  the  freedmen  out- 
side the  United  States.  In  1836  she  supported 
Andrew  Jackson's  attack  on  the  Bank  of  the 
United  States  and  advocated  the  independent 
treasury.  In  her  last  years  she  gave  a  great 
deal  of  time  to  propaganda  for  the  abolition  of 
the  banking  system,  maintaining  that  capital  of 
all  kinds  should  be  held  by  the  state,  by  which 
all  citizens  should  be  employed.  In  the  winter 
of  1851-52,  while  living  in  Cincinnati,  she  broke 
her  hip  in  a  fall  and  never  fully  recovered.  A 
year  later  she  died. 

Frances  Wright  was  a  woman  of  extraordinary 
physical  and  moral  courage,  unusual  intellect, 
and  considerable  imagination.  Her  fearlessness 
and  initiative  contributed  definitely  to  the  eman- 
cipation of  women,  though  her  influence  was 
exerted  more  by  her  example  than  by  her  doc- 
trines. 

[W.  R.  Waterman,  Frances  Wright  (1924),  based  in 
part  on  MSS.  in  the  possession  of  Frances  Wright's 
grandson,  the  Rev.  William  Norman  Guthrie,  New 
York  ;  Biog.,  Notes,  and  Political  Letters  of  Frances 
Wright  D'Arusmont  (1844),  which  contains  some  auto- 
biog.  material ;  Amos  Gilbert,  Memoir  of  Frances 
Wright  (1855)  ;  Charles  Bradlaugh,  Biogs.  of  Ancient 
and  Modern  Celebrated  Free  Thinkers  (1858)  ;  G.  B. 
Lockwood,  The  New  Harmony  Movement  (1905)  ;  R. 
D.  Owen,  Threading  My  Way  (1874)  ;  S.  B.  Anthony 
and  others,  Hist,  of  Woman  Suffrage  (3  vols.,  1881- 
87)  ;  Cincinnati  Daily  Gazette,  Dec.  15,   1852.] 

K.A. 

WRIGHT,  GEORGE  FREDERICK  (Jan. 
22,  1838-Apr.  20,  1921),  geologist,  clergyman, 
was  born  at  Whitehall,  N.  Y.,  of  sturdy,  New 
England  pioneering  stock,  the  son  of  Walter  and 
Mary  Peabody  (Colburn)  Wright.  His  was  the 
best  type  of  Puritan  home,  and  his  early  training 
gave  him  the  deep  interest  in  religion  and  the 
joy  in  simple  things  that  he  ever  afterwards  re- 
tained.  After  attending  country  schools  and  an 


55° 


Wright 

academy  at  Castleton,  Vt,  he  entered  Oberlin 
College  (A.B.  1859),  and  was  graduated  from 
the  Oberlin  Theological  Seminary  in  1862.  He 
was  married  on  Aug.  28,  1862,  to  Huldah  Maria 
Day.  His  first  pastoral  charge  was  in  the  small 
village  of  Bakersfield,  Vt.,  and  it  was  there  that 
he  developed  his  interest  in  geology  (1862-72). 
From  1872  to  1881  he  was  pastor  of  the  Free 
(Congregational)  Church  of  Andover,  Mass. 
Behind  the  parsonage  in  Andover  ran  a  gravel 
ridge  supposed  by  geologists  to  be  of  marine  ori- 
gin, but  Wright's  study  of  it  convinced  him  that 
it  was  due  to  glacial  action.  His  theory  of  the 
glacial  origin  of  such  ridges  in  New  England, 
presented  before  the  Essex  Institute  of  Salem  in 
1875  ar>d  before  the  Boston  Society  of  Natural 
History  in  1876,  was  indorsed  by  Clarence  King 
[q.z'.]  and  brought  by  him  to  the  attention  of 
geologists  the  world  over  (Proceedings  of  the 
Boston  Society  of  Natural  History,  vol.  XIX, 
1878,  p.  47).  In  1880  Wright  was  asked  to  serve 
on  a  distinguished  commission  selected  to  inves- 
tigate the  discoveries  made  by  Charles  Conrad 
Abbott  [q.v.~\  of  what  were  reputed  to  be  the  re- 
mains of  paleolithic  man  in  the  Trenton,  N.  J., 
glacial  deposits.  Wright's  interest  in  the  Ice 
Age  now  became  intertwined  with  his  interest  in 
the  antiquity  of  man,  and  this,  in  turn,  with  his 
theological  interest  in  the  Biblical  account  of 
man's  origin. 

These  three  interests  furnished  the  pattern  for 
his  subsequent  life.  He  became  the  stoutest 
champion  of  the  late  close  of  the  Ice  Age,  not 
more  than  7,000  years  ago ;  of  the  relatively  lim- 
ited time  of  its  duration,  not  more  than  30,000- 
90,000  years ;  and  of  the  origin  of  man  within  the 
glacial  period.  In  the  course  of  his  geological 
investigations  he  became  associated  with  Peter 
Lesley  \_q.v.~\  as  assistant  geologist  of  the  Penn- 
sylvania survey  (1881-82)  in  tracing  the  south- 
ern edge  of  the  great  terminal  moraine  running 
ihrough  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  Ken- 
tucky, Indiana,  and  Illinois.  The  study  of  the 
more  western  part  seems  to  have  been  done  by 
Wright  alone,  under  the  auspices  of  the  Western 
Reserve  Historical  Society  (  United  States  Geo- 
logical Survey,  Bulletin  58,  1890) .  This  work  has 
been  of  fundamental  importance  for  all  subse- 
quent study  of  the  glacial  epoch.  In  1886  Wright 
made  the  first  scientific  study  of  the  Muir  Glacier 
in  Alaska,  which  added  greatly  to  his  fame  as  an 
expert  in  glacial  geology.  He  was  chosen  three 
times  to  give  the  Lowell  Lectures  (1887-88, 
1891-92,  and  1896-Q7)  ;  the  first  he  finally  em- 
bodied in  his  best  known  book.  The  lee  Age  in 
North  America  (1889).  Meanwhile  he  had  been 
teaching  at  Oberlin,  where  he  was  professor  of 


Wright 

New  Testament  language  and  literature  (1881- 
92)  and  of  the  harmony  of  science  and  religion, 
a  chair  especially  endowed  for  him  (1892-1907). 
His  most  significant  service  along  theological 
lines  was  as  editor  of  Bibliothcca  Sacra  (1883- 
1921).  Under  Wright  the  journal  was  for  nearly 
forty  years  one  of  the  most  respected  mediums  of 
expression  for  the  more  scholarly  conservative 
thought  of  the  Church.  He  also  assisted  his  son 
in  the  later  years  of  his  life  in  editing  the  twelve 
volumes  of  Records  of  the  Past  (later  absorbed 
by  Art  and  Archaeology).  On  Sept.  22,  1904, 
five  years  after  the  death  of  his  first  wife,  he 
married  Florence  Eleanor  Bedford.  Emeritus 
professor  from  1907  until  his  death,  he  gave  him- 
self unremittingly  to  literary  work,  leading  at 
the  same  time  a  life  of  singular  dignity,  simplic- 
ity, and  sincerity. 

Two  of  Wright's  geological  trips  deserve  spe- 
cial mention — the  first,  a  journey  to  Greenland 
in  the  summer  of  1894,  when  he  was  shipwrecked ; 
and  the  second,  the  truly  remarkable  journey 
across  Asia  and  through  Turkestan,  which  he 
undertook  in  his  sixty-third  year,  before  the  com- 
pletion of  the  Trans-Siberian  Railway.  As  a 
souvenir  of  the  latter  trip  he  brought  back  the 
liturgy  of  St.  John  Chrysostom,  set  to  music  by 
Tchaikovsky.  He  translated  this  and  adjusted 
the  English  form  to  the  music  (published  by  P. 
Jurgenson,  Moscow  and  Leipzig).  Among  his 
books  are  Asiatic  Russia  (2  vols.,  1902),  Scien- 
tific Confirmations  of  the  Old  Testament  (1906), 
Origin  and  Antiquity  of  Man  (1912),  and  Story 
of  My  Life  and  Work  ( 1916) ,  a  charmingly  writ- 
ten sketch. 

[In  addition  to  Wright's  Story  of  My  life  and  Work, 
which  contains  a  full  bibliog.,  see  Who's  Who  in  Amer- 
ica, 1920-21  ;  and  obituary  in  Cleveland  Plain  Dealer, 
Apr.  22,  1921.]  j£  p_ 

WRIGHT,  GEORGE  GROVER  (Mar.  24, 
1820-Jan.  11,  1896),  jurist,  United  States  sena- 
tor, the  fifth  son  of  John  and  Rachel  (Seaman) 
Wright,  was  born  at  Bloomington,  Ind.  Though 
left  fatherless  at  an  early  age,  he  was  able  to  enter 
the  state  college  (later  Indiana  University)  in 
his  native  town  at  fifteen.  After  graduating  in 
1839  he  studied  law  in  the  office  of  his  brother, 
Joseph  Albert  Wright  [q.v.~\.  In  September  1840, 
having  been  admitted  to  the  bar,  he  began  prac- 
tice at  Keosauqua  in  Iowa  Territory.  There,  on 
Oct.  19,  1843,  he  was  married  to  Hannah  Mary 
Dibble,  by  whom  he  had  seven  children,  and 
there  they  lived  until  1865,  when  they  moved  to 
Des  Moines.  Wright  soon  became  active  in  poli- 
tics. He  was  prosecuting  attorney  for  Van  Bu- 
ren  County  (1846-48),  served  as  state  senator 
in  the  second  and  third  General  Assemblies,  and 


551 


Wright 

on  Jan.  5,  1855,  was  elected  by  the  General  As- 
sembly chief  justice  of  the  state  supreme  court. 
He  was  not  a  candidate  for  reelection  in  1859, 
when  judges  were  chosen  by  popular  election, 
but  in  i860  he  was  appointed  by  the  governor  to 
fill  a  vacancy,  and  his  selection  was  later  con- 
firmed by  election.  He  was  reelected  in  1865 
and  served  until  August  1870,  after  he  had  been 
elected  United  States  senator. 

Almost  continuously  for  fifteen  years  during 
the  formative  period  of  Iowa  government  and 
jurisprudence,  Wright  exercised  a  dominant  in- 
fluence upon  the  attitude  of  the  supreme  court. 
Rigorous  in  basing  decisions  upon  principles 
rather  than  political  expediency,  he  helped  to  es- 
tablish precedents  on  many  vital  questions. 
Though  he  favored  temperance  and  a  majority 
of  the  voters  had  supported  a  statute  prohibiting 
liquor  traffic  in  1855.  he  argued  in  a  dissenting 
opinion  that  the  whole  act  was  unconstitutional 
because  it  had  been  referred  to  the  electorate, 
which  was  contrary  to  the  regular  legislative 
process  (Santo  et  al.  vs.  State  of  Iowa,  2  Clarke, 
165,  post).  On  another  occasion  the  supreme 
court  decided  that  the  Iowa  General  Assembly 
had  given  counties  authority  to  borrow  money  to 
aid  railroads.  Wright  contended  that  the  state 
legislature  could  confer  such  power  specifically, 
but  had  not  done  so ;  later  cases  sustained  his 
view  (Clapp  vs.  County  of  Cedar,  5  Clarke,  15, 
post).  He  was  not,  however,  a  chronic  dissenter. 
He  wrote  many  important  opinions  and  formu- 
lated the  Iowa  interpretation  of  legal  rules  per- 
taining to  domestic  relations,  libel,  contracts,  and 
technicalities  of  procedure.  One  who  knew  all 
the  judges  of  the  Iowa  supreme  court  during  the 
first  seventy  years  considered  Wright  "entitled 
to  rank  first  in  the  importance  and  value  of  his 
services  to  the  jurisprudence  of  Iowa"  (Cole, 
post,  I,  IOO-IOl). 

As  a  United  States  senator  from  1871  to  1877, 
Wright  succeeded  in  representing  the  interests 
of  his  constituents  without  sacrificing  his  judi- 
cial attitude  to  partisan  exigencies.  He  opposed 
resumption  of  specie  payments  and  favored  ex- 
pansion of  paper  currency  based  entirely  upon 
the  credit  of  the  government  because  the  grow- 
ing West  needed  more  money.  He  voted  against 
the  salary  grab  act,  worked  futilely  for  prohibi- 
tion of  the  liquor  traffic  in  territories,  tried  to 
reform  senatorial  procedure,  and  proposed  judi- 
cial settlement  of  presidential  election  contests. 
He  was  not  a  candidate  for  reelection.  He  re- 
turned to  the  practice  of  law  in  Des  Moines  with 
two  of  his  sons,  but  devoted  his  attention  chiefly 
to  his  business  interests.  Though  no  longer  en- 
gaged in  active  practice,  he  served  as  president  of 


Wright 

the  American  Bar  Association  in  1887  and  1888. 
Lecturing  on  professional  ethics  and  other  sub- 
jects in  the  law  school  of  the  state  university 
( 1881-96),  which  he  had  helped  to  found  in  1865, 
was  among  the  most  pleasant  experiences  of  his 
later  years.  Because  of  his  rich  experience,  high 
character,  quick  wit,  and  genial  disposition  the 
students  idolized  him  ;  indeed,  his  popularity  was 
as  wide  as  his  acquaintance. 

[J.  L.  Pickard,  in  Iowa  Hist.  Record,  Apr.  1 896  ; 
E.  W.  Stiles,  Recollections  and  Sketches  of  Notable 
Lawyers  .  .  .  of  Early  Iowa  (1916),  pp.  417-22;  C.  C. 
Cole,  The  Courts  and  Legal  Profession  of  Iowa  ( 1907), 
vol.  I,  p.  101  ;  short  autobiog.  in  Annals  of  Iowa,  Jan. 
1915  ;  W.  P.  Clarke,  Reports  of  Cases  .  .  .  in  the  Su- 
preme Court  .  .  .  of  Iowa,  vols.  I-XXIX  (1855-70)  ; 
obituary  in  Iowa  State  Reg.,  Jan.  12,  1896.]      T  E  B 

WRIGHT,  HAMILTON  KEMP  (Aug.  2, 
1867-Jan.  9,  1917),  medical  scientist,  was  born 
at  Cleveland,  Ohio,  the  son  of  Robert  and  Eliza- 
beth (Wyse)  Wright  of  English  and  Canadian 
ancestry.  He  received  his  early  education  in 
Boston,  Mass.,  and  graduated  in  medicine  from 
McGill  University  in  Montreal  in  1895.  After  a 
short  term  as  medical  registrar  and  neuropa- 
thologist in  the  Royal  Victoria  Hospital  in  Mon- 
treal, he  accepted  the  offer  from  Sir  Michael 
Foster  of  the  John  Lucas  Walker  scholarship  at 
Cambridge  University,  where  he  worked  in  neu- 
ropathology. In  1897  he  become  assistant  direc- 
tor of  the  London  County  Laboratories,  where 
he  made  a  special  study  of  the  pathology  of  tabes 
dorsalis.  He  studied  at  Heidelberg  and  other 
continental  universities  in  1897-98.  In  1899  he 
was  sent  by  the  British  Colonial  Office  to  make 
a  study  of  beriberi  in  the  Straits  Settlements. 
During  the  four  years  that  he  spent  in  this  work 
he  induced  the  authorities  to  build  under  his  su- 
pervision an  admirably  equipped  laboratory  for 
medical  research  at  Kuala  Lumpur,  of  which  he 
become  director.  He  advanced  materially  the 
knowledge  of  beriberi.  He  combatted  the  theory 
that  it  was  due  to  a  specific  organism  growing 
on  rice,  but  concluded  that  food  was  an  agent  in 
its  transmission.  The  years  from  1903  to  1908 
were  occupied  with  medical  research,  first  at  the 
Johns  Hopkins  University  in  Baltimore,  later  at 
various  places  in  the  United  States  and  Europe. 
In  1908  he  was  appointed  by  President  Theodore 
Roosevelt  to  the  International  Opium  Commis- 
sion and  attended  the  Shanghai  meeting  of  the 
Commission  in  1909.  He  was  retained  by  the 
State  Department  to  make  the  preparations 
for  American  participation  in  the  International 
Opium  Conference  of  191 1  at  The  Hague.  He 
attended  this  conference  and  the  second  one  at 
the  same  place  in  1913  as  delegate  and  chairman 
of  the   American   delegation.    He   was   instru- 


552 


Wright 


Wright 


mental  in  the  preparation  of  the  Harrison  Nar- 
cotic Law  and  other  federal  legislation  for  the 
regulation  of  the  sale  of  habit-forming  drugs 
which  was  passed  by  Congress  soon  after  the 
second  Hague  conference.  During  the  early 
part  of  the  World  War  he  was  engaged  in  ci- 
vilian relief  work  in  France;  there,  in  1915,  he 
sustained  a  fracture  of  the  ribs  and  a  severe  nerv- 
ous shock  from  an  automobile  accident.  He  never 
fully  recovered.  He  died  from  pneumonia  at  his 
home  in  Washington,  D.  C. 

To  his  gifts  as  a  medical  investigator  he  added 
unusual  organizing  ability,  together  with  cour- 
age and  common  sense.  With  a  fine  presence  and 
a  cultured  voice,  he  was  an  excellent  public 
speaker  and  an  efficient  advocate  for  medical  sci- 
ence. An  ambitious  man,  he  would  have  reached 
still  greater  public  prominence  but  for  his  com- 
paratively early  death.  Incident  to  his  work  in 
the  Straits  Settlements  he  published  The  Mala- 
rial Fevers  of  British  Malaya  (1901),  An  In- 
quiry into  the  Etiology  and  Pathology  of  Beri- 
beri (1902),  and  On  the  Classification  and 
Pathology  of  Beri-beri  (1903).  His  reports  on 
the  opium  problem  (1909)  and  on  the  second  in- 
ternational opium  conference  (1913)  were  issued 
by  the  United  States  government  as  presidential 
messages.  Wright  was  a  member  of  the  British 
Medical  Association,  the  American  Association 
for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  the  American 
Asiatic  Society,  the  American  Society  of  Inter- 
national Law,  and  the  Washington  Academy  of 
Sciences.  He  was  married  on  Nov.  22,  1899,  to 
Elizabeth  Washburn,  daughter  of  William  Drew 
Washburn  [q.v.~\,  by  whom  he  had  five  children. 
Mrs.  Wright  carried  to  completion  certain  sci- 
entific work  upon  which  he  was  engaged  at  the 
time  of  his  death. 

[Sources  include  Who's  Who  in  America,  1916-17; 
British  Medic.  Jour.,  Apr.  7,  1917;  Jour.  Am.  Medic. 
Asso.,  Jan.  20,  1917  ;  H.  A.  Kelly  and  W.  L.  Burrage, 
Am.  Medic.  Biogs.  (1920)  ;  obituary  in  Evening  Star 
(Washington),  Jan.  11,  1917,  with  portrait;  McGill 
Univ.  records.  Wright  usually  omitted  his  middle 
name.]  J.M.P. 

WRIGHT,  HENDRICK  BRADLEY  (Apr. 
24,  1808-Sept.  2,  1881),  congressman,  was  born 
at  Plymouth,  Luzerne  County,  Pa.,  the  first  child 
of  Joseph  and  Ellen  (Hendrick)  Wadhams 
Wright.  His  father,  descended  from  John 
Wright  who  emigrated  from  England  in  1681 
with  William  Penn,  was  a  farmer  and  merchant, 
was  widely  read  and,  despite  a  profession  of  the 
principles  of  the  Society  of  Friends,  inordinately 
fond  of  poetry  and  the  theatre.  His  mother  came 
from  Connecticut.  According  to  one  of  her  sons, 
she  had  "some  sort  of  Yankee  talent,  though  there 
are  none  of  her  family  that  I  know  of,  who  have 


done  anything  marvellous,  excepting  by  way  of 
fattening  oxen,  etc."  (C.  E.  Wright  to  H.  B. 
Wright,  Oct.  13,  1834,  Wright  MSS.,  post). 
Hendrick  helped  on  the  farm,  attended  the  pub- 
lic schools,  and  in  1824  entered  the  Wilkes-Barre 
Academy,  where  he  excelled  in  scholarship,  pub- 
lic speaking,  and  theatricals.  In  May  1829  he 
entered  Dickinson  College  but  never  secured  a 
degree.  Early  in  1831  he  returned  to  Wilkes- 
Barre,  entered  the  law  office  of  John  N.  Conyng- 
ham,  and  on  Nov.  8  was  admitted  to  the  bar. 

His  success  was  astonishingly  rapid,  for  within 
a  few  months  he  had  clients  throughout  north- 
eastern Pennsylvania ;  they  "believed  and  said 
that  no  jury  could  resist  him"  (Kulp,  post,  p.  3). 
As  an  ardent  Jacksonian  Democrat  he  became  a 
colonel  of  militia  and  in  1834  was  appointed  dis- 
trict attorney  for  Luzerne  County  by  George  M. 
Dallas  [q.v.].  He  was  soon  the  leader  of  the  fac- 
tion opposed  to  the  leadership  of  Andrew  Beau- 
mont. He  was  elected  to  the  lower  house  of  the 
state  legislature  in  1841,  1842,  and  1843,  and  in 
the  last  year  served  as  speaker.  His  legislative 
service  was  characterized  by  aid  to  new  railroad 
corporations,  internal  improvements,  and  such 
social  reforms  as  the  repeal  of  the  law  for  im- 
prisonment of  debtors.  He  was  elected  chairman 
of  the  Democratic  convention  of  1844  in  Balti- 
more by  the  opponents  of  Van  Buren.  Wright's 
prominence  on  this  occasion  led  him  to  secure 
the  secret  support  of  Henry  A.  P.  Muhlenberg 
\_q.v.~\  for  a  seat  in  the  United  States  Senate,  but 
Muhlenberg's  untimely  death  and  Wright's  fail- 
ure to  secure  a  complimentary  nomination  for 
Congress  sent  these  hopes  glimmering.  He  then 
looked  to  Polk  for  some  office,  preferably  that  of 
collector  of  the  port  of  Philadelphia,  but  Polk 
ignored  him.  Wright  blamed  James  Buchanan 
for  this,  perhaps  rightly,  but  his  open  break  with 
Buchanan  did  not  come  until  1857,  when  Bu- 
chanan failed  to  reward  him  for  his  part  in  the 
campaign  of  1856.  Defeated  in  1850  and  1854, 
he  was  elected  to  the  national  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives in  1852,  and  again,  as  a  War  Demo- 
crat, in  i860,  having  been  nominated  by  both  the 
Democratic  and  Republican  parties.  He  made  a 
speech  in  reply  to  Clement  L.  Vallandigham 
\q.v.~\  on  Jan.  14,  1863,  that  was  quoted  enthusi- 
astically by  Northern  papers,  but  in  1864,  dissat- 
isfied with  the  changed  objects  of  the  war,  he 
supported  George  Brinton  McClellan  [q.?'.]  for 
president.  On  his  return  to  private  life  in  1863 
he  began  to  publish  in  the  Anthracite  Monitor,  a 
labor  organ,  a  series  of  articles  which  were  sub- 
sequently published  in  book  form  as  A  Practical 
Treatise  on  Labor  (1871).  This  was  an  obvious 
bid  for  labor  support  and  marked  the  beginning 


553 


Wright 


of  his  progressive  abandonment  of  the  old  Demo- 
cratic party.  He  was  nominated  by  the  Demo- 
crats for  Congress  in  1876,  and  1878,  but  it  was 
largely  due  to  the  labor  and  Greenback  element 
that  he  was  elected.  At  last,  in  1880,  he  forsook 
the  Democratic  party  for  the  support  of  these 
factions  and  was  defeated.  His  last  years  in  Con- 
gress were  devoted  to  an  unsuccessful  effort  to 
secure  loans  for  homesteaders  on  public  lands. 
Wright  was  widely  read  but  unscholarly.  His 
oratory  and  facile  pen  won  him  a  deserved 
but  unenviable  title:  "Old-Man-Not-Afraid-to- 
be-Called-Demagogue."  He  was  wealthy,  but  his 
philanthropy,  illustrated  in  the  annual  distribu- 
tion of  thousands  of  loaves  of  bread,  was  inevi- 
tably associated  with  his  political  aspirations. 
He  was  married  on  Aug.  21,  1835,  to  Mary  Ann 
Bradley  Robinson  and  had  ten  children,  of  whom 
five  survived  him. 

[Though  Wright's  Hist.  Sketches  of  Plymouth 
(1873)  contains  some  biog.  data,  the  foregoing  is  based 
upon  his  MSS.  including  diaries,  newspaper  clippings, 
and  political  corres.,  which  belong  to  the  Wyoming 
Hist,  and  Geological  Soc,  Wilkes-Barre.  See  also  G.  B. 
Kulp,  Families  of  the  Wyoming  Valley,  vol.  I  (1885), 
pp.  2-14;  Biog.  Dir.  Am.  Cong.  (1928);  Nat.  View 
(Washington,  D.  C.),  May  22,  1880;  Wilkes-Barre 
Daily  Union-Leader,  Sept.  2,  1881  ;  Wilkes-Barre  Daily 
Record,  Sept.  3,  1881  ;  Phila.  Press,  Sept.  3,  1881.] 

J.P.  B. 

WRIGHT,  HENRY   (Jan.   10,   1835-Oct.  3. 

I895),  professional  baseball  player,  known  as 
Harry  Wright,  was  born  in  Sheffield,  England, 
the  eldest  of  five  children  of  Samuel  and  Ann 
(Tone)  Wright.  He  was  taken  to  the  United 
States  about  1836  and  was  educated  in  the  grade 
schools  of  New  York  City.  Leaving  school,  he 
was  employed  for  a  time  by  a  jewelry  manufac- 
turing firm  and,  as  a  youngster,  became  promi- 
nent in  athletics,  particularly  cricket  and  the 
growing  game  of  baseball.  In  1856  he  became 
the  professional  bowler  for  the  St.  George  Crick- 
et Club  on  Staten  Island,  N.  Y.,  where  his  father 
was  cricket  instructor ;  at  about  the  same  time  he 
also  began  to  play  baseball  with  the  team  of  the 
Knickerbocker  Club,  a  celebrated  amateur  or- 
ganization. Though  a  professional  at  cricket,  he 
was  still  an  amateur  at  baseball,  there  being  no 
professionals  in  those  days.  In  1866  he  went  to 
Cincinnati  as  instructor  and  bowler  for  the  Union 
Cricket  Club  of  that  city.  In  July  of  the  same 
year  he  organized  and  captained  the  Cincinnati 
Baseball  Club.  For  two  seasons  he  was  the 
pitcher  of  the  baseball  team,  and  thereafter, 
through  his  active  playing  career,  he  always 
played  center  field.  At  that  time  some  skilled 
players  were  paid  for  their  services,  but  the  Cin- 
cinnati Red  Stockings,  organized,  managed,  and 
captained  by  Harry  Wright,  became  in  1869  the 


Wright 

first  full  professional  team  in  baseball  history. 
On  that  same  team  was  George  Wright,  Harry's 
younger  brother,  who  also  rose  to  fame  as  a  ball 
player.  In  1869  and  1870  the  Cincinnati  Red 
Stockings  toured  the  country,  winning  eighty- 
seven  games  before  losing  one.  When  the  Cin- 
cinnati team  was  disbanded  in  1871,  Wright  went 
to  Boston  to  play  for  and  manage  a  team  newly 
organized  there.  At  the  end  of  the  season  of 
1874  he  toured  England  with  a  baseball  team. 
The  baseball  party  also  played  cricket  games 
with  some  of  the  best  of  the  English  teams  and 
fared  very  well  in  such  contests,  although  the 
Wright  brothers  were  the  only  real  cricketers  in 
the  group.  In  1876  the  National  League  of  Pro- 
fessional Baseball  Clubs  was  organized,  and 
Wright  became  the  manager  of  the  Boston  team. 
His  active  playing  days  were  over,  but  as  a 
manager  and  leader  of  players  he  was  prominent 
in  helping  to  put  professional  baseball  on  a  re- 
spectable, sober,  and  sportsmanlike  basis.  He 
managed  the  Boston  team  until  the  end  of  1881, 
the  club  winning  two  championships  under  his 
leadership.  He  managed  Providence  in  1882  and 
1883,  another  club  in  the  National  League,  and 
in  1884  went  to  Philadelphia  to  manage  the  Na- 
tional League  club  there  until  the  close  of  the 
1893  season.  He  was  then  appointed  chief  of 
umpires  of  the  National  League  and  held  that  of- 
fice until  the  time  of  his  death. 

He  was  fairly  tall,  well  built,  and  a  very  grace- 
ful athlete  in  his  playing  days.  He  was  a  striking 
figure  on  the  field  with  his  "sideburns,"  his  long 
moustache,  and  his  tuft  of  beard.  By  his  skill  as 
a  player,  his  example  as  a  sportsman,  and  his  de- 
portment as  a  gentleman,  he  did  much  to  im- 
prove the  standard  of  baseball  in  his  day  and  was 
a  noted  figure  in  American  sport  for  some  thirty 
years.  He  was  married  three  times :  first,  on 
Sept.  10,  1868,  to  Mary  Fraser  of  New  York 
City,  by  whom  he  had  four  children ;  then  to  a 
Miss  Mulford,  by  whom  he  also  had  four  chil- 
dren ;  and  then  to  his  first  wife's  sister,  by  whom 
he  had  no  children.  He  died  of  pneumonia  in  a 
sanatarium  in  Atlantic  City,  N.  J.,  and  is  buried 
in  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.  He  was  survived  by  his  third 
wife  and  seven  of  his  children. 

[Harry  Ellard,  Base  Ball  in  Cincinnati  (1907)  ;  A. 
G.  Spalding,  America's  National  Game  (1911)  ;  George 
Morland,  Balldom  (1926)  :  obituary  in  N.  Y.  Times, 
Oct.  4,  1895;  information  from  George  Wright.] 

J.K. 

WRIGHT,  HORATIO  GOUVERNEUR 

(Mar.  6,  1820-July  2,  1899),  soldier  and  engi- 
neer, was  a  native  of  Clinton,  Conn.,  his  parents 
being  Edward  and  Nancy  Wright.  He  entered 
the  United  States  Military  Academy,  graduated 
second  in  his  class,  and  was  appointed  second 


554 


Wright 

lieutenant,  Engineer  Corps,  July  i,  1841.  Before 
1846  he  had  served  as  assistant  to  the  board  of 
engineers  and  as  instructor  at  the  military  acad- 
emy, and  had  accompanied  the  secretary  of  war 
on  a  military  inspection  tour.  The  following  ten 
years  he  spent  in  Florida,  superintending  river 
and  harbor  improvements  at  St.  Augustine  and 
on  the  St.  John's  River,  and  constructing  forti- 
fications at  Tortugas  and  Key  West.  Having  be- 
come a  captain,  July  1,  1855,  he  was  assistant  to 
the  chief  engineer  at  Washington  when  the  Civil 
War  began. 

In  a  daring  attempt  to  destroy  the  Norfolk 
navy  yard  dry  dock  on  the  night  of  Apr.  20, 

1861,  Wright  was  captured  but  was  soon  re- 
leased. Late  in  May  he  began  building  Fort 
Ellsworth  and  other  defenses  of  the  capital,  and 
at  Bull  Run  was  chief  engineer  of  the  division 
under  Samuel  Peter  Heintzelman  [q.v.~\.  Short- 
ly after  that  disastrous  battle  he  became  chief 
engineer  for  the  brilliantly  successful  Port  Royal 
expedition,  and  commanded  the  3rd  Brigade, 
which  occupied  Fort  Walker  on  Nov.  7.  Pro- 
moted brigadier-general  of  volunteers  on  Sept. 
14,  1861,  in  the  following  February  he  headed 
the  expedition  which  seized  Jacksonville,  St. 
Augustine,  and  other  points  in  Florida,  going 
thence  to  Morris  Island,  S.  C,  and  leading  a 
division  in  the  attack  on  Secessionville,  June  16, 

1862.  The  Department  of  the  Ohio  was  now 
(Aug.  19)  entrusted  to  him,  and  he  cooperated 
efficiently  with  Generals  D.  C.  Buell  and  W.  S. 
Rosecrans  [qq.v.~\  in  their  Kentucky  and  Ten- 
nessee campaigns  until  again  ordered  east,  May 
18,  1863.  Here  he  took  the  1st  Division  of  Gen. 
John  Sedgwick's  VI  Corps.  His  brigades  saw 
little  fighting  at  Gettysburg,  but  on  Nov.  7  fol- 
lowing, they  carried  the  Confederate  redoubts  at 
Rappahannock  Bridge  in  a  dashing  assault,  and 
forced  the  river  crossings,  subsequently  taking 
an  important  share  in  the  Mine  Run  campaign. 
Beginning  May  4,  1864,  Wright  participated  in 
every  battle  of  the  Wilderness  campaign.  After 
the  death  of  General  Sedgwick  at  Spotsylvania, 
May  9,  he  took  the  VI  Corps,  which  he  com- 
manded thereafter,  and  his  troops  bore  the  brunt 
of  the  terrible  fighting  in  the  Bloody  Angle  on 
May  12.  Commissioned  major-general  of  volun- 
teers from  this  date,  in  July  with  his  corps  he 
was  hurriedly  sent  to  save  Washington  from 
Early's  raid,  and  repelled  the  enemy,  July  12, 
at  the  very  edge  of  the  capital.  He  fought  under 
Sheridan  in  the  autumn  campaign  in  the  Shen- 
andoah Valley,  and  on  Oct.  19  at  Cedar  Creek, 
where  he  was  wounded,  he  commanded  the  army 
until  Sheridan's  arrival.  Returning  to  Peters- 
burg, his  troops  were  the  first  to  penetrate  the 


Wright 


Confederate  works  on  Apr.  2,  1865,  and  were 
chiefly  instrumental  in  capturing  Ewell's  corps 
at  Sailors'  Creek  on  Apr.  6.  From  July  20,  1865, 
to  Aug.  28,  1866,  Wright  commanded  the  De- 
partment of  Texas. 

Thenceforward  he  became  engaged  on  such 
important  engineering  projects  as  the  East  River 
bridge,  New  York;  the  Sutro  tunnel,  Nevada; 
Delaware  Breakwater  Harbor  of  Refuge;  the 
South  Pass  jetties  on  the  Mississippi,  and  the 
completion  of  the  Washington  Monument.  He 
was  also  active  in  the  improvement  of  heavy 
ordnance  and  gun  carriages.  Meantime  promot- 
ed through  grades  to  brigadier-general  in  the 
regular  army,  and  chief  of  engineers  on  June  30, 
1879,  he  was  retired  on  Mar.  6,  1884.  On  Aug. 
11,  1842,  Wright  married  Louisa  M.,  daughter 
of  Sam  and  Emily  (Slaughter)  Bradford,  of 
Culpeper,  Va.,  whose  remains  rest  beside  his  in 
the  Arlington  National  Cemetery.  He  died  in 
Washington,  D.  C,  survived  by  his  wife  and 
two  daughters.  Paradoxically,  his  very  excel- 
lences have  minimized  Wright's  reputation.  A 
man  of  superb  physique  and  commanding  pres- 
ence, as  engineer  and  soldier  he  always  did  well, 
exciting  neither  criticism  nor  controversy,  which 
frequently  bring  men  to  public  notice. 

[In  addition  to  War  of  the  Rebellion :  Official  Records 
(Army),  sources  include  Who's  Who  in  America,  1899— 
1900;    F.    B.   Heitman,   Hist.  Reg'.   .   .   .   U.  S.  Army 

(1903),  vol.  I ;  G.  W.  Cullum,  Biog.  Reg U.S.  Mil. 

Acad.,  vol.  II  (1891)  ;  Battles  and  Leaders  of  the  Civil 
War  (4  vols.,  1887-88),  ed.  by  R.  U.  Johnson  and  C. 
C.  Buel ;  obituaries  in  Washington  Post,  July  3,  and  in 
Army  and  Nai>y  Jour.,  July  8,  1899  ;  geneal.  data  from 
Conn.  Hist.  Soc.  and  Miss  Katie  Winfrey,  Culpeper, 
Va.  There  are  refs.  to  Wright  in  M.  F.  Steele,  Am. 
Campaigns  (1909)  ;  Personal  Memoirs  of  U.  S.  Grant, 
vol.  II  (1886)  ;  The  Life  and  Letters  of  George  Gordon 
Meade  (191 3),  vol.  II  ;  and  Personal  Memoirs  of  P.  H. 
Sheridan  (2  vols.,  1888).  See  also  Wright's  ann.  re- 
ports as  chief  of  engineers,  1879—84,  and  Report  on  the 
Fabrication  of  Iron  for  Defensive  Purposes  (1871), 
written  with  T.  G.  Barnard  and  P.  S.  Michie.] 

J.M.H. 

WRIGHT,  JAMES  LENDREW  (Apr.  6, 
1816-Aug.  3,  1893),  pioneer  labor  leader,  was 
born  in  County  Tyrone,  Ireland,  of  Scotch-Irish 
parentage.  After  a  brief  residence  in  Saint  John, 
New  Brunswick,  the  Wright  family  settled  in 
Philadelphia  in  1827.  Wright  was  educated  at 
the  Mount  Vernon  Grammar  School  and  at 
Charles  Mead's  private  academy,  a  circumstance 
which  seems  to  indicate  that  his  family  was  for 
a  time  well-to-do.  He  was  later  apprenticed  to 
George  W.  Farr,  a  tailor,  whom  he  served  six 
years.  Thereafter  he  continued  in  tailoring  and 
opened  his  own  shop  in  Frankfort,  Pa.,  in  1847. 
Seven  years  later  he  became  the  manager  of  a 
large  Philadelphia  clothing  store.  In  his  late 
years,  along  with  Terence  V.  Powderly  [q.v.~] 


555 


Wright 


and  John  W.  Hayes,  Wright  engaged  in  several 
commercial  ventures,  including  the  soliciting 
of  advertising  from  Armour  and  other  employers 
whom,  as  labor  leader,  he  had  previously  fought. 

As  early  as  1837  Wright  joined  the  Tailors' 
Benevolent  Society  of  Philadelphia,  but  his  ca- 
reer as  a  labor  leader  was  delayed  by  the  middle- 
class  interludes.  In  1862  he  and  Uriah  Smith 
Stephens  [q.z>.~\  helped  organize  the  Garment 
Cutters'  Association,  a  benevolent  organization, 
whose  president  he  was  for  a  number  of  years. 
In  1863  he  helped  establish  the  Philadelphia 
Trades'  Assembly  and  was  elected  its  treasurer. 
In  1869  Stephens,  Wright,  and  five  others  found- 
ed the  Noble  Order  of  the  Knights  of  Labor, 
whose  name  Wright  devised,  and  of  which  he 
was  a  leading  functionary  for  more  than  two 
decades.  He  served  as  temporary  chairman  of 
the  Pittsburgh  convention  in  1876  which  en- 
deavored to  set  up  a  national  labor  organization. 
As  a  member  of  the  Knights'  delegation  he 
helped  determine  the  convention's  final  decision 
for  Greenbackism  and  against  socialism  and  a 
political  labor  party. 

The  countrywide  flare-up  of  labor  militancy 
which  resulted  from  the  use  of  federal  and  state 
troops  in  suppressing  the  great  strike  of  July 
1877  took  in  part  political  form,  and  Wright  en- 
tered politics.  The  Harrisburg  convention  of 
the  United  Workingmen  in  that  year  nominated 
him  for  Pennsylvania  state  treasurer ;  he  polled 
more  than  52,000  votes,  or  some  ten  per  cent,  of 
the  total  cast.  As  Greenback-Labor  candidate 
for  state  secretary  of  internal  affairs  in  1878,  he 
got  about  82,000  votes.  The  economic  revival  of 
1879  swept  aside  the  political  labor  movement, 
and  Wright  thereafter  was  active  chiefly  as  a 
leader  of  the  Knights  of  Labor,  the  most  impor- 
tant labor  organization  of  the  period.  He  con- 
tributed much  to  building  and  extending  its  in- 
fluence and  to  shaping  its  policies.  He  died  in 
1893  at  his  home  in  Germantown. 

[There  is  no  biog.  of  Wright.  Consult  J.  R.  Commons 
and  others,  Hist,  of  Labour  in  the  U.  S.  (2  vols.,  1918)  ; 
N.  J.  Ware,  The  Labor  Movement  in  the  U.  S.,  1860-95 
(1929);  G.  E.  McNeill,  ed.,  The  Labor  Movement 
(1887);  death  notice  in  North  Am.  (Phila.),  Aug.  7, 
1893;  obituary  in  N.  Y.  Tribune,  Aug.  6,  1893,  which 
gives  Aug.  4  as  the  date  of  death.]  H.S. 

WRIGHT,  JOHN  HENRY  (Feb.  4,  1852- 
Nov.  25,  1908),  Hellenist,  was  born  at  Urmia 
(later  Rezaieh),  Persia,  where  his  parents,  the 
Rev.  Austin  Hazen  and  Catherine  (Myers) 
Wright,  were  missionaries.  At  the  age  of  eight 
he  was  sent  home  to  be  educated,  and  studied  at 
College  Hill  (Poughkeepsie)  and  Dartmouth 
College  (A.B.,  1873).  After  serving  at  Ohio 
Agricultural  and  Mechanical  College  (later  Ohio 


Wright 

State  University)  as  assistant  professor  of  an- 
cient languages  and  literature,  he  spent  two 
years  in  Leipzig,  where  he  devoted  himself  chief- 
ly to  Sanskrit  and  classical  philology,  and  re- 
turned to  become  associate  professor  of  Greek  at 
Dartmouth  (1878-86).  On  Apr.  2,  1879,  he 
married  Mary  Tappan,  daughter  of  Eli  Todd 
Tappan  [g.z'.],  president  of  Kenyon  College. 
From  Dartmouth  he  was  called  to  the  Johns 
Hopkins  University  as  professor  of  classical 
philology ;  he  served  also  as  dean  of  the  collegiate 
board.  In  1887  he  accepted  a  professorship  of 
Greek  at  Harvard,  where  he  remained  until  his 
death. 

His  wide  experience  with  students  from  dif- 
ferent parts  of  the  country  fitted  him  eminently 
for  the  post  of  dean  of  the  Harvard  Graduate 
School,  which  he  filled  from  1895  until  his  death. 
His  range  in  teaching  was  encyclopaedic,  and  a 
keen  critical  sense,  fortified  by  wide  reading, 
gave  him  what  seemed  like  the  power  of  divina- 
tion in  interpreting  difficult  texts.  At  Harvard 
he  originated  and  conducted  courses  in  classical 
archaeology  and  in  Greek  history,  until  the  es- 
tablishment of  separate  chairs  in  those  subjects. 
Sophocles  was  his  favorite  author,  but  he  also 
treated  writers  as  far  apart  as  the  philosopher 
Plato  and  the  traveler  Pausanias.  A  witty  speak- 
er, a  writer  possessing  charm,  he  addressed  the 
National  Education  Association  in  1882  on  "The 
Place  of  Original  Research  in  College  Educa- 
tion" and  the  New  Hampshire  Teachers'  Asso- 
ciation in  1884  on  "The  Greek  Question."  At 
Baltimore  in  1886  he  spoke  on  "The  College  in 
the  University  and  Classical  Philology  in  the 
College."  In  1886  he  published  a  translation 
of  Maxime  Collignon's  Manuel  d'Archeologie 
Grecque.  His  researches  in  Greek  history  led 
him  to  a  correct  chronology  of  the  political  and 
economic  disturbances  in  Athens  at  the  close  of 
the  seventh  century  B.C.  before  the  discovery  of 
Aristotle's  Constitution  of  the  Athenians  con- 
firmed his  results ;  unfortunately  these  were  de- 
layed in  print  until  1892,  when  his  article  on 
"The  Date  of  Cylon"  was  published.  On  the 
publication  of  the  recently  discovered  Mimes  of 
Herodas,  Wright  made  important  contributions 
to  the  understanding  of  the  text  in  his  Herondaca 
(1893).  In  1894  he  was  president  of  the  Ameri- 
can Philological  Association.  Versed  in  epigraphy 
as  well  as  in  paleography,  he  issued  in  1896  a 
monograph  on  The  Origin  of  Sigma  Lunatum. 
He  was  coeditor  of  the  Classical  Review  (1889- 
1906),  the  Classical  Quarterly  (1907),  Twen- 
tieth Century  Textbooks  (1900),  and  editor-in- 
chief  of  the  American  Journal  of  Archaeology 
(1897-1906).    In  1902  he  assumed  supervision 


556 


Wright 

of  A  History  of  All  Nations,  in  twenty-four  vol- 
umes. He  also  edited  Masterpieces  of  Greek  Lit- 
erature (1902),  and  in  1904  addressed  the  Con- 
gress of  Arts  and  Sciences  at  the  Louisiana 
Purchase  Exposition  in  St.  Louis  on  Present 
Problems  of  the  History  of  Classical  Literature 
(1906).  He  went  to  Athens  in  1906  as  profes- 
sor of  Greek  literature  at  the  American  School 
of  Classical  Studies.  The  recent  exploration  by 
the  School  of  the  Cave  of  Vari,  on  Mount  Hymet- 
tus,  inspired  him  to  write  a  remarkable  mono- 
graph on  The  Origin  of  Plato's  Cave  (1906). 

Holding  firm  and  reasoned  convictions,  he  was 
gentle  and  patient  in  defending  them.  His  wife, 
a  woman  of  rare  charm  and  culture,  a  novelist 
and  writer  of  short  stories,  aided  him  in  simple 
and  gracious  hospitality.  He  died  at  Cambridge, 
Mass. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1908-09  ;  S.  E.  Morison, 
The  Development  of  Harvard  Univ.  (1930)  ;  H.  W. 
Smyth,  in  Harvard  Grads.'  Mag.,  Mar.  1909  ;  Harvard 
Univ.  Gazette,  Dec.  18,  1908;  Nation,  Dec.  3,  1908; 
obituary  in  Boston  Herald,  Nov.  26,  1908;  personal  ac- 
quaintance.] C.  B.G. 

WRIGHT,  JOHN  STEPHEN  (July  16,  1815- 
Sept.  26,  1874),  editor,  promoter,  publicist,  real- 
estate  operator,  and  manufacturer,  was  born  at 
Sheffield,  Mass.,  the  eldest  son  of  John  and  Hul- 
dah  (Dewey)  Wright,  both  of  New  England 
ancestry.  On  the  paternal  side  he  was  a  de- 
scendant of  Thomas  Wright  who  emigrated  to 
America  in  1635  and  later  settled  in  Wethers- 
field,  Conn.  As  a  boy  he  was  instructed  by  his 
mother's  brother,  Chester  Dewey  [qrv.].  About 
1832  he  set  out  for  the  West  with  his  father,  a 
merchant,  with  a  stock  of  goods,  intending  to 
settle  at  Galena,  111.  Arriving  at  Chicago  on 
Oct.  29,  1832,  they  decided  to  remain  there  and 
built  a  hewn  log  building  at  Lake  and  Clark 
Streets,  which  was  then  so  far  from  the  business 
center  that  their  store  was  called  "the  Prairie 
Store."  Young  Wright  took  a  census  of  Chicago 
in  1833  and  published  one  of  the  first  litho- 
graphed maps  of  the  town  in  1834.  In  the  latter 
year  he  began  his  real-estate  business,  and  in 
about  two  years  he  held  property  worth  $200,000. 
At  one  time  he  bought  7,000  acres  of  canal  land, 
and  in  1836  he  purchased  a  warehouse  and  dock 
preparatory  to  entering  the  shipping  business. 
In  the  panic  of  1837  this  fortune  was  entirely 
lost.  After  the  crash  he  served  as  secretary  and 
general  manager  of  the  Union  Agricultural  So- 
ciety and  issued  for  it  the  Union  Agriculturist, 
beginning  in  1839.  In  1841  this  paper  was  com- 
bined with  the  Western  Prairie  Farmer  under 
the  double  name  and  was  thus  continued  until 
the  close  of  the  following  year.  In  January  1843 
Wright  became  the  owner  of  the  publication  and 


Wright 


changed  its  name  to  the  Prairie  Fanner.  J.  Am- 
brose Wight  took  over  the  active  editorship  of 
the  paper,  while  Wright  directed  its  business 
affairs  and  contributed  an  occasional  article  to 
the  educational  department.  He  continued  his 
connection  with  the  Prairie  Farmer  until  1857. 

In  his  trips  through  the  Middle  West  in  a 
buggy,  soliciting  subscriptions  and  contributions 
for  his  paper,  he  learned  much  of  the  agriculture 
and  the  resources  of  the  country,  and  grew  more 
and  more  enthusiastic  over  its  prospects.  In 
1845  ne  wrote  for  the  New  York  Commercial 
Advertiser  a  series  of  articles  about  the  products 
of  the  West  and  the  advantages  of  Illinois  and 
Chicago.  Other  articles  of  a  similar  kind  were 
written  for  the  New  York  Evening  Post,  the 
American  Railroad  Journal,  and  other  papers. 
In  1847  he  wrote  another  series  advocating  the 
construction  of  railroads  in  the  West.  In  1848, 
when  he  worked  for  a  land  grant  to  build  a  rail- 
road from  Chicago  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  he 
printed  and  distributed  to  postmasters  along  the 
proposed  route  six  thousand  copies  of  petitions 
to  Congress  urging  that  the  road  be  built,  lobbied 
for  the  bill  in  Washington,  and  urged  that  the 
state  make  provision  for  building  the  road  and 
paying  the  state  debt  through  the  land  grant. 

After  his  marriage  on  Sept.  1,  1846,  to  Cathe- 
rine B.  Turner  of  Virginia  he  again  entered  the 
real-estate  business  and  was  so  successful  that  by 
1857  he  had  acquired  a  second  fortune.  In  the 
meantime  he  had  become  interested  in  a  self- 
raking  reaper  invented  by  Jearum  Atkins  [q.vJ] 
and  in  1852  had  begun  the  manufacture  of  the 
Atkins  Automaton.  In  1856  he  made  2,800  of 
these  machines  and  was  proving  himself  a  real 
factor  in  this  growing  business.  A  circumstance 
of  his  manufacturing  operations  of  that  year  led 
to  his  undoing.  Because  of  a  shortage  of  sea- 
soned timber  he  had  been  forced  to  make  the 
reapers  from  unseasoned  wood,  which  warped  in 
the  harvest  heat.  Had  it  not  been  for  the  ex- 
penditure of  $200,000  to  make  good  his  guaran- 
tee on  these  machines,  Wright  might  have  main- 
tained himself  through  the  panic,  but  this  loss 
and  the  collapse  of  other  business  swept  away  his 
fortune  a  second  time.  Even  after  this  reverse 
he  continued  his  promotional  work.  In  1859  he 
formed  a  land  company,  sought  to  interest  east- 
ern capitalists,  and  continued  to  promote  it  for 
several  years.  After  the  Chicago  fire  he  charac- 
teristically renewed  his  expression  of  faith  in  the 
city. 

Wright  was  one  of  the  conspicuous  leaders  in 
the  educational  life  of  the  state.  In  1835  he  built, 
at  his  own  expense,  the  first  public  school  build- 
ing erected  in  Chicago.    He  labored  with  Jona- 


557 


Wright 

than  Baldwin  Turner  [q.v.]  in  the  interests  of  a 
state  school  system  and  assisted  in  promoting 
organizations  to  further  it.  His  paper,  the  Prairie 
Farmer,  was  a  strong  and  consistent  supporter 
of  public  education.  He  advocated  and  predicted 
the  formation  of  a  park  system  connected  by 
boulevards  in  Chicago.  In  addition  to  articles 
and  numerous  pamphlets,  he  compiled  a  rambling, 
bombastic  volume,  Chicago,  Past,  Present  and 
Future  (1868),  and  wrote  Citizenship  Sover- 
eignty (1863),  Illinois  to  Massachusetts,  Greet- 
ing! (1866),  and  a  Reply  to  Hon.  Charles  G. 
Loring  upon  "Reconstruction"  (1867).  His  writ- 
ings of  this  period  were  rambling  and  verbose, 
and  gave  evidence  of  the  weakening  of  his  mind. 
His  reason  finally  gave  way,  and  he  was  com- 
mitted to  an  asylum  in  Philadelphia,  where  he 
died. 

[Curtis  Wright,  Geneal.  and  Biog.  Notices  of  Descend- 
ants of  Sir  John  Wright  (1915)  ;  A.  W.  Wright,  In 
Memoriam,  John  S.  Wright  (1885)  ;  E.  O.  Gale,  Remi- 
niscences of  Early  Chicago  and  Vicinity  (1902)  ;  A.  T. 
Andreas,  Hist,  of  Chicago,  vol.  II  (1885)  ;  H.  H.  Hurl- 
but,  Chicago  Antiquities  (1881)  ;  J.  S.  Wright,  Chicago, 
Past,  Present  and  Future  (1868)  ;  obituary  in  Chicago 
Daily  Tribune,  Sept.  30,  1874.]  R.  H.A. 

WRIGHT,  JONATHAN  JASPER  (Feb.  11, 
1840-Feb.  18,  1885),  negro  educator  and  asso- 
ciate justice  of  the  supreme  court  of  South  Caro- 
lina, was  born  in  Luzerne  County,  Pa.,  presum- 
ably of  free  parents.  His  father  seems  to  have 
been  a  farmer.  After  attending  Lancasterian 
University  at  Ithaca,  N.  Y.,  Wright  began  the 
study  of  law  in  a  private  office  at  Montrose,  Pa., 
at  the  same  time  teaching  school.  In  1865  the 
American  Missionary  Society  sent  him  to  South 
Carolina  to  organize  schools  for  colored  people ; 
after  one  year  he  returned  to  Pennsylvania,  where 
he  achieved  the  distinction  of  being  the  first 
negro  admitted  to  the  bar  in  that  state.  He  soon 
returned  to  South  Carolina  as  a  legal  advisor  of 
refugees  and  freedmen,  a  position  he  resigned  in 
1868.  He  was  a  member  of  the  state  consti- 
tutional convention  of  1868,  and  in  the  same  year 
he  was  elected  state  senator  from  Beaufort,  S. 
C.  On  Feb.  1,  1870,  while  a  senator,  he  was 
elected  by  the  legislature  to  fill  an  unexpired 
term  on  the  bench  of  the  state  supreme  court,  at 
that  time  probably  the  only  man  of  his  race  ever 
to  hold  such  a  judicial  position  in  the  United 
States.  He  was  subsequently  elected  (1870)  for 
the  full  term  of  six  years.  The  white  public  did 
not  object  strongly  to  Wright's  election,  for  it 
was  known  that  the  Republican  legislature  was 
determined  to  elect  a  negro  and  Wright  was  pre- 
ferred to  any  other.  His  career  on  the  bench 
gave  evidence  of  considerable  ability ;  though  he 
left  the  more  important  decisions  to  his  two 


Wright 

white  colleagues,  his  opinions  were,  clearly  ex- 
pressed and  judicious  in  tone. 

During  the  contested  election  of  1876,  Wright 
became  the  center  of  a  heated  controversy  be- 
tween Daniel  H.  Chamberlain  and  Wade  Hamp- 
ton [qq.v.~\,  rival  claimants  for  the  governorship. 
When  the  contest  was  carried  to  the  supreme 
court,  the  chief  justice  was  mortally  ill  and  could 
not  attend.  Thus  it  became  imperative  that 
Wright  and  his  associate,  A.  J.  Willard,  known 
to  be  friendly  toward  Hampton,  should  be  of  the 
same  opinion  if  a  conclusion  was  to  be  reached. 
On  Feb.  27,  1877,  Willard  and  Wright  signed 
an  order  which  said,  in  effect,  that  Hampton  was 
the  legal  governor.  Two  days  later,  however, 
Wright  reversed  his  opinion  and  asked  that  his 
signature  to  the  original  order  be  revoked.  Nev- 
ertheless, the  order  was  executed  and  Hampton 
was  declared  governor  (Ex  parte  N orris,  8  South 
Carolina,  408  ff.).  The  explanation  of  Wright's 
action  probably  lies  in  the  fact  that  this  was  a 
time  of  tremendous  excitement,  when  bloodshed 
seemed  imminent  and  when  a  presidential  as  well 
as  a  state  election  might  hinge  upon  the  decision ; 
undoubtedly  great  pressure  was  brought  upon 
him  by  Republicans  and  Democrats  alike.  Fol- 
lowing the  overthrow  of  the  Republican  govern- 
ment, he  resigned,  effective  Dec.  1,  1877.  Cor- 
ruption charges  brought  against  him  through 
the  Democratic  investigating  committee  were 
unsubstantiated  and  never  pressed.  There  seems 
to  be  no  doubt  that  he  was  personally  honest. 

He  was  a  striking  full-blooded  negro,  nearly 
six  feet  tall,  described  as  having  "a  finely  chiseled 
face  and  handsomely  developed  head."  He  was 
a  good  speaker,  confident  and  clear-headed,  but 
inclined  to  lisp.  Throughout  his  career  he  was 
a  moderate  in  politics,  seeking  to  conciliate  rather 
than  to  antagonize  the  races.  He  was  definitely 
interested  in  the  advancement  and  improvement 
of  his  race,  but  he  was  keenly  aware  of  the 
negro's  lack  of  education  and  experience  in  gov- 
ernment, and  he  lamented  the  fact  that  able  white 
men  were  seldom  found  in  the  Republican  party 
of  South  Carolina.  Following  his  resignation, 
he  sank  into  comparative  poverty  and  obscurity ; 
there  is  no  record  that  he  practised  his  profes- 
sion. He  was  never  married.  After  a  lingering 
illness  of  tuberculosis,  he  died  at  his  rooming 
place  in  Charleston. 

[See  Proc.  Constitutional  Convention  of  S.  C. 
(1868)  ;  J.  S.  Reynolds,  Reconstruction  in  S.  C.  (1905)  ; 
A.  A.  Taylor,  The  Negro  in  S.  C.  during  the  Recon- 
struction (1924)  ;  F.  B.  Simkins  and  R.  H.  Woody,  S. 
C.  during  Reconstruction  (193-2)  ;  Report  of  the  Joint 
Investigating  Committee  on  Public  Frauds  (Columbia, 
1878)  ;"  Edward  McCrady,  A  Rev.  of  the  Resolutions  of 
the  Press  Conference  (Charleston,  1870),  which  con- 
tains a  denunciation  of  Wright ;  R.  H.  Woody,  in  Jour. 


558 


Wright 


of  Negro  Hist.,  Apr.  1933  ;  obituary  in  News  and 
Courier  (Charleston),  Feb.  20,   1885.]  R.  H.  W. 

WRIGHT,   JOSEPH    (July    16,    1756-1793), 

portrait-painter,  die-sinker,  was  born  in  Borden- 
town,  N.  J.,  one  of  three  children  and  only  son 
of  Joseph  Wright  and  Patience  (Lovell)  Wright 
[q.vJ],  noted  modeler  in  wax  and  secret  Ameri- 
can agent  in  Europe  during  the  Revolution.  Af- 
ter the  death  of  her  husband,  Mrs.  Wright  about 
1772  settled  in  London  with  her  children.  She 
was  in  comparatively  affluent  circumstances 
through  the  success  of  her  work,  and  gave  Joseph 
a  good  education  and  a  thorough  grounding  in 
clay  and  wax  modeling.  In  London  he  also  stud- 
ied painting  with  John  Trumbull  (1756-1843) 
under  Benjamin  West  [qq.z'.].  By  1780  he  was 
exhibiting  at  the  Royal  Academy,  where  he 
showed  a  portrait  of  his  mother.  Before  1782  he 
painted  a  portrait  of  the  Prince  of  Wales,  later 
George  IV.  Skilled  as  modeler  and  portraitist, 
and  with  knowledge  of  die-sinking,  he  went  to 
Paris  in  1782  and  there  painted  portraits  of 
fashionable  ladies  under  the  patronage  of  his 
mother's  intimate  friend,  Benjamin  Franklin. 

Later  in  the  same  year  he  sailed  from  Nantes 
for  America,  but  suffered  shipwreck  and  was 
forced  into  a  Spanish  port,  finally  reaching  Bos- 
ton penniless  after  a  ten  weeks'  voyage.  With 
him  he  brought  letters  to  influential  persons  in 
Boston  and  Rhode  Island,  as  well  as  a  letter  from 
Franklin  to  Washington  which,  in  October  1783, 
enabled  him  to  paint  the  General  and  Mrs.  Wash- 
ington at  headquarters  in  Rocky  Hill  near  Prince- 
ton. There  he  met  William  Dunlap  [g.Z'.].  In 
1784  he  painted  another  Washington  portrait  in 
military  uniform  to  be  presented  through  Rob- 
ert Morris  to  Count  de  Solms  for  his  collection 
of  military  portraits.  After  Washington  became 
president  Wright  wished  to  paint  him  again,  but 
was  refused  because  of  stress  of  duties.  A  crayon 
drawing  from  life,  however,  was  made  in  1790 
without  Washington's  knowledge  while  he  sat  in 
his  pew  in  St.  Paul's  Chapel,  New  York.  This 
portrait  Wright  later  etched  and  published  on 
small  cards.  It  is  the  only  etching  known  to  have 
been  executed  by  Wright  himself.  While  Con- 
gress was  sitting  at  Princeton,  Patience  Wright 
was  agitating  in  Europe  for  a  portrait  of  Wash- 
ington by  some  European  sculptor,  and  Wright 
was  commissioned  to  make  a  plaster  cast  of 
Washington's  features.  Dunlap  records,  how- 
ever, that  the  cast  was  dropped  and  broken  as 
Wright  removed  it  from  the  face.  Washington 
refused  to  repeat  the  ordeal. 

In  1783-84  Wright  was  in  Philadelphia,  but 
by  1787  he  had  established  himself  in  New  York, 
where  he  married  a  Miss  Vandervoort,  niece  of 


Wright 

the  Revolutionary  patriot,  Col.  William  Ledyard 
[q.v.~\.  In  1790  he  followed  Congress  to  Phila- 
delphia, and  shortly  afterwards  executed  a  family 
group  showing  himself,  his  wife,  and  their  three 
children  (in  the  Pennsylvania  Academy  of  the 
Fine  Arts).  That  same  year  J.  Manly  published 
the  "Manly  Medal"  by  Samuel  Brooks  of  Phila- 
delphia, which  bore  a  portrait  of  Washington 
attributed  to  Wright,  and  is  said  to  have  been 
the  first  Washington  medal  produced  in  the 
United  States.  In  Philadelphia  Wright  practised 
as  portraitist,  modeler,  and  die-sinker,  his  skill 
in  the  last  profession  gaining  him  in  1792  ap- 
pointment by  Washington  as  first  draftsman  and 
die-sinker  of  the  newly  established  United  States 
mint.  Dunlap  mentions  a  design  for  a  cent  made 
by  Wright  in  1792,  although  there  is  no  trace  of 
ultimate  execution.  The  first  official  coins  and 
medals  of  the  United  States,  however,  were  prob- 
ably Wright's  work.  He  made  dies  for  a  Wash- 
ington medal  after  the  Houdon  bust,  and  for  a 
medal  voted  by  Congress  to  Maj.  Henry  Lee. 
Among  his  paintings  are  portraits  of  Madison 
and  his  family,  and  one  of  John  Jay  executed  in 
1786  (in  the  collections  of  the  New  York  His- 
torical Society).  His  portraits  of  Washington, 
especially  the  miniature  portrait  made  in  St. 
Paul's  Chapel,  were  copied  by  English  engravers 
and  appear  in  work  by  such  men  as  Joseph 
Collyer,  John  Gadsby  Chapman,  and  Thomas  and 
George  Wyon.  Wright  also  made  a  chalk  draw- 
ing of  his  own  head ;  a  bust  of  him  by  William 
Rush  [q.v.~\  is  in  the  Pennsylvania  Academy  of 
the  Fine  Arts.  Wright  and  his  wife  died  in 
Philadelphia  during  the  yellow  fever  epidemic 
of  1793  sometime  before  Oct.  11. 

[W.  S.  Baker,  The  Engraved  Portraits  of  Washing- 
ton (1880),  and  Medallic  Portraits  of  Washington 
( 1885)  ;  J.  T.  Scharf  and  Thompson  Westcott,  Hist,  of 
Phila.,  1609-1884,  vol.  II  (1884)  ;  D.  M.  Stauffer,  Am. 
Engravers  upon  Copper  and  Steel  (1907)  ;  C.  H.  Hart, 
in  Pa.  Mag.  of  Hist.,  July  1908;  William  Dunlap,  A 
Hist.  .  .  .  of  the  Arts  of  Desiqn  in  the  U.  S.  (3  vols., 
1918),  ed.  by  F.  W.  Bayley  and  C.  E.  Goodspeed  ;  G. 
G.  Evans,  Hist,  of  the  U.  S.  Mint  at  Phila.  (1885)  ;  F. 
H.  Stewart,  Hist,  of  the  First  U.  S.  Mint  (1924).] 

D.G. 
WRIGHT,  JOSEPH  ALBERT  (Apr.  17, 
1810-May  n,  1867),  governor  of  Indiana,  con- 
gressman, and  diplomat,  was  born  at  Washing- 
ton, Pa.,  of  English- Welsh  descent.  He  was  the 
son  of  John  and  Rachel  (Seaman)  Wright,  and 
a  brother  of  George  Grover  Wright  \q.v.~\.  He 
removed  with  his  parents  to  Bloomington,  Ind., 
about  1819,  and  there  assisted  his  father  in  a 
brick  yard  until  the  hitter's  death  in  1823.  After 
two  years  at  the  state  seminary  (later  Indiana 
University),  he  began  the  study  of  law  in  Bloom- 
ington in  1825,  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1829, 
and  the  same  year  removed  to  Rockville,  Parke 


559 


Wright 


County,  to  begin  practice.  After  two  terms  in  the 
Indiana  House  of  Representatives  (1833,  1836) 
and  one  in  the  state  Senate  (1839),  he  served 
one  term  (1843-45)  in  the  national  House  of 
Representatives.  His  principal  speeches  were  on 
the  subject  of  the  tariff,  in  which  he  made  a 
forceful  plea  in  behalf  of  the  consumer  (Con- 
gressional Globe,  28  Cong.,  1  Sess.,  pp.  545-46, 
548-50),  in  behalf  of  the  right  of  petition  (Ibid., 
p.  197)  and  in  favor  of  the  construction  of  a 
canal  across  Central  America  to  connect  the  At- 
lantic with  the  Pacific  (Ibid.,  28  Cong.,  2  Sess., 
pp.  308-09).  Defeated  for  reelection  to  Con- 
gress, in  1849  he  was  elected  governor  of  In- 
diana and  in  1852  was  reelected.  He  served  from 
December  1849  to  January  1857.  As  governor, 
Wright's  most  determined  efforts  were  directed 
toward  raising  the  standard  of  living  of  the  farm- 
ers. The  State  Agricultural  Society  and  the 
State  Board  of  Agriculture  were  organized,  and 
he  recommended  the  organization  of  county  agri- 
culture societies  and  legislation  to  promote  the 
diffusion  of  popular  and  scientific  knowledge 
among  the  farmers.  He  also  recommended  legis- 
lation for  the  regulation  of  the  liquor  traffic, 
urged  the  improvement  of  wagon  roads  by  grad- 
ing and  drainage,  and  proposed  the  appointment 
of  a  commission  to  regulate  the  promoting,  build- 
ing, and  operation  of  railroads. 

Wright  was  appointed  by  President  Buchanan 
(June  1,  1857)  minister  of  the  United  States  to 
Prussia.  At  this  post  he  was  persistent  in  activi- 
ties for  the  protection  of  naturalized  citizens  of 
the  United  States,  of  German  origin,  especially 
from  the  operation  of  Prussian  laws  relative  to 
military  service.  He  was  more  successful  in 
procuring  German  agricultural  publications  for 
distribution  in  the  United  States,  and  arranged 
for  the  exchange  of  German  and  American  seeds. 
Before  his  departure  from  Berlin  when  recalled 
in  May  1861  he  sought  a  proclamation  by  the 
Prussian  government  disapproving  the  course 
taken  by  the  Confederate  States.  In  February 
1862  he  was  appointed  to  fill  a  vacancy  in  the 
United  States  Senate  caused  by  the  expulsion  of 
Jesse  D.  Bright  [q.v.~\  and  served  until  January 
1863.  He  was  re-appointed  minister  to  Germany, 
June  30,  1865,  and  served  until  his  death  in  Ber- 
lin. Wright  was  a  tall  man  with  agreeable  fea- 
tures, strong  clear  voice,  and  fluent  tongue.  He 
married  Louisa  Cook,  a  farmer's  daughter,  in 
1831. 

[W.  W.  Woollen,  Biog.  and  Hist.  Sketches  of  Early 
Ind.  (1883)  ;  J.  P.  Dunn,  Ind.  and  Indianans  (1010)  ; 
Logan  Esarey,  A  Hist,  of  Ind.  (2  vols.,  1915-18I  ;  Pa- 
pers Relating  to  Foreign  Affairs,  1861-67  ;  instructions 
and  dispatches,  Prussia,  MSS.  in  Dept.  of  State;  In- 
dianapolis Daily  Jour.,  May  13,  14,  1867. 1     N.  D.  M. 


Wright 

WRIGHT,  JOSEPH  JEFFERSON  BURR 

(Apr.  27,  1801-May  14,  1878),  army  medical  of- 
ficer, was  born  at  Wilkes-Barre,  Pa.,  to  a  family 
of  English  descent,  long  resident  in  that  com- 
munity. He  received  the  degree  of  A.B.  from 
Washington  College,  Washington,  Pa.,  in  1821 
and  in  1825-26  was  a  student  in  the  School  of 
Medicine  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania.  He 
took  up  a  rural  practice  in  Luzerne  County  near 
his  native  town  but  on  Oct.  25,  1833,  was  ap- 
pointed an  assistant  surgeon  in  the  United  States 
army.  Joining  at  Fort  Gibson,  Indian  Territory, 
he  served  for  the  next  seven  years  at  various 
posts  in  the  Middle  West.  He  took  part  in  the 
Seminole  War  (1840-41,  1843)  an(l  was  with 
the  8th  Infantry  in  the  occupation  of  Texas  in 
1846.  With  Gen.  Zachary  Taylor's  army  in  the 
invasion  of  Mexico,  he  took  part  in  the  battles  of 
Palo  Alto  and  Resaca  de  la  Palma,  and  had 
charge  of  a  hospital  at  Matamoras.  In  the  fol- 
lowing spring  he  was  medical  purveyor  of  the 
army  that  left  Vera  Cruz  for  the  capture  of  Mex- 
ico City,  participating  in  the  battles  of  Cerro 
Gordo,  Contreras,  Churubusco,  and  Molino  del 
Rey.  He  treated  successfully  the  grape-shot  per- 
foration of  the  chest  of  Gen.  James  Shields,  re- 
ceived at  Cerro  Gordo,  and  reported  this  re- 
markable case  in  F.  H.  Hamilton's  Practical 
Treatise  on  Military  Surgery  (1861).  At  San 
Antonio,  Tex.,  on  the  staff  of  William  Jenkins 
Worth  \_q.v.~\  when  a  highly  fatal  epidemic  of 
cholera  occurred  (1849),  Wright  furnished  a 
detailed  account  to  Southern  Medical  Reports 
(vol.  I,  1850).  He  was  on  field  duty  with  troops 
quelling  disturbances  in  Kansas  in  1857  and  in 
the  Utah  expedition  of  1858.  He  entered  the 
Civil  War  as  medical  director  of  the  Department 
of  Ohio  on  the  staff  of  Gen.  George  B.  McClel- 
lan.  He  was  present  at  the  battles  of  Rich  Moun- 
tain and  Carrick's  Ford  in  West  Virginia,  for 
which  engagements  he  organized  the  field  medi- 
cal service  and  general  hospitals.  On  account  of 
advancing  age  he  declined  the  detail  to  accom- 
pany McClellan  to  the  Army  of  the  Potomac, 
and  joined  the  staff  of  Gen.  Henry  W.  Halleck 
at  St.  Louis,  Mo.  In  April  1862  he  went  to  the 
cavalry  recruiting  depot  at  Carlisle,  Pa.,  as  sur- 
geon, where  he  remained  until  he  was  retired 
from  active  service  with  the  grade  of  colonel  on 
Dec.  31,  1876.  He  died  of  a  stroke  of  apoplexy 
shortly  over  a  year  later  at  his  home  in  Carlisle. 
He  had  been  brevetted  colonel  on  Nov.  29,  1864, 
and  brigadier-general  on  Mar.  13,  1865.  He  con- 
tributed case  reports  to  the  surgical  volume  of 
the  Medical  and  Surgical  History  of  the  War  of 
the  Rebellion  (6  vols.,  1870-88),  and  in  a  spe- 
cial report  on  malaria  made  to  the  surgeon-gen- 


56< 


Wright 


Wright 


eral  in  1843  ne  reported  the  successful  use  of 
quinine  sulphate  in  dosage  considered  excessive 
up  to  that  time.  All  his  writings  are  in  the  florid 
style  much  employed  in  his  time,  but  since  en- 
tirely outmoded  in  medical  writing. 

He  was  a  man  of  conspicuous  tact  and  cour- 
tesy, with  a  high  sense  of  justice  and  honor,  and 
a  high  conception  of  the  obligations  of  the  sol- 
dier. He  was  married  to  Eliza  Jones,  daughter 
of  Amasa  and  Elizabeth  (Huntington)  Jones, 
and  was  survived  by  a  son,  Joseph  P.  Wright, 
who  followed  his  father  in  the  career  of  army 
surgeon,  and  two  daughters,  wives  of  army  of- 
ficers. 

[The  Huntington  Family  (1915)  ;  Cat.  of  Grads.  of 
Jefferson  Medic.  Coll.  (1869)  ;  G.  M.  Kober,  in  Mil. 
Surgeon,  Nov.  1927;  Medic.  Record,  June  15,  1878; 
H.  A.  Kelly  and  W.  Y.  Burrage,  Am.  Medic.  Biogs. 
(1920);  obituaries  in  Carlisle  Herald  and  Press 
(Phila.),  May  16,  1878.]  J.M.  P. 

WRIGHT,  LUKE  EDWARD  (Aug.  29, 1846- 
Nov.  17,  1922),  governor-general  of  the  Philip- 
pines, secretary  of  war,  was  born  in  Giles  Coun- 
ty, Tenn.,  the  son  of  Archibald  and  Mary 
Elizabeth  (Eldridge)  Wright  and  the  great- 
grandson  of  Duncan  Wright,  an  emigrant  from 
Scotland.  His  father  was  chief  justice  of  the 
supreme  court  of  Tennessee.  The  family  removed 
to  Memphis  in  1850,  where  Luke  attended  the 
public  schools.  When  the  Civil  War  broke  out, 
a  tall  rangy  boy  looking  older  than  his  fifteen 
years,  he  enlisted  in  the  Confederate  army  and 
was  assigned  to  Company  G,  154th  Senior  Ten- 
nessee Regiment.  Later  he  became  a  second  lieu- 
tenant. For  bravery  under  fire  at  Murfreesboro 
in  1863  he  was  cited  for  gallantry.  After  the  war 
he  was  a  student,  1867-68,  at  the  University  of 
Mississippi  but  did  not  graduate.  On  Dec.  15, 
1868,  he  married  Katherine  Middleton  Semmes, 
the  daughter  of  Raphael  Semmes  [g.?;.].  They 
had  five  children.  He  read  law  in  his  father's 
office,  was  admitted  to  the  bar,  and  settled  down 
to  practice  in  Memphis.  In  1878,  during  a  severe 
epidemic  of  yellow  fever  at  Memphis,  with  other 
public-spirited  and  courageous  citizens  he  formed 
a  relief  committee  that  put  down  panic,  provided 
medical  and  nursing  care  for  the  sick,  distributed 
food,  and  buried  the  dead.  The  nomination  of 
Bryan  by  the  Democrats  in  1896  caused  him,  a 
life-long  Democrat  but  a  conservative  by  tem- 
perament, to  bolt  the  party.  In  1900  McKinley 
appointed  him  a  member  of  the  second  Philippine 
commission.  In  190 1  he  became  vice-governor 
of  the  Philippines,  and  a  little  later,  in  1904,  gov- 
ernor, succeeding  William  H.  Taft.  On  Feb.  6, 
1905,  his  title  was  changed  to  governor-general. 
Obstructionism  by  Filipino  politicians  made  his 
labor  as   administrator  both   difficult   and   dis- 


agreeable. Strong,  competent,  perhaps  a  little 
too  unbending,  he  defied  opposition,  charted  his 
own  course  and  kept  to  it.  Late  in  1905  Roose- 
velt asked  him  to  become  the  first  ambassador 
of  the  United  States  to  Japan.  He  accepted, 
regretfully.  An  associate  to  the  Philippine  ad- 
ministration, Dean  C.  Worcester,  characterized 
Wright's  withdrawal  as  a  grave  mistake,  by 
which  "the  islands  were  deprived  of  the  services 
of  a  very  able  and  distinguished  man,  .  .  .  who 
had  the  courage  of  his  convictions,  and  whose 
convictions  were  thoroughly  sound"  (The  Philip- 
pines Past  and  Present,  1914, 1,  352). 

After  a  year  at  Tokio  he  returned  to  Memphis. 
In  June  1908  Roosevelt  called  him  again  to  pub- 
lic office,  once  more  to  succeed  William  H.  Taft, 
now  Republican  nominee  for  president,  this  time 
as  secretary  of  war.  His  acceptance,  on  the  as- 
sumption that  he  would  be  retained  in  the  post 
if  Taft  should  be  elected,  is  said  to  have  led  to 
a  misunderstanding  that  became  one  of  the  larger 
causes  for  the  quarrel  between  Taft  and  Roose- 
velt (Mark  Sullivan,  Our  Times,  IV,  1932,  320- 
25).  An  English  visitor  to  the  Philippines  at  the 
time  Wright  was  governor-general  wrote  of  him  : 
"He  is  a  strong  character,  as  generous  and 
courteous  as  he  is  personally  courageous"  (John 
Foreman,  The  Philippine  Islands,  3rd  ed.  1906, 
p.  564).  To  this  it  may  be  added  that  his  outer 
person  was  a  mirror  of  his  inner  traits.  Tall, 
broad-shouldered,  with  snow-white  hair,  eyes  a 
steely  gray  but  with  a  kindly  twinkle  in  them, 
he  inspired  respect  in  his  adversaries,  warm  af- 
fection in  his  friends. 

[Tenn.,  the  Volunteer  State  (1923),  vol.  II,  ed.  by 
J.  T.  Moore;  J.  M.  Keating,  Hist,  of  .  .  .  Memphis 
(1888),  vol.  II  ;  J.  P.  Young,  Standard  Hist,  of  Mem- 
phis (1912);  U.  S.  Army  Recruiting  News,  May  1, 
1933;  N.  Y-  Times,  Nov.  18,  1922;  information  from 
family ;  letter  from  Alfred  Hume,  chancellor  of  the 
Univ.  of  Miss.]  \y  £  5 a 

WRIGHT,  MARCUS  JOSEPH  (June  5. 
1831-Dec.  27,  1922),  soldier,  editor  of  Confed- 
erate records,  author,  was  born  in  Purdy,  Tenn., 
the  son  of  Benjamin  and  Martha  Ann  (Hicks) 
Harwell  Wright.  His  grandfather,  John  Wright, 
a  native  of  Savannah,  Ga.,  served  as  a  captain  in 
the  Revolutionary  War.  His  father,  also  of  Sa- 
vannah, fought  as  an  officer  of  the  39th  United 
States  Infantry  in  the  Creek  War  and  later  in 
the  War  with  Mexico.  Wright  was  educated  in 
the  academy  at  Purdy.  After  studying  law,  he 
moved  to  Memphis,  where  he  became  clerk  of 
the  common  law  and  chancery  court.  He  served 
as  lieutenant-colonel  of  the  154th  Infantry,  Ten- 
nessee militia,  which  was  armed  and  equipped 
several  years  before  the  Civil  War,  and  entered 
the  Confederate  service  with  this  regiment  in 

561 


Wright 


April  1861.  In  1862  he  acted  as  military  gover- 
nor of  Columbus,  Ky.  In  1862  he  received  pro- 
motion to  the  rank  of  brigadier-general  (con- 
firmed, Apr.  22,  1863).  He  commanded  his 
regiment  in  the  battles  of  Belmont  and  at  Shiloh, 
where  he  was  wounded.  Recovered,  he  led  a 
brigade  in  the  campaign  around  Chattanooga, 
November  1863.  He  was  also  active  in  the  de- 
fense of  Atlanta  until  the  Confederate  evacuation 
of  that  city,  when  he  assumed  command  of  Ma- 
con, Ga.  In  December  1864  he  was  appointed  to 
organize  forces  in  west  Tennessee,  and  in  the 
early  part  of  1865  he  was  assigned  to  the  com- 
mand of  the  district  of  north  Mississippi  and 
west  Tennessee.  He  surrendered  at  Granada, 
Miss.,  and  retired  to  law  practice  in  Memphis, 
where  for  some  time  he  also  acted  as  assistant 
purser  of  the  United  States  navy  yard.  On  July 
1,  1878,  he  was  appointed  by  the  United  States 
government  as  agent  for  the  collection  of  Con- 
federate archives,  in  which  service  he  continued 
until  his  retirement  in  June  1917.  It  was  largely 
as  a  result  of  his  tactful  efforts  that  the  attitude 
of  Southerners  toward  the  compiling  and  editing 
of  the  Civil  War  papers  became  more  cordial, 
and  he  succeeded  in  obtaining  many  records 
that  had  been  concealed.  This  work  very  mate- 
rially aided  in  the  publication  of  the  extremely 
valuable  collection,  War  of  the  Rebellion :  Official 
Records  of  the  Union  and  Confederate  Armies. 
Wright  contributed  articles  to  the  publications 
of  the  Southern  History  Association  and  the 
American  Historical  Association.  He  was  also 
the  author  of  a  number  of  books,  among  them 
Reminiscences  of  the  Early  Settlement  and  Early 
Settlers  of  McNairy  County,  Tenn.  ( 1882) ,  Some 
Account  of  the  Life  and  Services  of  William 
Blount  (1884),  Great  Commanders:  General 
Scott  (1894),  The  Official  and  Pictorial  Record 
of . . .  American  Expansion  ( 1904) ,  Tennessee  in 
the  War,  1861-1865  (1908),  General  Officers  of 
the  Confederate  Army  (1911),  and  Memoran- 
dum of  Field  Officers  in  the  Confederate  Service 
(n.d.); 

Wright  was  twice  married:  first  to  Martha 
Spencer  Elcan  of  Memphis ;  second,  to  Pauline 
Womack  of  Alabama.  He  died  at  his  home  in 
Washington,  D.  C,  survived  by  his  second  wife 
and  four  of  his  five  children.  He  showed  little 
outstanding  brilliance  as  a  general  officer  in  the 
Confederate  army.  His  services  as  an  organizer 
of  troops  were  evidently  regarded  highly  by  the 
commanders  under  whom  he  acted,  however,  for 
they  frequently  assigned  him  to  command  im- 
portant posts.  His  greatest  claim  to  attention 
lies  in  his  ability  as  a  compiler,  editor,  and  col- 
lector of  records  concerning  the  Civil  War.  Cer- 


Wright 

tainly  no  Southerner  contributed  more  to  the 
collection  and  preservation  of  the  records  of  that 
conflict. 

[See  Who's  Who  in  America,  1922-23;  Diary  of 
Brigadier-Gen.  Marcus  J.  Wright  (n.d.),  which  con- 
tains a  biog.  sketch  ;  W.  R.  Cox,  Address  on  the  Life 
.  .  .  of  Gen.  Marcus  J.  Wright  (19 15)  ;  War  of  the 
Rebellion :  Official  Records  {Army)  ;  C.  A.  Evans,  ed., 
Confederate  Mil.  Hist.  (1899),  vol.  VIII;  records  in 
the  office  of  the  adjutant-gen.,  War  Dept. ;  obituary  in 
Washington  Post,  Dec.  28,  1922.]  C  S.  D 

WRIGHT,  PATIENCE  LOVELL  (1725- 
Mar.  22,,  1786),  modeler  in  wax,  Revolution- 
ary spy,  was  born  in  Bordentown,  N.  J.,  of  Quak- 
er parents  named  Lovell.  From  childhood  she 
was  apt  in  modeling  from  dough,  putty,  and  wax. 
On  Mar.  20,  1748,  she  was  married  to  a  man 
much  older  than  herself,  Joseph  Wright  of  Bor- 
dentown, who  died  in  1769,  leaving  her  with  three 
children.  Already  well  known  in  the  colonies  for 
her  wax  portraits,  about  1772  (see  Walpole,  post, 
VIII,  237)  she  went  with  her  children  to  Lon- 
don, where  she  opened  an  exhibition  room  in 
Cockspur  Street.  There  she  displayed  historical 
groups,  and  busts  and  life-size  figures  of  no- 
table people  of  the  day,  and  for  the  rest  of  her 
life  she  had  a  remarkable  vogue.  She  was  tall, 
vigorous,  outspoken ;  her  intelligence  was  keen, 
her  talk  entertaining.  The  king  and  queen,  whom 
(so  she  said)  she  often  addressed  familiarly  as 
"George"  and  "Charlotte,"  came  to  her  "reposi- 
tory" and  watched  her  at  work.  The  nobility  and 
gentry  did  likewise.  Later  she  is  said  to  have 
lost  the  king's  favor  by  scolding  him  for  the 
American  war.  Within  three  years  after  her  ar- 
rival she  had  modeled  a  bas-relief  of  Benjamin 
Franklin  and  had  made  busts  of  the  king  and 
queen,  of  Lord  Chatham,  of  Thomas  Penn  and 
his  wife,  Lady  Juliana,  and  many  other  notables. 
1°  I775  the  London  Magazine  had  a  full-page 
drawing  of  her  at  work  and  a  laudatory  article 
styling  her  "the  Promethean  modeller."  The 
critical  Abigail  Adams,  writing  from  London  in 
1784,  described  her  as  "quite  the  slattern,"  and 
later  in  the  letter,  as  "the  queen  of  sluts,"  but 
Mrs.  Adams,  repelled  as  she  was  by  the  "hearty 
buss"  bestowed  alike  on  the  gentlemen  and  ladies 
of  her  party,  was  much  impressed  by  the  wax- 
works {Letters,  post,  177-78).  After  the  death 
of  Chatham,  Mrs.  Wright's  lifelike  wax  portrait 
was  placed  among  the  waxworks  in  Westminster 
Abbey,  where  it  may  still  be  seen. 

Though  details  are  lacking,  it  is  generally  con- 
ceded that  Patience  Wright  played  well  the  part 
of  patriot  spy.  The  rude  simplicity  of  her  man- 
ner veiled  an  astute  mind,  and  she  was  able  to 
glean  tidings  of  English  military  plans,  informa- 
tion later  to  be  sent  off  to  Franklin  at  Passy.  In 


56: 


Wright 


Wright 


1777  she  wrote  to  him,  "I  meet  with  the  greatest 
politeness  and  civility  from  the  people  of  Eng- 
land ...  I  now  believe  that  all  my  romantick  edu- 
cation, joynd  with  my  father's,  old  Lovell's  cour- 
age, can  be  serviceable  yet  further  to  bring  on 
the  glorious  cause  of  civil  and  religious  liberty" 
(Connoisseur,  post,  p.  20).  In  178 1  she  made  a 
visit  to  Paris,  where  she  met  prankish  Elkanah 
Watson,  who  ordered  from  her  a  wax  bust  of 
Franklin  and  incidentally  was  sufficiently  im- 
pressed by  her  extraordinary  qualities  to  give  in 
his  memoirs  a  vivid  sketch  of  her  personality. 
She  wrote  to  George  Washington  in  1783  about 
a  copy  of  a  bust  her  son  Joseph  [q.i'.~]  was  report- 
ed to  have  made  of  him,  saying  that  she  hoped  to 
have  the  honor  of  making  from  it  a  model  in 
waxwork.  Washington's  highly  complimentary 
reply  is  among  the  manuscripts  in  the  British 
Museum.  Her  hope  to  make  portraits  from  life 
of  the  other  great  American  leaders,  expressed 
in  a  letter  to  Thomas  Jefferson  in  1785,  was  not 
fulfilled.  She  died  in  London  a  few  months  later, 
leaving  her  son  and  two  married  daughters,  one 
of  whom,  Phoebe,  was  the  wife  of  John  Hoppner, 
the  artist. 

[Sources  include  William  Dunlap,  A  Hist,  of  the  Rise 
and  Progress  of  the  Arts  of  Design  in  the  U.  S.  (1918), 
vol.  I,  pp.  151-56,  ed.  by  F.  W.  Bayley  and  C.  E.  Good- 
speed  ;  The  Letters  of  Horace  Walpole,  vol.  VIII  (1904), 
No.  1448,  and  vol.  XI  (1904),  No.  2047,  ed.  by  Mrs. 
Paget  Toynbee  ;  London  Mag.,  Nov.  1775,  pp.  555—57  ; 
Letters  of  Mrs.  Adams,  the  Wife  of  John  Adams 
(1848)  ;  Men  and  Times  of  the  Revolution ;  or  Memoirs 
of  Elkanah  Watson  (1856);  C.  H.  Hart,  Browere's 
Life  Masks  of  Great  Americans  (1899),  and  article  in 
Connoisseur,  Sept.  1907  ;  Ethel  S.  Bolton,  Wax  Por- 
traits and  Silhouettes  (1914)  ;  F.  E.  Waska,  in  Brush 
&  Pencil,  Sept.  1898  ;  Lewis  Einstein,  Divided  Loyalties 
(r933)  I  W.  T.  Whitley,  Artists  cmd  Their  Friends  in 
England,  1700  to  1709  (1928),  vol.  II ;  obituary  in  Gen- 
tleman's Mag.,  Apr.  1786.  There  is  a  short  biog.  in  The 
Diet,  of  Nat.  Biog.]  A eA. 

WRIGHT,  PHILIP  GREEN  (Oct.  3,  1861- 
Sept.  4,  1934),  teacher,  economist,  poet,  crafts- 
man, was  born  in  Boston,  Mass.,  the  son  of  a 
musician  of  distinction,  John  Seward  Wright, 
and  of  Mary  Clark  (Green)  Wright.  His  grand- 
fathers were  Elizur  Wright  and  Beriah  Green 
[qq.v.'].  His  boyhood  and  youth  were  spent  in 
Boston.  He  earned  his  way  through  Tufts  Col- 
lege by  teaching  at  Goddard  Seminary  and  serv- 
ing in  the  summers  as  postmaster,  ticket  agent, 
and  printer  at  the  Maplewood  Hotel  in  the  White 
Mountains.  He  graduated  at  the  head  of  his 
class  in  civil  engineering  in  1884,  taught  mathe- 
matics at  Buchtel  College,  Akron,  Ohio,  for  two 
years,  took  the  degree  of  M.A.  at  Harvard  in 
1887,  and  worked  as  a  civil  engineer  and  a  life- 
insurance  actuary  a  few  years.  In  18Q2  he  went 
to  Lombard  College,  Galesburg,  111.,  and  for 
twenty  years  at  this  small  school  he  held  the  chair 


of  mathematics,  so  to  speak,  nominally.  His 
courses  in  astronomy,  in  financial  history  of  the 
United  States,  in  English  theme  writing  were  a 
delight  and  a  lasting  memory  to  his  students.  He 
had  married  in  1888  Elizabeth  Quincy  Sewall  of 
St.  Paul,  Minn.,  also  a  grandchild  of  Elizur 
Wright,  by  whom  he  had  three  sons.  For  many 
years  the  Wrights  kept  open  house  on  winter 
Sunday  evenings  to  students  interested  in  books 
and  reading.  From  this  stemmed  the  Poor  Writ- 
ers' Club.  The  libretto  of  a  musical  farce-com- 
edy, "The  Cannibal  Converts,"  publicly  produced 
by  college  students,  came  from  Wright's  facile 
pen  at  this  time.  In  the  basement  of  the  Wright 
house  was  installed  the  Asgard  Press,  Wright  and 
his  wife  bringing  a  book  through  all  processes. 
Among  its  publications  were  three  books  of  verse 
by  Wright— The  Dial  of  the  Heart  (1904),  The 
Dreamer  (1906),  A  Baker's  Dozen  for  a  Few 
Score  Friends  (n.d) — and  a  prose  fantasy,  The 
Plaint  of  a  Rose,  and  a  sheaf  of  juvenilia  called 
In  Reckless  Ecstasy  (1904)  by  Charles  A.  Sand- 
burg. 

After  teaching  economics  at  Williams  College 
(1912-13),  and  at  Harvard  (1913-17),  Wright 
went  in  1917  to  Washington  with  his  old  friend 
and  teacher,  Frank  W.  Taussig,  to  serve  as  as- 
sistant to  David  J.  Lewis,  a  member  of  the 
United  States  Tariff  Commission.  In  1922  he 
joined  the  original  staff  of  the  Institute  of  Eco- 
nomics, later  part  of  the  Brookings  Institution. 
Before  his  retirement  from  the  Brookings  Insti- 
tution in  193 1  he  had  completed  three  volumes  in 
the  field  of  commercial  policy — Sugar  in  Rela- 
tion to  the  Tariff  (1924),  The  Tariff  on  Animal 
and  Vegetable  Oils  (1928),  The  Cuban  Situation 
and  Our  Treaty  Relations  ( 1931 ) — and  was 
joint  author  of  another  volume,  The  Tariff  on 
Iron  and  Steel  (1929).  By  1933  he  had  produced 
two  more  formidable  volumes  of  tariff  studies, 
bearing  on  Pacific  relations  and  Oriental  trade. 
Before  the  American  Economic  Association  in 
1932  he  presented  the  thesis  that  "if  nations  de- 
sire to  maintain  permanent  peace,  tariff  making 
must  be  made  subject  to  international  law" 
(American  Economic  Reviczu,  Mar.  1933,  p.  26), 
receiving  a  spontaneous  ovation.  He  printed 
privately  in  1933,  under  the  title  Outcasts  of  Effi- 
ciency, a  plan  "to  put  the  unemployed  at  work 
with  the  existing  idle  plant  and  machinery  in 
supplying  their  own  needs."  He  held  that  the 
federal  government  was  the  only  agency  "pow- 
erful enough  to  .  .  .  lift  the  pall  of  depression 
from  the  whole  country,"  and,  though  he  con- 
stantly reiterated  his  view  that  Americans  prize 
an  economic  order  based  on  free  enterprise,  in- 
dividual initiative,  and  private  property,  he  ar- 


563 


Wright 


gued  that  conditions  were  so  desperate  that  in- 
action was  hazardous,  and  that  a  new  social 
mechanism  to  create  a  better  adjustment  between 
production  and  demand  would  save  the  existing 
economic  system  from  collapse.  In  his  long 
poems,  "The  Captain  of  Industry"  and  "The 
Socialist,"  he  set  forth  the  American  business 
man,  and  the  opposed  revolutionary;  in  "The 
Cry  of  the  Underlings"  he  achieved  an  authen- 
tic proletarian  poem  of  bitter  wrath  and  of  a  reck- 
oning to  come.  In  reprints  of  the  latter  in  the 
labor  press  it  has  gone  to  millions  of  readers.  In 
1934  he  and  his  wife  completed  a  biography  of 
their  grandfather,  Elizur  Wright. 

The  tributes  paid  him  after  death  by  friends 
and  associates  were  remarkably  lavish  and  affec- 
tionate. To  one  he  was  "the  onjy  man  I  have 
ever  known  who,  by  the  many  facets  of  his  gen- 
ius, lent  credibility  to  the  many-sided  personali- 
ties of  the  Renaissance"  (Philip  Green  Wright, 
post,  p.  16).  On  his  studies  in  economics,  their 
conscientious  accuracy  of  detail,  their  severely 
precise  reasoning,  an  eminent  economist  com- 
ments, "Nothing  better  has  been  done  by  any 
economist  of  our  generation"  (F.  W.  Taussig, 
Ibid.,  p.  23),  and  one  of  his  younger  associates  in 
the  Poor  Writers'  Club  attests  of  him  as  a  teach- 
er, "I  had  four  years  of  almost  daily  contact  with 
him  at  college,  for  many  years  visited  him  as 
often  as  possible,  and  there  never  was  a  time 
when  he  did  not  deepen  whatever  of  reverence  I 
had  for  the  human  mind"  (Ibid.,  p.  15). 

[Memorial  brochure,  Philip  Green  Wright  (privately 
printed,  n.d.)  ;  information  from  family  and  friends; 
personal  recollections ;  obituary  in  Evening  Star 
(Washington),  Sept.  5,  1934.]  Q.S — g. 

WRIGHT,  ROBERT  (Nov.  20,  1752-Sept. 
7,  1826),  United  States  senator,  representative, 
governor  of  Maryland,  the  son  of  Solomon  and 
Mary  (Tidmarsh)  Wright,  was  born  in  Queen 
Annes  County,  Md.  His  father  was  a  member 
of  the  Maryland  House  of  Delegates,  1771-74, 
and  of  the  Maryland  Convention  of  1775,  signed 
the  Association  of  the  Freemen  of  Maryland  on 
July  26  of  that  year,  served  as  chairman  of  the 
committee  of  correspondence  for  Queen  Annes 
County,  and  for  fourteen  years  was  a  judge  of 
the  Maryland  court  of  appeals.  At  home  and  at 
such  schools  as  Queen  Annes  and  Kent  counties 
afforded,  Robert  Wright  obtained  an  elementary 
education  sufficient  to  enable  him  to  study  law ; 
he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1773  and  practised 
at  Chestertown  until  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary War.  In  February  1776  he  marched  from 
Queen  Annes  County  with  a  company  of  minute 
men  against  the  Loyalists  on  the  Eastern  Shore 
of  Virginia,  and  from  July  7,  1777,  he  served  as 


Wright 

captain  of  a  company  in  Col.  William  Richard- 
son's battalion  of  the  Maryland  line.  In  1784, 
after  the  conclusion  of  peace,  he  was  elected  a 
member  of  the  Maryland  House  of  Delegates  for 
Queen  Annes  County.  He  was  not  returned  by 
that  county  a  year  later,  but  in  1786  was  a  mem- 
ber for  Kent  County.  His  next  appearance  in  the 
General  Assembly  was  in  the  Senate,  in  1801, 
and  the  same  year  he  was  elected  to  a  seat  in  the 
United  States  Senate. 

In  the  federal  Senate  Wright  was  a  stanch 
supporter  of  the  administration  of  Thomas  Jef- 
ferson. His  first  speech,  delivered  Jan.  15,  1802, 
was  in  support  of  a  motion  for  the  repeal  of  the 
act  passed  late  in  the  Federalist  administration 
of  John  Adams  by  which  the  judiciary  system 
was  reorganized  and  sixteen  new  circuit  judge- 
ships created.  On  Jan.  20,  1806,  he  introduced  a 
bill  for  the  protection  and  indemnification  of 
American  seamen.  Resigning  later  that  year  to 
become  governor  of  Maryland,  he  was  twice  re- 
elected by  the  Assembly,  serving  until  May  1809. 
Steadfast  in  his  loyalty  to  Jefferson,  when  the 
President's  commercial  policy  had  become  un- 
popular from  its  ruinous  effect' on  Maryland  ex- 
ports Wright  called  a  meeting  in  Annapolis  and 
procured  from  it  not  merely  an  indorsement  of 
the  administration  but  resolutions  urging  Jeffer- 
son to  withdraw  his  refusal  to  be  a  candidate  for 
a  third  term.  On  May  6,  1809,  Wright  resigned 
the  office  of  governor  to  become  a  candidate  for 
appointment  as  a  judge  of  the  Maryland  court 
of  appeals.  This  candidacy  was  unsuccessful  but 
in  1810  he  was  elected  to  fill  a  vacancy  in  the  fed- 
eral House  of  Representatives.  He  took  his  seat 
in  that  body  Dec.  3,  1810,  and  served  through  re- 
elections  until  Mar.  4,  1817.  He  was  defeated  at 
the  polls  in  November  181 6,  but  was  successful 
in  1820  and  served  from  March  1821  to  March 
1823.  He  was  a  member  of  the  House  Commit- 
tee on  the  Judiciary  in  the  Fourteenth  Congress 
and  a  member  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Af- 
fairs in  the  Seventeenth.  As  a  party  leader  he 
participated  freely  in  the  debates  on  the  floor  of 
the  House,  opposing  the  rechartering  of  the  Bank 
of  the  United  States  in  181 1  but  supporting  meas- 
ures for  the  protection  of  American  commerce 
and  for  the  prosecution  of  the  War  of  18 12.  In 
1822  he  was  appointed  judge  of  the  district  court 
for  the  lower  Eastern  Shore  of  Maryland  and 
on  that  bench  he  administered  justice  until  his 
death  at  "Blakeford,"  Queen  Annes  County. 
Just  before  or  shortly  after  the  close  of  the  Revo- 
lution Wright  married  Sarah  DeCourcy,  daugh- 
ter of  Col.  William  DeCourcy;  his  second  wife 
was  a  Miss  Ringgold  of  Kent  County.  A  son  was 
born  of  each  marriage. 


564 


Wright 


Wright 


[Archives  of  Md.,  vols.  XI  (1892),  XVI  (1897),  and 
XVIII  (1900)  ;  H.  F.  Powell,  Tercentenary  Hist,  of 
Md.  (1925),  vol.  IV;  H.  E.  Buchholz,  Govs,  of  Md. 
(1908)  ;  R.  H.  Spencer,  Gcneal.  and  Memorial  Encyc. 
of  the  State  of  Md.  (1919),  vol.  II;  Biog.  Dir.  Am. 
Cong.  (1928)  ;  Daily  Nat.  Intelligencer,  Sept.  14,  1826.] 

N.D.  M. 

WRIGHT,  ROBERT  WILLIAM  (Feb.  22, 
1816-Jan.  9,  1885),  satirist,  lawyer,  newspaper 
editor,  amateur  scientist,  was  born  in  Ludlow, 
Vt.,  the  third  son  of  Stephen  and  Zibiah  (Rich- 
ardson) Wright.  His  father,  a  cooper,  was  fifth 
in  descent  from  Edward  Wright,  who  emigrated 
from  Bromwick,  Warwickshire,  England,  and 
settled  in  Concord,  Mass.,  about  1650.  Having 
been  graduated  in  the  class  of  1842  from  Yale, 
Wright  taught  for  three  years  in  the  public 
schools  of  Boston  while  he  studied  in  a  law  of- 
fice. He  was  admitted  to  the  Suffolk  bar,  in  Bos- 
ton, in  1845  ar>d  almost  immediately  moved  west- 
ward to  the  territory  of  Wisconsin,  where  he 
practised  law  for  ten  years,  most  of  the  time  at 
Waukesha.  During  this  period  he  edited  Prac- 
tical Legal  Forms  (1852).  In  1856  he  quitted 
the  West  and  settled  in  Waterbury,  Conn.,  where, 
though  he  still  practised  law  for  a  time,  he  en- 
tered upon  the  journalistic  career  which  was  to 
occupy  him  chiefly  for  the  rest  of  his  life.  Until 
he  retired  in  1877  he  was  successively  editor  of 
the  Waterbury  Journal,  the  Hartford  Daily  Post, 
the  New  Haven  Daily  News,  the  New  York  Daily 
News,  the  New  Haven  Daily  Lever,  the  Daily 
State  Journal  of  Richmond,  Va.,  and  the  New 
Haven  Daily  Register.  From  the  time  he  lived 
in  Wisconsin  he  was  an  ardent  Whig,  and  when 
this  party  broke  up  he  transferred  his  uncom- 
promising partisanship  to  the  Democrats.  Not 
only  did  his  sharp  pen  write  for  his  party,  but 
he  worked  actively  in  political  affairs.  For  three 
years  he  was  secretary  to  James  E.  English 
[q.v.~].  For  the  presidential  election  of  1880,  he 
wrote  a  series  of  acidulous  lyrics  to  popular  mu- 
sic, known  as  The  Hancock  and  English  Cam- 
paign Song  Book  for  1880. 

From  his  youth  he  dabbled  in  literature.  In 
1864  he  published,  under  the  name  "Horatius 
Flaccus,"  The  Church  Knaviad,  or  Horace  in 
II 'est  Haven,  and  in  1867,  under  the  name  "Que- 
vedo  Redivivus,  Jr.,"  The  Vision  of  Judgment, 
or  The  South  Church:  Ecclesiastical  Councils 
Viewed  from  Celestial  and  Satanic  Stand-points, 
two  biting  satires  based  on  a  local  clerical  dis- 
pute arising  over  loyalty  to  the  Union  cause.  In 
187 1,  in  imitation  of  Bret  Harte's  poem  on  the 
"Heathen  Chinee,"  he  published  under  the  name 
"U.  Bet,"  The  Pious  Tchi-Nch,  a  pasquinade  on 
the  Connecticut  gubernatorial  election  of  that 
year.    Though  Wright's  poetry  was  often  bril- 


liant in  its  imitation  of  satiric  verse  forms,  his 
reputation  as  an  American  satirist  has  suffered 
from  the  parochialism  of  his  subjects.  Had  he 
turned  to  national  events,  he  might  well  have 
gained  a  national  reputation.  He  was  probably 
best  known,  nationally,  for  his  anti-Darwinian 
study,  Life;  Its  True  Genesis  (1880),  in  which 
he  developed  a  variation  of  the  vitalistic  expla- 
nation. The  book  appeared  late  in  the  contro- 
versy and,  though  widely  reviewed  by  the  reli- 
gious and  secular  press,  was  ignored  by  the  lead- 
ing controversialists,  and  can  be  said  to  have  had 
no  real  influence.  At  the  time  of  his  death, 
Wright  was  engaged  in  writing  a  continuation 
of  this  work,  which  he  called  Biodynamics.  He 
was  also  deeply  interested  in  astronomy,  and  as- 
serted that  he  had  been  the  first  to  record  the 
comet  of  1861. 

Wright  was  twice  married:  on  Aug.  13,  1844, 
to  Laurine  Louise  Luke,  by  whom  he  had  five 
children,  and  on  Oct.  14,  1852,  to  Sarah  Louise 
Martyn,  by  whom  he  had  three.  He  died  in  Cleve- 
land, Ohio. 

[Sources  include  an  autobiog.  sketch  in  Biog.  Record 
Class  of  1842  of  Yale  Coll.  (1878),  which  Wright  ed- 
ited ;  Obit.  Record  Grads.  Yale  Coll.  .  .  .  1885  ;  secre- 
tary's records,  class  of  1842,  in  Yale  lib.  ;  J.  S.  Hart, 
A  Manual  of  Am.  Lit.  (1873)  ;  obituary  in  Cleveland 
Herald,  Jan.  10,  1885.]  N.  H.  P. 

WRIGHT,  SILAS  (May  24,  1795-Aug.  27, 
1847),  United  States  senator,  governor  of  New 
York,  was  a  descendant  of  Deacon  Samuel 
Wright,  an  early  settler  of  Springfield  and  North- 
ampton, Mass.  The  fifth  child  of  Silas  and  Ele- 
anor (Goodale)  Wright,  he  was  born  in  Am- 
herst, Mass.,  but  grew  up  in  Weybridge,  Vt., 
where  he  worked  on  his  father's  farm  and  at- 
tended district  school.  At  fourteen  he  entered 
Addison  County  Grammar  School  and  at  sixteen 
Middlebury  College.  After  graduation  in  1815 
he  studied  law  at  Sandy  Hill,  N.  Y.,  with  Roger 
Skinner,  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1819,  and 
began  practice  in  Canton,  N.  Y.,  boarding  with 
his  father's  friend,  Medad  Moody,  whose  daugh- 
ter Clarissa  he  married  on  Sept.  11,  1833.  They 
had  no  children. 

In  1821  Wright  became  county  surrogate,  and 
within  the  next  decade  held  a  number  of  local 
offices  and  attained  the  rank  of  brigadier-general 
in  the  militia.  An  ardent  Madisonian  in  college, 
Wright  was  throughout  his  life  a  stanch  national- 
ist and  Democrat.  He  led  northern  New  York 
from  the  fold  of  the  Clintonians  to  the  "Buck- 
tails,"  to  the  "Republicans,"  thence  to  the  Jack- 
sonian  Democrats,  and  to  the  left  wing  of  that 
party.  In  1823  he  was  elected  to  the  state  Sen- 
ate, where  he  served  from  Jan.  1,  1S24,  until  De- 
cember 1827.   His  firm  belief  that  the  yeomanry 


5"5 


Wright 

were  usually  right  made  him  vote  for  manhood 
suffrage  and  direct  election  of  justices  of  the 
peace,  yet  he  held  that  the  people  needed  the  lead- 
ership of  bosses  and  honest  use  of  the  spoils  sys- 
tem to  attain  the  party  unity  in  which  lay  their 
hope  in  the  battle  against  special  privilege.  He 
voted  against  a  law  providing  for  the  direct  elec- 
tion of  presidential  electors  because  its  adoption 
would  be  disadvantageous  to  the  party's  candi- 
date, William  H.  Crawford  [g.r.],  and  voted  for 
the  removal  of  DeWitt  Clinton  \_q.v.~\  as  canal 
commissioner.  He  consistently  opposed  the  grant- 
ing of  bank  charters  by  the  legislature.  In  1827, 
as  chairman  of  the  committee  on  canals  he  made 
a  report  opposing  the  extension  of  the  canal 
system  except  when  the  expected  revenues  prom- 
ised to  reimburse  the  treasury.  By  this  time  he 
had  become  a  member  of  the  directing  group 
known  as  the  "Albany  Regency." 

In  1827  Wright  took  his  seat  in  Congress.  At 
this  time  he  favored  a  tariff  designed  for  the 
protection  of  agriculture  as  well  as  manufactures. 
As  a  member  of  the  House  committee  on  manu- 
factures he  helped  frame  the  "tariff  of  abomina- 
tions" of  1828  and  took  a  leading  part  in  defend- 
ing it;  but  later,  in  1842,  he  characterized  his 
action  as  a  great  error,  made  through  lack  of 
understanding  of  the  subject  (Gillet,  post,  II, 
1422).  He  was  reelected  in  1828,  but  resigned  in 
the  next  year  to  become  comptroller  of  New 
York  (1829-33).  During  his  years  in  this  of- 
fice he  continued  to  oppose  the  building  of  canals 
except  such  as  would  pay  for  themselves,  and  he 
advocated  a  tax  to  replenish  the  General  Fund. 

Resigning  the  comptrollership  in  January  1833, 
he  became  United  States  senator  to  complete  the 
unexpired  term  of  William  L.  Marcy  [q.v.~],  who 
had  been  chosen  governor.  Reelected  in  1837  and 
1843,  Wright  was  appointed  successively  to  the 
committees  on  agriculture,  commerce,  finance, 
and  post  offices  and  post  roads.  Master  of  his 
subject,  cool,  and  deliberative,  logical  and  pow- 
erful in  reasoning,  he  came  to  hold  a  high 
rank  "for  solid  judgment  and  unselfish  service" 
(Turner,  post,  p.  114).  Benton  called  him  the 
"Cato  of  the  Senate."  Taking  his  seat  when  his 
friend  Van  Buren  was  vice-president  and  the 
personal  choice  of  President  Jackson  as  his  suc- 
cessor, Wright  was  soon  recognized  as  manager 
of  Van  Buren's  political  interests  and  with  his 
uncannily  accurate  sense  of  public  opinion  be- 
came Van  Buren's  "most  effective  lieutenant" 
(Ibid.,  p.  118) — a  lieutenancy  that  was  almost  a 
partnership.  Wright  voted  for  the  "Force  Bill" 
and  the  compromise  tariff  of  1833;  Van  Buren 
consulted  him  before  answering  Jackson  with  re- 
gard to  the  removal  of  the  federal  deposits  from 

C 


Wright 

the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  and,  at  the  Presi- 
dent's request,  entrusted  him  with  the  presenta- 
tion of  resolutions  favoring  removal  (Jan.  30, 
J834;  Van  Buren,  "Autobiography,"  post,  pp. 
729-30).  Subsequently  Wright  with  Benton  pro- 
cured the  expunging  of  the  resolution  censuring 
Jackson. 

Following  Van  Buren's  election  to  the  presi- 
dency Wright  became  chairman  of  the  Senate 
finance  committee  (Dec.  21,  1836-March  1841). 
All  measures  for  rechartering  the  Bank  of  the 
United  States  he  firmly  opposed.  He  opposed  the 
distribution  of  the  ever-mounting  surplus  among 
the  states,  advocating  instead  its  use  for  defense, 
investment  in  easily  convertible  stocks  of  states 
or  the  United  States,  or  use  for  general  govern- 
ment expenses  to  permit  the  reduction  of  the 
tariff.  The  panic  of  1837  and  suspension  of 
specie  payment  by  the  state  banks  made  his  po- 
sition one  of  great  importance.  In  preparation 
for  the  special  session  of  Congress  called  for  Sep- 
tember, he  contributed  to  the  St.  Lawrence  Re- 
publican seven  articles,  beginning  June  20,  1837, 
urging  the  complete  divorce  of  federal  finance 
from  the  banks  and  stricter  regulation  of  bank- 
ing by  the  states.  At  the  special  session  he  intro- 
duced the  administration's  relief  bills,  which  were 
adopted,  and  a  bill  for  the  establishment  of  an 
independent  treasury  system,  the  plan  for  which 
he  elaborated  Jan.  31,  1838.  He  continued  to 
head  the  fight  for  the  independent  treasury  until 
the  bill  was  passed  in  1840. 

After  Tyler's  accession  in  1841,  relegated  to 
the  committees  on  commerce  and  claims,  Wright 
urged  a  tax-and-pay  policy ;  he  continued  to  op- 
pose distribution  of  the  proceeds  of  the  sale  of 
public  lands  and  increase  in  the  tariff.  Yet  seeing 
no  chance  of  any  other  revenue  bill  passing  Con- 
gress he  reluctantly  voted  for  the  high-tariff  act 
of  1842,  which  automatically  ended  distribution 
while  raising  duties.  Declining  Tyler's  offer  of 
appointment  to  the  Supreme  Court  in  1844,  he 
campaigned  for  Van  Buren's  nomination,  refus- 
ing to  be  considered  himself  for  the  presidential 
nomination  and  declining,  when  nominated,  to 
be  a  candidate  for  the  vice-presidency.  Reluctant 
to  leave  the  Senate,  he  nevertheless  resigned 
through  party  loyalty,  entered  the  contest  for  the 
governorship  of  New  York,  and  carried  the  state 
for  Polk.  He  was  offered  the  secretaryship  of 
the  treasury  as  a  reward,  but  declined. 

During  his  governorship  his  sturdy  support  of 
the  policy  incorporated  in  the  "stop  and  tax"  law 
of  1842  led  him  to  veto  a  bill  for  canal  extension, 
thus  alienating  the  conservatives.  His  suppres- 
sion of  violence  during  the  anti-rent  disturb- 
ances— when,  though  he  sympathized  with  the 


66 


Wright 


Wright 


tenants'  grievances  and  advocated  their  redress 
by  law,  he  called  out  the  militia  and  prosecuted 
the  ring-leaders — caused  bitter  feeling  in  the 
anti-rent  districts ;  his  advocacy  in  1846  of  a 
tax  on  income  from  rents,  short-term  leases,  and 
no  distress  for  rent,  alienated  the  landlords ;  his 
banking  policies  lost  him  the  banking  interests. 
Thus,  although  in  1846  he  was  renominated  for 
the  governorship,  he  failed  of  reelection.  His 
followers  ascribed  his  defeat  to  the  influence  of 
the  "Hunkers"  or  conservatives  within  the  party, 
coupled  with  the  coolness  of  the  national  admin- 
istration. 

Before  his  retirement  to  private  life,  however, 
Wright  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  the  fight 
against  privilege  in  New  York  reach  lasting  suc- 
cess when  the  reforms  he  had  advocated  in  the 
rent  system  and  a  provision  for  a  popular  check 
on  appropriations  for  public  works  were  put  into 
effect  through  the  new  constitution  of  1846.  In 
that  same  year  his  tariff  policy  triumphed,  when 
the  revenue  tariff  enacted  by  Congress  followed 
closely  outlines  drawn  by  him  in  two  speeches  of 
1844  ( Senate,  Apr.  19  and  23  ;  Watertown,  N.  Y., 
Aug.  20),  and  the  independent  treasury  became 
permanent.  Successful  with  these  old  issues,  he 
returned  to  friendly  Canton  where  he  attended 
the  Presbyterian  church,  cultivated  his  thirty 
acres,  died,  and  was  buried.  Many  found  honesty 
his  outstanding  characteristic ;  Benton  simplic- 
ity; Van  Buren,  "perfect  disinterestedness."  His 
death  precipitated  the  "Barnburner"  revolt  just 
when  a  growing  community  of  interest  between 
the  northern  radicals  and  the  "free,  grain-grow- 
ing states"  of  the  Northwest  pointed  to  a  new 
party  on  the  issue  of  slavery  in  the  territories, 
and  Wright,  who  though  not  an  abolitionist  had 
opposed  Calhoun's  treaty  for  the  annexation  of 
Texas  because  it  insisted  upon  the  protection  of 
slavery  there  and  had  upheld  the  Wilmot  Pro- 
viso, was  being  talked  of  for  the  presidency. 

[Manuscript  sources  include  personal  letters  in  the 
possession  of  St.  Lawrence  Univ.,  Canton,  N.  Y.,  and 
H.  F.  Landon,  Esq.,  Watertown,  N.  Y. ;  correspond- 
ence with  Flagg,  Hoffman,  and  Tilden  in  N.  Y.  Pub. 
Lib.,  Ransom  Cooke  and  Erastus  Corning  in  N.  Y. 
Stat  Lib.  ;  Van  Buren,  Marcy,  and  Polk  papers,  Lib.  of 
Cong.  Printed  sources  include  "Calhoun  Correspond- 
ence," Ann.  Report  Am.  Hist.  Asso.  .  .  .  1899,  vol.  II 
(1900)  and  1929  (1930)  ;  "The  Autobiography  of  Mar- 
tin Van  Buren,"  Ibid.,  1918,  vol.  II  (1920)  ;  Thomas 
Hart  Benton,  Thirty  Years'  View  (1854);  C.  Z.  Lin- 
coln, State  of  N.  Y.:  Messages  from  the  Govs.  (1909), 
vol.  IV  ;  letters  and  speeches  in  R.  H.  Gillet,  The  Life 
and  Times  of  Silas  Wright  (2  vols.,  1874).  Other  im- 
portant biographies  are  J.  D.  Hammond,  Life  and  Times 
of  Silas  Wright  (1848),-  repr.  as  vol.  Ill  of  his  Hist, 
of  Pol.  Parties  in  the  State  of  N.  Y.  (3  vols.,  1852), 
and  J.  S.  Jenkins,  The  Life  of  Silas  Wright  (1847). 
W.  E.  Chancellor,  A  Life  of  Silas  Wright  (19 13)  was 
a  campaign  document  for  Governor  Sulzer.  For  gen- 
ealogy see  Curtis  Wright,  Geneal.  and  Biog.  Notices  of 
the  Descendants  of  Sir  John  Wright  (191 5).  See  also 
David  Murray,  "The  Antirent  Episode  in  the  State  of 


N.  Y.,"  Ann.  Report  Am.  Hist.  Asso.  .  .  .  1896,  vol.  I 
(1897)  ;  E.  I.  McCormac,  James  K.  Polk  (1922)  ;  W  E. 
Smith,  1  he  Francis  Preston  Blair  Family  in  Politics 
(2  vols.,  1033)  ;  D.  R.  Fox,  The  Decline  of  Aristocracy 
in  the  Politics  of  N.  Y.  (1919)  ;  H.  D.  A.  Donovan, 
The  Barnburners  .  .  .  1830-1852  (1925),  which  has  a 
critical  bibliog. ;  Gates  Curtis,  Our  Country  and  Its 
People :  A  Memorial  Record  of  St.  Lawrence  County, 
N.  Y.  (1894)  ;  H.  F.  Landon,  The  North  Country:  A 
Hist.  (1932),  vol.  I  ;  D.  S.  Alexander,  A  Pol.  Hist,  of 
the  State  of  N.  Y .,  vols.  I,  II  (1906)  ;  F.  J.  Turner, 
The  U.  S.:  1830-50  (1935);  Albany  Evening  Atlas, 
Aug.  28,  1847.  Wright  figures  in  a  novel,  The  Light  in 
the  Clearing  (191 7),  by  Irving  Bacheller,  a  fellow  coun- 
tryman of  the  "North  Border."]  j^r .  g 

WRIGHT,  THEODORE  LYMAN  (Sept.  13, 
1858-Oct.  4,  1926),  teacher  of  Greek,  was  born 
in  Beloit,  Wis.,  the  son  of  Theodore  Lyman  and 
Jane  (Newcomb)  Wright,  and  was  in  the  sev- 
enth generation  of  descent  from  Samuel  Wright, 
one  of  the  early  settlers  of  Springfield  ( then 
Agawam),  Mass.  Samuel  Wright  was  the  son 
of  a  London  merchant,  Nathaniel  Wright,  who 
had  an  interest  in  the  Arbella,  which  brought 
John  Winthrop  to  Salem  in  1630.  Samuel  was 
deacon  in  the  First  Church  of  Springfield,  and 
when  the  first  minister  returned  to  England, 
Wright  was  chosen  "to  dispense  the  word  of  God" 
and  allowed  fifty  shillings  per  month  while  thus 
serving.  He  became  one  of  the  original  settlers 
of  Northampton,  where  he  died  in  1665.  The 
elder  Theodore  Lyman  Wright  entered  Yale  in 
1825,  but  ill  health  cut  short  his  college  course. 
After  teaching  some  years  in  Hartford,  Conn., 
he  removed  to  Beloit  in  the  Wisconsin  Territory, 
where  he  engaged  in  business  and  manufactur- 
ing. He  was  a  man  of  dignified  bearing,  high 
character,  and  civic  influence.  His  son  Theo- 
dore graduated  with  distinction  at  Beloit  College 
(1880),  taught  the  classics  in  Beloit  Academy 
(1881-83),  took  the  degree  of  M.A.  in  Greek  at 
Harvard  (1884),  and  studied  at  the  American 
School  of  Classical  Studies  in  Athens  (1887). 
In  1888  he  was  called  to  Beloit  College  as  assist- 
ant professor,  and  in  1892  became  full  professor 
of  Greek  literature  and  art.  He  was  already  rec- 
ognized as  a  teacher  of  originality  and  charm,  and 
throughout  nearly  forty  years  of  continuous 
service  he  was  held  by  his  students  in  ever-deep- 
ening admiration  and  devotion.  He  was  for  years 
summer  lecturer  for  the  Bureau  of  University 
Travel  (1904-26).  He  married,  Mar.  29,  1909, 
Jean  V.  Ingham  of  Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  who  died 
July  28,  1910.  In  addition  to  instructing  in  Greek, 
he  organized  courses  in  Greek  literature  and 
Greek  art  in  English,  which  were  largely  elected. 
A  noteworthy  feature  of  his  work  was  the  pres- 
entation of  Greek  dramas  in  English,  translated 
by  his  classes.  In  this  his  stimulating  thought 
and  dramatic  talent  had  full  scope.  During  a  pe- 
riod of  twenty-five  years  more  Greek  plays  were 


567 


Wright 


seen  in  Beloit  than  in  any  other  American  com- 
munity. 

Wright's  verses  for  special  occasions  were 
felicitous  and  of  penetrating  characterization. 
His  most  important  production  of  this  sort  was 
"The  Four  Horizons,"  in  commemoration  of  the 
fiftieth  anniversary  in  1897  of  the  founding  of 
the  college.  The  Beloit  Pageant,  from  the  Turtle 
to  the  Flaming  Wheel  (1916),  written  mainly  by 
him,  was  given  by  some  two  thousand  perform- 
ers of  various  nationalities  on  the  eightieth  anni- 
versary of  the  founding  of  the  city.  Transla- 
tions by  him  of  a  few  Greek  dramas  have  been 
printed.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Beloit  school 
board  (1898-1902,  1917-20)  and  of  the  park 
board  from  its  organization  in  191 5. 

He  was  of  medium  stature,  alert,  responsive, 

his  vivid  dark  eyes  gleaming  under  heavy  brows. 

He  was  exacting,  yet  considerate,  of  illuminating 

insight  and  whimsical  humor,  a  great-hearted 

friend.  Probably  no  student  ever  came  under  his 

influence   without   feeling   throughout   life   the 

touch  of  his  quickening  personality.    The  colony 

of  Greeks  in  Beloit  idolized  him;  they  presented 

his  portrait  bust  to  the  Theodore  Lyman  Wright 

Art  Hall  of  the  college  on  its  dedication  in  1930. 

[Curtis  Wright,  Gencal.  and  Biog.  Notices  of  De- 
scendants of  Sir  John  Wright  of  Kclvcdon  Hall  (191 5)  ; 
M.  A.  Green,  Springfield,  1636-1886  (1888);  Who's 
Who  in  America,  1926—27  ;  In  Memoriam,  Theodore 
Lyman  Wright  (1926),  pamphlet;  E.  D.  Eaton,  Hist. 
Sketches  of  Beloit  Coll.  (1928).]  E.  D.  E. 

WRIGHT,  WILBUR  (Apr.  16,  1867-May  30, 
1912),  pioneer  in  aviation,  was  born  at  Mill- 
ville,  near  New  Castle,  Ind.,  third  of  five  sur- 
viving children  of  Milton  and  Susan  Catharine 
(Koerner)  Wright.  His  father,  descended  from 
Samuel  Wright,  an  early  settler  of  Springfield, 
Mass.,  was  of  good  English  and  Dutch  stock,  a 
bishop  of  the  United  Brethren  in  Christ,  and 
editor  of  the  Religious  Telescope;  the  mother,  of 
German-Swiss  extraction,  had  an  ingenious  mind 
and  was  constantly  contriving  household  appli- 
ances and  toys.  Wilbur  and  his  brother  Orville, 
born  Aug.  19,  1871,  at  Dayton,  Ohio,  grew  up  in 
Dayton,  where  manufacturing  on  a  limited  scale 
stimulated  ingenuity.  To  earn  pocket  money  they 
sold  home-made  mechanical  toys  and  Orville 
started  a  printing  business,  building  his  own 
press.  Later  they  launched  a  weekly,  the  West 
Side  News,  with  Wilbur  as  editor.  Wilbur  read 
much  and  made  a  good  record  in  high  school ;  he 
helped  his  father  sometimes  by  writing  for  the 
church  magazine,  and  in  articles  in  the  West 
Side  News  gave  early  evidence  of  an  incisive 
style.  Partly  by  virtue  of  his  age  he  was  more 
mature  in  judgment  and  more  likely  than  his 
brother  to  carry  through  an  undertaking  once 


Wright 

begun.  Orville  was  a  dreamer ;  he  read  less,  dis- 
liked writing,  was  the  more  prolific  in  sugges- 
tion, and  more  impetuous.  In  all  their  enterprises 
the  brothers  were  inseparable  partners.  About 
the  time  Orville  reached  his  majority  they  formed 
the  Wright  Cycle  Company  and  began  to  build 
the  "Van  Cleve"  bicycle,  which  soon  established 
a  reputation.  Their  shop  was  poorly  equipped 
and  they  learned  to  achieve  much  with  small 
means. 

In  1896,  while  Orville  Wright  was  recovering 
from  typhoid  fever,  news  of  the  death  of  the 
German  aeronaut  Gustav  Lilienthal  stimulated 
hours  of  discussion  between  the  brothers  con- 
cerning the  possibility  of  flying  and  gave  an  im- 
petus toward  serious  experimental  work  in  that 
direction.  From  Octave  Chanute's  Progress  in 
Flying  Machines  (1891),  S.  P.  Langley's  Ex- 
periments in  Aerodynamics  (1891),  the  Aero- 
nautical Annual,  L.  P.  Mouillard's  L'Empire  de 
I' Air  (1881),  E.  J.  Marey's  Animal  Mechanism 
(1874),  and  articles  by  Lilienthal  they  obtained 
all  the  scientific  knowledge  of  aeronautics  then 
available. 

Planning  to  experiment  with  a  captive,  man- 
carrying  glider,  they  first  experimented  with 
kites,  and  in  1899  Wilbur  Wright  built  a  model 
biplane  with  a  wing  spread  of  five  feet  which  he 
flew  as  a  kite.  From  this  and  other  experiments 
and  their  studies  of  all  accepted  tables  of  air 
pressure,  they  concluded  that  a  machine  of  200 
square  feet  of  supporting  area  would  be  ade- 
quate. The  brothers  were  in  communication 
with  Octave  Chanute  [q.v.J  during  this  time, 
and  improved  on  his  trussed  biplane  construc- 
tion. They  also  hit  upon  the  idea  of  reducing  air 
resistance  by  placing  the  body  of  the  operator 
in  a  horizontal  position.  Furthermore,  their  first 
glider  had  a  front  surface  for  longitudinal  sta- 
bility and  control  and  also  as  an  innovation,  a 
method  devised  by  Wilbur  Wright  for  obtaining 
lateral  balance  by  warping  the  extremities  of  the 
wing  to  decrease  the  lift  on  either  side,  thus  sup- 
plying a  rolling  moment  at  the  will  of  the  pilot. 
Vertical  steering  was  not  provided  in  the  first 
captive  glider,  but  the  Wright  brothers  under- 
stood its  functions  and  incorporated  it  a  few 
years  later  in  their  second  glider.  Their  discov- 
ery of  a  control  system  about  all  three  axes  of 
the  airplane  was  a  major  contribution  to  the 
progress  of  aviation. 

With  the  advice  of  the  Weather  Bureau,  the 
inventors  selected  for  their  experiments  a  nar- 
row strip  of  sand  termed  Kill  Devil  Hill,  dividing 
Albemarle  Sound  from  the  Atlantic  near  the  lit- 
tle settlement  of  Kitty  Hawk,  N.  C.  Near  the 
end  of  September  1900  they  were  in  camp  at 


568 


Wright 


Wright 


Kitty  Hawk.  The  principal  sandhill,  slightly 
over  a  hundred  feet  in  height  and  with  a  slope 
of  ten  degrees,  was  ideal  for  their  purpose.  They 
attempted  to  fly  the  glider  as  a  kite,  hut  found  the 
lifting  capacity  less  than  they  had  expected, 
whereupon  they  turned  to  free  gliding,  and  were 
soon  making  glides  of  more  than  three  hundred 
feet  and  operating  safely  under  perfect  control 
in  winds  of  twenty-seven  miles  an  hour.  Their 
work  was  painstaking,  thoroughly  scientific,  with 
a  careful  tabulation  of  data  and  critical  exami- 
nation of  all  conclusions.  The  glides  indicated 
that  a  vertical  steering  rudder  was  essential,  that 
the  warping  could  be  relied  upon  for  lateral  con- 
trol, that  the  movement  of  the  center  of  pressure 
on  a  curved  wing  produced  instability,  and  that 
calculations  based  on  existing  data  were  in 
error. 

Compelled  thenceforth  to  find  their  own  basic 
data,  they  returned  to  Dayton,  where  Orville 
Wright  devised  a  wind  tunnel  sixteen  inches 
square  and  some  eight  feet  long,  with  a  gasoline 
engine  turning  a  metal  fan  to  supply  the  neces- 
sary wind.  Using  a  simple  but  ingenious  weigh- 
ing apparatus,  they  tested  over  two  hundred 
wing  and  biplane  combinations  in  this  tunnel, 
determining  accurate  values  for  lift,  drag,  and 
center  of  pressure.  They  had  already  found  a 
method  of  experimentation  greatly  superior  to 
Langley's  whirling  arm. 

Utilizing  the  figures  thus  secured  they  built  a 
new  glider,  and  in  September  and  October  1902 
were  again  making  flights  at  Kill  Devil  Hill. 
During  this  season  a  vertical  steering  rudder 
fully  counteracted  the  turning  moments  intro- 
duced by  the  warping  of  the  wings.  The  glider 
was  well  balanced,  it  could  be  controlled  with 
ease,  and  the  flights  confirmed  their  wind-tunnel 
data.  Nearly  a  thousand  glides  were  made,  some 
of  them  covering  distances  of  more  than  six  hun- 
dred feet.  Early  in  1903,  in  strong  winds,  they 
made  a  number  of  such  flights  in  which  they 
remained  in  the  air  for  over  a  minute,  often 
soaring  for  many  seconds  over  one  spot. 

The  time  had  now  come  for  constructing  a 
powered  machine.  With  their  new  pressure 
tables,  the  question  of  wing  design  was  com- 
paratively easy.  The  problems  of  stability  and 
control  they  now  understood.  The  curved  wings 
were  carefully  braced  with  wooden  struts  and 
wires.  They  built  their  own  motor,  which  had 
four  horizontal  cylinders  of  four-inch  bore  and 
four-inch  stroke  and  developed  some  twelve 
horse-power.  The  warping  device  was  included ; 
the  elevator  or  horizontal  rudder  was  placed 
ahead  of  the  machine,  the  vertical  rudder  far 
behind.   The  pilot  was  to  lie  flat  on  his  stomach 


beside  the  motor.  Two  airscrews  were  used, 
chain  driven  from  the  motor,  turning  in  opposite 
directions  to  avoid  gyroscopic  effects.  To  keep 
the  machine  from  toppling  forward  in  landing, 
long  skids  extended  out  in  front  of  the  main 
wings.  There  were  no  wheels ;  launching  was 
accomplished  by  a  catapult,  comprising  a  mono- 
rail, a  towline,  and  a  falling  weight  to  give  the 
initial  momentum.  The  total  weight  of  the  ma- 
chine was  750  pounds,  fully  loaded,  and  it  sub- 
sequently proved  capable  of  a  speed  of  thirty-one 
miles  per  hour. 

With  their  new  machine  the  Wrights  arrived 
at  their  camp  at  Kill  Devil  Hill  on  Sept.  25, 
1903.  A  succession  of  bad  storms  delayed  the 
flights  until  Dec.  17,  when,  in  spite  of  a  general 
invitation  to  the  public,  only  five  persons  were 
present  to  witness  the  experiment.  About  10  130  in 
the  morning  Orville  Wright  made  the  first  suc- 
cessful powered  flight.  After  running  the  motor 
a  few  minutes  he  released  the  wire  that  held  the 
machine  to  the  track  and  it  started  slowly  for- 
ward into  a  twenty-seven  mile  wind,  with  Wil- 
bur Wright  running  at  the  side  holding  the  wing 
to  balance  the  machine  on  the  track,  until  after 
a  forty-foot  run  it  lifted.  Its  course  in  the  air 
was  erratic,  partly  because  of  lack  of  experience 
on  the  part  of  the  operator  and  partly  because 
the  front  elevator  was  overbalanced.  After  twelve 
seconds  a  sudden  descent,  when  the  plane  was 
120  feet  from  the  point  at  which  it  had  soared 
into  the  air,  ended  the  flight.  At  noon  the  same 
day,  the  fourth  flight  was  made  by  Wilbur 
Wright,  who  covered  852  feet  and  remained  in 
the  air  fifty-nine  seconds.  After  this  flight,  a 
sudden  gust  of  wind  turned  the  airplane  over 
and  one  of  the  spectators  was  thrown  head  over 
heels  inside  it.  He  was  not  seriously  injured,  but 
airplane  and  power  plant  were  so  damaged  that 
for  the  time  all  possibility  of  further  flight  was 
ended. 

The  Wrights  had  received  no  popular  encour- 
agement ;  eve'n  their  father  laughed  at  them ; 
their  friends  thought  them  near  lunacy.  Never- 
theless, although  the  destruction  of  their  first 
powered  machine  was  a  severe  loss,  they  found 
the  resources  to  build  a  stronger  machine  and 
continued  their  experiments  with  systematic  im- 
provements. On  Oct.  5,  1905,  at  Huffman  Field, 
Dayton,  during  a  circular  flight  of  twenty-four 
miles,  they  solved  the  problem  of  equilibrium  in 
turning.  They  now  abandoned  other  business 
and  devoted  all  their  energies  to  the  construction 
of  a  practicable  machine  and  to  business  nego- 
tiations. Not  yet  protected  by  patents,  at  first 
they  withheld  details  of  their  powered  machine 
so  as  not  to  stimulate  rivals,  but  on  May  22, 


569 


Wright 


Wright 


1906,  they  received  Patent  No.  821,393,  for  a  fly- 
ing machine. 

Neither  the  publication  in  January  1906  in 
L'Aerophilc,  of  an  enthusiastic  account  of  the 
Wrights'  flights  from  1903  to  1905,  nor  an  en- 
thusiastic announcement  by  the  Aero  Club  of 
America,  inspired  any  action  by  the  American 
government ;  but  in  1907  after  the  Wrights  had 
made  successful  negotiations  with  foreign  gov- 
ernments, the  interest  of  the  War  Department 
was  awakened.  In  earlier  proposals  the  brothers 
had  offered  to  give  all  their  inventions  to  the 
world  for  the  sum  of  $100,000,  but  the  indiffer- 
ence they  had  encountered  in  the  meantime  led 
them  to  withdraw  this  offer.  At  the  very  end  of 
the  year  1907,  after  an  interview  between  Wil- 
bur Wright  and  the  chief  signal  officer,  Gen. 
James  Allen,  specifications  were  issued  and  bids 
asked  for  a  "gasless  flying  machine"  to  carry 
two  men  weighing  350  pounds,  with  sufficient 
fuel  for  125  miles.  Twenty-two  bids  were  re- 
ceived, but  only  three  were  accepted.  The  Wrights 
offered  to  build  a  biplane  and  instruct  two  op- 
erators for  $25,000,  and  they  alone  completed  the 
contract.  Meanwhile,  resuming  their  experi- 
ments at  Kitty  Hawk,  they  made  flights  which 
were  reported  at  great  length  by  newspapers. 

Immediately  after  these  successful  trials,  Wil- 
bur went  to  France,  leaving  Orville  to  demon- 
strate their  contract  machine  at  Fort  Myer,  Va. 
On  the  morning  of  Sept.  9,  1908,  the  latter  made 
fifty-seven  complete  circles  over  the  drill  field 
at  an  altitude  of  120  feet,  remaining  aloft  one 
hour  and  two  minutes  and  thus  establishing  sev- 
eral records  on  the  same  day.  On  Sept.  17,  how- 
ever, while  he  was  flying  at  a  height  of  about 
seventy-five  feet,  a  blade  of  the  right-hand  pro- 
peller struck  and  loosened  a  stay  wire  of  the  rear 
rudder.  Instantly  the  wire  coiled  about  the  blade, 
snapping  it  across  the  middle.  The  machine  be- 
came difficult  to  manage  and  plunged  to  the 
earth ;  the  inventor  suffered  a  fracture  of  the 
thigh  and  two  ribs  and  his  passenger,  Lieut. 
Thomas  E.  Selfridge,  died  within  three  hours  of 
a  fractured  skull.  This  accident  was  the  most 
serious  in  the  joint  career  of  the  brothers.  That 
they  had  so  few  is  a  tribute  to  their  skill  and  cool- 
ness in  emergency  and  to  their  sensitiveness  to 
every  air  disturbance.  In  June  1909  Orville 
Wright  reappeared  at  Fort  Myer  fully  recovered, 
accompanied  by  Wilbur  and  his  two  mechanics, 
and  completed  the  official  tests  with  no  evidence 
of  nervousness. 

Meanwhile,  Wilbur,  in  France,  had  been  flying 
at  the  race  course  at  Hunandrieres  near  Le 
Mans,  arousing  the  admiration  and  enthusiasm 
of  thousands.  The  French  regarded  the  quiet  and 


taciturn  aeronaut,  with  his  gaunt  form,  his  weath- 
er-beaten face,  and  piercing,  hawk-like  eyes, 
with  reverence  and  awe.  He  made  flights  to  alti- 
tudes of  300  feet  and  more,  and  concluded  a  sat- 
isfactory arrangement  with  a  French  syndicate 
for  the  construction  of  his  machine  in  France. 
After  his  return,  during  the  Hudson-Fulton  cele- 
bration in  the  fall  of  1909,  he  made  demonstra- 
tion flights  from  Governors  Island,  N.  Y.,  around 
the  Statue  of  Liberty,  up  to  Grant's  Tomb,  and 
back,  which  resulted  in  the  formation  of  the 
American  Wright  Company. 

In  their  subsequent  business  dealings  Wilbur 
Wright  took  the  lead.  Negotiations  were  con- 
cluded in  England,  France,  Germany,  Italy,  and 
America,  but  while  the  brothers  received  mate- 
rial rewards  for  their  efforts,  they  did  not  attain 
anything  like  the  wealth  which  more  avaricious 
men  might  have  secured.  Wilbur  Wright  lived 
to  gain  wide  fame  and  recognition,  but  died  of 
typhoid  fever,  May  30,  1912,  just  as  the  airplane 
was  approaching  its  more  modern  development. 
He  had  never  married. 

Throughout  the  period  of  their  experimen- 
tation both  Wrights  published  accounts  of  their 
work  and  expositions  of  their  theories.  Notable 
articles  by  the  elder  brother  were  "Some  Aero- 
nautical Experiments"  {Journal  of  the  Western 
Society  of  Engineers,  December  1901)  and  "Ex- 
periments and  Observations  in  Soaring  Flight" 
(Ibid.,  August  1903)  ;  the  two  collaborated  in 
writing  "The  Wright  Brothers'  Aeroplane" 
(Century  Magazine,  September  1908)  and  "The 
Relation  of  Weight,  Speed,  and  Power  of  Fly- 
ers" (Appendix  IV  to  A.  F.  Zahm's  Aerial  Navi- 
gation, 191 1 )  ;  while  "How  We  Made  the  First 
Flight"  (Flying,  December  1913),  was  written 
by  Orville  Wright  alone  after  the  death  of  his 
brother. 

[Frangois  Peyrey,  Lcs  Premiers  Homme s-Oiscanx 
(Paris,  1909)  ;  Griffith  Brewer,  "The  Life  and  Work 
of  Wilbur  Wright,"  being  the  fourth  Wilbur  Wright 
Memorial  Lecture,  Aeronautical  Journal,  July-Sept. 
1916;  J.  R..  McMahon,  The  Wright  Brothers:  Fathers 
of  Flight  (1930);  C.  G.  Abbot,  "The  Relations  be- 
tween the  Smithsonian  Institution  and  the  Wright 
Brothers,"  Smithsonian  Misc.  Colls.,  Sept.  29,  1928 , 
Curtis  Wright,  Geneal.  and  Biog.  Notices  of  Descend- 
ants of  Sir  John  Wright  (191 5)  ;  Who's  Who  in  Amer- 
ica, 19 1 2-13  ;  N.  Y.  Times,  May  31,  1912.]  A.  K. 

WRIGHT,  WILLIAM  (Nov.  13,  1794-Nov. 
1,  1866),  manufacturer,  United  States  senator, 
was  born  near  Nyack  in  Rockland  County,  N. 
Y.,  the  son  of  Dr.  William  Wright.  His  father, 
a  descendant  of  old  Connecticut  stock,  came  from 
Saybrook,  Conn.,  was  graduated  from  Yale  in 
1774,  studied  and  practised  medicine  at  New 
Haven,  and  moved  across  the  Hudson  about 
1785.    His  death  upon  a  southern  trip  in  1S08 


570 


Wright 

made  it  necessary  for  the  son  to  earn  a  living, 
and  abandon  his  college  preparatory  studies  at 
Poughkeepsie  Academy.  At  fourteen  Wright 
began  his  long  career  as  a  manufacturer  of  har- 
ness and  saddlery,  being  apprenticed  to  Anson 
Greene  Phelps  \_q.v.~\,  who  was  at  that  time  en- 
gaged in  that  business  in  Hartford.  Wright  took 
part  in  the  defense  of  Stonington  in  1814  and 
the  next  year,  when  Phelps  went  to  New  York 
to  make  a  fortune  in  metals,  Wright,  with  sav- 
ings of  three  hundred  dollars,  moved  to  Bridge- 
port. There  he  married  Minerva,  daughter  of 
William  Peet,  who  apparently  financed  Wright's 
partnership  with  Sheldon  Smith  in  the  saddlery 
business. 

In  1822  the  firm  of  Smith  &  Wright  moved 
from  Bridgeport  to  Newark,  N.  J.,  which  was 
just  then  becoming  a  very  active  center  of  the 
leather  industry;  with  Edwin  Van  Antwerp  and 
William  Faitoute  later  as  silent  partners,  they 
developed  an  extensive  factory.  It  is  said  to 
have  become  one  of  the  largest  establishments  of 
its  kind  in  the  country,  to  have  contributed  much 
to  the  industrial  development  of  Newark,  and  to 
have  attained  a  commanding  position  in  the 
southern  trade.  The  improvement  of  roads  and 
opening  up  of  new  agricultural  lands  stimulated 
the  demand  for  harness  and  saddlery,  and  the 
European  importations  were  poorly  suited  to  the 
needs  of  the  West  and  South.  The  West  began 
its  own  saddlery  but  the  South  did  little.  Start- 
ing with  a  branch  at  Charleston,  S.  C,  Smith  & 
Wright  soon  had  agents  in  all  the  principal  south- 
ern cities.  Wright  seems  to  have  become  the 
dominant  member  of  the  firm  and  had  built  up  a 
considerable  fortune  by  the  time  he  retired  from 
active  business  in  1854. 

His  wealth  and  position  in  the  industrial 
world  seemed  to  have  been  the  chief  reasons  for 
his  political  prominence.  From  1840  to  1843  ne 
was  the  fifth  mayor  of  Newark.  In  1843  ne  be- 
gan two  terms  in  the  national  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives. He  was  a  candidate  for  the  New 
Jersey  governorship  in  1847  but  was  defeated 
by  Daniel  Haines  \q.z>.~\.  Never  a  strong  par- 
tisan, he  shifted  about  1850  from  Whig  to  Demo- 
crat. He  was  elected  to  the  United  States  Sen- 
ate in  1853,  was  defeated  for  reelection  in  1858, 
but  returned  again  to  serve  from  1863  until  his 
death.  He  is  said  never  to  have  debated  in  either 
house,  and  his  chairmanship  of  the  Senate  com- 
mittee on  manufactures  alone  saves  him  from 
virtual  oblivion  in  the  records.  The  congressional 
eulogists  stressed  his  urbanity,  integrity,  tolera- 
tion, and  spotless  life.  His  portrait  indicates  a 
man  erect,  dark,  and  smooth-shaven,  with  an 
expression  of  marked  strength  and  determina- 


Wrosetasato  w  —  Wurtz 

tion.  An  Episcopalian,  he  was  the  chief  bene- 
factor of  the  House  of  Prayer  at  Newark.  He 
died  at  his  home  in  Newark  after  a  painful  ill- 
ness, survived  by  his  wife,  a  son,  and  a  daughter. 

[W.  H.  Shaw,  Hist,  of  Essex  and  Hudson  Counties 
(1884),  vol.  I,  p.  582;  Biog.  and  Geneal.  Hist,  of  the 
City  of  Newark  (1898),  vol.  II,  p.  16,  with  portrait; 
William  Nelson,  Biog.  Cyc.  of  N.  J.  (1913),  vol.  I,  p. 
126;  F.  J.  Urquhart,  Hist,  of  the  City  of  Newark  (3 
vols.,  1913)  ;  Biog.  Dir.  Am.  Cong.,  1774-1927  (1928)  ; 
F.  B.  Dexter,  Biog.  Sketches  Grads.  Yale  Coll.,  vol. 
Ill  (1903),  p.  S44  ;  Cong.  Globe,  39th  Cong.,  2  Sess., 
pp.  147-50,  180  ;  obituaries  in  N.  Y.  Herald  and  N .  Y. 
Tribune,  Nov.  2,  1866.]  j  g  p_ 

WROSETASATOW  [See  Outacity,  fl.  1756- 
1/77]  • 

WU  P'AN-CHAO  [See  No,  Poon  Chew, 
1866-1931]. 

WURTZ,  HENRY  (c.  1828-Nov.  8,  1910), 
chemist  and  editor,  was  born  in  Easton,  Pa.,  the 
son  of  John  J.  and  Ann  (Novus)  Wurts.  The 
founder  of  his  family  in  America  is  said  to  have 
been  the  Rev.  Johannes  Conrad  Wirtz  (or 
Wurts)  who  emigrated  from  Switzerland  to 
America  about  1727.  After  the  customary  school 
education  young  Wurtz  entered  the  College  of 
New  Jersey  (later  Princeton),  where  his  interest 
in  scientific  pursuits  was  awakened  by  studies 
under  Joseph  Henry  and  John  Torrey  [qq.v.']. 
After  his  graduation  in  1848,  he  studied  chemis- 
try at  the  Lawrence  Scientific  School  of  Harvard 
under  Eben  Norton  Horsford  [?.?'.]  ;  conducted 
in  the  laboratory  of  Dr.  Oliver  Wolcott  Gibbs 
\_q.vJ]  in  New  York  a  series  of  mineral  analyses, 
in  which  he  called  attention  to  a  supposed  new 
mineral,  "melanolite,"  and  to  the  availability  of 
the  greensand  of  New  Jersey  as  a  source  of  pot- 
ash {American  Journal  of  Science,  July,  Nov. 
1850)  ;  and  worked  as  assistant  ( 1 85 1 )  at  Yale 
under  Prof.  Benjamin  Silliman,  the  younger 
[g.f.],  with  whom  he  was  associated  in  various 
researches.  For  two  years  (1854-56)  he  was 
state  chemist  and  geologist  of  the  New  Jersey 
geological  survey,  conducting  an  important  re- 
search upon  the  composition  of  the  water  of  the 
Delaware  River  (Ibid.,  July  1856).  In  the  sum- 
mer of  1857  he  made  geological  explorations  in 
Gaston  and  Lincoln  counties,  N.  C,  in  which  he 
discovered  cobalt  and  nickel  ores  (Ibid..  Jan. 
1859).  In  1858  he  was  appointed  professor  of 
chemistry  and  pharmacy  in  the  National  Medi- 
cal College  of  Washington,  D.  C.  (later  George 
Washington  University).  During  this  connec- 
tion he  published  a  research  on  blowpipe  manip- 
ulations (Ibid.,  Mar.  1850)  and  served  a^  chemi- 
cal examiner  in  the  United  States  Patent  Office. 
In  1 86 1  he  removed  to  New  York  City,  where  he 
opened  a  private  laboratory  for  general  consult- 


57* 


Wyant 

;.ng  work.  Among  other  studies  he  conducted  a 
research  upon  sodium  amalgams  for  extracting 
precious  metals  from  their  ores  (Ibid.,  Mar. 
1866) ,  for  which  he  secured  a  patent  in  1865,  and 
investigated  an  asphaltum  albertite-like  mineral 
of  Virginia  for  which  he  proposed  the  name 
"grahamite,"  making  also  various  suggestions 
as  to  its  utilization  (Ibid.,  Nov.  1866). 

From  1868  to  1871  he  edited  the  American  Gas 
Light  Journal,  continuing  at  the  same  time  his 
chemical  practice  in  a  private  laboratory  at  Ho- 
boken.  He  devised  a  new  method  (1869)  of 
manufacturing  fuel  gas  by  the  alternating  action 
of  air  and  steam  upon  cheap  coal  (patent  No. 
99,738)  ;  published  chemical  and  sanitary  re- 
ports upon  the  Passaic  River  (American  Chem- 
ist, Sept.,  Oct.  1873)  and  upon  the  water  supply 
of  Newark  and  Jersey  City  (Ibid.,  Mar.  1874)  ; 
and  prepared  an  important  paper  on  "New 
Processes  in  Proximate  Gas  Analysis"  (Ibid., 
Mar.  1875).  In  1876  he  was  appointed  a  judge 
of  exhibits  and  a  special  examiner  of  ceramic 
materials  at  the  Philadelphia  Centennial  Exhi- 
bition. In  connection  with  this  he  published  an 
important  research  upon  the  chemistry  and  com- 
position of  the  porcelains  and  porcelain  rocks 
of  Japan  and  China  (Ibid.,  Dec.  1876),  for  which 
he  received  a  medal  from  the  Centennial  Com- 
mission. In  the  same  year  he  published  a  long 
speculative  paper  upon  geometrical  chemistry 
(Ibid.,  Mar.  1876),  in  which  he  anticipated  some 
of  the  work  of  later  investigators. 

His  numerous  contributions  to  the  theory  and 
practice  of  chemistry  led  to  his  being  awarded 
the  honorary  degree  of  Ph.D.  in  1877  by  the 
Stevens  Institute  of  Technology.  During  the 
next  ten  years  he  was  busily  engaged  in  develop- 
ing processes  for  increasing  the  yields  of  paraf- 
fin oils  and  other  by-products  by  the  distillation 
of  coal.  He  devoted  the  remaining  years  of  his 
life  to  his  private  consulting  practice  as  chemical 
expert,  during  the  course  of  which  he  took  out 
numerous  patents  relating  to  the  distillation  of 
paraffin  hydrocarbons  and  other  chemical  prod- 
ucts. He  died  at  his  home  in  Brooklyn,  N.  Y., 
survived  by  four  sons  and  a  daughter.  In  min- 
eralogy his  name  is  perpetuated  by  the  mineral 
wurtzilite. 

T Sources  include  Princeton  alumni  records;  bibliog. 
by  Benjamin  Silliman,  Jr.,  in  Am.  Chemist,  Aug.-Sept. 
1874,  pp.  109-10  ;  and  obituary  notices  in  Nature,  Dec. 

I,  1010,  Brooklyn  Daily  Eagle,  Nov.  10,  1910,  and 
N.  Y.  Times,  Nov.  11,  1910.I  C.  A.B e. 

WYANT,  ALEXANDER  HELWIG  (Jan. 

II,  1836-Nov.  29,  1892),  landscape  painter,  son 
of  Daniel  and  Hannah  (Shanks)  Wyant,  was 
born  at  Evans  Creek,  Tuscarawas  County,  Ohio. 
Shortly  after  his  birth  his  parents  moved  to  De- 


Wyant 

fiance,  Ohio,  where  Alexander  attended  the  vil- 
lage school  and  was  later  apprenticed  to  a  har- 
ness maker.  As  a  child  he  showed  an  aptitude 
for  drawing,  but  his  interest  in  art  found  little 
encouragement.  In  1857  he  had  the  good  for- 
tune to  see  some  pictures  by  George  Inness 
\_q.v.~],  and  he  made  the  long  trip  to  New  York 
to  seek  the  artist's  advice.  Encouraged  by  In- 
ness, he  succeeded  in  securing  material  assistance 
from  Nicholas  Longworth  of  Cincinnati  and  was 
enabled  to  study  in  New  York,  where  he  was 
represented  in  the  exhibition  of  the  National 
Academy  of  Design  in  1864.  A  year  later  he 
sailed  for  Germany  to  study  under  Hans  Gude 
at  Karlsruhe.  But  his  independent  nature  was 
not  happy  under  direct  tutelage,  and  his  study 
under  the  Diisseldorf  master  was  not  long  con- 
tinued. Before  returning  to  America  he  traveled 
in  England  and  Ireland.  Several  of  the  Irish 
studies,  and  pictures  which  he  made  from  them, 
reveal  his  direct  interest  in  nature,  rather  than 
the  art  of  the  galleries.  In  1869  he  was  elected 
a  full  member  of  the  National  Academy  for  his 
picture  "The  Upper  Susquehanna."  Interested 
in  the  scenic  beauty  of  the  newly  discovered 
West,  he  joined  a  government  expedition  bound 
for  Arizona  in  1873.  But  the  exposure  and  lack 
of  proper  food  proved  too  much  of  a  strain  for 
one  unaccustomed  to  physical  hardship.  Paraly- 
sis of  the  right  side  was  followed  by  a  long 
illness,  after  which  Wyant  was  obliged  to  learn 
to  paint  with  his  left  hand. 

His  later  life  was  uneventful.  His  physical 
infirmity  restricted  his  activities  and  colored  to 
an  apparent  degree  his  outward  character.  In- 
trospective and  solitary,  nervous  and  irritable, 
he  was  not  given  to  social  amenities.  The  winter 
months  were  passed  in  his  studio  in  New  York 
but  each  year  the  season  in  the  country  was  ex- 
tended. Several  dated  pictures  indicate  that  he 
painted  in  the  country  overlooking  Lake  Cham- 
plain,  and  later  he  built  a  house  at  Keene  Valley, 
N.  Y.,  where  Inness,  Roswell  M.  Shurtleff  [q.v.], 
Walter  Clark,  and  others  painted  during  the 
warm  season.  In  1880  he  married  Arabella  Locke, 
daughter  of  John  Bell  Locke  and  Mary  Ann 
(Brereton),  by  whom  he  had  a  son.  The  sum- 
mer studio  was  changed  to  Arkville  in  the  Cat- 
skill  Mountains  in  1889.  The  position  of  the 
house  on  a  mountain  slope  commanding  a  view 
of  the  Delaware  Valley  allowed  the  artist  to 
study  the  varying  conditions  of  light  and  the 
fleeting  aspects  of  nature  which  inspired  the 
dominant  mood  of  his  pictures.  Apart  from  oc- 
casional drives  he  seldom  ventured  far  from  this 
immediate  vicinity.  In  the  closing  years  of  his 
life  he  suffered  greatly  from  bodily  pain,  and 


57* 


Wyant 


physical  activity  became  more  and  more  difficult. 
He  died  at  his  studio,  52  East  Twenty-third  St., 
New  York,  on  Nov.  29,  1892,  survived  by  his 
wife  and  son. 

'  The  style  of  Wyant's  early  painting  (before 
1873)  was  influenced  by  the  Diisseldorf  masters 
then  in  vogue  and  is  associated  with  the  so-called 
"Hudson  River  School."  It  is  characterized  by 
a  photographic  fidelity  to  nature.  The  angle  of 
vision  is  wide  and  extended,  the  subject  pano- 
ramic in  effect,  the  sentiment  imbued  with  the 
romanticism  of  the  time.  The  color  is  conven- 
tional, the  technique  thin  and  precise,  the  draw- 
ing keenly  sensitive  to  naturalistic  detail.  The 
masterpiece  of  the  early  style  is  "The  Mohawk 
Valley"  (1866),  in  the  Metropolitan  Museum, 
but  some  of  the  smaller  and  less  known  pictures 
exemplify  the  more  objective  interest  of  the 
painter.  As  a  pure  naturalist  he  is  unsurpassed. 
In  Wyant's  middle  period  the  mountain  environ- 
ment determined  the  subject  matter  of  his  pic- 
tures. The  interest  centers  on  the  more  intimate 
charm  of  woods  and  fields,  revealed  by  the  mo- 
mentary changes  of  light  or  deepening  shadow, 
and  he  becomes  the  painter  of  sylvan  woods,  of 
mossy  rocks,  and  mountain  brooks  or,  following 
in  the  path  of  the  axe,  he  sees  his  picture  in  the 
clearing,  the  mountain  valley,  and  the  clouds. 
Typical  are  "In  the  Still  Forest,"  in  the  Worces- 
ter Museum,  originally  designed  as  an  over-man- 
tle decoration,  "An  Old  Clearing"  (1881),  in 
the  Metropolitan  Museum,  and  "In  the  Adiron- 
dacks."  In  his  ultimate  expression  Wyant  is  far 
more  than  a  painter  of  local  landscape.  His  pic- 
tures have  a  thematic  conception,  an  organized 
unity,  and  a  universal  appeal.  He  did  not  paint 
directly  from  nature.  Mood  is  transcendent.  Sim- 
ple in  composition,  the  rhythmic  action  of  his 
pictures  is  rendered  by  the  movement  of  light 
and  dark  sequences  related  to  a  fixed  point  of 
focal  concentration.  Naturalistic  form  is  sim- 
plified and  subordinated  to  the  major  motive. 
Among  the  most  impressive  examples  of  his  ma- 
ture style  are  "Passing  Clouds,"  "Early  Morn- 
ing," "A  Sunlit  Vale,"  "End  of  Summer," 
"Driving  Mists,"  "Moonlight  and  Frost,"  in  the 
Brooklyn  Museum,  "Landscape  in  the  Adiron- 
nacks,"  in  the  Metropolitan  Museum,  "The  Con- 
necticut Valley,"  and  "Landscape,"  in  the  Cor- 
coran Gallery  of  Art. 

Wyant  used  a  simple  palette.  Black  and  white, 
permanent  blue,  yellow  ochre,  burnt  sienna,  raw 
sienna,  and  light  red  were  in  constant  use;  oc- 
casionally a  touch  of  emeraude  with  blue,  or  of 
cadmium  to  intensify  a  green.  He  often  re- 
marked that  the  key  to  a  landscape  was  in  the 
sky,  and  in  his  most  impressive  pictures  the  sky 


Wyatt 

is  of  dominant  interest,  the  landscape  serving  as 
a  foil  or  frame  to  bring  out  its  subtle  and  elusive 
gradations.  He  was  a  master  of  aerial  perspec- 
tive and  atmospheric  envelopment. 

A  poetic  tonalist,  Wyant  remains  one  of  the 
outstanding  masters  of  American  landscape 
painting  during  the  later  half  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  His  art  is  associated  with  the  general 
tendency  the  return  to  nature  inaugurated  in 
painting  by  the  English  master  Constable  and 
continued  by  the  masters  of  Barbizon.  Not  so 
emotional  as  Inness,  he  does  not  attain  the  same 
dramatic  effect.  His  work  is  more  limited  and 
his  expression  more  reserved,  but  in  consequence 
his  pictures  are  more  even.  He  had  not  the 
austere  solidity,  the  fullness  of  form,  or  the  per- 
fect relation  of  method  to  style,  which  character- 
izes his  prototype,  Theodore  Rousseau,  but  he 
had  a  more  subtle  sense  of  tonal  relation  and  at- 
mospheric envelopment.  This  brought  to  his 
technique  a  greater  freedom  of  brushvvork  and 
the  suggestion  rather  than  the  precise  definition 
of  form.  In  this  respect  he  is  more  truly  related 
to  Corot,  and  his  art  is  a  transition  from  the 
earlier  school  to  the  later  impressionists. 

TEliot  Clark,  Alexander  Wyant  (1916)  and  Sixty 
Paintings  by  Alexander  H.  Wyant  (1920)  ;  Eleanor  R. 
Gage,  in  Arts  and  Decorations,  Aug.  1912;  E.  V. 
Brewster,  Ibid.,  Feb.  1919  ;  J.  C.  Van  Dyke,  Am.  Paint- 
ing (1919)  ;  Samuel  Isham,  The  Hist,  of  Am.  Painting 
(1905)  ;  C.  H.  Caffin,  Am.  Masters  of  Painting  (1902)  ; 
obituary  in  N.  Y.  Tribune,  Nov.  30,  1892;  information 
from  members  of  Wyant's  family.]  jr  Q fc 

WYATT,  Sir  FRANCIS  (1588-August  1644). 
colonial  governor  of  Virginia,  was  of  a  Kentish 
family  closely  identified  with  the  growth  of 
Protestantism  in  sixteenth-century  England.  His 
great-grandfather,  Sir  Thomas  Wyatt,  poet  and 
courtier  of  Henry  VIII's  time,  was  granted  in 
1540  the  possessions  of  the  Cistercian  monastery 
at  Boxley.  His  grandfather,  Sir  Thomas  Wyatt 
the  younger,  was  executed  in  1554  for  his  leader- 
ship of  an  abortive  rebellion  upon  the  occasion 
of  Queen  Mary's  marriage  to  Philip  II.  His  fa- 
ther, George,  was  married  to  Jane,  daughter  of 
Sir  Thomas  Finch  of  Eastwell,  Kent,  and  as  the 
eldest  son  by  this  union  Francis  became  heir  to 
the  family  seat  at  Boxley  Abbey.  He  was  knight- 
ed in  1603,  and  married  in  1618  to  Margaret, 
daughter  of  Sir  Samuel  Sandys,  eldest  son  and 
heir  to  Archbishop  Edwin  Sandys. 

It  is  to  this  connection  with  the  Sandys  family 
that  his  interest  in  Virginia  was  in  all  probabil- 
ity due.  Sir  Edwin  Sandys,  his  wife's  uncle, 
gained  control  of  the  London  Company  in  1619, 
and  for  two  years  thereafter  pressed  forward 
with  unusual  energy  plans  formed  in  the  preced- 
ing year  for  the  regeneration  of  the  colony.  Un- 


573 


Wyatt 

fortunately,  these  plans  miscarried,  and  by  1621 
the  company's  resources  and  the  adventurers' 
enthusiasm  were  well  nigh  exhausted.  With  the 
expiration  of  the  term  of  Gov.  George  Yeardley 
[<7.£'.]  in  that  year,  Sandys  drew  upon  his  own 
family  for  a  new  group  of  officers  to  be  entrusted 
with  a  final  attempt  to  retrieve  the  company's 
fortunes.  Wyatt,  whose  first  investment  in  the 
company  apparently  is  represented  by  the  trans- 
fer of  four  shares  to  his  name  in  November  1620, 
was  designated  governor.  With  him  as  minister 
to  the  governor's  tenants  went  his  brother,  the 
Rev.  Hawte  Wyatt.  George  Sandys  [q.v.~\, 
brother  to  Sir  Edwin,  assumed  the  duties  of  the 
new  and  important  post  of  treasurer.  By  no 
means  the  least  important  part  of  their  baggage 
as  they  arrived  in  October  1621  were  duplicate 
copies  of  all  instructions  sent  out  with  Yeardley 
in  1618  (see  Kingsbury,  post,  III,  98-109,  468- 
82),  to  which  fact  we  are  indebted  for  much  of 
our  knowledge  of  the  company's  program  at  that 
significant  turning-point  in  the  colony's  history. 
The  plan  embodied  in  these  famous  documents 
could  now,  it  was  hoped  be  put  into  effect. 

Before  he  had  been  in  office  six  months  the  In- 
dian massacre  of  1622  forced  Wyatt  to  turn  from 
the  prospect  of  building  Virginia  into  a  pros- 
perous community  serving  the  ends  of  mercan- 
tilist policy  to  face  the  stern  realities  of  a  situ- 
ation which  threatened  the  very  destruction  of 
the  colony.  Relying  heavily  upon  the  experience 
of  older  settlers,  especially  Yeardley,  he  ac- 
quitted himself  well.  The  difficulties  of  his  po- 
sition were  increased  by  the  inability  of  the 
company  to  provide  adequate  succor  from  home, 
and  by  the  fact  that  this  revelation  of  the  com- 
pany's weakness  led  directly  to  its  dissolution  in 
1624.  In  the  actions  leading  to  the  recall  of  the 
company's  privileges  he  sensed  a  threat  to  the 
colony's  privileges,  and  rallied  the  planters  to 
demand  the  preservation  of  their  liberties.  At  a 
time  when  the  discredited  leaders  of  the  Sandys 
faction  were  excluded  from  all  direction  of  the 
colony's  affairs,  he  was  asked  to  continue  in 
office  as  the  first  royal  governor  of  Virginia.  In 
this  capacity  he  summoned  the  famous  "conven- 
tion" assembly  of  1625  which  pressed  neglected 
petitions  made  in  1623  and  1624  regarding  the 
colony's  needs,  asking  especially  the  continuation 
of  the  "liberty  of  .  .  .  generall  Assemblie."  The 
news  of  his  father's  death  in  1623  had  made  him 
long  anxious  to  return  home  to  take  possession 
of  his  estates,  but  he  remained  at  his  post  until 
1626,  when  it  was  possible  to  report  a  hopeful 
prospect  for  continued  peace  and  for  prosperity. 

In  1639  Wyatt  returned  to  Virginia  to  succeed 
Sir  John  Harvey  as  governor.  The  status  of  the 


Wyckoff 

Virginia  assembly  had  remained  in  doubt  since 
the  dissolution  of  the  company.  By  what  seems 
a  happy  coincidence  Wyatt  was  enabled  through 
his  official  instructions  to  carry  the  news  to  the 
planters  that  their  "liberty  of  generall  Assemblie" 
had  been  finally  confirmed  by  the  royal  govern- 
ment. In  1 641,  after  a  none  too  happy  term,  he 
was  replaced  by  Sir  William  Berkeley  \_q.v.]. 
He  was  buried  at  Boxley  Abbey  on  Aug.  24, 
1644.  A  capable  and  respected  leader  in  the 
experimental  period  of  English  colonization, 
Wyatt's  greatest  claim  to  fame  probably  lies  in 
his  efforts  to  make  secure  the  practice  of  repre- 
sentative government  in  the  Virginia  colony. 

[There  is  a  brief  life  of  Wyatt  in  The  Diet,  of  Nat. 
Biog.  See  also  C.  M.  Andrews,  Our  Earliest  Colonial 
Settlements  (1933)  and  The  Colonial  Period  of  Am. 
Hist.:  The  Settlements,  vol.  I  (1934)  ;  W.  F.  Craven, 
Dissolution  of  the  Va.  Company  (1932)  ;  T.  J.  Werten- 
baker,  Va.  under  the  Stuarts  (1914);  The  Victoria 
Hist,  of  the  County  of  Kent,  vol.  II  (1926)  ;  "The  Vis- 
itation of  Kent  .  .  .  1619-1621,"  Harleian  Soc.  Pubs., 
vol.  XLII  (1898)  ;  Susan  M.  Kingsbury,  ed.,  The  Rec- 
ords of  the  Va.  Company  (4  vols.,  1906—35)  ;  H.  R.  Mc- 
Ilwaine,  ed.,  Jours,  of  the  House  of  Burgesses  of  Va., 
1619-1658/59  (1915),  and  Minutes  of  the  Council  and 
Gen.  Court  of  Colonial  Va.,  1622-1632,  1670— 1676 
(1924)  ;  W.  L.  Grant,  James  Munro,  and  A.  W.  Fitz- 
roy,  Acts  of  the  Privy  Council  .  .  .  Colonial  Ser.,  1613- 
1680,  vol.  I  (1908);  W.  N.  Sainsbury,  Calendar  of 
State  Papers,  Colonial  Ser.,  1574-1660  (i860)  ;  Alex- 
ander Brown,  The  First  Republic  in  America  (1898).] 

W.F.C. 

WYCKOFF,  WALTER  AUGUSTUS  (Apr. 
12,  1865-May  15,  1908),  author,  sociologist,  was 
born  in  Mainpuri,  India,  the  son  of  the  Rev. 
Benjamin  DuBois  Wyckoff,  a  Presbyterian  mis- 
sionary, and  Melissa  Wyckoff.  On  his  father's 
side  he  was  a  descendant  of  Pieter  Claesen  who 
emigrated  from  Holland  to  New  Netherland  in 
1637.  While  still  a  small  boy,  he  was  sent  to 
America  to  prepare  for  college  at  the  Hudson 
Academy  and  later  at  the  Freehold  Institute.  On 
graduation  from  the  College  of  New  Jersey 
(later  Princeton)  with  the  degree  of  B.A.  in 
1888,  he  entered  the  Princeton  Theological  Semi- 
nary. After  a  year,  however,  he  interrupted  his 
theological  course  for  a  period  of  study  and  travel 
in  Europe.  He  had  returned  to  America  and  was 
planning  to  resume  his  preparation  for  the  min- 
istry when  he  became  convinced  that  his  knowl- 
edge of  social  problems  was  bookish  and  in- 
adequate. To  learn  at  first  hand  more  concern- 
ing the  character  and  life  of  the  unskilled  worker, 
he  set  out  in  July  1891  to  work  his  way  on  foot 
from  Connecticut  to  California.  Despite  hard- 
ships which  were  accentuated  by  limited  physical 
strength  and  unusually  sensitive  tastes,  he  per- 
sisted in  his  purpose  and  reached  San  Francisco 
early  in  1893.  His  next  ventures  were  abroad. 
Engaged  as  a  private  tutor,  during  the  next  two 
years  he  traveled  twice  around  the  world. 


574 


Wyeth 

He  returned  to  Princeton  in  1894  for  further 
graduate  study  as  fellow  in  social  science.  The 
following  year  he  was  appointed  lecturer  in  soci- 
ology. While  holding  this  post,  he  wrote  an  ac- 
count of  his  earlier  trip  across  the  continent  as 
an  unskilled  laborer.  Appearing  first  serially  in 
Scribner's  Magazine,  the  simple  realism  of  his 
story  attracted  widespread  attention.  Published 
in  two  volumes,  The  Workers;  an  Experiment 
in  Reality — The  East  (1897)  and  The  West 
(1898),  the  account  was  heralded  as  an  out- 
standing contribution  to  sociological  literature.  In 
1898  Wyckoff  was  appointed  assistant  professor 
of  political  economy  in  Princeton  University,  a 
post  which  he  filled  until  his  death.  As  a  teacher, 
he  attracted  large  classes  of  students  through  his 
stimulating  treatment  of  social  theories  and  prob- 
lems. More  an  observer  and  critic  of  social  con- 
ditions than  a  systematic  sociologist  or  econo- 
mist, he  drew  largely  on  his  own  experience  and 
wide  general  reading.  In  1901  he  published  a 
third  volume,  A  Day  with  a  Tramp  and  Other 
Days,  based  on  experiences  during  the  trans- 
continental journey.  His  other  writings,  which 
included  a  number  of  magazine  articles,  were 
largely  popular  in  nature.  On  June  25,  1903,  he 
married  Leah  Lucille  Ehrich,  a  gifted  musician. 
A  chronic  ailment  grew  worse  not  long  after  his 
marriage  and  brought  on  his  death  in  1908  when 
he  was  but  forty-three  years  of  age.  He  was  sur- 
vived by  his  wife  and  a  daughter.  Modest,  keen- 
ly sympathetic,  and  warm-hearted,  he  attracted 
many  loyal  friends. 

Wyckoff 's  contributions  to  sociology  were  lim- 
ited by  his  lack  of  systematic  grounding  in  social 
sciences.  Yet,  though  The  Workers  is  almost  de- 
void of  conclusions  or  constructive  proposals,  his 
realistic  reports  of  the  conditions  surrounding 
the  lives  of  unskilled  laborers  aroused  in  students 
and  the  public  a  keener  appreciation  of  social 
problems  and  contributed  to  the  growing  move- 
ment for  more  adequate  welfare  programs. 

[See  W.  F.  Wyckoff,  in  Somerset  County  Hist. 
Quart.,  July  1913,  Oct.  1916,  Jan.  1917,  and  The  Wyck- 
off Family  in  America  (1934),  ed.  by  M.  B.  Streeter  ; 
Who's  Who  in  America,  1908-09;  Gen.  Cat.  Princeton 
Univ.  (1908)  ;  Princeton  Seminary  Nccrological  Report 
(1909)  ;  cats,  and  academic  records,  Princeton  Univ.; 
Biog.  Cat.  Princeton  Theological  Seminary  (1933); 
obituary  in  N.  Y .  Daily  Tribune,  May  16,  1908  ;  corres. 
and  interviews  with  friends  and  colleagues  of  Wyckoff. 
The  maiden  name  of  Wyckoff's  mother  is  given  by  some 
sources  as  Johnson,  by  others  as  Fielder.] 

J— s.  D.  B. 

WYETH,   JOHN    (Mar.    31,    1770-Jan.    23, 

1858),  editor,  publisher,  the  son  of  Mary  (Win- 
ship)  and  Ebenezer  Wyeth,  was  born  in  Cam- 
bridge, Mass.  He  was  a  descendant  in  the  fourth 
generation  of  Nicholas  Wyeth  who  emigrated 
from  England  before  1645  and  settled  in  Cam- 


Wyeth 


bridge.  His  father,  a  farmer,  is  said  to  have  been 
one  of  the  minute-men  called  to  serve  at  Bunker 
Hill.  At  a  very  early  age  John  became  a  printer's 
apprentice.  On  attaining  years  of  majority  he 
went  to  Santo  Domingo,  where  he  became  su- 
perintendent of  a  large  printing  establishment. 
Soon,  however,  during  an  insurrection  of  the 
blacks,  he  lost  all  he  had  built  up,  and  escaped 
from  the  island  only  with  the  aid  of  a  friend. 
Finally  he  arrived  in  Philadelphia  on  board  ship, 
disguised  and  working  as  a  sailor.  For  a  while 
he  worked  there  in  different  printing  establish- 
ments. In  1792,  with  John  W.  Allen,  he  pur- 
chased the  Harrisburg  Advertiser  in  Harrisburg, 
Pa.,  the  first  newspaper  of  the  city,  which  had 
been  started  about  1791  by  Maj.  Eli  Lewis  of 
Lewisberry.  With  this  they  began  the  career  of 
the  Oracle  of  Dauphin  County  &  Harrisburg 
Advertiser,  which  was  successfully  carried  on 
until  November  1827,  a  four-page  paper  with 
bold,  clear  type.  The  policy  of  the  paper  was  to 
support  Federalist  views,  although  its  columns 
were  held  open  to  the  expression  of  views  of  all 
parties.  In  October  1793  Wyeth  was  appointed 
first  postmaster  of  Harrisburg  under  Washing- 
ton, of  whom  he  had  always  been  a  great  admirer 
and  supporter.  During  the  Adams  campaign  he 
gave  consistent  and  strong  editorial  support  to 
Adams.  Yet  he  was  removed  from  the  postmas- 
tership  in  July  1798  by  the  postmaster-general  of 
Adams'  administration  on  the  grounds  of  incom- 
patibility between  that  office  and  the  editing  of  a 
paper.  During  the  period  of  editing  the  Oracle  of 
Dauphin  Wyeth  established  a  bookstore  and  gen- 
eral publishing  house.  There  were  many  im- 
prints of  value,  some  of  them  quite  extensive. 
Probably  the  best  known  was  Alexander  Gray- 
don's  Memoirs  ( 181 1 ) .  A  music  book  of  Wyeth's 
own  compositions  had  a  circulation  up  to  120,000 
in  several  editions,  and  a  supplement  of  the  sec- 
ond part  a  circulation  of  about  25,000.  Wyeth 
was  a  stanch  and  early  friend  of  the  Harrisburg 
Academy  for  Boys  and  in  1809,  upon  its  incor- 
poration, was  elected  one  of  the  original  trustees 
for  a  term  of  three  years.  He  resigned,  how- 
ever, after  little  more  than  a  year's  service. 

He  was  a  man  of  cheer,  practical  philosophy, 
industry,  and  thrift.  He  sent  all  his  thirteen  chil- 
dren to  college  and  left  them  what  was  consid- 
ered, in  those  days,  a  sizable  fortune.  This  for- 
tune had  its  foundation  in  real  estate  speculation, 
both  in  Harrisburg  and  in  Philadelphia.  He  was 
keenly  interested  in  many  public  improvements 
in  Harrisburg.  Shakespeare  House,  built  by  him 
in  1822,  having  a  good-sized  ballroom  and  thea- 
tre, was  a  lyceum  and  social  center  until  well 
toward  the  twentieth  century  (Harrisburg  Tele- 


575 


Wyeth 


graph,  Mar.  30,  1931 ).  Buildings  of  today 
(  1936)  bear  his  name  because  they  were  con- 
structed on  the  sites  of  those  owned  by  him.  He 
maintained  an  active  interest  in  reading  and  in 
social  activities  up  to  within  a  short  time  pre- 
ceding: his  death.  He  was  a  stanch  Unitarian  and 
worked  unsuccessfully  for  several  years  to  es- 
tablish a  church  of  his  faith  in  Harrisburg. 

Wyeth's  first  wife,  Louisa  Weiss,  the  daugh- 
ter of  Lewis  and  Mary  Weiss  of  Philadelphia, 
whom  he  married  on  June  6,  1793,  was  the  moth- 
er of  all  his  children.  She  died  in  1822.  On  May 
2,  1826,  he  married  Lydia  Allen  of  Philadelphia, 
and  lived  in  that  city  until  the  time  of  his  death. 
One  of  his  grandsons  was  John  Allan  Wyeth 
[q.v.]. 

[W.  H.  Egle,  Hist,  of  the  Counties  of  Dauphin  and 
Lebanon  (1883),  and  Pa.  Geneals.  (1896);  Marian 
Inglewood,  Then  and  Now  in  Harrisburg  (1925),  p. 
144;  G.  H.  Morgan,  Annals  .  .  .  of  Harrisburg  (1858)  ; 
G.  P.  Donehoo,  Harrisburg  and  Dauphin  County 
(1925);  obituary  in  Pub.  Ledger  (Phila.),  Jan.  25, 
1858  ;  minutes  of  the  board  of  trustees,  MS.  in  Harris- 
burg Acad. ;  certified  copy  of  Wyeth's  will,  Bk.  P,  vol. 
I,  p.  445,  Dauphin  County  Court  House  ;  records  of  real 
estate  transactions  in  deed  books  (see  indices)  ;  copy  of 
entries  in  family  Bible,  made  by  Wyeth,  in  the  poss.  of 
Eleanor  Shunk  of  Harrisburg,  Wyeth's  great-grand- 
daughter.] C.  W.  G. 

WYETH,  JOHN  ALLAN  (May  26,  1845- 
May  28,  1922),  surgeon,  medical  educator,  was 
born  in  Missionary  Station,  Marshall  County, 
Ala.,  the  son  of  Judge  Louis  Weiss  and  Euphemia 
(Allan)  Wyeth,  and  a  grandson  of  John  Wyeth 
[q.z'.].  He  was  educated  in  the  common  school 
at  Guntersville,  a  town  founded  by  his  father.  In 
186 1  he  entered  La  Grange  Military  Academy  in 
Alabama,  but  spent  only  a  year  under  its  rigid 
discipline,  for  at  seventeen  he  joined  the  Confed- 
erate army.  After  playing  an  active  part  in  many 
skirmishes  and  engagements,  he  was  taken  pris- 
oner in  October  1863  and  held  until  April  1865. 
For  years  he  suffered  from  the  effects  of  un- 
healthful  living  conditions  in  prison.  He  became 
a  superintendent  of  a  large  cotton  plantation  in 
Franklin  (later  Colbert)  County,  Ala.,  after  the 
war,  but  soon  gave  up  this  position  because  of 
his  ill  health.  In  1867  he  began  the  study  of 
medicine,  graduating  from  the  medical  depart- 
ment of  the  University  of  Louisville  in  1869.  He 
had  practised  for  only  two  months,  when,  feeling 
that  his  medical  education  had  been  insufficient, 
particularly  in  its  lack  of  laboratory  and  clinical 
training,  he  decided  to  give  the  next  few  years 
to  earning  money  for  postgraduate  study.  Going 
to  New  York  in  1872,  he  discovered  that  there 
were  no  special  courses  for  graduate  students  in 
medicine.  He  attended  lectures  at  Bellevue  Med- 
ical School,  however,  and  devoted  much  of  his 
time  to  clinics  in  surgery  and  dissection.   He  re- 


Wyeth 

ceived  his  ad  citudcm  degree  in  1873.  At  this  time 
he  taught  himself  to  be  ambidextrous,  a  valuable 
accomplishment  for  a  surgeon.  From  1874  to 
1877  he  was  prosector  to  the  chair  of  anatomy 
at  Bellevue  Hospital.  When  ill  health  forced  him 
to  retire,  he  studied  abroad  for  two  years.  There 
he  met  Dr.  J.  Marion  Sims  [q.v.],  whose  daugh- 
ter, Florence  Nightingale  Sims,  he  married  on 
Apr.  10,  1886.  On  his  return  to  New  York  he 
submitted  to  a  number  of  eminent  New  York 
physicians  his  plans  for  a  postgraduate  school  of 
medicine,  which  he  had  long  dreamed  of  estab- 
lishing. As  a  result,  the  New  York  Polyclinic 
Hospital  and  Medical  School  was  organized  in 
1 88 1.  Wyeth  devoted  the  remainder  of  his  life 
to  it,  serving  first  as  surgeon-in-chief  and  later 
as  president.  He  ultimately  gave  up  a  large  pri- 
vate practice  in  surgery  to  confine  his  energies 
exclusively  to  the  Polyclinic  Hospital. 

Wyeth  devised  a  number  of  new  surgical  pro- 
cedures. In  1876  he  won  a  prize  offered  by  the 
Bellevue  Hospital  Medical  College  Alumni  As- 
sociation for  his  essay  on  the  surgical  anatomy 
of  the  tibio-tarsal  articulation  (American  Jour- 
nal of  the  Medical  Sciences,  Apr.  1876).  After 
the  appearance  in  his  The  Surgical  Anatomy  of 
the  Carotid  Arteries  (1876)  his  ligation  of  the 
external  carotid  artery  became  an  accepted  pro- 
cedure, and  his  bloodless  amputation  at  shoulder 
and  hip  joints  (see  Medical  Record,  Jan.  13, 
1894),  first  performed  in  1889  and  1890,  is  known 
as  Wyeth's  operation.  He  reported  on  his  new 
method  for  treating  inoperable  tumors  by  injec- 
tion of  boiling  water  in  1903.  His  most  important 
work  in  his  own  field  was  A  Textbook  on  Sur- 
gery (1887).  A  prolific  writer,  he  contributed 
largely  to  non-medical  literature  as  well.  He 
served  as  president  of  the  New  York  Patholog- 
ical Society  (1885-86),  the  New  York  State 
Medical  Association  (1901),  the  American  Med- 
ical Association  (1901-02),  and  the  New  York 
Academy  of  Medicine  (1907-10).  In  1914  his 
autobiography,  With  Sabre  and  Scalpel,  was  pub- 
lished. His  first  wife  died  in  191 5,  leaving  two 
sons  and  a  daughter.  In  19 18  he  was  married  to 
Marguerite  Chalifoux,  dietitian  at  the  Polyclinic 
Hospital.   He  died  suddenly  of  heart  trouble. 

[In  addition  to  Wyeth's  With  Sabre  and  Scalpel 
(1914),  see  Boston  Medic,  and  Surgical  Jour.,  June  8, 
1922  ;  Internat.  Jour,  of  Surgery,  June  1922,  and  Feb. 
1923,  pp.  77-79  ;  Jour.  Am.  Medic.  Asso.,  June  3,  1922  ; 
N.  Y.  Medic.  Jour.,  June  21,  1922;  J.  J.  Walsh,  Hist, 
of  Medicine  in  N.  Y.  (19 19),  vol.  V  ;  L.  R.  Paige,  Hist, 
of  Cambridge,  Mass.  (1877);  N.  Y.  Times,  May  29, 
and  June  4,  1922.]  G.L.A. 

WYETH,  NATHANIEL  JARVIS  (Jan.  29, 
1802-Aug.  31,  1856),  trader,  explorer,  was  the 
son  of  Jacob  and  Elizabeth  (Jarvis)  Wyeth  of 


576 


Wyeth 


Wyl 


le 


Cambridge,  Mass.,  and  a  nephew  of  John  Wyeth 
[q.v.].  His  father,  a  descendant  of  Nicholas 
Wyeth  who  settled  in  Cambridge  in  1645,  repre- 
sented a  prominent  colonial  family,  was  a  grad- 
uate of  Harvard  and  owner  of  Fresh  Pond  Ho- 
tel. On  Jan.  29,  1824,  Nathaniel  married  his 
cousin,  Elizabeth  Jarvis  Stone,  and  in  the  same 
year  became  manager  of  an  ice  company  owned 
by  Frederic  Tudor  [q.v.]  which  reaped  the  an- 
nual winter  crop  of  Fresh  Pond.  It  was  said  at 
his  death  that  practically  every  implement  and 
device  used  in  the  ice  business  had  been  invented 
by  Nat  Wyeth.  He  also  was  successful  in  estab- 
lishing with  Tudor  an  important  trade  in  ice  to 
the  West  Indies.  His  larger  fame,  however,  rests 
on  an  adventurous  project  undertaken  during  a 
five-year  interlude  in  his  regular  occupation.  This 
was  an  attempt  to  exploit  the  Columbia  River 
and  regions  adjoining  it  for  fish,  furs,  timber, 
and  agricultural  resources.  If  he  had  been  suc- 
cessful, he  would  have  planted  in  Oregon  an 
American  commercial  and  agricultural  colony. 

Wyeth  was  one  of  the  ardent  souls  stirred  up 
over  Oregon  by  that  inveterate  propagandist,  the 
Boston  pedagogue,  Hall  Jackson  Kelley  [q.v.]. 
Unlike  Kelley,  however,  he  was  a  man  of  action, 
gifted  with  tremendous  energy,  determination, 
and  leadership.  When  Kelley 's  plan  to  lead  a 
colony  to  Oregon  in  the  spring  of  1832  evapo- 
rated, Wyeth  fitted  out  a  cargo  which  he  sent 
around  the  Horn  and  himself  enrolled  a  very 
small  company  for  an  overland  expedition.  The 
ship  never  reached  the  Columbia,  and  when 
Wyeth  himself  arrived  with  a  remnant  of  his 
party  there  was  nothing  he  could  do  except  make 
his  way  back  home,  which  he  did  toward  the  end 
of  1833.  A  young  cousin,  John  B.  Wyeth,  who 
accompanied  the  party  as  far  as  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains, later  published  an  account  of  the  trip,  Ore- 
gon, or  a  Short  History  of  a  Long  Journey 
(T833),  which  was  prepared  under  the  editor- 
ship of  Benjamin  Waterhouse  [q.v.']  with  the  in- 
tention of  discouraging  westward  adventurers 
and  was  characterized  by  Nathaniel  Wyeth  as  a 
book  "of  little  lies  told  for  gain." 

On  his  return  to  Boston  Wyeth  was  able  to 
organize  a  company  to  back  a  project  for  salmon 
packing  on  the  lower  Columbia,  fur  trading  south 
of  the  river,  and  growing  tobacco  for  the  Indian 
trade.  The  company  fitted  out  a  ship,  the  May 
Dacre,  scheduled  to  reach  the  Columbia  in  the 
early  summer  of  1834  to  begin  fishing  and  pack- 
ing salmon.  That  plan  failed,  for  the  ship,  dam- 
aged by  lightning,  was  laid  up  for  repairs  three 
months  at  Valparaiso  and  actually  entered  the 
Columbia  the  day  after  Wyeth's  party,  in  Sep- 
tember 1834.  Consequently,  she  was  loaded  with 


timber  for  Hawaii.  Wyeth  was  accompanied  on 
this  trip  by  Thomas  Nuttall  and  John  Kirk 
Townsend  [qq.v.],  the  latter  of  whom  in  1839 
published  his  Narrative  of  a  Journey  across  the 
Rocky  Mountains  to  the  Columbia  River.  He 
spent  the  winter  in  Oregon,  part  of  the  time  as 
an  honored  guest  of  John  McLoughlin  [q.v.], 
chief  factor  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  at 
Vancouver,  who  effectually  prevented  his  would- 
be  rival's  success  as  a  fur  trader  but  accorded 
him  every  social  hospitality.  Wyeth  built  a  small 
fort  called  William  at  the  mouth  of  the  Willa- 
mette, on  Wappato  or  Sauvies  Island,  where  he 
had  hoped  also  to  begin  farming  operations.  On 
his  way  west  he  had  brought  into  the  Rocky 
Mountains  a  bill  of  trade  goods  which  had  been 
ordered  by  the  Rocky  Mountain  Fur  Trading 
Company  of  St.  Louis,  whose  leaders  had  facili- 
tated his  first  expedition.  When  they  refused  to 
fulfil  their  contract  to  take  the  goods,  he  built 
Fort  Hall  as  a  rival  trading  house,  and  this  he 
afterwards  sold  to  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company. 
It  became  a  famous  station  on  the  Oregon  and 
California  overland  trail. 

With  more  courageous  and  financially  able 
support,  Wyeth  would  probably  have  succeeded 
in  his  venture.  As  it  was,  he  went  back  to  his  ice 
business.  Yet  in  some  respects  his  western  ad- 
venture proved  a  success.  Through  it  he  famil- 
iarized important  sections  of  the  eastern  popu- 
lation with  the  facts  about  Oregon,  physically 
and  politically,  and  thus  made  it  easier  for  Con- 
gress and  the  administration  to  maintain  Ameri- 
can interests  there ;  on  his  second  expedition  he 
convoyed  the  party  of  Jason  Lee  [q.v.],  who  es- 
tablished the  first  mission,  resulting  in  the  first 
American  settlement  in  Oregon ;  and  he  left  in 
that  country,  as  settlers,  a  number  of  his  men. 
Wyeth,  in  short,  was  one  of  "the  pioneers  of  the 
pioneers"  of  Oregon. 

[In  addition  to  the  chief  source,  The  Corrcs.  and 
Jours,  of  Capt.  Nathaniel  J .  Wyeth  (1899),  ed.  by  F.  G. 
Young,  see  L.  R.  Paige,  Hist,  of  Cambridge,  Mass. 
(1877),  P-  7<>S  ;  S.  P.  Sharpies,  in  Cambridge  Hist.  Soc. 
Pubs.,  No.  2  (1907),  pp.  33-38;  R.  G.  Thwaites,  Early 
Western  Travels,  vol.  XXI  (1905),  which  reprints  the 
accounts  of  J.  B.  Wyeth  and,  more  important,  J.  K. 
Townsend;  C.  H.  Carey,  Hist,  of  Ore.  (1922),  a  de- 
tailed general  account ;  A.  B.  Hulbert,  The  Call  of  the 
Columbia  (1934)  ;  Joseph  Schafer,  A  Hist,  of  the  Pa- 
cific Northwest  (1918  ed.)  ;  obituary  in  Boston  Tran- 
script, Sept.  2,  1856.]  jg 

WYLIE,  ANDREW  (Apr.  12,  1789-Nov.  n, 
1851),  educator,  first  president  of  Indiana  Uni- 
versity, was  born  at  Washington,  Pa.,  the  son  of 
Adam  Wylie  who  emigrated  from  Antrim,  Ire- 
land, about  1776  and  became  a  farmer  in  Fayette 
County,  Pa.  He  was  educated  at  home  and  in 
local  schools  until  the  age  of  fifteen,  when  he  en- 
tered Jefferson  College,  Canonsburg,  Pa.,  sup- 


577 


Wyl 


le 

porting  himself  by  tutoring  and  odd  jobs  until 
his  graduation,  with  first  honors,  in  1810.  For 
the  next  two  years  he  was  a  tutor  and  at  twenty- 
three  succeeded  to  the  principalship  of  the  col- 
lege. This  office  he  ably  administered  for  four 
years,  resigning  only  as  the  result  of  dissatisfac- 
tion over  his  approval  of  plans  for  the  consolida- 
tion of  Jefferson  College  with  Washington  Col- 
lege, Washington,  Pa.  Soon  after  his  resigna- 
tion, April  1816,  he  was  named  president  of 
Washington  College.  He  resigned,  Dec.  9,  1828, 
to  become  the  first  president  of  Indiana  College, 
which  had  been  established  by  act  of  legislature, 
Jan.  24,  1828,  as  successor  to  the  Indiana  Sem- 
inary at  Bloomington.  He  held  this  office  until 
his  death.  When  Wylie  assumed  office  the  fac- 
ulty consisted  of  himself  (as  professor  of  moral 
and  mental  philosophy,  political  economy,  and 
polite  literature),  two  instructors,  and  sixty  stu- 
dents. In  1838  the  college  became  Indiana  Uni- 
versity and  in  1842  a  school  of  law  was  opened. 
Wylie's  work  as  an  educator  was  distinguished 
by  the  introduction  of  a  system  of  study  called 
"specialization  by  rotation,"  in  which  the  student 
devoted  himself  to  one  subject  at  a  time,  master- 
ing it  before  going  to  the  next.  His  administra- 
tion was  marked  by  a  slow  but  steady  growth. 

In  early  life  Wylie  embraced  the  tenets  of 
Presbyterianism,  was  licensed  to  preach  by  the 
presbytery  of  Ohio,  Oct.  12,  1812,  and  was  pastor 
of  a  church  at  Millers  Run,  Pa.,  for  several  years 
after  1813.  But  the  Presbyterian  doctrine  be- 
came unsatisfactory  to  him  because  of  its  ex- 
treme "sectarianism,"  and  in  1841  he  united  with 
the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church.  In  December 
he  was  ordained  deacon  and  in  May  1842  priest. 
He  was  described  as  "tolerant  and  patient  to  a 
fault  of  everything  but  meanness  and  duplicity," 
for  the  most  part  affable  but  occasionally  brusque 
in  manner  (Harding,  post,  pp.  10-11).  His  lit- 
erary style  is  said  to  have  possessed  "humor  and 
spirit."  He  was  the  author  of  English  Grammar 
(1822),  The  Uses  of  History  (1831),  Eulogy  of 
General  Lafayette  (1834),  Latin  and  Roman 
Classics  (1838),  and  Sectarianism  Is  Heresy 
(1840).  He  was  married  in  May  1813  to  Mar- 
garet Ritchie,  who  survived  him. 

[T.  A.  Wylie,  Indiana  Univ.  (1890),  pp.  47~57  ;  S.  B. 
Harding,  Indiana  Univ.,  18 20-1904  (1904),  with  pho- 
tograph ;  Kate  M.  Rabb,  A  Tour  through  Ind.  in  1840 
(1920);  Theophilus  Parvin,  Address  on  the  Life  and 
Character  of  Andrew  Wylie,  D.D.  (1858)  ;  Indianapo- 
lis Sunday  Star,  Sept.  21,  193 1.]  P.D.J. 

WYLIE,  ELINOR  MORTON  HOYT 

(Sept.  7,  1885-Dec.  16,  1928),  poet  and  novelist, 
was  born  at  Somerville,  N.  J.,  the  daughter  of 
Henry  Martyn  and  Anne  (McMichael)  Hoyt. 
On  her  father's  side  she  was  descended  from 


Wyl 


le 


Simon  Hoyt  who  settled  in  Massachusetts  before 
1630.  Although  her  branch  of  the  family  had 
lived  in  Pennsylvania  since  the  end  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century,  where  her  grandfather,  Henry 
Martyn  Hoyt  [g.v.],  had  been  governor,  there 
was  in  her  nature  a  "Puritan  marrow"  of  which 
she  was  conscious  and  proud.  Her  great-grand- 
father, Morton  McMichael  \_q.v.~\,  had  been 
owner  of  the  Philadelphia  North  American  and 
mayor  of  the  city,  and  her  grandfather,  Morton 
McMichael,  was  a  Philadelphia  banker  whose 
cultivated  interest  in  her  she  later  said  had  been 
a  large  part  of  her  education. 

Her  parents  took  her  to  Rosemont,  a  suburb  of 
Philadelphia,  when  she  was  two  years  old,  and 
lived  there  for  ten  years.  In  1897  her  father, 
having  become  assistant  attorney-general  of  the 
United  States,  moved  his  family  to  Washington, 
where  he  became  solicitor-general  in  1903.  Eli- 
nor Hoyt  led,  till  she  was  twenty-five,  the  cus- 
tomary existence  of  formal  Philadelphia  and  of- 
ficial Washington.  She  attended  Miss  Baldwin's 
school  in  Bryn  Mawr  and  Mrs.  Flint's  (later 
Holton  Arms)  in  Washington,  and  studied 
drawing  in  a  class  at  the  Corcoran  Gallery  of 
Art.  Her  summers  were  spent  with  her  family — 
she  was  the  eldest  of  five  children — at  North- 
East  Harbor,  Mount  Desert,  Me.  In  1903  she 
and  her  sister  Constance  went  to  Paris  and  Lon- 
don for  the  season  with  their  grandfather  Mc- 
Michael. He  introduced  them  to  his  friends  Sir 
Henry  Irving  and  Ellen  Terry,  and  Bram  Stoker, 
who  was  charmed  by  the  two  girls,  afterwards 
dedicated  The  Jewel  of  Seven  Stars  (1904)  to 
them.  In  1905  Elinor  Hoyt  was  married  to 
Philip  Hichborn,  son  of  Admiral  Philip  Hich- 
born  [#.7'.],  and  in  1907  had  a  son  also  named 
Philip.  Her  outward  life  seemed  uneventful  and 
fashionable  till  December  1910,  when  she  sud- 
denly eloped  with  Horace  Wylie  of  Washington. 

The  Hoyts,  the  McMichaels,  the  Hichborns, 
and  the  Wylies  were  all  so  conspicuous  in  Phila- 
delphia and  Washington  that  the  episode  raised 
an  enormous  scandal  which  affected  her  whole 
subsequent  life.  Philadelphia  and  Washington 
never  forgave  her,  and  the  newspapers  never 
forgot.  The  actual  circumstances  were  obscure, 
perhaps  even  to  her.  But  it  must  be  remembered 
that  she  had  been  very  close  to  her  erudite  grand- 
father McMichael,  who  had  died  in  1904,  and  to 
her  brilliant  father,  who  died  in  1910.  Philip 
Hichborn,  nearly  her  own  age,  was  interested  in 
sport  and  wrote  stories  about  horses  (collected 
and  published  as  Hoof  Beats  the  year  of  his  sui- 
cide, 1912).  She  found  life  with  him  increasing- 
ly uncongenial  and  fell  in  love  with  Horace  Wy- 
lie, some  fifteen  years  her  senior,  an  erudite  and 


578 


Wyl 


le 

brilliant  man  who  had  qualities  which  she  could 
not  do  without.  Although  she  was  still  far  from 
being  the  poet  she  was  to  become,  she  had  a  rest- 
less intellect  which  could  not  be  bound  in  a  situ- 
ation which  cramped  and  threatened  to  destroy 
her. 

As  Horace  Wylie's  wife  refused  to  divorce 
him,  Elinor  Hichborn  and  he  went  early  in  191 1 
to  England.  There  they  lived,  as  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Horace  Waring,  first  at  Burley  in  the  New  For- 
est, then  at  Merrow  Down,  and  from  19 14  to 
1915  at  Witley,  near  Godalming.  In  1912  her 
mother  had  printed  for  her  in  London,  as  a  gift, 
a  small  volume  of  her  verse,  Incidental  Numbers, 
in  which  there  are  only  hints  of  the  felicity  which 
marks  all  her  mature  poems.  In  a  sense  she  was 
still  at  school,  with  Horace  Wylie  and  rural  Eng- 
land for  her  teachers.  Burley  and  Witley  were 
quiet  harbors  from  the  storm  of  scandal  in  Amer- 
ica, which  invented  all  sorts  of  wild,  untrue 
things  about  her,  such  as  a  romantic  residence  in 
Corsica,  which  she  never  saw.  She  left  England 
only  for  occasional  holidays  in  France.  The 
World  War  having  made  England  a  distressing 
place  to  live  in,  she  and  Horace  Wylie  returned 
in  July  191 5  to  Boston,  where,  his  divorce  hav- 
ing been  granted,  they  were  married  the  follow- 
ing year.  During  the  next  three  years  they 
passed  two  summers  in  a  cottage  in  Somesville, 
Mount  Desert,  and  a  winter  in  Augusta,  Ga.,  and 
in  December  1919  went  back  to  Washington.  He 
obtained  a  minor  post  with  a  government  bu- 
reau, and  she  wrote  more  and  more  poetry,  but 
they  had  few  friends  outside  the  members  of  her 
family.  Now,  however,  she  had  her  first  ac- 
quaintance with  men  of  letters,  with  Sinclair 
Lewis,  who  wrote  his  Main  Street  in  Washing- 
ton, and  William  Rose  Benet,  who  had  been  a 
friend  of  her  brother  Henry  at  Yale.  Her  poems 
began  to  be  mature  and  to  be  accepted  for  pub- 
lication. In  1921  she  left  Washington  for  New 
York,  her  home  for  the  short  remainder  of  her 
life. 

She  made  a  swift  and  shining  entrance  into 
the  literary  society  of  Manhattan.  Nobody  there 
held  her  history  against  her.  Fastidious  and  mag- 
ical, snow-white  except  for  her  rich  bronze-col- 
ored hair  and  her  short-sighted,  observant,  lus- 
trous eyes,  she  was  a  scholar  and  a  lady  among 
the  general  run  of  authors.  At  the  same  time,  she 
had  what  she  called  her  "johnny-cake  side,"  a 
charming,  gay  informality  when  she  chose.  Men 
and  women  admired  and  adored  her,  and  spoiled 
her  with  the  praise  for  which  she  had  an  insatia- 
ble yet  humorous  appetite.  Her  poems  appeared 
in  many  magazines,  and  a  volume,  Nets  to  Catch 
the  Wind,  was  published  in  1921  with  immediate 


Wylie 

applause.  She  was  invited  to  the  MacDowell  col- 
ony at  Peterborough,  N.  H.,  for  the  summer  of 
1922,  and  again  in  1923,  1924,  1925.  For  a  time 
Vanity  Fair  paid  her  a  weekly  salary  to  select 
its  poetry.  In  1923  she  collected  another  volume 
of  poems,  Black  Armour,  and  published  her  first 
novel,  Jennifer  Lorn:  a  Sedate  Extravaganza. 
The  same  year  she  was  divorced  from  Horace 
Wylie  and  married  to  William  Rose  Benet.  The 
long  chapter  of  her  elopment  and  education  was 
closed,  and,  with  whatever  pain  and  confusion, 
she  put  it  behind  her. 

After  this  marriage  she  spent  the  winter  of 
1924-25  with  her  husband  and  his  three  children 
in  New  Canaan,  Conn.,  but  for  the  most  part  she 
lived  in  various  apartments  in  New  York — her 
last  three  years  in  Ninth  Street — and  went  in  the 
summer  either  to  the  MacDowell  colony  or  to 
England,  with  possible  excursions  to  Paris 
(1925,  1926,  1927,  1928).  When  the  Literary 
Guild  was  organized  at  the  end  of  1926  she  be- 
came one  of  the  editors.  Though  she  had  many 
claims,  professional  and  personal,  upon  her  time, 
she  wrote  steadily.  Her  second  novel,  The  Vene- 
tian Glass  Nephew  ( 1925) ,  ran  as  a  serial  in  the 
Century  Magazine.  Her  third,  The  Orphan  An- 
gel (1926),  called  Mortal  Image  in  England,  was 
selected  for  distribution  by  the  Book-of-the- 
Month  Club,  and  brought  her  unexpected  money 
and  fame. 

The  Orphan  Angel  is  a  strange  but  character- 
istic record  of  Elinor  Wylie's  lifelong  worship  of 
Shelley.  Without  too  much  exaggeration  she 
may  be  said  to  have  been  in  love  with  him  from 
childhood,  and  she  liked  to  be  assured  that  he 
would  have  been  in  love  with  her  if  he  had  had  a 
chance.  She  could  smile  at  the  idea,  but  she  cher- 
ished the  emotion.  In  The  Orphan  Angel  she 
imagined  that  Shelley,  not  really  drowned  in  the 
Gulf  of  Spezia,  had  been  picked  up  by  a  Yankee 
ship  and  brought  to  America.  Her  imagination 
could  show  him  her  native  country,  to  which 
she  was  deeply  attached,  and  could  accompany 
him  on  his  adventures  across  the  shaggy  conti- 
nent of  1822.  Her  passion  drove  her  to  laborious 
researches  into  the  conditions  of  pioneer  Amer- 
ica. And  it  may  have  been  her  jealousy  which 
saw  to  it  that  Shiloh  (as  Shelley),  while  much 
courted  by  women,  was  won  by  none  of  them. 
Sometimes  Elinor  Wylie  seemed  not  so  much  to 
love  Shelley  as  to  identify  herself  with  him.  That 
her  voice  was  shrill  in  moments  of  excitement 
disturbed  her  less  than  it  would  have  done  if  Shel- 
ley's had  not  been  shrill  too.  In  Mr.  Hodge  and 
Mr.  Hazard  (1928),  her  last  novel,  she  present- 
ed in  Mr.  Hazard  a  character  who  was  not  quite 
Shelley  and  not  quite  herself  but  was  in  various 


579 


Wyl 


le 

respects  like  them  both.  In  all  literature  there  is 
hardly  another  instance  of  a  spiritual  affection 
so  intense  as  Elinor  Wylie's  for  Shelley.  He 
was  the  chief  master  of  her  heart  and  mind. 

Yet  in  the  writings  devoted  more  or  less  to 
him  she  was  often  indirect  and  comic,  teasing 
him  as  she  teased  herself.  Her  intellect  was  too 
bright  and  free  not  to  make  use  of  comedy,  as  in 
all  her  novels.  Jennifer  Lorn  she  called  an  ex- 
travaganza ;  The  Venetian  Glass  Nephew  a  phil- 
osophical fairy  tale.  Her  prose  style  had  an 
amused  formality  which  resembled  her  own  man- 
ners and  conversation.  She  was  not  downright 
enough  to  write  realistic  fiction,  preferring  to 
tell  fantastic  stories  in  a  sharp,  undeluded  idiom. 
Her  novels  belong  to  high  comedy,  and  the  pas- 
sage of  time,  while  it  may  reduce  their  audience, 
has  not  yet  touched  their  lively  colors. 

In  her  poetry  she  was  more  direct  than  in  her 
prose,  terse,  proud,  light,  strong,  surprising,  and 
memorable.  A  dozen  or  so  of  her  poems  are  es- 
tablished for  good  in  the  national  anthology,  and 
she  must  be  ranked  with  the  distinctive  lyric 
poets  of  the  English  language.  This  rank  she 
owes  especially  to  the  sonnets  called  One  Person, 
first  printed  privately  in  England  in  1928  and  in- 
cluded in  the  volume  Angels  and  Earthly  Crea- 
tures published  the  next  year  in  New  York.  Triv- 
ial Breath  (1928),  the  poems  since  Black  Ar- 
mour which  she  wished  to  preserve,  showed  no 
great  advance  upon  her  two  earlier  books.  But 
in  May  and  June  of  1928  she  wrote,  in  England, 
nineteen  sonnets  in  which  all  the  passion  and 
tenderness  of  young  love  are  uttered  with  the 
splendor  and  accuracy  of  a  subtly  accomplished 
mature  poet.  About  the  "One  Person"  to  whom 
they  were  addressed  she  was  publicly  reticent, 
and  her  life  was  not  disrupted  by  the  profound 
experience. 

In  October,  still  in  England,  she  had  a  stroke 

which  slightly  paralyzed  one  side  of  her  face. 

She  came  back  to  New  York  in  December.  Her 

beauty  had  been  a  part  of  her  career,  and  she  felt 

that  she  could  not  bear  to  be  disfigured,  however 

slightly.  A  few  days  later,  having  prepared  her 

last  volume  of  poems  for  the  printers,  she  had 

another  stroke  and  died. 

[Elinor  Wylie's  Collected  Poems  (1932)  and  Col- 
lected Prose  (193.1)  contain  all  her  lasting  work,  and 
the  Prose  has  biog.  and  critical  notices  of  her  by  Carl 
Van  Vechten,  Carl  Van  Doren,  Stephen  Vincent  Benet, 
Isabel  Paterson,  and  William  Rose  Benet.  See  also 
Who's  Who  in  America,  1928—29;  Elinor  Wylie :  the 
Portrait  of  an  Unknown  Lady  (1935),  by  her  sister, 
Nancy  Hoyt,  which  brings  together  much  intimate  ma- 
terial but  is  unsystematic  and  wanting  in  detail  ;  W.  R. 
Benet,  The  Prose  and  Poetry  of  Elinor  Wylie  (1934)  ; 
Elizabeth  Sergeant,  Fire  under  the  Andes  (1927); 
Emily  Clark,  Innocence  Abroad  (1931)  ;  Rebecca  West, 
Ending  in  Earnest  (1931)  ;  Carl  Van  Doren,  in  Harper's 
Mag.,  Sept.  1936;  and  obituary  in  N.  Y.  Times,  Dec. 


Wyl 


58 


ie 

17,  1928.  The  present  account  is  based  upon  personal 
knowledge  and  upon  information  furnished  by  Horace 
Wylie  and  W.  R.  Benet.]  C.V-D 

WYLIE,  ROBERT  (1839-February  1877), 
landscape  and  genre  painter,  was  born  at  Doug- 
las, in  the  Isle  of  Man,  and  was  taken  to  the 
United  States  by  his  parents  when  a  child.  The 
family  settled  in  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  where  Wylie 
began  his  art  studies  as  a  pupil  of  the  Pennsyl- 
vania Academy,  and  worked  for  a  time  as  an 
ivory  carver.  His  work  attracted  the  attention 
of  the  directors  of  the  institution,  and  about  1864 
they  sent  him  to  France  to  continue  his  training. 
In  Paris  he  entered  the  Ecole  des  Beaux-Arts 
and  worked  under  Jean-Leon  Gerome.  He  also 
became  a  pupil  of  Antoine-Louis  Barye,  the  fa- 
mous sculptor  of  animals.  At  the  Paris  Salon 
of  1869  he  exhibited  his  "Reading  the  Letter 
from  the  Bridegroom,"  and  at  the  Salon  of  1872 
he  received  a  second-class  medal  for  his  "Breton 
Fortune-Teller."  Other  Salon  exhibits  were 
"Baz-Walen,  demandeur  en  manage  dans  la 
Basse-Bretagne"  (1870),  "L'Accueil  de  l'Or- 
phelin,  Bretagne"  (1873),  and  "Le  Conteur  de 
Legendes"  (1878).  According  to  the  Salon  cat- 
alogue of  1878  he  was  a  pupil  of  Thomas  Cou- 
ture. 

Wylie  was  one  of  the  first  of  the  large  Ameri- 
can colony  to  discover  the  attractions  of  Brit- 
tany. About  1865  he  established  himself  at  the 
little  fishing  village  of  Pont-Aven,  where  he 
lived  and  worked  until  the  time  of  his  death  in 
1877.  Among  his  American  colleagues  there 
were  Frederick  A.  Bridgman,  William  L.  Pick- 
nell  [qq.v.~\,  and  Clement  Swift.  The  pictures 
Wylie  sent  to  the  Salon  made  a  profound  impres- 
sion on  French  painters  and  led  several  of  them 
to  join  the  artist  colony  at  Pont-Aven.  In  that 
place  he  was  well  known  not  only  to  the  artists 
but  also  to  the  peasantry;  at  the  sale  of  his 
studio  effects  after  his  death,  his  humble  neigh- 
bors vied  with  each  other  to  obtain  souvenirs. 
His  more  important  works  are  "Death  of  a  Ven- 
dean  Chief,"  in  the  Metropolitan  Museum,  New 
York;  "Mendicants"  and  "Card  Players,"  pri- 
vately owned  in  Baltimore;  "Breton  Group," 
privately  owned  in  Philadelphia;  and  "A  For- 
tune-Teller of  Brittany"  ( 1872),  in  the  Corcoran 
Gallery  of  Art,  Washington.  His  paintings  are 
few  in  number,  for  he  was  not  prolific.  His 
drawing  was  especially  good ;  he  had  an  admir- 
able sense  of  composition ;  his  color  was  sober ; 
and  his  artistic  sentiment  and  sympathy  for  hu- 
manity were  pronounced.  He  died  in  France  as 
the  result  of  an  aneurism.  He  was  unmarried. 

[See  Clara  E.  Clement  and  Laurence  Hutton,  Artists 
of  the  Nineteenth  Century  (2  vols.,  1879)  ;  cats,  of  the 
Paris  Salon,  1870,  1872,  1873,  1878;  cat.  of  the  Metro- 

O 


Wylie 

politan  Museum,  1926;  cat.  of  the  Thomas  B.  Garke 
coll.,  1899;  obituary  in  Art  Jour.  Apr.  1877.  The  date 
of  death  is  given  variously  as  Feb.  4,  13,  and  14.] 

W.H.D. 

WYLIE,  SAMUEL  BROWN  (May  21, 1773- 
Oct.  13,  1852),  clergyman  of  the  Reformed  Pres- 
byterian Church,  educator,  was  born  in  Moylarg, 
County  Antrim,  Ireland,  the  son  of  Adam  and 
Margaret  (Brown)  Wylie.  His  father  was  a 
farmer  of  some  means,  and  the  boy  was  given  the 
rudiments  of  a  sound  classical  education.  Thus 
equipped,  he  entered  the  University  of  Glasgow, 
where  he  distinguished  himself  as  a  student  and 
in  1797  was  awarded  the  degree  of  master  of 
arts.  He  then  secured  a  teaching  position  in 
Ballymena,  Ireland,  but  in  a  few  months  his  con- 
nection with  efforts  in  behalf  of  Irish  independ- 
ence made  it  expedient  for  him,  in  company  with 
others,  to  leave  the  country. 

In  the  latter  part  of  1797  he  arrived  in  Phil- 
adelphia, where  the  most  of  his  remaining  life 
was  spent  and  where  he  rose  to  prominence  in 
educational  and  religious  circles.  His  first  teach- 
ing was  in  a  school  at  Cheltenham,  a  nearby 
town.  In  1798  he  was  appointed  instructor  in 
the  grammar  school  of  the  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania. Meanwhile,  he  studied  theology  under 
the  Rev.  William  Gibson  and  was  licensed  to 
preach  by  the  Reformed  Presbytery  on  June  24, 
1799.  The  following  year,  June  25,  he  was  or- 
dained at  Ryegate,  Vt.,  being,  it  is  said,  the 
first  Covenanter  to  receive  ordination  in  Amer- 
ica (Glasgow,  post,  p.  741).  He  immediately 
made  a  tour  of  the  South  as  one  of  a  commis- 
sion appointed  to  see  that  the  edict  of  the  Re- 
formed Presbyterian  Church  forbidding  its  mem- 
bers to  hold  slaves  was  obeyed.  In  1802  he  was 
sent  by  his  denomination  as  a  delegate  to  the  sis- 
ter churches  in  Scotland  and  Ireland. 

He  and  his  companions  had  formed  a  congre- 
gation soon  after  their  arrival  in  Philadelphia, 
and  on  Nov.  20,  1803,  he  was  installed  as  its  pas- 
tor. Under  his  leadership,  which  terminated  only 
with  his  death,  this  body  developed  into  a  large 
church.  His  educational  work  went  on  with  lit- 
tle interruption,  however.  When  the  Presbytery 
established  a  theological  seminary  in  Philadel- 
phia in  1810,  he  was  appointed  professor  and 
served  until  1817;  he  was  reelected  irr  1823  and 
resigned  in  1828.  In  that  year  he  became  pro- 
fessor of  Latin  and  Greek  in  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania  and  held  that  position  until  1845, 
when  he  was  made  professor  emeritus  ;  from  1836 
to  1845  he  was  also  vice-provost.  On  Jan.  17, 
1806,  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  American 
Philosophical  Society.  He  was  married,  Apr.  5, 
1802,  to  Margaret  Watson  of  Pittsburgh,  by 


Wyllys 


whom  he  had  seven  children,  four  of  whom  sur- 
vived him. 

According  to  a  contemporary  he  exhibited  all 
the  best  traits  of  the  Irish — "a  genial  temper, 
an  open  hand,  and  a  heart  full  of  .  .  .  human 
kindness"  (John  Forsyth,  in  Sprague,  post,  p. 
38).  Along  with  them,  however,  went  an  "in- 
domitable patience,  a  persistent  energy,  which  no 
difficulties  could  affright  .  .  ."  {Ibid.).  He  was 
a  laborious  student,  was  thoroughly  versed  in 
the  classics,  and  was  familiar,  it  is  said,  with 
some  fourteen  languages.  He  was  a  strict  disci- 
plinarian, and  in  school  and  home  held  those  as- 
sociated with  him  to  a  rigorous  routine.  His 
large  frame  and  stately  bearing  commanded  re- 
spect. His  best-known  writings  were  The  Two 
Sons  of  Oil;  or,  The  Faithful  Witness  for  Mag- 
istracy &  Ministry  upon  a  Scriptural  Basis 
(1803),  an  able  presentation  of  the  position  of 
the  Covenanter  Church,  and  Memoir  of  Alexan- 
der McLcod,  D.D.  ( 1855),  which  appeared  after 
Wylie's  death.  He  also  published  several  ser- 
mons and  a  Greek  grammar. 

[W.  I.  Addison,  A  Roll  of  the  Grads.  of  the  Univ.  of 
Glasgow  (1898)  ;  W.  B.  Sprague,  Annals  of  the  Am. 
Pulpit,  vol.  IX  (1869),  "Reformed  Presbyterian,"  pp. 
34-39  ;  W.  M.  Glasgow,  Hist,  of  the  Reformed  Pres- 
byterian Church  in  America  (1888)  ;  Fiftieth  Anniver- 
sary of  the  Ordination  of  the  Rev.  T.  IV.  J.  Wylie,  D.D., 
and  of  His  Installation  as  Pastor  of  the  Wylie  Memo- 
rial Presbyterian  Church  (1893)  ;  J.  N.  McLeod,  Prepa- 
ration for  Death  the  Business  of  Life:  A  Discourse  on 
the  Death  of  the  Rev.  Samuel  Brown  Wylie  (1852)  ; 
North  American  and  U.  S.  Gazette  (Phila.),  Oct.  15, 
l8S2-l  H.E.S. 

WYLLYS,  GEORGE  (Oct.  6,  1710-Apr.  24, 
1796),  Connecticut  official,  was  born  in  Hart- 
ford, Conn.,  the  eldest  surviving  son  of  Hezekiah 
and  Elizabeth  (Hobart)  Wyllys.  His  father  and 
grandfather  both  held  office  in  the  colonial  gov- 
ernment ;  his  great-grandfather,  George  Wyllys, 
emigrated  from  Warwickshire,  England,  to  Con- 
necticut in  1638 — having  sent  his  steward  over 
two  years  before  to  make  ready  for  him — and 
some  time  later  served  as  governor  of  the  colony. 
The  younger  George  was  born  in  the  Wyllys 
mansion,  built  by  his  great-grandfather,  on  the 
grounds  of  which  grew  the  tree  known  in  history 
as  the  "Charter  Oak,"  in  which  the  Connecticut 
charter  was  hidden  when  Governor  Andros  at- 
tempted to  seize  it. 

Wyllys  attended  Yale  College,  graduating  with 
honors  in  the  class  of  1729.  The  year  following, 
because  of  the  illness  of  his  father  who  had  held 
the  office  since  1712,  he  was  chosen  secretary  of 
the  colony  of  Connecticut,  pro  tempore.  After 
four  years,  his  father's  health  not  having  im- 
proved, he  was  inducted  into  the  office  of  secre- 
tary and  continued  to  serve  in  this  position  until 
his  death.    His  record  of  continuous  service  in 


58 


Wyman 

the  same  office  for  sixty-six  years  is  without  equal 
in  the  history  of  Connecticut,  for  during  this 
time  he  was  never  absent  from  a  session  of  the 
General  Assembly.  He  also  succeeded  his  fa- 
ther as  town  clerk  of  Hartford,  in  December 
1732,  and  held  that  office  until  his  death  sixty- 
four  years  later.  In  1738  he  became  captain  of 
the  militia,  and  in  1757  served  as  lieutenant- 
colonel  in  the  war  against  the  French.  At  the 
time  of  the  Revolution  he  was  thought  by  many 
to  sympathize  with  the  British,  but  three  of  his 
sons  served  with  distinction  on  the  American 
side,  and  while  their  father  may  not  have  felt  the 
separation  from  Great  Britain  to  have  been  nec- 
essary, he  quickly  became  reconciled  to  the  new 
order  when  the  fact  was  accomplished.  He  con- 
tinued in  office  throughout  the  war  and  for  many 
years  thereafter.  His  portrait  was  painted  about 
1790,  by  Ralph  Earle  [q.v.],  and  is  in  the  pos- 
session of  the  Connecticut  Historical  Society. 

Wyllys  married  Mary  Woodbridge,  daugh- 
ter of  his  cousin,  Rev.  Timothy  Woodbridge  of 
Simsbury,  Conn.  They  had  four  sons  and  two 
daughters.  He  died  in  Hartford  in  his  eighty- 
sixth  year,  considered  the  most  eminent  man  of 
his  generation  in  Connecticut  by  many  of  his 
contemporaries. 

[G.  D.  Seymour,  Capt.  Nathan  Hale  .  .  .  Maj.  John 
Palsgrave  Wyllys  (1933)  ;  F.  B.  Dexter,  Biog.  Sketches 
Grads.  Yale  Coll.,  vol.  I  (1885)  ;  A.  B.  Chapin,  Glas- 
tenbury  for  Two  Hundred  Years  (1853),  p.  162;  Louis 
Mitchell,  The  Woodbridge  Record  (1883);  Abner 
Morse,  A  Geneal.  Reg.  of  the  Descendants  of  Several 
Ancient  Puritans,  vol.  II  (1859)  ;  New  Eng.  Hist,  and 
Geneal.  Reg.,  July,  Oct.  1859,  Jan.  1883;  The  Pub. 
Records  of  the  Colony  of  Conn.,  vols.  VII-XV  (1873- 
90)  ;  "The  Wyllys  Papers,  1590-1796,"  Conn.  Hist. 
Colls.,  vol.  XXI  (1924);  Conn.  Courant  (Hartford), 
May  2,  1796.]  R.M.H. 

WYMAN,  HORACE  (Nov.  27,  1827-May  8, 
1915),  inventor,  was  born  in  Woburn,  Middle- 
sex County,  Mass.,  where  his  father  manufac- 
tured boots  and  shoes.  The  son  of  Abel  and 
Maria  (Wade)  Wyman,  he  was  descended  from 
John  Wyman,  one  of  the  pioneer  settlers  of  Wo- 
burn, who  emigrated  from  West  Mill,  Hertford- 
shire, England,  in  1640.  Horace  Wyman  ob- 
tained a  sound  early  schooling  in  the  public 
schools  and  subsequently  attended  the  Warren 
Academy,  Woburn,  and  the  Francestown  ( N.  H. ) 
Academy.  In  1846  he  entered  the  employ  of  the 
Amoskeag  Manufacturing  Company,  Manches- 
ter, N.  H.,  to  learn  the  trade  of  machinist,  and 
for  the  next  fourteen  years  he  was  variously  em- 
ployed in  manufacturing  establishments  in  New 
England.  These  included  the  Lowell  Machine 
Company's  Works,  at  Lowell,  the  Hinckley  Lo- 
comotive Works  at  Boston,  and  the  shops  of  the 
Holyoke  Water  Power  Company  at  Holyoke, 
where  he  became  a  draftsman  in  1854. 


Wyman 

About  i860  Wyman  met  George  Crompton 
[qv.],  a  manufacturer  of  looms  at  Worcester, 
Mass.,  and  shortly  thereafter  moved  to  that  city 
to  become  associated  with  Crompton  as  superin- 
tendent of  his  establishment.  He  now  began  to 
show  his  inventive  talent,  which  brought  him 
over  two  hundred  patents  during  his  life,  all 
pertaining  to  the  improvement  of  looms  and  other 
textile  machinery.  Upon  the  death  of  Crompton 
in  1886  and  the  reorganization  of  the  Crompton 
Loom  Works,  Wyman  was  made  manager,  hold- 
ing that  position  until  1897  when,  upon  the  con- 
solidation of  the  Crompton  Works  and  those  of 
Lucius  J.  Knowles  [q.v.]  as  the  Crompton  & 
Knowles  Loom  Works,  he  became  vice-president 
and  consulting  engineer  for  the  new  enterprise. 
He  retained  these  positions  thereafter  until  his 
death. 

One  of  Wyman's  first  patents,  issued  to  him 
on  Oct.  29,  1867,  was  for  a  loom.  This  was  fol- 
lowed by  a  loom-box  operating  mechanism  pat- 
ented Jan.  31,  1871 ;  a  pile-fabric  loom,  patented 
July  2,  1872;  and  an  improved  shedding  mech- 
anism, patented  Jan.  5,  1875.  Following  these 
came  a  group  of  inventions,  some  patented 
jointly  with  Crompton,  involving  improvements 
which  permitted  certain  fabrics  to  be  woven 
in  more  than  one  color  and  in  larger  pieces  than 
before.  Wyman  also  developed  processes  by 
which  rugs  and  carpets  could  be  woven  in  larger 
sizes.  His  patent  of  July  15,  1879,  was  for  the 
first  American  "dobby"  loom  and  one  of  his 
last  but  very  important  inventions  was  the  weft 
replenishing  loom  having  drop  shuttle  boxes; 
this  was  patented  Jan.  8,  1901.  Textile  mills 
throughout  the  world  are  still  using  machines  of 
which  the  basic  invention  was  Wyman's,  and  at 
the  time  of  his  death  he  was  regarded  as  having 
done  more  for  the  loom  industry  than  any  other 
single  individual.  His  improvements  in  process 
and  mechanism  were  in  great  part  responsible  for 
the  success  of  the  Crompton  &  Knowles  Loom 
Works.  Wyman  served  at  one  time  on  the  board 
of  aldermen  of  Worcester.  He  had  few  outside 
business  interests  but  was  active  in  several  local 
technical  societies  and  a  member  of  the  Ameri- 
can Society  of  Mechanical  Engineers.  He  found 
time,  too,  to  publish  two  books  on  family  his- 
tory :  The  Wyman  Families  in  Great  and  Little 
Hormead,  Herts  County,  England  (1895)  and 
Some  Account  of  the  Wyman  Genealogy  (1897). 
He  was  married  at  Woburn,  in  i860,  to  Louise 
B.  Horton,  and  at  the  time  of  his  death  at  his 
country  home  in  Princeton,  Mass.,  was  survived 
by  two  daughters.  He  was  buried  in  Worcester. 

[Horace  Wyman,  Some  Account  of  the  Wyman  Gen- 
eal. (1897)  ;  Trans.  Am.  Soc.  Mech.  Engineers,  vol. 
XXXVII  (1915);  E.   B.  Crane,  Geneal.  and  Personal 


58: 


Wyman 

Memoirs  of  Worcester  County,  Mass.  (1907),  vol.  Ill ; 
Worcester  Gazette,  May  8,  1915  ;  Patent  Office  records.] 

C.W.M. 

WYMAN,  JEFFRIES  (Aug.  n,  1814-Sept. 
4,  1874),  anatomist  and  ethnologist,  brother  of 
Morrill  Wyman  \_q.v.~\,  was  born  at  Chelmsford, 
Mass.,  the  third  son  of  Dr.  Rufus  and  Ann  (Mor- 
rill) Wyman.  He  was  named  in  honor  of  a  fa- 
mous Boston  doctor,  John  Jeffries  [q.z>.],  of 
whom  Rufus  Wyman  had  been  a  pupil.  Jeffries 
Wyman  attended  private  schools  in  Charlestown 
and  Chelmsford  until  he  was  ready  to  enter  Phil- 
lips Exeter  Academy,  where  he  prepared  for  col- 
lege. He  was  not  a  brilliant  student  and  spent 
much  time  in  the  woods  and  fields.  Nevertheless 
he  was  ready  for  Harvard  at  the  age  of  fifteen 
and  entered  in  the  fall  of  1829.  He  graduated 
with  his  class  in  1833 ;  during  his  senior  year,  a 
severe  attack  of  pneumonia  left  him  with  im- 
paired lungs  and  a  weakened  constitution  and 
for  the  rest  of  his  life  he  avoided  New  England 
winters  as  far  as  possible,  seeking  the  milder 
climate  of  the  Southern  states.  In  the  summer 
of  1834  he  began  to  study  medicine  under  the 
guidance  of  his  father  and  of  Dr.  John  C.  Dalton 
[<7.£\]  ;  at  the  end  of  two  years  he  became  an  as- 
sistant in  the  Massachusetts  General  Hospital, 
and  in  1837  he  received  the  degree  of  M.D. 
During  these  years  he  cultivated  two  gifts  which 
were  invaluable  to  him  in  his  subsequent  career. 
He  had  been  noted  even  in  his  college  days  for 
his  skill  in  preparing  objects  of  natural  history, 
and  a  skeleton  of  a  bullfrog  which  he  prepared 
when  an  undergraduate  was  exhibited  for  many 
years  as  a  model  of  its  kind.  His  ability  as  an 
artist  was  a  natural  accompaniment  of  his  skill 
as  a  preparator  and  added  much  to  the  instruc- 
tiveness  and  charm  of  his  lectures  in  later  years. 
Wyman  found  his  first  years  of  practice  finan- 
cially difficult,  despite  aid  in  the  form  of  an  ap- 
pointment as  demonstrator  in  anatomy  under 
John  C.  Warren  \_q.v.~],  but  the  turn  in  his  for- 
tunes came  in  1840,  when  John  Amory  Lowell, 
trustee  of  the  recently  established  Lowell  Insti- 
tute, made  him  curator  and  one  of  the  first  lec- 
turers. Wyman  was  regarded  by  the  critics  as 
too  quiet,  but  by  those  who  knew  anything  of  the 
field,  his  lectures  on  comparative  anatomy  and 
physiology  were  recognized  as  notable  not  only 
for  their  content  but  for  the  skill  and  charm  of 
their  illustration  and  delivery.  To  Wyman,  how- 
ever, the  important  thing  was  the  generous  com- 
pensation for  the  lectures,  which  enabled  him  to 
make  a  visit  to  Europe  and  carry  on  his  studies 
in  Paris  and  London.  Called  home  by  the  death 
of  his  father,  he  resumed  his  practice,  but  he 
never  earned  much  as  a  physician  and  was  glad 


Wy 


man 


to  accept,  in  1843,  a  professorship  of  anatomy 
and  physiology  in  the  medical  school  of  Hamp- 
den-Sidney  College,  Richmond,  Va.  Aside  from 
the  remuneration  and  the  privilege  of  teaching, 
this  position  enabled  Wyman  to  spend  the  win- 
ter and  spring  months  in  a  climate  milder  than 
that  of  Boston,  but  he  nevertheless  relinquished 
it  in  1847  to  accept  appointment  to  the  Hersey 
Professorship  of  Anatomy  at  Harvard,  which 
promised  fuller  scope  for  his  talents.  From  1857 
to  1866  he  was  associated  with  his  brother,  Mor- 
rill Wyman,  and  others,  in  a  private  medical 
school  in  Cambridge.  He  was  much  interested 
in  the  development  of  an  anatomical  museum  at 
Harvard  and  during  the  remainder  of  his  life  he 
gave  a  large  amount  of  his  time  and  efforts  to 
.building  up  such  a  museum  as  an  aid  to  his  teach- 
ing. 

In  1848-49,  another  course  of  Lowell  Insti- 
tute lectures  improved  his  financial  situation  so 
much  that  he  spent  the  summer  in  an  expedi- 
tion to  Labrador  on  a  fishing  schooner.  On 
Dec.  19,  1850,  he  married  Adeline  Wheelwright, 
who  became  the  mother  of  two  daughters.  The 
winter  of  1851-52  he  spent  in  Florida,  where 
his  collecting  instinct  had  full  play  and  the  out- 
of-door  life  in  the  mild  climate  brought  improve- 
ment to  his  health.  In  1854,  accompanied  by  his 
wife,  he  again  visited  Europe,  giving  special  at- 
tention to  the  museums  in  the  various  capitals. 
Greatly  depressed  by  the  death  of  Mrs.  Wyman 
the  following  year,  he  made  an  excursion  to 
Surinam  in  1856  with  two  of  his  students,  pene- 
trating with  canoes  the  interior  of  the  country 
and  returning  with  extensive  collections  for  his 
cherished  museum.  On  the  expedition  he  suf- 
fered from  tropical  fever,  however,  and  his  slow 
recovery  left  him  in  no  better  health.  Accord- 
ingly, in  1858,  he  accepted  an  invitation  from 
Capt.  J.  M.  Forbes  to  visit  South  America  in 
company  with  his  friend  George  Augustus  Pea- 
body.  This  journey  took  him  to  La  Plata  and 
thence  across  South  America  to  Valparaiso, 
whence  he  came  home  by  way  of  Peru  and  Pan- 
ama, bringing  a  vast  amount  of  material  for  the 
Harvard  museums.  In  1861  he  married  Annie 
Williams  Whitney,  who  died  in  February  1864, 
shortly  after  the  birth  of  their  only  child,  a  son 
who  was  named  for  his  father. 

In  1866,  through  the  munificence  of  George 
Peabody  [q.v.],  a  department  and  museum  of 
archeology  and  ethnology  was  established  at 
Harvard,  with  Wyman  as  curator,  and  to  this 
new  task  he  devoted  much  of  his  time  and  energy 
for  the  remainder  of  his  life.  He  never  lost  his 
interest  in  comparative  anatomy,  however,  and 
at  the  time  of  his  death  the  museum,  to  which 


58: 


Wyman 

he  was  devoted,  occupied  generous  space  in 
Boylston  Hall — the  main  floor  and  first  gallery 
filled  with  specimens  of  zoology  and  anatomy, 
the  second  gallery  occupied  with  archeological 
objects,  the  nucleus  of  the  present  Peabody  Mu- 
seum. During  the  summer  of  1874  Wyman  was 
particularly  busy  with  curatorial  duties  owing 
to  alterations  in  Boylston  Hall.  He  probably 
overtaxed  his  strength,  for  when  he  went  as 
usual  to  the  White  Mountains  late  in  August  he 
failed  to  recuperate,  and  at  Bethlehem,  on  Sept. 
4,  a  severe  pulmonary  hemorrhage  abruptly  ter- 
minated his  life. 

Wyman  was  not  a  voluminous  writer.  Al- 
though he  published  more  than  175  scientific  pa- 
pers, a  large  proportion  of  them  were  a  page  or 
less  in  length  and  very  few  contained  more  than 
a  dozen  pages.  His  most  important  papers  were 
those  dealing  with  the  structure  of  the  gorilla, 
first  scientifically  described  by  him,  from  a  skel- 
ton  sent  to  Boston  through  the  instrumentality 
of  Thomas  S.  Savage  and  John  Leighton  Wil- 
son [qq.z<.~\.  The  accuracy  and  clarity  of  these 
notices  gave  him  an  international  reputation. 
His  monograph  on  the  nervous  system  of  the 
frog,  published  by  the  Smithsonian  Institution 
in  1852-53,  and  papers  on  the  anatomy  of  the 
blind  fish  of  Mammoth  Cave,  published  in  the 
American  Journal  of  Science  between  1843  and 
1854,  are  also  noteworthy.  From  1862  to  1867 
he  made  a  series  of  experiments  and  careful  ob- 
servations on  the  appearance  of  organisms  in 
boiled  water  which  convinced  him  that  spon- 
taneous generation  was  highly  improbable.  In 
the  closing  years  of  his  life  he  became  greatly 
interested  in  the  "shell  heaps"  of  Maine,  Massa- 
chusetts, and  Florida  and  in  the  information  they 
might  yield  regarding  the  character  and  customs 
of  their  builders.  His  chief  work  in  this  field,  a 
monograph  of  ninety-four  pages  dealing  with 
the  fresh  water  mounds  of  the  St.  John's  River, 
Florida,  was  published  in  1868,  after  his  death. 

It  is  obvious  that  Wyman's  widespread  repu- 
tation as  the  leading  anatomist  of  America  did 
not  rest  primarily  on  his  publications.  It  was  the 
result,  rather,  of  the  personality  and  high  char- 
acter which  made  him  admired  and  in  many  in- 
stances deeply  loved  by  his  students,  who  found 
in  him  as  unselfish  a  man  as  he  was  an  extraor- 
dinary teacher.  He  abhorred  self-advertising 
and  was  frequently  rebuked  by  his  colleagues 
and  friends  for  his  excessive  modesty  and  aver- 
sion to  publicity.  He  shrank  from  controversy 
and  would  never  make  any  effort  to  claim  pri- 
ority for  his  work,  saying  that  the  truth  was 
bound  to  triumph  in  the  end.  Like  his  intimate 
friend  Asa  Gray   [(].v.~\,  he  was  devoutly    re- 


Wyman 


ligious,  but  he  accepted  the  doctrine  of  evolution 
in  the  days  of  the  great  controversy  without 
hesitation  or  the  least  shaking  of  his  faith.  He 
made  friends  everywhere,  in  all  circles,  and  his 
death  called  forth  expressions  of  loss  from  an 
unusual  variety  of  men ;  tributes  in  prose  from 
Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  and  in  verse  from  James 
Russell  Lowell  are  chief  among  these.  Wyman 
was  chosen  president  of  the  American  Asso- 
ciation for  the  Advancement  of  Science  in  1857, 
but  never  assumed  the  duties  of  the  office.  To 
Harvard  University  and  to  the  Boston  Society 
of  Natural  History  he  gave  unstinted  service 
throughout  his  life;  of  the  Boston  Society  he 
was  president  from  1856  until  his  resignation  on 
account  of  his  health  in  1870. 

[Asa  Gray,  in  Proc.  Boston  Soc.  of  Nat.  Hist.,  vol. 
XVII  (1875);  O.  W.  Holmes,  in  Atlantic  Monthly, 
Nov.  1874;  B.  G.  Wilder,  in  Pop.  Sci.  Monthly,  Jan. 
1875,  repr.  in  Leading  Am.  Men  of  Science  (1910),  ed. 
by  D.  S.  Jordan  ;  A.  S.  Packard,  Memoir  of  Jeffries 
Wyman  (1878),  also  in  Biog.  Memoirs  Nat.  Acad.  Sci., 
vol.  II  (1886);  Morrill  Wyman,  "List  of  Scientific 
Papers  and  Works  by  Jeffries  Wyman,"  in  Animal 
Mechanics  (1902)  ;  Boston  Medic,  and  Surgic.  Jour., 
Sept.  17,  1874;  T.  F.  Harrington,  The  Harvard  Medic. 
School  (1905),  vol.  II  ;  Memorials  of  the  Class  of  1833 
of  Harvard  College  (1883)  ;  Boston  Transcript,  Sept. 
7.1874.]  H.L.C. 

WYMAN,  MORRILL  (July  25,  1812-Jan.  30, 
I9°3).  physician,  a  descendant  of  Francis  Wy- 
man who  had  settled  in  Woburn,  Mass.,  by  1640, 
was  born  in  Chelmsford,  Mass.,  the  second  son 
of  Rufus  and  Ann  (Morrill)  Wyman.  His  fa- 
ther (July  16,  1778-June  22,  1842),  a  graduate 
of  Harvard  College  in  1799  and  of  the  Harvard 
Medical  School  in  1804,  was  a  noted  physician, 
one  of  the  early  psychiatrists  of  America,  who 
established  a  high  standard  for  the  humane  treat- 
ment of  the  insane  at  the  McLean  Asylum  in 
Boston  as  early  as  1818.  Wyman's  brother  Jef- 
fries [#.?'.]  was  for  years  professor  of  anatomy 
at  the  Harvard  Medical  School.  Prepared  at 
Phillips  Exeter  Academy,  Morrill  Wyman  grad- 
uated from  Harvard  College  in  1833  and  from 
the  Harvard  Medical  School  in  1837,  serving  his 
last  year  as  a  house  pupil  at  the  Massachusetts 
General  Hospital  under  James  Jackson  [q.v.~\ 
and  others.  He  began  practice  in  Cambridge, 
where  he  continued  for  more  than  sixty  years  as 
a  physician  much  beloved  in  his  community. 

During  this  period  he  found  time  to  devote  to 
the  more  scientific  aspects  of  medicine.  In  1846 
he  published  A  Practical  Treatise  on  Ventilation, 
dealing  particularly  with  the  ventilation  of  pub- 
lic buildings  and  hospitals.  This  work,  which 
was  an  authority  for  many  years,  was  followed 
in  1848  by  a  report  for  the  American  Academy 
of  Arts  and  Sciences  on  ventilators  and  chimney- 
tops  (Proceedings,  I,  307  ff.),  an  important  con- 


584 


Wy 


man 


tribution.  His  most  effective  service  to  Ameri- 
can medical  science,  however,  was  rendered  in 
1850.  For  some  years  before  that  time  he  had 
been  considering  the  possibility  of  improving  the 
operation  of  thoracentesis,  or  surgical  drainage 
of  the  pleural  cavity,  a  procedure  not  known  in 
America  but  used  in  London  as  early  as  1840. 
On  Feb.  23,  1850,  by  means  of  a  very  small  hol- 
low exploring  needle  and  trocar,  he  removed 
twenty  ounces  of  fluid  from  the  chest  of  a  patient. 
This  operation  was  repeated  two  days  later 
with  great  success.  In  April  1850,  in  association 
with  Henry  Ingersoll  Bowditch  \_q.v.],  he  op- 
erated upon  a  second  patient,  this  time  with  the 
aid  of  a  suction  pump.  These  cases  and  others 
were  reported  by  Wyman  and  Bowditch  at  a 
meeting  of  the  Massachusetts  Medical  Society 
in  May  185 1,  and  by  Bowditch  in  the  American 
Journal  of  Medical  Sciences  for  April  1852.  The 
substitution  of  the  small  hollow  needle  in  the 
place  of  the  large  cannula  formerly  used  made 
the  procedure  safe  and  simple,  and  the  discovery 
is  an  important  landmark  in  the  history  of  the 
treatment  of  pleurisy.  Wyman's  third  contribu- 
tion to  medicine  was  a  practical  book,  Autumnal 
Catarrh  (Hay  Fever),  published  in  1872  and 
reprinted  with  additions  in  1876.  Wyman,  long 
a  sufferer  himself,  clearly  described  this  form  of 
allergy  for  the  first  time,  and  mapped  out  cer- 
tain regions,  particularly  the  White  Mountains, 
where  the  disease  was  not  prevalent. 

In  1853  he  was  appointed  adjunct  Hersey  Pro- 
fessor of  the  theory  and  practice  of  medicine  in 
the  Harvard  Medical  School,  as  an  associate  of 
John  Ware  [_q.v."\.  He  resigned  in  1856,  and 
early  in  1857,  with  Ware,  Jeffries  Wyman,  and 
J.  P.  Cooke,  formed  a  private  medical  school  in 
Cambridge.  He  was  a  strong  supporter  of  Presi- 
dent Lincoln  and  during  the  Civil  War  served 
as  an  inspector  of  hospitals.  From  1875  to  1887 
he  was  an  overseer  of  Harvard  College.  He  was 
the  founder,  in  1886,  of  the  Cambridge  Hospital, 
one  of  the  buildings  of  which  bears  his  name, 
and  for  many  years  served  as  consulting  phy- 
sician to  the  Massachusetts  General  Hospital. 
On  Aug.  14,  1839,  he  married  Elizabeth  Aspin- 
wall  Pulsifer,  daughter  of  Capt.  Robert  Starkey 
Pulsifer,  a  Boston  shipmaster.  A  son  and  a 
daughter  survived  him. 

[Morrill  Wyman,  Jr.,  A  Brief  Record  of  the  Lives 
and  Writings  of  Dr.  Rufus  Wyman  .  .  .  and  His  Son 
Dr.  Morrill  Wyman  (1913),  with  bibliography;  H.  P. 
Walcott,  in  Harvard  Grads.  May.,  June  1903  ;  Memo- 
rials of  the  Class  of  1833  of  Harvard  College  (1883)  ; 
T.  F.  Harrington,  The  Harvard  Medic.  School  (1905), 
vol.  II  ;  Boston  Medic,  and  Surgical  Journal,  Feb.  5, 
1903  ;  Boston  Transcript,  Jan.  31,  1903.]         H  R  V 

WYMAN,  ROBERT  HARRIS  (July  12, 
1822-Dec.  2,   1882),  naval  officer,  the  son  of 


Wyman 

Thomas  White  Wyman,  of  the  United  States 
Navy,  and  Sarah  S.  L.  (Harris)  Wyman,  was 
born  in  Portsmouth,  N.  H.  On  Mar.  11,  1837,  he 
was  appointed  a  midshipman  in  the  Navy.  He 
was  assigned  to  the  Independence  in  the  Brazil 
Squadron,  was  transferred  to  the  Fairfield,  and 
in  1838  joined  the  sloop  John  Adams,  command- 
ed by  his  father,  and  sailed  to  the  East  Indies  on 
a  voyage  lasting  two  years.  The  journal  kept 
by  him  on  these  three  ships  is  preserved  at  the 
library  of  the  United  States  Naval  Academy.  On 
his  return  he  entered  the  Philadelphia  Naval 
School,  where  he  studied  one  year,  and  in  1843 
he  was  promoted  to  passed  midshipman.  In  the 
Mexican  War  he  served  in  the  Home  Squadron 
under  Commodore  Conner,  took  part  in  the  ex- 
pedition against  Tampico  in  November  1846, 
and  participated  in  the  bombardment  and  capture 
of  Vera  Cruz  and  the  Castle  of  San  Juan  d'Ulloa 
in  March  1847. 

When  the  Civil  War  broke  out  he  was  in  com- 
mand of  the  steamer  Richmond,  but  in  July  1861 
was  transferred  to  the  Yankee  and  in  September 
to  the  Pocahontas,  in  the  Potomac  Flotilla,  a 
squadron  of  small  fast  steamers  organized  to 
keep  open  communications  on  the  Potomac 
River,  and  to  cut  off  rebel  intercourse  with 
Maryland.  A  month  later  he  was  transferred  to 
the  steamer  Pawnee,  joined  Admiral  Du  Pont's 
squadron,  and  participated  in  the  capture  of 
Port  Royal,  S.  C,  with  its  protecting  forts.  Af- 
ter the  battle  he  was  sent  back  to  the  Potomac 
and  given  command  of  the  flotilla.  In  April  1862 
he  made  an  expedition  up  the  Rappahannock 
River  as  far  as  Fredericksburg,  capturing  nine 
vessels,  burning  forty  small  schooners,  and  de- 
stroying bridges.  In  July  1862  he  was  made 
commander  and  ordered  to  the  gunboat  Sonoma 
for  duty  on  the  James  River,  but  was  soon  trans- 
ferred to  the  West  India  Squadron.  Here  in 
1863  he  captured  two  blockade  runners,  the  Bri- 
tannia and  the  Lizzie.  The  last  two  years  of  the 
war  he  served  in  the  Navy  Department  on  spe- 
cial duty. 

After  the  war  he  commanded  successively  the 
Colorado  and  the  Ticonderoga  in  the  European 
Squadron.  He  was  detailed  in  1871  to  the  Hydro- 
graphic  Office,  at  Washington,  D.  C,  was  given 
charge  of  that  office,  and  during  a  period  of 
eight  years  did  notably  constructive  work.  His 
writings  include:  Coasts  of  Chile,  Bolivia,  and 
Pern  (1876);  The  Marshall  Group  (1870); 
Winds,  Currents,  and  Naz'igation  of  the  Gulf  of 
Cadiz  (1870)  ;  Sailing  Directions,  English  Chan- 
nel ( 1872)  ;  Naz'igation  of  Coasts  and  Islands  in 
the  Mediterranean  Sea  (1872)  ;  and  Revised  In- 
structions for  Keeping  Ship's  Log-book  (1877). 


585 


Wyman 


His  translations  include :  General  Examination 
of  the  Atlantic  Ocean  .  .  .,  from  the  French  of 
Capt.  Philippe  de  Kerhallet,  of  the  French  Navy 
(1870,  Hydrographic  Office  Publication,  22)  ; 
General  Examination  of  the  Indian  Ocean  .  .  ., 
also  from  Kerhallet  (1870,  Hydrographic  Office 
Publication,  24)  ;  General  Examination  of  the 
Mediterranean  Sea  .  .  .,  from  the  French  of  Capt. 
A.  Le  Gras,  of  the  French  Navy  ( 1870,  Hydro- 
graphic  Office  Publication,  25)  ;  and  Hurricanes 
.  .  .,  from  the  French  of  Captain  de  Kerhallet 
and  M.  Keller  (1872). 

Wyman  was  commissioned  rear-admiral  on 
Apr.  26,  1878,  and  given  command  of  the  North 
Atlantic  Squadron.  At  the  time  of  his  death  he 
was  chairman  of  the  Lighthouse  Board  with  of- 
fices in  Washington.  He  was  married  to  Emily 
Madeline  Dallas,  the  daughter  of  Alexander  J. 
Dallas  [q.i'.],  on  Sept.  27,  1847.  They  had  a 
daughter  and  two  sons,  one  of  whom  died  in  in- 
fancy.  His  wife  and  two  children  survived  him. 

[Information  from  the  family;  U.  S.  Navy  Dept. 
Archives  (Naval  Records)  ;  Papers  of  Francis  G.  Dal- 
las, Naval  Hist.  Soc.  Pubs.,  vol.  VIII  (1917),  ed.  by 
G.  W.  Allen  ;  L.  R.  Hamersly,  Records  of  Living  Of- 
ficers, U.  S.  Navy  and  Marine  Corps  (4th  ed.,  1895)  ; 
Reg.  .  .  .  of  the  U.  S.  Navy,  1837-82  ;  War  of  the  Re- 
bellion: Official  Records  {Navy),  see  index;  U.  S. 
Treasury  Dept.,  In  Mcmoriam :  Rear  Admiral  R.  H. 
Wyman  (1882)  ;  Lucien  Young,  Cat.  of  Works  by  Am. 
Naval  Authors  (1888)  ;  Army  and  Navy  Jour.,  Dec. 
9,  1882,  Jan.  27,  1883;  N.  H.  Gazette  (Portsmouth), 
July  17,  1821  ;  Daily  Ezrening  Times  (Portsmouth), 
Dec.  4,  1882;  Portsmouth  Jour.,  Dec.  9,  1882.] 

L.H.B. 

WYMAN,  SETH  (Mar.  4,  1784-Apr.  2,  1843), 
burglar,  was  born  in  Goffstown,  N.  H.,  and  was 
the  son  of  Seth  and  Sarah  (Atwood)  Wyman. 
His  father  had  been  a  soldier  in  the  Revolution, 
and  his  great-grandfather  was  the  only  surviv- 
ing officer  of  the  force  led  by  Capt.  John  Love- 
well  in  the  famous  fight  with  Indians  near  Frye- 
burg,  Me.,  in  1725.  According  to  his  own  ac- 
count, Wyman  was  a  thief  almost  from  infancy, 
stealing  a  silver  dollar  from  a  house  to  which 
his  mother  took  him,  and  accounting  for  his  pos- 
session of  it  by  pretending  to  find  it  on  the  way 
home.  While  still  a  child  he  stole  tobacco  for  the 
use  of  his  mother,  who  "chewed,  smoked,  and 
snuffed,"  and  a  sister  who  "helped  her  in  the 
smoking  department"  (The  Life  and  Adventurers 
of  Seth  Wyman,  p.  9).  Continuous  thieving  and 
malicious  mischief  caused  him  to  be  suspected 
and  accused  of  many  crimes,  but  he  was  nearly 
twenty  before  he  was  forced  to  confess  his  guilt 
and  pay  for  what  he  had  stolen.  After  this  his 
house  was  frequently  searched  unsuccessfully 
for  stolen  goods,  but  he  was  twice  committed  to 
the  county  jail  in  Amherst  to  await  trial.  He 
claims  to  have  made  daring  attempts  to  escape 


Wythe 

that  required  great  strength  and  fortitude,  and 
to  have  brutally  beaten  a  fellow  prisoner  much 
larger  than  himself,  but  as  he  calls  himself  tall 
though  his  recorded  height  is  five  feet  eight  in- 
ches, this  may  be  exaggeration.  He  tells  also  of 
intermittent  vagabondage,  incessant  thieving,  oc- 
casional amatory  escapades,  burglaries  alone  or 
in  association  with  others,  passing  counterfeit 
money,  and  of  sometimes  deviating  into  honest 
or  semi-honest  employment  by  farming  or  man- 
ufacturing sleighs  with  stolen  tools  and  from 
stolen  material.  In  June  1817  he  was  convicted 
of  larceny  in  Augusta,  Me.  (then  Augusta, 
Mass.),  and  committed  to  the  state  prison  in 
Charlestown  for  three  years,  but  he  was  pardoned 
in  August  1818.  There  was  no  belief  in  his  refor- 
mation by  the  pardoning  authorities,  for  the 
statement  that  he  was  "duly  sensible  of  the 
moral  evil  and  fatal  tendency  of  his  past  faults" 
was  crossed  out  on  the  official  document,  and  his 
release  was  recommended  in  order  to  shift  to  his 
native  New  Hampshire  the  cost  of  maintaining 
his  wife  and  six  children,  then  inmates  of  the 
Boston  almshouse.  On  Apr.  20,  1820,  he  was 
committed  to  the  New  Hampshire  State  Prison 
in  Concord  for  stealing  cloth,  and  he  served 
every  day  of  his  three  years'  sentence.  He  re- 
turned to  Goffstown,  where  he  died,  his  last  years 
being  rendered  inactive  by  the  approach  of  age 
and  a  fall  from  a  building  on  which  he  was  work- 
ing that  seriously  injured  his  back. 

Wyman  was  an  audacious  and  incorrigible 
thief  and  swindler,  but  his  prominence  was  more 
literary  than  criminal,  as  his  autobiography, 
The  Life  and  Adventures  of  Seth  Wyman,  Em- 
bodying the  Principal  Events  of  a  Life  Spent  in 
Robbery,  Theft,  Gambling  .  .  .  (1843),  received 
more  notice  than  most  accounts  of  criminal  ca- 
reers. In  its  subject  matter  it  seems  to  imitate 
the  exploits  of  Henry  Tufts,  and  is  less  varied 
and  vigorous  than  its  model ;  but  it  is  also  less 
stilted  and  pedantic  in  style,  and  some  of  this 
may  be  due  to  the  personality  of  its  subject.  On 
Dec.  18,  1808,  Wyman  married  in  Boston  Wel- 
thy  (Loomis)  Chandler,  divorced  wife  of  Na- 
thaniel Chandler,  who  had  already  lived  with 
him  for  several  years  and  borne  him  two  chil- 
dren, four  others  being  born  later. 

[In  addition  to  The  Life  and  Adventures  of  Seth 
Wyman  (1843),  sources  include  G.  P.  Hadley,  Hist,  of 
the  Town  of  Goffstown,  1733-1920  (2  vols.,  1922)  ; 
T.  B.  Wyman,  geneal.  of  the  Wyman  family,  MS.  in 
lib.  of  the  New  England  Hist.  Geneal.  Soc. ;  informa- 
tion on  Wyman's  prison  sentences  from  the  Mass. 
State  Prison,  the  office  of  the  secretary  of  state  of 
Mass.,  and  the  N.  H.  State  Prison.]  g.G. 

WYTHE,  GEORGE  (1726-June  8,  1806), 
signer    of    the    Declaration    of    Independence, 


586 


Wythe 

statesman,  professor  of  law,  and  chancellor  of 
Virginia,  was  born  on  his  father's  plantation  on 
Back  River,  Elizabeth  City  County,  Va.  He  was 
the  second  of  three  children  of  Thomas  and  Mar- 
garet (Walker)  Wythe.  His  brother  Thomas 
died  in  1755.  His  sister  Ann  married  Charles 
Sweeney ;  her  grandson  was  to  play  a  sinister 
and  tragic  role  in  Wythe's  life.  Wythe's  father, 
a  member  of  the  House  of  Burgesses,  was  the 
grandson  of  Thomas  Wythe,  gentleman,  who 
emigrated  from  England  to  Virginia  about  1680. 
His  mother  was  the  daughter  of  George  Walker, 
a  Quaker  of  "good  fortune"  and  learning,  and 
the  grand-daughter  of  George  Keith  [q.v.~],  a 
well-known  scholar  and  divine.  Wythe's  father 
died  in  1729,  and,  the  elder  son  being  heir  at 
law,  his  mother  found  herself  in  moderate  cir- 
cumstances. Possessing  an  unusually  good  edu- 
cation for  that  period,  she  taught  her  younger 
son  Latin  and  the  fundamentals  of  Greek.  She 
died  while  he  was  still  a  youth,  and  he  received 
little  formal  education.  After  a  brief  attendance 
at  the  College  of  William  and  Mary,  probably  in 
the  grammar  school,  he  studied  law  in  Prince 
George  County  under  Stephen  Dewey,  a  family 
connection,  who  apparently  neglected  him.  At  the 
age  of  twenty  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  and  be- 
came associated  in  practice  with  John  Lewis,  a 
prominent  attorney  in  Spotsylvania  County.  The 
association  soon  became  more  personal,  for  in 
December  1747  Wythe  married  Lewis'  sister, 
Ann,  the  daughter  of  Zachary  Lewis ;  she  died 
the  next  year.  Wythe  remained  at  Spotsylvania 
for  about  eight  more  years,  indulging,  it  is  said, 
in  "the  amusements  and  dissipations  of  society" 
(Tyler,  post,  p.  55). 

In  1754,  while  Peyton  Randolph  \_q.v.~\,  at- 
torney-general of  the  colony,  was  in  England  on 
a  mission,  Wythe  held  this  office,  but  resigned 
when  his  friend  returned  a  few  months  later. 
The  next  year  his  brother  died,  and  Wythe  suc- 
ceeded to  the  large  estate.  Having  represented 
Williamsburg  in  the  House  of  Burgesses  (1754- 
55),  he  now  made  it  his  home.  About  1755  he 
married  Elizabeth  Taliaferro,  daughter  of  Col. 
Richard  and  Eliza  Taliaferro  of  "Powhatan," 
James  City  County;  Wythe  survived  his  second 
wife  by  nineteen  years,  while  their  only  child 
died  in  infancy.  He  practised  diligently,  began 
to  study  the  law  in  earnest,  delving  also  into  the 
classics  and  the  liberal  sciences,  and  was  admitted 
to  the  bar  of  the  General  Court.  His  brilliant 
career  really  began  in  1758  with  the  advent  of 
Gov.  Francis  Fauquier  \_q.v.~\,  a  learned,  cul- 
tured gentleman  and  a  Fellow  of  the  Royal  So- 
ciety. Wythe  became  his  intimate  friend,  to- 
gether with  William  Small,  professor  of  mathe- 


Wythe 

matics  and  natural  philosophy  at  William  and 
Mary,  and,  later,  the  youthful  Jefferson.  These 
friendships  were  important  factors  in  his  life. 
Wythe  again  went  to  the  House  of  Burgesses, 
representing  the  College  of  William  and  Mary 
(1758-61)  and  Elizabeth  City  County  ( 1761— 
68)  ;  he  was  mayor  of  Williamsburg  (  1768),  a 
member  of  the  William  and  Mary  board  of  vis- 
itors (1769),  and  clerk  of  the  House  of  Bur- 
gesses ( 1769-75).  Meanwhile  trouble  with  Eng- 
land was  brewing. 

By  Virginia  law,  approved  by  the  Crown,  the 
salary  for  ministers  was  set  at  sixteen  thousand 
pounds  of  tobacco;  in  1758,  however,  without 
royal  consent,  Virginia  commuted  these  salaries 
at  a  fixed  monetary  rate.  When  in  1763  the  Rev. 
Thomas  Warrington  sought  damages  in  the 
Elizabeth  City  County  court  over  which  Wythe 
presided,  the  court  upheld  Virginia's  action.  A 
similar  claim  by  the  Rev.  James  Maury  in  the 
Hanover  County  court  resulted  in  the  famous 
Parson's  Case  whereby  Patrick  Henry  won  ac- 
claim and  the  parson  one  penny's  damages.  When 
the  British  Parliament,  in  1764,  announced  the 
Stamp  Tax,  Wythe  with  other  Virginians  main- 
tained that  England  and  Virginia  were  co- 
ordinate nations  united  by  the  Crown  alone,  a 
concept  later  ably  expounded  by  Richard  Bland 
[q.v.].  The  Virginia  resolutions  of  remonstrance 
were  drafted  by  Wythe,  but,  too  bold  for  most  of 
his  colleagues,  were  modified  before  adoption. 
In  1765,  however,  when  Patrick  Henry  intro- 
duced his  famous  resolutions  (the  occasion  of 
his  Caesar-Brutus  speech),  Wythe,  Bland,  and 
others  opposed  adoption,  urging  that  no  further 
action  be  taken  until  the  earlier  resolutions, 
analogous  in  principle,  had  been  answered. 

When  war  threatened  in  1775  Wythe  wisely 
recommended  a  regular  army  instead  of  militia ; 
when  hostilities  began  he  volunteered.  Almost 
immediately,  however,  he  was  sent  to  Congress, 
where  he  served  until  the  close  of  1776.  He  ably 
supported  Richard  Henry  Lee's  resolution  for 
independence  and  signed  the  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence. A  member  of  the  committee  to  pre- 
pare a  seal  for  Virginia  (adopted  in  1776),  he 
probably  designed  it.  Classic  in  concept,  it  is 
strongly  republican — the  shield  noticeable  by  its 
absence — with  the  ominous  motto,  Sic  Semper 
Tyrannis.  With  Jefferson  and  Edmund  Pendle- 
ton [q.v.~\  he  was  assigned  the  tremendous  task 
of  revising  the  laws  of  Virginia,  his  portion  cov- 
ering the  period  from  the  revolution  in  England 
to  American  independence.  The  committee's  re- 
port, embracing  one  hundred  and  twenty-six  bills, 
was  made  to  the  General  Assembly  in  1779,  most 
of  the  bills  being  adopted  in  1785  under  Madi- 


587 


Wyth( 


son's  leadership,  a  few  being  passed  earlier.  The 
revision  was  thorough,  intelligent,  and  consist- 
ent with  the  American  political  upheaval.  Mean- 
while, Wythe  was  speaker  of  the  House  of  Dele- 
gates (1777)  and  in  1778  became  one  of  the  three 
judges  of  the  new  Virginia  high  court  of  chan- 
cery.  Henceforth  he  was  Chancellor  Wythe. 

The  following  year  he  began  that  part  of  his 
career  which,  perhaps,  constitutes  his  greatest 
service  to  America.  On  Dec.  4,  1779,  the  board 
of  visitors  of  the  College  of  William  and  Mary, 
led  by  Jefferson,  then  governor  of  Virginia  and 
a  member  of  the  board,  established  the  "Profes- 
sorship of  Law  and  Police,"  the  first  chair  of  law 
in  an  American  college  and  but  twenty-one  years 
junior  to  the  Vinerian  professorship  erf  English 
law  at  Oxford.  Wythe,  Jefferson's  own  mentor 
in  the  law,  became  its  incumbent.  His  lectures, 
following  Blackstone,  contrasted  English  and 
Virginia  law,  and  were  supplemented  with  moot 
courts  and  legislatures.  Regarded  as  the  pride 
of  the  college,  Wythe  literally  charted  the  way  in 
American  jurisprudence. 

Although  he  participated  in  the  organization 
of  the  Constitutional  Convention.  Wythe  appar- 
ently did  not  stay  long,  owing  to  other  duties. 
But  in  1788  he  represented  Williamsburg  at  the 
Virginia  convention  which  ratified  the  Consti- 
tution, engaging  little  in  debate  but  presiding 
over  the  committee  of  the  whole  and  offering 
the  resolution  for  ratification.  In  his  supporting 
speech  he  emphasized  the  derivative  character 
of  federal  power.  During  the  same  year,  the 
state  judicial  system  was  reorganized,  and  Wythe 
became  sole  chancellor,  holding  this  office  until 
1801,  when  three  chancery  districts  were  created  ; 
he  continued,  however,  to  preside  over  the  Rich- 
mond district.  Removing  to  Richmond,  he  re- 
signed his  professorship  in  1790  but  formed  a 
small  law  school  of  his  own.  Among  his  students 
was  Henry  Clay  \_q.v.~\,  who  also  was  clerk  of 
the  court. 

Scrupulously  impartial,  erudite  and  logical  in 
his  opinions,  Wythe  was  compared  by  classical- 
ly minded  Virginians  to  Aristides  "the  Just." 
One  of  his  opinions  demands  special  considera- 
tion. As  chancellor  he  was  ex  officio  member  of 
the  supreme  court  of  appeals.  In  the  case  of  Com- 
monwealth vs.  Caton  (4  Call,  5)  in  1782  he  de- 
livered a  peculiarly  significant  opinion.  By  Vir- 
ginia's constitution  the  pardoning  power  in  cases 
of  treason  resided  in  the  General  Assembly. 
Three  convicted  prisoners  pleaded  a  resolution 
by  the  House  of  Delegates  as  a  pardon.  On  re- 
view Edmund  Pendleton,  president  of  the  su- 
preme court  of  appeals,  held  that  the  lower  house 
did  not  intend  to  violate  the  constitution,  since 


Wythe 

it  had  sent  the  resolution  to  the  Senate,  which 
failed  to  assent ;  hence  there  was  no  pardon  and 
no  constitutional  question  before  the  court.  In 
his  concurring  opinion,  however,  Wythe  de- 
clared obiter  dictum,  "Nay,  more,  if  the  whole 
legislature,  an  event  to  be  deprecated,  should  at- 
tempt to  overleap  the  bounds,  prescribed  to  them 
by  the  people,  I  in  administering  the  public  jus- 
tice of  the  country,  will  meet  the  united  powers 
at  my  seat  in  this  tribunal ;  and  pointing  to  the 
Constitution,  will  say  to  them,  'here  is  the  limit 
of  your  authority;  and  hither  shall  you  go  but  no 
further'  "  (4  Call,  8).  This  is  among  the  earliest 
enunciations  of  the  doctrine  of  judicial  review, 
America's  unique  contribution  to  juridical  the- 
ory, and  at  the  time  it  was  the  most  complete. 
Some  of  Wythe's  decisions  were  condemned  at 
first  but  later  were  admired  for  their  independent 
and  disinterested  justice.  The  supreme  court  of 
appeals  generally  affirmed  Wythe's  decisions,  but 
sometimes  reversed  them.  A  tinge  of  personal 
feeling  and  restraint  marred  his  relations  with 
Edmund  Pendleton,  his  greatest  rival  of  both 
bench  and  bar.  In  1795  Wythe  published  De- 
cisions of  Cases  in  Virginia  by  the  High  Court 
of  Chancery,  with  Remarks  upon  Decrees  by  the 
Court  of  Appeals  Reversing  Some  of  Those  De- 
cisions. Convinced  of  the  justice  of  his  decrees, 
he  undoubtedly  desired  vindication. 

Magnificently  ethical  as  an  attorney,  Wythe 
refused  unjust  causes  and  abandoned  cases  re- 
garding which  he  had  been  misled,  returning  the 
fee.  While  he  was  industrious  and  faithful  to 
his  clients'  interests,  he  viewed  the  lawyer  as  an 
instrumentality  of  justice.  His  mind  was  me- 
thodical rather  than  facile,  but  it  peneterated 
deeply.  Possessed  of  broad  education  and  cul- 
ture, he  was  probably  the  foremost  classical 
scholar  in  Virginia,  and  was  widely  read  in  Ro- 
man and  English  law.  He  was  of  middle  height 
and  well  proportioned,  unostentatious  in  appear- 
ance and  habits,  polite  and  courteous  in  address. 
He  was  a  vestryman  in  the  Episcopal  Church, 
but  deemed  forms  and  modes  of  faith  unimpor- 
tant. Agreeing  substantially  with  Jefferson  and 
Madison  in  political  theory,  he  favored  represen- 
tative republicanism  rather  than  undiluted  de- 
mocracy. With  other  eminent  Virginians  of  the 
period  he  was  opposed  to  slavery  and  by  his  will 
emancipated  his  servants.  This  will  led  to 
Wythe's  tragic  death.  His  grand-nephew,  George 
Wythe  Sweeney,  was  named  principal  benefi- 
ciary, while  a  legacy  to  a  servant  was  to  come  to 
him  if  the  servant  died.  To  secure  this  legacy, 
or  perhaps  the  inheritance,  Sweeney,  who  was 
apparently  in  financial  difficulties,  poisoned  some 
coffee  with  arsenic.    The  servant  drank  some ; 


«j88 


Xantus 

Wythe  also  drank  some,  perhaps  fortuitously. 
The  servant  died  first,  but  Wythe  lingered  long 
enough  to  disinherit  Sweeney,  who,  tried  for 
murder,  was  acquitted  for  lack  of  evidence, 
since  the  testimony  of  the  colored  cook,  the  prin- 
cipal witness,  was  not  admissible  in  Virginia 
courts  at  that  time.  The  venerable  chancellor's 
last  thoughts  were  of  the  suitors  in  his  court, 
and  of  the  delay  and  expense  which  his  death 
would  entail.  He  was  buried  in  Richmond,  where 
he  died,  in  the  churchyard  of  historic  St.  John's 
Church. 

[No  biog.  of  Wythe  has  been  written.  The  best  short 
sketches  are  those  of  L.  G.  Tyler,  in  Great  Am.  Law- 
yers, vol.  I  (1907),  ed.  by  W.  D.  Lewis,  and  of  John 
Sanderson,  in  Biog.  of  the  Signers  to  the  Declaration 
of  Independence,  vol.  II  (1822).  Wythe's  decisions  are 
in  Va.  Reports.  See  E.  G.  Swem,  Va.  Hist.  Index,  vol. 
II  (1936),  and,  for  valuable  but  scattered  material, 
Wythe's  Decisions  of  Cases  in  Va.  by  the  High  Court 
of  Chancery  (1852,  1903),  which  contains  a  memoir; 
biog.  sketch  in  Daniel  Call,  Report  of  Cases  in  the  Court 
of  Appeals  of  Va.,  vol.  IV  (1833),  pp.  x-xv  ;  W.  G. 
and  M.  N.  Stanard,  The  Colonial  Va.  Reg.  (1902)  ;  W. 
W.  Hening,  The  Statutes  at  Large  .  .  .  of  Va.,  vol.  IX 
(1821),  pp.  175-76;  H.  B.  Grigsby,  "The  Hist,  of  the 
Va.  Federal  Convention  of  1788,"  Colls.  Va.  Hist.  Soc, 
n.s.,  vols.  IX-X  (1890-91)  ;  Official  Letters  of  the  Gov- 
ernors .  .  .  of  Va.  (3  vols.,  1926-29),  ed.  by  H.  R.  Mc- 
Ilwaine  ;  Letters  of  Members  of  the  Continental  Cong. 
(7  vols.,  1921-34),  ed.  by  E.  C.  Burnett ;  The  Writings 
of  Thomas  Jefferson  (9  vols.,  1853-54),  ed.  by  H.  A. 
Washington  ;  William  Wirt,  Sketches  of  the  Life  and 
Character  of  Patrick  Henry  (1817);  J.  P.  Kennedy, 
Memoirs  of  the  Life  of  William  Wirt  (1856),  vol.  II; 
William  Meade,  Old  Churches,  Ministers,  and  Families 
of  Va.  (2  vols.,  1857)  ;  William  and  Mary  Coll.  Quart., 
Jan.  1895,  p.  180,  July  1901,  p.  34;  R.  M.  Hughes, 
Ibid.,  Jan.  1922,  pp.  40-47;  "Early  Spotsylvania  Mar- 
riage Licenses,"  Va.  Mag.  of  Hist.,  Oct.  1896,  p.  99; 
Ibid.,  July  1898,  pp.  102-03  (Wythe's  views  on  re- 
ligion) ;  Tyler's  Quart.  Hist,  and  Gencal.  Mag.,  Jan. 
1928,  p.  212;  obituary  in  Enquirer  (Richmond),  June 
10,  1806;  funeral  oration  by  William  Munford,  Ibid., 
June  13,  17,  1806.]  T.  S.  C. 

XANTUS,  JANOS  (Oct.  5,  1825-Dec.  13, 
1894) ,  ornithologist,  was  born  at  Csokonya,  coun- 
ty of  Somogy,  Hungary,  the  son  of  Ignacznak 
Xantus.  His  ancestors  were  Greeks  who  had  emi- 
grated to  Transylvania  in  the  fifteenth  century, 
receiving  there  the  rank  of  Hungarian  noblemen. 
Xantus  bore  the  title,  de  Csik  Tapolcza.  He 
passed  the  bar  examination  at  Pest  (1847),  en- 
tered the  Hungarian  national  army  at  the  out- 
break of  the  war  of  independence  in  1848,  and 
was  first  lieutenant  of  infantry  when  captured  by 
the  Austrians  in  February  1849.  After  his  re- 
lease he  was  again  arrested,  this  time  for  pa- 
triotic utterances  at  Prague,  and  forced  to  serve 
in  the  Austrian  army.  He  escaped  in  1850  and 
after  many  vicissitudes  went  to  the  United  States 
at  the  end  of  185 1.  He  worked  first  as  a  laborer, 
but  on  Dec.  1,  1852,  was  engaged  as  topographer 
of  the  Pacific  Railroad  expedition.  For  a  while 
he  taught  Latin,  Spanish,  and  German  at  New 
Orleans.   He  served  as  a  member  of  the  United 


Xantus 

States  survey  expedition  to  ascertain  the  most 
practicable  route  for  a  railroad  from  the  Mis- 
sissippi River  to  the  Pacific  Ocean  (1855-57) 
and  then  as  member  of  the  United  States  Coast 
Survey  stationed  at  Fort  Tejon  and  Cape  St. 
Lucas,  Cal.  In  California  he  made  valuable  col- 
lections of  birds  for  the  Smithsonian  Institution, 
discovering  many  new  species,  which  were  named 
after  him.  At  the  conclusion  of  his  work  he  was 
attached  to  the  United  States  navy  and  entrusted 
with  the  command  of  another  expedition  which 
had  as  its  object  the  meteorological  observation 
of  certain  parts  of  the  Pacific  Ocean.  He  finished 
this  in  August  1861,  having  discovered  eighty- 
nine  islands  and  sand  banks.  After  a  short  visit 
in  Hungary  he  was  appointed  United  States  con- 
sul at  Manzanillo,  Mexico,  and  led  a  scientific 
research  party  into  the  Sierra  Madre.  In  1864 
he  took  up  permanent  residence  in  Hungary.  He 
traveled  in  eastern  Asia  on  a  mission  for  the 
Hungarian  government  in  1869-71  and  returned 
with  extensive  collections.  He  was  the  keeper 
of  the  ethnographical  division  of  the  National 
Museum,  Budapest,  until  his  death,  which  oc- 
curred in  Hungary. 

His  descriptions  and  catalogues  of  new  species 
of  birds  appear  in  Proceedings  of  the  Academy 
of  Natural  Sciences  of  Philadelphia  (vols.  X- 
XII,  1859-61).  His  account  of  his  travels  in  the 
United  States  he  published  in  two  Hungarian 
volumes, Lcz'clci Ejszakamerik&bol  (Pest,  1858), 
which  consisted  of  letters,  and  Utacds  Kalifornia 
deli  Rcszcibcn  (Pest,  i860),  which  dealt  with 
Southern  California.  Copies  of  these  are  eagerly 
sought  by  collectors  of  California  items,  but  are 
exceedingly  difficult  to  find.  Accounts  of  his  later 
travels  appear  in  Hungarian  periodicals. 

[The  chief  biog.  sources  are  the  obituary  in  Mag- 
yar Foldrajsi  Tarsasag,  Fbldrajzi  K.bslemenyek,  vol. 
XXII  (1894),  pp.  377-81,  which  also  appears  under 
the  title,  Bulletin  de  la  Societe  Hongroise  de  Geo- 
graphic ;  commemorative  paper  by  Jeno  Cholnoky, 
Ibid.,  vol.  LIII  (1925);  and  Sandor  Mocsary,  in 
Emlekbcsccdck  A  Magyar  Tudomdnyos  Akadeniia 
Tagjairol,  vol.  IX,  pt.  IX  (1899),  with  a  good  bibliog. 
of  Xantus'  writings.  References  to  Xantus  and  de- 
scriptions of  the  birds  named  for  him  appear  in  Ibis, 
vol.  V  (1863);  ann.  reports,  Smithsonian  Inst.,  1858- 
64 ;  U.  S.  War  Dept.,  Reports  of  Explorations  and 
Surveys  .  .  .  from  the  Miss.  River  to  the  Pacific  Ocean, 
vols.  VIII-IX  (1857-58),  being  House  Exec.  Doc.  91, 
33  Cong.,  2  Sess. ;  Eugene  Pivany,  Hungarian-Am. 
Hist.  Connections  (1927)  ;  G.  N.  Lawrence,  in  Memoirs 
Boston  Soc.  Nat.  Hist.,  vol.  II,  pt.  3,  no.  2  (1874),  and 
Annals  Lyceum  Nat.  Hist,  of  N.  Y.,  vols.  V  (i860), 
VII  (1862);  S.  F.  Baird.  T.  M.  Brewer,  and  Robert 
Ridgway,  /J  Hist,  of  N.  Am.  Birds:  Laud  Birds  (3 
vols.,  1874)  ;  and  The  Water  Birds  of  N.  America 
(18S4)  ;  Elliott  Coues,  Key  to  N.  Am.  Birds  i  1X72)  ; 
D.  G.  Elliot,  The  New  .  .  ._  Species  of  the  Lirds  of  N. 
America  (1869)  ;  Robert  Ridgway,  The  Birds  of  Xorth 
and  Middle  America  (8  vols..  [901— 19),  being  U.  S. 
Nat.  Museum  Bull.  No.  So;  S.  F.  Baird  and  1.  (1. 
Cooper,  Ornithology  .  .   .  Land  Birds  (1870),  in  Geo- 


589 


Yale 

logical  Survey  of  Cat. ;  autograph  letters  from  Xantus 
to  G.  N.  Lawrence,  in  the  possession  of  the  writer.] 

C.F. 

YALE,  CAROLINE  ARDELIA  (Sept.  29, 
1848-July  2,  1933),  educator,  was  born  on  her 
father's  farm  in  Charlotte,  Vt.,  the  daughter  of 
William  Lyman  and  Ardelia  (Strong)  Yale  and 
the  descendant  of  Thomas  Yale,  the  stepson  of 
Theophilus  Eaton  and  uncle  of  Elihu  Yale 
[qq.v.],  who  emigrated  from  England  in  1637 
and  settled  in  New  Haven,  Conn.  Her  father 
was  earnestly  religious,  interested  in  education, 
politics,  and  social  movements.  Her  mother  was 
to  her  children  the  "ideal  of  all  that  was  worthy 
of  admiration  and  emulation"  (Years,  post,  p. 
226).  Religion  was  woven  into  every  fibre  of 
the  family  life.  After  some  years  with  tutors  at 
home,  the  family  removed  to  Williston,  Vt.,  in 
order  that  the  children  might  have  more  advan- 
tages. Especially  strong  there  was  the  influence 
of  the  Congregational  Church,  which  the  little 
girl  soon  joined.  She  was  a  delicate  child,  re- 
stricted in  activity.  Characteristically,  she  and 
her  mother  decided  that  her  life  must  be  planned 
in  spite  of  her  limitations.  In  1866  she  went  to 
Mount  Holyoke  Female  Seminary,  now  Mount 
Holyoke  College,  and  spent  two  years  in  eager 
study.  Almost  inevitably  she  entered  the  teach- 
ing profession,  first  at  Brandon,  Vt.,  and  then 
at  Williston,  Vt. 

In  1870  came  an  invitation  to  join  the  staff  of 
the  recently  established  Clarke  Institution  for 
Deaf  Mutes,  now  the  Clarke  School  for  the  Deaf, 
in  Northampton,  Mass.  There  she  was  associated 
with  Harriet  B.  Rogers  [#.?'.]  in  the  use  of  the 
oral  method — to  teach  the  deaf  to  read  the  lips 
and  to  speak.  She  began  her  work  in  September 
1870,  and  for  the  next  sixty-three  years  her 
story  and  that  of  the  school  are  one.  With  a 
singleness  of  purpose  rarely  shown  in  human 
life,  she  lived  in  and  for  the  school,  bringing  to 
it  a  personality  richly  endowed,  an  unswerving 
fidelity,  a  mind  open  to  every  suggestion  of 
progress.  Always  the  individual  child  was  the 
center  of  her  attention,  and  her  object  was  the 
"restoration  to  the  greatest  extent  possible  of  the 
deaf  child  to  a  place  in  the  society  of  normal  peo- 
ple" (Years,  post,  p.  x)  ;  and  for  this  end  spir- 
itual and  moral  education  was  as  necessary  as 
intellectual.  A  loyal  friend  herself,  she  was 
loyally  supported  by  a  friendly  staff ;  but  all  who 
worked  with  her  knew  that  she  was  the  animat- 
ing force  of  the  school.  Her  appearance  was  dis- 
tinguished. Tall  and  spare,  with  cameo-like  fea- 
tures, lambent  eyes,  and  firm  but  mobile  mouth, 
she  moved  a  queen ;  and,  far  more  than  she 
realized,  she  taught  by  living.  When  she  entered 


Yale 

the  school  there  were  five  teachers  and  forty 
pupils,  and  the  oral  method  of  instruction  was 
still  experimental ;  when  she  died  there  were 
thirty-two  teachers  and  one  hundred  and  forty- 
five  pupils,  and  of  the  approximately  two  hundred 
schools  for  the  deaf  in  this  country  all  but  two 
use  the  oral  method.  Graduates  of  the  normal 
classes  of  the  school  were  teaching  in  thirty-one 
states  and  in  nine  foreign  countries.  This  de- 
velopment was  largely  her  work.  In  1886,  on  the 
resignation  of  Harriet  B.  Rogers,  she  became 
principal.  In  1889  she  opened  normal  classes  for 
the  training  of  teachers  of  the  deaf  and  retained 
the  direction  of  these  classes  after  her  retire- 
ment to  the  position  of  principal  emeritus  in  1922. 

She  was  trustee  of  several  state  institutions 
and  held  high  office  in  teachers'  associations. 
One  of  her  most  valued  services  was  as  a  mem- 
ber of  the  school  board  of  Northampton  for 
twenty-five  years.  In  addition  to  many  articles 
in  educational  journals  she  published  Years  of 
Building:  Memories  of  a  Pioneer  in  a  Special 
Field  of  Education  (1931),  an  account  of  her 
life  and  of  the  Clarke  School  that  is  perhaps  too 
objective  and  gives  too  little  credit  to  her  own 
unique  personality.  An  occasional  *rip  to  Eu- 
rope and  many  journeys  to  educational  confer- 
ences varied  her  life  without  diminishing  her 
concentration  on  her  work.  In  her  last  years  she 
suffered  from  disabling  and  painful  infirmities 
without  loss  of  cheer  and  courage.  Her  death 
closed  a  career  unique  in  education. 

[Years  of  Building,  ante;  annual  reports  of  the 
Clarke  School  for  the  Deaf,  esp.  that  of  1933  ;  Elihu 
Yale,  The  Yale  Family  (1850),  p.  170  ;  Hampshire  Gar 
zette  (Northampton,  Mass.),  July  3,  1933.] 

E.D.  H. 

YALE,  ELIHU  (Apr.  5,  1649-July  8,  1721), 
official  of  the  East  India  Company,  for  whom 
Yale  College  was  named,  was  the  son  of  David 
(b.  1613)  and  Ursula  Yale,  and  the  grandson  of 
Thomas  and  Ann  (Lloyd)  Yale  of  Plas-Grono, 
near  Wrexham,  Denbighshire,  Wales.  After  her 
husband's  death  Mrs.  Ann  Yale  married  The- 
ophilus Eaton  \q.v.~\.  In  1637,  with  him  and  her 
children  David,  Ann,  and  Thomas  Yale,  she 
went  to  New  Haven.  Four  years  later  David  Yale, 
a  merchant  credited  with  a  £300  estate,  sold  out 
to  his  brother  Thomas  and  moved  to  Boston, 
where  Elihu  was  born.  Not  a  church  member 
himself  David  joined  those  who  objected  to  the 
theocratic  government  of  Massachusetts.  He  re- 
turned to  England  in  1652,  and  when  Elihu  was 
thirteen  entered  him  in  William  Dugard's  private 
school  in  London. 

In  1671  Elihu  Yale  was  appointed  a  writer  in 
the  East  India  Company  at  £10  a  year ;  he  ar- 
rived at  Fort  Saint  George  (Madras)  on  June 


590 


Yale 


Yale 


23,  1672.  Five  years  more  found  him  a  factor 
with  doubled  salary,  his  only  civil  function  the 
judging  of  native  cases  at  the  Choultry.  He  was 
married  on  Nov.  4,  1680,  to  Catherine,  the 
six-month  widow  of  Joseph  Hynmers,  long  a 
wealthy  factor  and  councilor  of  Madras.  He  be- 
came a  member  of  the  council,  successfully  nego- 
tiated a  deal  with  the  Marathas,  and  passed 
through  the  grades  of  mintmaster,  customer,  and 
bookkeeper  to  rank  as  the  governor's  valued  sec- 
ond in  command.  On  July  25,  1687,  he  became 
president  and  governor  of  Fort  Saint  George. 
The  Company  found  him  a  stanch  support  in  its 
new  policy  of  founding  civil  and  military  power 
in  India.  He  ruthlessly  suppressed  piracy.  He 
built  Fort  Saint  David  at  Cuddalore,  named  for 
his  son  who  died  in  1687,  but  in  the  native  wars 
had  to  acknowledge  the  supremacy  of  the  Great 
Mogul.  In  1690  friction  developed  in  the  council 
between  the  governor  and  the  new  municipality 
of  Madras.  Bitter  personal  recriminations  led  to 
an  administrative  deadlock.  Yale  applied  home 
for  an  arbiter,  and  found  himself  superseded 
when  one  appeared  on  Oct.  23,  1692.  He  was 
charged,  among  many  violent  counts,  with  hav- 
ing favored  the  private  trading  ventures  of  his 
brother  Thomas  and  himself  at  the  Company's 
expense,  and  admitted  that  he  had  amassed  a 
fortune  of  500,000  pagodas  (£175,000).  Before 
his  accounts  were  cleared  he  was  compelled  to 
disgorge  at  least  £3,000,  for  which  he  later  peti- 
tioned the  Company,  and  he  was  not  permitted 
to  sail  for  England  until  1699.  He  settled  in  the 
old  family  estate  of  Plas-Grono,  and  was  named 
high  sheriff  of  Denbighshire  in  1704.  But  he  built 
also  a  mansion  in  Queen's  Square,  London,  and 
carried  on  a  diamond  merchant's  trade,  corre- 
sponding with  Gov.  Thomas  Pitt  of  Madras 
(Narcissus  Luttrell,  A  Brief  Historical  Relation 
of  State  Affairs,  1857,  VI,  324;  British  Mu- 
seum, Add.  MSS.  22,842-50).  Two  of  his  three 
daughters  married  into  the  aristocracy. 

Through  gifts  to  schools,  churches,  and  mis- 
sionary societies  Yale  acquired  some  reputation 
as  a  philanthropist.  Learning  of  such  propensi- 
ties, Jeremiah  Dummer  [q.v.~\ ,  Connecticut's 
agent  in  London,  suggested  that  the  struggling 
Collegiate  School  at  Saybrook  might  well  reap 
the  benefit,  and  of  the  books  collected  for  the 
school  in  1714  some  forty  volumes  came  from 
Yale.  When  a  new  building  was  begun  at  New 
Haven,  the  trustees  appealed  to  Cotton  Mather, 
who  wrote  Yale  in  January  1718  intimating  that 
the  name  of  Yale  College  might  easily  adorn 
his  munificence  with  a  fame  more  enduring  than 
the  pyramids.  In  June  Yale  sent  over  for  the 
school  three  bales  of  goods,  some  books,  and  a 


portrait  of  George  I  by  Kneller.  The  total  gift 
was  worth  about  £800;  the  goods  were  sold  for 
£562  12s.,  the  largest  private  contribution  made 
the  college  for  over  a  century.  At  the  September 
commencement  both  the  building  and  the  school 
received  their  new  name. 

In  that  same  September  a  goldsmith  for  whom 
Yale  had  stood  surety  absconded  with  nearly 
£14,000  of  government  funds.  The  Exchequer 
sued  Yale  and  recovered ;  the  House  of  Lords 
upheld  the  judgment  (Yale  vs.  Rex,  2  Brown, 
375,  post).  In  1720  he  moved  to  the  country, 
leasing  from  a  son-in-law  the  manor  of  Lat- 
imers,  Buckinghamshire,  where  his  wife  is 
buried  (Records  of  Buckinghamshire,  vol.  VI, 
No.  1,  1887,  p.  42).  After  his  death  most  of  his 
goods  were  sold  at  auction  ;  a  few,  including  two 
tapestries  and  a  portrait  by  Enoch  Zeeman 
(1717),  have  since  come  into  the  possession  of 
Yale  College.  On  his  tomb  in  Wrexham  church- 
yard are  the  lines : 

Born  in  America,  in  Europe  bred, 

In  Africa  travell'd,  and  in  Asia  wed, 

Where  long  he  liv'd  and  thriv'd  ;  in  London  dead. 

[For  a  discussion  of  the  place  and  date  (sometimes 
given  as  1648)  of  Yale's  birth,  see  F.  B.  Dexter,  in  A 
Selection  from  the  Miscellaneous  Hist.  Papers  of  Fifty 
Years  (19 18).  See  also  R.  H.  Yale,  Yale  Geneal. 
(1908)  ;  F.  B.  Dexter,  Doc.  Hist,  of  Yale  Univ.  ( 1916)  ; 
Josiah  Brown,  Reports  of  Cases  .  .  .  in  the  High  Court 
of  Parliament  (2  vols.,  1779).  For  Yale's  career  in 
India,  see  H.  D.  Lane,  Vestiges  of  Old  Madras  (4 
vols.,  1913)  ;  A.  T.  Pringle,  The  Diary  and  Consultation 
Book  of  the  Agent  Governor  and  Council  of  Fort  St. 
George,  1682-1685  (4  vols.,  1894-95),  Press  List  of 
Ancient  Records  in  Fort  St.  George,  No.  1-6,  1670— 
1699  (Madras,  1891-97)  ;  The  Diary  of  William  Hedges 
(3  vols.,  1887-89),  ed.  by  Henry  Yule;  The  Diaries  of 
Streynsham  Master  (2  vols.,  191 1),  ed.  by  R.  C.  Tem- 
ple ;  Shafaat  Ahmad  Khan,  Sources  for  the  Hist,  of 
British  India  in  the  Seventeenth  Century  (1926)  ;  E.  J. 
Thompson  and  G.  T.  Garratt,  Rise  and  Fulfilment  of 
British  Rule  in  India  (1934).  Mrs.  F.  E.  Penny's 
novel,  Diamonds  (1920),  deals  with  Yale's  Indian  ac- 
tivities.] S.M.P. 

YALE,  LINUS  (Apr.  4,  1821-Dec.  25,  1868), 
inventor,  manufacturer,  was  the  son  of  Linus  and 
Chlotilda  (Hopson)  Yale,  and  was  born  at  Sal- 
isbury, Herkimer  County,  N.  Y.  He  was  a  de- 
scendant of  Thomas  Yale,  an  uncle  of  Elihu 
Yale  \q.v.~\,  who  emigrated  from  England  in 
1637  and  settled  in  New  Haven.  From  his  father, 
who  was  an  inventor  of  ability,  having  to  his 
credit  a  threshing  machine,  a  process  for  press- 
ing millstones,  and  a  sawmill  head  block  dog, 
Yale  inherited  a  mechanical  temperament ;  he 
was,  in  addition,  somewhat  artistic.  He  was 
well  educated  and  for  a  number  of  years  de- 
voted himself  to  portrait  painting.  About  1840 
his  father  invented  a  bank  lock,  which  he  began 
to  manufacture  in  Newport,  N.  Y.,  and  shortly 
afterwards   Yale  undertook,   independently,  the 


59 


Yale 

same  sort  of  business.  Bank  locks  in  those  days 
were  of  very  intricate  construction  and  high  in 
cost,  and  there  was  great  rivalry  among  the 
manufacturers,  all  of  which  was  a  great  stimu- 
lus to  the  industry.  Yale  brought  out  one  of  the 
first  of  his  locks — it  was  the  reputation  of  his 
father's  locks  which  first  caused  the  association 
of  the  name  with  the  product — about  1851.  This 
was  made  in  the  shop  which  he  had  established 
at  Shelburne  Falls,  Mass.,  and  was  called  the 
"Yale  Infallible  Bank  Lock."  It  was  known  as 
the  "changeable  type" ;  that  is,  the  key  was  made 
up  of  component  parts  which  could  be  separated 
and  reassembled  to  change  the  combination.  His 
next  lock,  the  "Yale  Magic  Bank  Lock,"  was  an 
improved  modification  of  his  first  product.  It 
was  followed  by  the  "Yale  Double  Treasury 
Bank  Lock,"  a  masterpiece  of  ingenious  design 
and  skilful  workmanship,  the  most  notable  of 
the  bank  locks  operated  by  keys.  About  1862 
Yale  began  marketing  his  "Monitor  Bank  Lock," 
the  first  of  the  dial  or  combination  bank  locks, 
and  the  following  year  brought  out  the  "Yale 
Double  Dial  Bank  Lock."  The  principles  of  con- 
struction used  in  the  latter  have  since  come  into 
general  use  in  the  United  States. 

By  this  time  Yale's  reputation  was  well  estab- 
lished. Between  i860  and  1865  he  undertook  the 
improvement  of  small  key  locks,  devising  the 
"Cylinder  Lock,"  which  was  based  on  the  pin- 
tumbler  mechanism  of  the  Egyptians.  Patents 
covering  this  separate  cylinder,  pin-tumbler  lock, 
using  a  small  flat  key,  were  issued  to  him  on 
Jan.  29,  1861,  and  June  27,  1865.  Since  Yale's 
business  as  a  consultant  on  bank  locks  left  him 
little  time  and  he  lacked  the  necessary  financial 
resources  to  equip  his  plant  for  the  manufacture 
of  the  small  locks,  he  went  to  Philadelphia  in  the 
hope  of  interesting  others  in  the  new  venture. 
Through  William  Sellers  [q.v.~\  he  met  John 
Henry  Towne  [q.z>.~]  who  brought  about  the  es- 
tablishment in  October  1868  of  the  Yale  Lock 
Manufacturing  Company,  with  his  son,  Henry 
Robinson  Towne  [q.v.~\,  and  Yale  as  partners. 
The  partners  immediately  began  the  construction 
of  a  plant  at  Stamford,  Conn.,  Yale  leaving  most 
of  this  activity  to  Towne  and  continuing  his 
consulting  work  on  bank  locks.  Three  months 
later,  however,  while  he  was  in  New  York  on 
this  business,  he  died  suddenly  of  heart  failure. 
He  was  married  to  Catherine  Brooks  at  Shel- 
burne Falls  on  Sept.  14,  1844,  and  was  survived 
by  his  wife  and  three  children. 

[See  R.  H.  Yale,  Yale  Geneal.  (1908)  ;  A.  A.  Hop- 
kins, The  Lure  of  the  Lock  (  1928)  ;  obit,  notice  in  N. 
V.  Daily  Tribune,  Dec.  28,  1868,  which  contains  sev- 
eral errors  ;  and  Patent  Office  records.]  q  ^  y[_ 


Yancey 

YANCEY,  WILLIAM  LOWNDES  (Aug. 
10,  1814-July  27,  1863),  secessionist,  the  son  of 
Benjamin  Cudworth  and  Caroline  (Bird)  Yan- 
cey, was  born  at  his  grandfather's  home  "The 
Aviary,"  Warren  County,  Ga.  His  mother  was  a 
daughter  of  William  Bird  of  Pennsylvania,  who 
had  removed  to  Georgia  in  1796.  His  father  be- 
gan the  practice  of  law  at  Abbeville,  S.  C,  as  a 
contemporary  and  friend  of  John  C.  Calhoun, 
but  died  in  August  1817,  leaving  his  widow  with 
two  young  sons,  William  Lowndes,  aged  three, 
and  a  baby,  Benjamin  Cudworth.  The  widow 
returned  to  her  father's  home  in  Warren  Coun- 
ty, but  a  few  years  later  went  to  live  in  Hancock 
County,  Ga.,  near  Mount  Zion  Academy,  taught 
by  Nathan  Sidney  Smith  Beman  [q.v.~].  He 
married  Mrs.  Yancey  in  1822  and  took  her  and 
the  two  children  to  Troy,  N.  Y.,  where  he  be- 
came pastor  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church. 
It  was  in  Beman's  church,  in  1826,  that  Charles 
Grandison  Finney  [_q.v.~\  preached  at  the  begin- 
ning of  his  great  revival.  Beman  became  the 
recognized  leader  of  the  liberal  New  School 
Presbyterians.  He  was  actively  identified  with 
the  anti-slavery  movement,  a  close  friend  of 
Theodore  D.  Weld,  Lewis  Tappan,  and  Joshua 
Leavitt.  One  may  only  speculate  on  the  course 
of  history,  had  Yancey  remained  in  Beman's 
home  until  the  beginning  of  active  anti-slavery 
agitation  in  the  mid-thirties  or  under  the  influ- 
ence of  his  later  benefactor  and  teacher,  the 
Unionist,  Benjamin  F.  Perry  [?.r>.],  instead  of 
becoming  a  slaveholding  planter  and  lawyer  of 
the  Southwestern  Black  Belt. 

Young  Yancey  meanwhile,  however,  was  edu- 
cated in  the  schools  of  Troy  and  at  Williams 
College,  1830  to  1833.  He  left  college  before 
graduation  and  entered  the  law  office  of  an  old 
friend  of  his  father's,  Benjamin  F.  Perry  at 
Greenville,  S.  C,  in  1833.  The  nullification  con- 
troversy was  at  its  height ;  Greenville  was  on  the 
border  line  between  the  plantation  district  and 
the  up-country;  and  Yancey  plunged  into  the 
debate,  as  the  stanch  Unionist  editor  of  the 
Greenville  Mountaineer.  On  Aug.  13,  1835,  he 
married  Sarah  Caroline  Earle,  the  daughter  of  a 
wealthy  Greenville  planter.  They  lived  for  a  time 
on  a  farm  near  Greenville  but  removed  to  Dallas 
County,  Ala.,  in  the  winter  of  1836-37.  Two 
years  later,  while  visiting  at  Greenville,  he  killed 
his  wife's  uncle,  Robinson  M.  Earle,  in  self-de- 
fense. He  was  sentenced  to  a  fine  of  $1,500  and 
a  year's  imprisonment,  which  was  commuted  to 
$500  fine  by  Gov.  Patrick  Noble.  In  Alabama  he 
rented  a  plantation  near  Cahawba.  He  and  his 
brother,  Benjamin  Cudworth  Yancey,  bought 
the  Wetumpka  Commercial  Advertiser  and  the 


592 


Yancey 

Wetumpka  Argus  in  the  spring  of  1839.  He  also 
bought  a  farm  near  Wetumpka  but  was  forced  to 
resume  the  practice  of  law,  when  his  stock  of 
slaves  was  almost  wiped  out  by  poison.  He  rose 
rapidly  in  the  profession,  and  was  soon  regarded 
as  the  leading  advocate  in  the  state.  He  was 
elected  to  the  lower  house  of  the  state  legislature 
in  1841,  and  to  the  upper  house  in  1843,  attain- 
ing wide  renown  as  the  stanch  supporter  of  rep- 
resentation apportioned  on  the  basis  of  white 
population  only,  the  legal  rights  of  married  wom- 
en, a  free  public  school  system,  and  a  sound,  non- 
political  state  banking  system.  Elected  to  Con- 
gress in  1844,  and  reelected,  he  served  from  Dec. 
2,  1844,  until  his  resignation  on  Sept.  1,  1846. 
His  first  debate  in  Congress,  on  Jan.  7,  1845, 
was  with  Thomas  L.  Clingman  [?.f.].  Thomas 
Ritchie's  Richmond  Enquirer  said  it  was  the 
first  step  to  "a  very  high  distinction  in  the  coun- 
cils of  the  nation"  (Life,  post,  p.  141).  Its  im- 
mediate result,  however,  was  a  duel  with  Cling- 
man in  which  neither  duellist  was  injured 
(Memoranda  of  the  Late  Affair  .  .  .  between  .  .  . 
Clingman  .  .  .  and  Yancey,  1845,  ed.  by  J.  M. 
Huger).  Yancey  was  relieved  of  all  political 
disabilities  arising  from  fighting  a  duel  by  spe- 
cial act  of  the  Alabama  legislature,  passed  over 
Gov.  Joshua  L.  Martin's  veto.  He  held  no  pub- 
lic office  after  resigning  from  the  Senate  until 
elected  to  the  state  secession  convention. 

William  L.  Yancey  and  the  movement  for 
Southern  independence  are  inseparable  in  his- 
tory. It  would  seem  presumptuous  to  say  that 
without  him  there  would  have  been  no  Confed- 
erate States  of  America,  but  it  is  probably  so. 
The  secession  movement  did  not  receive  its  im- 
pulse from  politicians  any  more  than  did  the  anti- 
slavery  movement.  Both  were  of  the  people,  and 
they  carried  along  the  politicians  who  were  will- 
ing to  go,  brushing  the  others  aside.  Each  was, 
in  short,  a  repudiation  of  parties,  of  the  ma- 
chinations of  politicians,  and  an  appeal  to  fun- 
damental principles  rather  than  political  expedi- 
ency. From  1847  to  1861,  the  Wilmot  Proviso 
to  the  inauguration  of  Lincoln,  the  leaders  of 
both  the  old  parties  trimmed  their  principles  and 
compromised  their  differences  for  the  sake  of 
party  continuity — but  not  Yancey.  He  resigned 
from  Congress  in  1846,  because  the  whole  proc- 
ess was  to  him  inadequate  and  superficial ;  but 
he  wielded,  during  the  next  fifteen  years,  a  pow- 
erful leadership,  unobserved  by  most  men,  un- 
realized by  himself.  He  was  not  a  party  man. 
There  was  nothing  cunning,  cautious,  or  even 
skilful  about  his  mental  processes.  The  qualities 
essential  to  the  politician  were  entirely  foreign 
to  his  constitution.    He  was,  in  fact,  an  annoy- 


Yancey 


ance  to  party  men  all  his  life,  and  they  variously 
considered  him  everything  from  an  unwelcome 
pest  to  an  insufferable  fire-brand.  The  key  to 
his  career  is  to  be  found  in  his  own  words, 
spoken  in  1847 :  "If  this  foul  spell  of  party  which 
binds  and  divides  and  distracts  the  South  can  be 
broken,  hail  to  him  who  shall  break  it"  (Life, 
post,  p.  206).  The  "spell"  was  broken  in  the 
winter  of  1860-61,  and  the  accomplished  fact 
was  a  monument  to  the  unwavering  courage,  the 
intellectual  honesty,  and  the  indefatigable  labors 
of  Yancey. 

The  Alabama  Platform,  written  by  nim  in 
1848  in  answer  to  the  Wilmot  Proviso,  was  his 
own  confession  of  faith  (Ibid.,  pp.  212-13).  He 
never  deviated  from  it,  even  when  the  allure- 
ments of  the  vice-presidency  were  dangled  before 
him  in  i860,  and  he  presented  it  to  the  people  of 
the  South  on  every  occasion  with  an  oratorical 
excellence  seldom  equalled.  It  was  a  simple 
statement  of  abstract  principles :  a  constitution 
designed  to  curb  the  will  of  the  majority  ancl 
preserve  to  the  states  all  powers  not  expressly 
granted  to  the  federal  government,  equal  rights 
of  citizens  and  states  in  the  territories,  and  the 
duty  of  Congress  to  protect  property  rights  there- 
in so  long  as  they  remained  in  the  territorial 
status.  This  platform  of  principles  was  indorsed 
by  the  legislatures  of  Alabama  and  Georgia  and 
by  Democratic  conventions  in  other  states ;  it 
contains  every  cogent  item  in  the  many  restate- 
ments of  Southern  rights,  particularly  the  Davis 
resolutions,  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  and  the  ma- 
jority platform  of  the  Charleston  convention. 
Yet,  at  the  time,  it  was  revolutionary,  so  much 
so  that  the  disaffection  aroused  in  Democratic 
ranks  within  the  state  caused  Yancey  to  remark : 
"Except  for  my  courage  to  dare  to  do  no  wrong 
in  this  great  matter,  I  should  .  .  .  seek  peace  by 
yielding  the  principles  ...  as  a  sacrifice  to  the 
angry  passions  of  my  assailants"  (Ibid.,  p.  216). 
He  carried  the  platform  to  the  National  Demo- 
cratic Convention  at  Baltimore,  where  it  was  re- 
jected by  a  vote  of  216  to  36.  In  an  eloquent  Ad- 
dress to  the  People  of  Alabama  by  IV.  L.  Yancey, 
Late  a  Delegate  .  .  .  to  the  National  Democratic 
Convention  .  .  .  1848  (1848),  he  appealed  to  the 
South  from  this  decision.  During  the  next  twelve 
years,  he  made  it  the  creed  of  the  South,  not  of 
the  Southern  Democrats  alone. 

This  phase  of  his  work  remains  obscure,  be- 
cause his  private  correspondence  is  no  longer 
available ;  but,  in  its  main  outlines,  it  is  fairly 
definite.  It  was  no  mean  task  to  arouse  a  people 
to  a  realization  of  prospective  dangers,  remote 
as  they  were  from  the  immediate  effects  of  abo- 
lition agitation,  and  divided,  as  they  were,  by  the 


593 


Yancey 

bitter  rivalry  of  partisan  politics.  The  union  of 
all  Southern  men  in  a  sectional  party  could  come 
only  with  disintegration  of  the  existing  parties 
and  the  submergence  of  partisan  hatreds  by 
some  impending  threat  to  common  institutions. 
Seeing  clearly  the  requirements  of  the  situation, 
he  cautioned  the  supporters  of  Troup  and  Quit- 
man in  1852  "to  avoid  all  efforts  to  irritate  the 
feelings  and  excite  the  opposition  of  the  two 
great  national  parties  in  the  South,"  because 
they  were  "the  ranks  from  which  we  expect  to 
draw  recruits,  hereafter,  to  the  standard  of  the 
South,  when  occasion  shall  arise  for  rearing  it" 
(Life,  post,  p.  270). 

Meanwhile,  the  work  of  arousing  the  South 
went  forward  along  three  lines.  Southern  rights 
■associations  were  formed  everywhere.  They 
were  non-partisan,  designed  to  bring  prominent 
men  of  all  parties  together  and  promote  active 
discussion  of  the  interests  of  the  South.  In  prac- 
tice they  served  a  dual  role  of  fostering  pressure 
politics  in  elections  and  promoting  the  choice  of 
stanch  state-rights  men  for  nominations  to  pub- 
lic office  within  each  party.  The  idea  probably 
originated  with  Edmund  Ruffin  [q.v.~\  of  Vir- 
ginia, but  Yancey  was  actively  identified  with 
the  movement  and,  in  1858,  sought  to  perfect  the 
system  by  organizing  the  League  of  United 
Southerners.  The  specific  object,  stated  by  Yan- 
cey in  a  public  address  at  Benton,  Ala.,  and  re- 
peated at  the  state  convention  in  i860,  was  "to 
elevate  and  purify"  political  parties  by  forcing 
them  "to  abandon  the  law  of  compromise  and 
to  adopt  the  law  of  the  constitution"  ;  to  counter- 
act the  bitterness  of  partisan  rivalry;  and  to 
promote  by  consultation  the  best  means  of  ad- 
vancing the  interests  of  the  South,  unity  in  its 
counsels  and  "its  rights  in  the  Union"  (Speech 
.  .  .  Delivered  in  the  Democratic  State  Conven- 
tion .  .  .  1860,  i860,  p.  8).  The  second  approach 
was  through  the  hustings.  The  prevailing  prac- 
tice of  engaging  leading  men  of  both  parties  to 
meet  in  public  debate  was  an  ideal  arrangement. 
Such  occasions  were  invariably  local  holidays 
and  brought  thousands  of  both  parties  together 
for  great  barbecues.  Yancey  was  always  in  de- 
mand. Holding  no  public  office,  being  a  partner 
in  the  distinguished  law  firm  of  Elmore  &  Yan- 
cey, and  being  the  most  brilliant  orator  in  the 
Southwest,  he  was  in  a  good  situation  to  reach 
men  of  all  political  faiths.  He  delivered  hundreds 
of  addresses,  and  there  is  no  record  of  his  ever 
having  failed  to  hold  his  audience  for  as  many 
hours  as  he  cared  to  speak.  Thus  was  the  ground 
work  laid  for  the  "occasion"  of  which  he  spoke 
in  1852.  When  the  campaign  of  i860  approached, 
he  dominated  the  Democratic  party  in  Alabama. 


Yancey 

The  party  was  virtually  united  and  controlled 
the  state.  The  old  Whig  party  had  disintegrated 
after  the  election  of  1852,  long  enough  for  its  ad- 
herents to  have  lost  some  of  their  partisan  bias ; 
and  old  line  Whigs  as  well  as  old  line  Democrats 
stood  by  the  principles  expressed  in  the  Alabama 
Platform,  however  much  they  might  disagree  as 
to  whether  the  election  of  a  Republican  president 
would  constitute  a  legitimate  cause  for  secession. 
He  outlined  the  third  course  that  should  be  pur- 
sued in  a  speech  at  Columbia,  S.  C,  in  1859. 
"Can  we  have  any  hope  of  righting  ourselves 
and  doing  justice  to  ourselves  in  the  Union?  If 
there  is  such  hope,  it  would  be  our  duty  to  make 
the  attempt.  For  one,  I  have  no  such  hope,  but 
I  am  determined  to  act  with  those  who  have  such 
hope,  as  long,  and  only  as  long,  as  it  may  be  rea- 
sonably indulged ;  not  so  much  with  any  expecta- 
tion that  the  South  will  obtain  justice  in  the 
Union,  as  with  the  hope  that  by  thus  acting, 
within  a  reasonable  time,  there  will  be  obtained 
unity  amongst  our  people  in  going  out  of  the 
Union"  (Ibid.,  pp.  10-11).  A  contest  was  cer- 
tain to  arise  in  the  Charleston  convention  be- 
tween Southern  rights  and  "squatter  sovereign- 
ty." It  should  be  pressed  to  a  conclusion.  If  the 
Southern  demands  were  rejected,  a  grand  con- 
stitutional Democratic  party  should  be  organ- 
ized, candidates  presented  to  the  people  in  the 
presidential  election ;  and,  if  a  Republican  presi- 
dent should  be  elected,  secession  carried  through 
before  his  inauguration. 

That  was  the  situation,  when  he  went  into  the 
state  Democratic  convention  at  Montgomery,  on 
Jan.  11,  i860.  The  state  legislature  had  already 
anticipated  the  probable  election  of  a  Republican 
president,  to  be  followed  by  a  test  of  sectional 
strength,  by  appropriating  $200,000  to  arm  the 
state  and  by  making  it  mandatory  for  Gov.  An- 
drew B.  Moore  to  call  a  state  convention  in  that 
event.  Yancey  again  prepared  the  Alabama  plat- 
form of  principles,  a  restatement  of  the  platform 
of  1848  in  line  with  all  that  had  transpired  mean- 
time :  ( 1 )  that  the  constitution  is  a  compact  be- 
tween sovereign  states ;  (2)  that  citizens  of  every 
state  were  entitled  to  entry  into  the  territories 
with  their  property  of  every  description,  and  to 
protection  by  the  federal  government;  (3)  that 
neither  Congress  nor  its  creature,  a  territorial 
legislature,  could  abolish  slavery  in  a  territory; 
(4)  that  the  people  of  a  territory  held  no  consti- 
tutional power  to  do  so  until  they  framed  a  state 
constitution  preparatory  to  entry  into  the  Union. 
The  platform  also  instructed  the  state  delegation 
to  the  federal  convention  at  Charleston  to  pre- 
sent this  platform  for  adoption  and  to  withdraw 
if  it  were  rejected.  It  set  up  a  committee  to  call 


594 


Yancey 

a  state  convention  for  the  purpose  of  determin- 
ing upon  a  line  of  action  consistent  with  such 
exigencies  as  might  arise.  In  this  state  conven- 
tion, he  gave  the  clearest  answer  we  have  to  the 
charge  made  then  and  ofttimes  repeated  that  he 
was  a  secessionist  per  sc :  "It  is  charged  against 
me  that  I  have  no  hope  of  obtaining  justice  to 
the  South  in  the  Union.  If  this  is  an  error,  I  can- 
not help  it.  Hope  comes  not  to  one's  bosom  at 
the  mere  bidding.  The  events  of  the  last  quarter 
of  a  century  are  enough  to  blast  the  hopes  of 
every  well-wisher  of  his  country.  .  .  .  My  only 
hope  is  that  when  the  hour  of  trial  comes,  as 
come  it  must,  all — all  without  distinction  of  party 
— who  claim  this  as  the  land  of  their  nativity 
or  adoption  will  be  found  with  locked  shields, 
ready  to  defend  our  rights  on  every  field  where 
they  are  assailed"  (Ibid.,  p.  14). 

The  issue  was  not  pressed  to  a  conclusion  in 
the  Charleston  convention,  but  to  a  qualified  re- 
jection of  the  Southern  platform.  It  came  after 
a  brilliant  and  final  statement  of  the  conflicting 
principles  by  Yancey  for  the  Southern  Demo- 
crats and  George  E.  Pugh  [q.v.~\  for  the  North- 
ern Democrats.  It  was  the  greatest  forensic  ef- 
fort of  Yancey's  career  (Speech  .  .  .  Delivered  in 
the  National  Democratic  Convention  .  .  .  1860, 
i860)  ;  and  it  was  followed  by  the  withdrawal  of 
a  majority  of  the  Southern  delegates.  His 
known  preference  for  the  organization  of  a  sec- 
tional party  and  his  suspected  disunion  leanings 
were  a  hindrance  to  reunion.  The  Southern  De- 
mocracy, however,  reluctant  to  take  the  final  step, 
returned  delegations  to  the  adjourned  conven- 
tion at  Baltimore.  The  Douglas  adherents  com- 
pleted the  destruction  begun  at  Charleston  by  re- 
fusing to  seat  the  Yancey  delegation  from  Ala- 
bama. There  was  a  further  exodus  of  delegates, 
who  organized,  under  Yancey's  guiding  genius, 
the  Constitutional  Democratic  party  and  nomi- 
nated Breckinridge  for  the  presidency.  It  was 
regarded  as  Yancey's  party.  He  was  the  most 
prominent  man  in  the  campaign  and  delivered 
more  than  a  hundred  speeches  from  Boston  to 
New  Orleans.  Following  Lincoln's  election,  he 
dominated  the  proceedings  of  the  Alabama  con- 
vention and  penned  the  ordinance  of  secession. 
In  March  1861  he  was  sent  to  England  and 
France  as  a  commissioner  from  the  Confederate 
States  of  America.  Returning  in  1862,  he  was 
elected  to  the  Senate  of  the  Confederacy  and 
served  until  his  death.  He  died  in  Montgomery, 
survived  by  his  widow  and  five  children. 

He  left  no  record  of  disillusionment,  if  such 
resulted,  from  his  mission  to  England  and 
France,  other  than  to  say  in  a  personal  letter 
from  London,  "the  anti-slavery  sentiment  is  uni- 


Yandell 

versal.  'Uncle  Tom's  Cabin'  has  been  read  and 
believed"  (Yancey  to  Reid,  July  3,  1861,  Yancey 
Papers).  He  returned  to  Alabama  to  battle  as 
valiantly  against  centralization  at  the  expense  of 
personal  liberty  in  the  Confederacy,  as  ever  he 
had  battled  in  the  Union,  but  with  little  success 
and,  apparently,  with  little  hope.  He  was  a  fine 
combination  of  independent  spirit  and  fiery  en- 
ergy. He  made  no  obeisance  to  power  or  posi- 
tion, scorned  patronizing  acclaim,  and  recog- 
nized only  the  dictates  of  his  own  judgment.  Id 
his  oratory  as  in  his  public  career,  he  adhered 
inflexibly  to  truth  as  he  saw  it,  without  refer- 
ence to  side  influences  however  legitimate.  This 
quality  frequently  gave  to  his  position  a  degree 
of  impracticality  and  to  his  oratory  a  singular 
individuality.  He  never  altered  his  style  or  the 
level  of  his  remarks  to  conform  to  the  nature  of 
his  audience,  utterly  disregarding  their  preju- 
dices. He  possessed  an  enchanting  voice,  an  in- 
exhaustible supply  of  facts  and  words — words, 
too,  which  were  unmusical  and  offensive  at 
times,  but  very  expressive  of  his  scorn  for  op- 
ponents' errors.  His  oratory  was  animated  con- 
versation, with  little  of  the  artfulness,  adroitness, 
or  brilliantly  turned  phrasing  so  common  to  re- 
fined public  speakers,  but  freighted  with  passion- 
ate conviction  and  simple  flowing  eloquence. 

[The  state  archives,  Montgomery,  Ala.,  for  letters, 
copies  of  letters  from  newspapers,  newspaper  clippings, 
and  the  files  of  Yancey's  newspapers  as  well  as  those 
of  his  opponents  ;  J.  W.  DuBose,  The  Life  and  Times 
of  William  Lowndes  Yancey  (1892)  and  "Yancey:  A 
Study"  in  Gulf  States  Hist.  Mag.,  Jan.  1903  ;  Southern 
Editorials  on  Secession  (1931),  ed.  by  D.  L.  Dumond.] 

D.L.D. 

YANDELL,  DAVID  WENDEL  (Sept.  4. 
1826-May  2,  1898),  physician,  was  born  at 
"Craggy  Bluff,"  his  father's  country  home  near 
Murfreesboro,  Tenn.,  the  son  of  Lunsford  Pitts 
Yandell  [q.v.~\  and  Susan  Juliet  Wendel.  When 
he  was  five  years  of  age  the  family  moved  to 
Lexington,  Ky.,  and  six  years  later  to  Louisville. 
His  early  training  was  under  private  instructors, 
after  which  he  attended  Centre  College,  at  Dan- 
ville, Ky.,  for  several  years  with  little  distinction 
and  without  graduating.  Nor  was  he  credited 
with  much  diligence  at  the  University  of  Louis- 
ville, where  he  studied  medicine  under  his  father 
and  was  graduated  in  1846.  He  did,  however, 
develop  a  talent  for  writing  and  when,  following 
graduation,  he  spent  two  years  in  the  hospitals 
of  London,  Dublin,  and  Paris,  he  sent  back  two 
series  of  letters  for  publication,  one  on  his  gen- 
eral observations  to  the  Lonist'ille  Journal,  1846- 
47,  and  another  on  medical  topics  to  the  Western 
Medical  Journal.  Thus  early  he  was  developing 
the   style  and  command  of  language  which  so 


595 


Yandell 


Yandell 


strongly  marked  his  later  writings.  Returning 
to  Louisville  in  1848  he  began  to  practise  his  pro- 
fession and  was  appointed  demonstrator  of  an- 
atomy in  the  University  of  Louisville.  Of  fine 
appearance  and  manner,  and  with  the  prestige  of 
his  European  studies,  he  quickly  established  a 
busy  general  practice,  with  a  rapidly  growing 
reputation  as  an  operating  surgeon. 

This  auspicious  beginning  was  interrupted  in 
1851  by  ill-health  which  compelled  him  to  re- 
tire to  a  farm  near  Nashville,  Tenn.  Two  years 
of  farm  life  not  only  materially  improved  his 
health  but  awakened  latent  tastes  for  the  coun- 
try and  for  wild  life  that  marked  the  remainder 
of  his  career.  Returning  to  Louisville  he  was 
soon  one  of  the  foremost  practitioners  of  the  city. 
He  founded  the  Stokes  Dispensary  and  pioneered 
in  medical  education  by  establishing  classes  in 
clinical  medicine.  This  work  was  soon  trans- 
ferred to  the  University  of  Louisville,  where  he 
was  appointed  to  the  chair  of  clinical  medicine. 
Shortly  thereafter,  with  the  onset  of  the  Civil 
War,  he  joined  the  Confederate  army  under 
General  Buckner  at  Bowling  Green,  Ky.  After 
a  short  service  here  and  with  the  command  of 
General  Hardee  he  was  assigned  to  the  staff  of 
Gen.  Albert  Sidney  Johnston  as  medical  direc- 
tor of  the  Department  of  the  West.  He  served 
in  this  capacity  throughout  the  war,  participat- 
ing in  the  battles  of  Shiloh,  Murfreesboro,  and 
Chickamauga.  After  the  death  of  General  John- 
ston at  Shiloh  he  served  successively  on  the  staffs 
of  Generals  Beauregard,  Hardee,  Joseph  E. 
Johnston,  and  Edmund  Kirby-Smith  [qqsc>.~\. 

At  the  close  of  the  war  he  returned  to  Louis- 
ville and  attended  the  meeting  of  the  American 
Medical  Association  at  Cincinnati  in  1865.  In 
nominating  Samuel  D.  Gross  \_q.v.~\  for  the  presi- 
dency, he  made  a  speech  which  went  far  in  heal- 
ing the  breach  in  the  profession  caused  by  the 
Civil  War.  He  was  himself  elected  a  vice-presi- 
dent of  the  association.  In  1867  he  returned  to 
the  University  of  Louisville  as  professor  of  the 
science  and  practice  of  medicine,  and  in  1869  he 
was  made  professor  of  clinical  surgery,  a  post  he 
held  for  the  rest  of  his  life.  His  vivid  personality, 
rich  voice,  and  his  command  of  language  made 
him  a  teacher  of  clinical  surgery  unequaled  in 
his  time.  His  work  as  an  operating  surgeon, 
though  based  on  sound  diagnoses,  showed  no 
special  originality.  It  was,  however,  marked  by 
mechanical  deftness  and  a  degree  of  surgical 
cleanliness  unusual  at  a  time  before  surgical 
asepsis  was  known.  In  1870  he  and  Theophilus 
Parvin  \_q.i\~\  established  the  American  Practi- 
tioner, which  after  sixteen  years  was  merged 
with  the  Medical  Nczvs  to  form  The  American 


Practitioner  and  News.  He  edited  this  journal 
from  its  founding  until  shortly  before  his  death. 
To  it  he  contributed  the  greater  part  of  his  lit- 
erary work  in  the  form  of  editorials  and  articles 
dealing  with  surgical  subjects.  He  was  elected 
president  of  the  American  Medical  Association 
in  1871  and  president  of  the  American  Surgical 
Association  in  1889.  Noteworthy  are  his  presi- 
dential addresses  to  these  bodies,  the  later  one  on 
"Pioneer  Surgery  in  Kentucky"  delivered  in 
1890.  He  was  also  a  fellow  of  the  Philadelphia 
College  of  Medicine.  In  1887  he  was  surgeon- 
general  of  the  Kentucky  militia.  Progressive  ar- 
terio-sclerosis  reduced  him  to  invalidism  during 
the  last  five  years  of  his  life  and  to  a  state  of  de- 
mentia during  his  last  months.  He  died  at  his 
home  in  Louisville.  Beyond  the  practice  of  medi- 
cine his  chief  interest  was  in  hunting,  which  he 
pursued  from  one  end  of  the  country  to  the  other. 
His  home  was  a  museum  of  hunting  trophies. 
He  was  a  royal  host  and  a  lover  of  good  living. 
He  was  married  to  Francis  Jane  Crutcher  of 
Nashville,  Tenn.,  in  1851.  Of  four  children,  his 
only  son  was  drowned  in  the  Cumberland  River 
in  1866  at  the  age  of  twelve  years. 

[Trans.  Southern  Surgical  and  Gynecological  Asso., 
1902  ;  Trans.  Am.  Surg.  Asso.,  1899  ;  Am.  Practitioner 
and  News,  May  15,  1898,  Apr.  15,  1899;  Philadelphia 
Medic.  Jour.,  May  14,  1898;  Ky.  Medic.  Jour.,  Nov. 
1917  ;  Am.  Medic.  Jour.,  Nov.  1917  ;  Am.  Medic.  Biogs. 
( 1920) ,  ed.  by  H.  A.  Kelly  and  W.  L.  Burrage ;  Courier- 
Jour.  (Louisville,  Ky.),  May  3,  4,  1898.]        IMP 

YANDELL,  LUNSFORD  PITTS  (July  4, 
1805-Feb.  4,  1878),  paleontologist,  physician, 
pioneer  in  medical  education  in  the  Ohio  Valley, 
was  born  on  a  farm  near  Hartsville,  Sumner 
County,  Tenn.,  the  son  of  Dr.  Wilson  Yandell 
of  North  Carolina  and  Elizabeth  (Pitts)  Yan- 
dell. In  his  early  years  he  attended  the  Bradley 
Academy,  Murfreesboro,  Tenn.,  and  began  the 
study  of  medicine  in  his  father's  office.  He  at- 
tended medical  courses  at  the  Transylvania  Uni- 
versity, Lexington,  Ky.,  in  1822-23,  and  at  the 
University  of  Maryland  at  Baltimore,  where  he 
was  graduated  in  1825.  Returning  to  Tennessee, 
he  settled  for  practice  at  Murfreesboro  in  1826. 
He  removed  to  Nashville  in  1830  and  in  the  fol- 
lowing year  to  Lexington,  Ky.,  to  accept  the  pro- 
fessorship of  chemistry  and  pharmacy  in  Tran- 
sylvania University.  Following  six  years  in  this 
position,  he  went  to  Louisville,  where  he  par- 
ticipated in  the  establishment  of  the  Louisville 
Medical  Institute  in  1837,  a  school  that  became 
the  medical  department  of  the  University  of 
Louisville  in  1846.  In  the  faculty  of  the  new 
school  he  held  the  chair  of  chemistry  and  ma- 
teria medica,  and  after  1849  that  of  physiology 
as  well.   He  taught  until  1859,  when  he  accepted 


596 


Yandell 

a  position  in  a  medical  school  in  Memphis,  Tenn. 
With  the  onset  of  the  Civil  War  he  joined  the 
Confederate  service  as  a  hospital  surgeon,  but  in 
1862  he  was  persuaded  to  enter  the  ministry  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church  by  the  Memphis  Pres- 
bytery. He  was  ordained  as  pastor  of  a  church 
at  Dancyville,  Tenn.,  in  1864,  but  he  resigned 
three  years  later,  and  returned  to  Louisville  and 
to  the  practice  of  medicine.  Though  filling  there- 
after no  office  in  the  school  which  he  helped  to 
found,  he  was  until  his  death  active  in  its  affairs 
and  a  continuing  factor  in  its  growth  and  suc- 
cess. He  continued  in  a  prosperous  practice  of 
internal  medicine,  with  occasional  exercise  of 
his  ministerial  vocation,  until  his  death  from 
pneumonia  at  his  home  in  Louisville. 

Early  in  his  career  Yandell  developed  a  de- 
cided bent  toward  scientific  inquiry.  He  saw  in 
the  recently  settled  country  of  the  Ohio  River 
Valley  a  most  fruitful  field  for  exploration  of  nat- 
ural phenomena,  animal  and  vegetable  life,  rocks 
and  waters,  together  with  the  prevailing  diseases 
with  their  causes,  prevention,  and  cure.  While 
at  Lexington  he  sought  to  infuse  his  love  of  sci- 
ence into  his  classes,  but  it  was  not  until  his  re- 
moval to  Louisville  that  he  entered  seriously  into 
the  work  for  which  he  is  best  known.  In  the  vi- 
cinity of  Louisville  were  the  coral  reefs  of  the 
falls  of  the  Ohio,  the  fossiliferous  beds  of  Bear- 
grass  Creek,  and  numerous  quarries  in  near-by 
Kentucky  and  Indiana.  It  was  with  this  material 
that  he  achieved  an  international  reputation  as 
an  explorer  and  student  in  the  field  of  geology 
and  paleontology.  In  1847  he  published  with  Dr. 
B.  F.  Shumard  Contributions  to  the  Geology  of 
Kentucky.  In  the  following  years  he  wrote  a 
number  of  journal  articles  in  relation  to  fossils 
which  he  had  uncovered  and  studied.  Notable 
among  these  papers  is  "On  the  Distribution  of 
the  Crinoidea  in  the  Western  States,"  published 
in  the  Proceedings  of  the  American  Association 
for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  vol.  V  (1851). 
He  also  memorialized  the  name  of  his  scientific 
associate,  Dr.  Shumard,  in  an  article,  "Descrip- 
tion of  a  New  Genius  of  Crinoidea,"  published 
in  the  American  Journal  of  Science  and  Arts, 
November  1855.  His  own  name  has  been  per- 
petuated by  masters  in  paleontology  in  the  nam- 
ing of  a  number  of  fossils  which  he  brought  to 
light.  Through  his  active  years  he  gathered  to- 
gether a  veritable  museum  of  specimens  relating 
to  natural  history,  which  he  bequeathed  to  his 
son  and  namesake,  who  aided  him  in  their  col- 
lection and  preservation. 

Yandell  is  credited  with  the  authorship  of  a 
hundred  articles  in  various  periodicals  dealing 
with  medical  themes,  geology,  local  history,  biog- 


Yates 

raphy,  education,  and  religion.  Beginning  with 
an  article,  "What  Fossils  Teach,"  in  September 
1873,  he  contributed  to  Home  and  School,  a 
Louisville  journal,  a  noteworthy  series  of  scien- 
tific articles  in  a  popular  vein.  He  left  uncom- 
pleted a  biographic  work  upon  the  medical  men 
of  Kentucky.  From  1832  to  1836  he  was  editor 
of  the  Transylvania  Journal  of  Medicine  and  the 
Associated  Sciences  (Lexington),  and  from  1840 
to  1855  co-editor  of  the  Western  Journal  of  Medi- 
cine and  Surgery. 

He  was  a  member  of  many  medical  and  scien- 
tific societies.  In  April  of  the  year  preceding  his 
death  he  was  elected  to  the  presidency  of  the 
Kentucky  State  Medical  Society.  He  was  twice 
married:  first,  in  October  1825,  to  Susan  Juliet 
Wendel,  and  second,  in  August  1861,  to  Eliza 
Bland.  By  his  first  wife  he  had  three  sons  and 
a  daughter.  Of  the  sons,  David  W.  Yandell  [q.v.'] 
and  Lunsford  Pitts,  Jr.,  followed  their  father  in 
the  choice  of  a  medical  career. 

[Several  Yandell  letters  published  in  Filson  Club 
Hist.  Quart.  July  1933  ;  T.  S.  Bell,  "Memorial  Address 
upon  the  Life  and  Services  of  Lunsford  P.  Yandell,  Am. 
Practitioner  (Appendix),  1878;  Nashville  Jour,  of 
Med.  and  Surgery,  Feb.  1878  ;  Trans.  Am.  Medic.  Asso., 
1878;  Trans.  Ky.  Medic.  Soc,  1878;  Ky.  Medic.  Jour., 
Nov.  1917  ;  Am.  Med.  Biogs.  (1920),  ed.  by  H.  A.  Kelly 
and  W.  L.  Burrage  ;  Robert  Peter,  Hist,  of  the  Medic. 
Dept.  of  Transylvania  Univ.  (1905),  Filson  Club  Pub. 
No.  20;  Courier- J  our.  (Louisville,  Ky.),  Feb.  5,  1878.] 

J.M.P. 

YATES,  ABRAHAM  (1724-June  30,  1796), 
Revolutionary  patriot,  Antifederalist  pamphlet- 
eer, congressman,  also  known  as  Abraham  Yates, 
Jun.,  was  born  in  Albany,  N.  Y.,  and  baptized  on 
Aug.  23,  1724.  He  was  a  grandson  of  Joseph 
Yates  the  immigrant,  and  the  ninth  son  of  Chris- 
toff  el  Yates  and  Catelyntje  (Winne).  He  mar- 
ried Antje  De  Ridder,  who  like  himself  attended 
the  Dutch  Reformed  Church  of  Albany,  and  to 
them  were  born  four  children.  A  surveyor,  law- 
yer, and  land  speculator,  he  has  sometimes  been 
called  a  financier.  He  served  as  sheriff  of  Al- 
bany from  1754  to  1759  and  many  terms  on  the 
Albany  Common  Council,  1754-73.  A  radical 
Whig  by  conviction  during  the  pre-revolutionary 
and  war  periods,  he  was  an  associator  and  an 
active  member  and  chairman  of  the  Albany  com- 
mittee of  correspondence  from  1774  to  1776.  The 
county  of  Albany  elected  him  to  every  one  of 
the  New  York  provincial  congresses  and  con- 
ventions of  1775-77;  he  was  chairman  of  the 
committee  of  the  convention  (1776-77)  which 
drafted  the  first  constitution  of  the  state  of  New 
York,  and  of  the  committee  of  six  for  putting  the 
new  government  into  operation.  His  other  serv- 
ices during  the  Revolution  included  membership 
in  the  committee  on  arrangements  for  the  Conti- 


.597 


Yates 


Yaces 


nental  regiments  of  New  York,  service  as  a  state 
senator,  1777-90,  and  service  as  one  of  the  com- 
missioners for  loans  authorized  by  Congress, 
1777-82. 

Like  other  members  of  the  Yates  family,  par- 
ticularly Robert  Yates  [q.v.],  Abraham  was  an 
ardent  Antifederalist  during  the  1780's.  An  able 
pamphleteer,  he  wrote  frequently  and  eloquently, 
sometimes  under  the  pen  names  "Rough  Hewer" 
and  "Rough  Hewer,  Jr.,"  in  defense  of  the  sov- 
ereignty of  his  state  and  in  opposition  to  Con- 
gressional aggrandizement.  His  printed  letters 
and  pamphlets  are  perhaps  the  ablest  exposition 
of  the  point  of  view  of  the  agrarian  democrats 
and  Anti-federalist  followers  of  Gov.  George 
Clinton  [q.v.'j.  Although  he  voted  in  1781  for 
granting  the  impost  to  Congress,  he  fought  it 
consistently  in  subsequent  years,  stressing  the 
potential  tyranny  of  federal  tax  collectors.  (See 
Political  Papers  Addressed  to  the  Advocates  for 
the  Congressional  Revenue,  1786.)  He  played 
the  role  of  an  Antifederalist  in  the  Continental 
Congress,  1787-88,  and  fought  the  proposed 
Federal  Constitution  from  the  state  Senate.  In 
1792,  however,  he  was  chosen  a  presidential  elec- 
tor on  a  ticket  pledged  to  Washington  and  Adams. 
From  Oct.  19,  1790,  to  his  death  in  1796,  he 
was  mayor  of  Albany,  in  which  office  he  seems  to 
have  been  capable  and  energetic. 

[The  Abraham  Yates,  Jun.,  papers  in  the  New  York 
Public  Library,  which  have  been  consulted,  include  nu- 
merous "Rough  Hewer"  papers  and  correspondence  as 
well  as  chapters  on  phases  of  New  York  history.  See 
also  Biog.  Dir.  Am.  Cong.  (1928)  ;  A.  C.  Flick,  ed., 
Hist,  of  the  State  of  N.  Y .,  vols.  Ill,  IV  (1933)  ;  Joel 
Munsell,  Colls,  on  the  Hist,  of  Albany,  vol.  I  (1865)  ; 
Calendar  of  Hist.  MSS.  Relating  to  the  War  of  the 
Revolution  in  the  Office  of  the  Secretary  of  State,  Al- 
bany, N.  Y.  (2  vols.,  1868)  ;  E.  B.  O'Ca'llaghan,  Calen- 
dar of  Hist.  MSS.  in  the  Office  of  the  Secretary  of  State, 
Albany,  N.  Y '.,  pt.  2  (1866)  ;  Jonathan  Pearson,  Contri- 
butions for  the  Geneals.  of  the  First  Settlers  of  the  An- 
cient County  of  Albany  (1872)  ;  Cayler  Reynolds,  Al- 
bany Chronicles  (1906)  and  Hudson-Mohawk  Gcneal. 
and  Family  Memoirs  (191 1),  I,  294;  E.  W.  Spaulding, 
N.  Y.  in  the  Critical  Period  (1932).]  E.  W.  S. 

YATES,  JOHN  VAN  NESS  (Dec.  18,  1779- 
Jan.  10,  1839),  lawyer  and  secretary  of  state  of 
New  York,  was  the  son  of  Robert  Yates  \_q.v.~\ 
and  Jannetje  Van  Ness.  He  was  born  in  Albany 
and  was  a  resident  of  that  city  throughout  his 
life.  Well  educated  in  the  classics  and  in  the 
law,  he  was  known  for  his  versatility  and  bril- 
liance of  mind.  His  edition  of  the  History  of 
New  York  by  William  Smith,  1728-1793  [q.v.'j, 
with  a  continuation  to  1747  by  the  editor,  ap- 
peared in  1814  and  his  Collection  of  Pleadings 
and  Practical  Precedents  with  Notes  Thereon 
in  1837.  He  was  the  author  of  several  other  legal 
works.  His  failure  to  collaborate  with  J.  W. 
Moulton  in  a  History  of  the  State  of  New  York 


(1824-26),  the  first  volume  of  which  bears  his 
name,  is  one  evidence  of  his  erratic  nature.  Crit- 
ics commented  on  his  instability  of  character,  his 
laxness  and  his  plebeian  associations.  His  prin- 
ciples were  democratic  and  his  policies  Demo- 
cratic-Republican. 

Yates  was  a  member  of  the  committee  appoint- 
ed by  the  Albany  Common  Council  to  petition 
the  legislature  to  provide  for  the  construction  of 
the  first  state  capitol.  On  Apr.  2,  1806,  he  was 
appointed  captain  of  a  company  of  light  infantry 
in  an  Albany  regiment  which  a  year  later  offered 
its  services  to  the  president  in  case  of  war  with 
England.  In  1808  he  became  involved  in  a  con- 
troversy with  Chancellor  John  Lansing  [#.f.] 
which  brought  the  court  of  chancery  into  con- 
flict with  the  supreme  court  of  the  state.  Yates, 
a  master  in  chancery  that  year,  commenced  a  suit 
in  the  name  of  P.  W.  Yates  without  the  latter's 
knowledge  and  was  imprisoned  by  the  Chancel- 
lor on  the  ground  that  attorneys  and  solicitors  in 
chancery  were  required  by  law,  before  bringing 
suit  in  the  name  of  another  attorney,  to  obtain 
the  latter's  consent.  Yates's  counsel,  Thomas 
Addis  Emmet  [g.w.],  obtained  his  client's  release 
on  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus  issued  by  the  supreme 
court.  Recommitted  by  the  Chancellor  (4  John- 
son, 318),  Yates  appealed  to  the  court  of  errors, 
where  his  arrest  was  declared  illegal  (6  John- 
son, 337).  He  failed,  however,  in  a  subsequent 
suit  against  the  Chancellor  for  false  imprison- 
ment (5  Johnson,  282;  9  Johnson,  395). 

Most  of  Yates's  appointments  to  public  office 
he  received  as  a  partisan  of  the  Clintons.  He 
served  twice  as  recorder  of  Albany  (1808-09; 
1811-16),  one  term  in  the  Assembly  (1819),  and 
eight  years  as  secretary  of  state  of  New  York 
(appointed  1818-26).  A  Presbyterian,  he  was 
married  in  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  at 
Albany  on  June  7,  1806,  to  Eliza  Ross  Cunning- 
ham. He  died  at  Albany,  survived  by  his  wife 
and  several  children. 

["Records  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  in  the 
City  of  Albany,"  ed.  by  R.  W.  Vosburgh  (typewritten 
MS.,  transcribed  1917)  ;  Case  of  J.  V.  N.  Yates  .  .  . 
Decided  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  N.  Y.,  in  August 
Term,  1809  (1809)  ;  J.  D.  Hammond,  The  Hist,  of  Po- 
litical Parties  in  the  State  of  N.  Y.  (2  vols.,  1842)  ;  G. 
R.  Howell  and  Jonathan  Tenney,  Hist,  of  the  County  o 
Albany  (1886);  Joel  Munsell,  Annals  of  Albany  (r3 
vols.,  1850-59)  ;  A.  J.  Parker,  Landmarks  of  Albany 
County  (1897);  G.  A.  Worth,  Random  Recollections 
of  Albany  (1866);  David  McAdam  and  others,  Hist, 
of  the  Bench  and  Bar  of  N.  Y '.,  I  (1897),  523  ;  Albany 
Evening  Journal,  Jan.  10,  14,  1839.]  E.  W.  S. 

YATES,  MATTHEW  TYSON  (Jan.  8, 1819- 
Mar.  17,  1888),  missionary  to  China,  was  born 
in  Wake  County,  N.  C,  about  eighteen  miles 
west  of  Raleigh,  the  son  of  William  and  Delilah 
Yates.  His  father  was  a  farmer,  none  too  pros- 


598 


Yates 


Yates 


perous,  and  Matthew,  the  second  of  ten  children, 
spent  the  first  nineteen  years  of  his  life  in  the  pa- 
ternal home,  helping  from  the  time  he  was  old 
enough  to  do  so  in  the  varied  manual  labor  of  the 
farm.  The  home  was  a  devout  one,  and  his  fa- 
ther, a  deacon  in  a  Baptist  church,  kept  open 
house  to  the  traveling  preachers  of  that  fellow- 
ship. From  his  boyhood  Yates  was  religious. 
At  about  the  age  of  seventeen,  in  a  camp  meet- 
ing, he  passed  through  the  experience  of  conver- 
sion and  soon  came  to  believe  that  he  must  ob- 
tain an  education  and  probably  enter  the  minis- 
try. He  had  read  with  deep  emotion  the  life  of 
an  early  American  Baptist  missionary,  Ann 
Hasseltine  Judson  [q.v.],  and  by  it  had  been 
moved  to  consider  spending  his  life  in  that  call- 
ing. Prepared  at  Wake  Forest  Hill  Academy,  he 
entered  Wake  Forest  College  and  graduated  in 
1846.  He  was  not  brilliant  as  a  student  and  was 
forced  to  devote  much  of  his  time  to  earning  a 
livelihood,  but  he  was  a  conscientious  and  per- 
sistent worker. 

Before  graduation  he  had  finally  determined 
to  be  a  missionary.  Accordingly  he  applied  to 
the  Foreign  Mission  Board  of  the  Southern  Bap- 
tist Convention  and  was  appointed  to  China.  On 
Sept.  27,  1846,  he  married  Eliza  E.  Moring,  on 
Oct.  18  following  he  was  ordained,  and  soon 
thereafter  he  sailed  with  his  bride  for  China,  ar- 
riving in  Shanghai  in  1847.  Here  he  was  the 
pioneer  of  his  society,  although  within  a  few 
weeks  he  and  his  wife  were  joined  by  two  other 
couples.  The  future  commercial  metropolis  of 
China  had  only  recently  been  opened  to  foreign 
residents,  thus  during  most  of  his  career  Yates 
was  laying  foundations.  The  task  was  not  easy. 
He  found  his  eyes  unequal  to  the  strain  of  read- 
ing the  written  Chinese  characters,  but  he  be- 
came a  master  of  the  Shanghai  colloquial  dialect 
and  greatly  enjoyed  preaching  in  it.  In  the  dec- 
ade after  his  arrival  a  band  of  rebels  captured 
the  native  city  and  the  property  and  work  of  the 
mission  suffered ;  then  came  the  American  Civil 
War  and  for  years,  during  the  conflict  and  much 
of  the  Reconstruction  period,  he  received  no  as- 
sistance from  home.  For  twenty  years  or  so  he 
was  without  a  foreign  colleague ;  from  1869  to 
1876  his  voice  failed  and  he  was  unable  to 
preach.  Yet  during  the  years  of  adversity  he  sup- 
ported himself  and  his  family  by  acting  as  inter- 
preter to  the  municipal  council  of  the  foreign 
community  and  to  the  American  consulate,  by 
serving  as  vice  consul  for  the  United  States,  and 
by  judicious  investments  in  Shanghai  real  estate. 

Yates  was  so  successful  financially  that  he  was 
able  to  support  a  Chinese  preacher  from  his  own 
funds,  to  build  a  substantial  church,  and  to  take 


his  family  to  Europe  when  health  made  that  ad- 
visable. He  never  ceased  to  be  a  missionary,  and 
later,  when  assistance  from  the  United  States 
was  resumed,  he  gave  up  his  business  enterprises 
and  devoted  his  full  time  to  the  Church.  Not 
only  in  Shanghai  but  in  other  cities  in  Kiangsu 
province  he  initiated  centers  of  his  denomina- 
tion, and  opened  a  number  of  out-stations.  He 
was  active,  too,  in  literary  work,  although  his 
writing  in  Chinese  was  done  through  an  amanu- 
ensis. He  prepared  tracts,  including  Ancestral 
Worship  and  Fung  Shuy  (1867)  ;  The  Tai-Ping 
Rebellion  (1876)  ;  a  series  of  lessons  for  those 
beginning  the  study  of  the  spoken  language ;  and 
a  translation  into  the  Shanghai  vernacular  of 
all  of  the  New  Testament  except  the  book  of 
Revelation.  He  was  still  at  work  on  the  New 
Testament  when  death  overtook  him,  in  Shang- 
hai. 

In  appearance  Yates  was  tall,  erect,  and  dig- 
nified. In  manner  he  had  the  courtliness  and 
courtesy  of  the  Southern  gentleman.  His  con- 
verts were  not  numerous ;  at  the  time  of  his  death 
the  churches  under  his  care  had  only  about  one 
hundred  members,  but  he  had  a  wide  acquaint- 
ance among  the  Chinese  and  had  won  the  esteem 
of  many. 

[C.  E.  Taylor,  The  Story  of  Yates,  the  Missionary,  as 
Told  in  His  Letters  and  Reminiscences  ( 1898)  ;  Chinese 
Recorder,  Apr.,  Nov.,  1888;  G.  W.  Paschal,  Hist,  of 
Wake  Forest  Coll.  vol.  I  (1935)  ;  annual  Proceedings 
of  the  Southern   Baptist   Convention.]  K.  S.  L. 

YATES,  RICHARD  (Jan.  18,  1815-Nov.  27, 
l&73),  Civil  War  governor  of  Illinois,  was  born 
in  Warsaw,  Ky.,  the  son  of  Henry  and  Millicent 
(Yates)  Yates,  whose  common  grandfather,  Mi- 
chael Yates,  hailed  from  Caroline  County,  Va. 
In  1831  the  family  moved  to  Sangamon  County, 
111.,  and  Richard  was  sent  to  Illinois  College  at 
Jacksonville,  where  in  1835  he  received  the  first 
graduating  diploma  issued  by  that  institution  (C. 
H.  Rammelkamp,  Illinois  College:  A  Centennial 
History,  1928,  p.  69).  Already  known  as  a  boy 
orator,  he  spoke  at  graduation  on  "The  Influence 
of  Free  Institutions  in  Moulding  National  Char- 
acter" {Ibid.,  pp.  69-70).  After  studying  law  at 
Transylvania  University  he  was  admitted  to  the 
bar  (1837)  and  began  practice  at  Jacksonville, 
which  remained  his  home  during  his  whole  pub- 
lic career.  For  three  terms  (1842-46,  1848-50) 
he  was  a  member  of  the  state  legislature.  Elected 
to  Congress  in  1850  and  again  in  1852  he  had 
during  one  of  his  terms  the  distinction  of  being 
the  only  Whig  member  from  Illinois.  In  this  pe- 
riod he  favored  the  homestead  act,  opposed  the 
Kansas-Nebraska  bill,  supported  the  movement 
to  establish  colleges  with  federal  land  grants, 
and  spoke  vigorously  for  extending  an  official 


599 


Yates 


Yates 


welcome  to  the  Hungarian  patriot  Kossuth. 
Having  taken  an  antislavery  stand  he  joined  the 
Republican  party  and  was  a  member  of  the  na- 
tional conventions  which  nominated  Lincoln  in 
i860  and  Grant  in  1868.  As  contrasted  with  that 
of  radical  abolitionists,  however,  his  attitude  was 
conservative,  resembling  Lincoln's.  In  party  con- 
ferences looking  to  the  governorship  in  i860  N. 
B.  Judd  and  Leonard  Swett  were  more  promi- 
nently mentioned  than  Yates;  but  his  popularity 
in  doubtful  counties  turned  the  balance  and  he 
became  the  party  choice.  He  was  elected  over 
James  C.  Allen,  Democrat,  by  a  vote  of  172,000 
to  159,000;  and  served  as  governor  from  Janu- 
ary 1861  to  January  1865. 

During  the  war  he  was  widely  known  as  a  vig- 
orous state  executive,  upholding  Lincoln's  hand 
and  showing  great  ardor  in  the  raising  of  troops 
and  in  other  complex  matters  of  war  administra- 
tion. At  times  his  zeal  outran  the  efforts  of  the 
government  at  Washington  so  that  he  was  ad- 
vised to  reduce  the  number  of  regiments  and  dis- 
charge excessive  recruits  {Annual  Report  of  the 
Adjutant  General  of  the  State  of  Illinois,  1863, 
pp.  18-19).  He  gave  U.  S.  Grant  his  first  Civil 
War  commission  and  assignments,  putting  him 
in  charge  of  camps  for  organizing  volunteers, 
giving  him  staff  duty  at  Springfield,  and  tender- 
ing him  the  colonelcy  of  the  21st  Regiment  of 
Illinois  Volunteers  (June  1861).  War  duties 
pressed  heavily  upon  him  as  he  attended  to  mili- 
tary appointments,  approved  a  variety  of  new 
army  units,  called  special  legislative  sessions, 
recommended  emergency  laws,  visited  "the  boys" 
in  camp  and  hospital,  reviewed  Illinois  troops  in 
battle  areas,  attended  to  voluminous  complaints 
by  soldiers'  parents,  promoted  the  raising  of 
bounties,  conferred  with  other  governors  and 
with  Lincoln,  and  made  hot  speeches  playing 
upon  war  emotions  and  searing  the  Democrats. 
When  the  Democratic  majority  in  the  legislature 
of  1863  opposed  the  existing  conduct  of  the  war 
and  embarrassed  the  governor  by  passing  (in 
the  lower  house)  a  resolution  urging  an  armis- 
tice and  recommending  a  national  convention  to 
restore  peace  (while  at  the  same  time  opposing 
secession  and  disunion),  Yates  seized  upon  a 
disagreement  in  the  matter  of  adjournment  as 
the  opportunity  for  exercising  his  constitutional 
prerogative  of  proroguing  the  Assembly.  Over- 
looking the  fact  that  the  Democrats  supplied  their 
share  of  enlistments  and  otherwise  supported 
the  Union,  the  Republicans  stigmatized  their  op- 
ponents as  traitors;  and  the  war  years  became 
a  period  of  wretched  party  bitterness  in  the  state. 
Through  all  this  the  governor  was  personally 
popular,  and  his  prestige  was  increased  by  the 


success  of  the  war  in  which  Illinois  reported 
over  250,000  enlistments. 

After  the  war  Yates  served  one  term  (1865- 
71)  in  the  United  States  Senate.  Party  regular- 
ity marked  his  course :  he  favored  vindictive 
measures  against  the  South,  voted  for  President 
Johnson's  conviction  in  the  impeachment  pro- 
ceeding, and  supported  the  prevailing  radical 
Republican  program,  which  he  justified  with 
convincing  patriotic  unction  and  oratorical  flour- 
ish. He  died  suddenly  at  St.  Louis  while  return- 
ing from  Arkansas,  whither  he  had  gone  as  fed- 
erl  commissioner  to  inspect  a  land-subsidy  rail- 
road. He  was  buried  with  full  honors  at  Jack- 
sonville. 

Yates  was  married  on  July  II,  1839,  to  a 
"dark  eyed  little  beauty,"  Catharine  Geers,  a 
native  of  Lexington,  Ky.  She  outlived  him  by 
thirty-five  years,  dying  in  1908.  They  had  two 
daughters  and  three  sons,  one  of  whom,  Richard, 
was  governor  of  the  state,  1901-04,  and  con- 
gressman during  several  terms.  Oratorical  skill 
and  a  strikingly  handsome  appearance  were 
among  the  rich  personal  endowments  that  con- 
tributed to  Yates's  career.  His  use  of  liquor 
sometimes  led  to  over  indulgence,  and  there  is 
record  of  his  lack  of  sobriety  when  inaugurated 
as  governor  (Memoirs  of  Henry  Villard,  1904, 
I,  148).  When  criticized  on  this  score  in  1868  he 
admitted  the  fault,  apologized  "without  reserve 
or  defense,"  and  explained  that  his  use  of  stimu- 
lants after  exhaustive  labor  had  not  interfered 
with  the  performance  of  public  duty  ("Address 
to  the  People  of  Illinois,"  Chicago  Tribune,  Apr. 
25,  1868,  p.  2).  It  has  been  said  that  "no  gov- 
ernor of  any  State  [was]  more  watchful  of  the 
State's  interests  ...  or  more  loved  by  [his]  peo- 
ple . . .,  including  the  troops  in  the  field"  (Shelby 
M.  Cullom,  Fifty  Years  of  Public  Service,  191 1, 
p.  45).  "His  success  in  political  life,"  writes  an- 
other, "was  largely  due  to  his  personality;  he 
was  endowed  with  a  manly  carriage,  fine  pres- 
ence, cordial  manner  and  happy  speech"  (Jayne, 
post,  p.  144).  He  is  honored  above  other  Illinois 
governors  in  a  beautiful  bronze  statue  at  Spring- 
field. 

[There  is  no  biography  of  Yates,  and  this  sketch  has 
been  based  upon  scattered  sources,  including  news- 
papers, minor  essays  and  obituaries,  manuscript  collec- 
tions, state  archives,  and  information  generously  sup- 
plied by  Catharine  Yates  Pickering,  daughter  of  Rich- 
ard Yates  the  younger.  The  date  of  birth,  usually 
given  (even  by  Yates  himself)  as  1818,  has  been  veri- 
fied as  181 5  by  reference  to  the  family  Bible.  The  vo- 
luminous Yates  papers,  though  preserved  by  his  son 
Richard,  have  not  been  open  to  historical  use.  In  the 
archives  at  Springfield  the  governor's  letterbooks  and 
incoming  correspondence  for  the  Yates  administration 
are  missing.  Yates's  messages  and  speeches  are  con- 
veniently available  at  the  111.  State  Hist.  Lib.  See  also : 
Richard  Yates,  War  Governor  of  III.  (1924),  address 


60O 


Yates 


Yates 


by  Richard  Yates  the  younger  at  the  dedication  of  the 
statue  of  Yates  in  Springfield,  Oct.  16,  1923;  C.  M. 
Eames,  Historic  Morgan  and  Classic  Jacksonville 
(1885)  ;  L.  U.  Reavis,  The  Life  and  Public  Services  of 
Richard  Yates  (1881)  ;  The  Diary  of  Orvillc  Hickman 
Browning,  vols.  I  and  II  (19-27-33),  being  ///.  Hist. 
Colls.,  vols.  XX,  XXII  ;  A.  C.  Cole,  The  Era  of  the  Civil 
War  (1919)  ;  Biog.  Dir.  Am.  Cong.  (1928)  ;  speech  by 
Richard  Yates  the  younger,  Feb.  12,  1921,  containing 
letters  from  Lincoln  to  Yates,  in  Cong.  Record,  66 
Cong.,  3  Sess.,  pp.  3074-79  ;  Report  of  the  Adj.  Gen. 
of  III.  1861-65;  I.  O.  Foster,  "The  Relation  of 
Illinois  to  the  Federal  Government  during  the  Civil 
War"  (MS.),  doctoral  dissertation,  Univ.  of  111.,  1925  ; 
Richard  Yates  the  younger,  Descendants  of  Michael 
Yates  (1906)  ;  William  Jayne  "Richard  Yates'  Services 
...  as  War  Governor,"  Trans.  III.  State  Hist.  Sac., 
1902  ;  E.  L.  Kimball,  "Richard  Yates  :  His  Record  as 
Civil  War  Governor  of  Illinois,"  Jour.  III.  State  Hist. 
Soc,  Apr.  1930  ;  Chicago  Tribune,  Nov.  28,  29,  1873  ; 
Jacksonville  Daily  Journal,  Nov.  29,  1873.]     J.G.R. 

YATES,  ROBERT  (Jan.  27,  1738-Sept.  9, 
1801),  Revolutionary  patriot,  jurist,  was  born  in 
Schenectady,  N.  Y.,  the  son  of  Joseph  and  Maria 
(Dunbar)  Yates  of  that  place.  His  great-grand- 
father, Joseph  Yates,  had  migrated  as  a  young 
man  from  England  and  settled  in  Albany,  where 
he  died  May  20,  1730.  Robert's  grandfather,  also 
named  Robert,  moved  to  Schenectady  in  1711. 
After  receiving  a  good  classical  education  in 
New  York  City  and  reading  law  with  William 
Livingston  [q.v.~],  later  governor  of  New  Jersey, 
Yates  was  admitted  to  the  bar  May  9,  1760,  at 
Albany,  which  remained  his  residence  for  the 
rest  of  his  life.  He  served  for  four  years,  1771- 
75,  on  the  board  of  aldermen.  A  radical  Whig 
during  the  period  of  controversy  before  the  Rev- 
olution, he  was  a  member  of  the  Albany  commit- 
tee of  safety  and  represented  the  county  of  Al- 
bany in  the  four  provincial  congresses  and  the 
convention  during  the  years  1775-77.  The  pro- 
vincial congress  in  1776  appointed  him  to  the 
committee  of  safety  and  the  convention  of  1776- 
yy  assigned  him  to  membership  on  the  secret 
committee  to  obstruct  the  channel  of  the  Hudson, 
the  committee  on  arrangements  for  the  Conti- 
nental regiments,  the  committee  to  cooperate 
with  General  Schuyler  (of  which  he  was  chair- 
man), and  the  important  committee  of  thirteen 
which  drafted  the  first  constitution  of  the  state. 
Before  the  new  state  government  was  estab- 
lished Yates  was  appointed,  May  8,  1777,  a  jus- 
tice of  the  supreme  court,  in  which  capacity  he 
served  with  integrity  and  impartiality.  On  the 
bench,  as  well  as  during  his  service  on  the  com- 
mittee of  safety,  he  incurred  some  criticism  from 
Whigs  for  his  fairness  toward  Loyalists.  As 
justice  and  later  as  chief  justice  (1790-98),  he 
was  ex  officio  a  member  of  the  council  of  revi- 
sion, but  he  seems  to  have  written  very  few  of 
the  veto  messages  of  the  council.  He  was  ap- 
pointed, Apr.  28,  1786,  to  fill  a  vacancy  on  the 

60 


commission  which  disposed  of  the  controversy 
with  Massachusetts  over  New  York's  western 
boundary  and  in  March  1780  he  was  named  one 
of  the  commissioners  to  settle  the  perennial  dis- 
pute with  Vermont.  Five  years  later  he  sat  on 
the  commission  which  apportioned  to  New  York 
claimants  the  $30,000  which  Vermont  paid  to 
satisfy  New  York  land  titles. 

During  the  middle  1780's  Robert  Yates  became 
a  recognized  leader  of  the  Antifederalists.  He 
was  a  supporter  of  Gov.  George  Clinton  and  with 
Clinton  opposed  such  concessions  to  the  federal 
Congress  as  the  right  to  collect  impost  duties. 
(Some  of  his  papers  appear  in  Political  Papers 
Addressed  to  the  Advocates  for  a  Congressional 
Revenue,  1786.)  In  1787  he  was  appointed  with 
the  Antifederalist  John  Lansing  and  the  Federal- 
ist Alexander  Hamilton  to  represent  New  York 
in  the  Convention  at  Philadelphia.  A  member  of 
the  compromise  committee,  Yates,  with  his  col- 
league Lansing,  left  the  Convention  on  the  day 
the  committee  reported,  July  5,  on  the  ground 
that  the  Convention,  which  had  been  called  to 
revise  the  Articles  of  Confederation,  was  ex- 
ceeding its  powers  in  attempting  to  write  a  new 
instrument  of  government  and  that  the  consoli- 
dation of  the  states  into  a  national  state  would 
impair  the  sovereignty  of  New  York.  After  the 
publication  of  the  Federal  Constitution  Yates 
attacked  it  during  the  winter  in  a  series  of  let- 
ters signed  Brutus  (answered  by  Pelatiah  Web- 
ster [g.z'.]  in  The  Weakness  of  Brut  its  Exposed, 
1787),  and  in  June  1788,  in  letters  signed  Syd- 
ney, which  appeared  in  the  New  York  Journal. 
Some  of  the  Antifederalist  papers  signed  "Rough 
Hewer"  have  been  attributed  to  him.  In  the 
Poughkeepsie  convention  which  ratified  the  Con- 
stitution on  behalf  of  New  York  he  was  one  of 
the  three  or  four  outstanding  Antifederalist  lead- 
ers and  voted  against  ratification.  He  seems, 
however,  to  have  accepted  the  result  so  complete- 
ly that  he  was  willing  in  1789  to  run  for  gov- 
ernor with  Federalist  support  against  his  old 
friend  Clinton.  In  spite  of  Hamilton's  active 
support  Yates  received  only  5,962  votes  to  6,391 
for  Clinton.  A  logical  candidate  for  governor 
in  1792,  he  declined  to  run.  In  1795  when  Clin- 
ton was  no  longer  a  candidate  Yates  was  the 
Antifederalist  candidate  for  governor  but  ran 
second  in  the  election  to  the  Federalist  John  Jay. 
Having  reached  the  constitutional  age  of  sixty 
Yates  resigned  as  chief  justice  in  1798.  In  1800 
he  was  one  of  the  commissioners  for  settling  the 
title  to  the  lands  in  Onondaga  County.  A  man  of 
modest  means,  he  is  said  to  have  died  compara- 
tively poor.  By  his  wife,  Jannetje  Van  Ness, 
whom  he  married  Mar.  5,  1765,  he  had  six  chil- 

L 


Yeadon 

dren,  four  of  whom,  including  John  Van  Ness 
Yates  [q.v.~\,  survived  him.  Twenty  years  after 
Yates's  death,  his  notes  on  the  debates  and  pro- 
ceedings of  the  Federal  Convention  were  pub- 
lished by  his  widow  under  the  title,  Secret  Pro- 
ceedings and  Debates  of  the  Convention  Assem- 
bled .  .  .  for  the  Purpose  of  Forming  the  Consti- 
tution of  the  United  States  (1821). 

[Yates's  notes  on  the  Federal  Convention  were  re- 
printed in  Jonathan  Eliot,  Debates  .  .  .  on  the  Adoption 
of  the  Federal  Constitution,  vol.  IV  (1830)  ;  in  Sen. 
Doc.  728,  60  Cong.,  2  Sess.  (1909),  together  with  his 
letter  to  Gov.  Clinton  on  leaving  the  Convention,  and  a 
short  biog. ;  and  in  The  Records  of  the  Federal  Con- 
vention (191 1 ),  ed.  by  Max  Farrand.  Some  of  his 
Antifederalist  writings  appear  in  P.  L.  Ford,  Essays  on 
the  Constitution  (1892).  See  also  J.  D.  Hammond, 
The  Hist,  of  Political  Parties  in  .  .  .  N.  Y.  (2  vols., 
1842)  ;  Joel  Munsell,  Colls,  on  the  Hist,  of  Albany,  vol. 
I  (1865);  Jonathan  Pearson,  Contributions  for  the 
Gencals.  of  the  First  Settlers  .  .  .  of  Albany  (1872)  ; 
John  Sanders,  Centennial  Address  Relating  to  the  Early 
Hist,  of  Schenectady  (1879)  ;  A.  B.  Street,  The  Council 
of  Revision  of  the  State  of  N.  Y.  ( 1859)  ;  G.  A.  Worth, 
Random  Recollections  of  Albany  (1866);  Calendar 
of  Hist.  hlSS.  Relating  to  the  War  of  the  Revolution. 
(2  vols.,  1868)  ;  Names  of  Persons  for  Whom  Marriage 
Licenses  were  Issued  .  .  ,  Province  of  N.  Y '.,  Previous 
to  1784  (i860).]  E.  W.  S. 

YEADON,  RICHARD  (Oct.23,i8o2-Apr.25, 

1870),  lawyer,  editor,  was  born  in  Charleston, 
S.  C,  the  only  son  of  Richard  and  Mary  (You) 
Adams  Yeadon  and  grandson  of  the  English  im- 
migrant Richard  Yeadon  and  his  wife  Mary  Lin- 
ing. Graduating  from  South  Carolina  College 
in  1820,  Yeadon  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in 
1824.  In  1831,  during  the  nullification  contro- 
versy, he  became  a  constant  contributor  to  the 
City  Gazette  in  support  of  its  Unionist  policy. 
On  July  1,  1832,  without  giving  up  his  law  prac- 
tice, he  became  editor  of  the  Charleston  Daily 
Courier,  the  leading  Unionist  journal  of  the 
state,  and  six  months  later  he  became  a  part 
owner.  Ill  health  forced  him  to  retire  from  the 
editorship  Nov.  4,  1844,  though  he  long  con- 
tinued to  contribute  editorials. 

An  ardent  Whig,  he  opposed  John  C.  Calhoun 
[q.Z'.]  but  praised  his  wisdom  in  crushing  the 
Bluffton  movement  of  R.  B.  Rhett  [q.v.]  in 
1844  for  re-asserting  nullification.  When  Rhett 
in  1856  offered  for  governor  and  sought  to  rouse 
secession  sentiment,  Yeadon  declared  him  unfit 
for  leadership  and  denounced  his  effort  to  undo 
the  Union-preserving  influence  of  Buchanan's 
election.  Taunted  as  a  "traitor"  for  his  Unionism, 
he  protested  that  none  would  sacrifice  himself 
for  his  state  more  willingly  than  he.  Secession 
once  ordained,  he  bought  Confederate  bonds  gen- 
erously and  gave  largely  for  equipping  Confed- 
erate soldiers  and  building  a  navy.  He  offered  a 
reward  of  $10,000  for  the  capture  dead  or  alive 
of  Benjamin   F.   Butler   [q.v.]    after   President 

60 


Yeager 


Davis  declared  that  Federal  officer  an  outlaw. 
Throughout  the  war,  with  men  like  R.  W.  Barn- 
well and  James  Chesnut  [<?.e\],  Yeadon  sup- 
ported President  Davis  against  radicals  led  by 
Rhett.  Yeadon's  election  to  the  legislature  in 
1862  by  a  vote  overtopping  that  given  to  extrem- 
ists expressed  the  conservatism  always  strong  in 
Charleston.  Insistent  on  the  supremacy  of  law, 
he  was  determined  in  defense  of  legal  rights.  He 
supported  the  Citadel  authorities  in  the  student 
rebellion  of  1858,  and  when  Dr.  R.  W.  Gibbes 
[q.v.]  was  ejected  from  the  council  chamber 
which  he  had  entered  to  report  proceedings  for 
the  South  Carolinian,  Yeadon  prosecuted  Gib- 
bes's  suit  for  damages  and  won  a  small  award. 

Yeadon  had  many  non-professional  interests. 
He  operated  a  peach  farm  at  his  country  place 
near  Aiken  and  fancied  fine  horses.  On  Dec.  23, 
1829,  he  married  Mary  Videau  Marion,  great- 
grand-niece  of  Gen.  Francis  Marion  [q.v.],  and 
subsequently  compiled  a  genealogy  of  his  wife's 
family.  He  was  chiefly  responsible  for  remov- 
ing the  body  of  Hugh  S.  Legare  [q.v.]  from 
Massachusetts  to  Charleston.  He  served  at  least 
three  terms  (1856-60;  1862-64)  in  the  state 
House  of  Representatives,  where  he  contributed 
to  strengthening  financial  and  simplifying  testa- 
mentary and  land-title  law  and  opposed  the  re- 
opening of  the  African  slave  trade.  He  origi- 
nated the  ordinance  establishing  the  Charleston 
High  School,  secured  the  Council's  donation  of 
$1,000  a  year  for  a  century  to  the  College  of 
Charleston,  and  gave  liberally  for  establishing 
a  chair  of  political  economy  in  the  latter  institu- 
tion. He  was  industrious,  hospitable,  witty.  Ill 
health  intensified  his  sudden  changes  from  exul- 
tation to  depression.  Childless,  he  adopted  a 
nephew — killed  in  the  war — and  two  of  his  wife's 
nieces.  Though  a  believer  in  Christianity,  he 
joined  no  church.  He  began  life  poor,  but 
through  his  practice  accumulated  about  $400,- 
000,  two  thirds  of  which  disappeared  through  the 
war.   His  wife  survived  him. 

|"W.  L.  T.  Crocker,  "Richard  Yeadon"  (MS.),  mas- 
ter's thesis,  Univ.  of  S.  C,  1927;  W.  L.  King,  The 
Newspaper  Press  of  Charleston,  S.  C.  (1882);  A.  S. 
Salley,  Jr.,  "Century  of  the  Courier,"  in  Centennial 
Edition  of  the  News  and  Courier  (1903)  ;  B.  F.  Perry, 
Reminiscences  of  Public  Men  (1883);  B.  F.  Butler, 
Autobiog.  (1892);  Laura  A.  White,  Robert  Barnwell 
Rhett  (1931)  ;  D.  D.  Wallace,  The  Hist,  of  S.  C.  (1934), 
vols.  II,  III  ;  A.  C.  Cole,  The  Whig  Party  in  the  South 
(1913)  I  Charleston  Daily  Courier,  Apr.  26-28,  1870.] 

D.  D.  W. 

YEAGER,  JOSEPH  (c.  1792-June  9,  1859), 
engraver,  publisher  of  children's  books,  and  rail- 
road president,  was  one  of  a  family  of  five  boys 
and  three  girls.  The  family  probably  lived  in 
Philadelphia,  Pa.  Joseph  early  occupied  himself 


Yeager 

with  engraving;  a  line  engraving  by  him,  enti- 
tled "Symptoms  of  Restiveness,"  is  dated  1809. 
From  this  date  until  about  1845  he  was  active 
in  Philadelphia  as  a  general  engraver  in  line  and 
etcher  of  portraits.  Some  of  his  signed  plates 
appear  in  the  children's  books  published  by  Wil- 
liam Charles  [q.z>.]  of  Philadelphia  in  1814  and 
1815,  and  no  doubt  he  did  unsigned  work  for 
other  publishers.  Of  his  thirty-five  or  forty 
known  engravings  about  half  consist  of  etchings 
of  portraits  and  half  of  line  engravings  of  scen- 
ery and  views  of  buildings.  Among  his  engrav- 
ings are  "The  Great  Bend  of  the  Susquehanna 
River  in  Susquehanna  County,  Pennsylvania," 
in  the  Portfolio  (1811)  ;  "The  Death  of  Addi- 
son" in  Fears  of  Death  (1819)  ;  the  atlas  and 
title  page  of  John  Marshall's  Life  of  Washington 
(Philadelphia,  c.  1822)  ;  plates  for  Life  in  China 
(Philadelphia,  1842)  ;  a  number  of  plates  in  the 
Nciv  Edinburgh  Encyclopedia ;  a  title-page  vi- 
gnette in  Confessions  of  Harry  Lorrequcr  (Phil- 
adelphia, 1842)  ;  two  plates  after  Cruikshank  in 
Sketches  by  Bos  (Philadelphia,  1838)  ;  and  il- 
lustrations by  Phiz  in  Nicholas  Nicklcby  (Phil- 
adelphia, 1839).  In  1830  and  later  his  work  ap- 
peared in  the  Casket  and  its  successor,  Atkin- 
son's Casket.  From  1819  until  1836  he  lived  at 
37  Chester  St.,  where  he  published  and  sold 
prints,  including  his  own.  In  1837  his  address 
was  30  Washington  Row.  From  1839  to  1847 
it  was  30  Palmyra  Square.  From  all  such  loca- 
tions he  conducted  his  engraving  business,  which 
in  addition  to  the  titles  enumerated  included 
many  others,  such  as  the  "Battle  of  New  Or- 
leans," "The  Exchange,  New  York,"  "United 
States  Branch  Bank,  New  York,"  "Interior  of 
an  Indian  Lodge,"  book  illustrations,  and  en- 
gravings of  a  commercial  nature.  In  1824  he 
was  in  partnership  with  William  H.  Morgan, 
carver  and  gilder  of  114  Chestnut  St.,  Philadel- 
phia, who  also  published  "National  Prints"  and 
toy  books  for  children.  Morgan  and  Yeager 
sold  their  toy  books  at  both  wholesale  and  retail. 
Their  stock  included  approximately  sixty  titles, 
many  of  them  being  well-known  nursery  and 
folk  tales.  The  exact  dates  of  this  partnership 
are  not  known. 

In  1848  Yeager  became  president  of  the  Har- 
risburg  and  Lancaster  Railroad  Company,  with 
an  office  in  16  Merchants  Exchange.  The  rail- 
road, more  correctly  known  as  the  Harrisburg, 
Portsmouth,  Mount  Joy  and  Lancaster  Railroad, 
extended  only  thirty-seven  miles  and  was  later 
absorbed  by  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad.  Yeager 
was  also  a  member  of  the  board  of  controllers  of 
the  fourth  school  section  of  Philadelphia  (1841- 
45).    He  died  at  his  home  in  Philadelphia  and 

60 


Yeaman 

was  buried  in  Laurel  Hill  Cemetery.  His  estate 
amounted  to  at  least  $55,000,  and  included  rail- 
road bonds  and  real  estate  in  both  city  and  coun- 
try. 

[if.  B.  Weiss,  Joseph  Yeager  (1932),  reprinted  from 
Bull.  N.  Y.  Pub.  Lib.,  Sept.  1932;  D.  M.  Stauffer,  Am. 
Engravers  upon  Copper  and  Steel  (1907),  and  Supple- 
ment (1917),  ed.  by  Mantle  Fielding;  Phila.  city  direc- 
tories; obituary  in  Phila.  Daily  News,  June  11,  1859.] 

H.  B.  W. 

YEAMAN,  WILLIAM  POPE  (May  28, 
1832-Feb.  19,  1904),  Baptist  minister,  was  born 
in  Hardin  County,  Ky.  His  great-grandfather, 
Moses  Yeaman,  about  the  middle  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century  moved  with  his  family  from  New 
Jersey  to  the  "Red  Stone"  country  of  south- 
western Pennsylvania."  A  few  years  later  he  re- 
moved to  Kentucky,  and  finally  settled  in  Ohio. 
Moses'  grandson,  Stephen  Minor  Yeaman,  born 
on  a  farm  near  Lebanon,  Ohio,  married  Lucretia 
Helm,  sister  of  John  L.  Helm  who  became  gov- 
ernor of  Kentucky.  Six  sons  of  this  marriage 
chose  the  profession  of  law,  though  two  subse- 
quently entered  the  Baptist  ministry.  George 
Helm  Yeaman,  the  second  son,  served  two  terms 
in  Congress,  was  minister  resident  at  Copen- 
hagen for  five  years,  and  in  1872-76  was  lecturer 
in  the  law  school  of  Columbia  College,  now  Co- 
lumbia University,  New  York  City. 

William  Pope  Yeaman,  the  third  son,  studied 
law  in  the  office  of  his  uncle,  Gov.  John  L.  Helm, 
and  at  the  age  of  nineteen  was  admitted  to  the 
Kentucky  bar.  For  nine  years,  first  in  Elizabeth- 
town  and  later  in  Calhoun,  he  devoted  himself  to 
the  practice  of  the  law.  He  was  an  elector  on  the 
Bell  and  Everett  presidential  ticket  in  i860. 
Reared  in  the  Methodist  Episcopal  communion, 
he  severed  his  relation  with  that  body  to  become 
a  Baptist.  In  i860  he  was  ordained  and  assumed 
the  pastorate  of  the  Baptist  Church  of  Nicholas- 
ville,  Ky.  Two  years  later,  he  became  pastor  of 
the  First  Baptist  Church,  Covington,  Ky.,  and 
subsequently  served  the  Central  Baptist  Church, 
New  York  City  (December  1867-1870)  and  the 
Third  Baptist  Church,  St.  Louis,  Mo.  (1870- 
76).  In  1877  he  led  in  the  organization  of  the 
Garrison  Avenue  Baptist  Church  (later  the  Del- 
mar  Avenue  Baptist  Church),  St.  Louis,  and 
for  two  years  was  its  pastor.  In  St.  Louis  he  was 
for  a  time  one  of  the  editors  of  the  Central  Bap- 
tist, the  denominational  organ  for  Missouri. 
From  1884  to  1886  he  was  secretary  of  the  Board 
of  State  Missions  for  the  General  Association  of 
Missouri  Baptists,  and  it  has  been  said  that  "the 
tremendous  amount  of  labor  which  he  performed 
in  this  field,  his  convincing  arguments  and  his 
stirring  appeals  did  more  to  arouse  Missouri 
Baptists  to  the  great  cause  of  missions  than  any- 

3 


Yeamans 

thing  else  in  our  history"  (Douglass,  post,  p. 
282).  For  twenty  years,  from  1877  to  l&97>  he 
was  the  moderator  of  the  General  Association  of 
Missouri  Baptists  and  for  a  number  of  years  held 
also  the  extremely  important  office  of  corre- 
sponding secretary.  In  1875-76  he  served  as 
chancellor  of  William  Jewell  College,  Liberty, 
Mo.,  and  from  1893  to  1897  he  was  president  of 
Grand  River  College,  Gallatin,  Mo.  He  was  pres- 
ident of  the  board  of  curators  of  Stevens  College 
and  of  the  board  of  curators  of  the  state  univer- 
sity. In  1880  he  was  chosen  a  vice-president  of 
the  Southern  Baptist  Convention.  He  wrote  A 
History  of  the  Missouri  Baptist  General  Asso- 
ciation which  was  published  by  authority  of  the 
Association  in  1899.  His  friends  twice  proposed 
him  for  the  Democratic  nomination  for  political 
office — once  as  congressman,  once  as  governor — 
but  neither  time  was  he  nominated.  He  spent  his 
declining  years  on  a  farm  near  Columbia,  Mo., 
serving  the  Baptist  Church  at  Walnut  Grove  in 
Boone  County.  He  had  married  before  reaching 
his  majority  Eliza  Shackelford  of  Hardin  Coun- 
ty, Ky.,  and  three  sons  and  five  daughters  were 
born  of  the  union.  He  died  in  his  seventy-second 
year,  three  weeks  after  the  death  of  his  wife. 

Yeaman  was  the  product  of  an  age  and  an  en- 
vironment in  which  the  Christian  minister  was 
the  recognized  leader  in  all  realms  of  social  life. 
Of  commanding  presence,  eloquent  in  the  pulpit 
and  on  the  platform,  independent  in  thought  and 
utterance,  he  was  probably  the  ablest  leader  of 
Missouri  Baptists  during  the  most  critical  peri- 
od of  their  history. 

[J.  C.  Maple,  Life  and  Writings  of  Rev.  William 
Pope  Yeaman  (1906)  ;  J.  C.  Maple  and  R.  P.  Rider, 
Mo.  Baptist  Biog.,  vol.  I  (1914)  ;  R.  S.  Douglass,  Hist, 
of  Mo.  Baptists  (1934)  ;  R.  S.  Duncan,  A  Hist,  of  the 
Baptists  in  Mo.  (1882)  ;  William  Catlicart,  The  Baptist 
Encyc.  (1881);  E.  L.  Starling,  Hist,  of  Henderson 
County,  Ky.  (1887),  pp.  644-45;  Am.  Baptist  Year- 
book, 1868-1904;  Kansas  City  Journal,  Feb.  20  1904.] 

R.  W.  W— r. 

YEAMANS,  Sir  JOHN  (1610/n-August 
1674),  colonial  governor,  was  baptized  in  Bris- 
tol, England,  Feb.  28,  1610/11.  He  was  probably 
the  son  of  John  Yeamans,  a  brewer,  of  Bristol. 
A  stanch  royalist,  he  entered  military  service  and 
rose  to  the  rank  of  colonel  in  the  royalist  army. 
In  1650,  when  the  Commonwealth  was  in  the 
ascendancy,  he  emigrated  to  Barbados.  His  first 
wife,  daughter  of' a  Mr.  Limp,  had  presumably 
died,  for  he  married  the  widow  of  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  Berringer  of  Barbados,  a  daughter  of 
Rev.  John  Foster. 

When  the  Lords  Proprietors  were  granted 
Carolina  in  1663,  Yeamans,  seeing  an  opportu- 
nity for  himself  and  other  ambitious  Barbadians, 
negotiated  through  his  son,  Maj.  William  Yea- 


Yeamans 

mans,  for  the  right  to  establish  a  colony  there 
with  himself  as  governor.  Successful  in  his  nego- 
tiations, he  was  made  a  baronet  Jan.  12,  1664/65, 
on  the  recommendation  of  the  proprietors,  for 
his  expected  services  in  promoting  settlement. 
Commissioned  governor,  Jan.  11,  1665,  he  sailed 
from  Barbados  in  October  to  choose  a  suitable 
location.  A  site  on  the  Cape  Fear  River  was  se- 
lected, but  after  remaining  with  the  settlers  only 
a  short  time  Yeamans  returned  to  Barbados.  The 
settlement  languished  and  was  abandoned  in 
1667.  Later  the  proprietors  sent  out  a  second 
expedition  under  Joseph  West  \_q.v.~\  which 
reached  Barbados  in  1669.  Yeamans  still  held 
the  title  of  governor  of  Carolina  and  had  also 
been  appointed  a  landgrave.  He  decided  to  ac- 
company the  expedition,  but  went  only  as  far  as 
Bermuda,  and  returned  home  after  appointing 
William  Sayle  governor  by  authority  of  the  pro- 
prietors. 

In  1670  he  demonstrated  his  continued  interest 
in  the  colony  by  offering  inducements  for  settle- 
ment, and  in  1671  he  was  there  in  person,  built 
a  home,  and  introduced  the  first  negro  slaves. 
He  claimed  the  governorship  on  the  ground  that 
a  provision  in  the  charter  stipulated  that  a  pro- 
prietor or  a  landgrave  must  be  governor,  and  he 
alone  met  the  requirement.  West,  who  had  been 
elected  by  the  Council  to  succeed  Sayle  on  the 
latter's  death  in  1671  but  had  never  been  com- 
missioned, was  so  popular  that  the  Council  re- 
fused to  replace  him  until  commanded  to  do  so. 
The  necessary  command  was  received  in  1672, 
and  Yeamans  became  governor.  He  was  in- 
structed to  establish  another  port  town  on  the 
Ashley  River,  and  accordingly  laid  out  the  site 
of  Charles  Town.  He  was  unpopular  with  both 
people  and  proprietors.  Objections  were  made 
to  his  reckless  exportation  of  food  to  Barbados 
for  his  own  profit  at  a  time  when  there  was  a 
scarcity  of  provisions,  to  his  extravagance,  and 
to  his  attempt  to  subordinate  Carolina  to  Bar- 
bados. His  lack  of  genuine  interest  in  the  colony 
was  apparent  from  his  conduct.  Twice  he  took 
a  leading  part  in  expeditions  to  Carolina  only  to 
abandon  them,  and  when  he  finally  settled  there, 
his  chief  concern  was  to  have  himself  appointed 
governor.  His  commission  was  revoked  by  the 
proprietors  on  Apr.  25,  1674,  and  West  was  com- 
missioned in  his  stead,  but  word  of  the  change 
had  not  yet  reached  Carolina  when  Yeamans 
died.  His  will,  proved  in  December  1674,  shows 
that  he  had  eight  children. 

[Edward  McCrady,  The  Hist,  of  S.  C.  under  the 
Proprietary  Govt.  (1897)  ;  B.  R.  Carroll,  Hist.  Colls,  of 
S.  C.  (2  vols.,  1836)  ;  W.  J.  Rivers,  A  Sketch  of  the 
Hist,  of  S.  C.  (1856)  ;  Alexander  Hewat,  An  Hist.  Ac- 
count of  the  Rise  and  Progress  of  the  Colonies  of  S.  C. 


604 


Yeardley 

and  Ga.  (2  vols.,  1779)  ;'  5".  C.  Hist,  and  Geneal.  Mag., 
Jan.  1908,  Apr.  1910,  July  19 18,  Apr.  1919 — articles 
which  correct  many  errors  in  earlier  accounts  ;  Cal.  of 
State  Papers,  Colonial  Ser.,  America  and  West  Indies, 
1661-80  (1880-96)  ;  J.  A.  Doyle,  in  Diet.  Nat.  Biog.~\ 

H.  B— C. 

YEARDLEY,  Sir  GEORGE  (c.  1587-N0- 
vember  1627),  adventurer,  planter,  and  twice 
governor  of  colonial  Virginia,  was  a  distin- 
guished representative  of  that  group  of  London 
citizenry  which  contributed  so  substantially  to 
American  colonization.  His  father,  Ralph,  was 
a  member  of  the  Guild  of  Merchant  Taylors. 
His  mother,  Rhoda  Marston,  was  of  another  city 
family.  George,  a  second  son,  as  a  youth  entered 
service  in  the  Netherlands,  where  he  established 
connections  with  Sir  Thomas  Gates  [<?.r.]  which 
shaped  the  course  of  his  later  life. 

Sailing  for  Virginia  with  Somers  and  Gates 
in  1609,  he  served  with  credit  in  a  military  ca- 
pacity for  several  years  thereafter.  From  the 
departure  of  Sir  Thomas  Dale  [q.v.~\  in  April 
1616,  he  was  acting  governor  until  May  15,  1617. 
Though  it  is  likely  that  his  rule  was  character- 
ized by  a  laxity  diminishing  to  some  extent  its 
efficiency,  his  long  experience  in  the  colony  and 
the  reaction  against  the  use  of  martial  law  which 
accompanied  the  reforms  of  1618  made  him  a 
strong  candidate  for  governor  in  that  year  of 
revived  hope  and  revised  plans. 

Consequently,  he  was  commissioned  governor 
on  Nov.  18,  1618.  King  James  added  to  his  rank 
the  distinction  of  knighthood,  and  Sir  George 
sailed  for  Virginia  the  following  January.  His 
instructions,  among  the  most  important  docu- 
ments in  the  history  of  English  colonization, 
called  for  the  abolition  of  martial  law,  directed 
the  summoning  of  the  first  representative  as- 
sembly in  an  English  colony — over  which  Yeard- 
ley had  the  distinction  of  presiding — and  pro- 
vided for  important  changes  in  the  terms  and 
conditions  of  land  tenure.  In  addition,  he  was 
charged  to  reduce  the  production  of  tobacco,  to 
superintend  experiments  with  many  new  com- 
modities such  as  silk,  wine,  and  iron,  to  prepare 
for  the  reception  of  hundreds  of  new  settlers 
who  presently  were  to  follow,  and  to  make  all 
arrangements  necessary  to  the  settlement  of  those 
private  plantations,  commonly  called  hundreds, 
financed  by  voluntary  associations  of  adventurers 
under  patents  from  the  company,  by  which  it 
was  hoped  to  speed  the  advent  of  Virginia's  pros- 
perity. 

For  the  failure  of  this  new  program,  which 
was  ultimately  responsible  for  the  bankruptcy  and 
dissolution  of  the  London  Company,  Yeardley 
bears  only  a  small  portion  of  the  blame.  The 
many  errors  of  judgment  in  the  leadership  of 

60 


Yeardley 

Sir  Edwin  Sandys,  whose  followers  gained  con- 
trol of  the  company  in  the  spring  of  1619,  made 
the  Governor's  position  well  nigh  hopeless.  De- 
nied time  for  adequate  preparation  and  forced  to 
receive  without  previous  warning  hundreds  of 
ill-equipped  colonists,  he  protested  strongly  to 
Sandys  and  wisely  counseled  against  overhasty 
action,  but  with  little  effect.  His  own  failing  was 
an  inability  to  arouse  the  colonists  to  a  whole- 
hearted cooperation  with  the  company's  purposes. 
In  this,  however,  he  was  only  partially  at  fault. 
His  instructions  directed  proceedings  against 
several  of  the  more  influential  planters,  and  since 
he  was  of  necessity  identified  with  the  Sandys 
party  at  a  time  when  the  venom  of  factionalism 
was  penetrating  deep  into  the  vitals  of  the  com- 
pany, it  was  impossible  for  him  to  escape  its  dire 
effect  in  the  colony.  Sorely  tried  and  beset 
through  three  years,  he  retired  at  his  own  re- 
quest, but  without  protest  from  the  company's 
leaders,  in  1621. 

He  was  then  able  to  devote  more  attention  to 
his  private  investment  in  Southampton  Hundred, 
a  plantation  of  80,000  acres  in  which  the  lead- 
ing members  of  the  Sandys  party  were  the  chief 
investors  and  of  which  he  was  governor  and  cap- 
tain. He  continued  as  a  member  of  the  colonial 
council,  rendered  valiant  service  in  the  emer- 
gency created  by  the  Indian  massacre  of  1622, 
and  at  the  time  of  the  proceedings  against  the 
company  joined  with  other  leading  planters  in 
protesting  against  any  action  likely  to  involve 
a  recall  of  the  colonists'  liberties.  In  the  unset- 
tled state  of  affairs  which  followed  the  dissolu- 
tion of  the  company  Yeardley  carried  to  England 
in  1625  important  petitions  from  the  "conven- 
tion" assembly  of  that  spring  presenting  the 
needs  of  the  colonists  and  requesting  the  continu- 
ation of  their  general  assembly.  Although  he 
failed  to  secure  a  definite  commitment  on  the  lat- 
ter point,  the  reaction  of  the  Privy  Council  was 
reassuring  and  indicates  that  Yeardley  made  a 
tactful  and  able  representative  of  the  settlers. 
The  favorable  impression  made  upon  the  king's 
officers  led  to  his  being  commissioned  as  gover- 
nor again,  on  Mar.  14,  1626,  a  post  which  he  held 
until  his  death.  He  was  buried  Nov.  13,  1627; 
his  will  (see  New  England  Historical  and  Ge- 
nealogical Register,  January  1884,  pp.  69-70) 
left  a  not  inconsiderable  estate  to  his  wife,  Tem- 
perance (Flowerdieu)  and  their  children,  Argall, 
Francis,  and  Elizabeth. 

f  J.  A.  Doyle,  in  Diet.  Nat.  Biog.  ;  Alexander  Brown, 
The  Genesis'of  the  U.  S.  (1890),  vol.  II  :  P.  A.  Bruce, 
The  Va.  Plutarch  (1929),  vol.  I  ;  Am.  Hist.  Mag.,  Oct. 
1896;  J.  H.  R.  Yardley,  Before  the  Mayflower  (  1931), 
to  be  used  with  caution;  Records  of  the  I'd.  Company 
(4  vols.,  1906-35).  ed.  by  S.  M.  Kingsbury;  Journals 
of  the  House  of  Burgesses  of  Virginia,   1619-1658/9, 

5 


Yeates 


Yeatman 


(1915),  ed.  by  H.  R.  Mcllwaine;  Minutes  of  the  Coun- 
cil and  General  Court  of  Colonial  Va.,  1622-1632,  1670— 
1676  (1924)  ;  Cal.  of  State  Papers,  Colonial  Ser.,  1574- 
1660  (i860)  ;  Acts  of  the  Privy  Council  of  England, 
Colonial  Ser.,  vol.  I,  1613-80  (1908)  ;  some  of  Yeard- 
ley's  correspondence,  in  the  Ferrar  Papers,  Magdalene 
College,  Cambridge;  C.  M.  Andrews,  The  Colonial 
Period  of  Am.  Hist.,  vol.  I  (1934)  ;  W.  F.  Craven,  Dis- 
solution of  the  Va.  Company  (1932).]  W.F.C. 


YEATES,  JASPER  (Apr.  17,  1745-Mar.  14, 
1817),  lawyer,  jurist,  son  of  John  and  Elizabeth 
(Sidebottom)  Yeates,  was  born  at  Philadelphia. 
His  grandfather,  Jasper,  a  native  of  Yorkshire, 
came  to  Philadelphia  soon  after  William  Penn, 
and  acquired  extensive  business  interests  in  Penn- 
sylvania and  Delaware.  John  Yeates  was  a  mer- 
chant engaged  in  foreign  trade.  After  receiving 
a  common-school  education  Yeates  attended  the 
College  of  Philadelphia,  where  he  received  the 
degree  of  B.A.  in  1761,  studied  law  under  Ed- 
ward Shippen,  1728/29-1806  [q.v.~\,  and  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  on  May  8,  1765.  Shortly  there- 
after he  moved  to  Lancaster  and  established  a 
successful  practice.  On  Dec.  30,  1767,  he  mar- 
ried Sarah,  daughter  of  Col.  James  and  Sarah 
(Shippen)  Burd,  this  union  allying  him  with 
two  of  the  oldest  and  most  influential  families  in 
the  province.  There  were  at  least  four  children. 

From  the  beginning  of  his  career  as  a  lawyer 
Yeates  was  active  in  local  politics.  Throughout 
the  controversy  with  the  mother  country  he  was 
a  Whig  of  moderate  tendencies  and  until  the  last 
persisted  in  his  hopes  for  reconciliation.  He  was 
chairman  of  the  Lancaster  County  committee  of 
correspondence  in  1775  and  a  captain  of  asso- 
ciators  in  1776,  but  saw  no  active  military  serv- 
ice because  of  an  appointment  by  Congress  to  a 
commission  to  negotiate  a  treaty  with  the  In- 
dians at  Fort  Pitt  shortly  before  his  battalion 
joined  Washington's  army.  Although  ready  to 
acquiesce  in  separation  from  Great  Britain  when 
it  became  a  fact,  he  was  opposed  to  any  change 
in  the  provincial  government.  "Absolute  neces- 
sity alone  should  .  .  .  justify  an  innovation  in  the 
constitution,"  he  maintained,  and  such  justifi- 
cation he  could  not  find  (Balch,  post,  p.  248). 
With  the  Pennsylvania  constitution  of  1776  he 
was  manifestly  dissatisfied:  "The  Clamors  of 
the  Red-Hot  Patriots  Have  subsided  Into  Easy 
Places  And  Offices  of  Profit !  The  posts  of  mere 
Trust  go  a  begging !  No  one  can  be  found  to 
accept  them!  Whenever  I  reflect  on  the  times  I 
am  seized  with  the  blue  devils.  I  walk  about  the 
room  in  a  sweat,  look  at  my  family,  and  wish 
them  and  myself  out  of  the  way  of  vexation"  fto 
Col.  James  Burd,  Mar.  2Q,  1777;  Balch,  p.  259). 
His  opposition  soon  became  more  open  and  he 
worked  tirelessly  to  bring  about  the  election  of 
an  Assembly  controlled  by  the  opponents  of  the 

606 


state  constitution.  Needless  to  say  he  viewed  with 
deep  satisfaction  the  revision  of  that  instrument 
in  1789-90  and  the  adoption  of  the  Federal  Con- 
stitution in  1787,  the  ratification  of  which  he 
helped  to  bring  about  in  the  Pennsylvania  con- 
vention. 

On  Mar.  21,  1791,  Gov.  Thomas  Mifflin  [q.v.] 
appointed  Yeates  an  associate  justice  of  the  Penn- 
sylvania supreme  court,  a  post  he  held  until  his 
death.  Four  volumes  of  cases,  covering  the  years 
1791-1808,  were  reported  by  him  {Yeates'  Re- 
ports) and  his  opinions  appear  also  in  the  six  vol- 
umes of  Binney's  Reports  and  1-2  Sergeant  and 
Rawle.  During  his  justiceship  he  was  a  member 
of  the  commission  appointed  by  President  Wash- 
ington to  treat  with  the  inhabitants  of  western 
Pennsylvania  in  the  Whiskey  Insurrection.  His 
conciliatory  disposition  was  a  prominent  factor 
in  bringing  about  an  agreement  and  the  restora- 
tion of  order.  He  was  one  of  the  three  judges 
against  whom  the  Pennsylvania  legislature 
brought  unsuccessful  impeachment  proceedings 
in  1805  because  they  had  imposed  a  fine  and 
prison  term  on  one  Thomas  Passmore  for  con- 
tempt of  court.  Yeates  was  a  prudent  business 
man  and  left  a  considerable  fortune  for  his  day, 
$240,000.  Throughout  his  life  he  displayed  a  keen 
interest  in  civic  improvements  and  in  new  meth- 
ods of  farming.  He  loved  literature  and  had  a 
large  library.  He  died  at  Lancaster  and  was  in- 
terred in  the  churchyard  of  St.  James'  Episcopal 
Church,  of  which  he  was  a  member. 

[C.  I.  Landis,  "Jasper  Yeates  and  His  Times,"  Pa. 
Mag.  of  Hist,  and  Biog.,  July  1922;  Biog.  and  Gcneal. 
Hist,  of  the  State  of  Del.  (2  vols.,  1899)  ;  Letters  and 
Papers  Relating  Chiefly  to  the  Provincial  Hist,  of  Pa. 
(1855),  ed.  by  Thomas  Balch  ;  William  Hamilton,  Re- 
port of  the  Trial  and  Acquittal  of  Edward  Shippen,  .  .  . 
Jasper  Yeates  and  Thomas  Smith  .  .  .  on  an  Impeach- 
ment .  .  .  1805  (n.d.)  ;  B.  C.  Atlee,  "Jasper  Yeates," 
Green  Bag,  Sept.  1893  ;  Poulson's  Am.  Daily  Advertiser 
(Phila.),  Mar.  18,  18 17.]  J.  H.  P— g. 

YEATMAN,  JAMES  ERWIN  (Aug.  27, 
1818-July  7,  1901),  banker,  civic  leader,  philan- 
thropist, was  born  at  "Beechwood,"  near  War- 
trace,  Tenn.,  five  generations  removed  from 
John  Yeatman  of  Virginia,  whose  paternal  line 
went  back  to  Dorsetshire,  England.  He  was  sec- 
ond among  six  children  of  Thomas  Yeatman,  a 
prosperous  banker  and  manufacturer  of  iron  ma- 
terials, and  Jane  Patton  (Erwin),  of  Buncombe 
County,  N.  C,  who  as  a  wealthy  widow  later 
married  John  Bell  [q.v.~],  presidential  candidate 
in  i860.  Educated  privately  and  at  the  New 
Haven  Commercial  School,  Yeatman  enjoyed  a 
sojourn  abroad  and  in  1842,  after  an  apprentice- 
ship in  his  father's  extensive  business  at  Cum- 
berland, Tenn.,  became  its  representative  in  St. 
Louis,  Mo. 


Yeatman 


Yell 


Here  scrupulous  honesty  soon  won  him  a  lead- 
ing place  among  businessmen.  In  1847  he  joined 
in  erecting  "Yeatman's  row,"  an  imposing  hous- 
ing project  for  the  times,  and  in  1850  was  one 
of  the  founders  of  the  Merchants'  Bank.  Ten 
years  later  he  gave  up  a  flourishing  com- 
mission business  to  become  president  of  this 
institution,  reorganized  as  the  Merchants'  Na- 
tional Bank;  thereafter  for  thirty-five  years 
he  was  largely  responsible  for  the  '  important 
place  it  occupied  in  the  Mississippi  Valley's  finan- 
cial life.  In  1850  he  asked  Congress  for  a  right  of 
way  through  Missouri  for  the  Missouri  Pacific 
Railroad,  of  which  he  was  an  incorporator.  He 
was  the  first  president  of  the  St.  Louis  Mercantile 
Library  Association  (1846),  first  head  of  the 
board  of  trustees  of  the  St.  Louis  Asylum  for  the 
Blind,  and  a  generous  benefactor  of  Washington 
University.  In  1889  he  was  named  one  of  the 
original  trustees  of  the  Missouri  Botanical  Gar- 
den in  the  will  of  Henry  Shaw  \_q.vJ\.  He  was 
also  secretary  and  trustee  of  the  St.  Louis  Medi- 
cal College. 

Yeatman's  most  important  work  was  performed 
as  president  of  the  Western  Sanitary  Commis- 
sion, created  by  order  of  Maj.-Gen.  John  C.  Fre- 
mont [q.z>.~\  at  St.  Louis,  Sept.  5,  1861.  Coop- 
erating with  Dorothea  L.  Dix  [q.v.~\,  then  in  St. 
Louis,  Yeatman  gave  virtually  the  whole  of  his 
time  to  organizing  hospitals,  recruiting  nurses, 
improving  prison  conditions,  establishing  sol- 
diers' and  orphans'  homes  and  schools  for  refu- 
gee children,  and  distributing  sanitary  supplies. 
Under  his  direction  what  were  probably  the  first 
railroad  hospital  cars  were  outfitted  on  the  Pa- 
cific Railroad  and  early  in  1862  the  commission 
placed  on  the  Mississippi  a  hospital  boat,  the 
first  of  many  such  craft.  Yeatman  spent  much 
time  in  the  field  and  the  soldiers  knew  him  af- 
fectionately as  "Old  Sanitary"  (Stevens,  post,  I, 
297).  In  1863  he  made  a  trip  along  the  lower 
Mississippi  inspecting  the  plight  of  freedmen ; 
President  Lincoln  asked  him  to  head  the  Freed- 
men's  Bureau  when  it  organized,  but  Yeatman 
declined.  The  final  report  of  the  Western  Sani- 
tary Commission  showed  that  it  had  received 
$770,998  in  cash  and  stores  valued  at  $3,500,000. 
Unquestionably  Yeatman's  genius  for  organiza- 
tion, tireless  energy,  and  integrity  were  leading 
factors  in  the  success  of  this  pioneering  effort 
at  mitigating  the  misery  of  war. 

Yeatman  was  married,  Sept.  II,  1838,  to  An- 
gelica Charlotte  Thompson  of  Alexandria,  Va., 
great-grand-daughter  of  Charles  Willson  Peale 
\q.v.~\  ;  she  died  May  7,  1849,  and  on  May  5,  1851, 
he  married  Cynthia  Ann  Pope  of  Kaskaskia,  III., 
daughter  of  Nathaniel  Pope  [q.v.].   His  second 


wife  died  July  3,  1854.  More  than  six  feet  tall, 
courtly  and  genial,  Yeatman  had  an  impressive 
presence.  His  great  brick  residence,  "Belmont," 
was  a  center  of  St.  Louis'  gay  and  leisurely  ante- 
bellum society.  Two  of  his  five  children  were 
living  when  he  died  of  the  infirmities  of  age  in 
his  eighty-third  year  in  a  St.  Louis  hospital.  He 
was  buried  in  Bellefontaine  Cemetery.  In  his 
last  years  his  charitable  gifts  were  so  numerous 
that  he  left  little  besides  his  extensive  library 
(Eliot,  post,  p.  10).  His  city  mourned  him  as  its 
first  citizen.  Winston  Churchill,  who  had  Yeat- 
man "very  definitely  in  mind"  when  he  drew  the 
character  of  Calvin  Brinsmade  for  The  Crisis 
( 1901 ) ,  regarded  him  as  "the  flower  of  the  Amer- 
ican tradition." 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1901-02;  W.  C.  Hall,  De- 
scendants of  Alexander  Robinson  and  Angelica  Peale 
(1896)  ;  E.  C.  Eliot,  An  Address  Upon  the  Laying  o) 
the  Corner  Stone  of  the  James  E.  Yeatman  High  School 
(1903)  ;  James  Cox,  Old  and  New  St.  Louis  (1894)  ; 
William  Hyde  and  H.  L.  Conard,  Encyc.  of  the  Hist,  of 
St.  Louis  (1899);  L.  U.  Reavis,  St.  Louis  the  Fu- 
ture Great  City  of  the  World  (1875)  ;  J.  T.  Scharf,  Hist, 
of  St.  Louis  City  and  County  (1883)  ;  W.  B.  Stevens, 
Missouri,  the  Center  State  (1915")  ;  J.  G.  Forman,  The 
Western  Sanitary  Commission  (1864)  ;  W.  R.  Hodges, 
The  Western  Sanitary  Commission  (1906);  Rev.  of 
Revs.  (N.  Y.),  Aug.  1901  ;  St.  Louis  Post-Dispatch, 
July  7,  8,  9,  1901,  and  St.  Louis  Daily  Globe-Democrat, 
Dec.  27,  1901  ;  certain  information  from  Mrs.  Sara 
Yeatman  Graham,  Lakeland,  Fla.,  Yeatman's  grand- 
daughter, Alfred  C.  Carr,  St.  Louis,  his  grandson,  and 
Winston  Churchill,  Maitland,  Fla.]  I.  D. 

YELL,  ARCHIBALD  (August  1797-Feb.  23. 

1847),  soldier,  congressman,  governor  of  Ar- 
kansas, was  born  in  North  Carolina ;  practically 
nothing  is  known  of  his  ancestors  except  that 
they  came  to  America  before  the  Revolution.  He 
migrated  to  Tennessee  and  served  with  Andrew 
Jackson  against  the  Indians  and  against  the 
British  at  New  Orleans.  After  reading  law  and 
being  admitted  to  the  bar,  he  served  under  Jack- 
son against  the  Seminoles  in  Florida.  His  cour- 
age won  the  admiration  of  "Old  Hickory,"  who 
as  president  rewarded  him  by  a  succession  of 
federal  appointments.  After  a  term  in  the  Ten- 
nessee legislature  as  representative  of  Bedford 
County,  Yell  moved  to  Little  Rock,  Ark.,  to  take 
charge  of  the  federal  land  office  under  an  ap- 
pointment confirmed  Dec.  21,  1831.  In  a  few 
months  he  resigned  to  resume  the  practice  of  law, 
but  in  January  1835  was  appointed  territorial 
judge  in  Arkansas.  He  is  reputed  to  have  been 
as  fearless  on  the  bench  as  on  the  field  of  battle. 
According  to  one  story,  when  no  one  dared  serve 
on  a  posse  to  arrest  a  desperado  known  to  be  in 
a  local  saloon,  the  Judge  entered  the  saloon, 
grabbed  the  criminal  by  the  throat,  and  ordered 
him  into  court  (Herndon,  post,  I,  247). 

When  Arkansas  was  admitted  to  statehood  in 


607 


Yell 

1836.  Yell  was  elected  the  first  representative  in 
Congress  and  served  until  1839.  He  was  elected 
governor  in  1840  but  resigned  in  1844,  at  the 
request  of  the  Democratic  convencion,  to  run 
again  for  Congress  in  opposition  to  David  Walk- 
er [g.r.j.  In  this  campaign  Yell  demonstrated 
that  he  could  be  all  things  to  all  men.  At  a 
shooting  match  he  won  the  beef,  donated  it  to  the 
poorest  widow  in  the  neighborhood,  and  ordered 
a  jug  of  whiskey  for  the  crowd ;  while  at  the  next 
place,  where  a  camp  meeting  was  in  progress,  he 
was  soon  in  the  "Amen  corner"  leading  the 
singing  (Hallum,  post,  p.  117).  He  was  elected, 
and  took  his  seat  in  1845,  but  at  the  outbreak  of 
the  Mexican  War  left  Congress  without  resign- 
ing and  was  commissioned  colonel  of  the  1st 
Arkansas  Volunteer  Cavalry.  In  the  fall  of  1846 
— still  without  resigning — he  chose  to  remain  in 
the  field.  Treating  his  seat  as  vacant,  Governor 
Drew  ordered  an  election,  and  Thomas  W.  New- 
ton presented  his  certificate  of  election  to  the 
House  on  Feb.  6,  1847.  The  committee  on  elec- 
tions reported  favorably  to  Newton,  but  the 
House  refused  ( Mar.  3,  the  last  day  of  the  ses- 
sion) to  take  up  the  report  (Congressional  Globe, 
29  Cong.,  2  Sess.,  pp.  339  ff.,  527,  573)  ;  nine 
days  earlier  Yell  had  been  killed  at  the  battle  of 
Buena  Vista  while  leading  a  charge  of  his  troops. 
As  a  member  of  Congress  Yell  supported  the 
annexation  of  Texas  and  Polk's  Oregon  policy 
and  was  interested  in  strengthening  the  army 
and  in  public  lands.  As  governor  he  demanded 
strong  measures  for  the  control  of  the  State 
Bank  and  the  Real  Estate  Bank,  which  had  been 
created  in  the  previous  administration,  and  had 
already  suspended  specie  payments.  He  recom- 
mended a  board  of  internal  improvements,  made 
appeals  for  education,  and  recommended  agri- 
cultural schools,  based  upon  the  liberal  donations 
of  the  national  government,  as  the  type  best  suit- 
ed to  the  needs  of  an  agricultural  society  (Jour- 
nal of  the  House  of  Representatives  .  .  .  of  the 
State  of  Arkansas,  4  Sess.,  1843,  App.,  pp.  2- 
12).  He  was  attached  to  the  common  law  and 
vetoed  a  bill  giving  married  women  control  of 
their  own  property,  among  other  reasons  be- 
cause the  bill  as  drawn  left  the  husband  liable 
for  his  wife's  debts.  Yell  was  five  feet  ten  inches 
high,  had  auburn  hair  and  piercing  eyes,  and  was 
considered  a  handsome  man.  He  married  three 
times  and  was  the  father  of  five  children.  His 
first  wife  died  in  Tennessee ;  .the  second,  Nancy, 
died  Oct.  3,  1835  ;  the  third,  Marie,  Oct.  14,  1838. 
Yell  was  a  Mason  and  founded  the  first  lodge  in 
Arkansas,  at  Fayetteville. 

[Biog.  Dir.  Am.  Cong.   (1928),   inaccurate  in  many 
respects;  Ark.  Hist.  Asso.  Pubs.,  vol.  II  (1908)  ;  court 


Yeomans 

records,  Washington  County  Court  House  ;  Jour.  Exec. 
Proc.  of  the  Senate  of  the  U.  S.,  vol.  IV  (1887),  for 
federal  appointments  ;  J.  H.  Smith,  The  War  with  Mex- 
ico (2  vols.,  1919)  ;  John  Hallum,  Biog.  and  Pictorial 
Hist,  of  Ark.  (1887)  ;  D.  T.  Herndon,  Centennial  Hist, 
of  Ark.  (1922),  I,  246-51.]  D.Y.T. 

YEOMANS,  JOHN  WILLIAM  (Jan.  7, 
1800-June  22,  1863),  Congregational  and  Pres- 
byterian clergyman  and  educator,  was  born  at 
Hinsdale,  Berkshire  County,  Mass.  His  great- 
grandfather Yeomans  had  come  from  England  to 
that  state.  Because  of  his  mother's  death  in  his 
childhood  he  was  brought  up  by  her  parents. 
They  were  poor  people  and  apprenticed  him  to  a 
blacksmith,  but  he  was  determined  to  get  an  edu- 
cation, and  before  the  end  of  his  term  bought 
from  his  master  the  remainder  of  his  time.  In 
Troy,  N.  Y.,  and  Albany  he  studied,  supporting 
himself  by  teaching.  After  a  year  and  a  half  he 
entered  the  junior  class  of  Williams  College, 
where  he  graduated  in  1824,  second  in  rank  to 
Mark  Hopkins  [q.v.~\.  The  next  two  years  he 
spent  in  Andover  Theological  Seminary.  Dur- 
ing the  year  1826-27,  while  he  was  a  tutor  at 
Williams,  he  gathered  a  congregation  in  the 
neighboring  town  of  North  Adams  which  became 
its  First  Congregational  Church,  and  raised 
money  for  a  church  building.  On  Nov.  12,  1828, 
he  was  ordained  and  installed  as  pastor,  at  the 
dedication  of  the  church.  After  a  ministry  of 
four  years  he  was  called  to  the  First  Congrega- 
tional Church  of  Pittsfield,  Mass.,  whence  in 
1834  he  went  to  the  First  Presbyterian  Church 
of  Trenton,  N.  J.  A  pastorate  of  seven  years 
there  ended  with  his  election  to  the  presidency  of 
Lafayette  College,  Easton,  Pa.  That  institution 
was  then  going  through  a  period  of  radical 
change,  abandoning  some  experimental  features 
of  its  early  years — particularly  dependence  of  the 
students  on  manual  labor  and  assuming  a  more 
conventional  character.  Yeomans  consequently 
encountered  difficulties  and  dissension  and  could 
not  achieve  progress.  After  three  years  he  re- 
signed, leaving  a  name  as  an  able  teacher  and 
strict  disciplinarian.  In  1845  he  became  pastor 
of  the  Mahoning  Presbyterian  Church  of  Dan- 
ville, Pa.,  which  he  served  until  shortly  before 
his  death. 

He  was  chosen  moderator  of  the  General  As- 
sembly of  the  Old  School  Presbyterian  Church 
in  i860.  His  year  of  office  saw  sharp  division  in 
the  church,  for  some  Southern  leaders  were  al- 
ready advocating  secession.  Responding  to  a 
strong  desire  of  Northern  Presbyterians,  Yeo- 
mans in  December  i860  issued  a  circular  letter 
urging  the  observance  of  a  national  day  of  pray- 
er on  Jan.  4,  1861.  In  the  General  Assembly  of 
that  year  he  opposed  the  resolutions  introduced 


608 


Yerger 

by  the  Rev.  Gardiner  Spring  [q.v.],  by  adopting 
which  the  Assembly  pledged  support  to  the  Fed- 
eral government.  In  an  eloquent  speech  he  dep- 
recated sectional  cleavages  in  the  church,  and 
pleaded  vainly  that  the  Assembly  should  act  con- 
servatively, lest  a  schism  occur  and  the  North- 
ern part  become  an  anti-slavery  body.  From  the 
beginning  of  the  war,  however,  he  strongly  up- 
held the  Federal  cause ;  his  last  act  before  weak- 
ness overcame  him  was  to  go  with  difficulty  to 
his  door  and  wave  a  salute  to  a  body  of  returning 
soldiers.  He  died  at  Danville  at  the  age  of  six- 
ty-three. 

Yeoman's  toilsome  early  life  and  struggle  for 
education  rendered  him  industrious,  energetic, 
and  enduring.  His  learning  was  broad,  but  his 
chief  and  lifelong  interest  was  in  metaphysics. 
He  contributed  articles  on  philosophical  and 
theological  subjects  to  the  Biblical  Repertory  and 
Princeton  Review.  As  a  preacher  he  was  studi- 
ous and  thoughtful,  with  much  oratorical  grace 
and  fire.  He  was  married  in  1828  at  North  Ad- 
ams to  Laetitia  Snyder  of  Albany,  N.  Y.,  who 
with  three  sons  and  two  daughters  survived  him. 
Two  of  his  sons  were  Presbyterian  ministers. 

[Gen.  Cat.  of  Officers,  Grads.  and  Non-Grads.  of 
Williams  Coll.  (1930)  ;  Gen.  Cat.  of  the  Thcol.  Sem., 
Andovcr,  Mass.,  1808-1908  (n.d.)  ;  Proc.  in  Commem- 
oration of  the  Organization  in  Pittsfield,  Feb.  1764,  of 
the  First  Church  of  Christ  (1889),  containing  informa- 
tion about  Yeomans  from  his  son,  Rev.  A.  Yeomans  ; 
W.  B.  Owen,  Hist.  Sketches  of  Lafayette  Coll.  (1876)  ; 
J.  M.  Wilson,  The  Presbyt.  Hist.  Almanac,  1864;  L.  G. 
VanderVelde,  The  Presbyterian  Churches  and  the  Fed- 
eral Union,  1861-1869  (1932).]  R.H.N. 

YERGER,  WILLIAM  (Nov.  22,  1816-June 
7,  1872),  lawyer,  judge  was  born  in  Lebanon, 
Tenn.,  the  eighth  of  the  eleven  children  of  Ed- 
win Michael  and  Margaret  (Shall)  Yerger,  who 
had  removed  from  Westmoreland  County,  Pa., 
in  the  same  year  in  which  he  was  born.  Several 
of  his  nine  brothers,  especially  George  Shall  and 
Jacob  Shall  Yerger,  subsequently  became  promi- 
nent as  lawyers  in  Tennessee  and  Mississippi. 
In  1833  he  graduated  from  the  University  of 
Nashville,  and  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  be- 
fore reaching  his  majority.  On  May  23,  1837, 
he  was  married  to  Malvina  Hogan  Rucks.  They 
had  twelve  children.  Within  the  year  of  his 
marriage,  the  young  lawyer  removed  to  Jackson, 
Miss.,  where  he  soon  made  a  favorable  impres- 
sion. His  dominant  traits  were  diligence,  mental 
strength,  and  courtesy.  His  professional  success 
was  so  great  that  he  attained  a  practice  reputed 
for  some  years  to  be  the  largest  and  most  lucra- 
tive in  the  state.  His  political  success  would 
doubtless  have  been  greater  had  not  his  convic- 
tions frequently  led  him  to  run  counter  to  public 
opinion.  He  was  a  stanch  member  of  the  minority 


Yerkes 

Whig  party.  Although  he  was  an  associate  jus- 
tice of  the  supreme  court  of  Mississippi  from 
185 1  to  1853,  he  failed  to  be  reelected  because 
he  delivered  an  opinion,  which  he  knew  would 
be  most  unpopular,  fixing  on  the  state  full  re- 
sponsibility for  the  payment  of  the  Mississippi 
Union  Bank  bonds  (The  State  of  Mississippi  vs. 
Hczron  Johnson,  25  Miss.,  625).  Also,  he  op- 
posed the  secession  movement  in  a  notable  speech 
before  the  legislature  in  1861,  and  in  1863  he  and 
William  L.  Sharkey  \_q.v.~\  sought  to  bring  Mis- 
sissippi back  to  the  Union,  believing  that  the  fall 
of  Vicksburg  had  determined  the  course  of  the 
war.  Yet  in  spite  of  the  divergence  between  his 
views  and  those  of  the  masses,  the  latter  showed 
their  confidence  in  him  by  keeping  him  in  the 
state  legislature  during  the  Civil  War  ;  before  its 
end  he  had  been  elevated  to  the  presidency  of  the 
Senate. 

Immediately  after  the  war  Charles  Clark,  the 
Confederate  governor,  sent  Yerger  and  Sharkey 
to  inquire  from  President  Johnson  the  terms  on 
which  Mississippi  could  reenter  the  Union. 
Although  they  were  not  received  as  official  com- 
missioners from  Mississippi,  they  had  a  satisfac- 
tory conference  as  private  citizens.  Upon  re- 
turning, Yerger  made  a  report  of  his  mission  to 
the  Mississippi  constitutional  convention  of  1865, 
of  which  he  was  a  member.  This  report,  well 
salted  with  conservative  advice,  has  been  judged 
as  the  ablest  speech  before  that  body.  Imme- 
diately after  he  delivered  it  an  ordinance  was 
adopted  declaring  slavery  destroyed  in  Missis- 
sippi (Garner,  post,  pp.  88-90).  A  few  months 
later  Gov.  Benjamin  G.  Humphreys  sent  him  on 
another  mission  to  the  President,  and  in  July  1866 
he  was  selected  as  a  delegate  to  represent  Mis- 
sissippi in  the  Philadelphia  convention  of  sup- 
porters of  Andrew  Johnson.  During  the  period 
of  congressional  Reconstruction  his  advice  was 
of  course  not  sought  by  those  in  power  in  Mis- 
sissippi. Before  the  supremacy  of  the  native 
whites  was  reestablished  he  was  dead. 

[J.  D.  Lynch,  Bench  and  Bar  of  Miss.  (1881)  ;  J.  W. 
Garner,  Reconstruction  in  Miss.  (1901)  ;  H.  S.  Foote, 
The  Bench  and  Bar  of  the  South  and  Southwest  ( 1876)  ; 
Reuben  Davis,  Recollections  of  Miss,  and  Mississippians 
(1889)  ;  Dunbar  Rowland,  Mississippi  (1907),  vol.  II; 
Biog.  and  Hist.  Memoirs  of  Miss.  (1891),  vol.  I  ;  Pubs. 
Miss.  Hist.  Soc,  vols.  Ill  (1900),  V  (1902),  VIII 
(1904),  and  centenary  series  vol.  I  (1916)  ;  Cat.  of  the 
Officers  and  Grads.  of  the  Univ.  of  Nashville  (1850)  ; 
geneal.  data  from  Mrs.  Florence  Yerger  Guilbert, 
Jackson,  Miss.,  a  daughter.  1  q  g  g_ 

YERKES,  CHARLES  TYSON  (June  25, 
1837-Dec.  29.  1905),  financier,  traction  mag- 
nate, the  son  of  Charles  Tyson  and  Elizabeth 
Link  (Broom")  Yerkes,  Quakers,  was  born  in 
Philadelphia.   His  father  was  president  of  the 


609 


Yerkes 


Yerk 


es 


Kensington  National  Bank ;  one  of  his  ancestors, 
Anthony  Yerkes,  was  settled  in  Germantown  as 
early  as  1702.  At  seventeen,  leaving  Central 
High  School,  Yerkes  began  his  business  career 
as  clerk  with  James  P.  Perot  &  Brother,  com- 
mission brokers.  He  opened  his  own  brokerage 
office  in  1859  and  joined  the  stock  exchange.  On 
Dec.  22  he  married  Susanna  Guttridge  Gamble. 
Three  years  later  he  had  made  enough  money  to 
start  his  own  banking  house,  and  in  1866  his  feat 
in  disposing  of  a  Philadelphia  bond  issue  at  par 
when  the  city  bonds  had  been  selling  at  65  es- 
tablished his  reputation  as  a  brilliant  dealer  in 
municipal  securities.  During  these  years  he  mas- 
tered the  secrets  of  the  connection  between  poli- 
tics and  finance.  By  1871,  the  financial  dictator- 
ship of  Philadelphia  was  practically  within  his 
grasp,  but  the  Chicago  fire  of  that  year  brought 
panic  on  the  Philadelphia  stock  exchange  which 
caught  him  over  expanded.  Called  upon  to  de- 
liver up  money  he  had  received  as  the  city's  agent 
in  the  sale  of  municipal  bonds,  he  was  unable  to 
do  so,  and  after  trial  was  sentenced  to  two  years 
and  nine  months  in  the  penitentiary  for  technical 
embezzlement.  He  served  seven  months  of  his 
term  before  he  was  pardoned. 

Coming  out  of  prison  to  face  a  hostile  and  gos- 
sipy world,  he  managed  somehow  to  reestablish 
himself  financially  and,  when  the  failure  of  Jay 
Cooke  &  Company  precipitated  the  panic  of 
1873,  Yerkes  made  a  bold  plunge  and  recouped 
his  former  losses.  He  expanded  his  railway  in- 
vestments and  in  1875  helped  organize  the  Con- 
tinental Passenger  Railway  Company,  of  which 
he  was  the  largest  stockholder  until  it  was  ab- 
sorbed in  the  Union  Railroad  system  in  1880. 
But  in  spite  of  his  financial  success  his  position 
in  Philadelphia  society  was  uncomfortable.  His 
marriage — to  which  six  children  had  been  born 
— was  proving  unhappy  and  gossip  linked  his 
name  with  that  of  the  daughter  of  a  prominent 
Philadelphia  politician.  Having  obtained  a  di- 
vorce from  his  first  wife  and  married  (Sept.  23, 
1881)  Mary  Adelaide  Moore,  a  well-known 
beauty,  he  moved  with  her  in  1882  to  Chicago. 

Here  he  started  a  brokerage  firm,  but  his  eye 
was  on  bigger  game.  With  the  help  of  a  loan 
from  Peter  A.  B.  Widener  and  William  L.  El- 
kins  [qq.v.~\,  the  Philadelphia  traction  kings,  he 
got  an  option  on  a  North  Chicago  street-railway 
line,  and  with  further  borrowings  on  the  stock 
as  collateral  he  found  himself,  in  1886,  in  major- 
ity control  of  all  the  major  North  Chicago  and 
West  Division  street-car  companies.  For  some 
fifteen  years  after  that  he  extended  and  en- 
trenched his  hold  upon  the  Chicago  transit  sys- 
tem.   He   replaced  forty-eight  horse-car  lines 

6 


with  cable  traction,  increased  the  surface  lines 
by  five  hundred  miles,  applied  electricity  to  240 
miles,  and  built  the  ingenious  Downtown  Union 
Loop.  These  physical  improvements,  however, 
were  only  by-products  of  his  financial  activity. 
His  methods  were  so  devious  that  his  empire  of 
street-railway  enterprises  became  known  as  the 
"Chicago  traction  tangle."  It  was  a  network 
of  construction  companies,  operating  companies, 
and  holding  companies,  of  interlocking  director- 
ates and  friendly  contracts,  of  financial  manipu- 
lation and  political  corruption.  The  record  of 
his  corporate  activity  was  a  palimpsest  on  which 
was  written  reorganization  after  reorganization, 
with  a  heavy  admixture  of  stock  watering  in 
each.  He  himself,  in  summing  up  his  formula 
for  success  in  the  street-railway  business,  said 
one  had  only  to  "buy  old  junk,  fix  it  up  a  little, 
and  unload  it  upon  other  fellows"  (Russell,  post, 
P-  355)-  The  Chicago  newspapers  during  the 
1890's  were  filled  with  reports  of  protest.  Over- 
crowding of  cars,  defective  motors,  double  fares, 
long  intervals  between  cars,  blockades  of  cars — 
these  were  the  common  complaints.  When  asked 
why  he  did  not  provide  enough  cars  to  handle 
the  passenger  load,  Yerkes  made  his  famous  re- 
ply, "It  is  the  strap-hangers  that  pay  the  divi- 
dends" (Ibid.,  p.  358). 

Rival  lines  sprang  up,  but  Yerkes'  tactics 
against  them  were  singularly  effective.  When 
the  prospective  competitor  had  invested  heavily 
and  was  borrowing  money  to  complete  his  line, 
Yerkes  would  start  juggling  the  competitor's 
stock,  spreading  damaging  rumors  on  the  stock 
exchange,  and  instigating  troublesome  lawsuits 
(Chicago  Tribune,  Oct.  6  and  23,  1893  ;  Chicago 
Evening  Post,  Oct.  6,  12,  and  18,  1893;  Chicago 
Times,  Oct.  7  and  19,  1893;  Chicago  Herald, 
Oct.  8,  1893).  One  of  his  principal  weapons  was 
the  court  injunction.  His  primary  concern,  how- 
ever, was  with  politicians  ;  his  whole  fortune  de- 
pended upon  getting  and  extending  public  fran- 
chises for  the  use  of  the  city  streets  and  he  be- 
came a  master  of  the  arts  of  political  bribery  and 
legislative  manipulation.  In  the  early  nineties, 
maneuvering  himself  into  control  of  the  state 
nominating  conventions,  he  saw  to  it  that  a  safe 
legislature  was  elected  and  in  1895  secured  the 
passage  of  the  Humphrey  bills,  renewing  his 
franchises  for  a  century  without  any  payment  to 
the  city.  Gov.  John  P.  Altgeld  \_q.v.~\  refused  to 
be  bribed,  however,  and  vetoed  the  bills,  and  sub- 
sequently the  legislature  reversed  itself  by  a 
large  majority.  In  revenge  Yerkes  saw  to  it  that 
Altgeld's  radicalism  was  so  publicized  as  to  pre- 
vent his  reelection.  Gov.  John  R.  Tanner,  who 
succeeded  him,  was  more  pliant  and  in  1897  tne 


10 


Yerkes 

Allen  bills  became  law,  authorizing  the  Chicago 
City  Council  to  do  what  the  Humphrey  laws 
would  have  done  directly.  The  immediate  effect 
of  the  new  legislation  was  to  send  the  Yerkes 
stocks  soaring  on  the  exchange  {Chicago  Trib- 
une, June  10,  1897). 

This  was  the  moment  of  Yerkes'  triumph,  but 
it  marked  also  the  beginning  of  his  loss  of  con- 
trol over  the  city  and  state  legislative  bodies. 
His  methods  had  become  too  blatant  to  be  suf- 
fered any  longer.  "Revolutions,"  said  one  Chi- 
cago paper,  "are  caused  by  just  such  rapacity" 
(quoted  in  the  New  York  Times,  Apr.  24,  1897). 
The  city  legislators  who  had  helped  Yerkes  were 
dubbed  the  "Boodle"  aldermen.  Indignation  mass 
meetings  were  held  and  there  was  marching  in 
the  streets.  On  the  night  when  the  aldermen  were 
to  vote  on  putting  the  Allen  law  into  effect  for 
Chicago,  the  City  Hall  was  surrounded  by  a 
crowd  armed  with  guns  and  nooses.  The  vote 
went  against  Yerkes.  In  the  fall  elections  every 
one  who  had  voted  for  the  Allen  law  in  the  state 
legislature  was  defeated  and  in  the  winter  of 
1899  the  law  was  almost  unanimously  repealed. 
Yerkes'  attempt  to  extend  his  franchises  had 
cost  him  a  round  million  in  bribes  and  had  proved 
unsuccessful.  By  1901,  largely  because  of  this 
episode,  bills  were  being  introduced  into  the 
state  legislature  calling  for  municipal  ownership 
and  control  of  the  street  railways. 

Yerkes  found  himself  not  only  politically 
blockaded  but  socially  ostracized  as  well.  Op- 
posed by  powerful  financiers  who  considered  his 
business  methods  dangerous  and  regarded  him 
as  a  menace  to  stable  finance,  he  sold  his  hold- 
ings to  his  friends  Widener  and  Elkins  in  1899 
for  something  less  than  $20,000,000.  Before  he 
left  Chicago  he  made  public  his  business  ac- 
counts, in  which  students  have  since  found  amaz- 
ing revelations  of  buccaneering  methods.  Re- 
turning first  to  his  Fifth  Avenue  mansion  in 
New  York  City  with  $15,000,000  in  cash,  he 
went  in  1900  to  England,  where  he  became  head 
of  the  syndicate  which  built  the  London  subways. 
Things  did  not  go  entirely  well,  however,  and 
although  he  was  still  planning  to  build  the  great- 
est system  of  urban  transportation  in  the  world, 
he  was  a  broken  old  man,  sailing  close  to  bank- 
ruptcy, when  he  died  in  1905. 

During  the  last  years  of  his  life  Yerkes  was 
estranged  from  his  wife  and  at  his  death  it  be- 
came known  that  he  was  about  to  divorce  her  to 
remarry  (Chicago  Tribune,  Dec.  30,  31,  1905). 
He  ioved  to  surround  himself  with  beautiful  and 
expensive  things,  ranging  from  a  gold  bedstead, 
formerly  belonging  to  the  King  of  the  Belgians, 
to  a  magnificent  conservatory.    His  New  York 


Yoakum 

mansion  had  two  immense  art  galleries  where 

he  hung  the  paintings  gathered  in  his  European 

travels — collections  which   were  sold  after  his 

death — and  he  had  medieval  stained  glass  in  his 

office  windows.    His  name  will  be  perpetuated 

by  the   Yerkes   Observatory,  at  Lake   Geneva, 

Wis.,  given  by  him  to  the  University  of  Chicago 

in  1892  and  dedicated  in  1897. 

[For  Yerkes'  street-railway  activities  consult  B.  J. 
Hendrick,  The  Age  of  Big  Business  (1919),  in  the 
Chronicles  of  America  Series ;  "Street  Railways  of 
Chicago,"  in  Municipal  Affairs,  June  1901  ;  J.  A.  Fair- 
lie,  "The  Street  Railway  Question  in  Chicago,"  Quart. 
Jour,  of  Economics,  May  1907;  C.  E.  Russell,  "Where 
Did  You  Get  It,  Gentlemen  ?"  Everybody's  Mag.,  Sept. 
1907  ;  Edwin  Lefevre,  "What  Availeth  It?"  Ibid.,  June 
191 1.  See  also  J.  S.  Currey,  Chicago,  Its  Hist,  and  Its 
Builders  (191 2)  ;  The  Biog.  Diet,  and  Portrait  Gallery 
of  Representative  Men  of  Chicago  (1892)  ;  A  Hist,  of 
the  City  of  Chicago  (1900)  ;  T.  W.  Goodspeed,  A  Hist, 
of  the  Univ.  of  Chicago  (1916)  ;  J.  G.  Leach,  Chronicle 
of  the  Yerkes  Family  (1904)  ;  N.  Y.  Times,  Dec.  30, 
1905,  and  Chicago  Tribune,  Dec.  30,  31,  1905  ;  Theodore 
Dreiser,  The  Financier  (rev.  ed.,  1927)  and  The  Titan 
(1914),  novels  based  on  the  life  of  Yerkes;  George 
Marshall,  in  Encyc.  of  the  Social  Sciences,  vol.  XV 
(1935).  For  public  opinion  of  Yerkes  see  Chicago 
Daily  Tribune,  Chicago  Record,  Chicago  Times,  Chica- 
go Evening  Post,  Daily  Interocean  (owned  by  Yerkes), 
and  N.  Y.  Times  from  1890  on.]  M.  L r 

M.F.H. 

YOAKUM,  BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN 

(Aug.  20,  1859-Nov.  28,  1929),  railroad  execu- 
tive, was  born  near  Tehuacana,  Tex.  His  father, 
Franklin  Yoakum,  was  a  country  physician  and 
later  a  minister  of  the  Cumberland  Presbyterian 
Church.  His  mother  was  Narcissa  (Teague) 
Yoakum.  When  about  twenty,  he  became  a  rod 
man  and  chain  bearer  in  a  railroad  surveying 
gang.  He  was  promoted  to  boss  of  a  gang  and 
surveyed  new  railroad  routes  in  many  parts  of 
the  West.  He  became  a  land  boomer  and  immi- 
gration agent  for  Gould's  lines.  Later  he  applied 
his  experience  to  his  own  railroads  by  drilling 
artesian  wells  and  by  bringing  European  peas- 
ants from  New  York  to  cultivate  the  Trans-Mis- 
sissippi and  Rio  Grande  valleys.  At  the  age  of 
twenty-five,  he  became  traffic  manager  of  the 
San  Antonio  &  Aransas  Pass  Railway.  Dur- 
ing the  next  twenty  years,  he  became  general 
manager,  vice-president,  and  president  of  a  num- 
ber of  other  railroads.  The  most  important  of 
these  was  the  St.  Louis  &  San  Francisco  Rail- 
road (the  "Frisco"),  which  became  allied  with 
the  Rock  Island  Company  in  1903.  He  became 
chairman  of  the  executive  committees  and  was 
a  dominant  figure  of  both  companies.  He  brought 
under  his  control  some  17,000  miles  of  old  and 
newly  constructed  railroad  into  the  "Yoakum 
Lines"  (New  York  Times,  Nov.  28,  1929,  p.  27). 
In  December  1909,  however,  the  Rock  Island 
sold  its  interests  in  the  "Frisco"  to  a  group  head- 
ed by  Yoakum  and  Edwin  Hawley.   They  were 


6ll 


Yoakum 


Yoakum 


also  said  to  control  the  Chesapeake  &  Ohio  Rail- 
way and  four  minor  lines,  while  Yoakum  was 
also  a  director  of  the  Seaboard  Air  Line  Rail- 
way". The  "Frisco"  and  affiliated  lines  went  into 
the  hands  of  receivers  during  the  financial 
stringency  of  1913  and  were  broken  down  into 
their  component  lines.  The  Interstate  Com- 
merce Commission  attributed  the  failure  to  the 
purchase  of  unprofitable  mileage  in  the  South- 
west, the  payment  of  extravagant  commissions 
to  banks  and  bankers,  and  to  the  unjustified  pay- 
ment of  dividends  upon  preferred  stock  issues  at 
a  time  when  standards  of  maintenance  of  the 
road  and  of  equipment  were  being  reduced  (In- 
terstate Commerce  Commission,  Reports  and 
Decisions,  vol.  XXIX,  1914,  139-211).  Inves- 
tigation showed,  among  other  things,  that  most 
of  the  new  mileage  of  the  "Frisco"  was  built  by 
construction  companies  in  which  the  directors 
and  prominent  officials  of  the  "Frisco" — espe- 
cially Yoakum — were  heavily  interested.  After 
these  new  lines  were  built,  they  were  sold  to  the 
"Frisco"  at  greatly  enhanced  values.  Nine  of 
these  roads  were  sold  to  the  "Frisco"  for  over 
$26,500,000  at  a  profit  of  almost  $8,500,000.  In 
the  construction  of  one  of  these  lines,  in  which 
he  was  particularly  interested,  a  profit  of  75% 
on  investment  was  obtained.  He  justified  these 
transactions  on  the  grounds  that  it  was  difficult 
to  finance  pioneering  enterprises,  and  that  pub- 
lic opinion  had  changed  concerning  what  are 
proper  corporate  acts  (see  his  statement  in  Rail- 
way Age  Gazette,  Dec.  19,  1913,  pp.  1197-98). 
Writing  in  1915,  W.  Z.  Ripley  called  the  "Fris- 
co's" failure  the  "most  shameful  case"  of  "grave 
abuse  in  connection  with  finances  of  construc- 
tion" (post,  p.  42)  in  recent  years. 

While  carrying  on  these  manipulations,  Yoa- 
kum set  himself  up  as  an  authority  on  railway 
problems.  He  wrote  articles  for  popular  maga- 
zines and  lectured  about  railways  before  clubs 
and  labor  unions.  He  thought  the  Hepburn  Act 
of  1906  was  not  burdensome,  but  he  wanted  a 
fixed  government  policy — and  no  further  rail- 
way regulation.  He  protested  that  the  agitation 
against  railways  and  capital  in  general,  in  addi- 
tion to  the  threat  of  new  legislation,  made  inves- 
tors hesitant.  He  called  upon  the  nation  to  "stand 
shoulder  to  shoulder  for  the  rights  of  both  the 
public  and  the  law-abiding  corporations,"  and 
insisted  that  "not  one  in  a  hundred  of  the  cor- 
porations of  this  country  has  gone  wrong."  He 
asserted  that  "war  against  capital  means  war 
against  labor,"  the  farmer,  the  merchant,  and  the 
manufacturer  ("What  the  Railroads  Need," 
Harper's  Weekly,  Nov.  28,  1908,  p.  25).  He 
spoke  of  the  supreme  importance  of  Wall  Street 

6 


to  the  country  especially  for  the  building  and  ex- 
tension of  railroads  ("The  People,  the  Rail- 
roads, and  the  Government,"  World's  Work, 
July  1907,  p.  9152). 

He  continued  as  a  director  of  several  of  the 
"Frisco"  lines  even  after  the  receivership,  and 
apparently  his  enthusiasm  for  making  profits 
from  building  new  lines  was  not  greatly  damp- 
ened. His  great  ambition  was  to  extend  his 
lines  through  Mexico,  connecting  the  Mississippi 
Valley  with  the  Panama  Canal.  He  was  there- 
fore greatly  disturbed  by  the  practical  cessation 
of  railway  building  following  the  depression  of 
1913  and  1914.  He  rationalized  his  desire  for 
credit  for  additional  construction  into  a  theory 
for  bringing  the  country  out  of  a  depression,  by 
building  more  railroads,  settling  part  of  the  un- 
employed on  the  public  domain,  increasing  the 
food  supply,  and  stimulating  manufacturing  for 
railways.  In  his  later  years,  he  became  greatly 
interested  in  the  farm  problem.  He  had  long 
realized  that  the  earnings  of  his  railroads  were 
largely  dependent  upon  the  crops  and  incomes  of 
farmers.  However,  he  first  became  interested  in 
the  farm  debt  situation  after  a  chance  conversa- 
tion with  a  mortgage-ridden  onion  farmer.  He 
thought  the  solution  lay  in  cutting  the  interest 
burden  through  the  organization  of  agricultural 
cooperative  banking,  and  by  reducing  the  spread 
between  farmer  and  consumer  and  stabilizing 
farm  prices  through  farm  marketing  coopera- 
tives. He  wanted  farmers  to  strengthen  them- 
selves financially  by  operating  their  own  "trusts"; 
but  not  through  fighting  railways  and  other 
"trusts"  ("The  High  Cost  of  Farming,"  World's 
Work,  September  1912,  p.  533).  He  married 
Elizabeth  Bennett,  the  daughter  of  a  pioneer 
Southwestern  banker.  They  removed  to  New 
York  City  in  1907.  They  also  had  an  excellent 
farm  at  Farmingdale,  Long  Island,  which  Yoa- 
kum liked  so  well  that  he  became  an  advocate  of 
the  commuter's  life. 

[W.  Z.  Ripley,  Railroads,  Finance,  and  Reorganiza- 
tion (1915)  ;  Poor's  Manual  of  Railroads,  1905,  1910; 
"Investigation  of  Railroads,"  U.  S.  Senate  Doc.  No. 
373,  63  Cong.,  2  Sess.  (1914)  ;  Who's  Who  in  America, 
1928-29;  System,  Aug.  1916,  p.  181;  Railway  Age. 
Dec.  7,  1929;  N.  Y.  Times,  Nov.  28-30,  Dec.  1,  14, 
1929  ;  World  (N.  Y.),  Nov.  28,  1929.]  q  M. 

YOAKUM,  HENDERSON  (Sept.  6,  1810- 
Nov.  30,  1856),  Texas  historian,  was  born  in 
Powell's  Valley,  Claiborne  County,  Tenn.,  a  son 
of  George  and  Colly  (Maddy)  Yoakum.  He  was 
of  Welsh  descent,  and  his  American  forbears  had 
lived  successively  in  New  York,  Pennsylvania, 
Virginia,  and  Tennessee.  Until  Yoakum  entered 
the  United  States  Military  Academy  in  1828,  he 
lived  on  his  father's  farm  and  at  intervals  at- 


12 


Yoak 


um 


tended  country  schools.  In  1832  he  was  gradu- 
ated from  the  Academy  and  became  a  brevet  sec- 
ond lieutenant  in  the  3rd  Artillery.  He  was  mar- 
ried to  Eveline  Connor  of  Roane  County,  Tenn., 
on  Feb.  13,  1833,  resigned  from  the  army  six 
weeks  later,  and  settled  at  Murphreesboro  to 
study,  and  later  to  practise,  law.  As  captain  of 
the  Murphreesboro  Sentinels,  a  company  of 
Tennessee  mounted  militia,  he  served  during  the 
last  half  of  1836  under  Gen.  John  Pollard  Gaines 
[qv.]  on  the  Sabine  frontier ;  and  in  1838  he  was 
colonel  of  a  regiment  of  Tennessee  infantry  in 
the  Cherokee  war.  The  next  year  he  was  elected 
to  the  Tennessee  Senate,  and  until  1845  took  an 
active  interest  in  politics.  He  was  a  partisan  of 
James  K.  Polk,  favored  the  annexation  of  Texas, 
and  late  in  1845  moved  to  Huntsville,  Tex., 
where,  on  Dec.  2,  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of 
the  Republic  of  Texas.  On  the  declaration  of  war 
with  Mexico,  Yoakum  enrolled  in  Col.  J.  C. 
Hays's  regiment  of  Texas  mounted  rifles,  and 
was  a  first  lieutenant  at  the  battle  of  Monterey. 
When  his  enlistment  expired,  Oct.  2,  1846,  he 
returned  to  Huntsville  to  devote  himself  to  his 
law  practice. 

In  July  1853  he  removed  to  his  country  home, 
Shepherd's  Valley,  near  Huntsville,  and  there 
completed  his  History  of  Texas  from  Its  First 
Settlement  in  1685  to  Its  Annexation  to  the 
United  States  in  1846  (2  vols.,  1855),  for  half 
a  century  the  standard  history  of  the  region.  It 
was  republished,  with  additional  notes  by  Dud- 
ley G.  Wooten  and  a  series  of  new  chapters  cov- 
ering the  years  1820  to  1845,  in  Wooten's  A 
Comprehensive  History  of  Texas,  1685  to  1897 
(2  vols.,  1898).  Yoakum  was  aware  of  certain 
imperfections  in  his  work,  principally  those  com- 
mon to  pioneer  explorations  of  historical  fields. 
He  knew  of  important  materials  for  the  Spanish 
and  Mexican  periods  which  were  inaccessible  to 
him  (History,  I,  3-4)  ;  and  in  dealing  with  the 
period  of  the  Republic  of  Texas  he  did  not  avoid 
partisanship.  A  contemporary  reviewer  noted 
that  the  author  was  evidently  an  enthusiastic  ad- 
mirer of  Gen.  Samuel  Houston  (De  Bow's  Re- 
view, Sept.  1857 ;  C.  W.  Raines,  A  Bibliography 
of  Texas,  1896,  p.  223).  Judge  P.  W.  Gray,  to 
whom  the  History  was  dedicated,  regretted  that 
it  had  not  been  more  carefully  revised  and  con- 
sidered that  Yoakum  had  been  at  times  "rather 
too  unpretending"  for  his  theme  (Gray  to  Yoa- 
kum, Feb.  18,  1856,  in  Yoakum  Papers,  post). 
Although  Yoakum's  partisanship  for  Houston 
is  unmistakable,  he  acknowledges  no  assistance 
from  him  in  the  preparation  of  the  work.  Ac- 
cording to  family  tradition,  however,  Houston 
accompanied  Yoakum  to  the  battlefield  of  San 


Yohn 

Jacinto  and  there  related  the  story  of  the  cam- 
paign, while  Yoakum  took  notes.  Of  the  1040 
pages  of  the  History,  214  are  given  over  to  doc- 
uments of  considerable  importance. 

The  History  was  Yoakum's  only  published 
work.  A  year  after  its  publication  he  died  sud- 
denly in  the  old  Capitol  Hotel  in  Houston.  He 
was  survived  by  his  wife.  He  was  a  man  of  wide 
intellectual  interests,  an  able  lawyer,  and  an  ef- 
fective, although  not  a  rousing,  speaker.  One  of 
the  fifty-four  counties  in  west  Texas,  created  in 
1876,  was  named  in  his  honor. 

[In  his  early  military  records,  Yoakum  appears  as 
Henderson  K.  Yoakum.  Sources  include  A.  T.  Mc- 
Kinney,  in  A  Comprehensive  Hist,  of  Tex.,  1685  to  1897 
(2  vols.,  1898),  ed.  by  D.  G.  Wooten;  Z.  T.  Fulmore, 
The  Hist,  and  Geography  of  Tex.  as  Told  in  County 
Names  (1915);  Biog.  Souvenir  of  the  State  of  Tex. 
(1889)  ;  F.  B.  Heitman,  Hist.  Reg.  ...U.S.  Army 
(1903),  vol.  I;  G.  W.  Cullum,  Biog.  Reg.  .  .  .  Grads. 
U.  S.  Mil.  Acad.,  vol.  I  (1891)  ;  Evelyn  M.  Carrington, 
in  Dallas  Morning  News,  Aug.  21,  1932  ;  H.  S.  Thrall, 
A  Pictorial  Hist,  of  Tex.  (1879)  ;  H.  H.  Bancroft,  Hist, 
of  the  Pacific  States  of  N.  America,  vol.  XI  (1889)  ; 
Yoakum  Papers  in  Tex.  State  Lib.,  from  which  the 
date  of  death  is  taken,  and  Dallas  Hist.  Soc. ;  informa- 
tion from  Thomas  Yoakum  of  San  Marcos,  Tex.,  the 
adjutant-gen.  of  the  U.  S.  Av  the  asst.  adjutant  of  the 
U.  S.  Mil.  Acad.,  and  the  records  of  the  adjutant-gen. 
of  Tex-1  H.  P.G. 

YOHN,  FREDERICK  COFFAY  (Feb.  8, 
1875-June  5,  1933),  illustrator,  painter,  was  born 
in  Indianapolis,  Ind.,  the  son  of  Albert  Brown 
and  Adelaide  (Ferguson)  Yohn.  His  father  was 
a  scholarly  man,  a  partner  in  Yohn  Brothers, 
booksellers  of  Indianapolis.  The  family  is  be- 
lieved to  have  been  of  Danish  origin,  the  original 
settler  having  emigrated  to  Maryland  toward  the 
end  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Encouraged  by 
his  artistically  inclined  parents,  Yohn  was  early 
trained  to  observe,  and  as  a  child  drawing  was 
his  favorite  occupation.  While  still  at  high 
school  he  drew  sixteen  portraits  at  a  Republican 
state  convention  for  an  Indianapolis  newspaper. 
After  one  year  in  the  Indianapolis  Art  School  he 
studied  for  three  years  at  the  Art  Students' 
League  in  New  York  under  Henry  Siddons 
Mowbray  [q.v.].  In  1895  he  opened  a  studio  in 
Twenty-third  Street.  "A  lot  of  composition  and 
plenty  of  action  are  what  I  care  most  about,"  he 
once  said  (Nczv  York  Times  Saturday  Review, 
post,  p.  94),  and  Adolphe  Menzel,  Daniel  Vierge, 
Alphonse  de  Neuville,  Edwin  Abbey  [(7.?'.],  and 
Howard  Pyle  [q.v.~\  were  the  favorites  he  stud- 
ied. His  first  illustrations  were  made  for  James 
Barnes's  story,  For  King  or  Country  (1896). 
He  was  given  one  drawing  to  do  for  Henry 
Cabot  Lodge's  "The  Story  of  the  Revolution" 
(Scribner's  Magazine,  Jan.-Dec.  1898)  ;  it  re- 
sulted in  his  doing  about  thirty-five.  At  twenty- 
four  he  was  sent  by  Scribner's  Magazine  to  Eng- 


613 


Y'ohn 


Yorke 


land  to  make  seventeen  illustrations  for  Theo- 
dore Roosevelt's  "Oliver  Cromwell"  (Scribner's 
Magazine,  Jan.-June  1900).  Serious,  reticent,  a 
tireless  worker,  he  spent  half  his  time  in  re- 
search. In  addition  to  sound  draftsmanship 
and  dramatic  action,  accuracy  of  racial  physiog- 
nomy and  expression  became  a  passion  with  him. 
He  had  a  special  knowledge  of  costume  and 
arms  that  often  surprised  and  confounded  would- 
be  critics.  Though  a  specialist  in  battle  scenes, 
which  he  painted  with  knowledged  fidelity  to 
spirit  and  detail,  he  never  witnessed  a  battle. 
Authors  whose  books  he  illustrated  said  that  he 
realized  imaginatively  and  with  poignant  direct- 
ness the  creative  intention  of  the  writer.  On  Jan. 
11,  1908,  he  married  Gertrude  Klamroth,  a  tal- 
ented musician,  daughter  of  Albert  Klamroth  of 
New  York,  and  moved  to  Westport,  Conn.  In 
1910  he  moved  to  Silvermine.  He  died  at  Nor- 
walk,  survived  by  his  wife  and  two  sons. 

Among  the  many  stories  he  illustrated  are 
John  William  Fox's  The  Little  Shepherd  of 
Kingdom  Come  (1903),  The  Trail  of  the  Lone- 
some Pine  (1908),  The  Heart  of  the  Hills 
(1913),  and  Erskine  Dale,  Pioneer  (1920); 
Mary  Johnston's  Audrey  (1902),  Sir  Mortimer 
(1904),  and  Lewis  Rand  (1908)  ;  K.  D.  Wig- 
gins' Rebecca  of  Sunnybrook  Farm  (1903)  ;  F. 
H.  Burnett's  "The  Head  of  the  House  of 
.  Coombe"  (Good  Housekeeping,  Apr.  1921-Jan. 
1922);  Irving  Bacheller's  Dri  and  I  (1901)  ; 
Maurice  Thompson's  Alice  of  Old  Vincennes 
(1900)  ;  and  others  by  Frederick  Palmer,  Jack 
London,  G.  W.  Cable,  T.  N.  Page,  F.  Hopkinson 
Smith,  Meredith  Nicholson,  E.  W.  Hornung,  and 
C.  T.  Brady.  He  also  illustrated  Frederick  Fun- 
ston's  Memories  of  Two  Wars  (1911).  He 
painted  Spanish-American  War  scenes  for  Col- 
lier's Weekly  and  many  historical  scenes  for  the 
Continental  Fire  Insurance  Company,  the  Glens 
Falls  Fire  Insurance  Company,  and  Ginn  & 
Company.  During  the  World  War  he  painted 
"America's  Answer,"  the  second  official  war  pic- 
ture; a  series  of  important  paintings  for  Scrib- 
ner's Magazine  depicting  all  branches  of  the 
service ;  many  posters ;  and  for  the  marines, 
"Crossing  the  Meuse,"  which  is  in  the  Navy  De- 
partment. In  1930  he  painted  five  canvases  de- 
picting the  history  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay 
Colony  which  were  reproduced  by  the  Boston 
Herald.  Numerous  historical  subjects  were  du- 
plicated for  private  collections.  Over  a  hundred 
of  his  drawings  are  in  the  Library  of  Congress. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1932-33  ;  Indianapolis 
News,  July  1,  1899  ;  Otis  Notman,  in  N.  Y.  Times  Sat. 
Rev.,  Feb.  16,  1907;  W.  D.  Howie,  in  Boston  Tran- 
script, Dec.  17,  1927;  Boston  Herald,  Apr.  5,  1930; 
A.  B.  Paine,  in  Brush  &  Pencil,  July  1898  ;  obituary  in 


N.  Y.  Times,  June  6,  1933  ;  information  from  Yohn's 
wife  and  sons.]  yV  P 

YORKE,  PETER  CHRISTOPHER  (Aug. 
15,  1864-Apr.  5,  1925),  Roman  Catholic  priest 
and  controversialist,  son  of  Capt.  Gregory  and 
Brigid  (Kelly)  Yorke,  was  born  in  Galway,  Ire- 
land. As  a  lad  he  attended  the  local  St.  Ignatius 
College  and  was  graduated  from  St.  Jarlath's 
College  in  Tuam  (1882).  Thereupon  he  studied 
theology  in  Maynooth  Seminary  until  1886,  when 
he  was  adopted  for  the  diocese  of  San  Francisco 
and  was  transferred  to  St.  Mary's  Seminary  in 
Baltimore,  Md.  He  was  ordained  a  priest  by 
Cardinal  Gibbons  in  December  1887.  As  an  as- 
sistant at  St.  Mary's  Cathedral,  San  Francisco 
( 1888-94),  he  was  granted  a  leave  of  absence  to 
study  at  the  Catholic  University  of  America, 
Washington,  where  he  received  advanced  de- 
grees in  theology  (S.T.B.,  1890;  S.T.L.,  1891). 
In  1906  the  Roman  Congregation  of  Studies  by 
special  decree  awarded  him  a  doctorate  in  sacred 
theology.  As  chancellor  of  the  diocese  of  San 
Francisco  from  1894,  editor  of  the  diocesan  jour- 
nal, the  Monitor,  from  1895,  assistant  at  St. 
Peter's  Church  (1899-1903),  permanent  rector 
of  St.  Anthony's  Church  in  Oakland  (1903-13), 
and  rector  of  St.  Peter's  Church  (1913-25), 
Yorke  had  a  distinguished  career  as  a  pastor  and 
as  a  preacher  whose  impressive  appearance  and 
theological  learning  challenged  attention. 

His  interest  in  education  resulted  in  a  series 
of  popular  texts  in  religion  for  parochial  and 
Sunday  schools  (1900-04)  and  in  his  selection  as 
vice-president  of  the  National  Catholic  Educa- 
tional Association  (1918,  1921-23).  In  1899  he 
published  a  criticism  of  the  sectarianism  of  the 
state  university  and  of  Leland  Stanford  Univer- 
sity, which  he  regarded  as  unduly  favored  by  the 
state  (Letters  on  Education  in  California),  with 
the  result  that  three  years  later  he  was  appoint- 
ed a  regent  of  the  university  by  Gov.  H.  T.  Gage, 
for  whose  election  he  had  worked.  As  founder 
of  the  Catholic  Truth  Society  of  San  Francisco 
(1897),  he  compiled  several  religious  tracts.  A 
prolific  writer,  he  published  Lectures  on  Ghosts 
(1897),  reprinted  as  The  Ghosts  of  Bigotry  in 
1913;  Note-Book  of  French  Literature  (1901)  ; 
The  Roman  Liturgy  (1903)  ;  Altar  and  Priest 
(1913)  ;  and  The  Mass  (1921).  Two  volumes  of 
Sermons  (1931),  edited  by  Ralph  Hunt,  and 
Educational  Lectures  (1933)  were  published 
after  his  death. 

Yet  it  was  as  a  hard-hitting  controversialist 
who  was  a  master  of  argument  and  bitter,  but 
quotable,  invective  that  he  was  most  famous.  He 
fought  a  successful,  fiery  campaign  against  the 
forces  of  bigotry  on  the  west  coast  which  were 


614 


You 


Youmans 


inspired  by  the  American  Protective  Association 
(Yorke-Wendte  Controversy,  1896).  He  was 
an  active  laborite,  and  organized  labor  constant- 
ly turned  to  him  as  a  speaker,  as  an  advocate  in 
its  difficulties,  and  as  a  mediator  in  such  contro- 
versies as  the  teamsters'  strike  and  the  street 
railway  strike  of  1906-07  (see  I.  B.  Cross,  Frank 
Roney  .  .  .  an  Autobiography,  1931 ).  Among 
some  employers,  indeed,  he  was  regarded  as  a 
radical  if  not  something  of  a  demagogue.  An 
ardent  Irishman  whose  interest  in  Irish  national- 
ism had  merely  increased  with  distance  from  the 
old  land,  he  preached  in  Maynooth  (1899),  lec- 
tured brilliantly  on  Irish  historical  and  literary 
subjects,  organized  an  Irish  fair  in  San  Fran- 
cisco in  1902,  established  the  California  branch 
of  the  Gaelic  League,  collected  $20,000  for  Dr. 
Douglas  Hyde's  Gaelic  language  revival  in  Ire- 
land (1905),  established  an  Irish  weekly,  the 
Leader  (1902),  which  gave  him  an  uncensored 
organ  for  his  views,  and  battled  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  an  Irish  republic  as  vice-president  of 
the  Sein  Fein  organization  in  the  United  States 
and  as  state  president  of  the  Association  for  the 
Recognition  of  the  Irish  Republic  (1921).  A 
factor  in  municipal  affairs,  a  leader  in  civic  bet- 
terment, the  founder  of  a  working-girls'  home 
called  Innesfael,  a  campaigner  for  total  absti- 
nence from  liquor,  and  an  active  relief  worker  in 
the  days  of  the  earthquake  and  fire,  Father 
Yorke's  life  was  intense.  And  at  the  end,  his 
friends  were  numerous,  and  his  enemies  respect- 
ed him  as  a  fighting  man  of  honest  and  decided 
intentions. 

[See  Who's  Who  in  America,  1924-25  ;  Am.  Cath. 
Who's  Who  (191 1 ),  which  gives  the  father's  name  as 
George;  Monitor  (San  Francisco),  Apr.  1925;  San 
Francisco  Chronicle,  Apr.  6-9,   1925.]  R.J.  P. 

YOU,  DOMINIQUE  (c.  1772-Nov.  14,  1830), 
buccaneer  (lieutenant  of  Jean  Laffite  [g.v.],  was 
born,  according  to  tradition,  at  Port-au-Prince 
in  the  present  Haiti,  but  the  record  of  his  burial 
gives  his  birthplace  as  Saint  Jean  d'Angely, 
France.  Tradition  also  says  that  for  a  time  he 
served  in  the  French  navy  and  that  he  was  a 
member  of  Leclerc's  ill-fated  expedition  against 
Haiti  in  1802.  It  seems  probable  that  he  was 
connected  with  Haiti ;  many  of  the  men  who  fled 
from  Haiti  at  the  time  came  to  Louisiana.  At 
any  rate,  by  about  1810  "Captain  Dominique" 
had  joined  the  group  of  smugglers  lodged  at 
Barataria  under  the  leadership  of  the  Laffites. 
Dominique  became  one  of  the  most  prominent  of 
the  outlaws ;  he  seems  to  have  displayed  courage 
and  skill  in  forays  on  Spanish  vessels  in  the 
Gulf.  He  claimed  that  he  had  letters  of  marque 
from  Cartagena,  but  the  Cartagenan  flag  was  a 

6i 


poor  blind  for  lawlessness ;  the  position  of  the 
ephemeral  republic  of  Cartagena  among  nations 
was,  at  best,  insecure,  and  there  seems  to  have 
been  no  thought  of  admiralty  ruling  on  prizes. 
Dominique  captured  many  Spanish  vessels. 

After  the  destruction  of  the  establishment  at 
Barataria,  Dominique,  like  Laffite  and  many 
other  Baratarians,  joined  the  American  forces 
protecting  New  Orleans  against  the  British.  He 
and  Beluche,  another  notable  buccaneer,  were 
given  commands  in  Andrew  Jackson's  artillery. 
Dominique  served  well  in  the  battles  of  Jan.  1 
and  Jan.  8,  and  was  specifically  praised  in  Jack- 
son's general  order  of  Jan.  21,  1815.  With  the 
other  Baratarians  he  was  pardoned  for  his  for- 
mer crimes  by  President  Madison.  He  seems  to 
have  accompanied  Laffite  for  a  time,  but  by  1817 
was  permanently  settled  in  New  Orleans.  He 
seems  to  have  dabbled  in  politics  as  a  Jackson 
man,  but  apparently  he  had  no  great  political 
power.  With  Nicholas  Girod,  a  former  mayor  of 
New  Orleans,  he  is  said  to  have  concocted  a  plan 
to  rescue  Napoleon  from  Saint  Helena  and  bring 
him  to  New  Orleans,  to  live  in  a  house  prepared 
for  him  there.  To  Dominique  was  assigned  the 
difficult  task  of  delivering  the  former  emperor 
from  his  jailers  and  bringing  him  to  the  United 
States  in  the  Scraphine,  but  before  the  vessel 
could  leave  New  Orleans  word  came  of  Na- 
poleon's death. 

Dominique  lived  on  until  1830,  when  he  died 
in  want,  too  proud  to  ask  aid  of  his  friends.  He 
was  buried  with  some  pomp,  and  upon  his  tomb- 
stone, beneath  the  symbol  of  Free  Masonry,  were 
graven  words  of  praise  that  proclaim  him  "in- 
trcpide  gucrrier  sur  la  terre  ct  sur  I'onde"  and 
call  him  a  "nouveau  Bayard."  By  the  time  of  his 
death  he  was  already  a  figure  of  legend,  and  to- 
day many  tales  of  his  heroism  and  of  his  piratic 
adventures  are  told  in  Louisiana. 

[See  H.  C.  Costellanos,  New  Orleans  As  It  Was 
(1895)  ;  Lyle  Saxon,  Lafittc,  the  Pirate  (1930)  ;  A.  L. 
Latour,  Hist.  Memoir  of  the  War  in  West  Fla.  and 
La.  in  1814-15  (1816)  ;  Vincent  Nolte,  Fifty  Years  in 
Both  Hemispheres  (1854),  p.  208;  G.  W.  Cable,  in 
Century  Illus.  Monthly  Mag.,  Apr.  1883;  Alexander 
Walker,  Jackson  and  New  Orleans  (1856);  Charles 
Gayarre,  Hist,  of  La.,  vol.  IV  (4th  ed.,  1903)  ;  death 
notice  in  Le  Courricr  (New  Orleans),  Nov.  16,  1830  ; 
Lafitte  Coll.  in  Rosenberg  Lib.,  Galveston  ;  burial  rec- 
ord in  Saint  Louis  Cathedral,  New  Orleans,  from  which 
the  date  of  death  and  the  approximate  date  of  birth  are 
taken.  W.  B r. 

YOUMANS,  EDWARD  LIVINGSTON 

(June  3,  1821-Jan.  18,  1887),  writer,  editor,  and 
promoter  of  scientific  education,  was  the  eldest 
son  of  Vincent  and  Catherine  (Scofield)  You- 
mans, and  was  born  at  Coeymans,  in  Albany 
County,  N.  Y.  Two  faiths,  Quaker  and  Puritan, 
and  two  strains,  Dutch  and  English,  were  inter- 

5 


Youmans 

mingled  in  his  ancestry.  His  father  was  a  me- 
chanic and  farmer,  and  his  mother  had  been  a 
teacher.  Sent  to  school  at  three  years  of  age, 
Edward  soon  became  an  eager  reader.  Work  on 
the  farm  developed  an  interest  in  labor-saving 
appliances ;  and  a  few  scientific  books  fixed  his 
interests  for  life.  Beyond  the  elementary  school 
he  was  practically  self-educated.  His  first  occu- 
pation, teaching  a  country  school,  and  a  project- 
ed college  course  had  to  be  given  up  when  oph- 
thalmia, aggravated  by  the  treatment  of  an  ig- 
norant quack,  almost  destroyed  his  sight.  Going 
to  New  York  City  for  medical  aid,  he  came  in 
contact  with  Horace  Greeley,  Walt  Whitman, 
and.  more  particularly  with  William  Henry  Ap- 
pleton  [q-?'.],  the  publisher.  More  than  half- 
blind,  he  was  aided  by  his  sister,  Eliza  Ann  You- 
mans (b.  1826),  who  read  to  him  and  carried  on 
chemical  experiments  for  him.  He  constructed 
a  frame  which  enabled  him  to  write  unaided. 
Undertaking  to  write  a  history  of  scientific  dis- 
covery and  then  to  compile  a  practical  arithme- 
tic, he  was  anticipated  in  both  efforts.  A  third 
project  was  completed,  and  in  185 1  he  published 
A  Class-Book  of  Chemistry,  which  became  a 
standard  text  and  remained  in  use  long  enough 
to  require  two  revisions  from  his  pen. 

Medical  treatment  and  the  improvement  of 
his  general  health  had  now  so  far  restored  his 
eyes  that  he  was  able  to  read  and  to  go  about 
alone.  At  thirty' his  most  active  period  was  just 
beginning.  He  was  for  the  next  two  decades  a 
popular  lecturer  on  science  (1851-68).  Making 
use  of  the  lyceum  system  then  in  its  heyday,  he 
annually  traversed  the  midwest  states,  speaking 
on  chemistry  and  its  applications,  on  "ancient 
philosophy  and  modern  science,"  on  evolution, 
and  on  other  scientific  and  educational  subjects. 
He  was  attracted  in  1856  by  Herbert  Spencer's 
Principles  of  Psychology  and  formed  a  connec- 
tion with  the  author.  As  a  result  he  became  a 
disciple  of  Spencer  and  the  chief  promoter  in  the 
United  States  of  his  publications.  He  continued 
writing  on  his  own  account  and  issued  a  Chemi- 
cal Atlas:  or  the  Chemistry  of  Familiar  Objects 
(1854),  and  a  Hand-Book  of  Household  Science 
(1857),  a  text  in  domestic  science.  He  also  edit- 
ed a  collection  of  papers  on  scientific  education 
under  the  title,  The  Culture  Demanded  by  Mod- 
ern Life  (1867),  ar,d  a  series  of  papers  by  well- 
known  scientists  which  he  called  Correlation  and 
Conservation  of  Forces  ( 1864).  He  was  married 
in  1861  to  Catherine  E.  (Newton)  Lee,  the 
widow  of  William  Little  Lee  [#.z/.].  His  wife's 
literary  abilities  were  of  great  service  to  his 
editorial  and  promotional  work.  They  had  no 
children. 


Youmans 

The  International  Scientific  Series,  initiated 
by  Youmans  in  1871,  provided  a  vehicle  for  pub- 
lishing scientific  books  which  were  at  once  au- 
thoritative and  of  popular  interest.  Among  the 
distinguished  scientists  who  contributed  to  the 
series  were  Darwin,  Liebig,  Helmholtz,  and 
Huxley.  The  first  volume  to  be  issued  was  Tyn- 
dall's  Forms  of  Water  (1872).  In  the  absence 
of  international  copyright,  arrangements  were 
made  to  publish  the  volumes  simultaneously  in 
Europe  and  America.  The  series  was  well  re- 
ceived, and  more  than  fifty  volumes  were  issued 
during  Youman's  lifetime.  In  the  same  period 
he  secured  the  establishment  (1872)  of  the 
Popular  Science  Monthly  (later  the  Scientific 
Monthly).  In  the  conduct  of  this  journal  he  was 
greatly  aided  by  his  brother,  William  Jay  You- 
mans [q.v.~\.  To  the  International  Scientific 
Series  and  the  Monthly  he  devoted  the  last  fif- 
teen years  of  his  life,  in  his  editorials  in  the 
Monthly  stressing  especially  the  need  for  scien- 
tific education.  It  was  in  persuading  original  in- 
vestigators to  write  for  the  educated  non-scien- 
tific public,  and  in  providing  texts  and  reference 
books  for  teaching  science  in  schools  that  this 
"apostle  of  evolution"  and  national  teacher  of 
science  did  his  best  work. 

[See  John  Fiske,  Edward  Livingston  Youmans 
(1894),  which  contains  selections  from  Youmans'  writ- 
ings and  corres. ;  Eliza  Youmans,  in  Pop.  Sci.  Monthly, 
Mar.  1887;  H.  G.  Good,  in  Sci.  Monthly,  Mar.  1924; 
obituary  in  N.  Y .  Tribune,  Jan.  19,  1887.] 

H.G.G. 

YOUMANS,  WILLIAM  JAY  (Oct.  14, 1838- 
Apr.  10,  1901),  scientific  writer  and  editor,  was 
the  youngest  son  of  Vincent  and  Catherine  (Sco- 
field)  Youmans,  and  was  born  at  Milton,  near 
Saratoga,  N.  Y.  During  his  youth  his  brother, 
Edward  Livingston  Youmans  [q.v.~\,  was  win- 
ning success  as  a  textbook  writer  and  lecturer  on 
science.  A  result  of  this  achievement  was  to 
draw  William  into  similar  lines  of  study  and  to 
carry  him  forward  under  Edward's  direction. 
He  worked  on  his  father's  farm  and  attended  dis- 
trict schools  until  1855,  and  made  final  prepara- 
tion for  college  at  Fort  Edward  Academy.  He 
studied  first  under  Charles  A.  Joy  at  Columbia, 
then  at  Yale  (1860-61),  where  the  first  Ameri- 
can doctorates  in  philosophy  were  conferred  that 
year  by  the  Sheffield  Scientific  School,  and  took 
a  degree  in  medicine  at  the  University  of  the 
City  of  New  York  (later  New  York  University) 
in  1865.  Physiology  and  chemistry  were  his  chief 
interests.  The  year  after  receiving  his  degree  he 
went  abroad,  chiefly  to  study  in  London  with 
Thomas  Huxley.  Immediately  upon  his  return 
he  prepared  for  publication  The  Elements  of 
Physiology  and  Hygiene:  a  Text-Book  for  Edit- 


616 


Youmans 

cational  Institutions  (1868)  by  Huxley,  which 
had  been  entrusted  to  him  by  the  author  for 
adaptation  "to  the  circumstances  and  require- 
ments of  American  education"  (preface,  p.  iii). 
Besides  some  teaching  aids  he  added  seven  chap- 
ters on  hygiene.  When  this  task  was  completed, 
he  began  the  practice  of  medicine  at  Winona, 
Minn. 

He  returned  to  New  York  about  three  years 
later  when  his  brother  projected  the  Popular  Sci- 
ence Monthly.  He  was  actively  engaged  on  that 
journal  from  the  first  number  in  May  1872  and 
was  sole  editor  after  his  brother's  death  (1887) 
until  it  was  sold  in  1900,  when  he  retired.  His 
chief  literary  work  was  done  upon  this  maga- 
zine. Every  month  for  many  years,  under  the 
heading,  "Editor's  Table,"  he  wrote  two  or  more 
articles  on  scientific  progress,  scientific  educa- 
tion, and  the  application  of  science  to  practical, 
intellectual,  and  moral  advance.  He  was,  like 
his  brother,  an  "exponent  of  the  evolution  phi- 
losophy of  Herbert  Spencer,"  and  both  Spencer 
and  Huxley  wrote  for  him.  A  special  feature  of 
his  editorship  was  the  publication  each  month  of 
the  biography  of  a  leading  American  or  Euro- 
pean scientist  or  teacher  of  science.  The  sketches, 
which  are  of  permanent  value,  were  nearly  all 
from  his  pen.  About  fifty  of  them  were  repub- 
lished under  the  title,  Pioneers  of  Science  in 
America  (1896).  Beyond  the  covers  of  the 
Monthly  he  also  for  twenty  years  (1880-1900) 
contributed  to  Appletons'  Annual  Cyclopaedia, 
preparing  for  each  issue  four  major  articles  on 
the  year's  advances  in  chemistry,  metallurgy, 
meteorology,  and  physiology,  besides  occasional 
miscellaneous  articles.  His  editorial  successor 
on  the  Popular  Science  Monthly  said  of  his  life 
that  it  was  "devoted  with  rare  singleness  of  pur- 
pose to  the  diffusion  of  science"  and  described 
him  as  "gentle,  kind  and  noble"  {Popular  Sci- 
ence Monthly,  post,  p.  112).  As  an  editorial 
writer  he  was  vigorous,  outspoken,  not  afraid  of 
controversy  and  frequently  involved  in  it,  for  his 
ideas  were  often  not  the  accepted  ones. 

Throughout  his  life  he  was  devoted  to  outdoor 
activities  and  sports.  In  the  hills  near  Mount 
Vernon,  N.  Y.,  he  had  a  farm  from  which  he  ex- 
pected to  derive  a  great  deal  of  pleasure  in  his 
retirement;  but  within  a  year  an  attack  of  ty- 
phoid fever  ended  his  life.  Youmans  was  mar- 
ried to  Celia  Greene  of  Galway,  N.  Y.,  on  Aug. 
2,  1866.  To  them  were  born  two  sons  and  two 
daughters. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1899-1900 ;  Appletons' 
Ann.  Cyc,  1901,  with  portrait;  Popular  Sci.  Monthly, 
May  1901  ;  N.  Y.  Times,  N.  Y.  Tribune,  Sun  (N.  Y.), 
Apr.  11,  1901.]  H.G.G. 

6l 


Young 

YOUNG,  AARON  (Dec.  19,  1819-Jan.  13, 
1898),  physician  and  botanist,  was  born  at  Wis- 
casset,  Me.,  the  son  of  Aaron  and  Mary  (Col- 
burn)  Young.  His  father  was  for  many  years  a 
surveyor  of  lumber  and  justice  of  the  peace  in 
Bangor.  Young,  always  in  delicate  health  as  a 
child,  became  stone  deaf  as  the  result  of  an  illness 
at  about  ten  years  of  age.  In  spite  of  his  handi- 
cap the  boy  went  to  Gorham  Academy  and  at- 
tended Bowdoin  College.  An  early  interest  in 
botany  and  natural  history  was  further  stimu- 
lated by  Prof.  Parker  Cleaveland  [q.v."\  of  Bow- 
doin, and  Young  served  as  an  assistant  in  Cleave- 
land's  department  during  1840  and  1841.  During 
this  period  he  also  was  secretary  of  the  Bangor 
Natural  History  Society.  Leaving  college  after 
two  years,  without  a  degree,  Young  went  to 
Philadelphia,  where  he  sought  the  advice  of  many 
aurists  regarding  his  deafness.  He  "was  by  them 
in  turn  puked  and  bled  and  bistered  and  setoned, 
and  scraped  in  his  pharynx,  but  to  no  avail,  for 
he  remained  perpetually  deaf"  (Spalding,  post, 
p.  1280).  With  courage  undaunted,  however,  he 
went  to  the  Jefferson  Medical  College  for  one 
session  (1842-43)  but  did  not  graduate. 

Returning  to  Maine,  Young  tried  to  practise 
as  an  aurist ;  he  gave  up  at  the  end  of  a  year  and 
became  an  apothecary  in  a  drugstore  in  Bangor 
owned  by  Daniel  McRuer,  a  prominent  surgeon. 
While  thus  occupied  for  the  next  four  years  he 
kept  up  his  studies  in  botany.  In  1847  he  was 
appointed  state  botanist  of  Maine,  a  position 
which  he  held  for  two  years.  With  George  Thur- 
ber  [q.z'.~\,  J.  K.  Laski,  and  others,  Young  ex- 
plored Mount  Katahdin  and  the  Castine  Bay 
region.  Reports  were  published  by  Thurber  and 
Laski  in  local  newspapers  (reprinted  in  the 
Maine  Naturalist,  Dec.  1926,  June  1927). 
Young's  account,  one  of  the  first  surveys  of 
Mount  Katahdin,  was  printed  in  eight  instal- 
ments in  the  Maine  Farmer  from  Mar.  16  to 
May  25,  1848.  At  the  same  time  a  flora  exsiccata, 
in  twenty  volumes,  was  projected;  only  the  first 
volume  of  A  Flora  of  Maine  (1848)  was  issued, 
parts  of  which  have  survived  in  the  Gray  Her- 
barium of  Harvard  College.  It  consists  of  dried 
plants  attached  to  each  sheet,  with  their  identi- 
fications. The  plan  was  given  up  after  two  years, 
and,  when  further  funds  were  not  granted  by 
the  state  legislature,  Young  lost  his  position. 
His  botanical  work  was  sound,  although  his 
scheme  of  publication  was  visionary  and  expen- 
sive. A  pioneer  in  afforestation  and  with  a 
wide  interest  in  seaweeds,  fungi,  mineralogy, 
and  mining,  Young  corresponded  widely,  par- 
ticularly with  the  English  botanists,  M.  J.  Berke- 
ley and  W.  H.  Harvey. 

7 


Young 

From  1850  on,  he  led  a  roving,  desultory  life. 
He  practised  in  Auburn,  Lewiston,  and  Portland 
as  an  ear  surgeon ;  peddled  a  panacea  called 
"Dr.  Young's  Catholicon" ;  wrote,  set  up,  and 
printed  three  small  weekly  newspapers  between 
1852  and  1854,  the  Farmer  and  Mechanic,  the 
Pansophist,  and  the  Touchstone;  published  the 
Franklin  Journal  of  Aural  Surgery  and  Rational 
Medicine  in  Farmington,  Me.  (1859),  chiefly 
important  for  its  eulogy  of  Young's  teacher, 
Parker  Cleaveland ;  and  contributed  a  few  case 
reports  to  general  medical  literature.  During 
the  Civil  War,  a  "copperhead"  in  politics,  he 
used  both  his  tongue  and  his  pen  with  great  free- 
dom. With  public  opinion  in  Bangor  against  him, 
he  was  forced  to  flee  for  his  own  safety  to  New 
Brunswick.  He  remained  out  of  the  United 
States  until  he  was  rescued  by  Hannibal  Hamlin 
[q.z'.],  then  senator  from  Maine,  and  sent  as 
American  consul  to  Rio  Grande  do  Sul,  Brazil, 
in  1863.  There  he  remained  quietly  until  1873. 
Some  of  his  annual  reports  are  of  considerable 
value,  especially  that  for  the  year  1864  (Letter 
of  the  Secretary  of  State  .  .  .  Commercial  Rela- 
tions of  the  United  States,  1865,  pp.  798-818,  be- 
ing House  Exec.  Doc.  60,  38  Cong.,  2  Sess.). 
The  last  years  of  his  life  are  obscure.  He  re- 
turned to  Boston  in  1875  to  practise  and  became 
a  member  of  the  Massachusetts  Medical  Society. 
He  died  in  Belmont,  Mass.,  in  1898.  He  never 
married.  His  brother,  the  Rev.  Joshua  Young,  a 
graduate  of  Bowdoin  College  (1845),  became  a 
famous  abolitionist  and  was  driven  from  his 
church  in  Burlington,  Vt.,  after  preaching  the 
funeral    sermon    for    John    Brown,    1800-1859 

[The  chief  sources  are  J.  A.  Spalding,  in  Am.  Medic. 
Biogs.  (1920),  ed.  by  H.  A.  Kelly  and  W.  L.  Burrage  ; 
and  A.  H.  Norton,  in  Rhodora,  Jan.  1935,  with  portrait. 
See  also  notes  in  the  Gray  Herbarium,  Harvard  Coll. ; 
review  by  Asa  Gray  of  A  Flora  of  Me.,  in  Am.  Jour. 
Sci.  and  Arts,  May  1848;  cats,  of  Bowdoin  Coll.,  1840, 
1841  ;  Index  Cat.,  Surgeon-General's  Lib.,  Washington, 
D.  C.  ;  Boston  Medic,  and  Surgical  Jour.,  Feb.  10,  1898. 
For  a  note  on  Joshua  Young,  see  Mary  C.  Crawford, 
The  Romance  of  Old  Nciv  England  Churches  (1904).] 

H.R.V. 

YOUNG,  ALEXANDER  (Sept.  22,  1800- 
Mar.  16,  1854),  Unitarian  minister  and  anti- 
quarian, was  born  in  Boston,  Mass.,  the  son  of 
Alexander  and  Mary  (Loring)  Young.  His  fa- 
ther was  a  well-known  printer.  The  son's  salu- 
tatory oration  in  Latin  at  his  graduation  from 
Harvard  College  in  1820  was  highly  commended, 
and  his  valedictory  several  years  later  was  called 
"amusing,"  foreshadowing  his  gift  as  a  story 
teller.  On  finishing  his  brilliant  career  at  the 
Harvard  Divinity  School  in  1824,  he  entered  at 
once  on  his  pastorate  at  the  New  South  Church 

6l 


Young 

on  Church  Green  in  Boston  (ordained,  Jan.  9, 
1825),  where  he  remained  for  nearly  thirty 
years,  vindicating  the  confidence  reposed  in  so 
young  and  inexperienced  a  clergyman.  He  was 
a  typical  Unitarian  of  that  period,  neither  radi- 
cal nor  reactionary,  gifted  as  a  preacher,  kindly, 
grave,  and  rather  stern  in  his  bearing.  Those 
who  heard  him  in  the  pulpit  commended  his 
sound  thinking,  his  scorn  of  theatrical  methods, 
and  his  power  of  voice,  as  well  as  energy  of  man- 
ner. He  soon  came  to  hold  positions  of  honor  in 
the  community,  serving  as  an  overseer  of  Har- 
vard College  (1837-53)  and  as  corresponding 
secretary  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  So- 
ciety. During  his  pastorate  he  printed  a  dozen 
eulogies  on  eminent  and  wealthy  Bostonians, 
and  from  time  to  time  contended  in  print  that 
"evangelical  Unitarianism"  would  benefit  also 
the  "poor  and  unlearned." 

In  1831-34  he  issued  The  Library  of  the  Old 
English  Prose  Writers,  in  nine  volumes,  wit- 
nesses to  his  own  great  library  and  his  profound 
learning.  But  his  tastes  were  antiquarian,  and 
the  fruits  of  his  study  can  still  be  seen  in  his 
Chronicles  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  of  the  Colony 
of  Plymouth  from  1602  to  1625  (1841),  and  his 
Chronicles  of  the  First  Planters  of  the  Colony  of 
Massachusetts  Bay  from  1623  to  1636  (1846). 
These  works  still  hold  their  own  as  reprints  of 
source  material,  with  many  critical  comments. 
He  planned  a  similar  work  on  Virginia.  A  re- 
viewer of  the  first  work,  "C.  D.,"  proved  to  be 
Charles  Deane  [q.v.~\,  with  whom  he  contracted 
a  life-long  intimacy.  They  came  together  daily  at 
the  Old  Corner  Book  Store  of  the  publishers  Lit- 
tle &  Brown,  meeting  there  George  Livermore, 
Jared  Sparks,  Charles  Sumner,  Edward  A. 
Crowninshield,  James  Savage,  George  Ticknor, 
and  occasionally  Longfellow.  They  discussed 
rare  books  like  the  Dibdins'  and  those  printed  at 
Walpole's  Strawberry  Hill  Press,  and  indeed 
the  whole  range  of  literature,  as  well  as  current 
events.  Of  Young  it  was  said  that  "few  were  more 
fond  of  anecdote,  or  could  tell  a  better  story  .  .  . 
His  wit  and  humor  had  the  true  flavor,  like  the 
bouquet  of  choice  wine"  (Deane,  post,  p.  433). 
He  was  devoted  to  James  Savage  [q.v.],  then 
issuing  notes  to  Winthrop's  History  of  New 
England  and  a  Genealogical  Dictionary  of  the 
First  Settlers  of  New  England,  and  read  often 
Savage's  quaint  footnotes  in  the  Winthrop.  He 
loved  also  Boswell's  Johnson  and  contended  that 
it  should  be  read  every  year.  Izaak  Walton's 
philosophy  he  made  his  own.  He  was  short  and 
stocky,  with  broad  face  and  up-standing  hair. 
He  was  married  on  Nov.  1,  1826,  to  Caroline 
James  and  had  twelve  children.  He  died  in  Bos- 

8 


Young 


Young 


ton,  survived  by  his  wife  and  eight  of  their 
children. 

[See  W.  B.  Sprague,  Annals  Am.  Pulpit,  vol.  VIII 
(1865);  Oiarles  Deane,  "Memoir  of  George  Liver- 
more,"  Proc.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc,  vol.  X  (1869),  which 
has  three  delightful  pages  about  Young ;  obituary  in 
Boston  Transcript,  Mar.  16,  1854;  portrait  in  New 
England  Mag.,  Nov.  1898,  p.  341.  A  memoir  by  Chand- 
ler Robbins,  in  Colls.  Mass.  Hist.  Soc,  4  ser.  vol.  II 
(1854),  is  singularly  uninforming.]  C.  K.  B. 

YOUNG,  ALFRED  (Jan.  21,  1831-Apr.  4, 
1900),  Roman  Catholic  priest  and  musician,  son 
of  Thomas  and  Sarah  Agnes  (Stubbs)  Young, 
was  born  in  Bristol,  England,  from  which  as  an 
infant  he  emigrated  with  his  parents  to  Phila- 
delphia, Pa.,  and  finally  to  Princeton,  N.  J.  A 
precocious  lad,  he  was  graduated  from  the  Col- 
lege of  New  Jersey  (later  Princeton)  in  1848 
and  from  the  medical  school  of  the  University  of 
the  City  of  New  York  (later  New  York  Uni- 
versity) in  1852.  In  the  meantime,  he  trans- 
ferred his  allegiance  from  the  Protestant  Epis- 
copal to  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  (Nov.  27, 
1850)  in  conformity  with  the  step  taken  by  his 
brother  in  1843.  Experiencing  a  call  to  the  min- 
istry, he  studied  theology  at  St.  Sulpice  in  Paris 
and  was  ordained  a  priest  at  St.  Patrick's  Cathe- 
dral in  Newark,  Aug.  24,  1856.  Appointed  an 
instructor  in  the  classics  and  an  assistant  to 
Bernard  McQuaid  [q.v.],  the  rector  of  Seton 
Hall  College,  he  found  time  to  act  as  pastor  in 
Princeton  village,  where  as  an  alumnus  of  the 
college  he  found  friendly  associations  (1857- 
61).  After  a  temporary  assignment  as  pastor  at 
St.  John's  Church,  Trenton,  he  joined  the  re- 
cently established  Society  of  St.  Paul  (1862). 

Young  fitted  well  with  the  group  of  convert 
priests  led  by  Isaac  Hecker  [#.?'.],  and  he  be- 
came a  zealous  missionary  whose  eloquent  ser- 
mons were  heard  from  pulpits  in  all  parts  of  the 
United  States.  He  was  an  early  leader  in  the 
movement  of  laymen's  retreats  and  in  missions 
for  non-Catholics,  as  well  as  an  indefatigable 
controversialist  in  disputes  with  Dr.  J.  M.  King, 
John  Jay,  1817-1894  \_q.v.~\,  and  Robert  G.  In- 
gersoll  [q.v.].  A  skilled  musician,  he  was  one 
of  the  first  American  enthusiasts  for  a  restora- 
tion of  the  Gregorian  chant  and  congregational 
singing,  establishing  a  Gregorian  society  to  ex- 
plain the  chant,  founding  the  famous  Paulist 
Choir  (1873),  lecturing  on  music,  and  writing 
a  number  of  articles  on  Gregorian  music  which 
appeared  in  the  Catholic  World.  In  addition  to 
writing  some  poetry  and  composing  devotional 
hymns,  he  compiled  several  hymnals  in  the  hope 
of  fostering  congregational  singing  as  an  auxil- 
iary to  the  priest  at  the  altar :  The  Complete  So- 
dality Manual  and  Hymn  Book   (1863),  which 


was  reprinted  as  Catholic  Hymns  and  Canticles 
( 1888),  The  Office  of  Vespers  ( 1869),  The  Cath- 
olic Hymnal  (1884),  and  Carols  for  a  Merry 
Christmas  and  a  Joyous  Easter  (1885).  Aside 
from  several  essays  in  the  Catholic  World  and 
in  the  American  Catholic  Quarterly  Review,  he 
published  a  long  book,  Catholic  and  Protestant 
Countries  Compared  (1895),  to  which  is  ap- 
pended a  list  of  American  converts  of  some  dis- 
tinction. Long  a  delicate  man,  Young  spent  the 
last  three  years  of  his  life  in  a  wheelchair,  be- 
coming a  familiar  figure,  with  his  long  white 
beard,  to  the  children  of  the  West  Fifty-Ninth 
Street  section  of  New  York. 

'  [W.  T.  Leahy,  The  Cath.  Church  of  the  Diocese  of 
Trenton  (1907)  ;  J.  M.  Flynn,  The  Cath.  Church  in  N. 
J.  (1904)  ;  Cath.  World,  May  1900;  Am.  Cath.  Quart. 
Rev.,  Apr.  1895,  pp.  421-24;  Sun  (N.  Y.),  Apr.  5, 
1900.]  R.J.  P. 

YOUNG,  ALLYN  ABBOTT  (Sept.  19, 1876- 
Mar.  7,  1929),  economist,  was  born  at  Kenton, 
Ohio,  the  son  of  Sutton  Erastus  and  Emma  Ma- 
tilda (Stickney)  Young.  Both  his  parents  were 
teachers,  his  father,  superintendent  of  the  public 
schools  and  later  a  lawyer,  and  his  mother,  a 
teacher  in  the  high  school  until  her  marriage. 
His  undergraduate  work  was  done  at  Hiram 
College  in  Ohio,  where  he  graduated  in  1894, 
and  he  received  the  Ph.D.  degree  at  the  Univer- 
sity of  Wisconsin  in  1902.  He  married  on  Aug. 
10,  1904,  Jessie  Bernice  Westlake  of  Madison, 
Wis.,  by  whom  he  had  one  son.  He  entered  on 
a  remarkably  varied  academic  career,  going  to 
teach  at  Western  Reserve  University  in  1902, 
to  Dartmouth  College  in  1904,  to  the  University 
of  Wisconsin  in  1905,  to  Leland  Stanford  Junior 
University  in  1906,  to  Washington  University 
at  St.  Louis  in  191 1,  to  Cornell  University  in 
1913,  to  Harvard  University  in  1920,  and  to  the 
London  School  of  Economics  and  Political  Sci- 
ence of  the  University  of  London  in  1927.  He 
was  secretary  of  the  American  Economic  Asso- 
ciation from  1913  to  1919,  and  its  president  from 
1925;  president  of  the  American  Statistical  As- 
sociation in  1917;  and  in  1928  president  of  Sec- 
tion F,  on  economic  science  and  statistics,  of  the 
British  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Sci- 
ence. During  the  World  War,  he  was  one  of  the 
group  of  scholars  gathered  by  Col.  E.  M.  House 
for  the  study  of  international  problems  prepara- 
tory to  the  expected  peace  settlement,  and  he 
went  to  Paris  with  that  group  in  1918-19.  He 
remained  there  for  several  months  and  was  con- 
sulted more  particularly  on  the  reparations  ques- 
tion and  on  post-war  international  trade  policies. 
In  1927,  being  then  professor  in  Harvard  Uni- 
versity, he  accepted  an  appointment  for  three 


619 


Young 

years  as  professor  at  the  London  School  of  Eco- 
nomics. He  died  in  London. 

He  was  a  scholar  of  signal  ability  and  of  wide 
range.  He  combined  a  firm  grasp  of  economic 
theory  with  an  understanding  of  the  realities  of 
life,  and  was  a  mathematician  and  statistician  as 
well  as  an  economist;  and  also — a  further  indi- 
cation of  wide  range — a  competent  musician.  In 
his  main  field,  economics,  his  position  was  eclec- 
tic yet  forward-moving.  He  was  steeped  in  the 
classic  economics  of  the  nineteenth  century  and 
appreciated  its  achievements ;  understood  the  de- 
velopments in  the  early  twentieth  century  and 
was  proficient  in  the  use  of  the  mathematical 
tools  for  the  more  precise  formation  of  theory; 
and  sympathized  with  the  so-called  institutional- 
ists  in  the  demand  for  a  closer  interrelation  be- 
tween economic  study  and  general  social  analysis. 
Universally  admired,  he  was  prevented  only  by 
an  untimely  death  from  exercising  a  far-reach- 
ing influence  on  the  thought  of  his  generation. 

His  published  work  is  meager.  Some  elabo- 
rate papers  and  articles,  and  a  great  number  of 
reviews  and  notes,  were  printed  in  periodicals 
and  the  publications  of  societies.  The  more  im- 
portant of  these  were  gathered  in  a  volume,  Eco- 
nomic Problems  New  and  Old  (1927).  Others 
of  note  were  an  article  on  "Pigou's  Wealth  and 
Welfare"  in  the  Quarterly  Journal  and  Eco- 
nomics (August  1913)  ;  addresses  on  "Increas- 
ing Returns  and  Economic  Progress,"  before 
Section  F  of  the  British  Association  for  the  Ad- 
vancement of  Science  in  the  Economic  Journal 
(December  1928)  and  on  "English  Political 
Economy,"  his  inaugural  address  at  the  London 
School  in  Economica  (March  1928)  ;  a  number 
of  papers  and  articles  on  vital  statistics,  among 
them  his  presidential  address  "National  Statis- 
tics in  War  and  Peace,"  in  the  Publications  of 
the  American  Statistical  Association  (new  se- 
ries, vol.  XVI,  1918)  ;  and  a  series  of  statistical 
papers  in  the  Review  of  Economic  Statistics 
(October  1924,  January  1925,  April  1925,  and 
July  1927)  on  bank  statistics  in  the  United  States. 

[Economica,  April  1929 ;  Economic  Journ.,  June 
1929  ;  Bulletin  de  I'institul  international  de  statistique, 
vol.  XXIV,  pt.  1  (1930),  pp.  371-72,  with  a  list  of  pub- 
lications in  the  field  of  statistics  ;  Harvard  University 
Gazette,  April  1929  ;  American  Economic  Review,  June 
1929;  Times  (London),  Mar.  8,  1929.]  F.  W.  T. 

YOUNG,  BRIGHAM  (June  1,  1801-Aug.  29, 
1877),  second  president  of  the  Mormon  Church 
and  colonizer  of  Utah,  was  born  in  Whitingham, 
Windham  County,  Vt,  the  ninth  of  the  eleven 
children  of  John  and  Abigail  (Howe)  Young. 
His  father,  a  farmer  from  Hopkinton,  Mass.,  had 
been  a  Revolutionary  soldier.  Whitingham  is 
some  seventy-five  miles  southwest  of   Sharon, 

620 


Young 

Vt.,  where  Joseph  Smith,  1805-1844  [q.v.~\  was 
born,  and  the  Young  family  belonged  to  the  class 
of  restless,  poverty-stricken  frontier-drifters  from 
which  the  Prophet  came.  John  Young  moved  to 
western  New  York  state  when  Brigham  was 
three,  settling  in  several  places,  all  near  the 
scenes  of  the  Smith  wanderings.  In  his  early 
manhood  Brigham  also  drifted  widely  over  this, 
the  "burnt-over"  country,  where  revivals  had 
charged  the  atmosphere  with  evangelical  and 
millennial  fervor.  He  was  a  journeyman  house 
painter  and  glazier  as  well  as  a  competent  Yan- 
kee farmer  and  handyman  when,  on  Oct.  8,  1824, 
he  married  Miriam  Angeline  Works  of  Aurelius, 
Cayuga  County.  They  settled  in  Mendon,  Mon- 
roe County,  in  1829 — some  forty  miles  from 
Palmyra  and  Fayette  where,  in  1830,  Smith  pub- 
lished The  Book  of  Mormon  and  established  the 
Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-Day  Saints. 

Young  had  shown  a  strong  but  entirely  intel- 
lectual interest  in  religion  and,  after  inquiring 
into  a  dozen  frontier  sects,  had  joined  the  Meth- 
odists at  twenty-two.  In  common  with  many  of 
the  "burnt-over"  district,  he  desired  a  practical 
religion  based  on  literal  interpretation  of  the 
Bible,  capable  of  application  to  daily  life,  and 
offering  a  millennial  future  to  those  who  were 
willing  to  work  for  it.  Mormonism  exactly  filled 
those  specifications.  The  Book  of  Mormon 
reached  him  within  a  few  weeks  of  publication. 
He  studied  it  carefully  for  two  years,  sought 
further  instruction,  and  was  finally  baptized  at 
Mendon  on  Apr.  14,  1832.  He  accepted  the 
divine  inspiration  of  Joseph  Smith,  and  the  doc- 
trines and  destiny  of  the  church,  with  a  faith 
which  thereafter  was  never  assailed  by  doubt. 
His  conversion  integrated  his  energies ;  the  rest 
of  his  life  was  devoted  to  building  up  the  church 
in  highly  practical  ways. 

His  wife,  who  had  borne  him  two  daughters, 
died  in  September  1832.  In  July  1833,  having 
converted  all  of  his  family  who  had  not  preced- 
ed him  into  Mormonism,  he  led  a  band  of  con- 
verts to  Kirtland,  Ohio,  where  he  began  his  rise 
in  the  church,  and,  on  Feb.  18,  1834,  married 
Mary  Ann  Angell.  He  traveled  throughout  the 
eastern  United  States  as  the  most  successful  of 
the  Mormon  missionaries ;  accompanied  Zion's 
Army,  the  grotesque  expedition  which  Smith  led 
to  Missouri  to  oppose  the  persecutions  in  Jack- 
son County;  and  in  February  1835  was  made 
third  in  seniority  of  the  newly  organized  Quo- 
rum of  the  Twelve  Apostles,  the  administration 
body  which  was  to  rank  just  below  the  Prophet 
in  the  government  of  the  church.  By  1838,  when 
the  Mormons  were  expelled  from  Missouri,  he 
had  become  the  senior  member  of  that  body  and 


Young 

consequently,  during  the  imprisonment  of  Smith, 
directed  the  removal  to  Nauvoo,  111.  Dispatched 
to  England  with  his  friend  Heber  C.  Kimball 
iq.vJ]  toward  the  end  of  1839,  ne  headed  there 
the  most  successful  of  all  the  Mormon  missions. 
It  is  significant  that,  returning  to  Nauvoo  in 
1841,  he  became  the  leading  fiscal  officer  of  the 
church,  at  a  time  when  administrative  control 
was  essential  to  compensate  Smith's  rapidly  in- 
tensifying aberrations.  He  had  made  at  least 
three  polygamous  marriages  by  May  1844,  when 
he  was  sent  on  a  stumping  tour  in  behalf  of 
Smith's  campaign  for  the  presidency  of  the 
United  States.  In  July  he  was  in  Boston  where 
he  learned  of  the  murder  of  the  Prophet,  two 
weeks  after  its  occurrence.  Hurrying  back,  he 
reached  Nauvoo  on  Aug.  6,  finding  the  church 
in  panic  and  imminent  danger  of  dissolution.  His 
genius  for  leadership  asserted  itself  and  he  at 
once  proved  himself  the  strongest  personality 
among  the  Mormons.  In  a  series  of  dramatic 
moves,  which  have  always  had  the  flavor  of  mir- 
acle for  his  followers,  he  rallied  the  church,  gave 
its  fervent  sentiments  direction,  and,  with  only 
unimportant  defections,  welded  its  fanatical  loy- 
alty in  support  of  the  Twelve  Apostles,  of  whom 
he  was  the  head. 

Young  was  at  that  time  forty-three.  The  rest 
of  his  life  is  the  story  of  a  unique  experimental 
society,  one  of  the  most  successful  colonizing 
endeavors  in  the  history  of  the  United  States. 
He  took  command  of  a  church  already  habitu- 
ated and  responsive  to  despotic  control  and 
shaped  to  cooperative  effort  by  poverty,  perse- 
cution, singularity  of  dogma,  and  millennial  vi- 
sions. The  expulsions  from  Ohio  and  Missouri, 
now  reenforced  by  expulsion  from  Illinois,  had 
demonstrated  its  inability  to  survive  in  the  Amer- 
ican social  system ;  and  Smith,  although  he 
taught  that  the  church  must  eventually  return  to 
Jackson  County,  had  contemplated  moving  it  to 
the  western  wilderness.  Young  carried  out  this 
removal  and  so  saved  Israel.  The  energies  of  the 
society  were  concentrated  on  preparations  for  the 
exodus  which,  with  assistance  from  the  foreign 
missions  and  the  United  States  Government 
(the  Mormon  Battalion  being  enlisted  for  a 
march  to  California),  was  completed  in  1846  and 
1847.  Young  had  himself  elected  president  of  the 
church  at  Winter  Quarters,  Nebr.,  Dec.  5,  1847, 
thus  settling  the  technical  question  of  succession. 
The  mass  migration  was  conducted  with  great 
but  by  no  means  unprecedented  success — con- 
sidering the  movement  to  Oregon,  the  Mormon 
problems  were  those  of  psychology  rather  than 
of  organization  or  supply.  What  determined  his 
selection  of  the  valley  of  Great  Salt  Lake  as  the 

62 


Young 


site  of  Zion  is  not  certainly  known.  Young  and 
his  counselors  had  studied  the  government  pub- 
lications and  other  literature  on  the  entire  Far 
West  and  had  had  excellent  opportunities  to  dis- 
cuss it  with  explorers,  military  men,  and  the  fur 
traders  who  knew  it  best.  The  Salt  Lake  valley 
had  occasionally  been  pronounced  the  most 
promising  part  of  the  intermountain  region  but 
it  looked  barren  and  forbidding,  and  its  very  un- 
attractiveness  must  have  had  a  heavy  influence 
on  his  decision,  since  it  would  protect  the  church 
against  Gentile  aggression  during  the.  vital  first 
years.  Unquestionably  he  hoped  for  a  long  peri- 
od of  isolation  (the  valley  was  Mexican  soil 
when  he  settled  there  and  he  was  thus  outside 
American  jurisdiction),  but  that  dream  was 
broken  by  the  rush  to  California  in  1849  ar>d 
ended  by  the  completion  of  the  Union  Pacific 
Railroad  twenty  years  later. 

Arrived  in  Deseret  (the  Mormon  name,  changed 
to  Utah  hy  Congress),  he  at  once  displayed  colo- 
nizing genius  of  the  greatest  brilliance.  For  his 
scientific  city  planning  there  was  precedent  in 
the  preaching  of  Smith  and  the  earlier  practice 
of  the  Saints  and  other  societies.  For  the  imme- 
diate adoption  of  irrigation,  which  was  indis- 
pensable to  agricultural  success,  there  was  an- 
cient precedent  in  the  Southwest  and  California, 
across  both  of  which  the  Mormon  Battalion  had 
marched.  But  the  tactics  of  occupying  the  desert 
seem  to  have  come  solely  from  Young's  under- 
standing of  immediate  necessities  and  future  pos- 
sibilities. Maneuvering  his  people  with  the  au- 
thority of  an  army  commander,  he  detached 
groups  to  occupy  fertile,  well-watered  valleys 
throughout  the  intermountain  country,  each 
group  supplied  with  a  proper  quota  of  mechanics 
and  other  specialists.  This  policy  gave  the  Mor- 
mons a  chain  of  outposts  against  the  Indians,  set 
the  form  for  the  irrigation  system  of  the  West, 
and  tremendously  increased  the  cooperative 
strength  of  the  church  ;  what  was  even  more  im- 
portant, it  gave  the  Mormons  the  best  real  estate 
of  the  region.  From  the  first  Young  also  pur- 
sued a  vigorous  immigration  policy.  His  mis- 
sionaries covered  the  civilized  world,  bringing 
a  steady  stream  of  immigrants  to  increase  the 
wealth  of  Zion.  He  devised  the  Perpetual  Emi- 
gration Fund  to  assist  them  on  a  loan  basis  and 
conducted  a  series  of  public  works  to  occupy 
them  while  places  were  being  found  for  them  in 
the  system.  The  greatest  headway  was  made 
among  tenant  farmers  and  the  city  unemployed, 
to  whom  the  promise  of  land  was  even  more  se- 
ductive than  that  of  celestial  glory ;  these  classes 
also  had  the  docility  and  malleability  which  were 
essential  to  his  success. 

I 


Young 


Isolation  in  a  desert  environment  was  as  ef- 
fective a  stimulus  to  cooperation  as  the  oppo- 
sition of  the  Gentiles  had  been.  The  production 
of  food  and  shelter  and  the  immigration,  the  cre- 
ation of  communities  a  thousand  miles  west  of 
the  frontier,  above  all  the  development  of  the 
irrigation  system,  were  possible  only  to  an  auto- 
cratically directed  cooperation.  If  Young  was 
soon  nationally  infamous  as  a  despot  who  brooked 
no  inquiry  within  his  church  and  used  its  full 
power  against  those  outside  who  interfered  with 
his  purposes,  it  was  because  nothing  less  than  a 
united  effort  could  preserve  the  group.  He  saw 
that  the  first  essential  was  agricultural  develop- 
ment and  so  forbade  the  opening  of  mines.  This 
costly  surrender  of  most  of  Utah's  mineral  wealth 
to  Gentiles  gave  the  church  a  landed  base  which 
has  remained  impregnable.  The  high  freight 
rates  of  ox-team  transport  from  the  East  and  a 
clear  realization  of  the  debtor  status  of  frontier 
communities  led  him  to  develop  home  industries, 
which  increased  amazingly  during  the  first  thir- 
ty years.  He  supported  them  with  a  curious  sys- 
tem, a  blend  of  the  Rochdale  Plan  and  the  joint- 
stock  company,  and,  when  necessary,  with  the 
tithing  fund  of  the  church  (Quarterly  Journal  of 
Economics,  May  1917,  pp.  474,  4/9).  His  policy 
utilized  the  cooperative  experience  of  the  Mor- 
mons, but  also  it  gave  to  the  church  organization 
financial  and  industrial  interests  separate  from 
the  people  and  began  a  change  from  cooperation 
to  mere  corporate  control  which  accelerated  af- 
ter Young's  death.  He  met  the  threat  of  Gentile 
commercial  competition  by  organizing  Zion's 
Cooperative  Mercantile  Institution  and  similar 
businesses  which  kept  Mormon  money  at  home. 
Belief  in  cooperative  self-sufficiency  grew  on 
him  (he  was  really  thinking  in  terms  of  a  re- 
ligious totalitarian  state)  and  toward  the  end  of 
his  life  he  revived  the  United  Order  of  Enoch,  a 
mystical  communism  revealed  by  Smith  and  dis- 
carded long  before.  All  but  one  of  its  branches 
perished  within  a  year  and  Young's  successor 
was  forced  to  terminate  the  one  that  survived 
(Quarterly  Journal  of  Economics,  Nov.  1922, 
pp. IS9-65)- 

Young's  greatest  achievement  was  his  trans- 
formation of  a  loose  sacerdotal  hierarchy,  con- 
secrated by  Smith's  revelations  to  apocalyptic 
duties,  into  a  magnificent  fiscal  organization  for 
the  social  and  economic  management  of  the 
church.  He  had  little  interest  in  the  supernatu- 
ral, announced  only  one  revelation  (devoted  to 
the  organization  of  the  westward  march),  and 
promulgated  few  doctrines.  Accepting  Smith's 
priestly  system,  he  made  it  a  social  instrument 
and  to  this  realistic  revision  the  survival,  the 

62: 


Young 

prosperity,  and  the  social  achievements  of  Mor- 
monism  are  due.  His  genius  for  using  the  sen- 
timents for  purposes  of  group  development  is 
shown  in  his  cherishing  the  persecution-neurosis 
of  the  Mormons — by  a  skilful  manipulation  of 
Gentile  hostility  to  unify  the  efforts  of  the  church. 
Even  polygamy  served  him  in  that  endeavor.  He 
also  moderated  the  millennial  and  evangelical 
fervor  of  the  Mormons,  confining  the  power  of 
revelation  securely  to  the  ruling  oligarchy,  and 
ruthlessly  cutting  off  those  who  reverted  to  the 
earlier  habits.  He  discountenanced  prophecy, 
the  interpretation  of  dreams,  speaking  in  tongues, 
and  similar  evangelical  gifts,  asserting  his  fun- 
damental tenet :  that  the  Kingdom  must  be  built 
upon  earth  before  it  could  aspire  to  its  celestial 
inheritance.  When,  following  the  famine  and 
economic  and  financial  stress  of  1854  and  1855, 
the  church  reverted  to  evangelical  frenzy  and 
conducted  a  blood-purge  in  1856  and  1857,  how- 
ever, he  was  forced  to  bow  to  it.  The  notorious 
Mountain  Meadows  Massacre  occurred  at  this 
time  (September  1857)  ;  Young,  though  not  di- 
rectly responsible  for  it,  may  be  charged  with  the 
constructive  responsibility  of  all  dictators.  Yet 
even  here  he  was  able  to  utilize  the  aroused  sen- 
timents to  recover  what  control  he  had  lost  un- 
der the  stress  of  famine  and  of  his  greatest  blun- 
der, the  handcart  emigration  of  1855. 

Young's  twenty-year  embroilment  with  the 
national  government  and  the  occasional  local 
terrorism  were  the  political  expression  of  a  so- 
cial and  economic  fact  (see  De  Voto,  post).  He 
was  dictator  of  a  society  whose  methods,  insti- 
tutions, and  ideals  were  radically  different  from 
those  of  nineteenth-century  American  society. 
He  was  not  a  brilliant  politician  outside  his  own 
group  but,  even  if  he  had  been,  hostility  would 
still  have  been  inevitable.  He  tried  to  make  the 
theocracy  co-extensive  with  the  political  state. 
That  end  he  achieved  for  some  twenty  years,  but 
was  forced,  ^rfter  the  organization  of  Utah  Ter- 
ritory by  act  of  Congress  in  1850,  to  permit  the 
exterior  form  of  government  to  come  increas- 
ingly into  accord  with  the  American  system.  Al- 
though political  strife  reached  the  brink  of  war 
in  1857,  when  President  Buchanan  sent  an  ex- 
peditionary force  under  Albert  Sidney  Johnston 
to  Utah,  he  preserved  his  system  intact  for  an- 
other twelve  years.  It  was  then  sufficiently  strong 
to  adjust  without  loss  in  essentials  to  the  in- 
evitable formal  compromise.  Appointed  the  first 
governor  of  the  Territory,  he  refused  to  vacate 
the  office  when  displaced ;  though  he  yielded  on 
the  approach  of  Johnston's  army,  his  successors 
were  mere  figureheads  and  Young  governed  as 
effectively  as  before.    Neither  the  displacement 


Young 

of  the  Mormon  legal  machinery  nor  the  prose- 
cution of  Young  and  other  leaders  by  Gentile 
judges,  spurred  on  by  a  national  agitation,  in 
any  way  impaired  the  structure  of  Mormon  so- 
ciety. That  he  brought  his  religious,  social,  and 
economic  system,  the  Mormon  Church,  to  suc- 
cessful operation  and  preserved  its  identity 
against  a  hostile  nation  and  against  the  main 
currents  of  American  social  evolution  in  the 
nineteenth  century  is  the  measure  of  Young's 
greatness.  In  such  men  as  George  Q.  Cannon, 
Wilford  Woodruff,  Heber  C.  Kimball  [qq.v.], 
and  Jedediah  M.  Grant  he  had  invaluable  as- 
sistants, but  they  were  only  assistants,  instru- 
mentalities of  his  will. 

He  was  perhaps  the  foremost  social  pragma- 
tist  of  his  time.  He  had  no  interest  in  systematic 
thought  and  was  impatient  of  theory.  His  genius 
lay  in  his  ability  to  use  the  group  sentiments  of 
Mormonism  for  group  ends.  It  was,  besides,  an 
executive  and  administrative  genius  of  the  high- 
est order.  His  mind  worked  rapidly  and  carried 
a  myriad  relevant  details  about  every  activity 
and  personality  of  his  church.  At  least  three- 
quarters  of  his  sermons  are  devoted  to  prac- 
tical management,  and  they  instruct  his  fol- 
lowers in  the  minutest  details  of  daily  life  from 
dish-washing  and  community  slaughter  houses 
to  freight  schedules  and  the  strategy  of  empire 
building.  His  formal  schooling  amounted  to  only 
two  months,  and  though  a  patient  reader  he 
learned  best  from  specialists.  He  built  up  a  splen- 
did educational  system  but  held  it  to  severely 
practical  ends,  not  least  among  them  the  con- 
ditioning of  the  young  in  Mormon  sentiments. 
He  wrote  with  difficulty  and  not  well,  but  the 
language  of  his  sermons,  which  were  extempo- 
raneous, is  vivid,  clear,  idiomatic,  and  exquisite- 
ly appropriate  to  his  audience. 

Ruthless  and  domineering  as  a  leader,  he  was 
in  private  life  a  genial  and  benevolent  man,  who 
had  strong  family  affections  and  loved  dancing, 
singing,  music,  and  the  theatre,  and  loved  most 
of  all  the  sight  of  his  people  enjoying  themselves 
and  improving  themselves  while  they  built  up 
the  kingdom.  He  had  just  enough  kinship  with 
Joseph  Smith  to  develop  a  mild  interest  in  such 
harmless  reforms  as  dietary  systems,  uniforms 
for  women,  and  Dio  Lewis's  exercises,  but  never 
permitted  such  experiments  to  encroach  on  his 
or  his  church's  interests.  He  had  a  few  residual 
Puritan  traits:  he  opposed  liquor  (but  put  the 
church  into  the  liquor  business)  ;  he  had  a  fanati- 
cal belief  in  salvation  by  labor  and  abhorred 
waste;  he  hated  gambling  and  card-playing  and, 
granted  the  terms  of  polygamy,  sexual  misbe- 
havior.   He  stood  about  five  feet  ten  and  was 


Young 


strongly  and  compactly  built,  but  grew  stout  at 
middle  age.  The  number  of  his  wives  is  various- 
ly given  from  nineteen  to  twenty-seven.  An  in- 
determinate number  of  them  never  shared  his 
bed,  having  been  married  as  honorable  pension- 
ers or  for  doctrinal  purposes.  He  had  fifty-six 
children.  His  household  bore  a  curious  resem- 
blance to  the  "consociate  families"  of  earlier  ex- 
perimental societies,  and  his  personal  wealth  en- 
abled him  to  give  polygamy  a  grace  it  had 
nowhere  else. 

[The  best  source  is  Young's  sermons  in  Journal  of 
Discourses  (26  vols.,  1854-86).  The  best  biography  is 
M.  R.  Werner,  Brigliam  Young  (1925)  but  its  failure 
to  project  the  Mormon  sentiments  must  be  repaired 
with  F.  J.  Cannon  and  G.  L.  Knapp,  Brigliam  Young 
and  His  Mormon  Empire  (1913),  which,  though  hostile, 
has  an  indispensable  point  of  view.  Susa  Young  Gates 
and  Leah  D.  Widtsoe,  The  Life  Story  of  Brigliam 
Young  (1930)  has  valuable  intimate  detail.  For  eco- 
nomic and  sociological  analysis  see :  E.  E.  Ericksen, 
The  Psychological  and  Ethical  Aspects  of  Mormon 
Group  Life  (1922);  Hamilton  Gardner,  "Cooperation 
among  the  Mormons,"  Quarterly  Journal  of  Economics, 
May  1917  ;  Hamilton  Gardner,  "Communism  among 
the  Mormons,"  Ibid.,  Nov.  1922 ;  Bernard  De  Voto, 
"The  Centennial  of  Mormonism,"  Forays  and  Rebuttals 
(in  press,  1936).  See  also  W.  A.  Linn,  The  Story  of 
the  Mormons  (1902);  obituary  in  Deseret  Evening 
News,  Aug.  29,  31,  1877.]  b.D — V. 

YOUNG,  CHARLES  AUGUSTUS  (Dec.  15. 
1834- Jan.  3,  1908),  astronomer,  was  born  at 
Hanover,  N.  H.,  the  son  of  Ira  and  Eliza  M. 
(Adams)  Young.  The  Young  and  Adams  fami- 
lies, coming  originally  from  England,  had  lived 
in  New  Hampshire  for  several  generations,  and 
for  two  generations  had  been  intimately  con- 
nected with  Dartmouth  College.  Ebenezer  Ad- 
ams [#.?'.],  the'  father  of  Eliza,  occupied  the 
chair  of  mathematics  and  philosophy  there  from 
1810  to  1833.  He  was  succeeded  in  the  profes- 
sorship by  his  son-in-law,  Ira  Young,  who  held 
the  chair  (changed  in  1838  to  that  of  natural 
philosophy  and  astronomy)  until  his  death  in 
1858.  Both  are  remembered  as  born  teachers, 
rich  in  knowledge,  patient  and  skilful  in  im- 
parting it.  The  carrying  on  of  this  family  suc- 
cession— for  Charles  Young  was  appointed  to  the 
same  chair  in  1866 — is  one  of  the  most  striking 
facts  of  Young's  life.  Another  is  that  he  entered 
Dartmouth  in  1849,  at  fourteen,  and  graduated 
in  1853,  at  eighteen,  at  the  head  of  his  class  of 
fifty. 

Having  completed  his  work  in  advance,  he 
accompanied  his  father  in  the  spring  and  sum- 
mer of  1853  on  a  trip  to  Europe  looking  for  in- 
struments with  which  to  equip  the  Shattuck  Ob- 
servatory, then  being  built  at  Dartmouth.  His 
first  position,  however,  was  in  the  classics,  which 
he  taught  at  Phillips  Academy  at  Andover,  Mass.. 
from  1853  to  1855.  The  following  year,  still 
cherishing  the  plan  which  he  had  long  had  of 


62 


Young 

becoming-  a  missionary,  he  attended  the  An- 
dover  Theological  Seminary,  continuing  for  a 
part  of  the  year  his  teaching  at  the  academy.  In 
January  1857,  however,  he  started  on  the  scien- 
tific career  to  which  heredity  and  training  called 
him  as  professor  of  mathematics,  natural  philos- 
ophy, and  astronomy  in  Western  Reserve  Col- 
lege at  Hudson,  Ohio.  In  the  following  summer 
( Aug.  26)  he  married  Augusta  S.  Mixer,  by 
whom  he  had  three  children.  During  the  Civil 
War  the  students'  military  company,  with  Young 
as  captain,  responded  to  the  call  of  the  governor 
of  Ohio  in  1862,  and  served  for  four  months  as 
Company  B  of  the  85th  Ohio  Volunteer  Infantry. 
Back  at  Dartmouth  in  1866  as  professor  of 
natural  philosophy  and  astronomy,  Young  took 
up  more  actively  his  pioneering  studies  in  solar 
physics  with  a  spectroscope  of  his  own  design. 
He  sketched  the  changing  forms  of  the  promi- 
nences, and  later  photographed  them ;  he  found 
and  listed  bright  lines  in  the  spectrum  of  the 
chromosphere ;  he  studied  the  spectra  of  sun- 
spots,  often  detecting  line  reversals.  These  im- 
portant observations,  together  with  details  of 
the  construction  of  spectroscopes,  he  published 
in  a  series  of  "Spectroscopic  Notes"  in  the  Jour- 
nal of  the  Franklin  Institute,  the  first  one  appear- 
ing in  August  1869.  Observing  the  total  eclipse 
of  the  sun  on  Aug.  7,  1869,  at  Burlington,  Iowa, 
he  determined  the  time  of  contact  by  watching 
one  of  the  spectral  lines  as  it  shortened ;  exam- 
ined the  spectra  of  prominences  and  independ- 
ently discovered  the  bright  line  in  the  corona 
which  was  long  wrongly  identified  with  the  1474 
iron  line  ;  and  detected  the  faint  continuous  spec- 
trum of  the  corona.  At  the  eclipse  of  Dec.  22, 
1870,  in  Spain,  he  saw  the  lines  of  the  solar 
spectrum  all  become  bright  for  perhaps  a  second 
and  a  half  (the  "flash  spectrum")  and  announced 
the  "reversing  layer."  On  an  expedition  to  the 
high  altitude  of  Sherman,  Wyo.,  in  1872  he  more 
than  doubled  the  number  of  bright  lines  he  had 
observed  in  the  chromosphere,  and,  by  a  com- 
parison of  observations,  concluded  that  magnetic 
conditions  on  the  earth  respond  to  solar  disturb- 
ances. In  1873  he-went  to  Peking  (later  Pei- 
ping)  to  observe  the  transit  of  Venus  and  while 
there  made  his  first  studies  on  the  "flexure"  of 
the  broken  transit.  He  organized  expeditions  to 
observe  the  eclipses  of  1878  in  Denver,  of  1886 
in  Russia,  and  of  1900  in  Wadesboro,  N.  C.  In 
1882  he  mounted  apparatus  on  the  lawn  of  the 
Princeton  Observatory  to  observe  the  transit  of 
Venus.  In  1876,  using  a  grating,  he  made  the 
first  good  quantitative  determination  of  the  rate 
of  rotation  of  the  sun.  In  1877  he  accepted  the 
call  to  the  College  of  New  Jersey  (later  Prince- 

6 


Young 


ton)  as  professor  of  astronomy.  There  he  soon 
had  a  well-equipped  observatory  of  instruction, 
and  in  1882  the  23-inch  telescope  was  mounted 
in  the  Halsted  Observatory.  He  made  a  series 
of  measures  of  double  stars,  determined  the  polar 
flattening  of  Mars,  and  observed  the  spectra  of 
comets. 

He  also  lectured  for  many  years  at  Mount 
Holyoke  College  and  at  Bradford  Academy. 
Two  series  of  lectures  were  given  at  Williams 
College,  and  he  was  in  great  demand  for  occa- 
sional lectures.  His  book,  The  Sun  ( 1881 ),  went 
into  numerous  editions  and  was  translated  into 
several  languages.  His  exceptional  ability  as  a 
teacher  has  had  its  influence  on  many  stu- 
dents of  astronomy  through  his  textbooks :  A 
Textbook  of  General  Astronomy  for  Colleges 
and  Scientific  Schools  (1888),  The  Elements 
of  Astronomy  (1890),  Lessons  in  Astronomy 
(1891),  and  the  Manual  of  Astronomy  (1902). 
There  would  be  almost  unanimous  agreement 
that  Young's  books  were  among  the  best  text- 
books in  astronomy  ever  written ;  his  pupils  as 
nearly  unanimously  considered  him  the  best  of 
teachers.  He  was  an  associate  of  the  American 
Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences,  of  the  Royal  As- 
tronomical Society,  of  the  philosophical  societies 
of  Manchester  and  of  Cambridge,  and  of  the  So- 
cieta  degli  Spettroscopisti  Italiani.  He  held  nu- 
merous honorary  degrees,  among  them  that  of 
LL.D.  granted  him  by  Princeton  at  his  retire- 
ment in  1905,  when  the  student  body  rose  and 
gave  a  triple  cheer  for  "Twinkle."  He  died  in 
Hanover,  survived  by  two  sons. 

[See  Who's  IV  ho  in  America,  1906-07;  Gen.  Cat. 
Dartmouth  Coll.  (1925);  Gen.  Cat.  Theological  Sem- 
inary, Andover,  Mass.,  1808-1908  (n.d.)  ;  E.  B.  Frost, 
in  Astrophysical  Jour.,  Dec.  1909,  and  Sci.,  Jan.  24, 
1908;  Am.  Jour.  Sci.,  Feb.  1908;  Hector  MacPherson, 
in  Observatory,  Mar.  1908  ;  Monthly  Notices  Royal  As- 
tronomical Soc,  Feb.  1909  ;  Pubs.  Astronomical  Soc. 
of  the  Pacific,  Feb.  10,  1908;  J.  M.  Poor,  in  Pop.  As- 
tronomy, Apr.  1908;  Pop.  Sci.  Monthly,  July  1905; 
obituary  in  N.  Y.  Times,  Jan.  5,  1908,  which  gives  the 
date  of  death  as  Jan.  4.]  r  g  j)_ 

YOUNG,  CLARK  MONTGOMERY  (Sept. 
3,  1856-Feb.  28,  1908),  South  Dakota  educator, 
was  born  at  Hiram,  Ohio.  His  father,  Erastus 
Montgomery  Young,  a  carpenter  and  cabinet- 
maker, had  moved  to  Ohio  from  Connecticut  as 
a  youth.  His  mother,  Chestina  Allyn,  had  been 
born  in  Ohio  but  was  also  a  member  of  a  Con- 
necticut family,  the  daughter  of  Pelatiah  Allyn, 
who  assisted  materially  in  1850  in  the  founding 
of  Western  Reserve  Eclectic  Institute  (later 
Hiram  College) .  After  attending  the  school  near 
his  farm  home,  Young  was  enrolled  in  the  pre- 
paratory department  of  Hiram  College  (1875- 
78)  and  then  for  two  years  taught  in  the  public 


24 


Young 


Young 


schools  of  Kenton,  Ohio.  He  returned  to  Hiram 
College  in  1880  and  received  the  degree  of  Ph.B. 
in  1883. 

Through  the  influence  of  a  brother,  Sutton  E. 
Young,  who  had  settled  in  Dakota  Territory,  he 
secured  the  principalship  of  the  public  schools 
at  Scotland,  Dakota  Territory.  In  1884  he  was 
superintendent  of  schools  at  Mitchell,  and  in 
1885  he  accepted  the  super intendency  of  the 
schools  at  Tyndall,  assuming  at  the  same  time 
proprietorship  of  a  weekly  newspaper,  the  Tyn- 
dall Tribune.  He  continued  the  dual  role  of  edu- 
cator and  newspaper  publisher  and  editor  until 
1892.  He  was  appointed  in  1889  a  member  of  the 
territorial  board  of  education  on  which  he  served 
until  1890.  In  1892  he  became  professor  of  his- 
tory and  political  science  at  the  state  university 
at  Vermillion.  The  university  during  this  period 
was  considerably  weakened  by  the  economic  ills 
with  which  the  western  states  were  harassed,  as 
well  as  by  frequent  bickerings  of  factionalism 
within  the  faculty.  Through  his  dignified  atti- 
tude, practical  counsel,  and  keen  sense  of  perspec- 
tive, Young  contributed  largely  to  the  academic 
prestige  attained  by  the  institution.  When  in 
1901  the  university  became  definitely  organized 
into  colleges,  he  was  appointed  the  first  dean  of 
the  college  of  arts  and  sciences.  He  held  this  po- 
sition from  1902  until  his  death. 

Young  rendered  notable  services  to  the  cause 
of  education  in  South  Dakota.  He  served  as 
president  of  the  South  Dakota  Educational  As- 
sociation (  1892-93),  became  the  editor  of  the 
South  Dakota  Educator  in  1900,  and  contributed 
materially  to  the  drafting  of  school  laws  for  the 
state,  particularly  in  1901.  When  the  courses  of 
study  for  the  public  schools  were  revised  in  1905 
and  1906,  he  played  a  prominent  part,  serving  as 
chairman  of  the  committee  that  effected  a  reor- 
ganization of  the  high  school  system.  His  effec- 
tive work  at  teachers'  institutes  made  him  one 
of  the  most  widely  known  institute  instructors 
in  the  state.  He  was  the  author,  with  G.  M. 
Smith,  of  The  State  and  Nation  (1895),  The 
Elements  of  Pedagogy  (1898),  and  History  and 
Government  of  South  Dakota  (1898).  He  was 
married  on  Aug.  1,  1883,  to  Loretta  F.  Murray, 
by  whom  he  had  three  sons  and  one  daughter. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1908-09;  S.  Dak.  Alumni 
Quart.,  Apr.  1908;  Volante  (Univ.  of  S.  Dak.),  Mar. 
io,  1908;  Dakota  Republican  (Vermillion),  Mar.  5, 
12,  1908;  information  from  Young's  wife  and  a  son, 
and  from  M.  S.  Baker,  Hiram  Coll.,  Hiram,  Ohio.] 

H.S.S. 

YOUNG,  DAVID  (Jan.  27,  1781-Feb.  13, 
1852),  astronomer,  poet,  teacher,  and  almanac- 
maker,  was  born  at  Pine  Brook,  Morris  County, 
N.  J.,  a  son  of  Sarah  (Mott)  and  Amos  Young, 


a  farmer.  He  was  a  great-grandson  of  Robert 
Young  of  Scotland  who  settled  at  Perth  Amboy, 
N.  J.,  in  1685.  Young's  writings  give  evidence 
of  a  trained  mind,  but  no  record  has  been  found 
of  his  attendance  at  college.  His  contemporaries 
called  him  "a  natural  astronomer."  Wherever 
acquired,  his  was  a  liberal  education.  His  reli- 
gious poem,  The  Contrast,  published  at  the  age 
of  twenty-three,  evinces  wide  reading  and  ma- 
tured thinking,  and  a  brilliant  and  correct  tech- 
nique;  his  later  effort,  The  Perusal,  is  cosmic 
and  Miltonian.  He  had  a  school  at  Elizabeth- 
Town  for  some  time,  and  had  just  passed  the 
age  of  twenty  when  he  terminated  the  connec- 
tion, May  1801.  He  had  applied  the  preceding 
March  for  a  school  at  Turkey  (later  New  Provi- 
dence), N.  J.,  with  characteristic  humor  asking 
the  trustees  to  show  a  good  recommendation 
from  their  former  master.  Apparently  he  was 
engaged.  At  least  he  found  there  a  wife,  for  on 
May  28,  1808,  he  married  at  Newark,  where  he 
then  perhaps  lived,  Mary  Atkins  of  Turkey. 
They  had  no  children.  He  seems  to  have  taught 
school,  perhaps  intermittently,  during  these 
early  years,  and  also  later  in  life,  the  latter  period 
in  and  about  Hanover  Neck,  Morris  County. 
Tradition  holds  that  he  was  a  poor  disciplina- 
rian, and  found  it  hard  to  accommodate  his  teach- 
ing to  the  younger  mind. 

As  "David  Young,  Philom"  he  first  appears 
as  almanac-maker  in  1814,  the  publication  being 
the  Citizens'  &  Farmers'  Almanac,  published  by 
Jacob  Mann  of  Morristown,  N.  J.  From  then 
until  his  death  perhaps  no  year  passed  without 
his  name  on  one  or  more  almanacs,  among  them 
the  Farmers'  Almanac,  Hutchins'  Improved  Al- 
manac, the  Family  Christian  Almanac,  and  the 
Methodist  Almanac.  His  longest  services  were 
with  Mann's  publication  and  with  the  Farmer's 
Almanac,  published  by  Benjamin  Olds  of  New- 
ark. His  quaint  interpolated  forecasts,  "Now 
plant  corn,"  "Hereabouts  expect  snow,"  and 
others,  were  somewhat  humorous  accommoda- 
tions to  the  popular  mind.  Tradition  relates  that 
he  satisfied  a  group  of  French  scientists  in  New 
York  with  his  calculation  showing  that  no  eclipse 
could  have  been  the  cause  of  the  recorded  phe- 
nomenon of  darkness  at  the  crucifixion  of  Jesus. 
His  intellectual  superiority,  however,  depends 
not  on  tradition  but  on  his  published  works :  The 
Contrast  (Elizabeth-Town,  1804),  a  poem  in  two 
parts  done  in  blank  verse;  The  Perusal,  or  the 
Book  of  Nature  Unfolded  (Newark,  1818),  to 
which  is  added  a  reprint  of  The  Contrast ;  Lec- 
tures on  the  Science  of  Astronomy  (Morristown, 
1821),  delivered  during  1820  at  various  places; 
A  Lecture  on  the  Laws  of  Motion   (Caldwell, 


,25 


Young 

N.  J.,  1825);  The  Wonderful  History  of  the 
Morristown  Ghost  (Newark,  1826),  "thorough- 
ly and  carefully  revised"  from  a  former  anony- 
mous narrative  written  in  1792  by  Ransford 
Rogers,  schoolmaster,  and  perpetrator  of  the 
gold-finding  hoax;  and  The  Astonishing  Visit 
(Newark,  1836),  a  sermonic  address  based  on 
the  VIII  Psalm,  in  the  light  of  astronomy. 
While  basically  in  harmony  with  the  theology 
of  his  generation  he  abhorred  superstition  and 
appealed  to  a  day  when  "science  and  truth  will 
finally  prevail."  A  substantial  marble  stone 
marked  his  grave  in  Hanover  Churchyard  until 
1900,  when  a  more  imposing  monument  of  gran- 
ite was  substituted,  the  old  stone  being  whim- 
sically removed  to  the  Pine  Brook  cemetery  near 
his  birthplace. 

[See  Around  the  Block  (1900),  a  booklet  by  Mrs. 
A.  E.  Kitchell,  a  pupil  of  Young's  ;  E.  A.  Aggar,  "How 
Time's  Flight  Was  Noted,"  Newark  Sunday  News, 
Dec.  27,  1903  ;  and  J.  F.  Folsom,  in  Proc.  N.  J.  Hist. 
Soc.,  Oct.  1927.  There  is  a  very  inclusive  coll.  of 
Young's  almanacs  and  astronomical  and  poetic  works 
in  the  N.  J.  Hist.  Soc,  as  well  as  an  astronomical  dial 
plate  of  metal  he  had  made  for  his  own  use.  The  name 
of  Young's  mother  is  from  MS.  B.  14*2  in  the  N.  J. 
Hist.  Soc]  j  p  p 

YOUNG,  ELLA  FLAGG  (Jan.  15,  1845-Oct. 

26,  1918),  educator,  was  born  in  Buffalo,  N.  Y., 
the  daughter  of  Theodore  and  Jane  (Reed) 
Flagg,  both  of  Scotch  Presbyterian  descent.  Be- 
cause of  frail  health  in  childhood,  she  did  not  at- 
tend the  early  grades  of  the  elementary  school 
but  spent  much  of  her  time  in  watching  her  fa- 
ther at  his  forge,  or  in  cultivating  a  garden. 
After  a  short  period  in  grammar  school  she  was 
admitted  at  the  age  of  fourteen  to  the  high  school 
of  Chicago,  to  which  city  her  parents  had  moved  ; 
at  seventeen  she  began  to  teach  in  the  public 
schools.  In  1868  she  married  William  Young,  a 
merchant,  who  died  the  following  year. 

After  some  years  as  teacher  she  became  a 
principal,  and  from  1887  to  1899  was  a  district 
superintendent,  in  the  Chicago  schools.  During 
the  last  four  years  of  this  period  she  was  a 
member  of  a  seminar  of  John  Dewey's  at  the 
University  of  Chicago,  receiving  the  degree  of 
Ph.D.  in  1900.  From  1899  to  1904  she  was  pro- 
fessor of  education  at  the  University ;  from  1905 
to  1909,  principal  of  the  Chicago  Normal  School ; 
and  from  1909  to  191 5,  superintendent  of  the 
public  school  system  of  the  city.  In  1917,  two 
years  after  she  withdrew  from  the  school  sys- 
tem, she  became  a  member  of  the  Woman's  Lib- 
erty Loan  Committee ;  she  died  while  in  this 
service. 

The  period  of  her  public  career,  which  ex- 
tended from  1862  to  1918,  was  one  of  rapid 
change  in  the  educational  system  of  the  country 


Young 


and  in  the  social  and  professional  status  of  wom- 
en. She  was  a  member  of  the  Equal  Suffrage 
Association  and  an  ardent  leader  in  the  move- 
ment to  secure  a  place  for  women  in  public  life. 
She  helped  to  organize  the  women  teachers  of 
Chicago  and  of  the  country.  In  1910  she  was 
elected  the  first  woman  president  of  the  National 
Education  Association,  after  a  bitter  struggle. 
She  was  active  in  the  movement  to  introduce  art, 
commercial  subjects,  home  economics,  and  man- 
ual training  into  the  public  schools.  She  resisted 
political  interference  with  the  schools  and  in 
I9I3»  by  resigning  from  the  office  of  superintend- 
ent, compelled  the  reorganization  of  the  Chicago 
Board  of  Education,  which  had  planned  to  de- 
pose her ;  she  was  reappointed  by  the  reorganized 
board. 

She  was  associated  in  social  work  with  Jane 
Addams.  While  teaching  at  the  University  of 
Chicago  she  published  a  number  of  monographs 
and  articles  setting  forth  educational  principles 
developed  in  cooperation  with  John  Dewey. 
Among  these  were  her  doctoral  dissertation,  Iso- 
lation in  the  School  ( 1900),  and  two  later  mono- 
graphs, Ethics  in  the  School  (1902)  and  Some 
Types  of  Modern  Educational  Theory  (1902). 
Later  she  prepared  notable  reports  as  superin- 
tendent of  the  Chicago  schools.  She  contributed 
to  educational  journals  and  was  a  frequent  speak- 
er at  meetings  of  educational  associations.  In 
all  her  utterances  she  emphasized  the  impor- 
tance of  providing  pupils  with  concrete,  inter- 
esting experiences.  She  favored  methods  of 
teaching  which  give  pupils  the  largest  personal 
liberty  and  cultivate  in  them  a  sense  of  responsi- 
bility, maintained  that  methods  of  teaching 
should  be  based  on  psychological  studies  of  the 
natural  tendencies  of  children's  minds,  and  also 
agreed  with  Dewey  in  favoring  the  organiza- 
tion of  schools  in  such  a  way  as  to  bring  them 
into  harmony  with  social  conditions. 

Her  administrative  career  was  characterized 
by  vigor.  She  coordinated  the  activities  of  the 
school  system  and  brought  it  to  a  high  degree  of 
efficiency.  Involved  in  controversy,  she  was 
charged  with  inflexibility,  dictatorial  methods, 
a  persistent  tendency  to  choose  women  for  im- 
portant positions,  and  improper  cooperation  with 
teachers'  organizations  bent  upon  securing  in- 
creases in  salary  and  permanent  tenure.  Never- 
theless, she  gained  the  devotion  of  her  associates 
by  her  willingness  to  delegate  responsibility  and 
to  support  loyally  those  whom  she  intrusted  with 
appointments.  Throughout  her  career  as  an  ad- 
ministrator she  was  active  in  improving  the 
training  of  teachers.  She  was  a  sharp  critic  of 
inefficiency  and  a  stimulating  supervisor.    Her 


626 


Young 

hold  on  the  teaching  force  of  the  city  of  Chicago 
is  attested  by  the  existence  among  the  women 
teachers  of  the  Ella  Flagg  Young  Club. 

[J.  T.  McManis,  Ella  Flagg  Young  and  a  Half-Cen- 
tury of  the  Chicago  Public  Schools  (1916);  Who's 
Who  in  America,  19 18-19;  Public  Schools  of  the  City 
of  Chicago  .  .  .  Ann.  Report,  1910-15  ;  Chicago  Daily 
News,  Oct.  26,  1918;  Chicago  Sunday  Tribune,  Oct. 
27.  '918.]  C.H.J. 

YOUNG,  EWING  (d.  Feb.  15,  1841),  trap- 
per, Oregon  pioneer,  was  born  and  reared  in 
Eastern  Tennessee.  He  was  probably  with  the 
expedition  under  William  Becknell  [q.i:]  which 
in  the  fall  of  1821  opened  the  Santa  Fe  Trail,  and 
thereafter  for  a  number  of  years  he  operated  as 
a  trapper  from  Taos.  In  August  1826  he  appears 
in  the  New  Mexican  records  as  "Joaquin  Joon," 
the  leader  of  a  company  which  visited  the  Gila 
and  incidentally  were  victors  in  a  spirited  battle 
with  a  band  of  Pima  and  Maricopa  Indians. 
Three  years  later  he  led  a  party  which  included 
young  Kit  Carson  [q.v.~]  across  the  Mohave  Des- 
ert into  California,  where  he  trapped  the  San 
Joaquin  River.  He  returned  to  Taos  in  April 
1 83 1,  and  in  the  fall  united  with  David  Waldo 
[5.^.]  and  David  E.  Jackson  in  organizing  two 
expeditions  for  California.  Young  arrived  in 
Los  Angeles  in  March  1832,  but  the  plans  of  the 
company  failed,  and  he  decided  to  remain  on  the 
coast.  In  October  he  set  out  on  an  expedition 
that  carried  him  over  a  great  part  of  California 
and  to  the  Colorado  River  at  Yuma,  returning  to 
Los  Angeles  in  the  early  summer  of  1834. 

Near  San  Diego,  in  May,  Young  met  Hall 
Jackson  Kelley  [q.v.~],  promoter  of  the  Oregon 
colonization  movement,  and  became  deeply  in- 
terested in  that  project.  He  joined  Kelley  at 
Monterey,  Cal.,  and  the  two,  with  twelve  others 
and  a  cavalcade  of  horses  and  mules,  arrived  at 
Fort  Vancouver  on  Oct.  27.  Dr.  John  McLough- 
lin  \_q.v.~],  local  head  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Com- 
pany, had  received  word  from  Governor  Fi- 
gueroa  to  look  out  for  a  party  of  horse-thieves, 
and  though  showing  kindness  to  Kelley  would 
accept  no  explanations  from  Young.  The  trap- 
per resolved,  however,  to  remain,  and  settled  on 
the  Chehalem,  where  he  developed  a  farm.  For 
two  and  a  half  years  he  was  virtually  ostracized. 
Early  in  1837,  however,  he  was  enabled  to  join 
with  his  neighbors  in  a  project  for  bringing  in 
cattle.  With  ten  others  he  went  to  California, 
where  he  soon  cleared  himself  of  the  charge 
against  him  and  purchased  some  800  head  of  cat- 
tle, more  than  600  of  which  he  succeeded  in  tak- 
ing to  the  Willamette.  Exonerated  of  blame,  he 
at  once  became  a  leader  in  the  Oregon  community 
and  remained  so  till  his  death.  In  1838  he  erect- 
ed a  sawmill  which  enabled  the  settlers  to  build 


Young 

frame  houses ;  he  extended  the  cultivation  of  his 
lands,  producing  large  crops  of  grain,  and  zeal- 
ously cooperated  with  the  other  pioneers  for  the 
development  of  the  community.  In  1840  his 
health  failed  and  he  died  at  his  home  the  next 
year.  The  problem  of  administering  his  estate 
prompted  the  first  exercise  of  civil  government 
in  Oregon,  the  election  of  a  probate  judge  by  a 
meeting  of  the  settlers.  As  Young  was  sup- 
posed to  have  no  heirs,  the  proceeds  of  the  sale 
of  his  estate  were  turned  over  to  the  provisional 
government.  Early  in  1855  a  young  man  calling 
himself  Joaquin  Young  and  asserting  himself  to 
be  the  natural  son  of  the  trapper,  born  of  a  Mexi- 
can woman  in  Taos  after  his  departure,  made 
claim  as  his  heir.  On  Dec.  3  the  territorial  su- 
preme court  awarded  the  claimant  judgment  in 
the  sum  of  $4,994.64. 

Young  was  a  man  of  great  natural  abilities. 
As  a  trapper  and  explorer  he  was,  almost  from 
the  beginning,  a  leader,  and  as  a  pioneer  settler 
he  attained  a  position  of  first  importance  in  his 
community.  He  was  active,  enterprising,  fear- 
less, and  scrupulously  honest.  It  is  said  of  him 
that  he  was  the  first  exponent  of  democratic  or- 
ganization and  procedure  in  Oregon,  and  that 
largely  through  him  the  first  effective  steps  were 
taken  toward  freeing  the  settlement  from  the 
tyranny  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company.  Proba- 
bly he  had  little  schooling;  he  had,  however,  a 
keen  intelligence,  and  he  wrote  well.  Among  his 
effects  was  a  two-volume  edition  of  Shakespeare, 
which  he  is  supposed  to  have  carried  with  him 
in  all  his  many  wanderings. 

[F.  G.  Young,  "Ewing  Young  and  His  Estate,"  Ore. 
Hist.  Soc.  Quart.,  Sept.  1920  ;  J.  J.  Hill,  "Ewing  Young 
in  the  Fur  Trade  of  the  Far  Southwest,"  Ibid.,  Mar. 
1923;  E.  L.  Sabin,  Kit  Carson  Days  (2  vols.,  1935)  ; 
F.  W.  Powell,  Hall  Jackson  Kelley,  Prophet  of  Oregon 
(19 1 7)  ;  Narratives  of  the  Trans-Mississippi  Frontier: 
Hall  J.  Kelley  on  Oregon  (1932),  ed.  by  F.  W.  Powell ; 
C.  M.  Walker,  in  Tran.  .  .  .  Ore.  Pioneer  Asso.;  for 
1880  (1881).]  W.J.G. 

YOUNG,  JESSE  BOWMAN  (July  5,  1844- 
July  30,  1914),  Methodist  Episcopal  clergyman, 
editor,  and  writer,  son  of  the  Rev.  Jared  H. 
Young,  a  Methodist  minister,  and  Sarah  (Bow- 
man) Young,  was  born  in  Berwick,  Pa.  A  pale, 
delicate-looking  boy,  fond  of  books  and  averse  to 
outdoor  activities,  he  was  sent  to  Dickinson  Sem- 
inary, Williamsport,  Pa.,  to  prepare  for  college. 
The  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War  awakened  sol- 
dierly inclinations  in  him,  however,  and  though 
restrained  by  his  mother  from  enlisting  until 
December  1861,  he  then  joined  the  4th  Illinois 
Cavalry,  in  which  his  uncle,  Samuel  M.  Bow- 
man, was  a  major.  At  that  time  Jesse  was  in  his 
eighteenth   year.    In    1862  he  joined  the  84th 


627 


Young 

Pennsylvania  Volunteers,  of  which  his  uncle  had 
been  made  colonel,  remaining  with  it  until  he 
was  mustered  out,  Dec.  4,  1864,  and  rising  to  the 
rank  of  captain.  He  was  present  at  a  number  of 
important  engagements,  including  the  battle  of 
Gettysburg.  In  later  years  he  recorded  his  ex- 
periences in  What  a  Boy  Saw  in  the  Army 
(1894),  a  well  written  book  designed  especially 
for  young  people  and  illustrated  with  pen  draw- 
ings by  Thomas  Francis  Beard  [q.e'.]. 

After  the  war  he  returned  to  Dickinson  Sem- 
inary, where  he  was  graduated  in  1866;  two 
years  later  he  received  the  degree  of  A.B.  from 
Dickinson  College.  He  then  joined  the  Central 
Pennsylvania  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church,  was  ordained  deacon  in  1870,  and 
elder  in  1872.  He  was  pastor  of  churches  in 
Pennsylvania  until  1888,  in  which  year  he  trans- 
ferred to  the  St.  Louis  Conference  and  was  ap- 
pointed to  the  Grand  Avenue  Church,  Kansas 
City,  Mo.,  of  which  he  was  in  charge  until  1892. 
By  this  time  he  had  become  well  known  in  the 
Church,  not  only  as  an  effective  preacher  and 
Sunday  School  worker,  but  also  as  a  writer,  and 
the  General  Conference  of  that  year  elected  him 
editor  of  the  Central  Christian  Advocate,  St. 
Louis.  In  this  capacity  he  served  until  1900. 
Subsequently,  he  held  pastorates  at  the  Walnut 
Hills  Church,  Cincinnati  (1900-08),  at  Snyder 
Memorial  Church,  Jacksonville,  Fla.  (1908-12), 
and  at  Bluffton,  Ind.  (1912-13).  He  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  General  Conferences  of  1896  and  1900, 
and  a  delegate  to  the  Ecumenical  Conference  of 
Methodism  held  in  London,  England,  in  1901. 
On  Dec.  22,  1870,  he  married  Lucy  Minshall 
Spottswood  of  Williamsport,  Pa.  He  died  of 
nephritis  in  Wesley  Hospital,  Chicago,  survived 
by  his  wife  and  five  children. 

A  facile  writer,  Young  contributed  frequently 
to  religious  periodicals  and  wrote  several  books 
in  addition  to  that  which  recounts  his  war  ex- 
periences. Among  them  were  Days  and  Nights 
on  the  Sea  (1888),  Helps  for  the  Quiet  Hour 
(1900),  Our  Lord  and  Master  (1903),  The  Hun- 
gry Christ  and  Other  Sermons  (1904),  and  To- 
day: An  Age  of  Opportunity  (1909).  His  most 
ambitious  literary  undertaking,  perhaps,  was 
The  Battle  of  Gettysburg  (1913),  an  extensive 
treatment  of  that  engagement,  illustrated  by 
maps  and  pictures,  which  his  connection  with 
the  battle,  his  long  residence  near  the  scene  of 
the  conflict,  and  much  investigation  particularly 
fitted  him  to  make. 

[Ann.  Report  of  the  Adj.-Gcn.  of  Pa.  (1S67)  ;  Year 
Book  of  the  North  Ind.  Ann.  Conference,  191 5  ;  Who's 
Who  in  America,  1914-15  ;  Central  Christian  Advocate, 
Aug.  s,  1914;  Christian  Advocate  (N.  Y.),  Aug.  6, 
1914;  Chicago  Tribune,  July  31,  1914.]  H.  E.  S. 


Young 

YOUNG,  JOHN  (June  12,  1802-Apr.  23, 
1852),  congressman,  governor  of  New  York, 
was  born  in  Chelsea,  Vt.,  but  moved  a  few  years 
later  to  Freeport,  now  Conesus,  Livingston  Coun- 
ty, N.  Y.  His  father,  Thomas  Young,  an  eccen- 
tric but  persevering  farmer,  and  his  wife  Mary 
Gale  could  give  their  only  child  nothing  beyond 
the  ordinary  district  schooling,  but  through  his 
own  efforts  the  youth  acquired  a  knowledge  of 
the  classics,  and  after  a  period  of  teaching  en- 
tered upon  a  law  clerkship  which  led  to  his  ad- 
mission to  the  bar  of  the  supreme  court  of  the 
state  in  1829.  He  began  to  practise  in  Geneseo, 
and  continued  to  maintain  an  office  there  and  to 
pursue  his  profession  in  the  interims  between 
his  periods  of  public  service.  In  1833  he  married 
Ellen  Harris  of  York,  who  with  several  children 
survived  him. 

Young  early  inclined  to  politics.  Beginning 
as  an  ardent  Jacksonian  Democrat  he  ran  un- 
successfully in  1828  for  the  office  of  county  clerk. 
He  entered  the  Assembly  in  1832  under  the  Anti- 
Masonic  banner,  and  in  1836-37  and  1841-43 
represented  his  district  in  Congress  as  a  Whig. 
He  sought  constantly  to  serve  his  constituents. 
He  supported  the  bill  providing  for  the  distribu- 
tion of  the  proceeds  from  the  sales  of  public 
lands,  the  tariff  bill  of  1842,  and  other  regular 
Whig  measures — all  of  which  President  Tyler 
vetoed — and  at  the  end  of  the  Twenty-seventh 
Congress  signed  the  Whig  justificatory  mani- 
festo. When  in  1845  ne  again  represented  Liv- 
ingston County  in  the  Assembly,  he  had  become 
adept  at  taking  advantage  of  tactical  opportuni- 
ties offered  by  factional  divisions  within  parties. 
Against  a  Democratic  majority  led  by  Horatio 
Seymour  [q.v.~\,  he  pushed  through  to  a  success- 
ful vote  the  Whig  measure  providing  for  the 
calling  of  a  convention  to  revise  the  constitu- 
tion, bringing  to  its  support  all  but  two  of  the 
Whig  votes  and  the  "Hunker"  wing  of  the  Dem- 
ocratic party.  This  was  undoubtedly  his  most 
outstanding  achievement,  and  made  him  his 
party's  leader  in  the  state. 

Before  his  nomination  for  governor  in  1846 
he  intimated  in  writing  that  he  favored  pardon- 
ing those  Antirent  rioters  who  had  been  im- 
prisoned during  the  term  of  Gov.  Silas  Wright 
[q.v.~\.  As  the  candidate  of  both  Whigs  and 
Antirenters  he  overwhelmingly  defeated  Wright 
for  reelection,  and  almost  immediately  on  taking 
office  in  January  1847  granted  such  a  pardon, 
thereby  alienating  the  conservatives  of  his  own 
party.  Practically  stripped  of  appointive  power 
by  the  new  constitution,  which  he  himself  had 
favored,  he  filled  such  offices  as  were  still  at 
his  disposal  without  consulting  Thurlow  Weed 


628 


Young 

[q.v.]  and  others  who  had  aided  in  his  election. 
He  incurred  unpopularity  also  by  reiterating  a 
statement  made  in  1846  to  the  effect  that  he  be- 
lieved in  sustaining  the  United  States  and  its 
citizens  "against  a  foreign  enemy,  at  all  times, 
and  under  all  circumstances,  right  or  wrong" 
(Lincoln,  post,  IV,  416),  but  his  positive  efforts 
in  helping  prosecute  the  war  with  Mexico  once 
it  was  declared  won  much  popular  approval.  His 
governorship  was  not  particularly  noteworthy, 
and  he  did  not  seek  reelection. 

Although  a  firm  friend  of  Clay,  he  supported 
Taylor  for  president  in  1848  because  he  felt  that 
after  Clay's  crushing  defeat  in  1844  Taylor  was 
the  most  available  Whig.  As  a  reward  he  was 
appointed  assistant  treasurer  of  the  United  States 
in  New  York  City,  which  position  he  occupied 
until  his  death.  Young  was  "a  man  of  decided 
ability,  quick  in  apprehension,  and  energetic  in 
action,"  who,  though  "strong  in  his  feelings,  and 
clear  in  his  plans  .  .  .  lacked  discretion  and  over- 
rated the  means  at  his  disposal"  (New  York 
Times,  Apr.  24,  1852).  He  died  in  New  York 
City  of  pulmonary  tuberculosis,  from  which  he 
had  suffered  for  a  number  of  years. 

[Letters  in  N.  Y.  State  Lib.,  Albany  ;  L.  L.  Doty,  A 
Hist,  of  Livingston  County  (1876)  ;  W.  P.  Boyd,  Hist. 
of  the  Town  of  Conesus,  Livingston  County,  N.  Y. 
(1887)  ;  J.  S.  Jenkins,  Lives  of  the  Govs,  of  the  State 
of  N.  Y.  (1851)  ;  Third  Ann.  Meeting  of  the  Living- 
ston County  Hist.  Soc.  (1879)  ;  Biog.  Dir.  Am.  Cong. 
(1928)  ;  C.  Z.  Lincoln,  State  of  N.  Y.:  Messages  from 
the  Governors  (1909),  vol.  IV  ;  D.  S.  Alexander,  A  Pol. 
Hist,  of  the  State  of  N.  Y .,  vol.  II  (1906)  ;  files  of  the 
N.  Y.  Herald,  1846-52.]  E.L.J. 

YOUNG,  JOHN  CLARKE  (Aug.  12,  1803- 
June  2$,  1857),  educator  and  Presbyterian  min- 
ister, was  born  in  Greencastle,  Pa.,  the  post- 
humous son  of  Rev.  John  Young.  Both  father 
and  mother,  Mary  (Clarke)  Young,  were  of 
Scotch-Irish  descent.  Having  studied  under 
John  Borland  in  New  York  City,  Young  attend- 
ed Columbia  College  there  for  three  years,  but 
completed  his  college  work  in  Dickinson  College, 
graduating  in  1823.  He  became  a  tutor  in  the 
College  of  New  Jersey  and  graduated  from 
Princeton  Theological  Seminary  in  1827.  One 
year  later  he  accepted  the  pastorate  of  the  Mc- 
Chord  (now  Second)  Presbyterian  Church,  Lex- 
ington, Ky.  When  the  presidency  of  Centre 
College,  Danville,  became  vacant  in  1830,  upon 
the  resignation  of  Dr.  Gideon  Blackburn  \_q.v.~\, 
Young  was  elected  to  the  place.  The  institution 
had  graduated  only  twenty-five  young  men  dur- 
ing the  eleven  years  of  its  existence,  and  had  a 
student  body  of  thirty-three.  At  the  time  of 
Young's  death  in  1857,  the  college  had  more  than 
250  students  and  an  endowment  in  excess  of 
$100,000;  it  had  attained  a  secure  place  among 


Young 

the  strong  liberal-arts  colleges  of  the  South  and 
Middle  West,  and  had  just  graduated  a  class  of 
forty-seven. 

Young  was  a  notable  figure  in  the  development 
of  Presbyterian  policies  throughout  his  life.  In 
1834,  in  addition  to  his  duties  as  college  presi- 
dent, he  accepted  the  pastorate  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church  of  Danville,  and  so  successful  was 
his  ministry  that  in  1852  he  organized  the  Sec- 
ond Tresbyterian  Church  to  care  for  the  students 
of  the  college  without  overcrowding  the  parent 
church.  Twice  moderator  of  the  Synod  of  Ken- 
tucky, he  became  in  1853  the  moderator  of  the 
General  Assembly.  Being  specially  gifted  as 
an  extemporaneous  speaker,  he  was  frequently 
heard  in  the  church  courts  as  the  spokesman  for 
moderate  and  practicable  measures.  In  the  New- 
School  controversy,  he  deplored  the  violent 
measures  that  led  to  the  division  but  remained 
loyal  to  the  Old-School  Assembly.  In  relation  to 
the  slavery  issue,  he  twice  freed  groups  of  his 
own  slaves  and  publicly  debated  in  favor  of  in- 
cluding in  the  proposed  Kentucky  constitution  of 
1849-50  a  clause  providing  for  the  gradual  eman- 
cipation of  the  slaves ;  but  he  opposed  the  radical 
demands  of  the  abolitionists.  The  habits  of  his 
mind  were  quiet,  peaceful,  and  practicable,  and 
his  great  success  as  educator  and  preacher  was 
due  to  the  happy  combination  of  high  principle 
and  common  sense.  Several  of  his  sermons  and 
addresses  were  published,  among  them  An  Ad- 
dress to  the  Presbyterians  of  Kentucky,  Propos- 
ing a  Plan  for  the  Instruction  and  Emancipation 
of  Their  Slaves  (1836),  written  for  a  commit- 
tee of  the  Synod ;  Scriptural  Duties  of  Masters 
(n.d.),  a  sermon  preached  in  1846;  and  The 
Efficacy  of  Prayer  (1858). 

Young  was  twice  married:  first,  Nov.  3,  1829, 
to  Frances  Breckinridge,  who  died  in  1837,  and 
second,  in  1839,  to  Cornelia  Crittenden,  daugh- 
ter of  John  J.  Crittenden  [q.v.'].  He  was  thus 
connected  with  two  of  the  most  prominent  Ken- 
tucky families  of  the  period.  Of  his  ten  children, 
one  son,  Dr.  William  C.  Young,  also  a  Presby- 
terian minister,  was  president  of  Centre  College 
from  1888  till  his  death  in  1896,  and  two  daugh- 
ters, Sarah  Lee  and  Eugenia,  made  generous 
gifts  to  the  college  in  memory  of  their  father 
and  brother. 

[R.  J.  Breckinridge,  in  Danville  Quart.  Rev.,  Mar 
1864;  Lewis  and  R.  H.  Collins,  Hist,  of  Ky.  (1874), 
I,  475  ;  Z.  F.  Smith,  The  Hist,  of  Ky.  (1886)  ;  S.  M. 
Wilson,  Hist,  of  Ky.  (1928),  III,  16-17;  Gen.  Alumni 
Cat.  of  Centre  Coll.  (1890)  ;  inaugural  address  of  Dr. 
Win.  C.  Young,  in  The  Centre  Coil,  of  Ky.,  Inaugural 
Ceremonies,  Oct.  9,  1889  (1889)  ;  E.  H.  Roberts,  Biog. 
Cat.  Princeton  Theol.  Sem.  (1933);  interviews  with 
Miss  Eugenia  Young.]  C.  J.T. 


629 


Young 

YOUNG,  JOHN   RICHARDSON    (1782- 

June  8,  1804),  physician,  was  born  at  Elizabeth- 
town,  near  Hagerstown,  Md.,  the  son  of  Dr. 
Samuel  and  Ann  Richardson  Young.  He  was 
graduated  from  the  College  of  New  Jersey  (later 
Princeton)  in  1799.  Taking  up  medicine  as  a 
vocation,  he  began  his  studies  under  the  precep- 
torship  of  his  father  and  continued  them  at  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania,  from  which  he  was 
graduated  with  the  degree  of  M.D.  in  1803.  He 
returned  to  enter  practice  with  his  father.  One 
year  later  he  died  at  his  home  in  Hagerstown 
of  pulmonary  tuberculosis.  As  most  of  that  brief 
period  was  one  of  invalidism,  Young's  name 
would  by  now  have  been  forgotten,  had  it  not 
been  for  his  original  work  of  investigation  done 
as  a  student  and  published  in  his  inaugural  thesis 
for  the  degree  of  M.D.  The  thesis  bears  two  ded- 
ications, one  to  his  father,  the  other  to  Dr.  Ben- 
jamin Smith  Barton  [g.z'.J,  distinguished  and 
versatile  professor  of  materia  medica,  botany, 
and  natural  history  in  the  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania. The  latter  dedication  is  said  to  be  "in 
respect  to  his  talents,  and  gratitude  for  many 
favors  received,"  and  as  Barton's  name  is  sev- 
eral times  mentioned  in  the  thesis,  it  may  be 
presumed  that  Young  received  inspiration  and 
suggestion  from  him  in  the  prosecution  of  his 
experiments. 

The  thesis,  entitled  An  Experimental  Inquiry 
into  the  Principles  of  Nutrition  and  the  Digestive 
Process  (1803),  was  republished  in  Charles 
Caldwell's  Medical  Theses  (vol.  I,  1805).  It 
begins  with  some  general  facts  relating  to  the 
digestibility  and  digestion  of  "nutrientia,"  and 
then  describes  Young's  experiments.  The  most 
important  of  these  were  made  upon  large  frogs, 
into  whose  stomachs  smaller  frogs,  living  and 
dead,  and  various  materials  were  introduced  for 
varying  lengths  of  time,  to  be  removed  as  de- 
sired for  later  examination,  or  from  whose  stom- 
achs gastric  juice  was  removed  with  a  tea- 
spoon for  chemical  examination.  His  discoveries 
showed  that  gastric  juice  is  itself  acid  and  that 
its  acidity  is  not  the  result  of  fermentation,  as 
had  been  previously  thought;  that  it  is  on  ac- 
count of  its  acidity  that  it  dissolves  the  bones  of 
such  animals  as  are  swallowed  whole  and  some- 
times alive  by  snakes,  frogs,  toads,  etc. ;  that  no 
digestion  can  take  place  so  long  as  the  tissues 
swallowed  are  alive,  even  if  they  be  paralyzed, 
but  that  it  begins  the  moment  they  die ;  that 
swallowed  live  creatures  do  not  begin  to  digest 
until  they  have  died  of  asphyxiation  in  the  stom- 
achs of  those  that  swallowed  them,  and  that  the 
stomach  does  not  digest  itself  because  it  is  alive. 
These  experiments,  it  should  be  remarked,  pre- 


Young 

ceded  by  twenty  years  the  famous  studies  of  di- 
gestion made  by  William  Beaumont  [q.v.]  in  the 
traumatically  fistulated  stomach  of  Alexis  St. 
Martin,  but  for  a  long  time,  as  a  result  of  Young's 
early  death,  no  attention  was  given  to  his  work, 
so  original,  so  ingenious,  and  of  such  far-reach- 
ing importance. 

[H.  A.  Kelly,  in  Johns  Hopkins  Hospital  Bull.,  Aug. 
1918;  H.  A.  Kelly  and  W.  L.  Burrage,  Am.  Medic. 
Biogs.  (1920)  ;  obituary  in  Maryland  Herald,  June  13, 
l8°4-J  J.M. 

YOUNG,  JOHN  RUSSELL  (Nov.  20,  1840- 
Jan.  17,  1899),  journalist,  was  born  in  Tyrone 
County,  Ireland,  the  eldest  child  of  Scottish  par- 
ents, George  Young,  a  weaver,  and  Rebecca 
(Rankin)  Young.  He  had  two  sisters  and  a 
brother,  James  Rankin  Young,  who  later  became 
a  congressman.  His  father  emigrated  to  the 
United  States,  when  the  boy  was  less  than  a  year 
old,  and  settled  first  in  Downington,  Pa.,  and 
later  in  Philadelphia.  His  elementary  educa- 
tion was  begun  at  the  Harrison  Grammar  School 
in  Philadelphia,  but  he  graduated  from  a  New 
Orleans  high  school,  having  gone  to  that  city 
after  the  death  of  his  mother  in  1851  to  live  as 
the  ward  of  an  uncle.  At  the  age  of  fifteen  he  re- 
turned to  Philadelphia  and  became  assistant 
proof  reader  for  a  relative,  William  Young,  a 
publisher  and  printer.  In  August  1857  he  ob- 
tained a  position  as  copy  boy  for  the  Philadel- 
phia Press,  of  which  John  W.  Forney  \_q.v.~\  was 
editor.  Forney  became  interested  in  him,  and  in- 
vited him  to  his  home,  where  many  important 
men  of  the  day  gathered.  He  soon  became  a  re- 
porter for  the  Press  and  in  1861,  while  in  Wash- 
ington with  Forney,  was  sent  to  the  front  as  a 
war  correspondent.  He  was,  perhaps,  the  first 
to  report  the  facts  of  defeat  and  retreat  from  the 
battle  of  Bull  Run,  an  account  that  brought  him 
fame  and  led  to  his  being  made  managing  editor 
of  Forney's  two  daily  newspapers  in  1862.  He 
was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Union  League  of 
Philadelphia  in  1862. 

In  1865  he  went  to  New  York  at  the  request 
of  Jay  Cooke  to  help  with  the  publicity  for  the 
federal  loan.  He  also  wrote  articles  for  the  New 
York  Tribune,  which  won  the  approval  of  the 
editor,  Horace  Greeley.  He  became  a  column 
writer  and  at  the  age  of  twenty-six  was  made 
managing  editor  of  the  Tribune.  In  1870  he  was 
sent  abroad  by  George  S.  Boutwell,  the  secretary 
of  the  treasury.  Again,  in  1871  he  visited  Europe 
on  a  confidential  mission  at  the  request  of  Ham- 
ilton Fish,  the  secretary  of  state.  To  conceal  the 
true  nature  of  his  errand  it  was  given  out  that  he 
went  to  see  about  the  sale  of  government  bonds. 
This  brought  him  to  Paris  during  the  exciting 


63c 


Young 

last  days  of  the  commune,  of  which  he  wrote  a 
vivid  report.  In  1872  he  accepted  an  editorial  po- 
sition on  the  New  York  Herald  and  spent  the 
next  few  years  in  London  and  Paris,  where  he  did 
some  notable  work  for  his  paper.  He  met  many 
distinguished  men,  sketches  of  whom  were  in- 
cluded in  his  Men  and  Memories  (2  vols.,  1901) 
posthumously  edited  by  his  widow.  When  Grant 
visited  London  in  1877  on  his  tour  around  the 
world  he  invited  Young  to  accompany  him.  The 
story  of  this  is  interestingly  told  in  Around  the 
World  with  General  Grant  (2  vols.,  1879).  This 
trip  was  the  beginning  of  an  interest  in  the  Far 
East  and  of  a  friendship  with  Li  Hung  Chang, 
one  of  the  greatest  of  recent  Chinese  statesmen. 
It  also  resulted  in  a  friendship  between  Young 
and  Grant,  who  was  so  much  impressed  by 
Young's  ability  that  he  persuaded  Arthur  to  ap- 
point him  minister  to  China  in  1882.  He  won  the 
confidence  of  the  Chinese  to  an  extent  seldom 
achieved  by  Western  representatives.  He  settled 
many  of  the  outstanding  claims  of  the  United 
States  against  China,  in  itself  a  real  accomplish- 
ment. His  most  important  efforts  were  made  in 
an  attempt  to  mediate  between  France  and  China 
in  the  dispute  over  Annam  and  Tong  King ;  and, 
while  not  entirely  successful,  he  was  neverthe- 
less instrumental  in  the  final  peace  arrangement. 
In  1885  he  resumed  his  editorial  work  on  the 
Herald,  still  most  of  the  time  in  London  and 
Paris.  In  1890  he  returned  to  Philadelphia.  In 
1897  McKinley  appointed  him  Librarian  of  Con- 
gress. It  was  during  his  period  of  office  that  the 
books  were  moved  from  the  Capitol  to  the  new 
Library  of  Congress,  a  work  not  quite  completed 
at  his  death. 

In  appearance  he  was  rather  short  and  stout. 
His  fine  head  was  sculptured  by  Frederick  Mac- 
Monnies  and  displayed  as  a  perfect  example  of 
the  head  of  an  intellectual  man.  He  was  very 
quiet  but  nevertheless  possessed  great  charm  and 
the  ability  to  make  friends  easily.  He  under- 
stood human  nature,  and  this  gift  enabled  him 
to  bring  people  of  opposed  views  together  for 
amicable  discussion.  Among  his  friends  he  num- 
bered statesmen,  journalists,  actors,  writers,  men 
and  women  of  all  countries.  His  greatest  work 
was  in  journalism,  and  Alexander  K.  McClure 
has  said  of  him  that  "no  man  in  the  list  of  our  il- 
lustrious editors  has  reared  a  grander  monument 
to  the  progress  of  American  journalism"  (Fore- 
word, Men  and  Memories,  ante,  p.  ix).  He  was 
married  three  times ;  first  to  Rose  Fitzpatrick, 
second  to  Julia  Coleman,  an  adopted  daughter  of 
Marshall  Jewell  [q.v.'],  and  third  to  May  (Dow) 
Davids.   Survived  by  his  third  wife  and  by  two 


Young 


sons,  he  was  buried  from  St.  John's  Episcopal 
Church  in  Washington. 

[John  Russell  Young  Papers  in  Lib.  of  Cong.  ;  official 
correspondence  in  archives  of  the  state  department ; 
Men  and  Memories,  ante  ;  information  from  members 
of  the  family;  Washington  Post,  Jan.  18,  1899.] 

J.L.B. 
YOUNG,  JOHN  WESLEY  (Nov.  17,  1879- 
Feb.  17,  1932),  mathematician,  was  born  in 
Columbus,  Ohio.  His  father,  William  Henry 
Young,  a  native  of  West  Virginia,  served  in  suc- 
cession as  colonel  in  the  Civil  War,  as  United 
States  consul  in  Karlsruhe,  Germany,  and  as 
professor  at  Ohio  University,  Athens,  Ohio,  and 
finally  retired  to  devote  himself  to  business. 
While  on  the  Continent  he  married  Marie  Louise 
Widenhorn,  born  in  Paris  of  a  German  father 
and  a  French  mother.  The  son's  early  schooling 
in  Columbus  was  followed  by  six  years  in  the 
Gymnasium  at  Baden-Baden.  Graduating  from 
Ohio  State  University  in  1899,  he  remained  for 
a  year  of  graduate  work  in  mathematics  and  phi- 
losophy. His  frequent  contacts  with  his  talented 
brother-in-law,  E.  H.  Moore,  helped  to  concen- 
trate his  interest  on  mathematics.  He  received 
the  degrees  of  A.M.  ( 1901 )  and  Ph.D.  ( 1904)  at 
Cornell  University.  He  began  his  teaching  as 
instructor  at  Northwestern  University  in  1903, 
and  became  preceptor  at  Princeton  in  1905,  as- 
sistant professor  at  the  University  of  Illinois  in 
1908,  and  head  of  the  department  of  mathematics 
at  the  University  of  Kansas  in  1910.  The  fol- 
lowing summer  he  taught  at  the  University  of 
Chicago,  and  in  the  fall  went  to  Dartmouth  Col- 
lege, where  the  remaining  years  of  his  life  were 
spent.  On  July  20,  1907,  he  married  Mary  Louise 
Aston,  a  former  school  mate,  by  whom  he  had 
one  daughter.  He  died  in  Hanover,  N.  H.,  of 
heart  disease.  He  was  survived  by  his  wife  and 
daughter. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  the  product  of  an  in- 
ternational marriage  and  an  international  edu- 
cation should  develop  to  an  unusual  degree  those 
characteristics  of  tolerance,  open-mindedness, 
and  sympathy  which  mark  the  successful  teach- 
er. Highly  imaginative  and  philosophical,  pa- 
tient and  thorough,  he  not  only  contributed  to 
the  growth  of  mathematics  through  his  own  re- 
searches, but  by  suggestion  and  helpful  criticism 
encouraged  others  in  their  work.  His  contact 
with  colleges  and  universities  of  varied  types  and 
in  different  parts  of  the  country  brought  to  him 
a  comprehensive  view  of  higher  education  in 
America,  as  well  as  a  wide  friendship  among 
American  mathematicians.  His  life  spanned  the 
years  in  which  America  was  "coming  of  age" 
in  science  as  well  as  in  other  ways.  This  process 
in  mathematics  was  furthered  by  the  growth  of 

631 


Young 


the  American  Mathematical  Society,  and  Young 
as  editor  of  its  Bulletin  and  member  of  its  coun- 
cil for  eighteen  years  (1907-25)  helped  to  guide 
this  growth.  His  deep  interest  in  the  improve- 
ment of  mathematical  education  led  him  to  take 
an  active  part  in  the  formation  of  the  Mathe- 
matical Association  of  America.  This  organiza- 
tion made  him  chairman  of  a  committee  on  col- 
lege entrance  requirements  in  mathematics,  which 
was  soon  enlarged  to  make  it  nationally  repre- 
sentative and  received  generous  financial  assist- 
ance from  the  General  Education  Board.  The 
final  report  of  this  committee,  The  Reorgani- 
zation of  Mathematics  in  Secondary  Education 
(1923),  had  far-reaching  influence  on  mathe- 
matical instruction  in  the  United  States. 

Young  was  a  member  of  most  of  the  well- 
known  mathematical  societies  of  Europe  and 
America,  and  a  regular  attendant  at  the  inter- 
national congresses  of  mathematics.  He  served 
in  an  editorial  capacity  for  the  Mathematics 
Teacher,  the  Colloquium  Publications  of  the 
American  Mathematical  Society,  and  the  Carus 
Mathematical  Monographs,  of  which  he  wrote 
one,  Projective  Geometry  (1930).  With  Os- 
wald Veblen,  he  published  Projective  Geometry 
(2  vols.,  1910-18),  based  on  a  set  of  postulates 
created  by  the  authors  which  permitted  the  post- 
ponement of  the  difficult  topics  of  linear  order 
and  continuity,  and  thus  greatly  simplified  the 
logical  treatment  of  a  considerable  body  of  geom- 
etry. His  Lectures  on  Fundamental  Concepts  of 
Algebra  and  Geometry  (1911)  aroused  wide- 
spread interest  and  was  translated  into  Italian. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1930-31  ;  R.  D.  Beetle  and 
C.  E.  Wilder,  in  Bull.  Am.  Math.  Soc,  Sept.  1932,  with 
bibliog. ;  Am.  Math.  Monthly,  June-July  1932  ;  obituary 
in  Manchester  Union  (Manchester,  N.  H.),  Feb.  18, 
J932.]  C.E.W. 

YOUNG,  JOSUE  MARIA  (Oct.  29,  1808- 
Sept.  18,  1866),  Roman  Catholic  prelate,  was 
born  in  Shapleigh,  Me.,  to  Jonathan  Young,  a 
graduate  of  Harvard,  a  Universalist,  a  farmer, 
and  son  of  an  English  immigrant,  and  his  wife, 
Mehetable  Moody,  daughter  of  William  Pep- 
perell  Moody  of  Saco,  Me.,  who  boasted  of  de- 
scent from  an  ancestor  who  came  from  England 
in  1634  and  founded  a  family  prolific  in  teach- 
ers, Congregational  ministers,  and  hardy  tillers 
of  a  rugged  soil.  His  name  seems  originally  to 
have  been  Joshua  Moody  Young.  He  was  trained 
in  a  country  school  and  in  Saco,  Me.,  where  he 
lived  with  bis  uncle,  Sam  Moody,  a  sturdy  Con- 
gregationalist  and  small  banker.  Apprenticed 
in  the  shop  of  the  Eastern  Argus  of  Portland, 
he  learned  printing  and  soon  undertook  the  pub- 
lication of  the  Maine  Democrat  at  Saco.  There 
he  developed  a  passion  for  reading  and  for  re- 


Young 

ligious  argumentation  with  a  Catholic  co-work- 
er and  lifelong  friend,  John  Crease,  through 
whom  he  met  Bishop  Benedict  J.  Fenwick  \_q.v.~\ 
and  the  scholarly  Father  Charles  D.  French 
[q.v.~]  of  Portland.  In  1828  he  joined  the  Cath- 
olic Church,  into  which  eight  brothers  and  sis- 
ters later  followed  him  (William  Byrne,  History 
of  the  Catholic  Church  in  the  New  England 
States,  1899,  II,  495).  At  the  time  he  changed 
his  name  to  Josue  Maria.  In  1830  he  went  west 
for  his  health.  As  a  wandering  journeyman 
printer,  he  worked  in  Kentucky  and  in  Ohio  be- 
fore settling  down  in  Cincinnati,  where  he  found 
employment  on  the  Catholic  Telegraph  and  spent 
his  idle  hours  teaching  Sunday  school  and  in  re- 
lief work  among  the  poor.  Urged  by  Bishop  J.  B. 
Pureed  \_q.v.~\,  he  studied  for  the  priesthood  at 
Mount  St.  Mary's  Seminary,  Emmitsburg,  Md. 
Ordained  in  1838  (Lamott,  post,  p.  354)  Fa- 
ther Young  acted  as  a  diocesan  missionary, 
taught  at  St.  Xavier's  Academy  in  Cincinnati, 
and  served  zealously  as  pastor  of  St.  Mary's 
Church  in  Lancaster,  Ohio.  Purcell  admired  this 
rigid,  determined,  energetic  New  Englander 
who  was  still  a  Puritan  in  character  and  outlook 
on  life  and  apparently  had  Pope  Pius  IX  name 
him  for  the  diocese  of  Pittsburgh  when  Bishop 
Michael  O'Connor  [q.v.~\  selected  the  poorer  see 
of  Erie.  He  refused  to  accept,  but  when  O'Con- 
nor was  transferred  back  to  Pittsburgh,  he  ac- 
cepted the  see  of  Erie  and  was  consecrated  on 
Apr.  23,  1854,  at  St.  Peter's  Cathedral,  Cincin- 
nati. During  a  tenure  of  a  dozen  years  Young 
created  a  well-organized  diocese,  won  the  love 
of  the  Irish,  who  ordinarily  resented  a  "foreign" 
bishop,  built  over  a  score  of  churches  despite  the 
unfavorable  financial  conditions  of  the  Civil  War 
period,  increased  his  priesthood  from  fourteen 
to  over  fifty,  gave  St.  Mary's  Church  in  Erie  to 
the  Benedictines,  promoted  an  academy  and  hos- 
pital of  the  St.  Joseph  nuns  in  Erie,  and  pro- 
moted academies  at  Corsica  and  Meadville. 

[See  R.  H.  Clarke,  hives  of  the  Deceased  Bishops  of 
the  Cath.  Church  in  the  U.  S.,  vol.  II  (1888)  ;  Sadleir's 
Cath.  Dir.  Almanac,  1867,  p.  46;  J.  G.  Shea,  Hist,  of 
the  Cath.  Church  in  the  U.  S.,  vol.  IV  (1892)  ;  J.  H. 
Lamott,  Hist,  of  the  Archdiocese  of  Cincinnati  (1921)  ; 
N.  Y.  Freeman's  Jour.,  Sept.  29,  1866.]  R.  T.  P. 

YOUNG,  LAFAYETTE  (May  10,  1848-Nov. 
15,  1926),  newspaper  editor  and  publisher,  was 
born  on  a  farm  in  Monroe  County,  Iowa,  near 
Eddyville,  one  of  the  seven  children  of  John  and 
Rachel  (Titus)  Young.  During  the  fifties  his 
father  operated  a  horse-power  woolen  mill  at 
Albia,  Iowa,  and  Lafayette  worked  in  this  mill 
as  a  small  boy.  When  the  mill  burned,  about 
1861,  he  learned  the  printer's  trade  in  the  office 
of  the  Albia  Sentinel,  which  was  published  by 


632 


Young 


Young 


an  older  orother.  By  1866  he  was  working  for 
Mills  &  Company,  largest  Des  Moines  printers, 
for  ten  dollars  a  week.  Thus  he  had  little  oppor- 
tunity to  attend  school  as  a  boy,  but  while  work- 
ing at  the  printer's  trade  in  St.  Louis  in  1868-69 
he  attended  night  school.  In  1870  he  returned  to 
Des  Moines  to  become  city  editor  of  the  State 
Register,  and  on  Mar.  20  of  that  year  married 
Josephine  Bolton.  The  next  year  he  established 
at  Atlantic,  Iowa,  the  Atlantic  Telegraph,  a 
weekly  paper  which  he  made  a  daily  in  Decem- 
ber 1879.  In  1873  he  was  elected  to  the  state 
Senate,  where  he  served  by  successive  reelec- 
tions  through  1880,  and  again  from  1886  through 
1888.  As  state  senator  he  took  a  prominent  part 
in  the  legislation  fixing  railroad  freight  and  pas- 
senger rates.  In  March  1890  he  purchased  the 
Des  Moines  Capital,  which  he  edited  and  pub- 
lished during  the  remainder  of  his  life.  He  was 
an  unsuccessful  candidate  for  the  Republican 
nomination  for  governor  in  1893.  In  the  next 
year  he  was  elected  state  binder  and  held  that  of- 
fice from  1895  to  1900.  During  the  Spanish- 
American  War  he  was  with  the  army  of  William 
Rufus  Shatter  \_q.v.~\  in  Florida  and  in  Cuba,  as 
a  newspaper  correspondent,  making  the  acquaint- 
ance of  Theodore  Roosevelt,  which  continued  as 
a  warm  personal  attachment,  with  frequent  ex- 
change of  letters,  to  the  end  of  Roosevelt's  life. 
In  1900  he  was  delegate-at-large  from  Iowa  to 
the  Republican  National  Convention,  and  made 
the  speech  placing  Roosevelt's  name  before  the 
convention  for  vice-president.  He  was  a  guest  of 
the  Taft  party  on  its  trip  of  inspection  of  the 
Philippines  in  1905,  continuing  his  journey 
around  the  world.  He  had  by  this  time  gained  a 
wide  reputation  as  a  public  speaker,  and  news- 
paper correspondent,  and  following  this  tour  he 
delivered  many  lectures  on  Chautauqua  and  Ly- 
ceum platforms.  On  the  death  of  Senator  Jona- 
than P.  Dolliver  \_q.v.~\  in  1910,  he  was  appoint- 
ed to  the  vacancy,  holding  office  until  the  election 
of  W.  S.  Kenyon  by  the  Iowa  General  Assembly, 
Apr.  12,  1911.  In  1913  he  served  as  newspaper 
correspondent  in  the  Balkan  states  and  for  sev- 
eral months  in  1915  was  a  war  correspondent  in 
Europe.  For  a  short  time  he  was  held  as  a  spy 
by  the  Austrian  government.  From  May  1917 
until  the  end  of  the  war  he  served  as  chairman 
of  the  Iowa  State  Council  of  Defense. 

In  the  later  years  of  his  life  he  was  in  great 
demand  as  a  public  speaker.  His  homely  phi- 
losophy, sparkling  epigrams,  and  ready  humor 
made  him  one  of  the  best  of  after-dinner  speak- 
ers ;  and  his  wide  acquaintance  and  extensive 
travel  furnished  materials  both  for  speaking  and 
for  his  editorials  in  the  Capital,  which  were  wide- 


ly quoted.  He  had  a  good  platform  presence  and 

a  genial,  friendly  nature.  He  died  in  Des  Moines, 

survived  by  his  wife  and  two  sons. 

[The  best  short  biog.  is  that  in  Annals  of  Iowa,  Apr. 
1927.  See  also  Who's  Who  in  America,  1926-27  ;  Biog. 
Dir.  Am.  Cong.  (1928)  ;  B.  F.  Gue,  Hist,  of  Iowa,  vol. 
IV  (1903);  Johnson  Brigham,  Des  Moines,  vol.  II 
(1911);  Des  Moines  Capital,  Nov.  16-19,  >926;  Des 
Moines  Reg.,  Nov.  16,  1926.]  F  L  M 

YOUNG,  PIERCE   MANNING  BUTLER 

(Nov.  15,  1836-July  6,  1896),  soldier,  congress- 
man from  Georgia,  was  born  in  Spartanburg, 
S.  C,  the  son  of  Robert  Maxwell  and  Elizabeth 
Caroline  (Jones)  Young.  His  father  practised 
medicine  in  Spartanburg  and  in  1839  removed  to 
Cartersville,  Ga.  A  delicate  child,  Young  was 
tutored  by  his  father  and,  then  attending  the 
Georgia  Military  Academy  at  Marietta,  gradu- 
ated in  1856.  He  began  the  study  of  law  but  in 
1857  was  appointed  to  the  Military  Academy  at 
West  Point,  from  which  he  resigned,  with  con- 
siderable misgivings,  in  March  1861  to  enter  the 
Confederate  army.  Commissioned  second-lieu- 
tenant of  artillery  in  April  1861,  he  was  stationed 
at  Pensacola.  He  was  soon  made  first  lieutenant 
and  aide-de-camp  to  Gen.  W.  H.  T.  Walker,  then 
was  appointed  adjutant  of  T.  R.  R.  Cobb's  legion, 
and,  sent  to  Virginia,  was  promoted  major  in 
1862  for  gallantry  in  action.  As  lieutenant-col- 
onel he  commanded  the  cavalry  of  the  legion 
under  Wade  Hampton  in  August  1862  and  was 
wounded  slightly  at  Burkittsville.  He  was  again 
wounded  at  South  Mountain  and  was  promoted 
colonel.  His  gallantry  under  fire  at  Fleetwood, 
or  Brandy  Station,  and  Gettysburg  won  the  com- 
mendation of  his  superiors.  Wounded  at  the  sec- 
ond engagement  at  Brandy  Station,  he  was  pro- 
moted brigadier-general  in  1863,  was  given  com- 
mand of  Hampton's  brigade,  and  won  the  praise 
of  Stuart.  After  recuperating  from  another 
wound  received  at  Ashland,  he  was,  in  1864, 
temporarily  placed  in  command  of  Hampton's 
division,  but  later  was  sent  to  Georgia  to  raise 
reinforcements  and  to  defend  Augusta  against 
Sherman.  He  was,  in  spite  of  General  Wheeler's 
opposition,  made  major-general  in  December 
1864  and  served  in  Georgia  and  South  Carolina 
to  the  end  of  the  war. 

After  the  war,  he  retired  to  his  plantation, 
"Walnut  Grove,"  near  Cartersville,  Ga.  With 
courtly  manners  and  great  personal  magnetism, 
an  effective  speaker,  and  almost  universally  be- 
loved, he  soon  entered  political  life  as  a  repre- 
sentative in  Congress,  from  July  25,  1868,  to 
Mar.  3,  1869.  In  the  next  Congress  the  House 
decided  he  had  not  been  elected ;  but,  elected  to 
fill  the  vacancy  thus  caused,  he  took  his  seat  and 
served  from  Dec.  22,  1870,  to  Mar.  3,  1871.  Re- 


633 


Young 


elected  twice  he  served  until  Mar.  3,  1875.  He 
opposed  the  Radical  measures,  supported  inter- 
nal improvements,  and  was  a  member  of  the  mil- 
itary affairs  committee  and  the  board  of  visitors 
of  West  Point.  He  was  appointed  a  commis- 
sioner to  the  Paris  Exposition  in  1878.  He  was 
consul  general  to  St.  Petersburg,  now  Leningrad, 
from  1885  to  1887,  when  he  resigned  because  of 
lack  of  health.  He  was  appointed  minister  to 
Guatemala  and  Honduras  in  1893,  when  he  ob- 
tained an  apology  from  both  Honduras  and  Costa 
Rica  for  interfering  with  the  rights  of  United 
States  citizens.  On  the  whole  he  developed 
friendly  feelings  and  commercial  relations  with 
the  Central  American  States.  Because  of  fail- 
ing health  he  left  his  post  in  1896  to  return  home, 
but  he  died  in  New  York  at  the  Presbyterian 
Hospital.  Commander  of  the  Georgia  division 
of  United  Confederate  Veterans,  his  funeral  was 
conducted  at  Cartersville,  Ga.,  by  that  and  the 
Masonic  order.  He  was  buried  in  Oak  Hill  cem- 
etery there.   He  never  married. 

[Files  of  the  Joint  Committee  on  Printing,  Wash- 
ington, D.  C,  esp.  nephew's  statement  of  birthdate 
from  family  Bible  ;  scrapbook  in  possession  of  family  ; 
Confederate  Military  Hist.  (1899),  vol.  VI,  ed.  by  C.  A. 
Evans  ;  C.  E.  Jones,  Ga.  in  the  War  (copr.  1909)  ;  W.  J. 
Northen,  Men  of  Mark  in  Ga.,  vol.  Ill  ( 191 1)  ;  War  of 
the  Rebellion:  Official  Records  {Army)  ;  Southern  Hist. 
Soc.  Papers,  vol.  XXV  (1897);  Courant  Am.  (Car- 
tersville, Ga.),  July  9,  16,  23,  1896.]  F.  M.  G. 

YOUNG,  SAMUEL  HALL  (Sept.  12,  1847- 
Sept.  2,  1927),  missionary  to  Alaska,  was  born 
at  Butler,  Pa.  His  father,  Loyal  Young,  a  Pres- 
byterian minister,  was  of  Massachusetts  ances- 
try while  his  mother,  Margaret  (Johnston) 
Young,  was  of  Scotch-Irish  stock.  After  a 
schooling  irregular  because  of  physical  weakness 
and  the  necessity  of  teaching  from  time  to  time 
for  his  support,  Young  graduated  in  1875  from 
the  College  of  Wooster,  Ohio.  He  studied  for 
one  year  in  Princeton  Theological  Seminary  and 
for  two  years  in  Western  Seminary,  Allegheny, 
Pa.,  where  he  graduated  in  1878.  The  appeal  of 
Sheldon  Jackson  \_q.v.~\  moved  him  to  offer  him- 
self to  the  Presbyterian  Board  of  Home  Missions 
for  service  in  Alaska,  when  only  one  American 
missionary  was  there.  Ordained  by  the  Presby- 
tery of  West  Virginia  in  June  1878,  he  reached 
Fort  Wrangell  in  July  and  began  work  among 
the  Stickeen  Indians.  On  Dec.  15,  at  Sitka,  he 
married  Fannie  E.  Kellogg,  who  had  gone  there 
as  a  missionary  shortly  before  his  arrival.  In 
August  1879  he  organized  at  Fort  Wrangell  the 
first  Protestant  and  first  American  church  in 
Alaska.  With  John  Muir  [q.v.~\,  who  in  this  year 
came  to  Alaska  for  the  first  time,  he  explored 
Glacier  Bay  and  discovered  the  Muir  Glacier. 
The  next  year  they  traveled  and  mapped  an  in- 

6 


Young 

side  route  to  Sitka.  Muir  gave  to  a  glacier  in 
Endicott  Arm  the  name  "Young."  As  organizer 
and  secretary  of  the  first  territorial  convention 
in  1 88 1  Young  drafted  a  memorial  to  Congress 
asking  for  better  government.  During  1882-83 
he  spoke  extensively  in  the  United  States  for 
Alaskan  missions  and  also  followed  up  the  memo- 
rial, which  resulted  in  the  act  of  Congress  of 
1884  establishing  the  district  of  Alaska  and  pro- 
viding civil  officers  and  schools.  By  1888,  when 
Young  resigned  his  place  at  Fort  Wrangell, 
Christian  missionary  work  was  proceeding  in  all 
the  principal  tribes  of  southern  Alaska,  largely 
because  of  his  initiative. 

During  1889-92  Young  served  churches  in 
Long  Beach  and  Wilmington,  Cal.,  and  in  and 
near  Chicago.  From  1892  to  1895  he  was  pastor 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  Cedar  Falls,  Iowa, 
and  then  became  instructor  in  Biblical  history 
and  pastor  of  the  college  church  at  Wooster. 
Called  back  to  Alaska  by  the  Klondike  gold  rush, 
he  spent  the  winter  of  1897-98  at  Dawson,  gain- 
ing strong  influence  among  the  miners  and  or- 
ganizing a  church.  In  the  spring  of  1899  he  set- 
tled at  Nome,  where  he  devoted  himself  chiefly 
to  caring  for  typhoid  sufferers,  almost  died  him- 
self of  the  fever,  and  finally  established  a  church. 
In  1901,  after  a  winter  at  Ithaca,  N.  Y.,  he  re- 
turned to  Alaska  as  general  missionary  of  his 
board.  Another  winter  at  home  was  followed  by 
eight  years  in  Alaska — four  passed  at  Fairbanks 
(1904-08)  and  two  at  Cordova.  In  1910  he  was 
recalled  to  the  New  York  office  of  the  board,  but 
the  next  year,  then  sixty-four,  he  went  to  isolated 
mining  camps  beyond  the  Yukon,  staying  until 
1913.  From  that  year  to  1921  he  was  on  the  staff 
of  the  board  as  special  representative  for  Alaska. 
As  secretary  for  Alaska  of  the  Home  Missions 
Council  he  assigned  fields  to  the  denominations, 
envisaging  a  "United  Evangelical  Church  of 
Alaska."  Thither  he  went  again  in  1921,  as  gen- 
eral missionary  to  reorganize  all  the  Presbyte- 
rian work.  Retiring  in  1924,  he  lived  at  Belle- 
vue,  Wash.  During  a  visit  in  West  Virginia  he 
was  killed  by  a  trolley-car  near  Clarksburg.  His 
wife  had  died  in  1915;  they  left  three  daughters. 

Young  published  some  verse  and  four  volumes 
of  prose — Alaska  Days  with  John  Muir  (1915), 
The  Klondike  Clan  (copr.  1916),  Adventures  in 
Alaska  (i9i9),and  (posthumously)  Hall  Young 
of  Alaska  (copr.  1927),  an  autobiography.  He 
was  a  man  of  inexhaustible  energy,  vitality,  hu- 
mor, and  devotion. 

[Young's  writings  ;  Gen.  Biog.  Cat.  Western  Theol. 
Sem.  of  the  Prcsbyt.  Ch.,  1827-1927  ;  Who's  Who  in 
America,  1926-27;  JV.  Y.  Times,  Sept.  4,  1927;  manu- 
script records  Presbyt.  Board  National  Missions.] 

R.H.N. 

34 


Young 

YOUNG,  THOMAS  (Feb.  19,  1731/32-June 
24,  1777),  patriot,  physician,  was  born  in  New 
Windsor,  Ulster  County,  N.  Y.,  the  son  of  John 
and  Mary  (Crawford)  Young.  His  father  came 
to  New  York  in  1729  with  his  kinsman,  Charles 
Clinton,  father  of  James  Clinton  [q.v.].  Thomas 
Young  attended  a  local  school,  borrowed  books 
from  Colonel  Clinton,  and  acquired  an  under- 
standing of  French,  Latin,  and  Greek,  with  a 
speaking  knowledge  of  German  and  Dutch.  In 
1753  he  began  the  practice  of  medicine  in  Ame- 
nia,  Dutchess  County,  N.  Y.,  and  his  fame  spread 
during  the  next  decade  through  eleven  counties. 
He  advocated  the  use  of  calomel  in  certain  cases 
when  other  members  of  his  profession  did  not 
dare  use  it  (Benjamin  Rush,  Medical  Inquiries 
and  Observations,  2nd  ed.,  1805,  III,  230,  252) 
and  was  especially  successful  in  treating  small- 
pox. He  married  Mary,  daughter  of  Capt.  Gar- 
ret Winegar,  and  they  had  two  sons  and  four 
daughters.  Young,  who  was  a  deist,  is  said  to 
have  collaborated  with  Ethan  Allen  \_q.v.~]  in 
writing  Reason  the  Only  Oracle  of  Man,  or 
a  Compendious  System  of  Natural  Religion 
(1784);  the  text  is  certainly  not  like  any  of 
Allen's  other  writings.  Young  was  also  the 
author  of  an  epic  poem  of  608  lines — A  Poem 
Sacred  to  the  Memory  of  James  Wolfe  .  .  .  Who 
Was  Slain  upon  the  Plains  of  Abraham  .  .  . 
September  13,  1759 — vividly  describing  Wolfe's 
siege  of  Quebec.  Copies  of  this  rare  pamphlet, 
which  was  published  anonymously  in  1761,  are 
owned  by  the  New  York  Historical  Society, 
Yale  University,  and  Brown  University. 

About  1760  Young  purchased  of  a  Dutch  trad- 
er, John  Henry  Lydius,  a  tract  of  land  in  what 
is  now  Vermont.  The  title,  which  rested  on  In- 
dian deeds,  proved  to  be  tainted  with  fraud  and 
after  prolonged  litigation  Young  was  left  almost 
penniless.  In  1764,  over  the  signature  "Philodi- 
caius,"  he  published  Some  Reflections  on  the 
Disputes  between  New-York,  N  ew-H  amp  shire , 
and  Col.  John  Henry  Lydius,  a  small  pamphlet 
in  defense  of  the  Lydius  claims.  In  the  same 
year  he  moved  to  Albany  and  two  years  later,  to 
Boston,  where  he  was  a  neighbor  and  friend  of 
Dr.  Joseph  Warren  [q.v.~\.  In  1774-75  ne  con- 
tributed  articles  on  medical  topics  to  the  Royal 
American  Magazine. 

In  Albany  he  had  actively  opposed  the  opera- 
tion of  the  Stamp  Act.  In  Boston  for  seven  years 
he  was  known  as  one  of  the  "lesser  incendiaries." 
Once  he  was  nearly  assassinated  by  his  political 
enemies.  He  had  a  large  personal  following  at 
town  meetings  and  was  the  first  president  of  the 
North  End  Caucus.  On  Mar.  5,  1771,  he  deliv- 
ered the  first  of  the  annual  orations  commemo- 


Young 


rative  of  the  Boston  Massacre.  Next  to  Samuel 
Adams,  he  was  the  most  active  member  of  the 
Boston  Committee  of  Correspondence.  He  spoke 
at  Old  South  Meeting  House,  Dec.  16,  1773,  a 
few  hours  before  the  tea  was  thrown  overboard 
into  Boston  Harbor,  and  then  without  disguise 
helped  to  destroy  the  tea. 

The  British  having  closed  the  port  of  Boston 
to  commerce,  in  September  1774  Young  took 
his  wife  and  children  to  Newport,  R.  I.  There 
he  labored  in  the  patriot  group  until  April  1775, 
when  friends  detected  a  plot  to  kidnap  him  and 
take  him  to  England  to  be  tried  for  treason.  He 
escaped  to  Philadelphia;  his  family  rejoined 
him,  and  he  practised  in  that  city.  He  soon  be- 
came secretary  of  the  Whig  Society  and  asso- 
ciated with  the  small  group  of  radical  leaders 
who  with  the  counsel  of  Benjamin  Franklin 
framed  the  constitution  of  Pennsylvania.  When 
in  the  spring  of  1777  delegates  from  the  New 
Hampshire  Grants  appeared  in  Philadelphia  and 
sought  to  persuade  Congress  to  recognize  that 
district  as  a  state,  Young  was  a  helpful  adviser 
to  the  visitors.  He  suggested  for  the  new  state 
the  name  "Vermont,"  making  the  first  known 
use  of  the  title  in  a  public  letter  dated  Apr.  17, 
l777  {Records  .  .  .  of  Vermont,  post,  I,  394-95). 
The  Pennsylvania  constitution,  a  copy  of  which 
Young  supplied  to  the  petitioners,  became  the 
basis  of  the  constitution  of  Vermont.  Congress, 
influenced  by  its  New  York  members,  in  the  week 
after  he  died  passed  a  vote  of  censure  on  him  for 
his  diligence  in  behalf  of  the  independence  of 
Vermont. 

Under  the  direction  of  Dr.  Benjamin  Rush, 
Young  was  a  senior  surgeon  in  one  of  the  Con- 
tinental hospitals  in  Philadelphia,  and  while  car- 
ing for  wounded  and  sick  soldiers  contracted  a 
virulent  type  of  fever,  of  which,  after  only  a  day's 
illness,  he  died.  He  left  almost  no  property  and 
his  wife  had  to  be  aided  by  Philadelphia  friends, 
and  later  by  his  brother,  Dr.  Joseph  Young,  a 
noteworthy  New  York  patriot.  In  1785  and  1786 
Ethan  Allen  and  Gov.  Thomas  Chittenden  made 
a  futile  effort  to  persuade  the  Vermont  Assem- 
bly to  make  a  land  grant  to  Young's  widow,  then 
in  great  need,  in  recognition  of  his  services  to 
the  state. 

f  A  biography  of  Young  is  in  preparation  by  the  writer 
of  this  sketch.  See  J.  S.  Loring,  The  Hundred  Boston 
Orators  (1852)  ;  Records  of  the  Council  of  Safety  and 
Gov.  and  Council  of  the  State  of  Vt.,  vol.  I  (1873)  ! 
Pa.  Mag.  of  Hist,  and  Piog.,  Oct.  1898;  Hiland  Hall, 
The  Hist,  of  Vt.  (1868)  ;  Zadock  Thompson,  Hist,  of 
Vt.  (1853),  pt.  2,  pp.  51,  106;  A.  M.  Hemenwav,  The 
Vt.  Hist.  Gazetteer,  I  (1868),  568  ;  I.  Q.  Leake,  Memoir 
of  the  Life  and  Times  of  Gen.  John  Lamb  (1850)  ;  F. 
S.  Drake,  Tea  Leaves  (1884)  ;  John  Pell.  Ethan  Allen 
(1929).  The  longest  account,  H.  H.  Edes,  "Memoir  of 
Dr.  Thomas  Young,"  in  Colonial  Soc.  of  Mass.  Pubs., 
vol.  XI  (igio),  although  it  uses  a  sketch  of  Young  by 


63. 


Younger 


Youngs 


his  brother,  Dr.  Joseph  Young,  contains  a  number  of 
errors.]  G.  P.  A. 

YOUNGER,  THOMAS  COLEMAN  (Jan. 
15,  1844-Mar.  21,  19 1 6),  desperado,  better  known 
as  "Cole"  Younger,  was  born  near  Lee's  Sum- 
mit, Jackson  County,  Mo.,  the  son  of  Col.  Henry 
Washington  and  Busheba  (Fristoe)  Younger. 
He  seems  to  have  had  some  education,  since  in 
his  later  years  he  was  an  avid  reader  of  history 
and  theology  and  he  spoke  and  wrote  with  gram- 
matical correctness.  Though  his  father  was  a 
Unionist,  his  own  sympathies  were  Southern, 
and  at  seventeen  he  became  a  Confederate  guer- 
rilla, serving  under  Quantrill  and  Anderson. 
Later  he  joined  Gen.  Joseph  O.  Shelby's  "Iron 
Brigade,"  and  became  a  captain.  His  service 
with  the  Confederates  brought  suspicion  upon 
his  family,  who  were  often  harassed  by  militia 
and  irregulars,  and  on  July  20,  1862,  his  father 
was  robbed  and  murdered  by  a  company  of  "Jay- 
hawkers."  After  the  war  he  declined  to  settle 
down  but  chose  instead  the  career  of  a  free- 
booter. It  is  probable  that  with  Frank  James  he 
organized  the  group  that  became,  under  the  re- 
puted leadership  of  Jesse  James  [?.#.],  the  most 
noted  band  of  brigands  in  American  history. 
Tall,  powerful,  and  of  commanding  appearance, 
of  great  native  intelligence,  and  of  imperturb- 
able coolness  and  presence  of  mind,  he  may  well 
have  been  quite  as  influential  in  the  counsels  of 
the  company  as  was  its  ostensible  leader.  In- 
formed opinion  connects  him  with  virtually  all 
the  spectacular  bank  robberies  and  train  hold- 
ups of  the  first  ten  years  of  the  band's  history. 
One  brother,  James,  was  usually  with  him ;  an- 
other, Robert,  on  at  least  two  occasions,  and 
a  third,  John,  was  but  beginning  his  appren- 
ticeship when  he  was  shot  to  death,  Mar.  16, 
1874. 

With  his  remaining  brothers,  the  Jameses, 
and  three  others,  Younger  participated  in  the 
disastrous  attempt  to  rob  the  bank  at  Northfield, 
Minn.,  Sept.  7,  1876,  in  which  two  citizens 
were  murdered.  Three  of  the  brigands  were 
killed,  the  James  brothers  escaped,  and  the  three 
Youngers  were  shot  down  and  captured.  At 
their  trial,  in  November,  they  pleaded  guilty  and 
were  sentenced  to  life  imprisonment.  Six  years 
later  a  Confederate  veteran  of  Missouri,  Capt. 
W.  C.  Bronaugh,  began  a  campaign  for  their  re- 
lease on  the  alleged  ground  that  they  were  not 
criminals  at  heart  but  victims  of  the  Civil  War 
who  had  been  driven  into  crime  by  persecution. 
Their  good  conduct  as  prisoners  helped  their 
case,  and  the  movement  gained  many  adherents. 
On  July  10,  1901,  the  two  surviving  brothers 
(Robert  had  died  in  1889),  were  paroled  by  the 


Minnesota  Board  of  Pardons,  on  condition  they 
would  not  leave  the  state.  A  year  later  James 
committed  suicide  because  of  a  love  affair.  Early 
in  1903  Cole  Younger  was  pardoned,  and  he  at 
once  returned  to  Missouri.  For  a  time  he  lec- 
tured, at  another  time  was  with  Frank  James  in 
a  Wild  West  exhibition,  and  later  employed  him- 
self in  various  ways.  His  conduct  as  a  citizen 
won  the  commendation  of  all  who  knew  him.  He 
died  near  his  birthplace,  after  a  year's  illness. 

[The  most  reliable  material  appears  in  Robertus 
Love,  The  Rise  and  Fall  of  Jesse  James  (1926)  and 
W.  C.  Bronaugh,  The  Youngers'  Fight  for  Freedom 
(1906).  See  also  A.  C.  Appier,  The  Guerrillas  of  the 
West,  or  the  Life,  Character,  and  Daring  Exploits  of 
the  Younger  Brothers  (1876);  The  Story  of  Cole 
Younger,  by  Himself  (1903)  ;  W.  C.  Heilbron,  Convict 
Life  at  the  Minn.  State  Prison  (1909),  containing  a 
sketch  of  the  Northfield  robbery  by  Cole  Younger  ;  St. 
Louis  Globe  Democrat,  Mar.  22,  191 6.]  WTG 

YOUNGS,  JOHN  (April  1623-Apr.  12,  1698), 
Colonial  soldier  and  official,  was  born  in  South- 
wold,  England,  and  baptized  Apr.  10,  1623.  The 
eldest  son  of  the  Rev.  John  and  Joan  (Herring- 
ton)  Youngs,  he  came  to  Salem,  Mass.,  with  his 
parents,  May  11,  1637,  and  removed  with  them 
about  three  years  later  to  Long  Island.  The  fa- 
ther was  leader  of  the  group  that  settled  South- 
old  and  built  there  the  first  Christian  church  in 
Long  Island.  The  son  is  first  heard  of  as  mas- 
ter of  a  bark  operating  between  the  colonies  on 
the  mainland  and  the  island.  In  1653  he  visited 
several  Connecticut  towns  seeking  aid  in  raising 
a  force  to  drive  the  Dutch  from  New  Amster- 
dam. His  mission  unsuccessful,  he  came  into 
conflict  with  the  authorities  as  a  result  of  his 
criticism  of  affairs  in  Southold  and  New  Haven. 
The  matter  was  soon  adjusted,  and  from  1654  to 
1656,  under  orders  of  the  colonies,  he  command- 
ed a  patrol  in  the  Sound  to  prevent  the  opera- 
tions of  hostile  Indians.  About  1653  he  married 
Mary  Gardner,  daughter  of  his  father's  third 
wife;  she  bore  him  five  children  and  died  in 
1689.  Some  two  years  later  he  married  Mrs. 
Hannah  Tooker,  the  thrice-widowed  daughter  of 
Barnabas  Wines. 

In  1660  he  was  appointed  deputy  from  South- 
old  to  New  Haven,  and  magistrate.  He  strongly 
favored  the  union  of  Long  Island  with  Connect- 
icut, and  on  Oct.  19,  1662,  appeared  at  Hart- 
ford to  urge  the  inclusion  of  this  union  in  the 
new  charter  of  Connecticut.  Eight  days  later,  at 
Hempstead,  he  proclaimed  the  complete  juris- 
diction of  Connecticut  in  the  towns  of  Long  Isl- 
and. This  action  was  protested  by  Petrus  Stuy- 
vesant  \_q.v.~\  in  letters  to  Gov.  John  Winthrop, 
Jr.  (Documents,  post,  XIV,  518),  but  during  the 
following  year  Youngs  commanded  the  Southold 
militia  and  a  troop  of  horse  in  an  attack  on 


636 


Youngs 

Flushing,  and  on  May  12,  1664,  he  became  a 
member  of  Winthrop's  council.  During  the  sum- 
mer he  resumed  command  of  the  militia  and  aid- 
ed in  the  capture  of  New  Amsterdam,  a  serv- 
ice that  received  special  recognition  from  Gov. 
Richard  Nicolls  \.q.v.~\.  On  Mar.  1,  1665,  he  rep- 
resented Southold  at  an  assembly  in  Hempstead 
where  Long  Island,  Staten  Island,  and  West- 
chester were  combined  to  form  Yorkshire,  and 
the  laws  of  the  Duke  of  York  were  promul- 
gated. 

Although  Youngs  was  a  strong  partisan  of  the 
English  against  the  Dutch,  he  preferred  the 
Puritan  rule  of  Connecticut  to  that  of  York's 
agents,  and  he  led  a  protest  against  the  Duke's 
laws.  When,  in  1673,  the  Dutch  retook  New 
York,  Southold  and  neighboring  towns,  under 
Youngs's  leadership,  rejoined  Connecticut.  They 
continued  this  union  after  the  English  regained 
control ;  in  a  letter  to  Gov.  Edmund  Andros 
[q.v.],  Youngs  and  two  others  justified  the  ac- 
tion on  the  ground  that  during  the  Dutch  attack 
they  had  received  help  only  from  Connecticut. 
Youngs  finally  gave  way,  however,  and  on  Oct. 
31,  1676,  Southold  accepted  a  patent  from  the 
Duke  of  York  with  Youngs  and  six  others  as 
patentees.  He  served  as  high  sheriff  of  York- 
shire from  1680  to  1683.  On  June  29,  1681,  he 
was  designated  to  draw  a  petition  to  the  Duke  of 
York  for  a  representative  assembly  in  the  Col- 
ony. The  petition  was  granted  and  the  Assembly 
held  its  first  meeting  in  New  York  on  Oct.  17, 
1683.  Later  in  the  year  Youngs  was  one  of  the 
commissioners  to  determine  the  boundary  be- 
tween New  York  and  Connecticut.  His  military 
record  was  recognized  in  his  appointment  as  lieu- 
tenant-colonel of  horse  of  Suffolk  in  1686,  and  as 
colonel  of  Suffolk  County  militia  in  1689.  Named 
a  member  of  the  council  to  Governor  Dongan 
in  1686,  he  began  twelve  years  of  service  in  this 
high  office,  being  appointed  to  the  councils  to 
Governors  Sloughter,  Fletcher,  and  Bellomont. 
In  1691  he  was  one  of  the  judges  who  convicted 
Jacob  Leisler  [q.v.]  of  treason  for  usurpation  of 
the  governorship.  At  his  death  Youngs  was  a 
leading  citizen  and  official  of  the  New  York  col- 
ony. His  independence  and  courage  had  brought 
to  a  larger  field  the  qualities  of  a  father  who 
braved  the  wilderness  rather  than  submit  to  the 
tyranny  of  conscience  imposed  by  Laud. 

[Selah  Youngs,  Jr.,  Youngs  Family  (1907);  Berth- 
old  Fernow,  Docs.  Rcl.  to  the  Colonial  Hist,  of  the  State 
of  N.  Y.,  vol.  XIV  (1883)  ;  Martha  B.  Flint,  Early 
Long  Island  (1896)  ;  Benjamin  Trumbull,  A  Complete 
Hist,  of  Conn.  (1818)  ;  J.  H.  Trumbull,  The  Pub.  Rec- 
ords of  the  Colony  of  Conn.,  vols.  I,  II  (1850-52); 
Epher  Whitaker,  Hist,  of  Southold,  L.  I.  (1881).] 

D.  A.  R. 


Yount 

YOUNT,  GEORGE  CONCEPCION  (May 
4, 1794-Oct.  5,  1865),  trapper,  California  pioneer, 
was  born  on  Dowden  Creek,  Burke  County, 
N.  C,  one  of  eleven  children.  His  father,  Jacob 
Yount,  had  served  under  Gen.  Nathanael  Greene 
\_q.v.~\  at  the  siege  of  Charles  Town,  S.  C.  In 
1804  the  family  moved  to  Cape  Girardeau,  Mo. 
The  father  and  five  sons,  including  George,  took 
part  in  guarding  the  settlements  against  Indians 
during  the  War  of  1812.  In  1818  George  mar- 
ried Eliza  Cambridge  Wilds,  daughter  of  a  well- 
to-do  settler  from  Kentucky,  began  the  develop- 
ment of  a  farm  in  Howard  County,  Mo.,  and  set 
himself  up  as  a  cattleman.  For  a  time  he  pros- 
pered, but  the  embezzlement  of  his  savings  by 
a  trusted  neighbor  left  him  impoverished.  In  the 
fall  of  1825,  making  what  provision  he  could  for 
his  wife  and  two  children,  he  joined  an  expedi- 
tion to  Santa  Fe.  He  soon  became  a  trapper,  and 
under  Ewing  Young  [^.^.]  took  part  in  several 
expeditions.  In  1827  he  organized  a  party  to 
trap  the  Arizona  rivers,  but  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Gila,  Sylvester  Pattie,  James  Ohio  Pattie  \_q.v.~\, 
and  six  followers  seceded,  and  Yount  and  the 
others  returned.  With  another  company,  in  the 
winter  of  1828-29,  he  journeyed  northward  to 
the  trapper  rendezvous  at  Bear  Lake  and  for  the 
next  two  years  trapped  the  northern  country. 
The  name  Yount's  Peak,  given  to  the  mountain 
at  the  source  of  the  Yellowstone,  commemorates 
his  activities  in  that  region. 

About  this  time  he  met  Jedediah  Strong  Smith 
\_q.v.~\,  just  returned  from  a  tragic  adventure  in 
California,  and  what  he  heard  Smith  tell  of  that 
strange  land  determined  him  to  see  it  for  him- 
self. Returning  to  New  Mexico,  he  joined  the 
Pacific-bound  expedition  of  William  Wolfskill 
[q.v.],  which  left  Taos  at  the  end  of  September 
1830  and  arrived  in  Los  Angeles  in  the  following 
February.  Up  and  down  the  coast  he  worked 
at  various  tasks,  after  a  time  finding  a  measure 
of  success  as  a  carpenter  and  shingle  maker.  In 
1834  he  journeyed  farther  north,  and  at  the  mis- 
sions of  San  Rafael  and  Sonoma  found  employ- 
ment. In  the  following  year  he  joined  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  at  the  time  adding  Concepcion 
to  his  name — and  became  a  Mexican  citizen.  He 
then  selected  a  broad  and  beautiful  tract  in  the 
still  unsettled  Napa  Valley  and  applied  for  a 
grant.  Gen.  M.  G.  Vallejo  [q.v.]  befriended  him, 
and  in  the  spring  of  1836,  three  years  before 
John  A.  Sutter  [q.?'.~\  settled  at  Sacramento,  he 
established  himself  as  the  lord  of  Caymus  Rancho 
and  the  guardian  of  the  northern  frontier  against 
the  wild  Indians.  Employing  Christianized  In- 
dians as  laborers,  he  built  a  fort  and  began  the 
cultivation  of  his  grounds.   After  the  arrival  of 


637 


Yulee 

the  first  American  emigrant  company  in  1841,  he 
sent  for  his  family.  His  wife,  supposing  him 
dead,  had  remarried,  but  his  two  daughters,  one 
of  whom  had  been  born  after  his  departure, 
joined  him  early  in  1844.  After  the  conquest  the 
influx  of  settlers  caused  him  heavy  losses,  but 
by  1855  he  had  recovered  much  of  his  property. 
In  the  same  year  he  married  a  Mrs.  Gashwiler,  a 
woman  of  cultivation  and  charm.  At  his  hospitable 
residence  many  visitors  were  entertained,  and  his 
later  days  were  passed  in  serene  contentment.  He 
died  at  his  home.  Nominally  a  Catholic,  he  was 
also  a  Mason ;  he  was  buried  with  full  Masonic 
honors ;  an  Episcopalian  minister  preached  his 
funeral  sermon,  and  his  will  provided  for  the  erec- 
tion of  a  church  to  be  used  by  all  denominations. 

[C.  L.  Camp,  "The  Chronicles  of  George  C.  Yount," 
Cal.  Hist.  Soc.  Quart.,  Apr.  1923,  with  bibliog.  ;  J.  L. 
Ver  Mehr,  Checkered  Life  in  the  Old  and  New  World 
(1877);  Elizabeth  A.  Watson,  Sketch  of  the  Life  of 
George  C.  Yount  (privately  printed,  1915?)  ;  informa- 
tion from  F.  P.  Farquhar,  Esq.,  San  Francisco.] 

W.J.G. 

YULEE,  DAVID  LEVY  (June  12,  1810-Oct. 
10,  1886),  railroad  promoter,  senator  from  Flor- 
ida, was  born  in  St.  Thomas,  West  Indies.  His 
grandfather,  of  Portuguese  extraction,  was  an 
official  in  Morocco,  to  whom  the  name  Yulee  is 
said  to  have  been  given  as  a  Moorish  title.  Flee- 
ing from  Morocco  as  the  result  of  a  revolution, 
with  his  wife,  an  English  Jewess  whose  maiden 
name  was  Levy,  he  took  refuge  in  England, 
where  his  son  took  the  name  of  Moses  Elias 
Levy,  received  a  university  education,  went  into 
trade,  and  ultimately  removed  to  Puerto  Rico. 
Later  he  became  a  lumberman  in  St.  Thomas, 
made  a  fortune,  and  obtained  from  the  Spanish 
large  tracts  of  land  in  central  and  east  Florida. 
At  nine  years  of  age  David  Levy  was  sent  to 
Norfolk,  Va.,  to  a  preparatory  school,  where  he 
remained  for  six  years  until  compelled  to  leave 
by  the  refusal  of  his  father,  who  had  become  a 
religious  socialist,  to  contribute  further  to  his 
support.  He  then  went  to  live  with  an  overseer 
on  one  of  his  father's  plantations  in  Florida  at 
Micanopy.  He  later  studied  law  in  St.  Augus- 
tine in  the  office  of  Robert  R.  Reid,  later  terri- 
torial governor  of  Florida.  He  was  admitted  to 
the  bar  in  1836. 

He  was  a  delegate  to  the  Florida  constitutional 
convention  at  St.  Joseph  in  1838,  in  1841  was 
chosen  as  a  Republican  for  territorial  delegate  to 
Congress,  and  was  senator  for  the  newly  admit- 
ted state  of  Florida  from  July  1,  1845,  to  Mar. 
3,  1851.  It  was  at  this  time,  on  Jan.  12,  1846, 
that  by  special  act  of  the  Florida  legislature  his 
name  was  changed  to  David  Levy  Yulee.  In 
1846  he  married  a  daughter  of  Charles  A.  Wick- 

6 


Yung  Wing 

liffe  [q.v.~\  of  Kentucky,  who  died  in  1884.  He 
was  defeated  for  reelection,  but  in  1855  he  was 
again  elected  senator,  and  served  from  Mar.  4, 
1855,  until  his  resignation,  on  Jan.  21,  1861,  fol- 
lowing the  secession  of  Florida.  His  most  im- 
portant work  in  the  Senate  was  done  as  chair- 
man of  the  committee  on  naval  affairs  and  on 
post  offices  and  post  roads.  He  advocated  the 
building  of  iron  ships  and  the  adoption  of  cheap 
ocean  postal  rates.  In  his  first  term  he  was  one  of 
the  leaders  of  the  Southern  movement  of  1848— 
50  and  was  a  member  of  the  caucus  committee  to 
draw  up  the  Address  to  the  Southern  People.  He 
opposed  the  admission  of  California  as  a  free 
state  and  was  an  advocate  of  secession  in  1850. 
It  was  his  prominence  in  the  Southern  move- 
ment that  brought  about  his  defeat  for  reelection. 
However,  he  was  much  more  conservative  in 
i860,  the  change  being  due,  perhaps,  to  his  in- 
creasing railroad  holdings.  He  had  been  one  of 
the  earliest  railroad  promoters  in  the  South  and 
while  territorial  delegate  had  obtained  an  appro- 
priation for  a  railroad  survey  of  Florida.  In 
1853  he  had  incorporated  the  Atlantic  &  Gulf 
Railroad,  which,  after  many  difficulties,  he 
brought  to  completion  in  i860,  connecting  Fer- 
nandina  on  the  Atlantic  with  Cedar  Keys  on  the 
Gulf.  He  supported  Douglas  for  the  Democratic 
nomination  in  i860  but  broke  with  him  over  the 
question  of  secession.  Upon  the  secession  of 
Florida  he  actively  urged  the  immediate  seizure 
of  United  States  forts  within  the  state.  During 
the  war  he  devoted  his  energies  to  his  plantation 
and  to  the  running  of  his  railroad,  engaging  in 
a  spirited,  and  successful,  altercation  with  the 
Confederate  authorities  who  wished  to  use  its 
material  for  the  repair  of  more  vital  lines.  At 
the  close  of  the  war  he  was  imprisoned  at  Fort 
Pulaski  until  released  on  the  intervention  of 
Grant.  The  following  years  he  devoted  to  his 
railroad,  then  in  ruins,  finally  sold  it  to  English 
capitalists,  and  in  1880  went  to  live  in  Washing- 
ton where  a  married  daughter  was  living.  He 
died  in  New  York,  survived  by  a  son  and  by 
several  daughters.  He  was  buried  from  the 
New  York  Avenue  Presbyterian  Church  in 
Washington  of  whose  congregation  he  was  a 
member. 

[Information,  esp.  date  of  birth  from  statement  of 
daughter,  Mrs.  Wm.  Belden  Noble,  Washington.D.  C, 
in  files  of  Joint  Committee  on  Printing,  Washington, 
D.  C. ;  C.  W.  Yulee,  "Senator  Yulee  of  Florida,"  Fla. 
Hist.  Soc.  Pubs.,  Apr-July  1909,  a  filial  biog. ;  H.  G. 
Cutler,  A  Hist,  of  Fla.  (1923),  vols.  I,  II  ;  War  of  the 
Rebellion:  Official  Records  (Army),  1  ser.,  vol.  I; 
National  Republican  (Washington,  D.  C,  Oct.  11, 
1886.]  R.S.C. 

YUNG  WING  (Nov.  17,  1828-Apr.  21,  1912), 
educator,   diplomat,   Chinese  official,  promoter, 

38 


Yung  Wing 


reformer,  was  born  in  the  village  of  Nam  Ping, 
on  Pedro  Island,  about  four  miles  southwest  of 
Macao,  in  South  China,  the  son  of  Yung  Ming- 
kun  and  Lin  Lien-tai.  At  the  age  of  seven  his 
parents  placed  him  in  a  school  which  had  re- 
cently been  opened  in  Macao  by  Mrs.  Karl  Giitz- 
laff,  the  aunt  of  Sir  Harry  Parkes  and  the  wife 
of  one  of  the  earliest  Protestant  missionaries  to 
China.  The  school  broke  up  before  he  had  ac- 
quired more  than  a  smattering  of  English,  and, 
after  various  vicissitudes,  at  the  age  of  thirteen 
he  entered  a  school  at  Hongkong  maintained  by 
the  Morrison  Education  Society  and  taught  by 
Samuel  Robbins  Brown  [#.».].  When  in  1847 
Brown  returned  to  the  United  States,  he  was 
able,  through  the  generosity  of  friends,  to  take 
Yung  Wing  and  two  other  Chinese  with  him. 
Yung  was  placed  in  Monson  Academy,  in  Mas- 
sachusetts. Upon  finishing  there,  he  entered 
Yale  in  1850  and  graduated  in  1854,  the  first 
Chinese  alumnus  of  an  American  college.  In  the 
course  of  his  contact  with  missionaries,  he  had 
espoused  the  Christian  faith,  and  while  in  Amer- 
ica he  had  become  a  naturalized  citizen  of  the 
United  States.  He  had,  moreover,  forgotten 
most  of  his  mother  tongue.  However,  he  had 
formed  the  purpose  of  making  possible  for  Chi- 
nese youth  the  kind  of  Western  education  which 
had  been  his.  He  wished  in  this  and  in  other 
ways  to  assist  China,  then  only  slowly  and  re- 
luctantly opening  its  doors  to  the  Western  world, 
to  make  the  adjustment  to  the  Occident  which 
he  saw  to  be  inevitable.  He  therefore  returned 
to  China  very  soon  after  graduation.  It  was  long 
before  he  could  gain  the  ear  of  Chinese  official- 
dom, and  for  several  years  he  engaged  in  a 
variety  of  pursuits  which  seemed  to  bring  him 
no  nearer  his  goal.  In  1863,  however,  he  entered 
the  service  of  Tseng  Kuo-fan,  the  most  promi- 
nent Chinese  of  the  day.  Sent  to  the  United 
States  by  his  patron,  he  purchased  machinery 
for  making  modern  arms,  and  had  it  installed  in 
Shanghai,  the  inception  of  the  Kiangnan  Arse- 
nal ;  later  he  persuaded  his  patron  to  start  a 
school  of  mechanical  engineering.  Through  of- 
ficial contacts  thus  begun,  he  was  able  to  real- 
ize his  long-cherished  dream  of  placing  Chinese 
youths  in  the  United  States  for  education.  At 
his  suggestion  the  Chinese  government  in  1870 
created  the  Chinese  Educational  Commission. 
He  was  placed  in  charge  as  one  of  the  two  com- 
missioners, and  between  1872  and  1875  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty  Chinese  boys  were  sent  to  the 
United  States.  In  1881,  because  of  the  fears  of 
some  of  the  conservatives  that  they  were  be- 
coming denationalized,  the  students  were  recalled 
and  the  Commission  came  to  an  end. 


Zach 

During  his  years  in  America  with  the  Com- 
mission, Yung  married  (Feb.  24,  1875)  Mary 
Louise  Kellogg,  served  as  assistant  to  the  Chinese 
minister  (1878-81),  and  went  on  an  official  mis- 
sion to  report  on  the  condition  of  Chinese  coolies 
in  Peru.  From  1881  to  1883  he  was  in  China. 
He  then  returned  to  the  United  States  and  did 
not  again  go  to  China  until  1895,  when  the  de- 
feat of  China  by  Japan  once  more  made  reform 
possible.  He  was  summoned  to  China  at  the  in- 
stance of  the  progressive  viceroy,  Chang  Chih- 
tung,  and  for  a  few  months  he  was  in  his  service. 
In  1897  and  1898  he  obtained  a  concession  for  a 
railway  from  Tientsin  to  Chinkiang,  and  con- 
tracted with  an  American  firm  for  a  loan  to 
build  it.  The  object  failed,  however — in  part 
because  of  German  opposition.  With  the  coming 
into  power  of  the  reactionaries,  he  fled  (1899) 
to  Hongkong  and  was  there  most  of  the  time  un- 
til 1902.  He  then  returned  to  the  United  States 
and  resided  in  Hartford  until  his  death.  He  was 
survived  by  his  two  sons.  His  autobiography, 
My  Life  in  China  and  America,  was  published 
in  New  York  in  1909. 

I  In  addition  to  Yung's  My  Life  in  China  and  America 
(1909),  see  Who's  Who  in  America,  1912-13  ;  Obit. 
Record  Yale  Grads.,  1911-12;  H.  B.  Morse,  The  In- 
ternal Relations  of  the  Chinese  Empire  (3  vols., 
1918),  for  background;  Yale  Alumni  Weekly,  May  3, 
1912;  A.  G.  Robinson,  in  Peking  and  Tientsin  Sunday 
Times,  July  23,  1933;  obituary  in  Hartford  Courant, 
Apr.  22,  1912.]  K.S.L. 

ZACH,  MAX  WILHELM  (Aug.  31,  1864- 
Feb.  3,  1921),  orchestral  conductor,  composer, 
was  born  in  Lemberg,  Galicia,  the  son  of  Hein- 
rich  and  Julia  (Deim)  Zach.  He  received  his 
education  in  the  lower  and  middle  schools  of 
Lemberg  and  Vienna.  His  early  music  instruc- 
tors were  Czerwinski  in  piano  and  Bruckmann 
in  violin.  At  the  age  of  sixteen,  he  entered  the 
Vienna  Conservatory  of  Music,  and  studied 
piano  under  Joseph  Edler,  violin  under  Sieg- 
mund  Bachrich  and  Jakob  M.  Griin,  harmony 
under  Robert  Fuchs,  and  counterpoint  and  com- 
position under  Franz  Krenn.  Compulsory  mili- 
tary service  claimed  him  at  nineteen.  He  en- 
tered the  Austrian  army  as  a  musician,  and 
served  three  years  in  the  band  of  the  31st  Regi- 
ment. He  attained  the  rank  of  sergeant,  was 
solo  violinist  in  the  regimental  orchestra,  and  on 
occasion  acted  as  conductor.  Through  routine 
scoring  of  music  for  military  band,  he  acquired 
a  wide  knowledge  of  instrumentation  and  an  as- 
tonishing facility  in  score  reading. 

In  the  summer  of  1886  Wilhelm  Gericke  \_q.vJ] 
visited  Vienna  in  search  of  new  talent  for  the 
Boston  Symphony  Orchestra.  His  attention  was 
directed  to  the  gifted  young  Galician  violinist, 


639 


Zach 

and  he  promptly  engaged  him.  For  twenty-one 
seasons  (1886-1907)  Zach  played  viola  in  the 
Boston  Symphony,  serving  under  Wilhelm  Ge- 
ricke,  Arthur  Nikisch,  Emil  Paur,  and  Karl 
Muck.  He  became  a  member  of  the  Adamowski 
String  Quartette  in  1890  and  served  as  violist  of 
that  notable  organization  until  it  disbanded  in 
1906.  He  had  from  time  to  time  composed 
marches  and  waltzes  in  the  "Viennese"  style: 
"Harlequin  en  Voyage";  " Waldgeist" ;  "Ori- 
ental March";  "Austria  March";  "Military 
March";  and  "Hussar  Drill  March."  These 
were  performed  by  the  Boston  orchestra  under 
his  baton  so  successfully  that  he  was  placed  on 
the  staff  of  "Pop"  conductors  and  served  (often 
in  alternation  with  others)  during  the  seasons 
1895-1902  and  1905-07.  He  organized  a  minia- 
ture symphony  orchestra  and  for  several  sum- 
mers conducted  series  of  concerts  at  Keith's  The- 
atre in  Boston.  During  the  summer  of  1904  he 
conducted  the  Boston  Band  at  the  Louisiana 
Purchase  Exposition  in  St.  Louis. 

In  1907  the  St.  Louis  Choral- Symphony  Soci- 
ety engaged  him  to  conduct  the  St.  Louis  Sym- 
phony Orchestra,  then  about  to  begin  its  twenty- 
eighth  season.  He  found  in  St.  Louis  an  orches- 
tra capable  enough  but  absolutely  lacking  in 
discipline.  Zach's  apprenticeship  under  Gericke 
stood  him  in  good  stead.  He  was  a  leader  with 
dignity  and  restraint,  and  he  subjected  each  sec- 
tion of  the  orchestra  to  a  tremendous  amount  of 
strenuous  training,  and  ultimately  developed  a 
perfection  of  ensemble  and  a  flexibility  of  inter- 
pretive power  that  made  the  St.  Louis  Symphony 
Orchestra  one  of  the  half-dozen  great  American 
orchestras.  Through  annual  tours  of  the  South- 
west, the  influence  of  the  orchestra  was  markedly 
increased.  Zach  was  a  skilful  program  builder. 
While  presenting  the  classical  masters  most  ef- 
fectively (he  gave  St.  Louis  its  first  "Beethoven 
Cycle"  in  1910),  he  enlarged  the  repertoire  of 
the  orchestra  by  the  performance  of  modern 
works  of  all  schools.  His  persistent  advocacy  of 
the  American  composer  constitutes  his  most  sig- 
nificant contribution  to  American  musical  prog- 
ress. During  the  fourteen  seasons  of  his  leader- 
ship, he  produced  forty-five  symphonic  compo- 
sitions of  major  importance  by  twenty-six  Amer- 
can  composers.  The  very  last  concert  that  he 
conducted,  featured  the  works  of  Leo  Sowerby, 
the  young  Chicago  composer.  Twelve  days  later, 
septic  pneumonia  terminated  his  career.  He  was 
buried  at  Forest  Hills,  Mass.  Zach's  cultural  in- 
terests were  broad,  and  he  was  an  able  linguist 
and  a  brilliant  conversationalist.  He  was  mar- 
ried to  Blanche  Going  of  Boston,  Mass.,  July  4, 
1891.   They  had  four  children. 


Zachos 

[Personal  data  from  Leon  Henry  Zach  of  Boston 
and  Eleanor  Zach  Webster  of  Palmyra,  N.  Y.  ;  Who's 
Who  in  America,  1920-21  ;  M.  A.  DeWolfe  Howe, 
Boston  Symphony  Orchestra  (rev.  ed.  1931);  E.  C. 
Krohn,  "The  Development  of  the  Symphony  Orchestra 
in  St.  Louis,"  in  Papers  and  Proc.  of  the  Music  Teach- 
ers' Nat.  Asso.,  1924;  Internal.  Who's  Who  in  Music, 
1918;  Carl  Engel,  "Max  Zach  As  He  Worked  and 
Lived,"  Boston  Evening  Transcript,  Feb.  5,  1921  ;  death 
notice,  Ibid.,  Feb.  3,  4,  1921  ;  St.  Louis  Post-Dispatch, 
Feb.  3,  1 921.]  E.C.K— n. 

ZACHOS,  JOHN  CELIVERGOS  (Dec.  20, 
1820-Mar.  20,  1898),  educator,  Unitarian  cler- 
gyman, author,  and  inventor,  was  born  in  Con- 
stantinople, the  son  of  Nicholas  and  Euphrosyne 
Zachos,  natives  of  Athens.  The  father,  a  general 
in  the  Greek  army  during  the  Grecian  Revolu- 
tion, died  in  1824  in  battle.  In  1830,  Zachos  was 
brought  to  America  by  Dr.  Samuel  Gridley 
Howe  [q.v.~\.  He  attended  preparatory  school  at 
Amherst,  Mass.,  and  in  1836  entered  Kenyon 
College,  Gambier,  Ohio,  where  he  was  graduated 
B.A.  with  honors  in  June  1840  and  delivered  the 
Greek  oration  for  his  class.  From  1842  to  1845 
he  studied  at  the  Medical  School  of  Miami  Uni- 
versity, in  Oxford,  Ohio,  but  did  not  take  a  de- 
gree. On  July  26,  1849,  he  married  Harriet  Tom- 
kins  Canfield,  by  whom  he  had  six  children.  He 
was  associate  principal  (1851-54)  of  the  Cooper 
Female  Seminary,  at  Dayton,  Ohio,  one  of  the 
editors  (1852-53)  of  the  Ohio  Journal  of  Edu- 
cation, and  principal  (1854-57)  of  the  Grammar 
School  of  Antioch  College,  Yellow  Springs, 
Ohio.  In  this  latter  position,  which  also  involved 
the  teaching  of  literature,  he  was  associated  with 
Horace  Mann  [q.v.~\. 

At  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War,  Zachos 
joined  the  Union  army  as  assistant  surgeon,  en- 
listing under  Gen.  Rufus  Saxton,  and  was  sta- 
tioned at  Parris  Island,  Port  Royal,  S.  C,  being 
practically  governor  of  the  island.  He  had  stud- 
ied theology  privately  for  some  time,  and  when 
the  war  ended  he  was  ordained  pastor  of  the  Uni- 
tarian church  in  West  Newton,  Mass.  In  1866- 
67  he  was  pastor  of  the  Unitarian  church  at 
Meadville,  Pa.,  and  professor  of  rhetoric  at  the 
Meadville  Theological  School.  From  1871  until 
his  death  he  made  his  home  in  New  York  City. 
There  he  taught  literature  and  oratory  at  Cooper 
Union,  which  he  also  served  as  curator. 

Especially  interested  in  spoken  English,  Zach- 
os produced  several  textbooks  in  elocution  and 
oratory,  including  The  New  American  Speaker 
(1851),  Analytic  Elocution  (1861),  A  New 
System  of  Phonic  Reading  without  Changing  the 
Orthography  (1863),  The  Phonic  Primer  and 
Reader  (1864),  and  The  Phonic  Text  (1865),  "A 
Method  of  Teaching  Reading  by  the  Signs  of 
Sound  without  Altering  the  Orthography  of  the 


640 


Zahm 


Zahm 


Language  or  Introducing  any  New  Letters."  In 
1876,  he  patented  a  machine  for  printing  a  legible 
English  text  at  a  high  reporting  speed,  having 
the  types  fixed  in  eighteen  shuttle  bars  of  which 
two  or  more  might  be  placed  in  position  simul- 
taneously, the  impression  being  given  by  a  com- 
mon plunger.  He  patented  improvements  on  this 
device  in  1883  and  1886. 

In  1876  Zachos  published  A  Sketch  of  the  Life 
and  Opinions  of  Mr.  Peter  Cooper,  which  is  still 
an  important  source,  and  in  the  following  year 
edited  The  Political  and  Financial  Opinions  of 
Peter  Cooper,  with  an  Autobiography  of  his 
Early  Life.  Under  the  name  "Cadmus,"  he  wrote 
Our  Financial  Revolution:  An  Address  to  the 
Merchants  and  Professional  Men  of  the  Country, 
without  Respect  to  Parties  (1878),  which  Peter 
Cooper  [q.v.~\  commended  to  the  "careful  perusal 
of  every  lover  of  his  country,"  and  The  Fiscal 
Problem  of  All  Civilised  Nations  (1881).  With 
firm  faith  in  democracy  and  education,  he  ardent- 
ly believed  that  the  privileges  of  both  should  be 
extended  to  all,  regardless  of  color,  race,  or 
creed.  This  spirit  is  evident  in  his  Phonic  Primer 
and  Reader  of  1864,  "Designed  Chiefly  for  the 
Use  of  Night-Schools  Where  Adults  are  Taught, 
and  for  the  Myriads  of  Freed  Men  and  Women, 
Whose  First  Rush  from  the  Prison-House  of 
Slavery  is  to  the  Gates  of  the  Temple  of  Knowl- 
edge." At  the  time  of  its  publication  there  was 
considerable  discussion  throughout  the  country 
concerning  the  educability  of  the  negro.  With  a 
series  of  tests  drawn  up  by  an  organization  in 
Boston  to  determine  the  question  experimentally, 
Zachos  demonstrated  that  negroes  were  capable 
of  benefiting  by  instruction.  In  the  early  sixties 
this  was  more  than  an  academic  question,  and 
Zachos'  stand  is  a  tribute  to  his  courage.  He  died 
at  his  home  in  New  York  City  and  was  buried  in 
Boston ;  three  of  his  children  survived  him. 

[Private  sources  ;  records  of  institutions  with  which 
Zachos  was  connected  ;  The  Antiochian,  July  1874,  July 
1879  ;  F.  A.  Canfield,  A  Hist,  of  Thomas  Canfield  .  .  . 
with  a  Geneal.  (1897)  ;  Cooper  Union  .  .  .  Thirty-ninth 
Ann.  Report  .  .  .  1898  (n.d.)  ;  Appletons"  Ann.  Cyc. 
.  .  .  1898  (1899),  p.  581  ;  N.  Y .  Daily  Tribune,  Sun 
(N.  Y.),  and  N.  Y.  Times,  Mar.  21,  1898.]      H.  S.R. 

ZAHM,  JOHN  AUGUSTINE  (Sept.  14, 
.  1851-Nov.  10,  1921),  Roman  Catholic  priest, 
provincial  of  the  Congregation  of  the  Holy  Cross, 
Notre  Dame,  Ind.,  was  born  at  New  Lexington, 
Ohio,  the  son  of  Jacob  Michael  Zahm,  a  native  of 
Alsace,  and  of  Mary  Ellen  Braddock  of  Loretto, 
Pa.  He  attended  the  primary  school  at  New 
Lexington,  but  in  1863  the  family  moved  to 
Huntington,  Ind.,  and  from  1863  to  1867  John 
Augustine  studied  in  public  and  parochial  schools 
of  that  place.  He  entered  the  University  of  Notre 


Dame  on  Dec.  3,  1867,  where  he  won  distinction 
for  scholarship  and  received  the  degree  of  bach- 
elor of  science  in  1871 — one  of  a  class  of  three. 
After  his  graduation  he  entered  the  Congrega- 
tion of  the  Holy  Cross  on  Sept.  17,  1871.  During 
the  years  following,  up  to  1875,  he  pursued  ec- 
clesiastical studies  in  the  seminary  at  Notre 
Dame  besides  teaching  in  the  University.  He 
was  ordained  a  priest  at  the  completion  of  his 
studies  on  June  4,  1875. 

His  activities  for  the  next  thirty  years  in- 
cluded educational  service  as  a  teacher,  a  lecturer, 
and  an  organizer  of  the  Western  Catholic  Sum- 
mer School,  and  administrative  service  as  pro- 
curator general  of  the  Congregation  of  the 
Holy  Cross  at  Rome,  1896-98,  and  as  provin- 
cial, 1898-1905.  From  1905  until  his  death  he 
was  occupied  chiefly  as  a  writer  on  scientific 
subjects  and  on  lands  and  peoples.  He  was  a 
contributor  to  the  American  Ecclesiastical  Re- 
view, the  Dublin  Review,  the  Outlook,  and  other 
periodicals.  Among  his  scientific  and  theological 
books  may  be  mentioned :  Sound  and  Music 
(1892),  Catholic  Science  and  Catholic  Scientists 
(1893),  Bible,  Science  and  Faith  (1894),  Evo- 
lution and  Dogma  (1896),  Science  and  the 
Church  (1896).  As  a  result  of  two  journeys  to 
South  America  he  produced  in  succession  four 
volumes  which'  are  authoritative  texts  on  the 
history  and  progress  of  the  South  American  re- 
publics. The  first  of  these,  Up  the  Orinoco  and 
down  the  Magdalcna  (1910),  was  followed  short- 
ly by  Along  the  Andes  and  down  the  Amazon 
(1911),  published  under  the  pseudonym  J.  H. 
Mozans,  with  an  introduction  by  Theodore 
Roosevelt.  In  1916,  Through  South  America's 
Southland  appeared,  as  a  result  of  the  expedition 
of  former  President  Roosevelt  into  South  Amer- 
ica. This  expedition  was  made  at  the  suggestion 
of  Zahm  and  he  was  a  member  of  it.  The  fourth 
South  American  volume,  The  Quest  of  El  Do- 
rado, appeared  in  1917.  Two  other  books,  Wom- 
an in  Science  (1913),  published  under  the  pseu- 
donym J.  H.  Mozans,  and  Great  Inspirers 
(1917),  are  concerned,  the  first  with  the  achieve- 
ments of  women  in  the  physical  sciences,  the  sec- 
ond with  Paula  and  her  companions  as  the  in- 
spiration of  St.  Jerome  and  Beatrice  as  the 
inspiration  of  Dante.  In  1921  Zahm  set  out  on 
what  he  announced  would  be  his  last  journey, 
planning  to  recheck  a  completed  manuscript 
which  was  published  posthumously  as  From  Ber- 
lin to  Bagdad  to  Babylon  (1922).  He  got  no 
farther  than  Munich,  where  he  was  stricken  with 
pneumonia  and  died.  He  was  buried  at  Notre 
Dame,  Ind. 

Zahm  was  a  prodigious  worker.    In  person  he 

64I 


Zakrzewska 


Zamorano 


was  of  medium  height,  well  fleshed,  his  face 
normally  serious ;  to  all  but  those  who  knew  him 
well  he  seemed  remote  and  cold.  Among  his 
friends  he  counted  Pope  Leo  XIII,  the  Cardinals 
Vannutelli,  Archbishop  Ireland,  Cardinal  Gib- 
bons, Former  President  Theodore  Roosevelt,  and 
Former  President  Taft.  He  planned  and  direct- 
ed the  erection  of  Science  Hall  at  the  University 
of  Notre  Dame,  and  left  his  famous  Dante 
library  to  the  University. 

[K.  M.  Healy,  in  America,  Dec.  3,  1921  ;  John  Cava- 
naugh,  in  Catholic  World,  Feb.  1922;  Who's  Who  in 
America,  1920-21  ;  N.  Y.  Times,  Nov.  12,  1921  ;  Eve- 
ning Star  (Washington,  D.  C),  Nov.  12,  1921  ;  private 
correspondence  of  Father  Zahm  in  the  archives  of  the 
Congregation  of  the  Holy  Cross.]  P.  T.  C. 

ZAKRZEWSKA,    MARIE    ELIZABETH 

(Sept.  6,  1829-May  12,  1902),  physician  and  pio- 
neer in  the  movement  for  the  emancipation  of 
women,  was  born  in  Berlin,  Germany.  The 
Zakrzewski  family,  formerly  extensive  landown- 
ers in  Poland,  were  dispersed  in  1793.  Marie's 
father,  Ludwig  Martin  Zakrzewski,  went  to  Ber- 
lin, where  he  served  as  an  army  officer  and  later 
as  a  governmental  official,  but  his  liberal  tenden- 
cies lost  him  his  position,  and  his  wife,  descended 
from  the  gypsy  tribe  of  the  Lombardi,  became  a 
midwife  in  order  to  support  her  family  of  seven 
children.  Marie,  the  eldest,  left  school  at  the  age 
of  thirteen.  A  studious,  unattractive  child,  she 
took  a  great  interest  in  nursing  and  ultimately 
decided  to  become  an  accoucheuse.  She  became 
a  special  student  at  the  great  Charite  Hospital  in 
Berlin,  graduated,  and  began  practice  within  its 
walls,  but  friction  soon  developed  between  her 
and  the  authorities.  Thwarted  in  her  desire  to 
become  a  physician,  she  emigrated  with  one  of 
her  sisters  to  America,  arriving  in  New  York 
in  May  1853.  There  she  remained  in  poverty  for 
a  year,  earning,  by  sewing,  a  meager  living  for 
herself,  her  sister,  and  two  more  of  the  children 
who  had  joined  her.  Not  unmindful  of  her  orig- 
inal idea  in  coming  to  America,  she  turned  to 
Elizabeth  Blackwell  [q.v.~\,  already  qualified  as 
a  physician,  for  help  in  obtaining  a  medical  edu- 
cation. In  spite  of  the  fact  that  she  could  hardly 
say  a  word  in  English,  she  was  sent  to  Cleve- 
land Medical  College,  a  department  of  Western 
Reserve  College,  which  had  opened  its  doors  to 
women  in  1847.  Helped  by  friends  and  encour- 
aged by  the  dean,  John  J.  Delamater,  she  re- 
ceived her  degree  of  M.D.  in  1856. 

She  returned  to  New  York,  helped  Elizabeth 
Blackwell  and  her  sister  to  raise  funds  both  there 
and  in  Boston,  and  served  as  resident  surgeon 
in  the  newly  founded  New  York  Infirmary 
( 1857) ,  staffed  entirely  by  women.  The  next  year 
she  accepted  the  chair  of  obstetrics  in  the  New- 


England  Female  Medical  College,  Boston.  After 
three  years,  dissatisfied  because  of  the  lax  stand- 
ards of  the  college  and  the  failure  of  the  trus- 
tees to  build  her  a  hospital  for  clinical  work,  she 
resigned.  Willing  friends  assisted  her  in  starting 
a  little  ten-bed  hospital  of  her  own,  the  nucleus 
of  the  large  New  England  Hospital  for  Women 
and  Children.  For  some  years  she  acted  as  resi- 
dent physician,  matron,  head  nurse,  and  general 
manager.  She  was  virtually  head  of  the  hospital 
from  its  founding  (1862)  for  a  period  of  forty 
years.  Here  she  carried  on  her  duties  as  a  phy- 
sician and  taught  two  generations  of  women  to 
become  nurses  or  doctors.  At  the  same  time  her 
private  practice  increased  rapidly,  and  she  be- 
came the  outstanding  woman  physician  in  New 
England.  In  addition,  she  gave  many  lectures 
on  a  wide  variety  of  subjects,  and  became  an 
outspoken  and  radical  abolitionist,  closely  as- 
sociated with  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  Wendell 
Phillips  [qq.v.'],  and  others.  Retiring  in  1899, 
she  died  a  few  years  later  after  a  period  of  in- 
validism. She  never  married.  A  pioneer  in 
rights  for  women,  she  opened  the  way,  with  the 
Blackwells,  for  the  entrance  of  women  into 
medicine.  With  a  sound  intellect  and  a  large 
and  sympathetic  heart,  she  unselfishly  devoted 
herself  to  the  service  of  humanity. 

[See  autobiog.  notes  in  Caroline  H.  Dall,  A  Practical 
Illus.  of  "Woman's  Right  to  Labor"  (i860);  Marie 
Elizabeth  Zakrzewska:  a  Memoir  (1903);  Agnes  C. 
Vietor,  A  Woman's  Quest  (1924),  which  is  partly  auto- 
biographical ;  Boston  Evening  Transcript,  May  13  and 
Oct.  30,  1902.]  H.  R.V. 

ZAMORANO,  AGUSTIN  JUAN  VICENTE 

(May  5,  1798-Sept.  16,  1842),  pioneer  printer, 
executive  secretary  of  California  under  the  Mex- 
ican regime,  was  born  at  St.  Augustine,  Fla.,  the 
son  of  Gonzalo  Zamorano  y  Gonzalez,  a  native  of 
Muriel,  Old  Castile,  Spain,  and  Francisca  Sales 
del  Corral,  of  Havana,  Cuba.  The  father,  who 
was  treasurer,  auditor,  and  quartermaster  of  the 
Spanish  province  of  East  Florida,  was  appointed 
in  March  181 1  treasurer  of  the  province  of 
Guanajuato,  in  Mexico,  and  there  Agustin  re- 
ceived his  schooling  and  grew  to  manhood. 

During  the  final  phases  of  the  Mexican  war 
for  independence  he  became  a  cadet  in  the  army 
(May  1,  1 821)  and  took  part  in  the  campaign 
that  ended  in  national  freedom.  The  next  few 
years  he  spent  at  the  city  of  Mexico,  receiving 
the  training  of  a  military  engineer.  When  Jose 
M.  Echeandia  was  made  governor  of  California 
in  February  1825,  Zamorano  was  appointed  ex- 
ecutive secretary  and  reached  San  Diego  in  Oc- 
tober! On  Feb.  15,  1827,  he  married  Maria 
Luisa  Argiiello,  by  whom  he  had  seven  children. 
Shortly  after  Manuel  Victoria  assumed  the  gov- 


64: 


Zamorano 

ernorship,  in  January  1831,  Zamorano,  still  sec- 
retary, became  also  commandant  of  the  presidio 
at  the  capital,  Monterey,  with  the  rank  of  cap- 
tain. Victoria's  rule  proved  unpopular  and  re- 
volt broke  out  in  December  183 1  at  San  Diego. 
The  governor  was  seriously  wounded  and  was 
captured  by  the  revolutionists.  Zamorano,  as  the 
senior  loyal  officer,  assumed  the  military  com- 
mand and  maintained  the  established  govern- 
ment in  three  of  the  four  presidial  districts  until 
the  arrival  in  January  1833  of  a  new  governor 
from  Mexico. 

Zamorano  is  remembered  chiefly  as  the  first 
printer  in  California.  His  first  imprints  were 
letterheads  produced  from  woodblocks ;  these  are 
known  to  have  been  in  use  during  the  years  1826- 
29.  In  1830,  the  official  letterheads  were  printed 
from  type  and  in  the  following  year,  1831,  habili- 
tated stamped  paper  (papel  scllado)  was  printed 
from  the  same  type;  all  the  existing  imprints 
of  this  period  give  evidence  of  being  pounded 
proofs.  In  June  1834,  the  ship  Lagoda,  out  of 
Boston,  delivered  to  Zamorano  at  Monterey  a 
wooden-framed  Ramage  printing  press,  type,  and 
other  equipment.  Soon  afterward,  Zamorano 
issued  his  Aviso  al  Publico  ( 1834),  a  broadside 
announcing  the  establishment  of  a  printing  of- 
fice and  quoting  prices.  He  is  known  to  have 
produced  twenty-one  imprints,  in  addition  to  let- 
terheads and  stamped  paper  headings.  Of  these, 
eleven  were  broadsides  or  folders  of  an  official 
character,  six  were  of  a  miscellaneous  nature, 
and  four  were  books :  Rcglamento  Provincial 
para  cl  Gobierno  Interior  (1834),  sixteen  pages, 
containing  the  rules  adopted  by  the  territorial 
legislature  to  govern  its  organization  and  de- 
liberations ;  Jose  Figueroa's  Manifesto  a  la  Rc- 
publica  Mejicana  (1835),  188  pages,  by  far  the 
most  important  work  printed  in  California  before 
the  American  occupation;  Cdtecismo  de  Orto- 
logia  (1836)  and  Tablas  para  los  Ninos  que 
Empiezan  a  Contar  (1836),  school  books. 

Zamorano  served  as  territorial  secretary  and 
as  commandant  at  Monterey  until  November 
1836,  when  a  revolution  led  by  Juan  Bautista 
Alvarado  [q.v.~],  deposed  acting  governor  Nico- 
las Gutierrez.  Zamorano  then  removed  to  San 
Diego,  where  he  played  a  leading  part  in  the 
fruitless  resistance  to  Alvarado's  government  of- 
fered by  the  inhabitants  of  the  southern  part  of 
the  territory.  In  the  spring  of  1838,  leaving  his 
family  in  California,  he  returned  to  Mexico. 
From  some  time  in  1839  until  late  in  1840,  he  was 
military  commander  of  Lower  California,  with 
headquarters  at  La  Paz,  and  was  then  called  to 
Mexico  for  staff  duty.  On  the  appointment  of 
Manuel  Micheltorena  as  governor  of  California, 


Zane 

early  in  1842,  Zamorano  was  named  as  adjutant 

inspector  of  the  territory  and  sailed  with  the  new 

governor  from  Mazatlan.    He  was  desperately 

ill  when  the  expedition  reached  San  Diego,  Aug. 

25,  1842,  and  a  few  weeks  later  he  died. 

[Sources  include:  G.  L.  Harding,  Don  Agustin  V. 
Zamorano,  Statesman,  Soldier,  Craftsman,  and  Cali- 
fornia's First  Printer  (1934),  and  "A  Census  of  Cali- 
fornia Spanish  Imprints,  1 833-1 845,"  in  Cal.  Hist.  Soc. 
Quart.,  June  1933;  R.  E.  Cowan,  A  Bibliog.  of  the 
Spanish  Press  of  Cal.  (1919)  ;  George  Tays,  "Revolu- 
tionary Cal."  (1932),  doctoral  thesis  (MS.),  Univ.  of 
Cal. ;  H.  H.  Bancroft,  "California,"  Hist,  of  the  Pacific 
States,  vols.  XIII-XIX  (1884-90)  ;  and  transcripts  of 
documents  in  Mexican  archives  in  Bancroft  Lib.,  Univ. 
of  Cal.  The  largest  collections  of  imprints  produced 
by  Zamorano  are  at  the  Bancroft  Lib.  and  the  Henry 
E.  Huntington  Lib.,  San  Marino,  Cal.]  G.  L.  H. 

ZANE,  CHARLES  SHUSTER  (Mar.  3, 
1831-Mar.  29,  1915),  judge,  was  born  at  Tucka- 
hoe,  Cape  May  County,  N.  J.,  one  of  ten  chil- 
dren of  Andrew  and  Mary  (Franklin)  Zane  and 
a  descendant  in  the  sixth  generation  from  Rob- 
ert Zane,  an  English  serge-maker,  who  was  a 
member  of  the  Quaker  colony  founded  in  1676  at 
Salem,  N.  J.  His  mother,  said  to  have  been  a 
relative  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  died  when  he 
was  nine.  He  grew  to  possess  the  simple  purity 
of  Quaker  character  without  Quaker  religious 
convictions.  Indeed,  he  was  to  be  a  life-long 
agnostic.  At  sixteen  or  seventeen,  equipped  with 
a  rural  schooling,  he  left  his  father's  farm  to 
spend  several  years  as  grocery  clerk  and  livery- 
stable  owner  in  Philadelphia  before  joining  his 
eldest  brother  in  Sangamon  County,  111.  From 
1852  until  1855  he  was  a  student  at  McKendree 
College,  Lebanon,  111.,  and  for  some  months 
thereafter  taught  school.  Then  he  studied  law 
under  James  C.  Conkling,  in  Springfield,  and 
was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1857.  He  opened  a 
law  office  above  that  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  whom 
he  idolized ;  later,  when  Lincoln  became  presi- 
dent, Zane  followed  him  as  the  law  partner  of 
William  H.  Herndon  [q.v.~\,  whose  niece,  Mar- 
garet Drusilla  Maxcy,  he  had  married  at  Spring- 
field, on  Apr.  6,  1859.  Eight  years  later,  when 
Herndon  retired,  Zane  became  the  partner  of 
Shelby  M.  Cullom  [q.z'.],  continuing  as  such  un- 
til 1873  and  serving,  meanwhile,  first  as  city  at- 
torney of  Springfield,  then  as  county  attorney  of 
Sangamon.  In  1873  he  was  elected  an  Illinois 
circuit  judge  and  for  eleven  years,  through  suc- 
cessive reflections,  he  traveled  dusty  roads,  de- 
livering oral  opinions.  Up  to  this  time  Zane  had 
been  a  plain,  honest,  common-sense  family  man, 
undistinguished  by  any  work  he  had  the  oppor- 
tunity to  perform. 

In  1884,  on  recommendation  of  Cullom.  Presi- 
dent Arthur  appointed  him  chief  justice  of  Utah 
Territory  to  enforce  the  drastic  Edmunds  Law 


643 


Zane 

against  polygamy  and  related  offenses.  During 
his  incumbency,  from  September  1884  to  Janu- 
ary 1894  with  a  year  interregnum  (1888-89), 
this  practice,  regarded  by  Mormons  as  a  sacred 
duty,  was  crushed  by  legal  machinery  in  a  man- 
ner that  left  no  legacy  of  resentment.  For  this 
astonishing  achievement  Zane,  through  his  ju- 
dicial statesmanship,  was  more  responsible  than 
any  other  person.  At  first,  his  rigorous  rulings 
and  severe  sentences  as  a  nisi  prius  judge  caused 
the  Mormons  to  call  his  regime  "a  judicial  reign 
of  terror."  But  his  enforcement  of  the  laws  of  a 
Mormon  legislature  with  equal  rigor,  courtesy, 
and  impartiality  gradually  compelled  their  re- 
spect, the  more  quickly,  no  doubt,  because  of  the 
fact  that  his  known  agnosticism  acquitted  him 
of  any  charge  of  religious  bias.  Finally,  after 
years  of  suffering  on  the  part  of  the  Mormons, 
came  the  Woodruff  Manifesto  of  Sept.  25,  1890, 
abandoning  polygamy  as  an  article  of  faith  and 
ordering  Mormons  to  conform  to  the  law.  Zane 
had  repeatedly  urged  such  a  pronouncement,  and 
when  it  came,  unlike  most  others,  he  accepted  it 
as  utterly  sincere.  Now  he  praised  the  character 
of  the  Mormons,  attacked  proposed  legislation  to 
disfranchise  them,  helped  to  gain  amnesty  for 
those  convicted  and  to  secure  the  return  of 
church  property  forfeited  under  the  Edmunds- 
Tucker  Law.  It  was  not  remarkable  that,  when 
Utah  was  admitted  to  the  Union,  Mormon  joined 
Gentile  to  elect  him  first  chief  justice  of  the  state. 
On  Jan.  4,  1896,  he  took  the  oath  of  office. 

Failing  reelection  with  the  rest  of  his  ticket, 
Zane  remained  among  these  people  to  practise 
law  from  Jan.  1,  1899,  until  his  death  of  apoplexy 
at  Salt  Lake  City.  His  opinions  (collected  in 
Utah  State  Reports,  vols.  4-9,  13-18)  are  marked 
by  lucid  statement,  simplicity  of  language,  and 
infrequent  citation  of  precedents.  They  are  not 
otherwise  extraordinary.  Moreover,  they  indi- 
cate that  the  epithet  "government  judge"  was 
not  entirely  undeserved.  He  was  the  author  of 
"The  Death  of  Polygamy  in  Utah,"  Forum,  Nov. 
1891 ;  "The  Constitution"  [of  Utah],  in  Report 
of  the  Second  Annual  Meeting  of  the  Territorial 
Bar  Association  of  Utah  (1895)  ;  "Lincoln  as  I 
Knew  Him,"  Sunset.  The  Pacific  Monthly,  Oct. 
1912.  Zane  was  erect,  active,  blue-eyed,  lean- 
faced.  In  maturity  he  wore  a  clipped  beard.  He 
was  survived  by  six  of  nine  children,  and  is 
buried  in  Oak  Ridge  Cemetery,  Springfield,  111. 

[The  best  obituary  sketch  is  in  Dcscrct  Evening  News 
(Salt  Lake  City,  Utah),  Mar.  29,  191 5;  see  also  edi- 
torial, Mar.  30,  1915.  Genealogy  based  on  records  of 
N.  J.  Hist.  Soc.  Often  Zane's  birthdate  occurs  as  Mar. 
2,  1 83 1,  and  birthplace  as  Marsh  River  Township,  Cum- 
berland County,  N.  J.  The  statements  here  are  based 
on  information  from  the  family.  For  Zane's  role  in 
Mormon  trials  see:  J.  M.  Zane,  "A  Rare  Judicial  Serv- 


Zane 

ice,"  Jour.  III.  State  Hist.  Soc.,  Apr.-July  1926;  O  F 
Whitney,  Popular  History  of  Utah  (1916)  ;  B.  H.  Rob- 
erts, "The  History  of  the  Mormon  Church,"  in  Ameri- 
cana Mag.,  especially  issues  for  May  and  June  191 5 
(adverse  criticism).  For  miscellaneous  information 
see:  Paul  and  Chester  Farthing,  eds.,  Philo  History: 
Chronicles  and  Biographies  of  the  Philosophian  Literary 
Society  of  McKendrce  College  (1911);  J.  C.  Alter, 
Utah,  the  Storied  Domain,  vol.  I  (1932),  pp.  465-66; 
S.  M.  Cullom,  Fifty  Years  of  Public  Service  (1911).] 

JJ.D. 
ZANE,  EBENEZER  (Oct.  7,  1747-Nov.  19, 
1812),  pioneer,  was  born  at  a  farm  on  the  South 
Branch  of  the  Potomac  near  what  is  now  Moore- 
field,  Hardy  County,  W.  Va.  Little  is  known  of 
his  parents  except  that  his  father  migrated  to 
the  Potomac  Valley  after  he  was  expelled  from 
a  Quaker  meeting  in  eastern  Pennsylvania  be- 
cause he  married  outside  the  Society  of  Friends. 
Ebenezer  came  of  age  in  the  year  that  the  fron- 
tier to  the  Ohio  River  was  officially  opened  by 
the  Iroquois  cession  at  the  treaty  of  Fort  Stan- 
wix.  Since  he  and  his  brothers,  Silas  and  Jona- 
than, had  already  explored  in  those  lands,  in  1769 
they  led  the  frontier  advance  by  establishing 
their  claims  under  Virginia  law  to  the  lands  at 
the  mouth  of  Wheeling  Creek,  to  which  place 
they  brought  their  families  in  1770. 

The  Wheeling  settlement  became  the  important 
Ohio  River  terminus  of  the  road  from  Cumber- 
land, Md.,  over  which  emigrants  were  moving 
westward  in  increasing  numbers.  Ebenezer  Zane 
was  active  in  the  land  speculation  that  was  one 
of  the  causes  of  Dunmore's  War,  although  he 
refused  to  countenance  the  violence  against  the 
Indians  that  preceded  it.  During  the  war  he  was 
a  colonel  and  disbursing  agent  of  the  Virginia 
militia  at  Fort  Fincastle,  Wheeling.  He  sup- 
ported the  Patriot  cause  during  the  Revolution, 
taking  a  prominent  part  in  repelling  the  British- 
Indian  besiegers  of  Fort  Fincastle,  rechristened 
Fort  Henry,  in  1777  and  1782.  His  sister  was 
the  famous  Betty  Zane  who  successfully  braved 
the  Indian  gunfire  in  the  siege  of  1782  to  bring 
an  apron-load  of  gunpowder  from  a  nearby  store- 
house to  the  fort.  His  brother  Jonathan  learned 
much  of  Ohio  lands  as  a  soldier  under  Craw- 
ford in  the  Sandusky  expedition  of  1782. 

Zane's  speculative  activity  in  land  continued 
after  the  Revolution.  In  1785-87  he  was  often 
the  host  for  the  United  States  surveyors  of  the 
Seven  Ranges  and  he  and  Jonathan  were  active 
in  making  salt  at  the  Muskingum  River  Salt 
Licks  ten  miles  below  what  is  now  Zanesville, 
Ohio.  After  the  treaty  of  Greenville  in  1795,  by 
which  the  south  Ohio  lands  were  given  up  by 
the  Indians,  Zane  petitioned  Congress  in  March 
1796  for  permission  to  open  a  road  from  Wheel- 
ing to  Limestone,  Ky.,  and  by  an  act  approved 


644 


Zeilin 

May  17,  1796,  Congress  granted  him  three  lots, 
each  a  mile  square,  to  be  located  respectively 
where  the  road  crossed  the  Muskingum,  the 
Hockhocking  and  the  Scioto,  on  condition  that 
Zane  blaze  the  road  himself  before  Jan.  1,  1797, 
that  he  pay  to  the  United  States  federal  bounty 
warrants  to  the  amount  of  the  acreage  granted, 
that  he  provide  ferries  across  the  three  rivers, 
and  that  he  survey  his  three  tracts  at  his  own 
expense.  On  two  of  these  tracts  the  towns  of 
Zanesville  and  Lancaster  were  laid  out  in  1799 
and  1800  respectively.  The  third  tract  lay  across 
the  Scioto  River  from  Chillicothe. 

Zane  married  Elizabeth  McCulloch  before  he 
left  the  South  Branch  of  the  Potomac,  and  was 
the  father  of  thirteen  children.  He  was  buried 
in  the  Zane  family  plot  near  Martin's  Ferry,  Bel- 
mont County,  Ohio,  not  far  from  Wheeling. 

[J.  A.  Caldwell,  Hist,  of  Belmont  and  Jefferson  Coun- 
ties, Ohio  (1880)  ;  A.  B.  Hulbert,  Hist.  Highways  of 
America,  vol.  XI  (1904)  ;  C.  L.  Martzolff,  "Zane's 
Trace,"  Ohio  Archaeol.  and  Hist.  Quart.,  July  1904  ; 
A.  S.  Withers,  Chronicles  of  Border  Warfare  (1895), 
ed.  by  R.  G.  Thwaites  ;  C.  E.  Sherman,  Original  Ohio 
Land  Subdivisions,  being  Vol.  Ill,  Final  Report  (in 
Four  Volumes)  Ohio  Cooperative  Topographic  Survey 
(1925).]  R.  C.  D. 

ZEILIN,  JACOB  (July  16,  1806-Nov.  18, 
1880),  marine  corps  officer,  was  born  in  Phila- 
delphia, Pa.,  the  son  of  Jacob  Zeilin,  a  tavern 
keeper.  Nothing  is  known  of  his  youth  previous 
to  his  admission  to  the  United  States  Military 
Academy  at  West  Point  as  a  cadet  en  July  1, 
1822.  He  remained  here  several  years,  but  was 
not  graduated.  On  Oct.  1,  183 1,  he  entered  the 
marine  corps  as  a  second  lieutenant.  After  a 
preliminary  training  at  the  marine  barracks  in 
Philadelphia  and  Charlestown,  Mass.,  he  joined 
the  sloop  Erie,  stationed  on  the  coast  of  Brazil, 
l%35-37-  He  was  promoted  to  the  rank  of  first 
lieutenant,  from  Sept.  12,  1836.  From  1838  to 
1842  he  was  again  at  the  marine  barracks  in 
Charlestown.  From  1843  to  1845  he  was  with 
the  frigate  Columbia,  at  first  on  the  coast  of 
Brazil  and  later  in  the  Mediterranean.  During 
the  Mexican  War  he  was  attached  to  the  frigate 
Congress  of  the  Pacific  Squadron  and  partici- 
pated in  several  landing  expeditions  in  California 
and  Mexico.  For  gallantry  in  action  at  the  San 
Gabriel  River  in  California,  he  was  brevetted 
major  from  Jan.  9,  1847.  He  was  promoted  cap- 
tain from  Sept.  14  of  that  year.  After  the  Con- 
gress returned  home  by  way  of  the  East  Indies 
he  remained  on  shore  for  four  years.  In  1853-54 
he  served  as  fleet  marine  officer  of  the  East  India 
Squadron  under  Matthew  C.  Perry  [q.v.~\,  first 
on  board  the  Mississippi  and  later  on  board  the 
Susquehanna.  The  marines  of  the  squadron  were 


Zeisberger 


organized  into  a  battalion  with  Zeilin  in  com- 
mand, and  they  participated  in  the  memorable 
events  leading  to  the  opening  of  Japan.  In  1859 
Zeilin  was  in  the  Mediterranean  with  the  Jl'a- 
bash,  and  was  later  stationed  at  the  marine  bar- 
racks at  Norfolk,  Philadelphia,  and  Washing- 
ton, D.  C. 

In  the  first  battle  of  Bull  Run  he  commanded 
one  of  the  four  companies  of  marines  that  co- 
operated with  the  army  and  was  wounded  in  the 
battle.  In  August  1863,  with  a  company  of  ma- 
rines, he  joined  Admiral  John  A.  B.  Dahlgren 
[<7.7\],  off  Charleston,  S.  C,  and  participated  in 
the  engagements  against  the  defenses  of  that  city. 
Returning  to  the  North  on  sick  leave,  he  was 
stationed  at  the  marine  barracks  at  New  York 
until  ordered  to  Washington  as  commandant  of 
the  marine  corps,  with  the  rank  of  colonel  from 
June  10,  1864.  On  Mar.  2,  1867,  he  was  given 
the  rank  of  brigadier-general,  the  first  officer  to 
attain  that  grade.  He  served  as  commandant 
until  he  was  retired  on  Nov.  1,  1876. 

After  a  long  period  of  ill  health,  he  died  of 
cirrhosis  of  the  liver  contracted  in  the  East  In- 
dies. He  was  survived  by  a  wife,  Virginia  (  Free- 
man) Zeilin,  to  whom  he  was  married  at  Nor- 
folk, Va.,  on  Oct.  23,  1845,  and  two  daughters. 
Shortly  before  his  death  his  only  son,  Lieut. 
William  F.  Zeilin  of  the  Marine  Corps,  was  ac- 
cidentally killed.  Both  father  and  son  were  buried 
in  the  Laurel  Hill  Cemetery  at  Philadelphia. 

[Navy  Register,  1832-81  ;  Reg.  of  the  Officers  and 
Cadets  of  the  U.  S.  Mil.  Acad.,  1823-25;  Army  and 
Navy  Jour.,  June  12,  Nov.  20,  27,  1880  ;  R.  S.  Collum, 
Hist,  of  U.  S.  Marine  Corps  (1903)  ;  War  of  the  Re- 
bellion: Official  Records  (Navy),  1  ser.  vols.  IV,  XI, 
XIV  (1896-1902)  ;  pension  records,  Veterans  Admin- 
istration ;  Washington  Post,  Nov.  19,  1880.] 

C.  O.  P. 
ZEISBERGER,  DAVID  (Apr.  11,  1721-Nov. 
17,  1808),  Moravian  missionary  to  the  Indians, 
was  the  son  of  David  and  Rosina  Zeisberger  of 
Zauchtenthal,  Moravia.  His  family  migrated  to 
Herrnhut,  Saxony,  in  1727,  and  when  his  parents 
went  to  Georgia  in  1736,  the  boy  remained  in 
school  at  Herrnhut.  Later  he  was  indentured  to 
an  importer  in  Herrndyk,  Holland,  whence  he 
ran  away  to  London  because  he  resented  an  un- 
just punishment.  Here  Count  Zinzendorf  [q.v.] 
took  him  in  hand  and  persuaded  Governor  Ogle- 
thorpe [q.vJ]  to  send  him  to  Savannah  to  join 
the  Moravian  colony.  With  this  group  he  left 
Georgia  in  1739  for  Pennsylvania  and  was  pres- 
ent on  Christmas  Eve  in  1741  when  Zinzendorf 
christened  Bethlehem. 

In  1745  Zeisberger  and  Christian  Frederick 
Post  [q.v.]  were  invited  to  live  in  the  lodge  of 
Chief  Hendrick  [q.7\]  of  the  Iroquois  that  they 


645 


Zeisberger 


Zeisberger 


might  learn  the  Maqua  (Onondaga)  dialect,  but 
the  agitation  against  Germans  in  New  York  re- 
sulted in  their  arrest  and  imprisonment.  Through 
the  influence  of  Governor  Thomas  of  Pennsyl- 
vania and  of  Conrad  Weiser  [q.v.],  they  were 
released  in  order  to  take  part  in  Indian  nego- 
tiations then  pending.  At  once  Zeisberger,  Wei- 
ser, and  Bishop  A.  G.  Spangenberg  [q.v.~\  has- 
tened to  Onondaga  to  attend  a  Long  House,  at 
which,  on  June  20,  they  assisted  in  arranging 
the  treaty  that  allied  the  Six  Nations  with  the 
English. 

From  this  time  until  his  death  over  sixty  years 
later  Zeisberger  was  constantly  involved  in  the 
complicated  politics  of  the  frontier  resulting 
from  the  long-continued  struggle  between  France 
and  Great  Britain.  While  his  knowledge  of  In- 
dian habits  and  tongues  made  him  invaluable  in 
conferences,  his  mind  and  heart  were  centered 
upon  the  lives  of  the  red  men  and  the  process  of 
making  them  useful  members  of  society.  Be- 
tween 1745  and  1763  he  spent  a  total  of  more 
than  ten  years  in  the  lodges  of  the  Six  Nations, 
loved  and  admired  by  their  leaders,  and,  like  Sir 
William  Johnson  [q.v.],  initiated  into  some  of 
their  tribes.  His  intimate  contact  with  these 
confederated  friends  of  the  English  convinced 
him  that  the  best  means  of  assuring  the  safety  of 
the  whites  lay  in  ameliorating  the  savagery  of 
the  Delawares  and  cognate  tribes,  who  for  years 
had  been  sullenly  resentful  of  their  conquest  by 
the  Iroquois  and  as  a  consequence  were  prone  to 
yield  to  the  seductive  influence  of  the  French.  In 
1763  he  lived  with  the  Delawares  in  the  Wyo- 
ming Valley,  assisting  them  in  the  building  of 
the  village  of  Friedenshutten.  When  colonial 
policies  gradually  pushed  them  westward,  he  fol- 
lowed them  in  their  trek  through  the  wilds  of 
upper  Pennsylvania.  So  effective  was  his  con- 
tact with  them  that  when  in  1771  they  entered 
the  Ohio  area  he  was  able  to  establish  a  self- 
supporting  Christian  Indian  settlement  at  Scho- 
enbrunn  in  the  Tuscarawas  Valley. 

Here  Zeisberger  erected  the  first  church  build- 
ing and  schoolhouse  west  of  the  Ohio  River,  sur- 
rounding it  with  the  log-cabins  and  cornfields  of 
the  converts.  Within  three  years  Gnadenhiitten, 
Salem,  and  Lichtenau  near  by  were  centers  of 
similar  life,  and  it  seemed  that  the  process  of 
making  the  Indian  a  useful  member  of  colonial 
society  had  well  begun.  The  tide  of  settlement 
toward  the  West,  however,  resisted  by  the  new 
policy  of  the  council  for  the  colonies  in  London, 
together  with  the  further  threat  of  savage  red 
men  in  the  territory  beyond,  boded  storm  for 
both  white  settlers  and  Indian  converts.  During 
the  Revolution  the  whites  were  inclined  to  view 


all  Indians  as  potential  allies  of  the  British  and 
in  consequence  the  position  of  the  Moravian  vil- 
lages became  increasingly  difficult.  In  1781 
Zeisberger  and  his  assistant  J.  G.  E.  Heckewel- 
der  [q.v.]  were  taken  as  prisoners  to  Detroit 
and  the  Schoenbrunn  colony  was  scattered  along 
the  shores  of  Lake  Erie.  After  a  searching  ex- 
amination by  the  British  governor  the  mission- 
aries were  acquitted  as  neutrals,  but,  dreading 
the  hatred  and  fear  of  the  whites,  the  Christian 
Indians  gradually  abandoned  their  old  villages 
and  settled  in  small  groups  near  Detroit  and  on 
the  Thames  in  Canada.  This  change  of  base  was 
not  accomplished  without  stain  of  blood,  how- 
ever. In  March  1782  Simon  Girty  [q.v.~\  and  a 
band  of  white  settlers  led  by  Captain  William- 
son inveigled  the  unsuspecting  inhabitants  of 
Gnadenhiitten  into  their  cabins  and  massacred 
them  all.  From  1782  to  1786  Zeisberger  lived 
with  a  group  of  the  converts  at  (New)  Gnaden- 
hiitten, in  what  is  now  Michigan;  from  1786  to 
1798  he  helped  establish  settlements  at  New 
Salem,  Ohio,  and  Fairfield,  Canada.  In  1798  he 
settled  with  a  remnant  of  his  "brown  brethren" 
at  Goshen,  Ohio,  whence,  after  his  death  in  1808, 
they  once  more  took  up  the  long  trek,  this  time 
to  Kansas. 

At  the  age  of  sixty,  June  4,  1781,  Zeisberger 
married  Susan  Lecron  of  Lititz,  Pa.,  who  be- 
came his  sturdy  support  in  the  dwindling  work. 
They  had  no  children.  When  he  died  he  had 
lived  among  the  red  men  for  sixty-two  years, 
and  he  is  said  to  have  acquired  not  only  their 
speech,  but  also  their  taciturnity  and  their  habits 
of  thought  and  action.  In  the  course  of  his  ca- 
reer he  published  Essay  of  a  Delaware-Indian 
and  English  Spclling-Book  (1776),  A  Collection 
of  Hymns  for  the  Use  of  the  Christian  Indians  of 
the  Missions  of  the  United  Brethren  in  North 
America  (1803)  ;  Sermons  to  Children  (1803), 
in  the  Delaware  tongue,  containing  also  "Some- 
thing of  Bodily  Care  for  Children"  translated 
into  Delaware  by  Zeisberger  from  the  German 
of  A.  G.  Spangenberg ;  The  History  of  Our  Lord 
and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ  (1821),  in  Delaware, 
edited  by  Samuel  Lieberkuhn ;  "Verbal  Biegun- 
gen  der  Chippewayer  (Delawaren) ,"  in  J.  L. 
Vater's  Analekten  der  Sprechenkunde  (pt.  3, 
1821).  Several  valuable  unpublished  manuscripts 
of  his  are  in  the  library  of  the  American  Philo- 
sophical Society,  Philadelphia:  "Deutsch  und 
Onondagisches  Woerterbuch"  (7  volumes) ; 
Onondaga  and  English  Vocabulary  (shorter 
form)  ;  and  "Onondagische  Grammatical  His 
Grammar  of  the  Language  of  the  Lenni  Lenape 
or  Delaware  Indians,  translated  from  the  Ger- 
man manuscript  by  P.  S.  Du  Ponceau,  was  pub- 


646 


Zeisler 

lished  in  1827;  Zeisberger's  Indian  Dictionary 
(1887),  was  printed  from  the  manuscript  in  the 
Harvard  College  Library ;  and  a  "History  of  the 
Indians,"  evidently  written  for  Bishop  Loskiel, 
was  published  in  the  Ohio  Archaeological  and 
Historical  Quarterly,  January-April  1910. 

[E.  A.  de  Schweinitz,  The  Life  and  Times  of  David 
Zeisbcrgcr  (1870)  ;  Diary  of  David  Zcisbergcr  (2  vols., 
1 88s),  ed.  by  E.  F.  Bliss  ;  G.  H.  Loskiel,  Geschicte  der 
Mission  der  Evangclischcn  Bruder  unter  den  Indianern 
(1789),  translated  by  C.  I.  LaTrobe  as  Hist,  of  the 
Mission  of  the  United  Brethren  among  the  Indians  in 
North  America  (1794)  ;  J-  G.  E.  Heckewelder,  A  Nar- 
rative of  the  Mission  of  the  United  Brethren  among  the 
Delaware  and  Mohegan  Indians  (1820)  ;  Ohio  Archaol. 
and  Hist.  Quart.,  Apr.  1909,  Jan.  1912;  diaries  and 
correspondence,  as  well  as  duplicate  MSS.  of  all  works, 
in  archives  of  the  Moravian  Church,  Bethlehem,  Pa.] 

A.  G.  R. 

ZEISLER,  FANNIE  BLOOMFIELD  (July 
16,  1863-Aug.  20,  1927),  pianist,  was  born  in 
Bielitz,  Austrian  Silesia,  the  daughter  of  Salo- 
mon and  Bertha  (Jaeger)  Blumenfeld.  Her  fa- 
ther emigrated  to  America  in  1866,  settling  in 
Appleton,  Wis.,  where  he  was  joined  the  fol- 
lowing year  by  his  wife  and  three  children,  Fan- 
nie being  the  youngest.  In  1869  the  family 
removed  permanently  to  Chicago.  Fannie  re- 
ceived her  first  instruction  on  the  piano  from 
her  brother,  Maurice  Bloomfield  [</.£'.],  but  her 
first  systematic  training  came  from  Bernhard 
Ziehn  [q.v.~],  with  whom  she  studied  several 
years.  In  1873  she  became  a  pupil  of  Carl 
Wolfsohn  [q.v.]  and  made  her  first  public  ap- 
pearance at  a  concert  given  Feb.  26,  1875,  by  the 
Beethoven  Society  with  Wolfsohn  conducting. 
On  the  advice  of  Madame  Essipoff ,  who  heard  her 
play  during  her  American  tour  of  1877,  the 
young  pianist  in  June  1878  went  to  Vienna, 
where  she  spent  five  years  of  intensive  study 
with  Leschetizky.  She  returned  to  America  in 
the  summer  of  1883  and  in  the  fall  gave  her  first 
full  concert  in  the  old  Hershey  Hall,  Chicago, 
with  great  success.  Her  first  appearance  with 
orchestra  was  in  New  York  with  Frank  B.  Van 
der  Stucken  [q.v.~\,  in  one  of  his  "novelty  con- 
certs." She  soon  became  recognized  as  one  of 
the  foremost  pianists  in  America. 

In  the  fall  of  1888  she  went  to  Leschetizky 
again  and  coached  with  him  till  March  1889. 
Then,  with  a  few  intervening  years  of  maturing 
experience,  she  made  her  first  European  tour 
in  the  fall  of  1893,  appearing  with  the  great 
orchestras  of  Berlin,  Leipzig,  Dresden,  and 
Vienna.  In  the  latter  city,  after  a  performance 
which  evoked  unusual  enthusiasm,  a  severe  ill- 
ness interrupted  the  tour,  and  she  returned  home. 
In  the  fall  of  1894  she  went  back  for  a  second 
tour,  confined  largely  to  Germany  and  Austria, 
and    won    significant    triumphs    wherever    she 


Zeisler 

played.  The  young  stranger  from  America  was 
lauded  by  the  German  critics  for  her  "faultless 
technique,"  her  energy,  and  the  depth  and  full- 
ness of  her  poetic  feeling.  A  third  European 
tour,  made  in  1898,  was  confined  largely  to  Eng- 
land, but  it  included  a  notable  performance  at 
the  Lower  Rhine  Music  Festival  at  Cologne  un- 
der Franz  Wiillner.  A  fourth  tour  was  made  in 
1902  in  Germany,  Austria,  Switzerland,  Den- 
mark, and  Paris,  and  a  fifth  in  1911-12,  cover- 
ing all  of  western  Europe.  At  her  first  Paris 
appearance  with  the  Lamoureux  Orchestra  in 
1902,  a  famous  incident  occurred.  A  violently 
hostile  anti-foreign  gallery  claque  attempted  to 
prevent  her  from  playing,  but  with  character- 
istic courage  and  tenacity  she  held  her  ground, 
and,  by  her  impassioned  and  masterly  perform- 
ance of  the  Saint-Saens  C-Minor  concerto, 
turned  the  noisy  tumult  into  an  overwhelming 
triumph. 

The  wide  range  of  her  available  repertoire  was 
remarkable.  During  a  tour  in  California  in 
March  1912  she  played  eight  recitals  in  San 
Francisco,  with  no  repetitions,  within  the  space 
of  eighteen  days.  Among  her  public  appearances 
in  her  later  years  two  were  of  quite  extraordinary 
interest.  After  an  absence  of  two  years  from  the 
concert  stage  and  following  a  long  illness,  she 
gave  a  concert  in  Chicago  in  Orchestra  Hall, 
Feb.  3,  1920,  at  which  she  played  with  the  Chi- 
cago Symphony  Orchestra  three  concertos  in 
succession — the  Mozart  C-Minor,  the  Chopin  F- 
Minor,  and  the  Tchaikovsky  B-flat  Minor.  Five 
years  later  the  Chicago  Symphony  Orchestra 
gave  a  special  concert,  on  Feb.  25,  1925,  to  cele- 
brate her  golden  jubilee  as  an  artist.  On  this 
occasion,  which  proved  to  be  her  last  public  ap- 
pearance, she  played  the  same  piece,  the  Bee- 
thoven "Andante  Favori,"  with  which  she  had 
begun  her  public  career  just  fifty  years  before, 
and  then  two  concertos — the  Schumann  and  the 
Chopin  F-Minor.  She  received  a  thrilling  ova- 
tion, not  merely  as  a  personal  tribute,  but  be- 
cause of  the  remarkable  fact  that  there  was  in 
the  performance  no  suggestion  of  declining  pow- 
ers. Her  death  came  two  years  later  after  a  pro- 
tracted illness.  On  Oct.  18,  1885,  she  was  mar- 
ried to  Sigmund  Zeisler  [9.V.],  who  throughout 
their  married  life  maintained  a  rare  sympathy 
with  and  appreciation  of  her  art.  He  and  their 
three  sons  survived  her.  As  an  interpreter  she 
had  full  mastery  of  a  wide  range  of  styles,  yet 
possibly  excelled  in  moods  demanding  virile  in- 
cisiveness,  technical  brilliance,  and  dramatic  in- 
tensity. She  was  a  woman  of  wide  intellectual 
and  cultural  sympathies,  democratic  in  her  per- 
sonal  intercourse,  frank  and  outspoken  in  her 


647 


Zeisler 

convictions,  simple  and  unostentatious  in  her 
life.  She  wielded  a  large  influence  as  a  teacher, 
was  devoted  to  the  welfare  of  her  students,  and 
was  as  exacting  a  task-master  with  them  as  she 
had  always  been  with  herself.  Lofty  idealism, 
unremitting  industry,  indomitable  energy,  and 
absolute  sincerity  were  the  foundations  on  which 
her  whole  life  and  art  were  built. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1926-27  ;  Internat.  Who's 
Who  in  Music,  1918  ;  Grove's  Diet,  of  Music  and  Mu- 
sicians (3rd.  ed.),  vol.  V  (1928)  ;  R.  G.  Cole,  article  in 
Papers  and  Proc.  Music  Teachers  Nat.  Asso.,  1927  ; 
W.  S.  B.  Mathews,  in  Music,  Nov.  1895  ;  Musical  Ob- 
server, Apr.  1 908  ;  Chicago  Sunday  Tribune,  Aug.  2 1 , 
I9-27-]  R.G.  C. 

ZEISLER,  SIGMUND  (Apr.  11,  1860-June 
4,  1931),  lawyer,  was  born  in  Bielitz,  Silesia, 
Austria  (later  Poland),  the  son  of  Isaac  L.  and 
Anna  (Kanner)  Zeisler.  Graduating  in  1878 
from  the  Imperial  College  in  Bielitz,  he  began 
the  study  of  law  and  political  science  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Vienna,  receiving  the  degree  of  J.D. 
in  1883.  He  then  emigrated  to  America  and  in 
1884,  after  a  year's  study  at  Northwestern  Uni- 
versity, was  granted  the  degree  of  LL.B.  and 
also  was  awarded  a  prize  for  the  best  essay  on  an 
original  thesis,  "Rights  and  Liabilities  of  the 
Finder  of  Chattels  Casually  Lost  on  Land"  (  Chi- 
cago Legal  News,  July  5,  1884).  The  essay,  writ- 
ten in  English,  was  the  more  remarkable  because 
the  author  had  begun  the  study  of  English  only 
the  year  before.  Very  shortly  after  entering 
upon  the  practice  of  law  in  Chicago  in  1884,  he 
became  associate  counsel  in  a  cause  celebre,  the 
Chicago  Anarchists  Case.  His  efforts  on  behalf 
of  the  defendants  in  that  case,  though  unsuccess- 
ful in  acquitting  them  of  the  charge  of  murder, 
identified  him  as  a  political  liberal  and  as  one 
with  the  courage  to  espouse  unpopular  causes 
which  he  thought  to  be  just.  Writing  of  the 
Anarchists  Case  forty  years  after  the  event,  he 
concluded  that  the  verdict  of  history  will  be  that 
the  defendants  were  "convicted  not  because  they 
had  been  proved  guilty  of  murder,  but  because 
they  were  anarchists"  {Illinois  Law  Review, 
Nov.  1926,  p.  250). 

During  the  years  that  Zeisler  was  engaged  in 
the  general  practice  of  law  in  Chicago,  he  was 
assistant  corporation  counsel  for  Chicago  (1893- 
94),  master  in  chancery  for  the  circuit  court  of 
Cook  County  (1904-20),  lecturer  on  Roman  law 
at  Northwestern  University  (1884-86  and  1892- 
93)  and  on  constitutional  law  at  John  Marshall 
Law  School  (1901-04).  A  Democrat  in  politics, 
he  bolted  Bryan  in  1896  on  the  money  issue,  but 
rejoined  him  four  years  later  on  the  anti-im- 
perialist policy,  and  campaigned  throughout  the 
country  in  support  of  the  Democratic  ticket.  For 


Zenger 

many  years  he  was  active  in  the  Municipal  Voters 
League  and  from  1925  until  his  death  was  its 
president.  He  was  also  a  member  of  the  execu- 
tive committee  of  the  Civil  Service  Reform  As- 
sociation and  of  the  advisory  committee  of  the 
American  Judicature  Society. 

A  man  of  wide  culture,  Zeisler  wrote  or  lec- 
tured frequently  in  the  fields  of  art,  music,  lit- 
erature, and  science.  He  paid  his  way  through 
Northwestern  University  in  part  by  writing 
music  criticisms  for  a  German  newspaper  in 
Chicago.  He  was  an  earnest  advocate  of  the 
abolition  of  the  requirement  of  unanimity  in  the 
verdict  of  a  jury  {Proceedings  of  the  Illinois 
State  Bar  Association,  1890,  pp.  54-56),  of  a 
non-partisan  system  for  the  selection  of  judges 
{Chicago  Legal  News,  Nov.  16,  1912,  pp.  117- 
19),  and  of  other  reforms  in  the  judicial  system 
("Defects  of  the  Jury  System,"  Ibid.,  Oct.  13, 
1900).  His  criticisms  in  these  matters,  written 
in  a  clear  and  forceful  style,  were  always  schol- 
arly and  constructive.  Possessed  of  a  deep,  reso- 
nant voice,  and  of  the  ability  to  speak  extempo- 
raneously, in  accurate  English  and  with  perfect 
diction,  he  became  an  eloquent  platform  orator 
and  a  powerful  advocate  before  courts  and  juries. 
In  some  of  his  more  important  cases  his  argu- 
ment extended  over  a  number  of  days.  He  had 
marked  dramatic  ability,  which  he  often  used  in 
his  speeches  with  telling  effect.  Though  notice- 
ably proud,  at  times  hot-tempered,  occasionally 
tactless  and  over-resentful  of  criticism,  he  was 
unusually  free  from  prejudice,  and  had  the  cour- 
age at  all  times  to  express  his  convictions  even 
at  the  price  of  expediency.  He  was  erect  in  pos- 
ture and  carried  himself  with  rare  dignity. 

Zeisler's  first  wife,  whom  he  married  on  Oct. 

18,  1885,  was  Fannie  (Bloomfield)  Zeisler  [q.zr.], 

internationally  famous  concert  pianist.  They  had 

three  sons,  all  of  whom  survived  their  parents. 

After  Mrs.  Zeisler's  death  he  married  Amelia 

Spielman,  Jan.  23,  1930.   He  died  in  Chicago. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1930-31  ;  F.  B.  Crossley, 
Courts  and  Lawyers  of  III.  (1916),  vol.  II,  pp.  468—69  ; 
Ann.  Report  III.  State  Bar  Asso.  (1932),  pp.  397-98; 
obituary  in  Chicago  Tribune,  June  s,  1931  ;  informa- 
tion from  Paul  Zeisler,  Zeisler's  son.]  G.  W.  G. 

ZENGER,  JOHN  PETER  (1697-July  28, 
1746),  printer  and  journalist,  was  born  in  Ger- 
many and  at  the  age  of  thirteen  emigrated  with 
his  family  to  New  York  with  the  large  company 
of  Palatines  sent  to  America  by  Queen  Anne  in 
1710.  His  father  died  on  shipboard,  leaving  to 
his  widow,  Johanna,  the  care  of  John  Peter  and  a 
younger  brother  and  sister  (I.  D.  Rupp,  A  Col- 
lection of  Thirty  Thousand  Names  of  .  .  .  Im- 
migrants, 1876,  p.  444).  Zenger  was  one  of  the 
large   number   of   immigrant   children   appren- 


648 


Zenger 

ticed  by  Governor  Hunter,  his  mother  in  171 1 
ratifying  his  articles  of  indenture  for  a  term  of 
eight  years  to  William  Bradford  [<?.?'.],  "the 
pioneer  printer  of  the  middle  colonies."  At  the 
expiration  of  his  indentures  he  contracted  a 
short-lived  marriage  with  Mary  White  in  Phila- 
delphia, July  28,  1719  (Pennsylvania  Archives, 
2  ser.  IX,  1896,  p.  78)  and  settled  at  Chester- 
town,  Kent  County,  Md.,  where  in  1720  he 
petitioned  the  Assembly  to  be  allowed  to  print 
the  session  laws.  The  petition  was  granted,  but 
no  trace  of  these  session  laws  can  be  found. 
Shortly  thereafter  he  made  a  successful  appli- 
cation to  the  same  body  for  naturalization,  but 
soon  returned  to  New  York,  this  time  as  a  wid- 
ower, and  on  Sept.  11,  1722,  married  Anna 
Catherina  Maulin.  A  year  later  he  was  made  a 
freeman  of  the  city. 

In  1725  he  formed  a  partnership  with  Brad- 
ford; the  one  book  extant  bearing  their  joint  im- 
print is  Klagte  van  Ecnigc  Leedcn  dcr  Neder- 
duytse  Hcrvormde  Kerk  (1725).  In  the  follow- 
ing year  Zenger  set  up  for  himself  on  Smith 
Street,  removing  to  Broad  Street  in  1734.  Dur- 
ing this  period  he  printed  a  few  polemical  tracts 
and  a  number  of  unimportant  works,  principally 
theological  in  character  and  in  the  Dutch  lan- 
guage. In  1730  he  brought  out  Peter  Venema's 
Arithmctica,  the  first  arithmetic  text  printed  in 
the  colony. 

In  the  early  thirties,  the  erection  of  a  court  of 
exchequer  and  the  summary  removal  of  Lewis 
Morris  [q.v.]  from  the  chief  justiceship  by  Gov. 
William  Cosby  [q.v.]  brought  about  a  powerful 
revolt  by  lawyers,  merchants,  and  people  of  all 
classes.  Morris,  James  Alexander,  and  William 
Smith,  1697-1769  [qq.v.'j  set  up  Zenger  as  editor 
of  an  anti-administration  paper,  the  Nenv-York 
Weekly  Journal,  which  was  opposed  by  Brad- 
ford's New  York  Gazette,  organ  of  the  govern- 
ment. From  the  very  first  number  of  Zenger's 
paper,  Nov.  5,  1733,  an  independent  and  truculent 
spirit  was  infused  into  New  York  journalism. 
The  major  articles,  which  bear  a  legalistic  stamp, 
were  undoubtedly  contributed  by  his  more  high- 
ly-educated backers  (E.  B.  O'Callaghan,  Docu- 
ments Relative  to  the  Colonial  History  of  .  .  . 
New  York,  vol.  VI,  1855,  pp.  6,  21 ;  William 
Smith,  The  History  of  the  Late  Province  of  New 
York,  1830,  II,  9),  but  as  publisher,  Zenger  was 
legally  responsible.  He  was  an  indifferent  print- 
er, with  a  poor  knowledge  of  English,  but  the 
articles  from  his  own  pen  show  a  courageous  and 
polemical  spirit. 

In  the  fall  of  1734  steps  were  taken  for  his 
punishment.  The  Council  ordered  numbers  7,  47, 
48,  and  49  of  the  Journal,  containing  certain 


Zenger 

doggerel  rhymes,  to  be  burned,  but  the  court  of 
quarter  sessions  would  not  suffer  the  order  to  be 
entered  and  the  aldermen  forbade  the  whipper 
to  obey  it.  It  was  finally  done  by  a  negro  slave 
of  the  sheriff.  A  few  days  later  Zenger  was  ar- 
rested ;  his  bail  was  fixed  at  £400  for  himself  and 
£200  for  his  sureties,  and,  since  this  was  more 
than  he  could  furnish,  he  was  remanded  to  prison. 
For  several  days  he  was  held  incommunicado, 
and  in  all  he  was  confined  for  nearly  ten  months, 
during  which  period  his  paper  continued  to  ap- 
pear every  Monday,  the  business  being  managed 
by  his  wife,  who  received  her  instructions  from 
her  husband  "through  the  Hole  of  the  Door  of 
the  Prison"  (Journal,  Nov.  25,  1734). 

In  April  term,  1735,  he  was  brought  to  trial 
for  criminal  libel.  When  his  counsel,  Smith  and 
Alexander,  attacked  the  validity  of  the  appoint- 
ment of  De  Lancey  and  Philipse  as  judges,  they 
were  promptly  disbarred.  But  when  the  case 
came  up  again  in  August,  Zenger  was  represent- 
ed by  Andrew  Hamilton  [d.  1741,  q.v.]  of  Phila- 
delphia, who,  despite  the  strict  construction  of 
the  common  law  of  criminal  libel  which  then  pre- 
vailed, pleaded  for  the  right  of  the  jury  to  in- 
quire into  the  truth  or  falsity  of  the  libel,  and 
when  his  course  was  blocked  by  the  court,  ap- 
pealed to  the  jury,  who  responded  with  a  verdict 
of  not  guilty,  to  the  acclaim  of  spectators  and 
populace.  In  his  newspaper  Zenger  printed  a 
complete  verbatim  account  of  the  trial,  the  first 
major  victory  for  the  freedom  of  the  press  in  the 
American  colonies.  His  report,  printed  sepa- 
rately as  A  Brief  Narrative  of  the  Case  and 
Tryal  of  John  Peter  Zenger  (1736),  aroused 
great  interest  both  in  the  Colonies  and  in  Great 
Britain,  and  went  through  numerous  editions. 

As  a  reward  for  his  services,  Zenger  was  made 
public  printer  in  1737  for  the  colony  of  New 
York  and  was  appointed  to  the  same  office  in 
New  Jersey  the  following  year.  Despite  these 
appointments,  however,  he  and  his  family  always 
seem  to  have  been  in  financial  straits.  On  his 
death  in  1746  he  was  survived  by  his  wife  and 
six  children.  The  Journal  was  published  by  his 
widow  until  December  1748,  when  it  was  taken 
over  by  John  Zenger,  a  son  of  his  first  marriage, 
who  continued  it  until  1751,  when  the  publica- 
tion ceased  entirely. 

[For  the  life  of  Zenger  see  Livingston  Rnthcrfunl, 
John  Peter  Zenger :  His  Press,  His  Trial,  and  a  Bib/ion. 
of  Zenger  Imprints.  .  .  .  Also  a  Reprint  of  the  First 
Edition  of  the  Trial  (1004)  ;  Isaiah  Thomas.  The  Hist. 
of  Printing  in  America  (2nd  ed.,  2  vols.,  1874)  ;  C.  R. 
Hildeburn,  Sketches  of  Printers  and  Printing  in  Colo- 
vial  N.  Y.  (1895)  ;  N.  Y.  Evening  Post,  Aug.  j,  1746. 
The  N.  Y.  Pub.  Lib.  possesses  a  good,  though  not  com- 
plete, file  of  the  Ncit.'-York  Weekly  Journal  (for  other 
files  in  New  York,  see  E.  B.  Greene  and  R.  B.  Morris, 
A  Guide  to  the  Principal  Sources  for  Early  Am.  Hist. 


649 


Zentmayer 


(1600-1800)  in  the  City  of  N.  Y.  (1929,  p.  71),  to- 
gether with  photostats  of  all  known  issues,  a  consider- 
able number  of  imprints,  and  other  relevant  material. 
See  N.  Y.  Pub.  Lib.  Bull.,  July  1898;  C.  F.  McCombs, 
"John  Peter  Zenger,  printer,"  Ibid.  (1933),  pp.  1031- 
34.  For  a  list  of  Zenger's  imprints,  see  C.  R.  Hilde- 
burn,  A  List  of  the  Issues  of  the  Press  in  N.  Y.  (1889). 
Accounts  of  the  trial  appear  in  H.  L.  Osgood,  The  Am. 
Colonies  in  the  Eighteenth  Century  (1924),  II,  458- 
62  ;  J.  B.  McMaster,  "A  Free  Press  in  the  Middle  Colo- 
nies,'' Princeton  Review,  Jan.  1886;  L.  R.  Schuyler, 
The  Liberty  of  the  Press  in  the  Am.  Colonies  before  the 
Revolutionary  War  (1905);  Minutes  of  the  Common 
Council  of  the  City  of  New  York,  167 5-1 776  (1905), 
vols.  II,  III  ;  and  Cadwallader  Colden,  "Narrative  of 
Cosby's  Administration,  1732-37,"  MS.  in  N.  Y.  Hist. 
Soc-I  R.  B.M. 

ZENTMAYER,  JOSEPH  (Mar.  27,  1826- 
Mar.  28,  1888),  inventor  and  manufacturer  of 
scientific  instruments,  was  born  at  Mannheim  in 
southern  Germany.  After  finishing  school  he 
learned  the  trade  of  a  skilled  mechanic  and  sci- 
entific instrument-maker  in  some  of  the  best 
establishments  in  his  native  land.  He  was  an 
ardent  lover  of  liberty  and  republican  insti- 
tutions, and  took  an  active  part  in  the  political 
struggles  that  culminated  in  the  revolution  of 
1848.  Forced  to  leave  Germany,  he  emigrated 
in  1848  to  the  United  States,  where  a  year  later 
he  married  Catherine  Bluim  in  Cleveland,  Ohio. 
He  secured  employment  first  in  Baltimore  and 
afterwards  in  Washington,  and  finally  in  1853 
he  set  up  for  himself  as  an  instrument-maker  in 
Philadelphia,  where  he  lived  the  rest  of  his  life. 
His  shop  at  the  corner  of  Eighth  and  Chestnut 
Streets,  though  it  had  only  the  most  modest  equip- 
ment in  the  beginning,  came  to  be  a  landmark  in 
Philadelphia  and  was  for  many  years  the  ren- 
dezvous of  a  group  of  notable  scientific  and  pro- 
fessional men  in  the  city.  His  ingenuity  and  su- 
perior workmanship,  above  all  the  boldness  of  his 
scientific  conceptions,  attracted  the  attention  and 
won  the  admiration  of  leaders  of  science  of  that 
day  not  only  in  Philadelphia  but  in  other  parts 
of  the  country  as  well.  The  microscopes  he  made 
were  found  to  be  in  many  respects  so  superior  to 
the  instruments  imported  from  abroad  that  they 
were  soon  in  great  demand  all  over  the  United 
States,  and  during  the  Civil  War  Zentmayer  sup- 
plied most  of  those  used  in  government  hospitals. 
Once  fully  embarked  on  this  enterprise,  Zent- 
mayer applied  himself  to  it  with  an  industry  and 
a  zeal  that  never  flagged.  He  made  a  number 
of  improvements  both  in  the  objective  and  in  the 
stand  of  the  microscope  (see  Appletons'  Annual 
Cyclopaedia,  1884,  and  Journal  of  the  Franklin 
Institute,  July  1877),  and  nearly  all  the  mi- 
croscopes in  use  today  embody  some  of  his  in- 
ventions. In  1865  he  invented  his  famous  photo- 
graphic lens  (patent  No.  55,195).  This  was  a 
hemisymmetrical  doublet  composed  of  two  sin- 


Zerrahn 

gle  meniscus  lenses  made  of  the  same  crown 
glass,  in  which  the  rear  lens  was  simply  a  copy 
of  the  front  lens  on  a  reduced  scale.  The  center 
of  the  interior  stop  was  at  the  common  center  of 
curvature  of  the  two  concave  surfaces  of  the 
doublet.  The  combination  was  free  from  dis- 
tortion and  was  practically  achromatic  with  re- 
spect to  both  the  visual  and  the  actinic  focus. 
One  of  its  chief  advantages  was  that  the  focal 
length  of  the  lens,  and  consequently  the  size  of 
the  image  on  the  sensitive  plate,  could  be  readily 
changed  simply  by  substituting  one  of  a  set  of 
several  similar  lenses  in  place  of  the  rear  menis- 
cus. Owing  to  its  efficiency  and  at  the  same  time 
to  its  simplicity  of  construction  and  cheapness  of 
manufacture,  Zentmayer's  photographic  lens, 
which  was  a  subject  of  much  discussion  and  con- 
troversy in  the  optical  journals  of  that  day,  en- 
joyed a  deserved  popularity. 

In  1874  the  Elliott  Cresson  gold  medal  was 
awarded  Zentmayer  by  the  Franklin  Institute  for 
his  scientific  inventions.  For  his  improvements 
of  the  microscope  he  likewise  received  gold 
medals  at  the  Centennial  Exhibition  in  Philadel- 
phia in  1876  and  at  the  Paris  Exposition  in  1878. 
He  was  a  member  of  many  scientific  organiza- 
tions, and  published  a  number  of  papers  in  the 
Journal  of  the  Franklin  Institute  (May  1870, 
June  1872,  May  1876,  July  1877).  He  was  a  man 
of  affable  and  engaging  manners,  and  of  great 
open-mindedness,  sincerity,  and  integrity.  De- 
voted as  he  was  to  science,  he  was  also  a  lover 
of  literature  and  music.  He  died  in  Philadelphia. 

[Biog.  sources  include  Henry  Morton  and  Coleman 
Sellers,  in  Jour.  Franklin  Inst.,  Dec.  1888  ;  C.  A.  Oliver, 
in  Proc.  Am.  Philos.  Soc.,  vol.  XXXI  (1893)  ;  unpub. 
paper  by  H.  V.  Hetzel,  1888,  in  the  possession  of  Dr. 
William  Zentmayer  of  Phila. ;  death  notice  in  Pub. 
Ledger  (Phila.),  Mar.  29,  1888.  For  Zentmayer's  pho- 
tographic lens  and  the  controversy  over  it,  see  Moritz 
von  Rohr,  Theorie  und  Geschichte  des  photograph. 
Objcktivs  (Berlin,  1899),  p.  123  ;  Jour.  Optical  Soc.  of 
America,  vol.  XXIV  (1934),  p.  77  ;  Jour.  Franklin  Inst., 
July  1866,  May  1867,  Sept.  1868.  For  a  description  of 
"das  Sang-Zentmayersche  Umkchrprisma,"  see  Sieg- 
fried Czapski  and  Otto  Eppenstein,  Grundzuege  der 
Theorie  dcr  optischen  Instrumcnte  (Leipsig,  1924),  p. 
593-]  .  J.P.C.S. 

ZERRAHN,  CARL  (July  28,  1826-Dec.  29, 

1909),  musician,  conductor,  was  born  in  Mal- 
chow,  Mecklenburg- Schwerin,  Germany.  Little  is 
known  of  his  childhood,  but  it  is  said  that  he  had 
his  first  music  lessons  at  the  age  of  twelve  from 
Friedrich  Weber  in  Rostock.  Later  he  studied 
in  Hanover  and  in  Berlin.  Political  events  in 
Central  Europe  in  1848  forced  Zerrahn,  like  hun- 
dreds of  other  musicians,  to  emigrate  to  America. 
He  accordingly  joined  the  ranks  of  the  Germania 
Society,  a  little  orchestra  whose  members  were 
largely  recruited  from  Gungl's  orchestra  in  Ber- 


65< 


Zerrahn 


Zeuner 


lin.  Zerrahn  was  the  flute  player  of  the  Ger- 
manians,  and  he  was  with  the  group  from  the 
time  of  its  first  concert  in  New  York,  Oct.  5, 
1848.  After  it  disbanded  in  September  1854,  he 
settled  in  Boston,  where  he  was  elected  conductor 
of  the  Handel  and  Haydn  Society  in  1854,  a  post 
he  held  for  forty-two  years.  He  was  also  active 
as  conductor  of  a  number  of  other  organizations. 
From  1855  to  1863  he  conducted  one  of  the  sev- 
eral orchestras  in  Boston  known  by  the  name  of 
"Philharmonic."  From  1865  to  1882  he  directed 
the  concerts  of  the  Harvard  Musical  Association, 
and  from  1866  to  1897  he  was  conductor  of  the 
Worcester  (Mass.)  festivals.  Until  his  retire- 
ment in  1898  he  was  a  teacher  of  singing,  har- 
mony, and  composition  at  the  New  England  Con- 
servatory of  Music  in  Boston.  Because  of  his 
association  with  practically  all  the  important  mu- 
sical events  that  occurred  in  Boston  and  New 
England  during  his  residence  there,  Zerrahn  was 
extremely  influential,  particularly  in  the  develop- 
ment of  choral  singing. 

In  1869,  and  again  in  1872,  Zerrahn  was  promi- 
nently identified  with  the  "Peace  Jubilees"  or- 
ganized and  carried  out  by  Patrick  S.  Gilmore 
[q.z1.],  the  bandmaster.  Zerrahn  was  chorus  di- 
rector for  both  of  these  festivals.  At  the  first 
"jubilee"  in  Boston,  he  had  under  his  direction 
a  chorus  of  ten  thousand  voices.  It  was  an  epoch- 
making  affair,  and  aside  from  such  feats  of  show- 
manship as  the  introduction  of  real  anvils  ham- 
mered by  real  fireman  for  the  "Anvil  Chorus," 
and  the  booming  of  cannon  (fired  by  electricity) 
to  mark  the  rhythm  of  national  airs,  genuine  ar- 
tistic achievements  were  reached  in  the  or- 
chestral and  choral  numbers  presented.  Three 
years  later  (1872)  at  Gilmore's  second  "jubilee," 
the  size  of  the  chorus  was  doubled,  but  the  results 
were  not  so  happy  as  at  the  first  concerts ;  it  was 
impossible  for  even  so  experienced  a  conductor 
as  Zerrahn  to  keep  such  a  vast  body  of  singers 
together. 

Zerrahn  lived  for  over  ten  years  after  his  re- 
tirement, and  died  in  Milton,  Mass.,  at  the  home 
of  one  of  his  two  sons.  His  name  is  inseparably 
connected  with  an  important  period  of  American 
musical  history,  the  last  half  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  and  through  his  varied  activities  his  im- 
press on  choral  music  will  long  be  felt. 

[W.  S.  B.  Mathews,  A  Hundred  Years  of  Music  in 
America  (1889)  ;  C.  C.  Perkins  and  J.  S.  Dwight,  Hist. 
of  the  Handel  &  Haydn  Soc,  vol.  I  (1883);  L.  C. 
Elson,  The  Hist,  of  Am.  Music  (rev.  ed.,  1925)  ;  J.  T. 
Howard,  Our  Am.  Music  (1930);  P.  S.  Gilmore, 
Hist,  of  the  Nat.  Peace  Jubilee  and  Great  Musical  Fes- 
tival (1871);  W.  R.  Spalding,  Music  at  Harvard 
(i935)  ;  Musical  Courier,  Jan.  5,  1910;  Boston  Eve- 
ning Transcript,  Dec.  29,  1909.]  J  T  H 

65 


ZEUNER,  CHARLES  (Sept.  20,  1795-Nov. 
7,  1857),  composer  and  organist,  properly  Hein- 
rich  Christoph  Zeuner,  was  born  at  Eisleben 
(near  Halle)  in  Saxony,  and  was  educated  in 
Germany.  An  unsupported  contemporary  tra- 
dition that  makes  him  a  pupil  of  Johann  Nepomuk 
Hummel,  the  pianist,  may  have  basis  in  fact.  It 
is  also  probable  that  as  a  young  man  he  lived  for 
some  time  in  Erfurt  and  studied  with  Michael  G. 
Fischer.  Several  of  his  early  works  are  dedicated 
to  residents  of  Erfurt,  and  it  was  there,  and  in 
Frankfurt-am-Main,  that  compositions  and  ar- 
rangements of  his  were  first  published.  The  date 
of  his  emigration  to  the  United  States  is  usually 
given  as  1824.  But  as  late  as  1826  an  advertise- 
ment in  the  Allgemeine  mitsikalische  Zeitung 
(Leipzig)  invites  subscriptions  to  an  edition  of 
one  of  his  masses,  to  be  published  in  Frankfurt, 
and  there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  he  left  Ger- 
many much  before  1830.  On  reaching  the  United 
States,  he  adopted  the  Christian  name  of  Charles 
and  settled  in  Boston,  where,  on  Sept.  24,  1830,  he 
was  elected  organist  to  the  Handel  and  Haydn 
Society.  With  this  association  began  the  pro- 
ductive and  eventful  part  of  his  career.  Most  of 
his  published  and  unpublished  works  date  from 
this  period.  A  number  were  heard  for  the  first 
time  at  the  society's  concerts  ;  some,  indeed,  were 
written  expressly  for  them.  Zeuner  appeared  as 
soloist  at  these  concerts  with  organ  concertos  of 
his  own  composition  in  1830  and  again  in  1834, 
and  he  provided  orchestral  accompaniments  for 
numerous  choral  works  in  the  society's  repertory. 
At  the  same  time  he  served  also  as  a  church  or- 
ganist and  as  president  of  the  Musical  Profes- 
sional Society.  Chosen  president  of  the  Handel 
and  Haydn  Society  in  1838,  he  promptly  became 
involved  in  a  quarrel  with  the  members  of  his 
board  of  trustees,  resigned  at  their  request  in  Feb- 
ruary of  the  following  year,  and,  refusing  re- 
election as  organist,  left  Boston  for  Philadelphia. 
There  he  held  various  positions  as  organist,  no- 
tably at  St.  Andrew's  and  at  the  Arch  Street 
Presbyterian  Church.  But  a  growing  eccentric- 
ity, variously  described  as  peculiarity  of  demean- 
or, temporary  derangement,  and  even  as  harmless 
lunacy,  led  him  to  retire,  before  long,  from  the 
musical  scene.  Moving  to  Camden,  N.  J.,  he 
lived,  during  his  last  years,  in  relative  obscurity 
and  isolation  until  pronounced  melancholia,  cou- 
pled with  a  morbid  interest  in  spiritualism,  drove 
him  to  suicide.  He  was  unmarried.  His  musical 
library  is  now  in  the  Library  of  Congress. 

Zeuner's  chief  publications  are  Church  Music. 
Consisting  of  New  and  Original  Anthems,  Mo- 
tets, and  Chants  (1831);  The  American  Harp 
(1832),  also  a  collection  of  church  music;  The 

I 


Zevin 


Zevin 


Ancient  Lyre  (1833),  a  volume  of  hymn  tunes; 
and  Organ  Voluntaries  (1840).  He  published 
many  popular  songs  and  piano  pieces,  and  con- 
tributed to  Lowell  Mason's  Lyra  Sacra  (1832) 
and  other  similar  collections.  A  large  number  of 
compositions,  including  a  mass  and  three  can- 
tatas, remain  in  manuscript.  His  most  ambitious 
composition,  The  Feast  of  Tabernacles,  an  ora- 
torio in  two  parts,  the  words  by  the  Rev.  Henry 
Ware,  Jr.,  of  Cambridge,  was  the  first  American 
work  of  its  kind.  Written  about  1832,  it  was 
presented  for  the  first  time  in  full  at  the  Odeon, 
May  3,  1837,  by  the  Boston  Academy  of  Music. 
Although  it  was  repeated  several  times,  it  seems 
to  have  had  but  slight  success.  Choruses  from  it 
were  published  in  Boston  in  1837. 

Twenty  years  ahead  of  the  "foreign  invasion," 
1848,  Zeuner  was  one  of  the  first  thoroughly 
grounded  musicians  to  settle  in  the  United  States. 
Employing  the  conventional  German  style  of  the 
1820's,  his  more  serious  compositions  are  at  least 
fluent  and  pleasing,  show  real  skill  in  handling 
orchestral  and  choral  masses,  and  have  occasional 
moments  of  genuine  dignity. 

[TV.  Y.  Musical  Re?',  and  Gazette,  Nov.  14,  28,  Dec. 
12,  1857;  Western  Musical  World,  Feb.  1868;  S.  P. 
Cheney,  The  Am.  Singing  Book  (1879),  p.  195;  C.  C. 
Perkins  and  J.  S.  Dwight,  Hist,  of  the  Handel  and 
Haydn  Soc,  vol.  I  (1883^3)  ;  F.  J.  Metcalf,  Am.  Writ- 
ers and  Compilers  of  Sacred  Music  (1925)  ;  Report  of 
the  Librarian  of  Cong,  for  .  .  .  1930,  pp.  200—05  ;  re- 
port of  death  (giving  Zeuner's  name  as  Gunner)  in 
Daily  News  (Phila.),  Nov.  9,  1857.]  q.  S. 

ZEVIN,  ISRAEL  JOSEPH  (Jan.  31,  1872- 
Oct.  6,  1926),  story-writer,  humorist,  editor,  best 
known  under  his  pseudonym,  Tashrak,  son  of 
Judah  Leib  and  Feige  (Muravin)  Zevin,  was 
born  in  Horki,  Mohilev  (White  Russia).  He 
was  educated  in  the  Cheder  (Jewish  elementary 
school)  and  privately,  acquiring  a  comprehensive 
knowledge  of  the  traditional  Hebrew  studies  and 
Talmudic  lore.  In  1889,  at  the  age  of  seventeen, 
he  emigrated  to  New  York  City.  He  started  as 
peddler  and  newsboy  in  Park  Row,  satisfying  his 
hunger  for  learning  by  studying  evenings.  He 
even  attempted  the  study  of  medicine.  While 
selling  candy  from  a  stand  in  the  Bowery,  how- 
ever, he  composed  a  few  Yiddish  stories  which 
were  published  in  the  Jewish  Daily  News  (Jti- 
disches  Tageblatt).  They  attracted  so  much  at- 
tention that  he  was  invited  to  join  the  staff. 
With  the  interval  of  a  short  time  as  editor  of  the 
Yiddishe  Prcsse  in  Philadelphia,  he  was  asso- 
ciated with  the  Jewish  Daily  News  until  his  death 
as  one  of  its  chief  contributors,  also  serving  for 
some  time  after  the  death  of  John  Paley  [q.v.] 
as  its  editor-in-chief.  In  1908  he  married  Sophia 
Berman,  by  whom  he  had  two  daughters. 


As  a  journalist  endowed  with  a  clear  and  pop- 
ular style  Zevin  played  his  part  in  the  develop- 
ment of  Yiddish  journalism  in  America.  His  rep- 
utation in  Yiddish  literature,  however,  was  won 
as  a  writer  of  humorous  stories,  and  here  he 
gained  his  huge  following,  often  being  called  the 
Yiddish  Mark  Twain.  His  keen  powers  of  ob- 
servation and  intimate  knowledge  of  Jewish- 
American  life  enabled  him  to  penetrate  the  foibles 
of  the  immigrant  Jewish  masses  and  depict  in 
humorous  vein  the  pathetic  vicissitudes  of  their 
lives  as  they  adjusted  themselves  to  their  new 
environment.  Ghetto  scenes,  the  daily  incidents 
of  congregational  and  fraternal  activity,  the  con- 
flict of  Orthodox  parents  with  their  American- 
born  children,  the  manifold  commercial  and  oc- 
cupational kaleidoscope  of  New  York's  East  Side 
— such  is  the  backgronnd  against  which  moves  a 
variegated  assortment  of  Jewish  types.  In  such 
characters  as  Chayyim  the  Custom-Peddler,  Joe 
the  Waiter,  Simche  the  Shadchen  (marriage- 
broker),  Berl  the  Butcher-Boy,  Zevin  presented 
to  his  readers  an  unforgettable  gallery  of  por- 
traits, easily  recognizable,  which  they  greeted 
with  laughter  and  delight.  Zevin,  however,  did 
not  laugh  at  his  characters ;  he  laughed  with 
them.  He  had  shared  their  joys  and  sorrows, 
their  hopes  and  disappointments. 

Zevin  was  bodily  deformed,  being  a  hunchback, 
the  result  of  a  fall  when  he  was  a  two-year-old 
child,  but  nature  had  amply  compensated  him  by 
endowing  him  with  a  sound  mind  and  a  charming 
personality.  An  excellent  conversationalist,  ro- 
mantically inclined,  affable  and  bubbling  with  wit 
and  humor,  he  was  always  the  center  of  attrac- 
tion. Overflowing  with  life  and  energy,  he  main- 
tained his  literary  production  at  full  pitch.  In 
addition  to  his  regular  weekly  feuilleton  for  the 
Jewish  Daily  News  he  contributed  to  the  leading 
Yiddish  journals  in  the  United  States  and  abroad. 
He  also  wrote  in  Hebrew  and  in  English.  During 
the  years  1914-17  some  eighty  of  his  humorous 
stories  appeared  in  the  Sunday  magazine  section 
of  the  New  York  Herald.  Of  his  selected  Yiddish 
writings  issued  in  book  form  worthy  of  note  are 
Tashrak's  beste  Erseilungen  (New  York,  1910), 
Maaselech  far  Kinder  (New  York,  1919),  Fun 
Achzen  dis  Dreisig  (New  York,  1929),  a  novel 
of  American-Jewish  life.  In  the  last  years  of  his 
life  he  began  collecting  and  rendering  into  popu- 
lar Yiddish  the  ancient  Jewish  folklore,  his  mas- 
tery of  the  original  rabbinical  sources  being  here 
of  great  avail.  The  fruits  of  these  studies  were 
Ale  Agodos  fun  Talmud  (3  vols.,  New  York, 
1922),  a  collection  of  legends,  fables,  allegories, 
anecdotes,  historic  and  biographic  stories  con- 
tained in  the  Babylonian  and  Jerusalem  Talmud, 


652 


Ziegemeier 

and  a  similar  work  drawn  from  the  Midrash  en- 
titled Dcr  Ozcr  fun  ale  Midroshim  (4  vols.,  New 
York,  1926).  He  also  published  Ale  Mesholim 
fun  Dubncr  Maggid  (2  vols.,  New  York,  1925), 
a  collection  of  the  parables  of  Jacob  Kranz,  the 
the  famous  preacher  of  Dubno  (Poland)  in  the 
eighteenth  century. 

[Zalmen  Reisen,  Lexicon  fun  dcr  Yiddisher  Liter  atur , 
vol.  IV  (Wilna,  1929)  ;  Salomon  Wininger,  Grosse 
jiidische  National-Biographic,  vol.  V  (193s),  P-  5°5  > 
Ba'al  Machshovos  (I.  Eljaschew),  Schriften,  vol.  IV 
(1913);  Dcr  Americaner,  Oct.  15,  1926;  obituary  in 
N.  Y.  Times,  Oct.  7,  1926;  family  data  and  personal 
acquaintance.]  J.  S. 

ZIEGEMEIER,  HENRY  JOSEPH  (Mar. 
27,  1869-Oct.  15,  1930),  naval  officer,  was  born 
in  Allegheny,  Pa.,  the  son  of  Joseph  and  Regina 
(Meyer)  Ziegemeier.  His  parents  subsequently 
moved  to  Canton,  Ohio,  where  he  spent  most  of 
his  childhood.  He  entered  the  United  States 
Naval  Academy  on  May  21,  1886,  and  was  grad- 
uated in  1890.  He  then  served  in  several  ships 
chiefly  in  the  Pacific.  He  was  made  an  ensign, 
July  1,  1892,  and  was  at  the  torpedo  station,  New- 
port, R.  I.,  from  October  1895  to  July  1897.  He 
then  joined  the  gunboat  Annapolis  and  served 
in  her  on  blockade  and  convoy  duty  during  the 
Spanish-American  War,  commanding  the  first 
and  second  division  guns  in  the  actions  at 
Baracoa  and  Port  Nipe  Bay,  Cuba,  on  July 
15  and  July  21,  1898  (see  Appendix  to  the 
Report  of  the  Chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Navigation, 
Annual  Report  of  the  Navy  Department,  1898), 
and  participating  also  in  the  occupation  of  Ponce, 
Puerto  Rico,  on  July  28.  He  was  made  lieuten- 
ant, Mar.  3,  1899.  After  a  year  in  the  battleship 
Indiana,  he  was  at  the  Naval  Academy  from  1900 
to  1902  as  an  instructor  in  modern  languages, 
and  again  from  1905  to  1908  as  an  instructor  in 
seamanship. .  In  the  intervening  period  he  was 
navigator  in  the  Hartford,  and  from  1908  to  191 1 
navigator  and  subsequently  executive  in  the  West 
Virginia. 

Upon  his  promotion  to  the  rank  of  commander, 
Mar.  3,  191 1,  he  was  assigned  to  duty  with  the 
General  Board  of  the  navy,  and  was  its  secretary 
from  February  1912  to  July  1913.  He  then  com- 
manded successively  the  Annapolis  and  the  Den- 
ver, and  was  in  charge  of  the  torpedo  flotilla  of 
the  Pacific  Fleet  from  June  to  September  1915. 
After  another  two  years  as  secretary  of  the  Gen- 
eral Board,  with  promotion  to  the  rank  of  cap- 
tain on  Aug.  29,  1916,  he  commanded  the  battle- 
ship Virginia  during  the  World  War  from  June 
1917  to  July  18,  1919.  In  the  Virginia  he  op- 
erated with  the  Atlantic  Fleet  until  the  summer 
of  1918,  and  thereafter  had  command  of  convoys 
taking  American  troops  to  France  and  returning 


Ziegfeld 


with  them  after  the  armistice.  His  services  won 
him  the  award  of  the  Navy  Cross.  Following  the 
war  he  had  charge  in  1919-21  of  the  organization 
and  training  of  the  Naval  Reserve  Force.  He 
commanded  the  new  battleship  California  in 
1921-22,  and,  after  promotion  to  the  rank  of  rear 
admiral  in  June  1922,  was  director  of  naval  com- 
munications until  May  1923.  He  was  then  com- 
mandant of  the  Norfolk  navy  yard  until  January 
1925 ;  commander  of  Battleship  Division  3,  Bat- 
tle Fleet,  until  June  1927 ;  and  after  five  months 
in  charge  of  the  Division  of  Fleet  Training  at 
Washington,  was,  from  November  1927  to  June 
1928,  commandant  of  the  9th  Naval  District  and 
the  Great  Lakes  Training  Station.  Thereafter  he 
was  commandant  of  the  13th  Naval  District  and 
the  Puget  Sound  navy  yard.  His  death  was  the 
result  of  a  sudden  heart  attack  during  a  golf  game. 
His  funeral  was  at  the  navy  yard  in  Bremer- 
ton, Wash.,  and  his  burial  in  Forest  Lawn  Cem- 
etery, Los  Angeles,  Cal.  He  was  married  first, 
on  Sept.  18,  1895,  to  Ida  Wernet  of  Canton,  Ohio, 
who  died  in  1915,  and  second,  on  Nov.  16, 
1921,  to  Jewel  Ridings  of  Los  Angeles,  by  whom 
he  had  one  daughter.  His  second  wife  survived 
him. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1930-31  ;  L.  R.  Hamersly, 
Records  of  Living  Officers  of  the  U.  S.  Navy  and  Ma- 
rine Corps  (7th  ed.,  1902)  ;  Service  Record,  from  the 
Bureau  of  Navigation,  Navy  Dept.  ;  TV.  Y .  Times,  Oct. 
16,  1930;  Army  and  Navy  Jour.,  Oct.  18,  Oct.  25, 
1930;  information  from  family  sources.]  a  W. 

ZIEGFELD,  FLORENZ  (Mar.  21,  1869-July 
22,  1932),  theatrical  producer,  was  born  in  Chi- 
cago, 111.,  son  of  Florenz  Ziegfeld,  founder  of  the 
Chicago  Musical  College,  and  Rosalie  (De  Hez) 
Ziegfeld.  The  parents  were  German  Catholics. 
The  son  was  educated  in  the  Chicago  public 
schools,  and  began  active  association  with  amuse- 
ment enterprises  by  importing  bands  and  other 
musical  features  for  the  World's  Fair  of  1893. 
He  then  became  manager  for  Eugene  Sandow,  the 
strong  man,  exhibiting  him  at  the  fair,  and  later 
around  the  country.  The  first  play  he  managed 
was  A  Parlor  Match  (1896),  in  which  he  in- 
troduced a  young  player  he  had  seen  in  Paris, 
Anna  Held.  He  advertised  her  by  methods  which 
Barnum  might  have  envied,  including  a  tale  about 
her  milk  baths,  and  she  appeared  successively  in 
Papa's  Wife,  The  Little  Duchess,  The  Parisian 
Model,  and  Mile.  Napoleon.  All  these  were  plays 
with  songs,  and  in  mounting  them  Ziegfeld  ex- 
hibited a  flair  for  costumes  and  pretty  girls  and 
stage  pictures  which  led  him,  in  1907,  to  experi- 
ment with  a  type  of  production  rather  new  to 
America,  the  so-called  "review."  He  called  it 
The  Follies  of  1907 ,  and  it  was  so  favorably  re- 
ceived that  it  was  followed  bv  a  successor  each 


^>51 


Ziegfeld 

season  for  more  than  twenty  years.  The  Zieg- 
feld Follies  became  noted  all  over  the  country  for 
the  lavish  beauty  of  costumes,  scenery,  and  stage 
tableaux,  for  the  pulchritude  of  the  chorus  girls, 
and  also  for  the  liberal  display  of  their  charms. 
It  became  more  than  a  jest  that  Ziegfeld  set  the 
style  in  feminine  form.  (He  called  it,  for  his 
trade  mark,  "Glorifying  the  American  Girl.") 
The  desire  for  slenderness  was  undoubtedly  in- 
creased by  the  popularity  of  his  chorus  types.  At 
the  same  time,  the  production  standards  of  musi- 
cal comedy  were  raised  by  the  real  beauty  of  his 
settings  and  ensemble  effects.  The  humor  of  the 
librettos  was  generally  turned  over  to  such  come- 
dians as  Will  Rogers,  Bert  Williams  [q.v.~\, 
Eddie  Cantor,  and  Leon  Errol,  who  sometimes 
improvised  their  own  skits.  Ziegfeld's  contribu- 
tion was  the  selection  of  the  music  and  of  beau- 
tiful girls,  in  sets  by  Joseph  Urban  [q.vJ\  or 
tableaux  by  Ben  Ali  Haggin,  lavishly  produced 
but  controlled  by  an  instinctive  taste.  In  1914 
Ziegfeld  produced  The  Midnight  Frolic  on  top 
of  the  New  Amsterdam  Theatre,  which  continued 
until  the  advent  of  prohibition.  In  1916,  with 
Charles  Dillingham,  he  took  over  for  a  time  the 
ill-fated  Century  Theatre,  for  the  production  of 
spectacular  musical  plays.  Among  his  most  suc- 
cessful productions,  in  addition  to  the  Follies, 
were  Sally,  with  Marilyn  Miller  (1920),  Show 
Boat  (1927),  Bitter  Sweet  (1929),  and  Rio  Rita, 
with  which  he  opened  the  Ziegfeld  Theatre,  Feb. 
2,  1927.  This  theatre,  on  Sixth  Avenue  near 
Central  Park,  was  designed  for  him  by  Joseph 
Urban  especially  to  house  his  type  of  spectacular 
musical  comedy.  It  was  modernistic  in  plan  and 
decorative  scheme,  and  was  a  departure  in 
American  theatre  design.  Two  years  later,  how- 
ever, came  the  depression.  Ziegfeld's  produc- 
tions, mounted  at  great  cost,  and  necessarily  ex- 
acting a  high  tariff  of  the  public,  were  not  calcu- 
lated to  survive  lean  purses.  His  fortunes  ebbed, 
and  when  he  died  in  Hollywood  in  1932,  he  left 
little  of  the  great  sums  he  had  once  taken  in.  His 
theatre  became  a  movie  house.  Ziegfeld  married 
Anna  Held  in  Paris  in  1897,  separated  from  her 
in  1908,  and  was  divorced  from  her  in  1913.  On 
Apr.  11,  1914,  he  married  the  actress,  Billie 
Burke,  who  with  a  daughter  survived  him. 

Gene  Buck,  who  wrote  many  of  the  Follies  for 
Ziegfeld,  once  described  him  as  a  "quiet,  lanky, 
long-faced  dreamer"  (Nezv  York  Times,  IX,  p. 
1,  July  31,  1932).  In  youth  he  was  lanky,  and 
also  swanky,  with  a  dark,  rather  saturnine  coun- 
tenance. In  later  life  he  put  on  weight  and  grew 
a  dapper  little  moustache,  which  contrasted  oddly 
with  his  somewhat  Mephistophelian  cast  of  fea- 
tures. Like  most  great  showmen,  he  probably  was 


Ziegler 


in  truth  a  dreamer,  seeing  resplendent  visions  of 
great  stage  effects,  and  gambling  vast  sums  of 
money  on  attaining  them.  (Some  of  his  produc- 
tions cost  over  $200,000.)  He  had  the  showman's 
love  of  sending  long  telegrams  when  a  letter 
would  have  served,  of  possessing  five  expensive 
motor  cars  when  one  was  all  he  could  ride  in, 
and  he  was  extremely  jealous  of  his  leadership  in 
musical  comedy  production.  That  leadership, 
however,  was  based  on  real  ability,  and  he  was 
fully  aware  of  what  he  was  doing.  In  his  line, 
he  was  an  artist.  He  brought  the  musical  review 
to  America,  and  developed  it  in  visual  artistry  to 
a  point  it  had  never  attained  elsewhere.  The 
effects  of  his  taste  and  standards  continue  to  be 
felt  on  the  American  lyric  stage. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1932-33  ;  Eddie  Cantor  and 
David  Freedman  in  Collier's,  Jan.  13-Feb.  17,  1934;  J. 
P.  McEvoy,  in  Sat.  Eve.  Post,  Sept.  10,  1932;  N.  Y. 
Times,  July  23-25,  31,  1932;  N.  Y.  Tribune,  July  24, 
1932;  Theatre  Coll.,  N.  Y.  Pub.  Lib.;  Theatre  Coll., 
Harvard  College  Lib.]  \y  p  jj. 

ZIEGLER,  DAVID  (1748-Sept.  24,  181 1), 
soldier,  pioneer,  was  born  in  Heidelberg  on  the 
Neckar,  then  in  the  Palatinate.  According  to  one 
biographer  he  was  born  on  Aug.  16  (Rattermann, 
post,  p.  269),  but  he  may  have  been  the  Johann 
David  Ziegler  listed  in  a  register  in  the  Lutheran 
Proindenz  Kirche  as  born  on  July  13,  1748,  to 
Johann  Heinrich  Ziegler,  hatmaker,  and  his  wife, 
Louise  Fredericka  Kern  ( Katzenberger,  post,  p. 
128).  Enlisting  under  Weisman  in  1768,  he  served 
in  the  Russian  army  against  the  Turks  on  the 
lower  Danube  and  in  the  Crimea,  and  was  wound- 
ed and  promoted  to  commissioned  officer.  At  the 
end  of  the  war  in  1774  he  emigrated  to  Penn- 
sylvania and  settled  in  Carlisle.  At  the  news  of 
the  battle  of  Lexington  he  joined  as  third  lieu- 
tenant the  battalion  of  riflemen  led  by  William 
Thompson  [q.z>.~],  which  took  part  in  the  siege  of 
Boston.  He  fought  at  Long  Island,  Brandywine, 
Germantown,  Paoli,  and  Monmouth,  being 
wounded  in  the  first  battle.  He  was  commissioned 
captain  on  Dec.  8,  1778.  He  was  commissary 
general  of  the  Department  of  Pennsylvania,  with 
headquarters  at  Waynesboro  (1779-80)  and 
served  with  his  regiment  around  New  York  for 
a  year.  In  June  1781  his  regiment  joined  Lafay- 
ette in  Virginia,  serving  there  until  after  the 
siege  of  Yorktown.  In  January  1782  his  unit  was 
attached  to  Greene's  army  in  South  Carolina, 
with  which  he  remained  until  mustered  out,  Jan. 

1,  1783- 

He  returned  to  Carlisle  and  opened  a  grocery 
store,  but  left  it  to  accept  a  captain's  commission 
under  Josiah  Harmar  [q.v.~\  about  the  middle  of 
1784.  During  the  next  six  years  he  was  stationed 
at   Forts   Mackintosh    (Beaver,   Pa.),   Harmar 


654 


Ziegler 

(Marietta,  Ohio),  Finney  (at  the  mouth  of  the 
Miami  River),  and  Washington  (Cincinnati), 
and  at  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio.  On  Feb.  22,  1789, 
at  Marietta  he  married  Lucy  Anne  Sheffield,  a 
native  of  Jamestown,  R.  I.  In  1790  he  was  with 
Harmar  on  his  indecisive  expedition  against  the 
Indians.  In  the  crisis,  that  followed,  Ziegler, 
since  Oct.  22  a  major  of  the  1st  Infantry,  was 
sent  to  Marietta  and  succeeded  in  averting  the 
Indian  menace  from  that  district.  He  was  with 
Arthur  St.  Clair  [q.v.]  in  the  fall  of  1791  on  his 
disastrous  campaign  and  covered  the  retreat  of 
the  army  after  the  defeat.  When  St.  Clair  de- 
parted for  the  East  he  left  Ziegler  in  command  it 
the  army,  but  the  intrigues  of  James  Wilkinson 
[g.f.]  and  others  who  were  his  seniors  in  the 
services  so  disgusted  him  that  on  Mar.  5,  1792, 
he  resigned  from  his  command  and  from  the 
army.  He  bought  a  farm  about  four  miles  from 
Cincinnati  but  sold  it  in  1797  and  opened  a  store 
in  the  town.  During  the  first  two  years  after  the 
incorporation  of  Cincinnati  in  1802  he  was  presi- 
dent of  the  council,  an  office  which  carried  with  it 
the  duties  of  chief  magistrate.  He  served  as  the 
first  marshal  of  the  Ohio  district  (appointment 
confirmed,  Mar.  3,  1803)  and  as  adjutant-general 
of  Ohio  (1807),  and  at  the  time  of  his  death  was 
surveyor  of  the  port  of  Cincinnati  (appointment 
confirmed,  Dec.  9,  1807).  In  politics  he  was  an 
ardent  Democratic-Republican. 

He  was  of  medium  height,  with  dark  complex- 
ion and  round,  good-natured  face.  His  carriage 
was  erect  and  martial,  and  he  was  always  affable 
and  polite.  He  was  an  able  administrator  and 
disciplinarian,  thoroughly  honest  and  straight- 
forward in  his  dealings  with  others,  noted  for  his 
deliberation,  care,  and  precision  in  business  and 
military  affairs.  While  he  was  in  the  army  his 
company  was  "always  considered  the  first  in 
point  of  discipline  and  appearance"  (Denny,  post, 
p.  123).  He  seems  never  to  have  learned  to 
speak  English  well.   He  left  no  children. 

I  Ziegler 's  name  occurs  repeatedly  in  Pa.  Archives, 
2  ser.,  vols.  X-XI  (1880),  5  ser.,  vol.  II  (1906),  and 
in  Military  Jour,  of  Maj.  Ebcnczcr  Denny  (1859).  See 
also  Emil  Klauprecht,  Deutsche  Chronik  in  der  Ge- 
schichte  des  Ohio-Thales  (1864)  ;  H.  A.  Rattermann,  in 
Hist.  Reg.  .  .  .  Relating  to  Interior  Pa.,  Dec.  1883; 
Mary  D.  Steele,  in  Mag.  of  Western  Hist.,  May  1885  ; 
Henry  Howe,  Hist.  Colls,  of  Ohio  (1908  ed.),  vol.  I,  p. 
853  ;  G.  A.  Katzenberger,  in  Ohio  Archaeological  and 
Hist.  Quart.,  Apr.-July  1912,  which  contains  a  portrait 
and  reprints  an  obituary  from  the  Western  Spy  (Cin- 
cinnati), Sept.  28,  181 1.]  L.  D.  B. 

ZIEGLER,  WILLIAM  (Sept.  1,  1843-May 
24,  1905),  manufacturer,  patron  of  polar  explora- 
tion, son  of  Francis  and  Ernestina  Ziegler,  was 
born  in  Beaver  County,  Pa.  His  parents  removed 
to  Iowa  when  he  was  still  an  infant.  In  Musca- 
tine, Iowa,  after  some  rudimentary  schooling,  he 


Ziegler 

first  worked  at  the  printer's  trade  and  then,  at 
eighteen,  served  briefly  as  a  pharmacist's  appren- 
tice. After  graduating  in  1863  from  a  business 
college  at  Poughkeepsie,  N.  Y.,  he  sought  and 
found  work  in  a  wholesale  drug  house  in  New 
York  City.  Later  he  studied  for  a  time  at  the 
College  of  Pharmacy  of  the  City  of  New  York 
and  in  1868  began  business  for  himself  in  a 
small  way,  dealing  in  extracts  and  other  supplies 
for  bakers  and  confectioners.  Baking  powder 
was  a  comparatively  new  product,  and  in  1870, 
with  two  other  men,  Ziegler  organized  the  Royal 
Chemical  Company  and  began  the  manufacture 
of  Royal  Baking  Powder,  long  the  most  popular 
brand  in  America.  Incorporated  in  1873,  the 
Royal  Baking  Powder  Company  became  enor- 
mously prosperous.  In  1880  it  was  paying  sev- 
enty percent,  dividends  on  1600  shares  of  stock 
at  $100  par  value  each.  The  success  of  the  com- 
pany was  largely  due  to  Ziegler's  energy  and 
knowledge  of  the  business ;  but  he  could  not 
agree  with  his  partners,  and  after  a  long  legal 
struggle,  culminating  in  1888,  he  sold  his  inter- 
est in  the  company  for  $3,000,000.  He  then 
bought  the  Price  Baking  Powder  Company  of 
Chicago  and  the  Tartar  Chemical  Company  of 
Jersey  City.  In  1899  these  companies,  together 
with  two  others,  were  united  with  the  Royal  in 
what  was  popularly  known  as  the  Baking  Pow- 
der Trust,  with  a  capital  of  $20,000,000  (New 
York  Times,  Mar.  2,  1899).  Ziegler  was  be- 
lieved to  be  the  moving  spirit  in  this  consolida- 
tion, though  he  denied  it.  He  was  indicted  in 
Missouri  in  1903  for  bribery  of  members  of  the 
legislature,  but  the  governor  of  New  York  re- 
fused to  extradite  him,  and  he  was  never  tried 
(see  New  York  Tribune,  Nov.  16-17,  1903,  and 
Jan.  2,  Feb.  2,  1904). 

In  1890  he  undertook  to  prevent  the  acqui- 
sition by  the  city  of  Brooklyn,  where  he  lived,  of 
the  Long  Island  Water  Company,  which  certain 
aldermen  had  bought  for  $500,000  and  which 
they  proposed  to  sell  to  the  city  for  $3,500,000. 
He  bought  stock  in  the  company,  brought  suit 
as  a  stockholder  to  block  the  deal,  and  finally 
succeeded  in  having  the  purchase  price  reduced 
to  $2,000,000.  He  refused  nomination  for  the 
mayorship  of  Brooklyn  in  1893.  In  1901  he 
financed  an  unsuccessful  expedition  in  search  of 
the  North  Pole,  headed  by  Evelyn  B.  Baldwin. 
The  party  returned  to  Norway  on  Aug.  1,  1902, 
sixteen  days  after  a  relief  ship  had  sailed  iti 
search  of  it.  Baldwin  and  Ziegler  now  parted 
company,  and  the  latter  sent  another  polar  ship 
out  from  Trondhjem,  Norway,  in  June  1903,  un- 
der Anthony  Fiala,  who  had  been  a  photographer 
with  the  first  expedition.    This  party  was  not 


655 


Ziehn 


Ziehn 


heard  from  for  more  than  two  years,  and  its 
patron  died  without  knowing  its  fate.  Just  be- 
fore his  death,  however,  he  had  sent  out  two  re- 
lief ships,  which  rescued  the  men  in  August 
1905.  Caches  of  supplies  left  by  the  first  expedi- 
tion had  kept  them  alive,  and,  though  they  had 
not  reached  the  Pole,  they  had  made  valuable  sci- 
entific studies.  In  his  later  years,  Ziegler  dealt 
in  realty  on  a  large  scale.  The  value  of  his  es- 
tate at  death  was  estimated  at  $30,000,000.  On 
July  22,  1886,  he  married  Electa  Matilda  (Cur- 
tis) Gamble.  He  had  no  children  of  his  own  but 
adopted  two. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1903—05 ;  N.  Y.  Times, 
N.  Y.  Tribune,  World  (N.  Y.),  Sun  (N.  Y.),  May  25 
(obituaries),  Aug.  11,  12,  1905  ;  The  Ziegler  Polar  Ex- 
pedition, 1903-1905  .  .  .  Scientific  Results  (1907),  ed. 
by  J.  A.  Fleming;  Harper's  Weekly,  June  22,  1901  ; 
Anthony  Fiala,  Fighting  the  Polar  Ice  (1906)  and  arti- 
cles in  McClure's  Mag.,  Feb.,  Mar.  1906.]      A.  F.  H. 

ZIEHN,  BERNHARD  (Jan.  20,  1845-Sept. 
8,  1912),  musical  theorist  and  teacher,  was  born 
at  Erfurt  in  Prussian  Saxony,  Germany.  His 
father,  a  shoemaker  by  trade,  gave  him  a  good 
education.  After  graduating  from  a  seminary 
for  teachers,  young  Ziehn  received  an  appoint- 
ment as  teacher  at  Miihlhausen,  where  he  re- 
mained for  three  years.  He  then  emigrated  to 
America  to  teach  at  a  German  Lutheran  school  in 
Chicago  and  arrived  upon  the  scene  of  his  future 
labors  in  November  1868.  For  two  years  he 
taught  German,  history,  higher  mathematics,  and 
musical  theory.  School  teaching  irked  him,  and 
at  the  end  of  this  period  he  abandoned  the  pro- 
fession of  schoolmaster  and  devoted  himself  com- 
pletely to  the  study  and  teaching  of  musical  the- 
ory. He  had  not  made  an  intensive  study  of  mu- 
sic at  Erfurt,  but  he  was  a  born  scholar  and  his 
increasing  preoccupation  with  music  soon  be- 
came the  dominating  passion  of  his  life.  What- 
ever musical  literature  he  possessed  was  de- 
stroyed in  the  Chicago  fire  of  1871,  save  his  col- 
lection of  Beethoven  sonatas.  With  these  as  a 
cornerstone,  he  resumed  his  researches  into  the 
nature  of  musical  grammar  and  syntax.  He  be- 
came one  of  the  greatest  of  autodidacts.  Gifted 
with  an  unusual  memory,  he  had  at  his  fingertips 
the  harmonic  devices  of  all  masters.  His  pene- 
tration of  harmonic  and  contrapuntal  structure 
was  systematic  and  daringly  logical. 

By  1886  the  manuscript  of  Ziehn's  great  trea- 
tise on  harmony  was  completed.  It  was  pub- 
lished at  Berlin  in  1888  as  Harmonic — und  Mod- 
ulationslehre.  It  was  less  a  textbook  on  harmony 
and  modulation  than  an  epoch-making  work  on 
harmonic  analysis,  with  hundreds  of  examples 
from  musical  literature.  By  deriving  his  classi- 
fication of  chords  directly  from  the  practice  of 


the  great  masters  and  not  from  some  pseudo-sci- 
entific theory  of  overtones,  he  placed  his  har- 
monic analyses  on  a  solid  basis.  Such  was  the 
logic  of  his  harmonic  derivation  that  he  forecast 
the  entire  modern  impressionistic  harmonic  tech- 
nique. In  1907  he  published  the  first  volume  of 
a  completely  recast  English  version  of  this  work 
as  Manual  of  Harmony.  The  second  volume  was 
never  published,  but  presumably  is  preserved  in 
manuscript.  In  the  year  191 1  he  brought  out  his 
treatise  on  Five-  and  Six-Point  Harmonies,  with 
eight  hundred  examples  and  five  masterly  har- 
monizations of  German  chorales.  His  note- 
worthy contribution  to  contrapuntal  technique, 
published  as  Canonical  Studies — A  New  Technic 
in  Composition  (1912),  went  to  press  as  he  lay 
on  his  deathbed.  The  development  of  the  idea  of 
symmetrical  inversion  of  melodic  phrases  consti- 
tutes one  of  his  most  brilliant  achievements.  In 
his  earliest  publications,  System  der  Uebungen 
fiir  Clavier  spieler  and  Ein  Lehrgang  fiir  den 
erst  en  Unterricht,  published  at  Hamburg  in  188  r, 
he  invented  finger  exercises  in  contrary  motion 
so  as  to  insure  the  symmetrical  development  of 
both  hands. 

Ziehn  was  a  solitary  figure.  He  held  aloof 
from  contemporary  opportunism,  and  labored  to 
solve  the  problems  of  his  beloved  art.  An  out- 
standing achievement  was  his  solution  of  the  un- 
finished final  fugue  in  Sebastian  Bach's  Art  of 
the  Fugue,  a  problem  that  had  baffled  the  best 
minds  for  over  a  century.  Gustav  Nottebohm  ar- 
rived independently  at  practically  the  same  so- 
lution, but  to  Ziehn  belongs  the  priority.  This 
scholarly  feat  inspired  the  pianist  Ferruccio 
Busoni  to  write  his  monumental  Fantasia  Con- 
trap puntistic a  in  1910.  Ziehn's  greatest  contri- 
bution to  the  history  of  music  was  his  mono- 
graphic demonstration  of  the  spuriousness  of  the 
St.  Lucas  Passion,  a  choral  work  traditionally 
attributed  to  Bach.  He  was  a  constant  contribu- 
tor to  the  German  music  journal,  Die  Allgemeine 
Musik-scitung,  and  startled  conservative  Ger- 
many with  his  fierce  attacks  on  Hugo  Riemann, 
a  scholar  whose  truly  encyclopedic  knowledge 
covered  too  much  ground  to  be  always  solid. 
Most  of  Ziehn's  musicological  writings  were  re- 
printed in  1927  by  the  German-American  His- 
torical Society  of  Illinois  in  a  volume  of  "Gesam- 
melte  Aufsatze  zur  Geschichte  und  Theorie  der 
Musik,"  Jahrbuch  der  Deutsch-Amerikanischen 
Historischcn  Gescllschaft  von  Illinois,  vols. 
XXVI-XXVII  (1927).  He  wielded  a  trenchant 
pen  and  was  as  much  feared  for  his  caustic  wit 
as  he  was  admired  for  his  profound  erudition. 
His  critical  essays  deal  with  subjects  as  remote 
as  the  old  church  modes  and  as  recent  as  the 


6c6 


Zimmerman 

latest  harmony  texts.  He  made  propaganda  for 
Anton  Bruckner  when  that  great  symphonist 
was  practically  unknown  in  America.  His  con- 
ception of  musical  ornamentation  was  accepted 
by  Theodore  Thomas  [q.v.],  his  intimate  friend 
and  admirer,  as  authoritative.  A  modern  Ger- 
man critic,  Bruno  Weigl,  designates  him  the  most 
original  theorist  of  the  nineteenth  century 
(Weigl,  Harmonielehre,  2  vols.,  1925). 

Ziehn  had  a  powerful  physique  that  promised 
long  usefulness,  but  a  cancer  of  the  larynx  put  a 
period  to  that.  He  was  married  to  Emma  Tra- 
bing,  of  Chicago,  who,  with  a  son,  survived  him. 
A  daughter  died  in  infancy. 

[Valuable  data  from  Julius  Gold  of  San  Francisco, 
and  Wilhelm  Middelschulte,  of  Chicago  ;  F.  C.  Bennett, 
Hist,  of  Music  and  Art  in  III.  (1904)  ;  Winthrop  Sar- 
geant,  "Bernhard  Ziehn,  Precursor,''  Musical  Quart., 
Apr.  1933;  Ferruccio  Busoni,  "Die  Gotiker  von  Chi- 
cago," Signalc  fi'ir  die  Musikalischc  Welt  (Berlin),  Feb. 
2,  1910;  Julius  Gold,  "Bernhard  Ziehn's  Contributions 
to  the  Science  of  Music,"  Musical  Courier,  July  1,  1914  ; 
C.  E.  R.  Mueller,  article  in  Allgemeine  Musik-zeitung, 
Oct.  4,  191 2  ;  Musical  Courier,  Sept.  18,  19 12  ;  obituary 
by  G.  D.  Gunn,  Chicago  Daily  Tribune,  Sept.  9,  1912; 
articles  by  Julius  Goebel  and  Th.  Otterstrom,  in  "Ge- 
sammelte  Aufsatze,"  Jahrbuch,  supra  ;  Hugo  Ricmanns 
Musiklexikon  (nth  ed.,  1929),  vol.  II ;  E.  J.  Dent,  Fer- 
ruccio Busoni  (1933)' ]  E.  C.K — n. 

ZIMMERMAN,  EUGENE  (Dec.  17,  1845- 
Dec.  20,  1914),  capitalist  and  railroad  official, 
the  son  of  Solomon  and  Hannah  J.  (Briggs) 
Zimmerman,  was  born  at  Vicksburg,  Miss.  In 
1856  he  removed  with  his  parents  to  Clifton,  a 
suburb  of  Cincinnati,  Ohio.  In  1858  his  father, 
a  native  of  Ohio,  died,  and  two  years  later  his 
mother  died.  Although  his  father  had  owned  some 
property  in  Vicksburg,  consisting  of  slaves  and 
a  foundry,  and  retained  his  business  relations 
with  that  city  after  removing  to  Cincinnati,  all 
of  the  property  was  lost  during  the  Civil  War. 
Zimmerman  was  educated  at  Farmers'  College 
at  College  Hill,  Ohio,  and  at  Gambier,  Ohio, 
where  he  prepared  to  enter  Kenyon  College.  At 
the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War,  he  left  school  and 
joined  the  Federal  forces.  He  served  with  the 
navy  and  at  the  end  of  the  war  was  acting-master 
of  the  Ouachita,  in  the  Mississippi  squadron. 
After  the  war  he  acquired  an  interest  in  a  plan- 
ing mill  and  a  lumber  yard  at  Hamilton,  Ohio, 
which  he  sold  after  two  years  and  invested  in  pe- 
troleum. In  1874  he  sold  his  interest  in  this  busi- 
ness to  the  Standard  Oil  Company.  In  1878  he 
married  Marietta  A.  Evans,  the  daughter  of 
Abraham  Evans  of  Urbana,  Ohio,  who  died  in 
1881,  leaving  one  daughter,  Helena,  who,  in 
1900,  married  the  ninth  Duke  of  Manchester. 

He  entered  the  railroad  business  first  as  engi- 
neer in  the  construction  of  railroads  out  of  Cin- 
cinnati and  then  helped  build  the  Chesapeake  & 


Zinzendorf 

Ohio  bridge  at  Cincinnati.  As  a  member  of  the 
board  of  directors,  vice-president,  and  president 
of  the  Cincinnati,  Hamilton  &  Dayton  Railroad, 
he  was  active  in  the  reorganization  and  enlarg- 
ing of  the  system.  In  July  1904  he  obtained  con-  . 
trol  of  the  Pere  Marquette  Railroad  Company 
and,  with  it,  the  Chicago,  Cincinnati  &  Louis- 
ville Railroad.  In  1905  the  Erie  Railroad,  which 
wanted  the  Cincinnati,  Hamilton  &  Dayton  as  a 
feeder,  contracted  with  John  Pierpont  Morgan 
for  the  purchase  of  the  stock  of  the  latter  road  on 
a  commission  basis.  On  Dec.  4,  1905,  Judson 
Harmon  [q.z\]  was  appointed  receiver  of  the 
roads.  Later,  on  Dec  19,  19 14,  Frederick  W. 
Stevens  in  testifying  before  the  Interstate  Com- 
merce Commission  claimed  that  Zimmerman  and 
his  associates  loaded  $24,000,000  worth  of  obli- 
gations on  the  railroad  and  doubled  that  prop- 
erty's annual  interest  payments  in  the  first  year 
after  acquiring  control ;  and  that  the  Cincinnati, 
Hamilton  &  Dayton  road  then  entered  into  a 
999  year  lease  of  the  Pere  Marquette  system  and 
guaranteed  that  road's  bonds.  Subsequently 
Morgan  volunteered  to  take  the  stock  himself 
from  the  Erie,  thereby  incurring  a  loss,  it  is 
claimed,  of  more  than  $12,000,000  (see  New 
York  Times,  Dec.  20,  1914).  The  sudden  death 
of  Zimmerman  did  not  give  him  an  opportunity 
to  give  his  own  explanation  of  this  transaction. 
In  1910  Zimmerman  sold  the  Ann  Arbor  Rail- 
road Company,  one  of  his  properties  in  Michi- 
gan, and  retired  from  active  business,  although 
he  still  retained  control  of  his  extensive  coal  and 
iron  lands  in  the  middle  west  and  his  large  hold- 
ings of  stock  in  the  Standard  Oil  Company. 

[Hist,  of  Cincinnati  and  Hamilton  County  (1894); 
Who's  Who  in  America,  19 12-13  ;  War  of  Rebellion: 
Official  Records  (Navy),  1  ser.  vol.  XXVI,  for  naval 
rank  on  Aug.  4,  1865  ;  W.  Z.  Ripley,  Railroads,  Finance, 
and  Organisation  (19 15)  ;  Poor's  Manual  of  Railroads, 
1904,  1905,  1906;  Cincinnati  Enquirer,  Dec.  20,  1914; 
Cincinnati  Commercial  Tribune,  Cincinnati  Post,  and 
N.  Y.  Times,  Dec.  21,  1914.]  R.  C  M. 

ZINZENDORF,  NICOLAUS  LUDWIG, 

Count  von  (May  26,  1700-May  9,  1760),  lead- 
er of  the  Unitas  Fratrum  or  Moravian  Church, 
was  born  in  Dresden  and  died  at  Herrnhut  on  his 
Saxon  estate  near  Bertelsdorf .  The  second  son  of 
Georg  Ludwig,  Count  von  Zinzendorf  und  Pot- 
tendorf,  a  Saxon  cabinet  minister,  by  his  wife, 
Carlotta  Justina  von  Gersdorf,  he  was  a  scion  of 
an  ancient,  wealthy  noble  family  originally  domi- 
ciled in  Lower  Austria.  His  career  as  a  whole  be- 
longs to  German  biography,  but  for  thirteen 
months  he  played  a  decisive  personal  part  in 
American  ecclesiastical  affairs. 

The  letters  of  Augustus  Gottlieb  Spangenberg 
and  George  Whitefield  [qq.r. ]   induced  him  to 


657 


Zinzendorf 

visit  Pennsylvania.  With  his  daughter  Benigna 
and  a  retinue  of  five  he  landed  at  New  York  Dec. 
2,  1741,  and  proceeded  to  Philadelphia,  where  he 
was  entertained  by  John  Stephen  Benezet.  He 
lost  no  time  in  seeking  out  Henry  Antes  \_q.v.~\, 
leader  of  the  Associated  Brethren  of  the  Skip- 
pack,  for  the  Count's  chief  purpose  was  to  unite 
all  the  Pennsylvania  German  Protestants  in  an 
association  to  be  known  as  the  Congregation  of 
God  in  the  Spirit.  Although  he  did  not  attempt 
to  obliterate  sectarian  differences  immediately, 
aiming  only  at  mutual  understanding  and  sym- 
pathy, he  probably  hoped  that  the  Moravians 
would  exercise  a  commanding  influence  over  the 
other  groups  and  ultimately  absorb  them.  Mean- 
while, the  better  to  carry  out  his  purpose,  he  had 
divested  himself  temporarily  of  his  office  of  bish- 
op in  the  Moravian  Church  and  desired  to  be 
known  as  Ludwig  von  Thiirnstein,  a  plain  Lu- 
theran clergyman.  Through  Antes  he  issued  a 
call  for  a  "union  synod"  or  free  conference  to  be 
held  Jan.  1,  1742,  at  Germantown.  During 
the  next  six  months  six  similar  conferences 
were  convened  at  various  places  —  Falkner 
Swamp,  Oley,  Germantown,  Philadelphia — but 
the  Count's  noble  dream  of  Christian  union  could 
not  be  realized  among  a  people  incurably  addict- 
ed to  separatism  and  controversy.  Instead,  he 
was  assailed  unmercifully  by  Samuel  Blair,  John 
Philip  Boehm,  Christopher  Sower,  Gilbert  Ten- 
nent  [qq.v.~\,  and  everyone  else  who  could  afford 
to  print  a  pamphlet,  and  in  June  he  abandoned 
his  plan.  The  movement  that  he  had  started  did 
not,  however,  die  out  at  once.  Its  best  conse- 
quence was  that  it  stimulated  the  Lutherans  and 
the  Reformed  to  organize  congregations  and  call 
pastors  from  Germany.  During  the  latter  half  of 
1742  Zinzendorf  made  three  journeys  in  the  in- 
terest of  Moravian  missions  among  the  Indians: 
June  24-Aug.  2  to  the  Minnisinks,  the  Blue 
Mountains,  the  Aquanshicola,  and  the  Upper 
Schuylkill,  holding  a  successful  parley  with  chiefs 
of  the  Six  Nations  at  the  house  of  Johann  Con- 
rad Weiser  [9.7'.]  near  Womelsdorf ,  Berks  Coun- 
ty; Aug.  10-Aug.  31  to  Shekomeko,  Dutchess 
County,  N.  Y.,  where  he  organized  an  Indian  con- 
gregation ;  and  Sept.  24-Nov.  9  to  Shamokin.  He 
also  ministered  to  Lutherans  and  Reformed  at 
Philadelphia,  Germantown,  and  elsewhere,  not 
always  with  happy  results,  and  aided  in  estab- 
lishing Moravian  congregations  at  Bethlehem 
(which  owes  its  name  to  him),  Nazareth,  Phila- 
delphia, Hebron,  Heidelberg,  Lancaster,  and 
York,  Pa.,  as  well  as  at  New  York  and  on  Staten 
Island ;  in  connection  with  a  few  congregations 
schools  were  started.  He  sailed  for  England 
from  New  York  Jan.  9,  1743. 


Zogbaum 


[The  bibliog\  appended  to  J.  J.  Sessler,  Communal 
Pietism  among  Early  Am.  Moravians  (1933),  is  the  best 
guide  to  the  study  of  Zinzendorf's  Am.  career.  The  most 
useful  works  are:  A.  G.  Spangenberg,  Lcbcn  dcs  Herrn 
Nicolaus  Ludwig  Grafen  und  Herrn  von  Zinzendorf 
und  Pottendorf  (8  pts.,  Barby,  1772-75)  ;  an  abridged 
version  of  the  same,  tr.  by  Samuel  Jackson,  The  Life 
of  Nicholas  Lewis,  Count  Zinzendorf  (1838)  ;  L.  T. 
Reichel,  The  Early  Hist,  of  the  Church  of  the  United 
Brethren  (Unitas  Pratrum),  Commonly  Called  Mora- 
vians, in  North  America  (1888);  J.  M.  Levering,  A 
Hist,  of  Bethlehem,  Pa.  (1903)  ;  J.  T.  Hamilton,  "A 
Hist,  of  the  Unitas  Fratrum,"  in  Am.  Church  Hist. 
Ser.,  vol.  VIII  (1894);  W.  C.  Reichel,  Memorials  of 
the  Renewed  Church  (1870)  ;  W.  J.  Hinke,  Life  and 
Lefters  of  the  Rev.  John  Philip  Boehm  (1916)  ;  Nach- 
richten  von  den  vereinigten  Ev.-Luth.  Gemeinen  in 
Nord-America,  vol.  I  (1886),  ed.  by  W.  J.  Mann  and 
B.  M.   Schmucker.]  G.  H.  G. 

ZOGBAUM,  RUFUS  FAIRCHILD  (Aug. 
28,  1849-Oct.  22,  1925),  illustrator,  was  the  son 
of  Ferdinand  and  Mary  B.  (Fairchild)  Zog- 
baum. He  was  born  in  Charleston,  S.  C,  but 
moved  to  New  York  just  before  or  just  after  the 
outbreak  of  the  Civil  War.  His  father  and  uncle 
were  partners  in  the  New  York  firm  of  Zog- 
baum &  Fairchild,  manufacturers  of  musical  in- 
struments. 

Zogbaum  studied  at  the  University  of  Hei- 
delberg, at  the  Art  Students'  League  of  New 
York  (1878-79),  and  in  Paris  under  Leon  J.  F. 
Bonnat  (1880-82).  On  his  return  to  America, 
he  settled  in  New  York  and  devoted  himself  to 
the  delineation  of  army  and  navy  life.  In  pur- 
suit of  material  of  this  nature  he  traveled  widely 
by  sea  and  land,  observing  the  actual  operations 
of  the  naval  and  military  forces,  which  he  pic- 
tured with  spirit  and  vivid  realism.  In  his  his- 
toric essays  he  dealt  with  such  themes  as  "Old 
Ironsides,"  with  her  crew  clearing  ship  for  ac- 
tion, the  Vandalia  during  the  terrific  hurricane 
in  Samoa,  the  attack  of  the  Mcrrimac  on  the 
Cumberland  in  Hampton  Roads,  and  the  sur- 
render of  Lee  at  Appomattox.  From  his  own  ob- 
servation on  the  scene  of  action,  he  delineated 
the  stirring  episodes  of  the  Spanish-American 
War  in  Puerto  Rico,  in  the  Caribbean,  and  along 
the  Cuban  coast.  Many  of  these  subjects  were 
used  for  illustrations  in  books  and  magazines. 
Over  forty  of  his  pictures  were  shown  in  an  ex- 
hibition at  the  Avery  Galleries,  New  York,  in 
the  winter  of  1899.  In  addition  to  his  oil  paint- 
ings, water  colors,  and  illustrations,  he  produced 
a  number  of  mural  decorations  of  a  historic  and 
patriotic  character,  among  them  the  "First  Min- 
nesota Regiment  at  the  Battle  of  Gettysburg," 
in  the  state  capitol,  St.  Paul,  Minn. ;  the  "Battle 
of  Lake  Erie,"  in  the  Federal  Building,  Cleve- 
land, Ohio;  and  "Hail  and  Farewell,"  in  the 
Woolworth  Building,  New  York.  He  also  paint- 
ed a  few  portraits,  including  those  of  Rear  Ad- 
miral William  Rogers  Taylor,  in  the  Naval  War 


658 


Zollars 


Zollicoffer 


College  at  Newport,  R.  I.,  Dr.  Henry  Loomis 
Nelson,  which  belongs  to  Williams  College,  and 
Dr.  St.  Clair  Smith,  painted  for  the  Flower  Hos- 
pital, New  York.  The  historic  value  of  his 
work  is  notable,  and  his  expression  of  strenuous 
action  and  the  spirit  of  combat  is  not  the  least  of 
his  merits  as  an  artist. 

Zogbaum  was  the  author  of  three  books : 
Horse,  Foot,  and  Dragoons  (1888),  a  series  of 
sketches  of  army  life;  "All  Hands"  (1897)  ;  and 
The  Junior  Officer  of  the  Watch  (1908).  He  con- 
tributed to  Scribner's  Magazine  (Jan.  1915)  a 
copiously  illustrated  article,  "War  and  the  Art- 
ist," in  which,  however,  he  made  only  incidental 
allusions  to  his  own  work.  In  September  1878 
he  married  Mary  F.  Lockwood.  He  died  in  New 
York  at  the  age  of  seventy-six,  survived  by  his 
widow,  three  sons,  and  a  daughter. 

[Who's  Who  in  America,  1912— 13  ;  Am.  Art  Ann., 
1925;  Charleston  city  dir.,  1852;  inscriptions  from 
Unitarian  churchyard,  Charleston  ;  cat.  of  exhibition, 
Times,  Oct.  24,  1925  ;  information  as  to  certain  facts 
from  a  son,  R.  F.  Zogbaum,  Esq.]  \y_  fj.  D. 

ZOLLARS,  ELY  VAUGHAN  (Sept.  19, 
1847-Feb.  10,  1916),  minister  of  the  Disciples 
of  Christ,  educator,  was  born  near  Lower  Sa- 
lem, Ohio.  His  father,  Abram,  a  blacksmith 
and  farmer,  was  of  German  descent,  his  first 
American  ancestor  having  been  brought  to  Penn- 
sylvania as  a  child  sometime  between  1730 
and  1740;  Ely's  mother,  however,  Caroline 
(Vaughan),  was  of  old  New  England  stock. 
Work  in  the  blacksmith's  shop  and  on  the  farm 
hardened  the  boy  physically,  and  the  discipline 
of  a  religious  home  gave  him  character.  His  par- 
ents were  among  the  early  Disciples  in  Ohio. 
At  the  age  of  twelve  he  was  sent  to  a  private 
school  in  Marietta  and  later  to  the  preparatory 
department  of  Marietta  College ;  but  when  only 
eighteen,  Oct.  22,  1865,  he  married  Hulda  Louisa 
McAtee  of  Washington  County,  Ohio,  and  for 
some  years  thereafter  worked  on  a  farm  and 
taught  school  winters.  In  1871  he  entered  Beth- 
any College,  where  he  was  graduated  in  1875. 

He  was  immediately  appointed  adjunct  pro- 
fessor of  ancient  languages,  beginning  an  edu- 
cational career  which  with  little  interruption  was 
to  continue  throughout  his  life.  After  a  year's 
teaching,  he  was  made  financial  agent  of  the  col- 
lege and  raised  some  $27,000  to  tide  it  over  a 
financial  crisis.  Toward  the  close  of  1876  he  was 
called  to  the  presidency  of  the  Kentucky  Clas- 
sical and  Business  College  at  North  Middletown, 
and  for  seven  years  directed  its  affairs  with  no- 
table success.  He  resigned  with  the  intention 
of  entering  the  ministry,  but  consented  to  act  for 
a  year  as  president  of  Garrard  Female  College, 
Lancaster,  Ky.   He  then  served  as  pastor  of  the 


Christian  Church,  Springfield,  111.,  until  1888, 
when  he  was  called  to  the  presidency  of  Hiram 
College.  During  the  fourteen  years  he  held  this 
position  the  number  of  students  increased  and 
the  resources  and  equipment  of  the  institution 
were  largely  augmented.  In  1902  he  assumed  the 
presidency  of  another  denominational  college — 
Texas  Christian  University,  then  located  at 
Waco — where  his  business  ability  and  success 
in  raising  money  were  again  utilized  to  good  ad- 
vantage. His  last  contribution  to  the  enduca- 
tional  enterprises  of  the  Disciples  was  in  Okla- 
homa, where,  in  October  1906,  he  went  to  estab- 
lish Oklahoma  Christian  University  (later  Phil- 
lips University),  chartered  Oct.  7,  1907.  Of  this 
institution  he  served  as  president  and  president 
emeritus  until  his  death,  at  which  time  it  had  five 
buildings  and  some  400  students. 

Zollars  was  a  man  of  restless  temperament, 
great  energy,  good  judgment,  and  no  little  ad- 
ministrative ability.  He  was  a  firm  believer  in 
higher  education  under  Christian  auspices,  and 
held  that  its  chief  function  was  to  make  the  in- 
dividual socially  efficient.  Together  with  his 
other  work  he  did  much  teaching  of  the  Bible, 
and  wrote  several  books  of  an  expository  na- 
ture. Among  them  were  The  Great  Salvation 
(copr.  1895),  HcbrewProphecy  (copr.  1907), 
The  King  of  Kings  (1911),  The  Commission 
Executed  (1912),  and  The  Abrahamic  Promises 
Fulfilled  (19 13).  In  191 2  he  published  Bacca- 
laureate and  Convocation  Sermons.  He  died  at 
the  home  of  his  daughter  in  Warren,  Ohio. 

[F.  M.  Green,  Hiram  College  (1901)  ;  J.  T.  Brown, 
Churches  of  Christ  .  .  .  in  the  U.  S.,  Australasia,  Eng- 
land, and  Canada  (1904)  ;  Who's  Who  in  America, 
1914-15;  Christian  Standard,  Feb.  19,  Mar.  11,  1916.] 

H.  E.  S. 
ZOLLICOFFER,  FELIX  KIRK  (May  19, 
1812-Jan.  19,  1862),  journalist,  congressman, 
and  soldier,  was  born  in  Maury  County,  Tenn., 
the  son  of  John  Jacob  and  Martha  (Kirk)  Zolli- 
coffer. Of  Swiss  descent,  he  was  the  great- 
grandson  of  Jacob  Christopher  Zollicoffer,  who 
came  to  America  in  the  early  eighteenth  century 
with  Baron  de  Graffenreid  [q.v.~\  and  was  asso- 
ciated with  the  settlement  at  New  Bern,  N.  C. 
His  grandfather,  Capt.  George  Zollicoffer,  a 
Revolutionary  soldier,  received  a  land  grant  in 
Tennessee.  Although  Felix's  father  owned  a 
thousand  acres,  the  boy  was  taken  out  of  the 
old-field  school  to  work  one  year  on  the  plan- 
tation; for  one  year  he  attended  Jackson  Col- 
lege at  Columbia,  Tenn.  At  sixteen,  he  entered 
newspaper  work  in  Paris,  Tenn.,  but  after  two 
years  his  paper  failed  and  he  became  a  journey- 
man printer  in  Knoxville  until  he  worked  off  his 
indebtedness.   In  1834  he  became  editor  and  part 


659 


Zollicoffer 

owner  of  the  Columbia  Observer,  and  in  addi- 
tion helped  to  edit  in  these  years  the  Southern 
Agriculturist  and  the  Huntsville  (Ala.)  Mer- 
cury. Also  he  dabbled  in  literature :  one  essay, 
"Hours,"  printed  in  The  Literary  and  Miscel- 
laneous Scrap  Book  (1837)  of  William  Fields 
(later  The  Scrap  Book),  was  often  declaimed  by 
schoolboys.  In  1835  he  was  appointed  state 
printer  of  Tennessee ;  the  following  year  he 
abandoned  journalism  to  serve  one  year  as  lieu- 
tenant in  the  Seminole  War.  On  Sept.  24,  1835, 
he  was  married  to  Louisa  Pocahontas  Gordon, 
daughter  of  Capt.  John  Gordon  of  the  "Border 
Spies."  Of  their  eleven  children,  the  five  boys 
died  in  infancy. 

Gradually  Zollicoffer  became  a  political  power 
in  the  state.  In  1842  he  was  appointed  associate 
editor  of  the  Nashville  Republican  Banner,  to 
aid  the  Whig  James  C.  Jones  \_q.v.~\  in  his  ap- 
proaching gubernatorial  campaign  against  James 
K.  Polk.  Never  strong,  Zollicoffer  conducted  the 
campaign  successfully  while  suffering  from  ane- 
urism of  the  aorta.  As  soon  as  he  had  recovered, 
he  was  appointed  adjutant-general  and  state 
comptroller  (1845-49),  and  then  served  as  state 
senator  from  1849  to  1852.  But  these  minor  of- 
fices were  small  indication  of  his  political  power, 
for  he  was  Tennessee's  "Warwick  and  king- 
maker" beyond  any  question,  as  was  proved  in 
1850  when  he  returned  to  the  Banner  as  editor 
and  forced  the  nomination  by  the  Whigs  and  the 
eventual  election  of  William  Bate  Campbell  as 
governor.  Two  years  later  he  ran  for  congress- 
man, but  neglected  his  own  campaign  to  work 
for  Gen.  Winfield  Scott,  whose  nomination  he 
had  opposed  in  the  Whig  convention.  So  bitter 
was  this  campaign  that  John  Leake  Marling 
[g.z'.],  editor  of  the  Democratic  Nashville  Union, 
in  an  editorial  on  Aug.  20,  1852,  charged  Zolli- 
coffer with  misrepresenting  Franklin  Pierce's 
views  on  slavery  and  the  South,  and  virtually 
termed  him  a  liar.  In  the  duel  which  followed, 
both  men  were  wounded:  Zollicoffer  slightly  in 
his  pistol  hand,  Marling  seriously  in  the  head. 
It  was  generally  thought  that  the  quarrel  was 
political  rather  than  personal,  and  the  two  men 
later  became  reconciled.  Chiefly  through  Zolli- 
coffer's  efforts,  Scott  carried  Tennessee;  Zol- 
licoffer was  elected  to  Congress,  and  resigned 
from  the  Banner,  He  served  until  1859,  but  de- 
clined to  run  for  a  fourth  term. 

As  a  state-rights  Whig  he  worked  steadily  for 
peace  and  understanding  between  the  sections, 
supported  the  American  or  Know-Nothing  party 
in  1856,  and  toured  New  York  in  i860  in  support 
of  John  Bell's  candidacy  for  the  presidency.  In 
1861  he  was  a  member  of  the  peace  conference  at 

66 


Zubly 

Washington ;  he  was  speaking  at  a  rally  against 
secession  when  news  of  war  reached  Nashville. 
Immediately  Gov.  Isham  G.  Harris  [q.v.~]  of- 
fered him  a  major-generalship  and  the  command 
of  the  Tennessee  troops,  which  he  declined  on 
account  of  lack  of  experience,  but  he  did  accept 
a  commission  as  brigadier-general  in  the  Con- 
federate Army.  He  was  put  in  command  of  East 
Tennessee,  to  try  to  check  the  strong  Unionist 
tendencies  there.  Late  in  1861  he  was  ordered  to 
move  with  his  army  to  Mill  Springs,  Ky.  At  the 
battle  of  Fishing  Creek,  Zollicoffer  went  past  his 
own  lines ;  meeting  with  the  Federal  troops  un- 
der Col.  Speed  S.  Fry,  he  requested  them  not  to 
fire.  But  his  aide-de-camp  fired  at  Fry,  and 
when  the  Federal  troops  retaliated  Zollicoffer 
was  killed.  His  body  was  returned  to  Nashville 
for  burial.  Although  he  was  not  the  first  Con- 
federate general  killed  in  action,  his  death 
shocked  the  entire  South,  and  brought  forth  uni- 
versal and  deserved  tribute  to  his  bravery  and 
ability. 

[Octavia  Zollicoffer  Bond,  "General  Felix  Kirk  Zol- 
licoffer, C.  S.  A.,"  unpublished,  dated  1924,  in  Tenn. 
State  Library,  and  The  Family  Chronicle  and  Kinship 
Book  of  Maclin,  Clack,  .  .  .  and  other  Related  American 
Lineages  (1928),  for  the  American  family;  Ernst  Got- 
zinger,  Die  Familie  Zollikofer  (1887),  for  the  Swiss 
connections ;  eulogistic  sketch  by  M.  J.  Wright,  in 
Southern  Bivouac,  July  1884,  pp.  485-99;  Nashville 
Republican  Banner,  1852;  Nashville  Union,  Aug.  20- 
22<  1852.]  E.  W.  P. 

ZUBLY,  JOHN  JOACHIM  (Aug.  27,  1724- 
July  23,  1781),  Presbyterian  clergyman,  member 
of  the  Continental  Congress,  pamphleteer,  was 
born  in  St.  Gall,  Switzerland,  and  received  his 
schooling  at  the  Gymnasium  at  that  place.  On 
Aug.  19,  1744,  he  was  ordained  at  the  German 
Church  in  London  and  the  same  year  went  to 
Purrysburg,  S.  C,  following  his  father,  David 
("Direktor  des  Berichthauses"),  who  had  emi- 
grated to  America  in  1736.  Two  years  after  his 
arrival,  Zubly  married  Ann  Tobler,  Nov.  12, 
1746.  Of  this  union  two  daughters  survived  the 
father.  In  answer  to  a  call  from  the  Independent 
Presbyterian  Church  at  Savannah  he  removed  to 
Georgia,  entering  upon  his  duties  in  1760.  Able 
and  energetic,  "a  learned  man,"  and  a  person  of 
a  "warm  and  zealous  spirit"  (The  Works  of  John 
Adams,  vol.  II,  1850,  pp.  421-22),  he  spoke  Eng- 
lish, Dutch,  French,  Latin,  and  German,  and  his 
writings  indicate  acquaintance  with  Coke,  Black- 
stone,  Rapin,  and  Montesquieu.  Several  of  his 
sermons  were  published.  In  September  1770  the 
College  of  New  Jersey  gave  him  the  honorary 
degree  of  A.M.  and  four  years  later,  that  of  D.D. 
He  participated  in  many  phases  of  Georgia's 
religious  and  civil  life.  Occasionally  he  preached 
to  congregations  other  than  his  own,  to  the  Ger- 


Zubly 

man  Lutherans  especially.  He  became  the  chief 
spokesman  and  defender  of  the  dissenting  groups 
against  "Episcopal  oppression,"  particularly  re- 
specting oaths,  burials,  fees  for  tolling  the  bell, 
and  marriage  licenses  (Proceedings  of  the  Mas- 
sachusetts Historical  Society,  i  ser.  VIII,  1866, 
pp.  214-19).  He  gradually  accumulated  a  large 
amount  of  property  in  land  and  slaves,  and  he 
held  minor  civil  offices  from  time  to  time,  such 
as  clerk  of  Christ  Church  parish.  In  July  1775, 
when  the  provincial  congress  of  Georgia  met  in 
Savannah,  he  was  chosen  a  delegate  from  that 
town.  As  a  member  of  the  congress  he  served 
on  the  committees  which  prepared  an  address 
to  Gov.  James  Wright,  a  petition  to  the  King, 
a  letter  to  the  Continental  Congress,  and  a  mes- 
sage to  the  inhabitants  of  the  province.  He  was 
one  of  those  chosen  by  this  congress  to  represent 
Georgia  in  the  Continental  Congress  at  Phila- 
delphia. 

Zubly  at  first  cooperated  heartily  with  the 
Congress.  He  participated  in  the  debates  on  for- 
tifying the  Hudson  River  and  on  the  state  of 
trade,  and  served  as  a  member  of  the  standing 
committee  on  accounts  or  claims.  Opposed  to  a 
complete  break  with  Great  Britain  because  he 
dreaded  the  establishment  of  a  republic,  which 
to  him  was  "little  better  than  government  of 
devils"  (Journals  of  the  Continental  Congress, 
Ford  ed.,  Ill,  491),  he  was  unwilling  to  support 
the  demand  of  the  radical  members  for  independ- 
ence. When  in  October  1775  Samuel  Chase  pub- 
licly accused  him  of  disloyalty  to  the  cause  of 
America,  he  suddenly  departed  for  Georgia,  leav- 
ing for  his  fellow  delegates  a  message  that  he 
was  "greatly  indisposed."  Soon  after  his  return 
to  Savannah  the  council  of  safety  of  Georgia  took 
him  into  custody.  Late  in  1777  he  was  banished 
from  the  province  and  half  of  his  estate  was  con- 
fiscated. He  lived  in  South  Carolina  for  two 
years,  but  when  the  royal  government  was  re- 
stored in  Georgia  in  1779,  he  returned  and  again 
took  up  his  pastoral  work.  He  lived  in  Savannah 
until  his  death,  "after  a  long  and  painful  illness," 
two  years  later. 

Zubly  wrote  and  preached  where  Loyalist  sen- 
timent was  strong,  where  opportunities  for  fa- 
miliarity or  even  acquaintance  with  the  argu- 
ments and  activities  of  the  foremost  colonial  lead- 
ers were  comparatively  few.  His  conception  of 
the  fundamental  differences  between  Great  Brit- 
ain and  America  was  clear,  even  if  his  observa- 
tions on  them  were  not  profound  or  original.  He 
published  a  number  of  pamphlets  and  articles, 
The  Stamp-Act  Repealed  (1766)  ;  "An  Apology 
for  a  Law  Suit"  (Georgia  Gazette,  June  3,  1767- 
Apr.  6,  1768,  never  reprinted)  ;  An  Humble  In- 

66 


Zunser 

quiry  (1769),  reprinted  under  the  title,  Great 
Britain's  Right  to  Tax  Her  Colonies  (1774); 
Calm  and  Respectfxd  Thoughts  on  the  Negative 
of  the  Crown  ( 1772)  ;  a  sermon,  The  Law  of  Lib- 
erty (1775),  in  which  he  described  the  British 
constitution  and  proposed  methods  of  opposition 
to  oppressive  acts  which  might  lead  to  war ;  and 
an  appeal  to  Lord  Dartmouth  on  behalf  of  the 
colonies  published  in  the  London  Magazine,  Jan- 
uary 1776.  He  also  discussed  the  relations  of 
Parliament  and  the  colonial  assemblies,  the  na- 
ture of  government,  law,  and  liberty.  He  thus 
acquainted  the  inhabitants  of  the  most  southern 
and  isolated  colony  with  many  of  the  ideas  which 
were  current  in  the  more  populous  regions  fur- 
ther north. 

[The  Literary  Diary  of  Ezra  Stiles  (1901),  ed.  by 
F.  B.  Dexter  ;  Extracts  from  the  Itineraires  and  Other 
Miscellanies  of  Ezra  Stiles  (1916),  ed.  by  F.  B.  Dex- 
ter ;  A.  D.  Candler,  The  Colonial  Records  of  the  State 
of  Ga.,  vols.  IX,  XI  (1907),  and  The  Revolutionary 
Records  of  the  State  of  Ga.,  vol.  I  (1908)  ;  Journals  of 
the  Continental  Congress  (W.  C.  Ford,  ed.),  vol.  Ill 
(1905)  ;  The  Royal  Georgia  Gazette,  1781  ;  C.  C.  Jones, 
Jr.,  Biog.  Sketches  of  the  Delegates  from  Ga.  to  ilw 
Continental  Cong.  (1891);  E.  C.  Burnett,  Letters  of 
Members  of  the  Continental  Cong.,  vol.  I  ( 1921)  ;  W.  B. 
Sprague,  Annals  Am.  Pulpit,  vol.  Ill  (1858)  ;  M.  L. 
Daniel,  "John  Joachim  Zubly — Georgia  Pamphleteer  of 
the  Revolution,"  Ga.  Hist.  Quart.,  Mar.  1935  ;  informa- 
tion from  the  records  of  St.  Gall,  Switzerland.] 

M.D. 

ZUNSER,  ELIAKUM  (Oct.  28,  1836-Sept. 
22,  1913),  Yiddish  bard  and  poet,  was  born  in 
Wilna  (formerly  Russia).  His  father,  Feive  Zun- 
ser, a  poor  carpenter,  died  when  Eliakum  was 
barely  seven  years  old,  leaving  the  family  in 
direst  straits.  After  a  few  years  of  study  in  the 
Yeshivah  (Talmudical  school)  under  the  most 
miserable  conditions,  young  Zunser  was  appren- 
ticed to  an  embroiderer  of  military  uniforms, 
meanwhile  studying  modern  Hebrew  writers  and 
acquiring  the  elements  of  a  secular  education  in 
his  spare  hours.  As  a  boy  of  fourteen  he  was  im- 
pressed in  the  military  barracks  at  Bobruisk, 
along  with  some  eighty  other  youngsters  who  had 
been  snatched  away  from  their  homes  under  the 
recruiting  system  then  prevailing  under  Nicholas 
I.  In  the  barracks  he  composed  his  first  songs, 
reciting  the  woes  of  the  unfortunate  Poimaniks 
(impressed  recruits),  and  even  trained  a  choir 
of  the  boys  to  sing  them.  His  song,  "Di  Yes- 
hitah,"  written  upon  the  occasion  of  their  deliv- 
erance five  weeks  later,  won  acclaim.  His  fa- 
cility in  creating  popular  songs  was  already  be- 
ginning to  be  known,  and  he  now  commenced 
earning  a  livelihood  as  Badchen  (bard)  a  famil- 
iar figure  in  Jewish  ghetto  life,  whose  calling 
was  to  amuse  the  guests  at  weddings  and  festivi- 
ties with  impromptu  doggerel.   In  1862  he  mar- 


Zunser 


Zunser 


ried  his  first  wife,  by  whom  he  had  four  children. 
Nine  years  later  he  lost  all  four  children  in  a 
cholera  epidemic,  and  shortly  thereafter  his  wife. 
This  tragic  misfortune  elicited  his  well-known 
poem,  "Der  Potshtover  Glekl"  (The  Postilion). 
Upon  settling  in  the  city  of  Minsk,  however,  he 
later  found  happiness  in  a  second  marriage,  and 
his  fame  as  Badchen  grew  steadily.  Wherever 
he  appeared  he  drew  large  crowds  of  listeners, 
until  eventually  his  influence  over  the  masses  at- 
tracted the  suspicion  of  the  Russian  police.  In 
1889  he  emigrated  with  his  family  to  the  United 
States.  Shortly  after  his  arrival  he  made  a  tour 
of  the  country,  reciting  his  poems  and  meeting 
everywhere  with  great  success.  Later  he  settled 
in  New  York  City  and  opened  a  small  printing 
establishment  on  the  East  Side,  hut  continued  to 
write  and  compose. 

As  author  and  composer  of  Yiddish  folksongs 
he  was  the  most  prominent  figure  of  his  day;  no 
other  has  held  the  masses  so  completely  under 
his  sway.  He  dignified  the  function  of  the  Bad- 
chen, which  had  hitherto  been  the  by-name  of  a 
coarse,  uncultured  jester.  He  himself  liked  the 
cognomen  of  "Eliakum  Badchen"  by  which  he 
was  known,  and  would  use  it  as  his  signature 
even  after  he  had  gained  fame  as  a  poet.  In  fact 
he  lacked  the  lyric  touch  of  the  true  poet,  his 
verse  being  chiefly  intellectual,  moral,  didactic, 
allegoric,  and  national  in  tendency.  Yet  because 
of  their  apposite  content  and  the  pleasing  melo- 
dies to  which  he  set  them,  his  songs  spread  over 
the  length  and  breadth  of  Russia,  Poland,  Gali- 
cia,  and  Rumania,  wherever  Yiddish-speaking 
people  lived.  Many  of  his  songs  became  house- 
hold tunes  long  before  they  were  ever  in  print. 
He  became  the  articulate  voice  of  the  Jewish 
Ghetto,  for  he  touched  in  his  rhymes  upon  events 
affecting  the  welfare  of  his  co-religionists.  It 
was  his  endeavor  to  give  a  true  picture  of  the 
period  in  which  he  lived.  He  scourges  the  hypo- 
crite, the  usurer,  the  oppressor,  and  bewails  the 


plight  of  suffering  Jews  in  the  Diaspora.  Joyous 
as  was  his  nature,  he  had  suffered  deeply  both  the 
misfortunes  of  ordinary  humankind  and  the  sor- 
rows of  Israel.  He  was  one  of  the  first  to  encour- 
age Jewish  colonization  in  the  Holy  Land.  His 
stirring  song,  "Shivath  Zion,"  dedicated  to  the 
first  pioneer  settlers  in  Palestine  after  the  violent 
pogroms  in  Russia  following  the  accession  of 
Alexander  III  to  the  throne,  had  a  magical  effect 
upon  vast  audiences.  This  and  other  songs  were 
powerful  in  spreading  the  Palestinian  ideal.  In 
another  famous  song,  "Di  Soche"  (The  Plough), 
he  idealizes  the  farmer's  life  in  contrast  with  that 
of  the  city  dweller.  In  America  Zunser  became 
an  ardent  admirer  of  American  institutions  and 
the  spirit  of  liberty.  His  muse  gave  ample  ex- 
pression to  his  patriotic  feelings  for  the  land 
of  his  adoption,  often  comparing  conditions  in 
the  United  States  with  those  in  Czarist  Russia. 
To  his  popular  American  songs  belong  "Colum- 
bus and  Washington,"  "The  Peddler,"  "The  Im- 
migrant," "Slaves   Were  We." 

After  the  publication  of  his  Shirim  hadashim 
(Wilna,  1861)  he  composed  over  six  hundred 
songs,  some  of  which  were  translated  into  other 
languages.  For  the  Jewish  stage  he  wrote  a  ver- 
sion of  the  sale  of  Joseph  (Mekhirath  Joseph). 
Many  of  his  poems,  some  with  accompanying 
music,  have  appeared  in  selected  editions.  Of  edi- 
tions published  in  the  United  States  mention  may 
be  made  of  Ale  Werk  (3  vols.,  1920)  and  Select- 
ed Songs  (1928),  arranged  for  voice  with  piano 
accompaniment.  He  was  survived  at  the  time  of 
his  death  by  his  wife  and  seven  children. 

[A  Jewish  Bard ;  Being  the  Biog.  of  Eliakum  Zunser 
(1905)  ;  Jewish  Encyc.  (1925  ed.),  vol.  XII  ;  Leo  Wie- 
ner, The  Hist,  of  Yiddish  Lit.  in  the  Nineteenth  Cen- 
tury (1899)  ;  J.  H.  Bondi,  Aus  dem  jiidischen  Russland 
vor  viersig  Jahrcn  (1927);  Hutchins  Hapgood,  The 
Spirit  of  the  Ghetto  (1902),  pp.  91—98;  M.  Pines,  Ge- 
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